Reading visual art: 118 The box, Pandora

The most prominent in paintings, Pandora’s box was really a jar, and didn’t become a popular theme until the late 19th century. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

iCloud Drive in Sonoma: Mechanisms, throttling and system limits

Further insights into how iCloud Drive works using a folder of 20 small files. These reveal system limits including chunk size and throttling. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Changing Paintings: 9 The abduction of Europa

Left as a cliffhanger ending to Book 2, Jupiter assumes the form of a white bull, and lures Europa to sit astride his back before whisking her away across the sea. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 245

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 245. Here are my solutions to them. 1: Passenger terminal for nearly 20 years of radio. Click for a solution AirPort Passenger terminal… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Skint and SkintM 1.05 are almost feature-complete

Changing Dock icons, a new Check Now command, a major bug fix, and more in these updates to the apps that keep a watchful eye on your Mac’s security. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Paintings of Mary Magdalene: Penitent and legendary

Readily an obsession, as with Titian, de la Tour, Murillo and others, she's a penitent, while legends take her to France and even Finland. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Last Week on My Mac: Very overwhelming

Apple: “The logs are typically very overwhelming.” So what can the user do to get information about iCloud Drive problems? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Paintings of Mary Magdalene: Gospel times

Although conflated with another Mary, she features in her own right in paintings of the Deposition, as Myrrhbearer, and Noli me tangere. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Saturday Mac riddles 245

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation. 1: Passenger terminal for nearly 20 years of radio. 2: Profile management for hue from CIE X… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Mints and Cirrus updated for Sonoma’s iCloud Drive logs

When run on Sonoma, these now show log entries from com.apple.FileProvider rather than CloudDocs – a real revelation. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

A to Z of Landscapes: Cloudscapes

First fully developed in the Dutch Golden Age, here are Constable's storms, Turner's vortices, Boudin's textured dusk, ending in Paul Nash's imagination. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Apple silicon: 4 A little help from friends and co-processors

How the NEON vector processor, neural engine, matrix co-processor, and GPU all deliver high performance with low power and energy use. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Sea of Mists: Caspar David Friedrich 1820-30

Despite being one of the leading visual artists of the German Romantic movement, and his young family, he became more solitary, as shown in his paintings. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

iCloud Drive in Sonoma: Copying a file

How Sonoma’s new FileProvider mechanism is reflected in log entries for the upload of a test file to iCloud Drive. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Reading visual art: 117 Wicker basket B

Carrying Caravaggio’s rotting fruit, bread from the cereal harvest, Vermeer’s milkmaid, fish, dirty washing, lambs, rocks and garlic. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Solving login password problems

What do you do when your Mac refuses to log you in because it thinks your password is incorrect? Don’t rush or panic, but follow these steps. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Apple has just released an update to XProtect

Apple has just released an update to XProtect for all versions of macOS from El Capitan or so, bringing it to version 2187. Apple doesn’t release information about what security issues this u… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Reading visual art: 116 Wicker basket A

Carrying infants, including Moses, figs with a few asps, the master’s dinner, Manet’s luncheon on the grass, snacks, banquets, and fruit. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Keep a more watchful eye on your Mac with Skint 1.04

Includes a version you can install into the menu bar, improved interface with categories, and internal improvements. Also makes results accessible to scripts. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Changing Paintings: 8 Aglauros turned into stone

Mercury takes a fancy to Herse, but Minerva makes her sister Aglauros jealous. When she tries to block the god, he turns her to stone. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 244

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 244. Here are my solutions to them. 1: Order an ash fruit for copy, paste and much else in menus. Click for a solution Command key Orde… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Apple silicon: 3 But does it save energy?

Running threads at different frequencies on the same core type can’t save energy and extend battery endurance. That’s where 2 core types come in handy. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

The Breaking Wave in Paintings 2

After Courbet, the Great Wave influenced Bierstadt, Gauguin, Walter Crane, Henry Moret, Georges Lacombe, and became truly iconic. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Last Week on My Mac: iCloud of unknowing

All you need to know about the main services in iCloud, the limits imposed on them by Apple, and how access to them can be controlled. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

The Breaking Wave in Paintings 1

Artists in Europe seldom painted prominent near-breaking waves until the latter half of the 19th century, when Hokusai's woodblock print of 'The Great Wave' became popular. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Saturday Mac riddles 244

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation. 1: Order an ash fruit for copy, paste and much else in menus. 2: Choice for locking special … | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

How to evaluate an external SSD

Check its protocol support and expected maximum transfer rate, then whether it supports SMART indicators and Trims with APFS. Finally check its real-world performance. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

A to Z of Landscapes: Bridges

Even the most humble wooden or stone bridge has a satisfying geometry about it that contrasts with natural forms without looking out of place. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Apple silicon: 2 Power and thermal glory

How power efficiency is just as important to desktop Macs as it is to notebooks, and the story of the Mac mini in power from 2005-2023. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Sea of Mists: Caspar David Friedrich to 1820

Born in Swedish Pomerania, studied in Copenhagen, and lived most of his adult life in Dresden. Paintings from early landscapes in 1807 to ‘Chalk Cliffs on Rügen’. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

iCloud does throttle data syncing after all

You’ve got a good Internet connection and iCloud should be working fine, but won’t sync data between your Mac and devices. Could it be throttled? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Reading visual art: 115 Bottle of trouble

Bottles of alcoholic drink as the way to disaster, absinthe, and the last need of the destitute. As virtuoso displays, and in still lifes. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Mints version 1.18 now shows floating-point numbers in hex

Did you know that, in 64-bit double floating-point format, the number pi is 4009 21FB 6000 0000? Now you can discover that, and reverse from hex to regular decimal, using Mints. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Apple has released an update to XProtect Remediator

Apple has overnight released an update to XProtect Remediator security software for Catalina or later, bringing it to version 126. Apple doesn’t release information about what security issues… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Reading visual art: 114 Bottle of potion

Glass bottles contain potions, including medicines for the sick, and more generally for scientific purposes. Some also contain alcoholic drinks. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Shopping for a faster external SSD

Given that Thunderbolt SSDs are unusual and expensive, should you buy a USB4 model that claims to be compatible with Thunderbolt? Watch out for the traps. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Apple has just released an update to XProtect

Apple has just released an update to XProtect for all versions of macOS from El Capitan or so, bringing it to version 2186. Apple doesn’t release information about what security issues this u… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Changing Paintings: 7 Gossip and the death of Coronis

The raven's feathers are changed from white to black, the crow replaced by an owl originally threatened by Neptune's rape, and more. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 243

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 243. Here are my solutions to them. 1: Simon briefly in transistors and the new Mac architecture. Click for a solution Apple silicon Si… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Apple silicon: 1 Cores, clusters and performance

A gentle introduction to the new architecture, from how macOS allocates threads to core types, overflow, variable frequency, ending in huge differences in power. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Who was the hero: Marat or Corday? 2 Corday

Charlotte Corday made no attempt to flee the scene of her murder of Marat, was arrested and guillotined three days later. Was she the real heroine? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Last Week on My Mac: Working together, not apart

If you want to work on the same document across different Apple platforms, then the option providing most restrictive access to saved versions is iCloud Drive. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Who was the hero: Marat or Corday? 1 Marat

On 13 July 1793, a young woman from Normandy stabbed the revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat in the chest and killed him. Was Marat really the hero? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Saturday Mac riddles 243

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation. 1: Simon briefly in transistors and the new Mac architecture. 2: Tough metal from pre-Olympi… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Explore floating-point number formats in Mints 1.17

New version fixes a bug, and adds a new window to explore floating-point number formats, as demonstrated here. And a surprise from Apple. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

A to Z of Landscapes: Aerial perspective

Related optical effects that combine to give the impression of depth. Explored in Renaissance paintings, and some from the 19th century. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 months ago

Sea of Mists: Influences on Caspar David Friedrich and Romantics

Centred on Caspar David Friedrich, they were influenced by Claude-Joseph Vernet, Caspar Wolf, Philip James de Loutherbourg and Henry Fuseli. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 11 months ago

How to reinstall the current version of macOS or downgrade it

Recovery reinstall, using an Installer app, or a bootable installer, or with an Apple silicon Mac in DFU mode? What the choices are, and how best to do it. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 11 months ago