Mac OS X Hints A community built collection of OS X hints. This is my takean update on lasvegas hint I found here awhile back for running OS updates without creating a user on a Mac. It is applicable to any system 1. This can be helpful if you have a Time Machine backup thats on a newer OS than your install media, or if youre sellingdonating your Mac as it saves the new user having to update things. First things first, wipe your drive and zero it if you dont trust the end user of this computer and reinstall your desired OS. Once your OS is installed, boot to your install media or the Recovery Partition if available. Open Terminal from the Utilities option in the menubar. In the new Terminal window, type the following. This will bring up the Password Reset utility. Click Macintosh HD or whatever your HDD is called. Youll notice the only user account thats available is root. Enter a password youd like to useremember, though it doesnt really matter as well be disabling root and removing this password later. Click save, close the password reset utility and go back to working in Terminal. Now youll want to enter the following command. VolumesMacintosh HDprivatevardb. Apple. Setup. Done. This will create the file on Macintosh HD that tells the computer it has completed the setup so youre able to skip the process and login with the root account we just enabled. Close Terminal and reboot the computer into the Macintosh HD. You should be greeted by the login screen with an option that says Other. Click Other, enter root as the username and the password you chose to login. Torrentz will always love you. Farewell. 20032016 Torrentz. Tabtight professional, free when you need it, VPN service. Proceed with Software Updates and any optional software youd like to install, making sure to install for All Users if prompted. Also keep in mind that any preference changes you make will only apply to the root user, so theres no sense in wasting any time customizing the look, feel and general operation of the computer. Rio_pmp300.jpg/440px-Rio_pmp300.jpg' alt='Divx Avi Ipod Fragile Machine ' title='Divx Avi Ipod Fragile Machine ' />After all software is installed, open up Terminal once more. Enter the following code. Apple. Setup. Done. This will remove the file we originally created and re enable the setup assistant to help create the newfirst user on the Mac. Next, open up Directory Utility. This can be found in Users Groups in System Preferences. Click Login Options, then click Join. Network Account Server. You should then see the option Open Directory Utility. Once in Directory Utility, click Edit in the menubar and then select Disable root user. As a note, this can be done while logged in as root. Close Directory Utility and restart the computer, booting back into to your install media or Recovery Partition. Open up Terminal one last time and enter. Once the Password Reset utility has appeared, click the root user once more. Instead of changing the password, however, simply click the Reset button to reset Home Folder ACLs. Reboot your Mac, confirm you see the Setup Assistant and youre ready to move onto restoring your backup or selling your computer I havent tested this one. What Your Teacher Is Really Thinking When They Read Your Paper. Welcome back to school, kids In just a few short weeksmaybe sooneryoull have to get back to your favorite late night hobby writing papers. I struggled with writing papers as a student, but then one day I became an instructor and had to read this garbage. Geez, guys. Starting Your Paragraphs With Quotes Means Youre Intimidated by the Idea of Writing. I know, deep psychological insights here. But if youre just collaging quotes togetherand students who start paragraphs with quotes tend to also end them with quotes and fill them with quotes in the middleyoure not actually writing anything. I understand this is exactly why you do it. But this practice results in an unreadable paper and a bad grade, even if the information is accurate and properly cited. Why Well, imagine I asked you to bake a casserole for a potluck. But youre not sure you can actually do that, and so you spend days procrastinating and fretting and flipping through recipe magazines. And then on the day of the potluck, you show up with a pan that contains a ripped out magazine page with a photograph of a beautiful casserole. Same thing, right Nope. Quoting a Definition Tells Me You Have No Idea What It Means. If you knew what it meant, you would have just explained it in your own words. If for some reason the specific words in the definition were just so significant you have to quote them, then you would certainly discuss whats so amazing about this sources word choice and why youre giving them such special treatment. But no, you just quoted the definition and then moved on to another sentence that has nothing to do with it. I see what you did there. Same with lists. Why are you listing ten symptoms of diabetes in the first place, and why the heck do you think you need to put that list in quotes Whenever you find a list in your research materials and think Ooh, good, this is ten words I dont have to write, just stop. Pick a few things on that list and use them as examples. Explain what the hell they have to do with anything, and now look at you Youre actually writing You Dont Think Im Going to Check Your Sources, Huh You cant write your paper off Web. MD and Livestrong pages and then list some dusty books on your Works Cited page. Yes, Ive seen students pull this. Guys. I have Google too. It takes mere minutes to find your actual sources, and thanks to the magic of Google Books and Amazon Look Inside, I can confirm that you didnt get your quotes from these dead tree books. Nice try, but youre in big trouble now. You Dont Know the Difference Between an Introduction and a Conclusion. Air: The Motion Picture Online here. These are actually differentI dont blame you for this, though. I blame whatever idiot teacher told you that the format is Tell em what youre going to tell em, then tell em, then tell em what you told em. This apocryphal quote is a joke about the scholarly essay format. It can be a mnemonic if you suddenly forget, wait, which part comes firstIt is not meant as literal instruction. Heres the difference. Your introduction explains the question youre going to address, including who cares about it and why. And then your conclusion is about the answer you explain how all the stuff in the middle of the paper fulfilled your promise and thoroughly answered the question. So the structure is question, evidence, answer. Okay Make up a catchy mnemonic for that please.