• About
  • Contact

Dagny's Desk

Dagny's Desk

Tag Archives: os x

Take Control of Printers on OS X

23 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by Dagny Gromer in apple mac

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

apple macintosh, CUPS, os x, printer control

We recently fixed the connection from Gary’s iMac (OS X 10.10) to a network connected photo printer, a Canon iPFS 5100 which uses 17 inch wide roll paper. Gary tried to print several times which failed but left the print job “stuck” in the print queue on his computer. When we finally got the connection working, and that printer is an SOB to use but it prints really well, the old stuck print jobs came spewing out of the printer. If you have ever bought photo paper and ink, you know these items are very expensive and it’s maddening to watch them being consumed on unwanted prints.

OS X, as you likely know, has a full fledged Unix system at its core. The Unix/Linux printing system is called CUPS, and it’s pretty well hidden from the OS X user interface. But with a bit of command line magic you can recover access to it. Here’s how.

1) open Terminal, the command line interface to your iMac.

2) type in exactly the following line (or cut and paste from here) and then press return

sudo cupsctl WebInterface=yes

it will ask for an administrative password

3) close Terminal

4) open a new Safari window or tab, enter http://localhost:631

5) you now have the CUPS web interface. bookmark it.

6) click the Administration tab, then manage printers, select the one you want. You can then see and cancel print jobs.

Advertisement

Mac Market Share Highest Ever 3rd Quarter 2014

07 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by Dagny Gromer in apple mac, Computers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

os x, Windows 10, Windows 8

Here’s the link: http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/07/mac-achieves-highest-u-s-pc-market-share-ever-in-q3-2014-according-to-idc/

Apple’s Mac market share hit record highs during the third calendar quarter of 2014, according to research firm IDC.

Apple’s share grew 20.5 percent between Q3 2013 and Q3 2014 on the global stage …

Of course competing with abomination called Windows 8 is a joke. I heard the next version of Windows will be called 10 to distance it from the current mess. Since Mac OS X updates are all free, even major updates, will Microsoft step up and give Windows 10 to its user base for free?

How to Keep Yosemite Spotlight From Spying On You

21 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by Dagny Gromer in apple mac

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

apple, os x, privacy, spyware, Yosemite

Shame on you, Apple!

Yosemite’s enhanced Spotlight search can spy on your searches unless you disable a few features in System Preferences and Safari preferences. Instructions in the link. Come on Apple, are you taking a bad behavior lesson from Google? Very disappointing!!

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/how-to-fix-os-x-yosemite-search/

Updated to iOS 8.02, OS X Yosemite

20 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by Dagny Gromer in apple mac

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

apple, iOS, os x

I updated my Apple OS’s to OS X Yosemite (10.10) and iOS 8.02. I’m downloading iOS 8.1 but it looks like Apple’s servers are busy/slow at the moment.

Initial impressions are positive (except for iTunes 12, which once again hid the sidebar. Here’s how to sort of fix it: http://www.mcelhearn.com/itunes-12-how-to-display-the-sidebar/) A new feature I like is AirDrop now works with OS X and iOS, formerly it was iOS only. Yosemite seems to be faster on start up, notably the interval from logging in to running is shorter.

OS X 10.9.5 Yesterday’s Update Deactivated Many Safari Extensions

19 Friday Sep 2014

Posted by Dagny Gromer in apple mac

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

apple, mac, os x, Safari

For Apple OS X users only:

Yesterday I got 3 OS X updates, they were labeled as Thunderbolt updates/fixes as I recall. Along the way I think Safari (OS X default browser for any non-apple folks reading this far) got an update. I found that many of my Safari extensions “magically” got deactivated with no warning. Not Good! AdBlock, Ghostery (a great anti-spyware/tracking extension, recommended!), Readability, Google Disconnect, Facebook Disconnect, Twitter Disconnect (the last 3 block much of the spying/tracking activities of these companies) were deactivated without my consent. And my default search engine was switched from GoDuckGo (a non-tracking search engine, works well most of the time) to Google.

If you recently got some OS X updates, check your Safari extensions.

← Older posts

Pages

  • About
  • Contact

Recent Posts

  • Cormorant eating a trout
  • Duck eating crayfish
  • Northern shoveler
  • Sparrow
  • Bald eagles

Recent Comments

Dagny Gromer on Anya RIP
rachelmankowitz on Anya RIP
Dagny Gromer on macOS Monterey
Dagny Gromer on Arizona is on fire!
Ric on Arizona is on fire!
RSS  Subscribe

Flickr Photos

cormorant_water_landing-20230318-100male_mandarin_duck-20230318-100-Editcormorant-20230318-104
More Photos
March 2023
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  
« Feb    

Archives

Posts by Category

Dagny on Twitter

My Tweets

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Dagny's Desk
    • Join 640 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Dagny's Desk
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar