Mac ports installation of gcc46 failing due to architecture problems

For some reason the universal_archs configurations was wrong. An answer on SuperUser now worked:

in /opt/local/etc/macports/ copy macports.conf.default to macports.conf
make sure universal_archs in it is set to x86_64 i386
now go for clean installs, e.g. by following the migration instructions


How can I remove Windows 7 from my Mac mini

You have Windows in a virtual machine. This only runs if you run Parallels so Windows is not normally running.

To remove Windows just delete the virtual machine which is just a directory on the disk which by default is ~/Documents/Parallels

If you don't know where the files are then I think in in parallels you will have an option to delete the VM


How to do after fsck_hfs fails to repair "invalid directory count" after 3 attempts multiple times?

This would be the kind of task I'd be throwing at one of the high-end 'fixit' apps, Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro etc. Both of these can in essence rebuild the directory from scratch, then replace the old one.
Disk Warrior was always the king of this, but can't yet handle APFS. TTP 14 can handle APFS & seems to handle it well so far [I've only recently got the upgrade].
idk if any of them do a free trial.


Enter key intermittently stops working on both my Macbook Pro's & external keyboard

It's very interesting that the external keyboard and internal keyboard are having issues with the same key. One action I also recommend when hardware like keyboards, back lighting, ports, chargers aren't working is to reset the SMC (System Management Controller).

In the meantime, let us know a little more information:

Is the external keyboard wired or bluetooth?
Is this issue only happening with the Enter key, and no other keys?
Does the keyboard issue occur randomly, or have you noticed a pattern (like during certain apps, or when logging in, etc.)?
Do you have Apple Care or any other warranty?


Will reinstalling Lion erase all my documents and applications?

Lion does not offer any customizations during the installation process. Thus a reinstallation is about as smooth and as linear as possible.

You restart your Mac holding the OPTION key when you hear the tone. You will then be greeted with various partitions you can use instead of the main Lion partition.

Should you wish to simply reinstall Lion, you would select the Recovery HD partition. Once loaded, you just need to follow the prompts and install it over your current Lion installation.

The new installation will replace all the core system files, but leave your user profile and data complete untouched. Your music, documents, even passwords and bookmarks, and applications will not touched; none of your personal information will be deleted (nor will it backup your old system, as was common in older OS X versions). It is a seamless process that simply rolls Lion back to the default installation build. There will be nothing lost and no disk spaced wasted on old system files.

You can read about the process over at Apple.

Note: It was the case that older builds of OS X allowed various types of reinstallations (like Archive and Install or a complete erase), but these have been omitted in Lion, greatly simplifying the process.


Why is it that my CPU goes 100% when syncing music/photos to iPad?

Resizing the photo's is also CPU intensive operation.

Apple could potentially speed it up by using the GPU for resizing the images, but iTunes must be compatible with old Windows PC's. So I wouldn't hold my breath.


External Drive not showing up, light blinking, iMac

Next to the apple icon in the left upper corner ( In Finder) click Finder , drop down menu choose preferences and see if its checked in sidebar.


I suspect Windows` chkdsk or another Microsoft tool to erroneously repairing the partition table of your device containing the EXFAT volume.

The result of sudo gpt -r -vv show /dev/disk2 of my 4 TB device created in a VM and formatted with Disk Utility in comparison looks like this:

gpt -r -vv show /dev/disk2
gpt show: /dev/disk2: mediasize=4000655081472; sectorsize=512; blocks=7813779456
gpt show: /dev/disk2: PMBR at sector 0
gpt show: /dev/disk2: Pri GPT at sector 1
gpt show: /dev/disk2: Sec GPT at sector 7813779455
       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6
          40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      409640        2008
      411648  7813365760      2  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
  7813777408        2015
  7813779423          32         Sec GPT table
  7813779455           1         Sec GPT header

(Please consider that the mediasize, the blocks and some other values are different to yours, because i use a slightly smaller example disk here.)

The differences to your finding are obvious: the first partition of your disk isn't aligned properly to the 4096 byte sector size and is smaller. The second partition starts too early and is probably too big.

You probably have to fix both partition. This will only work if you partitioned the drive with Disk Utility in Mac OS X.

Preparation:

Backup your Mac and then detach all external drives.
Download  and install wxHexEditor. Enable the root user and log-in as root.

Hint: While working with wxHexEditor don't use copy and paste. Enter everything manually! You might accidentally write directly to your disk.

Where does the EXFAT partition start and end?

First you have to determine the starting block of your EXFAT volume:

Open Terminal and enter diskutil list. Get the Identifier of the disk to repair.
Open Calculator. Open wxHexEditor. Check that you work in read-only mode ("Options" -> "File mode" -> "Read only"). In the menubar go to "Devices" -> "Open disk device" -> choose the appropriate diskNumber.
Hit the search button (marked with the red circle in the picture below) and enter EXFAT (exactly like in the picture). Please try to arrange the wxHexEditor window like in the examples below with straight red lines.

My EXFAT entry (see picture below) is at offset 210763776. Now you can calculate the start block of the volume with: OffsetBytes/512 = NewStartBlockEXFAT. The start block in my example is 411648.

If you get a significantly smaller starting block (=<409639) stop here, because you probably didn't partition your disk with Disk Utility previously.

The ending block of the EXFAT volume can't be determined easily; we have to guess it (somehow). The problem is the variable gap between partition 2 and the second GPT table. In your case it has 1679 blocks, in my example it has 2015 blocks.

Method 1 (maximal size in the "unallocated space" between the block containing the EXFAT string and the second GPT table):
The maximal volume size is StartBlock2ndGPT-NewStartBlockEXFAT. The size has to be dividable through 8. Reduce the size until you get a size dividable through 8.
Example: In my case the maximal size would be 7813779423 (StartBlock2ndGPT) - 411648 (StartBlockEXFAT) = 7813367775 (which isn't dividable through 8). The biggest size dividable through 8 is 7813367768.
Method 2 (minimum size containing all occupied blocks between the block containing the EXFAT string and the second GPT table):
You might jump to sector 7814037135 (the first block of your secondary GPT table) with the arrow button (the second button left of the search button) and search backwards and match case disabled with "Find some bytes" to get the last occupied sector. This may take a while. Make a note of your finding (if you have one in a reasonable timeframe). Divide the offset through 512 to get the sector number. The sector number should be smaller than 7814037135. Now calculate the provisional minimal size of your volume: StartBlockEXFAT+1-LastOccupiedSector. The result must be dividable through 8. To get size add blocks until the size is dividable through 8.
You may stop the process after 5 minutes without result because then the last occupied block number is probably smaller than 7807917625 assuming the process searches 10 MByte/s (the last ~3 GB of your disk). Use Method 1 then.

Both results probably lead to a wrong size of the EXFAT volume, but this should be repairable. It's more important to get the proper start block. Additionally method 2 may deliver incorrect results if the disk has been completely filled with data previously using a different partition layout and hasn't been zero-filled afterwards.

Restoring the "old" GPT

Here i assume the identifier of the disk containing the EXFAT volume is disk0.

First you have to unmount the disk

diskutil umountDisk disk0

Check the partition layout, then remove the two partitions:

gpt -r -vv show /dev/disk0

gpt remove -i 2 disk0
gpt remove -i 1 disk0

Since the (Apple-)EFI usually has a fixed size we can easily add it with:

gpt add -b 40 -i 1 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B disk0

With the start block of the EXFAT partition and Size (the volume size found with Method 1 or 2 above) we can also add it:

gpt add -b NewStartBlockEXFAT -i 2 -s Size -t EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7 disk0

Remount disk0 with:

diskutil mountDisk disk0

Quit Terminal, Calculator and wxHexEdit and open Disk Utility.
Check your EXFAT volume for errors.

If you run into problems (e.g you can't find the proper EXFAT volume size), have doubts or questions immediately stop and contact me with a comment @klanomath!


Can't find Microsoft One note in iPad's appstore

What’s going on is your iPad doesn’t meet the minimum version, so the listing is likely suppressed. It also could be a country region restriction, but that’s harder for others to test for you. The simple reason is you didn’t purchase an older version of the app to re-download that and/or the developer removed the old version entirely.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-onenote/id410395246


How to enable USB tethering on your Android phone to Mac OS X Lion

There is a native RNDIS driver for Mac OS X that allows you to use your Android phone's native USB tethering mode to get Internet access, it is called HoRNDIS:
http://joshuawise.com/horndis

It is known to work with Mac OS X versions 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) through 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion).

HoRNDIS is also available in source form on GitHub,  it is licensed under the GNU General Purpose License, version 3:
http://github.com/jwise/HoRNDIS


iCloud Keychain breaks login for iMessage and FaceTime

I finally found a solution.

The iCloud Keychain had several system keychain items. These items were not supposed to be in the iCloud Keychain and were overriding the "login" Keychain items whenever I would request login to Messages or FaceTime.

I found the error by comparing my Keychain to a friend's laptop. I deleted everything from iCloud Keychain that was not in my friend's Keychain. (Well, anything that started with com.apple or ids.) (I left web page passwords.)

Once these deletions synced across devices, and I rebooted each machine, everything works perfectly.


Unfortunately, Apple no longer sells OS X Lion in the Mac App Store. It's not even available in the US Mac App Store and there is no way that you can get OS X Lion from Apple. You can always ask around for a copy, or torrent it (I very well advise against this), but other than that, there's nothing that you can do but to upgrade to OS X Mavericks.


Is there any way to backup an iphone *including* passwords and such?

I believe that if you make an encrypted backup using iTunes it will include passwords.


Preview can reduce the file size though you don't have much control over exactly what it does and how. For that you may need a purpose-built PDF editing tool, or Adobe Acrobat Standard or Pro.

Open the file in preview and then go FILE > DUPLICATE. A new identical window will open. Now save the new file and from the Quartz Filter menu select CompressPDF. Give your document a different name or location and click save.

Depending on what is going on in your PDF you should get a smaller file. But again you will have better control over the process with one of Adobe's Acrobat products or one of the third party PDF tools available for the Mac.


"Service Battery" warning briefly appeared on brand new rMBP. Should I take it back?

I have a 4 year old Macbook and it occasionally shows the "Service Battery" warning. It doesn't appear all the time. It certainly isn't normal to have that show up so soon. I would take it back especially since you are very much within the 14 day return period. Even if they don't want to fix it, you could exchange it.

It sounds like you simply have a defective battery. Retina Macbook Pro's do not have user-serviceable batteries, which makes it even more imperative to get it fixed while you can.

Course, if you have AppleCare+, and were willing to wait and see if the battery life is less-then-desirable, you could wait. I'm not sure what benefit that would have, though.


Random shutdown after minutes for macbook pro 15" 2014

It's not clear to me what I reset completely macOS means? However, the first two things I'd do now are testing to see what happens in Safe Mode and to also reset the System Management Controller.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps boot your MBP 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).
Use the computer for a while and take note of what happens (i.e. is the issue still present, etc)
Exit Safe Mode by restarting your Mac as normal
Once you've booted normally again use the computer for a while and take note of what happens (i.e. is the issue still present, etc)

Reset the SMC

If the issue is still present I would reset the SMC. For your particular MBP, follow these steps:

Shut down your computer
Keep the MagSafe adapter (power cable) plugged in.
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button.

Let me know how things went after doing each of the above.


Does FaceID consume a significant amount of battery throughout the day?

No - I tested this for several days with Face ID on and with Face ID off and I can't measure anything even close to 15 minutes or more difference in run times / overall battery difference.

My intuition is that whatever processing power is needed to power the infrared is more than counteracted by saving time unlocking where I'm tapping out my passcode to unlock the phone as opposed to having no passcode.

I disregarded entirely:

not having a passcode / unlock
disabling attention

My passphrase is something I type out with letters and numbers and not a numeric only short passcode, so ymmv but I'd be surprised if you have measurable differences on your device and iOS 11.


macOS Big Sur Fails on Internet Recovery Mode: "Installation could not be completed."

mine is 2017 macbook pro no touchbar with updated macos bigsur i formatted the whole ssd to make sure my data is gone because i am selling my mac due to this pandemic i lost my job =# now im stuck at internet recovery and cannot usb flash... when pressed opt key while booting doesnt work... pressing opt+cmd+R shows big sur update but and it can go to accept terms and conditions select HD then it keeps failing in remaining 13mins left error 08 anyone encountering this softbrick? is the server still own by intel? cos apple is dumping them as they switch to arm our intel mac is also dumped wtf?


Is their any way to control or limit mac applications from creating files and directories that aren't necessary or are malicious?

You might want to look into macOS’s built-in sandbox-exec. It can be used to run any command in a “sandbox” in which it can be denied access to the network, prevented from writing files in certain locations and so on.

At the bottom of this answer there’s a sandbox profile “firefox-sandbox” that was featured as an example on Mac OS X hints of running Firefox in a sandbox where its ability to write files is (mostly) limited to your Downloads folder. I should note the hint is a few years old, the sandbox profile may require some fiddling for recent versions of macOS and Firefox, I did not try it. The hint says Firefox can be run in the sandbox through:

sandbox-exec -f firefox-sandbox /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin

Some other links you may want to look at that cover sandbox-exec:

How to run your Applications in a Mac OS X sandbox to enhance security
OS X: Run any command in a sandbox
Apple's Sandbox Guide

Here’s the “firefox-sandbox” file:

(version 1)
(deny default)

(allow file-write* file-read-data file-read-metadata
  (regex "^/Users/user_name/Downloads")
  (regex "^/Users/user_name/Library/Application Support/Mozilla")
  (regex "^/Users/user_name/Library/Application Support/Firefox")
  (regex "^/Users/user_name/Library/Preferences")
  (regex "^/Users/user_name/Library/PreferencePanes")
  (regex "^/Users/user_name/Library/Caches/Firefox")
  (regex "^/Users/user_name/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems")
  (regex "^/Applications/Firefox.app")
  (regex "^(/private)?/tmp/"))

(allow file-read-data file-read-metadata
  (regex "^/dev/autofs.*")
  (regex "^/Library/Preferences")
  (regex "^/Library/Internet Plug-Ins")
  (regex "^/Library/PreferencePanes")
  (regex "^/usr/share/icu")
  (regex "^/usr/share/locale")
  (regex "^/System/Library")
  (regex "^/Applications/Firefox.app")
  (regex "^/usr/lib")
  (regex "^/var")
  (regex #"Frameworks/SDL.framework")
; Our Module Directory Services cache
  (regex "^/private/var/tmp/mds/")
  (regex "^/private/var/tmp/mds/[0-9]+(/|$)")
  (regex "^/Users/user_name"))

(allow mach* sysctl-read)

(import "/usr/share/sandbox/bsd.sb")
(deny file-write-data
   (regex #"^(/private)?/etc/localtime$"
     #"^/usr/share/nls/"
     #"^/usr/share/zoneinfo/"))

(allow process-exec
  (regex "^/Applications/Firefox.app"))

(allow network*)


have you tried a guest account?  perfect for kiosk-type walk up and walk away needs.
they dont' have full permissions, and all their files disappear at log out.

does this sound like a  good fit?  in combination of a forced log out after x minutes idle.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11186


What's the best match iTunes version for iPhone 2G (first generation) now?

I'm not sure there is a 'best match' version.

The earliest version that will support an iPhone 2G to iOS 3.1.3 [the latest the phone can use] is iTunes 9.2.1

But I know of no reason it shouldn't be recognised by the latest iTunes. v12 still recognises my old 3G & even has no trouble with my seriously ancient iPod Photo from 2004, which is still going strong as my in-car player.

I've seen suggestions to completely uninstall & reinstall iTunes - but no conclusive proof it really does anything useful.

I also came across this whilst Googling - don't know if it still works, but might be worth a look - You Can Now Install iOS 5 On iPhone 2G/3G And Old iPods Without Jailbreaking


Is there a way to add Word files with custom icons to the Dock?

Here's my admittedly inelegant work-around for this problem.

Change the icon of the Word file.
Create an alias. It will inherit the icon of the original.
Change the name of the alias. I added a space. This will break the icon inheritance. Now, when the custom icon is overwritten during the next save of the Word file, the icon of the altered alias survives.

bjbk suggested an application bundle. Thanks for that. That probably also works.


How to check what communication mode is being used with an external monitor over the USB-C/Thunderbolt plug

Yes.  System Report.  Click on the Apple Logo (top left of Menu Bar) *About this Mac → System Report → Graphics/Displays

That said.....

It could be HDMI, it could be USB 2 lane Displayport, it could be USB 4 lane DisplayPort Alternate Mode, it could be Thunderbolt Displayport, it could be Displaylink.

You're confusing/conflating a bunch of things all into one big lump.  Let's see if we can sort through the confusion - and yes, the industry doesn't help at all in making things less confusing.
The technology...

USB-C describes the physical port attributes (connector type) not the actual port itself.  It's actually a USB 3.x port or a Thunderbolt 3 port with a Type C connector, but we've been saying USB-C for short; and yes, doing things this way made everything overly complex and confusing

Your Mac (assuming 2018 or later because you referenced USB-C), natively outputs a DisplayPort signal.  Period.

"Lanes" just refers to the bandwidth of the USB or Thunderbolt signal.

USB Alt or Alternate Mode is when the DisplayPort signal is "added" or embedded in the USB signaling.  USB by itself doesn't have display capability so if your computer manufacturer enabled this capability (i.e. Apple 12" MacBook), you will be able to connect an external display to your MacBook via the USB-C port.  From the Texas Instruments PDF linked above:

This configuration enables other protocols such as DisplayPort (DP) ... ... to transfer over Type-C cables

Thunderbolt is actually several signals all in one: PCIe, USB 3 (soon will be 4.0), DisplayPort 3.2 and Power Delivery.  If you connect your external display to a Thunderbolt 3 port, you're still connecting it to DisplayPort.

DisplayLink is a technology that allows manufacturers to embed the video signals on USB/Thunderbolt, Ethernet and WiFi connections.  This is something at the manufacturer level and really, the only time consumers actually get involved with this is when Apple doesn't include the drivers or there's an issue with it supporting something like daisy-chaining.

What you connect to...

If I understand correctly, if you connect an external monitor to a Mac there is more than one way the signals can be sent to the monitor.

Not exactly.  Generally speaking there's only one way signals are sent to your Mac and that's from a DisplayPort signal.  There are Macs with HDMI ports (Mac mini for, example) but since we're referring to the USB-C port - there's only one connection - DisplayPort.
Your end device (monitor) may be HDMI, however, and depending on how that signal was converted, it my be unidirectional.  In other words, it won't communicate back that it's using HDMI.
Yes, you can use a USB-C to HDMI or DVI or even VGA adapter. The DisplayPort signal can be converted to these formats with passive or active adapters (I suggest active).
From the Comments....

It would seem it would be nice to know is it (a) 2 lane and so I'm limited to 30hz at 4k (b) 4 lane and so all my USB bandwidth is being eaten and external storage will be slow, or (c) thunderbolt and so everything is good.

That's not how it works.  It's not just one big pipe where everything is shoved through and if you use so much of USB you reduce your video or frame rate.
The "lanes" that you're referring to have to do with the data lanes that can be sent.  This is not something that can modified nor utilized by the user in any way.  If you have a USB 3.1 Gen 1 port, using a USB 3 cable with "4 lanes" isn't going to improve your video or USB throughput in  any way.  What you need to focus on is the specifications of your hardware.  Looking at the specs

If your Mac has stated specifications, it has to meet those specifications.  Your peripherals also have to meet these specifications.  Whether you have 2 lanes or 4 lanes makes no difference.


Can I resume an interrupted download of Mac OS X Mountain Lion?

Yes - the App store handles interrupted purchases without intervention in most cases. There is a support article if you want to nudge things or it manages to wedge itself.

You don't have to let the download complete on iOS or Mac OS X and can control things on the Mac side of the store much better than on iOS.


The Storage tab of About This Mac is based on Spotlight, so try reindexing the HD:

HT201716 - Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes


Is there a way to bring back swipe to unlock in iOS10

No, not with the stock, non-jailbroken device.  Apple has decided to move away from that method of opening the iDevice.  I don't see them changing their mind and putting it back so it's probably best to learn how to use it going forward.


According to Apple:

  When you set up purchase sharing, one adult in the family—the family organizer—agrees to pay for any purchases that family members make while they're part of the family group.

  After it's paid for, a purchased item is added to the account of the family member who made the purchase. If you turn off purchase sharing, each member keeps their purchases, even though they were paid for by the family organizer.

So while the Organizer is the one who agrees to pay for the app, the 'owner' of the app is the Apple ID who made the purchase.


Mac OS X Server ignores remote HTTP connections, but accepts local ones

OS X actually has (at least) 3 firewalls. Since you've turned off the application firewall (in System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Firewall) and checked the Berkeley packet filter (pfctl -sa), I'm guessing it's the old ipfw that's doing the blocking. You can check with sudo ipfw show -- that'll list the active rules, along with counts of how many packets and bytes each one has applied to:

$ sudo ipfw show
01000 19228642 23229993542 allow ip from any to any via lo0
01010        0           0 deny ip from any to 127.0.0.0/8
[etc...]
65534    23505     3467352 deny ip from any to any
65535        0           0 allow ip from any to any

If your listing only shows rule #65535 (the allow rule at the end), my guess is wrong and you have to look elsewhere. If it does show other rules, you probably have a third-party firewall config program installed somewhere (I don't think the Apple-supplied ipfw config software is still there in 10.8); take a look in /Library/StartupItems and /Library/LaunchDaemons for things that might be relevant.


spotlight math calculation precision 0 = 1E-29?

Clearly it’s a bug if you believe the exact math should match. It’s probably also a feature since the math library chosen was likely chosen to be fast and small for the math it needs to do and not scientific accuracy for calculating a moon landing.

This sort of rounding errors happens all the time, especially if you’re sloppy or don’t implement a guard digit for “small numbers” like 65k. All math libraries make approximations when they encode values, so the bits sometimes matter when you are checking for something that’s very close to zero. In your example the two large numbers aren’t perfectly represented and you get a very insignificant rounding error that doesn’t cancel perfectly when the subtraction happens in one case but not the other. The 1e-29 should be rounded to zero IMO unless the goal is to introduce people to this concept.

When you need to be precise, use PCalc or another calculator that handles precision and rounding properly.

Also, if you take 1E-29 of the weight of the earth, that’s just under 60 mg. If you were estimating the mass of the earth, you’d be of by more than a snowflake and less than a grain of sand. This quite literally is the proverbial “making a mountain out of a mole hill”.

http://m.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=1e-29+*+weight+of+earth

That being said, if you like math or computers, this is very cool, since it exposes the internal representation of a number and you see how an approximation can cause rounding errors for not that very large numbers in this case. There are legendary (to engineers and programmers at least) books devoted to numerical recipes and tricks to do quick and accurate calculations when you don’t bring along a perfect math library.


Can't change install location for package (.pkg) file in Installer

Some installers allow custom install locations in the install wizard.
However, if not, you can use the excellent third-party installer app, Pacifist.
Pacifist lets you browse the contents of installer packages, select components to install and choose install destinations.
However, if an installer package contains files that rely on the app being in /Applications, or if it contains scripts that pre- or post-process files, there isn't an easy way of configuring things to work with a different location. Pacifist does let you have a look at such scripts inside the package, though.
It's more likely that the app itself requires other components to be in fixed locations, and that after installing normally, you can move the app to another location, particularly ~/Applications, which is an OS designated location for apps.


Look up your model here.

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_mini/index-macmini.html

Then, scroll down to the section marked "Maximum MacOS:", it's towards the bottom on the right.

One of my Mac Minis is the early 2009 Core2Duo model, which is the oldest Mini which supports Yosemite.  If you have a model which is older than 2009, it will only support Lion (Core2Duo), Snow Leopard (CoreDuo/CoreSolo), or Leopard (PowerPC).


I had 250 GB free on my hard drive a week ago, I have done almost nothing and now it's 80GB?

If you homebrew, do the following:

brew update
brew install ncdu
cd /
sudo ncdu

ncdu is an ncurses-based command line tool that makes it really easy to see what's taking up space on your drives.  It allows you to drill down from within the Terminal itself and delete stuff if you need to.

If you prefer the GUI method, the best application for this is DaisyDisk.  It is a paid application that offers a free trial.  It's available in the Mac AppStore and also from the link I posted to the official website.

There is also a free alternative, which is almost just as good called Disk Inventory X, which is available in the HackStore and from the official link I posted to its official website.

Both DaisyDisk and Disk Inventory X are like WinDirStat or TreeSize, if you have ever used either of those on Windows.


Applications for finding iPhone 4 locally?

I ran a shell script like this when the iPad 2 came out to track local availability at Target stores. The regular expressions might need to be changed if the site's formatting has changed since then.

#!/bin/sh
echo "iPad 2 Wi-Fi Black 16GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1830&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 Wi-Fi Black 32GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1831&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 Wi-Fi Black 64GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1832&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 ATT Black 16GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1833&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 ATT Black 32GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1834&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 ATT Black 64GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1835&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 VZN Black 16GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1836&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 VZN Black 32GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1837&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 VZN Black 64GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1838&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 Wi-Fi White 16GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1839&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 Wi-Fi White 32GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1840&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 Wi-Fi White 64GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1841&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 ATT White 16GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1842&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 ATT White 32GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1843&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 ATT White 64GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1844&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 VZN White 16GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1845&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 VZN White 32GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1846&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;
echo "iPad 2 VZN White 64GB: "; curl -s --data "_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&asin=&dpci=057-10-1847&zipcode=95014&city=&state=" http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats_results.jsp?_DARGS=/site/en/spot/mobile_fiats.jsp | grep -A 2 strong | sed -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/strong>
//' -e 's/
//' -e 's/<\/p>//' -e 's/--//' -e 's/^[ \t]*//;s/[ \t]*$//'
echo;

(substitute your own zip code for Apple HQ's)


Is there a way to measure data traffic from airport extreme?

PeakHour on the Apple Store can use snmp to monitor the bandwidth usage of network routers (including AirPorts). I don't know if can measure individual clients though.

Larger scale you could use something like Cacti to monitor all of your devices and graph their statistics such as open connections, bandwidth, etc.


How to eject disk in osx before booting?

According to Apple documentation, you can either use eject and F12 as mentioned before, or keep your mouse button pressed.

If you keep option pressed during boot, it should ask you from what disk you want to boot. That might be a better solution.

Are you sure this is the issue though?


How does a 4K Retina display 'double up' the pixels?

On older displays, the pixels were sufficiently large that you could see each one on the screen.
Newer displays have smaller pixels, which gives a sharper, less 'blocky' image. Eventually, displays' pixels became so small, and so densely packed that the human eye cannot distinguish individual pixels from a standard distance. (That's why the term 'Retina' is used.)
The problem with such high-density displays is that text is also reduced in size, appearing very small, and difficult to read.
Apple solved this with its 'Retina display' screen rendering. What it does is to take a high-density  (HiDPI) display and magnify everything by a factor of 2. So an image that would have been displayed using 512 x 512 pixels will actually be displayed using 1024 x 1024 pixels. The image stays sharp because the 2x2 square that represents "1 pixel" can actually have different colors in each pixel.
So by pretending the display is half the size, you get 'normal'-sized images and text, but with twice the fine detail. I would recommend using the Default scaling for most purposes. You can of course zoom in and out in Safari, Pages, Preview, etc.


Is it possible to check the DNS server you're using on the iphone?

You can see the DNS assigned to the Wi-Fi in Settings → Wi-Fi, then tapping on the blue arrow next to the network you're connected to. I'm not sure if it's possible to do the same for the cellular connection however.


Is there any way to make a keyboard shortcut on an iPad to trigger a video screenshot?

I can't find any keyboard shortcut that specifically does video capture.

I have an iPad Pro 11 with the new Magic Keyboard.  Doing Shift+Cmd+3 and Shift+Cmd+4 work as expected.

I tried Shift+Cmd+5 and it has no effect, at least not the same result as on a Mac.

I can't find any documentation from Apple or 3rd-party sites that indicate how to do this, as of now.


I found an answer here: https://superuser.com/questions/53935/getting-mac-os-x-applications-to-close-after-last-window-closed

Essentially, there's a program called RedQuits that automatically quits application when you close the last window.

BUT, it does no work for Yosemite. So still no dice.

The thing about applications not closing when hiting Cmd-Q was probably me misremembering things, because I couldn't find back any application doing that.


How do I remove the Finder context option after removing an app?

Check in ~/Library/Services/. It probably installed a service there that didn't get uninstalled. You can safely delete the file.

If you don't find anything there, look in System Preferences → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services for an entry with the same name as the context menu item. Right-click that entry and it will offer you a Show in Finder option, from which you can delete the file.


AppleScript - "Close tabs to right of current tab" in Safari 7

Your script still worked in my limited testing, but you could also try something like this:

tell window 1 of application "Safari"
    close (tabs where index > (get index of current tab))
end


Aren't you still talking about drag and drop? If you are trying to move something from one Directory in Finder to another, you can drag the file out of the current directory and into the directory on the side bar. For example, if you have text.txt in Documents, and you want to move it to the desktop, you can drag it to Desktop in the sidebar, and it will place the file on the desktop.


Plug it it up to the computer and if it's set to sync stop it,and set the settings to manage manually. This makes it possible for you to content on the device without loosing anything.


In term2, the default is to show the command and number. See image below.


This is relatively common for that generation (and 3rd generation). Typically, when the Wi-Fi goes out, the bluetooth will as well since they're on the same chip. Is that grayed out as well? If not, it can still be the Wi-Fi chip.

There's not really an easy fix for it. It's definitely going to be a swap out, especially with your volume button issue. You can take your iPod to the Apple Store and they'll give you a quote on a replacement. It'll probably be around $99.

Something else you could try is restoring your iPod Touch in iTunes. Make sure you set it up as a new device.


MBP15-mid2102 External Monitor framerate/resolution

Short Answer:The short answer to your question is:

Yes you can run a 2560 x 1400 @ 60Hz on an external monitor.  Thunderbolt compatibility doesn't matter since the only interface you need to and can work with is the mini display port (mDP).

The question now is, what are your "goals?"  Maybe we can direct you to a different solution.

Background

The MBP Mid-2012 only came with 512MB VRAM, not the 1GB you are specifying.  In any case, the maximum resolution you will ever get will be 2560 x 1600 MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) - Technical Specifications

That said, there is no "thunderbolt to display port" adapter.  Below is a snipit from another answer where I addressed this very issue:

  Now, there is no "Thunderbolt" to DVI/HDMI because Thunderbolt is an extension of PCIe. So, in a very basic sense, this would be like trying to plug your monitor in directly to the logic board and not go through the video adapter; it cannot happen.

  However, Thunderbolt "multiplexes" the DisplayPort signal on that
  single cable. You are going to get both. Now, if you use a a
  Thunderbolt compatible cable, you can daisy chain additional TB
  devices off your monitor, albeit at a reduced data transfer rate. This
  is why monitors are the last in the chain. If you use a non-TB cable,
  you will only get display and no TB signal.

The mini display port (mDP) on your MBP isn't going to give you any more resolution than your GPU is capable of delivering.  mDP 1.2 can support up to 4K video at 60Hhz; it's just your MBP can't deliver it.  Changing your cable to one that supports more bandwidth isn't going to give you more resolution the same way changing out your cat5 cable for cat6 will increase the bandwidth of your 1GB NIC.


Differences between Snow Leopard Server and Desktop?

First off he's wrong on all levels.

The Desktop Version is $29, the Server Version is $500.
A standard Mac Mini is $700 base. Mac Mini Server is $1000 base.

Second, the distributions are pretty much identical. The difference is that the Server Version ships the server applications, tools, and processes. Postfix, Dovecot, Jabberd2, OpenLDAP, the entirety of the /Applications/Server directory, and some of the things in /Applications/Utilites like XSan management and the RAID Utility.

If he's looking to do development for iOS, getting the server version makes no sense. If he's looking to do development for Web Services, it's still easier and cheaper to run it on the Desktop version.

If he's looking to run a server, trivially, for mail services, chat and calendaring services, MORE than just web services (web services are trivially easy on the Desktop Version), then he should get a MacMini Server.

Use a Server for a Server for the features it provides, otherwise, use a standard version.

[edit]
We have two versions of XServes, and two Mac Mini Servers (classic style body), I'd be glad to answer any additional questions you or your friend has.


How to make the Feedback Assistant app visible in the Launchpad?

If you place an alias of the Feedback Assistant in the, e.g., Applications folder in Finder, it will show in Launchpad, without having to pin it to the Dock.

In Finder, navigate to, or use: Go > Go to Folder…

/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications

Select the Feedback Assistant app and then drag and drop while pressing ⌥⌘ to the Applications folder to create an alias.

Feedback Assistant will now appear in Launchpad.

Note that while it will now appear on the last screen of Launchpad nonetheless, it can be dragged and dropped to where you'd like it on the screen or different screen.


What is the quality of SSDs included on a Mac?

Apple uses a mix of Toshiba and Samsung SSDs in the current lineup of Macs (pre-2011 they used Toshiba only). Neither are the fastest drives around, but they're still pretty speedy, and in most day-to-day cases you wouldn't notice the difference between a Toshiba or Samsung and the fastest Sandforce, Intel or Crucial/Micron drive. The reason for this is that almost all SSDs are so much faster than a traditional hard drive that the relative difference in SSDs is fairly small.

The Toshiba and Samsung drives are both respectable performers but trade that extra x% that differentiates the top performers for better reliability. From Apple's perspective it's a pretty smart trade, as the perceived performance in 95% of cases is still great, and the long term customer satisfaction is more important. For more specifics see the SSD section of Anandtech's 2011 MacBook Air review.

As to whether you should get a 3rd party drive or an Apple one, here's my advice:

If you know you need the best possible sequential read/write performance for a specific purpose, get a 3rd party drive. If you're not certain you need the extra performance, you probably don't.
If you're going to be getting a small drive (~128 GB or so), go with the Apple one. In a MBP you can get a 128 GB drive for $200, which is pretty competitive with prices at NewEgg, etc.
If you're want a bigger drive, you can generally save yourself ~$150-200 by going with a 3rd party 256 GB drive, but if that money matters less to you than reliability (and the reduced hassle of having Apple warranty cover the drive), get the Apple one.


How do I download iCloud-Photos to my iPhone?

Here's the procedure of transferring photos from PC to iPhone.

Head to iCloud.com. Simply open your browser, navigate to iCloud.com and log in with your Apple ID.
Access your Photo Library. Once you’ve logged in to the iCloud website, click the Photos icon on the top row of apps. And if this is the first time you’ve accessed your Photo library from a browser, you’ll have to go through a first time setup.
Select photos to add to your photo library and iPhone. Once you’ve opened the Photos app and accessed your Photos library, there should be an “Upload” icon in the upper right hand corner of the page. Click this, and browse your PC for the photos you want to add to your iPhone.


iPhone and iPad not downloading all iCloud emails

I somehow managed to work around this. First, I copied all my mail in my iCloud inbox to a folder. Then I copied all mail older than 1 year back to the inbox and let both my iPad and iPhone sync. After this was done, I copied all remaining mail back to the inbox and let my devices sync again.

Now all email is synchronized on both devices. Don't ask me how or why though.. :)


You do have a 5th Generation iPod touch, and it's the 16GB model.

If you check out Apple's website for current-generation iPod touches, specifically the "tech specs" page, you'll see that there are two types available today. The left one (the one with no metal circle on the bottom-left of the back) is the one you have.

On your Usage page, you have two numbers: available and used. The confusion is probably because "available" here means how much space you have left for new content, not the total amount available to you. If you add the two numbers together, you'll have roughly ~13GB of total storage. (the remaining storage being taken up by the OS)

Also, Apple has an article on identifying your iPod that can often help find the marketing name for any iPod that's been released.


How to create a shortcut for a command in Terminal that I can have in my Dock?

In Automator, create a new Application.
In that application, add an action "Run AppleScript"
For the content of that AppleScript,
tell application "Terminal"
        activate
        do script "ssh aide199@192.16.1.15"
    end tell

Save the application, then in the Finder, drag the new application to the Dock


You can't install/run Debian packages natively, the kernel and a lot of required data structures are vastly different. Usually people who want to run Linux code

set up a VM and install Linux within in. VirtualBox is a (good) cost-free solution here, there are also Parallels and VMware which offer more features but aren't free
install Linux in a second partition and dual-boot either Linux or macOS. Install instructions depend on Mac hardware, macOS version and Linux distribution.

Neither way will compensate for underpowered hardware though (the graphics to run the game in your case).


Difference between Export PDF and Print to PDF in Safari

"Save as PDF" is essentially a digital copy of what you get if you were to print a specific page from Safari. This includes extra headers/footers that include the date, webpage, number of pages, web address, etc.

"Export as PDF" is a simple snapshot of the page as is and does not include all of those extra details.

From the few pages I've compared the differences with these two options, Export as PDF tends to retain more of the formatting details whereas the Save as PDF option can cause the page to look slightly different.


How to choose printer from command line or from a Python application?

lpstat shows all printers known to the system
lpr -P NAME prints to printer NAME


How can I back up my Mac Auto Correct & Keyboard shortcuts

For text substitutions, the answer is here (and being OsX we should have guessed it by ourselves): https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204006

Not sure why you want to export the shortcuts, unless you customized a lot of them... however someone else asked for it: https://www.reddit.com/r/osx/comments/4fx2wo/is_there_a_way_to_saveexport_keyboard_shortcuts/


Do web launch apps conform to Apple iOS App Store / Google Play App store

There isn't an explicit rules in Apple's review guidelines for the App Store.

But it seems to be that Apple would reject an app which would only open the navigator :

  Apple rejects applications that do not:

  have a user experience that feels like an "app" feel "at home" in the
  iOS ecosystem offer a differentiation from a mobile web experience

From : PhoneGap advice on dealing with Apple application rejections

So I would strongly suggest using an UIWebView.


Remove picture compression for Word 2011 for Mac

In Word 2011:

Double-click any image to bring up the Format Picture ribbon.
Click the Compress button, then choose "Keep current resolution" from the drop-down menu.
Choose to apply this setting to only the one image you double-clicked, or to all images in the file.


Is there a tool or an app to automatically sort home screen icons?

There is a way! If you go to your Settings > General > Reset, there is an option to reset the home screen layout. Pick that option and all your apps will be rearranged in alphabetical order. But you'll lose all your folders and maps...


That's probably because High Sierra introduced AirPlay2 (before, you were running AirPlay). With AirPlay2, it's no more a system wide output that's being redirected to your remote player, but instead a per-application output. Technically speaking, it's now a userspace library that application must implement.

Since only iTunes supports AirPlay2 for now, I guess this is the reason why it's being launched.

As to how to disable this, please check if your player can disable its AirPlay2 announce or use iTunes...


iPad: Battery usage while using split screen vs single app in foreground

It is not possible to give any kind of “always true”, generic answer, as the power consumption behavior is different from app to app, and even depending on the input data in each app.

In general the power usage by each app is not at all limited to only CPU usage when taking the display itself out of the question. Other major power usages comes from the GPS, cell radios, WiFi radios, the GPU, etc.

However if the app in split screen is doing the exact same stuff as when it is in full screen, then yes, the power consumption is approximately the same as the sum of the power consumption of each app by itself in full screen (when not taking the display into account).

In practice the split screen app is usually doing very slightly less, so the total is often slightly less than the sum. However the difference is negligible.

Again - this can vary hugely from app to app.


I’ve seen people have an external powered Hub connected to the Air, then connect the USB to Ethernet trinket to the hub and have no problems with it. If the Cinema Display functions as a normal hub, then you should have no problems with it.

The USB specification doesn’t make distinctions from internal/external ports (in theory).


Homebrew: Why is java not installed as a dependency for Tomcat?

If Java was already installed previously (either the Oracle or the outdated Apple Java installer) Tomcat's requirements are met and brew won't install another Java.

The small green checkmark (or red cross if Java has to be installed) will indicate this:


From Apple Support:

  If you see "Offline," "No location available," or "Location Services Off," your device might be offline for one of these reasons:

  It's powered off, the battery has run out, or it’s been more than 24 hours since the last location was sent to Apple (if Send Last Location is turned on). When your device is connected to the Internet, you can see the remaining battery in the upper-right corner of the information pane.
  Your iPad, iPod Touch, or Mac is asleep and not connected to a known
  Wi-Fi or data network. Wait a few minutes and try again.
  You're in a country where we don't offer this feature. This feature
  might not be available in your country due to technical limitations
  or local law.

  You can still play a sound, send a message, issue a lock request, or start an erase of your iOS device with Find My iPhone. Your device will receive the command after it's turned on and has an Internet connection.


How to check if my iPhone's connection is being throttled?

Whether your internet connection is slow may have several reasons:

poor, instable connection
geographic location
total traffic on the network
you've reached your cap (see contract)

For the normal users it's difficult to determine what the exact reason is. Especially in dense areas, the promised speed is not reached sometimes because the total traffic of all users is very high. Where I live, the same network is used by different providers, adding additional complications.

In order to judge if your network connection slower than usual, you should test and record your network speed for several times throughout a month.

You can use Mobile Speed Test to get stats about Download, Upload and Ping. You can use this data to check the speed you've been promised by your provider. Check your contract to see what speed you have been promised. Most contracts throttle the speed after you have reached a cap.


Mac OS is runnning Time Machine backups for you, even if your Time Machine disk is not connected. The backup directory is automatically created and mounted as a network share via NFS at the /Volumes/Mobilebackups directory.
This is not a backup in the disaster recovery sense, but it will allow you to restore older versions of your files, if you by accident delete a file or regret an edit you did.
Supposedly it will consume a lot of disk space, but only as long as there's at least 20 % free space.

Disable the service with this terminal command if you dont like it:

sudo tmutil disablelocal

To see the NFS path, run the mount command. Optionally "mount -a" to show all volumes.

I believe the physical location of the backups is i /.Mobilebackups but I'm not quite sure.

And according to Apple docs, the find command should take an option "-fstype" with the special value "local" to stay within the same file system, thus avoiding mounted network shares etc. (Not tested - have no access to a Mac system right now).

find / -fstype local -name foo

*)https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/find.1.html


Accessing via 127.0.0.1 via home network

You cannot with just ordinary TCP/IP let other computers access your web site on the Mac Pro using the IP address 127.0.0.1. This address has a special meaning in the IP protocol, and always refers to the local computer - never other computers.

If you really want to do so, you'll need to use port forwarding. You can use SSH to port forward the remote port 80 to the local port 80, and thus be able to access the remote AMPPS web site using the 127.0.0.1 address.

However, there's really no point in doing so. It won't make it faster, better or anything else. As you write no reason for wanting 127.0.0.1 specifically, it seems you're better off using an ordinary RFC1918 IP network on your home network - such as for example 10.x.y.z/8 or 192.168.x.y/16.


How to get iWork and iLife after upgrading to Yosemite from Mavericks?

It is not about iCloud account but about Mac Apps store logged in account and upgrading said apps under it.

If you have iLife and iWork trials installed under Mavericks you will get them associated to your Apple ID logged into App Store. Can't say for sure but maybe you have to update them for this. Don't have to download them all the way though when they started updating.

And no there is no way to do it except having Mavericks. You might use another Mac with Mavericks for this (provided it doesn't have iLife and iWork already installed of course) or you might install Mavericks on your Mac — you can create a temporal partition for this, you can use external drive, USB or even SD card for this too.


AppleScript error when attempting to delete empty albums in Photos.app

The solution is to change:

delete abm
-- or delete album abm

To this:

delete album id (abm's id)

Nothing in library documentation would have lead me to this answer.  I was just trying anything out of desperation.


In AppleScript can you create a window tab without using keystroke?

I can say until 10.9 this isn't possible because the property of tab isn't implemented into applescript. After 10.9... I don't know but you can check it by yourself like this:
Open 1 Finder Window with two or more tabs, then:

tell application "Finder"
properties of Finder window 1
end tell

...now if you can find something in the result that speaks about tab, then you can use this property to work on tabs. Alternatively just open the Applescript Finder Library and search for tab. It would show you if there is a property.

Also...

tell application "System Events"
keystroke "t" using command down
end tell

wouldn't be necessary if property tabs would be implemented into Applescript.


Do files on USB drive leave any trace on iMac (macOS Sierra)?

If you open a folder with files residing on an external drive, thumbnails will be created on the boot drive depending on the file type and the installed QuickLook plugins.

The previews, metadata and file paths are stored in SQLite database files deep inside the var folder in the com.apple.QuickLook.thumbnailcache folder. The path to this folder contains arbitrary folder names.

With the proper commands the preview pics can be extracted from the database.

To remove the pic previews and other data you would have to delete the content of the folder.

Related links:

View thumbnail cache in OS X
Collecting Quick Look Data From a Live macOS System


Can't rename directory by changing upper- to lower-case on hfs+ partition in Ubuntu

After digging around further, I found the solution to this issue. It is actually possible to format an hfs+ partition in OS X as case-sensitive, unjournaled, though it takes two steps. There's no way to switch an existing case-insensitive partition to case-sensitive.

The option to disable journaling (or to format a vol as case-sensitive, not journaled) has been removed from the OS X Disk Utility in El Capitan (which is the version I'm running) but it can still be done:

Depending on how the disk is partitioned, it might be necessary to carve out the disk space first on Linux (using gparted is the easiest way). I'm fairly sure it doesn't matter what type of partition, but just to be careful, I created it as hfs+ to make sure there were no weird access issues on the OS X side.
In OS X, use Disk Utility to format the partition as HFS+ Case-Sensitive, Journaled. (It should be possible to do in Terminal using diskutil, as well, but I didn't want to take the time to hunt down the syntax for case-sensitivity).
Still in OS X, in Terminal, run diskutil disableJournal /dev/volname. You can run this with the disk mounted or unmounted. (If you're not sure of the disk or volume name, diskutil list will list them all).

Side note: From the number of posted questions on the subject, it appears that mounting hfs+ as rw in Ubuntu is problematic for many. The syntax for designating mount of an hfs+ partition as rw in fstab (/etc/fstab is used by the system to mount devices at boot) is UUID=<UUID> /mountpoint hfsplus rw,exec,auto,users 0 0, assuming you want the typical options for a non-system data vol. If you want something different, this article is really helpful. You will also probably need to chown -R user /mountpoint the mountpoint.

And that's it. I tested it out back in Ubuntu, using the same "DropBox" name change test I used before, and it all looks good.


Have Mail.app format the text when changing the default message font

If you go to "Mail" and then to "Preferences" you can change the default font and other font related items.  I will post a screenshot soon, if you would like clarification.


How to open an image file from bash in Mac?

open test.jpg will open the image in the default application for JPEG files (on most Macs this will be Preview) and open -a Pixelmator test.jpg will open in the app Pixelmator if you have it installed. Obviously Pixelmator can be replaced with any application that can open the file.

The open command is quite powerful, it allows for opening files, directories and even URLs. I suggest you read the man page.


Is it safe to use non-Apple adapter to charge Apple devices?

Possibly.

There's an old consumer's adage... You get what you pay for and it's especially true when dealing with (expensive) Apple gear.

You've listed a number of "specs" but specs mean nothing in terms of quality.  The question is, do you want to plug your $3,000 USD MacBook Pro, $800-$1000 USD iPhone and $500-$800 USD iPad into a discount 3rd party charger?

Cheap chargers can wreak havoc on your expensive gear - if you can't get a genuine Apple product, get an adapter that's MiFi certified - at least you know that they have gone through the effort and cost to become certified by Apple that their products are compatible.


Which models of iPhone 5 are compatible with CDMA in India?

No.

iPhones only have GSM SIM slots.

The CDMA iPhone 5 can only use CDMA on the carrier which sold the phone. Those phones also have a GSM nanoSIM slot for use around the world.


How to create a bootable USB drive for Disk Utility?

In order to create a bootable drive, you need the install DVD (or a copy of it) mounted. Sorry…

Do you have a friend with a Mac? If so, you could take the thumb drive & install DVD there and create a boot drive for yourself.


How do I remove Twitter and Facebook from Mountain Lion?

Honestly I don't see any benefit in removing the Twitter/Facebook libraries. It may break the installed version as well as lead to problems when upgrading to 10.8.1 etc.

If you want to be sure that nothing you do is ever ending up in Twitter or Facebook just don't log in to these services in Preferences.


Can i track my friend's iphone with the help of any app on iphone?

Try installing Google Latitude on the phone?


Mavericks: MS Word crashing on documents with comments

Changing preferred language to English (as explained here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/115387) worked for me!


How to change the move / calorie Activity goal on an Apple Watch?

The option is hidden behind a long/hard press - so not easily discoverable:

Tap on the Activity app from your Apple Watch's Home screen.
Swipe left until you see the Move ring.
Press firmly on the screen.
Tap on Change Move Goal.
Adjust your move goal to whatever you'd like and tap Update.

Source: How to set a calorie goal with Activity for Apple Watch

The calorie goal is the only configurable goal.


Installing macOS High Sierra on Mac Pro 2009 with a firmware upgrade requires a firmware update - is it safe?

I was able to perform the firmware upgrade with no problems. The MacPro upgraded the firmware after I held the power button until it flashed, then prompted me to install High Sierra after. It rebooted a few times in-between.


How long should Boot Camp formatting selecting drive take?

The formatting should only last seconds. The behavior which you're experiencing is not normal at all.

I would cancel the installation and verify the disk.


The behaviour that you are encountering is due to an accessibility setting called Shake mouse pointer to locate.

First introduced in OS X El Capitan 10.11, it helps in locating mouse pointer for people with vision disparity. It is also widely used for easily locating the mouse pointer when using a multi-monitor setup and/or high-resolution display(s).

The setting can be enabled/disabled by going to System Preferences → Accessibility → Display.


Do you use Apple Calendar on your Mac? (Preferences -> Alerts). Perhaps these are the preferences that push those alerts to your iPhone.


Create an automator/applescript service that opens a file in an external program

Use "Open Finder items" and choose a program from the drop-down list.
An example from one of my workflows:


Install new apps on iPad 1st (first) generation with max iOS 5.1.1

To install new apps really requiring iOS6+, I don't know.

But after a lot of search I found:

You install iTunes if you haven't already.
You pair your hardware with an Apple account, again if you haven't done already.
You find apps with older version of it existing and working on iOS 5.1.1.
You associate it (get it, download it) to your account on iTunes on Mac or PC.
You find the same app on the older hardware (iPad 1 iOS 5.1.1).
Instead of download, you will see Install. Select Install.
A popup will appear offering downloading older version of the app. Click Yes.
Enjoy your new old 5.1.1 compatible app.

Would love app update for older iOS by developers but don't expect it.


How can I automate recurrent steps in Yosemite?

AppleScript and Automator

AppleScript and Automator are your best starting points for automating OS X. Both are included in OS X, so there is no immediate need to install third party software.

AppleScript and Automator are complementary approaches. An Automator workflow can include AppleScript snippets. An AppleScript can trigger Automator workflows.

See Introduction to AppleScript and AppleScript: The Language of Automation for an introduction to AppleScript. You can experiment with AppleScript using the included Script Editor.app utility included in your Applications > Utilities folder.

Searching the web for applescript chrome will return many useful web sites, such as:

Scripting Google Chrome for OSX using AppleScript
Google Chrome meets AppleScript
Use AppleScript to open current Safari URL in Google Chrome

When you reach the limits of AppleScript and Automator, third party automation software is available.


As of this writing, the beginning steps are:

Go to Bundles (menu) > Edit Bundles…
Press ⌘N to create a new bundle.
The bundle gets saved in ~/Library/Application\ Support/Avian/Bundles; you may wish to right-click on the saved bundle and choose Show Package Contents to see what's inside your bundle.

Further info can be found e.g. here and here.


Connecting iPad 'crashed' the display - black screen but cursor responsive

Because I didn't want to hard power-off the Mac I had to do a bit of lateral thinking.

I was quite sure that the machine hadn't actually hung, as the radio was still playing, but that perhaps something had upset the Finder, which I think was the frontmost app at the point the iPad was plugged in.

A moment of revelation... what about dialling in remotely?

I went to my other Mac & tried to get in via Screen Sharing.
Success... or not... I could share the screen, but it was still black with just a working cursor.

What if I try to login as myself instead?

Joy!
Screen Sharing showed me the login screen.
I went to check the remote machine, it too was showing the login screen.
I logged the original user back in, rather than myself, & we were up & running again.

I rebooted at that point, normally, & the issue hasn't recurred.

I still have no explanation as to what caused it, but I hope this might help anyone else who sees a similar issue.


Rename/delete files in Mac OS X save window

A quick test in OS X 10.10 shows that you can copy and delete, but not rename files from the save dialog box. Right(control)-clicking on a file brings up the options for Move to Trash and Duplicate. The usual behavior of changing a file name by clicking on the already-selected file does not seem to work as it does in the Finder.


Does a new computer require a new Time Machine drive?

No - you don't need to get a new drive, but it's always nice to consider getting a new drive for reliability reasons. At some point, retire the old drive to the shelf or delete it and repurpose it. The backup should ideally be more reliable than the source in terms of longevity. Even an unreliable drive can be useful though since it will protect you from user errors and is unlikely to fail at the same time as the primary source if you are primarily concerned about having two copies of the current data.

One Time Machine drive can serve to hold files from many computers. Similarly, one computer can back up to multiple Time Machine drives.

In the case where you migrate data from one Mac to another, the system will usually detect this and offer to "migrate" the one time series of backups so that you get two benefits:

You don't lose the space savings where each file is only saved when it changes - saving space when a dozen backup intervals contain the same file version.
You don't lose history and have to wait for all the files to back up.


Can I prevent SMS from showing on the Lock Screen in iOS 4?

Go to Settings > Messages. There's an option "Show Preview" there. If you toggle this to off, it will stop showing SMS previews on the lock screen. This will also disable the alert popup when a new SMS arrives and the phone is not locked.


How can I force Finder to be opened in a specific size?

The way to set up a "default" Finder window is indeed a bit obscure: first you'll open a new Finder window, and then without clicking on any file or folder arrange the window to your needs (resize, position, define view, show/hide sidebar, etc.) and close it again immediately. Every new window should now use this new setup as a default.


How do I use arguments together with bash aliases

You can't pass arguments to aliases. Aliases are just text substitutions without further logic.

But you can use shell functions to achieve the same result:

function pman() {
    if [ -x /usr/bin/open ]; then
        man -t "$1" | open -f -a Preview
    else
        man "$1"
    fi
}

The if-then-else part is there just to make sure it also works on non-OSX systems.

To define a function, just include the definition from above into your ~/.bash_profile. Usage is identical to aliases or any other command: pman ls.

As @stuffe pointed out in a comment keeping aliases/functions in a separate file has its advantages (especially it allows you to re-read your aliases/functions into the current shell without executing any setup stuff from .bashrc or .bash_profile). To do this, create a separate file called .alias, .functions or similar and add

test -e ~/.alias && . ~/.alias

to .bashrc or .bash_profile.


Transfer iOS app data to a different account

You can backup data from apps with a program such as PhoneView (Mac) or iFunBox (Mac & Windows).

  Browse, manage and download most any data saved by App Store apps from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. If you're looking for a quick way to download saved recordings, videos or images from your apps, this is it. Even transfer game high scores between devices. --PhoneView

This data can then be restored to a new installation of an app under a different Apple ID or even on a different device.


Automator service to print a relative path of selected files printing everything twice

Okay, think I got it. This is what I initially set up:

But when I ran that service, I only got a single list of files (which is what you want, but not what you were getting).

Footnote: when you’re having problems with an Automator workflow, a screenshot is really useful.

So then I decided to modify the "Service receives selected" field:

and if you try to run that from within Automator, then you get an error message:

When I go and run that service from outside Automator, I get the duplicated paths that you’re seeing.
So I think your list of selected items is getting picked up twice: once by "Service receives selected", and again by "Get Selected Finder Items".
When Automator goes to copy to the clipboard, it gets the list twice.

If you remove one of them, then you should get what you want.


Get fan speed from terminal without spindump or third party software

macOS command /usr/bin/powermetrics

sudo powermetrics -i 200 -n1 --samplers smc

output:

**** SMC sensors ****

CPU Thermal level: 0
GPU Thermal level: 0
IO Thermal level: 0
Fan: 1199 rpm
CPU die temperature: 56.30 C
GPU die temperature: 79.00 C

sudo powermetrics -i 200 -n1 --samplers smc | grep "Fan" | sed 's/Fan: //g' # -> 1200 rpm


Shortcut for making a new window in Safari

In macOS Sierra 10.12.3, by default the keyboard shortcut to open a new window in most apps is ⌘N, however when one changes the default setting in System Preferences > Dock > Prefer tabs when opening documents: from In Full Screen Only to Always the New Window keyboard shortcut is changed to ⌥⌘N.


Using clamshell MacBook with external monitor with no speakers - will there be sound?

Just tested. It will play through the speakers with the clamshell closed and is very audible. It does change the sound quality so music might be a bit different (I din't play any music), but notifications will be easily discernible.

Tried some music and it comes through quite clearly, just a little quieter than with the lid open.


Yes, you can create a bootable USB that can automatically install OS X. It would mimic the functionality of the Recovery Disk option when booting. Here's a link from Macworld about how to do it with the latest version of OS X, Sierra. It's less complicated than it sounds. When you start your Mac, hold down the option key to choose the USB drive that you've created.

http://www.macworld.com/article/3092900/macs/how-to-create-a-bootable-macos-sierra-installer-drive.html


All the apps which you have previously purchased, and which are running on your present iMac, are available in the App Store for re-download. However, the best method for transferring your present user account(s) and apps to your new iMac is through Time Machine Migration Assistant, which will be one of the first options when you set up the new iMac out of the box. Make sure you have a current backup of your present machine and that the Time Machine device itself (External USB drive, etc) can be physically connected to the new iMac.

Just recently I upgraded to a 2019 iMac myself, and because I have loads of Thunderbolt drives, including my main Time Machine drive, I had to purchase Apple Thunderbolt > USBC adapters to do the migration and continue to use the drive as the Time Machine backup disk.


How to access katakana on the Japanese keyboard for the iPhone?

After keying the hiragana, You should always find the katakana somewhere in the suggestion bar above the keyboard.


Is it possible to open a new space with the keyboard?

There are only three ways to create a new space in OS X Lion and above:

Press F3 to launch Mission Control hover the Pointer over the top left or right corner, where a window will now appear with a + sign – by clicking the + a new space is generated

drag and drop an application window from Mission Control to the top right or left corner of your screen; the Desktop icon will appear, and a new space is gererated and your window's application is assigned to it.
Once enabling an application's full screen mode by clicking the right-hand corner of an application window's title bar, a new space is generated for the application

  Set Mission Control shortcuts

  1) Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Mission Control.
  2) In the Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts section, open the pop-up menus to choose keyboard shortcuts, mouse shortcuts, or both. If you have a multiple-button mouse, you see two columns of pop-up menus in this section.
  3) Click Hot Corners, then open any of the pop-up menus and choose actions to perform when you move the pointer to a screen corner.
  After you set an active corner, move your mouse to that corner of the screen to see the result.

source1   —   source2   —   source3


Make the TouchBar show app controls for one specific app at all times

In order to always show the “default” set of keys, like on older MacBooks, go to Settings > Keyboard.

Then find the Touch Bar shows control and set it to, Expanded Control Strip.

This way, the music controls are always in front.


How do I remove multiple owners from a file/folder?

I'm not sure how to do it from Terminal, but you could use a tool like BatChmod to redo the file permissions (and clear ACLs).
http://www.lagentesoft.com/batchmod/


Find size of a path excluding hardlinks on Big Sur

Tested this and can confirm in Finder it will show the total disk used by all of the hard links.
To find out the 'real' disk usage, use a terminal and use the command
du -hs

or
du -s


To close all Finder windows at once, press the Option key while clicking the File menu in Finder and select Close All or just press Option-Command-W.

By the way, to get Summary Info for multiple files/folders in Finder, select the target files/folders and then Control click and select Get Summary Info.  Then you only have one Get Info sheet open and you can press Command-W to close it.

To close just the ones from Get Info use this AppleScript, by James Stout.

tell application "Finder"
    set theWindowList to windows (* get all Finder windows *)
    repeat with i from 1 to number of items in theWindowList (* loop through them *)
        set shouldClose to false (* reset to false *)
        set this_item to item i of theWindowList (* get a window from the list *)
        set windowName to name of this_item (* get the window'ss name  *)
        (* this list should contain class property that tells you the type of window - which is nice *)
        (* Class would be either "Finder window" for normal windows or "information window" for the Info windows *)
        (* However, it doesn't contain the class property. alas. *)
        (* So to differentiate, we can use the current view/panel props *)
        set thePropList to get properties of this_item
        (* in a try/catch as prop not set for the diff windows *)
        try
            set CurrentView to current panel of thePropList
            set shouldClose to true (* no error, it's an info panel, so close *)
        on error
            log "Not an info panel, leaving open: " & windowName
        end try
        (* this try/catch is just for a double check, feel free to comment out *)
        try
            set CurrentView to current view of thePropList
        on error
            if shouldClose = false then log "Not an info panel: " & windowName
        end try
        if windowName ends with " Info" and shouldClose then
            close this_item
            log "Closing info panel: " & windowName
        end if
    end repeat
end tell


Different keyboard mapping on external keyboard

The mapping of the input source you have selected in the "flag" menu should always apply to both the internal and external keyboards.  The standard US keyboard has one less key, so it will be slightly different:

If yours does not behave that way, something is wrong.


iCal: How do I add new event types with new colors?

You can add one on iCloud or on your Mac. Just navigate to 'File' and create a 'New Calendar'.

And there, you'll be able to create a new calendar, and with 'Get Info' (right-click), you can choose your color.


If you're looking for the count of child processes, you can use pgrep -P <pid> | wc -l since the output is on PID per line and wc -l outputs the line count.


Remove the Apple ID from the iPad, and your iMessages will not show up there


Can I use AirDrop if one or more of the participating computers is asleep/off?

It should work as long as you have Wake for network access enabled in  System Preferences → Energy Saver → Battery/Power Adapter.

Depending on the capabilities of your Mac, the option's description may differ:

  Wake for network access - Your Mac supports Wake on Demand over both Ethernet and AirPort
  Wake for Ethernet network access - Your Mac supports Wake on Demand over Ethernet only
  Wake for AirPort network access - Your Mac supports Wake on Demand over AirPort only

  [source]

The option "wake for Ethernet network access" is mentioned only to round up the answer. Wake on demand for ethernet will not help if your Macs communicate using Wi-Fi.

However, you can enable AirDrop to communicate using Ethernet as well as explained here. This will also enable AirDrop on so-called unsupported Macs.


What service to restart after modifying /etc/sudoers for macOS to make changes active without reboot?

None.  No system process reads /etc/sudoers.  The command line binary sudo(1) reads /etc/sudoers.
Changes are immediate when they are saved.


Jailbroken iPod Touch (5th generation) erase all content & settings problems.

Unless your previous iOS was 8.1.3 you have no option but to update to 8.2. [& that will change within a few days.]

Apple stops signing old iOS updates very soon after the release of a new one.

It will only still sign an older iOS if that is the latest one your device is capable of running.

If you are having difficulty downloading the ipsw file, you could use a different downloader & use the links posted on OS X Daily - these are direct links to the Apple site.


Fast, fault-tolerant program/utility for massive file transfer

You may start by trying the drop the z from the command. There is no need to compress the files when transferring locally.  Rsync will do a checksum after copying a file, which means it has to read the file back out from disk which will always be slower than a straight up copy.


How can I make two cells edit and display the same information in Numbers?

You can't make 2 cells which content would be synchronised from each other.

To define b1=$a$1 and a1=$b$1 would create a loop of cross references.

This graph of dependency would be a cycle.

On the other hand you van make 2 cells depend on a common source:

a2=$a$1 and b2=$a$1.

This graph of dependency is a tree.


VLC 3: Adding file to existing playlist (enqueue)

To add a file to VLC playlist from the command line (without starting a new instance) use the following syntax:

open -a /Applications/VLC.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC <your_media>

To prevent VLC from autoplaying the media you just added, go to Preferences > Show all > Interface > Main Interfaces > macosx and uncheck the box "Auto-playback of new items" below the Behavior subheading.


Disable macOS screen capture snapshot sound?

The easy version: Disable all the sound effects

Click on the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen and select “System Preferences…”

Click on the option that says “Sound”

Click on “Sound Effects”


Can I find out the last time a specific USB was connected to my MBP?

If your MacOS version is 10.12 and later, you can use the advanced terminal log tool.

here is how to do the same with it (if you prefer)

log show  --last 35m  --info --predicate 'eventMessage contains "mounted"'

here it will search for messages containing the word "mounted", but only messages of type INFO (you could change it for ERROR or omit the --info flag to search all messages)

You can change the time, on the example I used --last 35m which means only on the last 35 minutes, but you can use it like --last 4h to search the last four hours for your criteria.

Example output, click to expand it:

If you know the service subsystem, you can filter just by it, like the example below (I created the example for timeMachine subsystem, for syntax demonstration)

log show --predicate 'subsystem == "com.apple.TimeMachine" AND eventMessage contains "Failed"'

Use additional parameters like last hours, select kind of message, redirect the output to a file, etc...

The log console is very powerful and it can make queries like a database tool.

It is faster if you use the query syntax like above, but for some quick searchs you can also use 'grep', like the example below:

log show --style syslog  --last 15m  --info |grep '\[USB\]'

Show USB connection of my iPhone on my MacBook on the last 15 minutes: (using GREP to filter messages) and output style syslog

Statistics about the log database can be retrieved with sudo log stats (picture below) showing the date of the oldest message, date of most recent, and various other information and statistics.

Statistics (the command may take a long time to generate it, (> 5min ~ 10min)

How much data/days to store? How to customise:

for [MacOS 10.12 Sierra or newer] )

Storage parameters (such how much days to keep messages) can be changed/customised with sudo log config

  see sudo log config --help or man log

for [MacOS El Capitan, Yosemite or older] )

Log settings (such as how much log data to keep stored) can be customised by editing /etc/asl.conf. Default parameters of 50MB on average gives about 7 days of stored logs.

/etc/asl.conf


How can you tell if an iPhone camera photo has been fully uploaded to the Photo Stream without using a computer?

In the photos app, you should be able to compare between the "camera roll" and the "photo stream" in the albums tab.

The picture shouldn't appear in the local device's Photo Stream until it is uploaded.

To see this in action, go to the Albums tag. Take a screen shot. (Power + home)
The photo will appear in the Camera Roll and (net willing will within a few seconds) then appear in the Photo Stream.


There is currently no such feature, however, you could use the ‘podcasts’ app to listen to your podcasts.


Custom app keyboard shortcuts: different commands with the same name

You can spell out the exact "path" to the menu item in question using the  "->" separator when you enter a value for the "Menu Title" in System Preferences. So, in your case, instead of "Left," you'd enter "Arrange->Align->Left" (without quotes) as the menu command in System Preferences.
Source


A simple workaround to close the find bar is to use Fn + Esc, rather then Esc.

However, you can easily prevent Chrome to close the full-sceen mode by pressing Esc through this script (following this post):

// ==UserScript==
// @name           Keep Full Screen
// @namespace     https://superuser.com/q/315949
// @description    Prevents Escape key from leaving full screen.
// @include      http://*
// ==/UserScript==
document.onkeydown = function (evt) {
    if (evt.keyCode == 27) evt.preventDefault();
}

To run this, you can use the NinjaKit Google Chrome extension.


Is it possible to see the content of the "Send to Apple" crash report after closing it?

Those informations are stored in Console application under Diagnostic and Usage Information. Here's screenshot:

You can also find them in:

~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/
/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/


In iTunes menus: File > Home Sharing > Turn Off Home Sharing


How to create a self signed SSL server certificate on OS X 10.7 for HighPoint RAID management server?

When having created overlapping or re-use hostnames/ip addresses, resulting in the sec_error_reused_issuer_and_serial error, delete the built-in certificate using terminal:

$ sudo rm -v /usr/share/hpt/hptsvr.pem

And restart the raidman-httpsd daemon using this command:

$ sudo systemStarter restart raidman

A new .pem file based on a matching hostname and ip address will be created on the first https request.


Is there possible to export XML from Final Cut Pro without open the Application?

I don't think so, but you can automate opening the program, and exporting the XML.


Do not show refit menu on boot (only with option key)

I suppose the smallest timeout possible (1 sec) would be a kind of solution, although not exactly what you wanted.

If you have another OS installed on the internal HDD that can be booted by the stock Mac bootloader, you could install refit to the corresponding partition and bless the OS X partition. Thus, when you need refit/ind, you hold the alt key during boot and select the partition where it's installed.


Your last point of cask combining the files misses one key step. Someone else has to do the work to assemble and package that app. Homebrew doesn't do that assembly automagically.
I've installed mpv on three machines and your results are the same as I get - Intel Big Sur has a cask, M1 does not. Both get the command line binary.
Unless and until someone sends a pull request to add an M1 version of the cask for this package, you'll want to use a different tool or installation method.


How to move from text to text by keyboard in Powerpoint?

Use altwindowsenter to indicate you've finished a piece of text and want to move on to the next section, possibly creating a new slide.

Use esc to escape from whatever you're editing, then use tab to move from text to text within a slide, and use Page Up and Page Down to move from slide to slide, and use Enter to start editing a text.


Is there such an app or script that automatically logs off a user after a given number of minutes of activity?

You could try using an Apple Script, something like;

tell application "System Events"
    log out
end tell

Then schedule it using launchd.  I've used this as a nice GUI front-end to launchd in the past;

http://www.peterborgapps.com/lingon/

launchd can be a little frustrating to use as you have be very exact with your syntax and naming, however if you don't want to spring the $5 for Lingon, there is a Ruby Gem on GitHub I found called lunchy

https://github.com/mperham/lunchy

The downside with this is that you're running to a schedule rather than only running the script when a user has logged in.


Can I buy an iPhone 4 in another country?

Yes, you can buy a SIM-lock free iPhone 4, such as the ones that get sold in the UK or in Belgium and use them anywhere else in the World where iPhones are supported by local providers.

Be aware that the UK phone ships with a different electrical plug.

Language settings can be set from within the iOS preferences. I have mine running with multiple different keyboard layouts; and you can also set the main language of the device, just as you can set the language of any MacOS device to any installed language (usually quite a few). The nice thing is, that usually all apps also respect that language choice if they provide translations.


System slowness: How to disable or short-circuit tccd in Mojave? (slows app & subprocess startup)

Quick answer:
You have to use configuration profiles that can only be deployed via an MDM (Mobile Device Management Software) to disable tcc and tcc prompts. Unfortunately TCC is written strong into Mojave's code and doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. This is a downfall for developers/engineers/users/administrators as we all are going to have to learn learn how to walk with TCC. Apple's push for security is stronger than ever and has been written on the wall for Mac Admins for quite some time.

Longer Answer:

Apple is pushing for companies to move over to DEP/MDM workflows for deploying machines to their users: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204142

With Mac OS Mojave, Apple wants users to validate the use of programs gaining access to their files, hence the TCC messages of programs wanting to gain access. What does this have to do with your question you ask? Well...

There is some hope for companies that manage their machines with DEP/MDM solutions such as JAMF (for an example). Apple has pointed this out and the annoying prompts can be disabled by using an MDM and configuration profiles here:

https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT209028

  You can allow apps to access certain files used for system administration, and to allow access to application data. For example, if an app requests access to your Calendar data, you can allow or deny the request. MDM administrators can manage these requests using the Privacy Preferences Policy Control payload, as documented in the Configuration Profile Reference.

Mac admin Carl Ashley has also pointed this out in more detail here:
https://carlashley.com/2018/09/28/tcc-round-up/

  You will absolutely need an MDM to deploy these profiles as they cannot be deployed direct to a machine through a package, or other installation method.
  This will mean either a DEP to MDM enrolment workflow, or through User Approved MDM (users manually enrol their Mac into MDM).

If you try to do this with a non-managed mac and install the config profile without an MDM, it will defeat the purpose of using both the MDM and the config profile because the config profile will prompt the user to install it in System Preferences > Profiles.

Example:

This might possibly change if Apple announces a new OS this summer with 10.15. For unknown reasons Apple also has not explicitly documented to developers the need to add the NSRemindersUsageDescription key string in the Info.plist file of their applications to prevent their applications from crashing.

It is counter intuitive for developers to revert back to Xcode 9, where this problem doesn't seem to occur, unlike in its successor Xcode 10. Hoakley also validated this when he tried to use an older version of a program he developed with a Xcode older than v10 in Mojave and it ran fine, allowing the newer version of the app to prompt the user for consent to use the computer files/programs as intended.

  I then tested an older version of xattred(Hoakley's program), and discovered that, instead of crashing, it did produce the expected user consent. Once added to that list, the newer version stopped crashing, and could access all protected Calendar files without any more dialogs.

After the user consents to the application, this app in question appears under one of the lists under System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy and usually under Accessibility.

On the bright side:

Trust me, all of us as Macadmins are on the same page of busting our heads on the table over TCC. I can imagine its much worse for the normal user who likes to dabble in the administration domain. Hopefully we will see better, sane, implementation of TCC with future updates of Mac OS.

If you are curious in dabbling with creating profiles, and possibly have an MDM you can try the following:
https://github.com/carlashley/tccprofile

https://github.com/erikberglund/ProfileCreator

I hope this explanation is of use to you as a developer/engineer.


How do you enable the app-context-dependent touch bar for Photoshop on the new 2016 rmbp

You run Photoshop CC 2017 Version 18.0.1?

From the release note:

  Use the Touch Bar with Photoshop - Photoshop now supports Touch Bar,
  the multitouch display at the top of the new MacBook Pro keyboard;
  Touch Bar support in Photoshop is currently a technology preview
  feature

Adobe said it is an experimental feature. It could be that this functions is not turned on automatically.

You can turn it on here: Preferences > Technology Previews > Enable Touch Bar


"Recent Items" menu item disappears from Apple menu

Rebuild LaunchServices Library

From this discussion board I learned to "rebuild the LaunchServices library". I do not understand the details, but this one line executed in Terminal.app does the trick:

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

Then restart your Mac. Relaunching the Finder is not enough, you must restart your Mac to get back your Recent Items menu.

Good news: It works.

Bad news: The effect is temporary. Eventually (days, weeks) your Recent Items menu will either disappear or develop duplicates.

Because this is only a partial workaround, and not a true fix, I will not mark this Answer (my own) as Accepted. Hopefully someone else might post a real fix.

I suspect, but have not proven, that the real solution is a clean-install. I took some bad advice and upgraded in-place to Mavericks and El Capitan. Next time I do a major upgrade I will go back to the tried-and-true method of a clean install.


How to empty MobileBackups.trash content

Fixed following @bruno-buccolo suggestion to run sudo rm -rf /.MobileBackups.trash


What Are The Best iPhone apps to keep a toddler amused in an 'emergency'?


Does a Macbook Pro have 1 or 2 Hard Disk Controllers?

It has two and yes, you can make the controller that connects to the SuperDrive spot the primary controller and run your MacBook Pro exclusively off a drive attached to this controller.

I'm writing this from a MacBook Pro that has an SSD installed into the SuperDrive spot using an OWC DataDoubler bracket. This is the primary drive in my machine and the mechanical drive has come and gone from the machine without any issues. The machine still booted, ran from my SSD in the SuperDrive spot.