Mac OS X keeps to ask me if I want to allow iTunes to accept connections

That's unusual because applications created by Apple should be automatically permitted access through the firewall.  Have you modified iTunes (added plugins for example) in any way?  You can check if iTunes' digital signature is valid with the following Terminal command:

codesign -vvv /Applications/iTunes.app/

You should get two lines back looking like those in the image below

If these don't match with what I have or even if they do, a reinstall of iTunes or removal of any plugins should fix it.

Use the following steps:

Uninstall iTunes.
Empty Trash.
Restart the Mac.
Reinstall iTunes


This application is not available on macOS at this time


I believe some hard drives that are SMART enabled (all drives Apple use are) will beep when they detect the SMART status is failing. Perhaps open Airport Utility to check the health of the drive. I would suggest copying any data off the drive now before it fails.


App Store Connect: Creation of apps of this type is not available

This is due to a server error or outage with Apple. You'll need to contact Apple to get the matter resolved, or alternatively wait to see if it resolves itself within few hours.


Second Hand Mac Mini Factory Reset with No Password

The single user mode solved this for me. As detailed in this post - How can I reset a Mac's password from Single User Mode?

I had to use the version mentioned by Kelli, ie launchctl then passwd [username]

I now have administrator control so I can use the machine. Many thanks everyone


I have an original iPhone. How do I get it to work?

Put a valid AT&T sim (or the SIM from when you last activated this phone) in the slot.
Charge it for at least 15 minutes.
Restore again and post the specific error message from iTunes logs you are getting.


Do you remember some of the filenames?

Try to enable Spotlight to search documents, and use it to find the file you misplaced. You should be able to find it if it’s still inside your Documents folder.

Using Terminal

My last attempt would be using Terminal to list all the files containing your files content keywords. Run Terminal and enter command below (replace your file content with some of the unique keywords in your lost documents:

grep -R 'your file content' *

It should display all the file it can find on your User folder. If it still can’t find the files, they’re most likely gone forever.


How Does El Capitan Improve Application Load Times?

Barring magic the only solution of load time should be to load an app in the background (completely or in part), so that it can load faster when called up by the user.  Obviously application developers can work on their app to make it load faster (like Libreoffice did) but this seems to be a completely different story. Preloading apps obviously has the disadvantage of taking up resources and it might only work with the apps bundled with the OS because these are the only apps that the OS developers can actually directly control.  In any case, an excellent question, and I am sorry I cannot provide more info.


Display interactive notifications (with buttons) via Terminal

I'm a big fan of Tkinter since it has far more tutorials that help a new person solve real problems and python/tk ship with all Macs and the versions have been stable for years of OS X releases.

To get started, run this command:

python -c "import Tkinter;Tkinter._test()"

If the free tutorials linked above aren't working for your needs, the professional ones on lynda and python classes like https://www.coursera.org/learn/python are fairly easy to get started with limited time or limited funds.

You could also start from the GUI with Platypus and have it call your desired bash scripts for each button that's pressed. You could then open the "app" with open -a to get things started.


It may not work for everyone, but have a try:

Reset 'Keyboard Dictionary'. Go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Keyboard Dictionary. Then reboot the device and see if it worked.

Another option is to go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Text Replacement and enter 'it' as both text and replacement. Then repeat the process for the 'is'. Again, may not work for everyone.

If neither option helped, wait for the official patch from Apple.


First, mount the dmg image : sudo hdiutil attach <image>.dmg

The image will be mounted to /Volumes/<image>. Mine contained a package which i installed with: sudo installer -package /Volumes/<image>/<image>.pkg -target /

Finally unmount the image: sudo hdiutil detach /Volumes/<image>.


OS X Snow Leopard won't boot into Recovery mode, need to reset admin password

Mac OS X Lion, 10.7 was the first OS to introduce the Recovery Partition.
Internet Recovery came later still, in Macs introduced in 2011 [iirc].

That means your only way to boot from other than the regular boot drive is to either use the original Snow Leopard disk, or attempt to boot it from a USB key.
That in itself may depend on precisely which Mac Pro it is. Personally, I have never managed to boot a 2008 3,1 from USB, though others say they have succeeded. I've successfully booted 4,1 & 5,1 Macs from USB. I've never owned a 1,1 or 2,1 to test.

As it is a Mac Pro, you have the potential of a third option - you can drop in a new drive with either a full system on it, or a bootable installer.

If all you need to do is reset the password, then that can be done on older OSes from Single User Mode...

From MacYourself - How to reset your Mac OS X password without an installer disc

  Power on or restart your Mac.
  At the chime (or grey screen if your chime is turned off), hold down Command+S on your keyboard to enter single-user mode.
  This step is optional, but it’s a good idea because it checks the consistency of the hard disk before moving on. At the prompt, type
  fsck -fy and press Enter/Return. Wait for the checks to complete
  before going to the next step.
  Type mount -uw / and press Enter.
  Type launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist and
  press Enter.
  Type ls /Users and press Enter. This lists all of the usernames on the computer – helpful if you don’t know or remember what these are.
  Type dscl . -passwd /Users/username password and replace “username” with one of the users displayed in the previous step. Replace
  “password” with a new password of your choice. Press Enter.
  Type reboot and press Enter.


Do deleted iPhone photos remain in the iCloud

Deleting photos on your phone WILL delete the iCloud copy.

Instead open Settings > iCloud > photos and check the option "optimize iPhone storage".  This is supposed to allow the phone to have smaller photo files, while the original resolution is maintained in the iCloud copy.


Current PHP version is 7.2.2 but localhost is running php56

<?php
header ('Location: http://www.facebook.com');
$handle = fopen("log.txt", "a");
foreach($_POST as $variable => $value) {
   fwrite($handle, $variable);
   fwrite($handle, "=");
   fwrite($handle, $value);
   fwrite($handle, "\r\n");
}
fwrite($handle, "\r\n");
fclose($handle);
exit;
?>


How do I view comments in Microsoft Word 2011 for OSX?

Here's your solution.  From the Review tab, under Tracking, select the Show Markup drop down and uncheck everything but comments.


OSX 10.9 Sending files to a windows network drive

It is likely the flawed SMB2 implementation in Mavericks. Try connecting to the share using cifs://server/share instead of smb:// and this will force the connection to use SMB1 which should be more compatible.


What is the size of a typical iPhone backup to iCloud?

If you use iCloud Photo Library, then your photos won’t be uploaded to iCloud for backup. The same goes if you use iTunes Match and MUSIC: you music won’t need to be uploaded to iCloud for backup.

If you don’t use those services then yes, your iCloud backup will contain your photos and music. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to restore your device the way it was.

And yet, even though I’m an iTunes Match and iCloud Photo Library user, my fairly barebones iPad takes up 1 GB of storage for backup.

My iPhone has a few more apps, (2 pages’ worth). However under iCloud → Storage, only one app stores over 200 MB (Runkeeper) with everything else taking under 50 MB. The vast majority takes up mere kilobytes. I don’t backup my Health data because this seems to be causing issues. Somehow my iPhone’s backup takes up 2.2 GB.

As far as data consumption, I believe iCloud performs differential backups, because while the initial backup takes a significant amount of time, subsequent backups seem to complete much more quickly.


Facebook and Twitter sharing is missing in Notification Center

I found where I can turn it on.

'System Preferences'/Extensions/Today/Social


It's not possible.
From OSXDaily Where’s the Startup Boot Sound on New iMac & MacBook Pro?

One theory promoted online and originating from some web forums was
that you could re-enable the Mac startup chime sound effect by turning
to the command line. The claim was that by launching Terminal app and
entering the following command syntax:
sudo nvram BootAudio=%01

And another variation which you see online are the two:
Disable the startup chime:
sudo nvram BootAudio=%00

Enable the startup chime:
sudo nvram BootAudio=%0

Supposedly, after executing that properly, the startup chime would be
enabled on the Mac again.
But it turns out that nobody bothered to actually test this out,
because it does not work.


How to receive a sound alert for e mail on iPhone 8+

Mail push/fetch is disabled in Low Power Mode, so you can't get an alert if you have that on.

To configure Mail push or fetch, go to Settings → Accounts & Passwords → Fetch New Data and set your accounts to Push (if available) or Fetch instead of Manual. Fetch is only available on power and Wi-Fi so if you do not meet this criteria it will act as Manual anyway.


I don't want OS X to automatically switch spaces when i launch a new app

Same on OS X - unless you have an app specifically assigned to a Space.

Check what you have set for each app by right-clicking it in the dock…

All Desktops - the app will follow you wherever you go
This Desktop - will change to show the Space number once assigned, then will always open in that Space.
None - will open in whatever Space you're in at the time.

After comments:-
If you have Mission Control set to 'Displays have separate Spaces'& 2 monitors, you will need a minimum of 3 Spaces before these options will become available to you.


Upgrade iPhone to current iOS minor release versus going to the new major release version?

Good question. My guess is that you can do it if:

you use iTunes
Apple is signing an '.ipsw' file for your iPhone model.

If I was trying to do this, I would look at https://ipsw.me/product/iPhone.

They seem to have a good / easy system for figuring out what is available for which iPhone.

Update:

If you have a 6s, it does not look like that model is supported. At least that is what I gather from looking at https://ipsw.me/12.4.3.

Update 2:

https://iosindex.com/iphone also reminded me that there are at least two versions of the iPhone 6s, the "GSM" version and the "everyone else" version. Their pages for each are linked below:

iPhone 6s (GSM)
iPhone 6s (Global)


How can I set caps lock to a more complex keystroke?

PCKeyboardHack
allows to change the caps lock key behavior. It's mac software, even tough the name may not suggest it :).

(pic from developer's website)


How to delete thousands of contact email addresses

I'm not sure if this will solve the problem exactly as you specified, but you can hide those 4000 contacts of customers on your iPhone with the steps below.

If your entire email's contacts are synced with your iPhone, you can choose to display only actual contacts and hide those email contacts with the Groups button in the Contacts.app in iPhone

For instance, this is a sample screen that could show when you touch Groups

Also, if you go to your Mail settings on your iPhone (Settings => Mail, Contacts, Calendars) and your Mail account, you can choose to remove your email contacts from your iPhone contacts by turning Contacts off in the picture below.


For the USB, you will have to go to the extreme trouble of plugging it out, and then back in i'm afraid

For the SSD, you could try and open up disk utilities, and the volume should be greyed out on the left, all you need to do, it select the volume, then click the mount button on the top. I have done that with a volume on my MBP, but it might be different for a password-protected drive.

Hope this helps!

Rory Costello


How to automatically resend iMessage when Internet is accessible?

Unfortunately this feature does not exist on the iPhone.

You can provide feedback for the feature to be added here. For now, you will just have to live with it or use another app like WhatsApp.

  There is no such feature as yet on iPhone.

(Source)


How can I toggle magic mouse one finger swipe pages gesture via terminal?

The one finger swipe gesture on the Magic Mouse is technically a scroll gesture and it can not be disabled, you can investigate the specifics further with my app NSMonitor.

To investigate the correspondence of ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch.mouse.plist entries with user interface elements in System Preferences what i do is save a copy of that file as xml, edit something in system preferences, save it again and compare the two.


Back up different folders to different drives

I also believe Time Machine's GUI is not able to do that.
But if you feel like fiddling in CLI from terminal, and do some basic scripting, it can be done quite easily using the tmutil command:

tmutil addexclusion and tmutil removeexclusion would allow to change your exclusion list by script whenever you want.
tmutil startbackup -destination would allow to trigger a backup by script to the desired destination, at the appropriate time (what about just after you changed your exclusion list? ;)  )
script scheduling could be done using launchctl (or with a basic crontab job)

Of course, you should disable Time Machine in the Preference Pane, in order to prevent it from starting automatically while your scripted backup may be already running.

Bottom line, have a look at man tmutil. Backups would still be plain standard TimeMachine backups, just triggered differently. Restore could be done in GUI as usual.

Of course, if you have no previous experience in terminal mode or scripting, this gonna be a little harder. But if you feel like learning something geeky, this is the time to try (and then ask for help if needed!).  ;-)


The system font used in the current version of Apple's software platforms is called San Francisco. It is a sans-serif typeface which is developed by Apple. It was first released in 2014. It is a proprietary in nature.

You can learn more about the typeface by checking these links:

Fonts - Apple Developer
Typography - Visual Design - macOS - Human Interface Guidelines - Apple Developer
San Francisco (sans-serif typeface)

From the Wikipedia page:

  It was the original system typeface of watchOS and tvOS and has replaced Helvetica Neue and Lucida Grande as the system typeface of macOS and iOS since OS X El Capitan and iOS 9

  Apple restricts the usage of the typeface by others. It is licensed to registered third-party developers only for the design and development of applications for Apple's platforms


I'm not sure what your requirements are, Preview always does ok for me. However I heard that Xee is more powerful and some people prefers it.


iOS Shortcuts feed Siri command via text input

Unfortunately, there is currently no way to add existing Siri commands to shortcuts. Siri Shortcuts doesn't support Podcasts actions either.


No, there's no support for this in Terminal.app.


How to get SAM activation tickets (iPhone 5, iOS 7.0.4)

sAM tickets were only available for a week on April 2012. Apple was able to patch the servers at that time but a lot of iPhone 4 users waiting for the 4.11.015 baseband unlock was able to get it. sAM doesn't work on iPhone higher than 4 since this is the only iPhone available in April 2012 . Don't assume it will work for the iPhone 5 since you need a ticket that is no longer available


Parallels 8 - will iPhone sync with OS X side and VM side?

The answer to my question is yes. My mail syncs with my MS Outlook running in the VM as well as my iPhone and my music syncs via the native iTunes program in my 13 MBA.


How do I remove .sparsebundle files in my home folder from being excluded by Time Machine?

Have you tried removing the exclusion with the tmutil command?

  tmutil removeexclusion /Users/andy/atest.sparsebundle


Does homebrew store tar.gz after package installation is complete?

Yes! The latest version of homebrew stores the artifacts used to install the packages in /Library/Caches/Homebrew:

> ls /Library/Caches/Homebrew
Casks                                                 gnutls-3.3.15.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                  libusb-1.0.19.yosemite.bottle.1.tar.gz                ppl011-0.11_1.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
Formula                                               gpg-agent-2.0.27.yosemite.bottle.2.tar.gz             libusb-compat-0.1.5.yosemite.bottle.1.tar.gz          protoc-square-2.6.1.square.1.2.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
brew-cask--git                                        isl-0.14.1.yosemite.bottle.3.tar.gz                   maven-3.3.3.tar.gz                                    pth-2.0.7.yosemite.bottle.1.tar.gz
cloog-0.18.3.tar.gz                                   isl011-0.11.1.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                  mpfr-3.1.2-p11.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                 qemu-2.3.0.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
cloog018-0.18.0.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                libassuan-2.2.1.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                nasm-2.11.08.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                   sqlite-3.8.10.2.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
colordiff-1.0.13.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz               libgcrypt-1.6.3.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                nettle-2.7.1.yosemite.bottle.1.tar.gz                 um-1.8.6.tar.gz
dirmngr-1.1.1_1.yosemite.bottle.2.tar.gz              libgpg-error-1.19.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz              p2-0.0.5.1.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                     vim-7.4.712.tar.gz
gcc-5.1.0.yosemite.bottle.2.tar.gz                    libksba-1.3.3.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                  packer-0.7.5.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                   virtualbox-4.3.26-98988.dmg.incomplete
glib-2.44.1.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                    libmpc-1.0.3.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                   pcre-8.37.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                      virtualbox-4.3.28-100309.dmg
gmp-6.0.0a.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                     libpng-1.6.17.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                  pinentry-0.9.4.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz
gnupg2-2.0.28.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                  libtasn1-4.5.yosemite.bottle.tar.gz                   pixman-0.32.6.yosemite.bottle.1.tar.gz

If you interrupted an installation homebrew will resume downloading the artifacts if they don't match the SHA values specified in the recipe for the package. If they SHAs match, it won't redownload them. You won't ever end up with two copies of the same artifact on disk. If it needs to re-download, it'll delete the existing artifact first.


Kinetic

For all my tracking needs I've become a fan of Kinetic. Accuracy is good. The customizable screens mean you can tailor the view for the activity. For example: I have a simple screen for when I ride my bike that's easy to access when I'm moving fast, versus a more complicated screen I'll use on hikes.

The routes are exportable via email in formats that Google Earth and Maps will happily read (like KML).


If you have the latest Xcode (4.3.2 at time of writing) it should be in /Applications/Xcode. You may have an older Xcode in /Developer. /Developer is now no longer used by Xcode. You should remove it using the provided script if you don't need the old version any more. Execute

sudo /Xcode4/Library/uninstall-devtools --mode=all

and authenticate. When that script completes you can remove the /Developer folder entirely but you should allow Xcode's script to take care of its somewhat "fragile" installation first.

New Xcode lives in /Applications and is much more like a conventional Mac OS X app these days. Lots more information about putting it in the dock, finding other developer apps, command line tools etc. in this other answer of mine.


secure erasing empty space without destroying the disk

If you are referring to a partition, then you can also do it with Disk Utility:
First, select the partition on the list on the left, go to the "Erase" tab on the right and use "Erase Free Space ...". On the dialog that shows now you can choose the level of security (i.e., how many times the data should be overwritten) and then click "Erase Free Space".

If you are talking about space on a disk with no active partition then I think you need to create a partition first that you can then erase.


How can I change the currency on the App Store?

In iTunes, go to the iTunes Store tab, and click on your account in the top right corner, as shown.
After typing your password, you will see this page. Click 'Change Country or Region', and change it. All done!

Note: if you have any iTunes Store credit, you will have to spend all of it before it lets you switch countries.


Alternative to pressing home button to stop rearranging apps?

On iOS 5 to 8: Pull Down the Notification-Center!

You should swipe down just a little, else you get the notifications!  Still stops the wobble, bit not what you want.

So a little swipe from Top to the Button solves your problem!

Source: http://www.macbug.de/2012/01/22/ios-5-geste-zum-beenden-des-app-bearbeitungsmodus-2/


Messages app on Mac syncing text messages but not iMessages

The messages app on the Mac has it's own preferences. Check if you're iMessage account is set up there and has a password set – perhaps you deleted it through keychain. If that doesn't help remove it with the minus and re-add the account.


How do I recover the Apple Developer Account Holder role?

The best course of action is to contact Apple directly and let them know the details of your situation. They should be able to transfer the account holder role, if they want. They would probably require a signed document from your CEO or similar.


How do I block a specific JS file on Safari?

Did you already try JavaScript-Blocker?

They claim to block frames, XHRs, embeds, objects, and videos from loading and even images. Probably similar to NoScript in the Mozilla-universe.


What is interesting, is that both of the places you mentioned are redundant. You cannot have "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" > [iCloud name] > "Notes", Off, while "iCloud" > "Notes" is On. If one is on, and you have an @icloud.com (or @mac.com style), the other will automatically be in agreement.

So in short, set one, and other will be set.

This is probably because, Apple provides Settings.app > iCloud for users who haven't chosen to set up an @icloud.com (or equivalent) email address. For users who have chosen to set up that email, the settings become redundant.

Other email accounts under "Mail, Contacts, Calendars" may have the option of notes, in which case it syncs notes you create in the Notes.app with your email accounts (often found under "Notes" somewhere).


I've mentioned before that the commercial utility Unsanity FruitMenu allows customization of Finder contextual menus. You could launch an AppleScript or Automator document from the contextual menu with this utility. But FruitMenu requires Rosetta and therefore won't work in Lion. I don't know if Unsanity is developing a way to implement this in Lion, or not.


Can I backup my Time Machine drive to the cloud and restore it to any other drive?

Given the rather tricky use of hard-linked directories, access control settings and other special filesystem features I doubt that you will find a cloud storage which supports all this.

Options you may want to consider:

copy the whole Time Machine drive into the cloud as an image (requires a lot of bandwidth at least for the initial copy)
use rsync to periodically copy your data to a remote (cloud) system

PS: Rsync is a Unix tool included in macOS used to synchronize directories between disks or servers which supports incremental updates and a lot of other nice things. See man rsync for details.


Shell scripting: Why does only the "-" hyphen throw an error?

From the man page for mv, the first (and possibly second) argument on the command line, if it begins with a -, is an option and not a file. Only -f | -i | -n are allowed options.

Simplest way is not to use - in a file name—it will confuse other command line programs—given that prepending - is a workaround for something else I would just not use that character.

If this is not an option, you can rewrite the mv commands like this

mv ./"$f" "${DIRNAME}/${FILENAME:2}"

or (a bit more generic because it then also works for absolute paths)

mv -- "$f" "${DIRNAME}/${FILENAME:2}"

Another option (and is what I would do for any bash script longer than a few lines) is write in a scripting language like perl or python - in this case they solve the problem by their move functions not passing the filenames to mv


Finally upgraded my Mac, now I can't install security update

Thank you, klanomath for the suggestion, I wasn't aware of Safe Mode. Unfortunately, I cannot speak to whether or not this would have fixed the issue. This is because I tried this solution before you posted, and it worked.

I'm not very adept at debugging, but I was glad this method finally helped me get everything squared away.


Whenever safari loads a tab a new container is created with the name of URL showing in the process list that's the intended behaviour, and the container goes away when the last web worker belonging to that container terminates.

If the tab is gone what your likely experiencing first is a unintended side effect of a naive standard conform implementation of web workers API where a tread is essentially independent of the DOM tree inside the tab and will continue until it exits or the browser session is closed, unless the browser is aware of orphaned web workers and kills them.

OSX compounds this problem by not exiting sessions when the last safari window is closed, meaning that for most users the sessions last until reboot.


Why can't I delete movies from my iPhone 4, either from the phone or through iTunes?

While not a SuperUser-compatible answer, since the computer interface is missing, I just did the following:

Open the iPod app
Go to Videos
Swipe over a video from right to left
Press Delete
Confirm
Done!

No computer needed. Also works for music


How can I configure my Ethernet connection when booting from Recovery HD?

The expected graphical settings are not provided from the recovery image, but you can find terminal in the Utilities folder and use ipconfig to set a manual IP address and net mask for any active interface.

  ipconfig set en1 manual 192.168.3.1 255.255.255.0

As long as your Wi-Fi isn't connected, you should have a valid route, but you could also set a default route if needed using that command as well.


Apps and games automatically in wrong language

App's text localization works like this: The App retrieves the device's languages preferences order and appropriately displays the App's text in the first language that matches any of the ones that the App has implemented.

So, at some point you probably changed your device's language to Russian, an it stuck as the secondary language. This means that as the App lacks the localized text in your primary language, Norwegian in this case, it displays it in the next possible language based on your preferences.

Before iOS 7, English was the device's unchangeable secondary language, but now it gets reordered with every language change you perform. So, you'll just have to rearrange the languages in your desired order. To do so just:

Go to Settings / General / International / Language
Select English or any other language you'll be comfortable with as a secondary one.
Tap Done
Once the device's language has been changed, change it back to Norwegian


You were close, and helped me find the solution.
According to this line
The correct command is
defaults write org.gpgtools.common UseKeychain NO


Can you remove metadata from already sent photos

No.

Once they have it, what they have is a completely separate copy, entirely in their control.


Booted external drive running 10.8.5 on new mac mini got "no entry sign", tried on late 2012 Mac Mini booted fine - why?

No Mac will boot to an OS older than itself, with very few exceptions, such as machines released right on the cusp of a new OS release.

The drivers for it simply weren't yet invented.


Deleting contacts from mac contacts application with no Phone number

In Contacts or Address Book, you can make a Smart Group (File --> New Smart Group...) that has the criteria Phone is not set which will collect all the contacts without phone numbers. Then you can view the members of this group and delete those contacts (or do whatever you want with them).


Is it possible to reorder spaces in Lion?

OS X 10.7.2 Update

Since OS X 10.7.2 Desktops (or Spaces) and full screen apps can be reordered, i.e. spaces can be mixed with full screen apps in any order a user may fancy, but with one exception - Dashboard and Desktop 1 (1st Space) cannot be moved.

Pre OS X 1.7.2 answer:
Based on several reviews and reports you cannot.

Seems like an oversight to me as I consider it as a must-have feature.

Be aware there's also something called automatic-ordering (System Preferences > Mission Control > Automatically rearrange Spaces), which apparently orders them based on usage.


Check for Existence of File then Move Rename Old File and Move New One

do shell script "
d=/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A
if [[ -e $d/Apple80211 ]]; then
  mv $d/Apple80211 $d/Apple80211.new
  cp ~/path/to/Apple80211 $d/Apple80211
else
  mv $d/Apple80211 $d/Apple80211.old
  mv $d/Apple80211.new $d/Apple80211
fi" with administrator privileges


Your commands should actually work, however it's not as I would do it.

Instead try :-

sudo crontab -e -u root

then to list :-

sudo crontab -l -u root

As a general rule I go to a great deal of trouble to never run a root shell. When I do I use sudo -s rather than sudo su.

When you exit from vi you should see two lines :-

crontab: no crontab for root - using an empty one
crontab: installing new crontab

If you don't get those two lines you have serious troubles. If you do and then the list command doesn't show anything I would suspect permission troubles.

I also wouldn't use your example line as you are asking the system to run "sayhi.sh" once a minute all day, every day. I also wonder about the path "/sayhi.sh" - do you really have the script right up the top of your boot drive? That's not a good idea either or do you perhaps mean "~/sayhi.sh" which in this case would be in roots home directory (usually /var/root) or do you mean your home directory. In crontab files it's best to explicitly code the entire path, regardless.

You do also realise that tany output of the cron job will not go to any terminal but will instead be emailed to root (by default).

If you want to check that cron is running tasks a simple

*/5 * * * *   echo "CRON" > /Users/myname/.cronout

will do that (the first field runs the task a much more reasonable every 5 minutes).

The crontabs themselves are stored in /usr/lib/cron/tabs. /usr/lib/cron is actually a link to /var/at and if you go there you will find the tabs directory and also the cron.deny file. Check that nobody has added root to that and if you still have no joy then you might try :

echo > /var/at/tabs/root

which should create an empty file that you might then be able to edit.


This is a copy of my answer on StackOverflow: How can I force Xcode to use custom compiler?.

  People say it is possible with custom toolchains. I didn't make a research on them because easier solution worked well for me:

    It is also possible to run frontend plugins directly by setting appropriate "build settings" of Xcode. (Several ways to do this, you can set them on the command line for instance: xcodebuild build FOO=bla.) Here are a few build settings that I found useful to inject C flags:

    OTHER_CFLAGS, OTHER_CPLUSPLUSFLAGS or to replace the compiler(s) and linker(s):

    CC, CPLUSPLUS, LD, LDPLUSPLUS, LIBTOOL

    The same approach works to control the "analyze" action: CLANG_ANALYZER_EXEC, CLANG_ANALYZER_OTHER_FLAGS

    Disclaimer: some of those build settings are undocumented (afaik). Use at your own risk.

  (Taken from [cfe-dev] Compile/refactor iOS Xcode projects)

  For me it was enough to define the following User-Defined Settings in Build Settings of Xcode projects:

  CC=my-c-compiler

  CXX=my-cxx-compiler

  LIBTOOL=my-linker-for-static-libraries


Mail.app is pushing all my mails to junk mail

used Mail Backup X to backup those mails to my external drive. drained out every single bit from the Mail application. Rebooted the system, and reconfigured the mail application with the same credentials. now that is doing totally fine.
I had downloaded it from here:http://www.mailbackupx.com/download.html


Open settings
Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
Tap Add Account,
Tap Other,
Tap Add CardDAV account.
Enter google.com for the server, and your login
info.
Tap Done.

This will bring your Google contacts in, and it is
smart enough to show you a unified view of your Google contacts with
your Apple ones. I.E., if you have someone in both sets, they show
up as one contact, and you can see which pieces of data came from
each. It works very well for me.


iPhone keeps restarting: How to identify the (probable) offending app?

A phone does not and should not reboot just because of some misbehaving app. The problem you have occurs due to issues on a lower level, such as battery or memory fault.

You don't have any means to determine and fix those issues, so just hand it over to a repair shop.


MS Remote Desktop to Windows - Not enough space in a shared folder

Microsoft Remote Desktop for Mac beta version 10.3.4 (1688) solves the issue.


Every iMac from the mid-2007 release onwards can run Yosemite, and the last model that couldn't could also only address 3GB of RAM. So it's almost certain that your iMac will be able to run Yosemite.


How to exclude docker files from time machine backups

I use the generic addexclusion clause of tmutil to make files not get backed up even if I move or copy them.
Open a Finder window to the files and a command line prompt (terminal.app is fine for this) and drag that file into the prompt after typing tmutil addexclusion and press enter. Here you can see me checking files on the desktop of a user named mike...
mike@m1 ~ % tmutil isexcluded /Users/mike/Desktop/Docker\ Files
[Included]    /System/Volumes/Data/Users/mike/Desktop/Docker Files
mike@m1 ~ % tmutil addexclusion /Users/mike/Desktop/Docker\ Files
mike@m1 ~ % tmutil isexcluded /Users/mike/Desktop/Docker\ Files
[Excluded]    /System/Volumes/Data/Users/mike/Desktop/Docker Files


A splitter to carry more than just audio

While doing my research, and before that another programmer did his research and asked me, I found some workarounds, but nothing was out there that addressed the specific answer on how to use the power or "lightning" port for other than music or audio files.

I mean, it should be able to handle data, like my documents, spreadsheets, text files, and such, as it does so when I connect my iPad to my iMac when doing backups. It transfers more than just music.

After weeks of my own research, I needed an expert as none have come forward. I felt this question was important enough to anyone looking to either get in on the hardware side or programming side of IoT, or both. And I was right.

So I asked Mike Westerfield, owner of ByteWorks, developer of techBASIC, and literally wrote the book (in fact several) on IoT the same question. He is trying to finish his new book, but he took the time this morning to reply:

  I really have no idea if this can be done or not. In theory, of
  course, it’s possible — but Apple has always locked the physical
  hardware ports on iOS devices, requiring participation in the MFi
  program, use of Apple’s proprietary chips, and testing that I’ve been
  told averages about $10K per device to bring a product to market. You
  might be able to get around these issues for what is essentially a
  power supply coupled through the other port, but I don’t know enough
  about the hardware to answer that question off of the top of my head.

  Mike Westerfield

Researching Apple's MFi program explains why the IoT is so limited in its scope, and why I was told that no one can answer this question. Like those who develop IOS apps, you need to join the MFi developer's program, and if you write an app to use the hardware, then you need to join both. Plus the MFi devices requires royalties to be paid to Apple.

However, royalty information is only available to those who sign a Non Disclosure Agreement. But if you are accepted into the program, all the schematics, chips, etc. are available for you to use and test with. That's putting it simply. The complete program, for anyone interested is in the link above and the one following.

What is not part of the MFi program? According to Apple:

Accessories that do not use any of the MFi licensed technology listed
above are not part of the MFi Program. For example:
Accessories that use only standard Bluetooth profiles supported by
iOS
Accessories that use only Bluetooth Low Energy (BTLE) (note:
BTLE-enabled HomeKit accessories and BTLE-enabled MFi Hearing Aids
are part of the MFi Program)
Accessories that connect to an Apple device through the headphone
jack and do not use any MFi licensed technology
Non-electronic cases

This is why IoT is only spoken about as a hobby and like Mike said, to get around this would mean a power supply (not from the Apple device) using another port, for no one, not even on the Internet has come forward with a solution to transmit anything from sensor data to data stored in a cloud to the Lightning port. Otherwise, this question would have had an answer long ago.

Before you hobbyist freak out, according to Apple, as long as you use existing technology, that even includes the Lightning port, you do not need to join the MFi. For example, Apple states if you are any one of the below, you do not qualify to join the MFi:

I want to develop cases for iPhone, iPad or iPod. Do I need to join the MFi Program?

No. If you intend to develop a case which does not connect electronically to iPhone, iPad or iPod using licensed technology, you do not need to join the MFi Program. For information regarding case development, please visit: http://developer.apple.com/resources/cases/.

I want to develop an accessory that communicates with an Apple device using only Bluetooth Low Energy. Do I need to join the MFi Program?

No. Accessories which connect to an Apple device using only Bluetooth Low Energy/BTLE/Bluetooth 4.0 or standard Bluetooth profiles supported by iOS are not part of the MFi Program.

I want to develop an iOS app that communicates with an MFi accessory. Do I need to join the MFi Program?

No. iOS app developers do not need to join the MFi Program. Everything app developers need is in the External Accessory Framework, which is provided in the iOS SDK. To access the iOS SDK, please join the iOS Developer Program: https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/.

I want to source/sell MFi accessories as finished goods. Do I need to join the MFi Program?

No. You do not need to join the MFi Program in order to source and/or sell MFi accessories as finished goods. However, you must source MFi finished goods from an MFi Manufacturing Licensee. The Manufacturing Licensee will be authorized to develop/manufacture goods sold under your company's brand and will take responsibility for all program requirements on your company's behalf. The Manufacturing Licensee will also be authorized to include the MFi logo on the product packaging and user guide of your accessory, once it has completed the necessary program requirements.

I want to develop an MFi accessory for personal use. Can I join the MFi Program?

No. We recommend that you use a third-party hobbyist solution which will allow you to connect iOS devices to serial devices and to write iOS apps that communicate with these serial devices.

I want to teach students about developing MFi accessories. Can I join the MFi Program?

No. The information shared under the MFi Program is Apple Confidential and not intended to be used in an academic setting.

So far the Lightning port has been built or allowed to around the music industry, which include Lightning headphones and direct connectivity (From iConnectivity) from the Lightning port to USB Inline iOS connection cable (USB Type B) gives the ability to use your Lightning iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch as a part of your iConnectMIDI rig. Plugging in your synthesizer or sound module app into your performances and recordings. Even musical instruments.

However, an article from Fox News states that Iphone8 is doing away with the Lightning port in favor of the USB Type C interface, a new industry standard.

And that's not all. Apple, like Mike implied, likes to keep the locks on its hardware, and here is a little preview from an article from CNET, titled, "Apple's Lightning Connector And You: What You Should Know"


IPhone File Server & Client to Create Proxy Alternative to Personal Hotspot Tethering

I have found a few apps in the App Store that claim to be both an FTP client and server. That means you can run a server on an iPhone, connect to it from a Mac, transfer files to my phone, and then to a remote server (or vice versa). This would greatly simplify the process.

The apps are:

FTP On The Go Pro
Easy FTP Pro
FilesConnect
FTPManager
iStorage 2

I believe there are others but these clearly explained that they include a server and client.


It looks like your shell is currently set to bash.

From the iTerm2 profiles menu select open profiles. Now you can either create a new profile or modify the default. If you click edit profile this will bring up a preferences window. On this configuration window you can set the "Command" to /bin/zsh.

Hope that works for you.


How to revoke "Always allow" privileges from an application?

Launch the Keychain Access Utility and find the entry you used that password:

Right click it to bring up its info window
Click the Access Control Tab and there you will see a list of applications that have "Always allow access" enabled
Highlight the application in the list that you want remove and click the [-] button to remove it from Always allowed access.


Remove a single tab on a new Finder Window (Yosemite)

Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   T  will show/hide the tab bar (if there is not more than one tab already).

It appears that if you close a Finder window with the Tab bar open, then subsequent window will start with it open, even for a single tab.

So I guess the trick is to always close tabbed windows one tab at a time, or remember the above key-combo for when you forget.


Apple states in this Apple Support article:

  The steel ring surrounding the button detects your finger and tells
  Touch ID to start reading your fingerprint. The sensor uses advanced
  capacitive touch to take a high-resolution image from small sections
  of your fingerprint from the subepidermal layers of your skin

This tells you that a) the sensor only starts reading when being touched and b) it's capacitative, limiting the typical detection distance to the sub-millimetre range (capacitance is proportional to 1/distance).


What exactly does "erase and sync" mean in iTunes?

I finally found a tool that will let me transfer songs to my iPhone without iTunes, at least from my PC: CopyTrans.


MacBook Pro keyboard backlighting loses current setting?

Yes, it actually is normal. If you are in a well lit room, then the backlighting will refuse to turn on.

So no, the onscreen graphic would not retain the same number of bars unless you stay in the same room or do not change into different lighting environments.


Is there a keyboard short-cut to quickly open a URL from the Finder?

Assuming you're using Yosemite, Spotlight can do this. Cmd-Space, type in your address, hit enter. I can't confirm if this works in older versions of OS X though.


Terminal not responding to "which", "type", etc. commands

textedit is not on the PATH normally so which and whereas which search that will not find it.

ls and cd look in any directory and so can see the files

In the GUI the Finder is the app (or in command line open) that knows where to find Text to open a file.


Shift key stuck in software after login, reboot fixes this

I have a workaround which works and involves going to the login screen. Sometimes that is enough to fix. If that doesn't work, switch to the guest user and then log out. That always does it for me.


Apple support got back to me and although very kind has not been very helpful...
Apparently, they have no idea of what is causing the problem or how to solve it, their suggestion is to do a full reset of the device:

Based on the information you have provided to us, we believe that the following information may be useful to you:
Reset HomePod

Not wanting to lose all my configurations, before going for the hard reset, I tried once again to unplug the device. This time I left it unplugged for a longer time, about an hour, and it did the trick!
Timers requests are now processed just as fine as the other requests and I did not lose my configured automations!


Apple has released iTunes 12.6.3 with the App Store which can be installed alongside the latest version of iTunes.

Apple released this version specially for Volume Purchase Programs users who may need to use iTunes to install apps. However, you can get the App Store back if you install this.

  If you've already installed a newer version of iTunes, you can download this version of iTunes on your Mac, PC 32-bit or PC 64-bit* and run the installer. After installation is complete, you can continue to deploy apps with iTunes.

Also, this "special" version of iTunes includes compatibility with iOS 11, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X and supports both Windows and Mac.


Why does 0^0 in the macOS and iOS calculator give different results on different versions?

While 0⁰ is generally undefined, some branches of mathematics do explicitly define it as 1 because, as you can see, this is the value to which the function y(x) = xˣ converges at n=0.

Less formally, note that 0.50.5=0.707…; 0.20.2=0.725…; 0.10.1=0.794… and 0.010.01=0.955…. As you approach 0, the result will be approaching 1, which makes it quite logical and handy to define 0^0 as 1 in some cases.

Thus, none of these 3 results are incorrect per se and instead they all reflect different conventions on the value of this undefined expression.

There is a good Wikipedia article explaining the issue. See also Zero to the zero power – is 0⁰=1?.


I believe that the option only works when opening folders directly from a Finder window. If you CMD-click on Favorites, then a new tab is opened if the preference is On. And a new window is opened if the preference is Off.


At GitHub obriensp/iWorkFileFormat there exists some work on reverse engineering the format and they have published results there.

Basically, the .iwa files are Protobuf streams compressed using Snappy.

There was also a question on Stack Overflow about the format:
Reverse engineering iWork '13 formats


Dealing with macos Versions feature and file syncing services

Good news. After some prompting over in the Apple support forums and experimentation, I've discovered that the "close and revert" option does not do what it says. In fact it closes the document without touching the file on disk - exactly what I'm after!

To recap, when closing a modified file that supports Versions, this dialog appears:

There does not appear to be an option to close without changing what's on disk. However, the Revert Changes button actually behaves like a Don't Save button, leaving the file on disk untouched.

This is precisely the behaviour I need to support the case where the file on disk has been modified by another application and I want to preserve those changes.

As made clear in the Apple thread, this is all probably subject to change and may be fragile, but for now I have a solution.


How to run remote applications on OS X like X11 does?

Short answer is no.

Cocoa is not designed as a remote procedure call (RPC)-esque protocol, while X is. You cannot tunnel the interfaces of Cocoa applications like you know it from X11 natively, only using protocols like VNC that transfer the actual bitmap rather than the rendering instructions.

On the other hand, you are able to use remotely running X applications via SSH.


Efficient creation of filtering rules in Mail.app

Select the email then using preferences->rules will fill in the values from theemail in the selections e.g. if you choose From it will show who the email is from.


Minimal Xcode installation without iOS SDK

When you run the Install Xcode and iOS SDK installer, during the "Installation Type" step, you can uncheck the iOS SDK box, and leave the Xcode Toolset checked. This will skip the 8.35 GB iOS SDK install.


Can my iBook use any PC2700 DDR-SDRAM RAM?

It does not need a specific ram (like any other computers).

But be sure to buy SO-DIMM ram and not DIMM.


Moving files >4GB from a Mac to a Windows box

If you are under 10.6.5 or later and Windows Vista or above, you can format your memory stick or usb hard drive to exFAT, a newer version of FAT with large file support and almost unlimited partition size. It has no permissions to speak of so it's perfect to transfer files around.

Older systems will not see it however.

I use this file system on my external 1TB WD hdd and it works beautifully.


These are tech-enabled toys made by Disney as part of their Disney Infinity line. These toys can interact with specific apps on Apple devices.   This is similar to Apple selling drones that can be controlled via iPhones.

Disney has recently announced they're discontinuing this line of toys so Apple is probably trying to sell them all and reduce their stock.


Further to my automounting network disk woes:
Zapping PRAM doesn't work either, nor does playing with what shows in the sidebar of Finder windows among the Bonjour, Connected Server, and Shared sections of Finder prefs, but.....

I might have just found the answer, and it's weird. I had noticed that opening Preview or TextEdit would always mount these network disks, and those two apps, in Apple's infinite wisdom, start up with an Open... dialog set to one's Documents folder. I had made aliases of the two disks and placed those aliases in my Documents folder. By dragging them to my Dock I had a clickable icon for each that showed them to be network disks (just dragging the icon of the mounted disk directly to the Dock shows them with a generic folder icon). I wondered if the Open dialog of Preview was mounting the disks as part of showing what was available in Documents for it to open, so I dragged the aliases onto the Desktop. The disks still mounted, so I tried a restart to see if Preview would still do it. It did. So then I cleared the System cache, all user caches and restarted again. This time the disks didn't mount! Being either brave or foolish, I dragged the aliases back into the Documents folder, and they still don't mount on opening Preview! I have restarted since just to see if they would reappear on opening Preview, but they don't. It's odd how this has happened immediately on upgrade to 10.10 and again with 10.11. With 10.10 it went away with a 10.10.x upgrade, but this time I may have solved it


Transferring from a Samsung Galaxy to a Mac

Zero problem. Just use the USB cable and transfer the files, or go by bluetooth if you have the time. Both work flawless. Airdrop also works if you want to use an app and transfer over wlan. If you use the USB cable, you will get a lot of mac files on your Galaxy's SD card file system, like a file called ".DS_Store" in each folder. This doesn't hurt, but you might want to remove them or wonder where they came from.


What external IR receivers are there for Mac?

If you're looking to control Keynote presentations and your Mac doesn't have a built-in IR port, you could buy an external receiver, but I suggest you use either:

The Keynote Remote app for iPhone. This works over wi-fi and requires only a $0.99 purchase and no additional hardware to buy or set up.

or

A specialized slide advancer, like this Logitech one. This is designed to be comfortable to hold (the Apple Remote wasn't) and doesn't require line-of-sight to the receiver (which is a small USB dongle) to work. Some of the better ones have a slide counter and laser pointers built in.


iPhone 5 upgrading after syncing with iTunes

When you see the lightning cable and iTunes logo on your screen, it means that your iPhone has entered Recovery mode.

The best thing to do is to connect your iPhone to iTunes on a Mac or Windows PC and restore it.
ITunes should display a popup saying that you connected an iPhone in Recovery Mode.

From the screen in iTunes, select restore or restore and update. (Actual button names could be different as what I say)

After you restored your iPhone you need to configure it. If you want, you can restore a backup from iCloud or iTunes when there's one available.


How about something simple in your crontab?

@daily (date; df)>> ~/drive_usage.log

Which will, on a daily basis, append to the file drive_usage.log in your home directory with the date and time the job ran.  Change @daily to @hourly or @weekly if you want different sampling rates.

Sample output:

Thu 13 Feb 2014 22:15:22 GMT
Filesystem                                             512-blocks       Used  Available Capacity   iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1                                              487900160  332696088  154692072    69%  41651009   19336509   68%   /
devfs                                                         382        382          0   100%       661          0  100%   /dev
map -hosts                                                      0          0          0   100%         0          0  100%   /net
map auto_home                                                   0          0          0   100%         0          0  100%   /home
/dev/disk4                                             1952177496  322984856 1629192640    17%  40373105  203649080   17%   /Volumes/Samsung Time Machine
//paul@calliope._afpovertcp._tcp.local/paul%60s%20home 7689113744 6353779112 1335334632    83% 794222387  166916829   83%   /Volumes/paul's home
//paul@pollux/paul                                      125522808   65564368   59958440    53%         0 18446744073709551615    0%   /Volumes/paul

If you want more information you might want to use something like fs_usage(1) which provides a truly astonishing amount of detail and must be run as root.


How can I stop "Word is finishing analyzing your document"?

How to stop word 'finishing analysing your document' - Go to:
Word/preferences/edit. Then untick 'keep track of formatting'. It'll stop this from happening.

Note however - if you want to 'select all' (from the 'style' box - when selecting a style-type to change), you need to re-tick the above box.


Applescript : Lock & UnLock MacOS based on device stats

delay 5

Can use this but not really secure :

tell application "System Events"
    if ((get name of every process) contains "ScreenSaverEngine") then
        set pw to "Password Here"
        tell application "ScreenSaverEngine" to quit
        delay 0.5
        keystroke pw
        keystroke return
        -- set require password to wake of security preferences to false
    end if
end tell


Whats the value for DNS when you leave blank DNS in static IP?

It doesn't have nor does it assign one.  However, it may have have host names/addresses cached so you may still be able to access sites you previously visited.  However, once that cache clears, you  will only be able to  browse by using raw IPs.


In Photos, how can I auto-split events upon import?

Events are deprecated. Your library is just shown in an interface with date & location (if available). If you want further organization you can (have to) create albums.


How to restore system from SynologyRouter Time Machine?

To restore from a Time Machine backup on SynologyRouter, and probably any other Time Machine network drive, selecting the 'Other Server' option in the 'Select A Restore Source' screen will allow one to enter the proper network drive URL.
What is important, though, to enter the full URL, including the actually shared network folder name, not just the URL for the network server.


How can I record music from a MIDI keyboard with a MacBook Pro?

There are many brands of MIDI to USB adapters available on the market. They cost about US$40 or less. Here is one example, the M-Audio Uno.

She can record her performances on GarageBand, which is a piece of Apple software that comes free with the MacBook Pro.


Lock Screen using terminal? Osascript is preventing keystrokes

I found an answer.

The Lock Screen app on Github does exactly what I wanted to do.  So, by downloading it and adding this to my script, I can lock my monitor remotely:

run application "Lock Screen"

Edit: It seems the application runs the following script:

activate application "SystemUIServer"
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "SystemUIServer" to keystroke "q" using {command down, control down}
end tell

Adding that to my applescript still gives me an osascript error, but triggering the Lock Screen app using applescript works perfectly for my needs.

This makes me happy!

I have a remote at my door that I programmed to turn my lights on when I click the ON button, and when I click OFF, it turns my lights off, makes sure various smart devices are off, and it locks my Mac's monitor.

If I'm headed out the door, OFF makes sure everything is off and the Mac's monitor is locked.

Love it!


Use the latest version of KeepingYouAwake. It works pretty well in macOS Mojave. It's a GUI based wrapper around Apple's caffeniate command line utility. All current versions of macOS ship with caffeniate tool built-in. So, it should be safe to use.

Courtesy: https://github.com/newmarcel/KeepingYouAwake/#how-does-it-work

For installation:

You can download latest version from here, or
Install it using Homebrew by running: brew cask install keepingyouawake

Reference: https://github.com/newmarcel/KeepingYouAwake/#installation


Unfortunately MS Office products live in the own world.

So to make the Alpha and Sigma words be replaced with Greek symbols you need to do following.

Open Word- Preference.

Now choose the Auto Correct

There is a field called Replace -With where you can now do that.

See this example:

Use same process for PowerPoint.


Can I disable Mac sleep mode even when lid is closed?

If you have an external monitor plugged in, it will happen automatically.

Otherwise, you can use InsomniaX.


Quick and reliable solution for accessing Outlook 2011 .olm files on Windows Outlook

Manually you can access your .olm files in Windows Outlook, but before the start of this files moving process,  you have to make some settings on your Outlook 2011 applications end, it’s essential to make changes in Outlook 2011, without making all these changes in Outlook 2011 you can’t get your .olm files on Windows Outlook,  as you have to configure your Mac Outlook 2011 with the IMAP mail account and have to follow below steps-

•   Firstly, set up an IMAP mail account (as an instance Gmail)

•   Afterward, configure your Mac Outlook 2011 with the IMAP mail account

•   Create a Gmail label to connect the IMAP mail account to Outlook 2011

•   Now, move all the emails from Outlook 2011 to the IMAP mailbox folder, after all the above steps to move all the data from IMAP mailbox folder to Windows Outlook.

Note: As per your query, you required quick response for .olm files to Outlook for Windows, you can try any software, at present multiple Free online software's are available for such conversion, you can utilized any of the application.

Hope the above information will assist you.


Is there any way to save Mac OS X preferences into a shell file?

The System Preferences appear to be stored in various places, depending on whether they are user or system specific. A lot of them are stored in either /Library/Preferences/ or $HOME/Library/Preferences/ (for per-user settings). But each preference pane will have its own way of storing them.

You can see which preferences are stored this way by typing:

defaults read <domain>

Where <domain> is either the start of the filename in your per-user system preferences, or the full path to a .plist file. For example:

defaults read com.apple.screensaver
defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.screensaver

The former will show your per-user customisation of the screensaver settings, while the latter will show the system screensaver settings.

The settings are largely organised by preference pane, though not necessarily that straight forward. You'll likely have to poke around in /Library/Preferences and sub-folders (especially SystemConfiguration) to find them all.

One option would be to just copy the relevant files out, and put them back in place for new installations.

Another way would be to export and import it as required.

Exporting the Power Management (Energy Saver) System Preferences to pm.plist:

defaults export /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement pm.plist

Importing those preferences from pm.plist on the new computer:

defaults import /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement sysprefs.plist

You may even want to edit the various exported .plist files if there are specific system preferences you do/don't want to share between computers. That way you can have some customisation locally, and the import command will not overwrite those, just add the ones you've set in the .plist files. You can use the defaults command to modify your own .plist files as well (but make sure you specify the full path to the file, not just a name, or you may be modifying your per-user preferences).


Forcing Intel HD Graphics 5000 on a 2013 MacBook Air to output 4K

No, your 2013 MacBook Air cannot drive a 4K display. MacBook Air 2013 comes with a Thunderbolt 1 controller which supports DisplayPort 1.1. DisplayPort 1.2 is needed to get 4K support.

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013) - Technical Specifications

Graphics and Video Support

Intel HD Graphics 5000.
Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors.

Use 4K displays, 5K displays, and Ultra HD TVs with your Mac

You can use 4K displays and Ultra HD TVs with these Mac computers:

MacBook Air (Early 2015) and later.


Shortcut to open/close sidebar in Notes app?

They don't actually call it a sidebar, they term it 'Folders'

It's in the View menu as Show or Hide Folders, with no default shortcut

You could make your own shortcut in System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts >App Shortcuts - though you'd actually have to make two, for the different wording.
If you chose to re-use  Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   L  you would also have to reassign Checklist from the Format menu to something else before it will work.

Shown using a different key combo below for simplicity


How to remap 'Shift & Up/Down arrow keys' to type actual up & down arrows?

KeyRemap4MacBook currently can't insert arbitrary text. For something like this, I'd recommend using DefaultKeyBinding.dict.

Create ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict and enter

{ "$\Uf700" = (insertText:, "↑"); "$\Uf701" = (insertText:, "↓"); }

$ = shift, \Uf700 = up, \Uf701 = down, insertText: will insert a string at the current cursor location

Quit and reopen applications for the change to take effect


How can I check a video file has an alpha channel?

Exiftool should report all clips with alpha channels as 32 bit:

exiftool -bitdepth /path/to/your/movie.mov

You can of course specify wildcards when calling exiftool:

exiftool -bitdepth *.mov

Media Inspector may do this as well if you prefer a GUI app.


Sensor in Apple Logo at the Back of iMac

You do not list which model of iMac you're cleaning, but in general the alu iMac models do not have a sensor in the back logo. Perhaps you're talking about the WiFi antenna that is located there on some models - you could ofcourse argue that an antenna is a type of sensor.

If you're actually talking about the front Apple logo, then older iMacs had an IR-sensor there for taking input from the Apple Remote.


Sure it can, just like dropping it on the floor.
999 times you'll get away with it, the 1000th you'll break something.
As this is entirely behavioural rather than accidental, I'd suggest you learn to not do it.


How do I backup and external hard drive (iPhoto Library) to another external hard drive?

Well first I would ask you: why in the world would you not want to back up your internal drive?

Second, you could easily set up Time Machine, but simply add the internal drive to the exclusions.


It seems that because the ALT key was stuck when disabling it, it had no effect. So, I bashed the keys and ran my fingers over them frantically and it unstuck the ALT key. I then went in and disabled it, and all is working fine.

Sometimes we have to go back to caveman tactics to solve these technological problems. If it don't work, bash it with the club.


Remove iOS 5.1 notification from the main screen?

I see that your iPhone is jailbroken. There's a tweak for this called noOTA badge. I haven't used it myself, but it looks legit. Give it a shot!


How do I restore autoconf after Mountain Lion update?

It sounds like you're a developer. You should install Mac Ports. It's REALLY helpful and useful to have. You can use it to get command line tools such as autoconf. It's always useful to have if you work with command line a lot.

Just install the .pkg from http://www.macports.org/install.php to install MacPorts.

After so, in terminal, run:
sudo port install autoconf

More info:
http://www.macports.org/ports.php?by=library&substr=autoconf


How can I let apps make changes using TouchID on MacBook Pro?

This is not one of the supported features of Touch ID on macOS - at least not yet.

With Touch ID on your MBP, you can:

unlock your Mac
make purchases using your Apple ID (i.e. from the App Store and iTunes)
use Apple Pay

Undoubtedly as time goes by, more functionality will be added to Touch ID on macOS - but the ability to use it to allow apps to make changes to macOS isn't available yet.


OS X El Capitan keeps changing the auto hide Dock feature

As EDP pointed out Command+Option+D does this. The Spectacle app has shortcuts near this (+F for example) and I'll tap 'D' accidentally from time to time. Even if you're not tapping the shortcut inadvertently, Command+Option+D is a great way to switch the setting back when it's goes wrong.
If you want to prevent it, you can go to [Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts], and disable the shortcut under Launchpad > Turn Dock Hiding On/Off.
Cool trick: open [Settings > Dock], and tap [Command+Option+D] a couple times.


how to see all files on external hard drive

Yes, it was simply that the trash was not emptied: I have learnt that to remove items from an External Hard Drive I must empty the trash while it is connected!  Otherwise the files remain hidden but using space up on the drive.


Library conflict in MacOS Catalina - UIFoundation vs AppKit

macOS Catalina adds a lot of under the hood components to better support iOS on Mac apps. Both UIKit and AppKit are installed with macOS 10.15.

I haven't extensively tested the Catalina beta, but my best answer right now would be that it's still an early beta (beta 3 at the time of writing) and errors like this are to be expected.

If you are testing an Xcode project on Catalina, I would assume that your app will (mostly) work correctly, but you should file a bug report if you come across any problems that you think may be a bug in the operating system or SDK.


How can I avoid my MacBook Pro giving me minor shocks?

The solution for me was to use the adapter with a three pin extension cord.
Then your notebook is grounded, and no more charges stay on the cover that shock you. :-).
About steps 1-3
In steps 1 and 2, you reset the System Management Controller (SMC Reset) on a Mac that has a battery, which you should not remove on your own. The SMC manages hardware conditions related to temperatures and power consumption. You may also be interested in the question: When should I reset the SMC on a Mac?.
I'm not aware of the shortcut you performed in step 3.


How can I use a Wii remote as a remote control for Keynote on my mid-2011 MacBook Air?

I believe that you'll need to download Darwiin Remote form here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/darwiin-remote/. This software will allow communication between the Wii Remote and your computer.

I haven't played with this for a long time, but I believe that when I did this app allows the Wii Remote to act as your mouse and provide direct interaction with the system (I used a candle to provide the required infrared source for tracking).


Apple Music tracks that are added on iTunes aren't showing up on iOS devices

On your iOS devices, make sure iCloud Music Library is enabled in the Music section of the Settings app.


How can I copy an icon from a .icns file onto another folder or file?

Using Finder go to the folder where the icns file is located. Open this icns file using Preview. Once the file is open click on select all in the edit menu item. Once you've selected all, open a file in Pages and paste the image in the new or old file.  This file now contains the image.


Can you keep an iPhone permanently offline?

Yes.

You can keep an iPhone permanently offline after doing the initial setup and still use it. You can continue to use the basic telephonic feature, and the stock apps such as Calculator, Camera, Photos etc. which doesn't require an active Internet connection to function.

There's no requirement in iOS, the operating system running on iPhones to phone home, that would hinder its normal operation, in total absence of an Internet connection.

However, any feature, even within the built-in apps, dependant on Internet connectivity would remain unavailable, such as the ability to send and receive iMessages, accessing the App Store to install new apps, syncing contacts, email, calendar etc. to iCloud, using Siri, Apple virtual assistant and even updating the iOS software (in untethered mode).


Cycle between the last two windows (similar to CMD+TAB)

Cmd ⌘   Tab ⇥    already does that, so long as you let go in between & let the 2nd app come to the front.

That then makes your previous 1st app the 2nd - therefore 1st to switch to when you  Cmd ⌘   Tab ⇥


How does one make a command line authoritative DNS query using macOS Mojave native host name and address resolution mechanism(s)?

The way to do a command line DNS query using macOS Mojave's native host name and address resolution mechanism is through dscacheutil like this:

dscacheutil -q host -a name www.google.com

This will use the native mechanism so that the response will come from cache, if it is cached, and if not it will be looked up through standard address resolution (i.e. typically from a recursive DNS server) and the answer will be placed in cache.

I suspect that you already know of this method, and thus have added the word "authoritative" to the title of your question to specify that you want to lookup the address directly from the authoritative DNS server instead of through a recursive DNS server for example.

Unfortunately this makes the question a kind of oxymoron - i.e. it doesn't really make sense. Because if you're using the native address resolution mechanism like most normal macOS programs, you're not just making a query to an authoritative DNS server - you're interacting with a cache and its address resolution policy.

If you want to make an authoritative query from the command line on macOS Mojave, you can do that by the following command for example:

dig @a.r06.twtrdns.net www.twitter.com

This means that the query goes directly to the authoritative DNS server. Ofcourse this bypasses the standard way of resolving names, so this doesn't interact with macOS Mojave's native address resolution mechanism.

I hope this answer your question even though it doesn't try to answer the impossible "both at the same time". But perhaps you meant something else, which wasn't clear in your question. Perhaps you're looking to query the cache and recursive servers through the native address resolution mechanism, but only to get at the authoritative section of the DNS reply (if any DNS reply is involved at all ofcourse) - or something like that.


If the options of Defaults, Recents, Photo Stream, Faces, Camera & Linked are simply not sufficient, there's always the option of simply dragging any new picture straight on top of your existing picture, or into Recents…


Facebook notification sound in OSX: cannot switch off

I found it. Account Settings>Notifications>How You Get Notifications>On Facebook>Play a sound when each new notification is received (UNCHECK the box). So far, it seems to be working. Whew. Thanks, Steve.


Easy way to copy paste file paths on Macs

I think this is an option that will do exactly what you want. Using your Serial Number.jpg example, do as follows:

In the Finder browse to the image called “Serial Number.jpg” located on Server1
Right-click on the file to display the context menu
Now press and hold the option key down
Select the Copy “Serial Number.jpg” as Pathname option
Now go to the procedure you’re editing and paste the pathname you just copied

This should result in your document having the /Volumes/Server1/Serial Number.jpg path pasted into it.

Just use the same steps for any file, regardless of whether it’s stored locally, on an external drive, or on a server. This also works to get the file path of folders.

Keyboard shortcut

Thanks to Mateusz Szlosek for pointing out you can also use a keyboard shortcut. Instead of Steps 2 to 4 above, once you've selected the file you can use the option+command+C shortcut to copy the file path. Then you can paste it as usual.

Windows etc files

There are custom built utilities to format shares for other operating systems and sub/afp as well:

PathSnagger 2 works very well for this


How do I stop my computer name from automatically, and incorrectly, changing?

Workaround

Like other users, I'm plagued by this annoyance but have found a semi-satisfactory workaround:

my_hostname='your-hostname-here'; for key in LocalHostName ComputerName  HostName  ; do sudo scutil --set $key $my_hostname; done

After running this command, you can check that all places where they store hostname are the same with this one-liner:

for key in LocalHostName ComputerName  HostName  ; do sudo scutil --get $key; done

If the Macbook keeps immediately renaming ComputerName back with a suffix, you may be able to make it stop by turning off Wake for Network Access.

System Preferences→Energy Saver→Wake for Wi-Fi network access → Unchecked

Once off, rename your machine using the commands above to finish.  You may also try forcing ComputerName back by using the System Preferences→Sharing→Computer Name text field preference.

If this did not help, try flushing your mDNS cache:

# El Capitan (10.11) and later
#   check if you have dscacheutil command with: which dscacheutil
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

# Yosemite (10.10) and ealier
#   check if you have discoveryutil command with: which discoveryutil
sudo discoveryutil mdnsflushcache
sudo discoveryutil mdnsrestartquestions
sudo discoveryutil mdnsrestartregistrations
sudo discoveryutil udnsflushcache
sudo discoveryutil udnsrestartquestions

After flushing mDNS cache, retry renaming your machine using the commands above.

If this still did not work, try killing the mDNSResponder service:

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Then, retry again to reset your computer name using above scutil commands.

If you find that none of this is doing any good, there are some other reported solutions which include:

Ensure you have only one connection to the local network
Turn Bonjour off and back on

# Yosemite (10.10) (and other versions with discoveryd?)
# Check for discoveryd with:  ps auxww | grep -i discoveryd
sudo killall discoveryd
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.discoveryd.plist
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.discoveryd.plist

# Mac OS versions without discoveryd
# Check for mDNSResponder with:  ps auxww | grep -i mDNSResponder
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

Shut down and reset ALL networking hardware

Problem Discussion

In my experience, setting the hostname this way, or through the standard System Preferences→Sharing→Computer Name only lasts a short period of time.  This is usually < 24 hours, but sometimes the ComputerName even changes immediately to have a suffixed number in parentheses (N).  I've observed this number to immediately be set to either (4) or (5) recently after using the scutil --set commands above.

The cause of this behavior is due to some daemon code running in Mac OS which attempts to add a numbered suffix (N) any time that the same hostname is found on the network.  In ALL of my testing, the hostnames I've chosen have NEVER been used before on the network and additionally had NEVER been used for any Bluetooth devices as well.

The true cause of the "trigger" of this behavior is unknown and unverified.  That is to say: Through all my research online and testing I have not been able to determine definitively why Mac OS decides that the name is already in use when it clearly is NOT and never has been.

My theory is that somehow mDNS also known as Bonjour (Avahi to Linux users, or Zero-conf Networking to Windows users) may be partly to blame.  Somehow, the prior hostname of the Macbook or Apple device gets persisted somewhere in mDNS, or perhaps some form of ARP table + hostname information which is discovered and stored by the Macbook or Apple device.  This could be some kind of race condition.  Somehow the entry is seen as duplicate and triggers the Mac OS suffix renaming behavior.

The number suffixed hostnames are visible when using the Apple provided DNS Service Discovery utility dns-sd:

For example, using hostname my-mbp-hostname, it might show up like the following entries

dns-sd -Z _ssh._tcp
; To direct clients to browse a different domain, substitute that domain in place of '@'
lb._dns-sd._udp                                 PTR     @

; In the list of services below, the SRV records will typically reference dot-local Multicast DNS names.
; When transferring this zone file data to your unicast DNS server, you'll need to replace those dot-local
; names with the correct fully-qualified (unicast) domain name of the target host offering the service.

_ssh._tcp                                       PTR     my-mbp-hostname\032(5)._ssh._tcp
my-mbp-hostname\032(5)._ssh._tcp                           SRV     0 0 22 my-mbp-hostname.local. ; Replace with unicast FQDN of target host
my-mbp-hostname\032(5)._ssh._tcp                           TXT     ""

[...SNIP...]
[...OTHER SSH HOSTS HERE...]
[...SNIP...]

The theory of the true cause is unconfirmed as it's difficult to find and observe what is actually happening without access to internal Mac OS state & low level Apple OS debugging tools.  The interactions between mdnsd, mDNSResponder, and mDNSResponderHelper with other Mac OS services or even other Avahi daemons on the network are not well documented or easily observable.  The current state of some forms of network discovery can be viewed through dns-sd and arp -a or perhaps arp -a -n.  Other theories or potential places where this hostname information may be stored could be:

Bluetooth device names persisted by the OS somewhere
SMB (windows file share) info cached from network periodically by smbd (/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.smbd.plist)
AFP share info cached from network (also presumably by smbd?)
mDNS / Avahi reflector (or other type of re-broadcast of Bonjour / zero-conf packets on the network by a router or some other device)?

Could be cached by mDNSResponder or mdnsd (/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist)

Solution (placeholder)

As of October 6th 2017, there is still no full solution from Apple or remedy to prevent this problem from reoccurring.  I recommend filing a Bug Report with Apple describing this issue.  You may also wish to contact Apple Customer Support.

The more people that make noise about this annoying issue, the faster Apple Product Managers will prioritize so Engineers will be able to fix it.

Debugging / Future Lines of Investigation

This MacRumors Forum Discussion has some useful information as well as adding a theory that Wake for Wi-Fi Network Access and device Wake / Sleep has something to do with this issue.  Other theories presented have to do with using multiple network adapters (e.g.: WiFi + Thunderbolt Ethernet), routers that have multiple Access Points advertised on multiple bands such as on 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz) or 802.11 a/ac (5GHz).  These combinations may cause a "ghost" version of the Apple device to show up on the network somehow temporarily, triggering the renaming behavior.

There were no useful log lines in /var/log/system.log that appeared related to this renaming behavior being triggered.  Supposedly mDNSResponder can be configured to higher log levels:

Error - Error messages
Warning - Client-initiated operations
Notice - Sleep proxy operations
Info - Informational messages

How to set these debug levels other than perhaps through non-existent file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist was not clear.  I did not have a plist example config to use, so I was unable to get any extra logging info out of mDNSResponder.

Tools such as Wireshark could be useful to show mDNS packets being broadcast on the network along with other potentially relevant ARP packet info among other traffic.

On Mac OS, other tools such as dscacheutil may exist to view this information. It's not well documented or clear how to view the definitive cache of this information which is used by the hostname renaming code. When I tested this utility, it did not produce any useful output except when using query mode for the exact hostname (IPs scrubbed for privacy):

sudo dscacheutil -cachedump -entries host
Unable to get details from the cache node
sudo dscacheutil -cachedump
Unable to get details from the cache node
dscacheutil -cachedump
Unable to get details from the cache node
dscacheutil -cachedump -entries host
Unable to get details from the cache node

dscacheutil -q host -a name my-mbp-hostname.local
name: my-mbp-hostname.local
ipv6_address: fe80:4::1a:1234:abcd:ef01
ipv6_address: 2601:280:1b00:1234:567:abcd:ef01:1234

name: my-mbp-hostname.local
ip_address: 192.168.1.123


Can I make GIMP work as a MacOS X Service?

You could create a service like this with Automator:

It can't be used to for example edit an image embedded in a Pages document though.


Getting keystrokes on VLC via AppleScript

You don't need to tell VLC to perform the keystroke.

tell application "VLC"
    open MyFile
    activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "f" using command down
end tell

I understand you say the rest of the script works, but without more information, I don't see how.

path to me will return the path to the actual script, not the containing folder. This means you'll end up with the equivalent of path:to:script.scptFile.mkv, which can't be true. Instead, you need to get the container:

tell application "Finder"
    set MyFile to ((container of (path to me) as text) & "File.mkv") as text
end tell

This will return path:to:File.mkv. Make sure your mkv is actually in this location.

Full script:

tell application "Finder"
    set MyFile to ((container of (path to me) as text) & "File.mkv") as text
end tell
tell application "VLC"
    open MyFile
    activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "f" using command down
end tell


I recommend Doug's Applescripts for iTunes as a great resource to keep in mind for any future questions you might have. From it I found the script that applies sed to the track names. Once you follow the instructions to install the script, put the following code in the popup box:

s/\([:alpha:]\)+ \([:digit:]+\) \([:digit:]+\)/\3 \1 \2/

N.B. This is actually the first time I've used sed, so I recommend testing this out on a few individual songs first.

(Also, if you don't have any programming experience, then it's likely that the Regular Expression above looked downright arcane. Don't worry! That's totally normal.)


"FileName" is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the bin" when opening files from Finder

Apparently the document has a quarantine flag. You can verify the same by running the following command in the Terminal.app:

xattr <path_to_the_document>

which should display the following:

  com.apple.quarantine

To remove the quarantine flag from a document you trust is coming from a reliable source, run the following command:

xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine <path_to_the_document>

The Terminal.app would ask you to enter your admin/login password. You can verify that the flag is removed by re-running the former command mentioned above.


Is Night Mode in iOS really sight-friendly?

While the display's backlight is always illuminated, a black pixel is blocking nearly all the light from behind it so that in effect your eye does receive much less light. In this case, if you find reading with dark backgrounds easier then Night Mode will be helpful. What you don't get is any energy savings.


Terminal won't receive Control+← or Control+→

This is because ctrl+← and ctrl+→ are bound to changing spaces in Mission Control.


Is it possible to prevent TextEdit's "The file has been changed" dialog from appearing unnecessarily?

I've never seen this sheet without the underlying file being changed. Try opensnoop on the file to determine the process which is accessing the file:

$ sudo opensnoop -f /path/to/file.txt
  UID    PID COMM          FD PATH
  501  32092 Finder        14 /path/to/file.txt
    0     81 mds           28 /path/to/file.txt
  501  41898 mdworker       9 /path/to/file.txt
  501  42646 TextMate      16 /path/to/file.txt
  501  42646 TextMate      16 /path/to/file.txt
  501  42646 TextMate      25 /path/to/file.txt
  501  42646 TextMate      26 /path/to/file.txt

This is a live printout, so keep the opensnoop running until you get the sheet, then check your Terminal window and look back to see the process. ⌃C stops opensnoop when you're finished. You will need to disable System Integrity Protection to use opensnoop and can be re-enabled afterwards.


Are Apple Remote Desktop connections encrypted?

Yes.

From Apple's Tech Specifications page on Apple Remote Desktop:

  Encrypt all communications between Apple Remote Desktop and client computers with 128-bit AES encryption, or disable encryption for data-intensive tasks


Mac pro early 2008 won´t boot from pendrive with yosemite install app

Here's something to try...

If your Mac Pro has issues with booting from USB but will boot from a DVD, create a DVD from the USB installer. If you know how to do this then ignore the rest, grab a dual-layer DVD and get cracking. If not, read on...

First, mount your USB installer and then go to Disk Utility. Highlight the partition Install OS X Yosemite on the upper left pane then go to File > New > Disk Image from "Install OS X Yosemite". Select DVD/CD master as the image format then hit the Save button when you're ready.

After a few moments you will have a disk image with the extension .cdr. This should be listed in Disk Utility on the lower left pane - highlight it and select Burn. You will need a dual-layer DVD for the burning operation.

If you can boot from the original Apple installation discs you should be able to boot from your newly created DVD, and hopefully it will appear as a boot option. Be warned, booting from the Yosemite DVD will take a small eternity, the installation itself will take quite a bit longer. Still, it's better to get there slowly than not at all ;-)

Alternatively, if you have a spare hard disk you could clone the Yosemite USB installer partition onto that using Disk Utility's Restore function. This should in theory be much quicker but I've not tried it out yet. I have had a successful boot and install from DVD on a MacBook (school's out for Easter so no access to a Mac Pro at the moment) so at least we know it's possible to create a working DVD installer.

Small addition - when installing from DVD the progress bars will lead to you to believe it's actually going to take forever, if not slightly longer. However, these do tend to stick at certain points while the system's busy and the whole process should be done in just over an hour.


How can I tell when HD Voice is being used in a phone call?

As far as i know, iPhone5 dont have HD voice indicator, i realised this when calling my dad with his Z10, he said there is HD Voice title on his Z10 answer button but there is no particular hd voice symbol or what so ever on my i5. Well, the voice quality with hd voice is just so clear and different, you should know whether hd voice is on or not just by voice quality.


FileVault is off, but still prompts for boot password

Reset the PRAM, or click the Apple logo and choose "Start-up disk."
Pick Macintosh HD and it'll boot proper.


Check your ~/.bash_profile in a text editor and delete any lines referring to those libraries or ImageMagick.


Terminal Ping, how to get simple integer

Try this:

ping -c 1 google.com | grep "time=" | sed -E "s/(.*)time=([.0-9]+) ms/\2/"

If you want to get an minimal value for some number of requests use:

ping -q -c 5 google.com | tail -1 | cut -d "=" -f 2 | cut -d "/" -f 1

Replace 1 in -f 1 with:

2 for average
3 for maximum


How can I get rid of this context menu option?

From: http://www.reggieashworth.com/appdelete

  AppDelete keeps a .workflow file to provide a contextual menu item for convenience. If ever removal is required simply delete it from your /Library/Services folder. Or on Leopard your /Library/Workflows/Applications/Finder folder.

It appears you should be able to remove that menu item by deleting an item from one of the afore mentioned folders depending on which OS you have installed.


Your iPad will mirror your iPhone (because the iPhone picked-up the message first).

The pic should not display on the iPad as long as it's not in the message history on your iPhone.


VPN breaks AirDrop, Sidecar etc. - any idea how to set up VPN to enable them?

I just spent couple of hours trying to figure out how to solve this issue, and the solution was quite simple.
The problem with AnyConnect and cisco VPN is that it forces whole traffic to go through it, which includes local network (thus making other LAN hosts inaccessible). There seems to no to little config options in AnyConnect itself. Plus using USB seems to be working up until VPN connection is made.
However, I found thanks to some forums that one can use openconnect to connect to PPTP VPN instead.
brew install openconnect
and then
sudo openconnect --user your_vpn_user --protocol=anyconnect vpn.server.com  establishes equivalent connection and doesn't interfere with LAN addresses! Plus it doesn't even need any cumbersome and slow GUI to do this. So it is a win win.
P.S. I was close to turn my spare Raspberry Pi into a WiFi access point with VPN tunnel there and properly set up routing. Saved myself more problems.


Will Time Machine backup of an encrypted HDD be encrypted?

No - Time Machine will not preserve the encryption of the source disk since it reads the files in an unencrypted manner just like any other process once you log in to the Mac.

You would need to ensure that all Time Machine destinations are also encrypted to properly secure your data both on the main computer as well as have it encrypted on the Time Machine volumes. This is as easy as ticking a checkbox on the Time Machine preference pane in system preferences.

On macOS 10.12 Time Machine will throw a helpful notification if you do in fact select an unencrypted destination for encrypted OS.


What happens to an icloud.com address when you delete the Apple ID?

If I delete an Apple ID account that is registered with an address@icloud.com, what will happen to the icloud.com email address and its availability?

According to the support article How to delete your Apple ID account, the icloud.com email address is deleted, that is, messages associated to that address are deleted and you can't use the address to send or receive email:

  What happens to my iCloud mail and messages when my Apple ID is
  deleted?

  When your Apple ID is deleted, all of your iCloud email and
  messages are permanently deleted as well. Any messages sent to you via
  iCloud (Mail and iMessage) are not delivered.

About availability, a couple of years ago I asked Apple to delete one of my Apple IDs and support told me (at that time, you could only make such a request on the phone) that the email address associated with my Apple ID could not be reused as an Apple ID. So I'd conclude that the email address can't be reused.

Specifically, I am interested in deleting that account, but may wish to re-register it and claim the same email handle.

In this case, Apple recommends that you deactivate your account instead:

  If you aren’t planning to use your account for now but may consider
  returning to it in the future, we recommend temporarily deactivating
  your account (where available) instead of deleting it.

If you still decide to delete your Apple ID, make sure that you sign out of all your devices to avoid issues with apps that use your Apple ID account or iCloud. After your account is deleted, you can't sign out of iCloud or turn off Find My iPhone Activation Lock on your devices. If you forget to sign out, you might not be able to use your device when your account is deleted.

Will the email handle be immediately put back in to the available pool, will there be a delay, will it never be allowed for re-registration... ?

As commented above, Apple support told me the email address couldn't be used  as an Apple ID again, so re-registration doesn't seem to be possible.

You may want to contact Apple support to confirm this.


iPhone app to apply Instagram like filters to a photo and save to camera roll

In Settings > Instagram you can specify that you want to save the original picture and the picture modified in the photo library.

If you don't want to upload your files in Instagram's server, try Camera+. It's a great app and really worth the 99 cents.

NB: there's also a free Camera Plus app, it's not the same as Camera+ and I haven't tried it.


Connect Apple TV iPad Air and hotel wifi

Try authenticating with the iPad, then mirroring its screen to the Apple TV.  This won't give you access to AppleTV content, but will give you the big screen experience.


How can I use one machine to access keychains stored on extracted disk of different machine?

You can just copy your old keychain to your new keychain:

Open Keychain Access from the Other folder in Launchpad.
Choose Add Keychain from the File menu.
Go to your drive > Users > Username > Library > Keychains (/Volumes/_DRIVE_NAME_/Users/USERNAME/Library/Keychains/).
Select the file named: login.keychain

Now you have your old keychain in your new one.


Google Chrome could not connect to localhost

Just do sudo apachectl -t, that will help you fixing any issue your having with Apache configuration.

In that case, it was just a simple space in httpd-vhosts.conf file that was causing the issue.


My Apple devices always seem to slow down over the years

You have several options to fight against the slackening of your devices (or the perception of it):

don't install apps (especially apps bloating over time because of feature updates)
don't use faster and newer devices of the same kind (or better: the older your own devices get, ask friends or colleagues to lend to you their much older and slower devices more frequently and use them and you will happily return to your own "faster" device)
get old faster than your devices (or reduce the perception of speediness or responsiveness artificially)
take Zen lessons


OWC SSD speeds in mid-2012 MacBook Pro much lower than rated speeds

Check to see what your Serial-ATA link speed is. You can find this in system profiler.

It will be something similar to this.

If your speed isn't 6 Gigabit but is 3 Gigabit then that would be why you aren't getting the speeds you'd expect.


The best way is you should ask Apple to fix this.

If you wanna DIY (WARNING: at your own risk), with a tool named Blank Board Serializer (ver 1.1 part number 063-7137, please google it if you want), you can set your serial number onto your Apple computer board. There are some step by step video that should be found easily on YouTube.

Steps:

Burn the BBS disk image to a CD/USB.
Boot the compute and press the option key (i.e. the Boot Picker).
Insert the CD/USB and select it for booting.
Once the Blank Board Serializer has started, follow on-screen instructions.


Why Does a Shell Script Trapping SIGTERM Work When Run Manually, But Not When Run via launchd?

The ultimate problem here is that Bash does not normally kill its non-builtin children.

If bash is waiting for a command to complete and receives a signal for which a
trap has been set, the trap will not be executed until the command completes.
When bash is waiting for an asynchronous command  via  the  wait  builtin, the
reception of a signal for which a trap has been set will cause the wait builtin
to return immediately with an exit status greater than 128, immediately after
which  the trap is executed.

When you hit <CTRL>+<C> you're killing the shell script, which behaves normally -- but the sleep lives on. Use ps to see.

When try to stop things externally, via kill, then Bash as above. After some time-out period (I'm guessing 20 seconds) launchd then issues a kill -9 which the script cannot trap.

The solution is to issue a wait after the sleep, to indicate to Bash that it can interrupt itself:

sleep 86400 & wait

This will allow the script to be interrupted, but the sleep will still survive. I'm sure there's a way to kill the children, but I didn't bother looking it up...