fixed : how to stop Safari’s autocorrect when I typ my eMail-address ?

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Question :

Recently I have encountered some extremely frustrating behavior of Safari :

whenever I need to typ my eMail-address in any online form, Safari screws up my eMail-address even though I’m 100% sure I’ve typed correctly !

I’ve figured out that this is because the automatic spelling corrector in Safari doesn’t recognize my name when I typ it without any capitals, and then thinks I’ve made a typo (even before I have typed the @ in my eMail-address) and then instantly autocorrects it to some similar word from the dictionary…

How can I stop Safari from such idiotic and frustrating behavior ?

 

Answer :

The spelling corrector in Safari isn’t a separate spelling corrector, but it’s OSX’s system-wide spelling corrector. So the simplest option is to either shut off OSX’s built-in spelling corrector alltogether, or to learn it to recognize your eMail-address.

Here’s how to do that :

– go to the Apple-icon top-left in the main menu bar

– in the pulldown menu that appears, click on “System Preferences”

– in the “System Preferences”-window that opens, click on “Keyboard” [in OSX 10.11 El_Capitan and OSX 10.10 Yosemite] or “Language & Text” [in OSX 10.8 Mountain Lion and MacOSX 10.6 Snow Leopard] (for other versions of OSX and MacOSX, you might need to click on one of the other icons)

– in the “Keyboard”-window (or “Language & Text”-window) that opens, click on the “Text”-tab

– then click on the “+”-button below the “Replace/With”-table

– then, at “Replace” typ the part of your eMail-address that is on the left of the @-sign (normally, that would be your name without capitals, sometimes with a dot or an underscore between your first and your last name), and at “With” typ exactly the same (so, the left part of your eMail-address)

Note : to shut of OSX’s automatic spelling corrector entirely, you could remove the checkmark in front of “Correct spelling automatically”, but I would suggest the method mentioned above as the better option

…that’s it !

enjoy 😉

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test : is the HEMA 8pin Lightning-to-USB cable Apple Certified ?

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Question :

I saw this good looking Lightning-to-USB cable for iPhone and iPad at my local (Dutch) HEMA store : HEMA has named it “8pin USB Charging Cable – extra long (2m)”.

Since it only costs €4 it’s far cheaper to have around as an extra than the original Apple Lightning-to-USB cables. But I’ve purchased some third party and white label Lightning-to-USB cables previously, and most cheaper ones all give the “This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone.”-warning and I don’t want any new cables giving me that same error message.

How can I make sure that this HEMA Lightning-to-USB cable is ‘Apple Certified’ ?

Answer :

The HEMA Lightning-to-USB is available in various colors :

blue HEMA 8pin USB Charging Cable

orange HEMA 8pin USB Charging Cable

mint (pale green) HEMA 8pin USB Charging Cable

But there’s no way to be sure if it’s a 100% Apple Certified cable, since such a certification is not explicitly mentioned on the box…

The only things that are mentioned on the box are :

– for use with iOS-devices running up to iOS 7.1

– supported iOS-devices include the iPhone 5/5C/5S, iPad & iPad mini Retina, iPad mini, iPad Air, iPod nano, iPod Touch

…so basically, it’s a cable suited for any iOS-device that doesn’t have the ‘old’ broad (30pin) iPod-connector but the new (8pin) Lightning-connector, which would include the iPhone 6 & 6Plus also…

And what about iOS-devices running iOS 8 ?

That’s a “you won’t know until you try” situation :

From my own experience, I have not encountered the “This cable or accessory is not certified and may not work reliably with this iPhone.”-warning yet on these iOS-devices :

iPhone 5 (2012) & iOS 8.1

iPad mini (2012) & iOS 8.1

iPad mini 2 “Retina” (2013) & iOS 8.1

…that doesn’t mean that this cable will always be seen as a “Apple Certified”-cable at any time in the future however… there is mention that the “Not Certified”-warning did pop up in some situations, but the cause of those was not figured out… it might just have been an ill-produced sample, or it may have been incompatibility with iOS 8.0 only for some reason (which was then fixed with the release of iOS 8.1).

Conclusion : at this €4 price tag, this is a handy Lightning-to-USB cable to have one or two around as an extra, but keep in mind that this cable might not stay supported by Apple in the long run.

Note : if your iPhone’s (or iPad’s) battery is completely exhausted and it shuts itself down because of ‘lack of power’, using this cable to recharge will take notably longer before ‘minimum level to operate’ is achieved (might even take up to 60 seconds as opposed to the regular 10 seconds), probably because this cable is significantly longer (200cm as opposed to the regular 100cm)

😉

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fixed : shared disks not visible in Finder

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Question :

When I’m at home, I usually am able to see my Time Capsule in the paragraph named “Shared” in the shortlist on the left side of each Finder window.

But today, I don’t even see the “Shared” paragraph… How can I connect to my Time Capsule to view the files I’ve stored on it ?

Answer :

There can be several causes for your problem, but these two are the most common :

#1. you have accidentally switched off viewing of shared volumes in the Finder preferences

to correct this :

– click on the Finder icon in the Dock (the half-blue-half-grey square-face icon)

– then, in the top menu bar, go to Finder –> Preferences

– in the window that opens, click on the “Sidebar” tab

– then, in the “Show these items in the sidebar:” list, make sure there’s a checkmark in front of “Connected servers” (in the “Shared” paragraph)

– then close the Finder Preferences and you’re done ; enjoy !

#2. OSX has automatically logged on to a different WiFi-network than your primary WiFi-network (getting logged on to your Guest-network can cause this problem for instance…)

to correct this :

– click on the AirPort/WiFi-icon in the top menu bar (the ‘piece of pie’-icon)

– in the list of available WiFi-networks that appears, click “Turn Wi-Fi off”

– then click on the AirPort/WiFi-icon in the top menu bar again, click “Turn Wi-Fi on”, wait for the available WiFi-networks to appear in the list, then select your primary WiFi-network to connect to

– this should resolve your problem, but to make sure your Mac won’t auto-connect to the wrong WiFi-network again, do this also :

– go to the Apple-icon (top-left in the top menu bar) –> System Preferences –> Network

– in the window that opens, select “Wi-Fi” in the shortlist on the left

– then click the “Advanced”-button

– in the window that opens, select the “Wi-Fi”-tab and scroll down though the list of “Preferred Networks:” until you come to the name of your Guest-network (or other WiFi-network you unwillingly connected to)

– then click on the ‘Minus-sign”-button to delete your Guest-network (or alike) from the list of preferred networks, then click the ‘OK’-button to save and exit

…that’s it !

enjoy 😉

Note : if situation #1. occurs, your Time Machine backup would still be operating, but if situation #2. is the case, Time Machine won’t be able to see your Time Capsule either, even if you have internet access…

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fixed : block sender in Gmail

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Question :

I would like to never receive another eMail again from some people that keep sending me spam-eMail. How can I block the senders in my Gmail ?

Answer :

In Gmail, you can’t block a sender.

However : using a filtering action and ordering filtered eMails to be trashed will have about the same effect as blocking the sender.

Here’s how to do that :

– in your webbrowser (Safari), go to www.gmail.com

– login using your Gmail-address and your Gmail-password

– when your online Gmail eMail-client opens, go to the list on the left and select the mailbox where the eMail who’s sender you want to block is located ; this can be your “Inbox”, but it can also be listed under “More…” and then inside your “Spam” or “Trash” mailbox ; if you can’t find the eMail you’re looking for, try “All Mail”

– select the eMail message itself from the list in the middle of the screen

– when the eMail message opens, click on the ‘downward facing triangle’-button (the one that’s next to the date, there star and the reply-arrow), and select “Filter messages like this”

– in the window that opens, the sender you want to block will already be pre-filled in the “From”-field and all other fields will be empty ; leave everything as-is, just click on “Create filter with this search” (in blue, bottom-left)

– in the next window, put a check-mark at “Delete it”, and click on the blue “Create filter”-button

…that’s it !

TIP 1 : If you have any other senders you would like to block, just repeat the above steps for each sender.

TIP 2 : if you want to block multiple senders using just one filter, put all eMail addresses in the “From”-field and separate them by a SPACE, a |-sign (vertical separator) and another SPACE

TIP 3 : in the event that you change your mind and want to un-block a sender you’ve previously blocked, just login to your online Gmail account again and click on the sprocket (a.k.a. ‘gear’) icon ; in the pop-up menu that appears, select “Settings”, then the “Filters”-tab and click “Edit” to adjust the filter or “Delete” to completely get rid off the filter

Note : any new filter will only be filtering new eMails, not the eMails that have already entered your mailboxes, so all existing mails by the blocked sender have to be manually deleted also.

Any new eMail by these senders will now be deleted when it arrives, so you won’t see it in your online Gmail mailboxes, nor in Apple Mail.app on your Mac, any longer.

Enjoy !

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fixed : This file sever will not allow any additional users to log on

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Question :

I got this error “This file server will not allow any additional users to log on, please try again later” when I tried to access files that were on my network, but not on my Mac itself.

How can I fix this ?

Answer :

You can get this error when trying to connect to either another Mac or a Time Capsule in your network. The solution depends on the type of ‘server’ you are trying to connect to.

-A-

On a Mac running a normal (non-server) version of MacOSX, only 10 clients can be connected at the same time. If you get this error, despite the fact that you have less than 10 clients connected, try this :

– on the Mac you want to connect to, open the Terminal.app and type this command :

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer idleDisconnectOnOff -bool YES

– then press RETURN and you will be asked for your password

– type your password, press RETURN, quit the Terminal.app and you’re done (please note that the cursor will not move while typing your password in Terminal.app)

– whenever you want to undo (or reverse) this action, follow the same routine, but use this command :

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.AppleFileServer idleDisconnectOnOff -bool NO

-B-

If you get this error message when connecting to a Mac and you need to have more than 10 clients connected, try this :

– upgrade the version of MacOSX you’re running (on the Mac you want to connect to) to the server-version of MacOSX, as OSX Server can handle an unlimited number of clients ; you can get the latest version of OSX Server in the Mac App Store

-C-

If you are trying to connect to a Time Capsule and you get this error message, the problem is something completely different. The Time Capsule can handle up to 50 clients at the same time, so chances of running into that limit in a regular household are low. But, the average internet provider has a limit of only 10 concurrent internet connections on it’s modem at the same time, so if you get this error when trying to connect to a Time Capsule, the 10 internet connections limit will probably be the cause. So try this :

– startup the AirPort Utility on your Mac

– click on the Time Capsule icon so the ‘info balloon’-window will open

– click on the “Edit”-button

– in the window that opens, click the “Network”-tab/button

– at “Router Mode:” select “DCHP and NAT”, so not “Off (Bridge Mode)”

– then click on the “Network Options…”-button

– in the window that opens, at “IPv4 DHCP Range:” select a range of IP-addresses that is different from your internet modem’s IP-range. So, if your internet modem’s IP-range is 192.168.1.xxx select an IP-range like “192.168.2.2 to 200” and click the “Save”-button

– in the next window, click the “Update”-button

– then, back in the ‘info balloon’-window of your Time Capsule, at “status” you will get “Double NAT” with an error mark (yellow dot) next to it… so, click on the “Double NAT”-text and in the pulldown-menu that opens, select “Ignore”

…that’s it !

Enjoy !

😉

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fixed : run DOS commands on your Mac

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Question :

I need to run a firmware update for a hard drive, but there’s no firmware update available for MacOSX, there’s only a firmware .exe-program for MS DOS.

How can I run that on my Mac, since I don’t have a Windows-PC available ?

 

Answer :

MacOSX isn’t able to run DOS commands in the MacOSX Terminal.app…

and running FreeDOS from a USB-stick isn’t an option on your Mac, since your Mac can’t boot from non-EFI volumes…

but there’s a very simple option to run DOS commands in OSX :

– download & install Boxer by drag&dropping the app into your Applications folder

– run the Boxer.app and you will get 3 options, one being “Open a DOS prompt”, that’s the one your looking for

– click on it, and you will have your DOS-prompt

– and just as you can in OSX Terminal.app, you can drag&drop .exe-files (and other files) into the prompt, and the correct path to the file will be automatically inserted into the prompt

– there’s just one small drawback : the Mac’s keyboard layout is not supported… so even though the letters will be what you see on your keyboard, most other characters will not… to get a – [minus], you should type / [slash], and to get ” [brace], you should type @ [at] on your Mac keyboard… (you can figure out the other ones yourself by just trying)

That’s it !

Enjoy !

😉

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tip : get the latest versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel for FREE, legally

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If you are looking for a FREE (and legal) version of the latest version of MS Office, you just might be in luck :

Microsoft is offering the newest version of MS Office for FREE to students and staff of schools and universities that have licensed MS Office.

This program has run in the US since 2013 under the moniker “Student Advantage”, and is now available in the Netherlands also.

What you get is a FREE one year license to Microsoft’s online cloud service “Office 365”, in the “Pro Plus”-version, including FREE downloads of the latest versions of Office to be installed on maximum 5 Macs or PCs and on maximum 5 Android or iOS devices (like iPhones and iPads).

These latest versions are Office 2011 for Mac and Office 2013 for Windows, both including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Skype and OneDrive (Microsoft’s cloud-drive formerly known as SkyDrive).

In the Netherlands, these FREE versions are available for two specific groups :

1- (parents of) students of the primary schools [“basisschoolleerlingen” in Dutch] https://www.surfspot.nl/officeleerling

2- students of (some) higher education [“Hogescholen en Universiteiten” in Dutch] https://www.surfspot.nl/officestudent

The procedure to get this (nearly) FREE software, is quite complex, but it’s well worth the hassle :

– first you need an account at Surfspot.nl (the website for educational discounts)

– then, you need to ‘buy’ the FREE version of Office 365 Pro Plus

– with that, you’ll get a voucher (which might take several days due to popular demand)

– using that voucher, you can activate Office 365 at Microsoft, and you will get FREE download-links to the latest versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, Skype, OneDrive, etc.

–  those apps you can install on maximum 5 Macs or PCs and 5 iOS or Android devices

 

…as mentioned : it’s a hassle, but it’s well worth it !

Enjoy !

😉

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