
Hidden gems in Mac OS X - ahalan
http://dtrace.org/blogs/brendan/2011/10/10/top-10-dtrace-scripts-for-mac-os-x/
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Terretta
Not sure if it qualifies as a "hidden gem" in OS X itself, but the new
Signature management in Preview, using the built in iSight to scan a
handwritten sig off a sheet of paper, is an amazing time saver.

// Number 8, bitesize.d, rocks.

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charlieok
This article is not like a lifehacker “10 neato things to be more productive
on your mac” article. It's specifically about using DTrace to get detailed
statistics on processes making system calls.

It's also several months old :)

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LeafStorm
Honestly, so far none of these have been the major performance bottleneck on
my Macbook. For me, it's been RAM. Even though I have 4 GB of RAM, I have at
least 3 GB wired or active at any given time - Chrome alone takes up roughly 1
GB of it, with all its helper processes. But unfortunately I really have no
idea how to bring my RAM usage down.

~~~
karlshea
I had the same issue, and seriously: buy more RAM. A 2x4G kit from Crucial
cost me $45 shipped.

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secoif
And it's not much more of a financial leap to get to 16gb in a MacBook. 16.

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jh3
I did not know some models were capable of supporting 16gb of RAM.
Unfortunately, I don't think I have one of those models (I think I got mine in
2009). This is good to know, though.

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secoif
I didn't know either, I'm actually not sure if 16 is officially supported,
since Apple said my Macbook was only capable of 8. Crucial has a tool you can
download to check compatibility with their various products and your specific
macbook model.

~~~
yourapostasy
Only specific, later generation models of Apple laptops can use 16 GB of RAM.
It is NOT officially supported, but it works. The thermal profile likely
hasn't been certified by Apple to the point they are comfortable supporting
it, but it works at the electrical and logic signal levels.

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euroclydon
One of the features that differentiated Macs from Windows early on for me was
how they systemized PDFs. Not only could it read and write PDFs, it was eager
to do so.

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tedmiston
It's really easy to create PDFs from Apple's built-in Quartz 2D drawing engine
(of the Core Graphics framework). That probably has a lot to do with it.

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rahoulb
And the reason for that is because NeXT used PostScript for rendering - use
the same language for displaying on-screen as on paper. When NeXTStep became
OSX PDF was used instead (I believe because of a bust up between Steve Jobs
and Adobe over licensing)

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euroclydon
OS9 seemed to have great PDF support if I remember.

Is what you say the reason macs are preferred for desktop publishing?

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rahoulb
It's going back a while but I believe it was the graphical nature of Macs,
coupled with the LaserWriter printer that made DTP important for Macs. Which
in turn prompted the use of Postscript in NeXTstep.

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mcav
Is there anything that lets you view how much network _bandwidth_ an
application is using? I've looked before with no luck.

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kalleboo
Since Lion, nettop ships with the system. Hit d to switch to delta instead of
total usage, p for human-readable numbers, and left arrow to collapse into
process names.

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ryduh
Awesome tip. Thanks!!!

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brown9-2
About "why is my Macbook fan so loud?", has anyone successfully attempted to
clean out dust from inside the laptop to reduce the fan noise?

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dshep
I did on my older MacbookPro5,1. It didn't even seem like I dislodged much
dust, but it made a huge difference. Now the fans don't go above 3-4000 rpm
even with the cpu pegged, which is quiet. Before it would consistently spin
the fan at max speed even with modest cpu use. This old beast is far quieter
under load than the new MacBook Air 13" I had for a week and returned.

~~~
MobWalk
I'd suggest downloading smcFanControl. That's what I use on my MB Pro, and it
works well. You can set different modes that will keep the fan at or below a
certain RPM. If I'm gaming, I let it go up to 6200 rpm. If I'm not doing much
(like now, just browsing on the internet and maybe running a couple other
programs) I drop it to 3000rpm. That usually puts me around 45* C and keeps it
nice and quiet. Then I've got a middle setting at about 4200rpm that makes
some noise, but isn't quite as obnoxious as full throttle.

~~~
shearn89
+1 from me: smcFanControl is seriously handy if you do any sort of coding on a
macbook. Was recently running a genetic algorithm on it and the app allowed me
to bump the fan speed up to something ridiculous in order to keep the cpu at a
comfortable temperature. I also tend to raise the speed if I'm watching flash
video, since that's still ridiculously cpu intensive on a mac...

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timc3
Excellent list, one of those things that I keep coming back to hacker news
for.

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atopuzov
Nice one. Getting to know DTrace was on my todo list for the next few moths.

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vasco
>> Why Unix? Mac OS X is Unix under the hood: the Darwin kernel

Just beeing pedantic but I think Darwin is the operating system, not the
kernel. The kernel is Mach 3.

~~~
colinstrickland
Well if we're being pedants about it, then the kernel is XNU (
<http://opensource.apple.com/source/xnu/xnu-1699.24.23/> )

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lysium
I once tried to look into dtrace because I was missing strace from Linux. I
gave up when I realized I had to learn a whole language just to do what strace
did for me on Linux.

Now I'm enlightened to see there is dtruss. It works different than strace and
needs privileges, but I'm glad that I've found the strace alternative.

~~~
Game_Ender
dtrace is not supposed to replace strace on Linux. It's allows you track and
process all sorts of parameters of your operating system and it's programs.
It's essentially a quick way to introspect into your application without tons
of printf hacks, and get to the buttom of bugs and performance issues.

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teeray
I never knew about this tool--my mind has been blown. Thank you OP!

