Over the past few months, I’ve been researching the kinds of apps that get featured on the iTunes App Store home page for different countries around the world. Here are my initial findings.

Technology giants at war: Another game of thrones | The Economist (via Charted Territory – Tao of Mac )

However, there is one major thing they have in common: a clear formula for positioning your retail operations. Both operations are positioned around a job-to-be-done that has a high priority in people’s life.

Apple offers a place where people can discover and get answers about technology without the pressure of making a purchase. The job is to simplify that which is complex for a price premium.

IKEA offers a place where people can get exactly what they need exactly when they need it. The only downside is that “some assembly is required”. In a way, their job is to introduce some complexity in exchange for convenience and a discount.

(via Chart: Apple’s Astonishing Profit in Context | Statista )

Wow!

AllThingsD](http://allthingsd.com/20120729/court-case-offers-rare-glimpse-at-dozen-of-iphone-and-ipad-prototype-designs/)

Gallery with dozens of images from the Apple vs. Samsung court case filings.

Simplicity is not the absence of clutter, that’s a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product. The absence of clutter is just a clutter-free product. That’s not simple.

Jonathan Ive interview: simplicity isn’t simple – Telegraph

About the monomyth and heroic content format of marketing.

Joseph Campbell ’s monomyth , or the hero’s journey , is a basic pattern that its proponents argue is found in many narratives from around the world.

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

Developing a mobile app is the easy part. Getting that app noticed is difficult. And getting the app to go viral is like winning the lottery. Yet many developers get millions of downloads time after time. How?

List all registered url schemes

• applications - What are all of the URI Schemes Available on macOS - Ask Different

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -dump URLSchemeBinding

or, to make it more readily available:

alias lsregister='/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister'
lsregister -dump URLSchemeBinding

Access unicode characters for keyboard symbols

• keyboard - Where can I find the unicode symbols for Mac functional keys? (Command, Shift, etc.) - Ask Different

  You can click the ⚙️ or (•••) button > Customize List and enable additional unicode characters groups, including Code Tables > Unicode which will show the full unicode table grouped by categories.

  The ⌘ ⇪⌥ ⏎ symbols are grouped under the Symbols > Technical Symbols category which you can enable for quick access

• Interesting categories to enable:

  • Symbols > Musical Symbols
  • Symbols > Signs and Standard Symbols
  • Symbols > Technical Symbol

Link to Notes

• To find out the id of a Note use shortcut Get URL of Note (via iBanks3)

1. Run shortcut Get URL of Note

2. Enter node Note and check the LNEntity Supported Type to get the UUID, e.g.:

   <LNEntity: 0x123456789, identifier: NoteEntity/applenotes:note/12345678-abcd-bcde-cdef-123456789012, ...
   

   ➔12345678-abcd-bcde-cdef-123456789012

3. Convert the UUID to ALL CAPS (for example, using Convert Case or the Pages app):

   ➔12345678-ABCD-BCDE-CDEF-123456789012

4. Append it to the url sheme to open Notes:

   ➔applenotes://showNote?identifier=12345678-ABCD-BCDE-CDEF-123456789012

Note: Sometimes you might get the following error:

An error occurred while running Get URL of Note
Couldn’t communicate with a helper application.

I haven’t found any way around it other than trying again some other time 🤷‍♂️ — restarts haven’t helped at all.

Enable Touch ID for sudo

• Quick Tip: Enable Touch ID for sudo – Six Colors

cd /etc/pam.d/ && sudo chmod a+w sudo && vi sudo && sudo chmod a-w sudo && cd -

# sudo: auth account password session
auth       sufficient     pam_tid.so        # <= add this line here
auth       sufficient     pam_smartcard.so
auth       required       pam_opendirectory.so
account    required       pam_permit.so
password   required       pam_deny.so
session    required       pam_permit.so

Remove quarantine

… “‘command’ cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified.”

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /usr/local/bin/cmd

File extended attributes

… list attributes

ls -l -@ file
xattr file

… show values

xattr -l file
xattr -p attribute file

Add to sudoers without needing a restart

• macos - How do I give a user sudo permissions? - Ask Different

su - admin

… add

sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a hugo -t user admin
sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a hugo -t user wheel

… delete

sudo dseditgroup -o edit -d hugo -t user admin
sudo dseditgroup -o edit -d hugo -t user wheel

Create encrypted zip file

• Creating AES256 encrypted Zip Archive Files on a Mac from the Command Line
• macosx - What encryption method is used by the zip program in macOS? - Information Security Stack Exchange

… install

brew install p7zip

… create

7za a -tzip -mem=AES256 -p secrets-encrypted.zip secrets/
7za x secrets-encrypted.zip

View and change file flags

… invisible = hidden; visible = nohidden

$ touch seeme hideme

$ chflags hidden hideme
$ chflags nohidden seeme

$ ls -lO *me  # -O is an “oh” not a “zero”
-rw-r--r--  1 hugo  staff  hidden 0 Mar 12 11:28 hideme
-rw-r--r--  1 hugo  staff  -      0 Mar 12 11:28 seeme

Reset unlocking MacBook by Apple Watch

• In Messages
  • Preferences ➤ Accounts
  • Sign Out
  • Sign In
• In System Preferences
  • Security & Privacy
  • Check “Allow your Apple Watch to unlock you Mac”

Why does it keep waking from sleep?

• If your Mac doesn’t sleep or wake when expected - Apple Support
• Determine Why Your Mac Wakes Up From Sleep

… definition of log terms

• OHC (Open Host Controller) is usually USB or Firewire. OHC1 or OHC2 is almost certainly an external USB keyboard or mouse
• EHC (Enhanced Host Controller) is another USB interface, but can also be wireless devices and bluetooth
• USB when a USB device woke the machine up
• LID0 when you open the lid the machine wakes up from sleep
• PWRB (Power Button) which is the physical power button on your Mac
• RTC (Real Time Clock Alarm) is generally from wake-on-demand services
  • Schedule sleep and wake via the Energy Saver control panel
  • launchd setting
  • User applications
  • Backups
  • Other scheduled events

log show --last 1d --predicate 'eventMessage contains "Wake reason"'
log show --last 1d | grep -C15 -i "wake reason"

Delete old Time Machine backups

• macos - How can I manually delete old backups to free space for Time Machine? - Ask Different
• time machine - Remove unnecessary backups from TimeMachine to get space - Ask Different

tmutil listbackups
sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/[Disk]/Backups.backupdb/[Name]/2000-00-00-000000
sudo tmutil delete /Volumes/[Disk]/Backups.backupdb/[Name]/2000-*

Use Keychain for unlocking SSH private key

• terminal - macOS Sierra doesn’t seem to remember SSH keys between reboots - Ask Different

Host *
   AddKeysToAgent yes
   UseKeychain yes
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Spoof MAC address

• Change (Spoof) a MAC Address in OS X Mountain Lion & Mavericks

openssl rand -hex 6 | sed 's/\(..\)/\1:/g; s/.$//'  # make
sudo ifconfig en0 ether xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx  # set
ifconfig en0 |grep ether  # check

Consult timestamps on Safari history

• sqlite - What format is the Safari History.db history_visits.visit_time in? - Stack Overflow
• See website visit time in Safari history - Ask Different

$ sqlite3 ~/Library/Safari/History.db
sqlite> .headers on

select datetime(v.visit_time + 978307200, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as date, v.visit_time + 978307200 as epoch, v.visit_time, i.domain_expansion, i.url
from history_items i left join history_visits v on i.id = v.history_item
order by i.id desc
limit 100;

Quick one-liner to paste into the Terminal:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Safari/History.db "select datetime(v.visit_time + 978307200, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as date, v.title, i.url from history_items i left join history_visits v on i.id = v.history_item order by v.visit_time desc;" | less

Homebrew: Remove formula and its dependencies, if not in use

• Add an option to brew rm to uninstall / remove a package, including all it’s dependencies. · Issue #7465 · Homebrew/homebrew
• beeftornado/homebrew-rmtree - Ruby

… installing command

brew tap beeftornado/rmtree && brew install brew-rmtree

… removing a formula

brew rmtree --dry-run formula

Homebrew: Show installed formulae and dependencies

… top-level only

brew leaves

… all dependencies

brew deps --installed [--tree]

… what uses a dependency

brew uses --installed --recursive formula

Homebrew quick guide

• homebrew/FAQ.md at master · Homebrew/homebrew · GitHub

… installed things

brew list

… bumping version

brew update                       # Homebrew itself
brew outdated                     # Formulas
brew upgrade [$FORMULA]           # Formulas

… clearing things

brew list --versions --multiple
brew cleanup -n                   # dry run
brew cleanup [$FORMULA]

Homebrew: Using Caskroom sources

• Homebrew Cask

brew tap caskroom/cask
brew cask info Caskroom/cask/rowanj-gitx

Test and debug LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons

• OSX launchd and launchctl issues - Tim’s blag

sudo launchctl log level debug
tail -f /var/log/system.log
sudo launchctl log level error

launchctl list [cc.ferreira.backlog.daily]
launchctl start cc.ferreira.backlog.daily

launchctl unload -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/cc.ferreira.backlog.daily.plist 
launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/cc.ferreira.backlog.daily.plist 

Resolve host from IP

• with zeroconf / Multicast DNS / mDNS

dig +short -x 192.168.1.65 -p 5353 @224.0.0.251

Disable/revoke disk decryption from a user

• for FileVault 2
• osx - Disable a user’s ability to unlock a FileVault 2 volume at startup/login time - Ask Different
• Prevent certain accounts from unlocking FileVault 2 | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

$ sudo su - testing  
$ passwd 
Changing password for charlie.
Old Password:                     # [enter old password here]
New Password:                     # [press enter]
Retype New Password:              # [press enter]

• System Preferences ➤ Security & Privacy ➤ FileVault
  • Enable Users …
  • Set Password …

Create user manually without disk encryption rights

• for FileVault 2

sudo dscl /Local/Default -create /Users/testing
sudo dscl /Local/Default -create /Users/testing UserShell /bin/bash
sudo dscl /Local/Default -create /Users/testing RealName "Testing"
sudo dscl /Local/Default -create /Users/testing UniqueID 503
sudo dscl /Local/Default -create /Users/testing PrimaryGroupID 1000
sudo dscl /Local/Default -create /Users/testing NFSHomeDirectory /Users/testing
sudo passwd testing

Check user definitions

sudo dscl /Local/Default -read /Users/testing

Where the modem passwords are stored

cat /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist

Where the dhcp leases are stored

cat /var/db/dhcpd_leases

Flush DNS cache

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

Force Spotlight to re-index

• Spotlight: How to re-index folders or volumes

sudo mdutil -E /

Remove duplicates in the “Open With” menu

cd /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/\Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/
lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

View resource forks

# DEPRECATED: ls -l path/to/file/rsrc

MySQL server

… MacPorts

su - admin -c "sudo mysql.server start | stop | …"

… Homebrew

su - admin; mysql.server start | stop | …

iPhoto speedup

cd Pictures/iPhoto\ Library/
for db in *.db; do
    sqlite3 $db "vacuum;"
done

Stop nmbd

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/nmbd.plist

Quit application

osascript -e 'tell app "iCal" to quit'

“Old” style sleep mode

pmset -g | grep hibernatemode
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

Eject cd

drutil tray eject

Text styles and substitutions

open ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist
# See `NSFavoriteStyles`
# See `NSUserReplacementItems`

Open man pages in PDF

man -t opensnoop | open -f -a /Applications/Preview.app

Start/Stop local FTP Server

sudo -s launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

sudo -s launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist