This can't be done at the moment. There's no option to disable the alert, other than enabling cellular data.

If you're jailbroken, you can install NoAnnoyance:

   NoAnnoyance

  Tame iOS annoying alerts!

  A CydiaSubstrate tweak to disable annoying iOS 7 messages.

  Supported alerts:

  Cellular data is not enabled
  Disable airplane mode to access data
  Turn Off Airplane Mode or Use Wi-Fi to Access Data
  Location accuracy improved by enabling Wi-Fi
  Unsupported charging accessory
  Accessory unreliable
  Low battery
  Cellular data is turned off for "AppName" disabled
  Low disk space
  The mail server is not responding
  More...

If you wish for a non-jailbreak solution, you can provide feedback to Apple regarding this at the following page:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Possible solution provided by Parasprite — I can't get it to work:

  After some trial and error, it seems as if it becomes permanent after a few tries.

  Turn cellular data off for the offending app ([Music]).
  Open [Music], dismiss warning.
  Close app using the app switcher (double-click home button and swipe off of screen).
  Re-open [Music], dismiss popup.
  Goto step 3, repeat until it stops showing.

  If it's behaviour is anything like The Game Center popup, it should be permanent after 3 dismissals.


Dire need to make Bootcamp work with Thunderbolt Display

As the source of that info is Apple themselves, you'd imagine that they're probably best placed to offer advice on the subject.

This suggests that the 'fault' is not just Apple's, but requires Windows to be complicit. It would appear Windows 8 is capable, but requires the latest Apple hardware too.

Quote

  Are Thunderbolt devices “hot pluggable” using Windows with Boot Camp?
  The iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2014) and the Mac mini (Late 2014) support “hot pluggable” Thunderbolt devices using Windows 8 or 8.1 (both as 64-bit only).
  For all other Mac computers, Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 scans and activates Thunderbolt devices connected to Thunderbolt ports only during the Windows startup process. If your device was not plugged in at start up, Windows will not detect it without a restart.


How to use screen capture UI standalone, to edit existing images?

By default, since macOS Mojave, when taking a screen shot a floating thumbnail briefly appears in the lower right-hand corner of the Desktop, which one can click on to edit the screen shot.

The editor which appears, because by default Show Floating Thumbnail is checked in the Options for taking a screen shot, can be used on an image file or screen shot afterwards by selecting the image file in Finder and then right-click on the image and select: Quick Actions > Markup

You can also, after selecting the image file, press the spacebar to bring up a quicklook view and click the Markup button.


It starts fine, but no image on the screen. Clearly think it's a GPU-CPU issue, but obviously they are talking or all 4 LED's wouldn't light up....so it must be something written into the EFI that's preventing screen imaging, I'm thinking.


What to do when macbook pro's battery starts to spurt out flame?

You punctured the Lithium Ion Battery. Basically, you created a small "short" somewhere between the electrodes inside the cell.

  A mild short will only cause elevated self-discharge and the heat
  buildup is minimal because the discharging power is very low. If
  enough microscopic metallic particles converge on one spot, a sizable
  current begins to flow between the electrodes of the cell, and the
  spot heats up and weakens. As a small water leak in a faulty hydro dam
  can develop into a torrent and take a structure down, so too can heat
  buildup damage the insulation layer in a cell and cause an electrical
  short. The temperature can quickly reach 500C (932F), at which point
  the cell catches fire or it explodes. This thermal runaway that occurs
  is known as “venting with flame.” “Rapid disassembly” is the preferred
  term by the battery industry. 1

There is an excellent video on YouTube that shows exactly what happens when you puncture one.

So, how do you dispose?

An electronics recycling center.  A simple Internet Search will bring up centers in your area.

Given your lack of experience and the high likelihood of a dangerous situation, your best bet is to let someone with skills in this sort of disassembly handle the procedure.

  am considering ask for some help from local computer repairment shops. But in case they are not able to help (since it's rather dangerous), should I give up fixing it or not?

Fix it?

You shorted out the contacts of the battery that connects it to the main board, used a chisel to pry off the adhesive from a paper thin aluminum housing and proceed to puncture the battery which caused a fire.

If you can get the chisel out without setting it ablaze and your logic board is still functional, you still have the top case assembly to replace.  Is it worth fixing?

As for your chisel...it's a good opportunity for a trip to Home Depot.

1  Safety Concerns with Li-ion  Battery University, Last Updated 2016-09-27


Where is the latest Microsoft Messenger (or alternative) that works with Exchange?

Lync for Mac may be what you're looking for. It's a replacement for Office Communicator (the IM, presence, conferencing and voice client). Your work environment should support it with the server though.


Most unix processes write to or use a call to syslog. You can see this in Console.app entries be default (if none has reconfigured syslog) will show up in Al Messages and in /var/logs/system.log

You can increase the logging level by providing the -d argument to the ftp command line


upgrading drive of 2015 macbook air, such thing as too fast?

No - storage is the one bottleneck here.

the CPU is always magnitude of times faster than storage and the bus speed between CPu and storage is also faster than both specs.

Go for the speed if you are sure the drivers and connectors are compatible.


App Store sometimes can't install apps, iCloud icon appearing instead of INSTALL icon

An iCloud icon means that you have bought this application before and this is the only different between showing this icon and GET/INSTALL icon.

You can not change the iCloud icon because it is bought and it can't be undone. If you are unable to get the application, maybe there are network issues. Try change the network you are connected to a more reliable network, and reboot your device.


How to copy a transparent PNG file to iPad from a Mac

Any file transfer option that simply copies the file directly will suffice. This includes AirDrop and file syncing options such as Dropbox and Google Drive. I would personally recommend using AirDrop, as since it is transferred with a local ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection, it never needs to leave your local network and allows for fast transfer speeds of even very large files. Note that this will only work if your iOS and Mac devices meet these requirements.

The Apple support website offers these instructions for using AirDrop to send files to an iOS device:

  Choose Go > AirDrop from the menu bar in the Finder. Or select
  AirDrop in the sidebar of a Finder window.
  The AirDrop window shows
  nearby AirDrop users. Drag one or more items to the recipient's
  image in the window, then click Send.

  Or use the Share feature:

  Click the Share button, if available in your app. Or Control-click an item in the Finder, then choose Share from the shortcut menu.
  The Share menu lists several sharing options. Choose AirDrop.
  Select a recipient from the AirDrop sheet, then click Done.


Why does the 13" MacBook Pro Retina (Late 2016) have a default resolution of 1440x900 instead of 1280x800?

Scroll down to read the short answer.

Long answer

MBP 2nd generation

In 2008 Apple released the Unibody MacBook Pros with native display resolutions of  1280 × 800 and 1440 × 900 for the 13” and 15” inch models, respectively. The pixel density is about the same for both LCD panels. These resolutions and panel sizes were used in previous models as well.

MBP 3rd generation

In 2012 the MacBook Pro with Retina display was released. Apple continued to offer the 13” and 15” models (sans the 17” one). While the size of the LCD panels remained the same, the panel’s native resolution was increased four times (double the pixel density). This resulted in a resolution of 2560 × 1600 (13”) and 2880 × 1800 (15”).

To remain a the same size of display elements at these resolutions Apple introduced HiDPI to macOS. An app icon of 100 × 100 on an old panel now has the size of 200 × 200. With double the pixel density it has the same size, but it’s much sharper.

MBP 4th generation

Fast forward to 2016 Apple released the MacBook Pro with a new design. The LCD panel’s resolutions remained the same for both models. Apple, however, increased the default resolution for the 13” model from looking like 1280 × 800 to 1440 × 900 **.

This results in smaller text elements, icons and windows which seems counterintuitive. Although Apple has not released a statement why it did so, the reason seems to be this one: With the release of the 2016 MBP Apple stopped displaying and selling the MacBook Air 11” and the old MacBook Pro 13” (2nd gen.) in their retail stores. The remaining laptops are

the MacBook 12” (retina, 2304 × 1440)
the MacBook Pro 13” (retina, 2560 × 1600)
the MacBook Pro 15” (retina, 2880 × 1800) and
the good old MacBook Air 13” (non-retina, 1440 × 900)

Customers looking for a 13” machine will most probably compare the MBA 13” and the MBP 13”. Although the MBP’s screen is far superior (higher physical resolution, wider color gamut, better viewing angles), the MBP 13” looks to have a smaller working area at 1280 × 800 retina compared to the MBA 13” at 1440 × 900.

To prevent customers from getting the impression that the MBA 13” had “larger working area” Apple increased perceived resolution from 1280 × 800 to 1440 × 900 for the MBP 13.

TL;DR

Apple now only sells two 13" laptops, the new 2016 MacBook Pro (MBP) and the MacBook Air (MBA) with a design from 2010.

The MBA has a native display resolution of 1440 × 900.
The MBP has a better display with a resolution of 2560 × 1600. Until 2015 it was set to look like 1280 × 800.

In order to make it easier to compare the MBA and the MBP Apple increased the display setting for the MBP to look like 1440 × 900 by default.

**

  All the old Retina Pros used the 1280×800 mode as their default, but the new ones use 1440×900 mode by default; Apple does something similar with the Retina MacBook, which uses 1280×800 mode by default even though the 1152×720 mode actually reflects the panel’s native resolution. It’s a way to make the panels look higher-resolution than they are without increasing costs or wearing down the battery more quickly.

Source: ArsTechnica


Aperture showing videos with odd lines, how to see videos nicely in OSX?

I just went with Final Cut Pro: stored the videos to external HDD and then viewed them there with FCP. Also VLC player as suggested may be an option. Yet FCP is also for editing, VLC for playing. For this purpose just for analysing the shots, FCP and VLC may be a bit off-topic but they can nicely show videos.


Downloading multiple files with curl with different proxies

When you have a long URL or multiples, use xargs instead:

do shell script "xargs curl --proxy < url-list.txt"

url-list.txt

1.2.3.4:800 http://domain1.com/somefile.txt
2.3.4.5:80 http://www.domain2.com/otherfile.png
3.4.5.6:8080 http://domain3.com/file.jpg


Bootcamp High Sierra upgrade now not working

This answer is for Windows installations that BIOS boot.

Check for BIOS Boot Method

You can check to see if Windows BIOS boots by entering the command given below in a Terminal application window.

  Note: If you renamed your windows partition to some other name than the default of BOOTCAMP, then make the appropriate substitution in thecommand below.

 ls /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/boot

If you get a message similar to what is given below, then your computer is using the EFI to boot Windows, otherwise Windows is probably using the BIOS boot method.

ls: /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/boot: No such file or directory

My 2011 iMac BIOS boots Windows 10. Entering the above command on this Mac produces the following output. Your output may be different. When BIOS booting, the file BCD should appear in the list.

BCD            cs-CZ          fi-FI          lv-LV          ru-RU
BCD.LOG        da-DK          fr-CA          memtest.exe    sk-SK
BCD.LOG1       de-DE          fr-FR          nb-NO          sl-SI
BCD.LOG2       el-GR          hr-HR          nl-NL          sr-Latn-RS
BOOTSTAT.DAT   en-GB          hu-HU          pl-PL          sv-SE
Fonts          en-US          it-IT          pt-BR          tr-TR
Resources      es-ES          ja-JP          pt-PT          uk-UA
bg-BG          es-MX          ko-KR          qps-ploc       zh-CN
bootvhd.dll    et-EE          lt-LT          ro-RO          zh-TW

Check for EFI Boot Method

You can check to see if Windows EFI boots by entering the commands given below in a Terminal application window.

diskutil mount disk0s1
ls /Volumes/efi/efi/microsoft/boot

If you get a message similar to what is given below, then your computer is using the BIOS to boot Windows, otherwise Windows is using the EFI boot method.

ls: /Volumes/efi/efi/microsoft/boot: No such file or directory

My 2013 iMac EFI boots Windows 10. Entering the above commands on this Mac produces the following output. Your output may be different. When EFI booting, the file BCD should appear in the list.

BCD             da-DK           hu-HU           kd_0C_8086.dll  ro-RO
BCD.LOG         de-DE           it-IT           kdstub.dll      ru-RU
BCD.LOG1        el-GR           ja-JP           ko-KR           sk-SK
BCD.LOG2        en-GB           kd_02_10df.dll  lt-LT           sl-SI
BOOTSTAT.DAT    en-US           kd_02_10ec.dll  lv-LV           sr-Latn-CS
Fonts           es-ES           kd_02_1137.dll  memtest.efi     sr-Latn-RS
Resources       es-MX           kd_02_14e4.dll  nb-NO           sv-SE
bg-BG           et-EE           kd_02_15b3.dll  nl-NL           tr-TR
boot.stl        fi-FI           kd_02_1969.dll  pl-PL           uk-UA
bootmgfw.efi    fr-CA           kd_02_19a2.dll  pt-BR           zh-CN
bootmgr.efi     fr-FR           kd_02_8086.dll  pt-PT           zh-HK
cs-CZ           hr-HR           kd_07_1415.dll  qps-ploc        zh-TW

You should enter the command given below to unmount the EFI partition.

diskutil unmount disk0s1

Procedure to Recreate Hybrid Partitioning

The upgrade to High Sierra most likely reset your hybrid partitioning. Instructions for how to restore hybrid partitioning, can be found at the website How to convert a drive from the GPT format to the hybrid GPT/MBR format when using High Sierra (macOS 10.13.2)

You can also use the free third party command gdisk to restore hybrid partitioning. You will have to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) before using this command.

Based on your question, the following commands should be issued to gdisk.

r
h
2 3
y
ff
n
07
y
n
w
y

Below is an example of the output from gdisk.

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
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 FF): ff
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): n

Creating entry for GPT partition #3 (MBR partition #3)
Enter an MBR hex code (default 07): 07
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): y

Unused partition space(s) found. Use one to protect more partitions? (Y/N): n

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.

What's Next

If the upgrade to High Sierra converted partitions to the APFS format, then you may need to rebuild your BCD file. In your case, High Sierra is using the APFS format. So while problem posted in your question has been hopefully solved, You may need to make additional repairs before Windows will boot normally.


If this is OS X Server (i.e. the server product, not the regular desktop OS), turn off the web service in either Server Preferences or Server Admin.


Does the iTunes Affiliate Program work with the Volume Purchase Program?

That would be called Double dipping.

As Volume purchasing (authorized) user you get the benefits of Volume purchase.

Means, you have to register with Volume Purchase account, that is not the same as the associate account.

You can not get at the same time the affiliate commission on top.


Chad,
Thanks for the link. Petrock had the solution. Here it is:

I used the free Pref Setter app to edit the plist file.

  You probably used one of those "set hidden finder features"
  apps/utils, didn't you... naughty person you is... If you open up
  ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist with Property List Editor
  and see an entry for "ProhibitConnectTo", then thats the problem. Set
  it to false and save the changes. Then Control-Option-Click on the
  Finder icon in the dock and select Relaunch. When the Finder comes
  back up, Connect To should be available again.


How do I import an old pre-.itl iTunes LIbrary into Catalina Music.app?

I believe the xml was for 3rd party support. The library file you want may not have an extension if you can't find an iTunes Library.itl file.
However, if your your goal is to just move the music and some of the meta-data about the tracks, then try drag and drop:

Open Music in one half of the screen (for reasons that will be obvious later, it makes it a tiny bit easier to put the Music app on the right side of the screen).
Open a Finder window in the other half using list, icon, or gallery view (this works in column view but isn't as easy to describe the process).
Find the folder in the old library that has folders named for the artists (these contain the album folders which contain the individual tracks).
Select on artist folder, it doesn't matter which one.
Press ⌘A to select all. All artist folders should be selected. (If you don't want to move all the artists, then move just the artist folders you need; it starts getting more complicated if you want just select albums or tracks, but it can be done, as well.)
Drag any folder, all selected folders should go with it, to the Library section of the Music sidebar (it should get an outline around the Library options when your pointer is over the right spot).
Drop the files and Music will make a copy in the current Music directory.
You might have some duplicates now, so File > Library > Show Duplicate Items (not all items here are actually dupes, make sure the meta-data is exactly the same; sometimes Music/iTunes can't tell the difference between two different versions of the same track).

If the old iTunes library is still on the local drive with the Music library, it now has dupes of all the tracks you copied so you might consider removing the old library. But, wait until after you have a Time Machine backup of both sets and you're sure that everything you copied is in Music.
SSL. I wanted extra details for other users who may not have as much experience with using Finder and/or drag and drop.


How can I make an external drive behave as an internal drive?

I just found this answer, sorry I tried looking first but couldn't find it....

You should be able to do this with dd by setting Removable to False.

Unmount your disk, then run…

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk2 bs=1 count=1

Don't forget to replace disk2 with the actual disk identifier.

This command will erase the contents of the disk. Untested, be careful, usual 'not responsible if stuff goes wrong' applies :)


Mac Wireless Keyboard - random key presses, possessed

Since your built-in keyboard seems to work fine, I'd try to reset both the macOS Bluetooth Device List and Bluetooth Controller.

IMPORTANT: This will reset all connected Bluetooth devices, including your Apple Magic Mouse, so your wireless keyboard and mouse will need to be reconnected.

Before commencing, you will need to have the Bluetooth icon showing in the menu bar. If it is not there, open System Preferences > Bluetooth and enable the option Show Bluetooth in Menu Bar.

Resetting the macOS Bluetooth Device List and Bluetooth Controller

Follow these steps:

Hold down both the Shift and Option keys and at the same time click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar. Once the menu is showing, release the keys.
From the Bluetooth menu, choose Debug > Remove All Devices
Hold down both the Shift and Option keys again and at the same time click on the Bluetooth icon in the menu bar.
From the Bluetooth menu,  choose Debug > Reset the Bluetooth Module
Restart your Mac
Setup your keyboard again
Setup your Magic Mouse again

Let us know whether this helps.


How to get the current sheet name into the cell in Numbers.app

REGEX.EXTRACT(REFERENCE.NAME(;2);"[^:]+";;) returns the sheet name of the current sheet


What happens if iPhoto is opened and the volume with the library is not available?

To answer your first question, nothing really bad will happen when it can't find the library. Basically, if it can't find it, it will prompt you with which one to open. This would be the same as holding down Option when launching iPhoto (or iTunes, Aperture, etc).

The below folder was after I had created a new library on an external drive, and then disconnected the drive. When I plugged it back in, this list had a new option saying 'Test' (my test library), and default beside that.

So, all iPhoto is doing here is asking you if you want to open another library (because it can't find your default one). While not a benefit in iPhoto, aperture actually lets your export a project as a library, so you could take only a small part of your library with you on the go to work on, then re-add it back to your library when 'connected' again (I don't think iPhoto does this, but I am not sure, I use Aperture more than iPhoto).

For your second question, yes, the other MacBook Pro should be able to see it as well. In that case, you may want to hold down Option to select it from this drive, etc.

The only thing you need to be worried about in that case is not having it open on two machines at the same time (if it was on a network drive). It may prevent you from doing this in the first place, but if it doesn't, it may not be supported and may have issues.


Can I snapshot an OS X Application installation?

File Buddy for OS X has a snapshot feature: Just create a snapshot before and after the installation and first launch of the app. Then open them in compare mode and you will get three text files of added, modified and deleted items.


Mass remove blank spaces from file names and folder names

There are apps that do this but I am not endorsing anything. In my experience, these apps save me hours, if not days, of work as often I need to rename or clean up thousands of images being imported from a camera.

Try searching for something like: Finder, Better, Rename.

Other than that -- you may have to write an AppleScript. There may be an AppleScript already out there. Search for AppleScripts, too.


135GB of Hidden Space + Snapshot Metadata Tree Invalid error in Disk First Aid

The system temporary files was causing this so I solved this issue by doing a clean install. That ended up being the only solution that would work.

In case anyone else comes across this problem, I posted more of an update with screenshots here; https://discussions.apple.com/message/34146008#message34146008


Separate/different sharing of sub-folders in Notes.app

Yes you are right. You can share folders or individual notes in the Notes App. But you cannot share subfolders individually.

After some testing I found the same issue as you:
When you give person Y access to a subfolder, the whole parent folder with all notes and subfolders will be shared. When you try to remove access for Y from a subfolder, the access to the parent folder and all its content and subfolders will be removed. This is not a clever implementation, I have to admit.

The only solution using the Notes App for this purpose is to convert your subfolders to top level folders and set privileges individually for each folder and collaborator.

Unlike I previously described, you can set privileges on a per user basis to read only or write. But the implementation seems not intuitive at first glance, since the access right dropdown appears first on the folder/file level. As soon as you set different privileges for different collaborators, this dropdown changes the the new option "mixed privileges".


What voltage readings should I get from my 60 watt Magsafe?

A good description can be found at Teardown and exploration of Apple's Magsafe connector

Below is taken verbatim from the above link.

The charger startup process

When the Magsafe connector is plugged into a Mac, a lot more happens than you might expect. I believe the following steps take place:

The charger provides a very low current (about 100 µA) 6 volt signal
on the power pins (3 volts for Magsafe 2).
When the Magsafe connector is plugged into the Mac, the Mac applies
a resistive load (e.g. 39.41KΩ), pulling the power input low to
about 1.7 volts.
The charger detects the power input has been pulled low, but not too
low. (A short or a significant load will not enable the charger.)
After exactly one second, the charger switches to full voltage
(14.85 to 20 volts depending on model and wattage). There's a 16-bit
microprocessor inside the charger to control this and other charger
functions.
The Mac detects the full voltage on the power input and reads the
charger ID using the 1-Wire protocol.

If the Mac is happy with the charger ID, it switches the power input to the internal power conversion circuit and starts using the input power. The Mac switches on the appropriate LED on the connector using the 1-Wire protocol.

This process explains why there is a delay of a second after you connect the charger before the light turns on and the computer indicates the battery is charging. It also explains why if you measure the charger output with a voltmeter, you don't find much voltage.


Go into Finder and right click on the DVD, there should be an option "Erase rewritable disk". Apparently that's how to erase disks in El Capitan.


Use your disk as few as possible until you recover your photos.

First, try (as @cyphorious suggested) to search for the actual photos: they might still be here, and you can ignore the iPhoto library itself.

If they aren't here, try to recover them with photorec.


Terminal command to list application defaults?

Not easily. You can use the well-hidden lsregister command to dump the contents of the Launch Services database, which is what controls which file types open with which applications:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -dump

but its output isn't well documented -- there's some info here, but it's over 10 years old so it's probably at least partially obsolete. A bit of Googling turns up some AppleScripts for further parsing, that you might be able to adopt:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/3452435/476909
https://macosx.com/threads/howto-list-your-installed-applications.26204/


I assume that you have checked that the hardware switch on the side of the phone isn't set to silent?

Right near the volume buttons is a switch, if it shows red then your phone is on silent, flick it up and the phone is no longer on silent.


Macbook Pro will no longer detect external display

Try resetting the parameter RAM using these instructions

You can also try resetting the SMC using these instructions


How to create a bootable OS X Snow Leopard USB drive?

Creating a USB Flash Drive Installer from a Snow Leopard ISO File
This was tested using an iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 with MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6 installed. The procedure should be the same for Catalina. The flash drive needs to be at least 8 GB in size. The Snow Leopard ISO file was the same as discussed in this answer, which should be the same ISO you have linked to in your question.

Use the Finder application to mount the Snow Leopard ISO file.

Use the Disk Utility application to erase the flash drive, as shown below. I chose the default name Untitled. Finally, click on the Erase button.

Highlight the name Untitled, then click on the Restore button on the top of the Disk Utility application window. In the popup window, select restore from Mac OS X Install DVD, as shown below. Finally, click on the Restore button in the popup window.

Using the Command Line Interface (CLI)

Note: This flashdrive will be using the Apple Partition Map scheme. This differs from the flash drive created using the Disk Utility, which used the Master Boot Record scheme. In other words, there is more than one way to create a USB flash drive installer from a Snow Leopard ISO file.

The steps below are for OS X and macOS.

Use the command given below to determine the identifier for the flash drive.
diskutil list

Enter the commands given below to create the USB flash drive installer. Here, an assumption is made that the ISO file name is snow leopard install.iso and the file resides in your Downloads folder. Also, an assumption is made that the identifier is disk2. If necessary, make the appropriate substitutions.
DISK=disk2
diskutil unmountdisk $DISK
sudo dd if="$HOME/Downloads/snow leopard install.iso" of=/dev/r$DISK bs=1m

The steps below are for Linux.

Use the command given below to determine the name for the flash drive.
lsblk

Enter the command given below to determine if any volumes on the flash drive are mounted. If there are mounted volumes, then use the sudo unmount command to unmount them before proceeding. Here, an assumption is made that the name for the flash drive is sdb. If necessary, make the appropriate substitutions in the rest of the steps.
mount | grep /dev/sdb

Enter the command given below to create the USB flash drive installer. Here, an assumption is made that the ISO file name is snow leopard install.iso and the file resides in your Downloads folder. If necessary, make the appropriate substitutions.
sudo dd if="$HOME/Downloads/snow leopard install.iso" of=/dev/sdb bs=1M


Paste text with AppleScript without simulating cmd-v with System Events

I managed to find the following solution.

tell application "System Events" to tell process (name of current application)
    tell menu bar item "Edit" of menu bar 1
        click menu item "Paste" of menu 1
    end tell
end tell

delay 0.1

The delay is there to give the system time to copy before using the clipboard.


Stop full screen alerts on my Apple Watch

The closest feature to what you're describing is called Notification Privacy, and it lets you get a quick summary when you twist your wrist instead of the full notification. From the Apple Watch user guide:

  When you raise your wrist to see a notification, you get a quick summary,
  then full details a few seconds later. For example, when a message arrives, you see who it’s from first, then the message appears. To stop the full notification from appearing unless you tap it, open the Apple Watch app on iPhone, tap My Watch, tap Notifications, then turn on Notification Privacy.

Otherwise, you can turn off Apple Watch notifications for specific apps in the Apple Watch app.


What is the fastest way to unlock iPhone X to the homescreen? (rather than double tap, Face ID, swipe up)

You can raise the phone or press the side-button and then swipe up. You do not have to wait for Face ID to complete in between.

This is much faster compared to double-tap, wait for Face ID and swipe.

There's no way currently to access the home screen faster, for example without having to swipe up.


This website claims to have a free commandline tool to monitor temperature sensors.

http://www.bresink.de/osx/0TemperatureMonitor/details.html

  tempmonitor command-line tool

  Temperature Monitor

  version for the BSD command-line of Mac OS X, temperature sensors only

  yes

(Name of tool; part of package download; description; free of charge?)


HT5372: Using and troubleshooting iCloud Tabs

Removing Tabs from the Tab list
To remove a tab from the list of iCloud Tabs, you must close that tab in Safari on the supported device that you used to browse that website. Quitting Safari, putting your Mac to sleep, or shutting it down will not remove the tab from the list. If you no longer have access to the device that that you used to browse that tab, the tab will automatically be cleared from the list after 7 days, if not updated.

Just wait.


get rid of uninstalled app from updates in app store

Turned out this is renamed SQLiteClient.app


MacBook Pro Boot camp assistant not enough space on start disk

Just unchecking "Back Up Automatically" in System Preferences ; Time Machine
fixed it for me.


single key keyboard shortcut run-or-raise applications

There's no direct way to map an Application launch to a key command, but it can be achieved without too much difficulty.

To break it down into its components, you need

A Service, which can be key-commanded
An Applescript, to contain the actual launch command
An Automator workflow, to contain the Applescript
The actual key-command.

It might sound hugely long-winded, but it's simpler than building your own .plist

Launch Automator, from Applications
Select New Document, then Service
On the left, search 'applescript' & drag Run Applescript to the main panel

Replace (* Your script goes here *) with tell Application "Terminal" to activate
Using activate will launch the App if it is not running, or bring it to the front if it already is.
[subsequent Services you generate will use each of your desired Apps in this line]
Click at the top where it says 'Untitled' & give it a suitable name. The destination will be already correct for Services.
Hit  Cmd ⌘   S  to Save.
At the moment I'm seeing a new behaviour I've not noticed before, under 10.11.6 - Saving isn't automatically installing the service. Closing the Workflow window, then re-opening from File menu > Recent then gives the option to install it. ymmv.
Go to System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services & find your new Automator Service [probably down towards the bottom of the list under General.
Make sure there's a checkmark to the left of it, then click none/add shortcut, to the right & add your F-Key
Make sure your pref in System Prefs > Keyboard > Keyboard is set to use all F1, F2 etc as standard function keys - otherwise you'll have to use Fn/F-key instead.

Rinse & repeat for your other required Applications.

After comments:
Running Services in this way may require Automator to be checked in System Prefs > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility


Usually such an error will occur when one or more Apple servers serving that area is down or perhaps it might have to do with either some proxy settings on your providers side if not on your phone side as I've often seen such responses with people having Global HTTP Proxy enabled on their iPhones.

I'd suggest you to try and connect to a WiFi network and try again.


Switching Airplane Mode on entirely disables the Wi-Fi, cellular and Bluetooth radios in your iPhone. To disable GPS as well, go to Settings → Privacy → Location Services and switch the toggle off.


To adjust the schedule in order to backup at a time more to your choosing than simply every hour, you can use the Time Machine Editor tool, which is available as a free download from:

http://timesoftware.free.fr/timemachineeditor/

  TimeMachineEditor is a software for Mac OS X Leopard, Snow Leopard and
  Lion that lets you change the default one-hour backup interval of Time
  Machine. You can change the interval or create a more sophisticated
  scheduling (see screenshot below).   This is useful if you don’t need
  to backup every hour and don’t want the performance penalty. This is
  also especially useful if you manipulate lots of data within one hour
  as you would spend the whole day backing up.

Changing your interval should not affect the daily or monthly backups, which are not actually any different to the hourly ones in any material way.

To get a better idea of what is causing large or lengthy backups, you can use the Backup Loupe software, available for free download at:

http://soma-zone.com/BackupLoupe/

  "With BackupLoupe you are able to answer questions like Why is Time
  Machine so slow? Why is my Time Machine drive already full? Which
  files are actually being backed up? Has a particular file/folder been
  backed up at all? How many revisions of a file/folder exist in Time
  Machine? A file/folder was deleted accidentally. When did this happen
  and where is the latest backup? Is my backup drive big enough? Should
  I consider buying a larger one? And if yes, when?"


Family member being asked to pay again for app I already purchased and shared with her?

If Family Sharing is enabled, they should be able to re-download paid apps at no additional cost by tapping App Store > Purchased.

If they are on separate Apple ID's linked through Family Sharing they need to choose your account from the top right corner of the Purchased section in App Store. Then they should be able to download the paid app(s) at no additional cost.


How do you open a specific folder in Finder without applescript?

Testing in both macOS Catalina and macOS Big Sur, the following command in Terminal opens a Finder window to /Applications:
open -a Finder /Applications


Issues putting a hard drive in the optical bay of my early 2011 MacBook Pro

Firstly, it does not seem to really matter whether you use the Sata II or III port. For most usages you won't see the difference, cf this post for details: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/280002-32-sata-sata-practical-difference.

Given that the disk shows up fine via a USB interface it means that it's not at fault so it could actually be due to the connector in the optical bay which is a bit worn out or that the drive is not correctly plugged.

Try putting the HD in the original HD bay and the SSD in the optical bay and see if the SSD has the same issue. If it has then the issue lies with the optical bay itself.

You could also put the optical disk back into the bay and see if it works normally or has issues as well.

If the issue seems to stem from the optical bay then you should bring the computer to a shop which can diagnose exactly what hardware issue is causing this.


How do I stop my iPhone camera automatically recording my location when I take photos?

Actually you’re already on the right track, as you also do this within your iPhone’s Privacy settings. More specifically:

Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services
To the right of each app that is listed you’ll see an indication of when it accesses your location
Now tap on any of the apps you’d like to change the location settings of (Hint: you can also select the default Camera app to change its settings)
Exit Settings

Any photos/videos you now take with an app that you've chosen to 'Never' allow access to your location, will not be able to record your location.


How to configure the category gridlines in Numbers?

Both your plots have grids but the bottom one has too many.  You need to change the spacing by setting the number of grid lines.
Double click on the plot and in the right window click on axis at the top of that area. This opens a pane with Value X and Value Y labels near the top of the pane.  Below that you'll see Axis Scale which you can set to linear or logarithic. Right below that the pull down for linear or log there is a box that says Steps with major and minor underneth it.
You can enter a whole number in those two boxes and numbers will draw grid lines close to the number you entered. It tries to find a nice spacing to use. See the image below. At the bottom of the pane there are settings for major and minor grid lines.


How to take back control of screenshot functionality from Dropbox?

If you go to the Import tab in the Dropbox preferences and uncheck "Share screenshots using Dropbox," it fixes this.


How do I mask "forbidden" chars in passwords in the mount command?

Use URL encoding to protect the wonky characters in the password. Essentially each character (or byte of UTF-8) can be encoded as a % followed by two hex digits specifying the encoded byte. In your example, \ -> %5C and @ -> %40:

mount -t afp afp://adminname:aaaaa%5C%4011111@ServerIPAddress/ShareName /Volumes/TimeMachine

This worked in my test.


Using MDM alternative after apples MDM block

There are no alternate ways. Apple has not blocked the use of MDM, you can use that still. However, you must abide by the terms and conditions of using MDM. For example you use it to control your own devices - not to control the devices of others.


How do I force OSX to always save file extension?

You can hide common filename extensions, so in the save dialog no filename extension will be shown.
In a finder window, open preferences from Finder menu. Uncheck Show all filename extensions.


The command-line tools are no more bundled with Xcode by default (since). Instead, they can be installed optionally using the Components tab of the Downloads preferences panel.


Is it possible to put Mountain Lion's install on an HDD partition?

Yes you can do it with an internal partition or in an external HDD, just one partition, USB, DVD, all is more or less the same, I have to say that this is one of the best things on the Mac, so easy to backup and restore systems.

NOTICE: back up all your data, and make sure the partition that you are going to use is the correct one, this will destroy all information in that partition

Open Disk utility, and click the desired partition on the left column.
Go to the "restore" tab

At the source, select the dmg file containing the installer (you may need to scan the image first, to do that go to the images menu item and select "Scan image for restore").

At the destination, drag the partition that you would like to use.

Press Restore (erase everything on, at least I prefer it that way).

THIS DESTROYS ALL INFO IN THAT PARTITION.
If all went well, it should copy all info into the partition
Go to system preferences and select startup disk, select the partition that you restored the installer into
Restart.

If all went well, you should be seeing the installer running from your partition, just select the destination for the new installation and all should be ok.

If for some reason the restore didn't work, you may need to mount the installer image and use that "virtual" disk as the source and not the actual image, I've had some trouble in the past and this sorted my problem.


Change network location automatically based on network

Although not automatically, a shorter way to go is in the menu: apple->Location and then choose your location,.


Can i use 'Pages' default images/background styles for my website or mobile app

Almost certainly not.

What pages license are you looking at? Section D starts on page 1: You may not and you agree not to ... create derivative works of the Apple Software or any services provided by the Apple Software.

I would recommend you focus on finding images that are unequivocally granted under creative commons license and perhaps getting a lawyer or at least pay someone to guide you on keeping records of how you source your app and web images.

Just like taxes and accounting - we aren't all accountants, but we need to know when to employ them and the same goes with lawyers.


If you turn on iCloud after already creating notes in the Apple Notes app, those notes will be local to the device, and are not automatically added to iCloud.
To add local notes to iCloud manually you can select an item, and then move it to a new list by dragging the "Notes" folder under the "On My Mac" list to the iCloud list.
On macOS you may have a move all option as well.


Keeping both files when moving them to a different folder?

If you hold option, the skip button should turn to keep both at least in 10.8.2.


What happens to an in-progress `7-day phased release` on the App Store when a newer version is published?

It would not immediately release 1.1.
If your publish 1.2 with immediate availability, then all users will be upgraded to 1.2 the next time the auto-update process on their decice kicks in. This means that both 1.0 and 1.1 users would be updated at the same time.
If you publish 1.2 with phased roll-out, then that phased roll out will run independently from the other one. I.e. 1.1 is not released immediate to the remaining users, nor are users left on 1.0 until they get 1.2.


Applescript: open finder window displaying all files with certain tag. Possible?

If you can process an array of file paths (instead of opening a Finder window), you can use the mdfind utility:

set greenFiles to paragraphs of (do shell script "mdfind \"kMDItemUserTags == 'Green'\"")


Apple doesn't make that and I'd bet no one else does as well. Why not fabricate a bracket to physically go over the part you need and fasten it thusly?


Cannot login to macbook pro due to keyboard not working. Mouse can move, but not click

To regain keyboard access to your machine to troubleshoot the fault and restore correct functionality, here are (2) options to get back into your machine:

Option 1: Wireless Keyboard

Buy a Wireless (USB) Keyboard which uses a USB dongle that looks like a USB Flash Drive that you can just insert into a USB port (or USB-C adapter) and it should "just work".  This should enable you to regain the required access to troubleshoot the fault to restore normal keyboard functionality. A wireless Keyboard I like is:

Logitech K400 (Wireless)

Note: Although I initially suggested a Bluetooth keyboard in addition to the Wireless one, since it's not possible to "click" to add the Bluetooth device to your system this is a non-starter on a system broken in such a way as you describe.

Although I'm in Amsterdam at the mo' and unable to test it on my Macbook, I Googled and the k400 is Mac compatible.  I actually use this one with Raspberry Pi's, but might need it when my own Macbook's keyboard craps-out ;-)

Option 2: Remote Access Via SSH (requires another computer)

When I’ve had issues with things like this in the past, I’ve gotten in remotely via SSH. If you can get into the machine via SSH, you can troubleshoot the fault as well as get files you require until the issue Is resolved. Could use a cheap £32 Raspberry Pi to get a terminal session going into the Mac with the broken keyboard.

This possible solution implies of course you’ve enabled the SSH access in your system preferences as below:

Given the problems with Apple's keyboards these past few years, I don't doubt others might be having similar issues.

Finally, I'd suggest storing docs in iCloud (DropBox is also really good, but with the codicile that it's not integrated into Apple's ecosphere like iCloud) so you can access your data if you keep having grief with your keyboard-


Hardware pause button doesn't work for Chrome media

I found the solution here: https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/2477469?hl=en&msgid=23986136
If you have the Google Play Music extension installed, uninstall it. The touch bar play pause button works correctly after that.


The various options to recover control are quite straightforward to enumerate, and you might have one you think is best to start with:

Boot to recovery and reset the password of one or several admin accounts. (Also, you can use Terminal app in recovery to look if your /User folder is intact before deciding what to do.) - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314
Make a new admin account, then look / repair / backup / reinstate other accounts. - New MacBook had user accounts already; I deleted admin and can't get back in
Bring another OS to the Mac and backup / fix / diagnose. - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202796
Reinstall the OS and see if migration repairs the account - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904
Wipe the Mac and load a backup (easy if you know TimeMachine is ready to go) - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

Which you choose is mostly up to your skill level and if you know you have a backup - it takes about 10 minutes of time to erase / install then you wait, then it’s 5 minutes to start the restore, and then you wait until it’s done.

The other options can take far less time once you know the steps, but for some take a bit of learning in terminal and could end up with data loss if you don’t just back things up first.


Renamed Home Folder, now Dropbox Mac App won't launch

Dropbox support got back to me, and had a fix. Not simple so open up your terminal.

Please save and quit all programs accessing files in the Dropbox folder, and then follow these instructions:

Note: Please be sure to take note or take a screenshot of any Selective Sync settings you may have applied prior to re-installing in case you need to re-apply these settings upon re-install.

Stop Dropbox (If needed):

Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen
Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select 'Quit Dropbox'

Download the newest version:

www.dropbox.com/install

Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, ONE AT A TIME, and press ENTER after each one. PLEASE make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. You'll be prompted for your computer's admin password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press ENTER.

sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"

sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox

sudo chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox

sudo mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dropbox.old

sudo chmod -N ~

sudo mv /Library/DropboxHelperTools ~/DropboxHelperTools.old

(Note some of these commands didn't actually do anything. I think they were just trying to be super thorough.)

Open the .dmg file from step # 2 and double click the Dropbox icon to install Dropbox.
Restart Dropbox from the Applications folder, then please sign in and apply any Selective Sync settings you may have had prior to the reinstall during the sign in process. Your account will take a few moments to reindex the files and sync any pending changes.


Using different Apple ID at App Store without transferring registration

Yes, you can use any Apple ID on any Apple product, regardless of who it is registered to. Simply sign in with your Apple ID (e.g., personal.email@example.com) and purchase or download the app you wish from either the App Store or the Mac App Store.

Product registration helps Apple pull up your details quickly and easily should you (or your family) need warranty service. It's not at all required and the warranty of any Apple product is bound to the actual device, not the person. If you purchase an item from the Apple Store, you'll notice that your warranty already starts on your product purchase date. If you buy an item from a 3rd party retailer, you will have to bring in the original receipt to show date of purchase. We often lose or forget about receipts, so registering your product is often convenient for us as well as Apple.

If you purchase content using your own private Apple ID, that content is bound to your account. If your family ever wish to update an app, or redownload it, they will need access to your Apple ID account.

There is nothing that technically forbids you from using many Apple IDs on a single system, but often tracking who bought what gets to be a bit of a pain, especially when someone moves on. Just of note that it's often best to keep things simple and use a single Apple ID. It's important to remember that you can't transfer purchases from one Apple ID to another. You also can't ever close or delete an old Apple ID. When an Apple ID is created, it is quite permanent.


Why do Apple bloggers use Skype or Google Hangouts instead of iChat for video podcasts?

Awareness

Many people know what Skype is — not many know about iChat in comparison. As soon as someone says 'video conference' the immediate response by many is 'Skype!'
Familiarity

Many of the older video podcasts use Skype because that's what they started with. Familiarity is very important with people that make video podcasts for a living. They see no reason to switch because Skype works well for them.
Plugins

There are a number of plugins made for Skype for recording the call, etc. This means that for those that use Skype they'd have no reason to switch to iChat since their favourite plugin isn't available that works with the rest of their equipment.
Livestreaming

Many video podcasts use Google Hangouts because of its ease of use for livestreaming it as well. Google Hangouts can be livestreamed with practically no preparation or equipment and then immediately made available on YouTube after, which is perfect for many.
Number of People

Google Hangouts can hold many more people than iChat/Skype, which makes it perfect for large events.


This is most certainly possible in Pixelmator by using a brush in the form of a star. You can easily create one yourself straight in Pixelmator or you search on the net for an image of a star. Make sure the area around the star is transparent then you can save the star as a png-file and drag and drop that file onto the brushes palette. Now with the brush tool you can click on each blurry christmas light and cover it with the star. Try different blending modes for the brush. It could be you could get better results then.

It is also possible to create a bokeh effect in Pixelmator. The guys at http://pixelmatortutorials.net have had a tutorial about this some time ago. The bokeh effect is done by applying one of the standard filters in Pixelmator.


Reset terminal environment to start up state, not losing print of history

One option for resetting the Terminal session's state except for history is to save the current history to a temp file with something like history -w ~/.history_temp, then close the Terminal window, open a new one, then read back the saved history with history -w ~/.history_temp. Optionally, you can delete the temp history file when you're done.

If you don't want to have to remember & type those commands every time, you can create aliases for them and put those in ~/.bash_profile:

alias savehistory='history -w ~/.history_temp`
alias loadhistory='history -r ~/.history_temp && rm ~/.history_temp`


Can‘t update any iOS Apps: “If you have an Apple ID, sign in with it here“

To anyone having the same problem, the only thing that worked for me was doing a full reset.


iPhone weather app - when does each "day" begin/end for high/low temperature?

If is believed thy the iPhone weather.app uses a Meteorological Day.
This is rightly sunrise to sunrise.

This is roughly sunrise to sunrise and meant to be more useful for people who are looking ahead and thinking "what's the high today and the low tonight?"
Check the low for the following morning (around 4 or 5am), that's probably where you'll find it.

(Source)


Can I use iPhone headphones with microphone on MacBook Pro?

Yes, but it only works on Unibody Macs. You can also use the volume and play/pause controls.


How do I get a refund of an iTunes gift card with illegible numbers for redeeming the value?

I was in this situation once. However I went to the Apple support site, followed what they said, and then filled out the email form. From what I remember they will ask you for what you can make out of the code, and then the serial number of the gift card.
This is the link to the email form submission page: http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/contact.html?form=cards_codes&topic=iTunes%20Cards%20and%20Codes&subtopic=Redemption%20questions
Where it says 'specific request' select 'my code is scratched or unreadable.' Proceed to fill in the form as best you can and send it off. I got a response in less that 48 hours, and the answer they gave me allowed me to redeem my card.
In answer to your original question, I don't actually know, but I hope this assistance means you will no longer have a need to refund the card. Hope this helps.


I think your best bet is to see if you can borrow another BlueTooth mouse (or a keyboard) from somewhere so you can test to see if it is BlueTooth failure in the Mac or the Mouse.

Is there anything in your logs at the time of the failure? Those logs look ordinary - there are no processes dying or panics close to those times?


Open your terminal app and paste in the following code:

ruby <(curl -fsSkL raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)


Keyboard backlight not working for some keys

Unfortunately, unless a SMC reset doesn't work (Shut down -> Press Shift-Control-Option and Power Button at the same time for 10sec -> release keys -> Press power button), it is a hardware problem. If it's under warranty, Apple should fix it, if not, a 3rd party repair shop should be able to fix it for a reasonable price.


For me, vpn-on-demand works if the following conditions are met:

use a named configuration for the VPN interface (not default)
the triggering domain must be a hostname that can NOT be resolved using public DNS
vpn connection is only triggered by Safari (and maybe Mail), but not e.g. afp, vnc, smb connections let alone cli triggered connections like ssh


Is it still possible to purchase a license for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server from Apple?

Snow Leopard Server was never made available via the App Store, it was only ever sold in the form of a separate OS install (or bundled with a server computer). While you cannot buy SL Server from store.apple.com, I believe you can buy it over the phone (1-800-MY-APPLE) (at least, you could last year -- I did) for $19.99 (maybe plus shipping, I don't remember). Note that you're purchasing the physical install DVD, not just a license code.


APFS on external drive missing from Disk Utility

Disk Utility will only offer APFS if Partition Map is "GUID Partition Map".

If the Partition Map is "Master Boot Record" APFS is not an option (and neither is encrypted HFS).


Wifi Automatically Turning ON after iOS 11 Update

WiFi & Bluetooth under iOS 11 will both automatically switch back on at 5am.
The only way to completely disable either is from Settings.

If you want to completely disable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for all networks and devices, follow these steps:

To turn off Wi-Fi, go to Settings > Wi-Fi and turn off Wi-Fi.

To turn off Bluetooth, go to Settings > Bluetooth and turn off Bluetooth.

Refs:

Apple KB - Use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in Control Center with iOS 11
Lifehacker - How to (Really) Turn Off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in iOS 11


Same number of app icons on each page for iPhone and iPad?

It's not possible to customise the number of rows and columns on iOS without a jailbreak.
However, iPadOS 13 brings an additional column of icons to iPad for more apps per page.


How do I escape the git commit window from OS X terminal?

It looks like you're inside the vi editor. Typing :wq and pressing enter should do it, i.e. save the commit message and exit.

: enters the command mode, w is for "write" (save) and q is for "quit".

You may need to hit escape before :wq to exit the insert mode (vi is a mode based editor).

If you want to exit without saving hit escape, :q! and enter.

git opens your default editor so you can edit the commit message. You can change the default editor, even to graphical text editors (such as Sublime Text). See here for example.


what is the symbol I just saw on one of my notifications that is a small white triangle with circles behind it?

In the comments, @Lizzan discovered that it might be the AirDrop icon, you have seen.

I just want to assure you that AirDrop neither records you or plays some recording. It is meant exclusively for transferring files from one device to another. An AirDrop notification would be about someone within your vicinity trying to send you something. You would have been prompted to accept or reject the file.

On the other hand, AirDrop doesn't have anything to do with iPhone Mesages, nor does it usually appear in the top right corner as far as I know. Therefore I think it might be that the icon you have seen is actually the new AirPlay icon, which is very similar to the AirDrop icon. You can see that icon here:

Note that the icon is displayed in the top right corner of the media controls, and reachable from the control center that you can access from everywhere on your iPhone - including the Messages app.


How to block senders in Messages app on Mac OS X? How to mark as spam?

I'll leave the iOS version below,. as that actually works - but for OS X it's nowhere near as efficient.

Messages > Prefs > Accounts > Blocked
Click +
You can type the phone number but nothing will happen unless the number is already recognised as a Contact [which is frankly infuriating].

One workaround might be to make a Contact called "zzz spam" & keep adding bad actors to that contact, which may also immediately add them to the banlist anyway.

tbh, I'd prefer a better answer than this, if anybody has one

[Previous answer, mistakenly for iOS]
From Apple KB : Block phone numbers and contacts or filter messages on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch

  Messages

  If you're in Messages, open the conversation, tap ,
  then tap the name or phone number. Scroll to the bottom of the Info
  screen, then tap Block this Caller.


iMac and MacBook Pro Memory Specifications

According to Apple's support page the Mid 2009 MBP has 1066 MHz DDR3 Ram while the Early 2011 iMac has 1333 Mhz DDR3 Ram. The Pin number is the same.

According to this thread in the Macrumors forum 1333 DDR3 Ram can be installed on the MBP with DDR3 Ram, but would only be clocked at 1066 MHz.


Is there anyway to fill up the boot screen on Touch Bar when booting up?

Touch Bar is not designed to be modified by the end user, so while it might theoretically be possible to do this, there is no such modification currently available as this is designed to be a secure part of your computers hardware.


The most maddening thing about iTunes is it's preference to delete things before. then, syncing them.

One thing you can do now is to be sure and make a copy of your books folder, perhaps in Documents. You might also back that up to Dropbox. iCloud has not proven itself to be a reliable backup in the cloud, no matter that it syncs quite nicely.

Having said all this, I'm not sure where you are seeing the 2.5GB, and where the 750MB. Generally, one refers to books, or e-books. iBook is a reader, as is the Kindle app, for example. Calibri is, at present, the only real e-book manager for the Mac.


What are the consequences of having a work and personal iPhone with the same Apple ID?

You can use the same Apple ID and as you wrote, apps, music, books and so on are shared between devices.

Regarding Photos, you can turn on/off syncronization (Settings -> [your name] -> iCloud -> Photos, then turn on/off iCloud Photo Sharing)

Regarding iMessage you can turn on and/or off this feature from your phone (Settings -> Messages)


Download interrupted an app from the apple store on a Mac

This is one of those situations where it is relatively easy to force a download to start over… but not vice versa.

If a resumable download is interrupted, then re-starting will automatically resume - unless you have changed browser or cleared its cache [even then a local ISP node may have it cached & rapidly restore the first part], or opened up a brand new connection which the server doesn't recognise as belonging to the original download.

The issue - I suspect, I am no expert in mobile data communications - is that over a mobile connection, it is harder to re-establish that it is the same connection & route to the original download… so it starts over.
I would guess that once that 'trust' has failed, you have no alternative but to start over.


El Capitan (or newer OS) on a MBA late 2010

Late 10 Macbook Airs can run Sierra - so your difficulty may be in obtaining El Capitan if that's what you would prefer, which you can only get if it's already in your Purchase History on the App Store.

Everything else in your question is really too opinion-based to garner useful answers.

Ref - EveryMac


Watched screen recording but it's not saved to the desktop

Check ~/Library/ScreenRecordings/ (the Library folder in your home directory).


How can I send/receive files from my iPhone over Bluetooth to my Mac?

iPhone does not support Bluetooth File Exchange.


Looking for an external monitor for my late 2008 aluminium macbook

This Samsung 27in monitor should suit your needs.

It's got a fast 4ms response time, good brightness, and it's pretty large, 27 inches.

Get a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI connector which carries both video and audio.

Turn on and set up your Bluetooth devices which should still keep connected while the laptop is in lid-closed mode, or you can connect a keyboard and mouse through the USB ports or a USB hub.


Transfer reminders from iCal to Google Calendar

From what I understand, Reminders are not transferrable. Each service programs them differently and there is no way (other than copying/pasting text) to easily transfer them. Hope this helps.


Can I share a .ipa file (iOS app) among multiple users?

That's a really interesting question.

But first I give you another situation:
If user 2 wants to use an app already bought and downloaded by user 1, the only thing user 2 needs to do is add the .ipa file of that app in his iTunes and authorize his computer with the apple id of user 1. (in iTunes click on 'Store' > 'Authorize this computer')

If two people want to use the same app they don't need to both download the app. They don't even have to both purchase the app. They can share the .ipa file if they authorize each other's computers.

In the situation you present - where user 2 also bought the app but didn't download it - I think he would still need to authorize his computer with the apple id of user 1 in iTunes. That's because I think the identity (apple id) of the buyer/downloader of the app is stored in the .ipa file, but I'm not 100% certain about that.


That's correct. So long as the original photo remains in the Camera Roll, Photos is able to undo edits. However, if you send it to another iPhone user, they will only have the edit itself, not the original, so they cannot revert back. Also, if the image is deleted from Photos, you cannot recover the original.

Note: Photo Stream does not support this. Any edits made to an image in Photo Stream will be saved to Camera Roll. Likewise, and edits made in Camera Roll that are uploaded to Photo Stream, Photo Stream will only have the revision and will not be able to revert.


It's not necessary. For more details than you could possibly want, read Fragmentation in HFS Plus Volumes by Amit Singh (author of  Mac OS X Internals: A Systems Approach).


iOS App Development choice in Certificates greyed out

Sorry my mistake. I got it working now. I only use 1 certificate for all my apps - the one I requested on the Certificate Assistance on Keychain menu, and generated unique provisioning profiles for each app.


How do I force Safari to ask me to save all passwords?

This is, technically, not an answer but might be a reason why some sites do not save passwords.

They (those web sites/pages) have code in them to tell the browser to not save the password.

I used to have a JavaScript bookmarklet that would (with varying levels of success) remove the code that said "don't save the passwords" but when I moved over to 1Password I stopped needing that.

Possibly a password manager might do that for you (there are free ones, I believe) or a bit of google-fu might find you that bit of JavaScript that worked some of the time in telling sites to stop telling your browser to not save the password.


Who needs to join the Apple MFi program?

The company that plans to market the end product that carries the MiFi certification is responsible for obtaining that certification.
There’s no expectation that every component on the BOM be manufactured in house.  You have to submit product designs, plans, specifications and even packaging before you begin manufacturing.  Then you must submit samples for both mechanical and electrical testing to ensure that it complies.
Do you need MiFi certification?
No.  You can develop products that have apps that provide their functionality be available via the App Store and not be MiFi certified.  One good example would be Bose.  They market headphones as “Apple Version” or “Android Version” with an app in the App store and there’s no MiFi certification.  Notice that the quoted text is not “Made for iPhone” (or similar).  To say that, would require MiFi certification.
Regarding your specific situation, the FAQ provides answers:

I want to develop an accessory that communicates with an Apple device using only Bluetooth Low Energy. Do I need to join the MFi Program?
No. Accessories which connect to an Apple device using only Bluetooth Low Energy/BLE/Bluetooth 4.0 or standard Bluetooth profiles supported by iOS are not part of the MFi Program.

I want to develop an iOS app that communicates with an MFi accessory. Do I need to join the MFi Program?
No. iOS app developers do not need to join the MFi Program. Everything app developers need is in the External Accessory Framework, which is provided in the iOS SDK.


Macbook Pro 11,3 No longer has a serial number

Question 1a:
We don't know all the steps you have taken (and you may not remember all of them very clearly) in your reinstall.  So hard to say why.  The most common causes are some hardware change, but you say this does not apply in your case.  Of the steps you mention using dd is the only unusual step - I would have used Disk Utility in Internet Recovery.
Question 1b:
You have already discovered that some Apple services require a valid serial number. iMessage and various DRM are tied to your serial number and UUID as well as Apple ID.  As an aside, loading a valid serial number is a tricky and important step in getting a Hackintosh to run iMessage.
Question 2:
The best solution is to take the MBP to an Apple Store where they may well fix your problem for free - just say it happened during a macOS upgrade (which is true in your case).
Question 3:
The Blank Board Serializer is an Apple tool and can be used to fix your Serial Number.  It is important to find the version which is compatible with your MBP - I can't help you there.
Have a read of these three links which describe the process which must be following very carefully - the first one has lots of comments from those who have succeeded (or not) using this method.
Roger Sen
What causes Mac to lose its serial number
How to fix missing serial number
Warnings:

However you fix this (either via Apple or yourself) make very sure you enter the correct serial number belonging to your Mac.  You only get one chance to get it right.
If you do it yourself, be prepared that you might get it wrong and brick your MBP.

Additional warning:

Read @DanRan's own solution and heed the warnings about the need to unregister the Mac and unauthorise from any services which have been used with the incorrect or blank serial number.


How to prevent even root users from uninstalling or tampering the application on macOS

The aim is to prevent even root users from uninstalling our app on their mac.

You as a 3rd party developer can't prevent the root user or users with root privileges from uninstalling apps that they, technically, can install themselves.  What one one admin can do another can (un)do.
The core OS is protected by SIP and if using Catalina or later, the system volume is read only.  This is implemented at the very base layer and not at the application layer where you operate.
IT, however, can manage permissions, rights, and roles through the use of MDM (Mobile Device Management) software.  Once a device is enrolled, IT will be able to create and enforce policies allowing/disallowing software use and installation.
This is for IT to manage, not the developer.


The Go!Temp from Vernier works a charm for me! 50 USD with free software download.


How do I delete a paused book from iBooks on iPad?

Connect your iPad to the computer and let it sync (if necessary). You can then select the book and delete it.


On iPhone, how do you back up only contacts not photos without paying for the iCloud subscription?

Assuming you are talking about backing up through iCloud, you can exclude the data of specific apps from a backup; the Apple Support article “Manage Your iCloud Storage” explains this in more detail. I am not entirely sure, but I believe you can also exclude the photo library from this list as well, assuming you are not using iCloud Photo Library. Most apps don’t put that much data in a backup, so you should be able to stay within the limits of the free 5 GB iCloud subscription by excluding the few exceptions.

Another option is to not use iCloud for backup at all, as explained in the article “How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch”, you can make a backup on a Mac or Windows PC through iTunes.


Messages in macOS Sierra incorrectly sends (back) to my account; works as intended in iOS 10

I had this issue and your solution didn't fix it for me. It drove me nuts. Deleting my Messages database is what eventually fixed it (note: your message history will be gone on your mac but still available on your iOS device):

In Messages.app , go to Preferences -> Accounts and sign out.
Quit Messages.
Kill the IMDPersistenceAgent process via Terminal with killall IMDPersistenceAgent^
In Finder, use the key combination Command-Shift-L to browse to the Library folder
Rename 'Messages' to 'OldMessages' (I didn't want to trash it but you can if you like).
Cleared the preferences cache by running killall cfprefsd in Terminal^
Restarted my mac
Opened Messages again. I sent a test message, and this time my wife received it (and I didn't).

^Commands came from this article

UPDATE
I had this issue again today (2017-08-09), and again the steps above cured it for me at the cost of losing access to my message history on my MacBook. Curiously the issue appeared after upgrading the iOS version on my iPad (whereas the issue occurs on my MacBook; my iPad has never exhibited any messages-related issues).

I tried @brian-m's suggestion of moving the OldMessages folder back (after steps 3 and 6 above); sure enough I can see my old messages just fine but the original problem is immediately reintroduced. So it's some sort of database issue. I had a bit more of a poke around and can see it's a SQLite database. There's a good discussion of the schema here. Unfortunately I don't have time to delve further.


Why has my iMac gotten slower for the past few months?

Here's a few things I would try:

Do basic system maintenance (repair permissions, clean caches, run daily-weekly-monthly maintenance scripts). I like ONYX (http://bit.ly/eCzYfj) for doing this, but there are plenty of other options that do the same thing.
Make sure you have at least 20% free disk space. If not, try clean up and free some space.
If things are still slow, try creating a new user account and logging in with that. If that account runs much better you still have some cleanup to do.
Check your login items (in system preferences, User & Groups). If there are login items you don't recognize/need try disabling them.

I would also look into investing in at least a 2MB memory upgrade. Not too expensive and it looks like you could use it.

Good luck...


Cannot leave iOS 12 beta testing program on iPad

I ended up downloading the beta profile again from Apple Developer Downloads, deleting it and restarting the device. This made the beta update notification disappear.

For some reason, the notification badge did not disappear, so it still shows that there is an update available - both in General/Software Update and next to the app icon.


It seems that you can need wifi on (but not necessarily configured) in order to get location, Core Location works using skyhook and will not function without wifi on. This is not well documented by Apple but this StackOverflow conversation covers it.

According to the above, you should be able to turn on Wifi, wait for a location fix and then turn it off.
If that doesn't work look into WhereAmI, this project allows command line access to CoreLocation and you should be able to script it and wifi to turn on once in a while, log your location and then turn wifi off.


Mountain Lion Doesn't Download from Store

Try one of the following solutions:

Quit the App Store and reboot your Mac. Most of the times, your problem will be solved.
Try again in 15 or 30 minutes. Sometimes, as large as the server farms might be, they simply can't handle the overload in request. Maybe later, there will be an open slot for you
Flush the cache of the App Store. Opeq Finder and use the "Go to" option to go to ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore. Remove the file and make sure you've emptied your trash.

I hope one of these things will help you out.


Hide applications in contextual menu 'Open with' from an other OS X installation

Does excluding the other Applications folder from Spotlight fix the problem?

In System Preference:

After you've added the folder in Spotlight, you'll can refresh the "Open with..." list by running this command in Terminal:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user


Why does CMD+1 work if using my top row numkeys, but not my right-side NumPad? Mac

I'm the kind of person who loves numberpads, but after transitioning to Macbook pro, there's a thing.

You see, we all know that Macbooks are made simplistic and adaptable, but it's also similar to Windows keyboard in a way.
Do you ever use a Ctrl+1 from a numberpad? no. You use it on the number row.
You might've saw my mistake here. Normally there is no Ctrl+1 on Windows unless programmed to do so.

But imagine it like Ctrl+F1 -  F1 is on the top. So as Macbook keyboards do. But Macs hardly use the F keys unless fn is held. Imagine holding that everytime you need to do an action. Fussy fussy. So they use the numbers in the number row instead of the F keys.

So the default and easier way is to use the number row instead of the number pad, so that it acts like the F keys on Windows.  - That's the way of the Apple, easy to use and beautiful looking!

I guess you could program the Mac to use a different shortcut, as mentioned here in Lifehacker or iDownloadblog


Cannot boot Ubuntu on a triple boot system (Catalina, Win10, and Ubuntu 18.4.4)

With respect to your model/year Mac, the boot files for Windows and Ubuntu are installed to a FAT32 formatted volume stored in the EFI partition. Both operation systems store some of their boot files in the EFI/Boot folder. This causes a conflict which can result in either or both operation systems not appearing in or not booting from the Mac Startup Manager.

One possible solution would be to have two EFI partitions. It does not really matter when you create the second EFI partition. However, the second EFI has to exist by step 4 below. Here I will assume the second EFI partition exists at the end the drive (disk0s7).

Install macOS.
Install Windows. Windows will put its boot files in the first EFI partition (disk0s1).
Install Ubuntu. Ubuntu will put its boot files in the first EFI partition (disk0s1). Some of the Windows boot files will be overwritten.
Add the Windows boot files to the second EFI partition. The steps are given below.

Boot from the Windows installation flash drive. Enter shift+F10 to open a Command Prompt window. Enter the following commands. Here I assume windows is installed to drive C: and partition 7 contains the second EFI volume. If not, then make the appropriate substitutions.

diskpart
select disk 0
select partition 7
assign letter=s
list volume
exit
bcdboot c:\windows /s s:
exit


How is the battery life on the new iPod Touch G5s?

Based on the Technical Specifications (5G, 4G) no big change is apparent, as the only difference between them is the lasting time while playing videos, as it's up to 8 hours (when fully charged) for the 5G while the 4G's is 7 hours.
They both share the following battery specifications:

Built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery.
Music playback time: Up to 40 hours when fully charged.
Charging times: Fast charge in about 2 hours (80% capacity), full charge in about 4 hours.


Can I use a USB keyboard with an iPad if I use a USB-to-lightning adapter?

In general: Yes, as this article (and others) suggest.

But it always depends on the exact keyboard. If you can't find results on google for your exact model, you can only find out by testing it.

If you try it, I would recommend using a usb-converter with both a USB & Lightning port, mainly for this reason:

  You’ll want the connection kit I linked above for one main reason – it allows you to both charge your iPad, and supply power to the keyboard you will be using. The majority of USB keyboards draw too much power for the iPad alone to supply, however having the lighting cable plugged into the adapter allows you to use the keyboard as power is supplied to it via the lighting cable.

Check out the mentioned connecton kit.
Read the cited article here.


App to transfer the files by shaking the iPhone?

http://bu.mp/ does the job.

Simply get the app on both iPhones, open the apps and "bump" them together to share the files.


Can I "restore" an iso image to my hdd to be bootable?

Why not use a bootable USB stick. On the arch-linux wiki there is a tutorial about how to create a bootable USB stick (live USB stick) for OS X:

Taken from the Arch Linux Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_Installation_Media

On Mac OS X

To be able to use dd on your usb device on a Mac you have to do some special maneuvers. First of all insert your usb device, OS X will automount it, and run

diskutil list

in Terminal.app. Figure out what your usb device is called - mine was called /dev/disk1. (Just use the mount command or sudo dmesg | tail.) Now you run

 diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1

to unmount the partitions on the device (i.e., /dev/disk1s1) while keeping the device proper (i.e., /dev/disk1). Now we can continue in accordance with the Linux instructions above (but use bs=8192 if you are using the OS X dd, the number comes from 1024*8).

  dd if=image.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=8192
  20480+0 records in
  20480+0 records out
  167772160 bytes transferred in 220.016918 secs (762542 bytes/sec)

it is probably a good idea to eject your drive before physical removal at this point.

 diskutil eject /dev/disk1

Creating the bootable USB drive:
Overwrite the USB drive
Warning: This will irrevocably destroy all data on /dev/sdx.
Note: This method does not work with UEFI boot.
Note: Check with lsblk that the USB device is not mounted, and use /dev/sdx instead of /dev/sdx1. These are very common mistakes!

dd bs=4M if=/path/to/archlinux.iso of=/dev/sdx

Note: Some older firmware does not understand the isohybrid hack where start of fake partition offset is 0. See https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/32189 for a fix involving isohybrid.pl.

How to restore the USB drive
Because the ISO image is a hybrid which can either be burned to a disc or directly written to a USB drive, it doesn't include a standard partition table.
After you install Arch Linux and you're done with the USB drive, you should zero out its first 512 bytes (meaning the boot code from the MBR and the non-standard partition table) if you want to restore it to full capacity:

dd count=1 bs=512 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx

Then create a new partition table (e.g. "msdos") and filesystem (e.g. EXT4, FAT32) using gparted, or from a terminal:
For EXT2/3/4 (adjust accordingly), it would be:

cfdisk /dev/sdx
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx1
e2label /dev/sdx1 USB_STICK

For FAT32, install the dosfstools package and run:

cfdisk /dev/sdx
mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1
dosfslabel /dev/sdx1 USB_STICK

On the wiki there is some more information, for example if you would like to create a boot USB stick from a Windows environment.


Matching up new computer to old Time Capsule backup

Time Machine backups are per-machine. You can't merge the data from your old MacBook Air with the backup for the new MacBook Pro. (Whilst there are technically methods for doing this they are almost universally a bad idea and carry a significant risk of corrupting the old backup and creating a ton of bloat for any future restore. See: Is there a way to merge Time Machine backups?.

If you still have the .sparsebundle file for the old MacBook Air and the encryption password (if set). You should archive this (somewhere that isn't the time capsule) so that you can access this data if required. You should then have enough space to instruct your new MacBook Pro to backup to the Time Capsule.

To check the actual backup files you should open the Time Capsule directly in Finder. Based on what you've said thus far I'd expect to see the following:

MacBook Air Sparsebundle
MacBook Pro Sparsebundle
Wife's Mac Sparsebundle

You'll want to copy the MacBook Air Sparsebundle somewhere safe - this is essentially your long-term backup containing all the backup history from your old MacBook Air.


Fake ethernet interfaces (feth / if_fake)? Anyone ever seen this?

Yes you can create new interfaces and link them however you would like for whatever your heart desires : ) You can utilize this feature for all different things like isolating certain traffic. For ex:  forcing all traffic through a VPN except for some criteria. My router sends all traffic through a VPN which is a separate LAN from my STB/Cable Box. I want to use my mobile device to change the channel but it won’t work if I’m in a VPN, a separate interface can ether tunnel traffic from my device or isolate traffic directed to the mobile app I’m using and route it around the VPN.

As for reference and documentation, Unix utilizes man pages like Linux too for basic and core reference. I like to use cheat.sh for examples, it’s formatted very nicely too when you make a query within your terminal. It’s formatted like this cheat.sh/example. ~ cheat.sh/ifconfig


How to remove only News from Siri Suggestions

Sorry, but as of today's current release (iOS 9.2) that's not possible. It could change in future updates, though. You can suggest that feature to Apple.


After banging my head against the wall for a while, I found http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.macintosh.osx/6639

  Delete this file:

  ~/Library/Colors/Emacs.clr

  and dark cyan should come back.

So I quit emacs, moved that file to ~/Library/Colors/Emacs.clr-, started emacs again... and it worked. I hope this fix is useful to someone else.


Installing High Sierra on OWC Aura SSD - missing firmware partition

I finally did get this to work.  Here is my process with the non-functioning loops edited out.  It's inspired by, but slightly different from, this process outlined by MacSales in How to Format a New Internal SSD in macOS High Sierra.

For this process, you need not just the original (OEM) Mac SSD, but also the enclosure that OWC sends with their upgrade kit.  The screwdrivers (P5 and T5) come in handy too.  And a spudger tool, sold separately.  Also, this process wipes both the original and the new (OWC) SSDs clean, so you need a recent backup, for instance Time Machine.

Open up the Macbook, and replace the OWC SSD with the OEM one.
Boot into recovery mode (command-R at startup).  Use Disk Utility to erase and reformat the internal drive, and install a clean macOS on it.  It will be an old version; in my case Yosemite.
Reboot, and using an administrator account, install macOS High Sierra on the OEM SSD. You now have High Sierra, but on the wrong drive, and none of your data.
Open up the Macbook again and remove the SSD.  Install the OEM SSD in the external enclosure, and the OWC SSD in the MacBook.
Plug in the external, reboot, and hold down Option at the chime.  You will have the option to boot from the internal (OWC) SSD into the old MacOS version, or the external (OEM) SSD into High Sierra.  You want the latter.  It will slow down a bit, but it will work.
Use Disk Utility to erase and reformat the internal (OWC) drive.
Go to the Mac App Store and redownload the "Install MacOS High Sierra" application.  It should be about 5.2GB large.  Run the installer, and use it to install High Sierra on the internal drive.  Remember, everything's running off the external drive with the OEM SSD.  You now have High Sierra on both drives.
Use the Migration Assistant to restore your files from the Time Machine (or whatever) backup back to the Mac.  Repeat with any other backed-up data not stored in Time Machine (e.g., Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, etc.)

The linked article says that you can replace steps 5–7 by booting into Internet Recovery Mode (option-command-R at startup).  I believe this is what OWC told me in tech support chat, too.  The idea is that upgrading the OEM SSD to High Sierra will update the firmware, so that internet recovery mode gives the option to install High Sierra.  That didn't work for me; I could only install Yosemite in Internet Recovery Mode.  If it did work, I would not have needed the enclosure, since I wouldn't need two SSDs running at once.  One of the commenters says it worked for them, so maybe I screwed up.

Also, you may wonder why you can't skip step 4, put the OWC SSD in the enclosure, boot from the internal OEM SSD, and install High Sierra on the external OWC SSD.  I tried this several times, and it would error out at various stages.  There is a sticker inside the enclosure that says "Mac SSD only".  I finally believed it.

At least this process eliminated an annoyance that I had when I originally installed the OWC SSD.  Even though it was installed internally, it showed up in the operator system with an orange "external drive" icon.  I think this is part of the reason the update process was so complicated—the Mac knew this drive was an impostor of sorts.  But now it's got the same icon as the original one.

--

Edit 2018-04-13: OWC has published a firmware update (beta as of this writing) for their OWC Aura 6G SSD's which purports to deal with this very issue.  Thank you to new user mauple for this suggested edit.  It would have been nice if tech support had alerted me to this beta at the time I contacted them, since it did exist.


How to troubleshoot "iPhoto unable to connect to Photo Stream"?

System Preferences -> iCloud, Check Photo Stream.


iPhone Tweak to override http links to other Apps

There's a JailBreak tweak called Browser Changer, and it does almost exactly what you want. It's in the standard repositories in Cydia, and it's free. I've used it to make all links automatically open with Dolphin Browser. It works quite well, but it can only make one app open all http links, so other than that, there isn't anything that does exactly what you want.


How to use Control or Command for Cut-Copy-Paste

You don’t specify what software you’re using to create your virtual machines, but usually you’ll have an option in its settings to allow the VM to recognise both the command and CTRL keys interchangeably for the Cut/Copy/Paste keyboard shortcuts.

For example, if you’re using Parallels Desktop, you can customise your keyboard shortcuts by going to the Parallels Desktop menu in the Mac menu bar and navigating to Preferences → Shortcuts and selecting your VM from the list.

So I would check your VM configurations to see if you’ve got the option of doing this. Doing so means you can’t go wrong in your virtual machine.

In terms of the macOS side of things, you can refer to Karabiner (or, more specifically for macOS Sierra, Karabiner Elements) for some advanced  keyboard shortcut functionality.


After upgrading to iTunes 11, I cannot see my iPad mini

The USB process that talks to iOS devices starts at system boot (or installation of iTunes) and not with the quit/restart of the app.

If you don't have a connection after restarting your Mac, you can download and run the iTunes installer again to see if the helper didn't get installed or started correctly.

Apple has a very nice assistant to work through common errors, so rather than my guess, you could also just follow that and be systematic about ruling out the common causes of this.

http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/assistant/itunes/

It will get you to perform both the reboot and re-install, but might solve the issue in less time. Happy troubleshooting.


How to toggle dark mode on and invert colors using Automator

I don't know about invert colors, but to quickly toggle Dark/Light Mode, In Automator:

Make a new Application document:

Simply add the chunk for Change System Appearance > Toggle Light/Dark:

Save and name the application somewhere you can easily activate it, such as the Desktop so you can double-click it to toggle Dark Mode. Alternatively, you can simply search for it in Spotlight search and hit Enter to activate it.

I'll also plug a great app I came across called Night Owl, which is a menu bar app that toggles Dark Mode and you can assign a keyboard shortcut to it. This is what I use now after previously using the Automator solution.


VGA cables are generally not designed for the high bandwidth required of large, digital displays, so it wouldn't surprise me if this is a cable issue that would be present in a variety of cables.  I had similar issues with a KVM adapter.  (If you're using a KVM adapter, then the KVM itself is probably the problem.)

One thing to try would be to lower the refresh rate on the monitor to the lowest setting the Mac will allow and see if that solves the problem.

Better would be to get the DVI cable working, but again the intermittent noise/snow points to a bandwidth limitation of the cable (or KVM adapter).


Does there exist any Apple hardware "Cloud Computing" solutions?

No - Apple stopped selling both its enterprise storage Xserve RAID as well as its enterprise server Xserve in February 2008 and January 2011 respectively. Even the workstation-class Mac Pro has only seen incremental updates over time so the only way to get "into the cloud" with Apple as of late 2012 is by developing software that uses their iCloud API and service.

The only credible rumor of Apple product is the very vague announcement to the "Pro user community" from a short email by Tim Cook that promised that Apple are "working on something really great" for later in 2013. Whether that is going to be new (and perhaps cloud-based) hardware or software or just a re-design of what we've already seen is left to a lot of rumor and speculation at present.


What is a good way to protect the home button on my iphone 4 so it doesn't get dust in it?

I really like Gelaskins (http://gelaskins.com/) for this and have them on my 4 and iPad.  They're nothing but removable decals that help avoid scratching the device (no screen protection), so they don't get in the way of cases, sleeves, pockets, or whatever.  You'll see on their product shots the there is a little gap around the home button.  You don't have to take this off, which actually looks better anyway with an artistic skin.

Plus, you can easily tell which phone is yours without doing something that would lower the resale value, such as engraving.


Is there an iOS / OS X to-do app that can manage multiple people's To-dos?

There are several, even though some of them may not be as native to OS X and iOS as Things or Omnifocus.

Asana, Trello and Flow are good examples. They offer nice web apps to be used through a web browser, and native iOS apps. Both offer the GTDesque approach, and allow assigning tasks to individuals.

Another alternative, which does offer an OS X app, is Producteev.


Offline Updates for macOS 10.15 Catalina?

Sometime late yesterday or early today the 10.15.1 update was made available for download (along with corresponding 10.14 Mojave Security Update 2019-001 and 10.13 High Sierra Security Update 2019-006 updates; 10.12 Sierra is likely retired now).

The 10.15 Supplemental Updates were never made available in this way for some reason, but the 10.15.1 update supersedes those updates anyhow. It remains to be seen if other 10.15 updates like the Security or Supplemental updates will continue to be available as they were in the past.


How can I efficiently use Web apps on my Mac?

In general, this is an inherent flaw in all web apps, even the good ones and a fatal flaw in poorly designed web apps or web apps where your needs aren’t the main design goal.

You will want to shift your work to apps that can run native if efficiency is required. Offline and API access is generally far more efficient as you can work asyncronously or disconnected which decouples your interaction from the server code and processing with all network delays adding to your frustration.

Also, be sure you try browsers like safari that sharply curtail resource usage when off screen, background and minimized. Perhaps your browser can help with the 20 second startup delays and even that shouldn’t be a huge drain if you get proper work done once the app is runnning.

Lastly, a native app can be coded as a web app and still cause you grief. Some notable ones I've come across are the Atom editor, Slack app and other electron or node or react based apps that are glorified web view containers.

Here's a very well thought out article from some very smart and well funded engineers on balancing the decision to build a pure native app (or building several iterations of the same app as your team learns how to engineer and expand the app) vs building a common core that will run across platforms or embed a web view.

Growing Pains: Migrating Slack’s Desktop App to BrowserView


What application can record a cursor location and multi-touch input heatmap?

I don't know of an app that displays gestures, but FingerMgmt displays the locations of your touches (and the size, dimension, etc.) in a window. You could record that to attach to your bug reports.