varenc

tl;dr; Run sudo launchctl stop com.apple.cmio.VDCAssistant to unfreeze your apps while using a Studio Display on macOS Catalina.

---

If you try to use Apple's new Studio Display on macOS Catalina 10.15.7 you end up with horrible app freezing problems. Apps like Chrome, Discord, WhatsApp, Zoom, Messenger, etc, are all freezing once a Studio Display is plugged in.

As someone pointed out on this thread, the "VDCAssistant" process seems to the source of the problems. This process is just related to managing video cameras for Apple services. And apparently disabling it fixes the app freezing issue!

So to fix the issue, just temporarily disable VDCAssistant by running this command in a Terminal:

varenc

MediaPlayer logging:

defaults: {
    "com.apple.homesharing" =     {
        HSConsoleLoggingLevel = 7;
        HSLogFileLoggingLevel = 7;
        HSLogging = 1;
    };
    "com.apple.medialibrary" =     {

varenc

Force brew to install pre-compiled binary bottles on older versions of macOS (Mojave).

This patch makes a small modification to Homebrew allowing you to "spoof" or override its perceived macOS version. Often compiled bottles will work fine on older unsupported macOS verisons and using a bottle means you don't have to compile a formula from scratch or download and compile its build-only dependencies.

Of course you shouldn't do this unless you're very familiar Homebrew internals and understand the limitations. Things make break in a very confusing way. Most users should just keep macOS up to date, but for those that can't this patch may be helpful.

To use, first download and install the patch:

$ cd "$(brew --repo)"
$ wget "https://gist.githubusercontent.com/varenc/47c4b22e2b8c5afabce556645a90801d/raw/homebrew_override_version.patch" --output-document=/tmp/homebrew_override_version.patch

varenc

{
  "SPDisplaysDataType" : [
    {
      "_name" : "kHW_IntelUHDGraphics630Item",
      "_spdisplays_vram" : "1536 MB",
      "spdisplays_automatic_graphics_switching" : "spdisplays_supported",
      "spdisplays_device-id" : "0x3e9b",
      "spdisplays_gmux-version" : "5.0.0",
      "spdisplays_metalfamily" : "spdisplays_mtlgpufamilymac2",
      "spdisplays_ndrvs" : [

varenc

The following is taken from a brilliant answer on unix.se. Posting it here for personal reference. The question was:

What kind of patterns can I use in zsh parameter expansion?

${var//pattern/replacement} is using zsh wildcard patterns for pattern, the same ones as used for filename generation aka globbing which are a superset of the sh wildcard patterns. The syntax is also affected by the kshglob and extendedglob options. The ${var//pattern/replacement} comes from the Korn shell initially.

I'd recommend enabling extendedglob (set -o extendedglob in your ~/.zshrc) which gives you the most features (more so than standard EREs) at the expense of some backward incompatibility in some corner cases.

You'll find it documented at info zsh 'filename generation'.

varenc

#!/bin/zsh

###################
# Save all of your Siri recordings on macOS. The recordings will be saved as .wav files in $SIRI_SAVE_DIR
#
# USAGE:
# $ wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/varenc/8cae8f19fede79f63b84cc85f602f382/raw/siri_recording_save.sh
# $ chmod +x siri_recording_save.sh
# $ ./siri_recording_save.sh
#

varenc

### Manually call Warp's AI Command generator

# It's no where near as smart as something like Copilot, but I find it pretty handy sometimes. Sadly the Warp terminal itself is often lacking but I like this feature.
#
# To use, get your long lasting Warp account refresh token.  (managed by Firebase/Google)
# How to do this is left as an excercise to the reader. Hint: MITM traffic or look in the Keychain

export WARP_REFRESH_TOKEN="<set yours here>"

# Now copy/paste or source this file to define the `ai_command` function

varenc

// Some bad sites, like the discussions.apple.com Apple Forums, block various browser keyboard shortcuts.  Very rarely do you want this.
// They even block basic things like refresh, Cmd+R, or go back, Cmd+[
// This snippet just insert a new event handler that stops propagration but doesn't prevent the default. 
// This prevents a site/Apple's event handlers from blocking your shortcuts. It also disables all other Keyboard shortcuts.

// ublock origin instructions:
// You can use ublock origin to automatically run this snippet on certain sites using a custom resource: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Advanced-settings#userresourceslocation
// Steps
// - Create a custom JS resource file (see linked docs above) that includes this snippet. Here is mine for example: https://gist.github.com/varenc/7c0c17eea480a03d7c8844d81e608e1e#file-ublock_custom_scripts-js-L49
// - Once you have this JS available to use as a resource, just create a ublock filter rule to run it on certain sites.

varenc

### Extract the contact image from a .vcf file.  This is otherwise impossible with macOS contacts. 
### To work, first export a single contact as a .vcf file.
#
# Example Usage: 
# $ extract_vcf_image input.vcf > output.jpg
# $ file output.jpg
# output.jpg:  JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01, aspect ratio, density 72x72, segment length 16, Exif Standard: [TIFF image data, big-endian, direntries=1TIFF image data, big-endian, direntries=1], baseline, precision 8, 148x148, components 3
#
# Notes:
# - 2nd argument is the output path, if not specified, will output to stdout

varenc

#compdef ugrep

# zsh completions for 'ugrep'
# automatically generated with http://github.com/RobSis/zsh-completion-generator
local arguments

arguments=(
  {-A,--after-context}'[output NUM lines of trailing context after matching lines.  Places]'
  {-a,--text}'[process a binary file as if it were text.  This is equivalent to]'
  '--and[PATTERN ... -e PATTERN]'