Two external keyboards, one for right hand, one for left hand, modifiers do not work

I am in my bed. MacBook (Yosemite 10.10.2) is on my chest.

I have one external keyboard (with trackpoint) for my left hand and another external keyboard for my right hand.

This would be awesome if it would work.

But the problem is that when I hold shift on the left keyboard and press P on the right keyboard then Mac writes a p instead of a capital P.

If I hold shift on the right keyboard and then p on the same keyboard then Mac writes a capital P as it should.

The same problem happens with all modifier keys:

If I try to use one modifier key on one keyboard and the to-be-modified key on the other keyboard then the result is simply the to-be-modified key unmodified.

Any idea what is causing this behaviour ?

How can one fix this ?

iMac and MacBook Air shared monitor

I have used a thunderbolt connection and pressed Command F2 to allow my track pad and keyboard on my MBA to run both screens. However, I want to use the wireless track pad and keyboard that comes with the iMac instead of the laptop track/keyboard. In other words, I would like the iMac to be the primary computer and use the laptop as a secondary screen (with all control remaining with the iMac). Is this possible?

Safari keeps warning "malicious javascript detected on this domain"

Safari keeps warning malicious javascript detected on this domain, and there is only a OK button to click. It is stupid to click OK again and again. How to prevent this?

I think the so-called malicious javascript is just some code for ads, because I saw this warning at a few websites of large company.

Does disabling SIRI still replace it with old Voice Control?

I have 2 questions about disabling SIRI I hope somebody can help with:

1. 
   

   If you disable SIRI in general, will holding the home button (when phone is locked) activate the old Voice Control instead or not anymore? Anybody with IOS 7 or 8 can test this for me?

   
   


2. 
   

   If you go to Settings -> General -> Passcode Lock -> "Allow access while locked", you can disable SIRI when your phone is locked, however will this only work when you enable passcode and not when you disable it afterwards. Anybody can test that for me? Thanks alot!

   
   

Why Doesn't OSX root user automatically default to the same shell as other users

I know this is a stupid question, but I have googled this and searched Stack Exchange, and have not found an explanation for why the root user on OSX doesn't automatically default to the same shell as other users. Seems like this would avoid a lot of complications, but I guess there must be complications with the shells being the same for root as others, but I just don't know what they are.

Thank you.

How do i quickly silence all notifications except for ringer on an iPhone 6?

Sometimes I'm on call for work overnight and would like to know a quick way that I can silence all notifications except for the call ringer. The closest thing I see is allowing calls from everyone on do not disturb but that will allow messages to ring as well.

Can't erase unmountable external HD

My external HD isn't mounted and can't be repaired by Disk Utility. However, I'm also unable erase the disk:

$ diskutil list disk2
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *4.0 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Everest                 4.0 TB     disk2s2

$ diskutil repairVolume /dev/disk2s2
Started file system repair on disk2s2 Everest
Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required
Error: -69673: Unable to unmount volume for repair

$ diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ Everest /dev/disk2
Started erase on disk2
Unmounting disk
Error: -69888: Couldn't unmount disk

Mini Thunderbolt to VGA not showing video on external monitor but Mac says it is

The external monitor used to be working before, but now, there's no video being sent. The monitor is sleeping when I connect, even though the mac says it's connected.

I am using a SyncMaster390b as the monitor.

I tried turning it on and off and reconnecting everything, but still no luck.

Any help?

How can I make 3 external displays function with my 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro (Mid 2014)?

How can I make 3 external displays (4 total, or 3 if running in closed book mode) function with my 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro (Mid 2014)?

Regardless of closed-book/clamshell mode, I am unable to make 3 external displays function. I am able to connect it all and power any given two at a time and it obviously has enough power, but it doesn't seem to want to run 3.

I've read mixed answers as to whether it can support 2 or 3 external displays. Someone in a thread on OWC says it can and they show a 15" MBP powering 3 externals.

Is there something I'm missing or a work-around?

Why is “Spotlight Web Content” using so much VRAM and CPU?

Why is “Spotlight Web Content” using so much (32.56 GB) virtual RAM and CPU (up to 122.41% apparently)? More interestingly, how can I prevent it from doing so?

I am running this MacBook Pro with 4GB RAM and OS X 10.10.2 Yosemite.

I found this in Acticvity Monitor when my Computer was close to not responding anymore and killing it solved that problem. It shows the process had quite a high number of errors, as well (27443815).

How do I get text to speech to pronounce git and github correctly?

I'm using the OS X text to speech feature for some eLearning stuff. Some of the voices, in particular Lee and Tessa seems to be better quality. However, they mispronounce the words 'git' and 'GitHub'. The American voices pronounce 'git' correctly.

There's already a question regarding pronunciation of 'git' in case you're wondering. It is pronounced with a hard G followed by a short i.

I'm aware that I can modify the pronunciation in the speech settings. However, I have no idea how to set the pronunciation such that it is consistent across all the voices, in particular the non US english voices. Those languages always mispronounce the 'g' of 'git' or 'github'.

I'm running OS X 10.10.2.

Root Device UUID Error when installing Yosemite 10.10 on VirtualBox 4.3.26

When attempting to install Yosemite on VirtualBox, it begins to boot, then stops at the line "root device uuid: xxxx-xxxxx-xxxx". Have allocated all the required RAM and storage space, but even after researching online and tweaking settings I STILL can't get it to work. (Even tried this post: Root Device UUID Error while installing Mountain Lion on VirtualBox 4.3 but to no avail)

If it helps, I have a Dell i3147, 11.6" laptop.Attached is a screenshot of what I'm encountering:

PHP on OSX 10.10

How do I install/allow php to run on Yosemite? I've read a lot about doing stuff through terminal, but none of the 'tutorials' are thorough, they just tell me to do 'sudo....' I've tried it, and still, I cannot get php files to work (I'm making a website and I need a php file).

iTunes 12 Turn off Repeat Song and Repeat Playlist Separately

I saw your answer somewhere for making iTunes 12 shortcuts for shuffle (on and off), but I was wondering if you knew how to make shortcuts for turning on the repeat playlist, song, and turning off repeat. By doing 'Off' (as it appears in the menu) it only affects the shuffle command.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Sebastian

mdimport - bad packing

While forcing the index of a folder on an external drive through the command line (mdimport), I get "bad packing" pushed to stdout. Anyone have an idea what this rather cryptic error means?

Safari iPhone 6 will not load static website which is hosted on AWS

Currently I am encountering an issue with loading a webpage with Mobile Safari on my iPhone5. The site was just deployed with AWS (Amazon Web Services) here is the link http://ift.tt/1E6XCh2

The site works perfectly when using Safari browser with my MBP

I've done the following.

1. Reset network settings

2. Cleared my browsing cache

3. Reset iPhone5

I know that I'm due for a software update although I'm really not really sure if that's causing the issue.

Might be something with DNS settings? Or it could be a AWS issue?

iMessages no longer mirrored on iPhone when phone is unavailable (and other device isn't)

The usually behavior for iMessages has always been (or always seemed to be striving towards) to mirror messages, even after they have been received by another device.

For instance, if my Macbook is turned off, and I receive iMessages on my phone, those messages will then be added in bulk next time I turn my Macbook on.

I like this behavior.

However after a recent iOS update (I can't pinpoint which one), this behavior has stopped being the case on the iPhone.

For instance, when I go to sleep, I put my iPhone on airplane mode - but my Macbook stays on in my office. During my sleep, if it receives messages, these will never make it to my iPhone, even after it is taken off airplane mode. This contrasts with prior behavior (before, when I woke up and turned airplane mode off, I would receive all messages that had been sent while I was asleep).

Has anybody notices this behavior? Is there something to do about it? If it's a bug, how I can best report it?

Iphone 5 suddenly stopped connecting to network

I was sitting at work when my iphone 5 showed that it was not connected to the network anymore. I went into my settings, clicked on the network I wanted and it told me I was unable to join the network. I then tried to forget the network and try to reconnect but the same thing "unable to join network". I then went a step further and reset my network settings under general settings. Now I am not only unable to connect to the network but it is also now asking for a username. It has never asked for a username before.

I have reset the router 3 times, reset my phone several times and still same issue. I have watched every YouTube video, talked to apple support via chat and non of them seem to work. I have tried messing with WPA and WPA2 settings, etc... I know its not a problem with the connection because coworkers are able to connect with no problem. They are not being asked for a username when logging on. I am lost at this point what to do. I dont want to do a factory reset but may have to at this point.Trying this before I do so. Any help is appreciated.

How to remap Option+Tab to Command+Tab and Command+Tab to Control+Tab

I want to use Option+Tab to switch between applications and Command+Tab to switch between tabs within any application that already uses Control+Tab for this (e.g. Safari, Chrome, Sublime Text). Is it possible?

PS: I have already switched Command and Control modifier keys with each other.

iPhone 5 earpiece not working

My earpiece suddenly stopped working some time ago. I can still

1) Use the speaker phone 2) Plug in headphones,

but I can't hear other people on calls otherwise. I've tried a factory reset, as well as buying a replacement earpiece and installing it physically. Still no dice.

Is there something else I can do to diagnose further? Maybe the replacement I bought was a dud?

How do you disable Printer Sharing via terminal?

I am looking for a command/script to disable the printing sharing feature via terminal. Does anyone have any idea or know how to go about doing this?

How to upload videos to iPhone and iPad using any Mac or Macbook that I have?

It seems that nowadays, the only time I hook up my iPad or iPhone to a computer is when I need to upload some videos to the Video app on iPad/iPhone so that I can view them offline.

I started uploaded some videos using a 256GB Macbook Air to the iPad and iPhone (both of which has 128GB). Next time, because the Macbook Air has only about 1GB disk space left, I tried to use my Macbook Pro to upload the video, but it couldn't -- when I drag the video to the "Device" section on iTunes, the video icon will bounce back to the Finder window -- it seems that I could only use the Macbook Air to transfer because somehow, it is "tied to that iPad/iPhone".

My question is, can I actually upload videos to any iPad/iPhone I have, using any Mac that I have? I have Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, and Mac Mini. And it will be best to no need to store the video files on the Macbook Air, for example, say if my Macbook Air only has 1GB of hard drive space left, and at home, I transfer a 500MB video to the iPad/iPhone from a hard drive that is on my home network or on my Airport Extreme's hard drive, then I wouldn't want the 500MB to occupy space on the Macbook Air after the video is transferred.

How can I stream video stored on one MacBook Pro to another?

I have two MacBook Pro laptops, a 17-inch MBP and a 13-inch MBP. The 17-inch MBP is connected to an Elgato EyeTV HD Video Capture Recorder (and thence to a cable TV set top box). I use that to grab video off of my STB and to record live TV. The 13-inch MBP is my general purpose laptop, and I also want to use it for iOS and Android development.

Eventually I know I will get a RAID unit from Synology or a Drobo (in order to do automated redundant backups of the media on my 17-inch MBP and on the array of external HDDs that are connected to it), but not immediately since I'm trying to save money and pay down credit card debt, etc.

My question: without using sneakernet to copy the multi-gigabyte files over, or using remote control software like TeamViewer, or a LAN, is there a simple and cheap way to play back videos stored on my 17-inch MBP on my 13-inch MBP? Sort of like how you can use AirPlay or Google Chromecast to stream media from your phone to your TV or something?

Is there a Byte-By-Byte Duplicate File Removal app for Mac? (not SHA-1 or MD5 hash!)

I recently switched to Mac and spent way too many hours on PC trying every duplicate removal app, eventually discovering that byte-by-byte checking was necessary to get accurate (safe ) results, and finally then settling on AllDup as the best app for this purpose.

Mac options seem more limited and I have not found any that do byte-by-byte checking, they don't even necessarily state on their website what algorithm(s) they use! Any tips? Must also work on Yosemite.

What are the risks if you install an app that's not from the App Store?

On my iPhone (iOS 8.2), I installed an app that wasn't coming from the App Store. I chose to trust it because a serious news website had spoke about it, but now I'm a little bit worried of what this app might have done.

Are the apps like this one still prevented from accessing my personal content?

Could they install anything without my authorization?

Now that I've deleted it, is it okay or is there still a risk anyway?

Can I set up two Samsung monitors to my mac book air mid 2012?

I have a Mac Book Air mid 2012 and want to connect two Samsung monitors- I have one through the thunderbolt and the other through the USB port but it is not working properly

How can I open a Google Maps URL in Apple Maps?

Is there a way for me to convert a Google Maps URL to an Apple Maps-friendly format so it opens in the correct place?

I might be in the minority, but where I am, Apple Maps offers vastly superior driving directions.

Custom "spell-check" sometimes not working?

This is a weird problem, I write a lot of different languages on my computer, and since my keyboard doesn't have all the keys in the world, I have made certain key-combinations that replaces them with another letter.

For example, "†˛" becomes "þ" and "∂∂" becomes "ð". Now that works fine, but I also have added "œœ" that is supposed to become "ǫ", but form some reason that special "spell-check" does not work while the others do.

Is there any reason for this? I'm using the Yosemite 10.10.2, the same problem exists on the 10.0.3 DP.

What was the Mac that Ran 'System 1'

I thought I was reasonably early to the party, but the first Mac I owned - an SE 30 - was running System 6.06 when I got it & after a brief foray with 6.06 we had 6.07 with actual multi-tasking…

…but what machine ran System 1?

…& was it even called that at the time?

Can't restart because OS X thinks an app is open

I was working with Xcode and it stopped responding so I force quit, reported the error, and tried reopening the app. When reopening the dock hung too so I ended up having to restart the dock with killall -KILL Dock. Unfortunately now OS X thinks Xcode is running but hung. Long pressing the icon in the dock or going to the force quit screen clearly show the app but selecting "Force Quit" does nothing and the app does not appear when I do ps -e.

Is there any way I can get OS X to realize the app isn't running so I can open it or safely restart the OS?

How long does it generally take Apple to propagate subject category changes in my submitted eBooks

I have several books on sale in the ibooks store. A couple of weeks ago I did a minor change to the subject category of all my books. About a week after that I started to notice a drop on sales. I am trying to figure out whether this drop might be due to normal seasonal cycles or it might be that my change got propagated and classified the books in the wrong pile.

Does Apple's EFI patch Thunderbolt devices to Windows 10?

So, I've been rattling with myself about this for a bit. I've followed 5SH-2a's guide of EFI Bootcamp to no avail. I decided to try it on my own, by mapping an NTFS Partition on my hard drive to a VMDK, and using VMWare Fusion to install it, but that has not worked. I am on a Mid-2012 13" MacBook Pro (Identifier: MacbookPro9,2) running Yosemite v10.10. I am trying to install the Windows 10 Tech Preview. When I try and boot via EFI, with my CalDigit Thunderbolt Hub active, Windows goes into an infinite loop, and never boots, while simultaneously power-cycling the devices attached to my hub. When I deactivate the hub, EFI Boot works just fine. When I boot in eBIOS mode, regardless wether I have my hub active or not, Windows boots just fine, using my hub natively. Could this be an issue with Apple's implementation of EFI not connecting the hub to Windows? Any help would be immensely appreciated. Thank you very much for your time.

Edit: This issue happens differently on Windows 8, where Windows boots, but doesn't recognize the Thunderbolt hub in EFI mode.

Launch Apple Script on App Focus

Is there a way to configure an Apple Script (or any script for that matter), to be run every time an application is focused?

For example, if I am on Safari currently, and I tap on a QuickTime window, I want it to run a script that I define.

Triple-non-thunderbolt-display iMac -- would this work?

Consider the following:

I have a 12.5" (Mid 2011) iMac with a single Thunderbolt port that supports "two Thunderbolt displays". This means normally you would daisy-chain one thunderbolt display to the other; everything's supported, works great, end of story.

My problem is, I am convinced that 12.5" is the perfect screen size, and would like all of my displays to share the 1920x1080 resolution of the iMac. The Apple Thunderbolt display is only available in a 27" variety.

Now presumably, when using Thunderbolt displays, all displays are being driven by the iMac's internal graphics card (for Quartz Extreme support, this is non-negotiable). So theoretically, two smaller displays should be within the realm of possibility as far as graphics horsepower is concerned -- the issue is with the interconnects. There are a few solutions out there that allow you to effectively "merge" multiple displays into a single displayport connection, but that still appears to OS X as only one display -- I need OS X to be able to control all three displays individually. DisplayPort itself (and of course HDMI/DVI) does not support daisy-chaining, of course, so I believe this solution will require significant leveraging of Thunderbolt.

I came across the Elgado Thunderbolt Dock, which allows for daisy-chaining, AND provides an HDMI port. Some of the support documentation seems to indicate it may be possible to use TWO HDMI DISPLAYS with a single Mac supporting "dual thunderbolt displays" by chaining together TWO THUNDERBOLT DOCKS and connecting the displays to the HDMI port on each.

Is my suspicion correct that the Thunderbolt Dock replicates the Thunderbolt/display functionality that is otherwise only possible by purchasing a 27" Thunderbolt display?

Why isn't my iPhone 4S charging (apparently) only in some places?

I charge the phone at home using the Apple wall adapter that came with the phone and an Amazon basics 40-pin-to-USB cable. I have been doing so for over a year (i.e. since I purchased the cable).

I was charging the phone at work with the Apple 40-pin-to-USB cable that came with the phone, connected directly to a port on my work computer. I have been doing so for at least a year as well.

About a week ago, my iPhone stopped charging at work. It continues to charge at home.

What I've tried so far (to no avail):

1. Turning off my phone.


2. Soft-resetting my phone.


3. Replacing the 40-pin-to-USB-cable with a third-party, yet certified, cable.


4. Replacing the 40-pin-to-USB-cable with another Amazon basics cable; the same cable (per Amazon) that works at home (tho not the actual same instance of that cable).


5. Connecting (all of the three) 40-pin-to-USB-cable(s) to a wall adapter.

I have not update iOS within at least month of this issue.

I'm upgrading iOS to 8.2 (from 8.1.x) now.

Ipod Touch only transferring purchases music

I'm having a problem with my new Ipod Touch 5 -- only purchased music is transferring to the Ipod. It's also not transferring my playlists. All the music still plays in I-tunes on my computer. There are a a lot songs with exclamation points next to them, but there are way more that don't. Some of those with exclamation points were fine until I tried to sync the Ipod, so it looks like not only is it not transferring all my songs but it's actively destroying some of them.

Will my Macbook Air be able to handle dual 4k displays?

I have a mid 2013 Macbook Air and I want to purchase two 4k monitors and hook it up to the MBA. Will my Macbook Air be able to hand the two monitors at it's full resolution?

If so, what cables would I need? If not, are there any macbook's that can handle dual 4k monitor at their native resolutions?

How do I change the action for Force Click on a Force Touch trackpad?

I have a new MacBook Pro Retina 13 Early 2015 with the Force Touch trackpad.

It's described to have the following feature:

Click and continue to press on the trackpad to enable new capabilities, like looking up a word's definition, previewing a file in the Finder, or creating a new Calendar event when you Force click a date in the text of an email.

Generally: How can I change, tweak, tune, enhance the 'capability' of this force click?

Particularly: I'd love to have it do translation in Safari and Terminal much more frequently than I want it to do dictionary lookup.

Is there a way to limit OS X when searching for apps?

My issue is that OS X is finding multiple versions of applications. When opening a file with the "Open with ..." option, I see multiple versions of an app.

This is being caused by having multiple OS X partitions mounts. I'm not sure which process searches for apps, but I used the lsregister -dump command to see that the database contains a version from each of my boot partitions.

Does anyone know what process does this? Is there a way to limit this process to certain partitions?