How far in the future can I create events on my calendar?

This issue is related to the API limitations itself and vary on different platforms, device, regional settings etc. However you can get some functions blocked if you create to many events or calendars in short period of time.

Google: https://support.google.com/a/answer/2905486?hl=en

iCal: support.apple.com/en-us/HT202158

How to Hit the limits of Google calendar:

  If a user sees one of these messages it’s probably due to one of the
  following reasons:

Creating too many events

If a user has created more than 10,000 events in his or her calendar within a short period of time, that user might lose calendar edit access.

Creating too many calendars

If a user creates more than 25 new calendars within a short period of time, that user's calendar might go into read-only mode.

Sending too many invitations or emails to external guests

In order to prevent spamming, Google Calendar limits the number of invitations a user can send to external guests. This limit varies

  depending on the action, and is usually between 100-300 guests.

Google Apps users can send invitations to any number of guests from their primary domain, or from secondary domains associated with

  their primary domain.

Sharing calendars with too many users

If a user shares one or more calendars with many other users within a short period of time, Google Calendar might switch into

  read-only mode for that user. It’s almost impossible to reach this
  limit by updating sharing settings manually, but it can happen with
  some API-based tools or third-party apps.


Can I safely change my account's username?

Only if you are on a case sensitive filesystem (which OS X supports, but doesn't enable by default) and the program was coded poorly, would it capture the exact path to your home directory. The vast majority of programs use the proper manner to find files relative to your starting home folder and are immune to even more drastic name changes.

I say, back up your files and have a stab at changing the short name to your liking.


Why does only one episode show up under "unplayed" in Podcasts when I haven't heard any of them?

What I ended up doing was pressing "Edit" at the top left of the screen, then selecting all the episodes I haven't listened to yet (yeah it takes a minute), then pressing "Mark", then "Mark as unplayed". I don't have an answer for "why" though.


Serious problem with Time Machine (external HDD)

In the case where you can't restore an entire backup, it's often best to just skip the entire migration and get a few files by hand.

That often gets you a feel for whether the new OS is working properly or a second hardware issue cropped up or the backup has any issues.

The migration assistant can bring an entire user over once you have some confidence in the various parts of the system.


Microsoft Remote Desktop via Ethernet Cable

While the latest version of Microsoft RDP protocol supports RemoteFX which is an implementation of a virtual GPU, "game play" is a very broad term.

  RemoteFX vGPU: the ability to present a virtualized instance of a
  physical GPU into multiple Windows 7 virtual machines. This provides
  VMs with access to the physical GPU, enabling hardware-acceleration
  for rich graphics scenarios such as 3D rendering and game play.

Your game (never mentioned) may not be 3D intensive (maybe it's full contact tic-tac-toe).  Then again, it may be the latest release of Halo.  Will the game "play"?  Yes.  You should be able to play it remotely.

Will it lag?

It depends.
My rule of thumb is that video and games are best played locally and not over a shared screen.


Does "Erase and Sync" remove photos taken on the phone?

You are right to be cautious. The erase and sync dialogue does not tell you which specific pieces of information will be erased.

You will want to tab through each of the places where iTunes allows you to choose synchronization and make sure that photos are not checked.

With that one item, you should be safe from having your photos erased, but making a back up would be a good thing to do before you allow the erasing of unenumerated anything. Also, verify that photos are included in the back up by verifying settings in iOS if you use iCloud  to do the backup.

Here's the screen showing whether you have photos sync enabled or disabled. In my case, the iCloud settings has eliminated the chance I could erase photos over USB via iTunes.


Spacebar in Quicktime Player X used to pause video, no longer does in OSX Lion

The problem is if you use the two fingered gesture to fast-forward or rewind the video.  As soon as you do, you'll notice that the tab focus jumps to the position indicator.

Here's a normal Quicktime Player control before using gestures:

Here's what the control looks like as soon as you use a fast-forward or rewind gesture:

Notice that the diamond position indicator is now blue.

Seems to be a particularly annoying bug in the player.


How to hide non-openable in the finder while using an application to browse/open

No, there is no way to hide these files. It's a usability decision by Apple.

The dialog always shows the same list of files but greys out the ones you currently cannot open. Technically you could go to the pop up at the bottom and change it to All files and open any of the files listed. Of course they may not make sense in the application, but you could open them.


Is there a way to get an Airport Extreme to coexist with a second router offering VPN?

Yes, there is. You set up your other router as the default gateway for the Airport Extreme, put the Airport extreme in bridging mode via the Airport Utility.

The new router will be connected to your ISP, and have the VPN tunnel set up, depending on which model you choose you will be limited as to what type of tunnel you can set up (GRE, IPSec) or something else, in the case of routers such as FritzBox (which can only set up VPN tunnels to other FritzBox routers.

I would recommend the cheapest 800 series router from CISCO.

Or you could also  run pfSense virtually or on a stand alone box which will provide VPN functionality you require.


They are coredumps, they are the result of a unix program crashing and then getting it's core dumped, which is basically a file containg what the program was doing when it crashed (memory state and CPU state).

If you have that many, it might be a symptom of a bigger underlying cause which you can check by inspecting the logs of you system using the Console app. To find out what binary (application program) the core belongs to, you can use the Terminal:

Open Terminal.app
Type "file " (excluding the quotes but keeping the space at the end)
Drop a core file on the terminal window, and it's full path will be entered
Press enter and the response will tell you all readable details on the file

In the end, however, unless you are a software developer, there is no point in keeping those core dump files, you can simply delete all of them.


Preview freezes every time I restart it and open a file

As a troubleshooting step I would boot your Mac into Safe Mode.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your Mac
Restart your Mac
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of what happens (i.e. use Preview a couple of times or so to test it)
Exit Safe Mode by restarting your Mac as normal
Log in and test Preview again

Let me know how you go.


How can I make a recovery partition? ~OS X Mavericks

After making a partition with disk utility, you can run this utility from Apple to make it a recovery partition
Upgrading your OS does not effect partitions other than the boot partition you upgraded.


Right clicking on hyperlink in chrome always behaves like left click (/open)

Found a workaround:  Disable the Chrome PDF Viewer plugin

Now this is not a perfect solution - since it would be convenient to allow that plugin to run .. but I'll take it. This is a time savings.


How to type in the tilde character '~' with an apple international keyboard?

The "~" key is located between the "left shift" and "Z" keys on the international english keyboard.

Many users are used to have this key under the escape key (the US layout), and they (including me) use the KeyRemap4MacBook software to swap those keys.

Edit:
KeyRemap4MacBook is now called Karabiner. Here is a screenshot of the configuration I'm using to remap Section to Backquote key.

Edit:
Karabiner does not work on macOS Sierra, however a new project is in development: Karabiner Elements. As of now, it can do the replacement in question:


Apple pricing on screen repairs for Macbook Pro?

The Apple price depends how the repair is done. If you pay part by part or if you get tiered pricing.

Call or engage Apple support and they can quote you the pricing estimates for sure no matter where you are in the world. The last time I checked, tier 2 covered the display assembly and all parts and testing needed to return it to full warranty status.

You could even then get AppleCare and possible AppleCare+ once you’ve paid for the repairs.

Check your insurance to see if they will cover some of the costs - most have a higher deductable than the cost of a new Mac, but it’s worth checking.

Last time I sent in two damaged screens, the tier 2 costs in the us was about $750 for a 15 inch and $495 for smaller sized MacBook and Pro. This included all parts, labor, shipping and testing and they send a box to you so I didn’t need to deliver it or pick it up at any center.


How do I link/call an actual shell script saved within an Applescript app?

Try:

set myPath to POSIX path of ((path to me as text) & "Contents:Resources:Scripts:toggle.sh")


Which kind of USB device attached - equivalent for the full functionality of lsusb on macOS?

This may take a bit of extrapolation, but use the value from "Speed" in system_profiler

For example, looking at the Logitech USB receiver (for my mouse and second keyboard):

$ system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep Logitech -A5
          Vendor ID: 0x046d  (Logitech Inc.)
          Version: 12.01
          Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
          Manufacturer: Logitech
          Location ID: 0x14200000 / 3
          Current Available (mA): 1000
          Current Required (mA): 98
          Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

Looking at the "Speed" value, it tells me that it's a USB 1.1 device.  Doing the same lookup for my Seagate FreeAgent Go USB disk, I get the following:

system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep Seagate -A5
              Vendor ID: 0x0bc2  (Seagate LLC)
              Version: 1.48
              Serial Number: 2GE7WLWG
              Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
              Manufacturer: Seagate
              Location ID: 0x14320000 / 23
              Current Available (mA): 1000
              Current Required (mA): 100
              Extra Operating Current (mA): 0
              Capacity: 500.11 GB (500,107,861,504 bytes)

It tells me it's got a speed of 480Mb/s which is a USB 2.0 device.

You don't have to output all that extra data, I am just using it for illustration purposes, instead you can just narrow it down to the line containing the speed value:

$ system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep Seagate -A5 | grep Speed
              Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec

For reference, USB speeds/specs are as follows:

USB 1.x - 12Mb/sec
USB 2.0 - 480Mb/sec
USB 3.0 - 5Gb/s
USB 3.1 - 10Gb/s


Can I Permanently Delete This File from Trash with Terminal?

Your current command is correct and will work.


How to disable auto-adjusting of mic input level in Chrome in Mac OS?

If you are using  Audio application (like Skype) or like yours "language learning website that has an interactive feature that allows me to record myself"

you gave them permission to use your audio, otherwise they would not work.

Most of them have audio adjustment within them self (like Skype), so first look for it in your app you are using.

Microphone is used to send something back to the app. In turn it measures the Audio level and sends increase or decrees to your Mac.

Mac is open to those requests (you gave it the permission).

The only way to stop this is revoke the permission, or check what audio setting the app it self has.

Stopping the Auto gain on your Mac would require application specific monitoring and blocking the audio gain adjustments, which could result in the app not working properly since it might not hear you well.

You also have a tool on your Mac that allows for more control and adjustments.

  Applications > Utilities > Audio Midi Setup


Install El Capitan OS on a new SSD without USB driver

No, you need disk or USB stick to install it.

Why can't you use a USB stick? If that's because you can't buy it from Apple Store, you could use any 8GB+ stick to install drive.

It's very simple, you only need an Install OSX *version*.app file and a USB stick.

Prepare stick

Plug it into your MacBook
Open Disk Utility (Launchpad -> Other)
Choose your stick in left hand side (It should be under External label)
Click on Erase button at top
Choose GUID Partition Map under Scheme, OS X Extended (Journaled) under Format, and name it OSXInstall (You can give it any name, but you'll need to change terminal commands too)
Click on Erase

Get OSX Installer App

For El Capitan open this link, and download it (You may need to click on View in Mac App Store

You do not need to install it, just download.

Create bootable installer

Be sure to check that stick is plugged in and shows up in Finder.
If you have no password, set it temporarily
Open Terminal app (Launchpad -> Other)
Copy and paste this text into Terminal and hit Return:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/OSXInstall --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app --nointeraction

Type you password (It would be hidden, and cursor would not move)
Now just wait till it says Done.

Installation

To boot from the installer stick, hold down the Option key during Mac system start, and select it from the startup volume menu.


Is there a way to apply custom shaders to macOS screen?

In High Sierra you can use keyboard shortcut to Invert Colors

Option+Command+I

More screen options are in System preference > Accessibility > Display


It clearly advises you to use Disk Utility and repair your back up disk.


The call blocking feature was added in iOS 7, which your iPhone can run.

iOS7 allows you to block calls and messages from particular contact or number. This feature, included by default, even allows you to block messages and calls performed on FaceTime.

Procedure:

Open the Contacts app
Select the contact you want to block and scroll to the bottom of the contact info page.
Click "Block Contact".


OS X Dictation - more accurate transcription

Generally speaking this info is sent so it recognizes people and places. I would also imagine that it will use address information to infer what you are talking about and make more accurate guesses.

Apple has a rather long, informative, article on dictation here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202584

And has a way to change it to Mac-Based dictation so your info is not sent to Apple.


Is there a way to backup Evernote to Dropbox?

My article at wn7ant.com explains how to do this using the App store version of Evernote:

Move ~/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/Data/Library/Application Support/Evernote to /Users/my_user_on_the_system/Dropbox.
Create an alias of /Users/my_user_on_the_system/Dropbox/Evernote.
Move the alias of /Evernote back to ~/Library/Containers/com.evernote.Evernote/Data/Library/Application Support/


iTunes 11 - View Selected Songs' Playtime

Click View → Show Status Bar, or use the ⌘/ keyboard shortcut.


Cannot connect to App Store due to unactivated SIM?

Turns out, iCloud Drive (or a related service) messed up my Apple ID in some way. I signed out of my Apple ID, performed a password reset, and signed in using the new password. Now everything seems to work fine.


OSX Yosemite change sound output while headphones plugged in

If you have a Macbook Pro with only one jack input (no separate inputs for microphone/headphones), try alt (option) clicking the Sound Menu in the menu bar and selecting "Use Audio port for" -> Input. This way the system will think that you want to use what's plugged in as microphone and not as headphones and you will be able to use the speakers once again.


Is is possible to move a Verizon iPhone 4s to another US cellular carrier?

I think I found the Answer I was looking for in How U.S. Carriers Fool You Into Thinking Your iPhone 4S Is Unlocked
Short answer "You can't do it!" If your phone is CDMA, its permanently locked to its CDMA network of origin.

Unlocking your Iphone 4S
Among the three major carriers operating in the U.S., only one, AT&T, will not unlock any iPhone. Because I purchased a Verizon-designated handset, the following information relates to those customers that purchase Verizon iPhones, but the technology and result is the same for any carrier.
When I called Verizon tech support to unlock my phone prior to leaving the U.S., I was told that I had to have a foreign SIM card installed in order to complete the process and that the phone would have to log in to the Verizon network on WiFi. The reason for this procedure is that the phone must validate the foreign SIM.

...

So I stopped in at an Apple store in London. We logged into a WiFi network, installed a micro-SIM card from a carrier in England, and within about thirty seconds, the phone was unlocked because Verizon had already unlocked the phone at their end before I left the U.S. For the rest of my travels overseas, it worked flawlessly and provided essentially the same options that are available on any other dual-mode or GSM-only device.

...

Four different iPhone 4S versions
When I returned to the U.S., I wanted to confirm that my Verizon iPhone could be ported to another carrier, whether CDMA or GSM. This was the intent of Apple when they designed the 4S: every phone is the same and will work on virtually any carrier in the world.
So, I contacted a regional GSM carrier in the Midwest that has roaming agreements with AT&T and T-Mobile. The carrier was kind enough to provide a micro-SIM card for testing in my iPhone. What I found may infuriate customers who have purchased expensive iPhones from one of the three carriers in the U.S. but at some point decide to switch to another provider because of poor coverage, customer service, or pricing.

...

Sitting in South Dakota, I replaced my Verizon SIM with the Longlines Wireless chip. The phone indicated that the SIM was not recognized by the phone and required its removal and device reboot. I contacted Verizon global support to confirm my suspicions. They advised that indeed their phones were locked as against any other carrier in the United States, and that the term “unlock” only applied to overseas carriers.
I next inserted my UK SIM card into the phone, and it logged into AT&T without issue, which confirmed what Verizon told me. I then interviewed managers at three different Apple corporate stores to confirm issues with regard to unlocking.
What consumers need to understand is that there are actually four different versions of the iPhone 4S: Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and Apple. Only the Apple phone, available from their stores or on-line, is fully unlocked and can be used on any carrier outside the United States. The other phones are permanently locked and cannot ever be used on another carrier in the U.S. Even if you spend $800 for an unlocked phone as I did and dedicate it to a single U.S. carrier, you are locked into that carrier forever if you want to keep using the iPhone. Neither Apple or the other carriers will fully unlock your carrier phone.


Sync music to a borrowed iPhone without disturbing other content

You can't just sync an iPhone to any random computer - even if you are "dad".
Apple's security will just not let you do that.

You would need to release the phone from Find My iPhone, re-set it as your phone, set up as a new device, then you could sync your own iTunes to it.
This would, of course, delete any existing data on it & reassign it as your own device.
You would have to revert that afterwards, using a previously saved backup of your daughter's phone as it was before you 'borrowed it'.

Simpler might be to set up her iTunes on her computer to hold your playlist.
That at least wouldn't require the double transfer of ownership.


Do iOS devices have a pop-up Japanese-English Dictionary like on the Macintosh?

Yes, on iPad on iOS5.1.1. At the moment, I am having trouble getting the same functionality on iPhone on iOS6.0.1, though. Japanese dictionary is there, but I can't get the English-Japanese one. Your mileage may vary, of course.

EDIT May 27 2013: To restore Japanese<->English dictionary, you will need to jailbreak the device and delete the Japanese<->Japanese dictionary. These dictionaries conflict, and the Japanese<->Japanese dictionary wins almost every time.

I have also asked if it is possible to only temporarily jailbreak an iOS 6.1.2 iPhone 4 for purposes of removing the mentioned dictionary. As of the time of this edit, this has not been answered; I am nonetheless linking to that question in case someone answers it by the time someone reads this.


Open files with same extension in different directories with different applications

That is possible with Folder Action.

Means your files have to be in separate folders.

I assume you mean Folders when you say Directory.

As step one lets create a Automator flow for Folder Action.

Step 2 select the folder you want and create the work flow by dragging following in to it. You are done with this step, save it under a name you want for future references.

Step 3: In finder right click on the folder you want this to work on and select Services- Folder Action Setup..

In the pop up window select the file you just created. (yourfile.workflow)

That's it, now all files inside that folder will be opened with specified application, so you can now set that for other folders using the above procedure to set other applications to open same file type. It will do it automagicaly from now on as soon you drop a new file in the folder.


How to redirect mail from a main inbox to only your smart mailbox?

A smart mailbox is just a virtual mailbox showing mails which match certain rules. This means that you can't physicallye move mail into a smart mailbox.

In your case you could create a physical mailbox folder instead and use mail rules to move mail matching the subject string directly into this folder on arrival. Apple has a support article explaining how to use rules which might help here.


I found the answer here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/1qk525/how_do_you_search_for_multiple_items_all_at_once/

This worked for me:

Use the free software called EasyFind

Drag and drop your root folder in the window to set the source
Copy paste the list of photos you're looking for (you'll only see one in the box but they're all there if you arrow up/down.
Select "Any Word" in the options on the left
Hit enter to search
Select all the items in that list and copy (option+drag) or move them (drag) to a folder in finder.


That sounds reasonable especially if you're not in a cold environment. You're recording at a minimum of 240 million pixels per second internally (display resolution plus scaling, at 60fps) — that's going to be strenuous on the computer just like any heavy video processing workload. 80℃ is not out of the ordinary for any situation where you're taxing system resources.


Your iTunes ID is the same as your Apple ID. I've recently switched email addresses as well, so I can confirm that you can easily change the email address.
Assuming that you've already successfully changed your Apple ID, follow the steps that Hand-E-Food mentions:

Go to Settings

Select Store (near the bottom of the section starting with General)

Click on your (old) Apple ID

Click on Sign Out

Click on Sign In

Click on Use Existing Apple ID

Sign in with your new Apple ID email address and password
That's all there is to it!


Suggest a Mac Notifications app with cloud sync to an accompanying iPhone app?

As of OS X Mountain Lion (coming in Summer 2012), Reminders will have an iCloud-syncing desktop equivalent.

Since Reminders is integrated with Notifications in iOS, and the desktop edition presumably will work with desktop notifications as well, this should be a good, out-of-the-box way to meet your (simple) stated needs.


Tilde expansion must not be quoted nor the wildcard. The space between Application and Support would be quoted with a backslash.

~/Library/Application\ Support/CrashReporter/*


Can't get VGA output to work with MacBookPro5,3 OS X 10.6.8

Have you tried a SMC reset?  Often fixes crazy port issues.


If you are a student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, you'll have to log in using your credentials so they can log your prints/charge you for your prints, which is currently incompatible with AirPrint. AirPrint can be disabled by your system administrator on a printer-by-printer basis.

You may have better luck directly contacting your school's help desk.


How to record the screen of an OpenGL application without stuttering?

The reason for the “stuttering” could be a combination of different factors.

First is of course your computer’s power and video card. The more power you have, the more the number of FPSs your computer can “record”.

Despite that, QuickTime is not known for its “fast” recording, so I suggest you give a try to different alternatives. This comparison is a little bit “outdated” because some (if not most) of the applications mentioned have been updated and have fixed or changed some of the problems they had, however, it should be a starting point for your final QUickTime Replacement. This other link has a very similar list, but rather than a review is a list with a short description of the products.

For reference, the most important Screen Capture tools for OS X (or to put it in another way, the “most used ones”) are (in no particular order): iShowU, Snapz Pro X, ScreenFlow and one that is missing from those lists (because it’s a new player in the Mac world): Camtasia for Mac (which I’ve been betatesting and it’s quite good and in par with the ones I’ve mentioned). Some features missing from Camtasia 1.0 have been addressed in an update and I know they are working on a newer version after getting tons of feedback in the Beta forums (which I can’t disclose because I participated).

I’ve personally tried those four I’ve mentioned (i have a Snapz Pro license) and I think they more or less are the same, but some were (when I tried them) faster than others but lacked certain features. All in all, the “best” doesn’t exist, they all have strengths and weaknesses so your best bet is to give them a try and see if one does the job.

Last but not least, remember that quality also plays an important factor in CPU overhead when recording, try to keep your CPU load low and reduce the recording quality as much as you can afford.


Re-enable Mac media keys originally disabled via terminal

to re-enable media keys you can use:
launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.rcd.plist
explained in this article


Can you provide further input after running one script over SSH in iOS

No, you can't enter a password. The only thing that I can think of is adding the commands you want to be able to run to the sudoers file.
I'm not sure how to works in Linux but on macOS you put a file in /etc/sudoers.d/something using the visudo command.
There seems to be an example page for Linux here: https://phoenixnap.com/kb/linux-sudo-command that might be useful as a starting point.


Make filename extensions hidden in specific folder (Desktop) or file (.jar)

You can write an AppleScript that uses Finder’s extension hidden property to do this. See the accepted answer here:
https://superuser.com/questions/399899/show-hide-extension-of-a-file-through-os-x-command-line


Can't format my Macbook, HDD and macUtilities won't load, "blocked" sign after trying to boot usb

First of all, like Allan mentioned in the comments, your MacOS drive will not show up on startup if you erased it. The reason the 'blocked' sign appears is because the installer files for OS El Capitan are corrupt on your USB.

I also have a white MacBook from 2009 and I encountered the same issues when trying to install macOS Sierra from a bootable USB.

Here's what you can do:

Re-create a bootable USB of OS X Yosemite using a Mac computer running MacOS. From my experience, third party applications like Install Disk Creator work better than the Terminal for fully loading the boot files. Note that the USB storage size must be larger than the file size of the installer for the OS you want to install. (8GB worked for me)
Run the bootable USB on your MacBook by using the steps you did before. This time, you should be able to get pass the 'blocked' sign.
Format the HDD using Disk Utility from the Utilities Menu. Click the 'Erase' tab and set the format of your HDD to 'OS X Extended (Journaled)', then click erase. Your MacBook should then be able recognise the HDD.
Install the OS X Yosemite on the HDD using the OS X Installer from the Utilities Menu. You can always update to El Capitan after you install Yosemite. You may have to configure the system time if you run into an error while validating the install.


The display is crispest at it's native resolution of 2560 X 1440. I would suggest adjusting the text size in each app. This is a bit of a pain because it seems that some apps render the same font/size combo differently. Most apps seem to have font/size adjustments with some, like Mail.app, having adjustments for each of the major control areas (mailboxes, summary, mail display).

There are third party apps like SwitchRes that may show you intermediate steps. When I run a monitor at a non-native resolution I get a headache in about 5 minutes. The only exception to this is on my Macbook Pro Retina running the "More Space" (1920X1200) setting in the Display preference panel.


Unicode subscript characters do not display

Have you checked in Character Viewer that you actually have a font installed which contains this character?  It displays for me here.  My Character Viewer says the 3rd party font Symbola is the only one I have with it.  Why more fonts don't have it I don't know.  (U+209C)


Nvidia offers a CUDA driver and OpenGL driver, for use with their APIs. The application would need to be recompiled with these options for the .app to use the cuda driver.

Here is the latest info, from a last month...
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/cuda_3_2_downloads.html

Scroll down to Mac OS X section for some good non-programmer - adv programmer info.


RAW images not supported in Aperture after Time Machine restore

It appears that this problem isn't with Aperture at all as the image files themselves are corrupt.  This isn't the solution to the problem, because this is just a side-effect of the main problem.


Writing emails in different languages in Mail.app

If "Automatic by Language" does not give adequate results, you can set the dictionary to a specific language in Edit > Spelling and Grammar > Show Spelling and Grammar.


I believe I corrected this by using this in the terminal:

sudo ntpdate -u time.euro.apple.com


iphone 4s did not work after trying to upgrade from ios 5 to ios 6 unsuccessfully

Have you already tried to kick off your iPhone from recovery mode? This could be done with programs such as Tiny Umbrella or ReiBoot.


How to restart a process without user interaction

If you terminate the java process with kill -9, the shell which called gets an error code back. In your case, the execution of java is the only command in the script run by Automator, so the error code is interpreted by Automator as a general error which triggers the popup.

If you add any other command after the java call (well, any which ends successfully), the Run Shell Script action will complete successfully and Automator will not even notice that the java process was terminated. This command can be something simple like : (which in this form basically does nothing) or sleep 0 (which usually exits successfully).


If you do not have the password for an iCloud account, and also do not have the means to reset it via appleid.apple.com page, then you can't do anything with that iCloud account.

Also, it seems you have a couple of issues: iTunes not recognising your iPhone?

PD: Why would you want to backup everything to an iCloud account you can no longer access?


How to stop iOS 10 alarm from silencing itself after 15 minutes?

The iOS 10 alarm clock will turn off after 15 minutes and there's nothing you can do about it, it's built that way.  Even if you turn off Snooze, it will still stop.

If you need something else, and it looks like you do, I recommend going to the SE Software Recommendation site and ask for other options.  I'm sure you're not the only one who needs alternatives because of this change.


You can use either relative or absolute paths to prevent the - from standing alone and confusing bash's build in command cd:

mkdir ./-
cd ./-


Script to unmount mounted image automatically after some time

Here is a way to accomplish most of this using a simple Automator script:

Save the script as an Application. Place on desktop or dock. When you want to open the encrypted disk image, simply drop it onto the script icon and it will mount it, pause, and ask for confirmation from you to close the disk image after a certain amount of time has elapsed. The only thing here is that if you choose not to have it unmount, you will need to manually unmount later. You can also remove the confirmation prompt altogether. Then you will simply get an error message if it tries to unmount while still open (which should also stop the script from running).


How I can set command-delete as a custom keyboard shortuct?

I figured out the answer. It doesn't appear to be possible to achieve that using System Preferences. I had to use Terminal to directly edit defaults using the following command.
defaults write <plist name of application> NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict '<name of button in menu bar>' '@'
For instance, to map ⌘+⌫ to Delete menu item in Anki, I used the following command:
defaults write net.ankiweb.dtop NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict 'Delete' '@'
There is an invisible unicode character for backspace behind @. To enter it manually, open Emojis & Symbols and type "u+0008".


How to restore a hidden file in Time Machine?

Rest assured that Time Machine is backing up your dot-files! You just can't see them by default in Finder. In order to restore a hidden file like .zshrc you first need to turn off file hiding in finder. You can do this by opening a Terminal window and entering:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

Now enter Time Machine and navigate to where your hidden files resided. You should be able to restore them from there.

When you've restored all the files you want you can go back to having Finder hide them by entering:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

in a Terminal window.


What resolution (in pixels) should videos taken in the new iPad (3rd generation) be?

Email (and I guess dropbox) compresses the video to a .mov file about a fraction of the size.

I was able to view the images and videos by directly connecting the iPad to the PC and mounting it as a drive.

The actual dimensions of the video appear to be 1920 x 1088.


How do I break out of a stuck lock screen?

Just Cmd + Ctrl + Power'd it. Install hadn't actually started (only download had), so was ready to upgrade after reboot.


Moving cursor with trackpad is not working. How to fix it?

After all the things you already did, I would think a hardware defect is most likely. Plist files won't exist until you change some settings.


Is there a free Office App for the iOS to read Word, Excel, PowerPoint & OneNote files?

These can be displayed by IOS with no software involved, other than OneNote.  The trick is getting the files onto the device.  Email is one way; you can view these files, other than OneNote, as attachments, using the ioS Mail app.

Another alternative is to use a sync service client (e.g. dropbox) to access the files.


Assuming I understand your question correctly, there is no way for software to autoupdate without a device being switched on. Autoupdates require an internet connection to function properly.

More specifically, an internet connection is needed to compare the currently installed version with the latest version available and, when a new version is available, to download the new version. In some cases, an internet connection is also required to perform the actual installation.

Since an internet connection is required, the device must be powered up for the process to work. In other words a device that is switched off can not autoupdate any of its software, nor can a device that is switched on but not connected to the internet (often referred to as standalone devices).


Manually add shared Windows printer in macOS

You can access the advanced tab by right clicking just to the left of the word Add, selecting Customize Toolbar, and dragging the advanced tab onto the tool bar.


Go to Settings -> General ->Accessibility -> 3D Touch.

You'll see a slider there that allows you to control the sensitivity.


AppleScript counts multiple Mail messages

I've seen this too, and I presume it's because Mail in Mavericks plays badly with IMAP in various ways, and AppleScript aggravates these issues. For example, some people are finding that if you move a message from one IMAP mailbox to another using AppleScript, it can take 30 seconds or even a minute - but if you do the same thing just by dragging the message, it's very fast.

So, to sum up, my answer is: yes, it's real; yes, it's a bug, and no, you're not going to be able to do anything about it. Mail is doing some kind of caching here. Quitting and relaunching Mail might (or might not) clear up the problem temporarily. But it might not.

I tried getting the Mail selection with AppleScript just now and I got four messages when only two were selected. But close examination showed that this was only two distinct messages; Mail has wrongly assigned to two different unique message ids to each message. That's a massive bug, and there's nothing you can do about it. (I tried rebuilding the mailbox but it didn't help.)

EDIT: I played around with this some more: I turned off View -> Organize By Conversation and I then rebuilt the mailbox, and that seems to have helped.


How can I get Safari to reopen my last closed tab?


scanner driver Samsung Xpress M267X/287X

You should be able to download this from Samsung's support center. There were new scan drivers released 9th of April this year and they can be found here:
http://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/product/SL-M2875FD/XAA

Remember to follow the instructions supported by Samsung:

    Security setting should be changed in order to install drivers in Mac OS X 10.8:

    Run [System Preferences] under [Application] folder

    Select [Security & Privacy]

    Select [Anywhere] under [Allow applications downloaded from]


I can't see all the events for one day on the El Capitan calendar

If you don't see all of your events (instead you see "2 more", etc., then the blocks are too small. Simply enlarge the calendar (by pulling on the right-hand bottom corner), and you will see all of your events.


How can I rate Apple's Podcast.app in the iTunes App Store?

From what I have been able to gather, it looks like the Podcasts App and the iBooks app are the only apps made by Apple that don't have a ratings button. I am guessing since the Podcasts app (and iBooks) are automatically installed on your iPhone or iPad in iOS 8, and are also installable from the app store on earlier versions of iOS, they most likely just omitted it because you can't delete them in iOS 8. Just like you can't rate Apps like Messages or Phone on your iPhone.


Is it possible to have the "Find" field engaged on open of .rtf file?

TextEdit does not have an option to preform some actions when a file is opened, e.g. to run an on open() handler that does things upon opening a file. That said, if you have a particular file you want to open in TextEdit and have Find show at the top of the document, you'll need to do it programatically.

The example AppleScript code below is saved as an application and placed in the Dock instead of the target document itself. This of course will have to be on the left side of the Dock separator vs. the right side of the separator where the document's icon is.

set fileToOpen to (path to documents folder as text) & "file name.rtf"

tell application "TextEdit"
    open file fileToOpen
    activate
    tell application "System Events"
        key code 3 using command down -- ⌘F
        --  # Uncomment the line below if you want to clear the Find field of previous search.
        -- key code 51 -- Clear previous Find data by pressing the delete key.
    end tell
end tell

Note: You can make the Dock Tile of the AppleScript application that opens the target file have the same icon as the target file, by copying and pasting the icon from the target file's Get Info sheet to its Get Info sheet before dragging the AppleScript application you created to open the target file to the Dock.

Hint: As a suggestion, when you save the AppleScript application, name it the same name as the document it's opening.


You're searching for Instapaper
(I don't feel the need to write the features list as you did it already in your question :)


How to create an IPA file (non-payload folder method)

You can't create an ipa file without an Apple Developer Account.

You can create a free developer account and sign the app with a development certificate.  You won't be allowed to distribute the app to anyone but you can use it on your own devices.

An overview of the different types of memberships are available here.


How to list my programs in my User Applications folder?

It seems you duplicated your applications. To be sure, you can do a Spotlight search of one of your application and see if it's listed twice.

Your "original" applications are under /Applications/.
You can find it by opening Finder, ⌘+⇧+G, entering /Applications in the text box, and validating. It's a folder at the root of your hard drive that Apple put there to hold all the applications for all the users.

Once you checked they're in double, you can delete the ones that are in your user folder.

Your idea of putting all your application under your user account is not a good. Some applications, especially the built in ones, don't like to be moved, and since they already have that special place for them, what's the point?

But, you can do it for your own applications, such as Firefox, Adium, etc.
Those applications can be moved from /Applications/ to the Applications folder in your user account.

Final question, why do you want your application listed under your user Applications folder?

I you really want to do that, I guess you can make an alias.

Go into /Applications/, select all the applications, hold ⌘+⌥ while moving them into the new location.
There's a little arrow under that will tell you that they will only be aliased:


iPhoto problem after upgrading to Mountain Lion

Firstly, make a backup of the library.  At least you will have that in-case anything does go wrong.

Then make sure you update iPhoto to the latest version before you upgrade the Operating System.

Finally, repair your Disk Permissions using Disk Utility http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5821

I've updated many times and never had iPhoto be affected by an OS upgrade.  Thats not to say it isn't possible.  The above steps will put you in the best shape to move forward.

If you upgrade and have an issue with the iPhoto database, hold down Command and Option keys whilst starting iPhoto to get a list of rebuild/recovery options.

Hope that helps.


Why is the memory usage on my iPhone being reported incorrectly by iTunes?

Given the clarifications in the comments, it sounds like iTunes is mis-reporting the free space on the phone.

Unfortunately, this may be an as-yet-unresolved bug in iTunes: there seem to be a heap of threads on discussions.apple.com describing this problem, with even recent posts lacking resolution. Here are two of them:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/16756343#16756343

https://discussions.apple.com/message/12869025#12869025

It may be worth watching those threads to see if there's a resolution - hopefully, if the bug's well-known by now, an upcoming iTunes version will fix it.


What about looking for files with the pages extension (.pages) in spotlight?

Open spotlight (keyboard shortcut: Command + Spacebar ) and type: .pages

If you see a file popping up, hold Command an click on it. The file's location will then be opened in finder.


Why would my new 2015 Macbook pro make more fan noise than my 2013 model?

There's nothing about i7's in particular the determine that they should always lead to more fan noise than an i5. In many cases, i5's and i7's have similar thermal design power points.

Note that you're comparing an 2013 MacBook Pro with an i5 with a 2015 MacBook Pro with an i7. They're different in many ways. Therefore you cannot really say anything meaningful about whether it is due to an i7 or some particular other thing.

However, if you're annoyed by the noise, I would suggest cleaning the fans. Your laptop has potentially seen 4 years of use in an environment you do not know. The fans could be very dirty and that could in itself lead to a lot of extra noise. It might also be possible to reduce noise by reapplying cooling paste to the CPU.


Even if your Macbook isn't drawing power from a battery, the battery itself is chemical in nature and, like all batteries, subject to "self-discharge". The only time this is an issue is when it's "elevated self-discharge."  So your Macbook needn't be powered-on therefore to suffer some degree of battery drain.
So battery drain in a powered-down state isn't the problem- it happens to all chemical batteries.  Your issue is that it's at an elevated level, which might indicate the battery requires replacement as the 2nd link talks about. Apparently 5% loss within 24 hours and 1-2% per day thereafter is expected for Lithium batteries. Yours is definitely draining at a much higher rate.
If you go to the "Power" section of "System Report" you can check the status of your battery to see if it's misbehaving as mine apparently is in my 2018 Macbook!:

So assuming you're 100% sure that the affected Macbook isn't in a sleep state, but fully powered down, this looks a lot like a hardware issue regarding the battery. Here's some guidance from Apple on troubleshooting Battery issues
Another thing you can look at for the sake of completeness when reviewing your power issue is resetting the Service Management Controller (SMC), if only to exclude this as not being causal before you trundle down to Apple with your Macbook-


How large is my 2012 MacBook Air's L1 cache? Are they larger now?

Your current MacBook Air has an L1 cache of 128 kB. So your guess of 10^5 bytes is not far off!

The latest MacBook Air has the same amount of L1 cache, so in that respect it is the same. However, other parts of the CPU are vastly different.

Note that your might see that some of these CPUs are listed as having "Smart Cache", which essentially means that some caches are shared among multiple cores. In your case, the L1 cache is never shared - so it is always a private cache for each core. This means that if your code is single threaded, then the actual amount of L1 cache used by that program is actually 64 kB and not 128 kB.

In addition to that, the L1 cache is actually not a single cache as such,. It is split into seperate portions for instructions and data. This means that with the 64 kB, you will have cached 32 kB of data and 32 kB of instructions (program code).

You might wonder why the new MacBook Air has the same amount of L1 cache and think that it hasn't kept up with the development in the industry - but that's actually not how it is. The size of the L1 has been pretty constant for years and years. 20 years ago you might have seen 32 kB L1 cache per core, the last many years 64 kB L1 cache has been pretty standard.

For comparison the latest Mac Pro (desktop computer) with the most expensive CPU option (the Intel Xeon W-3265M 24 core CPU) also has a 64 kB L1 cache per core.

Just increasing the size of the L1 cache won't really do you any good in terms of increasing overall performance. L1 cache is the most "expensive" type of cache in terms of the amount of physical space taken up on the die, and in terms of power usage. In addition, because it is even faster than TLB lookups, the extra benefit of a larger size quickly diminishes. In essence, you'll get more benefit from having a larger L2 or L3 cache than increasing the size of the L1 cache - and it's much "cheaper" to increase those.

All in all this seems to indicate that different L1 cache sizes isn't the deciding factor that determines that your computer is slow and others are fast.

I could guess that perhaps a big difference lies in the fact that your old processor does not support the same "number-crunching" instruction sets as a new processor does. This small test example doesn't really show it, but from your links it appears that you're really doing some computations with vectors. Specialized CPU instructions exists that really benefit those types of computations - and I know that numpy can take advantage of at least some of them. Your current CPU only supports the older AVX instruction sets, whereas a new MacBook Air supports AVX2 in addition to SSE4.

You might for comparison's sake try disabling AVX2/SSE4 support in numpy on the fast machine and rerun the calculation to see if that accounts for the majority of the time difference.


You can do a clean install of Ubuntu on a Mac without needing to install rEFInd.

The procedure for installing depends on the model Mac and the version of Ubuntu.

The rEFInd boot manager can be useful in the following situations.

You want a menu with operating system choices to appear each time the computer boots or reboots.
You want to select the default operating system to boot from the currently executing operation system.

rEFInd is a boot manager. This means rEFInd does not actually boot an operating system. rEFInd just instructs the firmware which operating system to boot.

Since you wish to only install Ubuntu on your Mac, then there is no reason to install the rEFInd boot manager.


Minimum volume is too loud when using Plantronics Bluetooth headphone

The music settings don't seem to work for Spotify or other streaming apps. Many of them have built in equalizers to perform essentially the same function. Within Spotify, navigate to the settings menu. Under Playback, you can set up a custom equalizer. Lower all of the settings equally to decrease the base volume.


How can I mount a network share on a schedule?

Believe I have solved this on my own.  The part that wasn't working for me, was that Automator would always prompt me to select the specific share/folder I wanted to mount.  Turns out I missed the obvious - specify the folder in the path provided in an Applescript!  Like so:

tell application "Finder"
    if not (disk "FolderName" exists) then
        mount volume "afp://MyMac.local/FolderName"
    end if
end tell

Now I'm just going to put a few-minutes pause before this command, and set the resulting Automator app to run at startup.  If both machines unmount the remote volumes and reboot at the same time each night, all should be well with the world.  In order to schedule the execution of my automator commands, I'm just using the Calendar's ability to launch a file on alert.


Why there is a large lost+found folder on external disk

The name is historic from unix. The filesystem is designed to track files and when there is a problem, the filesystem will under some repair operations, lose files to remain workable. (hence the need for backups)

Those files that would be lost in this operation are stored in the lost+found folder so that you could perhaps use them if they are undamaged or at least inspect them to know what files are now corrupt or missing.

The program that moves files into lost+found and repairs the filesystem is [fsck][1]

You should delete the folder and all it's contents once you decide you don't need to learn anything from it. Also, you should run Disk Utility or fsck to see if you can get a clean run or if you need to erase that volume and start over/replace it.


Is it possible to sync the same contact to multiple accounts in iOS?

Not a straightforward way, but I export all contacts in Contacts.app in a format that Google Contacts receives. Then upload them all there and clean up all the duplicates.

Then export a file from Google Contacts. Delete all iCloud contacts and then import the file I just got.

But ever since I started using photos for people's phone numbers, this doesn't work.


how can I download ios 7 manually to be able to get my podcast app back?

Unfortunately the highest supported iOS by an iPhone 3Gs is 6.1.6, you cannot do anything in that regards, the possible solution is to Jailbreak the iPhone and try to get access to Podcast application with that.


Are there any public audits of the disk level encryption in Mac OS X Lion?

According to a public talk by Rich Trouton, FileVault 2 is not FIPS 140-2 validated, but "Apple's new Common Crypto implementation is just starting to undergo FIPS evaluation"

The code itself for Common Crypto is available at http://www.opensource.apple.com/ and has been all the way back to 10.4 (where I got tired of checking revisions - it probably goes back even further, but what matters is the code shipped in Lion which is available for all three lion releases 10.7, 10.7.1 and 10.7.2)


How do you log out of the Mac App Store?

Store Menu > Sign Out

The downside is apps are tied to the ID, so you won't be able to update the same apps signed to another ID


Yosemite: Accessibility zoom + multiple monitors = poor performance


Cannot launch system with no battery icon

Plug in the MacBook charger and try to start it.

If it doesn't start, it's recommended to get it inspected at an Apple Store or by an authorized technician.


Set Mail app so it won't mark messages as read on the server

This mechanism is a feature of the mail protocol that you are using, and isn't a local feature that you can choose to set within Mail.  You are likely useing either IMAP or Exchange, the the replication of mail states for things like location, unread/read etc is a part of the normal operation.

I am not at a Mac, so I cannot test for features, but the best you can hope for is a configuration in Mail that will allow you to either change what action marks the mail as read or not (Might be mere selection, might be opening the time specifically, might be viewing the message for more than X seconds etc) or extend the time that it takes for the action to complete (viewd for 5 seconds, or 10, etc).

You can of course simply right click on a read mail and then mark it as unread again.


If you don’t already, I want to suggest in the strongest terms possible that you have a Time Machine backup of your data. A portable 1TB hard drive is not expensive and you can plug it in and Time Machine will prompt you if you want to use it for backups. I would do that before proceeding with any answers provided (mine included).

As for that huge 89GB of data, this is actually safe to remove. However, please don’t do this manually. Instead, follow these steps:

On your iPhone ensure you have iCloud activated
Make sure your MacBook is connected to the internet
On your MacBook, go to Apple > System Preferences
Click on iCloud
At the top where you have the iCloud Drive checkbox ticked, untick it
A somewhat scary message will appear - click on the Delete from Mac button. Don’t worry, your documents will still be on iCloud (and that’s another reason why we made sure iCloud was activated on your iPhone at Step 1)
Exit System Preferences
Within about 5 minutes most of that 89GB in com.apple.bird will be freed up
Once you’re satisfied that you’ve freed up all that space, repeat Steps 3 & 4
At the top you can now tick the iCloud Drive checkbox again
Exit System Preferences

Let me know if my steps aren’t clear or if you have any problems.

Remember: - Make sure you regularly backup your MacBook.


Adding Google Account in Internet Account on Mac Book Pro: Authentication fails

The problem disappeared today, so I guess there was some problem with google.


If you backed up your phone to the computer then you should be able to restore that backup to your iphone using itunes. If not hopefully you set icloud as your backup. You can restore your phone from icloud using these directions: http://support.apple.com/kb/ph12521. Hope it helps.


Disk Utility won't allow me to delete and resize partitions

i would try this:

first boot up you mac with a linux live cd.
then use gparted to remove those un needed partitions. (without resizing just delete what you don't need anymore).

now reboot into os x and now you schould be able to resize the os x partition case there is only free space no other partition formats wich os x can't handle.


Free RSS reader client for Mac with new post notification?

If I understand your question correctly, NetNewsWire does this.

It's free, but ad-supported; you can pay extra to remove the ads.


How can I check if my iCloud email address or Apple ID has been compromised?

There’s no 100% certain way to be sure that an Apple ID and/or iCloud email address has not been compromised.

However, you can use an online service such as the Have I been pwned? site to conduct a search of your email addresses to check whether there’s any known breaches (e.g. the Linkedin and Adobe breaches a while back) that contained information relating to your email address. If a known breach involving your email address has occurred, this site can provide details of what data may have been breached.

For example, say I've had my email address registered with Adobe for five years, then by entering it into this site it will show that there was a breach of Adobe’s site in 2013 and that the compromised data included email addresses, usernames, passwords and password hints.

Notify me function

Another feature of the Have I been pwned? site is that you can elect to be notified if at any future point your account is compromised. You can do that by registering your email address with the Notify me function.

Searching entire domains

If you happen to have your own domain (or are responsible for one), you can also use the Domain Search function to search for any email addresses on that domain that have been compromised.

However, this will require you to enter both the domain and an email address, as well as going through a quick process to verify you're responsible for the domain in question. Once you've done that you can choose to download a file containing the data.

NOTE: I am not affiliated in any way with the Have I been pwned? site. However I have used it many times and can attest to the fact that all features mentioned here work well.

IMPORTANT

If you have any reason to suspect that any of your Apple IDs have been compromised, I strongly recommend you change your password.


How do I lock the screen using a keyboard shortcut on OS X Mountain Lion with a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000?

You do not need to use Third Party Apps to set a global short cut.
You can use Automator Services,System Preferences keyboard Shortcuts and the CGSession -suspend command that switches to a login screen.

Use the Applescript :

do shell script "/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend"

in a Automator 'Service' like this with the set up as no input and all applications.

Save it and then go to the Keyboard System Preferences. -> Keyboard Shortcuts tab.  Select Services on the right. And scroll down to the bottom on the left to 'General'. There you will see your service. Click the addShortCut. And give the service a shortcut. Clost system prefs.

You may need to quit some apps and re open them first for them to pick up the short cut for the first time. You can see the ones that have already picked it up..

Now try the shortcut from the keyboard.


How can I use my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014) with the LG UltraFine 4K display?

No, this is not possible with LG's 4K Display since it is usb-c only and not thunderbolt.
Apple officially states that you are able to connect a LG UltraFine 5K Display since the thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapter works to connect them:

3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz
With the Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt
2 Adapter and a Thunderbolt cable, you can use the LG UltraFine 5K
Display at 4K and lower resolutions with these Mac models:
Mac Pro
(Late 2013) macOS 10.12.4 or later is recommended.
MacBook Pro
(Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) and later
MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,
Mid 2014) and later
iMac (Retina, 27-inch, Late 2014) and later
iMac
(Retina, 21.5-inch, Late 2015)
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2015)
MacBook Air
(13-inch, Early 2015)
MacBook Air (11-inch, Early 2015)

The necessary adapters for the 5K Display can be found here:

Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter

Apple Thunderbolt Cable (2.0 m) - White


Docking Station for 13" MacBook Pro and Surface Pro 3

I have a client that has used this model docking station and he seems to really like it.  It's the Pluggable USB Docking Station.

Update:  The USB docking stations in general seem to have an issue with the DisplayLink technology meaning that the dock with the exception of the display will work just fine.

From DisplayLink's website:

  Known issues with DisplayLink on OS X 10.9, 10.10 and 10.11
  (Mavericks, Yosemite and El Capitan)

  The
  following minor issues have been found on OS X 10.9, 10.10 and 10.11
  and do not currently have a resolution:

  Corruption around window borders for Carbon applications (for example Microsoft Office 2011)
  Afew applications can show corruption and/or missing contents while
  updating windows contents. Examples are Maps, iBooks and the Dock.
  The window server can crash logging our the user when minimising
  applications, for example iTunes.
  Apple menu icon misplaced on DisplayLink screens
  Since 10.11 El Capitan, corruption shown while mirroring DisplayLink screens

  The following issues have been found on OS X 10.9, 10.10 and have been resolved in 10.11:
  - The Window Server crashes logging out the user during some full screen transitions, for example Show Desktop and Mission Control.

  These issues are beingworked on jointly between DisplayLink and Apple.

This is an ongoing issue.  If you can live with video issues, then pretty much any USB 3.0 dock will work.  If video is super important, then you are going to need separate docks.


Retaining current files in Dropbox after restoring Time Machine backup

Dropbox support got back to me with this great response.

If you want to make permanent changes to your computer that do not sync back to the website you need to unlink the computer first.

Follow these steps to unlink a computer:

Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen on Mac.
Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select 'Preferences' > 'Account'
Click the 'Unlink' button
Afterward, Dropbox will prompt you to re-register. Quit!

You can now safely move or delete files in the Dropbox folder and not affect anything else.

Note that the Dropbox folder itself is still there. If you relink to a different Dropbox account, the application will detect that another Dropbox folder already exists on the computer, and will give you two options: 'Choose Another Location' or 'Install'.

If you want your new Dropbox folder to be in a location different than your existing folder, click on 'Choose Another Location'.

If you want your new Dropbox folder to be in the same location as your existing one, click on 'Install'. This will rename the existing Dropbox folder to 'Dropbox (Old)' and will create a new Dropbox folder for the account you’re currently linking.

The above steps should give you the option to keep the files in an unlinked folder (Dropbox Old) or you can choose to delete that folder.

You may also want to unlink, delete the folder entirely, reinstall the Dropbox application and link the device. This will then create a new Dropbox folder and the functionality of the Dropbox application is limited to watching your Dropbox folder for changes and syncing any changes that occur across your connected devices, and will sync down your Dropbox account that shows on Dropbox.com to that device.


What Is Graphic Switching & Are There Reasons to Turn It Off?

Graphics switching is where the integrated graphics is switched for the discrete graphics when more performance is required (and where performance is more important than battery life & heat output).

You can see the current graphics card that is enabled, and forcefully switch between the two, with gfxCardStatus.

Integrated graphics should be used when you need battery life over performance (the Integrated Only option in gfxCardStatus can be used to force integrated graphics in circumstances where OS X believes that the discrete graphics is required).
Discrete graphics should be used when you need performance over battery life (this is usually not required to be set manually with the Discrete Only option since OS X is happy to switch automatically).
Dynamic Switching uses the default OS X graphics switching.

When 'Automatic graphics switching' is disabled in the Energy Saver system preference pane, only the discrete graphics is used.


Trouble connecting Thunderbolt duo to network via ethernet/thunderbolt connector

Short answer: You can't

The 2009 iMac is pre-Thunderbolt, and Thunderbolt is not backwards compatible as far as I am aware.

From what I can see the DUO only has a Thuderbolt port, so you will be out of luck unless you can find a Thunderbolt to USB converter. I am not sure if those exist to be honest.

The only option I can suggest is to enable sharing between your iMac and your MacBook Pro and share the DUO of the MacBook Pro instead.


I'm getting my iPhone 5 6.1.2 replaced - any way to AVOID getting stuck with iOS 7?

It's possible that a refurbished iPhone could run with iOS 6, but it's an extremely slim chance, so I wouldn't count on it. If you do end up getting iOS 7 on your iPhone, there really isn't a way to downgrade to iOS 6 without jailbreaking.

Eventually however, you will have to "swallow the pill" and use iOS 7 (or whatever future update that comes out).


Mac OS X freezes while choosing a keyboard after reset Lion back to the Setup Assistant

Sounds like a bad install. I suggest booting the computer into the hidden Recovery partition by holding ⌘ Cmd-R at startup and doing an internet recovery system restore. It'll be the second option in the OS X Utilities window that comes up. As long as the iMac is connected to the internet it'll re-download the installer and restore a fresh system to the drive.

If you're trying to bring the MacBook back to the way it was when you purchased it I'd suggest opening the Disk Utility in recovery first and erasing the drive completely. (But only if there's no important data on it!)


As far as I can tell, GroupDAV is a superset of, or at least closely related to, WebDAV/CalDAV, for which the iPhone has built in support.

You could try fiddling with your iPhone's calendar app. Adding a CalDAV account may work.


I too, have Duet installed and lost Mission Control animations on last update.

I believe it's some lazy "bug fixing" on Duet's team: Duet was running and I got logged out of my Mac

defaults delete com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration

then run Duet and then

defaults read com.apple.dock expose-animation-duration

It's again gets set to zero.

So my solution so far is deleting expose-animation-duration setting and removing Duet from autostart for a time being.


What does the arrow with 2 lines through it mean?

That is the page or scroll up key. On a MacBook the keystroke is Fn-Up Arrow.

“What Do the ⌘, ⇧, ⌥, ⌃, ⎋, ↩, ⇥, ↖ and ↘ Menu Symbols Mean?”

Each symbol corresponds to a key on your keyboard:

⌘ — Command/Apple key

⇧ — Shift key

⌥ — Option/Alt key

⌃ — Control key

↩ — Return key

⇥ — Tab key

⎋ — Escape key

↖ — Home key (Function-Left Arrow on laptops)

↘ — End key (Function-Right Arrow on laptops)

There is a very handy reference at harvard.edu.


Use rsync to automatically copy a file to another folder

You could use, Automator and Folder actions to watch the folder and run the script.

When launching Automator and choosing New, one of the options given is to make a 'Folder Action'. At the top of the screen after selecting Folder Action you are given the option to choose a folder to 'watch'.

What I think you would want to do in your case is to then select 'Utilities' on the leftmost column, and then drag 'Run Shell Script' from the second column into the workflow window.

Here is where you would write whatever script you would like to run when changes are made to the folder. In this case your rsync script.


Plugging USB hard drive put my Mac to sleep

This can happen if for some reason it pulls more power then the computer can handle.  If this happens only once, I wouldn't worry about it too much, however if it becomes a repeat issue, it could mean there is a problem with the power regulation, the USB port, or both.


Can I turn off the screen with a keyboard shortcut?

Control+Shift+Power For current Mac keyboard layouts. Control+Shift+Eject works for older keyboard layouts that still include the Eject key.

This page explains some alternate solutions as well.

Also, if you have "Require password after sleep or screen saver begins" set to immediately in System Preferences -> Security & Privacy, it will ask you for your password after doing this.


The macOS/BSD version of date can't read from standard input so you need to loop manually.
for d in $(seq -f %1.0f 20210101 20211231); do
    date -jf "%Y%m%d" $d 2>/dev/null | grep 'Sat\|Sun'
done

You can avoid most of the impossible dates created by seq (and get the result faster) by running
for m in {01..12}; do
    for d in {01..31}; do
        date -jf "%Y%m%d" "2021${m}${d}" 2>/dev/null
    done
done | grep 'Sat\|Sun'


How to charge iPad (v1) on a Windows device

An insufficiently-powered USB port will charge an iPad, just slower than a high-powered one.

When you plug the USB cable into your laptop the iPad will say "Not Charging." However, when the screen is off it is in fact charging. As soon as you turn the screen on again the battery area will say "Not Charging," too, but again, with the screen off it will charge.

Test it yourself: before plugging in the cable check the battery percentage. Then plug it in and leave the iPad off for 30 minutes; when you turn the screen back on you'll see that the percentage has increased.

In my case it takes several hours to charge from 50% to 100%, but at least it's charging.


What desktop software (for Mac OS) is there similar to Zite?

You may have found something by now (if so please share), but I just discovered Prismatic, which is similar to Zite, but on the web, and mobile. http://getprismatic.com/.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/prismatic-perfect-desktop-alternative-flipboard-zite/


Does apple notify you when a certificate is going to expire?

Yes, at 30 days, 10 days and 1 day prior to expiration date, you will receive the following email:


Can't answer my phone call with yosemite

Handoff only works with fairly recent Macs that support Bluetooth 4.0.

You can check whether Handoff is supported in About this Mac -> System Report...

My 2011 Macbook Pro doesn't have Bluetooth 4.0, so no Handoff for me either.


Access Mac mini remotely (Screen Sharing + File System)

You need to configure port-forwarding on your Time Capsule.  Since your ISP doesn't give you a static IP address, then you will need a dynamic-DNS service to resolve your home's IP address to a URL which you will use when you're away from home to connect to your Mac Mini.  You'll also need to configure your Time Capsule to handle Wake-On-LAN/Wake-On-Demand packets.  In the bullet points below I've listed the basic requirements and included links to step-by-step instructions for each step.

You need a static IP address from your ISP or a dynamic DNS service like dyndns.com to resolve a changing IP address from a URL which you can choose.
You need to setup Wake-On-Demand as described by Apple on your Time Capsule
Finally, you need to forward ports on your Time Capsule to your Mac Mini so that incoming connections from your client software when you're away from home can reach your Mac Mini.


What I ended up doing was to implement Printopia Pro, which incorporates user groups. This has the effect of locking down the printers except for the users who need access. If you own Printopia, you can get $20 off on an upgrade to Pro. If you need permission-based printing like I do, I'd recommend doing so.


You may have to remove the already backuped photos as well. On the iPhone

open Settings and go to iCloud -> Storage & Backup -> Manage Storage (right below available space)
tap on the name of your iPhone in the Backups section
de-select whatever seems appropriate in the Backup Options


How to move all of my mails to external HD and make them appear only when its connected

Confirming your requirement.

You want to remove all (or specific account) emails (from mail.app) from your hard drive and move them to a external drive. (this is not to have a copy of your emails on the hard drive).

Than you want the Mail.app to use that external drive from now on as email database.

One way to accomplish this is as follows:

It is called symbolic link. What it does is you create a link in your mail so it looks for your emails on the external drive.

Step 1: Find the file you need to move and move it.
The Mail files are stored in /Users//Mail and /Users//Mail Downloads. To get to these files, open a new finder window and press Command+Shift+G and type “/Users/(YOU)/Library/” . This takes you to the Library folder, where you’ll see both Mail and Mail Downloads. Grab both of those files and move them to your external drive.

Step 2: Delete the files you moved from the Library folder. (if you worry about deleting then just move to desktop for now). In other words, make it so that the files do NOT exist in your Library folder, but they DO exist on your external drive.

Step 3: Create a Symbolic Link to the folders on the external drive.
Download the SymbolicLinker App and install it by clicking the “SymbolicLinker.service” file within the DMG file. Once installed, you can then go to the files on the external drive, right click and select “Make Symbolic Link” at the very bottom of the menu. This will create a folder right next to the actual folder.

Step 4: Move the Symbolic links to the Library folder. If you’ve already closed the Library folder window, re-open with the instructions from Step 1. Once open, drag the symlink files on the external hard drive that you created in Step 3, over to the Library folder. Once they’re both in the library folder rename them so they have the EXACT same name as the actual files did (in other words, remove the “symlink” at the end of the file name).

If you’ve followed all the steps you should now have links in the Library folder that point to the actual folders that are now on the external drive. From here on, it’d probably be a bad idea to rename your external drive. You might be able to without it breaking, but it doesn’t sound like it’d be a good idea (test first). Also, if the external drive isn’t mounted on the OS (it’s not plugged in) then you’ll be unable to open Mail (since the files for Mail are on the external drive now).

Copyright 2003-2011 Nick Zitzmann.


I suspect a video card issue (that band of "static" on the top pic usually means it's the video subsystem) though it could be cabling or the display itself.

You are on the right track though. A Genius Bar appointment will diagnose the issue.


How to make an iPad backup when buying a new device?

There are really only two ways to back up your iPad. Both of them are comphrehensive and should transfer everything onto a new iPad. Chances are, the space difference is comprised of music, and movies, and such that you can re-download from iTunes. iCloud will handle that part automatically, and iTunes probably won't. But, it's not hard to do.
Option 1: iCloud
iCloud is likely the easiest backup solution. Configure it in Settings > iCloud, and make sure the initial backup completes before wiping your device. This is a helpful article including information that is backed up. The only thing is there is a 5GB free storage limit. After that, you will need to purchase more storage (for a nominal fee).
Option 2: iTunes
The traditional way of backing up iOS data, this way still stands strong and true. iTunes should backup all your needed data. Check out this great article about iTunes backups. I didn't find a specific mention of iBooks PDFs (which should be stored in iTunes, correct?), but it did mention on the 3rd bullet:

Application settings, preferences, and data, including documents.

This likely includes iBooks PDFs.
So, in summary, iCloud is likely going to be your best, easiest, and most user friendly way to backup. If it were me, I would do both. I have restored a backup from iCloud and found it remarkably easy and simple.


OSX Software to use for Photo Collage in a large poster size

Vector graphics won't help for this kind of task. All your images are in raster format.
Your limit will really be the number of pixels [WxH] rather than 'print size', though you will need at least 150 dpi to print this at a large poster size.

Gimp can apparently save images up to 45,000 x 45,000 pixels [though I can't find citation for this] which should be just inside your range - though bear in mind this will be a colossal size in RAM.

The clarity of your output image is also very dependant on you input sizes. If you need to enlarge the photos to fit this size you will lose definition.

Alternatively, if your existing package will let you export at 300dpi or higher, then you can just ask your print service to re-scale.


How can I reprogram OSX to use Windows-style shortcuts for all operations?

The answer to my question is to use Karabiner along with their set of complex key modifications titled "PC-Style Shortcuts". You can also add modifications of your own by editing the ~/.config/karabiner/karabiner.json file.
The only shortcut I couldn't get working is using Alt+Shift to switch between input languages, but it's probably doable using more advanced scripting. I'm instead using Macs built-in language toggling using the Caps lock key. Top this off with Witch to enable Windows-style toggling between applications/windows and you get a full PC experience, completely customizable to your personal needs.


Can we run OS X apps inside X11 (XQuartz)?

No. Native OS X apps don't call down to X11 protocol and no one (Apple or other) has implemented any sort of shim/translation layer/conversion tool to port over the API.

It would surely involve slowdown, reduced acceleration, possibly loss of fidelity and loss of functionality.


Yes.  It's called cloud storage.

The best one I have used to date is OneDrive for Business.  This does exactly what you want - which is to drop a file in a designated folder and then it will propagate to all with access to that folder.


Why can't iPhone 11 on iOS 13.0 upgrade to 13.2.2?

In my experience, when unable to update on the device itself due to an error, I use Apple Configurator 2 on macOS to install the update.

When Apple Configurator 2 is installed, the process is pretty simple:

Open Apple Configurator 2.
Plug your iPhone in via USB.
Unlock your iPhone. You may need to trust the computer if this is the first time you've connected to it.
Your iPhone will now show up in Apple Configurator 2.
Right-click your device and select Update...
Your computer will now check your iPhone to see if there are any app updates and iOS updates.
If there is a new version of iOS available, follow the prompts to install.

If this fails, there could be an issue with the update itself or your iPhone, which may warrant resetting the device.


Are all installations of OS X (10.8+) Case Insensitive (by default)?

By default, HFS+ in OS X is case-insensitive. You have to specifically erase a partition and select case-sensitive for a partition to be case-sensitive.

It's not that common, but there is software which requires case-insensitive HFS+. It's more common for legacy software to require case-sensitive HFS+. Of course, software should work on both, and most newer software does. The Acrobat restriction feels like a way to avoid unreproducible bug reports from users using (awkward) case-sensitive volumes.


Wi-Fi passwords are synchronised over iCloud Keychain and your iOS device will use stored AirPort network passwords when connecting to a Wi-Fi network. However, they do not show in Safari passwords since they are not for use in Safari. You cannot access stored Wi-Fi network passwords on iOS.


How to unmute headphones by default when plugged into MacBook Pro?

1)
You can use a third-party app like Keyboard Maestro or EventScripts to trigger a volume setting script whenever you plug your headphone.

For exemple, with EventScript:

Click on Open Folder from EventScripts menu in order to open the scripts folder.
Add the script you want to be triggered, in your case something like do shell script "osascript -e 'set volume 1'" (note that set volume function works from 0 to 7, 0 being mute and 7 maximum volume).
Click on Choose Script from EventScripts menu and select the script to be used.
Add the event Headphone connected.

See my own setup as exemple to quit or launch Boom whenever my headphone or my bluetooth device is found:

2) I don't think this behavior is normal, your Mac should remenber the last volume setup you had with headphone... You should try to reset the PRAM setting, it may work :
shutdown your Mac and restart it while pressing and holding option +  command ⌘  + P + R


How can I generate iOS screenshots without using a simulator?

A popular solution to this problem is  this  automation tool called snapshot. It is apart of a suite of tools made to automate iOS and Android developments.

For relatively small applications though, the simulator isn't too bad.


How can I give a file the com.apple.quarantine attribute on mac

You should be able to do this by replacing the -d (delete) flag with -w (write). So:

xattr -w com.apple.quarantine /Users/username/Desktop/app_name.app

A handy tip if you are unsure about a command is to look up the man page for it.

If you type man xattr it will give you a list of available options for that command with explanations. (to navigate the manual use the arrow keys and press the q key to quit.)


How to copy a book from iBooks with highlighting?

I assume you added an ePub file to iBooks.app on your iMac and added highlightings there.

Yes, you can in fact sync your highlightings/notes/bookmarks between multiple devices running macOS and/or iOS.

Please follow these steps to sync your highlights:

Prepare iMac

On your iMac go to System Preferences > iCloud.
Make sure that you are logged into your iCloud account. If not, log in.
Depending on your version of macOS you need to check the check mark for Documents & Settings.
In iBooks.app sign in to the same iCloud account it you aren't already.
Make sure that the ePub file is the very same on both Macs.

Prepare your MacBook

Repeat the steps above that you did for your iMac.

Sync your highlightings

Reboot both Macs
Open the ePub in iBooks.app on your iMac and add a note or a bookmark.
Close the ebook in iBooks.app but leave iBooks.app running.
Open the ePub on your MacBook with iBooks.app. Wait for the highlightings/bookmarks/notes to appear. It may take a few minutes for the first time.
If they don't appear on your MacBook, add a new highlighting/bookmark.

Please note

If possible, you should run the same versions of macOS on both Macs. Also check for available software updates.

Using the same Apple iCloud account is necessary for the synchronization to work with Apple's iBooks.app. You can't use another cloud storage provider for this.

Unfortunately there is no other way to sync them other than to re-add your edits by hand.


How to copy an image from screenshot's markup?

It appears you can just hit cmdc while in the Markup editor and it copies it to your clipboard!
So summary of steps:

cmdshift5
Move the little capture box around, resize as desired, then hit return
Click the little preview image in the bottom right of your screen
Mark up the image as desired
Click somewhere, in a non-marked up area, to unselect any markups currently selected
cmdc
Hit the trash can icon to make it go away, without saving
cmdv it somewhere to paste it.

I used these steps just now to paste this image:

I am on Mojave/10.14. I came here looking for the same thing. I happened to find this comment on Reddit that suggested this.


It depends on the seller. If it is direct from Amazon you should be fine. The big difference would be the return policies.

If it is from a reseller you want to make sure to check for activation lock https://icloud.com/activationlock and it may not come with a full warranty. Also who knows if there are non-apple parts involved voiding any warranty, or if it is from a different region like Saudi Arabia that doesn't have FaceTime, or Japan that forces camera noise, or any other situations which could make warranty repair very difficult.


disable brightness and volume change overlay mojave

Two things could prevent the writing of the preference. If SIP isn’t verified to be disabled, that’s a blocker. Also, if you don’t see the preference set after a restart, there’s an issue with the defaults write command.

Is SIP disabled?

To be able to run that command you must first disable System Integrity Protection. That answer links to it here: Configuring System Integrity Protection.

If it's enabled you won't be able successfully run the defaults write ... command.

Example

$ csrutil status
System Integrity Protection status: enabled.

You'll get a failure message like this:

$ sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OSDUIHelper \
     Disabled -bool YES
2019-04-19 16:53:21.310 defaults[92957:2162882] Could not write domain /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OSDUIHelper; exiting

To disable/enable SIP:

  To enable or disable System Integrity Protection, you must boot to
  Recovery OS and run the csrutil(1) command from the Terminal.

  Boot to Recovery OS by restarting your machine and holding down the Command and R keys at startup.
  Launch Terminal from the Utilities menu.
  Enter the following command:

$ csrutil enable

But I have SIP disabled

If you've confirmed that SIP is disabled then you could use opensnoop to debug what's going on to gain additional insight as to why your write command is failing.

For example, in one terminal run this command to snoop:

$ sudo opensnoop -ve |& less

And in another window try running your defaults write ... command:

$ sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OSDUIHelper  Disabled -bool YES
2019-04-19 17:23:53.712 defaults[94310:2174907] Could not write domain /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OSDUIHelper; exiting


HDMI VGA projector cannot connect to Macbook Pro

After a few months of experimentation, we found no 3rd party (i.e., non-Apple branded) HDMI <> VGA adaptors which worked well and some which didn't work at all on our Macs. We bit the financial bullet and purchased Apple-branded adaptors and they work perfectly.

We found the same with Thunderbolt & USB <> gig-Ethernet adaptors and Lightning <> HDMI adaptors, too. Remember, you may save $$ purchasing 3rd-party adaptors, but there are tradeoffs in either operation or quality, frequently both.

Most 3rd party adaptors have little or no strain or twist relief in the cable attachment inside the adaptor. We had slews of non-Apple Thunderbolt <> VGA adaptors die after only a week or two of use because the cables literally twisted out of the adaptor body.


MBP 15" Retina problems: one display hinge is way too tight

And the final cause: both hinges are fractured, and in the same place. Here's the right hinge, unscrewed and levered open (and after lubrication; see below):

.. and the left hinge:

Each hinge consists of a tube (anchored to the display, and with a cable down the core), plus a bracket (anchored to the main chassis). The bracket consists of two curled pieces which wrap around the tube in opposite directions. On both hinges, the inside "curl" is broken at the base of the bracket:

This explains another symptom; where the display used to open out to a certain point and then hit a stop, it now opens to almost completely parallel to the table.

Now, I'll be the first to admit I've not been gentle with this computer (they're tools, not shrines to the Great God Jobs), but it's still surprising that both fractured in the same place.

The solution: as you can tell from the pictures, I lubricated both hinges with lithium grease (being as moderate as possible). The display now swings fairly freely, so the previous tension shouldn't cause any more damage. I may have to rig up some sort of brace to keep the display from falling flat onto the desk, though...

Edit: And yes: the hinges are now too loose, and the display will fall open or shut if it's more than ten or twenty degrees from vertical. I now have to prop the display up with my knees or a book. But, this is still better; I no longer risk breaking the chassis or the display frame. I'm thinking about portable ways to hold the display at a given angle; the final solution would still be to replace the hinges (if I can get the parts).


Terminal Encoding Not Working For Certain Characters

Huh.  Sure enough, it's not setting up VT100 line drawing by default, and apparently programs don't bother with little things like how you're supposed to send enacs before using smacs any more (no doubt because some Linux terminal emulator doesn't require it, therefore "nobody does").

Anyway, quick fix (here, at least) is to add to your ~/.bashrc

test -t && tput enacs


Our development team all use Macs. I have personally tried to use VNC both with Apples built in and premium Apple Remote Desktop ($79.99), as well as Jolly's Fast VNC. I had a Mac Pro tower at work and really needed the remote capability, and was able to work reasonably well with Apple Remote Desktop, but when my tower came off lease I went with a Laptop, because the lag and poor display quality were just too annoying. I found that I needed to degrade the display quality in order to keep the performance reasonable, which meant a blurry display.   Overall I found it frustrating and avoid remote access, but it does work, although I would strongly recommend buying Apple Remote Desktop to get the full screen capability. Jolly's was fast but at the time had some bugs that resulted in a corrupt screen sometimes. That was over a year ago, the new version may be better.

There are other developers I work with who think that the VNC solution works just fine for them, so I think it depends a lot on how fussy you are about responsiveness (I am fussy).

If your previous experience with remote access involves Microsoft's Remote Display Protocol (RDP) then you will be very disappointed with VNC. The RDP technology is superior in both display quality and performance. One of the few things I really miss from the Microsoft world.

In short, I'd recommend moving to an Apple laptop and then running your Windows virtually. I started with a mini originally, and just ended up moving to a laptop eventually.


How can I remove unwanted apps, such as Chess or Address Book, from my Mac?

Select the application you would like to remove and Get Info on it, either Command + i or from the Menu File>Get Info.

At the bottom of the resulting window, in the Sharing & Permissions section, change the "everyone" setting to "Read & Write". You will probably have to click the lock in the lower right corner first and authenticate as an administrator.

Once the setting is change, close the Get Info window.
You should be able to move the application to the Trash without any trouble.


Magic Mouse 2 and Magic Trackpad 2 are recognized as Mighty Mouse

After fiddling with it for a while I came to the conclusion that I need a software update.

Installing OS X El Capitan 10.11.2 Beta (15C27e) fixed the issue.

Got to say force touch is pretty sweet.


Reclaiming Unallocated Free Space that might Have Gone to Recovery Partition?

You somehow merged disk0s3 and disk0s4 (the Windows partition) to one big recovery partition - consequently there is no unallocated disk space. With your published commands this shouldn't have happened though.

The fastest way to get a default partition scheme is to merge disk0s2 with disk0s3 and later recreate Recovery HD with a tool like Recovery Partition Creator.

The merge command is:

diskutil mergePartitions JHFS+ "Macintosh HD" disk0s2 disk0s3

The command will merge Macintosh HD and Recovery HD to one big Macintosh HD while retaining the content of your main system volume.


Here's how to do it with any file (first method):

Highlight and right-click the file you want to change the default app for
Mouse over Open with... then click Other
Choose the desired application (i.e. Sublime) in the Choose Application prompt
Tick the checkbox Always Open With, then press Open (then close the application)

Alternatively:

Highlight and right-click the file you want to change the default app for
Select Get Info
Select Open with... in the window that just opened
Choose the desired application (from the drop-down list or Other)

If you are using Other, make sure to check Always Open With before pressing Add.

Ensure that the default application is displayed in the small box (as seen below, with Archive Utility)
Select Change All... to apply it to all files of the same type.


iTunes is sometimes "Connecting to Store" again and again

Go to iTunes → Preferences → Store.
Uncheck Automatically download album artwork.


If you're asking about the carry-on scanners the answer is no.

I'd be very surprised if the hold baggage scanners had any effect either.

In the past I've irradiated a variety of computers and devices with energies and doses in excess of what a regular airport carry-on baggage scanner offers.

This FDA item might offer some independent reassurance


How Do I Get Testers for my App Submissions?

Most people, myself included, ask family, friends, and co-workers to help test. Depending on the technical details of what you want tested, you can also put out calls for testers on Twitter and Facebook.

There are also websites that will help find testers for you, especially for games. Toucharcade is a good site for finding game testers.


Why does Apple not support Power Nap on some of the Macs that have Power Nap capability?

Only the MacBook Air (Mid 2011 or newer), MacBook Pro with Retina display were originally supported supported for Power Nap. The reason for this is An SMC update is required to gain all the functionality of Power Nap, and these are the only models Apple has chosen to actively write the firmware updates to support the feature. In other words, it's not that Apple runs some exclusion script to keep other models out; it takes an active update to the firmware to make a model run Power Nap, and they've chosen to do that for two particular lines of computers.

In a subsequent firmware update, Apple included Mid 2010 MacBook Air models in Power Nap.

As far as why they've made that decision, we enter the realm of speculation, but fortunately, we have some good information here.

The idea behind Power Nap is that when the computer appears to be asleep, from time to time, it actually wakes up and performs various tasks. This waking, however, is not noticeable to the user because the computer remains dark and silent. This means no audio or video is activated. It also means, of particular relevance to this question, the fan is also kept off.

This requires a storage device that can run without a fan and a processor that can run without a fan (sorry notoriously hot G5 — I doubt there would ever be a way to support you for this).

According to John Siracusa's epic Mountain Lion review, the Dark Wake mode that Power Nap invokes does not turn on the fans. Thus, only devices Apple knows are designed to be able to access their storage without risk of overheating (as a spinning hard drive might) will take advantage of Power Nap. Siracusa suggests that third party SSDs might have a different heat profile.

While SSDs could be installed in any computer, and Apple could perhaps write firmware updates for all their Macs so that Power Nap checks to see if the computer has a SSD drive and if so, runs Power Nap, they haven't chosen to do so. Instead, they've made Power Nap work only on those models of computer that they know will have a SSD drive.

The limitation might not be drive-based; it could be the processor that can't run silently. This seems slightly less likely to me, given the supported models, but it could explain why the 2010 MacBook Air is excluded. Power Nap monitors temperature, and if the system gets too hot to run without cooling, Power Nap disengages, but if the processor in earlier MBAs was triggering such an alert too often, that may be why Apple removed them from the list of models that support Power Nap.

tl;dr: likely it's hardware; specifically, heat.


Transfering music from external hard drive to iphone (without copying to disk)

You can change the location of your iTunes library to be on that external HD. And then add those songs and sync your phone.

The preference in questions is in iTunes Preferences > Advanced and the top option allows you to choose the location of your iTunes library