Curious bugs in Help Viewer and Stage Manager

Not only do Help windows work differently on Intel and Apple silicon Macs, but on the latter they can bring Stage Manager to a grinding halt. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Reading visual art: 29 Motion and billows

Motion can be implied against the rules we learn about how the world works. It can also be shown in billowing garments. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Is it more secure to be a normal or admin user?

While you may feel more comfortable working with the more limited privileges of a normal rather than admin user, does that improve security? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

What has changed in macOS Ventura 13.2?

The update to macOS Ventura 13.2 isn’t large, but brings two significant new features: Advanced Data Protection for iCloud, adding end-to-end encryption to Notes, Photos and more; Security Ke… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Apple has released updates to Ventura 13.2, Monterey 12.6.3 and Big Sur 11.7.3

Apple has just released updates to bring macOS 13 Ventura to version 13.2, and security updates to bring Monterey to 12.6.3 and Big Sur to 11.7.3. The Ventura update is around 2.53 GB to download f… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Paintings of William Shakespeare’s Plays 32: Troilus and Cressida

One of King Priam’s sons falls in love with a Trojan woman late in the Trojan War. When Hector is about to duel with Achilles, what could possibly go wrong? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 187

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 187. Here are my solutions to them. 1: Leaves from the book you started writing in 2005. Click for a solution Pages Leaves from the boo… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Scheduled activities: 1 Scheduling by DAS

How macOS schedules tasks like making automatic Time Machine backups, from property list to transactions between DAS and CTS. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

All the fashion: 2 Milliner

Milliners trimmed and sold hats to customers, which appeared to be more rewarding, and the chance to wear the latest fashions. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Last Week on My Mac: The evolution of Apple silicon

The M2 Pro and Max gain an extra two Efficiency cores, compared to their M1 equivalents. What effect will that have on their performance, and what of the M2 Ultra? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

All the fashion: 1 Seamstress

View by many as the start of a slippery slope to prostitution, dressmaking demanded long hours of work in return for a pittance/ | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Saturday Mac riddles 187

Here are this weekend’s riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation. 1: Leaves from the book you started writing in 2005. 2: Could be a cider press, but just one of … | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

How macOS schedules background activities

The story of how Mac OS X went from cron, to launchd, and ended up with Duet Activity Scheduler, to schedule background activities like backups. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Ukrainian painters: Mykola Kuznetsov

Born to the north of Odesa, Ukraine, he painted Tschaikowski in his last year, and scenes from life in the country. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Demonstrating causal connections using the log

I’m browsing images in the Finder, when my software firewall tells me macOS is trying to phone home to one of Apple’s servers. We all know what that means, don’t we? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Apple has released an update to XProtect Remediator

Apple has just released an update to XProtect Remediator security software for Macs running Catalina or later, bringing it to version 87. This is the first update this year, since 86 released on 8 … | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

How Stage Manager works in the log

A collaborative effort between WindowManagement, Launch Services, SkyLight and other subsystems, there’s deep integration with Spaces. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Reading visual art: 27 Eagle and owl

Two birds associated with myth: Zeus’s eagle, often used to indicate his presence in disguise, and the symbol of night and wisdom, the owl. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Is Apple checking images we view in the Finder?

Can it be true that Apple is sent information about every image we browse in the Finder? Analysis of Visual Look Up and Live Text and when it happens. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Sunrise on Impressionism: 0 Contents

Complete table of contents for this series on the early years of French Impressionism, and the First Impressionist Exhibition of 1874. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Stage Manager for the unimpressed: 3 Apps and windows

Stage Manager manages windows, and the Dock manages apps. This explains how to keep an app window in a group, and all about popbacks. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Paintings of William Shakespeare’s Plays 31: King Richard III

Paintings by William Blake, William Hogarth, Henry Fuseli, Paul Delaroche and others for this popular tragedy and history. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 186

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 186. Here are my solutions to them. 1: Arrivals and departures was one more thing in 1999. Click for a solution AirPort Arrivals and de… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

App Nap, undead and nascent apps in Ventura

If you leave some apps without an open window, macOS appears to quit them, but instead puts them into App Nap, only to quit them when it wants to. They’re undead. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Paintings of the Bay of Biscay 2

From Quiberon and the Vendée to Hendaye and Hondarribia, in paintings from Renoir, Signac, Pierre Bonnard and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Last Week on My Mac: How APFS trims a disk image to size

How APFS can trim free space in a read/write disk image and transform it into a sparse file, so it uses storage more efficiently. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Paintings of the Bay of Biscay 1

From the rough seas and rugged cliffs of Penmarc’h to Belle-Île, with Monet, Signac, Berthe Morisot and other artists. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Saturday Mac riddles 186

Here are this weekend’s riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation. 1: Arrivals and departures was one more thing in 1999. 2: Volatile anaesthetic paid in full sinc… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

How to write to the log from a script

If you want to write to the macOS log from a script, you used to be able to use logger. Although it still works, here’s a more flexible alternative. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Reading visual art: 26 Dreams modern

From Blake onwards, dreams often take over the whole view, with the dreamer the only link to reality. Examples from Blake, Rossetti, Hodler and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Stage Manager for the unimpressed: 2 Workflow strategies

Setting up a standard cast, how to deal with windows that open in the wrong app group, and building a group for a special workflow. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Reading visual art: 25 Dreams classical

From the Renaissance, by convention dreams were shown as a dream view set within a framing real view. Examples by Raphael, Tintoretto and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Which disk image format?

Plain read/write (UDRW), sparse image (UDSP), and sparse bundle (UDSB) compared for storage efficiency, performance, and convenience. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Ukrainian painters: Marie Bashkirtseff

Born near Chuhuiv, she settled in Paris where she trained and rose to success as Jules Bastien-Lepage’s protege, then died at the age of 25. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Stage Manager for the unimpressed: 1 Getting started

Getting started with Stage Manager, without confusion or tears. How to disable its motion effects, and how to build app and window groups for your workflows. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Sunrise on Impressionism: 23 Paintings of the First Impressionist Exhibition

Fifteen images of paintings by twelve artists which were shown at the First Impressionist Exhibition present a more coherent overview. But history is capricious. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

Sparse disk images in virtual machines

All you need to know about the sparse RAW disk images used inside lightweight VMs on Apple silicon Macs. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 year ago

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