Mac-Os-X on Jackenhack

Search System Files in Finder Mac OS

Sun, 08 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Finding System Files in Finder

Don’t you hate it when you need to find a .plist settings file or any other file that is in one of the Mac OS system files folders? I do. So here is a little tip on how to do global system files search directly in the Finder.

MacOS How To Remove Purgeable on Hard Drive

Thu, 20 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Can’t Remove Purgeable Disk Space

Note: If you have MacOS High Sierra installed, you need this guide instead.

When trying to install Bootcamp on my MacBook Pro, I had to delete a lot of files to get enough space to be able to accommodate for a Bootcamp partition on the drive. But even after removing around 60 GB of storage, MacOS Sierra could still not make a large enough partition for Windows. When checking with Disk Utility, it showed that indeed I had enough space, but there was a part called Purgeable that was impossible to move. No tools from Apple are available to handle this, but here’s how I fixed it.

(not actually my disk, forgot to take a screenshot)

Use LTspice IV Windows Version on Mac OS X

Wed, 21 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Running LTspice IV on Mac OS X

Before I start testing a new idea for an electronic circuit and building it on a breadboard, I usually want to check it with LTspice. It’s a fantastic piece of software for testing almost any kind of component. Nearly all manufacturers have a spice equivalent for most of their parts. But there’s a snag. The Mac version of LTspice is a piece of crap. Having to run a virtual PC or reboot using BootCamp feels unnecessarily slow and convoluted. But there’s a way of running it as a “normal” Mac application. Here’s how to do it.

Arq Backup for Mac OS X Now Supports Google Cloud Storage Nearline

Thu, 19 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

There’s one thing that I fear when it comes to my storage and that is to lose all the pictures I’ve been taking for all these years. I have seen customers of mine that have lost all their images due to a hard disk crashing and seen the tears. I usually do my regular backup using TimeMachine on my Mac to an Apple Time Capsule. But my photo library in Adobe Lightroom is too big to fit on the SSD drive used in my MacBook Pro, and TimeMachine doesn’t do a backup of external drives. So I use rsync to make a backup to my NAS which uses RAID–1 for extra protection. But I don’t want to rely on a single backup. A fire, burglary or simple hardware failure makes me uneasy. So I also do an off-site backup using the excellent Arq backup program.

Faster WiFi Speed With Your Mac

Sun, 22 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Getting better speed over WiFi

Most people today have their computers, phones and media players connected via Wi-Fi. But is your wireless network operating at the highest rate? Well, there’s a couple of things you can do to increase both the reach and your connection speed with some simple configuration changes. Let’s see if we can improve your Wi-Fi speed.

Faster Web Browsing By Optimizing DNS

Thu, 19 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Here is an easy way to increase the speed of loading web pages by optimizing the DNS you are using when surfing the web. Everything you do on the internet will be affected by the speed of the Domain Name System you are using. So let’s try to make it faster.

Clearing the Icon Services cache in Yosemite

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

“furbo.org · Clearing the Icon Services cache in Yosemite”

After installing or updating a system to Yosemite, I have seen blank (missing) icons on several Macs. I have also seen cases where the desktop doesn’t get updated after a change to the document icons in the application itself (which happens as developers update their apps to use the new icon guidelines.)

Saving this link for later. Looks like a good thing to know.

Resetting Mac OS X Printing System

Sun, 11 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

How to Reset the Printing System in Mac OS X to Fix Annoying Printer Problems | OSXDaily

How to Reset the Printing System in Mac OS X to Fix Annoying Printer Problems

This little trick was new to me. Good to know.

Apple seeds OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 beta with focus on Wi-Fi, Mail and VoiceOver

Thu, 08 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

“Apple seeds OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 beta with focus on Wi-Fi, Mail and VoiceOver”

AppleInsider:

Apple on Wednesday issued a new beta build of its upcoming OS X 10.10.2 maintenance update, once again asking developers to focus on Wi-Fi, Mail and VoiceOver alongside general system compatibility testing.

I hope Apple manages to fix the Wi-Fi problem that I have with MacBook Airs since upgrading to Yosemite. Constantly dropped connection and the only solution to the problem? Turn off and then on the network again. The machines worked fine before upgrading and It’s very intermittent.

Yosemite Mac OSX wifi problems

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Mac OS X Yosemite was released 16th of October. Naturally I installed it on all my machines. My new work computer, a MacBook Air 13" worked perfectly before the upgrade, but after the installation I’ve had constant problem with Wi-Fi. No problems what so ever before upgrading, so obviously something is screwed up with Yosemite. My private machine, a mid-2014 MacBook Pro Retina has no problems at all.

When searching through Apples support forum, there’s a lot of similar stories (and also a lot of noise.) it’s incredible that Apple still haven’t fixed the problem, with the network connection going down every five minutes. The only fix is to turn of wifi and turn it back on again. Incredible…

Must-Have Mac Utilities

Wed, 29 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

[caption id=“attachment_3666” align=“aligncenter” width=“580”] Josep Ma. Rosell[/caption]

Great Utilities for Mac OS X

Here’s my list of applications I can’t live without on my Mac. It’s the first thing I install when setting up a new machine. Maybe you’ll find one you like?

MarsEdit 3 My New Blog Editor On my Mac

Sun, 26 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Using Marsedit 3

I’ve been dabbling around with different blog editors for Mac now for a while, trying to find one that suits my needs. I usually try to do most of my blogging on my iPad, but when writing on my Mac I’ve used Byword in combination with Marked2 to do the initial texts written in Markdown.

Airmail updated to version 2.0

Mon, 20 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Airmail 2.0

A new version of Airmail has been released in conjunction with the new version of Mac OS X called Yosemite. It’s been redesigned to match Apples new look of the operating system and I love it. I’ve written before on my switch from Apples Mail to Airmail and what I like about it, and now there’s more to love. Here’s a list of some of the new features in version 2.0:

Little Snitch 3 Privacy Monitor and Controller

Sun, 21 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Little Snitch 3 your network connection monitor

I have a couple of applications that I always install on a new Mac. Little Snitch 3 is one of them. They are the essential software I need to have installed to be productive and secure. Little Snitch by Objective Development is one of them. I’ve been using it for more than ten years now, and I wouldn’t dream of running a Mac without it installed. What Little Snitch 3 essentially does is monitor all outgoing traffic from your open applications and processes and gives you the ability to allow or deny that traffic. It is an excellent way of seeing what kind of information is sent from applications without your knowledge or consent. And it’s a great way of stopping traffic that “Phones home” without your explicit permission. When an application tries to send out something over the network, it gets intercepted by Little Snitch, and you can then allow or deny the connection, either temporary or permanently via the dialog box that appears. So Little Snitch is always there, protecting your privacy.

A Quick Test of the Blogo 2 Blogging Application

Mon, 15 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Blogo 2

Update: After using Blogo 2 for a while I decided to use Marsedit 3 instead. It’s a much more mature product right now.

I decided I wanted to try a new blogging application and stumbled onto Blogo 2. After installing it I had problems at first because I could only see the first 16 pages of content on my blog. But after contacting their support, they found out the problem (a weird character in one of my posts) and even logged in and fixed it. So my initial impression of the support for the application is very good. I just wished that the application supported Markdown and have a way of synchronising to Dropbox so I can switch between my computer and my iPad. But for quick posts like this (and if everything works because I haven’t pressed the Publish button yet) this could be a useful application. And there is sync with Evernote so that might work in a pinch.

JPEGMini an easy way to reduce size of large photos

Wed, 10 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

JPEGMini

What if you could reduce the size of all the jpeg pictures on your hard disk? Do you have problems sending full resolution jpeg images via email because of size restraints? Is your iPhoto library too large? Let’s face it; pictures is one of the things that sucks up space on your drives. It’s even more annoying if you are using a newer Mac with an SSD disk where cost is premium. Upload speed when sending emails or uploading images to the web can be slow and annoying. An application called JPEGMini claims to help you with reducing your pictures with up to five times while retaining all the quality. I got a bit curious if the team at JPEGMini and their patented image compressor really could reduce large JPEG photos without losing quality. I’ve tried the application before when I wrote my article about comparing the best jpeg compressor applications for web use. But even though JPEGMini is geared more towards large megapixel pictures, not small images usually used on web pages, my test shows that it stacks up well against the competition even on more modest photographs. Many web pages now use pictures optimized for high-resolution images like for Retina display and high-resolution mobile devices, so the use of an image compressor is getting even more useful for web use.

But how well does JPEGMini retain quality on megapixel images in JPEG format? How much do you lose in quality by using compressing?

Corsair K70 Clicky PC Gaming Keyboard on a Mac

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Using a Clicky PC Keyboard from Corsair on a Mac

If you have followed this blog, you probably know that I love clicky keyboards. But getting a Buckling Spring or even a Cherry MX Blue keyboard specifically made for Macintosh isn’t easy, at least not here in Sweden. So the way to go for me was to get a PC gaming keyboard.

Airmail for Mac a Great Replacement for Apple Mail

Thu, 14 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Update to the update 2018

Still my favorite email client, and I’m now also blessed with a version for iPad and my iPhone. It’s up to version 3. It never crashes, and the search is fast and excellent. Best email client ever!

Update 2016-02-16

I’m still using Airmail now, two years after I wrote this post. It has never failed me in any way. It’s now up to version 2. I guess Apple has probably fixed a lot of the problems they had back then when connecting to Gmail. And let’s face it, Google changed a lot from the original IMAP standard, so everyone had to keep up. But I’m sticking with Airmail 2. Now there’s even an excellent version for Airmail for iOS. And you’ll feel right at home. It also syncs your settings from your Mac OS X application, so now I have an HTML signature on my iPhone. Yay! The only complaint is that they did the app for iPhone only and not an iPad version. In a perfect world, it should have been a universal app. But hopefully, they’ll fix that in the coming months.

Airmail, my new favorite mail client

After Mac OS X 10.8, Apple Mail has been going downhill by every update. It’s weird because the iOS Mail app is rock solid. I have my email domain on Google Apps, and I know that Gmail doesn’t follow the IMAP standard, instead choosing to do it their way. So they use tags instead of folders, etc. The blame has to be put on Google for not following standards but is a significant player; you can pretty much set your own rules. Anyway, Apple Mail has become a slow, unreliable application although they have fixed some of the more severe problems in the latest release. For the first time in many years, I was on the lookout for a new email client software.

Time to find a new Mail Client

I wanted to be able to have both of my private and work email accounts in the same program but have them separate to make life easier, and after searching the net, I found an application called Airmail. The feature list is comprehensive to the point of me not wanting to list all the features here, but follow the link to get a lowdown on all the things the application can do. I’ll go through the things that persuaded me to switch.

New MacBook Pro 15" Retina Color accuracy

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

MacBook Pro 15" Retina Mid2014 Calibrated compared to sRGB and Adobe RGB 1998

A couple of days ago I got my new Spyder4 Elite Color Calibrator for color calibrating monitors. After doing a calibration on both on the latest MacBook Pro 15" retina and my factory calibrated Asus PA246, I saved the comparison charts for the two displays to see how they stack up.

Mac OS X Finder Missing Sidebar Shared Computer Icons

Mon, 07 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I started to have a problem with Mac OS X Finder where the Shared computers in the Finder window sidebar didn’t show up. I couldn’t even change the Sidebar settings in Finder Preferences. So I did some digging around and found out how I could fix it, but also how stupid I am.

How To Use Day One App

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Uses | Day One:

This is an ongoing archive of the many use cases we’ve found for ourselves and that have been reported by our users. We hope this will inspire you to think of new ways you can incorporate Day One into your workflow and daily routine.

Great page of collected uses for the marvelous app Day One. I found some good ideas for writing earlier stuff than the diary I’ve kept for two and a half years. It wouldn’t exist a diary if it wasn’t for Day One. And the great thing is that it’s available on iOS and Mac with syncing through iCloud or Dropbox.

Getting rid of Open With duplicates - All this

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Getting rid of Open With duplicates - All this:

You right-click its icon in the Finder, choose Open With, and a submenu pops up with an absurd number of duplicate entries.

When you first noticed the duplicates, it was just one or two and you didn’t want to take the time to find out how to fix it, but now you’re kind of pissed at your Mac for being so stupid.

Going Paperless With Evernote and Any Scanner On Your Mac

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

[caption id=“attachment_2704” align=“alignleft” width=“272”] Photo by phrawr[/caption]

Going paperless

Tired of drowning in stacks of papers? Want to go paperless? Here’s how I moved all my documents to the cloud and cleared up a lot of the clutter at home. I used my old trusty photo scanner, because when all the old papers are scanned and achieved, I only have to scan the new inflowing papers, not the insane stacks of paper I had previously.

Scanning Workflow

The easiest route is to buy an advanced duplexed document scanner like the highly regarded and award winning Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 duplex document scanner. It comes with all the software you need and you just put in a stack of papers, receipts or business cards and away it goes.

There’s also a small portable scanner called Doxie Go that looks interesting, with rechargeable batteries and a SD card slot.

But I don’t have the money to buy one now so my old flatbed scanner, the Canon CanoScan 8800f, now discontinued and replaced with the better Canon CanoScan 9000F have to do at least for now. It’s not really made for scanning large amount of papers, but it does the job. I’ve made what I think is a pretty good workflow so I’ll try to describe it. Maybe you can find some nuggets here.

Battery Draining Applications on Macbook Pro

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Better battery life Macbook Pro with gfxCardStatus

Update: Just installed Mac OS X 10.8.4 and now it works much better. Fantastical, Growler, Hardware Grower, Scrivener and Tweetbot now works without switching cards.
Later models of Macbook Pro computers comes with dual graphics card. This makes it possible to use a low performance card when not using graphics intense applications, and automatically switch to the faster, but less energy efficient card if needed. But how do you know which card is currently active? There is a great application available called gfxCardStatus that shows you when the computer switches, and even uses notifications.

If your on the move and on battery power, you can force the computer to use the Integrated less power draining graphics card. If you need full speed, just select the Discrete card. The third alternative is to have it in the normal Dynamic Switching Mode. But there’s a snag when using Switching Mode. A lot of applications forces the Macbook Pro into using the Descrete high performance battery draining card, for no apparent good reason. Let’s examine that.

Amazon Glacier Cloud Backup with Macintosh Using Arq 3 Backup Application

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Check out my article on using Qrq with a Google Cloud Storage Nearline. It’s cheaper than Amazon Glacier.

Being a photographer, I have a lot of pictures on my hard disks. Using a Canon 5D Mark II with it’s 23 megapixel sensor shooting in RAW doesn’t help. My main backup is two different NAS servers doing alternating TimeMachine backups every other hour, a feature added in Mountain Lion. This is great, because if one backup unit breaks down or gets stolen, I still have another copy on the other NAS. But what if both got stolen? Imagine the horror? So I’ve been searching for an offsite backup solution that’s cheap and just works. And now I think I found it.

SD-Card is read-only in Mac Macbook Pro card reader - solved

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

After getting my Raspberry Pi I used the one built-in on my MacBook Pro, but the SanDisk SDHC-card showed up as read-only in finder on my mac, and Disk Utility refused to format it. The write protection switch on the card was correctly set, so that made me a bit baffled. But it seems that the internal card reader on the MacBook Pro is a bit finicky.

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1Password Secures computer passwords on the web

Sat, 28 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Instead of having one favorite password that you use on every account you create on the web,making it very easy for someone that gets ahold of it to wreak havoc of you life. Wouldn’t it be great if you had different, impossible to guess passwords on each site? But you only had on password to remember? Well, 1Password can help you both generate random passwords and to help you log in automatically to those sites using just one master password.

Make Safari browser Faster, More Secure and Crash proof

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Safari Browser

Safari, the standard web browser that’s included with Mac OS X is fast, stable and has some great features. But there are some ways of improving it to make you’re browsing experience even faster, more secure and pleasurable. Here’s a walkthrough of my favorite extensions for Safari.

Tactile Mac Clicky Keyboards for Typists

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Choosing an excellent keyboard for your Mac

Let’s face it, Apple produces some great products, but there are two things the past years that they aren’t that good at. They can’t make usable mouses, and the keyboard is less than stellar. The laptop keyboards are ok as far as laptop keyboards go, but after you’ve tried a “REAL” keyboard, you will become a keyboard snob. Thankfully Apple stopped using proprietary connectors many years back, so you can buy any mouse for PC and use that instead. Even USB keyboards made for PC works after changing a setting, by switching the alt-command keys. But you won’t get all the unique keys for controlling iTunes, volume and other settings. The funny thing is, that if you want to find a good keyboard, you see the most extensive selection of keyboards with good, tactile and clicky response among all the PC gamer keyboards. Most of them look horrible though.

I’ve been working with computers since 1979 and here’s my list of the best keyboards ever produced. And I’ll try to give some tips on getting your hands on a tremendous clicky keyboard.

Speed up MacBook Pro by installing a SSD disk

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

SSD drive and extra disk for more speed, instead of DVD drive in MacBook Pro

Changing out your hard disk in your MacBook Pro to an SSD disk is a great way of increase the speed of your machine. And I’m not talking about a little faster, where talking about the feeling of getting a new machine. But a SSD is still expensive and are limited when it comes to storage size. So it’s not going to be able to replace your big standard disk. The solution is simple. Replace your internal disk with a SSD disk, then remove your DVD drive and install a large 2.5" disk for your bigger files. Replace your DVD? Yes, do you use it anymore? I’m not. You need a special bracket to be able to install the extra disk, so you have to buy it. But many installation kits for replacing the DVD player also includes an external USB case to install the DVD into, so you still have access to one if you need. I bought my installation kit from Ebay for next to nothing, but didn’t include the case. As I said, I’m a modern Mac user and don’t use DVD. Hint, hint.

Disk never sleeps in Mac OS X - how to fix it - updated

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

[caption id="" align=“alignright” width=“448”] Image by DigaoSPBR[/caption]

My internal hard disk would continuously spin on my MacBook Pro and never goes to sleep. I replaced my internal drive on my MacBook Pro with an SSD disk, which made a massive difference in speed. At the same time, I removed the DVD unit and installed a new 500gb drive instead. The extra disk went to sleep when not in use, but then started within a couple of minutes or less. Here’s what I did to fix that problem.

My favorite commands in .bash_profile on Mac OS X

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Here are some additions to my .bash_profile for making life easier. I especially like that completion now ignores case. Makes navigating the file system so much faster. Give them a spin. [cc lang=“bash”]export HISTCONTROL=erasedups export HISTSIZE=10000 shopt -s histappend set completion-ignore-case on [/cc]

MAMP WordPress Error establishing a database connection

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve installed MAMP on my Mac to do some changes to my blog. I tried to set the WordPress wp-config.php file to connect to localhost:8889, but got an error that It could not connect to the database. After replacing localhost:8889 to 127.0.0.1:8889 it works. My quick guess is that permissions for the root user is set to allow connections 127.0.0.1, but not localhost. Anyway, it works now.

My wp-config.php file looks like this:

Mac OS X 10.5.2 hangs on wake from sleep

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I have had this annoying problem with my Macbook Pro. Sometimes when waking the machine from sleep, the machine can not connect to the selected Airport network and then hangs with spinning pizza of death.

Apples next update to 10.5.3 looks like it will fix it. Hopfully Apple will release it soon…

From Fixed list of Mac OS X update 10.5.3 - Joining AirPort network after wake issue resolved

Usenet - The forgotten network

Tue, 30 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0000

[caption id=“attachment_2418” align=“alignleft” width=“300”] Photo by Paul Hammond[/caption]

It’s been awhile since I last logged on to Usenet to read some groups and to download stuff. I found this great application called Unison from a company called Panic. And it’s great. I even signed up for a Usenet account from them when buying the software. I now have a 10mbit line at home, and no Usenet provider has been able to provide a fast enough service to me, until now. Impressive stuff. The only downside with the account is that you only get 10gig of download. Now, that may sound like a lot, but I get through that fast.

Little Snitch makes sure Mac applications doesn't call home

Mon, 13 Oct 2003 00:00:00 +0000

Little Snitch keeps you covered

Use Little Snitch to monitor what developers of programs sends home. Then you can stop that specific traffic. More and more programs phone home with information to the software company. Sometimes it’s harmless, like checking if a newer version is available, but sometimes they also send data like serial numbers and your registration information. So is there a way for you to control what programs can do? Yes, there is! There’s an excellent program called Little Snitch that monitors all communication from applications on your Mac OS X machine and asks you if the information is allowed to be sent over the internet.