I was on the phone with someone yesterday that has a number of distributed Macs in offices with low bandwidth. So they need to control when updates are downloaded and installed because they can fail or cause issues with other systems when they download automatically. This option is great for home use but can be challenging in larger environments. So it can be disabled with the following command, which creates an AutomaticDownload key in the com.apple.SoftwareUpdate defaults domain and sets it to FALSE: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate AutomaticDownload -boolean FALSE Once machines return to areas with better bandwidth or this isn’t a need it can then be re-enabled by using…
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Jamf After Dark: The Death of the .kext
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The History Of Microsoft Windows 1.0
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Use Sidecar With Unsupported Macs
Sidecar is that spiffy new feature that allows you to extend your Mac desktop to an iPad. It’s cool but only officially supports the following devices; Any 27-inch iMac from Late 2015 or newer Any iMac Pro All MacBook Pros since 2016 2018 MacBook Air Early 2016 12-inch MacBook (or newer of course) 2018 Mac mini 2019 Mac Pro Here’s the thing, those limitations are set based on performance of the machine. The /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Sidecar.prefPane actually shows support for a couple of keys that allow you to use Sidecar even if your device isn’t one of these. Buyer beware though, if you end up with performance issues then run the same…
- Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, Mac Security, MacAdmins Podcast, The History Of Computing, The History Of Computing Podcast
The Origin Of The Blue Meanies
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Find all files with a single character name
Other than typesetting and indexing tools, most apps shouldn’t be creating files that have single character file names. To find all the files with single character file names on a Mac, you could use find and then awk for the length of the file name: find / -type f -print| awk -F/ ' length($NF) == 1 ' You could also use mdfind or another tool to list all files and pipe that to the same awk -F/ ‘ length($NF) == 1 ‘ statement.
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Automate and Distribute Apple Shortcuts
Shortcuts (prior to being acquired by Apple it was called Workflow) is a free app for iOS that provides automated actions, similar to AppleScript or Automator workflows. Users can make Shortcuts or download Shortcuts other people have made. Shortcuts are javascript wrapped in a binary property list. You can easily create a Shortcut by opening the Shortcuts app and tapping on Create Shortcut. You’ll then see a list of apps that can be used with Shortcuts. for this example we’ll use Email Address. Tap here and you’ll be prompted to Allow Access to Email addresses from the Shortcut (you’ll be prompted twice actually). Then provide an email address. Select one…
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The History of Apple’s Mobile Device Management
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The Prehistory of the Computer
The earliest device used to calculate was the abacus. This number crunching device has been found in use as far back as the Sumerians, circa 2700BC. The abacus can be found throughout Asia, the Middle East, and India through ancient history. Don’t worry, the rate of innovation always speeds up as multiple technologies can be combined. Leonardo da Vinci sketched out the first known plans for a calculator. But it was the 17th century, or the Early modern period in Europe, that gave us the Scientific Revolution. Names like Kepler, Leibniz, Boyle, Newton, and Hook brought us calculus, telescopes, microscopes, and even electricity. The term computer is first found in…
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Differences Between zsh and bash
Supposedly, macOS 10.15 Catalina is slated to replace the default /bin/bash shell with zsh, or /bin/zsh. Before we talk about the differences let’s just say that bash is still here and if your script is called as bash then it will still work just fine. To quickly see which you’re using (e.g. when testing a new release), use $0: echo $0 Z Shell or zsh for short was written by Princeton University student Paul Falstad in 1990. Most shells are just extensions of the Bourne shell (including bash) and work similarly but there are minor differences here and there. Yes, Z Shell comes with a control-R reverse incremental search, but…