on OSX 10.12.4
I have a list of repeating events in my apple calendar that are set to run a applescript at certain times. However, if i happen to be away (vacation etc.)
then when I switch my mac back on it runs all the scripts that did not run while the computer was off. Annoying and long.
I tried to use some applescript code that checks that the script that wants to run is the one for today and today only (not for the days before etc.), but i could not find a way to discriminate between repeating events: they all have the same properties!
Any one has a way around?
thanks
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I have a graphics application that occasionally displays incorrectly after a sleep / wake cycle.
I'm wondering if there is something I should do on the Sleep or Wake events. I'm capturing these events already, because I hide the cursor in the app, and when the app wakes the cursor appears and has to be re-hidden. I'm creating my images with [[NSBitmapImageRep alloc ]initWithBitmapDataPlanes:outplanes, doing lots of bit manipulation on multiple images. I display the image full screen. Xcode 7.1, OSX 10.10
The error I get is a shimmering on the display as if my merge routines are using the wrong data.
I was assuming the sleep took a snapshot of all my data, including whatever is on the stack? It's hard to reproduce the problem, but my App is going to be running every day in a public space and uses the scheduler to sleep each night and autowake in the morning.
Should I reinitialise all my variables on a wake?
I can't see anything on the apple docs about actions you should take on these events.
It should not be necessary to worry about this. If it is, that is likely to be either a bug in your app, or a bug in Apple's code. Indeed, the cursor issue you mention sounds like a bug to me, and you should log a bug in Apple's bug reporter about that. Sleep/wake should be entirely transparent for apps that don't have a specific reason to care. You will need to try to pin down the issue you are seeing, somehow, and diagnose it.
I've got an Adobe AIR application written in pure AS3 that has some functionality that happens when the user is idle and then returns to the normal state when the user returns. I'm detecting this activity with the following code:
NativeApplication.nativeApplication.idleThreshold = 180;
NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener(Event.USER_IDLE, onUserIdle);
NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener(Event.USER_PRESENT, onUserPresent);
The onUserIdle method is called after 3 minutes as it should be, but then the onUserPresent event is fired almost immediately afterwards. I'm talking milliseconds later. This happens without any user input whatsoever. The bizarre thing is that this does not occur on Windows - only on OSX. And it happens on all flavors of OSX going back to 10.6.3.
Adobe's documentation is incredibly vague on how those events are determined, so I'm not sure if there is something I can do at the system level to fix the problem. Does anyone have any experience with this issue, and if not, any other suggestions on how I can detect user idleness even when the app does not have focus?
Just to preempt the suggestion, I cannot use mouse/keyboard listeners to simulate the same behavior because they do not work if the application loses focus, whereas the NativeApplication events still fire. I've also used NativeProcess to get the output of ioreg to get the hardware idle time as reported by the system, but it does not appear to be affected by the mouse.
I really appreciate any assistance.
Edit: I just discovered that this does not occur when the application is run in an Administrator account on OSX. It only happens in a User account, which only serves to confuse me more.
I figured out what the issue is. When the USER_IDLE event is fired in a user account, we did several things - one of which was forcibly kill the Dock in order to make sure it was hidden from the screen. For whatever reason, this resets the internally available idleThreshold count. This was not only happening in AIR - it was also happening when monitored through Terminal and it appears there is absolutely nothing that can be done to stop it. The solution was to stop killing the dock. Everything magically worked after that.
If I use my in-ear headphones with my macbook pro it takes me a few minutes until they are fitting perfectly (due to the foam bits on the headphones) :)
My idea is to use internal macbook pro microphone to be able talk to somebody coming to my desk without having to remove the headphones every time. So kind of an 'intercom' thing which can be enabled by hitting a hotkey.
First thought was to use applescript which could be easily used for pausing iTunes, but I could not find information about how I could forward the microphone output to my headphones.
Next try was to check Xcode for writing a Cocoa App. By starting with an example provided by Apple I think it would be achievable for me to extend it to fit my needs.
So my question is:
Do you have a better idea/approach to solve my problem?
My Lenovo laptop has two task bar type programs that show the network status and battery status. I have been trying to search for what these types of widgits are called. Unfortuantly my google-foo is only returning results for minimizing programs to the system tray.
I am not even sure if these are system tray apps or taskbar apps. but either way, please help me find a API reference or even better a tutorial.
I want to make a Work Week Widgit, that displays the current work week number on this widget. I program mostly in python, but am willing to learn another language just to make this tool.
They are known as Desktop Bands, also known as DeskBands. Note that Desktop Bands are not recommended starting in Windows 7. Note also that since they are shell extensions, they must be written in native code.
I need to mirror GUI console activity happening on one Macbook so that it is duplicated on a second identical Macbook.
The idea is to control an application that will run on two Macbooks simultaneously. The application is sort of a presentation with two variations in content, but identical controls. Think of it as two versions of PowerPoint presentation with some slides that are different.
I'm thinking that it may be possible to capture the keypresses and mouse events on one Mac, then use RFB protocol to send these across the network to the other Mac. I'm looking at rfbproxy and rfbplaymacro, but these are somewhat inelegant hacks, and any solution built on these will also be a bit of a hack. And of course, I'd prefer to avoid a solution that requires me to compile and perhaps debug software that hasn't been touched in half a decade. :-)
I could conceivably use Cliclick or xdotool (from MacPorts) to initiate console events on the "slave" Mac. But then I don't know what I'd use to capture the events on the "master". Or would an xdotool-based solution require that both Macs be slaves, and then use some other device as a master?
Input devices could be a presentation mouse, an Apple remote, or in a pinch, the keyboard of on of the Macbooks or even a third device.
Can you suggest tools? Or is there another strategy I haven't thought of?
If the computers are in the same room, a single Apple Remote can control both Macs as long as the remote is not paired to either one. I'm assuming you need a solution that will work over any arbitrary distance, though.
Have you considered AppleScript? It's pretty good at sending keystrokes to ssh-accessible Macs. The receiving application doesn't even need to be aware of AppleScript (i.e. scriptable). You'll just have to be sure GUI scripting is enabled on the targets by checking the Enable access for assistive devices option in the Universal Access system prefs panel.
Here's an example of a shell command that will send a keystroke to the frontmost app via applescript:
osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke \"a\""
If you set up key-based ssh auth between the master and slaves you can simply tack ssh onto the front of this command:
ssh slave osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke \"a\""
For elegance, you could wrap any number of desired keystrokes into a menu-based bash script and run it from a third computer.
I have tried to synchronise systems like this that are NOT Macs a few years ago using rfbproxy and rfbplaymacro which you already know about. The systems were both X terminals running at the same resolution. We still had problems because of different font size settings putting application controls in different places, but the basic VNCiness of the solution seemed to work just fine.
That said, if you want to write a stand-alone application to send stuff using osascript or cliclick or xdotool, and you have a wii, you might get some joy from DarwiinRemote.
Kindof convoluted, but you could use clusterSSH for OSX to start shell sessions from a third machines master window, and then send commands to the two slaves. This could be paired with a screen control utility similar to the ones you list above, another of which is pymaCursor.
If everything could instead be recorded in advance, you could try good ol' applescript/automator recording, or a newer project like sikuli - http://sikuli.org/