Commemorating the centenary of John Singer Sargent’s death: 1 Pupil

Early paintings from his time as a student in Paris, a series painted when he was on Capri in 1878, a portrait of his teacher, and exotic smoke. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 8 hours ago

Can APFS special files save storage space?

Deleting clone files saves no space, but converting copies into clones could free up plenty of storage. Sparse files can also be highly efficient, and squeeze 285 GB into just 16.5 GB. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 13 hours ago

Apple has released an update to XProtect for all macOS

Apple has just released an update to XProtect for all supported versions of macOS, bringing it to version […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 day ago

Reading Visual Art: 202 Rabbit & Hare

From Dürer's groundbreaking hare to the fable of the hare and the tortoise, a hidden hare in a well-known Turner and a white rabbit for the first of the month? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 day ago

LogUI build 37 now has more power for browsing the log

Adds support for using your own filter predicates so you only see the log entries you want. Either in a one-off editor, or to its popup menu. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 day ago

Apple has released macOS Sequoia 15.4, and 14.7.5, 13.7.5

Apple has just released the update to macOS Sequoia to bring it to version 15.4, and security updates […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 days ago

Changing Paintings: 64 Scylla meets Glaucus

Scylla accosted by the grotesque sea-god Glaucus. When she runs away from him, he seeks the help of Circe, only for her to turn Scylla into a pack of hounds, then into a hazard to navigation. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 days ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 301

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 301. Here are my solutions to them. 1: Roll […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 days ago

External boot disks: structure and problems

Systematic and thorough account of the structure and function of bootable external disks and dual-boot systems from High Sierra to Sequoia, and how to diagnose their problems. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 days ago

Paintings of the Franco-Prussian War: 2 The Siege of Paris

As winter grew colder, Parisians started to starve. A city known for its food and restaurants had to scavenge meals based on horse, dog, cat and even rat. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 days ago

Last Week on My Mac: Bring back the magic

The magic of Mac was how you could double-click a document and it opened in the right app. Now that works differently with LaunchServices, it offers me 70 apps to edit any text document. Can we return to magic please? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 days ago

Paintings of the Franco-Prussian War: 1 Collapse

How conflicting ambitions took Napoleon III to war against Prussia when France was so ill-prepared. Defeat was inevitable, and soon Paris was under siege. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 days ago

Saturday Mac riddles 301

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


@eclecticlight.co | 4 days ago

A brief history of compression on Macs

Raymond Lau's hugely successful Stuffit dominated Mac compression utilities from introduction in 1987 until Mac OS X in 2001. Also a NuBus card, and most recently AppleArchive. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 days ago

Urban Revolutionaries: 9 Poverty

The urban poor, painted by Raffaëlli, George Breitner, Fernand Pelez, Christian Krohg, Geoffroy, Henningsen in cities across Europe. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 5 days ago

macOS 15.3.2 Sequoia won’t install older macOS on Apple silicon Macs

Can you install macOS Sonoma on an external SSD for an Apple silicon Mac running Sequoia 15.3.2? So far this has defeated two of us on many attempts. With useful tips that should have brought success. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 5 days ago

Interiors by Design: Writing desks

From a saint's integrated office, through tables with quills and ink-pots, to beautifully crafted furniture for the home office. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 6 days ago

Controlling LaunchServices in macOS Sequoia

The hidden command tool lsregister can be used to control LaunchServices and its registry, but there are now snags in most of its features, as explained here. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 6 days ago

Reading Visual Art: 201 Dancing, ballet and erotic

At the ballet with Degas,Sargent's Spanish dancer, entertainment in North Africa, an Ionian dance, the Can-Can, Salome and the Dance of the Seven Veils. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 7 days ago

How macOS Sequoia launches an app

Overview of how different subsystems work together during launching a notarized app, from LaunchServices to checking WritingTools and AI availability. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 7 days ago

Apple has released an update to XProtect for all macOS

Apple has just released an update to XProtect for all supported versions of macOS, bringing it to version […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 8 days ago

Reading Visual Art: 200 Dancing, myth and folk

A dance to the music of time, the hours, Muses, sirens, winged putti, faeries, maidens fearing death, mid-summer feasts and folk dancing. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 8 days ago

Better security means less recoverability

There's extensive experience in recovering deleted files from hard disks, and results can be surprisingly good. Recovery from SSDs is more tricky, and secure 'wiping' ensures nothing can ever be recovered, making good backups essential. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 8 days ago

Changing Paintings: 63 The tragedy of Galatea

Galatea falls in love with Acis, son of a river-god, but the Cyclops Polyphemus is in love with Galatea and is murderously jealous of Acis. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 9 days ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 300

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 300. Here are my solutions to them. 1: The […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 9 days ago

What are app entitlements, and what do they do?

Whether they enable an App Store app to go beyond its sandbox, provide access to features that are privacy-protected, or give access to macOS features only permitted for approved apps, entitlements are important. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 9 days ago

Roman Landscapes: 2 Development

Paintings of the Roman countryside by Michallon, Blechen, Camille Corot, Arnold Böcklin, and others following Valenciennes' teaching. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 days ago

Last Week on My Mac: Giving a fsck

What disk checks are made in Safe mode? How are they different from those run during normal startup? If Disk Utility is to be our only APFS repair tool, shouldn't have more and better features? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 days ago

Roman Landscapes: 1 Dawn

Remarkable oil sketches made in the countryside around Rome that laid the foundation for training in landscape painting, and ultimately Impressionism. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 11 days ago

Saturday Mac riddles 300

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


@eclecticlight.co | 11 days ago

A brief history of installing Mac OS: Mac OS X and beyond

From Installer packages and metapackages, to the first for Big Sur with its new boot volume group. RSRs and their demise, and when an upgrade is an update. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 11 days ago

Urban Revolutionaries: 8 The Oldest Profession

Paintings from cities like London, Paris and Oslo, by Ford Madox Brown, Jean-Louis Forain, Félicien Rops, Christian Krohg, and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 12 days ago

When you should use Safe Mode, and what it does

Claimed to block 3rd-party extensions and customisations from loading, check the startup disk, and to clear some system caches. When and why should you use it? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 12 days ago

Interiors by Design: Tiles

Blue-on-white Delft tiles in paintings of Vermeer, and those in the 19th century who recreated period interiors, including Laura Alma-Tadema. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 13 days ago

LogUI log browser build 31 has better filters

This new build checks that it can get log extracts, and has a wider range of filters you can use to select which entries it fetches and displays. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 13 days ago

Reading Visual Art: 199 Physical ecstasy

Ariadne, Bacchantes, Sappho, Queen Guinevere, Salome and Judith in ecstasy, in paintings by Lovis Corinth, David, Rossetti, Gustav Klimt and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 14 days ago

What happened to macOS in last week’s updates?

T2 Macs updated to 15.3.2 should have a newer firmware version than those who installed the Safari update for Sonoma or Ventura, but what is 14.7.5 and 13.7.5? Time to deconfuse. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 14 days ago

Reading Visual Art: 198 Religious ecstasy

Mary Magdalene, Saint Paul, Saint Cecilia, Joan of Arc in paintings by Elisabetta Sirani, Artemisia Gentileschi, Raphael, Annie Swynnerton and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 15 days ago

Take control of disks using APFS

Speed up your hard disk by partitioning it so that its innermost 20% remains unused. Reserve space for the SLC write cache on an SSD by limiting the size of volumes. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 15 days ago

Changing Paintings: 62 Aeneas flees Troy

Aeneas and his family flee the burning city of Troy, losing his wife on the way. They sail to Delos, where they see the trees that Latona gripped when giving birth to Apollo and Diana. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 16 days ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 299

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 299. Here are my solutions to them. 1: Lucida […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 16 days ago

Why SSDs slow down, and how to avoid it

Covering thermal throttling, extended coverage of SLC write cache depletion and how long it takes to empty the cache, Trimming, and more. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 16 days ago

Napoleons of paintings: 2 Defeat

After his divorce, his son the King of Rome. Disaster on the retreat from Moscow, and exile on the island of Saint Helena. The rapid rise of Napoleon III and his military failure against Prussia in 1870. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 17 days ago

Last Week on My Mac: The myth of liquid detection

What was this new background service that suddenly appeared in Sonoma 14.1, liquiddetectiond? Why wasn't it documented until a year later, and is Apple really gathering data about damp USB-C ports? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 17 days ago

Napoleons of paintings: 1 Victories

Emperor Napoleon I, a Corsican of Italian origin who died on a remote British island in the South Atlantic. Paintings of his early military successes, and the Empress Joséphine before their divorce. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 18 days ago

Saturday Mac riddles 299

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


@eclecticlight.co | 18 days ago

A brief history of installing Mac OS: Mac OS 9.1

Installing and maintaining Mac OS 9.1 was a complex process that could easily occupy you for several hours getting all its components right. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 18 days ago

Interiors by Design: Wallpaper

A cheap substitute for tapestries, they came of age in the 19th century when paper could be made in long rolls and colour printing had improved. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 19 days ago