texts: Why is the HFS Plus attributes file unusually small, for only a while, after using Time Machine to restore a Lion system?

texts:
Once after using Time Machine in Lion Recovery OS to restore a system, I noticed that the attributes B-tree was unusually small.
Initially I was worried (had Time Machine failed to backup some thing, or failed to backup important metadata relating to a number of files?) but before long, I was reassured:

the attributes file grew to something like the size it was before erasure.

During the period of growth I was vaguely aware of the system being busy at various times. For a restored system: the business didn't surprise me, but from things like Activity Monitor I gained an impression that not much of the business was Spotlight-related, which sparked my curiosity. When I realised that the attributes file had grown so much, I was very puzzled.
Splitting and rephrasing the question:
What types of data are written to the attributes file?
Answers to this question might give examples of types of data. From the manual page for ls I'm familiar with option -@

Display extended attribute keys and sizes in long (-l) output.

Apple's TN1150 offers technical information, but no examples.
Timing: is some of that data written only after documents and other files have been parsed by the System?
In a possibly related question, I wonder whether Quick Look preview data (maybe distinct from thumbnail data) is written to an attributes file:

For applications that do not store Quick Look information within the file, where does Lion (or a Server) store that information?

I have fileXray, and am prepared to use it before and after a future Time Machine restoration of a system, but with a good set of answers to this question I might not need to use it.
Reference
Technical Note TN1150: HFS Plus Volume Format: Attributes File (2004) is somewhat vague:

… reserved for implementing named forks in the future. … An attributes
files has a variable length key and three data record types, which
makes it roughly as complex as the catalog file. …
IMPORTANT:
The exact organization of the attributes B-tree has not been fully
designed. Specifically:

the structure of the keys in the attribute B-tree has not been
finalized and is subject to change, and

addition attribute's file data record types may be defined. …


texts:
So recently I updated to OS El Capitan 10.11.2 and it has interfered with my Safari experience (I think). I am somehow not able to see any pages in my Google Drive (Docs, Slides, Sheets), but I can use every other site perfectly fine. I have tried force quitting, clearing history, but it hasn't fixed the problem.

I don't know if clearing the caches will fix it though.

When I open the error console in Safari it states the below about 14 times, then Safari reloads saying: "A problem occurred with this web page so it was reloaded." It will do this for forever until the tab is closed.

Invalid CSS property declaration at: *

At the moment the sites: Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings don't work. And I am sure this problem is isolated to my machine since I can access those sites on other computers.

Also I have tried booting up in safe mode but I still can't access the sites.

Additional INFO:

OS X El Capitan 10.11.2

Safari Ver: 9.0.2

Macbook Pro (mid 2009)


texts: What hard drive is used for the 500 GB Macbook Pro option from Apple?

texts:
I'm looking to replace my Macbook Pro 13" hard drive. I tried upgrading to a Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB, but returned the drive because it caused the palm rest to vibrate when pressed (I installed correctly; the problem disappeared when I swapped back the stock drive).

What drive is used by Apple as the 500 GB option (for both the 7200 and 5400 RPM) when ordering from their store (I figure this should be a good option)? Anyone else have experience with any large notebook drives that don't cause vibration or noise issues? Performance is a second to not having a computer that irritates my senses to no end.


texts: Where has my route gone in the Activity app?

texts:
I did a cycle ride at the weekend and recorded the workout on my Apple Watch. When I finished I saved the workout and could see the route in the Activity app on my iPhone.

Now a couple of days later I can view the workout stats such as distance and average speed. However, I can no longer see the route. I can see routes for other workouts.

Has anyone else experienced this and has a fix for it? I'm sure the data is still there


texts: iCloud Sync of Documents not recreating Folders on icloud.com. Process stuck. Catalina

texts:
I have tried just about every solution available on the various boards and groups. Some so old they are no longer even relevant.
Photo syncing works.
iCloud Drive does not.
I'm running Catalina 10.15.2 with 2TB Cloud storage and plenty of spare space. Everything else is running like clockwork, except this iCloud Drive sync. It used to work! but sometime back it stopped. Last update perhaps?
however.

I have discovered that if I am to sync folders from the Documents folder on my Mac to the iCloud.com-> iCloud->Documents folder, I have to manually create the folder on iCloud, then go into that folder, and upload the file from my Mac's folder of the same name into the new folder on icloud.com. This is not right obviously.
I also see on my Mac that in the iCloud Drive folder, that sits in the Finder panel just above Documents, that the folder in question also appears in the iCloud Drive -> Documents -> Test Folder, along with any files that I put into that folder. So the Mac end is fine. It doesn't propagate up to icloud.com
The problem seems to be in two parts. Something is blocking the iCloud sync process from doing its job. The information at the bottom of the screen tells me that there is a massive amount of data and files waiting to upload - but it never happens.

I can find no way of determining what files are causing the blockage. I am assuming that this blockage is also what is causing the process to not create new folders in which to put new files.
Finally - how can I restart the iCloud sync process and get it to update icloud.com correctly?
Is there a non-destructive fix does anyone know?

EDIT:
Looking at

log show -v | grep cloudd

I'm seeing lots of Errors in the cloudd stream from bird.

bird: (CloudDocsDaemon) [com.apple.clouddocs:default] [ERROR] renameat(-1, '<private>', 23, '<private>', 4) failed after trying to fix permissions [17: File exists]
bird: (CloudDocsDaemon) [com.apple.clouddocs:default] [ERROR] -[BRCStageRegistry moveFromStage:toPath:fileName:error:]: (passed to caller) error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=17 UserInfo={NSDescription=<private>}
bird: (CloudDocsDaemon) [com.apple.clouddocs:default] [CRIT] UNREACHABLE: Failed to move from fault stage to live Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=17 UserInfo={NSDescription=<private>}

EDIT:
More information. If I drag an image into the Test Folder on iCloud.com
it appears moments later on my Mac, in the iCloud -> Documents -> Test folder where it should be. But still, nothing is travelling the other way. Mac to iCloud.com

EDIT:
Additional information. I did have SIP disabled. I enabled SIP again and had to grant permissions to a few stray legacy apps, but then noticed that cloudd and bird were driving relly hard CPU stats. I left the mac alone for an hour or so, and when I came back just now, the status bar of Finder no longer shows the Uploading 1185 items. It now shows only the current file selected, and space available on iCloud. So whatever happened when I re-enabled SIP seems to have cleared the backlog of uploadable files.
Has it solved the problem of files placed in Documents not being sent to the Cloud? It remains to be seen. I suspect perhaps not. I have three png files in a test folder on the Mac. I still only have 2 in the test folder I had to create by hand on the icloud.com folder.


texts:
My question relates to the solution posted here in this forum:

This appears to be the only solution I have found in over a year trying that actually appears to be working, so thanks! However, ...

I believe I have followed each of these steps outlined in the above referenced answer and it appears I may be connected but I can't really tell.

As one can see from the output from terminal below, it appears I am able to stop and restart the shrewsoft-vpn-client. I press "c" as instructed and terminal reports "attached to key daemon..."

How do I know if I am connected? Terminal does not respond to any of the listed commands from 'help'. I can control+c to get the prompt back, stop, restart, and connect and get the "attached to key daemon.." response. How does one reference this connection, if it is a connection?

MacBook-Pro:sites Mac$ brew services restart shrewsoft-vpn-client
Stopping `shrewsoft-vpn-client`... (might take a while)
==> Successfully stopped `shrewsoft-vpn-client` (label:homebrew.mxcl.shrewsoft-vpn-client)
==> Successfully started `shrewsoft-vpn-client` (label:homebrew.mxcl.shrewsoft-vpn-client)
MacBook-Pro:sites Mac$ ikec -r ryno
VPN Connect, ver 2.2.1 : Copyright 2013 Shrew Soft Inc.
: press the 'h' key for help
: config loaded for site 'ryno'
: attached to key daemon ...


texts: Will Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) file/rsync-based clones to a "target disk mode" T2 MacBook work?

texts:
Summary

I want to copy my entire OS/volume/disk (which is FileVault-ed) from on MacBook to another, whose volumes(s) are also FileVaulted. Assuming no OS incompatibilities between hardware, will a Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) file/rsync-based copying/cloning from a MacBook source (regardless of T2) to a T2 MacBook work - and why or why not?

I do not yet see why a copy/clone to a FileVault-ed MacBook that's running Target Disk Mode (and for which I have the FileVault/disk/login password) will not work.

Comparison with Apple/macOS Migration Assistant (MA)

Reasons why I'm not yet jumping to MA:

I do not yet trust MA, as it's completely new to me. I have decades of trust with rsync (which is what CCC employs) across many OSes (Unix, Linux, *BSD, macOS, Windows).
I could not get MA to see my 40-gigabit Thunderbolt link between MacBooks (it kept wanting to talk over WiFi).
Every time I'm tried an Apple-native solution (namely TimeMachine) to thoroughly and comprehensively capture all data/settings/content in a filesystem it's always failed me.

Nonetheless, I'm open to any and all pitches for MA.

More details

A source told me CCC is "T2 chip incompatible" (or some such) and advised that Migration Assistant is the only (or at least only supported?) way to go. I'm skeptical.

Potentially-helpful reference(s):

How to Disable System Integrity Protection on a Mac (and Why You Shouldn’t)

My use case:

I regularly copy ("clone") one MacBook to another (or several others) for purposes of

retaining a fully-redundant laptop in case my primary one fails for any reason (the primary purpose) and
I can use multiple machines concurrently (so I don't have to carry one laptop everywhere) all configured with the same environment apps/config/settings. This use case is served well with advent of most dynamic data/content/files on my OS being Internet-served-and-synced (git repos, IMAP server, Dropbox/GDrive, etc) across my multiple MacBooks.

Typically source and target MacBooks are the exact same hardware model but not always. Regardless, I make sure there are no OS-incompatibility issues, namely: run same version of OS on each MacBook and that the copied OS is supported by the target MacBook.


texts:
Whenever I lock my screen (using command+control+Q), the display goes to sleep within about 5 seconds. How can I prevent this?

This happens while plugged in, and my screen is set to never go to sleep while on power:

Even if I wasn't plugged in, on battery life, the screen should go to sleep within 2 minutes, not 5 seconds:

I'm on High Sierra 10.13.2.

edit: I gave up on locking with cmd+ctrl+q and just went with enabling my screen saver and setting the system to require a password on screen saver wake.


texts: How to resolve rejection on App store with In-App purchase, free trial and links of web application

texts:
We're developing an app for iOS devices. It has a subscription option if the user wants to upgrade from the free trial.

Our app is rejected as we had an option to pay with PayPal along with In-App Purchase. They reverted with the insights and resolution steps.

  We noticed that your app or its metadata provides access to external
  mechanisms for purchases or subscriptions to be used in the app, which
  does not comply with the App Store Review Guidelines.

  Next Steps

  To resolve this issue, please remove the account registration links
  and any other fully qualified links to your site that could indirectly
  provide access to these mechanisms, such as links to web pages for
  support, FAQs, product or program details, etc.

But we don't have links such as they have mentioned. We'have two main links of web pages, privacy policy and terms & conditions. Also, we've subscription option for the registered users in web application.

There are several doubts we have.

We are using the same API for iOS and Android app, hence, do we need to remove PayPal related information from the API's request-response for iOS?
Is it acceptable if we have the option to subscribe through a web app?
Even my app doesn't contain links of registration, do I need to remove links of the privacy policy and terms & condition pages?


texts: What happens if I don't eject before disconnecting my iPod?

texts:
iTunes is always sure to tell me that I have to eject my iPod before I can physically disconnect it from the computer.

What is going on when you eject it? What is the software doing? What's the risk of disconnecting it without ejecting it first?


texts: Larger resolution than proposed in El Capitan

texts:
Is it possible to get a larger resolution on my Macbook Pro than the one proposed in System Preferences ? I mean my screen is 1280x800 and I'd like to putt an even larger resolution so as to have a zoom out effect on the computer.

In each application (like Chrome for instance) I have to zoom out manually.


texts:
Today the commands in the terminal start with "public-docking-hg-2434:~ userName$"

What is this public-docking-hg? Why did it suddenly appear?


texts: Messages.app on macOS won't send/receive/display messages to/from one specific contact

texts:
I have a strange situation that I can't puzzle out. There is one particular contact that I can't send or receive messages from in Messages.app on macOS 10.15.7 on a MacBook Pro. I can receive and send messages with this contact normally in Messages on my iPhone (although they don't appear on the MacBook Pro), and I'm having no issues with any other contacts in Messages on either the MacBook Pro or on the iPhone.
I've tried a few things to no avail:

Restart Messages. No effect.
Restart the computer. No effect.
Delete the phone number from the contact and tried to send to the plain number. No effect; it still acts like it's associated to the contact in Messages.

Not sure what else to do here, as most potential solutions that I come across are about what to do when Messages isn't sending to anyone, not just one particular contact.
How to fix?


texts: How can I view or clear 'other' storage on iPhone 6s?

texts:
I have an iPhone 6s with 64 GB of storage and currently over 28 GB are taken up by the 'other' category. I already tried clearing my safari cache, deleting email and message attachments, offloading and deleting apps, and deleting photos and videos. In fact, when I deleted several large message attachments, the messages storage category went down from a little over 2 GB to a little over 1, but the 'other' category increased by about the same amount.

Apple says 'other' is mostly cache files and doesn't need to be manually cleared, but I have no available storage on my phone and and unable to take photos, download more music, etc. 'Other' is taking up almost half of my storage.


texts: I have an iPhone 4 and an iPad 2.  I've only had the iPad for three weeks, and iCloud is almost full.  How can I free up space?  I prefer not to buy more space.  It looks like the iPhone is using most of the space.


texts:
I'm facing an error with port forwarding on my Airport Express.

I am using the Airport utility application for this and when I go to the network tab and I can see the port settings, then I click +(ADD). I get a small window where I can write the ports but I need to add my IPv6 address which I don't have because I'm on IPv4.

Is there a way to port forward with IPv4 ?

Thank you


texts: How to get correct bookmark (webloc) icon to show?

texts:
Safari Bookmark icons of (.webloc) are only showing generic document icon. How to get correct '@' icon to show?

It's the webloc document created when pulling (drag & drop) URL from Safari address to desktop.


texts: I'm not sure I can flash the firmware rom on Mac Pro 1,1

texts:
I'm trying to port coreboot to the Mac Pro 1,1 and I'm finding it difficult to locate any information on how to use the diag/lpc or other ports to flash firmware on the Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1.
I am generally trying to get a 64 bit firmware working on this mac.
The Intel Xeon X5470 supports SSE 4.1 and I see no reason then that this Mac cannot run High Sierra or Big Sur.
My goal is to make a firmware for it that will allow this.
I found a Firmware Restoration CD image but I don't believe it will run if I totally brick the flash trying to flash SerialICE and I have a problem where I need to be able to flash it in the event of a complete brick, before attempting to debug and reverse engineer the boot sequence of the chipset, and build coreboot for it using a flash programming method, which is generally required for this to work.
I did manage to find out that the USB debug is on USB port 0 and requires a high speed USB 2 debug serial device, which is helpful for early debugging of the chipset and ram initialization, but nothing on the LPC bus or using SPI/JTAG to talk to the embedded controller, or how the firmware is originally flashed at the factory on this old mac.
I am generally trying to upgrade the firmware to be 64 bits, which is possible, hypothetically, as far as I can tell. The CPUs are both 64 bits as is the memory controller,and the chipset seems to have no documented limitation on this working in 64 bits.


texts:
I have an Airport Extreme with two WD 2Tb drives attached. The problem is that the router keeps loosing the drives. By this I mean the router disappears from finder and when I look at it in Airport Utility, the Disks tab is empty.

If I restart the router and check Disks again, they're back, the router appears in Finder and I can use the drives as I would expect.

Then sometime later, probably hours or days, I'll go to access one of the disks and the router will be missing from Finder again, the Disks tab empty and I'll have to restart it to get them back again.

Any ideas why this would be happening?


texts: How do I erase MacOS from HDD but keep personal files (i.e. convert a bootable disc to a storage disc)?

texts:
I have a 2TB Seagate HDD which used to sit in my old Mac Pro. It has both the OS and my personal files on it. I want to sell my Mac but keep the drive and use it as an external HDD for my MacBook Pro. The drive has lots of movies on it and I would hate to lose them.
Folders currently on the HDD:

Applications
Library
opt
System
Users

Can I delete everything other than the Users folder?


texts: Bug in 'file' command on 10.5.8? (Or am I doin' it wrong?)

texts:
On my OS X 10.5.8 system, the man page for 'file' says:

  -h, --no-dereference

    option causes symlinks not to be followed (on systems  that  support  symbolic
    links). This is the default if the environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is not
    defined.

and also:

  -L, --dereference

    option  causes  symlinks to be followed, as the like-named option in ls(1)
    (on systems that support symbolic links).  This is the default if the
    environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is defined.

For me, the default seems to be the "-L" behavior (i.e., always traversing symlinks and reporting the type of the target file), regardless of whether I have POSIXLY_CORRECT set or not.

The "-h" option does the right thing if I explicitly specify it, fortunately.

Can anyone still running 10.5.8 (yeah, I know...) verify whether this is the behavior for them as well? And if it does work for you as advertised by the man page, any theories on what I'm doing wrong? I've checked my spelling, just to get that out of the way...


texts: How do I create an "artificial" redirect on iPad?

texts:
I have a webserver running under the 0.0.0.0 address, bound to a given port - let's call it 8080. By using 0.0.0.0 as the host address, I can successfully access my webserver from the iPad using my computer's network IP (192.168.100.5).
Turns out my server has some redirections pointing to 0.0.0.0:port, and 0.0.0.0 is unknown to my iPad. One idea I had is to make the iPad interpret 0.0.0.0 as 192.168.100.5, but after some thorough research, I couldn't find successful answers on how to do that.
So here I am: how can I make an iPad, using Safari, to interpret 0.0.0.0 as 192.168.100.5?
A parallel example would be, every time I access http://whatever, I'd like my browser (Safari) to access https://google.com or something.


texts: Disk Utility Cannot erase USB Drive (Error: -69877: Couldn't open device)

texts:
I have a PNY 128gb flash drive that I can no longer modify (can't delete files). I've tried to reformat it using Disk Utility but I get the following message and my usb is unmounted:

I've followed the solutions found from these two postings with no luck.

Disk Utility cannot erase

Disk Utility won't erase

When I type in 'diskutil eraseDisk free EMPTY /dev/disk2'
into terminal my usb is unmounted just like before and I get this message:

Any ideas on what I can do to erase and reformat my USB drive? Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!


texts: System volume locked on Mac mini when using HDMI audio

texts:
I just connected my Mac mini (Late 2012) to my TV using HDMI.

Now, all works good, except that I cannot set system volume on the HDMI link. That is, if I switch from built-in speaker to HDMI audio, system volume is locked and I cannot adjust it.

Under Windows (Boot Camp), by contrast, I can adjust system volume, so it's not hardware-related issue.

Is there any workaround?


texts: How to invert colors in Safari pages on macbook?

texts: Any extension for the browser? I only want to invert safari's colors, not of the entire system.


texts: Move iMovie project to an external drive

texts: I have loaded some camcorder cassette tapes into iMovie and have tried to move the video projects to a back up disk to free up space on my hard drive. The help menu says that if you choose  "move project and events" it will move the projects and delete them from the hard drive. So far all I've been able to do is move the event and It doesn't free up any hard drive space. What am I doing wrong?


texts: How to extend window to all edges in macOS?

texts: How to extend the window size to the edge of the screen on macOS Catalina?


texts:
Is it possible to access Yime Capsule's files from iPhone? On my Mac I'm simply connecting to afp://10.0.1.1/ and I have my data.

But on my iPhone, when I try to connect (e.g. from Safari) I get an error.

Is it possible to browse AFP servers from iOS? Or maybe there's a way to enable WebDAV on it?


texts: Silverlight Crashes in Safari/Chrome but not Firefox

texts:
Silverlight crashes in Chrome with the error "Silverlight Plug-In has crashed." and in Safari/Webkit nightly build with "Plugin Failure" but works fine with Firefox.

I've verified that both Chrome and Safari are up to date, as well as Silverlight itself.

I had read some other message board posts about this issue possibly being linked to Mac Pro or the video cards used, but no solution is ever provided.


texts: Macbook air built in trackpad not detected

texts:
I have an macbook air early 2015. When I go to trackpad settings it only tries to detect bluetooth trackpad. My built in trackpad works fine but is not detected in preferences. My macbook runs on power and no batteries are there. It has both mojave and high sierra installed. Same problem in both OS.

Somewhere in this forum it is discussed few years back that without battery macbook fails to detect built in track pad. Is there any solution found now?


texts: Removable drive not showing up in MacBook

texts:
I am using Phone One Plus 6T and connect it to my MacBook to transfer files.

Everytime I connected it to my MacBook, I selected the option "File transfer" and it all used to work fine with a USB drive showing up in Finder.

But now its not working and the only change which I know of is that I upgraded to Catalina.

I have checked System Information and the USB drive is getting detected. In Finder preferences, the option  "Show External Drives" is selected.

Can someone please guide on how to resolve this?


texts: What are all these partitions on my Mac?

texts:
I know the purpose of "EFI", "Boot OS X", and "Recovery HD" partitions. But why are there three different "Macintosh HD" partitions? And should there be two EFI partitions?

UPDATE

Here is what disktutil list reports

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         121.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         2.7 TB     disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.1 MB   disk1s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Data                    326.8 GB   disk1s4
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *2.8 TB     disk2
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2
                                 03BC8817-F05E-4FC3-9A5C-50130CDAB3AB
                                 Unencrypted Fusion Drive


texts: Can I play DVDs from a DVD player on an Apple Cinema Display 23-Inch (Aluminum)?

texts:
I've seen a good price on a refurbished Apple Cinema Display, the 23-inch Aluminium version that was sold between 2004 and 2008. Everymac says this display has a DVI port.

Will I be able to connect the HDMI output from a standard DVD or Blu-ray player to this display, via a suitable cable or adapter, and watch DVDs on it, or is there something I've missed that would prevent this working?


texts: Mac Book Pro - Logic board stopped working

texts:
I Had purchased Mac Book Pro before around 14 month from one of the apple store. It just blinking and doesn't start. As per customer service they ask to replace logic board and It costs almost around $650 (38500 Rupee). And my warranty is just expired before two month. I believe that I got defective model of Mac Book Pro, As In My warranty period also there were such issues and it was issue of hard disk.

I am a normal user regarding to use Mac Book. I don't do gaming and etc.I just use it for my professional purpose.

I can't pay this much amount again in around one year duration. Please suggest what is alternative or what can I do As warranty is expired.

Thanks.


texts: How to make /private/etc/hosts available on macOS Sierra?

texts:
After searching related questions and answers, I find my issue still unsolved: editing /private/etc/hosts does not work on macOS Sierra.

What in my /private/etc/hosts is the following two rules.

127.0.0.1   localhost
127.0.0.1   www.yahoo.com

These two rules cannot be applied in Safari and Chrome, even after running the command sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder. The website yahoo is not redirected to 127.0.0.1.

So what do I miss in the above operation?

And the output of ping -c 3 www.yahoo.com is as following.

PING fd-fp3.wg1.b.yahoo.com (116.214.12.74): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 116.214.12.74: icmp_seq=0 ttl=47 time=138.418 ms
64 bytes from 116.214.12.74: icmp_seq=1 ttl=47 time=74.284 ms
64 bytes from 116.214.12.74: icmp_seq=2 ttl=47 time=69.702 ms

--- fd-fp3.wg1.b.yahoo.com ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 3 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 69.702/94.135/138.418/31.369 ms


texts: Change volume range for sound? (i.e. dB-range for slider)

texts:
I have an issue where the "slider" for volume is near unusable for a USB-headset. Only the first four mini-steps (see Lowest volume is still too loud—how can I make it even lower?) are somehow valid volume ranges, the rest are way too high.

In the MIDI-control I can see that the dB-range is from -37 dB (0-volume) to -0 dB (1-volume, or max, the scale is between 0 and 1). With mini-steps (see above) the increment is 0.016-volume, but the first step from 0 to 0.016 gets the dBs from -37 to -32.37, and each following mini-step is roughly 0.5 dBs closer to 0.

I want the volume slider to step between -37 and -18 dBs instead of -32.37 (the lowest mini-step with sound) to 0. Is this doable somehow using the normal vol up / vol down keys?

As a comment, I think the actual dB-values are way off, but that probably depends on the fact that it is a USB-headset.

Edit
Added image below, note that this is set manually, I cannot get it this low with volume keys. Lowest with volume keys is "value" at 0.016 and db at -32.37, whilst I'd like 0.001 and db at -36 as I have now (via applescript).


texts: Is there a way to change font sizes system-wide while preserving UI resolution?

texts:
I have a 17" widescreen mac book pro (1920 x 1080) and find it hard to read the small fonts in the finder menu and in the Finder let hand panel even though my vision is good. Even the font's in most applications appear small. I know certain applications will allow you to configure font size but I'm really looking for a system-wide/global solution.

I have tried several solutions such as:

 1.> defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleDisplayScaleFactor 1.5
 2.> User Interface Resolution with Quartz Debug application

and both these mothods/features seem incomplete in that the GUI elements are not scaled smoothly.

I also tried lowering my monitor resolution but that wasn't ideal cause the display gets a bit blurry.


texts: Can I upgrade from iOS 6.0.1 to iOS 8.1.1 directly?

texts:
I have an iPad 2 (Wi-Fi) which I want to update iOS 8, so I downloaded iOS 8.1.1 for iPad 2 Wi-Fi's IPSW.

I updated with iTunes on my PC but it says that it cannot update my iPad!
I want to install iOS 8.1.1 but current version on the iPad is 6.0.1.

Why can't I upgrade it?


texts: Automatically delete temporary ~/Library/Application Support folders

texts:
I have a flash drive which I carry around everywhere which has a few standalone applications which I use everywhere installed on it. However, the majority of these leave Application Support folders behind, and I don't want to give other people access to any of my information, etc.

Is there any way to automatically delete these folders either just before or just after I remove my flash drive? I've tried writing an Automator workflow to do this, and it works, but it feels very kludgy.

Also, most specifics that I've said are flexible; I just want something that will do the job 100% of the time.


texts: Hidden gems or tricks in OS X Yosemite (10.10)

texts:
In addition to this question I'd like to start a new question specifically for the new OS X Yosemite.

As I'm always curious about the announced items, there are many times hidden gems or nice tricks in new OS X versions.

Please share your hidden tricks (one per answer)! Please do not add "default" tricks which are available in all previous versions.


texts: Can I reverse the two-finger scrolling direction in OS X Lion (10.7)?

texts: I just got 10.7. The two-finger scrolling direction seems wrong to me, although it says "direction - natural." I couldn't see a way to reverse it. Does anyone have a way yet?


texts: Does Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter (USB-C to HDMI) support Windows/Ubuntu (on MacBook Pro 15" 2017)?

texts:
I have no problem using this adapter Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter (USB-C to HDMI) on macOS Big Sur with MacBook Pro 15" 2017 (Radeon Pro 555 2 GB), connecting to 4k@60Hz external display.
But when booting to windows 10 (bootcamp) it behaves strangely.
When connecting display for the first time, it works OK. But resolution is not display's native or refresh rate is low (not what display supports).
When I try to change it, display goes into infinite restart loop (not MacBook, but display itself), it looks like display being disconnected and connected again over and over. It shows black screen, but Windows desktop scaling changes, MacBook screen blinks endlessly once per 5-7 seconds. If I disconnect HDMI cable, blinking stops and I can use computer.
My first clue was Apple adapter not supporting any OS except macOS (I want to use Windows and Ubuntu Linux), but I didn't find any information on this, so I ask here.
Did anyone try using USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter with Windows or Ubuntu?
Does it work with Windows or Ubuntu?


texts: How can I type the pound/hash (#) symbol on a British keyboard when in Terminal?

texts:
I have 'Use option key as meta' set in Terminal keyboard settings.

The 3 key makes the British pound symbol (£) when I tap it with SHIFT. This is a cruel joke. I want the real pound symbol (#).

How do type # in Terminal? If there's a way to swap # and £ then I'm in good shape. I use the Terminal for coding, and probably never need to type £ in Terminal.


texts: Can I use an old iPhone as a wifi-only device?

texts:
I have an AT&T (GSM) iPhone 4. If I were to upgrade to an iPhone 5, could I simply pop the SIM out of my iPhone 4 and continue using it on wifi only?

Would I also need to get the SIM deactivated since an iPhone 5 would come with its own SIM?


texts: I have a 13 inch mac pro running 10.6. I recently got a hp cp2025n. Is there a way to create a black and white printing profile. I am using the postscript driver.  I print a lot of pages and and prefer to print in black and white duplex to save pages and toner. How do I create a black and white print profile?


texts: Can I pause the Mountain Lion download and resume it later?

texts:
My internet service provider has its own broadband portal and the session lasts only 12 hours after which I need to relogin.  While relogging the download of the Mountain Lion gets interrupted because the connection resets.

I'd like to take my Mac to my friend's house for increased net speed. Will the download be resumed or do I have to start downloading all the way from the beginning?


texts: Disable "do you want to allow downloads from" prompt in Safari

texts:
Since Catalina, Safari has been prompting me

  Do you want to allow downloads from example.com?

Every time I try to download something.

How do I completely disable this prompt?


texts: Monitor data usage on iPhone connected to WiFi

texts:
My iPhone seems to download huge amounts of data according to Google WiFi stats. The last 30 days this was almost 1TB:

I can't pinpoint it to 1 specific app, my Photos library is only about 350 GB, so that couldn't be it for instance. Is there any app or tool that lets me monitor the actual endpoints my phone is connecting to? (like a custom VPN that passes trough all data but just keeps logs of the domains)


texts: My password is not working in System Preferences unlock prompt

texts:
I keep getting this prompt when I try to install a app or anything:

Usually I just enter the password and everything is fine (before the username field would be filled). Now it is not accpeting my password. Since I use the same password for iCloud I changed the password and enter the new password but it is still not working.


texts:
I have an iMac running OSX Lion. I also installed bootcamp and Windows 7. During the install of Windows 7 I wasn't paying complete attention and deleted and formatted the EFI partition.

I didn't really realise the significance of this as the machine continued to work fine, booting both into Windows and OSX.

I did notice that the EFI firmware updates failed to install, but paid this no mind.

However now I want to install Mountain Lion and there's a whole heap of trouble. Mountain Lion won't install without a valid EFI partition.

Here's my partition table.

   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                  Apple_HFS EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            799.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                200.3 GB   disk0s4

As you can see I've had a go at fixing the EFI partition with the following command:

newfs_hfs -v EFI /dev/disk0s1

This didn't seem to create the correct type of partition, it created an Apple_HFS instead of EFI.

My question is (without formatting the disk) how do I create an EFI partition?

Thanks
Rich


texts: Is it possible to reset FileVault password in recovery mode?

texts: I have problems with my startup volume, and it's encrypted with FileVault. I don't remember the pasword, but have the recovery key. Is it possible to reset the password?


texts: How do I remove or delete an @me.com email?

texts:
I currently have 2 Apple IDs, one that uses my Gmail account and I have been using this one for a while now, this is the one I want to keep.

When iCloud came out, I registered an @me.com email for free to reserve my name. But when I did this it registered a separate Apple ID rather then attach to my other Apple ID.

This is ridiculously frustrating, all I want to do is remove or delete one of my Apple IDs or @me.com email to make it available to my original Gmail account.

How would I do this? I don't see anywhere allowing you to delete your account.


texts: zsh: Can't set DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH in ~/.zshenv to get ImageMagick working under MacOS Catalina

texts:
Goal: Install ImageMagick on my iMac 27" 2017 running Catalina 10.15.3 (install failed under Homebrew). Plenty of RAM & disk space.

Second line below doesn't execute, so echo $MAGICK_HOME yields expected results but echo $DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH results in a nil value.

file ~/.zshenv:

export MAGICK_HOME="/usr/local/bin/ImageMagick-7.0.9/"
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="$MAGIC_HOME/lib/"


texts: External drive not detected on MBP until it's connected to a Windows machine first

texts:
I have a WD "MY Passport" 1 TB drive which I use for my TimeMachine backup on a 15" MacBook Pro (Mid 2014).

Sometimes, the mac will not detect when the drive is being connected (it's not showing in the disk utility either). Rebooting the mac does not help.

However, after some experimentations, I found out that if I connect the drive to a Windows machine, disconnect it and then connect it to the mac, it's detected and can be used with no issues (until the next time it's not detected).

This happened to me on another drive (a seagate drive) as well.

Anyone has any idea what's going on here?


texts: In TaskPaper, is it possible to remove the @due(date) tag from archived tasks marked @done?

texts:
As the question says. I've got some tasks that had a due date, with the tag looking like @due(2020-12-24). They are marked @done but still appear in the Today filter, and the date still appears in the tag tree below @due.
I would prefer not to have archived @done tasks appear in the Today filter or in the tree under @due, but I don't want to remove the tags manually. How best to achieve this?


texts: App downloaded from cousin's Apple ID is greyed out and cannot delete it from iTunes

texts:
My cousin downloaded an app for me on my iPad Air while using his Apple ID. I signed out of it, and logged into mine. I updated my device to iOS 10 after I had to temporarily delete apps due to low storage.

Bloons TD 5 was one of them, and after going to the home screen, it was greyed out and it said Waiting. I tried to delete it, but there was no X. By the way, my cousin never gives his Apple ID password to anyone, since it is his mom's Apple ID.

Apparently, I pressed the power button, and pressed it again. I went to the home screen, and it was greyed, but the name was showing. The X showed this time, and I pressed delete, however, it was still there. I tried going on my computer and deleting it from iTunes, but none of my apps were showing and iTunes wasn't able to check for updates, since it was looping.

I tried rebooting, but it changed to Waiting. I cannot reset because my parents put a restrictions passcode on my iPad Air even though I'm like 19. They won't tell me no matter what. It doesn't show in storage, and there isn't anyway of getting my cousin's Apple ID password, especially since he lives far away.


texts: Regain access to Apple ID traded away and 'returned'

texts: I was playing CoM (A game on the App Store that saves progress by Game Center), when this guy comes along and asks for an account trade. I agree because his account is awesome. So I trade, and he eventually gives me my Apple ID back and says that he takes the trade back. I try to log on but it said disabled for security reasons. I then panick because I put in a fake birthday for every thing that requires a birthday. I then make a new Apple ID with the same email and find that everything is gone including apps, progress and most importantly, iCloud.


texts: In Preview.app for macOS 10.13.3, how do I remove a tag from the drop-down menu and add additional colour tag, other than the few shown? I made a tag which I want to remove from the drop-down menu. Also, I wonder if it is possible to add custom colors to tags?


texts: How can I find the passphrase in the keychain after adding it with ssh-add -K

texts: I have added my ssh passphrase to my keychain with ssh-add -K option but I cannot seem to find it in the keychain. I have looked at login keychain and icloud keychain. I used the command line application security without luck. I even looked at every single entry in the login keychain to see which applications are allowed to read in case I stumble on ssh-agent. Any tips for finding it?


texts: App to stop ex calling outside of court ordered hour

texts: I have an abusive ex and we have a contact order for the children which allows him to call between 6.30-7.30 each day. However he continues to call all hours of the day and night. Is there an app to stop him calling outside of that hour? I’ve tried DND and bed time but doesn’t seem to work


texts: iMac 21.5 Core i3 mid 2010 SSD swap, is a bay required

texts: When swapping out the mechanical drive for an SSD in these machines, I've seen people put in a size-up caddy.  But is this needed - can I just gaffa tape the drive to the back or something?


texts:
I recently installed a dual-drive setup where I have an SSD and an HDD. I had installed the OS and Apps on the SSD, and other stuff stayed on HDD. Recently my battery died, and I have been using the laptop on power (taken the battery off) because of which it would experience sudden shut down (due to frequent power failure in my area)

Yesterday when I started the Mac, it loaded up a grey boot screen with a loading bar. The loading bar took about 10-15 minutes to complete and then the Mac shut down again. I restarted and same thing happened.

I then booted in Recovery Mode, and found out that the SSD Disk is showing up fine (Verified). However, the partition on it is greyed out and the Disk Utility can't seem to repair it.

I want to know what I should do now (will most likely re-install OS X), and if the problem is with the SSD or is it just that something went corrupt (at the OS level) on the partition?

OS X Mountain Lion, SSD: 128 GB Samsung Evo, MacBook Pro 13" Early 2011 Model

Thanks!


texts:
I have a satnav device which the TomTom Home software does not recognise since it was updated. The TomTom help instructed me to download a folder and copy it to the root directory of my Mac. Using Cmd-G shows me the root directory but does not allow me to copy the folder into it.

How do I copy this folder into my root directory? (I'm running El Capitan.)


texts: How can I create an iCal alarm that doesn't get synced to all my computers?

texts:
I want to run an Automator script every three weeks that sends an email. I know how to create an alarm in iCal to run the automator script that sends the email. The problem is that the iCal event gets synced to all three of my Macs and they all try to run the script. The script only exists on one of the computers so I get error messages on the other two.

How can I create an event in iCal that doesn't get synced to all my Macs?


texts:
The Apple ID account servicing page makes provision for changing the email address associated with an account. Not just the "contactable at" address, but changing the primary address, using the option "Change Apple ID".
I want to do this for my five-year-old son's Apple ID - change it from the existing hisname@icloud.com to a Google Account hisname@gmail.com.
I have already added hisname@gmail.com against "Contactable At".
When I begin to change the primary address, I see the following pop-up, as expected (since I am the parent of the account-holder)...

The only problem is, that consent notice is never sent. Rather, the input form just updates to display the following error in red, including the bold HTML tags...

Could not send request to Robert.
Your Apple ID change request could not be sent at this time.

As a test, I have attempted to change the Apple ID address to test@mydomain.com (I can use any wildcard prefix at my domain). That time, the consent verification WAS successfully sent.
So, why won't Apple accept hisname@gmail.com?


texts:
I need a text editor on mac that could open arbitrary file and show its content.

Edit: I dont want to "decode" the files, I just want to read them byte by byte, as they are sitting on the filesystem, just like fopen() in c. (No parsing!) Is there any editor that can do that?

For example, I want to open "test.pages" file, because I am curious. Textedit denied to open it, textWrangler opened it in disk browser. TextMate did open it , showing first 2 characters as PK, (which i understand as a packed file), but it showed lots of special characters as white spaces, which is not acceptable.

Notepad (or any XYZ editor on windows) could open arbitrary files, without ever complaining about "format".


texts: PDF page manipulation, from 2 page per sheet to one page per sheet automatically

texts:
I have a PDF with following pattern:

I need to transform automatically each page of this PDF into two distinct pages, as follows:

and

So, if I had a PDF with 12 pages (2 slides for each page) I will expect a new PDF with 24 pages (1 slide for each page).

How do I can do that?

Please note that: this question is quite similar to this (yet correctly answered) but with a difference: this operation should be automated. How to do that very quickly with huge PDFs?


texts:
When I download macOS Mojave via

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 10.14.6

I get build 18G101, whose hashes are not listed here. So, what are the dmg hashes for this build number?

EDIT: looks like the Mac App Store download the same build.


texts: Dimensions as criteria for iPhoto smart album?

texts:
In iPhoto '11 (latest version, on Mac OS Lion), can I make a smart album for all photos of a certain size (e.g. 960x640)? Can I make a smart album containing photos of multiple sizes?

EDIT

I answered my own question. See my answer below. Yes, it's possible.


texts: How do I delete my number from iMessage on send and receive from my iMac?

texts: When I go to settings, iMessage does not show up under anything and I cannot access iMessage settings straight from the iMessage icon.


texts: How to permanently deny accessibility permission? App keeps asking!

texts:
Some apps ask for accessibility permission every time they start. It's annoying to have to click "deny" every time.

How can we make this choice permanent?


texts: Create a command to focus a specific window from anywhere in OS

texts:
While developing for the web I tend to jump back and forth between my text editor and the browser a lot. I'd like to set a keyboard shortcut at the OS level that allows me to jump to a specific, definable window every time. Even better would be the ability to issue a tell that application to execute something, but I'll save that for later.

Are there technologies available that will let me do this? There must be something between C and AppleScript that let's me create this kind of an interaction. Does anybody know where to begin?

Thanks.


texts: Is "keyboard paint wear on screen" a real thing?

texts:
I'm in the process of trying to sell my Macbook Pro (15-inch w/ touch bar, 2018). I found a buyer who gave me a decent offer. I sent the computer to them and upon inspection, said that, and I quote:

  "We have found keyboard paint wear on the screen. This occurs when the
  screen is still rather hot, and closed. When the keyboard and the
  screen meets, it causes the screen to wear/burn-in in the shape of the
  keyboard, thus, leaving a keyboard like imprint on the screen."

As a result, they want to drop the offering price by $150, which seems steep to me.

Now it's true that I've seen keyboard imprints appear on my screen sometimes after lots of use + travel, but I've always been able to wipe them off with some solution and a cloth. I've never heard of "keyboard paint wear", nor can I find anything about it anywhere online.

So I can consider if this an actual problem that they're describing, I’d like to ask: is “keyboard paint wear on a screen” a real thing?


texts:
I recently upgraded to Catalina (from El Capitan, which I've been using for years). Unfortunately, I'm now having a series of problems with apps crashing. I may have resolved this one by fixing the permissions on my startup disk ("first aid" in Disk Utility), but now I have another. This may or may not be another manifestation of the same issue.
This is affecting at least Google Chrome and Safari, but at least some other apps seem to be okay. As far as I know it only started today, after I fixed the permissions. I can reproduce it in two ways.
First way:

Start either Google Chrome or Safari
Navigate to any page
Select File -> Save As, or just press CMD-S

Second way:

Start Google Chrome (this one doesn't affect Safari)
Enter any text, either in the address bar or in a form field
Press CMD-A, which should select all the text that was entered

In either case the application immediately stops responding and needs to be force quit.
In the Console app there are a ton of messages coming up all the time, even in the "Errors and Faults" tab. There doesn't seem to be anything that comes up specifically at the moment the crash happens, though, and very few messages directly related to Chrome or Safari. These ones are coming up all the time though (several times a second at some points).

This is honestly a bit of a nightmare, and I'd really appreciate any ideas about what to try.


texts: No search results in the Contacts app on IOS 9

texts:
On my iPhone 6 running IOS 9.1 (release 13B143), I cannot find any results when searching in either the Contacts app or in the Contacts tab in the Phone app. I have hundreds of contacts, but no matter what letter I type in the search field, I get no results. Example:

But before I started typing, I could see dozens of contacts with last names starting with "A". This is a new problem; everything was working until a week or so ago, when I first noticed this issue.

Note: this is not the same as the many questions about Spotlight search not finding contacts, such as this one. Spotlight actually does find my contacts. So do the Messages app and the "Invitees" pane in the Calendar app. The Contacts and Phone apps, however, do not.

How can I fix this?


texts: Decrypt Filevault on a (removed) startup disk

texts:
I had a hardware issue with my old Macbook Pro which required me to remove the boot drive. I have attached it via USB to a new Macbook and can unlock and mount it, etc. However I don't see anyway of permanently decrypting the drive. Is this possible? I can see the drive in Finder, but it doesn't have any context options to decrypt.

I need to do this as the disk is in a strange state where the OS is half re-installed (it won't complete, keeps giving weird errors about "Installer resources not found" etc) - However as I haven't erased, removed any partitions or deleted anything explicitly I'm hoping that file recovery software will get my data back, but this relies on it being unencrypted. Any other solutions would also be welcomed!


texts: Remove characters preceding the second underscore in file names

texts:
I have a bunch of files and I would like to remove all characters preceding the second underscore in the file names. An example is shown below. How do I do this using bash commands?

[From]

021_D05_53715-F.ab1
021_D06_53936-F.ab1
022_C06_53935-F.ab1
030_C08_53993-F.ab1
048_A12_54057-F.ab1

[To]

53715-F.ab1
53936-F.ab1
53935-F.ab1
53993-F.ab1
54057-F.ab1


texts:
So, I've been a Mac user for about seven or so months now. And one thing I've been wondering is how to fully remove an application..
I know a lot of times applications leave extra junk on your computer; and, deleting the app from the applications directory doesn't fully remove it. I'm just wondering how I can 'search for and destroy' the files the apps leave behind.


texts: If I store music in CloudDrive, can I play it in somehow?

texts: I do not realy like this iTunes syncronization, connect device with cabel, start iTunes, .. too complicate. Can I sync and play music via CloudDrive?


texts: How can I preserve the battery cycles on my MacBook Air?

texts:
I recently got my MacBook Air, and the battery cycles is already at 12. Is this good/average? I don't know if I am not charging it properly or something, because I don't want to ruin my battery in the first year of having it.

Earlier today, I didn't even run the battery all the way down to 0% (it went down to 6%) and then I charged it up to 94%, and the battery cycle count has increased to 12, but that is not a full cycle, or is it? I'm confused about this whole battery cycle thing, because I'm used to a desktop and not worrying about batteries.

So, how can I preserve the battery cycles and not use as much cycles in a week? Maybe I am charging it too much or something?


texts: How to conference call with FaceTime audio?

texts:
I'm trying to do a 3-way call on my iPhone with two friends who both are running iOS 9 (as am I).

I click the "add" button while in a call with one person and whenever I click their name or click the call button it instead hangs up my original call and calls the new person.

As per this source, it should be possible as of iOS 8. Can anyone provide some insight?


texts: Forgot password to FileVault. Still got access to the machine

texts:
I just realized, that few months ago I converted my disk to FileVault. I am afraid of loosing access to my data. I still have access to the machine: login, password, administrator account.

Is there something I can do to protect myself against loosing data? Like burning the key-cd in Windows?


texts: MacBook slow on boot since booting from external disk

texts:
My MacBook Pro 2017 was lightning fast at startup, then I installed macOS High Sierra on an external disk and tried to boot my mac from that disk. Everything fine.

Now whenever I boot my Mac normally (without even having the disk connected) it gets stuck at the grey screen before the Apple logo for a lot of time, like 5–6 seconds, something that never happened before.

It looks like it is spending time deciding which disk to boot, even though there is only the Macintosh HD. Is there a way to fix this?


texts:
Does Google have an iPhone app that supports Googel Talk \ Gmail chat?

Google says:

  No need to download or install anything. Start chatting from your
  iPhone's browser at: http://www.google.com/talk

However for me that link doesn't give chat, but redirects to a help page...


texts: MacBook HD "Other" all of a sudden almost full

texts: As you can see in the below image, my HD "Other" category is almost full. A couple of days ago, I randomly kept getting a popup saying that my disk was almost full. Then I went in and noticed the issue in the image. I ran the repair disk utility and got all my software up to date, to no avail. Haven't found any help on Google. Any ideas?


texts: The mail app in OS X 10.11.1 seems to have a bug which I would really like to fix because it is annoying. Sometimes when the main interface windows is minimized in the dock, it will maximize itself for no apparent reason. I think it might do this when it checks for mail or something because when it maximizes, the "offline" symbol appears next to various mail accounts. Why is this happening? How can I fix it?


texts: Using Automator to change the creation date of a folder in Mojave

texts:
I work as a freelance designer and I have set up an automator app to generate a standard folder structure so that source files are kept in source folder, output folders are in output folder etc. all within my ongoing jobs folder
I use labels a lot and so I have a template folder set up that has the labels I need and the workflow duplicates the template structure and puts it into my jobs folder. I find it easier to search on labels as I can drill down into the specifics with saved searches
The issue I have is that the creation date is always the same as when I first set up that folder so I can't do "sort by creation date" to organise the files and date added only seems to work sometimes.
I have found the terminal command "SetFile -d" and I understand I should be able to run a shell script to run that command, which works if I do it manually in the terminal
But I'm stuck on the syntax for the shell script so that runs script has the file I am working on and today's date and time
Does anyone have any idea how I might accomplish this?
I was thinking along the lines of a folder action that changes the creation date of the folder once it is added to the folder
Any help gratefully received


texts: Access photos from Google Photos/Drive with iPad Air 2

texts:
I'm currently storing all my photos on Google Drive/Photos (auto-upload from Android, but also manual uploads of photos taken with various cameras). While I can sync Google Drive with my MBP and add the synced folder to the OSX Photos.app, this is not an option for my iPad Air 2, as disk space is much more limited there.

Is there any way to point the photos.app to Google Drive?


texts: Applescript error: "Connection is invalid" when app quits

texts:
I'm working on some code to check on the currently open tabs/windows in my installed web browsers, like so:

on checkbrowser()

    if application "Safari" is running then
        tell application "Safari"
            set windowList to (every window)
            # do some stuff
        end tell
    end if

end checkbrowser

repeat while 1 = 1
    checkbrowser()
end repeat

This works perfectly as long as Safari stays open. If Safari is ever closed while the script is running, I get this message:

  error "Safari got an error: Connection is invalid." number -609

The problem is something to do with (every window). If Safari quits, shouldn't the if statement prevent the script from even going to that line of the code? But that is where it throws the error.

Any ideas? Thanks!

--
Edit: Found the solution here.


texts:
I am getting the "disk full" error message and my computer is running painfully slow. When I run OmniDiskSweeper to find out the culprit it shows that I have over 800GB in "Backups" most of them are incremental backups. This is weird because I have Time Machine turned off and use a Mozy for my back ups. Can I simply delete the incremental backups? I tried running the disable script in Terminal but it didn't do anything.

I have an iMac and run osx, verstion 10.7.5

Any insight would be greatly appreciates. Thanks!


texts: IOS 12.1.1 won't sync contacts to google

texts:
I am trying to push all of my iPhone contacts into my Google contacts in preparation for dumping my iPhone. IOS 12.1.1 is different than all previous versions in this respect.

Here's my current settings:

Settings->Accounts->Gmail : Contacts is turned on. Shows my google account.
Settings->Accounts->Fetch New Data: Gmail show Fetch, Every 15 minutes.
Settings->Accounts->Passwords: Shows correct password for my google account.
Account->Advanced: Use SSL turned on. Server Port 993.
Verified that I can log into my google account from Safari.

My iPhone contacts shows 220 contacts. My google contacts shows 144 contacts. Google is missing everything manually entered into my iPhone this year.

I also tried iTunes, syncing to Windows Contacts. It picked up only 76 of the 220 contacts. Also tried iCloud. That picked up the same 76. If I put together what Google shows with the iCloud/Windows Contacts, I think all 220 contacts shown on the iPhone are there.

Exasperated.

TIA.


texts: How to add iPhone to my product list if it's already registered to another apple ID?

texts: How to add my telephone serial number, if it's already registered on another ID? I got this phone in exchange for my broken previous one in tech. service, so I think that it was used by someone and registered early.


texts: Disabling iCloud Drive sync on specific Wifi networks

texts: Is there a way to do this ? I have disabled iCloud Drive for certain directories by adding .nosync to it's name but this situation is different. Maybe using monitoring the wifi network SSID and launching a custom command.


texts:
I am downloading some iTunes U content in iTunes and am getting

stopped (err = -3259)

on a number of the downloads.  I was hoping to find a list of err codes, but no luck.  Found a lot of forum posts for other error numbers, but not that one.

Any help?


texts: How to disable iterm2 rectangular selection?

texts:
In MacOS iterm2
Option + Cmd: Make a rectangular selection.

how to disable this shortcut? many thanks!


texts: How do I open a profile in iTerm2 in the current window?

texts: I don't want to open the profile in a new tab, a new window, nor do I want to split horizontally or vertically-- I just want the command tied to my profile to run.


texts: How to draw a curved arrow in Keynote 09?

texts: I don't find how to draw a curved arrow in a Keynote'09 presentation... I'm sure is really before my eyes but .....


texts: My Macbook Air is randomly restarting — a real problem when I have it set up to give a presentation, and walk to the stage to find it back at the login screen. How can I diagnose the cause?


texts: Updating a MacPro from Snow Leopard to Mavericks

texts: I have Snow Leopard installed on an old MacPro. I want to upgrade to Mavericks.  When I go to AppStore-->Mavericks and click on the download button nothing happens.  Do I need to install the intermediate releases (Lion and Mountain Lion - I think).  If so, what is the process?


texts: .cshrc got empitied, aliases are loaded in opened terminal, how to retrieve them?

texts: accidentally my .cshrc file got deleted, which had many aliases. I have terminal tab opened in my linux machine, which has all these aliases loaded in it. How can i retrieve it so that i could write them back to .cshrc file and get it back?


texts: Unstable ping to router on MacBook Pro 2018

texts:
I recently bought a MacBook Pro 2018, and I am experiencing an unstable connection. I mainly notice it when I am trying to play games, as spikes in latency is less notable within a browser, for instance. So the problem seems to be that the latency to my router spikes once every second or so. Here is an example of pinging my router every 200ms.

64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=35 ttl=64 time=101.689 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=36 ttl=64 time=2.839 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=37 ttl=64 time=83.216 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=38 ttl=64 time=2.965 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=39 ttl=64 time=3.788 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=40 ttl=64 time=137.253 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=41 ttl=64 time=2.679 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=42 ttl=64 time=2.925 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=43 ttl=64 time=17.099 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=44 ttl=64 time=3.308 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=45 ttl=64 time=163.689 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=46 ttl=64 time=3.797 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=47 ttl=64 time=3.681 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=48 ttl=64 time=3.319 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=49 ttl=64 time=22.506 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=50 ttl=64 time=190.864 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=51 ttl=64 time=4.533 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=52 ttl=64 time=3.480 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=53 ttl=64 time=3.927 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=54 ttl=64 time=3.422 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=55 ttl=64 time=221.810 ms

As you can see, the pings are all over the place, and this behavior is consistent. On the contrary, if I perform the same test on my MacBook Pro 2011 on the same network, all pings are ~2.5ms consistently, so this Mac doesn't have this issue at all. I am using WiFi, but I am literally next to the router, so the connection is strong. And like I said, the issue doesn't appear on other devices, so I don't think the router/network is to blame. I looked at other wireless networks around, and there are not that many, so network congestion (or whatever it's called) shouldn't be the issue; also because it works on other devices. I have also performed the same test on a different network at another physical location, and the results are the same.

I have tried turning off "Wake for Wi-Fi network access" in the Energy Saver preferences, but that didn't make any difference.

I should mention that this happens even when I close all applications I have running, and I see nothing suspicious within the Activity Monitor.

Any ideas what could be causing this, or ideas as to what I should do from here to further debug the issue? Thanks!


texts:
Most of my songs on my iPhone are ripped from CDs.
In this case, song information like artist name are typed by myself, saved and synced well to my iPhone through iTunes but some cases, the information is automatically changed then saved.
I'm perfectly sure it's the songs from artists that i've purchased from iTunes before.

For example, if I ripped songs then put the artist name with all capitalized like "KING CRIMSON", and sync to my iPhone, it shows me the exact same artist name.

But if the songs were from artist that I purchased before from iTunes, then the artist name capitalized is changed as uppercase remained only on first letter automatically during sync process (e.g., "BEATLES" → "Beatles")

The point is that even songs ripped, not purchased from iTunes are changed, too if the artist's songs were once purchased before.

See screenshots below—first one is song information ripped from CD (you can see artist name all capitalized) and second one is captured image from my iPhone (artist name automatically changed)

Can anyone help me with how to fix the uppercased artist name?


texts: How to insert a section break in a Pages '09 Page Layout document?

texts:
I have a Page Layout document. I need to remove the header and page numbering from the title page. So, I want to insert a section break after the title page. The problem is, I cannot do that. No matter where I click in the document - page one, page two, a textbox/shape/outside of them on page one or two, when I click the Insert menu -> "Section Break" is greyed out.

I searched everywhere, but I constantly stumble to threads where people discuss how to remove headers/pages numbers from the first page rather than how to actually insert the section break. I think the problem might be that I use Page Layout and not Word Processor, but I am not sure. Any help would be appreciated.


texts: Unable to add Exchange 2010 account to Outlook 2011

texts:
I have a user who is trying to setup Outlook 2011 with his Exchange 2010 mailbox/account. When entering the details for the account Outlook 'freezes'.

This is the window it freezes at.

I have tried different accounts on the same server and they don't work either. This is a fresh install of Office 2011 that is up-to-date with the latest patches. The OS is Lion that is also up-to-date.

There are other Macs on the same network that can connect add the same account into Outlook, seems to be just this Mac facing the problem.

Thanks.


texts: Disable Cloud/Download Podcasts in iOS 11

texts:
I sync an iPod Touch with the latest iOS (11.2.2) to the latest iTunes (12.7.2.60) on Windows 10.

I download and delete podcasts manually in iTunes. I have podcast playlists in iTunes, but since Apple removed podcast playlists from recent versions of iOS, these are not available on the Touch.

I have determined that setting up a Station on the Touch to play all available (downloaded) episodes from oldest to newest will replicate the playlist functionality. However, the Touch includes duplicates of many podcasts, with a Cloud icon next to them, which interferes with the playlist. All the podcasts I have downloaded in iTunes are synced to the Touch and these are the ones I want to play. I don't want to or need to download anything on the Touch directly ever.

Short of regularly having to manually delete each "Cloud" podcast for every subscription, is there a way to completely disable the podcast Cloud/download functionality in iOS?

Edit: There seems to be an inconsistency between podcast subscriptions in iTunes and the Touch. Podcasts I have unsubscribed from and deleted in iTunes still appear as subscribed on the Touch and the subscribed/unsubscribed status of some podcasts differs between iTunes and the Touch. Possibly the Touch maintains its own list of subscribed podcasts?


texts: How to convert a RAW 16-bit audio file to something else on Mac?

texts: I plan to write a little program that will output a RAW audio file  let me convert RAW audio format files to WAV or AU or anything else?


texts:
I have a 2006 MacBook (white, Core Duo) on which the hard disk crashed (it's not even recognized by the system anymore).

I will need to replace the hard disk, possibly with an SSD one, but since I was still running Tiger I figured out it's probably as good a time as any to upgrade that as well.

However, when Snow Leopard was introduced, I seem to remember the cheaper upgrade disk required Leopard to be installed. Nowadays, it seems only that disk is available from Apple, and it doesn't really specify Leopard as a requirement. I don't see a "full install" disk any more (and to be honest I'm not sure I want to pay that price either.)

Did Apple change this requirement because they don't care as much about older versions any longer, or is it still there, but undocumented?

Will I be able to install Snow Leopard from scratch on a new, blank, disk, without having any copy of Leopard whatsoever? Would it be legal?


texts: What would happen if I deleted AdSheet.app and iAdOptOut.app (iOS)

texts: I have an iPhone 6s, jailbroken running iOS 10.3.3. In /Applications/, there are two apps, one named AdSheet and the other names iAdOptOut. What would happen if I deleted these with terminal? Would I no longer get adds?


texts: Transfer MKV files to iPhone using Airdrop on iOS 13 & iOS 14

texts:
For some time I've beeing using PlayerXtreme in order to watch mkv videos on my iPhone 8 and I was able to drop them into it from my MBP using Airdrop.
But since iOS 13, my iPhone doesn't wants to save mkv anymore and claims that I need to download an app to read them:

Similar to this question : Transfer MKV files to VLC player on iPhone using Airdrop
How can I save mkv files on my app using Airdrop ?
Note: I'm still able to save them using USB. I tried with KMPlayer, Infuse, VLC and the issue is the same. I'm on iOS 14.3 & macOS 11.2.3
Since iOS 13.4 I manage to use Airdrop to share avi & mp4, but mkv still have the issue


texts:
How would I get a listing of all the time zones that Apple has on macOS. For example:

Pacific Daylight Time
Central European Standard Time
etc.


texts: Set delay before an e-mail is marked as read in iPad Mail

texts: In iPad Mail app, as soon as an e-mail is displayed it is marked as read. Is it possible to set a delay (e.g. 5 seconds) before it is marked as read?


texts:
My user name does not appear on the login screen. There are two users and only one is shown.

Is there any way to see the other user or some user name input box instead of selection?


texts: Is it possible to open 2 different instances of Chrome with different tabs open?

texts:
I want to be able to open Chrome on my Mac, and have 2 instances open, each with different tabs.

Is this possible on OS X?

I know on Windows I could do this with Desktop shortcuts.


texts: iOS 11: How to change DNS settings for cellular/mobile data?

texts:
Is it possible to change DNS for cellular internet? How can it be done without a jailbreak?

I've tried Apple Configurator, but didn't find suitable settings.


texts: How does a Mac's Screen Sharing service work?

texts:
What components does it have and how do they work? What protocols are supported? What I only know of is it is compatible with VNC (as a client and as a host).

I'm interested in knowing more technical details and play around with them.


texts: How to change key mapping behavior of macvim

texts:
In Ubuntu, if I hit Shift + Alt + A while in insert mode, it moves the cursor to the end of the line and stays in insert mode. Shift + Alt + I does the same for moving to the beginning of the line.

But in macvim, Shift + Alt + A produces this character: Å, and Shift + Alt + I produces a carat ^.

I would very much like to keep the vim key mapping behavior consistent between my Mac, and my Ubuntu machine at work, but I can't figure out how to do so.

Is there a way I can make vim clobber any of Mac's keybindings so that they remain purely vim keybindings? Note that the above key combination does the same thing even in this input field, so it seems this is a global thing in Mac that I would like to disable if possible.


texts: Find the exact Build Number of a specific Mac OS X update from the command line

texts:
How do I find the System Build Number or I guess it is called just the Build Number (example 18A391 or  18G87 or 18G5033 or etc. etc.) for a specific Mac OS X updates? Not upgrade, just the regular updates. Examples: Supplemental or Security or Combo or Safari, etc. etc.
I am aware of thousands of blogs and websites that published those type of informations, but let's do a practical example:
Step #1
I download this specific dmg file (Security Update 2020-006 (Mojave)) from: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2062?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Step #2
I mount the dmg file and I extract the pkg file.
Now, I do believe that the pkg file that I just extracted from the dmg file it is some sort of xar archive file, so my question is:
using the command line, how do I unzip the xar archive file and after I unzip the archive, what specific plist file I am looking for in order to find out the exact Build Number of this specific Security Update 2020-006 update?
Thank you


texts: App Submission: Where do I put my EULA (End User License Agreement)?

texts:
My video chat app submission recently got rejected, and these are the reasons they listed:

  We encourage you to review your app concept and remove the functionality that randomly connects users. Users must be identifiable with a profile and have the ability to initiate and accept chat requests from other users. It is also necessary that you put all of the following precautions in place:

  Require that users agree to terms (EULA); these terms must make it clear that there is no tolerance for objectionable content or abusive users
  A method for filtering objectionable content
  A mechanism for users to flag objectionable content
  A mechanism for users to block abusive users
  The developer must act on objectionable content reports within 24 hours by removing the content and ejecting the user who provided the offending content

My question is, I thought every app uses Apple's EULA by default, so what is the first stipulation about (or is that just a reminder?)?

I downloaded a similar app called Cha Cha, which doesn't force the user to "Agree" to the EULA, I also downloaded another app called Cake, which does have the EULA when you sign up.

Should setting it to Apple's EULA good enough? If not, would putting a link to it in the description suffice?


texts:
I have been running Time Machine for about 10 months with no problems. Now when I try to enter time machine, nothing happens. Just like in other posts I have read. I run Lion with no apparent problems and the backups work fine as I can see them in Finder and access the files there. The problem is that clicking to enter Time Machine does nothing, with no error or anything.

Any ideas? My backup is to a USB-connected dedicated 1 TB hard drive.


texts: How can Tor Browser Bundle for OS X access my keychain?

texts: I would like Tor Browser Bundle for OS X to work with my keychain, so that after filling out logins and passwords on a website one time, I would never have to do it again later. This works with safari, but it doesn't with the Vidalia packed aurora (firefox) browser. What settings should I change?


texts: Why to I need to keep putting in my passwords after my Mac sleeps?

texts: I have several email accounts, and I keep having to put in the email passwords, my login details and my system passwords! I think it happens when my Mac has slept - overnight etc? Help!!?


texts: Why doesn't Numbers remember my last cell position?

texts:
For latest release of Numbers for iPad, it seems that it doesn't remember the active cell when I close the spreadsheet.

I have spreadsheets with many (several hundred) rows and in previous releases, when I close and then re-open the sheet, it would remember what cell I had been in and display at that point again.

Now, every time I close and re-open the sheet, it displays a cell somewhere near the top of the sheet and I then have to swipe loads of times to get back to the bottom where I want to add a new row.

Has anyone else noticed this behavior and do you have a solution?

Many thanks


texts: Can't adjust gamma in some old Windows games, the picture is too dark

texts:
I wanted to play F.E.A.R. (2005) on my 15" retina MacBook Pro mid 2012 (GeForce 650M videocard + Intel HD4000 integrated one). I've got Windows 10 installed via Bootcamp (macOS Sierra 10.12.5). I currently use default Bootcamp drivers.

The game menu looks OK, but when I launch the game itself (in Windows), the picture is too dark, I can't see a thing (I played this game before, and I know it isn't normal). Literally, I only can see light sources (lightbulbs, for instance), when I look directly at them, but nothing else.

Adjusting gamma in the settings doesn't help: when I move the gamma slider, the picture doesn't change (and it's supposed to, since there's a preview underneath the slider).

This is the second game I run into this problem with, the first being "S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky" (which I ran using Wine, not Bootcamp). The interesting thing is that the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. works perfectly well (Wine as well).

I already disabled "Adaptive brightness" as recommended in this question: MBP Boot Camp Windows 8 brightness issue, and it didn't help, unfortunately.

Does anybody know any way around this problem?

UPDATE: I can adjust the brightness in FEAR if the game is run using Wine, but I'd like to solve the problem in Bootcamp.


texts: How can I “Open an app from an unidentified developer” without using the GUI?

texts:
Basically, I used the native Safari.app web browser to download a third party application and I want to run / open it from the comfort of my bash shell / Terminal.app CLI; despite the following error message:

“<unidentified_thirdparty.app>” can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified
 developer. Your security preferences allow installation of only apps from the Mac
 App Store and identified developers. Safari downloaded this file on <today's_date>
 from <the.inter.net>.
                                          |[OK]|


texts:
I have a hard drive from a 2012 macbook pro that no longer boots.  I don't really care about booting from it but I want to copy the files of it.  When I plug it in with my SATA-USB rig.  It seems to know some things about it but won't show me the files.  From browsing help sites I see that knowledgeable people want to see certain info like:

Peter-MacBook:~ peterdeklerk$ sudo gpt -r show disk2
Password:
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2          4         Pri GPT table
          6  122096635
  122096641          4         Sec GPT table
  122096645          1         Sec GPT header

and

Peter-MacBook:~ peterdeklerk$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage Macintosh HD            499.6 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Mountain Lion HD        499.1 GB   disk0s4
   5:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s5

/dev/disk1 (internal, virtual):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Sierra HD              +499.2 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 3D5E3AC4-76A9-4FC7-BBD8-942BBBB4F035
                                 Unencrypted

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk2

Is there any hope for recovering these files?  I called one local data recover outfit and they want at least $500!

I would be grateful for any help


texts: Can I safely uninstall Adobe Bridge CS5/CS6? If so, how?

texts: It's packaged into every Adobe CS install I've ever done, and I never use it (directly?) so it's a waste of space for me. Can I kill it? (Will it cause any harm?) What's the best way to trash it?


texts: iTunes Connect: Find monthly retention of the app

texts:
In iTunes Connect, we can analyse the apps daily retention rate i.e.,
"The percentage of users that first installed the app on a given day and used it again in the following days."

We can also define retention rate as "The percentage of users that first used the app on a given day and used it again in the following days."

I want to find out the monthly retention rate of our app i.e., "The percentage of users that first installed/used the app in a given month and used it again in following months**."

I couldn't find a way to do this in iTunes Connect. Any suggestions would be appreciated.


texts:
I recently bought a new mac mini (my first mac ever yay) with a 1TB hard drive at 5,400 rpm. the guy at microcenter also sold me a 1TB hard drive at 7,200 rpm and said it shouldn't be to hard to replace. He said first I'd need to back up the OS to a usb thumb drive and then physically replace the hard drive and then some how get the OS onto the new hard drive.

So far I've found a few tutorials online on how to physically replace the hard drive but it seems like a lot more work than I anticipated (ie. http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+Mac+Mini+Late+2012+Hard+Drive+Replacement/11716/1). Although, it does seem like something I could do.

However, my main difficulty now is i'm having a very hard time finding any help online on how to 'back the OS up on a usb thumb drive' and how I should re-install it once I do put in the new hard drive. He mentioned using time machine but when I open time machine it doesn't give me any options to interact with the USB thumb drive.


texts: How does an app get to be featured in the App Store?

texts:
I have created an iOS Lifestyle app. In the App Store, under the Top Featured tab in the New column I was amazed to see my app listed there.

Is it organized by sales or Apple featured?


texts: Is there any way to run a PowerPC video game (Call Of Duty United Offensive) on Mavericks?

texts:
My MacBook is running Mavericks (10.9.5).

I dug out my old "Call Of Duty United Offensive" video game and thought I'd give it a whirl.

Turns out it's PowerPC based and Mavericks does not have Rosetta and will not run it.

Is there any easy and safe way to run this game on Mavericks?  Can Rosetta be installed from my old Snow Leopard disks?


texts:
I have old mac mini upgraded from 1,1 to 2,1 and CPU from T2300 to t7200. Now I have some troubles with my smcFanControl. It show than my temperature is 73-80 celsium when cpu is loaded.
Is it ok temp for this apparat???

Maybe i need install old macOSx? Now i have installed MacOSX Lion 10.7.5 ?


texts: How can I get 2560X1080 resolution on my LG 29UM58 monitor, connected to a Mac Mini?

texts:
I just bought the LG 29UM58 21:9. My computer is a Mac Mini late 2012 (i7 model) running OS X 10.11

The display preferences just shows 1920x1080 16:9 than then is stretched out to 2560x1080 21:9.

SwitchResX software doesn't work? (Crashes? Runs but doesn't offer other resolution choices?)

I use a Thunderbolt to HDMI adapter.

How can I configure better resolution choices (ideally 2560 X 1080) for my setup?


texts: Terminal: grep command usage with '[' character as target, not function

texts:
Im using the grep command In a simple script, the problem however Is that the string which the grep command Is searching for includes a square bracket character: [.

After some research, i have found that the square bracket [ character is in fact used as a function for optimising the grep commands output through a process called "pipelining" (Although don't quote me on It as Im not sure).

My Question:

How do I search for a string with a '[' character in it without invoking a pipelining function within grep?

Elaboration:

The script Is searching a system log for the string su[. This Is my current malfunctioning command: tail -1 system.log | grep " su[", however It will not work due to the square bracket at the end, returning the error: grep: brackets ([ ]) not balanced.

Thanks In Advance.


texts: Finding CodeBlocks that works or fixing bugs?

texts:
I am using Codeblocks to develop C++ code on OSX Mavericks. I am currently running into the problem where the software occasionally will crash and than continue to crash every time the software is started again. I know for this software package there is a bunch of different sources: code blocks pre built apt, mac port version, and I believe even a version you can download through svn or git hub which is the nightly build.

Additionally, I also have problems with the auto complete sometimes not working.

Can someone recommend a version that worked for them with a reasonable explanation on how to install it? Or, if you had similar issues with code blocks, how you went about fixing the bugs?

By the way I am using the pre built 32 bit apt from code blocks website.


texts: Not sure if these are Dead or Stuck pixels on my Retina Macbook Pro?

texts:
My laptop was fine just yesterday !! But today, I found this on my screen :

The unfocused image shows that the pixels are glowing in different colors. Shouldnt this indicate that there is some power going there and that it is not completely dead ?
I am not sure if this is a stuck or dead pixel. I tried JScreenFix and it didnt really work ... I tried pressuring/massaging the area with a cloth but that didnt do anything either.
Here is a video with different background colors :
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/695335/pixel.mov
You might want to pause at some frames to get whats going on.
What is this exactly ??
Is it a dead pixel ? Can I fix it ? I am in the middle of studies so I can't really send it back to Apple !! Plus I got modules installed for Python and it is a hassle to install them all again.

Update
Its a dead pixel, got it repaired at the Genius Bar :
Can I trust Apple Store's employees with my laptop?


texts: Any log in macOS to get the last usage of a Mac (logged in and the screen unlocked)?

texts:
I'll formulate this question that's been nagging me for a long time as best as I can.

OK, so...I'd like to know when was the last time the Mac was last used, meaning: what's the last time the mac was both logged in and the screen unlocked.
Thanks to AskDifferent, I managed to painfully get the last time the screen was locked, but this is tricky because the commands to look for change with each version of macOS, even with each incremental update.

So, I'm pretty sure that there has to be a log that can be easily searched for activity that is took place while the mac was both logged in and the screen unlocked.  So, any of that activity will tell me a very good approximation of the last usage of the machine.

The reason why I need this is basically that I work as a technician and we need to provide this information to some of our customers...

Also: I know how to get the last log-ins, last apps opened, etc, but this isn't good enough, as they may have been opened for days, even weeks.

Any help will be much appreciated. Thank you.


texts:
I want to make my computer more secure and a part of it I want to do with reconfiguring my PF firewall.

How can I reconfigure my PF.conf to be more secure?

I made a github repo where I posted my configuration.
My first github repo


texts: I got a new iPhone 4S, but I had upgraded my old iPhone 4 to iOS 5. On Wi-Fi, I get iMessages on both the phones. I want to receive them only on my 4S and not the 4.


texts: How many unlocked iPhones (no contract) can you buy from an Apple store?

texts: I'm planning on buying the iPhone 4S from the Apple store when it comes out next week (waiting in line in NYC shouldn't be too bad).  In the past, how many unlocked iPhones will they let you purchase at the Apple store?


texts: Automator service script ALWAYS launches application, disregarding conditional

texts:
I wrote a little service script to open an iTerm terminal window on an arbitrary folder on Finder.

I want it to check if iTerm is running, and if it is to open the terminal session in a new tab instead of on an existing one.

The script goes like this:

on run {input, parameters}

set cdPath to "cd " & (quoted form of POSIX path of (input as string))

if application "iTerm" is running then
    display notification "running"
    tell application "iTerm"
        set termWin to (current terminal)
        tell termWin
            launch session "Default"
            tell the last session
                write text cdPath
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
else
    display notification "not running"
    tell application "iTerm"
        activate
        set termWin2 to (current terminal)
        tell termWin2
            tell the last session
                write text cdPath
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end if
return input
end run

Problem is that when I run the script as a service, it will always behave as if iTerm was already running (displaying the "running" notification), even if iTerm is closed and very clearly NOT running.

But if I paste the same script to the Script Editor (setting cdPath to a literal, like set cdPath to "cd /etc") and execute it directly it will work correctly, either opening a new iTerm instance or reusing an existing one and creating a new tab, and display the corresponding notifications.

What's going on here? Why running the script as a service would detect the application as running no matter what?

Update

If I simplify the script to just displaying the notifications like this:

on run {input, parameters}

set cdPath to "cd " & (quoted form of POSIX path of (input as string))

  if application "iTerm" is running then
    display notification "running"
  else
    display notification "not running"
  end if
  return input
end run

It'll behave as expected (displaying 'running' or 'not running' accordingly).

But if I add the "tell application" part, it will always go the through "running" branch, no matter what.

E.g.:

on run {input, parameters}

set cdPath to "cd " & (quoted form of POSIX path of (input as string))

  if application "iTerm" is running then
    display notification "running"
  else
    display notification "not running"
    tell application "iTerm"
        activate
    end tell
  end if
  return input
end run

Will always open iTerm (even if the tell application "iTerm" it's on the "not running" branch, but display the "running" notification, from the "is running" branch... The mere presence of a "tell application" will trigger opening the app then the Service is run.

Is there a way to circumvent this?

Thanks and regards.


texts: Detect whether clipboard item is image data using AppleScript

texts:
This started because I wanted to be able to paste screenshots or pictures copied from Safari into Finder folders. Here are the steps to get to where I am:

Install pngpaste using brew install pngpaste.

Make Automator Quick Action, and configure as:

osascript -e 'set formattedDate to (do shell script "date +'%Y-%m-%dat%H-%M-%S%p'")' -e 'tell application "Finder" to set thePath to the quoted form of (POSIX path of (insertion location as alias) & formattedDate & ".png")' -e 'if ((clipboard info) as string) contains TIFF picture then do shell script "/usr/local/bin/pngpaste " & thePath' -e 'if ((clipboard info) as string) does not contain TIFF picture then tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using control down'

Save and close.
Remap default paste:

Assign default paste to trigger service:

THE ISSUE: No matter what type of file I have in my clipboard, the script always detects it as a TIFF and pastes it as a PNG. How do I fix this?


texts:
I just digged out my old Game Cube with a few controllers. Also, I found an adaptor on eBay which claimed to do this but is NOT Mac compatible.

Do you know how to connect them to my Mac?


texts: All apps wiped from jailbroken iPhone (iOS 7.0.4) after reboot from battery loss

texts:
Basically I have my iPhone w/ iOS 7.0.4 jailbroken using the latest evasion software.

I recently ran out of battery, and when I had managed to recharge and get my handset back on, all of my apps (apart from the stock apps that come with the phone) are all gone. No other data is missing, e.g , music, pictures and videos.

When I go to, settings, general, and usage. I can clearly see that my memory is still being taken up by all the apps I "had" on my phone (2.1gb free) yet the apps still aren't there. I'm usually good with tech, especially Apple. But this one has me stumped.


texts: Bootcamp won't start after resizing partition

texts:
My system is divided in two and shared using Boot Camp feature. Recently I needed more space on the Mac partition and whiled loaded only in the Windows partition, I have shrank my Windows partition by 10 Gb using Windows disk management tool.

Now I can no longer start up the Boot Camp bridge while in the Mac OS X side to access the Windows partition. I suspect the Boot Camp file no longer recognize this modified Windows partition.

Is there a quick to solve this issue without having to reinstall everything?


texts: VPN with mac mini reachable locally but not from the Internet

texts:
I have a Mac mini that I'm trying to make ssh-reachable when I'm in a coffeeshop outside on the Internet (How do I convert my mac mini into a remote server?) so I can run more computationally intensive tasks on it remotely.  I've set up a VPN using Strongswan and this tutorial: (configure Strongswan on Ubuntu) and can now connect to it from my other computer on my home network.  However, I can’t reach it from Internet with IPsec or ssh connection.

What am I missing? How do I fix it?