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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Apple’ Category

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#Fail: @SugarSync prompts me to install 2.0.27, but release notes only lists me 2.0.23. Time to skip a version.

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/07/03

On my MacBook Retina, SugarSync prompts me to install 2.0.27, and directs me to the SugarSync 2.0 Release Notes that only lists me 2.0.23. Time to skip a version…

–jeroen

via: SugarSync 2.0 Release Notes – desktop and web apps – current release.

Posted in Apple, Mac, MacBook, MacBook Retina, Power User, Windows | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Spotlight refuses to be enabled on Lion: reboot helped

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/24

When Spotlight on my MacBook Air that runs OS X Lion didn’t show any results from the file system any more, I tried a lot of options, but only the final one worked: reboot:


MacBookAir:/ SuperUser$ sudo mdutil -i off
Password:
MacBookAir:/ SuperUser$ ls -al /
MacBookAir:/ SuperUser$ sudo rm -R /.Spotlight-V100
MacBookAir:/ SuperUser$ sudo mdutil -E /
/:
No index.
MacBookAir:/ SuperUser$ sudo mdutil -i on /
/:
Error: unable to perform operation. (-400)
No index.
MacBookAir:/ SuperUser$ sudo mdutil -i on -E /
/:
Error: unable to perform operation. (-400)
No index.
MacBookAir:/ SuperUser$ sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist
com.apple.metadata.mds: Already loaded
MacBookAir:/ SuperUser$ sudo mdutil -as
/:
No index.
/.MobileBackups:
No index.
/Volumes/Firefox:
Indexing disabled.
/Volumes/MobileBackups:
Index is read-only.
/Volumes/MobileBackups/Backups.backupdb:
Index is read-only.
/Volumes/Opera:
Indexing disabled.
MacBookAir:/ SuperUser$ reboot

It was only later that I found out maybe a simpeler solution would have worked: kill all of the mdworker processes like this:

MacBookAir:/ SuperUser$ sudo killall -9 mdworker

–jeroen

Spotlight refuses to be enabled on Lion – Super User.

Posted in Apple, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, MacBook, MacBook-Air, Power User, SpotLight | 1 Comment »

Retina MacBook Pro: extending battery life by disabling the discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/14

One of the big differences between my old 13-inch MacBook Air and (fairly new) 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro was the predictability of battery usage.

The MacBook Air lasts between 4-5 hours. The Retina MacBook anywhere between 3-5 hours.

I finally found out the cause: Chrome, Remote Desktop and VMware Fusion will often (VMware fusion immediately) switch to the  discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics. Which uses a lot more battery (but less memory) than the integrated Intel HD 4000. Though both can drive the retina display at 2800×1600 (see Retina MacBook Pro Pushes the Limits of its Graphics Capabilities – Mac Rumors) the latter is better suited for the road warrior.

But still having the need for Chrome, Remote Desktop and VMware Fusion, I wanted a way to block switching to discrete graphics.

Luckily, quite a few sites describe how to do that:

The all come down to installing gfxCardStatus by cody krieger.

Steps to force integrated graphics: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Apple, Mac, MacBook, MacBook Retina, MacBook-Air, MacBook-Pro, Power User | 3 Comments »

Find my MacBook with “Find My iPhone” Service

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/31

So I won’t forget when setting up a new MacBook from scratch: enable the “Find my Mac”  feature:

Find my MacBook with “Find My iPhone” Service? – Online Tech Support Help from Ask Dave Taylor!®.

It makes it easier to do things like this: osx – How to find my stolen Macbook – Super User.

I might actually install Open source anti-theft solution for laptops, phones & tablets – Prey as well.

–jeroen

Posted in Apple, Mac, MacBook, MacBook-Air, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Relevant files for ssh-keygen – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/13

Edit:

After writing this, DSA got deprecated then later removed. See [WayBack] Secure Secure Shell.

When working with SSH private/public keys (often because of ssh-keygen), and using DSA for auhtentication, these are the relevant files:

  • $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa:
    (on the local system)
    The $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa file contains the protocol version 2 DSA authentication identity of the user.
  • $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa.pub:
    (on the local system)
    The $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa.pub file contains the DSA public key for authentication when you are using the SSH protocol version 2. A user should copy its contents in the $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys file of the remote system where a user wants to log in using DSA authentication.
  • $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys:
    (on the remote system)
    The $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys file contains authorized DSA public keys (each line is the contents of a $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa.pub file) of users on systems that are auhorized to login on the remote system.

Important:

Be sure to transfer the contents of the local $HOME/.ssh/id_dsa.pub file to the remote system in a secure way.

–jeroen

via ssh-keygen – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Posted in *nix, Apple, Cygwin, Endian, Linux, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Mac OS X: editing ~/.bash_profile using TextEdit

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/10

Finder on your Mac by default does not show hidden files, and the console has vi, which lots of people find awkward to use.

There is an easy trick to open a hidden file like ~/.bash_profile (for instance to add an alias) with a visual text editor.

Just execute this in your terminal:

  • Always with TextEdit
    open -e ~/.bash_profile
  • For the default text editor (usually TextEdit)
    open -t ~/.bash_profile
  • For a specific text editor (in this cast TextWrangler)
    open -b com.barebones.textwrangler ~/.bash_profile

The man open(1) page has more information on the parameters you can pass to open.

–jeroen

PS: You can teach Finder to Quickly show and hide hidden files | Finder, Terminal | Mac OS X Tips.

Posted in Apple, bash, Development, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, MacBook, MacBook-Air, MacBook-Pro, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Power User, Scripting, Software Development | 6 Comments »

What programmers font (monospaced!) do you like best?

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/08

Lucida Console Sample (thanks Wikimedia!)

Lucida Console Sample (thanks Wikimedia!)

I’m in search to see if there is a better programmers font than the monospaced Lucida Console mainly to be used in Visual Studio, Delphi, the Windows console, Xcode and Eclipse. What I love about Lucida Console design is the relatively large x-height combined with a small leading (often called “line height”). This combines very readable text, and a lot of code lines in view. Lucida has two small drawbacks, see the second image at the right:

  • The captial O and digit 0 (zero) are very similar.
  • Some uppercase/lowercase character pairs are alike (because of the large x-height)

But, since the font hasn’t been updated for a very long time, lots of Unicode code points that are now in current fonts, are missing from Lucida Console (unless you buy the [Wayback] most recent version that has 666 characters from Fonts.com) Well, there are dozens of monospaced fonts around, so I wonder: which ones do you like? In the mean while, I’m going to do some experimenting with fonts mentioned in these lists:CcKkOoSsUuVvWwXxZz are much alike.

A few fonts I’m considering (I only want scalable fonts, so raster .fon files are out):

I have tried Adobe Source Code Pro about half a year ago. That didn’t cut it: problem with italics in Delphi, and not enough lines per screen. [Wayback] New Open Source monospaced font from Adobe: Source Code Pro.

–jeroen

Posted in .NET, Adobe Source Code Pro, Apple, Delphi, Delphi 2007, Delphi XE3, Development, Encoding, Font, Lucida Console, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Power User, Programmers Font, Software Development, Typography, Unicode, Visual Studio 11, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio and tools, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows XP, xCode/Mac/iPad/iPhone/iOS/cocoa | 43 Comments »

Top Ten Mac OS X Tips for Unix Geeks – O’Reilly Media

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/06

This 5 year article from 2007 (which was an update for the 2002 version) is still very up to date in 2012: Top Ten Mac OS X Tips for Unix Geeks – O’Reilly Media.

Originally it was to promote Mac OS X for Unix Geeks – O’Reilly Media. In between the updates there was Mac OS X Panther for Unix Geeks, 2nd Edition – O’Reilly Media.

Now it is to promote Mac OS X for Unix Geeks (Leopard), 4th Edition – O’Reilly Media.

Note there is also a nice, but independent presentation with the same title from HTGR-MacOSX.

–jeroen

Posted in *nix, Apple, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Delphi XE3 inside a Windows 7 VMware Fusion VM at 2560×1600 on a 15 inch Retina MacBook Pro at 2880×1800

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/03/27

I was amazed that this is still usable:

You can even run VMware Fusion 4 full screen at 2880×1800, but I prefer to have the Mac Desktop and Dock to be visible. I didn’t have any of the VMware Fusion 4 issues mentioned here.

So the only thing you need VMware Fusion 5 for is Windows 8 support.

You need SwitchResX to get the Retina MacBook to use 2880×1800 at all (otherwise you get 1920×1200 at 1.5 scale factor, which is also a 16:10 display ratio).

It really runs 5+ hours on one battery charge, which is much longer than my ThinkPad W701.

All in all, I’m very happy with this setup.

--jeroen

PS:

via: Screen Shot 2013-03-27 at 19.55.39 | Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Click on the image or here for full size image.

Delphi XE3 inside a Windows 7 VMware Fusion VM at 2560x1600 on a 15 inch Retina MacBook Pro at 2880x1800

Posted in Apple, Delphi, Delphi XE3, Development, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, MacBook, MacBook Retina, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Power User, Software Development | 7 Comments »

Retina users, this fixes your fan issue: Apple Releases Retina MacBook Pro SMC Update (via: Mac Rumors)

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/03/14

Today, Apple released SMC version 1.1 for MacBook Pro machines that especially Retina owners will like: it fixes their fan issue that has been present for months, but caused some stir lately.

Apple rushed this update. In fact, it is so new, not even EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs lists it.

It affects both mid 2012 and early 2013 models.

This is how to update:

I had the same problem with the basic installation. Just do the OSX updates from the App Store and the problem will disappear.

Lots of users are reporting the below SMC update fixes the fan issue.

It worked for my MacBook Retina too.

–jeroen

via:Apple Releases Retina MacBook Pro SMC Update to Address Gaming Frame Rates and Fan Issues – Mac Rumors.

Posted in Apple, Mac, MacBook, MacBook Retina, Power User | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

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