Last Week on My Mac: Forcing decisions

Will macOS 16 support Intel Macs? All T2 models, or just a few of them? What about the 5 year rule? It's all down to demand and cost benefit, and maybe convincing those who have been sitting on the fence. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 hours ago

A French landscape painter in Rome: Poussin

It took him 3 attempts to get to Rome, where he fell ill with syphilis. His patron helped him become well-read and erudite, and that led him to paint sublime pure landscapes. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 22 hours ago

Saturday Mac riddles 308

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


@eclecticlight.co | 1 day ago

A brief history of architecture transitions

68K to PowerPC in 1994-1998, on to Intel in 2006-2009, and to Apple silicon from 2020. The 68K emulator, Rosetta, and Rosetta 2 that enabled backward compatibility. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 day ago

Temporary suspension of comments

Due to an attack by a comment spammer, I regret that I have suspended all commenting to posts […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 day ago

Urban Revolutionaries: 14 Epidemic

Plague ravaged cities across Europe and much of the world, cholera came from contaminated water supplies, then there were influenza and tuberculosis. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 1 day ago

Comparing in-core performance of Intel, M3 and M4 CPU cores

How much faster are the P cores in M3 and M4 chips, compared to late Intel Macs? How do they compare when running threads at low QoS, such as those of macOS background tasks? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 days ago

Interiors by Design: Cupboards and dressers

From the maid washing the linen and Cinderella to fashionable homes of prosperous artists in Nordic countries, we fill a lot of cupboards, dressers, sideboards and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 2 days ago

Check your network backups and shares, as AFP is being removed

Are you prepared for the removal of support for AFP in a 'future version of macOS'? Here's what you need to know, and what you should consider doing. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 days ago

Reading Visual Art: 210 Parrot B

Parrots in still life paintings from the Dutch Golden Age, accompanying a Turkish page, in English summer, or passing Pierre Bonnard in Saint Tropez. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 3 days ago

What has Apple added in advance of macOS 16?

Pasteboard privacy protection, a Magnifier app, Vehicle Motion Cues, Braille Access, Accessibility Reader, Apple Diagnostics and many others coming to a macOS 16 next month. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 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 | 4 days ago

Reading Visual Art: 209 Parrot A

Parrots as extras in myths, witnessing Eve taking the apple from the serpent, and as companions to a succession of beautiful women. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 4 days ago

How to tell the difference between copies, clone files, and hard links

Distinguishing conventional copies, clone files, symlinks, hard links and Finder aliases can be confusing. Here's how to tell them apart with using Terminal. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 5 days ago

What has changed in macOS Sequoia 15.5?

The update to macOS Sequoia 15.5 is likely to be the last to include remaining enhancements and fixes […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 5 days ago

Apple has released macOS Sequoia 15.5, and 14.7.6, 13.7.6

Apple has just released the update to macOS Sequoia to bring it to version 15.5, and security updates […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 5 days ago

Changing Paintings: 70 Romulus and the founding of Rome

Romulus ploughs the boundary of the city of Rome, then defeats the Sabine king Tatius, marries his daughter, and is eventually taken to be the god Quirinus. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 5 days ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 307

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 307. Here are my solutions to them. 1: Workshop […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 6 days ago

Use Writing Tools to understand the log in LogUI build 46

Actions are moved to its toolbar to improve use. Selected messages can now be extracted into a window for editing (all Macs) and summary using Writing Tools (Apple silicon). | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 6 days ago

Landscapes of Spain: The twentieth century

Landscapes by artists from the USA, Denmark, Wales, Japan, and England, together with locals Muñoz Degrain, Joaquín Sorolla and Enrique Simonet. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 6 days ago

Last Week on My Mac: Who’s afraid of changing interface?

Rumours are that macOS 16 will bring interface changes to increase consistency across platforms. What does this mean in terms of macOS API support and what we'll see in the betas? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 7 days ago

Landscapes of Spain: The nineteenth century

Many aspiring painters visited the Prado in Madrid to study its collection of works by the masters. Here are some views of Spain they and its locals painted. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 7 days ago

Saturday Mac riddles 307

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


@eclecticlight.co | 8 days ago

A brief history of the all-in-one Mac

From the original Macintosh 128K in 1984, through the divergence into SE and Mac II, then the unique Twentieth Anniversary Mac, to the first iMac in 1998, and its successors. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 8 days ago

The bicentenary of James Collinson, least-known Pre-Raphaelite painter

One of the four painters in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, who has almost vanished. Works on emigration, literacy and a couple of open narratives. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 8 days ago

What is Quality of Service, and how does it matter?

How apps and processes set their priority, and on Apple silicon that determines which type of core they can be run on. What you can do to alter that. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 9 days ago

Urban Revolutionaries: 13 Holidays

No public holidays, and no paid leave either. Despite that, mill workers travelled by train to the seaside in Wakes Weeks. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 9 days ago

Reducing noise by searching LogUI’s views

Open multiple windows in LogUI, set them up to obtain the same log extract, then apply different searches to each. A powerful way to read long and complex log extracts. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 days ago

Reading Visual Art: 208 Friezes B

More painted friezes from Gustav Klimt, Ferdinand Hodler, Evelyn De Morgan, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 10 days ago

Choosing an Apple silicon Mac

Why is an M2 Pro or Max preferable to an M1 Pro or Max? Is 8 GB of memory sufficient? Can I extend the internal SSD with an external drive? Can I buy and upgrade? | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 11 days ago

Reading Visual Art: 207 Friezes A

Paintings mimicking an architectural frieze, with figures flattened into a plane parallel to the picture plane. Used deliberately by Ferdinand Hodler and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 11 days ago

Search your log extracts with LogUI build 42

Search your log extract instantly to show only entries containing the chosen text in their message, process name, sender name, or subsystem. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 12 days ago

Changing Paintings: 69 Vertumnus and Pomona

The god of the seasons and gardens falls in love with a devoted gardener, but can't woo her successfully when posing as someone else. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 12 days ago

Solutions to Saturday Mac riddles 306

I hope that you enjoyed Saturday’s Mac Riddles, episode 306. Here are my solutions to them. 1: Where […] | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 13 days ago

How document versions are handled in iCloud Drive

Although introduced in the same year, versioning and iCloud Drive aren't integrated. This explains how they work, and how you can transfer versions through iCloud Drive. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 13 days ago

From the Commedia dell’Arte to Punch and Judy 2

Mr Punch and his wife Judy, and the crocodile as acted by puppets and itinerant players, and circus clowns. Paintings by Cézanne, Renoir and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 13 days ago

Last Week on My Mac: Checking code can take longer now

Stepping through the stages in security checks made on a notarized Mach-O binary command tool, in Ventura 13.4.1 2 years ago, and now in Sequoia 15.4.1. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 14 days ago

From the Commedia dell’Arte to Punch and Judy 1

Pierrot, Harlequin and other characters from the early professional theatre seen in paintings by Watteau, Goya and others. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 14 days ago

Saturday Mac riddles 306

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


@eclecticlight.co | 15 days ago

A brief history of fonts in Mac OS

From initial FONT bitmaps, PostScript Type 1 in the LaserWriter, and the release of TrueType in 1991, to data-fork format TrueType suitcases and OpenType in Mac OS X. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 15 days ago

Urban Revolutionaries: 12 Parks

From the Royal Parks in London at the turn of the 19th century, through the parks of Paris, Rome, Vienna, New York City and Brooklyn. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 15 days ago

What isn’t backed up?

Backups don't include everything. Here are details of those items excluded from Time Machine backups, and why they're excluded. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 16 days ago

Interiors by Design: Music rooms

The sound of music from Vermeer, Menzel, James Tissot, Hanna Pauli, Edouard Vuillard and others, from palaces to the homes of the middle class. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 16 days ago

Versions in motion: how to preserve document versions

The rules for preserving document versions are based on their being associated with the document's inode number, and on the same volume. Here are the details and a way to preserve them whatever. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 17 days ago

Reading Visual Art: 206 Colour codes B

Ultramarine blue for Mary's cloak, red for the Passion, cardinals and the scarlet woman. Other colour codes, including their importance in multiplex narrative. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 17 days ago

Why some apps sometimes launch extremely slowly

Most could live with slight delays when launching major apps. But when they're as long as 30 seconds, and it's an Apple silicon Mac, an explanation is required. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 18 days ago

Reading Visual Art: 205 Colour codes A

How ancient Egyptians painted women white and men more swarthy in colour. Separately, colour coding of devils brought similar distinctions. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 18 days ago

Document versioning: unused power in macOS

It has been built into macOS and many apps over the last 14 years, but must be one of its least used features. How versions can empower your editing of documents. | Continue reading


@eclecticlight.co | 19 days ago