Category: Computers

AppleRAID in Disk Utility

Had to replace a failed ssd which was part of a mirrored RAID set in a Late 2012 Mac Mini. It was running MacOS 10.11 El Capitan, so the RAID functionality that used to be part of Disk Utility was not available through the app. Apple’s simple RAID tools are still available in terminal, using the command:

diskutil appleRAID <raidverb>

Options for <raidverb> include list and repairMirror.

Adding Hidden Tool Tabs in Capture One 23

In Capture One 23, a number of the built-in tool tabs are no longer selectable when you try to perform an Add Tool Tab command. These include the Black and White, Composition, and Local Adjustments tabs. Although you can add and assign icons to custom tool tabs, the icons associated with the built-in tool tabs are not available for selection when creating a custom tool tab. So, if you want to utilize the icons associated with those tool tabs, then you need to re-enable them. Fortunately, this is not difficult, and simply requires some manual editing of the workspace .plist file. Once they are visible (and in the desired order) it’s just a matter of customizing the tools on each tab to your liking.

The workspace .plist file is organized into various dictionaries, defined by the <dict> key. The one which controls the visibility of tool tabs is identified by <key>com.phaseone.captureone.sessionwindow.tools</key>. Near the end of that section is an array identified as <key>tabConfiguration</key>. Adding members to this array will control their visibility within the workspace. It also controls their order.

The following procedure are the steps I took:

  1. Select the default workspace.
  2. Add any desired missing tool tabs which are selectable.
  3. Save the custom workspace.
  4. Open the .plist file associated with the new custom workspace. The file is located in /[User]/Library/Application Support/Capture One/Workspaces.
  5. Locate the appropriate key; add the appropriate strings. For the hidden built-in tabs, these are named BlackWhiteToolTab, CompositionToolTab, and LocalAdjustmentsToolTab, respectively. Optionally, organize the tabs as desired.
  6. Save the file.
  7. Refresh Capture One by selecting the default workspace, and then reselecting the custom workspace. The hidden tabs should be visible.

Spoofing OSX 10.11.16 El Capitan Install

When trying to install El Capitan via the recovery partition on a 2014 MacBook Air, I get a message that “no packages were eligible for install.” The problem is that the certificates are out of date, so the installer won’t proceed. The general workaround is to change the computer date to sometime in mid 2017.

  1. Upon receiving the prompt that “no packages were eligible,” don’t restart. Turn off the wifi.
  2. Go to Utilities>Terminal
  3. Change the date using this command: date 0115124517
  4. Quit terminal.
  5. Disconnect from wifi, or select a network with an unknown password.
  6. Click Restart.
  7. (After restarting) Click continue, and follow the onscreen instructions.

From there, the computer should install El Capitan. If it hangs after reaching a full bar, cycle the machine power. Now it should prompt you to complete the installation.

Apple Music Displays the Wrong Album Art

So my iPhone SE was displaying the wrong album art for a number (though not all) songs. When I checked these albums on iTunes, all the songs had the correct album art. I tried deleting all the songs and then resyncing the playlist, but that didn’t fix the problem. A quick web search turned up the following tip from Reddit.

First delete the playlist, but before starting another sync from the computer, also turn off wi-fi and cellular communications. The easiest way to do this is to place the phone in Airplane mode. Then start the sync, and the correct album art should appear on the iPhone. Apparently this happens when syncing playlists.

What an annoying bug.

Yojimbo syncing via Dropbox

It can be done, but BBS doesn’t support it.

For reference, in case the link above breaks:

Instructions

To prepare your Yojimbo data for use with Dropbox, perform the following steps in order:

  1. Quit Yojimbo on all your machines.
  2. On your primary Mac, locate your Yojimbo data folder (/Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/Yojimbo/) and move it into your Dropbox folder.
  3. Create a symlink named “Yojimbo” in the standard location (/Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/) which points to the actual location of your “Yojimbo” data folder within your “DropBox” folder.

    Assuming you placed the “Yojimbo” data folder directly within the “Dropbox” folder, you can do this by issuing the following Terminal command (on a single line; you can copy & paste it):

    ln -s ~/Dropbox/Yojimbo ~/Library/Application\ Support/

  4. Launch Yojimbo and make sure it still can access your data.
  5. Quit Yojimbo again, and wait until Dropbox has synced your entire Yojimbo data folder to your other machine(s)
  6. On each of your other machines:
    • Move the “Yojimbo” data folder which is currently within “/Users/USERNAME/Library/Application Support/” aside.
    • Create a symlink between the Yojimbo data folder in your Dropbox folder and the default location as in step 3 above.

At this point, you should be able to open Yojimbo and access your data on any machine, subject to the above caveat that it can only be open on one machine at a time.

Further reference in the great iCloud debacle

Apple’s great. iCloud still sucks. Especially since they clearly have only one engineer working on the project. Apple, I understand you want to sell new phones, new computers, and the whatnot. And trust me, us folks who love Apple products will buy them, eventually. You’ve got us hooked. But stop making the iCloud service so closed that I can’t even use the iMac I bought last year to access the service.

Here’s another workaround, in case your mail is broken:
http://www.macstories.net/news/configure-an-icloud-email-account-on-snow-leopard/

For quick reference, the mail server name is p02-imap.mail.me.com, because I suppose mail.me.com would have been too obvious. Fuckers.