How to fix ssh login that starts asking for password and `ls .ssh` is permission denied?

Wrong file permissions

Wrong permissions are set on some files inside the .ssh folder. Have a look at it from Terminal.app:

$ sudo ls -l ~/.ssh
-rw-r--r--+ 1 user  staff    393 27 nov 19:08 authorized_keys
-rw-r--r--+ 1 user  staff     16 26 apr  2016 config
-rw-------@ 1 user  staff   1743 16 sep  2008 id_rsa
-rw-r--r--@ 1 user  staff    400 16 sep  2008 id_rsa.pub
-rw-r--r--@ 1 user  staff  36654 26 nov 17:02 known_hosts

The first column (-rw-r--r--) displays the assigned unix file permissions for owner, group and others.

Read permissions for group and others are not allowed

The real issue here is not the first r on columns position 2, but the r's on position 5 and 8. This tells that group and others has read permissions for these files. And that read permission for others else then the file owner, is not permitted.

Fix

It can be fixed by removing all rights from group and everybody using the command chmod 600 filename. For this specific case a command that would work is:

$ sudo chmod 600 ~/.ssh/{authorized_keys,config,id_rsa.pub,known_hosts}

Result

After running this command the new permissons look like this:

$ ls -l ~/.ssh
total 104
-rw-------+ 1 user  staff   393B 27 nov 19:08 authorized_keys
-rw-------+ 1 user  staff    16B 26 apr  2016 config
-rw-------+ 1 user  staff   1,7K 16 sep  2008 id_rsa
-rw-------+ 1 user  staff   400B 16 sep  2008 id_rsa.pub
-rw-------+ 1 user  staff    36K 26 nov 17:02 known_hosts

Note: the ls command now runs without sudo.


How to invert screen colors and color hue?

If you can create or find an appropriatey inverted ICC profile, this can be used to invert your colours.

See White on black without inverting colors? for more about how the display's colours can be manipulated.


Bonjour is two systems running together: mDNS (Multicast DNS) and DNS-SD (DNS Service Discovery).

mDNS allows hosts (devices/computers) to be identified, while DNS-SD allows them to publish what services they are running.

Multicast DNS, as the name suggests, relies on IP Multicast, and specifically the multicast IP 224.0.0.251 (IPv4) or ff02::fb (IPv6) (in your case, most likely the former). It seems DNS-SD works over unicast between clients.

I suspect the problem is likely in the forwarding of multicast packets. Some switches/routers will not pass broadcast/multicast packets between some network interfaces.

In the simplest case, for example, you don't want broadcasts/multicasts from your own local network going out to the web. In a large corporate environment, you may want to limit such traffic to defined organisational units or groups of computers.

At a guess I'd say your switches/router are configured to either block multicast packets going 'upstream' (to the router) or (possibly) limit the number of hops (not actually sure if that's possible). I'm not familiar with the Netgear switches, but a quick google search suggests there's a configuration option called 'Block Unknown MultiCast Address'. You may want to try disabling this in the switches, and/or specifying 244.0.0.251 as a 'known' address if that's possible.

It may be that in the specific configuration (device1 - switch - router - switch - device2) the switches don't think the router is participating in the 244.0.0.251 multicast, and so doesn't bother forwarding out that port. The router may be doing the same for the switches, or may not be multicast aware.

It could be educational to try connecting one switch to the other, rather than each via the router. They may 'play nicer' when directly connected together (just a guess though, and probably not helpful for your intended deployment).

This discussion could also be helpful to better understanding the multicast limitations of those switches too.


Full restore from backup, /Applications not backed up

If you hadn't backed up Applications, you're stuck there. But you should be able to just go and reinstall the applications. When you do, the dock will be normal again and you'll have the benefit of keeping your settings and everything else. No need to wipe the whole thing and restart.


(Batch) moving iTunes songs to ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Artist/SongName

From the comments: Under Preferences -> Advanced, "Keep iTunes media folder organized" must be checked


Xcode on a classroom image asks students for admin password

You can add users you would like to have access to debugging to the _developer group.

dseditgroup -o edit -u adminusername -t user -a studentusername _developer

Replace ‘adminusername’ with the username of a sudoer you have the password to and ‘studentusername’ with the username of an account to add to the group.


Boot to internet recovery and wipe / erase the drive. At that point all FileVault data and system are gone. You then can run the installer and drop a new OS on the Mac.

As long as there is not a firmware password (which you shouldn’t have since that prevents internet recovery boot and other changes to the OS boot) you can run the Mac in target disk mode and erase the drive or boot to internet recovery or recovery HD (external) and erase.

Here are the official steps for an erase install of macOS:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25649


Can't answer phone calls on macOS Mojave

I had the same problem. The reason was that my MacBook Pro was connected to two networks, one via WiFi (the same one as my iPhone), and the other one via Ethernet directly to the router, bypassing the Access Point. Once I shut down the Ethernet, I was immediately able to answer phone calls on the Mac.


How can I open the .dmg install window on top of everything?

That's a Finder (on Lion) issue and as such, there are no settings to tweak for your problem.
A faster way to reach the mount window is to simply click the Finder icon in your Dock.


may I demand product replacement? Macbook Pro Retina will have screen replacement for the 3rd time

Typically Apple will replace (instead of repair) a computer that has required 3 repairs for the same issue.

It may require a call to Apple Care (800-273-2273) and ask to have the case escalated. If you have taken it to the store already, and the store has refused to replace, then Apple Care will probably back the store's decision. If however you call Apple Care first, and when they say to take it to the Apple Store for repair, you question the need for 3 repairs on the same computer for the same reason, ask to have it escalated, you will probably get offered a replacement.

If that gets you nowhere, You may also try a EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) to various service level contacts. sjobs@apple used to get results, may try tcook@apple.com now? Or do google/consumerist search for EECB and Apple.
http://consumerist.com/2007/05/11/how-to-launch-an-executive-email-carpet-bomb/


Can I use 2 different Apple IDs with a single install of iTunes?

Yes, you can log in with multiple iTunes accounts. Log out of one, log in with the other.


is it possible to spell check PDF files?

I would install aspell with a package manager like brew and then run that on the .tex file. Unless I'm mistaken emacs has support for aspell built-in.

You can also turn on spell checking in your terminal (iterm2) or emacs GUI.


Looking at the source code for the libarchive package from Apple Open Source for OS X 10.8.5, 10.9, 10.10, and macOS 10.12.3, of which contains the source code for bsdtar, it includes the ability to use xz compression directly in tar, however it was not implemented at compile time until OS X 10.9.0 and later. Although the manual page bsdtar.1 doesn't show the -J, --xz options even though it's in the bsdtar.c source code.

To create an xz compressed tar archive in OS X 10.9 or later use the following syntax examples:

tar -cJf filename.tar.xz /path/to/folder_or_file ...

Or:

tar --xz -cf filename.tar.xz /path/to/folder_or_file ...

Example:

tar -cJf Documents.tar.xz "$HOME/Documents"

Or:

tar --xz -cf Documents.tar.xz "$HOME/Documents"

I also checked the Documents.tar.xz file after it was created in a Hex Editor and it did have the proper header which included the expected 7zXZ portion of the signature.


How to properly (quickly) iterate over Reminders using AppleScript/osascript?

I don't have enough reminders to test for speed but give this a try. You can get the 'named' reminders into a list with one step and then coerce that list into your text output with a second. This should be faster than iterating through them individually.
# Find all Reminders whose name contains "Alumni"
set findMe to "Alumni"
set answer to "Maches: "

tell application "Reminders" to ¬
    set names to name of ¬
        (every reminder whose name contains findMe)

set {TID, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to ¬
    {AppleScript's text item delimiters, " --- "}
set answer to answer & names as text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to TID

return answer


How to get Alfred to run a terminal command and open one app twice?

If you have the PowerPack, you can create a workflow.

Workflows can run bash scripts in terminal, post notifications etc..


Can I move System/User folders to separate disks?

Haven't tried all of the things you are asking, but I have succeeded in moving /users to another partition.  Mount it as /Volumes/Users, and make sure there is symbolic link from /Users to /Volumes/Users.

There is a bit of a dance:  Login as root.  Sudo doesn't work for this.
mv /Users /UsersOld
mount newdisk /Users
copy /UsersOld/* /Users
for each user:
   chown -R his directory.

You may be chasing down ACL issues for a while.

You may be able to do the copy with tar.
e.g. cd /UsersOld; tar -cf - . | tar -C /Users -xvf -

This will do the right thing for permissions, but I don't recall if it does the right thing for resource forks and ACLs.

You may need to mount it at a different point, creating an appropriate fstab file with an entry for it.

I would suggest that you enable root as a login account so you can have a GUI to snurfle around when things go pear shaped.

As to the efficacy of what you are doing:  It won't make much difference.  The read/write performance of having stuff at the edge vs spread out isn't much.  You're talking at best 20% or so, and more likely far less.

If you have not done so, max out the ram your laptop can hold.  This does far more for increasing performance than any other upgrade you can do, especially if you are using data pigs like photoshop.


Go System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy [tab]
Uncheck and recheck 'Weather' and it's back to normal

See below img


Keynote transition delay time for each slide

In the Animate inspector tab you will find all the settings to easily change transition timing. You can do so for each slide or for the entire slideshow. In the movie inspector you can view the movie length then change your slide transition accordingly.
I encourage you to explore the user interface. Create a new slideshow just to play with. Then start clicking buttons and menu items. See what stuff does. Just like driving a new car, new software can take a little getting used to but in the long run, a little time invested will pay off. Cheers.


Go to sent messages.

Right click the message and click "Send again"

This will open the message as you wanted.


My problem with Mail on Yosemite has been the same on three different Macs; new iMac with Retina display, new MacBook Pro with Retina display, and older iMac. Same issue. Half the time or more Mail freezes up upon launch, which required a Force Quit. Upon restarting, most of the time Mail would function OK, but occasionally hang again, always with the same error-- Application Not Responding. I've tried every fix on this thread and other website threads to get it fixed with nothing working.

Here's what I did to fix it.

I left the Mail Preferences window open to Accounts. That's it. Now, when I restart the Mac or it starts up automatically in the AM, Mail launches as per normal, but with the Preferences window open to Accounts. No problems since. None. Zero.

I have over a dozen email accounts, all IMAP, ranging from Apple's iCloud to Gmail to standard IMAP accounts, personal and business. Obviously, there's a bug somewhere. I came upon the fix by disabling all email accounts, re-enabling each, one-by-one, then doing a shutdown and startup. About five re-boots in I inadvertently left the Preferences window open to Accounts. No freeze on the next reboot. When I close Preferences, the freeze begins again.

It's a cheap fix but it took a long time to get to it.


How can I config an email account in Apple Mail with my own domain?

Since you don't provide any more info about your email service, you must do some of the next:

Go to your TLD admin panel, must of them already have documentation about how to configure this.
Can you access it via web? something like webmail.MyDomain.info? if so, there could be some documentation in there too.
have you already tried adding your account via

Settings > Internet Accounts > Add ( + button) > Add Other Account...

Most of the times this should work


Why can Firefox not allow permanent access to my screen?

I don't think it's a Mac specific problem. I saw the same message on Windows and solved it with following steps:

Write about:config to url searchbox and press Enter. You will see advanced Firefox settings.
Create variable full-screen-api.approval-required and set it to true.
That's it, you are now allowed to share your screen with Firefox.


Homebrew command-line to display a formula's homepage

The homepage URL is a part of the output of brew info FORMULA, so you can run:

brew info FORMULA | grep -E '^https?:'

to extract just the link to the homepage. This also allows to run:

open -a Firefox.app "$(brew info FORMULA | grep -E '^https?:')"

to open the link in Firefox.app.

The respective command-lines for Homebrew Cask are:

brew cask info CASK | grep -E '^https?:'

and

open -a Firefox.app "$(brew cask info CASK | grep -E '^https?:')"


Upgrading Memory, HD, and Processor on a MacBook2,1

One of the best reference sites out there is EveryMac.com  They have a very reliable and comprehensive list of pretty much every Mac product ever made.
You should take some time to review and become familiar with the specs of your machine.
That said...
You aren't going to get a very modern OS X experience out of this machine.

The latest OS X version that's compatible is 10.7 (Lion)
Max RAM is 3.5GB
HDD is SATA I (1.5 Gb/sec)

No matter how you slice it, it's not a strong platform to begin with.
However...
All is not lost.  It's still a good laptop to be used for surfing the web, checking email and even doing some office type work.

4GB of memory is cheap (2x2GB PC2-5300])
A New battery is around $50 on (don't ever buy used batteries, it's not worth it)
A SATA SSD can be had for as little as $45-50 on and even cheaper on eBay used.

With these few upgrades, you can install Windows 7 32bit (potentially Win10, but I haven't tried it), Ubuntu, or my personal favorite FreeBSD (you will probably have better results with *BSD since OS X is based on the BSD OS).  In fact, if you are looking for a machine in which you can learn one of the *NIXes, this is a great way to do it.
Bottom line...
If you are looking to keep it in the Apple family, just be aware of the limitations on it.  You will be using an OS that is now 7-8 years old and 3rd party apps which are long since deprecated and no longer supported.
If you want a modern experience, you can do some minor upgrades and install Windows, FreeBSD, or Linux on it and keep going with modern software.


How can CapitalOne on iOS read my credit card?

The Capital One credit card has NFC capability, and similarly modern iPhones have NFC capabilities. This is how the phone and card communicates with eachother.

App developers can use NFC through Apple's "Core NFC" framework, which has been available for developers since iOS 11. So that's not really "new".

iPhone 6 and newer have NFC chips, but you'll need an iPhone 7 or newer for apps to be able to use NFC through the Core NFC framework.


apple macbook pro screen doesn't comeback if we hit a key instantly after it goes to sleep

If the screen is going off at the same time that the system is sleeping, you're likely seeing a delay from the system writing its hibernation files. By default, OS X sets up sleep such that if power fails, the system can restore itself when it's plugged in again.

Generally, I advise against this, but if you wish to experiment with disabling hibernation, use the following command in Terminal:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

You can restore the normal hibernation mode setting with:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 1

If your HDD is low on free space, writing large files will be very slow because of extreme fragmentation. Freeing up disk space can make a significant improvement in performance.

Edited to add:

A workaround for this may be to set your screensaver/display sleep time to be earlier than your system sleep time. Even if it's only by a minute or two, it will change the dynamics of your interaction with the system.


i am unable to download and upload app on my ipad mini ,! help me out

iTunes has just changed their T&C (Therms and Conditions).

You will have to first accept those to continue.

I just tried and it downloads the Candy Crash Saga.

Log out and back in.


Where are Address Book group definitions stored and how can I delete them all?

I think I can answer my own question, based on further experiments.

Once you sync an Address Book with iCloud, the data is, in a sense "gone" from the local drive. You can still see it all in the usual location, but it's a cached version of the iCloud data. (You can "move" contacts back to the local drive, but Groups are gone forever.)

On startup, even if you're not logged into iCloud, there's a process (a bug?) that recreates at least the Groups, probably from some local iCloud data store. (I do wonder if Apple has 'social' plans four our Groups.)

If you truly kill all iCloud accounts, including from both System Preferences AND from Address Book, and restart, it is possible to delete all from Address Book and not have files magically reappear.

There are many tedious details on this and other iCloud topics in a long personal multi-update blog post: http://tech.kateva.org/2012/06/icloud-transition-went-as-expected.html.

Suffice to say, these are coming from iCloud. If you never mess with iCloud (personally I'm going to wait for Mountain Lion!) you won't run into this bizarre behavior.


How to fix iPhone SE only taking low resolution photographs

The iPhone SE camera cannot take pictures at a 1150×1530 pixel resolution – so something is not adding up here. By default the back camera should produce images at 4032×3024 pixels.

I would suggest the following to ensure that you're grabbing a correct picture:

1) Use the built-in camera app

2) Ensure that no other apps are running at the same time (especially nothing should be used the camera for video)

3) Ensure that the dial at the bottom of the camera view is set to "Photo"

4) Ensure that you're using the back camera of the iPhone (i.e. not "selfie mode")

Take a photo and check its resolution using this method:

1) Open the Photos app and find your photo

2) Press the Share button in the lower left corner

3) Choose "Saves to Files" and save it on iCloud Drive or on the phone

4) Open the Files app

5) Find the photo in the list

6) Long-press the photo to get a popup menu

7) Choose "Info" in the popup menu

You can now see the actual resolution of the photo listed.

I have a suspicion that you might be sending the photo to someone else or a computer or similar using MMS, Messenger or similar, and that program is altering the resolution before you check it.

Therefore it is important that you transfer the photo using a method that preserves its full resolution.

That could be for example using iCloud Photo Library to sync it with your computer, or it could be using AirDrop to transfer the photo.


The SIM card inserted in this iPhone does not appear to be supported

Depending on your carrier, some SIM batches are known to be problematic (Bell is a good example). Outside of that, the most obvious is if the iPhone was jailbroken and unlocked, the restore would remove the modification and return it to proper function. If everything should be working legitimately, you can take it to an Apple Store and they can look up which carrier the unit is locked to (if any).


How to synchronize contents of two external drives?

You could use rsync like this:

rsync -av --delete /Volumes/DiskA/ /Volumes/DiskB

--delete option is for delete files in DiskB that was previously deleted on DiskA.

If you want to schedule it to execute periodically, I suggest you to read How can I run/stop/relaunch an application automatically, at boot/login/some other time?.


Looking for a free/cheap backup solution on OS X for NTFS external HDD

You can use Time Machine. This page tells how to enable NTFS for writing from Snow Leopard.


How to switch the keyboard input language from the terminal?

Thanks to the tip by @user3439894, I found an answer (you need ripgrep and https://github.com/myshov/xkbswitch-macosx installed):
ec() print -r -- "$@"
ecerr() { ec "$@" 1>&2 }

function input-lang-set-darwin() {
    # https://github.com/myshov/xkbswitch-macosx
    # `hyperfine --warmup 5 'xkbswitch -s 3' 'xkbswitch -s 0' 'xkbswitch -se Persian-ISIRI2901' 'xkbswitch -se US'`
    # they all ran about the same 77ms
    local wanted="${1:l}" to='US'
    case "$wanted" in
        en*) to=US ;;
        fa*|per*) to='Persian-ISIRI2901' ;;
        toggle*)
            case "$(input-lang-get-darwin)" in
                U.S.) to='Persian-ISIRI2901' ;;
                Persian*) to='US' ;;
            esac
        ;;
        *) ecerr "Not supported" ; return 1 ;;
    esac
    xkbswitch -se "$to"
}
function input-lang-get-darwin() {
    defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist AppleSelectedInputSources | command rg -e '"KeyboardLayout Name" = "([^"]*)"' --replace '$1' --only-matching --color never
}

Another option is https://github.com/Lutzifer/keyboardSwitcher, but I couldn't build it without xcode.


Can't remove LDAP account from Internet Accounts

UPD: I've updated to Mojave and was able to delete these accounts.

I have the same problem on High Sierra (starting from 10.13.4, currently up to 10.13.6).

I tried to reset my iCloud keychain. It worked, until my iPhone (6S+, iOS 12.1.4) got connected to Wi-Fi and pushed data with those accounts back.

I checked this again, by disabling iCloud keychain on iPhone (Settings > Passwords & Accounts > iCloud > Keychain > Off), then resetting iCloud keychain on Mac, and then enabling back iCloud keychain on iPhone.

Seems the solution is to reset the iPhone (and other iOS devices, supposedly) and then reset iCloud keychain via Mac.
But I'm not ready to go so far to test this theory, unfortunately.

Below is how to reset iCloud keychain from previous version of this answer.

You should probably backup your login and iCloud keychains, to avoid losing passwords and having to re-enter them after reset.

Login keychain stored in login.keychain-db file which is located in ~/Library/Keychains/ (Finder > Go > Go To Folder (cmd + shift + g).

You can copy it somewhere safe and then add it back (Keychain Access > File > Add Keychain)

Unfortunately, it's not possible to do the same with iCloud keychain.
There is other solution.

To reset keychains:

Open System Preferences > Internet Accounts > iCloud
Uncheck Keychain in the list
Open Keychain Access > Preferences (cmd + ,)
Press Reset My Default Keychains button

Now go back to System Preferences > Internet Accounts > iCloud

Check Keychain back
Enter your iCloud password
Click Use Code, then choose Forgot Code when you're asked to enter your iCloud Security Code
Click Reset iCloud Keychain to confirm
Follow the onscreen steps to create a new iCloud Security Code (should be optional)

See https://support.apple.com/en-us/ht202755


How to stop the launch agent from repeatedly launching a given AppleScript

The answer is usually that you need to call xpc_set_event_stream_handler.

I found this amazing utility that will call xpc_set_event_stream_handler to remove the event from the queue, and then call your desired application. It allowed me to solve the problem you are having without writing/compiling any code. Check out github.com/snosrap/xpc_set_event_stream_handler and have it then call your osascript. Should solve your problem.


Time Machine Backup to Samba Share under Mac OS Lion

Suspiciously named Msftguy has written a program that fakes the required AFP features for unsupported volumes.  AFAIK this is currently the only way to use non-AFP volumes with 10.7 lion.  Use at your own risk!

Details

Executable


Can I access data on Windows outside VMWare from within the OS X VM?

Sure you can. You don't have to use the shared folders set by VMWare. You can create new ones on you host in the Options > Shared Folders tab in you VM's settings. And they can be located everywhere. I don't know if there are any restrictions from xCode where you project files have be be saved but the new shared folder should be accessible from your OSX VM without any problems.


Using the Apple Battery Charger with non-Apple batteries

Apple Batteries are Rebranded Sanyo Batteries

According to engadget, the Apple supplied batteries are actually Sanyo Eneloop HR-3UTG, so it appears that's one option for buying additional batteries to use with the Apple Battery Charger.

Powerex Batteries Don't Work

According to the Apple Battery Charger Manual,

  Flashing Amber: May indicate any of the following conditions:

  The batteries haven’t been properly installed in the charger.
  An unsupported type of battery is in the charger.
  The batteries may be faulty or damaged and should be replaced.

With that information, I tried charging the Powerex 2500 and 2700 batteries but received a flashing amber light.

Looks like I need to buy some of the Sanyo Eneloop HR-3UTG batteries.


Does macOS Mojave support NightShift on external monitors?

Night Shift is working on external monitors in Mojave.

Sometimes Night Shift deactivates itself on the external display when you wake the system from sleep. (Maybe a Bug?)

Just reactivate it manually.

If Night Shift is off, go to the Night Shift tab in System
Preferences>Display and check the box labelled Turn on until
tomorrow.
If Night Shift is on, click on the Schedule menu in the Night shift
tab and choose  ‘Off.’
Use the color temperature slider in the same window to control the
degree to which colors change when Night Switch is turned on or off.


Macports: switching back to the system default version of Python

/opt/local/bin/python is a symbolic link to the active version of python. You can view the structure with the following command:

ls -l /opt/local/bin/python*

Since /opt/local/bin is before /usr/bin in your PATH variable then the symbolic link will be listed first but it points to the version in /usr/bin.


How do I switch opened windows within the same application using shortcuts?

Command + ~

This switches windows of the app. Like Alt-Tab to switch application, this switches the windows of the selected app.


Why does iTunes Match match only some songs from the same album?

It's been confirmed elsewhere that metadata alone will not give success in matching (if it were, someone would quickly find a way to just create thousands of dummy files with the right metadata). Some audio fingerprinting is going on, and you can test it by changing the metadata of one track to that of another one, and see if if matches the audio or the metadata. Still, metadata plays a role as well.

MacWorld have a note on the problem of one or a few songs not matching from an album:  Basically, it seem to affect specific songs (rather than just randomly failing every n:th song). Two possible reasons for this:

The audio or metadata specific to that track confuses the matching algorithm (as we know, audio fingerprinting is not an exact science)
There is a rights issue with particular tracks that Apple haven't been able to find agreement for.


How to quickly send new mail without opening mail application?

Check out QuickMailer. It's similar to LaunchBar but I feel that it's easier to use. Here's a screenshot:

If you're a keyboard-junkie like me, it has shortcuts to compose mail and send mail (Compose: Ctrl + ⌥ + ⌘ + m, Send: ⇧ + ⌘ + d) to speed up the mailing process too!

It isn't free, but it's pretty cheap at 99 cents. I don't own it so I haven't tried it out, but I've heard great things about it.

Hope this helps!


How to get full resolution for LG 27UK650-W with MacBook Pro?

Some things aren't adding up here. You say the monitor is 4K, instead system report indicates some display has a 5K resolution.

However, I think you are misinterpreting the numbers. The scaling option still renders at the highest resolution of your monitor, it just enlarges the UI. What you are losing is space on your monitor, because UI elements will appear bigger, in order to be readable.

Imagine an app opening by default with a resolution of 1600x900. If your monitor only has this resolution, it will fill the whole screen. If you instead have a 4K screen, that app will only take some small space on the monitor. Now if these monitors were the same size physically, the app will appear much smaller on the 4K screen. Now scaling allows you to change the appearance, to match the app's size from the 1600x900 monitor on the 4K screen and will display the app fullscreen. The app ends up physically being the same size, yet rendered and shown at the high-res of the 4K monitor.


Why can't Finder quicklook the mp4 I just encoded with ffmpeg?

You may not have the same issue, but in my case, the problem was that the
handler_name cannot be more than 29 characters. To fix, you could try a
command like this instead:
ffmpeg -i 'My Movie.mov' -metadata:s handler_name=SoundHandler vid.mp4

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/3623


How can I create a personal Photostream with Manual Upload?

If you'd like to disable Photo Stream on your iOS device, go to Settings > iCloud > Photos and switch off "My Photo Stream".

As for the personal stream with photos being uploaded manually, you can, in fact achieve this.

I find that the easiest way to do this is to first go into your Photo library and select the photos that you want to upload.

After that, select the "Share" button (the one on the bottom left corner of the screen) and select "iCloud".

You'll be greeted with the screenshot below. Select the button that says "Stream", then "New Photo Stream".

Type out the name that you want to call your Photo Stream.

You'll now be greeted with the screen where you type in who you would like to share this Photo Stream to. Leave this blank. Click "Next".

After that, you're done. I'll let you know that you can also add videos to photo streams as well. To add, remove, or modify photos and videos, go to Photo Stream and select the Photos Stream that you created. Everything should be self-explanatory after that.


Repeated crashes of Photos app due to signal: Bus error: 10

In general Bus error 10 means that the program has died due to an unhandled SIGBUS signal.

The fault can related to some sort of hardware error (possibly a USB device as per this thread) as it is raised by hardware notifying an operating system about the memory access that the CPU cannot physically address (an invalid address for the address bus).

So if you're using any external device (such as smart phone) to import your photos, try to replace the cable or reboot the device it-self and re-try again. Otherwise please check your SSD/HDD for any hardware faults.

Also to make sure your Mac is healthy, perform the following tests:

Use coconutBattery app to check your current battery health.
Run Apple Hardware Test.


Can't start up MacBook Pro from OS X install discs

The MBP model you have shipped with version 10.6.3 build 10D2094 -- this is a special build of 10.6.3 with support for that model (and probably some others released at the same time) added. Anything older, including the standard build of 10.6.3, won't have drivers/config info/etc for that model, and hence cannot boot it. It sounds like your retail disk has an older version, so it won't work on that Mac.

If you have the installer DVD that came with the computer, you can use that. Otherwise, if you have another (older) Mac with FireWire, there's a trick you can use: start your computer with the T key held down, and it'll go into target disk mode, which essentially means it turns its brain off and acts as an external FireWire hard disk. Connect it (via FireWire) to an older Mac, start the older Mac from your retail 10.6 DVD, and have it install onto the "external disk" -- the MBP. Then, restart the old Mac from the "external disk" (the MBP should still be in target mode at this point), and update to 10.6.8. Now that the OS on the MBP's disk is new enough to support it, shut everything down (older Mac, then the MBP) and restart everything from its regular disk.


How to set read-only dmg background picture in Mountain Lion?

You're right. The original disk image is opened when opening a newly converted read-only image.  However, I found that if you delete the original read-write disk image, Finder (actually, DiskImageMounter) has no problem mounting the read-only image without its original.  DiskImageMounter itself is not really responsible for the behavior you are talking about; if you look at your read-only image's .DS_Store file in TextEdit, you'll see (amidst very obscure symbols) your original image's name and file path in many places.  This is just built-in behavior of Mountain Lion, I suppose.  Unfortunately, there are no workarounds except for deleting the original image (and emptying the Trash) because Disk Utility is ultimately responsible for the creation of the DS_Store file, and the image created is read-only.


My iPhone 5s will not sync with my iTunes anymore!

I have only seen this with beta versions of the OS and/or iOS.

The first step is going to be to reproduce the problem.

Connect everything power off the iPhone
Save your work on the Mac and shut it down as well
Power on the iPhone and then put it in airplane mode
Start the Mac and fire up iTunes (only iTunes if possible )

Then keep good notes on what you see - all dialogs and exact text, what operation causes the issue and the times. From there, you can look over access logs and iTunes logs on the Mac and/or get support involved to read the legs from the iOS device if needed.

Feel free to comment or ask a follow on question once you have it pinned down. For me, the restarts fixed the issue or it was a server side issue and not reproducible past the time Apple's servers were busy or slow.


How to erase personal data from an iPad with dead battery?

open the ipad and smash the motherboard.
dissasembly instructions online at ifixit.com.

they can't recycle circuit boards anyway!


How do I sync podcasts added in the iPhone's Podcasts app to iTunes on OS X?

I think for this to work, you need to enable iCloud syncing for podcasts between your devices. The setting you refer to above only applies when you sync your phone from iTunes, either via USB or Wi-Fi. I could be wrong, but as far as I know it only syncs podcasts from iTunes to your phone, not the other way around.

Also, make sure there is enough space on your phone for all those podcasts.


Finder: show video thumbnail for all kind of formats/containers

Flash Video Viewer added thumbnails for flv files and Flip4Mac for wmv files.

I didn't find any way to add support for mkv or other formats. VLC, MPlayerX, Movist, and NicePlayer don't come with Quick Look plugins.


I've found that if I want to ADD a book, then it's best to add it on my Mac. Then wait until it uploads to iCloud, then after about a minute it will appear in iBooks on my iPhone. I then hit the iCloud icon next to the book title to download it.

If I want to delete a book, then I delete it from my iPhone rather than my Mac. It will then walk you through a few options, until you reach the point where you say that you want to delete the book from ALL iCloud devices. Then it will also delete it from your Mac, after about a minute.


To better understand the AppleScript, try breaking it down.

Within Script Editor.app run the following:

set outFolder to ((path to desktop from user domain) as string) & "PDF Files"

After running, the Result panel will show the value outFolder is set to. This should be a path to a folder called PDF Files on your Desktop.

Does this folder exist on your Mac? If not, this is probably the cause of the problems you are seeing.

The next line in the AppleScript tells the application Papers to export to that folder. If you have problems with Paper's AppleScript behaviour, do contact the developers; they will be best placed to help you.

Add a Try Block

You can add a try block around your AppleScripts. These will provide better error messages and hopefully catch problems.

Changing the Folder

You can add an interactive folder selection by replacing the set outFolder… line to:

set outFolder to choose folder

Alternatively, change the "PDF Files" to the name of your preferred folder.


Will forcing integrated GPU mode prevent GPU panics? If so, how to do that?

Yes, use gfxCardStatus. I do this all the time to save battery and it works great.


Is there a newer version of Office for the MacOS anytime soon?

Unlikely,

"traditionally" new Microsoft Office for Mac follow new releases of Microsoft Office for Windows:

MS Office 2007 (Win) → MS Office 2008 (Mac) (released January 15, 2008)
MS Office 2010 (Win) → MS Office 2011 (Mac) (released October 26, 2010)

The currently developed version of Microsoft Office for Windows is MS Office 2013. So you can expect the next version for Mac to be MS Office 2014 which should start shipping anywhere between late 2013 and 2014.


Is there a fast way to change proxy setting?

Set up two locations - one with proxy one - one off - you are an Apple menu item away from the switch.

Just select network, then edit the locations.


How To Keep 2 Folders In Sync Real-Time?

Hello and welcome to the site!

Assuming you have folders "A" and "B" there are two ways of thinking about sync.

1) "One Way" sync will sync changes and deletions from folder A to folder B but will basically ignore changes in folder B (and will not sync them back to folder A).

2) "Two way" sync would be if you wanted to be able to modify either folders "A" or "B" and have those changes reflected in the other folder.

"One Way" sync can be accomplished with rsync (although you may want to install a newer version than the one that ships with macOS, as the default one is very old). I would recommend brew for this.

"Two Way" sync is trickier, and I'm not aware of any open-source tool that will let you create a two way sync of two folders on the same computer.

(That's another consideration: some tools will only work if folders "A" and "B" are on different computers. rsync can work with either one.)

One question to think about is what you are trying to accomplish by having such a mirrored copy. For example, if you accidentally delete a file in folder "A" and it immediately syncs to folder "B" and deletes the file there, have you really accomplished anything?

If what you are looking to accomplish it to be able to restore an accidentally deleted file, or revert to a previous version of a file that was changed in a way that you want to undo, that's a different scenario than just keeping two folders in sync.

I'm only vaguely familiar with Keybase, but another question I'd ask is whether such a mirror would be useful if there was some sort of corruption. It might be more useful to have a "snapshot" of all of the Keybase files at a particular point in time. Depending on how often its files change, you might be able to use launchd to create a tar.bz2 or tar.gz (or tar.xz if you also install xz with brew) "snapshot" of Keybase, and put a time-stamp in the filename, so if you did need to revert some changes, you would know that you had all of the files as they existed at a particular point-in-time.

Again, I'm not 100% sure that would work with Keybase, but I have used it with other apps.

Keyboard Maestro

  Every time Keybase is opened, any local files sync to Keybase associated folder, and visa versa.

If you want to trigger this every time the Keybase app launches and/or quits, then you should use Keyboard Maestro.

I'm not aware of any open-source option for that.


the `Flash Player` occupy CPU is very high after I open a Flash page

The red color means that the program is no longer responding to the operating system. This is often because the program has crashed, but it might also be that it is because the program is slowed down by waiting for the disk, memory allocation or similar. If that is the case, the program will be listed in black again, when it does respond.

In your case it seems reasonable to think that the Flash Player has indeed crashed, as it is not supposed to be doing a lot, if you haven't got any Flash pages open in your browser.

You can click on the Flash Player item in Activity Monitor and press the circled-cross icon in the toolbar, which will force kill the program - releasing the resources for other programs to use.

If you haven't updated Flash Player and/or your browser recently, I would suggest updating to the latest version which could potentially fix the problem.


Is there a way to have the iPhone suggest corrections but not automatically apply them?

In a nutshell: No (but it would be nice to have)


Question:

My question: Do all of my bash and python scripts need to be housed in /Users/myusername path always? Is there no workaround?

Answer:
No. You can locate your bash and python scripts anywhere you like. However, there are additional requirements:

Your cron jobs run with a different ENVIRONMENT than when you run them; e.g. $PATH. Consequently, you should use a full path specification for specifying your scripts in the crontab; for example use:

* * * * * /opt/local/bin/python3 /some/dir/you/choose/myscript.py

On my Mac (Catalina) I've found it necessary to give "Full Disk Access" privileges to cron. YMMV on a different OS version. Here's how:

System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Privacy tab:

At least while debugging your cron job, you should consider redirecting any error messages (stderr) to a file - otherwise they wind up in /dev/null which is not helpful! Continuing with the above example:

* * * * * /opt/local/bin/python3 /some/dir/you/choose/myscript.py >> /Home/<username>/MyCronLog.txt 2>&1


Is it necessary to have a TimeMachine backup of the Backblaze Directory?

This file is where Backblaze stores information about what is stored on their servers and copies of files being uploaded or about to be uploaded. I would exclude this from Time Machine backups, as it will often change and contains nothing you're not already backing up elsewhere.


Stop Safari 12.1 from auto-submitting forms

I have this issue too, and I've just spent a long time with an Apple Support chat agent.

This is a "feature" introduced in Safari 12.1.

What's new in the updates for macOS Mojave

  Streamlines website login when filling credentials with Password AutoFill.

There is currently no way to turn this off. This is the solution the agent proposed. Submit a feedback to Apple:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

  ...submit your feedback on the feature and your experience so far.

Maybe if we kick up enough of a fuss? It is a pain, and it also screws with captchas quite impressively...


Way to maintain same screen ratio on data projector as on Mac laptop

Your projector probably has a maximum native resolution of XGA or 1024x768 (standard iPads have a resolution of 1024x768 points). Some projectors will allow you to send a higher resolution signal and scale it down for you. Most projectors I have seen don't do a great job, but it at least functions. To see if your projector will do that:

Connect your Mac to the projector
Ppen the Displays panel in System Preferences
Option-click the "Scaled" option for the resolution of the projector.
Select a 4:3 resolution higher than 1024-768 (e.g. 1280x1024)

If the projector goes black, wait and your Mac will timeout back to 1024x768.

The other option is to purchase a VGA scaler (For example, the Kramer VP-426 takes VGA input and then outputs VGA). You need hardware that will take  one of the various formats your Mac can output and output at XGA (1024x768). What the hardware will do is let your Mac output a higher resolution, forcing the web page to render the "desktop" size, but output it to the smaller resolution projector. But honestly, purchasing a scaler for this purpose is overkill.


Just turning off|on Spotlight indexing using sudo mdutil -i off|on, doesn't mean the metadata stores are cleaned up and or rebuilt. Here's what I'd do...

First delete the Spotlight metadata stores using sudo mdutil -E / and wait for the prompt to return. What actually happens is indexing is temporarily turned off, the metadata stores are deleted and indexing turned back on.

Then run sudo -k to terminate the sudo session.

Next I'd rebuild the Launch Services Database, using:

/S*/L*/F*/C*/F*/L*/S*/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user


I think your best choice is :

Clipboard Evolved

But you can also use these softwares:

JumpCut (Free and open source)
Clipmenu (As Calavera said :"ClipMenu is nice because it's free")
Clyppan
CuteClip
PTHPasteboard


yes - you should head back to the vendor that performed the repair as soon as practical and ask them to have a look at the device - assist with calibration and or perform the repair again if it's not working.

Most locales have a short period where any work is warranted, so be sure to get something in writing from the vendor if they tell you they can't support their work.

Hopefully it will be something they have seen before and know how to remedy and/or reach an agreement that is satisfactory to you both.


External hard drive slows down computer and makes processes freeze

This is a common issue with mechanical HDDs (non-SSD).

macOS sends a command to the external device (your HDD) but the device responds slowly. Some HDDs need to spin up in order to respond to the OS's request. Until the device is able to respond the OS may freeze.

To improve your system's performance try these steps:

prevent HDD sleep. Spinning the HDD down may save some energy but it slows down your system as well.
Disable Spotlight for the external drive. System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy > "+". Select your external HDD and press "Choose".


That would happen if you set up Shortcuts to work in "All Applications"

Try setting them Application Specific.

Example

Alternately monitor the com.apple.systempreferences.plist

located in ~/Library/Preferences and sort by date, to see if it changes without your interaction.


Mail - Subfolders on own IMAP-Server are all shown under INBOX

You can try adding a root folder in Accounts under the Advanced tab.

Use INBOX


Is it possible to use a third-party unauthorized charger with an iPad running iOS 7

As long as the charger supplies the correct wattage, the version of iOS shouldn't matter.


AppleScript export variable to Numbers / Excel / SQL

Row Allocation for Data Entry
To get data added to a new row, you were on the right track with your first script where you wrote tell the selectedTable to add row below last row.  You simply then had to reference this newly created row when setting the values of cell 1, cell 2, and cell 3, which were otherwise being referenced as belonging to the selectedTable instead of a specific row in the selectedTable:
    set dataToAdd to {¬
        myDateFromPlist, ¬
        myTimeFromPlist, ¬
        theIDFromPlist}

    tell application "Numbers" to tell ¬
        the front document to tell ¬
        the active sheet to tell ¬
        table 1

        set R to add row below last row

        tell R to ¬
            repeat with i from 1 to count dataToAdd

                set value of cell i to ¬
                    item i in dataToAdd

            end repeat
    end tell

I decided to wrap the setting of cell values inside a repeat loop, because—in theory—you could have 50 cells to assign values to, and this saves a bit of typing, plus make the code a bit easier to read.
Note, however, that cell i inside the repeat loop is, itself, part of a tell R statement, where R is the reference to the new row just created.  This tells the script that it's cell i of this new row that should be assigned the values stored in dataToAdd, and not simply cell i of table 1 (I'm assuming your sheet only has one table, in which case there's no need to bother with the lengthy first table whose class of selection range is range.  If, however, I've assumed wrongly, then it's still better to give your tables names, which you can then reference specifically from your script, rather than by way of a very tenuous hope that the selected table is always going to be the correct table).

Some Points About Your Question Content and Code Snippet
At the moment, this is the most assistance I can give.
If I might advise you, in posting a question, whilst it's great that you posted your code snippet, it's far more helpful to a) post a code snippet that compiles (yours does not; Script Editor reports an unexpected end of file when attempting to compile it, because your code snippet is incomplete); b) include enough of the code out of the greater whole such that it can be run on someone else's system, which means that variables and such should be defined within the code snippet—currently, I have no idea what the variables myDateFromPlist, myTimeFromPlist, and theIDFromPlist are or contain, so can't, for instance, help you with regards to why your RAM usage escalated.
I suspect there's a bunch of code that precedes this Numbers block, in which you've accessed your plist file to retrieve its data.  It might be something in the way you've done this that has your memory being consumed.
As a final critique, whilst error-handling is a good idea, I would leave it out until your script is being finalised, because its current entrapment blocks include too many lines of code where different errors could be caught: for instance, if you receive an error code of 1001, it could be because there is no active sheet; or there is no selection range; or that something went wrong with assigning values to a cell, which could be cell 1, cell 2, or cell 3, but may have been a result of a problem with row 2 or one of the variables.  Also, you have two try blocks nested inside one another, which is pretty cavalier.

Should You Want More Help...
If you're happy with the solution this answer provides to your issue of row allocation and data insertion, then I'm happy it was an easy fix.  If you have any other queries about this, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.  If you want to provide more information regarding your script, variables, and what not, we can try and suss out where this memory consumption is coming from.  As you said in your comment "with this method though is my RAM is jumping out of the window", it would be helpful to know what was different between your first method and the one that generated the memory consumption, which may, of course, require you to post two scripts.
What you can do for the purposes of this is use an online paste bin.  Pastery doesn't require usernames or passwords, and has AppleScript syntax highlighting, but it's one amongst many.  Paste Bin doesn't require any login whatsoever.  It's useful to use on Stack Exchange websites when you want/need to supply additional code that is requested specifically, but isn't actually needed for the main focus of the question itself where a code block was already supplied and supplying more would risk drowning the question in a sea of grey.


You can do this in Finder with a simple keystroke and one click.
Before opening your file do this:

Select the file in Finder
Press Command-I (this is the same as Get Info in the File menu)
Tick the box next to Lock in the General section.

This sets the immutable bit - meaning you can't change the file in any way.
Leave the Get Info window open and, when you are finished, untick the Lock box to unlock the file.
You can create Services (or Quick Actions) to lock and unlock files, and associate a keystroke with them, but I feel is hardly with the effort.  If you want to create them, run Automator and create a new Quick Action.  This is what you need:

Save it with the name Lock.
Modify by changing the uchg to nouchg and save as Lock Off.
Now these appear as Services and in Finder's Quick Action submenu.
You can also associate them with keystrokes in System Preferences - Keyboard - Shortcuts - Services. I chose the keystroke combinations Control Command L and Shift Control Command L.


Out of warranty MBP ,Burned Magsafe port and frayed charger cable - repair option and cost?

The MagSafe board is a very easy repair for someone who has patience and a small amount of training fixing any computer at all. The MacBook Pro aren't as fidgety to repair as the iMac and MacBook Air (where I would say you should be a skilled technician with official training materials available to work on them reliably).

You're looking to replace this with a handful of screws turned.

Go to iFixit.com and look up the repair guide and parts list for the DC in board and you will know if you have the skills to find the right part, the right tools and the right manual to undertake this work. Otherwise, pay a local technician to do the job/source the parts/give you what they feel is a good guarantee. As for the adapter, buy a new or used one on the aftermarket or from Apple. When the cord is crushed and frayed, it is designed to fail in a way that won't cause a fire hazard. I wouldn't mess with that end of things or with repairing the transformer itself.


How to install the Mono package in a wineskin app?

If memory serves, you can just delete the following file, and these dialogs will come up on the next run:

<YOUR_APP_NAME>.app/Contents/Resources/.update-timestamp

Of course, this dot file will be hidden by default and inside an application bundle, so it might be easiest to remove it by Terminal.

Otherwise, you could enable hidden files and right-click, browse contents to find it.


An uninstaller doesn't exist for this app (Wine Staging 2.0-rc3).

The pkg file itself only installs Wine Staging.app to /Applications, which is self-contained and you can simply delete it.

Almost anything else like user installed apps or libraries reside in the folder $USER/.wine and you can simply delete it. Some files are also added in $USER/.local/*/ or $USER/.config/*/. The .local and .config folders may also be used by other apps like X11 or Wireshark. Here are some directories you may find preferences and other cruft.

~/.config/menus/applications-merged/wine-*
~/.local/share/applications/wine/
~/.local/share/desktop-directories/wine-*
~/Library/Application\ Support/Wine


~/Library/LaunchDaemons isn't a valid location for either launch agents or launch daemons. You are misunderstanding the terminology. LaunchDaemons are system-wide processes, while LaunchAgents are run per-user. From the launchd man page:

~/Library/LaunchAgents         Per-user agents provided by the user.
/Library/LaunchAgents          Per-user agents provided by the administrator.
/Library/LaunchDaemons         System-wide daemons provided by the administrator.
/System/Library/LaunchAgents   Per-user agents provided by Mac OS X.
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons  System-wide daemons provided by Mac OS X.

Move your plist to ~/Library/LaunchAgents, and it should just work.


When WhatsApp backup to iCloud gets stuck

It's a 'bit late' but I recently experienced a similar problem to the one above, date June 2016.
For people like me who - for some reason - still have to change their iPhone 4 to 6s in 2017, you can bump into the problem that Whatsapp gets stuck while backing up on iCloud. It took me a while but I solved it eventually with the following steps:

Stop Whatsapp from being stuck: Settings > iCloud > switch off
Document Data & WhatsApp
Delete your current Apple ID account on your iPhone 4 Create a new free Apple ID ON YOUR IPHONE 4: Settings > iTunes en Appstore > Create new free Apple ID
Settings > iCloud > switch on Document Data & WhatsApp Go to Whatsapp > Create backup
On iPhone 6 log off with current Apple ID (and make sure you log off
with iCloud AND iTunes) and log in with the new ID you created on old
iPhone 4
On iPhone 6 install Whatsapp from Appstore and import the backup from iCloud

iPhone 4 (iOs 7) has a problem with updated iCloud (Drive) but via this bypass you can do the trick.


Selling old MacBook. Best way to clear HDD?

As you had FileVault enabled, the wipe procedure is simpler, as any erase will be a secure one, but this is the general procedure…

From Apple Support: What to do before selling or giving away your Mac

  What to do before selling or giving away your Mac

  When you get ready to sell or give away your Mac, there are some steps you should take. You'll want to back up your computer, disable some features and services, and erase the hard drive. This article shows you the steps you should follow.

  Moving to a new Mac?

  Learn how to move your files to your new Mac. Do this before you erase the hard drive or follow any other steps.

  1. Create a backup
  Be sure you have an up-to-date backup of your important files and data. Learn how to back up your data in OS X.

  2. Sign out of iTunes
  Open iTunes. From the menu bar at the top of your computer screen, choose Store > Deauthorize This Computer.
  When prompted, enter your Apple ID and password. Then click Reauthorise.
  Learn more about deauthorizing your computer using iTunes, including how to deauthorize all the computers you've used with your iTunes account.

  3. Sign out of iCloud
  If you use Find My Mac or other iCloud features on your Mac, you should first archive or make copies of your iCloud data.
  After that, choose Apple Menu > System Preferences, click iCloud, and then deselect the Find My Mac checkbox.
  Finally, sign out of iCloud. In System Preferences, click iCloud, and then click the Sign Out button.
  When you sign out of iCloud, you're asked whether you want to remove iCloud data from your Mac. Your iCloud data will remain on any other devices that are using the same Apple ID.

  4. See if you've registered your computer with Apple Support
  Sign in to supportprofile.apple.com with your Apple ID and remove the computer if you see it listed there.

  5. Sign out of iMessage
  If you're using OS X Mountain Lion or later, sign out of iMessage.
  In the Messages app, choose Preferences > Accounts. Select your iMessage account, then click Sign Out.

  6. Erase and reinstall OS X
  To reformat your hard drive and reinstall OS X, follow these instructions.
  After you reformat your hard drive and reinstall OS X, the computer restarts to a Welcome screen and asks you to choose a country or region. If you want to leave the Mac in an out-of-box state, don't continue with the setup of your system. Instead, press Command-Q to shut down the Mac. When the new owner turns on the Mac, the Setup Assistant will guide them through the setup process.


How do I determine what is locking up my machine?

That message means that there is a kernel panic. This may happen if you connect new hardware to your computer. For possible reasons/fixes, see this article from the Apple website. Here is a section from the "Troubleshooting" section...

Was the computer starting up, shutting down, or performing a
particular task when the recurring kernel panic happened?
Is the kernel panic intermittent, or does it happen every time you do
a certain thing?
Does it occur only when a certain external device is connected, or
a device is connected to a certain port?

Reading through that article should give you a general idea what is happening and possible ways to fix it.


By default, the iOS calendar only syncs events within a specific timeframe, but you can adjust that within the settings.

Open the Mail, Contacts, Calendars section in Settings, and scroll down to the Sync option under Calendars:

Tap that, and you'll get the option to choose how far back you want events to appear, or if you want all events to appear:


Relocated items after macOS update to 11.3.1

To your question, which file is the modified one, the document you've added already explains that:

Configuration files with the suffix "system_default" were edited or
customised but the changes were allowed to remain installed

...which means your current file "group" is the modified one and "group.system_default" is the default one, but wasn't installed, because the changes to "group" were allowed.

_trustd:*:282:_trustd

...is a user of the same named group on your computer, as also found in "Directory Utility.app" (for which you can search in Spotlight).
"282" is the "PrimaryGroupID".
The man pages for trustd mention:
trustd(8)                 BSD System Manager's Manual                trustd(8)

NAME
     trustd -- Daemon and LaunchAgent that performs trust evaluations

SYNOPSIS
     trustd

DESCRIPTION
     trustd provides services for evaluating trust in certificates for all processes on the system.

     This command is not intended to be invoked directly.

BSD                               May 7, 2021                              BSD

Who initiated the changes, or why, I cannot say - I would think you yourself should have a better idea, if you've done any modifications, or which application you've installed, that could have changed the "group" file.
Or maybe somebody else here knows.
About the date: if you look through the system volume, you may find that pretty much all system files have the same modification date (which is new in Big Sur with its boot snapshot).


can't record app preview with qt - missing iPhone as an option

The answer is to choose New Movie Recording instead of New Screen Recording.  Thanks to someone in the apple dev forums for helping me find that.


Using Raspberry Pi as a home hub for Apple HomKit setup

No, that's unfortunately not possible.
The official hubs (such as an iPad or AppleTV) communicates with Apple's servers that then communicate with the Home app in order to provide push notifications and "proxy" functionality.
Creating a non-official hub would require you to be able to communicate with Apple's servers. This is not really possible without violating Apple's terms of services, and it is definitely not easily technically achieving anyways, as it would require reverse engineering the protocol, being able to provide valid certificates, etc.
You can however use your Raspberry Pi to control those non-HomeKit accessories when away from home - but it would require you to make your own client. I.e. it wouldn't be via the Home app, but you would need to create your own app, or host a web app on the Raspberry Pi that is available when away from home.
In addition to the above, there's a further option that might be doable depending on your exact setup. If you setup the Raspberry Pi to provide a network bridge via VPN, you could in theory use VPN software on your iPhone to access your home network as if you were directly connected it. Then HomeKit accessories would be directly accessible. This could be done by for example setting up OpenVPN in tap-mode on the Raspberry Pi and installing the client on the iPhone.


tl;dr : Language components are just dependencies used by the executable and can be accessed through the shell without Apple events.

A: Your argument breaks at a couple of points made in number 2.

a. "The Terminal command osascript does not "know" AppleScript."

Agreed, it does not have all of the languages it supports self contained in one executable.  However, that's where dependencies come in, and when you think of it that way; it's not too troubling that it can access dependencies through your shell like any other application can.

b. "it passes it on to the AppleScript compiler/interpreter via the OSA architecture by sending out an AppleEvent."

  "When a scripting component executes a script, statements in the script may result in Apple events being sent to applications (developer.apple.com)".

The executable is not limited to only using either code within itself or an Apple event call. Similar to almost every process or application on your machine, it relies on various core libraries and specifically it uses the osa language components installed on your system. It does not use Apple events for passing your script to the language component.

see supported languages:

❯ osalang

these language components live here:

❯ ls /System/Library/Components/

Since osascript can access your system's language components directly through the shell, you'll never seen an Apple event triggered just to process/interpret the script input.

for example compare these two commands where the first uses the AppleScript language but does not interact with any other applications:

❯ osascript -e 'set myVar to "hello" & "world"'
helloworld

and the second where we tell terminal to do something:

❯ osascript -e 'tell application "Terminal" to do script ("echo helloworld;")'
AE2000 (63917 ): Sending an event:
------oo start of event oo------
aevt('core'\'dosc' transactionID=0 sourcePSN=[0x0,dd7dd7 "Terminal"] timeout=7200 eventSource=3 { '----':utxt('utxt'(TEXT("echo helloworld;"))), &'subj':null(), &'csig':magn(65536) })
------oo  end of event  oo------
tab 1 of window id 32644

Only the one that interacted with an application, not just the AppleScript language itself, triggered an Apple event.

Read over this article again and you will see how this explination fits now.  OSA Architecture implemented via Apple events is the powerful construct allowing for automating between applications; but interpretation of the input script itself is just done by your system's compatible language component behind the scenes.


Copy documents to iOS devices via the command line

If you have SSH on the device, you can use scp:

scp /path/to/file root@iphone.local:/path/to/destination


You are out of luck in terms of locking it out. If you had ordered it from a business or school registered with Apple Schoo Manager it would have been pre-associated with your organization, but as a regular consumer, with no Apple ID ever having been associated with the device, you have no ability to control or tack it.
However, I suspect that Apple will send you a new one and since you had no personal info on the device I would not invest much time into tracking it or locking it.


Yes, there are a number of downsides!!!

The reason this is faster is it's not as clean. When you choose "Shut Down" from the Apple menu, the OS sends an Apple Event to every running application asking it to quit. (Specifically, the quit Apple Event) If you have unsaved work, these apps will respond to this event by prompting you to save.

When you use /sbin/shutdown no apple events are sent! Instead, POSIX signals (specifically the TERM signal) are sent to every app. This tells the process to quit now, is likely to result in lost data because apps may not prompt you to save.

Using the "Shutdown" menu might present a dialog alerting you that certain applications have "canceled" the shutdown. This is a safety feature in case they have unsaved data. This will not happen with /sbin/shutdown. Any apps which don't respond to a TERM signal will be sent a KILL signal, which will forcibly terminate the app.

If you use "Legacy Filevault" (The version of Filevault where only your home directory is encrypted), then using the "Shutdown" command will initiate the process which frees up unused disk space in your "sparse bundle", the files which store the encrypted data for your home directory. /sbin/shutdown will not trigger this process.

There can be other unforeseen consequences as well. The outgoing firewall Little Snitch used to lose the firewall configuration when using /sbin/shutdown... they may have corrected this in later versions, but I know it was an issue last time I checked.

In summary, /sbin/shutdown will shut down the sore of the OS: it will flush disk buffers, and request (the POSIX way) that processes terminate, so you're not likely to experience disk corruption or serious side effects from using it. But it will not perform higher-level functions (like sending Apple Events) and therefore it is not the preferred way to shut down an OS X system. (But it's still far better than just killing the power)


Is there a complete and detailed description of what Migration Assistant copies over?

Migration Assistant is fairly well documented in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4413 - basically if a newer or equivalent version of a file is not present, it gets moved by default.

In your case ~/Library is moved if you select that user - you can't deselect it like some other folders in the home folder.

Applications (which includes /Library/Application support as well as /Applications) move when that is selected.

Files in / only move if you choose other files. Everything goes AFAIK. Even ByHost preferences that no longer are used since the host has changed.


Can i use my old MacBook charger on my new Mac?

The way Apple power adapters are designed is that you can use any charger on any laptop that has the same, or lower, power rating. For example, you can safely use an 85W power adapter (for MacBook Pro) on a MacBook Air (which requires only 45W) or MacBook (which requires 65W).

However this does not work the other way around, you cannot use a MacBook Air (45W) adapter to power a MacBook Pro.

A 2008 MacBook Pro adapter rated at 85W should power a 2011 MacBook Pro with no problem. If this is not the case, then the adapter is faulty.


gec0 and vlan1 are the most important for monitoring overall traffic flow.

gec0 corresponds to the local traffic (behind the firewall) and vlan1 represents external traffic upstream to the internet. I haven't seen anything that makes sense what gec0 but on larger cisco switches they were internal routing queues where packets went to get headers constructed and routed across Vlans in the switching fabric. Perhaps it's the same on airport hardware.

athX are wireless vlans
wlanX are wired vlans

Apple used to publish MIBs for SNMP back when the first Airport Extremes were around but I don't know of anything better than using a generic MIB for the more recent hardware.

There used to be more information on these ports up at http://www.uname.nl/closer-look-airport-extreme/ but I can't find it anywhere (since archive.org respected it's robots.txt directive) - the best is a dated summary from http://gigo.com/archives/blog/monitoring-apples-80211n-airpo.html


iPad Pro uses standard thunderbolt but only one external display will work.

https://www.apple.com/ipad-pro/specs/

Thunderbolt / USB 4 port with support for:
Charging
DisplayPort
Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40Gb/s)
USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s)

I like the CalDigit hubs at the moment, but any high quality one should work for your first display and other accessories like storage, keyboards, networking and such. We have been very disappointed with the “budget” and cheapest USB-C docks at work and pay for reliability to get a good value. Some off brand docks can cause damage or not dissipate heat properly so consider support, shipping and returns when bargain shopping.
The cheapest option for HDMI might be the Apple adapter and then a USB hub for the rest…

USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter - https://store.apple.com/xc/product/MUF82AM/A

We also like the newer displays that provide thunderbolt natively but that’s an entirely different question I think.


What app has this blue penguin in the Social category?


Is there a keyboard shortcut for the System Preferences lock?

While there is no explicit keypress that will take you directly to the Lock icon that I know of, you can hit the Tab key repeatedly to select the tabs and checkboxes in a System Preferences window (I tested with the Security & Privacy window) and end up at the Lock icon, which is then selected.

Not selected:

Selected:

Hit the Space bar, and the lock opens to the credentials login.

You will need to have System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Full Keyboard Access > All controls radio button selected:

Thanks, Nimesh, for pointing out this radio button. I had it enabled, but did not realize it.


What counts as a partial charge for my rMBP?

"I know I should run the battery calibration check and also have the battery down to 10% once a month."

Apple actually recommends fully charging and then discharging the battery once per month. All modern Macs with batteries self-calibrate and require very little user involvement. There is no best practice as to what level to charge a battery at, none that I have seen that equate to a significant elongation in lifespan.

In short, use your MacBook Pro and don't worry about its battery. Ideally, as long as you are depleting and recharging it, then the battery's health should remain optimal. Running a notebook that is always connected to a power supply is not ideal. Battery cells like it when the electrons flow; unfortunately it is that very motion that invariably leads to a reduction in charge capacity. That is just the nature of the technology. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

A partial charge is just that: when a battery is recharged without being fully depleted. Apple rates batteries based on full charge cycles. So if you would let yours run down to 50% and then recharge it, twice, then you would have hit one full charge. There is no relevance as to the health of the battery should you recharge it at any given point. Recharge it when it's convenient for you.

The main culprits to poor battery health are heat and inhibiting the movement of electrons (by keeping the notebook plugged in all the time). Avoid those and your's will be just fine.

You can consult Apple's suggestions on the matter.


Monitor data usage on iPhone connected to WiFi

IMHO, two options.

Debookee on macOS, this allows to log http/s traffic and DNS requests from remote (iOS) devices in your network.

https://debookee.com

Charles for iOS, this allows to see the network connections/traffic directly on the iOS device.

https://www.charlesproxy.com/documentation/ios/


How to remove the nix volume on macOS 10.15?

I think you need to open Disk Utility and remove the "Nix Store" volume from there


Add custom OS images to bochs on iphone?

Use ifile, click "os.ini" then click "text editor".

It works for me!!!


Why is my S key intermittently typing ß inßtead of s <----See

You can check to see what OS X thinks is happening when you press the key by opening the Keyboard Viewer applet.

First, go to Language and Text in System Preferences, to enable it:

Then select 'Show Keyboard Viewer' from the Input Sources icon in the status bar.

Now, when you press the key, you can see which combination of keys OS X thinks is being pressed. You can use the keyboard viewer to enter text, too, in order to work around the problem:

You can confirm this way that it is indeed a hardware problem.


Same file reappears on Relocate Items after each macOS update

Feeling kinda stupid as I found the explanation on the PDF named What Are Relocated Items? under the Relocated Items folder. The relevant part for the clarification is:
Configuration files with the suffix "system_default" were edited or customized, but the changes were allowed to remain installed. The system_default version of the file is provided to demonstrate what the Apple supplied version of this file would look like. It is recommended that you compare the two and evaluate whether you wish to integrate any changes Apple may have made to the default version.
As I modified this file, looks like Apple will always provide the default version of this file so I can manually compare it with my modified version and merge any relevant changes. So no way to avoid this behavior but finally I understand why this happens after each update.


With two external displays in Mountain Lion how do I specify where the content of the Desktop is shown?

In my experience for Mountain Lion, determining which display is the primary display is usually achieved by dragging the white Menu Bar (circled in screenshot below) onto the graphic of another display, thus setting the other display as the primary monitor.


Can I use the free space on an NTFS Hard Drive to make a "Mac OS Journaled" partition to use as a backup space?

If you've already got GParted, use ´GParted /dev/disk1´ to resize your NTFS partition.  It has a nice Graphical front-end, and just in case you need it, here is the manual.
As David Anderson said a couple times, above, then you can open the OSX application Disk Utility, which is under /Applications/Utilities, and then you will see empty space on that disk:
Create a partition of the type HFS+ (journaled), and you'll be ready to use it as your Time Machine disk.

I think you'll be finished in no time, since you personally already found Gparted, and sound like you have good information about this.  You would also be able to do this all on the command-line is OSX with diskutil.


What file system should I choose when formatting a flash drive?

exFAT is the only format which will work for you as it will allow files greater than 4GB and work on Windows. Disk Utility can format using exFAT.


Would Upgrading to 16GB RAM be Beneficial?

Looking at your memory usage you don't need more RAM.

To answer your questions:

Apps may open faster if you are running lots of heavy duty apps, like Photoshop, Xcode, etc…
I doubt you'd see much of an increase in the FPS in games. That depends on the video card and how well the game is written.
Overall performance increase would probably be minimal. The biggest bottleneck is if you are running off a spinning disk, upgrading to an SSD would probably be the biggest performance gain, depending on what you use your computer for.


Changing Apple ID on iPad to match Apple ID on iPhone

What part of the iPad do you want to add a new Apple ID to? There are several different places to enter an Apple ID.

Messages

Settings > Messages > Receive at:

App Store

Settings > Store > Apple ID:

Alternatively, you can go to the App Store, click on "Top Charts" at the bottom. Scroll to the bottom and you can sign out and enter a new Apple ID.

iCloud

Go to Settings > iCloud > Account:


Is there a better way to travel internationally with an iPhone (3GS/4 specifically)?

As you've pointed out, US iPhones are locked to AT&T. Fundamentally, that's your only real issue here. If you can unlock your iPhone, then your suggesting of just picking up a micro-sim and using it for data and calls works perfectly. In the UK, we can buy iPhones unlocked, and get our network operators to unlock them.

What you described is exactly what I've done when travelling abroad, but it's entirely reliant on having an unlocked device to start with. From there, you should be good to go. In the UK, there's a massive range of low-cost, pay as you SIM only options to choose from. O2 do a big range of SIM only deals, including micro-sim plans (see here).

The other option to consider is, if you're looking to upgrade to an iPhone 4 anytime soon, buy it abroad, from the UK, unlocked, and then you won't have to jailbreak it in the future. UK and European iPhone models will work perfectly well in the US, and they come with a global warranty as well.


Automatically convert images in Photos.app

You can select all the png files in your photo and then under the File menu select Export. The top option will be to Export x items where x is the number of png files you selected. Select that option and a new pane appears where you can set the type as jpeg. See pane below.

I'm not positive this saves the metadata so I advise you to run this on one image and see if it works.


"Open With" ...running application option?

You could just drag the file onto the App icon in the Dock… [which is very difficult to take a screenshot of…]

[after comments…]
Alternatively, you could…

drag the file onto the app switcher - the one you bring up by pressing  Cmd ⌘   Tab ⇥

or

use DragThing which has been a kind of substitute Dock since long before the Dock existed.


The sensor temperatures probably show °Fahrenheit instead of °Celsius.

Open iStatMenus -> Sensors and change the Degrees from Fahrenheit to Celsius.

The Palm Rest will show ~30°C instead of 85°F (mine - a similar MBP - has 31°C), the CPU Die will show 54°C  instead of 129°F (mine has ~63°C)...


Why did I receive a text message on my Mac prior to my iPhone?

I think I understood and it's about:

  I was using my Mac

When Apple knows we are using device X, it vibrates device X first so that device Y doesn't vibrate for nothing.

(even if device Y gets the information first)


I needed to reload (perhaps 'apply' is more appropriate) my configuration file.
I had restarted my mac and thought this would have done it but I still needed to do:

$ tmux source-file ~/.tmux.conf

Note: type this exactly as shown.  source-file is literally what you type (or copy-paste) it is NOT something you replace with your own value).


75 gb of files in iMovie but no files showing up

If there is a "rubbish bin" like in iPhoto, you've got to get the bin empty to make actual room.


Go to system preferences then click on internet sharing and select share your internet connection from your Ethernet then select (to devices using WIFI)


This update is for an app downloaded with a different Apple ID. Sign in with that Apple ID and try again

What works for me is this hint from https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5532426?start=45&tstart=0

  I solved this problem, instead of going to the update page go to the
  app itself within the App store.  Here it will say "Accept" where it
  usually says download and then it will reauthorize you


Does OS X or Xcode have applications to manage cheat sheet/commands list?

Try Dash.

  Dash is an API Documentation Browser and Code Snippet Manager. Dash stores snippets of code and instantly searches offline documentation sets for 150+ APIs ... You can even generate your own docsets or request docsets to be included.


You can create a smart folder which shows the contents of both folders. Go to File → New Smart Folder and add both the directories as rules for the smart folder.


How can I add a property to the window object in Chrome using Applescript?

I discovered a workaround. Might not be the best, but the following line executes the JavaScript I have in mind while also setting properties of window:

tell front window of application "Google Chrome"
    set URL of active tab to "javascript:" & window.myVar = "myValue"
end tell

Using this, myVar properly returns "myValue". Nice.


How to completely disable password saving in Safari?

If AutoFill is disabled, Safari won't ask to save passwords either.


Very sporadic Wi-Fi Issue with Lion (Connection Timeout)

OK, lets try to Manually connect to your WiFi.

Use following in your Terminal app (located in the utility folder).

Turn On (skip this if it is on already)

networksetup -setairportpower en0 on

Find (skip this if you know the WiFi name and the passowrd)

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport scan

Connect

networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 WIFI_SSID_I_WANT_TO_JOIN WIFI_PASSWORD

Just replace the "WIFI_SSID_I_WANT_TO_JOIN" with your WiFi name


I want to turn off two factor sign in for Apple ID. Did not receive email option to go back to previous settings.

How long ago did you enroll the account in two-factor authentication?  You may be unable to at this point.

Can I turn off two-factor authentication after I’ve turned it on?
If you already use two-factor authentication, you can no longer turn it off. Certain features in the latest versions of iOS and macOS require this extra level of security, which is designed to protect your information. If you recently updated your account, you can unenroll for two weeks. Just open your enrollment confirmation email and click the link to return to your previous security settings. Keep in mind, this makes your account less secure and means that you can't use features that require higher security.

Two-factor authentication for Apple ID


Python 3 ImportError: cannot import name 'Config' when importing boto3 after installing with pip3

It will work if you specifically install Python 3.5, not sure if they have updated it for 3.6 yet, but recently it was incompatible with it.


macOS High Sierra how to remove Bootcamp?

You can manually remove Bootcamp partition using Disk Utility. This answer assumes you only have two partitions, one macOS and one Bootcamp.

Step 1: Open Disk Utility. You can find it with a spotlight search.

Step 2: If you are using macOS High Sierra, choose one of the internal partitions (such as Macintosh HD) from the list at the left. If you are using macOS Sierra or earlier, choose your internal disk (such as APPLE SSD).

Step 3: Click "Partition" button located at the top of the window.

Step 3.1: If Disk Utility tells you something about APFS, select the first option, which is "Partition".

Step 4: A pie of your disk should have appeared now. From there, select Bootcamp, then press "-", located below the pie.

Step 5: Press apply and wait for it to finish. If it fails, just retry.

After this is done, you can use Bootcamp Assistant to reinstall Windows.


Driving down the road and GPS works on iPod?

I'm guessing, since I couldn't find any confirmation, but the iPods use the Skyhook network, which is basically a big database of wifi access points and their approximate location. Since you wouldn't have been connected to a network, (here's the guess) the geolocation service must've cached some amount of the database for your general area.


Restoring messages from backup not working

The messages themselves are stored in the database file, ~/Library/Messages/chat.db. After that file is definitely in place, try rebooting your computer.

In my case, once that file was in place it would only show 1 message from each of the conversations, but after rebooting, all of the messages showed up.


Do I have to use the Apple USB Ethernet Adapter for a MacBook Air?

You don't have to but your mileage will vary between the adaptors if they work or not. The Apple ones have drivers built into OS X, most of the others should work but there'll be varying levels of success.


Restored from Time Machine but NO applications

This question was also posted at https://discussions.apple.com/message/22138652. Based on the replies, it seems like /Applications/ was actually missing from the iMac and the snapshots.

I'd also recommend doing an upgrade install from the recovery partition. It should replace applications and other system files with the default versions but not affect most user files or settings.

A similar question where the OP had excluded /Applications/ from backups:

Full restore from backup, /Applications not backed up


Font of calendar in Preference pane of macOS

You can also use font identifiers for this, in case they have this in their database.

https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/visual-design/typography/

This suggests SF pro for macOS in recent versions.

  Since its introduction, San Francisco has gradually replaced most of
  Apple's other typefaces on their software and hardware products and
  for overall branding[13] and has replaced Helvetica Neue and Lucida
  Grande as the system typeface of macOS and iOS since OS X El Capitan
  and iOS 9.[14][3][15] Apple uses it on its website and for its product
  wordmarks, where it replaced Myriad Pro. It is also used on the
  keyboard of the 2015 MacBook and on the 2016 MacBook Pro, replacing
  VAG Rounded.[16] It is also used as Apple's corporate typeface.[17]

  Apple restricts the usage of the typeface by others. It is licensed to
  registered third-party developers only for the design and development
  of applications for Apple's platforms.[3]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(sans-serif_typeface)#Usage


Why is my launchd job running at boot even with RunAtLoad key set to false?

You likely have an interaction between the SuccessfulExit and RunAtLoad keys. The launchd plist manual page mentions an inversion takes place if RunAtLoad is set
:

  SuccessfulExit

  If true, the job will be restarted as long as the program exits and with an exit status of zero.

  If false, the job will be restarted in the inverse condition.  This key implies that "RunAtLoad" is set to true, since the job needs to run at least once  before we can get an exit status.

Others have struggled with this behaviour, see launchd ignores RunAtLoad=false.


Single-User-Recovery-Mode on High Sierra 10.13.6

I was having the same issue, this is how I fixed it.

As we are not able to get to Single User Recovery Mode by using the key sequence, Command + R + S at startup to run csrutil disable, it is not taking you to Single User Mode.

Start by booting the computer in standard Single User Mode using Command + S. Once you are at the command-line, run the following command to turn off the dGPU:

nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

Then reboot your computer by running:

reboot

The dGPU has been disabled, so we can now access the GUI recovery mode. On reboot hold Command + R, and it will take us to the GUI recovery mode. Once there, click on Utility menu and open Terminal, here we can run the csrutil command:

csrutil disable

To make the dGPU fix persistent through the next update, make sure to run the nvram command a second time, then reboot by running:

nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

followed by:

reboot

Boot into Single User Mode with Command + S to continue with the kext moving procedure. Once done, go back to GUI recovery to enable csrutil, then reboot.

Once Mac fully boots, run nvram one last time as sudo:

sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

and do multiple reboots to test the machine boots back up properly. I have no issues now.


How do I delete a locked, invisible file in the Trash?

The file could simply still be open by something. Use lsof <file> to see which process is hogging it, if any.
Otherwise sudo rm -rf /.Trashes/501/Users/myusername/Desktop should get rid of it
If that didn't work, try removing all the flags it's complaining about first: chflags nohidden,nosappdn,noarch,noschg <file>


What chargers are compatible with A1226?

For your mac you'll need a 85W power adapter like that one.


Macbook Pro Retina OSX 10.8.3 - Itunes - Windows 7 PC

I figured out how to share the PC folders and get ITunes on the Mac to play them. All is good!


Texting without an assigned phone number

He should be able to text you and anyone else. He needs to be on wifi (only) and use a 3rd-party texting app (for messages to Android) or Messages to another Apple device.

He will not be able to send any messages when not on wifi because he won't have any cell signal.


Composing messages in Apple Mail: Displaying text on screen in larger size without changing font size

You can go ahead and set it to what you want in Mail Preferences.  These settings have no effect on what is seen at the other end.  To do that you have to change the font for each outgoing individually in the New Message pane.