Archive for the ‘Apple’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/04/08
One of the odd things with Apple computers it that firmware updates are part of the MacOS updates.
From this Dutch thread:
[Wayback/Archive] WheelieNick on Twitter: “@jpluimers Welke firmware precies weet ik niet maar je moet er vanuit gaan als je naar iets wat boven high sierra staat wil gaan dat je altijd eerst naar high siërra moet. Niet van normaal siërra naar big sur bijvoorbeeld. Ik doe trouwens altijd tussenstappen, dus van high siërra naar”
I have bumped into this myself where I skipped an upgrade, then the Mac would not recognise certain media formatted with Apple File System – Wikipedia using intermediate versions of MacOS.
The intermediate versions of MacOS had introduced some firmware changes the newer MacOS version upgrade did not apply.
–jeroen
Posted in Apple, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, MacBook, MacMini, Power Mac, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/03/20
This was a trip down memory lane where I was totally unaware that you could embed 6502 assembly language inside AppleSoft BASIC code.
It turns you can, and even better: the Twitter bot named AppleIIBot could execute it too!
Though I bumped into AppleIIBot during winter 2021, I published the BBC equivalent last week (see BBC trip down memory lane – 8bitkick/BBCMicroBot: Runs your tweet on an 8-bit computer emulator) as that one got released earlier.
For the moment it is down because Elon blew up Twitter and shut down on 2022-11-05, but hopefully – like the BBC equivalent – it will resurface on a Mastodon instance somewhere in the future.
Luckily all old Tweets with code and rendering are still there, though you need a Twitter account to view them: Elon broke the feature of anonymous access seeing all messages in a thread.
Below the signature are the full Tweets that led me into it; the texts are these:
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Posted in //e, 6502, Apple, Apple ][, BASIC, Development, History, SocialMedia, Software Development, Twitter | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/02/01
Not long after Figuring out which processes are preventing to eject/unmount my MacOS Time Machine backup USB drive, I wanted to do the opposite: prevent /Volumes/Sandisk1TB from being ejected, as this is the “built-in” MicroSD card I use to store large or infrequently used files on (ISO and other disk images, drivers, hardware and software documentation, stuff to be installed on a fresh machine).
The opposite is straightforward: have a process keep at least one handle open on the Volume as per [Wayback] macos – How do I not accidentally eject external drives? – Ask Different (thanks [Wayback] kLy, [Wayback] dan and [Wayback] gerlos):
If your important external drive is mounted on the following mount point:
/Volumes/important_disk
Then you can protect it against an accidental removal by locking this mount point as opened. For this one very simple method consists in opening Terminal and doing this basic command:
$ cd /Volumes/important_disk
To get rid of this locking, you might type within the same Terminal window:
$ cd /
or you might as well just close this Terminal window ($ exit, or ⌃+D, or ⌘+W).
…
An even more elegant way to do it is open a screen session (just type screen in Terminal) and open the mount point from that session. This way you can even close Terminal, since the session will keep running in the background, until you reattach it and stop it (so there’s no need to keep a window open if you don’t need it). I guess you can even create an Automator action for it. For tips on screen see: [Wayback] kinnetica.com/2011/05/29/using-screen-on-mac-os-x
–jeroen
Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, Apple, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Power User, screen, Terminal | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2024/01/26
The drawback of evening live USA broadcasts is that most of Europe and Africa are asleep.
The Americas, Asia and Australia are awake, so I get it that [Wayback/Archive] Insanely Great – CHM – The Apple Mac at 40 was streamed live at 04:00 UTC at [Wayback/Archive] Computer History Museum – YouTube: live.
Hopefully the capture will be available soon.
Not holding my breath though as not response whatsoever from the moderator when I asked for it.
Via [Wayback/Archive] David Pogue on X: “40 years ago today, Steve Jobs unveiled the Macintosh. Tonight, I’m hosting an astonishing event that reunites many of its creators: Bill Atkinson, Andy Hertzfeld, Susan Kare, Steve Capps, Bruce Horn, Guy Kawasaki, many more. Free livestream at 7 pm PT:”.
--jeroen.
Posted in Apple, Classic Macintosh, History, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2023/09/19
Boy, two extra modifier keys: [Wayback/Archive] How to Strip Formatting When You Copy and Paste Text: 5 Ways
To paste as plain text on a Mac, you can use the somewhat cumbersome shortcut Option+Cmd+Shift+V to paste without formatting. This is a system-wide shortcut, so unlike Windows, it should work everywhere. Technically, the shortcuts pastes and matches the formatting, but this has the same effect of removing the original formatting.
Via [Wayback/Archive] macos word microsoft office paste without formatting – Google Search.
Paste without formatting is an issue on Windows as well. The default should be “paste without formatting” instead of the current “paste with source formatting”. See for instance these tweets:
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Posted in Apple, Classic editor, Development, Gutenberg editor, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Office, Office 2011 for Mac, Power User, Software Development, Web Development, WordPress | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2023/07/24
Still need to test this out, but I got a new in box “Super Serial Card – Apple Computer”
Details: Apple II serial cards – Wikipedia
Apple Computer’s Super Serial Card, sometimes abbreviated as “SSC”, is the most well known communication card made for the Apple II. Apple called it “Super” because it was able to function as both of Apple’s previous cards, the Apple II Communications Card for modem use and the Apple II Serial Interface Card for printer use. A jumper block was used to configure the card for each of the two modes. The card has a maximum speed of 19,200 bit/s and is compatible with both ROM revisions of the Apple II Serial Interface Card. Reliable communications at 9600 bit/s and higher required disabling of interrupts. The card can actually run at 115,200 bit/s as well, using undocumented register settings; but speeds between 19,200 and 115,200 are not possible using this technique. The Super Serial Card was released in 1981 and utilizes the MOS Technology 6551 ACIA serial communications chip.
Manual: [Wayback] a2_Super_Serial_Card_user’s_manual.pdf via [Wayback/Archive.is] Apple II Super Serial Card – Google Search
Image:
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Posted in //e, Apple, Apple ][, History, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2023/07/10
That was more difficult than I anticipated: [Wayback/Archive] how do I merge the tabs of two open Preview windows if I have more than two open? – Ask Different
First of all, make sure that the “tab bar” is displayed by choosing “view”->”Show Tab Bar”. Then, you should be seeing the tab bar, which displays the file name:
Then, in the other preview window, click and hold the tab bar, and drag it onto the tab bar of the target preview window. Using this method, you can merge as many tabs as you want.
Tested on MacOS Catalina 10.15.4
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Posted in Apple, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, macOS 10.12 Sierra, macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Power User, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2023/05/25
A while ago, I learned that MacOS has had a Unicode Hex Input keyboard since ages.
It is not installed by default, so you have to manually add it:
- Start the
System Preferences.app
- Open the
Keyboard icon
- Choose the
Input Sources tab
- Click the plus (
+) icon
- Search for Unicode or Hex to get so
Unicode Hex Input is the only entry in the list
- Click the
Add button
- Choose the
Keyboard tab
- Enable Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar
Now in the menu bar, you can select the Unicode Hex Input.
After that, when holding the Option key, any 4-digit Unicode sequence will get you a Unicode character.
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Posted in Apple, Development, Encoding, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Power User, Software Development, Unicode | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 