This GitHub project, Appify, is a script that creates an .app file from a bash script.
This fork of the project includes how to embed a graphic during the encapsulation.
Author: Steve Morton
Creating Icon files with Preview
In macOS, the Preview app is a little-known powerhouse. In this article, the author details how to create (app/website/etc/) icons from other graphics.
When a Mac cannot get online
Per support, there is an IPv6 issue with some networks (apparently Cisco networks are most commonly affected).
Apple has a KB article on disabling IPv6 in macOS.
macOS installer commands
High Sierra
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/HighSierra
Mojave
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Mojave
Vocal warmup
This is intended to be spoken slowly and deliberately:
“Eleven benevolent elephants met Lilly and Lucy in Philadelphia. They went to see Camelot in Unique New York, with guns and drums and drums and guns which they kept in the bodega bodega bodega. They soon came across Brilliant Italian William from Topeka, who merely murmured, ”lilly lally lilly lally.“ Then around the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran, to live among Culligans and Callalillies and let his tone drift off as easily as a sigh.”
Making bootable USB drives
When installing modern operating systems, a bootable USB drive is required. The Rufus tool does exactly this and is fairly easy to use. Here is a link to the Rufus Wikipedia article.
Deleting a Profile from iOS
I have seen a few “infected” iOS devices in the past couple of weeks. Yes, for real. After so many years of being nearly bulletproof to normal malware, the iPhones I’ve worked on were compromised by configuration profiles. To remove the proxy or other malicious settings, the profile has to be deleted.
This Apple KB article details how to remove an app that has installed a profile on your iOS device. Since macOS now uses configuration profiles to ease large deployments, so it’s likely this will become a common threat vector on Apple’s desktop and notebook computers.
TL;DR Instructions
- Go to Settings > General > Device Management, Profile Management, or Profile & Device Management, then tap on the app’s configuration profile.
- Tap Delete Profile. If asked, enter your device passcode, then tap Delete.
Running PowerShell on macOS
At work, I have to manage several Office 365 tenants. While many tasks can be completed via the GUI, there are times PowerShell commands are required. That is fine on a Windows 10 computer, since PowerShell is part of the operating system.
However, I prefer to use the company’s iMac. While I was working on an issue with one of our clients, I found an article from Microsoft about using homebrew to install a PowerShell module on macOS!
When I started in IT, I don’t think that would have ever happened.
Web Browser icons
While creating a screencast, I needed image files for popular web browsers. I found this GitHub repository that had every icon I needed. If you need icons for a project, this repo is a great resource.
Editing or Removing callouts in ScreenFlow
Of the screen recording apps I have used, Telestream’s ScreenFlow is my personal favorite. While it’s Mac-only, ScreenFlow does a great job of recording desktop and iOS device displays.
Recently, I needed to blur out some sensitive information on a display. Since the callout was created several steps back, hitting the ⌘+Z key combination to undo everything wasn’t a great option.
Ultimately, I found this Telestream blog post which showed how to edit callouts using the Option key. Very handy!