Script to install a LaunchAgent that removes the Catalina Update red badge nag from System Preferences.

The install script tells softwareupdate to ignore Catalina. This should need to be done only once.

The LaunchAgent runs when the user logs in, it also runs at 3:33am.

Warning: this script renames files and folders and can result in data loss. Backup before running this script. Always use Preview mode to test this script before actually modifying filenames.

This script is intended for more advanced sys admins. The script's documentation is in the beginning of the script. READ IT.

The script has a preview mode where it shows what will be modified. I strongly recommend using it before allowing the script to change anything.

I wrote this to fix directory and file names on a Synology NAS that is accessed from macOS 10.6-10.14 plus Windows 7, 8.1, and 10. Many files on the NAS originated in older versions of Windows, macOS, Mac OS X, and Classic Mac.

The NAS is littered with decade+ old Microsoft temp files of the forms ~XXXXXXX and XXXXXX~X where X =[A-Z0-9]. The script will optionally delete these files.

The NAS also has many metadata/resource fork orphans (files prefixed with ._ that don't have the matching original file without the ._). In Preview mode the script only says they would be deleted.

Updated: 2020-10-02

iconservices in Mojave can run amok and use many GB of memory. I've seen it consume more than the physical 96 GB on my Mac Pro. This extreme memory usage causes excessive paging, slowing the Mac to a crawl and making the GUI unusable.

Apple never fixed the bug(s) that caused this in Mojave. I don't know if the problem still exists in Catalina.

I wrote this launch daemon to monitor iconservices memory usage and reset it when it exceeds 1 GB of RAM. On my Mac Pro iconservices normally uses from a few MB to a couple of hundred MB.

The included README.txt has more details.

Microsoft's web site states that Office 2019/365 does not upload any document content. Previously Microsoft stated that "Send full diagnostic data" could upload memory dumps containing content from open documents.

To comply with United States' HIPAA rules no PHI (Personal Health Information) can be uploaded to Microsoft. Since open documents may contain PHI their memory content cannot be uploaded to Microsoft.

Given Microsoft's history on factual disclosures concerning privacy and data collection, it's safest to minimize what's uploaded to Microsoft.

Some previous Office updates have reset preferences to the defaults. I've seen "Send basic diagnostic data" get reset to the default "Send full diagnostic data". To be safe, run this script after every month's Patch Tuesday Office updates.

The beginning of the script has more documentation. Help is available by running the script with -h for a summary or -hd for details.

Updated: 2020-10-27

noatime is short for "no access time."

From mount's man page:
noatime - Do not update the file access time when reading from a file. This option is useful on file systems where there are large numbers of files and performance is more critical than updating the file access time (which is rarely ever important).

noatime is also a good idea for SSDs to prevent unnecessary wear.

The included README.txt has more details.

Vital_Signs uses a Sense HAT's LEDs to display columns of:

• The combined load % across all CPU cores, or
• Each core's load %.
• Memory available/unavailable
• CPU temperature (C or F)
• Sense HAT's temperature (C or F)
• Sense HAT's % humidity

Vital_Signs optionally displays ping results as OK/fail for up to 8 computers.

The data is organized by column. The Sense HAT's LED array is organized by row. The least-complicated programming methodology is to map columns to the LED array's rows. The first row at the top becomes the left column.

The terms "LED" and "pixel" are used interchangeably. In most cases LED is used when referencing hardware and pixel is used for arrays. #

The columns appear 90 degrees clockwise from the rows. To see the columns in the row's orientation the columns' LED array is rotated -90 (270) degrees.

I went overkill on features, the interface is way to busy. I did this to hone my programming skills in Python, Raspbian, the Python IDE, and the Sense HAT.

The Ping Hosts feature runs as an independent thread on its own update schedule. That way if it gets delayed waiting for responses the
main display will update on schedule. The main thread displays the ping results regardless of how far through its cycle the Ping Hosts thread is.

The Apple logo is displayed because "I'm a Mac". My Raspberry Pi's run headless (without a display, mouse, or keyboard). I control them using VNC Viewer on my Mac.

Details are in the script's comments.

JavaScript Obfuscater:

• Removes all comments
• Changes variables and constants to random names
• Makes every line as close to 255 characters as possible.

JavaScript Obfuscater does not modify the original file, it creates a new file in the same location as the original with the same name prefixed with JO_.

zz_Timestamper_Prefix and zz_Timestamper_Suffix are AppleScript applications. They add a date-time stamp as either a prefix or a suffix to items dropped on them.

Drag & drop any number of files & folders onto one of the two zz_Timestamper's icon: they will all be renamed using the same date-time stamp. The contents of sub-folders dropped on zz_Timestamper_are not renamed.

A file named Foo.txt dropped on the Prefix app would be renamed to:
     2020-02-12 12;34;56 Foo.txt

A file named Moo.txt dropped on the Suffix app would be renamed to:
     Moo 2020-02-12 12;34;56.txt

By prefixing a filename with the YYYY-MM-DD HH;MM;SS format files listed in alphabetical order are in chronological order. The date-time stamp's characters are compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux/Unix.