I setup Firefox on macOS to automatically download files to my “Downloads” folder without prompting (under Preferences... > Downloads, and select Save files to... instead of Always ask you where to save files). If there is an existing file with the same name, Firefox appends (1) to the filename (then (2), (3) and so on). Over time, I land up with files with similar file names, which may or may not be identical. This shell script finds and moves duplicate files to a different folder... for subsequent manual deletion.

Last month, one morning, my MacBook (still running Catalina) started behaving strangely - though I was not running anything, it was sluggish as the CPU was too busy and the fans were on high. I traced it to the iOS Simulator service that comes with XCode.

For the longest time, I’ve struggled to get the macOS version of Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) to paste images as PNG or JPEG, instead of the default TIFF. TIFFs make the files far larger than they need to be! I’ve resorted to macros, shell scripts, Quick Actions... all paste PNGs (lossless) into MS Office! But I just found another method with AppleScript.

I have been having issues with my Intel Core i7 MacBook Pro - as the notebook heats up, the LCD display starts to die. Initially the display would glitch - black bars or lines of dead pixels would appear at the bottom of the display,. Then these dead portions start to “jump” causing the display to flicker. The glitches progressively affect a larger and larger portion of display, until the display gives up and just just goes blank! Perhaps the flexgate design flaw with the ribbon cable between the motherboard and display...

Just a bunch of un-related findings that may help when creating Windows and macOS VMs using VirtualBox.

I use macOS spaces (virtual desktops) to arrange the various apps I frequently use. I have one space setup with two Firefox windows, in fullscreen Split View mode. But by default, Firefox windows are not really “full screen” for me, in that the tabs, toolbar and bookmarks bar will still be displayed. Here is my workaround to force the browser to full screen.

The Apache and PHP bundled with macOS Catalina 10.15 does not include the PHP ZIP extension. Grav (specifically, the Problems Plugin) detects this issue, and Grav will not run! Here is a workaround.

Wondering how to download a video from YouTube, with audio and subtitles intact? Here are a couple of methods I’m documenting in case I ever need to use them.

On my MacBook Pro with retina display, when I take a screenshot, the image is saved with a DPI of 144. But, using ImageOptim to compress the image with Strip JPEG/PNG Metadata enabled will remove (or reset) the DPI setting to 72 DPI - resulting in a double sized image when displayed in Preview and Quick Look. Here is how I correct this.

From macOS Catalina 10.5 onwards, zsh is the default shell, instead of bash. I have a lot to learn about this shell, and so far, this is how I configured zsh... There is an overload of snippets on-line, but I’ve not seen a post doing what I do, so hopefully this helps someone!

Grrr, to no one’s surprise, my MacBook Pro with butterfly keyboard is experiencing keyboard issues. In my case, a keypress on “j” is often triggered twice, resulting in “jj”. And with the lockdowns, I don’t want to risk a repair! So, here is a quick workaround using Karabiner-Elements v12.9.0.

I previously kept Grab.app on Mojave 10.14 by simply copying it over from High Sierra 10.13. I prefer the simplicity of Grab over the new Screenshot.app, and I hate that Screenshot adds a drop shadow.

Just sharing some Automator scripts I use for Touch Bar Quick Actions showcasing three different methods - using pre-defined Actions, using AppleScripts and using Shell scripts.

Most Mac users would use at least a few keyboard shortcuts (if not, check out Apple’s Mac Keyboard Shortcuts list), but here are a few additional key combinations that I find useful. These are less well-known and many are not in Apple’s list.

Here’s are a few short tips - to toggle Dark Mode on macOS without opening System Preferences. Useful when designing your Dark Mode enabled web site using prefers-color-sheme Media Query, like I did.

For a while now, I’ve been posting about compiling Wine on macOS, starting with Wine 1.9 in October 2016, then automating the compile for Wine 2.9 32-bit in May 2017. Now it’s July 2019, and this is probably my last post on the subject - a fully automated script to download and compile Wine 4.12.1 (released 7 July 2019) 32-bit and 64-bit on macOS.

If, like me, you use Parallels Desktop Lite, then I have bad news for you. It's no longer free to run macOS or Linux, so DON'T update it if you still want to use it!

Want to remove macOS services (a.k.a. daemons)?

Recently, I posted about my Karabiner-Elements Complex Modification Rule to map a key to Escape. Here, I make a small tweak to use it to launch an application too!

As in my previous guides for enabling Apache and PHP on Sierra 10.12 and El Capitan 10.11 before that, this post will update the instructions for macOS Mojave 10.14.2 which comes with Apache 2.4.34 and PHP 7.1.19.