Hard to discover tips and apps for macOS • Hacker News Board

Re: Hard to discover tips and apps for macOS

#131

Post by dmitshur » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 12:53 AM UTC

jungletime wrote: post #127

I have a macbook which I partitioned and installed windows on. the macbook is in a drawer in a stand up desk. The desk has a terrible ergonomic design. So I ended up using the pullout drawer as a shelf form my external keyboard, which is rested on a board. So my macbook is closed, inside a drawer, covered by a board, and connected to external monitor and keyboard. 1. How can I boot into windows from the mac desktop.…

3. You can copy and paste files using the keyboard on macOS too, it’s just not the default. Copy a file first (Cmd+C), then hold one of the modifiers keys (I forget which and can’t check cuz on phone, but either option or shift) and press Cmd+V to move instead of copy.

2. Is the “Sleep” feature built into the OS not the thing you’re looking for? Fans don’t run during sleep. I don’t see why you need an “app”.

1. I don’t have anything useful to say on this one, sorry.

Re: Hard to discover tips and apps for macOS

#132

Post by catmistake » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 1:15 AM UTC

talentedcoin wrote: post #112

catmistake wrote: post #75

I recommend macports package management system, similar in function to BSD ports collection. Superior to Homebrew, the johnny-come-lately PMS with all the penguinista-style hype that seems to lean towards binary installs, unlike roll your own from all source in macports. Homebrew also does not honor the default privileges of /usr/local, which is an annoying security flaw.

Agreed 100%. No idea why homebrew is so dominant while doing the wrong thing by default. Binaries are nice but not worth the trouble Homebrew gives compared to sane, rational MacPorts.

While Homebrew defaults to binary, it can build from source, though it tends to leave behind a bloody mess when it does.

MacPorts has excellent housekeeping, which is controlled through port command arguments. One can choose to leave everything from the entire build, or have everything cleaned up as it builds, or clean it up after the build. Showing and eliminating leaves is also pretty simple.

Uninstalling MacPorts with these 3 commands leaves absolutely nothing behind:

>$ sudo port -dfp uninstall --follow-dependencies installed

>$ sudo port -dfp uninstall all

>$ sudo rm -rf /opt/local /Library/Tcl/macports*

Good luck completely uninstalling Homebrew without having to look everywhere to make sure it is all gone. It requires downloading and trusting the Homebrew uninstall script.

Re: Hard to discover tips and apps for macOS

#133

Post by peterhil » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 1:15 AM UTC

jungletime wrote: post #127

I have a macbook which I partitioned and installed windows on. the macbook is in a drawer in a stand up desk. The desk has a terrible ergonomic design. So I ended up using the pullout drawer as a shelf form my external keyboard, which is rested on a board. So my macbook is closed, inside a drawer, covered by a board, and connected to external monitor and keyboard. 1. How can I boot into windows from the mac desktop.…

1. I vaguely remember there being some command or sysctl preference which you can use to set options for next boot and also control sleep options.

Re: Hard to discover tips and apps for macOS

#134

Post by peterhil » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 1:19 AM UTC

jungletime wrote: post #127

I have a macbook which I partitioned and installed windows on. the macbook is in a drawer in a stand up desk. The desk has a terrible ergonomic design. So I ended up using the pullout drawer as a shelf form my external keyboard, which is rested on a board. So my macbook is closed, inside a drawer, covered by a board, and connected to external monitor and keyboard. 1. How can I boot into windows from the mac desktop.…

2. How old and which model is your MacBook? I remember a completely idiotic hack around 2013 that fixed some hardware problem by software and causing the fans to spin at full speed constantly. There was some way to fix it by setting some preference from the command line IIRC.

Re: Hard to discover tips and apps for macOS

#135

Post by ChrisMarshallNY » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 1:30 AM UTC

Weird. No DefaultFolderX. That is an awesome tool.

Also no Little Snitch.

I have had problems with iStat Menu. I really want it to work, but it always introduces random crashes into my system. Every couple of years, I try it again, but it hasn’t stabilized yet.

Re: Hard to discover tips and apps for macOS

#136

Post by jungletime » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 1:30 AM UTC

peterhil wrote: post #134

jungletime wrote: post #127

I have a macbook which I partitioned and installed windows on. the macbook is in a drawer in a stand up desk. The desk has a terrible ergonomic design. So I ended up using the pullout drawer as a shelf form my external keyboard, which is rested on a board. So my macbook is closed, inside a drawer, covered by a board, and connected to external monitor and keyboard. 1. How can I boot into windows from the mac desktop.…

2. How old and which model is your MacBook? I remember a completely idiotic hack around 2013 that fixed some hardware problem by software and causing the fans to spin at full speed constantly. There was some way to fix it by setting some preference from the command line IIRC.

its a 2013 retina 13 inch macbook, waiting for the new arm based macbook, will probably upgrade this year.

Re: Hard to discover tips and apps for macOS

#137

Post by CGamesPlay » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 1:34 AM UTC

In Finder and also in "Open File" dialogs, Command-Shift-G will allow you to type a path directly. You can use this to open the dialog to hidden paths, for example: "~/Library" and enter will open the dialog to that folder, allowing you to browse the folder normally.

Re: Hard to discover tips and apps for macOS

#138

Post by robszumski » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 1:35 AM UTC

scarlac wrote: post #9

chime wrote: post #3

Author says Alfred is marginally better than Spotlight but I use it for so many different things. Doing quick math is a very common function for me. My favorite hidden trick is cmd+L which displays the typed text in HUGE fonts, so someone across the room can read it.

A few tips for Spotlight that made me stop using apps like Quicksilver and Alfred: 1. Typing something and pressing CMD+B will open a browser and do a Google search for that 2. Typing math works now 3. You can change your Spotlight preferences to not include files you don't wanna search on, essentially always showing apps (if you just want it do be an app launcher) Alfred does a lot more than this, but for me these w…

Is there a way to make the math layout in spotlight not take up so much space? When I am doing math it's typically reading numbers off the screen which are almost always covered by the dialog.

Re: Hard to discover tips and apps for macOS

#139

Post by kcb » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 1:42 AM UTC

jungletime wrote: post #127

I have a macbook which I partitioned and installed windows on. the macbook is in a drawer in a stand up desk. The desk has a terrible ergonomic design. So I ended up using the pullout drawer as a shelf form my external keyboard, which is rested on a board. So my macbook is closed, inside a drawer, covered by a board, and connected to external monitor and keyboard. 1. How can I boot into windows from the mac desktop.…

For 1, in settings go to Startup Disk. You should then be able to switch the startup partition.

Re: Hard to discover tips and apps for macOS

#140

Post by totetsu » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 1:45 AM UTC

So long as we are sharing.. looking through my shell history:

organize windows without using a mouse. https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle

stop accidentally navigating back in chrome with the touchpad.

   defaults write com.google.Chrome AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool FALSE

Something about enabling darkmode?

   defaults write com.google.inputmethod.Japanese.Tool.DictionaryTool NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance 0

show hidden files in finder?

   defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Disable attention seeking app bouncing animation, for those of us sensitive to these things..

   defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE

If you run dnsmasq, you can add addn-hosts=/etc/dnsmasq-hosts-blocking/ to the your dnsmasq.conf. In that folder you can put files from https://github.com/unixsheikh/dnsmasq-blacklist and https://github.com/adversarialtools/apple-telemetry to try and block apple and others telemetry .. but apple just seems to get around it by using, x.apple.com.akadns.net or x.apple-dns.net