Paintings of William Shakespeare’s Plays 30: King Richard II

The last two years of his reign, marred by bad decisions, led to his forced abdication in favour of King Henry IV. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 185

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 185. Here are my solutions to them. 1: Butterfly helper at the turnstile checks apps at launch since 2012. Click for a solution Gatekee… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

How plain disk images went sparse in Monterey

In Monterey and Ventura, regular read-write UDRW disk images can now be APFS sparse files, and work more efficiently than sparse images or sparse bundles. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Pioneers painting New Zealand 2

New Zealand landscapes painted between 1870 and 1900, including major features that have since vanished in a huge volcanic eruption. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Last Week on My Mac: the trouble with better security

How macOS security can have excellent tools and defences, but fail to inform the user of the detection of malicious software. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Pioneers painting New Zealand 1

The first century of European painting in New Zealand, from Jame Cook’s expeditions to 1868. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Saturday Mac riddles 185

Here are this weekend’s riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation. 1: Butterfly helper at the turnstile checks apps at launch since 2012. 2: Q in yellow on Hoffman… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Should you use a disk image or a volume?

Disk images originated in the 1960s, and are still valuable tools in modern macOS. They have their limitations, though, and in some cases should be replaced by APFS volumes. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Reading visual art: 24 Transformation 2

Transformations of Lycian peasants into frogs, Pygmalion’s statute into Galatea, the pregnant Myrrha, silkworm moths, and autumn. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Recovery mode problems and how to solve them

If there’s a problem, you may try Recovery mode. What do you do when that proves to be a problem? Solutions for Intel and Apple silicon Macs. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Reading visual art: 23 Transformation 1

Transformations of Chloris into Flora, Daphne into a laurel tree, and Actaeon into a stag which is promptly killed by his own hunting dogs. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Lightweight VMs are sparse files, and how to keep them compact

Virtual Machines for lightweight virtualisation on Apple silicon Macs rely on sparse files. Here are tips to ensure they stay small and don’t explode to full size. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Painted Stories in Britain 18: Towards a history

A summary history from 1700 to the 20th century, with examples of major paintings, and links to each of the detailed articles in this series. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

How do you know when macOS detects and remediates malware?

macOS may alert you when you’re trying to open or run a file, with an alert informing you that malware was detected. But what about in scans? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Sunrise on Impressionism: 22 Claude Monet

This brisk oil sketch of fog and the rising sun in Monet’s home port of Le Havre lent its name to that for the whole movement. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Can you rely on macOS Ventura for malware protection?

Samples of four malicious software downloaded and run on macOS 13.1. Could it detect and block them effectively? Or do you need 3rd party protection? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Paintings of William Shakespeare’s Plays 29: King John

The English king who sealed Magna Carta in 1215, this tells of the treachery of his nobles, changing allegiances, and a death from dysentery. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 184

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 184. Here are my solutions to them. 1: When Messages came from iChat, with Gatekeeper and the first mini tablet. Click for a solution 2… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Inside APFS: from containers to clones

How APFS containers and volumes work. What hard links, clones and sparse files are, and when they break down. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Next Year in Paintings: Joaquín Sorolla, Alexandre Cabanel, Sir Joshua Reynolds and more

Coming this New Year are the tercentenary of the birth of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the bicentenary of the birth of Alexandre Cabanel, and the centenary of the untimely death of Joaquín Sorolla. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Last Year on My Mac: Ultra chips and cryptexes

The M1 series shot from 4 performance cores to 16, Ventura turned up as an update instead of an upgrade, then there came cryptexes, System Settings and Stage Manager. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Ondine, her curse and breathing

Invented by Paracelsus and popularised in a novella, poems and plays, Ondine became popular in painting, then in 1962 in medicine. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Saturday Mac riddles 184

Here are this weekend’s riddles to entertain you through into the New Year. 1: When Messages came from iChat, with Gatekeeper and the first mini tablet. 2: Time for a rendezvous with a flat-s… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

What happens when XProtect Remediator discovers real malware?

XProtect Remediator takes on XCSSET (DubRobber) malware. Does it detect and remove it? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

The best of 2022’s paintings and articles 2

Shipwreck in The Tempest, forgotten Impressionists, a threshing machine, a weekend on the River Seine, a pair of portraits of Thomas and Susan Eakins, a pair of clowns, and more. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Free space on an APFS volume is an illusion

You’re in control of a traditional file system, but with snapshots, clones, sparse files and other volumes sharing free space, APFS isn’t as simple. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

The best of 2022’s paintings and articles 1

Don Quixote, Netherlandish Proverbs, grain fields in Ukraine, a flock of sheep in a boat, the Golden Horn, pastels and kabkabs. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Checking macOS malware scans: Endpoint Security or the log?

Changes in Endpoint Security in Ventura allow it to be used to monitor the results of anti-malware scans performed by XProtect Remediator. Are they better than the log? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Paintings of 1922: Landscapes and Still Life

Paul Signac, Paul Nash, Pierre Bonnard, Lovis Corinth and others, even a painting by Paul Klee, for an eclectic collection. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

macOS virtualisation refactored and sandboxed in Viable updates

Refactored for a smoother experience and with control over shared folders, Viable beta 7 now has a sandboxed and locked-down sibling ViableS, ideal for research. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Paintings of 1922: Landscapes

Félix Vallotton, George Clausen, George Bellows, and others, including two unusual paintings of Iceland’s volcanoes. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Solutions to Christmas Mac riddles 183

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Christmas Mac Riddles, episode 183. Here are my solutions to them. 1: A communist Canadian discovered in 1811, according to Jef. Click for a solution Macint… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

From resource forks to quarantine, ResEdit to Gatekeeper

ResEdit changed what was in the resource fork. With Mac OS X, Apple moved away from forks to extended attributes, now used for quarantine flags and more. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Modern Christmas paintings: Adorations

Modern interpretations of the adorations of the shepherds and the three kings or magi, from William Blake to Sichulski’s triptychs in 1938. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Ulbow 1.8: a present for Boxing Day

Fixes a problem exporting log entries in CSV format, and provides information about current log length. Happy Boxing Day! | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Modern Christmas paintings: Nativity

Modern interpretations of this highly popular theme in Christian religious painting, from William Blake to Joseph Stella in 1929-33. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Last Week on My Mac: Can I have a Yule log?

Over the last 6 months, many users have wanted to check XProtect anti-malware scans in their Mac’s log. Haven’t they been disappointed? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Modern Christmas paintings: The Annunciation

Modern interpretations of this popular traditional theme in Christian religious painting, from Pre-Raphaelite to the end of the 19th century. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Christmas Mac riddles 183

Here are a special Christmas weekend’s riddles to entertain you through the festivities. 1: A communist Canadian discovered in 1811, according to Jef. 2: Found in a pub gutter, it’s a c… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

How does macOS tell the type of a file?

How does the Finder know the right app to open a file with? Or QuickLook how to preview its contents? Or other services like Spotlight know how to index and handle files? UTIs. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Reading visual art: 22 Feet

Barefoot and sometimes surprising, as Christ washes the disciples’ feet, and other feet are missing altogether. Barefoot means poverty too. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

How much free space does Ventura need to update?

It’s a fair and simple question: how much free space is needed to update Ventura from 13.0 to 13.1? Is it 2.53, 12.97, 13.22, 13.56 or 14 GB? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Reading visual art: 21 Footwear

Only the gods wore sandals in the ancient world. Then the state of your footwear told much about you, with fashion opting for the outrageously impractical. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Gaining control over your Mac’s log

Does your Mac’s log go back far enough to be useful, or is it full of junk? Here’s how to control what takes up space, and a new version of Mints to help. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Painted Stories in Britain 17: The end of history

Two last Pre-Raphaelite artists, Evelyn De Morgan and Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, brought narrative painting to a close in the twentieth century. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Rolling logs and anti-malware scans

Checking your Mac’s log assumes that the records are still there. What happens when they only last 24 hours, and you’re looking for anti-malware scans run once a day? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Sunrise on Impressionism: 21 Ghosts

Eleven of those who showed their work at the First Impressionist Exhibition have now all but disappeared. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Text file formats

What’s the difference between plain text, marked-up plain text, and rich text? How can I tell them apart, and how do they work? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago