Changing system passwords without changing user password

No - there is no system password, just one password for each and every user you define in the system.

The first user is an administrator, and they get sudo permissions out of the box. You can add passwords and users behind the scenes, in front of the scenes and have multiple user/password combinations so that you can issue one for remote use if that suits your needs and hide that user from the GUI.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203998 - sudo dscl . create /Users/hiddenuser IsHidden 1

VNC is the oddball, you can change that out of the box to have a "system" password but that's less secure than using an account password unless you don't need to know who is connecting remotely. You could also do the "easy" thing and make these passwords all the same and easy to type. Not the most secure, but it's your choice if you want that to get started.


Opening up your MacBook and how to avoid static electricity

If you run around naked there is no static build up.

But that is not always a option.

So it is the clothes that charge up.

Some clothing materials are worse than others.

Siting on a chair with wheels is not good, but then you can have a static discharge mat under it.

Dry air amplifies the problem of static charge

The key is your shoes, or no shoes. That is one place where you can get discharged, leather soles on a concrete (tiles) ground, and no rubber soles on wooden floor

In a professional environment the people where a arm bracelet that is connected to a ground. That is not always applicable for home and walking around.

You can get one of this products http://www.amazon.com/b?node=1069150


How can a process have 970% CPU usage on a dual-core computer?

Open Activity Monitor and go to the Window menu. One option under that menu is CPU Usage. Select that and a small window comes up and shows the CPU usage for each core. I think you have 8 cores but this menu item will answer that question.


Made a change to 'Path length on Finder Tabs' - I need to change it back to default

The unix command you used in terminal was the following:
defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES

This adds a key to the Finder user defaults — _FXShowPosixPathInTitle — and sets it to true, which enables showing the full posix path of the file in the title bar. To turn that feature off and return to the original behavior, delete the key:
defaults delete com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle

For more information about using the defaults utility, see its man page. Once you delete the entry, it’s best to log out of your user from the Apple menu and then log back in to be sure the preference stuck.


How to get Lion a working auto_home client with NIS and NFS Server

You'll need an automount record for your Directory, and you'll need home folder location records for your users or groups. I think you'll need to modify your LDAP schema so that these two types of entries are named the way a Mac expects. Not my area of expertise unfortunately.


You might want to consider using Jamf NOW which is a more robust and versatile way of locking down and managing iOS (and other) devices. We use the Jamf Edu MDM at my school to manage > 300 iOS and > 900 laptop devices.
Best of all, the first 3 devices you manage are FREE!
Disclaimer: satisfied user of Jamf: no financial or other ties.


Time Machine - Encrypted Backups - How to Have TM Prompt User For Password Again

I am not sure, but this may work. Try this:

Open Time Machine from System Preferences
Turn Time Machine Off
Select Backup Disk and turn Time Machine back on
Choose to Encrypt Back Up
Re-enter your password, or create a new password
Wait for it to encrypt
Turn Time Machine off, and then on again to test it out


I had the same situation. I figure since the OS is installed and working fine, and /lost+found isn’t where it would look for anything anyway, it’s safe to delete that file. Fair warning, that’s an answer based on reasoning, not any official information.

For background on lost+found, I’d suggest reading "What is the purpose of the lost+found folder?" on Unix & Linux SE, rather than the TechRadar article linked in another answer on this question. The TechRadar article wanders, slowly, through several tangentially related topics, whereas the SE answer cuts straight to the point, has technical detail, and has a high vote count from the community.


I received a call about my iCloud account and I need to know if it is a scam

Yes, you will never receive an unexpected call regarding your iCloud account, so it is a scam.


How to create/write file under /usr in OS X 10.11

You can fight SIP, but probably not for long.

Why not just do it the recommended way and put in /usr/local/include


Getting field data from a Bento database using Applescript

Bento's scripting dictionary is pretty thin. It looks like field, entries and cells all are in the Bento 3 scripting dictionary - so it's hard to tell if they have been there all along or are added for future use.

I'm not really skilled at debugging AppleScript so I can't see any errors with the code you posted.

Have you tried looping over _source_items_ for fields and cells? The dictionary seems to indicate that the data lies there and not as easily accessed from a collection. That and a lot of logging might make up for the lack of an interactive tool to query the scripting bridge.

Scripting is a feature differentiator between Bento and the more full featured Filemaker product from the same people.

Have you tried using sqlite3 to just read the database at ~/Library/Application\ Support/Bento/bento.bentodb/Contents/Resources/Database ?

The schema and tables are all open to whatever SQL tool you like. I hope it's just a matter of constructing the right query if you prefer AppleScript (and there is a lot to prefer about it over command line scripting).


How do I share all my itunes music with a friend?

Assuming you have "Copy files to iTunes Media folder" enabled in your "iTunes Preferences", you can find all all your files under:

/Users/yourUserName/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media


MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt display - Why do programs always start on the laptop screen?

there are 2 ways to help you solve you issue

set the TB display as the "main" display. You can drag the "Menu bar" to the TB display in "System preferences"->Display setting, please refer the screen shot below. As you said the external TB display is most thing, so I suggest you this way.

You can setup App launch in individual desktop or display. Right-Click the App icon in the Dock and choice "Option",set the App launch at the display you want.


How do I change the selection in BBEdit's Currently Open Document pane with the keyboard?

Check in the menubar -> View -> Previous Document/Next Document. The shortcut for Previous Document seems to be altcmd[ and for Next Document altcmd] on an US-keyboard.

On my (german) keyboard I use altcmd5 and altcmd6 though.


Can Spotlight search for text within Safari for iPhone?

No, Spotlight doesn't search the current page from within Mobile Safari (but it does search Reading List and other saved/bookmarked pages) but you don't need a workaround since this function exists in Safari.

It used to look like this.

On iOS 9, it's integrated with the main search field - begin like you're searching for a new web page and then scroll down to "On this page"

Once you tap that, you get this interface to pan to each instance of the search results with the term highlighted.


Uninstalling Google Drive and restarting the Finder has solved this issue.


You should not insert a "working, bootable disk with...."
You should install Lion on the Mac Pro.


Cant update/install homebrew packages with Kaspersky Security Software (Self Signed Cert)

I presume your company is using Kaspersky Endpoint Security.
I would suggest asking your IT admins to add brew update sources to trusted web addresses.
Or perhaps you could ask them for privileges to edit Web Monitor exclusions in your KES client app and add brew to trusted websites yourself, here is an article from the online help: https://support.kaspersky.com/KESMac/11.1_adminguide/en-US/96925.htm
I would also recommend your IT admins to get in touch with Kaspersky Support to resolve this issue.


TextEdit: How to stop cursor always being at the bottom of the screen while writing?

Many full screen writing applications like WriteRoom and Byword either add a margin to the bottom or support centering the view around the current line.

You could also create ~/Library/KeyBindings/ and save a property list like this as DefaultKeyBinding.dict:

{
    "~p" = (moveToEndOfDocument:, insertNewlineIgnoringFieldEditor:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, insertNewline:, moveWordBackward:, moveToEndOfParagraph:, moveForward:, centerSelectionInVisibleArea);
    "~r" = (moveToEndOfDocument:, moveWordBackward:, moveToEndOfParagraph:, moveToEndOfDocumentAndModifySelection:, deleteBackward:, centerSelectionInVisibleArea:, insertNewlineIgnoringFieldEditor:);
}

After reopening TextEdit, ⌥P should add padding lines to the end and ⌥R remove them.


My icloud password does not work when prompted on start up.

You may need to run Keychain Repair to fix a few items in it that could be problematic. This issue is apparent due to the popups from the system requesting your Keychain password.

To check keychains for problems using Keychain First Aid:
Open Keychain Access, located in the Utilites folder in the Applications folder.
Choose Keychain Access > Keychain First Aid.
Enter your user name and password.
Select Verify and click Start. ...
If there are problems, select Repair, and then click Start.
 Apple KB (Note article says 10.6 but it'll work on up to 10.10)

Run the Keychain First Aid and have it repair anything that could be causing an issue. Restart the computer and see if you get the same prompts. At that point, you may need to reset the Keychain (note: this will delete all saved passwords for applications, etc):

Open Keychain Access, which is in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder.
From the Keychain Access menu, choose Preferences.
Click General, then click Reset My Default Keychain.
Authenticate with your account login password.
Quit Keychain Access.
Restart your computer.
Source


What does this command do: sudo dscl . passwd /Users/administrator thePassword

Ah, it turns out that that is the correct way to change a user's password when using sudo. If you don't use sudo, only then do you need to provide the user's old password.

My problem was that there was a '$' character in the password, which I didn't escape. Consequently, the passwords were cut off to before the $ character.


Internet Sharing supports WEP but not WPA?

It is not possible to use OS X's internet sharing feature to create a WPA- or WPA2-protected network [through v10.7 Lion, see below]; WEP (40- or 128-bit) or no encryption at all are the only available options.

Note that the original title on this question ("Airport supports WEP but not WPA?") was a bit misleading, as this is only a limitation on wireless networks created with internet sharing.  Mac computers can join WPA and WPA2 wireless networks, and have been able to for years and years.  Similarly, Apple's Airport base stations (except for early models) can create WPA and WPA2 networks.  It's only when the Mac is acting as a base station that this limitation exists.

UPDATE: In OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion), the normally-visible security options changed to WPA2 Personal or no encryption. WEP is still available in 10.8, but only if you hold Option while clicking on the Security pop-up menu.


How to run a script on login whilst being hidden

Instead of launching Terminal You can make something like:

repeat
    delay (random number from 1 to 5) -- Change the delay in seconds
    do shell script "say Hello"
end repeat

You can save it as an app and then change its Info.plist file to hide it from Dock. Simply add this line inside Hello.app/Contents/Info.plist:

<key>LSUIElement</key>
<true/>

To launch it on login You can add this app to Login Items.


iCloud is an umbrella term that encompasses a number of Apple services. How Apple handles encryption for various aspects of its services is detailed here: https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf

Most relevant is the section on Internet Services, starting on p. 49. In general, keys are tied to your device(s) which are protected by your passcode (that only you know), and hopefully also with two-factor authentication.

If enabled, iCloud "Keychain items are transferred from device to device, traveling through Apple servers, but are encrypted in such a way that Apple and other devices can’t read their contents." Keychain Recovery is optional, and in the absence of two-factor, is protected by an iCloud Security Code that only you know.

iMessage is end-to-end encrypted using device-based public-private key pairs: "Apple can’t decrypt the data." Same for FaceTime.


I can't get a new password for my gamecenter

You can always change your Apple ID password on the web at - https://appleid.apple.com/


Is there a way to get iBooks to display the generic cover for my PDFs?

You could convert them all to ePub using Calibre. Add the ePubs to iTunes and they should sync with iBooks. As not all PDFs are formatted the same, some will show the generic cover while some will show the first page when converted to ePub. You can change the cover art for each book individually in iTunes, by selecting the book > Right click > Get Info > Artwork.


iPad Air heats up and burns through battery after IOS update

Apple's diagnostics would capture some logs but you'd need Apple to tell you which apps are stuck or chewing through the battery / CPU / energy.

I would focus on checking your last backup and erase things selectively.

If you want to erase slowly:

reset all settings and then power cycle - that's quick but usually doesn't fix this
erase all content and settings - then connect to power and do light web apps Safari - don't sign into iCloud, don't restore the backup, don't install any (or many) apps.

Run with the stock OS that was causing the problem without your data or apps to convince yourself that it was your programs and data. If you still see the power drain, then restore the device from iTunes or Apple Configurator or have a technician do it.

TLDR:

If it's hardware - none of these will fix it.
If you had a corrupt iOS - the restore from USB will fix it
If you had programs crashing and data continually trying to update (software bugs or such) - the erase all content and settings will fix it.
If a trivial setting got stuck and you needed a minor fix - the reset settings will fix it.
The last thing it could be is simply a process that takes a long time to finish. Photos face recognition or upgrading from an old iCloud storage format to a new one can take three or more days to sync if you have 100 GB of photos with many people in them and your photos database has a lot of things to process. It might not even be something you need to fix and can connect to power and WiFi wait this out.


Apple ID Rescue email - don't see the link to add rescue email

I followed those same instructions and my link appears as below:

This comes after step 6 in the Apple instructions.


Change to Chrome behavior for pinching to zoom in PDFs

As a "workaround" to this issue, you can download BetterTouchTool and remap these gestures in Chrome:

A "pinch in" to ⌘–
A "pinch out" to ⌘+

That should "solve" your problem.


If I change my Apple ID's country, would I need to re-download everything in order for all my apps to update naturally?

Changing to a different country would not matter for the apps in the scenario you described. Your apps would continue to update fine and you need not re-download anything.
An app developer can choose what territories their apps are made available in. So when you switch to a different country, the same app may not be available.
But as long as the app is available in both the countries, you will be fine and receive the updates normally. If the app isn't available in the new location, it will stay installed and then never update / download from iCloud / App Store until it is available for your country or you switch back.
Unless the app actively checks for this, things work - but it's really up to the developer how urgently they check for App Store receipts - the operating system doesn't force a check the moment you change and instead waits to check the next time an update or install happens.


Don't see the option to select my mobile number in 'Send & Receive' option of iMessage [iOS 13.3 iPhone 11]

Turns out that for activating iMessage and FaceTime, Apple sends a text message to an international number and my phone plan did not not include international texts. I had to call my cellular service to get international texts activated. iMessage/FaceTime got activated few seconds later.


Are 82°C to 98°C Temperatures extreme for a MacBook Pro?

I'm assuming you have the Mid 2018 15" MacBook Pro with the Intel i7-8850H CPU. This CPU has a maximum junction temperature of 100°C.

That means that hitting 82°C while browsing or 98°C while gaming isn't a problem in itself. You're within the limits in the specification.

So unless you're actually experiencing some other kind of related problem besides that you think it is a high number, then there's really no issue at all - nothing to be worried about.


Why has iTunes not found/downloaded all of my purchased songs?

You would need to work with Apple support to track down one specific case - but it could be that items are no longer available for re-download in your region. 500 seems like a lot of churn, but Apple doesn't guarantee you a re-download from the cloud so you might want to get your backup copies and restore them that way.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7101766?language=en
https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/us/terms.html

To contact support check your country here and then use the link at the bottom of the page: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204411


In Finder go to Applications → Utilities, and run Migration Assistant app. It will help you restore your backed up data including email.


No, it cannot. Actually, there is no there is no drive-bay at all (standard or optical). The traditional, 2.5'' 9.5mm internal notebook drives (whether SSD or HDD) that you're thinking of are not compatible (internally) with this model.

This is what the solid state "drive" looks like inside late 2013 models:

As you can see from the iFixit photo above, the SSD is really just a stick of flash memory, connected via the PCIe bus. It's made up of 8 identical NAND flash modules (in densities of either 32, 64, or 128 GB). The 256 GB drive is pictured here. There are 8 32GB chips in total, 4 on each side. The chip density corresponds to the listed drive capacity, so 8x64GB Modules = 512 GB, etc.

Though it is possible to replace the SSD with a larger capacity one, there's currently no aftermarket upgrade available yet:

  Unfortunately, the proprietary PCIe 2.0-based SSD in the "Late 2013" models is limited to a smaller "blade" option, but upgrade options no doubt are forthcoming, nevertheless.

Soon forthcoming, indeed.

Consider purchasing an external storage device, or exploring 'cloud' based storage options.


Can we capture a screenshot of vim window using Terminal?

By combining the built-in screencapture with osascript -e you should be able to perform the following:

screencapture -l$(osascript -e 'tell app "Terminal" to id of window 1') hello1.png

If you have more than one Terminal window currently open you'll need to adjust the windowID value.


The space needed to download the first part of the installer was optimized. It's possible to engineer for any number of trade offs - in this case, work was done to reduce the footprint of the download.

I haven't reverse engineered the installer, but my hunch is that iOS 8 added new features to allow better cleaning and update hooks so this is more a feature of iOS 8 which runs the new installer than 9 being so much smaller. I'm sure 9 is somewhat smaller, but this is a big jump as you have noticed.


Applications in Dock not showing 'open application' indicators

System Preferences > Dock

Is ‘Show indicators for open applications’ checked?

Checking that should fix your problem with the Dock.


See remaining credits of iTunes account on Apple TV


Yeah, it does result in distortion or clipping. But you can also reduce the master volume:

If individual tracks were clipped before they were mixed to the master, they will still be clipped though. GarageBand always normalizes volume when you export a song, so you can reduce the master volume as much as you want.


There is an app called LaunchControl which provides a very nice interface for creating/checking/modifying/disabling launch daemons and agents.  It's much easier than looking in 5 different folders for startup items.  (I'm not affiliated with them in any way.)

I would go through and disable each one at a time until your problem disappears.

http://www.soma-zone.com/LaunchControl/


Can't log in into iCloud after installing macOS Mojave on MacBook Pro 2013 Retina

Since you have confirmed that a new user can sign in, your next step is unfortunately to engage Apple technical support.

You’ve ruled out date and time errors, an error on the network and an error on the cloud side of your account that’s like a lockdown or other massive error. You should expect to be requested to make a support pin to indicate that you allow Apple engineers to support you with your personal data.


Is there any way I could download a iphone app to my mac book pro?

I think this has been answered before in this thread.

The general reason is that the code is compiled for an ARM CPU (iPhone, Samsung, Pixel, etc).  Your MacBook has an Intel CPU and the code instructions are different.  As a developer, there is a simulator in Xcode to develop a mobile application with, but the simulator is not really for use to obtain an application from the App store and run it.


Need to close Word documents on Mac Air..I can see no red dot, green dot or yellow dot

Word is in Full Screen mode. Simply hover your mouse at the top of the window, and the Menu bar will drop down. On the right hand side is a blue double-headed arrow. Click it, and the screen will return to a window.  (you can save the document by simply using the menu when it drops down from your mouse hover, if you wish to remain in full screen mode...oh and CMD-S is your friend (save))

Or, you can just hit ESC.


As I finished writing my own question, I tried another combination, tag:<tag0> tag:<tag1>, and it worked! Seems like it's an implicit "AND" when you use it like this.
You can also apply boolean logic in Spotlight/Finder:

tag:<tag1> OR tag:<tag2>
tag:<tag3> AND <tag:4>
NOT tag:<tag5>


The easiest way to check if you have anything in iCloud is to log into icloud.com. Here you can see the contents of iCloud Drive as well as what photos have been loaded into the Photo Stream or Photo Library. You will also see notes, contacts, etc if you use those apps.

However, 'backup' may be over stating matters: Time Machine is the Mac's built in backup solution, however it won't backup to iCloud or iCloud drive.

You of course can store files on iCloud drive, and often your Documents and Desktop folders are configured to be in iCloud drive by default.  You may also have configured Photos to backup to iCloud Photo Library, though this is reasonably rarer than doing it for the iPhone. If you pay for iCloud, you likely are using it for these items. If you do not pay for iCloud, I suspect you have very little (5GB only) stored in iCloud.

Once you get MacOS back on your Mac, you can log in with iCloud and all the content in iCloud will sync back to your restored Mac.

Good luck


Yes, I would recommend to convert it to a format that iMove can import. MKV is just a container format so  you probably already have an iMovie-compatible inside that package. Under Snow Leopard just install Perian and open it in QuickTime X and then go to File->Save as ... and choose a suitable format from the dropdown menu.

If you need more control over your conversion, you could also convert it to an iMovie-compatible format using any of the video conversion tools available for the Mac. For a long time VisualHub was the king of video format conversion, unfortunately techspansion the company behind it, closed its virtual doors. There are two main open-source options derived from VisualHub, ReduxZero and TranscoderRedux they both should do the trick. Another option is Subler which will also convert to and from MKV video containers to an iMovie-compatible format.


Why is Photos uploading more photos than I have?

This may be caused by duplicate photos. For some reason Photo app sometimes adds already existing photos or user may import already imported ones.
You can try Photos Duplicate Cleaner app. I haven't checked it now, but it was free a couple months ago.


Who are the clients of my shared iTunes library?

From
Macworld:

  Keeping tabs on who’s listening

  The Sharing pane in iTunes’ preferences will tell you how many users are connected to your shared library. But what it won’t tell you is what they’re actually listening to. To find out, open Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities), highlight the iTunes entry, and then click on the Inspect button in the toolbar. Now click on the Open Files And Ports tab and then scroll to the bottom of the list in the window below. If you’re listening to something in iTunes, your current song will show up first, but anything someone connected to you is viewing or listening to will show up like this:

 192.168.1.3:daap->192.168.1.8:56089
/Volumes/Backup/iTunes Music/Brian Eno/Another Day On Earth/01 This.m4a

  In this example, the person is connected from IP address 192.168.1.8 and is listening to Brian Eno’s “This.”


Yosemite printer panasonic DP C265 not print. Says: "Stopped - 'Filter' failed"

It IS being sandboxed. One solution is to disable sandboxing:

  Edit /etc/cups/cups-files.conf and add this line: "Sandboxing Off",
  restart cups: "sudo launchctl stop org.cups.cupsd"

However, another user has written a script which identifies those printer descriptions which need explicit path/to/file information, and automagically adds it.

I have used this script to allow me to print to my HP 5850 from Yosemite. My other printers (modern drivers) were not affected.

This solution is not mine. I found this answer through others' answers here  (https://discussions.apple.com/message/26887951#26887951). Good luck!


Force mounting an external disk that is not recognized

Just when I was about to give up, format the drive and lose my data, somehow I was able to fix the drive so I am posting what exactly I did in terminal for the benefit of other people who might come across this post and have the same problem. I hope this will be helpful to somebody:

Admins-MacBook-Pro:~ admin$ diskutil mount /dev/disk3
Volume on disk3 failed to mount; if it has a partitioning scheme, use "diskutil mountDisk"
If the volume is damaged, try the "readOnly" option
If the volume is an APFS Volume, try the "diskutil apfs unlockVolume" verb
Admins-MacBook-Pro:~ admin$ mount force /dev/disk3
mount: You must specify a filesystem type with -t.
Admins-MacBook-Pro:~ admin$ mount -t /dev/disk3
Admins-MacBook-Pro:~ admin$ mount force -t /dev/disk3
usage: mount [-dfruvw] [-o options] [-t external_type] special node
       mount [-adfruvw] [-t external_type]
       mount [-dfruvw] special | node
Admins-MacBook-Pro:~ admin$ mount -t force /dev/disk3
usage: mount [-dfruvw] [-o options] [-t external_type] special node
       mount [-adfruvw] [-t external_type]
       mount [-dfruvw] special | node
Admins-MacBook-Pro:~ admin$ diskutil verifyDisk /dev/disk3
Nonexistent, unknown, or damaged partition map scheme
If you are sure this disk contains a (damaged) APM, MBR, or GPT partition
scheme, you might be able to repair it with "diskutil repairDisk /dev/disk3"
Admins-MacBook-Pro:~ admin$ diskutil repairDisk /dev/disk3
Nonexistent, unknown, or damaged partition map scheme
If you are sure this disk contains a (damaged) APM, MBR, or GPT partition map,
you can hereby try to repair it enough to be recognized as a map; another
"diskutil repairDisk /dev/disk3" might then be necessary for further repairs
Proceed? (y/N) y
Partition map repair complete; you might now want to repeat the
verifyDisk or repairDisk verbs to perform further checks and repairs
Admins-MacBook-Pro:~ admin$ diskutil repairDisk /dev/disk3
Repairing the partition map might erase disk3s1, proceed? (y/N) y
Started partition map repair on disk3
Checking prerequisites
Checking the partition list
Adjusting partition map to fit whole disk as required
Checking for an EFI system partition
Checking the EFI system partition's size
Checking the EFI system partition's file system
Checking the EFI system partition's folder content
Checking all HFS data partition loader spaces
Checking booter partitions
Reviewing boot support loaders
Checking Core Storage Physical Volume partitions
Updating Windows boot.ini files as required
The partition map appears to be OK
Finished partition map repair on disk3
Admins-MacBook-Pro:~ admin$

Since I've tried pretty much every terminal line under the sun, I think the key was the sequence in which this worked, which was:

mount -t /dev/disk3
mount force -t /dev/disk3
diskutil verifyDisk /dev/disk3
diskutil repairDisk /dev/disk3
diskutil repairDisk /dev/disk3

When I heard tried to verifyDisk and repairDisk a few days ago it had not worked but somehow with this sequence it was able to repair the partition map

Thank you to all of you guys who have tried to help me with this.
I am glad to have my data back ;)


How can I force macOS to show the window of a program that I know is open but won't appear anywhere?

Have you tried using Mission Control?

If the window is indeed open, it should show up there.

How to use Mission Control:

Swipe up with three or four fingers on your Multi-Touch trackpad or Magic Trackpad.
Double-tap the surface of your Magic Mouse with two fingers.
Click Mission Control in the Dock or Launchpad.
Press the Mission Control key on your Apple keyboard, or press Control+↑.
In OS X El Capitan, drag a window to the top of the screen.

Adapted from Apple's Support Page.


How to run a Tiger 10.4.11 virtual machine?

You could try using the PearPC Emulator running on Linux or Win32 (Bootcamp?) to emulate a PPC and boot your drive images.

http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/installmacos.html


H.264 encoded .mp4 not playable on iphone

Does it play on your computer in iTunes?  There is a menu choice in iTunes that will convert to iPhone-compatible format.


Restoring iOS without updating iOS in iTunes

You can here: https://ipsw.me/ find the old restore images (the image will be downloaded from Apple's server), which you from iTunes can use for the restore.

To use the downloaded .ipsw file, you hold down the "Option" key, then click "Restore iPhone" in the Summary page in iTunes. Here, you'll see a file browser menu pop up. Locate your downloaded .ipsw file, select it, then click "Open"

Just be aware that it is only signed iOS versions you will be able to install.

Here is a guide, that show the steps: https://ios.gadgethacks.com/how-to/downgrade-ios-13-back-ios-12-4-1-your-iphone-using-itunes-finder-0198642/


Can I adjust the time delay for when the dock re-appears?

You can manually set the time it takes for the dock to appear using the defaults write commands:

autohide-delay → custom appearance delay with dock animation
autohide-time-modifier → custom appearance delay without dock animation

First, activate auto-hide in System Preferences → Dock → Autohide or type ⌘+⌥+D

Then open the Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.Dock autohide-delay -float 0; killall Dock

0 is the time it takes for the Dock to appear in seconds. You can choose floats and integers e.g. 2, 0.5,...
killall Dock causes the Dock to restart
the syntax is the same for autohide-time-modifier

Restore the default behavior using...

defaults delete com.apple.Dock autohide-delay; killall Dock

According to MacOSHints this trick was found by reverse engineering from the developer Christian Baumgart of Hyperdock.


Improve file-info visibility in Finder's preview pane

Sadly, I don't think there is the level of customization in the Finder that you want.

There are "Finder alternatives", like Path Finder, which may lay out information in a better way.

The default size of a Finder window can be set as follows:
1. Close all windows.
2. Open a window and make it the size you want.
3. Close it. Now all new windows will be the same size.

(Since Classic MacOS days!)


How do I rename files sequentially in automator based on a variable?

Checked "Show this action when the workflow runs".

This allows me to choose what number to start at.


How to configure Archive folder for Outlook in iOS Mail

Unfortunately, this is a function of Exchange, not the Mail.app or macOS.

The Exchange server is looking for a folder called "Archive" on the server itself so when you rename the folder, it can't find it so it creates a new one.  Then Mail syncs with the Exchange server bringing the "Archive" folder back.

You'll have to file a bug report with Microsoft or just tolerate the English spelling of "Archivio."


What is the purpose of the extra room on Finder's "View Options" window?

It depends on the Finder view mode. There are different settings for List, Column, Icon and Cover Flow views, and depending on that, the panel is filled less or more.
Only in Icon mode the entire space is filled:


How can I insert an image in Keynote 09 that retains a link to an external file?

When you add an image to Keynote it copies it into its package.  What I've done is open the package and replace the copy of the image with a link back to the external image.   What I am suggesting isn't simple but does work.


This solution helped me, https://stackoverflow.com/a/49511666/641611

Modify the PATH was enough,

export ANDROID_SDK=$HOME/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH=$ANDROID_SDK/emulator:$ANDROID_SDK/tools:$PATH


Gathering information through Terminal commands

See How to check when Macbook was turned on first time? for details about the OS install date.

As for anti virus software, there are several products out there. One way to check for installation is to check whether the corresponding application is installed in /Applications.


You cannot.
I switched to TextMate which is much more sufficient for my needs.
Some review about integrated editors here where some open sourcing of the excellent editors has happened.


How to deal with duplicate file names when moving files in terminal?

If you are already a homebrew user, you could install GNU coreutils and get quick access to GNU mv. This is installed as gmv so that it doesn't break any scripts that rely on BSD mv's syntax.

If you don't use homebrew and do not want to install it, you'll need to do tests with [ -f ${filename} ] etc. (which I expect is what you wanted).

Once you have homebrew installed, run,

brew install fileutils

Then you can gmv --backup=t as you wished to.


Error stating that I'm running an older version of Mail with a newer version of Mac OS X

You can go to Apples web site and download the updates manually. The downloads site is:

http://support.apple.com/downloads/

Once there, go to the "Search Downloads" "10.6.8" update. You can download either the combo (for people who haven't updated much) or the last, which was just for the 10.6.7 to 10.6.8. You might want to find specifically which update made the changes.

What I would try is the following:

Move Mail.app back to /Applications
Perform the manual update(s) from the downloaded update

IF the download allows you to go through the packages and you can find out which package mail is in (the names aren't always straight forward) you could probably do a manual update using only that package.

This might be risky, but you could try actually doing the full update on the system. In the PAST, you could do that and it would ignore any updates that superseded what's in the package or already installed and only install those components needing update. I don't write Apple's update software so that might be risky.

Hope this helps.


If I remove my SIM card from my iPhone, will iMessage still be connected to my phone number, or can I only be reached by my Apple ID email?

I don't have an iPhone myself, but because the account can be based on email address as well, I believe it in theory should be possible to keep using iMessage after removing your sim. However, I have experienced that my friends who have gone overseas and used a different sim have ended up having iMessage being connected to the new number. In other words, it is possible to connect to you via iMessage, but your new, overseas number will need to be made known.


How to get the call log from my iPhone in iOS 8?

The call history is in the database located at:

/var/wireless/Library/CallHistory/call_history.db


How do you clear SSL leaf certificates mappings to particular domains

There's no caching of SSL-certificates like this. It is not a caching issue on the client.

The problem here is with the server - it presents the wrong certificate (from your point of view).

The reason that some clients see one certificate and others see another is most probably due to CDN and/or load-balancing, which means that you're not really hitting the same endpoint. It sounds likely that the server is using persistent connections (aka sticky sessions) which means that your MacBook sees one thing, but your iPhone and Windows 10 machine another thing.

This is something you need to solve at the server level. It hasn't got anything to do with your Mac as such.


How to install iOS image (dmg file) from Dev Center?

Files and applications in the iOS Dev Center are tools for developers working on iOS application development. As an OS X system is required to run Xcode and to install test apps on an iPhone, any supporting tools require OS X as well. You can't install them directly on iOS.


Stop VPN Disconnecting when going to Sleep

The VPN will disconnect because your WiFi disconnects.

Therefore you would have to...

either reconnect your VPN connection when on 3G (How?)
or enable your iPhone to keep connected to WiFi (requires jailbreak)

To keep WiFi on in sleep mode you need to install KeepAwake via Cydia.

See this step-by-step guide.


iMac beachballing for no reason — I suspect it might be faulty hardware. What can I do to work around it?

I'm just going to echo Allan's comment: if DriveDx says your drive is "failing" then it needs to be replaced. The only workaround is to remove the drive and stop using it.

Disk health checks have a low sensitivity but high specificity. In other words, it might report that a failing drive still looks healthy, but it will never report a healthy drive as failing. If it reports failing, we must trust that result.

The reason that wiping the drive helps, at least for a little while, is that it does more work to avoid using the parts of the drive that are already known to be bad. But the drive is like a rotting fruit
 -- even the good parts are going bad, so eating around the bad part doesn't help for long.


Making Desktop 2 in Mountain Lion be shown in external display

I have been using an external display for a little while and was confused about this to begin with.  I think it happens when you have a particular window on full screen.  That is to say that it is the extended display version of having a single window to the fore.  I started dragging windows to size manually and it stopped happening.


When using a third-party script library, I can no longer save an AppleScript file in Script Editor.app

First thing I would try is opening up the scripteditor.app library panel.
In Scripteditor go to menu item "Window/Library"

If dialog toolkit is present in the list, I would select it in the list and remove it.  Then I would quit scripteditor.app and relaunch it again. Once scripteditor.app is up and running again, Open the Library panel and click on the “Add” button in the menu bar and navigate to ~/Library/Script Libraries and select Dialog Toolkit.scptd.

That will probably solve your problem.  I have a funny feeling the problem is occurring because your new com.apple.ScriptEditor2.plist file probably does not contain any reference to the Dialog Toolkit.scptd as per this example in this image..

This is com.apple.ScriptEditor2.plist file opened in xcode


Thunderbolt bridged with ethernet gives poor performance

The best way to diagnose a network issue is to look at the packets.

sudo tcpdump -i en0

You can compare the types of errors and retransmits and high level aspects of the good transfers with the slow transfers. Since the logs are very  might need to save them to a capture file (see the manual page for tcpdump) and use a tool or script to summarize the data.


Since you can ssh into the box, you can start killing processes one by one and eventually you will either reboot the box or free up the item that's holding the CPU / GUI frozen.

I would probably do these things in order of severity:

Start a time machine backup before killing anything tmutil startbackup --block --rotation
If I don't care to save work (since this kills all apps abruptly) - kill the loginwindow process and log back in.
If I do care to save some work, kill all user processes not belonging to the user that needs to save work.
Then kill all user processes that don't need work saved. (Apps and such)
Then use AppleScript to tell each app that needs to save work to quit. (assuming the GUI isn't responsive at this point)

  osascript -e 'quit app "Take Five" '

At this point, you'll either need to list the specific apps that you need to save work and ask if there are any ways to force a save (perhaps they use autosave and will recover all work anyhow) or just issue a restart / reboot command and get on with using the machine and recover what you can from your last backup.


Mountain Lion sleep and caffeinate command

The assertions are removed when the caffeinate process exits.

  caffeinate creates assertions to alter system sleep behavior.  If no assertion flags
  are specified, caffeinate creates an assertion to prevent idle sleep.  If a utility
  is specified, caffeinate creates the assertions on the utility's behalf, and those
  assertions will persist for the duration of the utility's execution. Otherwise,
  caffeinate creates the assertions directly, and those assertions will persist until
  caffeinate exits.

caffeinate (or caffeinate -i) prevents idle sleep until the process is terminated by for example pressing control-C or closing a shell window. caffeinate open -Wa uTorrent would also remove the assertion when open exits.

You can get a list of power assertions with pmset -g assertions. caffeinate or caffeinate -i should set PreventUserIdleSystemSleep to 1.

To always prevent sleep when uTorrent is open, you could add a line like this to a crontab:

* * * * * pgrep -x uTorrent && caffeinate -t 60

(Use EDITOR=nano crontab -e if you haven't changed $EDITOR and don't know how to use vi.)


How to make Applescript quit a specific program for all users?

Use the do shell script directive in AppleScript:

do shell script "sudo killall iTunes"

tell the application "Finder"
    if disk Media exists then
        eject disk Media
    end if
end tell

You'll need to make sure that you can execute sudo killall with no password.


Maximize window after cmd+tab switching to app with only one window minimized?

Hide the app instead of minimizing it
Instead of minimizing the app, try to hide the app instead by using CMD+H. Functionally it appears to be the same for your use case, and when you switch back to the app either by clicking on it on the Dock or by selecting it in the App Switcher, all windows for that app will reappear in the positions they were when you hid the app.


Safari 8.0 on Yosemite doesn't kill closed tab processes, hogs memory

"Web Content Process" = "Tab" is a wrong assumption. A Web Content process can hold more than one tab. Depending on the implementation details of Safari, it might be possible that after closing the last Tab related to a particular Web Content Process, it does not automatically mean to close that Web Content Process. It might be feasible for Safari to keep that Process idle in the background ready to take a new tab when needed. I think Mavericks Safari behaves the same.

On your experience of "slower and slower": It might be that 4GB of RAM are insufficient for your normal workload. As a result, virtual memory is used. That means your HDD (or SSD) is used as an extension for your RAM, when more memory is needed to drive all open processes. Usage of HDD means a slowdown. An SSD is better in that respect.

I use Safari 7 on Mavericks, I will not test now what happens when closing a big enough number of tabs. But let me describe the normal situation on my MBP: At the moment, my Safari has 4 windows open, each contains 10 to 40 tabs, in sum ~100 tabs opened. In Activity Monitor, I can see 20 Web Content Processes, each 9 to 12 threads. In addition, I have 13 QTKitserver Web Content Processes, each 2 threads.
All web content processes have a 3-digit PID, which means they were started at the beginning after my last reboot, which is 3 days ago. So the Web Content Processes are reused by Safari. If they were new processes, they would have gotten a 4 or 5 digit PID. Though, I admit I did not open and close that many tabs since the last reboot. I have 8GB of RAM and an SSD on a late 2009 MBP.

You can read at some places that Yosemite needs a little more RAM than Mavericks. Maybe that's enough to slow down your 4GB system in comparison to Mavericks. Though it should not perform much worse than Mavericks. By the way, a nice read on memory management for 10.9 can be found here.

Bottom line: Consider installing 8GB RAM. It's dirt cheap for a non-Retina MBP.

And you can do it yourself. Just figure out before which RAM-Modules are for your MBP Model:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201165?viewlocale=en_US#1.

It seems that even 16GB are possible for even older MBPs if one is lucky. Beware, this 16GB topic needs more research: https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1511196

But I do not know if that is needed in your case. In my humble opinion, 8GB are fine.


Restoring data deleted from Directory Utility

There is a xar archive of the directory dslocal made every Saturday by the launch daemon- /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.var-db-dslocal-backup.plist. You can find the archive here-

 /private/var/db/dslocal-backup.xar


You're simply confused as how to operate the system properly. When you think you're "maximizing" the window, you're really full-screening the application.

In order to "maximize" the window, you'll need to hold down the Alt-key while clicking the green "+" button in the top left corner of the Chrome window.

You can also maximize windows through other means - such as through an application such as SizeUp! or similar.


Make alias take icon of the .app it points to

As noted in my comment from earlier, you can make an alias of the alias and it will acquire the icon from the original source... for some reason.

The following example is with folders... so it's not the exact situation in the question, but I think it illustrates the point:


Simply click the folder, then click the header name, background goes white. Another click will change to an insert point [standard text caret], for finer editing


Why does iTunes and my iPhone not agree on how much free space I have on my iPhone?

This happens from time to time. You can get a recalculation of the space by connecting to iTunes and power cycling the phone.

If that doesn't work, you may need to back up the phone and erase it and set up as new - seeing that the space used is correct, then erase a second time and restore the backup.


I wouldn't expect it to be any faster, especially if you are comparing the performance increases of doing the same thing on an Android device.

The reason is that, on an iPad, Apple goes through a great deal of trouble to ensure that applications don't mess up your operating system (e.g. by using up too much resources in the background). Compare that with a Windows or Mac system where each application you install can load up its own background processes. In an environment such as that, you would expect a reset of the entire computer to speed everything up.

The only thing affecting your performance on the iPad, however, is iOS, which Apple provides. Assuming you reset to the same iOS you are currently using, you should expect the experience to be the same at the end.

My guess as to why your iPad is less responsive than it used to be is that Apple is optimizing their iOS updates for the newer generation iPad models rather than worrying about how it might affect the user experience on the 1st generation iPad.

Therefore, I think the only thing that could potentially increase your performance is if you downgrade the iOS on your device (which is beyond the scope of this answer), or wait for Apple to release an update which fixes the issues you are experiencing (unlikely with older generation iPads). A final option might be to jailbreak and see if there are any solutions available there (I'm not familiar with jailbreaking, so I can't point to specifics).

The one caveat might be that you are running multiple applications (several of which may be consuming up resources). However, the fix for that is to simply shut them down rather than reseting the entire iOS.


Run a Cocoa application on Lion as another user

The easiest way I'm aware of is to use the full path to the executable. For example:

  $ sudo -u steve "/Path/To/MyApplication.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApplication"

That definitely works (I've just tested it with several applications under Lion).


What is com.apple.preferences.users.remoteservice and why is it using significant energy in my new mac?

Some System Preference panes in Mavericks are built in a way to separate certain tasks into XPC processes.

  The idea is to break up a complex application into individual processes, each of which requires only the few entitlements necessary to perform a specific subset of the application's total capabilities.

com.apple.preferences.users.remoteservice is one of these XPC processes. If you locate the process in Activity Monitor you should be able to tell which preference pane launched the process by the icon. In the screenshot below the process has the Users & Groups icon indicating that it belongs to the Users & Groups preference pane.

I'd check first to figure out which set of preferences it belongs to and make a judgement call on whether it makes sense that it is still running, but if one of these processes is using a significant amount of energy (and is still running once System Preferences is closed) I'd assume something has gone wrong and kill it.

Something you could do to attempt to understand what this process is doing is to open the Console application on your Mac and enter "remoteservice" in the filter box in the top-right corner. I'm assuming if the process is using a significant amount of energy then it is struggling to do something and will have written quite a few errors to the system log about what it is trying to do.


Dual booting Yosemite/Mavericks: Stuck in Yosemite with an 'Install OS X' volume instead

I also asked on the developer forums and got an answer there (iOS/OS X dev account required to view).

The solution was to boot into a recovery partition (⌘ + R), and change the boot disk from the Apple menu. It needed to be changed to my Mavericks install instead of my Yosemite install.


What options for clean install of MacOS High Sierra after permanent error message?

I finally made it work. It must have had something to do with an encryption I had set up for the FusionDrive previously.
SOLUTION:
I deleted the Logical Volume Group which resulted in 2 separate 'untitled' drives, i.e. one SSD and one larger HDD drive. I then combined those drives again to form the FusionDrive. After that, I installed the original OS X Mountain Lion via web recovery, installed the High Sierra upgrade via the App Store, and then went back to the recovery mode to erase the volume again and install the High Sierra OS from there. Now I have a clean High Sierra preinstalled iMac, as intended.
I would like to use this opportunity to thank all of you for your support, which was extremely helpful for me in finding the ultimate problem solution!!


iPhone 4 cannot be charged via power supply after iOS 7 update

This sounds like a problem with your power supply that just happened to coincide with iOS 7. "Reduce motion" setting will not make a difference. If it's under warranty, take it into the Apple Store and see if you can get it replaced. Otherwise, you may need to buy a new charger.

If you are good with electronics, you can cut open a USB cable, plug it into the charger, and see if the voltages between D+, D-, and Vbus match this pinout.


It depends on the order of sequence.

When a photo enters Photo Stream, all devices that are on and running and set to download a copy can get the photo. In the case of your Mac, iPhoto can be set to automatically import the photo, so yes - it could have a copy stored in the library even though you have deleted it from the stream.

Deleting the photo from the camera roll doesn't have any influence on the stream or other devices other than perhaps if you were to connect the device over USB to a computer and import later, but I'm guessing that's not your concern.

In practice, there is some delay so if you took a photo on the phone and then deleted it almost as soon as you took it from Photo Stream, the delete likely would prevent another device from seeing the photo, but if your network is fast - the photo could be elsewhere.


GPG key generation - timeout on OSX due to lack of entropy

Perhaps you could just rm -rf ~/.gnupg. It works for my situation. I just force stopped the first time I ran gpg --gen-key, which might lead me to this agent_genkey failed: Timeout error.


How to sync music from old PC to new PC?

I backup all media contents from my old iPhone 4 to iCloud, and then login the same account on the new iPhone 6, and then sync all media to the new phone, quite convenient.


Stop destroying network performance every time an app scans for wifi networks

Why this happens

It comes from the GUI library Qt that is used in both programs. Several people experienced the same thing and report it:

reddit
bugreports.qt.io (the official bug tracker)

How to solve it for the newest versions of Qt

Set the environment variable QT_BEARER_POLL_TIMEOUT to -1.

QT_BEARER_POLL_TIMEOUT=-1 open -a qbittorrent

The problem also happens on Windows, it is solved similarly:

set QT_BEARER_POLL_TIMEOUT=-1
qbittorrent.exe

References:

news.ycombinator.com
github.com
lostdomain.org

How to solve it for Genymotion

Genymotion currently uses of Qt version 5.4.2 that doesn't support QT_BEARER_POLL_TIMEOUT.

@Ben Kuhn contacted the support and the solution is to launch this command:

rm /Applications/Genymotion.app/Contents/{,MacOS/player.app/Contents}/PlugIns/bearer/libq{corewlan,generic}bearer.dylib


Python socket program taking forever to run

Your program runs well on my MAC OS Mavericks (aka 10.9.5) with Python 2.7.5
It prints:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 27 Mar 2016 07:42:22 GMT
Server: Apache
Last-Modified: Fri, 04 Dec 2015 19:05:04 GMT
ETag: "e103c2f4-a7-526172f5b5d89"
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Content-Length: 167
Cache-Control: max-age=604800, public
Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Access-Control-Allow-Headers: origin, x-requested-with, content-type
Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/plain

But soft what light through yonder window breaks
It is the east and Juliet is the sun
Arise fai
r sun and kill the envious moon
Who is already sick and pale with grief

I guess your program stuck while no answer was available within the TCP protocol time-out (either the server not responding or the link failing). If you want to avoid such case, you may put the "recv" statement in a separate thread and break after a time-out.
I found much help for this in this page: eli.thegreenplace.net/2011/05/18/code-sample-socket-client-thread-in-python/

Hope this helps.


Suspicious NDTV notification pop-ups in my Mac Yosemite 10.10

Launch Safari, then click on Safari(at the top)> Preferences> Notifications(Tab)> Remove.


The solution I found was to hook up my traktor 2 audio interface, which not only corrected the problem but gave me a bigger better sound.


MacBook Pro sleeps unexpectedly and runs fans at high speed, even after SMC reset

Run diagnostics on the Mac as follows:

Disconnect all external devices
Go to Apple Menu —> Restart
Immediately press and hold down the D key while your Mac restarts
Keep holding the D key until you see the screen listing different languages appears
Click English.  Apple Diagnostics starts automatically.

Common results could be:

Wi-Fi — a failure of the AirPort wireless card (4AIR)
Hard disk and SSD (4HDD)
Logic board (4IRP)
Memory — RAM (4MEM)
External disk (4MHD)
Fans (4MOT)
Processor (4PRC)
Video/graphics card (4YDC)

I'd recommend you see if you have a fan issue: 4MOT


Keyboard Shortcuts during iChat Screen Sharing

Are there alternate keyboard shortcuts for ending a screen sharing session? The menu bar lists ^ ⎋ for achieving this (⎋ is the power button on your computer). However, I'm stuck in a really annoying middle ground.

Actually, the symbol that you're referring to references the "Esc" key.

So, by pressing ^ ⎋ (Control-Esc) you can end the Screen Sharing session without asking for control of the mouse.


Turning phone on if lock button is broken?

If an iPhone is off, and you connect it to a power source (either a charger or computer), it will always turn on. Since you have mentioned that this is not happening, I would conclude that there is something more serious wrong, not just that your power button is broken.

It may be the case that your phone has just 'locked-up' - try holding both the home button and power button for at least 30 seconds and see what happens.

If that fails, I would suggest taking it to an Apple Store and see what they say.


During a new Mac setup, it asks for the iPhone passcode. Why?

I think that you've selected to use your iCloud account, so by verifying your Passcode with you iphone Apple added a security to be sure that you are the owner of your iCloud Account. This will allow your Mac to synchronise your data from iCloud.


How to add files to the Spotlight index?

Spotlight only processes files it has an importer for the file type and aren't hidden by rule. This folder is excluded by code in Mojave as far as I can tell. In older OS, the Exclusion list was editable in a preference file named VolumeConfiguration.plist and before that, _rules.plist so it was easier for someone technical enough to use the command line to modify an exclusion and make that folder included. I don't think we get this control via the same mechanism now. Apple still lets us exclude arbitrary folders / files, but relaxing their exclusion list to be more inclusive, may not be possible.
If you want to poke at this - the relevant folder is /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100
I would use a tool like ag (easily installed with https://brew.sh) to search by name or content rather than using find in the mean time.

If you check mdls for the affected files, you can see the various file types these are and possibly find an app that will claim "indexing" for them.
Here's me reproducing that with a Microsoft preference file:
me@Mac-Pro ~ % mdls ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2020-09-19 20:33:07 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate      = 2020-09-19 20:33:07 +0000
kMDItemFSCreatorCode       = ""
kMDItemFSFinderFlags       = 0
kMDItemFSHasCustomIcon     = 0
kMDItemFSInvisible         = 0
kMDItemFSIsExtensionHidden = 0
kMDItemFSIsStationery      = 0
kMDItemFSLabel             = 0
kMDItemFSName              = "com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist"
kMDItemFSNodeCount         = 965
kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID      = 20
kMDItemFSOwnerUserID       = 501
kMDItemFSSize              = 965
kMDItemFSTypeCode          = ""
me@Mac-Pro ~ % mdfind 'kMDItemFSName == "com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist"'
me@Mac-Pro ~ % cp -p ~/Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist ~/Desktop
me@Mac-Pro ~ % mdfind 'kMDItemFSName == "com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist"'
/Users/me/Desktop/com.microsoft.autoupdate2.plist

It's clear Apple has restricted indexing in this directory which is why you can't find preference files in the user Library folder and they show up immediately when copied to your Desktop.


What is the "wake for wifi network access" setting in energy preferences?

Wake for wifi network access (aka Wake on Demand but with Wifi) allows your computer to be brought out of sleep mode when someone else on the network requests access to a service on your computer eg. File sharing.

From this Apple KB article

  Wake on Demand helps you save energy and reduce costs while still
  ensuring full access to all your shared files and devices, even
  remotely across the Internet. Wake on Demand works by partnering with
  a service running on your AirPort Base Station or Time Capsule called
  Bonjour Sleep Proxy. When Wake on Demand is enabled, any Mac on your
  network running OS X will automatically register itself and its shared
  items with the Bonjour Sleep Proxy. When a request is made to access a
  shared item on a Mac running OS X, the Bonjour Sleep Proxy asks that
  Mac to wake and handle the request. Once that request is complete, the
  Mac will go back to sleep at its regularly-scheduled interval as set
  in the Computer Sleep section of the Energy Saver preferences pane.


Just doing a quick bit of research, I ran across this post on Apple's support forums that sounded eerily similar to your situation.

What I gathered from the article is that

You should immediately ask for photographic evidence
You should document with Apple customer relations (1-800-676-2775 in the US)
The bugs themselves won't void the warranty, but the Apple tech can void the warranty on his own accord (if he believes they are a biohazard)

There are a couple of things you can try:

Take the MBA back, remove the back cover and using a can of compressed air, blow out any remnants of the bugs.  There are no tamper resistant stickers or tags that will indicate that you did this.  Bring it back to another Apple store, tell them what the first one told you and claim it's BS.  Depending on the year of the MBA (2012 and later) you might need a Pentalobe screwdriver.  Older than that, and a regular jeweler's Phillips will do just fine.
If that option isn't feasible, avoid the "Geniuses" at all costs.  I have never found them competent in solving problems.  There are some good Apple repair shops.  One that I have found is based in NYC and have done better work that the authorized guys (https://www.rossmanngroup.com/)  Disclaimer:  I am not affiliated with him, I just had really good results on may occasions.


Want menu and dock to remain visible when youtube fullscreen and Mission control is NOT set to Displays have seperate Spaces

Didn't want to write like 4 comments so here's an answer.

Finally things are starting to make sense. The word fullscreen mixed with Displays have separate spaces option deceived me and kept me in a headspace I couldn't get out off. I was thinking of the OS X fullscreen... We can pretty much forget everything I've said so far.

It is definitely super weird that for you, it is acting the way most people want it to work... and there is seemingly no way to make it work the way it works for you... Yet, here we are.

Since I super don't have a fix for that issue. I'm going to try and offer a workaround.

Workaround:

Like I suggested before, maybe the simplest solution would be a chrome extension. I'd actually maybe recommend Floating Player. Basically opens the video in current page in its own window with only the title bar of the gui remaining.

Then if you resize it to fill  the whole screen (maximize it), you should be good to go.

Maximizing a window

Since OS X Yosemite, clicking the green ball on the top left puts the application window in Fullscreen mode. You don't want that. To actually just maximize a window, you need to hold down Opt/Alt when clicking it. Or double click the title bar. This unfortunately is a bit of a mixed bag... Some applications, including Chrome, maximizes the window by making it full height, but not full width. So maybe don't use that either.

The best way to maximize a window or manage window position and size is to use third party applications. I'd recommend you try out Moom. It's definitely one of the best ones out there, if not the best one. If you don't want to pay anything, I'd say the next best free window manager app is probably Spectacle.


Keyboard is too stiff for me - any way to make it looser?

I feel that the keyboard of Mac (or here my main focus is actually MBP) is too stiff.

There is no reasonable way you can change the stiffness of a MacBooks keyboard. However depending on the model of the MacBook, the tactile feedback could differ. While the keyboard typing feel could argued to be subjective, a general perception is that the new Butterfly keyboards introduced in Late 2019 16" MacBook Pro and then eventually in the newer 2020 13" MacBook Pro and 2020 MacBook Air are easier to type on.
So if you are using one of the older MacBooks, you can consider buying a new one after you give the new Butterfly keyboard a try in a store.
Alternatively, you can also consider getting an external keyboard where you pick one as per your exact liking.


Why do compilation albums sometimes show up as 100s of identical album covers?

It's possible the "Part of a compilation" meta data wasn't set for these tracks. You can group them together as a single "album" in iTunes by:

Selecting all the tracks you want to come from the same album (use Cmd-Left Click to select multiple, non-contiguous tracks)
Hitting ⌘-I to bring up the meta-data editor window and then:

For the Album Arist field enter: Various Arists
For the Album field enter the name of the compilation album
And then make sure the Part of a compilation option box is checked

Click OK to apply the changes to all the tracks

You should now see them grouped together in the grid view as one album, all showing (hopefully) the same cover art. If they're not showing the same cover art:

Find the cover art you like.
Copy it to the clipboard with ⌘-C
select all the tracks again and open the meta-data editor window.
Click once in the Artwork window and hit ⌘-V to paste the cover art to all the tracks.
Click OK to add the cover art to every track in the compilation.


Is it possible for a broken iSight cable to prevent a 2009 Macbook Pro from booting?

Unsure about a 2009 MBP, but I had a 2010 MBP that booted fine even when the iSight cable was not connected to the motherboard (the motherboard was new and was being tested before all cables are connected).


You would have to pay around 100$ (annual) for iOS Developer Program in order to upload Your app to the device. You won't have to upload it via AppStore but directly from Xcode.

You need to pay, because Apple provides You all neccessary Provisioning Profiles, Certificates etc. You'll be able to add up to 100 iDevices to Your account.

Here's knowledge base with all informations.


The Mac OS X native application do not use the X protocol for the rendering, but the Mac specific protocol. So you cannot use ssh X protocol forwarding as you could with a Linux workstation.

As you discovered, the reverse is not true, you can install an X server on Mac OS X and have the Linux program appear on your Mac.

What you can do is use either Mac own desktop sharing facility or install a VNC server. Then from your Linux box, you connect to your Mac through VNC instead of ssh.


How can I zoom in with Mac Mail on a message I am composing?

This isn't exactly what you want but may be a viable workaround if no one comes up with a way just to zoom the text in the composition window. In the Accessibility Preference Pane (on Yosemite, don't know if it's the same in El Capitan) there's a Zoom subpane. There you can set up various ways to zoom the whole screen. I have "Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom" checked and Command as the modifier, so I can hold down the command key and scroll and the screen zooms in and out.


Why is my Apple TV returning errors when I watch movies rented from Apple?

I had this problem with comcast internet. I believe their "speed boost" traffic shaping tricked the Apple TV into thinking I had something like a 22 megabit pipe - so the movies started playing instantly. When the boost expired, the data rate was much reduced and eventually the movie played past the delivery of the content which means my overall download wasn't fast enough to get the whole movie to my set before the movie ended.

When I changed internet providers the issues have been resolved for me. I stumbled on this by realizing I never got this error when taking my Apple TV to a friend's house with "slower" internet. The confusing part was most of the time - comcast was fast enough - but when it wasn't I still got a great initial "boost" but couldn't really watch the rental due to poor bandwidth.


Installing Ubuntu without DVD or Flash Drive

My objective is to post a procedure that would allow you to boot a Ubuntu Desktop Live. Once you have booted, you could then install the regular Ubuntu Desktop. The only way I can figure out how to boot Ubuntu Desktop Live is by using GRUB. The problem is I can not determine a way to install GRUB without first installing some version of Linux. In this case, I choose to install Ubuntu Server inside a VirtualBox machine. This machine was configured to use a subset of the Mac's physical HD partitions. Once GRUB was installing in these partitions, Ubuntu Desktop Live could boot without using VirtualBox.
Install Ubuntu Server

To start I will assume your current hard disk is configured as shown below.
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +80.5 GB    disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            79.7 GB    disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot                         650.0 MB   disk0s3

The command below will create approximately 40 GB of free space at the end of your internal disk. This command will automatically relocate the disk0s3 partition.
diskutil resizevolume disk0s2 40g

The results can be summarized by the output from the diskutil list command, shown below.
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +80.5 GB    disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            40.0 GB    disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery                650.0 MB   disk0s3

Before using VirtualBox, all new linux related partitions have to be created. I choose the third party tool gdisk to create the partitions. Below is a list of the partitions that need to be created.

1.9 GB partition to hold the contents of the Ubuntu Desktop Live iso. This will allow you to replace Ubuntu Server with Ubuntu Desktop.
1 MiB Bios Boot Partition to hold GRUB boot code.
4 GiB Linux Swap Partition. This was chosen to be the same size as your RAM.
The remaining space to be allocated for Ubuntu files.

The output from using the gdisk /dev/disk0 command to edit the GPT is given below.
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.3

Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/disk0: 157286400 sectors, 75.0 GiB
Sector size (logical): 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): A7A204BD-463D-4EE5-9A78-8E9804D1539F
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 157286366
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 77482197 sectors (36.9 GiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System Partition
   2          409640        78534639   37.3 GiB    AF00  Macintosh HD
   3        78534640        79804175   619.9 MiB   AB00  Recovery HD

Command (? for help): n
Partition number (4-128, default 4):
First sector (34-157286366, default = 79804176) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Last sector (79804176-157286366, default = 157286366) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +1900M
Current type is 'Apple HFS/HFS+'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = AF00): 8300
Changed type of partition to 'Linux filesystem'

Command (? for help): n
Partition number (5-128, default 5):
First sector (34-157286366, default = 83695376) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Last sector (83695376-157286366, default = 157286366) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +1M
Current type is 'Apple HFS/HFS+'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = AF00): ef02
Changed type of partition to 'BIOS boot partition'

Command (? for help): n
Partition number (6-128, default 6):
First sector (34-157286366, default = 83697424) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Last sector (83697424-157286366, default = 157286366) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: +4G
Current type is 'Apple HFS/HFS+'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = AF00): 8200
Changed type of partition to 'Linux swap'

Command (? for help): n
Partition number (7-128, default 7):
First sector (34-157286366, default = 92086032) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Last sector (92086032-157286366, default = 157286366) or {+-}size{KMGTP}:
Current type is 'Apple HFS/HFS+'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = AF00): 8300
Changed type of partition to 'Linux filesystem'

Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/disk0: 157286400 sectors, 75.0 GiB
Sector size (logical): 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): A7A204BD-463D-4EE5-9A78-8E9804D1539F
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 157286366
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 6 sectors (3.0 KiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System Partition
   2          409640        78534639   37.3 GiB    AF00  Macintosh HD
   3        78534640        79804175   619.9 MiB   AB00  Recovery HD
   4        79804176        83695375   1.9 GiB     8300  Linux filesystem
   5        83695376        83697423   1024.0 KiB  EF02  BIOS boot partition
   6        83697424        92086031   4.0 GiB     8200  Linux swap
   7        92086032       157286366   31.1 GiB    8300  Linux filesystem

Command (? for help): w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/disk0.
Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Warning: The kernel may continue to use old or deleted partitions.
You should reboot or remove the drive.
The operation has completed successfully.

Note:  It would be a good idea to restart the Mac.

The output from the command diskutil list is shown below. This includes the new partitions created by using gdisk.
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +80.5 GB    disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            40.0 GB    disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery                650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:           Linux Filesystem                         2.0 GB     disk0s4
   5:        Bios Boot Partition                         1.0 MB     disk0s5
   6:                 Linux Swap                         4.3 GB     disk0s6
   7:           Linux Filesystem                         33.4 GB    disk0s7

Create folder named "VirtualBox" in your Documents folder.

Note: At this point, one should realize it would be easier to copy the commands from this document and paste them into the Terminal application window.

This step will create the files needed by VirtualBox to access the
physical partition where you will install Ubuntu. In a Terminal
application window, enter the following commands.
cd  ~/documents/virtualbox
sudo  chmod  go+rw  /dev/disk0s4
sudo  chmod  go+rw  /dev/disk0s5
sudo  chmod  go+rw  /dev/disk0s6
sudo  chmod  go+rw  /dev/disk0s7
sudo  vboxmanage  internalcommands  createrawvmdk  -filename  "$PWD/linux.vmdk"  -rawdisk  /dev/disk0  -partitions  4,5,6,7
sudo  chown  $USER  linux*.vmdk

Note: This access granted by the chmod command will only last
until OS X is rebooted.

The result should be the creation of the files linux.vmdk and
linux-pt.vmdk in your "VirtualBox" folder. Later, you will
select the file linux.vmdk to give a virtual machine access to
the physical partitions.

Configure the virtual machine. Open the VirtualBox application and
click on icon above the New label. Enter or select the values shown
below, then click the "Continue" button.

Use the default settings except for the hard drive. Choose the "Use an existing virtual hard drive file" button. Navigate to your "VirtualBox" folder. Highlight the linux.vmdk file. Open the linux.vmdk file. Your window should appear similar to what is shown below.

Click the "Create" button.
After returning to the VirtualBox application's "Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager" window, click on the icon above the "Settings" label. Next, click on the icon above the "Storage" label. Highlight "Controller: SATA" in "Storage Devices", then select the "Use Host I/O Cache" option. Your window should appear similar to what is shown below.

Highlight the Empty CD/DVD and select "Choose Virtual Optical Disk
File..." to attach the "ubuntu-16.04.3-server-amd64.iso" file. (Hint: Look for the
CD/DVD icons)

Click OK to close the window. Your "Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager"
window should appear similar to what is shown below.

Click on the icon above the "Start" label to boot from the "ubuntu-16.04.3-server-amd64.iso" file. You can proceed with the installation by choosing the default values until you reach the image shown below. Here, you should choose "Manual".

Select #6, as shown below.

Select "Use as:", as shown below.

Select "swap area", as shown below.

Select "Done setting up the partition", as show below.

Select #7, as shown below.

Select "Use as:", as shown below.

Select "Ext4 journaling file system", as shown below.

Select "Mount point:", as shown below.

Select "/ - the root file system", as shown below.

Select "Done setting up the partition", as show below.

Select "Finish partitioning and write changes to disk", as shown below.

Select "Yes", as shown below.

When prompted to "Install the GRUB boot loader to the master boot record?", select "Yes", as shown below.

The install should proceed to completion.

Use Ubuntu Server to Setup Ubuntu Desktop Live

Using VirtualBox, boot to Ubuntu Server.

After logging in, enter the command below. This will give you root user privileges.
sudo  bash

Copy the MBR to an unused sector in the BIOS boot partition.
dd  if=/dev/sda  count=1  seek=1800  of=/dev/sda5

Insert ubuntu-16.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso into the virtual DVD drive.

Enter the commands given below to copy the files from the iso to the hard disk.

Note: The rsync command may take a while to complete.

mkfs.ext4  /dev/sda4
mkdir  live
mount  /dev/sda4  live
mkdir  dvd
mount  /dev/sr0 dvd
rsync  -a  dvd/*  live
eject
rmdir  dvd
umount  live
rmdir  live

Configure GRUB. Start by entering the following commands to edit the 40_custom file.
cd  /etc/grub.d
nano  40_custom

Add the following lines to the end of the 40_custom file. This will create Ubuntu Desktop Live and Installation entries in the GRUB menu.
menuentry "Ubuntu Desktop 16.04.3 Live" {
        set root=(hd0,4)
        linux /casper/vmlinuz.efi boot=casper ignore_uuid
        initrd /casper/initrd.lz
}
menuentry "Install Ubuntu Desktop 16.04.3" {
        set root=(hd0,4)
        linux /casper/vmlinuz.efi boot=casper only-ubiquity ignore_uuid
        initrd /casper/initrd.lz
}

After saving your changes to the 40_custom file, enter the following commands to edit the grub file.
cd  /etc/default
nano  grub

Find the following line in the grub file.
GRUB_DEFAULT=0

Change the line to appear as shown below.
GRUB_DEFAULT=3

Find the following line in the grub file.
GRUB_TIMEOUT=2

Change the line to appear as shown below.
GRUB_TIMEOUT=-1

After saving your changes to the grub file, use the following commands to update grub and return to your home directory.
update-grub
cd  ~

Exit being the root user and shutdown the virtual machine.
exit
shutdown  now

Use OS X to Setup Ubuntu Desktop Live

Copy the MBR GRUB boot code from the BIOS boot partition to the MBR.
cd  ~
sudo  dd  if=/dev/disk0s5  count=1  skip=1800  of=mbr.binary
sudo  fdisk  -u  -y  -f  mbr.binary  /dev/disk0
sudo  rm  mbr.binary

Convert to a Hybrid MBR/GPT scheme. The only reason for this step is to get around a bug in the Mac logic board BIOS firmware. Basically, the BIOS will not load the MBR into RAM unless there is an active partition in the MBR table. This conversion can be easily accomplished through the use of the interactive command shown below.
sudo  gdisk  /dev/disk0

The output from using this command is shown below.
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.3

Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help): r

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): h

WARNING! Hybrid MBRs are flaky and dangerous! If you decide not to use one,
just hit the Enter key at the below prompt and your MBR partition table will
be untouched.

Type from one to three GPT partition numbers, separated by spaces, to be
added to the hybrid MBR, in sequence: 2 3 4
Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): y

Creating entry for GPT partition #2 (MBR partition #2)
Enter an MBR hex code (default AF): af
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): n

Creating entry for GPT partition #3 (MBR partition #3)
Enter an MBR hex code (default AB): ab
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): n

Creating entry for GPT partition #4 (MBR partition #4)
Enter an MBR hex code (default 83): 83
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): y

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/disk0.
Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
Warning: The kernel may continue to use old or deleted partitions.
You should reboot or remove the drive.
The operation has completed successfully.

Note: As the above message states, It would be a good idea to restart your Mac.

Use the bless command to set your Mac to BIOS boot.
sudo  bless  --device  /dev/disk0  --setBoot  --legacy

Replace Ubuntu Server with Ubuntu Desktop

After properly blessing your Mac, restart to boot GRUB. You should get an image similar to what is shown below. Select "Install Ubuntu Desktop 16.04.3".

Install until the message shown below appears. Shortly, after this message is displayed, the window will be populated by partition information. This information will obscure this message.

The window, with the partition information, will appear similar to what is shown below.

This message is wrong. The message clearly says "You will not be able to create, delete or resize partition on this disk." Well, this is exactly what we will be doing.

Delete the last 3 partitions. Select a partition, then select the - character. Repeat for the two remaining partitions. The result should appear similar to what is shown below.

Add back the desired partitions, I choose the same as was deleted. You may want something different. Perhaps a LVM?
Select the free space as shown below, then select the + character.

Set the popup window as shown below, then select "OK".

Select the free space as shown below, then select the + character.

Set the popup window as shown below, then select "OK".

Select the free space as shown below, then select the + character.

Set the "Mount point" in the popup window, as shown below, then select "OK".

Note: Do not change the "Size:" value. Your value may be different from what is shown below.

The final results are shown below. To proceed with the installation, select "Install Now".

Select "Continue". Let the installation proceed to conclusion.

Where to Next?
To boot back to OS X, you need to hold down the option key at startup.
You will probably want to use rEFInd as your boot manager.
I made the swap space 4 GiB, because I read this is the amount of RAM installed. Upon review, I see only 3 GiB is usable. A little extra swap space probably is nothing to be concerned over. If you wish, you could make adjustments to my posted installation procedures.
References
There is no reason for readers to look up any of these references. They appear here for my use.
GNU GRUB Manual 2.02
Creating a BIOS/GPT and UEFI/GPT Grub-bootable Linux system
How do I set the grub timeout and the grub default boot entry?
Installation/FromLinux
Can I boot a Live USB fully to RAM, allowing me to remove the disk?
How to bypass “Try it / Install” screen when booting from USB Live Session? (without installing in the USB)


Macbook Pro Retina – "Battery Is Not Charging"

This happens to me too. I clean the connectors, especially the area around the pins on the computer case. This is a very small area; last time I used a heavy paper stock card and cleaned out any dust or debris that might have been there. Problem solved!  This has happened to my computer a few times and the solution is always getting either the power connector pins clean, or the metal areas immediately adjacent cleaned. It could be a grounding issue.


Why do most processes run as children of launchd?

macOS comes from the Unix tradition of operating systems. Here processes are arranged in a tree, i.e. a hierarchy with parent and child processes.

From this follows that there most be a root process from which other processes are spawned. This process on modern macOS is launchd.

On earlier versions of OS X a process named initd took the place of launchd. Launchd is essentially a modern replacement and superset of initd.

There’s no inherent “offering” in having launchd as your parent process.

The reason it is not for example kernel_task is that it stands for computation that happens in kernel mode - i.e. a privileged mode on the CPU.

Launchd is the first user-mode process started by the kernel when the system boots. User-mode means that it is less privileged than kernel mode. Launchd then handles starting the rest of the processes necessary to have a working, usable system.


Shortcut MacOS to go to the beginning of a document

AFAIK, there is no universal shortcut. But Preview provides for this with the "home" and "end" keys (on an extended keyboard). Another handy Preview shortcut is CMD-OPT-G, which brings up a tiny dialog where you enter the page number you wish to display.

For Word, or other apps, you might try creating your own shortcuts: System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts . . . App Shortcuts.

G'luck.


It worked fine. In fact I updated to 10.10 successfully in safe boot.


Set time restrictions for certain websites even on admin

If you visit YouTube or other time-consuming sites with your web browser you can install either WasteNoTime (Safari or Google) or LeechBlock (FireFox). WasteNoTime is/was inspired by LeechBlock.

The extension (I only tested it in Chrome) is adequately adjustable by using blacklists and whitelists.

By adding chrome://extensions to the block list you can even hinder yourself disabling or uninstalling the extension.

These extensions are not infallible though: you can still just remove it using the Finder.


Any point in waiting for Samsung 850 EVO?

Ask yourself this, do you need a performance boost now or can you wait an unknown amount of time for a possibly unnoticeable difference between the 840 and 850 EVO?

I personally have an 840 EVO, install them all day long and before my EVO I had an Intel SSD. EVOs are great but the decision should be as simple as do you want it now or do it you want it later. No matter what you won't regret your decision.


Use one modifier key as multiple modifier keys?

As @fartheraway says, Karabiner can help, but you'll also want Seil.

Using the System Preferences > Keyboard: click on the Modifier Keys... button and map the Caps Lock to "No Action"
Using Seil, map the Caps Lock to something like function key 19 (f19) by using keycode 80.
Using Karabiner, go to "Misc & Uninstall" and under "Custom Setting" click on the "Open private.xml" button
List item
Open the private.xml file with a text editor and add the following inside the <root> tags:

<item>
  <name>Change f19 (Caps Lock) to Command-Control-Option-Shift</name>
  <identifier>private.f19_to_command_control_option_shift</identifier>

  <autogen>
    __KeyToKey__
    KeyCode::F19,
    KeyCode::OPTION_L, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_L | ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L | ModifierFlag::SHIFT_L,
  </autogen>
</item>

(Drop any of the modifiers that you don't want and then save the changes to the private.xml file.)
Back in Karabiner, click on the "Change Key" tab
Click on the "Reload XML" button
Then enable (click on the checkbox) next to the "Change f19..." that appears at the top of the list.


How can I remove the Job Title and Company from all Address Book contacts using AppleScript?

Try something like:

tell application "Address Book"
    set thePeople to every person
    repeat with i from 1 to length of thePeople
        tell item i of thePeople
            set organization to missing value
            set job title to missing value
        end tell
    end repeat
    save
end tell


To turn off Lion's Resume feature just go to System Preferences > General and uncheck "Restore Windows when quitting and re-opening apps".

Once rebooted, won't do it again.


The commands you listed in your question take you into the currently logged in user's Messaging App's message archive, lists the contents of that directory and then goes back to the currently logged in user's home directory.  If you were logged in, then it's your messaging archive.

The exit command exits, or closes, the Terminal session, nothing more.

To see who has logged into your computer (or when the last time you logged in from where), type the command last in your Terminal:

$ last

To get a listing of the commands you have executed type:

$ history

If you want to save that to a file for later reading, type this:

$ history > ~/Desktop/history.txt

and a file will show up on your Desktop with all those commands.  You can use the same technique for last but be sure to rename the file.

Now, if you want to see what happens when you are not in front of your Mac, just clear out the history before you leave with the command history -c.  This way, you will see exactly what has been done when you weren't around.

Now, you obviously have a 2AM login into your computer.  Why

a) do you not have a password

or

b) if you do have one, why is it shared with others?


Can't delete one event from series in calendar.app from a google calendar

Did you create the account using CalDAV, as Google recommends? It could of course be a bug in Calendar.app, but I would make sure that the recommended settings are used. See here:
https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/99358?hl=en

Indeed, as rob speculated, Google doesn't provide Exchange ActiveSync any more for new devices:
https://support.google.com/a/answer/2716936?hl=en

However, that doesn't seem to be the reason for the problem in question. For me nothing was synced an a new iPhone with an Exchange type Google account, and thus, there were no events to be deleted either. I switched to using CalDAV, which works fine.


How to prevent the application launched in Terminal from undesirably exiting?

The "standard" way of accomplishing what you want to accomplish (on OS X as well as on Linux, FreeBSD or other systems) is to use the command nohup:

nohup program &

This will start program, which will run in the background relative to the shell because of the & - and will ignore hangup signals due to the nohup command.

This way the program will continue running even though you close the shell. It doesn't matter if you're closing the shell because you're closing Terminal.app, or you're closing the shell because you are disconnecting from a ssh connection to the computer, or similar.


Open Terminal
type cd .Trash followed by Return
type rm NGPlayer followed by Tab
the name should now auto-complete
type Return to remove the file
reboot

Please be aware that this will just remove the DMG from your system, it will not cleanout any malware which might already have gotten installed.


How do i pass variables' values between subsequent applescript runs? (persistent value between script executions)

You can write to a .plist file as such:

--Empty preference file
set theEmptyPListData to "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC \"-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN\" \"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd\">
<plist version=\"1.0\">
<dict/>
</plist>"

--set preference list path and open with write permissions
set theOutputFolder to path to preferences folder from user domain as string
set thePListPath to theOutputFolder & "AppleScript.plist"
set thePListFile to open for access thePListPath with write permission

--check to see if the plist variable is set
try
    tell application "System Events"
        tell property list file thePListPath
            tell contents
                value of property list item "browser"
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
on error
    tell application "System Events"
        if not (exists file thePListFile) then
            set webBrowser to the button returned of (display dialog "What web browser to you want to use?
(Choose carefully, as this will not appear again)" buttons {"Safari", "Firefox", "Google Chrome"})

            set eof of thePListFile to 0
            write theEmptyPListData to thePListFile starting at eof

            tell property list file thePListPath
                tell contents
                    set value to {|browser|:webBrowser}
                end tell
            end tell
        end if
    end tell
end try

This script will ask for the user's browser and it will save it across runs of the script.


Google two-factor doesn't work on iPad after iPhone is set up

I have this set up on my iPad and iPhone. Google's site isn't very clear, and it's easy to get confused between the different elements of the two factor logins.

It sounds like what you're getting hung up on is the Google authenticator app. That's only used for logging in to Google's websites, it doesn't authenticate your iPhone/iPad for email access or anything else. For mail access, all you need (and the only thing that will work) are app specific passwords.

Here's what I did:

Go to this page and generate an app-specific password. Label it iPhone Mail. (Doing this on the actual device is probably best, since you can copy/paste rather than manually copying from your Mac).
Open your iPhone Mail settings, and input the password you generated into your Gmail account settings.
Repeat for the iPad (creating a different app-specific password is highly recommended).

That should be all you need.

I think the reason you had trouble with the authenticator on your iPad is that Google probably allows only one authenticator active at a time for security purposes. I'm not 100% sure on this, but it's my best guess. I'd suggest keeping it on whatever device you have with you more often (guessing that's your iPhone).


How can I tell if True Tone is on/off in a script?

You can try this, Source completely referenced from Reddit

tell application "System Preferences"
  if it is running then
    quit
  end if
end tell

delay 0.2

activate application "System Preferences"

tell application "System Events"
  tell process "System Preferences"
    click button "Displays" of scroll area 1 of window "System Preferences"
    delay 0.8
    click radio button "Display" of tab group 1 of window "Built-in Retina Display"
    click checkbox "True Tone" of tab group 1 of window "Built-in Retina Display"
  end tell
  quit application "System Preferences"
end tell

The other solution is:

use sys : application "System Events"
use prefs : application "System Preferences"

property prefsUI : a reference to process "System Preferences"
property _W : a reference to windows of prefsUI
property _TT : a reference to checkbox "True Tone" of tab group 1 of _W

property pane : "com.apple.preference.displays"
property anchor : "displaysDisplayTab"
property tab : anchor (my anchor) of pane id (my pane)

set TrueTone to null
if tab ≠ (reveal tab) then return null

tell _TT to if exists then set TrueTone to its value as boolean

quit prefs

TrueTone


There are two minor issues:  First, to pipe file names to a perl one-liner in this way, you need to use the xargs command.

Second, you will need to pass the full path to the perl one-liner, because it might be in a subdir, so it would be better to use find.

Here's a working command:

find . -name "*.txt" | xargs perl -i -p -e 's/one.a/two.a/g'


Hold the Off/On and the Home buttons simultaneously until you see the Apple logo on the screen.


How do I subscribe to RSS feeds in Safari on a page showing the Reader button?

Click and hold the Reader button, and a menu of available feeds appears.

(Discovered after much Googling at Mac OS X Hints.)