Feek's macOS useful tools, utilities and applications thread

uvarvu said:
I've successfully used Velja and Shortery to solve my browser conundrum. I want to set my default browser depending on whether I'm working or not. This is what I have...

Focus:
  1. Work. Triggered by location at the office OR whether the work VPN is on.
  2. Personal. Default Focus
Shortcuts:
  1. Set default browser to Safari. There is a nice app called Velja that allows you to build shortcuts to set a default browser.
  2. Set default browser to Edge
At the moment there is no built in functionality to macOS that allows you to run a shortcut when a Focus is triggered. Shortery to the rescue! I've configured Shortery and then triggered that in the Focus settings.

Velja can be found at https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/velja/id1607635845?mt=12
Shortery is at https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/shortery/id1594183810?mt=12
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Wanted to highlight Velja, its such a useful program. I wanted to open work related links from Outlook, Teams etc in Firefox to to keep my personal webpages in Safari.

Velja does just that, really simple and doesn’t try to be too clever, simply set a rule based on an application and choose the browser. A great solution to an annoying problem I used to have.
 
Before I go and buy it is there a decent free CD ripper that supports ALAC or FLAC? dbPowerAmp CD converter and ripper and PerfectTUNES for £60 + VAT seems like a reasonable deal considering the number of audio CDs I have.
 
You can rip direct to Apple Lossless in iTunes Music.

Preferences, Files, Import Settings.

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Then if you need FLAC, use something like xACT to convert it.
 
Cromulent said:
Before I go and buy it is there a decent free CD ripper that supports ALAC or FLAC? dbPowerAmp CD converter and ripper and PerfectTUNES for £60 + VAT seems like a reasonable deal considering the number of audio CDs I have.
Click to expand...
I used to use fre:ac (https://www.freac.org/downloads-mainmenu-33) although it was a few years back (don't have any CDs to test).
There was also XLD (if it's still going) and there are a few players around like Clementine that rip CD's.

Edit - There was also Accurate Rip which rip and verify (most rippers don't do this) but you would have to something else for FLAC/lossless encoding.
 
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I don't see any point in using a third party app to rip when a lossless ripper is built into the OS. It's how I did all my CDs. The only issue is that it's not the default method in iTunes Music and it's buried within the menus, not the sort of thing you'd stumble across.
 
Feek said:
I don't see any point in using a third party app to rip when a lossless ripper is built into the OS. It's how I did all my CDs. The only issue is that it's not the default method in iTunes Music and it's buried within the menus, not the sort of thing you'd stumble across.
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Depends if you want FLAC or another format iTunes doesn't support without the need to convert/re-encode and/or verified rips i guess.
And there are pros and cons to both ALAC and FLAC and a lot depends on where you plan to use them.

All horses for courses though... :)
 
About This Hack

Apple changed the style of the 'About This Mac' box and I don't like it.

This gives you an about box that looks like the old version. That's it. Nothing else.

github.com

GitHub - 0xCUB3/About-This-Hack: Discover your hardware on macOS with this simple, user-friendly hardware info app that retains the beloved design language of the classic 'About This Mac' interface, while gaining access to a wealth of additional feat

Discover your hardware on macOS with this simple, user-friendly hardware info app that retains the beloved design language of the classic 'About This Mac' interface, while gaining access to...
github.com github.com

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Feek said:
I use something else for that.

DaisyDisk
Another application I've had for years is DaisyDisk. It scans drives (both local and network drives) and gives a nice GUI of where disk space is being used. You can click down into each segment for more detailed info and you can use it to clear purgeable space as well. Some time ago I used it to find a cache that just continually grew and grew (com.apple.bird/session/g) due to a bug in how WhatsApp backs up. That bug is still there and I run a script every day via cron to clear it out.

https://daisydiskapp.com

VNCbK1y.png
Click to expand...
Is this really worth £10?
 
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