OSX purgatory
Quick list of stuff I need occasionally on OSX:
List of OSX HTML character entities. This is quoted at the bottom of this post as it is so useful to me.
Bring up a folder opening dialog from desktop: ⌘ ⇧ g , or in another representation Cmd-Shift-g
You really do not want to enable the root user. However this osxdaily article shows how to shoot yourself in the foot and head if you want. More interestingly it shows an example of using the open command from the CLI instead of pfaffing about clicking on a GUI. How do we know what commands are available for open? I have just used tab completion after open /System/Library but there is probably a better way. This is the official Mavericks method which also uses Open Directory Utility. They suggest only temporarily enabling the root user.
OSX reveal hidden files via mactricks (Leopard era) suggests
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder
osxdaily 2011/Lion,Leopard, on using ⌘-s (Cmd-S) to reboot into single user mode and reset the admin password (not same as root password).fsck -fy ;mount -uw /; launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.opendirectoryd.plist; passwd username-whose-pwd-need-to-change; reboot
Slightly More Useful Mac characters Unicode does define some other characters which are sort of Mac-specific. TEST1: ⌘ - & # x2318 ; - & # 8984 ; - the Command Key symbol ⌥ - & # x2325 ; - & # 8997 ; - the Option Key symbol ⇧ - ⇧ - ⇧ - the Shift Key (really just an outline up-arrow, not Mac-specific) ⎋ - ⎋ - ⎋ - the Escape Key (also not Mac-specific; described as "BROKEN CIRCLE WITH NORTHWEST ARROW", or an escape character from ISO 9995-7). I originally thought this was supposed to be a symbol for the power button. And while we're at it, some related (not mac-specific): ⇥ - ⇥ - ⇥ - the Tab Key symbol ⏎ - ⏎ - ⏎- the Return Key symbol ⌫ - ⌫- ⌫ - the Delete Key symbol ⌽ - ⌽ - ⌽ - a possible substitute for the Power symbol TEST2:
⌘ - & # x2318 ; - ⌘ - the Command Key symbol ⌥ - ⌥ - ⌥ - the Option Key symbol ⇧ - ⇧ - ⇧ - the Shift Key (really just an outline up-arrow, not Mac-specific) ⎋ - ⎋ - ⎋ - the Escape Key (also not Mac-specific; described as "BROKEN CIRCLE WITH NORTHWEST ARROW", or an escape character from ISO 9995-7). I originally thought this was supposed to be a symbol for the power button. And while we're at it, some related (not mac-specific): ⇥ - ⇥ - ⇥ - the Tab Key symbol ⏎ - ⏎ - ⏎- the Return Key symbol ⌫ - ⌫- ⌫ - the Delete Key symbol ⌽ - ⌽ - ⌽ - a possible substitute for the Power symbol Even though these are defined in standard Unicode, there is no guarantee that they will exist in the font of the receiving browser, but they're at least globally defined, so they're fair game.