The Real Country: 4 Gleaning

Gleaning has Biblical origins, to let the poor get their own free supply of grain. Was it confined to the poorest, and did it remain a right, later in Europe? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 months ago

From quarantine to provenance: extended attributes

Extended attributes were added to Mac OS X 10.4, and soon supported the quarantine xattr. They have since flourished, and have valuable properties. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 months ago

Reading visual art: 157 Hospitality in life

Religious paintings of the parable of the Good Samaritan, and Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, and charitable saints, before all changed in the 19th century.. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 months ago

macOS Sequoia ships next week; here’s a SilentKnight update for it

SilenKnight 2.11 addresses issues with Sequoia, and is strongly recommended if you're going to update from Monday 16 September onwards. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 months ago

Reading visual art: 156 Hospitality in myth

Myths of Perseus and Atlas, Philemon and Baucis, and the peasants of Lycia teach the ancient code of hospitality to strangers. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 months ago

What performance should you get from different types of storage?

How much faster should a Thunderbolt 3 SSD be for making Time Machine backups? How can you speed up backups to your NAS? Here are representative speeds from real testing. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 months ago

Changing Paintings: 36 Theseus and the Minotaur

King Nisus' daughter betrays her father and his kingdom to King Minos of Crete. Theseus kills the Minotaur kept in the labyrinth on Crete, then abducts Ariadne to Naxos, where he abandons her. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 months ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 272

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 272. Here are my solutions to them. 1: Used […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 months ago

Mastering Secure Boot on Apple silicon

Explains the three different settings, including Permissive Security, why you might need to reduce security, and how to do so using Startup Security Utility. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 months ago

Heroines 15: Sappho and the ferryman

Did Sappho really throw herself from the Leucadian Cliff when she was jilted by Phaon the local ferryman, or was Ovid ridiculing the story? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Last Week on My Mac: M what?

If you don't know your M2 from an M3, here's a short summary of the timeline of their release, and their major differences, before we all get our heads around the coming M4 Macs. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Heroines 14: The crime of faithfulness

The story of Hypermnestra's faithfulness to her husband, her trial for not murdering him, and what happened to her sisters, the Danaides. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Saturday Mac riddles 272

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation. 1: Used by […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

A brief history of Time Machine

Released in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on 26 October 2007, it supported Time Capsules launched in January 2008, and in Big Sur could back up to APFS. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Harriet Backer’s Nordic Light: 1890-1932

Her studies of light moved indoors, using the shadows of kerosene lanterns, and depicting women in church. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Which version of SilentKnight and other apps do you need?

If you're running any version of SilentKnight before 2.10, you need to update it now for compatibility with Catalina and later, particularly for Sequoia. And there are more essential updates too. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

The Real Country: 3 Cutting the corn

Was ripe wheat cut using a sickle, hook, or scythe? Paintings from 1565 to 1890 show a preference for scythes when men were available. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Updating macOS with an Installer and in Recovery

If you want to update or install macOS differently from what is offered in Software Update, here are the options, and what each is best for. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Reading visual art: 155 Courts of law B

Scathing satire from Honoré Daumier and Jean-Louis Forain, together with view of the Old Bailey, a Norwegian magistrate, and a German court lit by candles. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Where has Safari gone, and why are macOS updates larger for Apple silicon?

Safari and its supporting frameworks and components, used to be installed in the Data volume, but now come in cryptexes. These also account for the larger macOS updates for Apple silicon. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Apple has just released an update to XProtect Remediator

Apple has just released an update to XProtect Remediator security software for Catalina or later, bringing it to […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Reading visual art: 154 Courts of law A

The stories of Cambyses the corrupt judge, Phryne charged with impiety, the judgement of Solomon, the Tichborne Trial, and several others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Launching apps in Sonoma 14.6.1: Conclusions

App launch security is built in multiple layers, and not all check are run on every launch of an app. Syspolicy plays a key role, CDHashes are now central, and XProtect scans can make checks on large apps slow. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Changing Paintings: 35 The tragedy of Cephalus and Procris

One of Ovid's best stories, of a man who inadvertently kills his wife when she suspects him of having an affair with a nymph when he should be hunting. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 271

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 271. Here are my solutions to them. 1: Table […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

What is Macintosh HD now?

Exactly what is the disk shown in the Finder named Macintosh HD, in Big Sur and later versions of macOS? An exploration of the structure of the modern boot disk. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Back to school: paintings 1860-1907

Led by progressive administrations in the French Republic and Scotland, secular classes improved discipline and improved their pupils. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Last Week on my Mac: XProtect tormentor

At first, I thought the new XProtect version should be 5272, but some updated without that version changing. Then I stumbled across a secret way to update. Not a good omen for the release of Sequoia. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Back to school: paintings 1640-1860

Chaos in the barren classrooms of the 1600s gradually restored to order over the following two centuries as boys and girls learned to read and write. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Saturday Mac riddles 271

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation. 1: Table of […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

A brief history of Clarus the Dogcow

How a dogcow from Cairo came to grace the Page Setup dialog in Classic Mac OS, was retired for Mac OS X, and has made a comeback since Ventura. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Harriet Backer’s Nordic Light: to 1889

One of Norway's most famous artists, a pioneering woman painter and influential teacher. Exploring the play of light on interiors and more. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Advanced SilentKnight: updating macOS and avoiding updates

How SilentKnight can install macOS updates, up to a point, and how you can recover from an inadvertent download of a macOS update. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

The Real Country: 2 The sower

Stone-picking to improve the soil. A series of paintings of the Sower, broadcasting seed by hand. Weeding the fields to help the crop grow. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Launching apps in Sonoma 14.6.1: Known malware

Three malicious apps - Atomic Stealer, Genieo and XCSSET - against macOS 14.6.1, with full security, SIP disabled, and Gatekeeper disabled. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 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, […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Reading visual art: 153 Catasterisation and assumption

What happens when a mortal is turned into a heavenly body, as with Orion; or when the Virgin Mary was taken up into Heaven. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Launching apps in Sonoma 14.6.1: Reduced security

If you thought spctl disabled Gatekeeper assessments, and disabling SIP had little effect, then you might like to think again. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Reading visual art: 152 Apotheosis

What happens when a pre-christian hero is elevated to the status of god or goddess. Starring Hercules, Aeneas, Romulus and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Launching apps in Sonoma 14.6.1: Full security

Details of security checks including Gatekeeper, XProtect and notarization, performed when launching an app in full security. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Changing Paintings: 34 Minos and the Myrmidons

After the people of Aegina are almost wiped out by a plague, Jupiter gives its king an army of hard workers who became the fearsome Myrmidons in the Trojan War. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 270

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 270. Here are my solutions to them. 1: The […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Links, aliases and the decline of paths

Symlinks are popular but prove fragile when folders get renamed or moved. Hard links don't support directories and can't cross volumes. The alias works best overall, but isn't supported in Terminal. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Celebrating the tercentenary of equine artist George Stubbs

Probably the first specialist painter of horses in Europe, he depicted many racehorses of the rich and famous, and even painted the Queen's Ass. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Last Week on My Mac: Layered security and herd immunity

Security in macOS is designed and applied in multiple layers to remain effective even when one layer is bypassed, and herd protection determines types of attack. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Equestrian portraits in honour of George Stubbs

Equestrian paintings of those who followed George Stubbs: Théodore Géricault, James Ward, Horace Vernet, Eugène Delacroix, and Edgar Degas. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

Saturday Mac riddles 270

Here are this weekend’s Mac riddles to entertain you through family time, shopping and recreation. 1: The periodical […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago

A brief history of the Finder Alias

Introduced in System 7 in 1991, long before symbolic and hard links became available in Mac OS X, they've been revised and extended to bookmarks since. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 months ago