Dealing with a dysfunctional Desktop

When he put files or folders on his Desktop, although they were shown in the Finder’s listing of its contents, they simply vanished. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Painted Stories in Britain 13: Enter the Pre-Raphaelites

Unwittingly, and outside their manifesto, the Pre-Raphaelite Brethren developed a new British narrative painting. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Which external disk?

Overall summary of a year’s testing external hard disks and SSDs ranging in cost from $50 to more than $200 per TB. Which is best? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Sunrise on Impressionism: 18 Frédéric Bazille

Missing from the First Impressionist Exhibition were the paintings of this promising figurative Impressionist who had been killed in the Franco-Prussian War. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Booting macOS on Apple silicon: Multiple boot disks

How Apple silicon Macs create LocalPolicy to allow another boot volume group to be used, the problems that can occur, and how to investigate them. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Paintings of William Shakespeare’s Plays 26: The Merchant of Venice

A controversial story of a moneylender getting revenge when a borrower defaults, and demanding a pound of flesh. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 178

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 178. Here are my solutions to them. 1: One on each hand stores in a flash you can plug in. Click for a solution Thumb drive One on each… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Booting macOS on Apple silicon: LocalPolicy

To understand what might go wrong when trying to boot an Apple silicon Mac from an external disk, start with LocalPolicy: what it is, and how it works. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Ukrainian Cossacks in paintings 2: Mazeppa

The heavily embroidered story of Cossack hetman Ivan Mazepa was turned into a narrative poem by Lord Byron, and inspired paintings by Géricault, Delacroix, Vernet, and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Last Week on My Mac: Some boot, but others don’t

Why can some with Apple silicon Macs create and boot from external disks, while others seem doomed to failure? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Ukrainian Cossacks in paintings 1: History and legend

Weren’t Cossacks Russian? Well, some were, but they may also have founded Ukraine following the Great Revolt of 1648. Here’s the evidence in paintings. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Saturday Mac riddles 178

Here are this weekend’s riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation. 1: One on each hand stores in a flash you can plug in. 2: Five between two five-hundreds makes f… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

How to get updates when they’re still fresh

How to get prompt security data updates, RSRs, macOS updates, App Store updates, and those for third-party apps distributed independently. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Reading visual art: 13 Hair in secular paintings

From Venus covering herself with her hair, to combing through the hair for nits and lice. Artists include Botticelli, Rossetti and Degas. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Repairing Home folder permissions: a mystery

Once, you could run diskutil to 'fix' broken permissions in your Home folder, then it was replaced by repairHomePermissions in Recovery. Apple no longer documents this, but it's still there. Should you use it? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Reading visual art: 12 Long hair and the spirit

The stories of Samson, whose prodigious strength depended on not having his hair cut, and Mary Magdalene, who dried Christ’s feet with her hair. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Lightweight virtualisation in Ventura

How lightweight virtualisation of macOS and Linux has improved in Ventura, and what hasn’t changed. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Painted Stories in Britain 12: William Dyce

A painter of superbly composed and crafted religious and other narrative, a key figure in art education, who enjoyed the support of Queen Victoria. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Cryptex: how a custom iPhone is changing macOS updates

Expected in Ventura 13.1 is a new lightweight system for applying security patches. This article explains how it uses cryptexes, already being used in macOS 13. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Sunrise on Impressionism: 17 Pierre-Auguste Renoir

With Claude Monet and others, one of the originators of Impressionist landscape painting. Successful portraitist and figurative painter too. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

What to do when your Mac has a kernel panic

Why you should keep a copy of the Panic Log. How to check that your Mac isn’t the cause. And above all, don’t panic. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Paintings of William Shakespeare’s Plays 25: The Taming of the Shrew

Popular comedy about a man who marries and shrew and sets about trying to tame her. Frequently painted. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 177

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 177. Here are my solutions to them. 1: First from a photo and maybe named for its update size. Click for a solution Big Sur First from … | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

How does Ventura update faster? Inside the macOS update process

Three phases of updating, download, preparation and installation, are now fully integrated. They also involve updating Cryptexes, as revealed in the log. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Paintings of Late Autumn

As the fiery reds of falling leaves change to dull earth browns, and we get the odd flurry of snow, we know that winter is almost upon us. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Last Week on My Mac: Fortnightmare

How Ventura 13.0.1 played hard to get for some, and ongoing problems successfully installing security data updates make for the fortnightly nightmare. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Next to Rembrandt: In Memoriam Adriaen van der Werff 2

After the death of his patron in 1716 he remained rich, successful, and for the next century his paintings were rated more highly than those of Rembrandt. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Saturday Mac riddles 177

Here are this weekend’s riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation. 1: First from a photo and maybe named for its update size. 2: Audibly a fraudster but really the… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

What makes an external disk bootable?

This has changed greatly over the last few versions of macOS, and differs between different types of Mac. Here’s an outline. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Next to Rembrandt: In Memoriam Adriaen van der Werff 1

His fortunes changed in 1696 with a visit from the Elector Palatine, who became his patron, and six years later made him his court painter. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Ventura’s updates have got faster for some

macOS 13.0.1 is the first small security update to Ventura, although it still seems large. What’s going on, and where are macOS updates heading? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Apple has pushed updates to XProtect and XProtect Remediator

Apple has just pushed its regular fortnightly update to XProtect Remediator security software for Macs running Catalina or later, bringing it to version 84. Accompanying it is an update to XProtect… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Reading visual art: 11 Judgement by body language

The popular story of the Judgement of Solomon is a great challenge for visual art. Here are some of the better attempts at solution, from Raphael to Blake. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Make a Ventura bootable external disk for an Apple silicon Mac

Described and illustrated, with key points on cables, and setting up ownership and accounts. And what does happen when the external boot disk is missing? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Apple has released Ventura 13.0.1

Apple has just released a security update to macOS Ventura 13.0, bringing it 13.0.1. Downloads for Intel Macs are around 1 GB, and 1.46 GB for Apple silicon models. Although this update completes b… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Painted Stories in Britain 11: John Martin

A vast canvas with an apocalyptic vision of death and destruction? It must be one of John Martin’s, then. Another distinctive British narrative painter. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Disk Utility and Time Machine in Ventura

Has Ventura brought any relief from Disk Utility’s inability to run First Aid on Time Machine’s backups, and what about changes in Time Machine itself? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Sunrise on Impressionism: 16 Camille Pissarro

He first suggested the Impressionist exhibitions, co-founded their collective, and wrote their charter. Yet he didn’t achieve commercial success until he was in his sixties. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Does Apple maintain APFS in older macOS?

Using version numbers, it's possible to track changes in critical sub-systems like APFS within macOS. According to those, APFS was updated twice while Catalina was in security-only maintenance. Why? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Paintings of William Shakespeare’s Plays 24: Much Ado About Nothing

A comedy involving two couples, both tricked in different ways. One bride faints in church when accused of infidelity. The other couple didn’t know they loved one another until deceived. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 176

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 176. Here are my solutions to them. 1: One of the last two powered by Santa Clara and a paid player in short. Click for a solution Mac … | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Why is my Mac’s firmware version wrong, and what to do about it?

Why your Mac’s firmware version may not be the latest you expect. What you can do about that, depending on its type. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Painting the Ship of Fools

An allegory of a flawed democracy by Plato, a fragment of a triptych by Bosch, then two paintings in 1922 and 1930. What is its meaning? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Last Week on My Mac: Home truths about macOS

True or false? Apple supports macOS for three years. Apple’s security updates are sufficient. New versions of macOS are full of bugs. It’s safer to delay upgrading. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Fools and jesters in paintings

A selection of paintings of Yoric (Hamlet), Touchstone, and Shakespeare’s other fools, and a few from others including the great Polish Stańczyk. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Saturday Mac riddles 176

Here are this weekend’s riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation. 1: One of the last two powered by Santa Clara and a paid player in short. 2: Elsie DLXXX was las… | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

SilentKnight 2.3 fixes a bug and aids custom workflows

Fixes a bug in changing menu items when Download only is set, and improves help for those installing named updates only. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago

Reading visual art: 10 Gaze, looking away

Ignored bodies, a complex chain from the head of John the Baptist, and Velazquez’s royal portrait which omits the King and Queen, | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 years ago