Archive for the ‘El Capitan’ Category

It’s the little things: App Tamer 2.7.3 fixes icon spacing and kernel_task CPU usage

Tuesday, July 5th, 2022

Version 2.7.3 of App Tamer is now available, fixing a couple of problems.

First, my apologies to folks using versions of macOS older than Big Sur: Changes in the last App Tamer update tightened up the spacing of its menu bar icon to comply with modifications Apple made to Monterey and Big Sur. Unfortunately, it also did that on pre-Big Sur systems, often making its icon too close to adjacent ones in the menu bar. I’ve fixed that in 2.7.3.

Second, internal changes that Apple made in macOS resulted in App Tamer reporting the CPU usage of one particular process – kernel_task – incorrectly. App Tamer would show either zero or astronomical values for kernel_task’s processor use, neither of which was correct. In App Tamer’s defense, the system’s approved public API was supplying those numbers and it dutifully reported them without prejudice. Some hunting around in the macOS source code (thank you Apple for making darwin Open Source!) revealed an alternate method that correctly reports the CPU usage of all processes, including kernel_task. So that fix is now available in App Tamer, making it a reliable source of CPU information for all processes again.

As usual, release notes and download links are on the App Tamer release page, or if you’re already using App Tamer, just choose “Check for Update” from its menu. This update is free if you’ve already purchased an App Tamer 2.x license.

HistoryHound and Jettison Updates

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2016

128HistoryHound 1.9.12 and Jettison 1.5.2 both deliver stability improvements and bug fixes to make sure they run without issue on El Capitan and Sierra.

Icon.pngHistoryHound also includes better error handling and its indexing is more intelligent when it encounters web pages that redirect you to a new page. You can now click on status messages in the main window to show you the status of indexing and the contents of your search index, and HistoryHound 1.9.12 supports the Vivaldi browser as well as Safari, Chrome, Firefox, OmniWeb, iCab, Opera, NetNewsWire and URL Manager Pro.

Full lists of changes and download links are available on the HistoryHound release page and the Jettison release page.

Default Folder X 5.0.6: Sierra support, bug and compatibility fixes, and a few new things

Tuesday, August 30th, 2016

Shot1 Version 5.0.6 of Default Folder X is officially out! It’s the product of a lot of bug-chasing and wrangling of little details, especially where Sierra is concerned. I know there are still features that some of you are waiting for – I still have a long To-Do list – I haven’t forgotten.

In addition to supporting macOS 10.12, this update delivers a few often-requested features, including the ability to keep your Favorites sorted by name and better interoperability with LaunchBar. It also addresses some occasional glitches and compatibility issues, and starts up more quickly than previous versions.

If you’re running Sierra, El Capitan or Yosemite, you should update to this version, as most of the improvements apply to all versions of macOS, not just Sierra.

There’s a full change list and download links on the Default Folder X What’s New page. Have at it!

And stay tuned for updates to App Tamer and Jettison as well – they’ll be here shortly.

Default Folder X 5.0.5 resolves reliability problems

Monday, June 6th, 2016

Icon-shadow.pngSo there’s been this long-standing issue with Default Folder X 5 – a number of people had written to say that it would occasionally beep and refuse to switch to a folder they’d selected from one of its menus. Until recently I couldn’t reproduce it here, but finally narrowed down the problem by creating an artificial test environment with several worst-case conditions all set up at once. I’m very happy (and relieved) to report that with that setup, I could get the problem to happen reliably enough to track it down and fix it. So…

Default Folder X 5.0.5 is now available, making folder switching more reliable (especially under Yosemite). Also in this release, I’ve made the Finder-click feature work more smoothly, added compatibility fixes for several applications, and addressed a few really annoying bugs and crashes.

The change history and download links are available on the Default Folder X Release page, or by choosing “Check for Updates” in your copy of Default Folder X (you are using Default Folder X, aren’t you?)

Default Folder X 5.0.3 delivers fixes

Tuesday, March 29th, 2016

Version 5.0.3 of Default Folder X is up on the site! It fixes a number of issues and I’d recommend grabbing it if you’re running Default Folder X 5.

This release delivers the most important bug fixes and improvements, but there are a bunch of things still in the queue. So if you’ve emailed about other issues or sent in a feature request, don’t dismay – I’m working on them. I just felt it was important to address the most critical issues sooner rather than later.

For version 5.0.3 info and download links go to the Default Folder X Release page.

Catching up: Default Folder X 5.0.2

Thursday, March 10th, 2016

My apologies for the silence over here lately – polishing up and beta testing Default Folder X 5.0.2 took quite a lot of time and energy.

The update (free for those of you who’ve purchased a license or upgrade for Default Folder X 5) was released last Friday and includes a ton of improvements – everything from a significant speed boost to compatibility and bug fixes to localization in Japanese, French, German and Danish. A complete list of the changes is on the Default Folder X release page, along with download links for the English and localized disk images.

I’m very happy to have finally gotten all of the improvements out to the world!

– Jon

Finally! Default Folder X 5.0 Released!

Monday, January 11th, 2016

 

Default Folder X 5.0 is finally done and out! You can get it from https://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/index.html now. A quick list of the new features is at https://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/release.html, though there’s so much new and improved that it’s impossible to really list it all. It’s a ground-up rewrite that brings in all the improvements I’ve wanted to do for years.

Important details, for those of you who haven’t been following the betas:

  • It’s fully compatible with El Capitan and doesn’t require that you turn System Integrity Protection off anymore.
  • Yes, it’s a paid upgrade. It’s $14.95 unless you bought your license on or after June 1, 2015.
  • There are more features that are on the way – I held back a few in order to get 5.0 out sooner.
  • Localization in other languages still needs to be done – that’s a high priority now.
  • Version 5 also runs on Yosemite, but not on earlier versions of OS X.
  • If you turned off System Integrity Protection to use version 4 on El Capitan, you can turn it back on now.

Default Folder X 5.0b14 – it’s just about done!

Friday, December 25th, 2015

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays!

I just posted beta 14 of Default Folder X 5 – it squashes a bunch of miscellaneous bugs and now checks your serial number. If you bought your version 4.x license (full or upgrade) after June 1, 2015, it’ll automatically give you a free upgrade to version 5.

My bug list is down to just a couple, so it’s looking good for release in the first week of January. Thanks for your patience – this has been a much longer beta period than I expected. Despite a few bugs that have trickled in over the last couple of weeks, I’m very happy that the feedback has been extremely positive, with Default Folder X working trouble-free for most of the people who are running it.

There are a few issues, of course – one being a bug in Photoshop that renders Default Folder X inoperative in the Save for Web dialog. I’m afraid there’s not much I can do with it until Adobe fixes Accessibility support in that dialog (my bug report is here, if you’d like to “me too” it in hopes of making it more of a priority in Adobe’s eyes).

Anyway, Merry Christmas! I’m taking the day off to go skiing – you should get away from your computer too 🙂

Default Folder X 5.0b6 – Happy with the progress!

Monday, November 23rd, 2015

It seems like it’s taking forever (at least to me), but there are a lot of good changes in the latest beta (5.0b6) which I just posted at http://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/beta.html

Older Carbon apps will no longer always start in your Documents folder, the Finder-click feature once again allows you to click on the Desktop as well as on Finder windows, and there are significant improvements in several areas that speed things up and make Default Folder X more reliable.

My bug list has gotten much shorter, and there are only a few features missing now – yay!

Thanks for all the feedback (both positive and negative) and all your support. Please let me know if you run into any problems with 5.0b6!

– Jon

We interrupt your normally scheduled Default Folder X development for… expiring App Store receipts??

Thursday, November 12th, 2015

The Problem:

So I started getting emails yesterday complaining that Jettison was suddenly telling users their trial period was over – even though they’d already purchased a license. When I got the first few, I thought they’d just deleted their preference files and needed to re-activate their licenses, but then the trickle became a deluge – what the heck?

So I dropped everything and looked into it – I needed an answer ASAP or I was gonna spend the next couple of days doing nothing but answering email. It turns out everyone who was affected had bought Jettison through the Mac App Store and then upgraded to the direct-from-the-website version (because it’s better, of course – instructions here if you’re interested). When you do this, Jettison copies your Mac App Store receipt to a safe place so that it can verify that you’ve actually bought a license, even if you delete the App Store copy of Jettison.

Lucky for me, I’d bought a copy of Jettison myself when testing this mechanism, so I had my own receipt still sitting in ~/Library/Application Support/ so I could look at it. Printing the certificates in the receipt showed this little tidbit:

[...]
Signature Algorithm: sha1WithRSAEncryption
Issuer: C=US, O=Apple Inc., OU=Apple Worldwide Developer Relations [...]
Validity
    Not Before: Nov 11 21:58:01 2010 GMT
    Not After : Nov 11 21:58:01 2015 GMT
Subject: CN=Mac App Store Receipt Signing, OU=Apple Worldwide Deve [...]
[...]

See that “Not After:” entry in the Validity section? “Nov 11 21:58:01 2015 GMT” – yeah, that’d be yesterday. When the emails started. Apple signed the receipt with a certificate that expired yesterday, so if you have one of these receipts, Jettison no longer thinks you’re legit. Sorry about that – I hadn’t considered that eventuality. And reading the news this morning, it appears that Apple hadn’t either.

The Fix:

So what to do? I’ve wrapped up Jettison 1.5 and posted it. You’re going to have to do a little dance again to get Jettison to update your receipt, but this version will do the right thing once you follow these instructions:

  1. Put every copy of Jettison on your Mac in the Trash and empty the Trash.
  2. Open the App Store application and click on the Purchases tab.
  3. Re-download the copy of Jettison you purchased. It will include a new, non-expired receipt.
  4. Download the latest version of Jettison (http://www.stclairsoft.com/download/Jettison-1.5.1d2.zip)
  5. Double-click the .dmg file to open it, then double-click on Jettison before copying it to your Applications folder.
  6. After Jettison tells you that it has found your App Store license, you can copy it to your Applications folder.

Sorry for the hassle. But hey, at least it forced me to get the version 1.5 update out the door, so there’s some benefit there, eh? And thanks Apple – I didn’t need to sleep last night anyway.

– Jon

P.S. I’m seeing a bunch of people buying non-App Store licenses directly from the St. Clair Software store today instead of jumping through these hoops to deal with the App Store. I have to say I’m all for that 🙂

Update:

A bit more info that’s interesting and could use some corroboration: I think this problem only affects apps that were downloaded before September 24 (either via purchase or update). When I download a new copy of Jettison from the App Store, the receipt is signed with a cert valid within these dates:

            Not Before: Sep 24 19:09:31 2015 GMT
            Not After : Oct 23 19:09:31 2017 GMT

So in my sample size of 1, copies of Jettison purchased or updated today will work until Oct 23, 2017, and could have worked with this receipt only as far back as September 24. If Apple has been using the same certificate to sign all App Store receipts (which seems reasonable), then anything that has been downloaded from the App Store after September 24 won’t expire until 2017. And apps downloaded prior to that have some other expiration in their receipts. If I had more time, I’d dig through all of my App Store apps to find out when each cert expires, but alas, I’ve got work to do and have killed enough time on this already…