mac: /usr/sbin/diskutil verifyPermissions / hangs in single-user mode

Sounds like your filesystem took a serious beating (if you have to run fsck multiple times, it probably discarded a bunch of stuff in the process). Permission repair (diskutil repairPermissions disk<X>s<Y>) relies on the package receipts kept in /var/db/receipts and will not work successfully if these are damaged or missing (although it shouldn't hang, but who knows what else got blown up).

Assuming you don't have a recent backup of the system (if you do, restore from that), the next step would be to boot from the OS X DVD, launch Disk Utility from there and try it's permission repair. If that doesn't work either, exit Disk Utility and select Archive & Install, which basically moves all system files into /Previous System, reinstalls OS X and leaves the user files intact (or at least as intact as they are now). If you lack the disk space for that, you can also Install (without archiving the old system files). In either case you'll want to check the Preserve existing Users & Network Settings option.


Mavericks is slow with 2GB of RAM using Xcode 5, should I upgrade to 4GB or 8GB?

8Gb would be best if you can afford it. I've always used crucial.com for RAM and had no problems.

An SSD drive would also really speed up system performance.


Text is deleted when trying to place the cursor (magnifying glass)

I have never observed such behaviour.

It is a bug.

Selecting text is not supposed to delete text.


How can I use iCloud's 5 GB space with a 64 GB iPod?

A fairly good article to check out in this case is iCloud: Backup and restore overview

You receive 5 GB per iCloud account, but you can have separate iCloud and iTunes Store accounts setup, thereby sharing music and apps, while keeping the backups apart.

From the article:
What is backed up:

You get unlimited free storage for:

Purchased music, TV shows, apps, and books

You get 5GB of free iCloud storage for:

Photos and videos in the Camera Roll
Device settings (for example: Phone Favorites, Wallpaper, and Mail, Contacts, Calendar accounts)
App data
Home screen and app organization
Messages (iMessage, SMS, and MMS)
Ringtones


Import Google Voice Contacts Into iPhone

Go to the Contacts tab of the GV sidebar.
Click the Export link at the top right.
Select which you want to export.
Use the Outlook CSV format if you've got a PC and the vCard format if you've got a Mac.
Import it to Outlook or Address book (depending on your system) and set iTunes to sync contacts to the iPhone from that program.


Can iBeacons work directly with remote servers?

An iBeacon can't communicate directly with a remote server. iBeacons are low-energy bluetooth devices that only performs a broadcast of it's UUID (unique user identifier), a major and minor numbers.

On your iOS app using CoreLocation framework you can intercept this broadcasted signal and use it as you please. An example of this is GeoHopper app that has easy integration with web hooks of your choice. You will also be able to get the proximity of the iBeacon device within your app, the proximity is given in four values: Unknown, Far, Near and Immediate.

The video What is new in Core Location (Apple developer account required) has a good introduction to the iBeacon technology.


Typing on my iPhone: how to change input method when typing from an external Bluetooth keyboard

The standard way to switch layouts in iOS is always Control plus Space (not Alt/Opt). It should work on arbitrary keyboards with these two keys.

There’s no way to change this shortcut in iOS as far as I know.


iPod nano 7th generation does not pair with any Bluetooth device

My scenario and fix:

Ipod Nano 7th gen paired previously with Jaybird X3 bluetooth headphones.
At some point the X3s stopped connecting with the Ipod (connection failed message from Ipod Nano)

I chose to "Forget this device" in Nano interface in the hopes that would reset the connection after X3s were discovered again. No luck. In fact the X3s were not discoverable at all! Other devices were appearing in the Ipod Nanos BT discover screen..and X3s worked with another device via bluetooth.

I reset the Ipod using menu select button and sleep/wake button for 6 secs.
No luck.

Restored Ipod using the iTunes software from Apple. No change, X3s not found.
And erased all data..

Watched this YouTube on how to enter diagnostic mode on Ipod:

Followed the instructions. Narrator said to press all buttons simultaneously for 3 iterations...I think this is wrong and diagnostic mode will engage after apple logo appears on first try..

Once the Ipod was in Diagnostic mode I went through all menu items. I am not 100% sure how the system was repaired but I would definitely navigate to the BT test (bluetooth self-test) and run that.. there was also a DRAm self test but I doubt that test would result in any connectivity change.

After rebooting the Ipod the X3 headphones immediately responded to pairing..

I hope this helps :)


Xcode not letting me open a specific project

Open terminal and type

sudo chmod -R 777 /path/to/project_folder

NOTE: the capital R in the command above. Obviously change the path to your project folder to what it actually is.

If that command works without error,  but you still cannot open the project, then it isn't in fact a permissions problem but another bug in XCode.

You're not the first person to report this error however. Hopefully the above sorts it out for you.  Let me know.


Transfer data from nonfunctional Mac to another Mac with an external drive

Going on the assumption that your MacBook Air won't "start" means it won't turn on I will assume you can't boot into Target Disk Mode.  So, to rephrase your question, Can you remove the drive from the dead MacBook and connect it to the functioning Mac to transfer the data?

The answer is yes.  You will need to basically do two things:

Remove the SSD
Install it into a USB enclosure

(You didn't specify which MacBook Air you have and it is very important as the drives are very different).

Removing the SSD
The procedure for removing the SSD for all MBAs is essentially the same - you remove the back cover, remove the retaining screws of the SSD and disconnect the SSD module.

Ifixt.com has excellent instructions and this procedure is rated as "moderate" (no idea why, it's super easy) and only 5-10 mins to complete.

Install in USB Enclosure

Next, you install it into the USB enclosure - just plug it in - it only goes in one way.  Reassemble the enclosure and plug in the USB cable and plug it into your Mac.

For the 2015 MBA (per your comments), you will need this enclosure.  The 2010, 2012 and 2013-15 MBA's all use completely different interfaces.  Make sure you select the one that is for your generation MBA.

You can then mount the drive and transfer your data.


I had this problem several months ago and was able to solve it by disabling the built-in iTunes equalizer.  Just uncheck the "On" box.

Not guaranteed to work for you since there are so many factors that could be affecting it, but it worked for me.  Hope it helps!

EDIT:  A couple more notes...  I have a pre-N Airport Express (circa 2008) wirelessly "attached" to a Time Capsule base station (essentially an Airport Extreme with a HDD built-in).  Before, when I was having this problem, I had my Express extending my wireless network.  During the course of correcting this problem, I changed it to simply join my network and NOT extend it.  I'm not sure if this contributed to the solution, but I just wanted to mention it in case it turns out to be significant.


Exchange Time Capsule hard drive with PS4 Hard Drive

It may be possible to put the PS4 drive in the Time Capsule but not vice versa, and not really recommended.

According to this support document from Sony, the PS4 uses a 2.5" hard drive.

According to iFixit guides such as this one for the pizza box model and this one for the newer vertical model the Apple Time Capsule uses 3.5" drives.

So, with an adapter, the Time Capsule drive could work in the PS4, but the PS4 drive won't fit in the Time Capsule.


Go to Finder and select your Time Capsule in the Shared list in the sidebar. Browse to the sparse bundle that contains your backups and mount it, then give it a few seconds and open Time Machine.


How to make a KVR1333D3S9 work with a MacBook Pro 7.1?

There really isn't any trick for running RAM that your Mac doesn't like. It appears that Mac OS X is more forgiving of RAM problems in Safe Mode (which makes sense, when you think about it).

But it sounds as though one or both of the Kingston memory modules is bad. I suggest that you install one of the modules, then boot normally and run Memtest, then swap that module for the other one, and run Memtest again.

You can get Memtest for free at this link:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=788590

If one module is bad, then exchange it. If both modules test OK, then you are still best off returning them to where you bought them for an exchange.


Do these messages in the LDAP log on OSX Mavericks Server mean anything?

I found an entry in a thread on OpenLDAP.org's lists in which the commenter says that this is normal for BDB.

This is a normal occurrence in BerkeleyDB and does not indicate an
actual  error. The bdb/hdb backend code automatically retries when a
BDB deadlock is  reported.
Howard Chu, Chief Architect, OpenLDAP

(Source: https://www.openldap.org/lists/openldap-bugs/201409/msg00057.html)
I have been chasing the same error for the better part of a week, and a lot of people report this error for many different versions of macOS/MacOS and Linux, so it seems... normal, maybe?
Hope that helps.
/Bill


Automator/AppleScript: move folders to a location based on their name

I opened Terminal, which by default opens to ones home directory, and ran the following command:

mkdir -p  ./Documents/Archive/A/45 ./Documents/Archive/J/29 A761245 J647929

This created two new directories, A761245 and J647929, in the root of my home directory and the hierarchal directory structure within my Documents directory to receive them when moved.

I then use the following compound command to move any directory whose name started with an upper case alpha character followed by six numeric characters:

for d in *; do [[ -d $d ]] || continue; if [[ $d =~ ^([A-Z])([0-9]{4})([0-9]{2})$ ]]; then mv -n -v "$d" "./Documents/Archive/${BASH_REMATCH[1]}/${BASH_REMATCH[3]}/"; fi; done

The result of this compound command was:

A761245 -> ./Documents/Archive/A/45/A761245
J647929 -> ./Documents/Archive/J/29/J647929
$

This compound command could be used in a bash script, e.g.:

#!/bin/bash

for d in *; do
    [[ -d $d ]] || continue
    if [[ $d =~ ^([A-Z])([0-9]{4})([0-9]{2})$ ]]; then
        mv -n -v "$d" "./Documents/Archive/${BASH_REMATCH[1]}/${BASH_REMATCH[3]}/"
    fi
done

This basically works by testing the name of any directory passed to conform to an upper case alpha character followed by six numeric characters  using capture groups and BASH_REMATCH to build the appropriate destination pathname for the mv command.

I know you said the destination directories already exist and the example bash code above takes that for granted without any additional error handling.  With that said though, you could add a line of code that would create the necessary hierarchal directory structure first, as in the example below:

#!/bin/bash

for d in *; do
    [[ -d $d ]] || continue
    if [[ $d =~ ^([A-Z])([0-9]{4})([0-9]{2})$ ]]; then
        mkdir -p "./Documents/Archive/${BASH_REMATCH[1]}/${BASH_REMATCH[3]}"
        mv -n -v "$d" "./Documents/Archive/${BASH_REMATCH[1]}/${BASH_REMATCH[3]}/"
    fi
done

The one-liner compound command would be:

for d in *; do [[ -d $d ]] || continue; if [[ $d =~ ^([A-Z])([0-9]{4})([0-9]{2})$ ]]; then mkdir -p "./Documents/Archive/${BASH_REMATCH[1]}/${BASH_REMATCH[3]}"; mv -n -v "$d" "./Documents/Archive/${BASH_REMATCH[1]}/${BASH_REMATCH[3]}/"; fi; done

I'd use this version of the compound command and or bash script.

Note: Using the -p option with the mkdir command will create the hierarchal directory structure as needed without erring out if it already exists. This would be that way I'd go just to make sure you do not try moving a source directory to a nonexistent destination directory.


Spotlight sometimes can't find a file. (that actually exists)

Spotlight generally only searches at the beginning of words. It can find barebones because it is right after a period, or textwrangler for the same reason, but not wrangler. (It also understands underscores, hyphens, and CamelCase as marking the beginning of words.)

To work around this, instead of doing a straight up spotlight search do a search in Finder (with cmd+F or cmd+option+space). Leave the search box blank, and click the plus button next to where it says "Save." Then make your query "Name" - "contains" -"wrangler" and you are good.

You also need to be careful because I think the file you are searching for is considered a system file. If you are searching within the Preferences folder you will get the right result, but if you are just searching within the home folder or on the entire hard drive, the system file won't show up, unless you push the plus button again and add to your search query "System files" - "are included." Since "System files" isn't in the dropdown box by default, you will probably need to click "Other..." and then find it. You will have the option of adding it permanently to the dropdown box.

Edit: Added image for clarity


TL;DR

The method for increasing max. processes per user described in the tutorial the OP referenced is both dangerous and ineffective. Do not do it that way. If you need more user processes, enable Server Performance Mode as described here.
"What is this number, why exactly 1064?" See Why is macOS limited to 1064 or 2088 processes?
"Why am I limited in user processes anyway?" Because the system can only run a limited number of processes at once, the system limits users to a lower number of processes so that the system itself remains able to run processes, for example one to display a warning that you have run out of of processes.

Details
The articles the OP linked to are DANGEROUS because they install configurations that allow a single user to crash the computer by filling up the process table, meaning they can create as many processes as the system will allow (well, probably minus 2 or so reserved for root, which was a kind of protection against this in the old days when 2 processes were enough for a system administrator to get in and fix problems). They also install those configurations in a way for which there is no automatic or easy rollback once you forget that you set them or how you set them, and they may interfere with future default increases when you upgrade to a new OS version. More importantly, they do not really achieve what they claim to achieve with regard to increasing the number of processes a user can run.
The default hard limit for kern.maxproc (the maximum total number of processes that can run at one time systemwide) under OS X is 1064. The limit was 566 until OS X Lion, at which point it was increased to 1064 for computers with 3 GiB or more of memory. The limit was increased again in High Sierra for computers with 12 GiB or more memory (exact formula is detailed in the description of serverperfmode here.) and increased again in Catalina (and my guess is it will be increased again in Big Sur). (See Why is macOS limited to 1064 or 2088 processes? for more details about where the specific numbers like 1064 came from.) Although you can change the number while the system is running, it does not take immediate effect; you have to set it during the boot process to take effect and at that point the kernel will not go above 1064 (or whatever limit you are already seeing).
You can set kern.maxprocperuid (the maximum number of processes a single user can have running at one time) to a higher number, even higher than kern.maxproc, but having it too high risks having an out-of-control process crash the entire machine by filling up the process table. That is why the default maxprocperuid is 709 which is 2/3 of 1064: to ensure a single user cannot take up all the processes.
Server Performance Mode
Before High Sierra, the only way to increase kern.maxproc above 1064 is to have at least 16 GiB of memory installed and the to turn on "Server Performance Mode", which reconfigures the kernel to operate like a server rather than an interactive workstation. Starting with High Sierra you can increase kern.maxproc by adding more memory, but still, short of adding memory, the only way to increase it is by turning on "Server Performance Mode". In that mode, kern.maxproc is set to floor(system_memory/8 GiB) * 2500. You also get much higher limits on many other parameters, like max open files and max network connections. You get these higher limits automatically, without having to create or modify files like the linked articles tell you to.
If sysctl kern.maxproc returns kern.maxproc: 1064 (or any multiple of 532 or 1044) then you know you do not have server performance mode turned on. To turn it on, execute this command line in the terminal:
sudo nvram boot-args="serverperfmode=1 $(nvram boot-args 2>/dev/null | cut -f 2-)"

and reboot. That setting will persist and your computer will remain in server mode until you clear NVRAM completely or turn Server Performance Mode off by executing
sudo nvram boot-args="$(nvram boot-args 2>/dev/null | sed -e $'s/boot-args\t//;s/serverperfmode=1//')"

Turning on Server Performance Mode is safer and easier than trying to change individual kernel parameters by editing configuration files, and it has the added advantage of working where those other things will not. And unlike editing configuration files, is also automatically rolled back when you clear NVRAM, which is a standard part of restoring a misconfigured computer to a standard and sane configuration.
You can read more about this Fix “fork: resource temporarily unavailable” on OS X.


Since two commands are missing something “stomped” your path.
Before doing anything big, kicking off a backup might be prudent.
The default path on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) is something like this:
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin

If you reset the path by typing the above into a shell window, and then typing export PATH it should manually let you test s local fix that window only.
This breakage is almost always something you need to fix in your dot files. For bash, edit and fix .bash_profile and/or .bashrc by undoing a recent change it just setting the $PATH you need again. The usual error is assigning a new path and not referring to the previous value of the variable on the right hand side of the =


Blue Microphones' Yeti and Yeti Pro stereo USB microphones can be used in any recording app on the iPad via the Camera Connection Kit.

The manufacturer confirms that this is possible, and has detailed directions for setting it up (including a video) on this page.

Note that you will need a powered USB hub.


In GarageBand iOS, does the "Optimizing Performance" operation induce an irreversible degradation of recorded signals?

Apple is pretty mum on what "Optimizing performance" means, so we only have speculation to go by, but I have noticed a few things and have an idea for you. I have noticed that turning off all reverb and delay effects causes it to happen much less frequently. This would indicate it's some sort of preprocessing or pre-generation to save CPU cycles on playback. The fact that I currently have a 40-minute piece in iOS GarageBand that is taking up 6GB on disk, even though the piece is almost entirely midi tracks and contains no live instrument or vocal tracks, would corroborate that it is storing audio tracks. This is also corroborated by the fact that if I change the tempo, it reliably immediately does an "Optimizing Performance" the very next time I try to play it.

Remember, GarageBand is much more processor-intensive than ordinary audio, because instead of just a left and right channel, it has individual left-and-right channels for every track, which must individually be panned, processed with reverb/delay, etc. So it's entirely possible that it's generating much lower-bandwidth lossy-compression versions of your audio for playback within Mobile GarageBand just to reduce processor load while multiple tracks are playing.

However, based solely on long experience, I would conjecture that it does not reduce the quality of your original audio, but rather, generates a second "optimized" file for use just within the program during playback. I bet if you were to export the entire project to an audio file, your original guitar sound wound be there in sparkling full fidelity.

If you wanted to test this out and report the results back here, I bet you'd be doing a service to the community and the odd Googler who finds this while hunting down the same question.

Obviously, if I'm right about that, it would mean iOS GarageBand is not an ideal app to do final mixes on, since you can't actually hear what it will really sound like until you export the results. Hmmm... An Apple app that includes a fundamental shortcoming which makes it a less-than-ideal tool for a serious user who wants it to do what they're advertising it for... Could that even be possible? Hmmmm.


How do I password-protect access to specific apps in iOS?

The only way to passcode protect individual applications, including built in system ones is to jailbreak the phone and install a jailbreak tweak like Locktopus or Lockdown Pro. Both of these tweaks let you set a text passcode as well as a numerical one. The reason an AppStore application cannot provide this functionality is because AppStore apps are Sandboxed. This means they are limited in how they can interact with other applications, and the iPhone itself.
Alternatively, replace the application you are currently using with an AppStore alternative that has a passcode lock built into the application. This wont protect the data in the original app, but if you want to secure data behind a passcode you could move the data into the passcode protected application and delete it from the original application. This obviously wont work for contacts, but could work for photos and notes.
See the iOS application "MyPics" for an example of a photo app where you can set a passcode to protect access. Another example is the My Secret Folder application which lets you import data into it and set a passcode to prevent people from accessing that data within the app.


Clone hard disk of old macbook to new macbook?

Yes.

You will need a thunderbolt cable, boot the new computer in target disk mode, and use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to do the job.

Copying via the recovery partition is also possible, but fiddlier.


Move of time machine backup: unable to "restore"

Problem understood. The disks were actually locked by the failed copy of the backup folder I tried to do between the two disks shortly before.

If it happens to you, just make sure the disks are not locked. In the worse case, reboot.


What is the difference between Export as PDF and Export > Format: PDF (Preview)

Firstly, PDFs can always be edited, and if you used a decent vector artwork editor (of which Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer, Inkscape, and Picta Inc.'s Graphic are examples, and Preview is not), you would be able to move the line from either export method. There is no 'security' to be had.
There are certainly differences between the two types of PDF Export. File > Export As PDF will place your image onto the default paper size. This is most noticeable if you have an image that's not A4 or US Letter. File > Export > Format: PDF will keep the dimensions of the image.
The former type of Export keeps the line data as an annotation, whereas the latter type of export flattens the data as just a 'line' within the PDF.
As to why Preview has such as clumsy interface: only an Apple insider can tell you that. There are many mysteries about why Preview is such a terrible showcase for the brilliant Quartz graphics APIs that lie beneath, and we may never know.


MBP boots into recovery mode/Installation log showing error logs after restarting

When you're on the crash screen showing the log, click "Utilities" at the top, then "Startup Disk", and boot from your main OS disk.

YMMV, but this fixed it for me.


How can I type the "@" symbol via remote desktop with a Swedish keyboard?

Does  ⌘ + alt + 2 work? This is a combination for @ in bootcamp.

For the other keys:

⌘ + alt + 7  to get {
⌘ + alt + 0  to get }
⌘ + alt + 8  to get [
⌘ + alt + 9  to get ]


What other apps have secret debug menus?

Reminders

defaults write com.apple.reminders RemindersDebugMenu -bool true

Disk Utility

defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled -bool true

App Store

defaults write com.apple.appstore ShowDebugMenu -bool true

Safari (not to be confused with Develop menu which can be enabled in Preferences)

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeInternalDebugMenu 1

iCal

defaults write com.apple.iCal IncludeDebugMenu -bool true

Contacts

defaults write com.apple.Contacts ABShowDebugMenu -bool YES


How can I add autocorrect shortcuts programmatically?

You can copy the settings to another Mac by copying ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist.

Note that preferences are cached on 10.9, so if you replace a plist or edit it directly, quitting and reopening applications won't apply the changes. You can apply the changes by running defaults read -g, by running killall cfprefsd, or by logging out and back in. Changes made with defaults are still applied if you just quit and reopen an application.

Print the current settings:

defaults read -g NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems

Add one setting:

defaults write -g NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems -array-add '{on=1;replace=cmd;with="⌘";}'

Replace all settings:

defaults write -g NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems '(
{on=1;replace=cmd;with="⌘";},
{on=1;replace=opt;with="⌥";}
)'

Print the current settings as XML:

defaults read -g NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems | plutil -convert xml1 - -o -

Replace all settings:

amp() { local x=${1//&/&amp; }; x=${x//</&lt; }; printf %s "${x//>/&gt; }"; }
out='<array>'
while IFS= read -r l; do
  out+="<dict><key>on</key><integer>1</integer><key>replace</key><string>$(amp "${l%% *}")</string><key>with</key><string>$(amp "${l#* }")</string></dict>"
done <<< 'cmd ⌘
opt ⌥'
defaults write -g NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems "$out</array>"

Replace NSUserDictionaryReplacementItems with NSUserReplacementItems in 10.8 and earlier.


I use and suggest uBlock for Safari.

UPDATE 2:  Even better perhaps is a Safari port, by el1t, of uBlock Origin. It is based on the latest version and @Scott says it works well. Available for download here on github.

(I wondered why https://safari-extensions.apple.com/?q=ublock turns up 0 results.  Still does, oddly. https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues/1596 explains why for a while there was no uBlock Origin for Safari.)

UPDATE: Another option is to try Opera.  It now comes with a built-in ad-blocker which, it's said, allows it to work much faster.  Safari has also received some enhancements that allow it to do a limited amount of ad-blocking very quickly.

Evidence the uBlock extensions speed things up


Constantly ejecting OS X install disc when trying to boot

Restart the computer, then press and hold the ⌥ key just after you hear the startup chime. Even if the install disc is ejected, and you are only shown the hard drive as your unique boot option, at this moment you can again insert the disc, and wait for the computer to read it. If everything goes fine, you will now see the option to boot from the CD.


Sierra - Apache localhost user level and phpMyAdmin

The "Forbidden" (error 403) error message is something that's generated by the Apache web server

What you need to check in  your httpd.conf (or related files) that:

Your global Directory has Options -Indexes (this prevents the server from showing an index of the directory and file structure in the absence of an index.htm or index.html file.  Having this option set and no index.htm file will cause this 403 message to be generated.
You have the line DirectoryIndex index.html index.php specified.  This will ensure it automatically opens either file name upon entering the directory.  You also want to make sure you have an index.html or an index.php file in the directory.

If you want to test out your PHP installation, there's a small piece of code you can put into an index.php file (you can name it anything you want, but it must end with .php).

<?php
   phpinfo();
?>

When you point your browser to localhost you should now see (your settings will vary of course):

phpMyAdmin

As for phpMyAdmin, you can put this anywhere.  You can put it in your users directory (not recommended if you have multiple users that need to use it) or your can create a port based virtual host so that it will be available only if someone knows which port it's listening on.  Have a look at the Apache documentation to see examples and explanations.

Also, you might want to have a look at Adminer instead of phpMyAdmin.  I have found it much easier to deploy and much more robust.


Uninstall OS X Server completely in Yosemite

I got this solution by posting the same on apple discussion forum. I wanted to post the answer here because, it might help someone else. Many thanks to the friend who gave me this solution.

Move the Server application to the Trash. Delete the following items (some may not exist), then reboot:

/.ServerBackups
/var/db/.ServerSetupDone
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.serverd.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.servermgr_accounts.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.servermgr_certs.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.servermgr_info.plist
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.servermgrd.plist
/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.apple.serverd
/Library/Server

Here's Apple Discussion forum link


How to set all Google Chrome notifications act like alerts?

Chrome uses its own type of notifications that aren't necessarily system native - my apologies for the extreme vagueness, I don't know how else to put it. This can depend on whether its a website notification that you can get from an update or one related to chrome itself.

What I believe you are trying to do is force chrome to use native notifications throughout. Try this:

In your search bar input this: chrome://flags/#enable-native-notifications. Set this to enable.

Then, under Setting > Notifications set both the Google Chrome apps to Alerts.

I hope this works.


OS X - How to disable the opening file animation?

You can disable all animation in Finder with:

defaults write com.apple.finder DisableAllAnimations -bool true && killall -HUP Finder

I don't recall a preference just for this animation though.


USB-C to Thunderbolt 2 (mini-Display port) to HDMI

Technically speaking what you are doing is this:

    Thunderbolt 3 --> Thunderbolt 2 --> Display Port --> HDMI

USB-C and mini Display Port are interfaces while Thunderbolt, Display Port and HDMI are interfaces and signaling/protocols.

It's important to note this distinction because you cannot go from USB (A, C, or whatever) to Thunderbolt; you go from Thunderbolt to USB (it's not bi-directional).

So, assuming that you are going from TB3 to a TB2 to a mDP to HDMI, it should work because:

TB3 is backward compatible with TB2 and TB1
TB includes the DP signaling
mDP should convert to HDMI.

That said, you may run into issues due to all the conversations.  First off, the mDP to HDMI conversion can cause issues.  It's best to just stick with one protocol like DisplayPort.  Even if you convert from mDP to DP, you are only changing the physical interface, not the protocol or signaling.

Secondly, converting from TB3 to TB2 so you can use mDP HDMI is just adding another link in the chain which becomes another point of failure/trouble.  It's always best to limit the number of connections/conversions to ensure reliability.

Finally, you didn't mention which mDP to HDMI adapter you are using, but you want to make sure you are using an active adapter (see link above for more details).  This will help with reliability of the video connection.

TL;DR

It should work, but you may run into performance/stability issues because of all the conversions.  Your best bet is to to either USB-C to HDMI or USB-C to Display Port (preferred because no conversion is required).


how to store Time Machine backups on NFS and keep metadata?

If you're explicitly looking to make a copy of the existing backups (a backup of the backups), you will need to make a disk image with Disk Utility. Time Machine uses hardlinked directories which are only supported by HFS+, so you need HFS+ in a container.

You'd be much better off running netatalk on the Ubuntu server, which will share the disk over AFP, allowing Time Machine to back up directly to it. Here's one guide: http://pwntr.com/2012/03/03/easy-mac-os-x-lion-10-7-time-machine-backup-using-an-ubuntu-linux-server-11-10-12-04-lts-and-up/


Why did I get a notification on my phone that says "Your Apple ID is now being used for iMessage on a new iPod Touch"?

If your mom got an iPod and knows your Apple ID, that might explain it. Does she know your Apple ID?

This can also happen with existing devices already on your account if it needs to re-sign-in to iMessage.

Go to Settings > iCloud > tap your account name/photo on top and sign in > Devices. That will show you all of your devices. Tap the new iPod and answer your account security questions to see details about it and locate it on a map ("Show in Find My iPhone...") provided that it is powered on and set up for Find My iPhone.

Or you can open the Find iPhone app on your phone if you don't remember your security questions and want to locate it. If you see it's on and in your house, you can make it ring to locate it, but that will get rid of the surprise I guess. Or if it looks like someone else somewhere else is using the device with your Apple ID, you can wipe the device and remove it from your account.


How do I depend on a specific version of a homebrew formula

Homebrew is still improving their support for depending on old versions of a library, with some planned improvements in this issue. In the meantime, you can use the homebrew/versions tap, which has formulae for boost 1.55 and boost 1.59. To depend on these versioned formulae, you could use the following:

depends_on "homebrew/versions/boost155"

or

depends_on "homebrew/versions/boost159"

EDIT:

You mentioned lack of documentation about conflicts. There is a conflicts_with keyword, but that is more about conflicts with being installed side-by-side. There's also a fails_with keyword, but that is related to specific versions of compilers. I think using depends_on with a formula from homebrew/versions will work best for you.


Why does my new Macbook Pro ship with Mavericks instead of Yosemite?

Unless it was a BTO (Built-To-Order), it's likely coming out of a warehouse or shipping container that was packed pre-Yosemite and those boxes aren't opened to update the OS.

Yosemite is a free upgrade, so just upgrade the OS when you first power up the machine and there won't be any difference between your system and one that left the factory with Yosemite.

There should be no "performance lag" due to an upgrade vs. clean install, especially for a fresh-out-of-the-box system but if you're worried, this site has all sorts of questions and answers on how to erase and then install Yosemite.


You are using the correct dns-sd to discover local services. The problem is you need to search for all the potential items.

Screen sharing, AFP file sharing, SMB file sharing, etc...

Worse, if you have Back to My Mac and iCloud connected devices, not all of them are local, but they are still discoverable from the command line:

Is it possible to terminal login remotely (outside local network) to my mac at home via SSH + VPN?
Does Apple Remote Desktop connect to computers over the internet?
Screen Share connects to wrong device

If you wanted to pick apart all the ports / protocols you could use the Network Utility to port scan each device you see in you finder sidebar and look for the common ports that are listening.

Apple’s big list of ports and names is here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202944

I think you’ll get good coverage if you start with remote control, file sharing (VNC/AFP/SMB) though.


How to stream my .wmv movies to Apple TV using VLC with MacOS Lion?

Beamer seems to work, take a look here : http://beamer-app.com/


I can't add an external tester in TestFlight because the Add button is greyed out

You pasted the email address in the "Last Name" field. Simply move the mail to the first textbox with the "Email" label above.


What's an SSD and does it help speed up a Mac?

SSD short for Solid State Drive is a recent evolution in hard drive technology. SSD's have many advantages over a conventional platter-based hard disk:

Improved read and write speeds: A typical SSD is multiple factors of times faster than a magnetic hard disk. This results in a much higher read and write speeds leading to faster overall user experience.
Much lesser chances of failure: There are close to no moving parts in SSD. SSDs is basically just an integrated circuit. This greatly reduces any chance of failure due to movement while in operation (common in traditional hard drive).
Unaffected by magnetic field interferences: SSDs are generally not susceptible to failure (compared to traditional platter-based drives) due to exposure to magnetic fields as there are no magnetic parts present. The core technology doesn't use magnetic state to store data.
Silent operation: SSDs are also dead silent while in operation.
Consume less power: Due to the absence of moving parts, SSDs consume much less power. Helpful when you are using a portable computer on battery power.

Since a hard drive's read/write speed is generally a major bottleneck in the overall performance of a computer system, it is recommended to upgrade to an SSD (if your computer supports it) to improve performance.

Mac minis were conventionally shipped without an SSD, so many recommend to replace the internal drive with a compatible SSD to see improved performance, especially when using data-intensive applications. Faster read-write also speeds up paging performance, thereby improving system responsiveness.

The current generation of Mac mini can be configured with an SSD while placing an order.


Are auto-downloaded malicious .dmg app files a security risk if they are never opened?

If I download a malicious .dmg file, but don't click on it to install it, am I safe?

You are safe. The .dmg (disk image) file is not the actual installer. The .dmg must be double-clicked to install it before it can run any code. Even if you double-click it (so long as you leave the security feature Gatekeeper on), you must approve both the downloaded from the web alert and the authentication prompt to actually permit the install to proceed.

  Is there a possibility that by simply visiting a website that auto-installs a .dmg file, I could have compromised my security?

No, your security is not compromised unless you manually install the file. The reason for this is that a website can only offer a .dmg file for download. There is no "auto-install" for a .dmg app file. You may click on a link (or a button) to start the download, but disk images themselves are not "installed" by the download process—meaning they can't run any code on your Mac until you type in your password to install them (again, because of macOS's built-in security feature Gatekeeper). The disk image is merely saved to your designated folder (typically Downloads) then waits for you to take further action by double-clicking on it to mount it. For any code from that app to be run, you have to authenticate with your password.

Bonus tip: When a website tells you that your flash player is out of date by way of a pop-up like you've shown, that should be an automatic red flag! Outdated Flash Player alerts are almost never legitimate. Instead of clicking on that OK button on the notification like you did, you should force quit your browser: choose Force Quit from the Apple menu in the menubar ()—or just press Command+Option+Esc—then select Chrome/Safari and hit Force Quit. Hold down Shift while opening Safari to prevent the website from reloading.


Placing Day O in exact place of where default calendar is placed in Menu bar

Holding down the ⌘ command key you can drag items on your menu bar in order to reposition them.


Filesystem permissions for /var/mobile/Media/DCIM/.MSIC/Incoming

The permissions on directories in /var/mobile are drwxr-xr-x (755).


macOS Mojave (Developer Beta) - Safari User Agent change not persistent

If things stop working (or don't work as expected) after an upgrade to a beta version of Mojave the most likely cause is a bug in macOS (that's why it's called Beta after all). Best course of action is to report it to Apple using the usual feedback channels for beta releases, ideally in a way which makes it easy for Apple to reproduce the issue.


Special Characters window no longer resizable in OS X Lion

You can resize the window, but it's different than most windows in Lion.

If you click and drag a corner or an edge, the window will resize. Yes, it doesn't look like you can use the corners, but they do work.
This appears to work with every corner except the top left, which is blocked by the close button. Edit: Actually, if you aim just right (to the top left of the close button) you can use that corner too.

To summarize: Things still work, but the active areas are tiny. You just have to be careful.

This behavior is strange, and seems buggy to me. I expect than a future update will fix this and allow you to resize by all the corners and edges.


Update: Apparently the problem was with certain updates at Apple. A later update resolved this issue.


What properties must an iPhone case have to avoid antenna issues?

A piece of non-conductive scotch tape is all that is required to prevent your skin from bridging the gap in the metal band and changing the impedance of the antennas.

As long as your skin doesn't short the external metal band, you are good to go, so even extremely thin gloves that are dry would work without any case whatsoever.

For more reading, see:

PC World: Apple Responds to iPhone 4 Antenna Problem
Apple PR: Letter from Apple Regarding iPhone 4
Apple Support: iPhone 4: Antenna or reception issues
Antenna Engineer Blog: Apple iPhone 4 Antennas...


Why can't you create/open multiple instances of iTunes?

iTunes uses a database file to maintain a track of all the meta data on the contents of the iTunes library.  Opening multiple instances of iTunes would potentially result in the 2nd instance being unable to gain the correct access to these files as they would be locked by the first instance.

OK, you can have multiple iTunes libraries (hold Option when starting to choose or create a new one), but this is a relatively edge case scenario, and even for users of this functionality, I cannot see many instances where it would be useful to have more than one open simultaneously.  Playing 2 files at once would sound awful, and if you want to copy from one to another, you can still gain access to the files directly through the finder.


MacBook Pro USB-C adapter and regular USB devices compatibility

It looks like this particular product (uniHub-C) has its own idea about compliance to USB specifications. The designers seem to cut off the USB 2.0 part of the VIA hub design. First sign is that their marketing blurb doesn't mention support for legacy (HS, FS, LS) devices, which is strange - in marketing, more is merrier. Second, the web page shows some goofy "USB Super-fast" logo, which in no way corresponds to the official USB-IF certification logo,

I suspect you fall for a wrong device.


Folder of 24 gigs has only 12 gigs nested. How to account for mysterious bloat?

tl;dr

Use du tool to see the truth.
Or, maybe wait a couple of hours.

Details

While shooting a screenshot of the Finder > Get Info showing 24 gigs and the results of the du command-line tool showing only 11 gigs, the Get Info panel changed with an automatic update. This was after a reboot and after 1-2 hours of repeatedly showing 24 gigs.

So the Finder must be caching information about the folders long after deleting gigs of data in a large numbers of files.

As suggested by tubedogg, use the du command-line tool to see accurate readings of your folder sizes.


Outlook "select an identity", how to get this window?

Yes, you can do this.

If you have Outlook open, quit out of it.
Launch the Activity Monitor.
In Activity Monitor, locate "Microsoft Database Daemon" and quit it.
Quit the Activity Monitor.
Open the Finder.
In the Finder, hold the Option key and select Go –> Library. This will open the hidden Library folder in your home folder.
In the Library folder, navigate to Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Preferences/Office 2011.
In that folder, find the file named "Outlook Preferences" and drag it to the trash.
Launch Outlook. It will now display the dialog box that allows you to choose your identity.
If you want this dialog box every time you open Outlook, make sure that "Show this list when opening Outlook" at the bottom of the window is selected.


Media keys behaviour with iTunes in macOS Mojave

I went through almost exactly what you went through. I fully reinstall Mojave with no luck, so just downloaded the Media Key Forwarder (note: it's no longer called Media Key Enabler). I recommend it until Apple fixes their 'unified play'/'Now playing' mess.

Update

Boot into safe mode (hold shift as you press the power button, or click here for instructions). Start iTunes and the play buttons should work, then reboot normally and enjoy life.


Caldigit TS3 Plus, Ethernet slot always showing cable unplugged, my OS Catalina

I had a similar problem. I'm not sure the cause for the issue, but I agree that it seems to be related to the Catalina update. I can provide what worked for me, but I can't really explain why it worked -- I honestly can't even be sure that this was the cause for things to start working again. Given this, if I should move what I wrote to be a comment under the OP's question, then please let me know, or feel free to go ahead and do so.
I managed to get things working again by removing the Thunderbolt bridge and Thunderbolt ethernet slot(s) from the Network settings. I then installed the support driver (found here: https://archive.caldigit.com/KB/index.asp?KBID=179&viewlocale=1 ) It says that it's the Ethernet driver, but the part that I needed was the Support driver; in fact, the Ethernet driver install failed several times for reasons that are unclear to me. Once I got the USB Hub Support file installed, and I rebooted, the network preferences gave the option of a Thunderbolt Ethernet Slot, which I installed and it seems to work.
I recall that there was a Thunderbolt bridge before, but it doesn't seem to be needed now, so I wonder if something that was added/changed with the last OS update is the culprit. I will have to leave this those with more expertise than I have.
Good luck


Unlocking is trivial with carrier support.

Here is Apple's article on how to proceed technically once your carrier has unlocked the device:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5014

We have a nice thread on this Sprint to T-Mobile shift here:

Getting an unlocked iPhone 4/4S to work on T-Mobile


install Lion on Imac with macbook-pro HDD copy

Method #1

Do you have a Snow Leopard DVD? Install it on the iMac, make the Software Update, Download Lion from the App Store, Install it. Then boot the MacBook in Target Disk Mode and use Migration Assistant to import your Data to the iMac.

Method #2 (if iMac is capable of Mountain Lion => if not, use MLPostFactor)

Download Mountain Lion on the MacBook via App Store, boot the iMac in Target Disk Mode and install it this way from the MacBook. After Install worked, use Migration Assistant.


How can you send calendar invites on iPhone 5 without using iCloud?

If you invite someone from the Gmail calendar, it should send invites to persons via Google's Service.


`dtrace_deadman_timeout` modification for dtrace scripts such as dtruss?

I've had the same issue. I don't know if it's encouraged, but you can use the "-w" flag to "allow destructive actions." This seems to have fixed the issue for me. However I have no idea what the consequences are. I'm running a very simple script though, so I'm reasonably confident that I'm not doing anything that is very "destructive."

This was hard to find, it was a pdf of slides of a presentation given on dtrace and I get the feeling that MacOS only begrudgingly allows basic DTrace support these days. This is too bad because DTrace is an incredibly powerful tool.

For the sake of any poor soul who wanders here with similar issues, the official DTrace book is really helpful and while it doesn't have all the answers, it has probably most of them.


Replacing Macbook Pro SSD with Macbook Air SSD

I agree with Matthew.
MBA early 2015 connector PCLE 8GT/s
MBP mid 2014 connector PCLE 5GT/s.
I suppose it can be done, but I would not do it at all.
You have to reinstall everything including the EFi and RecoveryPartitions, otherwise it will not work at all.


Headphone volume settings change after pressing play

I share this problem--but my sense is that the headphone volume reverts to the last volume the headphones were on.  I have the volume loud in the car, but when I run I want it much lower--I have to either lower the volume before leaving the car or lower it before listening with phones.  Otherwise blasting ensues.  Wish there were another way.


First enter - to get an overview and the appropriate array_idUUID:

sudo serveradmin settings dhcp

Then (with the proper array_idUUID)

sudo serveradmin settings dhcp:subnets:_array_id:array_idUUID:lease_max = 28800

Example:

sudo serveradmin settings dhcp:subnets:_array_id:A387646D-BBC1-88CD-993E-2D36E15C5089:lease_max = 28800

Then restart the DHCP service:

sudo serveradmin stop dhcp
sudo serveradmin start dhcp

Check the new settings with sudo serveradmin settings dhcp


View PDF on iPad from Windows 7 over WiFi

Run a web-server on it.
Look here and choose one you would like or even here for smaller ones

Then put PDF in web server directory or designate current one in webserver configuration.

After that you'll be able to use just Safari to read that PDFs


The kind folks behind http://iossupportmatrix.com have done the work to catalog all model identifiers (and also list the minimum and maximum versions of iOS for each model).

In your case, the iPhone 4 needs iPhone3,1_xxxx.ipsw

If you use a restore image, it wipes the device and loads that version of iOS. At that point, you could restore from an older or equivalent level OS backup or set things up newly by syncing content.


WinOnX is a repackaging of the Wine framework. Wine does not emulate Windows (strictly speaking), it just provides adapter libraries to allow Windows programs to run. According to this page, Just Cause 2's compatibility with Wine is rated "garbage" and it doesn't run. There is also a link to this page that shows the progress of re-creating the DirectX DLLs for Wine. As of early June 2012, they seem to be about 37% complete with DirectX versions 8-10, and there's no indication of work on DirectX 11 yet.

tl;dr: It won't work. You need to virtualize a real copy of Windows using VMware or Parallels or run Windows in Boot Camp to play a DirectX game like that on your Mac.


Where is the swipe-right iOS 9 Spotlight screen on my iPod Touch?

That screen is not supported on any iDevice powered by the A5 SoC (so it's not on the iPad 2, iPhone 4S, or iPod Touch (5th-Generation)). Apple's older product support is great, I'd like to see someone even using an Android phone from 2011, let alone see that phone running the latest version of Android. Given that, this is likely not an example of planned obsolescence, but a result of the fact that the newer hardware found in the 6th-Gen iPod Touch is much more powerful than that found in the 5th-Gen, not just graphics processing, but more RAM (1 GB vs 512 MB), a faster CPU, and better power efficiency.


iCloud backup from new iphone is lost when restoring old backup

Apple has no merge feature in any iOS backup. The restore operation implies a blank slate, tabula rasa, wiped device for iOS and TVOS and iPadOS.

The solution is to store data in a cloud synced manner or otherwise import data but backup is purely for a clean restore.

Worst case you restore a backup and export or sync the data you need so you can wipe and restore and then Merge manually on the more current backup. Then layer on the loud synced data or imported files.


When does Messages in iCloud actually sync?

This happens with the same criteria as iCloud Backup: when the device is plugged in, idle (overnight) and connected to a Wi-Fi network.


Copy file from Debian to Mac OS X or Windows

You can share filesystems across these platforms but this requires some basic network/sharing configuration on all involved systems.

Sharing via Filesystems

On OS X you can enable File Sharing in System Preferences -> Sharing

By default only AFP sharing is enabled which may not be available in a standard Linux setup (and definitively is not available on Windows). To also enable Samba/Windows sharing, click on "Options..." and enable Samba sharing there.

Sharing via Syncing solution

An alternative and rather easy approach would be to install either Dropbox or BitTorrent Sync on all systems and use this to copy data over.

Copying with scp

In case you only want to copy some files you might also be able to use scp to copy files from/to a remote system over a network. Basic syntax is

scp local-file remote-user@remote-host:

and you will be prompted to enter the password of remote-user.


Reading this question reminded me that I had dealt with the same problem with my Mac awhile ago.

I fixed it by writing a shell script which was automatically called via launchd whenever /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ changes.

You'll have to configure a few things, mainly create a list of known SSIDs and passwords for the networks that you join.

You can find it here:
https://github.com/tjluoma/airport-autojoin


Keys are not repeating with Yosemite after 10.10.2

found the answer: type this on terminal

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false


Such information on OS X is instead located in man manpages, which is also available online here:

MANUAL PAGE SECTIONS
The manual is divided into sections. Each section covers a particular subject area. The major manual page sections are:
1      General User Commands
2      System Calls
3      Library Routines (*)
4      Special Files and Sockets
5      File formats and Conventions
6      Games and Fun Stuff
7      Miscellaneous Documentation
8      System Administration
9      Kernel and Programming Style
n      Tcl/Tk

Run man manpages in Terminal or open that link to read more in-depth information.


App to alert if Internet connection is lost

The following script will alert you when your wireless network no longer has a connection. Though you could modify the script to require a check to locate a specific SSID, the following script simply looks for any wireless network connection. The script can be run via a Launch Daemon (login option preferred) or by simply running the script manually when you decide.

  Alert mechanism:

  If you do not have a wireless network connection the script will set
  your volume to be set at its maximum, you will then hear an alert
  beep and the following phrase "your wireless network has been
  disconnected".

NOTE: This script contains an internal loop. The loop is designed to sleep for 2 min intervals so as not to constantly beep and verbalize said phrase. This interval can be modified to your liking by modifying the "SLEEP_TIMER" variable found within the script.

ALSO: If you are interested in setting up a Launch Daemon but do not have a lot of experience with Daemons, I recommend using Lingon (was once free but Lingon 3 is $2.99).

Tested on:

10.5.x
10.6.x
10.7.4

Please remember to utilize a testing environment prior to running on your primary environment. Feel free to modify the script in any way that suits you, enjoy.

#!/bin/bash

# MONITOR_SSID set as true will keep a loop going (Loop timer 1 minute delay)

MONITOR_SSID="true"

SLEEP_TIMER="60"

while ( ${MONITOR_SSID} == true ); do

    SSID=$(networksetup -getairportnetwork en1 | sed "s:.*\: ::g" | tr -s "[\n]" "[ ]" | sed 's/.*off.*/OFF/g')

    if [[ ${SSID} == "OFF" ]]; then
        osascript -e 'set volume 10'
        afplay -v 2 /System/Library/Sounds/Sosumi.aiff
        say "Wireless network has been disconected"
    elif [[ ${SSID} != "OFF" ]]; then
        :
    else
        /usr/bin/logger -i Error has occured while 'your_script_name' was attempting to run
    fi

    sleep ${SLEEP_TIMER}

done


How can I send a mail message later? On Mountain Lion

If you're using Gmail and are willing to use the (I think very awesome) web interface, check out Boomerang for Gmail. It does everything you're asking for.

EDIT:

You can also use Automator to schedule (by delaying) when your message is sent.

The Pause function is very helpful, and Apple has a whole section for Mail in the library. I would save it as an application and then run it with Spotlight or Alfred or Launchbar whenever you need it.


Yes, that is certainly possible with that command.

An alternative could be using the openssl-cms program (can be installed from homebrew or similar).


Organically learning or creating shortcuts and gestures for arbitrary actions

Menu items contain shortcut information

Mightbe a bit obvious, but most of the menu items contain shortcut information. And if no shortcut is visible for a specific menu item, it is most certain that none is available.

When you use a menu item, do not click, but use the shortcut instead.

You can also create you own shortcuts, but that is something different.


Application eating ~840,000,000% of my CPU

The other suggestions are good, I just wanted to ad that percentages higher than 100 are, oddly enough, not counter intuitive.

very simply if you see more than 100% usage (as was explained to me) it is a combination of the number of cores in the processor (usually 2 to 8) and how busy all the cores are compared to some (unknown to me) baseline.

So getting high percentages are not uncommon but in the end a bit confusing as this question illustrates. And honestly what is going on here, specifically, is beyond me as well.


Can I use my F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys only for specific apps?

Try Palua, I think this is exactly what you're looking for. Costs $0.99 / £0.69 in the Mac App Store.

In MacStories: Control OS X Function Keys with Palua


Startup Disk is full but can't do Dropbox

Are you syncing your Photos app using iCloud? Using that in conjunction with the setting "Optimize Mac Storage" should solve your problem (provided you have enough iCloud storage space). When set up this way, Photos stores your entire library on Apple's servers, and only downloads full-resolution photos and videos onto your local hard drive as you view them. If you have a lot of empty space, it'll cache more of them locally, but if you start to run out, it will get purge the high-res versions to make room. The thumbnails remain for browsing.

The big advantage to this over moving things manually onto Dropbox, external drives, etc etc is that your photos and videos stay right there in Photos, and are available on all your Apple devices without any real work on your end. Everything is backed up, and you aren't spending all this time manually shuffling things around. The one (and only, IMO) disadvantage is that you need to pay for whatever level of iCloud storage suits your Photos library size.


iPhone 6 - message saying accessory may not be supported

I have updated my system to ios 11.2.1 and the message has stopped appearing. That seemed to be a fix.


any way to restrict to newsstand only in guided access mode?

It may sound counter intuitive, but each "Magazine" in Newsstand is actually an App, and the Newsstand "App" is actually just a standard folder that's been messed about with a bit at the OS level to make it appear and function a bit differently.

As such, with Guided Access being restricted to single app scenarios, you can't do what you wish, because when you are viewing the Newstand App you are actually just sat in a folder at your home screen - A double slick to bring up the multi-tasking bar shows that the left most screen which is normally associated with the Homescreen page/folder that you last launched an app from is showing Newsstand still.


How to know if Mac OS X machine is being remotely viewed?

If your computer is being remotely accessed, it will show a little viewer icon in the menu bar. (Note, I've been using screen sharing since OS X Leopard, and I've never seen the icon noted by de_an777 in his answer.

Go into System Preferences > Shared. Make sure that Screen Sharing and Remote Management (for Apple's Remote Desktop) are both unchecked.

Also, check under Security & Privacy > Firewall and turn the Firewall on. Note the warning. "The firewall will block all sharing services, such as file sharing, screen sharing, iChat Bonjour, and iTunes music sharing. If you want to allow sharing services, click Advanced and deselect the “Block all incoming connections” checkbox."

This will block any incoming screen sharing connection (as well as other services).
To check to make sure that you can't connect to your computer via screen sharing, you can use nmap, a free command line tool for "network discovery and security auditing."
To use it, just type nmap [YOUR IP ADDRESS]

You'll see that nmap reports that the vnc (screen sharing) port is open. After turning off screen sharing and turning on the firewall:

(Note that I've explicitly allowed ssh, printer, and afp sharing in the Firewall.)
I hope this helps you!


Is it possible to maintain Chrome's ⌘-shortcut for background tab, while using AppleScript to automate the creation of a new tab?

I think this will do what you're asking. I've modified your original code to see what process is frontmost at the time it's run, in order to branch and test appropriately based on the conditions expressed in your question by use of checkModifierKeys*. to see if the ⌘ command key was pressed when Google Chrome is the frontmost process at the time the service is run. *(I have no affiliation with Charles Poynton’s blog or Stefan Klieme’s checkModifierKeys other than to have been using this program for a few years without issue.)

As coded, it assumes that the checkModifierKeys is located in /usr/local/bin/. Modify as needed.

See the comments in the if theFrontmostProcessWhenRun is "Google Chrome" then block for its logic flow.

    on run {input, parameters}

        --  # Get the name of frontmost process at the time the services was run.
        --  #
        --  # This is used later in an if statement block for when if Google Chrome was frontmost process when run
        --  # to check that the value returned from checkModifierKeys was for the command key being pressed.

        tell application "System Events"
            set theFrontmostProcessWhenRun to get name of process 1 where frontmost is true
        end tell

        (*
    When triggering this Service in applications other than Google Chrome, such as TextEdit, the Chrome window opens in the background. This command brings the Chrome window to the foreground:
*)
        activate application "Google Chrome"

        (*
    Converting the selected text to plain text to remove any formatting:
        From: http://lifehacker.com/127683/clear-text-formatting-on-os-x
*)
        set selectedText to input
        set selectedText to (selectedText as text)

        (*
    Removing any line breaks and indentations in the selected text:
        From: http://stackoverflow.com/a/12546965
*)

        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {return & linefeed, return, linefeed, character id 8233, character id 8232}
        set plainTextSelectedText to text items of (selectedText as text)
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {" "}
        set plainTextSelectedText to plainTextSelectedText as text

        (* Assigning variables: *)
        set baseURL to "https://www.google.com/search?q="
        set finalLink to baseURL & plainTextSelectedText

        (* Opening webpage in Chrome: *)
        (*
    The following tell block creates a new tab, located immediately after the currently open tab, which is what I want to occur.
        From: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/271702/applescript-how-to-open-a-link-in-google-chrome-in-a-new-adjacent-tab/271709#271709
*)

        if theFrontmostProcessWhenRun is "Google Chrome" then
            --  # Google Chrome was the frontmost process when the service was run.
            if ((do shell script "/usr/local/bin/checkModifierKeys") as integer) is equal to 256 then
                --  # The command key was pressed when the service was run.
                tell application "Google Chrome"
                    --  # See Note: below.
                    set activeTab to active tab index of front window
                    tell front window to make new tab at after (get active tab) with properties {URL:finalLink} -- open a new tab after the current tab
                    set active tab index of front window to activeTab
                end tell
            else
                tell application "Google Chrome"
                    tell front window to make new tab at after (get active tab) with properties {URL:finalLink} -- open a new tab after the current tab
                end tell
            end if
        else
            --  # Google Chrome was not the frontmost process when the service was run.
            tell application "Google Chrome"
                tell front window to make new tab at after (get active tab) with properties {URL:finalLink} -- open a new tab after the current tab
            end tell
        end if

    end run

Note: When Google Chrome is frontmost at the time the service is run and the ⌘ command key is pressed, this gets the current active tab index and sets it back to it after making the new tab. This is intended as a workaround as it's a bit kludgy, but better then nothing until a more elegant solution to a problem can be found.


El Capitan, can't rsync, tar, cp certain files on Promise raid

I'm not an expert by any means, but when I use rsync I use the flags -vaE --progress. I believe one of those flags (I don't remember which) allows you to copy files which may be corrupt and which the GUI (Finder) copy will get hung up on. So the syntax I use is:

$ sudo rsync -vaE --progress [source path] [destination path]

I'd try using one or more of those flags in the command. Let me know if this helps you at all.


will I have to provide banking information and tax forms upon enabling IAP in addition to signing the Paid Applications agreement?

You have to be set up for billing and taxes in one country to put an app on the store, free, paid or some mix of both.

You don’t have to execute tax documents internationally until you put an app as available in those regions, but you do have to fill out the basic forms to push your first app through the pipeline that ends up on the store.


Can't unmount the disk during Mac OS X install

You cannot unmount the disk you're working on, obviously.
Try to boot from a different media type other then your HD (USB-drive, DVD,...) and then try again.

(Mountain) Lion allows you to create a bootable USB-drive or DVD. If you do so, you'll be able to unmount (and format) your internal Macintosh HD.


Continuity not routing audio properly for calls

FWIW - If I have Settings > General > Accessibility > Call Audio Routing > Set to speaker (nice when using 'Hey Siri' to make a phone call; to have it auto default to speaker phone) My phone and continuity crashes on me.  So I need it set to "Automatic" and it works fine. Took me forever to figure this out.

Not sure if this is applicable to your problem or not but hope it can help you or someone.


Is there any way to hide the iCloud Drive shared files information which follows the file name?

No, I don't believe there is a way to remove this information.


I figured it out by searching it myself (sorry for not thinking of that first). You just go to the disk utility and click 'Repair Disk Permissions'.


Creating keyboard shortcuts for Terminal

No need of 3rd-party apps.

You can go to the Preferences Tab(Menu -> Terminal -> Preferences or ⌘,), then go to Profiles -> Keyboard.
There you can create shortcuts. Enter your command and end with an enter.

For example, if you want to run ls each time you press F1, select F1 in the Key tab, and press "ls <enter>", which appears like ls\015.

I didn't find a way to bind characters though, but using all these keys should be enough.


Songs appear once in iTunes; listed twice on iPhone 5s (iOS 7)

What I would try:

Make a current backup your iPhone via either iTunes or iCloud.
Eject the iPhone from iTunes.
iPhone Settings > General > Usage > Storage > Music > Edit > Delete
Reboot your iPhone
Connect your iPhone to iTunes and attempt to manually sync the playlists in question.


Replacing AZERTY keyboard by a QWERTY keyboard

At one time it was possible to make the change and in the end it became impossible in the official Apple network.
The only solution I could offer you is to buy and replace the keys. I had done it one 2011. ok it's long but I changed the keyboard for 5€... then just change the layout of the language in the keyboard preferences.


How to disable Apple Radio in iTunes and iOS?

It seems that the answer is:

There's no way to disable Apple Radio from taking up space in iTunes and Music on iOS.

If this also bothers you, you can submit a report here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

Or, specifically, here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/apple-music.html


Where else can I download the legacy Java SE 6 runtime?

Go to https://www.apple.com/support/ then search for DL1572

See Apple Knowledgebase pages often blank

 EDIT - or in this case, not… as it doesn't seem to fix it

Update:
Original KB link appears to be working again.
Would appear to have been an Apple issue, now resolved.
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572


using chrome os as client in vmware fusion

The system administration is hard stuff. Don't worry. The best you can do is ask here or even elsewhere -because the problem is about the configuration, not Mac-. Download the iso / img from the official repository. Then create a new virtual machine. Configure the settings as you wish (RAM, disk size) and then when disk image requested, select the downloaded one. If it also asks you what OS are you trying to run, try (because Chrome OS may not be displayed) to select it.

This process is universal. The thing is that since the iso contains the boot and kernel, the virtual machine should at least know which files correspond to each function. It may be impossible to boot it if VMW doesnt recognize them. In that case, if you still wanna run VMW -which would be hardcore- I can just tell you to surf the net.

The easiest EVER is in that case using parallels. Download a cracked copy or buy it if you are a legal guy 😉.

Hope it helps

Edit: And the link you provided is vanilla, not chrome OS. So thats kind of help to install it, which is fine, but in that case you should also take a look at the docs. Did you download the file for vmw? It should work


How do I type a Greek delta with a circumflex?

You can use Character Viewer to add a combining circumflex (U+0302) to your delta.  You may need to experiment with fonts to see what looks best among the ones which are common to most computers.  My TextEdit version with Helvetica below:


Does the D-Link DIR-857 support streaming Time Machine backups from multiple machines?

Product description
According to the datasheet, it looks like this device's share functionality does not work with Macs at all, since you need to install a driver to get USB-via-Ethernet support. From the footer of the last page of the PDF you link to:

Minimum System Requirements
Computer with:

Windows® 76, Windows Vista®6, Windows® XP
SP26, Windows® 20006, or Mac OS® X (v10.4)5 + Internet Explorer® v6 or Mozilla® Firefox® v3.0

And 5 translates to:

The software included with this product is not Mac-compatible.

SharePort drivers
There are SharePort drivers for OS X though:

This forum page links to a driver download for OS X up to 10.6.
This manual (zipped PDF)  is linked as Additional downloads and also mentions support for OS X up to 10.6.

This is for the "USB via network" feature, so this might work. The advantage is that the file system on the drive should be transparent to the router just forwarding the USB connection. That's why they can say they support any USB device: They don't actually care what kind of device is connected.
Regular sharing
It doesn't look like this device has any regular sharing functionality. Wouldn't surprise me, given the networked USB feature.


Reboot fails after failed disk erase when restoring from Time Machine

It seems it was the SSD. (Or the SATA controller - I'm not quite sure yet.)

Removing the SSD from its plug caused the Mac to at least display a black and white folder icon with a "?" inside (like here: https://support.apple.com/HT204156) That gave me hope so I purchased a Transcend JetDrive 725 for Macbook Pro Retina Early 2013 and inserted it. Wohoo, Cmd-Alt-R started Internet Recovery and "D" started Apple Hardware Test!

AHT said everything is fine, except the SATA controller has a problem ("4HDD/11/4000000: SATA(0,0)") but it seems to work fine so far. I'm not sure I need to worry because this error can also be a false positive according to Apple: https://support.apple.com/HT203648

I'll torture the new SSD with Disk Utility and by replaying my Time Machine Backup and then we'll see.

Oh: and plugging the Apple SSD into the USB3 enclosure supplied by Transcend and attaching this to a PC froze the PC before even displaying the BIOS screen. Connecting it to a running system does not create a new mount point and results in lots of errors in the system log. So this seems to confirm my suspicion that it was the SSD.


What is the difference between Apple MB110LB/B and Apple MB110Z/B keyboards

One seems to be the “USA” keyboard, the other one is the “International English” keyboard, you can see pictures of them (click to zoom in) on the Apple Store sites:

MB110LB/B: http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB110LB/B/apple-keyboard-with-numeric-keypad

MB110Z/B: http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MB110Z/B/apple-keyboard-with-numeric-keypad-international-english

Both have a basic QWERTY layout, but have some differences in the other keys. The layout around the ‘return’ key and of the key itself differs a little. The left shift key is shorter on the International English keyboard, and it has an extra key for ‘§’ and ‘±’ (below the ‘esc’ key) which doesn't appear at all on the USA keyboard. Finally, the USA keyboard uses words on some keys like ‘tab’ and ‘shift’ where the International English one use images.

I'm not sure if there's any difference between the “MB110LB/B” and “MB110LL/B” keyboards, the latter one is more clearly labeled “USA”:

MB110LL/B: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB110LL/B/apple-keyboard-with-numeric-keypad-english-usa

Based on the Logitech keyboard of which you showed a picture, I assume you want the “USA” one.


Will SSD improve iPhoto and Aperture responsiveness?

The details you've provided aren't very clear.
1. Has this problem started to happen after upgrading to Lion?
2. What tasks in iPhoto are causing the slow down?
3. When it is running slow, how much free RAM does the system have?

It's likely that it's slowing down because you're low on RAM


Actually found solution that seems to work...

Copy the file to your applications Resources folder

cp /usr/sbin/networksetup /path/to/app/Contents/Resources

Change permissions from this post

do shell script "chmod u+s /path/to/app/Contents/Resources/networksetup" with administrator privileges

The user will have to type in their password once, but after that they will not have to.

Any other solutions where you don't have to type in password would be better!


Why does "Copy" replace stuff instead of merging it?

We (the OS X users) have been asking ourselves that question since the age of dawn.

Very well phrased question to a sad response: OS X doesn’t do that and can’t do it without 3rd party tools.

Of the 3rd party alternatives there are a lot, I’ll just go ahead and recommend what I think it’s the best alternative to Finder, but… your mileage may vary.

Path Finder by CocoaTech is not a free alternative (far from it) but it definitively addresses most of Finder shortcomings and adds a lot of nice things for the same price.

If you feel more adventurous, you can go ahead and see different alternatives and their prices right here.

Update: Back in September 2010 TotalFinder didn't exist, but it's a very nice add-on that brings Tabs, Cut, Folder Reorder, etc. to the Finder. Not free, but way smaller than Path Finder if that's what you're looking for.

Let’s hope that 10.7 brings a new paradigm where questions like these are not relevant anymore :)


Changing a startup disk using AppleScript

In my environment the script works as expected. I used a different name for the generic key though: boot_key

The attributes of boot_key:

The password is self-evidently also klanomath's login password. security is always allowed to use the key!

To debug the Apple script enable "Show Log" with cmd3

The script:

display dialog "Select a startup disk" buttons ¬
    {"BOOTCAMP", "Macintosh HD"}
if button returned of the result = "BOOTCAMP" then
    set bootVol to "BOOTCAMP" as text
else if button returned of the result = "Macintosh HD" then
    set bootVol to "Macintosh HD" as text
end if

do shell script "security 2>&1 >/dev/null find-generic-password -gl \"boot_key\" | awk '{print $2}'"
set myPass to (text 2 thru -2 of result) as text

do shell script "bless -mount \"/Volumes/" & bootVol & ¬
    "\" -setBoot" user name "klanomath" password myPass with administrator privileges

do shell script "echo \"shutdown -r now\"" user name "klanomath" password myPass with administrator privileges

will then reveal - after choosing "Macintosh HD" - in the "Replies" part:

tell application "Script Editor"
    display dialog "Select a startup disk" buttons {"BOOTCAMP", "Macintosh HD"}
        --> {button returned:"Macintosh HD"}
end tell
tell current application
    do shell script "security 2>&1 >/dev/null find-generic-password -gl \"boot_key\" | awk '{print $2}'"
        --> "\"Passw0rd\""
    do shell script "bless -mount \"/Volumes/Macintosh HD\" -setBoot" user name "klanomath" password "Passw0rd" with administrator privileges
        --> ""
    do shell script "echo \"shutdown -r now\"" user name "klanomath" password "Passw0rd" with administrator privileges
        --> "shutdown -r now"
end tell
Result:
"shutdown -r now"

You may log various variables explicitly by adding log $variable lines (which is redundant with the "Replies" in some cases):

display dialog "Select a startup disk" buttons ¬
    {"BOOTCAMP", "Macintosh HD"}
if button returned of the result = "BOOTCAMP" then
    set bootVol to "BOOTCAMP" as text
else if button returned of the result = "Macintosh HD" then
    set bootVol to "Macintosh HD" as text
end if
log bootVol

do shell script "security 2>&1 >/dev/null find-generic-password -gl \"boot_key\" | awk '{print $2}'"
set myPass to (text 2 thru -2 of result) as text
log myPass

do shell script "bless -mount \"/Volumes/" & bootVol & ¬
    "\" -setBoot" user name "klanomath" password myPass with administrator privileges
log bootVol
log myPass

do shell script "echo \"shutdown -r now\"" user name "klanomath" password myPass with administrator privileges
log myPass

which then reveals:

tell application "Script Editor"
    display dialog "Select a startup disk" buttons {"BOOTCAMP", "Macintosh HD"}
        --> {button returned:"Macintosh HD"}
end tell
(*Macintosh HD*)
tell current application
    do shell script "security 2>&1 >/dev/null find-generic-password -gl \"boot_key\" | awk '{print $2}'"
        --> "\"Passw0rd\""
    (*Passw0rd*)
    do shell script "bless -mount \"/Volumes/Macintosh HD\" -setBoot" user name "klanomath" password "Passw0rd" with administrator privileges
        --> ""
    (*Macintosh HD*)
    (*Passw0rd*)
    do shell script "echo \"shutdown -r now\"" user name "klanomath" password "Passw0rd" with administrator privileges
        --> "shutdown -r now"
    (*Passw0rd*)
end tell

or as a screenshot:

Now you should be able to detect the error in your script or your environment.


Is it possible to to type 16 bit unicodes with Unicode Hex Input?

Yes, activate the Unicode Hex input source and hold down the option key while you type the 8 characters of the UTF-16 version of your 5 digit codepoint.  You may have to look that up on Google.  1d11e is d834dd1e


Is an Erased, Stolen iPhone, Safe on iCloud?

It is secure to keep it linked to her iCloud. It will remain Activation Locked, which makes it unusable. The data is not at risk because you've deleted it from the device, remotely. If this had not been done and Lost Mode was activated, you could have located the device.
Removing it from iCloud will, enable the thief to use it.
If there are no backups, iCloud or local, there is no way to retrieve the pictures.


Preferable way to ship a command line tool with my OS X *.app

You can place a link to the contents/macos/app in a location that is in the users path.  You don't need to have a separate binary with this approach but your app does need to handle command line arguments.  That is not hard to do, but the details of that are beyond the scope of this site.


2009 wireless keyboard giving serious lag on macbook pro

Without being cheeky, it could just be a sign of age. The keyboard itself is 9 years old and the MBP is 6 years old.

You did well to get so long out of the keyboard, but I wouldn't be too sure what specifically could be wrong with it or if it would be worth fixing.

I wouldn't rule out a hardware problem caused by 9 years of usage.


Buy the dongles. I worry your company is able to secure these if it isn’t budgeting for training and support let alone very inexpensive adapters.

There’s being frugal and then there’s “we’re not even thinking about selling one Mac” to fund to what needed to run the rest of the fleet.

If your labor is cheap, make cakes and cookies and sell them to fund your business. Good luck, I don’t mean to insult, but the reasoning in your question doesn’t add up.

Also, solve your network issue - the business and you are toast if you can’t get control of the network (we’re back to security and priorities).


iMessages sent by me to one friend only go to their MacBook not their iPhone

Check that the address or number you are sending to is listed on your friend's iPhone as a receiving address. Your friend can do this in the Settings app > Messages > Send & Receive > "you can be reached at"


Cannot uninstall third party softwares in mac

Contact Mobile Stream

Contact the developers of Easy Tether USB, Mobile Stream. They are best placed to help you remove the software.

By contacting the developers, you will help prompt them to provide better uninstall support.

Manually Removing Easy Tether's KEXT

If Mobile Stream are unable to help, you can manually unload the kernel extension using the following command:

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/EasyTetherUSBEthernet.kext

Next, find and remove the following file. You will need administrator rights to delete this file:

/System/Library/Extensions/EasyTetherUSBEthernet.kext

This assumes you installed the EasyTether - Android Tether Solution driver.


When logging in, screen flashes then kicks back to login screen - Cannot login even in Safe mode

I'm having the identical problem. There appears to be no solution other than to reinstall OSX from the ground up!


Upgrading Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion and preserving Bootcamp partition

I have succesfully upgrade two machines without having any issues with the Bootcamp Partitions or the actual installation. The upgrade doesn't seem to the touch the actual partition scheme unless it is a HFS partition. I also did the upgrade on a Tripple Boot MacBook without any issues.

I have also done a clean installation of Lion onto a machine that had a bootcamp partition without issues, as long as you don't delete the partitions.

As always, make sure you have a backup of the important Windows portions as for safety, however go ahead with the upgrade, it should only affect your existing OSX partition.


Can I move applications downloaded from the App Store?

Yes, you can move the applications. Providing the destination remains in the Spotlight index, the Mac App Store will continue to update the app.


Would an app, featuring only a Webview component, get approved for the AppStore?

Apps which are just web views are specifically against the App Review Guidelines:

  2.12 Apps that are not very useful, unique, are simply web sites bundled as Apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected

Source: App Store Review Guidelines


The page up Key is mapped to fn + Arrow UP.

Other key combinations with fn and the arrow keys are:

Arrow down > page down
Arrow left > beginning of line or begin of page depending on situation
Arrow right > end of line or bottom of page depending on situation

For the Insert Key there's no correspondant key on a Mac keyboard, but you could try using the fn + Enter which I found here. I can't confirm this though as I absolutely have no idea where I could test this out.


How do I speed up the animation time for switching between desktop spaces?

This looks like a duplicate of Speed up Mission Control animations in macOS Sierra

Here's the short answer. If you want extremely fast animations, this is your defaults write command:

defaults write com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration -float 0.1


New Answer: Base on this and this

Bookmark this page
Navigate to your bookmarks and edit the bookmark added in Step 1
Change the name to "Increase Text Size"
Replace the URL with the code labeled "Increase Text Size" below
Repeat steps 1-3, but change the name to "Decrease Text Size"
Repeat step 4 but with the code labeled "Decrease Text Size" below

Increase Text Size: javascript:var%20p=document.getElementsByTagName('*');for(i=0;i%3Cp.length;i++)%7Bif(p%5Bi%5D.style.fontSize)%7Bvar%20s=parseInt(p%5Bi%5D.style.fontSize.replace(%22px%22,%22%22));%7Delse%7Bvar%20s=12;%7Ds+=2;p%5Bi%5D.style.fontSize=s+%22px%22%7D

Decrease Text Size
javascript:var%20p=document.getElementsByTagName('*');for(i=0;i%3Cp.length;i++)%7Bif(p%5Bi%5D.style.fontSize)%7Bvar%20s=parseInt(p%5Bi%5D.style.fontSize.replace(%22px%22,%22%22));%7Delse%7Bvar%20s=12;%7Ds-=2;p%5Bi%5D.style.fontSize=s+%22px%22%7D

Old Answer:

From this article

  Here’s how you can use Reader in Safari for iPhone or iPad to increase
  text size of web pages:

  Open Safari and go to any webpage with a lot of text, like an article or news piece
  From any Safari browser window in iOS, hit the “Reader” button in the URL link bar to enter into Reader View – the Reader button looks
  like a series of lines atop one another
  Once in Reader Mode, tap on the “aA” icon in the corner of the screen
  Now tap the larger “A” button on the right side of the popup menu to increase text size
  Tap the “A” button repeatedly to dramatically increase the font size of web pages in Safari Reader mode

Although this does not change the text size, you can pinch and zoom.

Lastly, you can change the font size. Although this will not help with Safari it will increase text size in other apps.


How can I browse the web on very old versions of Mac OS?

This answer was last updated in February 2021, and may become outdated as time goes on. As of this writing, however, all software listed is actively maintained with security patches. On OS's which themselves have known vulnerabilities, this is particularly crucial.

Mac OS 8 and below
Attempting to browse the web on these OS's is basically a lost cause. However, you could set up Web Rendering Proxy on another (modern) machine, which will stream websites to older browsers as an interactive gif. If you squint, it's almost like the real thing! https://github.com/tenox7/wrp

Mac OS 9 – Mac OS X 10.3
Also more-or-less a lost cause, but if you want to try your luck, go with Classilla. http://www.floodgap.com/software/classilla/. You might also consider Web Rendering Proxy (see above).

Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" & 10.5 "Leopard"
Cameron Kaiser's TenFourFox is here for you! This browser was forked from a very old version of Firefox, so expect to run into broken websites on occasion. For casual browsing on a secondary computer, however, TenFourFox is perfectly sufficient.
PPC users should download builds from the official website: http://www.floodgap.com/software/tenfourfox/
Intel builds are also available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/tenfourfox/files/unstable/contrib/. These are considered "unofficial", and the author requests that Intel users do not report bugs or ask for support.

Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard"
InterWeb
With support for WebRTC and an engine based on Firefox 52, Wicknix's InterWeb browser is likely to offer the best compatibility with modern websites on Snow Leopard. Make sure to download the 10.6-specific version: https://randommacstuff.blogspot.com/p/interweb-browser.html
Arctic Fox
If InterWeb runs too slowly on your old hardware, consider trying this other browser from the same developer. It's based on an older engine which won't work with as many websites, but it should be a bit more performant. https://github.com/wicknix/Arctic-Fox/wiki

Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" & 10.8 "Mountain Lion"
This is the real deal! Blueboxd maintains Chromium Legacy, an up-to-date copy of Chromium (the open source variant of Google Chrome) modified to be compatible with Lion and Mountain Lion. It will work with every website Google Chrome does! https://github.com/blueboxd/chromium-legacy/releases
I have created a "Chromium Legacy Downloader" Preference Pane that makes it a bit easier to install updates: https://jonathanalland.com/downloads/chromium-legacy-downloader.zip

OS X 10.9 "Mavericks"
My favorite version of OS X, and personal daily driver! The best option for Mavericks is Firefox 78 ESR, which is still officially supported by Mozilla with automatic security updates! https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/switch-to-firefox-extended-support-release-esr
Alternately, if you would prefer a Chromium-based browser, Chromium Legacy (see above) is also now compatible with Mavericks.


Target Display Mode from a 2016 MacBook to a 2011 27" iMac

It's not possible to use Target Display Mode to connect a MacBook (Early 2016) to a 27" iMac (2011)

For the Mid-2011 through Mid-2014 iMacs, you need a Thunderbolt cable and Thunderbolt isn't available on the Early 2016 MacBooks

From the Thunderbolt Support Page

  A Mac notebook or desktop with a Mini DisplayPort or Thunderbolt port.

From the MacBook (Early 2016) Tech Specs Page:

USB-C port with support for:

Charging
USB 3.1 Gen 1 (up to 5 Gbps)
Native DisplayPort 1.2 video output
VGA output using USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter (sold separately)
HDMI video output using USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter (sold separately)

Thunderbolt is not supported on this USB-C port.


In iTunes, Get Info on the specific video. From the Options tab, select Media Kind and change it to Movie or the appropriate format.

iTunes selects the Media Kind based on any metadata it can parse from the file. Lacking anything for .mp4 files, it defaults them to Home Video.

If you have movies ripped from DVD and want to add metadata, take a look at MetaZ. (It's the replacement for the old MetaX when that stopped being updated and functionality broke.) iTunes properly reads the metadata that MetaZ embeds. You will want to remove the files from iTunes, process with MetaZ and then re-import them into iTunes.


The command `strings` produce abnormal output

It seems that the strings command now honours the locale settings in the environment, in particular

  LC_CTYPE

  This variable determines the locale category for character handling
  functions, such as tolower(), toupper() and isalpha(). This
  environment variable determines the interpretation of sequences of
  bytes of text data as characters (for example, single- as opposed to
  multi-byte characters), the classification of characters (for example,
  alpha, digit, graph) and the behaviour of character classes.
  Additional semantics of this variable, if any, are
  implementation-dependent.

Setting LC_CTYPE to C restores the previous behaviour:

% cat /dev/urandom | LC_CTYPE=C strings -n 16
X! \*H=:e9c1`nzWk
$Hr/Q9q_b:BE-tS,[
/]59=+fPU"x-B9kk
:"*J9{5Q-tFpL=Xm$>
...

An alternative approach (taken from Shell Script /dev/urandom on Stack Overflow with minor modifications) is to filter out non-printable characters with the tr tool and take the first 16 characters with dd:

% cat /dev/urandom | LC_CTYPE=C tr -dc '[:print:]' | dd bs=16 count=1 2> /dev/null

This is much faster because it does not wait for 16 consecutive printable characters from the random source.


How to disable "new network interfaces have been detected" prompt on Mac OS X Lion?

Go to System Preferences/Network and accept said interface as you own.


The Unarchiver

Includes a commandline tool. Can unpack some SIT files. I think I have experienced problems with a few SIT files though.


Macbook doesn't stay asleep when lid is closed

One possible cause is that the sensor to detect lid opening can trigger by mistake. If so, you can disable it by going into Terminal.app and typing:

sudo pmset -a lidwake 0

Note that this means the Mac will no longer automatically wake when you open it. Instead you would need a key press or mouse click to wake.


Is there a QuickLook app that will highlight search terms within MS Word documents?

This would require you to be able to pass parameters into Quicklook (the spotlight search terms) which I don't think is possible. You might be able to do this with Automator and a folder action.


Best app to switch between all open windows

Hyperswitch is free and works well. It also looks nice.
Update: ...but unfortunately as of May 2021 the app is not being updated anymore and has no native Apple Silicon (M1) support.

http://bahoom.com/hyperswitch


Performing a hard reset may restore your friend's iPod to working order - doing it should not affect the music loaded onto the iPod. Apple provides instructions for doing this here. From the relevant section:

  Toggle the Hold switch on and off. (Slide it to Hold, then turn it off again.)
  Press and hold the Menu and Center (Select) buttons simultaneously until the Apple logo appears, about 6 to 8 seconds. You may need to
  repeat this step.

  Tip: If you are having difficulty resetting your iPod, set it on a
  flat surface. Make sure the finger pressing the Select button is not
  touching any part of the click wheel. Also make sure that you are
  pressing the Menu button toward the outside of the click wheel, and
  not near the center.

  If the above steps did not work, try connecting iPod to a power
  adapter and plug the power adapter into an electrical outlet, or
  connect iPod to your computer. Make sure the computer is turned on and
  isn't set to go to sleep. Try resetting the iPod while it is connected
  to power.


The KB article appears to be outdated. A VMWare staff member advised that "Windows 8 is fully supported as a Boot Camp virtual machine in VMware Fusion 5".


As if Apple would ever provide a way for you to leave them.

What you may be thinking of is Apple's Move to iOS app that went live on Google Play on September 16th (also iOS 9's release date), which lets you transfer everything from an Android to a new iDevice, not the other way around.