fixed : how to Block Caller on iPhone ?

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Question :

Today I got called by someone who I don’t want to call me on my iPhone. Is there any way to block a caller on my iPhone ?

 

Answer :

Yes, there is.

To block a caller that just called you on your iPhone, do this :

  • click on your iPhone, click on the “Phone”-icon
  • then make sure you are in the “Recents”-tab
  • then click on the “i-in-a-circle”/”info”-icon that’s right next to the phone number (or name) you want to block
  • now make sure you don’t touch anything, but scroll down (or rather “swipe up”) towards the usually invisible bottom part of the page…
  • then, at the bottom, you will see “Block this Caller”… click on it
  • a popup will appear, there, click on “Block Contact”
  • now this caller (or rather this phone no.) won’t be able to call you any longer on your iPhone

that’s it !

enjoy 😉

Note : If you’re having second thoughts and you want to Unblock someone who you have previously blocked, just redo the same procedure as lined out above

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fixed : where did the onscreen virtual keyboard go ?

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Question :

For years, I used to start  the onscreen keyboard whenever I wanted to type a character on my Mac that I didn’t know the key-combo for by heart…

Now I’m on OSX 10.11 El_Capitan and I don’t see the icon in the menu bar top right… and I can’t find the option to switch it on either…

What should I do ?

 

Answer :

What you call ‘onscreen keyboard’ is officially called the ‘virtual keyboard’ ; it’s a very handy option in OSX as you mentioned.

For some reason, after upgrading to OSX 10.11 El_Capitan, your preset for quick access to the virtual keyboard is lost… and switching it back on is hidden in some cryptic text in the Preferences :

  • in the Finder, go to Apple [top left] –> System Preferences –> Keyboard
  • in the window that opens, under the Keyboard-tab, put a check-mark at “Show Keyboard, Emoji & Symbol Viewers in menu bar”
  • then close the System Preferences window
  • now, in the Finder, top right, click on the flag-icon and select “Show Keyboard Viewer”
  • then, the virtual keyboard will appear onscreen and you can use it as you’re used to…

that’s it !

enjoy 😉

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fixed : retrieve WiFi-password from iPhone [without hacking]

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Question :

We have a password-protected WiFi-network at our local sports club. My iPhone automatically logs on when I’m near, but now my son is a member too and he would also like to connect to the WiFi when he’s around. Problem is, nobody seems to know the password… I’ve typed the password once long ago, but I didn’t write it down… Is there any way to see the password that is stored on my iPhone ?

 

Answer :

Yes, but you need a Mac and iCloud for it.

To be more precise : you can’t retrieve passwords on your iPhone (or iPad) the way you can on your Mac, by just opening the Keychain utility.

But there’s a way around this :

  1. on your iPhone, go to Settings –> iCloud
  2. there, make sure “Keychain” is set to “On”
  3. then, on your Mac, go to Apple [top left corner] –> System Preferences –> iCloud
  4. in the window that opens, make sure there’s a checkmark in front of “Keychain”
  5. then, on your Mac, click anywhere on your desktop
  6. then make sure “Finder” is displayed top left, next to the Apple-icon
  7. then press the [SHIFT]+[CMD]+[U] key-combo on your keyboard
  8. in the window that opens (named “Utilities”) double-click on the “Keychain Access” icon
  9. in the window that opens (named “Keychain Access”) select “iCloud” from the list on the left
  10. now, find the name of the WiFi-network you are interested in, and double-click on it
  11. in the window that opens (named like the WiFi-network), make sure the “Attributes”-tab is selected
  12. then, put a checkmark in front of “Show password:”
  13. in the (unnamed) window that opens it is said ‘Keychain Access want to use the “Local Items” keychain.’ typ your Administrator’s password and click “OK”
  14. now, the WiFi-password you are looking for will be displayed in the previous window (at “Show password:”)

…that’s it !

enjoy 😉

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fixed : grey NoEntry-sign when trying to move items to OSX 10.11 El_Capitan System folder

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Question :

I used to be able to drag&drop tweaked or additional system files to the general Libraries folder inside System folder. I only had to typ my administrator’s name & password to give extra authentication. But, since installing OSX 10.11 El_Capitan, I can’t seem to be able to drag&drop like that any longer… I get a grey circle with a slash in it…

Even when trying to change folder permissions for folders within de System folder, through the “Get Info” panel, I can’t change the permissions…

What is the problem ?

And how can I bypass this ?

 

Answer :

The grey circle with a slash in it is actually a grey version of the red traffic sign that is used as a “No Entry”, “No Access” or “Prohibited” sign.

With the upgrade to OSX 10.11 El_Capitan, System Integrity Protection (SIP) has been introduced to OSX. The positive side of this is that it is now extremely hard to accidentally mess up the OSX system. The negative side however is that is no longer possible to get access to some system folders without downgrading security and using the Terminal.

But… the collaboration between the ~/System/Library folder and the ~/Library folder is now working far better than in previous versions of OSX.

So, the solution : if you want to put files or items in a folder that’s inside the ~/System/Library folder, now put them in the corresponding folder inside the ~/Library folder and everything should work as intended

e.g. :  items that you used to put in the ~/System/Library/Fonts folder, can now be drag&dropped into the ~/Library/Fonts folder

NOTE : for items that you used to put in a folder within ~/System/Library that isn’t available inside ~/Library the solution is to create a folder with the correct name in there to put those items in

e.g. : for items that you used to put in the ~/System/Library/Filters folder, you should now create a ~/Library/Filters folder first to put the files in first

TIP : to be able to view the ~/Users/[username]/Library folder, make sure “Finder” is indicated next to the Apple icon in the upper left corner, the select “Go” and press the ALT-key on your keyboard and the Library folder will magically appear in the pulldown list

enjoy !

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fixed : quickly free up disk space on MacOSX 10.6.8 Snow Leopard

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Question :

My son alarmed me today that his ‘good old’ Mac gives a “your startup disk is full” warning at startup. He has our old Intel CoreDuo MacBook that can only run MacOSX 10.6.8 Snow Leopard.

What is the easiest way to free up the much needed harddrive space ?

 

Answer :

There  are various programs that can do the job of identifying which files are cluttering your harddrive and deleting unneeded files.

If you have an older Mac that can not run the latest version of OSX, I would suggest using the DiskWave application to do so, because of 4 reasons :

  1. DiskWave is very small in size (only about 1MB), so you can even install and run it on an extremely full harddrive
  2. DiskWave is able to manage external drives, so you can also run it on a newer/faster/other Mac and connect the problematic Mac as an external drive [ in so called “Target Mode” by restarting the problematic Mac with the T-key pressed and connecting it to the other Mac with a FireWire-cable ]
  3. DiskWave is available for various old versions of MacOSX
  4. DiskWave is FREE to download and use

Using DiskWave is rather straight forward. A quick instruction video can be seen here :

DiskWave instruction video

Getting hold of DiskWave might be problematic however, as the developer’s website (Aymeric Barthe) seems to be down :

Aymeric Barthe website

And the DiskWave app is NOT available from the Mac AppStore either… [ beware not too be fooled into thinking it’s the same as the iDiskWave app ! ]

A secondary problem is that the best available version (DiskWave 0.4) does not support any pre-Core2Duo. For now, all (older) versions of DiskWave can be downloaded here :

download any DiskWave version at Mac.FileHorse.com

Note that DiskWave 0.3.2 is the latest version of DiskWave to run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) Macs and 1st generation Intel (CoreSolo and CoreDuo) Macs.

And if those links stop working also, you can download DiskWave 0.3.2 here :

DiskWave_0.3.2

[ !! after downloading, replace the .doc file-extension by .dmg to get the installer !! ]

Enjoy !

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fixed : why am I typing a TM-sign instead of a Euro-sign ?

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Question :

Today, I had to type some text that included some financial figures, but for some reason I got a TM-sign on screen every time I typed the Euro-sign by pressing the key-combo [ALT]+[2].

I’ve never had this before.

What is wrong ?

 

Answer :

How you got this problem is unclear, but the solution is simple.

Have a look at the top menu bar (of the Finder), is there a US-flag next to the current time ?

If so, your keyboard is set to US-layout and in US-keyboardlayout the [ALT]+[2] key-combo will give the TM-sign (Trademark-sign) on screen.

To change that, do this :

  • click on the US-flag in the top menu bar (of the Finder)
  • in the pulldown menu, click on “Open Keyboard Preferences…”
  • in the window that opens, make sure the “Input sources”-tab is selected, then click on de + (Plus-sign) bottom left
  • from the list in the pulldown window that opens, choose “British” (UK-flag)
  • then click “Add”
  • back in the previous window, click on “(UK-flag) British” at the left to select it
  • then close the Preferences window by clicking the red button top left
  • then in the top menu bar (of the Finder) make sure there is a UK-flag
  • if there still is a US-flag, click on it and select the UK-flag from the pulldown menu

…then try typing the [ALT]+[2] key-combo in a text and see if it works

…that’s it ! enjoy 😉

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