Pacifist is a shareware application that opens Mac OS X .pkg package files, .dmg disk images, and .zip, .tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, and .xar archives and allows you to extract individual files and folders out of them. This is useful, for instance, if an application which is installed by the operating system becomes damaged and needs to be reinstalled without the hassle of reinstalling all of Mac OS X, or if you want to inspect a downloaded package to see what it will install before installing it. Pacifist is also able to verify existing installations and find missing or altered files*, and Pacifist can also examine the kernel extensions installed in your system to let you see what installer installed them, and whether the installer was made by Apple or a third-party.
Pacifist is compatible with Mac OS X 10.9 or higher, including Mac OS X 10.15 “Catalina”. Pacifist requires a 64-bit Intel™ processor.
Download TimeTracker (prerelease), which works with 64-bit Intel Macs running OS X 10.10.x (Yosemite) or greater. NibUnlocker One of the fun things about the Mac going all the way back to the original was the way it stored user interface data for applications inside a separate stream called the “resource fork”, in a format readable by a. Installing EZdrummer 2 (Mac) Installing EZdrummer 2 (Mac) With the release of the Toontrack Product Manager we now recommend that you use the Product Manager application to download and install EZdrummer on your computer. Please also see this video about the Product Manager.
- Download the latest version of Pacifist in zip or disk image format.
- Read the release notes for Pacifist here.
- For users using versions of Mac OS X older than 10.8, download older versions of Pacifist here.
- See some screenshots of Pacifist in action!
- Pacifist is $20 shareware - you can click here to register now via FastSpring.
Pacifist has been well-reviewed in Mac publications over the years:
*This product includes software developed by the University of California, Berkeley and its contributors.
Odds and Ends
Can't Install Os X Yosemite
- Note - the following applications are all pre-release software, and should be considered sneak previews. If you download these applications, you agree to do so at your own risk as they may be buggy. I am not responsible for any damage that occurs as a result of using these applications.
TimeTracker
TimeTracker is a quick-and-dirty application that displays the contents of your Time Machine backups, and shows what's changed since the previous backup. TimeTracker is in an extremely early state, and is as such very unpolished.
- Download TimeTracker (prerelease), which works with 64-bit Intel Macs running OS X 10.10.x (Yosemite) or greater.
NibUnlocker
One of the fun things about the Mac going all the way back to the original was the way it stored user interface data for applications inside a separate stream called the “resource fork”, in a format readable by a tool named ResEdit. This allowed users to poke around inside applications and learn how their UIs ticked, and it was also helpful to developers, who could look at Apple's interfaces for examples when trying to figure out how to do something UI-related. In Mac OS X, this tradition continued, with ResEdit replaced by a tool named Interface Builder, and the resource fork replaced by a file called the “nib file” (with NIB standing for NeXTSTeP Interface Builder). Nib files contained even more information than the classic resource forks, and were of great interest to tinkerers and developers.
Until now, that is. In the last few years, Apple has been moving away from using nib files directly in projects. Instead, they have been encouraging the use of flat XML-based “xib” files which are converted to nib files on compiling the application. Since xib files are essentially flat, UTF-8 encoded text files, as opposed to nibs, which were bundled folders, xib files are much more SCM-friendly than nib files were. Unfortunately, however, the nib files to which they compile are not editable by Interface Builder, since they lack the class information that IB needs, and only include the raw data necessary for the application to reconstitute the objects. What's more, in Xcode 4, it is no longer possible to create nib files containing the tiny “classes.nib” and “info.nib” files that could make the file editable while consuming a negligable amount of space. Instead, the only way to make an editable nib is to make a copy of the entire xib file, and name it 'designable.nib'. Since a xib is essentially a less-compact representation of a nib file, this more than doubles the size of the nib, and is far less efficient than the old system was. Consequently, editable nibs are becoming rarer and rarer in the wild.
Enter NibUnlocker. NibUnlocker is an application that attempts to parse a non-editable nib file and output a xib file that Interface Builder or Xcode can edit. The resulting xib files do not contain all the information that was in the original xib file used to create the nib, however, so the xib file created by NibUnlocker will not be a complete replacement for the original. Although they should not be used in a project to compile a new nib file, as doing so may have unpredictable results, xib files made by NibUnlocker can be very useful for examining a nib file and seeing how it is constructed.
- Download NibUnlocker (pre-release), which should work with Mac OS X 10.6 (“Snow Leopard”) and up, although it has received very little testing.
CocoaTADS
CocoaTADS is a port of the HTML TADS interpreter to Mac OS X. HTML TADS is a multimedia interactive-fiction platform, allowing you to play text adventure games (many of which can be found here), sort of like the Infocom games from the 1980s, except that HTML TADS allows not only text but also graphics, sound, and even animation. You can find more information about HTML TADS here. CocoaTADS is currently extremely pre-beta, and there are no guarantees on how well it will work on your machine.
- Download CocoaTADS 0.3.4, which should hopefully work on Mac OS X 10.5 and up, running on G4 or better hardware. Unfortunately, I have currently only tested it on 10.6.x Intel.
OS9Experience
Why Can't I Download Os X Yosemite
OS9Experience is a stupid little app that recreates certain behaviors that users of the classic Mac OS (meaning versions prior to 10.0) should be familiar with. If you feel a little nostalgic for the old days, this app may be just the thing for you! This app can be a fun addition to an unsuspecting co-worker’s Login Items. Now updated to work properly on multi-monitor setups, and available as a Universal Binary.
- Download OS9Experience, which should hopefully work on Mac OS X 10.4 and up (and possibly earlier versions as well - this has not been extensively tested).
Horrible Coding Hacks
Note: The following applications are obsolete and should be considered unsupported.
BootCD
BootCD is a Cocoa app that creates a disk image that can be used to burn a Mac OS X boot CD with a working Finder and Dock on it. This utility is unfinished and still has some flaws, but works. The current version works much better than previous versions, and includes the ability to run Drive10 and other utilities, although Norton does not yet work from the CD.
Note: BootCD is unsupported, and is not compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later. Please do not e-mail me asking me about a release date for the next version, as no new versions are planned.
- Download the latest version of BootCD, version 0.6.4.1, which works with Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther).
- Download BootCD version 0.5.4 for Mac OS X 10.2.0 through 10.2.8 (Jaguar).
- Download BootCD version 0.3 for Mac OS X 10.1.5 and earlier.
DockDisks
Click Here to download DockDisks 1.0b5.2, an unsupported hack that makes disks appear in your Dock when you insert them, allowing you to reduce clutter on your Desktop.
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Turn on and set up FileVault
FileVault 2 is available in OS X Lion or later. When FileVault is turned on, your Mac always requires that you log in with your account password.
- Choose Apple menu () > System Preferences, then click Security & Privacy.
- Click the FileVault tab.
- Click , then enter an administrator name and password.
- Click Turn On FileVault.
If other users have accounts on your Mac, you might see a message that each user must type in their password before they will be able to unlock the disk. For each user, click the Enable User button and enter the user's password. User accounts that you add after turning on FileVault are automatically enabled.
Choose how you want to be able to unlock your disk and reset your password, in case you ever forget your password:
- If you're using OS X Yosemite or later, you can choose to use your iCloud account to unlock your disk and reset your password.*
- If you're using OS X Mavericks, you can choose to store a FileVault recovery key with Apple by providing the questions and answers to three security questions. Choose answers that you're sure to remember.*
- If you don't want to use iCloud FileVault recovery, you can create a local recovery key. Keep the letters and numbers of the key somewhere safe—other than on your encrypted startup disk.
If you lose both your account password and your FileVault recovery key, you won't be able to log in to your Mac or access the data on your startup disk.
Encryption occurs in the background as you use your Mac, and only while your Mac is awake and plugged in to AC power. You can check progress in the FileVault section of Security & Privacy preferences. Any new files that you create are automatically encrypted as they are saved to your startup disk.
When FileVault setup is complete and you restart your Mac, you will use your account password to unlock your disk and allow your Mac to finish starting up. FileVault requires that you log in every time your Mac starts up, and no account is permitted to log in automatically.
Reset your password or change your FileVault recovery key
If you forget your account password or it doesn't work, you might be able to reset your password.
If you want to change the recovery key used to encrypt your startup disk, turn off FileVault in Security & Privacy preferences. You can then turn it on again to generate a new key and disable all older keys.
Turn off FileVault
If you no longer want to encrypt your startup disk, you can turn off FileVault:
- Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Security & Privacy.
- Click the FileVault tab.
- Click , then enter an administrator name and password.
- Click Turn Off FileVault.
Decryption occurs in the background as you use your Mac, and only while your Mac is awake and plugged in to AC power. You can check progress in the FileVault section of Security & Privacy preferences.
Learn more
- Learn how to create and deploy a FileVault recovery key for Mac computers in your company, school, or other institution.
- If you're using FileVault in Mac OS X Snow Leopard, you can upgrade to FileVault 2 by upgrading to OS X Lion or later. After upgrading OS X, open FileVault preferences and follow the onscreen instructions to upgrade FileVault.
- RAID partitions or non-standard Boot Camp partitions on the startup drive might prevent OS X from installing a local Recovery System. Without a Recovery System, FileVault won't encrypt your startup drive. Learn more.
* If you store your recovery key with Apple or your iCloud account, there's no guarantee that Apple will be able to give you the key if you lose or forget it. Not all languages and regions are serviced by AppleCare or iCloud, and not all AppleCare-serviced regions offer support in every language. If you set up your Mac for a language that AppleCare doesn't support, then turn on FileVault and store your key with Apple (OS X Mavericks only), your security questions and answers could be in a language that AppleCare doesn't support.