Inaudible Discussion
Adventures of a Front End Architect
  • May 11, 2018

    Download old version of macOS / OS X

    Step 1: Install Homebrew

    Go to brew.sh and download and install HomeBrew. HomeBrew is a Mac OS package manager, a CLI utility for downloading and installing binaries for Mac OS.

    Step 2: Install Macintosh App Store CLI (Command Line Interface) utility via HomeBrew

    From your terminal, run the following command, brew install mas

    This will only take a minute or so for the application to download and install.

    Step 3: Download old macOS via the mas-cli utilty

    The Mas CLI will let you download anything that you have purchased in the past. The way it works is running the command followed by the app store ID number. The following code would be used to download 10.7.

    Example: mas install 444303913

    Below is a list of Mac Store IDs for older versions of OS X. Note: you'll need a valid Apple Store ID that "purchased" older Mac OS versions via the App store You can see your purchases and their IDs using mas List.

    • OS X 10.7 Lion：444303913
    • OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion：537386512
    • OS X 10.9 Mavericks：675248567
    • OS X 10.10 Yosemite：915041082
    • OS X 10.11 El Capitan：1018109117
    • macOS 10.12 Sierra：1127487414
    • macOS 10.13 High Sierra：1246284741
  • May 7, 2018

    The Definitive Classic Mac Pro (2006-2012) Upgrade Guide

    Mac Pro Face


    Contents



    The Cheese Grater's last stand

    Apple finally announced a new Mac Pro after the failed 2013 Mac Pro. Little did we know, the trashcan design was a multiplane metaphor, not only as an ode to planned obsolescence but to Apple's opinion of Pro users as it even failed to capitalize on providing modest updates, the computer that was meant to be replaced without replacements.

    The cMac Pro (Classic Mac Pro) remains as the high water mark of Apple professional computers, easily besting even the G3/G4 era computers which made for very upgradable CPUs, GPUs and RAM (thanks to the famed folding door design). Regardless of what the new Mac Pro looks like, we're nearly at the end of the road for the classic Mac Pro. Apple officially dropped the 1.1 - 3.1 Mac Pro support, although the Mac Pros can be hacked to run current OSes. Thunderbolt PCIe chassis finally (sorta) officially support external GPUs. The iMac Pro single core performance is double that of a Mac Pro 5.1 even with a Xeon X5690. This level of performance is bound to trickle down in the next few years to more modest Mac configurations. If the Mac Mini ever received an update to an LGA-1151 let alone an LGA 2066 and ThunderBolt 3, it'd challenge the Mac Pro 5.1.

    Then there's rumor of ARM Macintoshes in the future, in the darkest of timelines where the modular computer is killed as SOC computing takes over. Computers are locked out of OS upgrades as quickly as a phone. In this dystopian future, Google has its way, relegating us to a hellscape of thin clients and subscription services and our own data held as bounty behind a paywall even as every bit is mined deeper like a Pennsylvanian quarry. Lastly, there's phoenix act where the Mac Pro 7.1 (2019?) is a triumphant return to a user serviceable, upgradable box replete with PCIe slots. The Mac Pro in this scenario becomes the vanguard of solder-iron wielding outcasts, cantankerous power users and cranky creative professionals, a community of the disaffected in the era of iOS. It'd be the unity of rejects who cling to past, not out of nostalgia but out of practicality, a mob completely ready to abandon their aging hardware. More than likely, we'll get a Mac Pro that's a middling mess, an attempt to appease Johnny Ive's ego over the requirements of its target audience.

    Whatever the future holds, the Mac Pro Cheesegraters are long-in-tooth, and the viability of using one as a daily driver is fading but with right upgrades has still life left.

    – Greg

    A quick aside for self-indulgence: I originally wrote in 2013 an upgrade guide for the Mac Pro, back in my earliest years of blogging (when this blog was hosted on Tumblr, mistaking Tumblr a utility for blogging). It was talky, anecdotal and amateurish, mostly upgrades I had done myself at various points, but also one of the first attempts at an all-encompassing guide for upgrading Mac Pros. I updated the blog post infrequently over the years, and it became a briar patch of disparate rambling, thorned with tangents and asides. I felt it reflected poorly as I've become a marginally better writer... at least that of am HS sophomore, sans obligatory doodles in the margins. I decided to clean up, update and rework my blog post but it became apparent I should start from anew as I was already committing a wholesale field burn. The result is this guide: a roadmap to upgrades with all the relevant info and primary sources (and 6000+ words and a bit of ego-death for the sake of continuity).

    A hearty thanks to all the communities and websites where Mac power users still exist: MacRumors, Netkas, XL8yourmac, TonyMacx86, EveryMac, Ars Technica and to The Mac Pro Upgrade group on FB (users Gianluca M, Jean-Paul R., John C) and Mac Pro Users on FB, (Eric Z.) for providing feedback.



    Note: The Mac Pro 2006 - 2012 cannot and will not support ThunderBolt, PCIe Thunderbolt cards are exclusively for PCs that have compatible motherboards with specialized chipsets, generally requiring a pass-through cable for internal video.



    Firmware upgrades/hacks

    The Mac Pro 2006s (1.1) and 2009s (4.1) occupy a special place as both can be updated to later firmwares. The Mac Pro 1.1 to 2.1 enables later CPU (Clovertown) support. The 4.1 gets the bigger boost the firmware update enables Westmere Xeon CPUs, faster bus/RAM. This is one of those times where a software upgrade makes all the difference. See the CPU upgrades section for more details.

    Note: Sometimes it is incorrectly reported that the 1.1/2.1 Mac Pro cannot run 64-bit applications (such as Pindelski's upgrade guide) which is untrue, they are limited to a 32 Bit EFI ROM. 64-bit Applications run natively as this is independent of the EFI Rom.

    Ars Technica reported on the success of the 2009 Mac Pros being flashed by Netkas forum members.

    2006 1.1 Mac Pro

    2009 4.1 Mac Pro

    Mac Pro 5.1 Update for 10.13

    Mac OS 10.13 (High Sierra), comes bundled with a new EFI update for AFPS bootablility and works with any 5.1 Mac Pros (including previously upgraded 4.1) Mac Pros but requires an EFI bootable graphics card as reported by MacRumors forum posters.



    OS upgrades

    High Sierra Logo

    OS upgrades might seem obvious but the 2006-2007 (1.1 - 2.1) Mac Pros only have 32 Bit EFI and the 2008 (3.1) Mac Pros are officially unsupported. The 2009 Mac Pros can be firmware flashed to become 5.1 Mac Pros. The 2010-2012 can run modern OS X natively without nearly the hacking. The 2008 Mac Pros are easier to upgrade although (and this is important), the airport card that the Mac Pro 2008 shipped with is unsupported. You can upgrade the wireless chipset or use PCIe or USB solutions.

    2006-2007 Mac Pro

    The Mac Pro 2006s can run 10.13 but there are some hoops to jump through, notably a video card with at least 512 MB of VRAM and you'll need Captain Pike's Script which takes a lot of the leg work out. Also, wifi will be unsupported with the old chipset, but the Airport can be upgraded.

    2008 Mac Pro

    The Mac Pro 3.1s do not need the 32 bit EFI workaround which means mostly a native experience. Again, the default wifi chipset isn't supported, but the Airport cards can be replaced.

    Upgrade to High Sierra without APFS

    For many pros using legacy apps, High Sierra can wreak havoc on support. Many users have chosen to continue using HFS+ as it ensures compatibility with some legacy applications.



    CPU Upgrades

    xeon 5690

    I sourced the information from MacRumors, so all credit goes to the community there and forum member ActionableMango for compiling this list, this is truncated to the most important bits of information.

    Mac Pro 2010 / Mac Pro 2012 (4.1, 5.1)

    Mac Pros maximum RAM depends on the CPU configuration in a Mac Pro. Dual CPUs enable more than 2x the maximum RAM. Not all Xeons sold are dual CPU compatible thus cannot be pair with another CPU. i7 CPUs cannot be paired together. The CPUs must be the same, and installing a single CPU causes an error state. Also, go to the original thread to read up on 4.1 Mac Pro dual CPU upgrades.

    • 56GB in a single-processor Mac Pro using a single-processor-compatible Xeon
    • 64GB in a single-processor Mac Pro using a dual-processor-compatible Xeon
    • 160GB in a dual-processor Mac Pro

    ✔️* = Requires Mac Pro 4.1 -> 5.1 firmware upgrade

    Architecture Cores Grade CPU-Model GHz Turbo RAM Watt MP4,1 MP5,1
    Westmere 6 core Dual Xeon X5690 3.46 3.73 1333 130W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 6 core Dual Xeon X5680 3.33 3.60 1333 130W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 6 core Dual Xeon X5679 3.20 3.60 1066 115W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 6 core Dual Xeon X5675 3.06 3.46 1333 95W ✔️*
    Westmere 6 core Dual Xeon X5670 2.93 3.33 1333 95W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 6 core Dual Xeon X5660 2.80 3.20 1333 95W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 6 core Dual Xeon X5650 2.66 3.06 1333 95W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 6 core Dual Xeon E5659 2.53 2.80 1333 80W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 6 core Dual Xeon E5645 2.40 2.67 1333 80W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 6 core Dual Xeon L5639 2.13 2.67 1333 60W ✔️* ✔️
    Gulftown 6 core Xeon W3690 3.46 3.73 1333 130W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 6 core Xeon W3680 3.33 3.60 1333 130W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 6 core Xeon W3670 3.20 3.46 1066 130W ✔️* ✔️
    Gulftown 6 core Consumer i7 990X 3.46 3.73 1066 130W ✔️* ✔️
    Gulftown 6 core Consumer i7 980X 3.33 3.60 1066 130W ✔️* ✔️
    Gulftown 6 core Consumer i7 970 3.20 3.46 1066 130W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 4 core Dual Xeon X5687 3.60 3.86 1333 130W 🚫 🚫
    Westmere 4 core Dual Xeon X5677 3.46 3.73 1333 130W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 4 core Dual Xeon X5672 3.20 3.60 1333 95W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 4 core Dual Xeon X5667 3.06 3.46 1333 95W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 4 core Dual Xeon X5647 2.93 3.20 1066 130W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 4 core Dual Xeon E5640 2.66 2.93 1066 80W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 4 core Dual Xeon E5630 2.53 2.80 1066 80W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 4 core Dual Xeon E5620 2.40 2.66 1066 80W ✔️* ✔️
    Westmere 2 core Dual Xeon X5698 4.40 4.54 1333 130W 🚫 🚫
    Nehalem 4 core Dual Xeon W5590 3.33 3.60 1333 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Dual Xeon W5580 3.20 3.46 1333 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Dual Xeon X5570 2.93 3.33 1333 95W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Dual Xeon X5560 2.80 3.20 1333 95W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Dual Xeon X5550 2.66 3.06 1333 95W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Dual Xeon E5540 2.53 2.80 1066 80W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Dual Xeon E5530 2.40 2.66 1066 80W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Dual Xeon E5520 2.26 2.53 1066 80W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Xeon W3580 3.33 3.60 1333 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Xeon W3570 3.20 3.46 1333 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Xeon W3565 3.20 3.46 1066 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Xeon W3540 2.93 3.20 1066 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Xeon W3530 2.80 3.06 1066 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Xeon W3520 2.66 2.93 1066 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Consumer i7 975 3.33 3.60 1066 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Consumer i7 965 3.20 3.46 1066 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Consumer i7 960 3.20 3.46 1066 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Consumer i7 950 3.06 3.33 1066 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Consumer i7 940 2.93 3.20 1066 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Consumer i7 930 2.80 3.06 1066 130W ✔️ ✔️
    Nehalem 4 core Consumer i7 920 2.66 2.93 1066 130W ✔️ ✔️

    Mac Pro 2008 (3.1)

    The 2008 Mac Pros have the least CPU options, and with the base CPU configuration from Apple, the 2x quad core 2.8 GHz Mac Pro makes for exceptionally modest gains in the benchmark department.

    Architecture Cores Grade CPU-Model GHz RAM Watt MP3,1
    Harpertown 4 core Dual Xeon X5482 3.2 800 150W ✔️
    Harpertown 4 core Dual Xeon X5460 3.16 667 120W ✔️
    Harpertown 4 core Dual Xeon E5472 3.0 800 80W ✔️
    Harpertown 4 core Dual Xeon X5472 3.0 800 120W ✔️
    Harpertown 4 core Dual Xeon X5450 3.0 667 120W ✔️
    Harpertown 4 core Dual Xeon E5450 3.0 667 80W ✔️
    Harpertown 4 core Dual Xeon E5440 2.83 667 80W ✔️
    Harpertown 4 core Dual Xeon E5462 2.8 800 80W ✔️
    Wolfdale 2 core Dual Xeon X5272 3.40 800 80W ✔️
    Wolfdale 2 core Dual Xeon X5260 3.33 667 80W ✔️

    Mac Pro 2006-2007 (1.1, 2.1)

    The Mac Pro 1.1s with a firmware upgrade can use a wide array of CPUs, making it the second most upgradable in the series of Mac Pros.

    Architecture Cores Grade CPU-Model GHz RAM Watt Min
    Firm-
    ware
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon X5365 3.0 667 150W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon X5365 3.0 667 120W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon X5355 2.66 667 120W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon X5355 2.66 667 120W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon X5355 2.66 667 120W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon E5345 2.33 667 80W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon E5345 2.33 667 80W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon E5345 2.33 667 80W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon E5340 2.4 533 80W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon E5340 2.4 667 80W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon L5335 2.0 667 50W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon L5320 1.86 533 50W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon L5320 1.86 533 50W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon L5320 1.86 533 50W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon E5320 1.86 533 80W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon E5320 1.86 533 80W 2.1
    Clovertown 4 core Dual Xeon E5320 1.86 533 80W 2.1
    Woodcrest 2 core Dual Xeon 5160 3.0 667 80W 1.1
    Woodcrest 2 core Dual Xeon 5160 3.0 667 80W 1.1
    Woodcrest 2 core Dual Xeon 5160 3.0 667 65W 1.1
    Woodcrest 2 core Dual Xeon 5150 2.66 667 65W 1.1
    Woodcrest 2 core Dual Xeon 5150 2.66 667 65W 1.1
    Woodcrest 2 core Dual Xeon 5150 2.66 667 65W 1.1
    Woodcrest 2 core Dual Xeon 5130 2.0 667 65W 1.1
    Woodcrest 2 core Dual Xeon 5130 2.0 667 65W 1.1
    Woodcrest 2 core Dual Xeon 5130 2.0 667 65W 1.1

    Guides on Upgrading CPUs



    GPU upgrades

    GeForce GTX 1080

    When I originally wrote this guide four years ago, it was surprising that users could use off-the-shelf Nvidia cards. I tested a GeForce 760 Hackintosh vs. my Mac Pro, outlined the installation process 2008 Mac Pro Full Instructions and benchmarks here, I've since upgraded to a GeForce 1060.

    GPUs are routinely one of the most common upgrades to Mac Pros. There are roughly three classes of GPUs:

    • GPUs that are Mac Native - GPUs that out-of-the-box will display the Mac OS boot screen and do not require additional drivers if the minimum OS is met.
    • GPUs that can be flashed to Apple EFI - these are graphics cards that shipped as a PC graphics card but require a ROM flash to display the EFI Boot screen
    • UEFI graphics cards that can be used in macOS but will not display the boot screen and may require (in the case of Nvidia) additional drivers to output video

    There's some overlap between the last two types of cards. Generally, anyone running a non-EFI compatible boot screen will want to keep an EFI compatible card around for OS upgrades as OS upgrades can stop an NVidia card that isn't Mac OS native from displaying video until the proper drivers are installed. This might sound undesirable but, with the gains of the nVidia cards, most users are willing to forgo the inconvenience, self-included. I've been in all camps, originally using a GeForce GTX 8800, flashing an ATI Radeon HD 6870 to Mac Native EFI and then landing on the GeForce 760 and 1060.

    Lastly, the superpower hungry GPUs (the GeForce 1080 Ti) can be powered by the Mac Pro PSU but require the Mac Pro Pixlas Mod (also covered in the Other mods section of this guide).

    OEM EFI Bootable Cards / Aftermarket EFI Bootable

    EFI compatible cards that have a native Mac version: Mostly OEM cards although with a few notable aftermarket cards.

    DL DIV - Dual Link DVI
    SL DIV - Single Link DVI
    DP - Display Port

    NVidia
    NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB GDDR2 1 SL DVI 1 DL DVI
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB GDDR3 1 Mini DP 1 DL DVI
    NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB GDDR3 2 DL DVI
    NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 1.5 GB GDDR5 2 DL DVI
    NVIDIA Quadro 4000 3 GB GDDR5 1 DL DVI 1 DP
    NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 1.5 GB GDDR3 2 DL DVI Stereo 3D
    EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2 GB GDDR5 1 HDMI 1 DP 1 DVI-I 1 DVI-D
    PNY NVIDIA Quadro K5000 4 GB GDDR5 2 DVI 2 DP
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 6 GB GDDR5 1 DL DVI, 1 HDMI, 1 DP
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan 6 GB GDDR5 1 DL DVI 1 HDMI 1 DP
    NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X 12 GB GDDR5 1 DVI 1 HDMI 1 Triple DP
    ATI/AMD
    ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256 MB GDDR2 1 SL DVI 1 DL DV
    ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512 MB GDDR3 2 DL DVI
    ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB GDDR5 1 Mini DP 1 DL DVI
    ATI Radeon HD 5770 1 GB GDDR5 2 Mini DP 1 DL DVI
    ATI Radeon HD 5870 1 GB GDDR5 2 Mini DP 1 DL DVI

    Flashable to EFI compatible cards

    The most commonly flashable video cards are ones that have a Mac equivalent that was either sold by Apple as OEM or aftermarket, and the ROMs then were distributed on the open market, a few cards require physical modification. The advantage is once the ROM is installed, the card acts/behaves like a native card, but means some additional functionality might be lost (cards that have extra video output ports may not work). Below are software-only flashable cards. I used for years an ATI Radeon 6870.

    Non-EFI Bootable Cards

    Ever since UEFI BIOS became standard on NVidia cards, off the shelf cards can be used in Mac Pros. Some of the ATI cards are plug and play, specifically the Sapphire RX PULSE series, meaning that even after OS updates, the cards will output video without any driver updates, unlike Nvidia cards.

    image

    Photo Credit: Amazon.com

    Custom Flashed Cards: Depending on how much time you've spent researching upgrades, you may have read about the website/business, Mac Vid Cards. Mac Vid Cards sells custom flashed EFI NVidia cards (the 1000 series), but I hesitate to link directly to their site as several FaceBook/MacRumors posts have been lukewarm. The cards do work but the turn-around times are long, communication infrequent and the prices are high, but they appear to be legitimate, with many testimonials floating around message boards from longtime members. Mac Vid Cards claims to have written a custom EFI ROM. Rather than collaboratively explain how said hack was done (Unlike TonyMacX86 / MacRumors / Netkas forum members), Mac Vid Cards chooses to be a monopoly. I'd rather not weigh too much on the ethics on it, but software developers do deserve compensation and depending on the actual work performed on the EFI ROM, it may very well be truly custom. As of writing this, they are the only game in town when it comes to making the NVidia 1000 series cards Mac EFI compatible. I suggest googling for them, and let you be the judge if its worth the cost.

    NVidia Webdriver Links

    TonyMacX86 forums do an excellent job of direct linking to the NVidia installers for driver version number by OS version. Note: my list may not be 100% up-to-date depending on when I've last updated this guide.

    Note about SLI: Currently, there isn't any SLI support under macOS, and this seems unlikely to change. Windows, however, will support SLI in a Mac Pro.

    Useful Links

    Which card should buy?

    There isn't a "best card" for any computer, rather how much money you're willing to spend and if the money could be better spent elsewhere. This is an arbitrary metric as even a 2.1 Mac Pro will see significant gains in GPU tasks, with a GeForce 1080 Ti over lesser cards (for example, a GeForce 1070). Consider this: GeForce 1080 Ti sells for many times more than a Mac Pro 2.1 itself (as of writing this in May 2018, a factor of 3x times the price). Commonly, forums and groups will mention "pairs well," or "bottleneck" but any high-end GPU will "pair well," the question is more about where a user can see more performance gains. I'd argue buying a 4.1 Mac Pro, and mid-range GPU would be better money spent as it'd feel faster for many day-to-day experiences and is very upgradable, but that's just my personal opinion.

    The next question is, do you want an EFI native card? Many users, self-included, I elected to go the route of NVidia and to use a secondary graphics cards to protect me against OS upgrades. Some users may find this too cumbersome, whereas some users go as far as to operate without a backup card, and prep their computer for OS upgrades by preinstalling drivers and executing a few commands. The AMD Saphire RX 580x Pulse tends to be loved by more everyday users as OS updates will not break the ability to display video, thus not requiring any sort of workaround using a backup graphics card and using a boot manager to select which OS they're booting instead of Option key booting.

    Lastly, consider 4k and 10-bit support of the card you are interested in. Pretty much all the current roster of cards will drive multiple monitors at 60 Hz 4k whereas older cards may only support one display at 60 Hz or worse, only one display at 30 Hz 4k.

    HDMI (and Display Port) Audio

    Many modern graphics cards have HDMI and thus capable of outputting audio. There's a very long thread of intrepid hackers at Mac Rumors.



    I/O Upgrades

    USB 3.0 Card

    The Mac Pros can support many more cards than listed here but these are all common cards, NewerTech and Sonnet are reliable. Not all cards are equal, some are more performant, in the case of USB 3.0/3.1 offering full duplex per port instead of shared bandwidth. Also, some non-listed cards have issues. I had an off-brand Inateck PCI-E to USB 3.0 which worked but also caused a reboot loop when trying to shut down. The only way to turn off my Mac Pro was to hold down the power key forcibly. I personally use an SYBA SY-PEX40039 SATA card as my bootable SSD for my Samsung Evo. I've elected not to include USB 2.0 only or Gigabit Ethernet-only or SATA II only cards as all are found natively on all versions of the classic Mac Pros.

    USB 3.0

    • Sonnet Allegro USB 3.0 / Sonnet Allegro Pro
    • Inateck KT4004
    • RocketU 1144D / HighPoint RocketU 1144C
    • HighPoint RocketU 1144E
    • CalDigit FASTA-6GU3 Pro
    • HighPoint RocketU 1144CM -
    • Inateck PCI-E to USB 3.0 - (Caused Reboot loop in 2008 Mac Pro)
    • Sonnet Technologies Tempo Duo PCIe (2x eSATA / 2x USB 3.0) - (discontinued)
    • Newer Technology MAXPower 2 port eSATA 6/GBs & 2 Port USB 3.0

    SATA/eSATA

    Note: Not all SATA cards are bootable on OS X. Currently, the list is expanding, non-bootable cards will be listed as such. Known bootable cards will be listed as such. If no notes appear, it's because I haven't researched this yet.

    • NewerTech MAXPower PCIe eSATA 6G Controller - Bootable
    • MAXPower 4-port eSATA 6G PCIe 2.0 - (bootable)
    • MAXPowereSATA 6G PCIe 2.0 RAID 0/1/5/10
    • MAXPower RAID mini-SAS 6G-2e2i
    • Sonnet Technologies Tempo SATA Pro - Bootable
    • Sonnet Technologies Tempo SATA E2P
    • Sonnet Technologies Tempo SATA 6Gb/s PCIe 2.0 - (discontinued)
    • Sonnet Technologies Tempo SATA Pro 6Gb PCIe 2.0 - (discontinued)
    • SYBA SY-PEX40039 SATA III
    • HighPoint Rocket 620 2 SATA
    • ORICO PFU3-4P 3 Port
    • ATTO ExpressSAS H680 Low-Profile x8-External Port
    • ATTO ExpressSAS H644 Low-Profile 4-Internal/4-External Port
    • ATTO ExpressSAS H6F0 16-External

    Firewire

    • Sonnet Technologies Tango Express Combo FireWire 400/USB 2.0 Card
    • Sonnet Technologies Allegro FireWire 800 PCIe
    • Sonnet Technologies Allegro FW400 PCIe - (discontinued)

    USB 3.1

    • MAXPower 4-Port USB 3.1 Gen 1
    • Sonnet Technologies Allegro USB-C
    • StarTech 4-Port USB 3.1 (10Gbps) Card PEXUSB314A2V

    Ethernet (10 Gigabit)

    Useful Links



    Storage Upgrades

    The classic Mac Pros carried onboard only SATA 2 and (ATA for 1.1-3.1) which has a limit of 300 MB/s, which far less than what modern SSDs can tap. The Mac Pros can use SATA SSDs without any special modifications, with the caveat that read/write speeds are significantly lower than their potential max speeds. The most popular upgrade, as of writing this, are PCIe sleds for SATA SSDs, which often feature two trays for RAID0 configurations, bringing up the speeds to the 1.2 GB/s range.

    SATA2 still won't be fully saturated even by performant 3.5 spinning disk drives (as of writing this) the current gen 3.5 drives like Western Digital Black drives. For those looking to sacrifice ports, OWC made a series of multi-mounts to go inside the dual 5.25 drive bays for 3.5 and 2.5-inch drives.

    The 1.1, 2.1 and 3.1 Mac Pros also have two extra SATA ports hidden on the motherboards, which while a royal pain in the ass to access, can be routed up to the optical bay for modders looking for more SATA storage or replace optical bays with SATA variants. 4.1/5.1 Mac Pros removed ATA and thus have SATA accessible. Newer Technology made an eSATA Extender Cable Adapter specifically for users looking to make eSATA ports out of the hidden ports, but blocking off a PCIe port in the process.

    Also worth noting both OWC and Newer Technology make 2.5 -> 3.5 speeds for the drive bays found in Mac Pros although I can attest for two years of not using a sled that they are optional if you rarely move your Mac Pro.

    OS X can boot AHCI SSDs which faster than the standard SATA drives via PCIe sleds offering significantly faster speeds, often double that of SATA SSDs but tend to cap out at 1500 MB/s.

    NVMe (NVM express) is also now supported with the appropriate PCIe sleds under 10.13 with the glaring issue of only being read/writable but not bootable. It appears that AHCI is only bootable... however, clever users have discovered that creating a Fusion Drive with NVMe, with only the boot record on the AHCI storage (it can be a thumb drive) allows for NVMe boots allowing Mac Pros attain the incredible speeds of NVMe. The 960 Evo by Samsung attains incredible 2237 MB/s reads, and 1405 MB/s writes, roughly double to triple the read/writes of SATA, and NVMe tends to sport faster 4k Random read/write times. Lastly, as of writing this, 1 TB NVMe appears to be cheaper than AHCI as the industry has begun to favor NVMe for its incredifast speeds.

    PCIe SATA sleds

    • Sonnet Technologies Tempo SSD (2x 2.5 SSD) - bootable
    • OWC Accelsior series - bootable

    PCIe AHCI sleds

    • Angelbird Wings PX1 PCIe - (Bootable only with AHCI or Fusion drive if using NVMe)
    • Lycom DT-120 (bootable, not AHCI specific)
    • Sintech Apple PCIe
    • Kingstone Predator Ahci SSD
    • Amfeltec SQUID series (M.2)
    • Highpoint 7101a (M.2)

    PCIe NVMe sleds

    • Researching...

    AHCI SSD PCIe sled Host adapters

    Sled adapters are popular as they simplify SSD upgrades but functionally are the same as SATA cards for speed. The Sonnet Tempo SSD allows for two drives, making it the better of the products on this list. All products in this list are bootable.

    • OWC Accelsior S: PCIe to 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD Host Adapter
    • Sonnet Technologies Tempo SSD 6Gb/s SATA PCIe 2.5" SSD Host Adapter
    • Sonnet Technologies Tempo SSD Pro Plus 6Gb/s eSATA / SATA PCIe 2.5" SSD Host Adapter

    Useful Links



    Fusion Drives

    The Fusion Drive once was Apple's solution to mitigating the high cost/low storage space of SSD. The Fusion drive was an OS level pairing between a standard spinning disk SATA drive and an SSD. These days the idea of creating a Fusion drive might seem strange with SSD prices continuing to drop, where the economics of TB sized SSDs are much more attainable.

    Fusion Drives have become en vogue once again thanks to the partial support that macOS appears to have regarding NVMe. NVMe isn't bootable, but Fusion drives are.

    The hack goes as follows: Disable SIP / Install the hacked NVMe driver for 10.12, (you may still need it for specific brands in 10.13), then a string of installation commands... Rather than re-outline them, the following links are useful.

    Useful Links



    Display Upgrades

    The Mac Pro's display limitations are a factor of graphics cards and whatever monitor you can afford. There's a minor caveat that flashed 7950s and 7970s booting with 60 Hz 4k displays will hang, thus must run at 30 Hz at the boot screen. Most 79xx cards have dual ROM so day-to-day the UEFI ROM can function as the cards default which bypasses the boot-screen video output. Also, 4k supported wasn't official until 10.9.3. Forum members at MacRumors have confirmed that 144 Hz 4k displays do work. Notably, older NVidia GPUs with the web drivers will not support 10-bit color but latest GPUs do, and same goes for AMD's. Most displays (especially budget) use Frame Rate Control (FRC) to achieve simulated 10-bit instead of true 10-bit panels, by parsing the 10-bit color stream, and for colors that fall outside the 8-bit range, cycling between near shades of colors within the 8-bit spectrum. This visually creates a simulated 10-bit experience. This is acceptable for many purposes, but film editors and graphic designers may require the accuracy of true 10-bit color.

    Depending on setup 4k @ 60 Hz via HDMI may require workarounds whereas DisplayPort tends to be far more reliable.



    Bluetooth / Wireless Upgrades

    The Mac Pros 1.1 - 5.1 all include one mini PCIe slot for Airport cards. The advantage is that you do not have to sacrifice a PCIe slot and upgrade Bluetooth and 802.11 in one upgrade. Any Mac Pro can be upgraded to 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac + Bluetooth 4.0+. I personally bought a card from osxwifi.com and outlined my experiences here.

    Vendors like OSXWifi sell a mini PCIe to Apple Airport adapter + the Apple Airport BCM94360CD. Each can be bought separately or packaged together.

    Installing the cards isn't terribly much harder than regular PCIe cards.

    Mac Pro 1.1-3.1s looking to keep wifi support for unsupported OSes can keep native wifi / Bluetooth with the BCM94360CD.

    • Apple Broadcom BCM94360CD - 1.1 / 5.1 Mac Pros (The Mac 1.1-3.1s have a Bluetooth antenna, 4.1/5.1s need either a separate antenna or a custom USB adapter to connect to the Bluetooth data cable)

    Useful Links



    Ram Upgrades (Memory)

    As many users probably are already aware, the Mac Pros can address more RAM than Apple officially lists and depends on the CPU configuration. If for some reason you intend to run pre-10.9, OS X pre-Mavericks had a maximum of 96 GB of RAM.

    Mac Pro 5.1 (2010/2012)

    The 5.1 Mac Pro depending on CPU config may run 1333 MHz ram at 1066 MHz. Any CPU config can use the slower clocked memory; there is some debate on performance effects Mac Performance Guide tests for information. Users also report mixed ECC/non-ECC ram bootable on the Mac Pro 5.1. Lastly, OWC and EveryMac generally report the maximum ram on the 5.1 as 128 GB, but users have confirmed that 160 GB is possible. The Mac Pro will not boot with more than 160 GB of RAM.

    Maximum DIMM size: 32 GB

    Maximum RAM:

    • Single Processor Xeon: 56 GB
    • Dual Processor Capable Single Xeon: 64 GB
    • Dual Processor Xeon: 160 GB (5x32)

    Apple's Recommended DIMM type:

    • PC3-10600E, 1333 MHz, DDR3 SDRAM UDIMMs
    • 72-bit wide, 240-pin ECC modules
    • 36 ICs maximum per ECC UDIMM
    • Error-correcting code (ECC)

    Mac Pro 4.1 (2009)

    Maximum DIMM size: 16 GB

    The 4.1 Mac Pros can be firmware upgraded to 5.1, which changes the RAM support and maximum RAM.

    Maximum RAM:

    • Single Processor Xeon: 48 GB
    • Dual Processor Capable Single Xeon: 64 GB
    • Dual Processor Xeon: 128 GB

    Apple's Recommended DIMM type:

    • PC3-8500, 1066 MHz, DDR3 SDRAM UDIMMs
    • 72-bit wide, 240-pin ECC modules
    • 36 ICs maximum per ECC UDIMM
    • Error-correcting code (ECC)

    Mac Pro 3.1 (2008)

    Maximum RAM: 64 GB

    Maximum DIMM size: 8 GB

    RAM must be installed in pairs, and Apple recommends Apple approved heatsinks to keep fans at a minimum. Can use 667 MHz FB-DIMMs as found in the 1.1/2.1 but with a speed penalty

    Apple's Recommended DIMM type:

    • 800 MHz, DDR2, FB-DIMMs
    • 72-bit wide, 240-pin modules
    • 36 memory ICs maximum per DIMM
    • Error-correcting code (ECC)

    Mac Pro 1.1/2.1 (2006/2007)

    The Mac Pro 1.1/2.1s Mac RAM depends on the firmware. OWC/Everymac reports the 2.1 Mac Pro with a maximum of 32 GB which is incorrect. Users have confirmed using 8 GB DIMMs in 2.1s.

    RAM must be installed in pairs, and Apple recommends Apple approved heatsinks to keep fans at a minimum.

    Maximum RAM:

    • Mac Pro 1.1: 32 GB
    • Mac Pro 2.1: 64 GB

    Maximum DIMM size:

    • Mac Pro 1.1: 4 GB
    • Mac Pro 2.1: 8 GB

    Apple's Recommended DIMM type:

    • 667 MHz, FB-DIMMs
    • 72-bit wide, 240-pin modules
    • 36 devices maximum per DIMM
    • Error-correcting code (ECC)

    Useful Links



    Other Upgrades

    Blu Ray / Blu Ray Writer

    The Mac Pro can use any SATA or USB 3.0 Blu-Ray Drive as Blu-Ray is ISO compliant, thus no special drivers are needed, but macOS does not have native support for Blu-Ray disc creation or watching Blu-Ray movies. VLC supports Blu-Ray playback in all its HD glory, and Roxio Toast can burn Blu-Ray disks. There's also plenty of software for ripping Blu-Rays for macOS.

    Fan Control

    Macs Fan Control takes the champion of the best fan control software, allowing users to use different thermal sensors to control fan clusters or other values. The best parts are the application is free, and there's both a Mac and Windows port.

    Macs Fan Control

    PCIe expansion

    While the classic Mac Pros do not have Thunderbolt, they do support PCIe expansion chassis. Specialty companies like Cubix make macOS compatible PCIe expanders, generally taking a 16x PCIe slot as a host and dividing its bandwidth into more PCIe slots. These do not come cheap as they're uncommon.

    Mac Pro Pixlas PSU Mod

    The Pixlas mod is a power supply specific modification to draw taps directly from the PSU as opposed to using the standard PCIe power cables, which are only six pins instead of 8 pins thus unable to make the full power draw needed for the 250 watts required for extreme-end GPUs.

    External Power Supplies

    To mitigate the stress on the Mac Pro's power supply (tallying in at 980w of power), some users use external PSUs for their GPUs, especially if they have two high-end GPUs such as the GeForce GTX 1080 as they peak at 250w power.

    Replacing the Battery

    Over the years, batteries can go bad and cause errant behaviors (generally resolved temporarily by zapping the PRAM, holding down command-shift-p-r). The Mac Pro uses a 3 volt, BR2032, located on most models above the bottom PCIe slot.

    Fan / Heat Sink / other case part Replacement

    Shops like dvwarehoues, wellovemacs, and macpartsonline carry parts for classic Mac Pros. eBay also tends to be a popular grounds for classic Mac Pro replacement pieces.

    Look up serial Number

    This may seem like an odd thing to do, but if you're buying a used Mac Pro 5.1, you may want to see a computer's stock information to see if the Mac was originally a 4.1 Mac Pro. This can be done at sites like appleserialnumberinfo.com.

    Linux on 2006 Mac Pros

    Running Linux on 32-bit EFI Macs takes more effort than 64-bit EFI Macs to run the 64-bit distros. Below are guides on running Linux on older Macs.



    Service Manuals

    All the support manuals can be found at Apple.com - Manuals - Mac Pro, but for ease of use, I've organized them in this section. Notably, the 4.1/5.1 Mac Pros (2009, 2010-2012) are very similar internally thus any 2009/2010 manual works for the 2012.

    Note: All the manuals are linked are PDFs.

    User Guide Manuals

    Instruction Manuals



    Collected Articles on classic Mac Pro and the 2019 Mac Pro



    Changelog

    Making and maintaining this guide takes a fair amount of work, and feedback from users is greatly appreciated. If you have suggestions or edits, please feel free to contact me at: blog@greggant.com.

    5/27/18 - Added link to Netkas Mac Pro 1.1 -> 2.1 firmware utility and StarTech 4-Port card to USB list.

    5/23/18 - Added link to wifi install guide for 5.1 Mac Pros, link cleanup so links consistently open blank page, minor proofing.

    5/22/18 - Added HDMI Audio links, Mac Pro 5.1 Update for 10.13, Also, time for some proofing: Fixed quite a few typos, grammar blunders, and punctuation.

    5/21/18 - Added Mac Pro manuals from Apple.com

    5/17/18 - Added Linux on 2006 Mac Pros links

    5/16/18 - 5770 Error correction info

    5/15/18 - Minor copy editing, fixed bad link to anchor tag for CPU upgrades, a note about SLI.

    5/14/18 - Reworked the intro, it's wordy now. Minor copy editing, more PCIe sled info, more 4.1 firmware upgrade links.

    5/13/18 - Added Pixlas mod info, Classic Mac Pro gone but certainly not forgotten.

    5/11/18 - Added Upgrade to High Sierra without APFS, added NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600, AMD FirePro W7000 to flashable cards, AMD Radeon 770/5780 Roms link, mac-pixel-clock-patch-V2 link, How to Boot to Windows without a Boot Screen link, NVMe links, Disable internal Bluetooth (for USB dongles), note about pre-10.9 RAM, serial number lookup, note about 64-bit on 1.1/2.1 mac pros.

    5/10/18 - Links to EveryMac for RAM instructions, quick thoughts on graphics cards purchases and links to NVidia web drivers.

    5/9/18 - Copy Editing + Responsive CPU tables + links open new windows.

    5/8/18 - Images + feedback from users (added Replacing battery + memory) + restructure so contents supercedes intro.

    5/7/18 - Guide launch, first published

  • Apr 26, 2018

    Even real Amazon Reviews can be manipulated...

    Bezos-owned Washington Post published a large story on Amazon fake reviews, but that's just the beginning. Years ago I bought an Anker Bluetooth Keyboard. I gave it three stars despite its rock-bottom $20 price, as I couldn't imagine using it beyond the lightest use cases as the feel was abysmal (keys were squishy and wobbly). It technically "worked" but even if I were given one for free, I'd still would have not like the product. Price and value are interconnected, but there's a floor where simply the value of an object ceases increase regardless of how low price as my affinity for the product will not increase.

    What followed was Anker harassing me to change my review. I admired they wanted to "fix" the situation but the product worked as advertised so there wasn't anything to fix. Had they left at that, then this would have been the end of the story.

    Anker spams me

    Anker e-mailed several times, although I deleted a few of the e-mails. I believe the count was roughly 5 emails, near daily. I grew tired of it and contacted Anker, and they inferred that they were willing to give me at least more Anker products (it wasn't entirely clear) beyond a second keyboard to reconsider my review. Anker crossed a narrow ethical line. They didn't offer me money, but they were willing to sweeten the pot for me to reconsider under the implication I'd consider changing my star rating. Long story short, I did not change my review nor did I take Anker up on offers. The keyboard was mediocre and short of re-engineering it, there was nothing more to say. Giving a second mediocre keyboard, wouldn't have equated to one good keyboard.

    Anker spams me

    I'm willing to bet Anker didn't violate any of the terms of service for Amazon and the value of a real customer (me) changing my review, in exchange for some bonus swag (cables? I'm speculating) they, essentially buy a review without "buying" a review. This struck me as insidious behavior and a general mistrust of "Amazon" brands, products that seem to exist entirely in the Amazon ecosphere.

    I realize I'm singling out Anker but it's also the company I've had first-hand experience with. Even in 2013, fake reviews were a problem but this alerted me to a new form of review inflation. I've been far more skeptical of the "Amazon" brands since, those companies that seem entirely exist in the Amazon eco-sphere, usually selling cheap electronics or knock-offs of more popular products with strikingly high reviews, like popular Symphonized, selling stylish headphones at cheap prices.

    Does Symphonized pay reviewers or harass negative reviewers? I don't know and that's problematic.

  • Apr 15, 2018

    Cubase - Error Changing permissions when Installing (for any version of Cubase, Cubase Artist, Cubase Essentials) Fix

    I recently ran into a problem trying to install the latest version of Cubase. Below are a few of the errors I encountered:

    Error changing permissions in 0755 in /System/Library/Extensions/AuthenticationSupport.plugin
    Error changing permissions in 0755 in /System/Library/Extensions/AuthenticationSupport.plugin

    Error changing permissions in 0777 in /System/Library/Extensions/AuthenticationSupport.plugin/Contents.plist
    Error changing permissions in 0777 in /System/Library/Extensions/AuthenticationSupport.plugin/Contents.plist

    Error changing permissions in 077 in /System/Library/Extensions/AuthenticationSupportEnabler.plugin
    Error changing permissions in 0777 in /System/Library/Extensions/AuthenticationSupportEnabler.plugin

    My initial inclination, being a developer, was to use the terminal and sudo chmod the permissions which didn't work. If the previous statement doesn't mean anything to you, chmod is a unix utility that's part of macOS but only accessible by the terminal, that can change the permissions of files (edibility) of files.

    This, of course, did not work as I encountered the same problem when attempting to update drivers on my Mac Pro for a nVidia graphics card.

    macOS post 10.10, features System Integrity Protection, which prevents various system files from being modified by other software. This is a good idea except when it creates a problem like trying to update Cubase from versions. For me, I was upgrading from Cubase Pro 7.5 to Cubase Pro 9.5, but this could happen with Cubase 8, Cubase 8.5, Cubase 9 and the various versions of Cubase like Cubase Artist and Cubase Elements.

    The process is as follows: Disabling the System Integrity Protection, installing the software and re-enabling System Integrity Protection. The steps are outlined in my nVidia post but below are the same instructions.

    Step 1

    Verify you have System Integrity Protection enabled. Go to the terminal (the macOS terminal is located in applications/utility) and type the following command into the window. This should return "enabled".

        csrutil status

    Step 2

    Restart your Mac and hold down the Command-R keys during startup to boot into recovery mode. (alternately, hold the option and select the recovery partition). The recovery partition will take longer to boot than normal.

    Step 3

    You should see the macOS installer prompt screen. Ignore it and go to the Utility menu and select the terminal option. Run the following command in the terminal.

    p> Ignore the installer prompt and select from the Utility, Terminal and run:

        csrutil disable

    Step 4

    Reboot normally. Install the Cubase software, even if the rest of the software installed successfully.

    Step 5

    Reboot again into Recovery mode and go to the terminal. Run the following to re-enable System Integrity Protection.

        csrutil enable

    Now you can reboot normally and start using your software!

  • Apr 10, 2018

    Rise of the backlink spammers

    Recently I've been hit in the past week or so two separate requests to fix broken links on old blog posts, each 4 years old or older. The first is a "Nice try" for for a rather crappy tech blog. Comparitech seems to a form spammer. Comically, the example I found is from the FreeBSD Pipermail mailing list about an archived article from 2002, about VNC portal mail configging. The bot suggests linking to an article explain the difference between VNC and a VPN.

    Ellen Fisher <ellen@comparitechmail.net>
    3:50 AM (9 hours ago)
    Hi Greg,

    I found a link that isn’t working on one of your pages and thought you’d want to know.

    I landed here - http://blog.greggant.com/posts/2013/10/17/53-mac-only-design-development-utilities-apps.html, and noticed you have a link to the Webgraph Facebook Blocker tool (http://webgraph.com/resources/facebookblocker/) which seems to have been discontinued.

    We have a guide to help people stop Facebook tracking them across the web - SPAM URL removed

    If you are updating your page, perhaps you could point people to our guide instead?

    I hope this helps!

    Thanks,
    Ellen
    -----
    Ellen Fisher
    Comparitech

    Yeah, I'm not going to do that. The guide was very so-so, and a bit out of date to boot.

    The second instance is interesting for the persistence, three separately e-mails spaced out. The link in question, was to a website offering a pirated flash version of Plants vs Zombies. As I do not have flash installed, I couldn't comment onto the quality but likely it was advertisement loaded.

    Jessica Bridges <jessycatbridges@gmail.com>

    Mar 15

    to blog
    Hey there,

    Are you able to please update something on your website?

    You were linking to the Plants vs Zombies game on this page of your website - http://blog.greggant.com/posts/page8/
    The link was going to this game - http://www.popcap.com/games/pvz , but I guess since popcap sold PVZ to EA they took the game away....

    Here is a secure working version I found on Google - SPAM URL REMOVED

    Hope it helps! Classic game =)

    ----
    Jessica Bridges
    Digital Artist & Illustrator @ Jess Creative

    The spammer tries to engage again.

    Jessica Bridges <jessycatbridges@gmail.com>
    Hey again,

    I emailed a few days ago about the Plants vs Zombies broken link on your site, wondering if you had the chance to update it yet?

    Don't mean to pester you, just my OCD talking =)

    Best,
    Jess

    Last try...

    Jessica Bridges <jessycatbridges@gmail.com>
    Hey again,

    Last email I promise =) Just wondering if you've received my emails below about the broken link? I don't mean to be a nag, I'm just kind of a nerd for these things =)

    Cheers
    Jess

    My guess is these are bots pre-programmed with to search the bowels of google for links or broken links as an angle to target small websites to correcting URLs as a way to gain standing via backlinking to gain page weight in Google. The Jessica bot is interesting for the follow ups. My theory is it'd spammed me repeatedly even if I had changed the link.

  • Apr 9, 2018

    Finally, a headphone jack that works for the iPhone 7 / 8 - Incipio OX case Review

    Let's just say I'm not a fan of Apple's decision to remove the headphone jack. Rather than recant my entire rant, the long and short is Apple removed the headphone jack to sell it's W1 headphones, knowing the shortcomings of Bluetooth. The W1 headphones provide a better user experience than Bluetooth alone can provide, and Apple has yet to license the W1 technology outside its own Beats headphones. While the iPhone audio isn't "closed", as any Bluetooth headphones will work off the shelf, it has placed Apple/Beats headphones with an advantage. Any argument pro-headphone jack removal has to contend with this reality that Apple is nudging consumers is placing a squeeze on 3rd party headphones, and the headphone jack represented a port that Apple had no way to subjugate. Pundits cheered as the noose tightened.

    Fuze Case vs iPhone
    Pictured: The bulky Fuze case was the first case that offered a headphone jack.

    Since owning the iPhone 7, I've owned several failed products, the most significant let down being the Fuze case, a half-baked product that provided a jenky non-MFI headphone jack and questionable battery case. It was bulky. Worse, it just didn't work well. It didn't support headphone controls or headphones with microphones. The battery case required to be powered up and down, and if the case was out of battery, then the headphone port would fail to work. Also, the case occassionally failed to be recognized. The company turned out to be a bit of a scam too, closing up shop only to re-appear as powerpluscases.com, selling the same crappy case.

    My second try was a Veniveta iPhone 7 case, which was simply a bluetooth headphone port stuck to a case. Ironically this half-baked case was far more viable than the Fuze, despite the shortcomings. Again, headphone controls didn't work. The case required independent charging, and its Bluetooth experience was glitchy, often failing to connect the first time I fired it up. I was able to put up with it as it had the same problems as the Fuze, without the bulk and a bit more reliably crappy performance.

    Veniveta case

    Pictured: The veniveta lasted about a year before failing to hold a charge.

    Looming forever, has been the Incipio OX, a case made by a reputable case maker. Every few months since its announcement, I'd e-mail Incipio about the status. Finally, when I went to check on the mythical case, I found it was shipping. I ordered. It's somewhat pricy at $69.99, but I used a 15% off coupon I found with a little google-fu bringing it down to $59.50. The order shipped the day I ordered it (with free shipping) and only took three days to arrive via USPS.

    The Review

    OX case - top
    Pictured: The veniveta lasted about a year before failing to hold a charge.

    The OX is low profile, akin to the sort of cases iPhone users have been used to since it's inception, a rubberized plastic modeled case that fits snuggly to the iPhone. Unlike the Fuze or the Veniveta, it functions as a protective case, provides razor-thin margins to keep the camera lens from protruding beyond the case and a scant millimeter lip around the screen, providing protection from the screen resting on surfaces. It's soft to the touch and reminds me of the official Apple iPhone cases. This will protect your phone and feels as impact resistant as any high-quality low-profile case. It's stylish in the way any case is. Nothing beats the look of an uncased iPhone, but if you're wrapping it up, you won't be visually offended by the Incipio.

    Snapping on the case is pretty simple, and requires little effort, it only requires lining up the lightning port and plugging it in. I was a bit unnerved when I received "Unsupported Device" messages from the case, but I'll get to that in a minute. The volume and power buttons are covered but remain easily accessible and easy to press. Lastly, the case adds a bit of a chin to the iPhone, with two ported sections to project the internal speaker. It's novel as it makes the iPhone speaker directional and more effective.These are the little things that separate Incipio from Indiegogo would-be case makers.

    After plugging the case in, and receiving the device not supported I was worried. I plugged in my headphones, pressed the play/pause button and.... it worked. I then proceeded to plug my phone into my car charger and plug it into my deck. My iPhone was charging AND playing music at the same time. Subsequent case fittings, I haven't seen the message since so I'll chalk it up to user error.

    OX case - bottom

    I tested it with multiple sets of headphones, (Massdrop x NuForce, Symphonized NRG, Klipsch X11is, Beyerdynamic DT-990s & DT-770s) and every last one worked. Pulling out the headphone jack paused the audio as expected. The only minor hiccup is I didn't seem to have discrete volumes for the jack detecting the difference between headphones that included controls vs. standard headphones, something that iPhones with headphone jacks were able to do.

    The audio quality also was the same as the Apple dongle cables which have haunted me the past year and a half, much better than the Fuze which sounded soft and distance or the sometimes gravelliness of the cheap Bluetooth on the Veniveta.

    OX Case vs Apple's case
    Pictured: iPhone 7 with OX case vs iPhone 6 with Apple case. The OX slightly is thinner.

    Final Thoughts

    It took too long to hit the market but THIS IS THE CASE FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS A HEADPHONE JACK ON THEIR IPHONE. It works, and it works well. It's light, well made, oh and it works. After being burned twice now, I've found new harmony in my life. I'm listening to my earbuds and charging my phone as I type this. It's everything that I've missed from the iPhone 6. I just wish I could have had this case for longer. I haven't had a chance to test it with the iPhone 8, but seeing as the iPhone 8 other than the 0.2mm thickness, my gut says yes.

    Right now, as far as I know, it only comes in iPhone 7/8 size and not the plus. The only other game in town is yet-another, IndieGogo campaign, this time by Encased, for their product called the "AudioMod", another bulky battery case with a headphone jack, advertising versions fo the iPhone X and Plus variants. It looks more promising than the faceless brand behind Fuze. Personally, The Incipio is exactly what I want as I'm not fond of battery cases but at least iPhone X and Plus owners can join the party. Here's hoping to that Incipio continues the OX line.

    Price: $69.99

    Incipio OX

  • Apr 9, 2018

    Added HTTPS for Inaudible Discussion

    It's been on my to-do list but as out-of-site, out-of-mind problems go, I hadn't gotten around to it prior. Now I have. There'll be a day or so of a "self signed" security error and after this blog should then be 100% HTTPS friendly.

  • Apr 6, 2018

    On the subject of the Mac Pro 2019...

    "Where I think this whole saga gets very frustrating for a lot of current and potential Mac Pro customers is that Apple is describing a product — a powerful, professional-grade, modular desktop computer — that already exists: it’s the tower-style “cheese grater” Mac Pro. While Apple is working away to reinvent one of the most critical components of a professional user’s workflow, those users are stuck with product choices that may not quite fit." - Nick Heer, Pixel Envy.

    This should be embossed onto Apple's Professional Workflow's HQ. To paraphrase Paul Haddad, just throw some Xeons in a box. This should be easiest product release in Apple's entire lineup. Pros just want a box that can house multiple storage devices, PCIe slots, the latest I/O (even thunderbolt is entirely optional when you have PCIe) and lastly, user serviceable. That's really it. They could literally reuse the case from the Power Macintosh 9600 and we wouldn't care.

    Apple envisioned the 2013 as a Mac that could be carted onto the set of a Hollywood style shoot and edit dailies on the spot with Final Cut Pro X, but conceptualizing it in an entire vacuum. While Apple takes the approach the customer doesn't know what they want, that's true in the consumer market but a massive mistake when you're dealing with professional. They know exactly what the want.

    If you want evidence of the demand for such a mythical device: search 2012 12 core Mac Pro in ebay and try and name another computer. Many cost more than the current 5k iMac, new from Apple.

  • Mar 29, 2018

    Installing a GeForce GTX 1060 / 1070 / 1080 into a Mac Pro 2010/2012

    Years ago, I posted a guide on how to install a GeForce 760 or 770 into a 2008 Mac Pro. I included a fair amount of benchmarks to boot. It's lasted me well over three years and made the jump to a 2010 Mac Pro but I finally pulled the trigger on a 1060. You can install a 10x0 series into a 2008 Mac Pro as well, but this guide specifically focuses on the 201x Mac Pros. The main differences between the two are the PCIe power port positions and the lack of the annoying PCIe bar hanger latch. Upgrading only took me a few short minutes, the longest part of the process was plugging/unplugging all my connected devices. There's hardly any special skills or knowledge needed.

    Before you get started, there are a few things one should be aware of:

    MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB

    1. Both AMD and nVidia make EFI compatible graphics cards that will work on OS X. nVidia cards (GeForce 700 through 1000 series) only require installing the web drivers whereas the Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 580 8GB is (so far) is the only RX 580 that works without any hacking/flashing.
    2. The nVidia drivers currently require 10.12 Sierra or above to use the 1000 series cards.
    3. The nVidia (nor the AMD RX 580) card will not allow you to see the EFI boot screen with the card plugged in (the screen you see if you hold down the option key and the Apple logo). If this is important, I highly recommend keeping an original card around (or flashed). I personally use an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT (so old that it's not AMD) that shipped with my 2008 Mac Pro computer since its modified to be fanless but any will do, flashed or factory as long as it can display the Apple logo on boot. You can operate the computer without a card capable of displaying the EFI boot screen. However, you’ll have to manage booting using Start Up Disk in OS X and use the bootcamp tools in Windows to switch boot drives and you will not see any picture until the login screen.
    4. The RX 580 and GTX 1060 are fairly evenly performant but as of writing this, the 1060 is cheaper since any model will suffice, and requires less power and can be found to be significantly quieter in some models.
    5. Modern graphics cards require additional cabling and rarely do the graphics card ship with additional power cables. You'll need to purchase the power cables separately, also, the Mac Pros require mini PCIe to PCIe power cables.
    6. Modern GPUs are quite performant (still) on Mac Pros. A 2010 Mac Pro with a GeForce 1080 eats an iMac 5k alive in GPU tests (unsurprisingly).
    7. Not every GPU port may work with the nVidia drivers depending on the card config. In the case of my GeForce GTX 760, all ports worked sans one of the DVI ports. As a general rule, count on most but not all ports working and do diligent research. The best places to check are MacRumors and TonyMacX86 forums.

    Step 1:

    If you're upgrading from a stock card, you may be unaware that the PCIe bus doesn't deliver enough power thus PCIe power additional cables are required. The Mac Pros include two power ports for PCIe power but use special low profile cabling often referred to "Mini PCIe".

    The Geforce 1060 / 1070 / 1080 require external power. Also, the 1060 requires an 8 pin power cable, the Mac Pro defaults are 6. You'll need a 6 to 8 pin power adapter. I ordered the following: two of the mini PCIe to PCI-e Power Cable (disregard the G5 mislabeling) and a 6 to 8 pin PCIe power adapter, which are much more easily found.

    Cable requirements

    This may differ between card manufacturer, but the following is true for the base models.

    • GTX 1060: 2x mini PCIe to PCI cables, 1x PCIe 6 to 8 pin adapter
    • GTX 1070: 2x mini PCIe to PCI cables, 1x PCIe 6 to 8 pin adapter
    • GTX 1060: 2x mini PCIe to PCI cables, 2x PCIe 6 to 8 pin adapter

    MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB in handThe MSI GTX 1060 is massive, roughly 11 in x 5.5 in x 1.5 in thanks to the oversized cooler.

    Next any off the shelf GeForce GTX 1060 or GTX 1070 or GTX 1080 will do. Personally, I picked up the GTX 1060 MSI Gaming X 6 GB, which is regarded as one of the least noisy cards on the market. With bitty coins wrecking pricing, I just wasn't willing to pay for the 1070. I hope all crypto currency fails so we can go back to normal pricing, but I digress. I paid $355, which isn't great but many of GTX 1060s makes are going for more.

    Step 2:

    Pre-install the nVidia drivers, especially if you do not have a Mac EFI card. TonyMacX86 has a nice handy guide to what version based on OS 10.13 High Sierra or 10.12 Sierra or alternately.

    Plug in your power cables first! The GeForce 1060 is big; it dwarfs my 760. Fortunately, the Mac Pro 2010 / 2012 ports are much easier to access than in a 2008 Mac Pro.

    Mac Pro 2010 PCIe Power cables with PCIe cards

    The low profile mini PCIe power cables are located in the bottom back of the PCIe chamber.

    Step 3:

    Do the usual remove slot thumb screws, remove/move old GPU etc. The Mac Pro 2010/2012s have a very annoying PCIe rail hanger, which requires pressing forcefully away from the PCIe card to unseat the cards and reseat them. Use the bottom-most slot as the card is dual height.

    If you're looking for more information on how to install a PCIe card in a Mac Pro, everymac.com has plenty of information including videos.

    GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB running in Mac OS X Sierra

    Benchmarks

    I haven't spent much time with the card, but I did fire up on OS X Tomb Raider (2013) via Steam. At 2560 x 1440 with all settings maxed (16x Anisotropic filter etc), I managed an average frame rate of 57.6 FPS on a 12x 2.9 GHz 2010 Mac Pro with 32 GB of RAM.

    It's no secret that there's always been a gaming performance gap, macOS sadly scores quite badly compared to its Windows counterpart, so it's only fair to compare Mac to Mac or Windows to Windows and not Mac to Windows when considering the gains. Rather than benchmarking Windows, which isn't my daily driver, I'm more interested in how the GPU affects macOS. Below are my Uniengine v4 benchmarks vs when I ran them against my 2008 Mac Pro. Despite the low marks when compared to running Uniengine in Windows, The Mac Pro 2010 is twice as fast by the benchmarks as my previous setup of a 2008 Mac Pro running a GeForce 760. One of the more fascinating things I learned when trying my hand at a Hackintosh was that the 3rd generation 3770k i7 wasn't quite enough to completely best the over-engineered Mac Pro despite having a faster bus / CPU, but merely matched it. If/when I have more time, I may swap the GPUs to see if the scores are as GPU dependent as they seem.

    Uningine Benchmarks

    OpenGL 2560 x 1440 8xAA FullScreen Quality:Ultra Tessellation: Extreme

    Mac Pro 2010 (Xeon X5670 2x 2.93Ghz) + GeForce GTX 1060 + 32 GB RAM + Samsung 840 750 GB SSD

    FPS: 33.2

    Score: 837

    Min FPS: 7.4

    Max FPS: 72.1

     

    Mac Pro 2008 (Xeon E5462 2x 2.8 Ghz) + GeForce GTX 760 + 14 GB RAM + Samsung 840 750 GB SSD

    FPS: 16.1

    Score: 405

    Min FPS: 5.8

    Max FPS: 37.4

     

    Hackintosh (i7 3770k 3.5 GHz) + GeForce GTX 760 + 16 GB RAM + Samsung 840 750 GB SSD

    FPS: 15.7

    Score: 396

    Min FPS: 6.9

    Max FPS: 37.3

     

    Hackintosh (i7 3770k 3.5 GHz) + GeForce GTX 770 + 16 GB RAM + Samsung 840 750 GB SSD

    FPS: 18.8

    Score: 474

    Min FPS: 7.6

    Max FPS: 47.5

    Mac Pro 2010 GeForce 1060 vs eGPU setups

    I used benchmarks provided by a thread on eGPU.io, credit goes to the forum posters for the comparisons. There aren't any perfect comparisons so here's a run of the GTX 1060 in my Mac Pro 2010 vs Thunderbolt 3 Mac running the considerably better 1070 and an iMac 2011 running a 1060. Depending on perspectives, the eGPUs do quiet well or the Mac Pro 2010 is fairly viable. The big difference in eGPU vs internal.

    OpenGL  1920 x 1080 8xAA FullScreen Quality:Ultra Tessellation: Extreme

    Mac Pro 2010 (Xeon X5670 2x 2.93Ghz) + GeForce GTX 1060 + 32 GB RAM + Samsung 840 750 GB SSD

    Score: 1306

    FPS: 51.5

    Min FPS: 19.3

    Max FPS: 106.5

     

    iMac 2011 27 inch (3.4 GHz) + GTX 1060 6GB

    Score: 1226

    FPS: 48.7

    Min FPS: 8.4

    Max FPS: 96.9

     

    MacBook Pro late 2016 13 inch (2.9 GHz) + MSI GTX 1070 6GB Aero OC

    Score: 1825

    FPS: 72.4

    Min FPS: 9.8

    Max FPS: 138.8

     

    macOS vs Windows

    As previously mentioned, this shouldn't come as any sort of surprise but Windows 10 gaming is still quite a bit of ahead of Apple, although Metal shows promise. As of right now, DX11 is the king regardless of your opinion on it in performance. Windows performs a full 10 FPS faster, or about 24% faster. in the same benchmark with the same settings.

    OpenGL  1920 x 1080 8xAA FullScreen Quality:Ultra Tessellation: Extreme

    macOS 10.12.6

    Score: 1306

    FPS: 51.5

    Min FPS: 19.3

    Max FPS: 106.5

     

    Windows 10, 64 bit, Direct 3D 11

    Score: 1609

    FPS: 63.9

    Min FPS: 21.7

    Max FPS: 135.3

     

    I plan to update the benchmarks in time. I may bring in the GeForce 760 for a reference when I have more time and possibly test in a 2008 Mac Pro in the future.

    Troubleshooting

    It's a good idea for the first boot to keep around an EFI card, as you may have to enable the web drivers. Also, I encountered the error of "Mac nVidia Web Drivers fail to update or cannot remove Kext files" when updating my OS recently; you'll want to follow the instructions I posted to deinstall the drivers if this happens to you.

    Final Thoughts

    Upgrading GPus isn't something I'd normally wax philosophical on, but we're post-golden era for OS X, and the Mac Pro is a relic.

    Ever since nVidia has shipped it's web drivers, gone are the sketchy days of flashing a 6970 and using a rom creator. Installing off-the-shelf GPUs has gone from tribal knowledge to common knowledge for the Mac Pro user since I wrote my "how to" guide for the 760. Ironically, it wasn't until Apple killed upgradability that the dream of off-the-shelf GPUs could be bought without the infamous Apple-tax. I debated even not calling this article a "how to". The down side is despite the EFI compatible ROMs preloaded on the 700+ GeForce cards; they're not EFI boot screen compatible on OSX sadly. The only game in town is macvidcards.com which according to all accounts on MacRumors is a legit source, but I find the idea of hoarding an EFI hack a little irksome. It's hard to complain too much as nVidia has quietly kept the Mac Pro and Hackintosh community happy, self-included. There's no specialized knowledge needed to upgrade your GPU or abnormal risks of a bad firmware flash. The only caveat is you'll want to keep an EFI card around for major OS updates.

    Upgrading the GPU is probably second best thing outside of an SSD to make an old Mac Pro feel young if you desire to run 4k and/or use any sort of motion graphics software, play games etc. It's hard not to recommend upgrading as there's a strong case to be made for removable GPUs. A Mac Pro with armed with a higher end GPU will best even the mighty iMac Pro handedly in GPU related benchmarks.

    eGPUs are viable but not as performant. There's just simply no topping a PCIe card slots although we're probably coming to the end of the Mac Pro era if/when Thunderbolt gets an update. Thunderbolt 3 is fast but still has a lot of room for improvement. It's 40 gigabits 5.1 GB/ is approximately the speed of a PCIe 3.0 4x slot. If/when Thunderbolt gets an upgrade (Thunderbolt 4?) Bumping it up two-fold would bring it to roughly 8x PCIe 3.0 or shy of a 4x PCI 4.0. 8x PCIe currently offers roughly 95-99% of the performance for gaming, even with a GeForce GTX 1080. That said, PCIe 4.0 coming out very soon, and PCIe 5.0 may be only a year and change out, boosting PCIe 16x to a truly mind-boggling 63 GB/s a sec (504 gigabits per second). Thunderbolt won't be catching up PCIe any time soon, but it could be for practical purposes concerning consumer GPUs.

    Also to add to the end of the cheese-grater era is the ever-looming Mac Pro. The word "modular" has been tossed around recently quite a bit to describe the next iteration. The Mac Pro flames have been stoked yet again with the very curious mention in Bloomberg's rumor-filled article Apple is said to plan to move from Intel to own Mac chips. It's highly unlikely Apple has anything in the pipeline that's even near the iMac's i9 configurations but will sport the same Bridge2,1 ARM A10 CPU that's found in the iMac Pro. Also, the new Mac Pros are at least out to 2019 and will be shaped by workflows.

    The Bridge chipsets allow for some truly unexciting features like "Hey Siri" to be always on even when the computer shut down and/or to manage graphical keyboards like the one found in the MacBook Pros.

    My gut feeling is if the iMac Pro is any sort of indicator, the next Mac Pro will be absurdly expensive and my guess is it'll sport less upgradability than the 2006-2012 "Cheese grater" Mac Pros but more than the abysmal 2013 "trash can" Mac Pro. Floating rumors around ARM CPUs seems a step away from modularity but a step closer to iOSifying Macs to annual upgrades, stopping the Hackintosh community and locking users out of OS upgrades after 5 years. I am not optimistic about the future of the Mac Pro or the Macintosh.

    The Mac Pro has been a bit of an outlier. I used a 2008 Mac Pro for 10 years. When I bought it, I was still in a 3-year upgrade cycle, going from G3 -> G4 -> G5. I used my Mac Pro 2008 longer than all three computers combined, and only did I recently replace it with a 2010 Mac Pro. That's a significant reduction in computer sales Apple, to engineer a computer that can be used viably for 10 years and I worry they understand that too well. All for the cash, man...

    For now, Mac users have only three choices: eGPUs, old Mac Pros, and the elusive Hackintosh. Any path will get you serious gains. My guess is the 1000 series is likely the last stop for most cheese grater users as we're at a crossroads: Thunderbolt is almost fast enough for GPUs (and PCIe enclosure are becoming more popular), and Apple may yet give us a modular computer.

    4/2/18 Update

    Some minor proofing and added in a lot more benchmarks. Kids love benchmarks.

    4/5/18 Update

    Final Thoughts ended up long-winded.

  • Mar 13, 2018

    Mac nVidia Web Drivers fail to update or cannot remove Kext files

    With the nVidia graphics cards, in a Mac Pro (for those of us who refuse to let go) or PCIe Thunderbolt brethren, you probably by now are used to updating the drivers with every OS X version. However, sometimes when trying to update the nVidia drivers will give an installation failed after appearing initially to install correctly, ending with generic a "contact manufacturer" error. This error isn't exactly telling the full story, OS X post 10.10 has feature called System Integrity Protection, which protects certain system files from being modified by even the root user, which stops malicious installers/rootkits from tampering with macOS. This error also can adversely sometimes affect no longer used files such as items placed in the "incompatible items" folder, and when the user tries to delete them, will receive a "can't be modified or deleted because it's required by macOS" error message.

    It's very important to understand that you should only do this with installers from a valid source before proceeding, such as directly downloading drivers from nVidia and using its certificate check or to remove offending drivers or files. After performing necessary changes, re-enable System Integrity Protection.

    Step 1

    First to make sure you have System Integrity Protection, go to the terminal and run 

        csrutil status

    This should return a status of enabled.

    Step 2

    Restart your Mac, and hold down Command-R keys during startup. This should boot your computer into recovery mode (alternately, you may be able to hold option and select the recovery partition). This may take a few minutes to boot.

    Step 3

    Ignore the installer prompt and select from the Utility, Terminal and run:

        csrutil disable

    Step 4

    Reboot. Perform the necessary change boot back into recovery mode as before.

        csrutil enable

    Reboot. You can now check using the csrutil status to see if the csrutil is working.

  • Mar 7, 2018

    Kite - The Game Release On Steam

    Long time friend, James Treneman published his first game on Steam, Kite. I saw in its earliest stages; it's a labor-of-love, a one-man operation, and it's now a full game. It's damn impressive that one person could make a game by himself, more impressive that it's a full-fledged game harkening back to Smash TV/Zombies Ate My Neighbors, mixing in RPG elements, missions, and pixel art.

  • Mar 6, 2018

    New Old Beginning

    I did something today for the first time in a decade. I ordered a Mac desktop. I've been using my Mac Pro 2008 for one decade, a feat I never realized would have been feasible.

    What am I replacing my 2008 Mac Pro with? After evaluating the options, the iMac Pro was just too expensive for my blood with shelf life and the regular iMac just not as beefy as I'd like, especially in the GPU department. I ended up ordering a used 2010 Westmere Mac Pro, 12-core 2.93 GHz. I don't expect to get the same use out of it as my 2008. Just a year or two until we see if Apple does replace the Mac Pro with a modular computer.

    By the numbers, the 8-year-old Mac Pro 2010 I'll be receiving bests my 2015 2.5 GHz MacBook Retina in most geekbench benchmarks in most scores. It bests even the current round of iMacs (excluding the iMac Pros) CPU performance wise. It'll be performant enough to be a Media PC/server should I choose to replace it in the upcoming years. It still strikes me as absurd that 12 core Mac Pros still hover around the $900-1800 mark depending on configuration. If that doesn't show demand, I don't know what does. Apple needs a modular computer for a certain class of users.

    I've spent a fair amount of time blogging about the Mac Pro. The Mac Pro 2006-2012 remain the high water mark of desktops, the most elegantly designed towers, a refined mix of modularity, ease of access and raw power. Opening up the guts to see the (nearly) wire-free world, with an (almost) screwdriver free experience made cracking open a Mac Pro easier than even the era of the G3/G4 tower famed "Folding door" design. It's the painstaking beauty that really makes one appreciate the industrial design chops of Apple at it's best, features that only are touched a few times over the life of the computer are designed to be pleasant if not down right beautiful. The rare PC case today has a locking door that doesn't require screws. Rarer than that are cases that have sleds for storage. Then there's things that remain unique to the Mac Pro. PC cases still do not have handles or raised feet to this day, have chambered cooling, trays for CPU/RAM, or cable free designs. That's not even touching the aesthetics of the garish and utterly unsightly PC cases that still plague (if not make up the entirety of all) the market.

    The end of the Mac Pro wasn't a surprise. You could see the tide receding with the rather modest and unimpressive 2012 update that failed to bring USB 3.0, SATA 3 and Thunderbolt to the desktop arena. The last embers of hope could be seen dwindling of the mythical creative professional smolder with the release of Final Cut Pro X. Laptops have crept into even the most hell-or-high-water desktop users lives as they caught up to their aging out-of-date in performance. Perhaps that's what killed the Mac Pro: engineering a computer that could last a decade.

  • Feb 28, 2018

    Bootstrap 4 isn't quite what it's cracked up to be...

    Love it or hate it, bootstrap has been a mainstay of front-end development since 2011. I've watched it grow and now, dare I say, flounder.

    Rather than recant the ups and downs of each generation, Bootstrap 3 was wonderful for its simple flexibility. Most of the time, I whittled down Bootstrap to the bare minimums, often using only its grid (modified with my own breakpoints) and in-name-only classes like .btn, as they're lexiconic to bootstrap. Any project, I could rely on like-markup and classes to Bootstrap even if the project was largely not-bootstrap. Bootstrap 3's Sass logic was simple and easy, but bootstrap 4 is silly.

    • Bootstrap 4 now uses Sass includes for breakpoints. Why? I cannot fathom a reason a realistic reason why. This is counter-intuitive. Everything is include hell.
    • Most of the generative sass logic has been abstracted into mixin hell. It's starting to resemble the clusterfuck that is Foundation.
    • The cross-dependency of Sass isn't predictable. Example: If you comment out forms, it will break nav functionality. There's a lot of senseless overhead.
    • The JS is starting to suffer bloat. The collapse.js now is 375 lines, now up from 212 lines. Unminified, the Javascript has ballooned from 69k to 163k.
    • Lite and dark themes are written into the code in such a way, it's not easily abstracted out.
    • While small, some of the icons are inlined SVG images, which means removing if custom icons are used, more senseless payload.

    Bootstrap 3 was the right mix of complexity to return on investment, but Bootstrap 4? I'm starting to think otherwise. So far, there's not enough compelling for Bootstrap . Conversion to REM units is nice as well as opt-in to Flex box. Dropping IE8 is a good move. Glyphicons need to go for accessibility. The overall CSS is smaller. I like that. The hackability though? Less so.

  • Jan 30, 2018

    Bandwidth throttling / simulation in macOS (OS X)

    Often as a developer, you want to simulate the experience of limited bandwidth for people with slower internet connections. Chrome and FireFox have this built into the browser, but it only affects the browser and doesn't provide robust parameters for latency or affect the rest of the experience. Safari doesn't have this, and it's in part to the Network Link Conditioner utility provided as an additional tool.

    To install the Network Link Conditioner, you'll need the following:

    • Apple Developer account (no paid licensing is required)
    • Xcode installed

    Next, go to downloads for Apple Developers and sign in. The Network Link Conditioner utility is packaged in with other utilities. Search for Additional Tools or use one of the links below.

    Network Line Conditioner Pane

    Open up the DMG and install Network Link Conditioner.prefPane by double-clicking it. (Note: in Additional Tools, it'll likely be in the hardware folder)

    Using Network Link Conditioner

    Network Line Conditioner in system prefs

    Open up the system prefs on your computer. Click on Network Link Conditioner and click on/off to toggle it on, and the drop down to use presets. You can create your own with the Manage Profiles.

    Congrats, now you can enjoy slow internet.

  • Jan 16, 2018

    Integrating Node KSS with Gulp

    First I off, I highly recommend reading CSSTricks' Build a Style Guide Straight from Sass, it's a game changer for auto style guide generation. That said, I assume if you're at this page you're already a convert.

    I'm going to assume the following:

    • node-kss is installed in the same directory as your gulpfile
    • node-kss has been set up and is generating a style guide.
    • you have at least very rudimentary understanding of gulp

    If either of the first is untrue, please go to the CSS tricks link as it's a wonderful guide and will get you a working spot >Node-KSS has a gulp repository but its wantonly out of date. I recommend not using it. Fortunately chaining it's pretty easy. First, we need to install gulp-shell in our gulp project. 

        npm install --save-dev gulp-shell

    Next, we're going to need to require gulp shell in our gulp file, this can vary based on your set up, it may be var or const depending on if you're running ES6 or not or part of a larger declaration:

    ES6

        const shell = require('gulp-shell')

    ES5

        var shell = require('gulp-shell')

    Next we're going to create in our gulpfile a task to execute the command to run node-kss (note you can run alterations of said command if your configuration is different, kss is not required to be installed in the same place as gulp.)

    gulp.task('kss', shell.task(['./node_modules/.bin/kss --config kss-config.json']));

    Lastly, we now need to reference this task in another task. Below is an example of how I'm using it, I created a watch task called "styleguide", a slightly modified version of my default task. Your task will differ from mine

    gulp.task('styleguide',['serve'], function() {
  // Watch .scss files
  gulp.watch(appDefaults.styleDirectory+'**/*.scss', function(event) {
    console.log('File ' + event.path + ' was ' + event.type + ', running tasks...');
    gulp.run('sass');
    gulp.run('kss');
    });
    gulp.watch(appDefaults.myJavascriptDirectory , function(event) {
      console.log('File ' + event.path + ' was ' + event.type + ', running tasks...');
      gulp.run('scripts');
      gulp.run('compress');
    });
    gulp.watch(appDefaults.watchJavascript).on('change', browserSync.reload);
    gulp.watch(appDefaults.watchHTML).on('change', browserSync.reload);
});

    Note that I applied gulp.run('kss'); after my Sass task has run, this will generate a style guide. Since the style guide generates new HTML on every save, my gulp.watch(appDefaults.watchHTML).on('change', browserSync.reload); is triggered because of my project's directory structure. This is why I created a separate task named "styleguide" as I do not always need my kss task to run, and do not want to interfere with live CSS injection via browserSync. Your needs will vary.

  • Jan 12, 2018

    Gulp Boilerplate

    Every now and again, I remember I have a GitHub account and throw something simple up there. I made a Grunt Boilerplate years ago and finally got around to making one for Gulp. There are a few features I still need to stick in, but I like to have a starting point rather than re-inventing my tasks every project.

    Gulp-Sass-JS-BrowserSync-Boilerplate

    Features all the greatest hits:

    • Sass processing
    • CSS Browser auto-prefixing
    • CSS minification
    • JS Uglify (minification)
    • BrowserSync (Inject CSS changes + follow, reload on JS change)

    This is mostly for my own benefit, but if anyone finds it useful, I'm glad. You can nab it here Gulp-Sass-JS-BrowserSync-Boilerplate

  • Jan 10, 2018

    When Node-Sass fails Installing

    So you're here because bash is outputting some big mess that looks like the following when you tried to install gulp-sass or node-sass via NPM. You've probably updated Node and NPM, switched versions in NVM or HomeBrew and are beating your head while node-sass isn't installing. The issue is likely not in the node or npm version but the package.json.

      > node-sass@0.8.6 install /Users/<path-to-project>/_gulp/node_modules/gulp-sass/node_modules/node-sass
> node build.js

(node:43004) [DEP0006] DeprecationWarning: child_process: options.customFds option is deprecated. Use options.stdio instead.
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/binding/binding.o
In file included from ../binding.cpp:1:
../../nan/nan.h:339:13: error: no member named 'New' in 'v8::String'
    return  _NAN_ERROR(v8::Exception::Error, errmsg);
            ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:319:50: note: expanded from macro '_NAN_ERROR'
# define _NAN_ERROR(fun, errmsg) fun(v8::String::New(errmsg))
                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:343:5: error: no member named 'ThrowException' in namespace 'v8'
    _NAN_THROW_ERROR(v8::Exception::Error, errmsg);
    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:324:11: note: expanded from macro '_NAN_THROW_ERROR'
      v8::ThrowException(_NAN_ERROR(fun, errmsg));                             \
      ~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:343:5: error: no member named 'New' in 'v8::String'
    _NAN_THROW_ERROR(v8::Exception::Error, errmsg);
    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:324:26: note: expanded from macro '_NAN_THROW_ERROR'
      v8::ThrowException(_NAN_ERROR(fun, errmsg));                             \
                         ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:319:50: note: expanded from macro '_NAN_ERROR'
# define _NAN_ERROR(fun, errmsg) fun(v8::String::New(errmsg))
                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:348:9: error: no type named 'ThrowException' in namespace 'v8'
    v8::ThrowException(error);
    ~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:355:65: error: no member named 'New' in 'v8::String'
    v8::Local<v8::Value> err = v8::Exception::Error(v8::String::New(msg));
                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:356:50: error: expected '(' for function-style cast or type construction
    v8::Local<v8::Object> obj = err.As<v8::Object>();
                                       ~~~~~~~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:356:52: error: expected expression
    v8::Local<v8::Object> obj = err.As<v8::Object>();
                                                   ^
../../nan/nan.h:357:65: error: too few arguments to function call, expected 2, have 1
    obj->Set(v8::String::New("code"), v8::Int32::New(errorNumber));
                                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~            ^
/Users/<user>/.node-gyp/8.1.2/include/node/v8.h:2764:3: note: 'New' declared here
  static Local<Integer> New(Isolate* isolate, int32_t value);
  ^
In file included from ../binding.cpp:1:
../../nan/nan.h:357:26: error: no member named 'New' in 'v8::String'
    obj->Set(v8::String::New("code"), v8::Int32::New(errorNumber));
             ~~~~~~~~~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:369:12: error: no member named 'New' in 'v8::String'
    return _NAN_ERROR(v8::Exception::TypeError, errmsg);
           ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:319:50: note: expanded from macro '_NAN_ERROR'
# define _NAN_ERROR(fun, errmsg) fun(v8::String::New(errmsg))
                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:373:5: error: no member named 'ThrowException' in namespace 'v8'
    _NAN_THROW_ERROR(v8::Exception::TypeError, errmsg);
    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:324:11: note: expanded from macro '_NAN_THROW_ERROR'
      v8::ThrowException(_NAN_ERROR(fun, errmsg));                             \
      ~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:373:5: error: no member named 'New' in 'v8::String'
    _NAN_THROW_ERROR(v8::Exception::TypeError, errmsg);
    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:324:26: note: expanded from macro '_NAN_THROW_ERROR'
      v8::ThrowException(_NAN_ERROR(fun, errmsg));                             \
                         ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:319:50: note: expanded from macro '_NAN_ERROR'
# define _NAN_ERROR(fun, errmsg) fun(v8::String::New(errmsg))
                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:377:12: error: no member named 'New' in 'v8::String'
    return _NAN_ERROR(v8::Exception::RangeError, errmsg);
           ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:319:50: note: expanded from macro '_NAN_ERROR'
# define _NAN_ERROR(fun, errmsg) fun(v8::String::New(errmsg))
                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:381:5: error: no member named 'ThrowException' in namespace 'v8'
    _NAN_THROW_ERROR(v8::Exception::RangeError, errmsg);
    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:324:11: note: expanded from macro '_NAN_THROW_ERROR'
      v8::ThrowException(_NAN_ERROR(fun, errmsg));                             \
      ~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:381:5: error: no member named 'New' in 'v8::String'
    _NAN_THROW_ERROR(v8::Exception::RangeError, errmsg);
    ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:324:26: note: expanded from macro '_NAN_THROW_ERROR'
      v8::ThrowException(_NAN_ERROR(fun, errmsg));                             \
                         ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:319:50: note: expanded from macro '_NAN_ERROR'
# define _NAN_ERROR(fun, errmsg) fun(v8::String::New(errmsg))
                                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:406:13: error: no member named 'smalloc' in namespace 'node'
    , node::smalloc::FreeCallback callback
      ~~~~~~^
../../nan/nan.h:141:71: note: expanded from macro 'NAN_INLINE'
# define NAN_INLINE(declarator) inline __attribute__((always_inline)) declarator
                                                                      ^~~~~~~~~~
../../nan/nan.h:416:12: error: no matching function for call to 'New'
    return node::Buffer::New(data, size);
           ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/Users/<user>/.node-gyp/8.1.2/include/node/node_buffer.h:52:40: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion from 'char *' to 'v8::Isolate *' for 1st argument
NODE_EXTERN v8::MaybeLocal<v8::Object> New(v8::Isolate* isolate, size_t length);
                                       ^
/Users/<user>/.node-gyp/8.1.2/include/node/node_buffer.h:55:40: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion from 'char *' to 'v8::Isolate *' for 1st argument
NODE_EXTERN v8::MaybeLocal<v8::Object> New(v8::Isolate* isolate,
                                       ^
/Users/<user>/.node-gyp/8.1.2/include/node/node_buffer.h:67:40: note: candidate function not viable: requires 3 arguments, but 2 were provided
NODE_EXTERN v8::MaybeLocal<v8::Object> New(v8::Isolate* isolate,
                                       ^
/Users/<user>/.node-gyp/8.1.2/include/node/node_buffer.h:60:40: note: candidate function not viable: requires 5 arguments, but 2 were provided
NODE_EXTERN v8::MaybeLocal<v8::Object> New(v8::Isolate* isolate,
                                       ^
In file included from ../binding.cpp:1:
../../nan/nan.h:420:12: error: no matching function for call to 'New'
    return node::Buffer::New(size);
           ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/Users/<user>/.node-gyp/8.1.2/include/node/node_buffer.h:52:40: note: candidate function not viable: requires 2 arguments, but 1 was provided
NODE_EXTERN v8::MaybeLocal<v8::Object> New(v8::Isolate* isolate, size_t length);
                                       ^
/Users/<user>/.node-gyp/8.1.2/include/node/node_buffer.h:55:40: note: candidate function not viable: requires at least 2 arguments, but 1 was provided
NODE_EXTERN v8::MaybeLocal<v8::Object> New(v8::Isolate* isolate,
                                       ^
/Users/<user>/.node-gyp/8.1.2/include/node/node_buffer.h:67:40: note: candidate function not viable: requires 3 arguments, but 1 was provided
NODE_EXTERN v8::MaybeLocal<v8::Object> New(v8::Isolate* isolate,
                                       ^
/Users/<user>/.node-gyp/8.1.2/include/node/node_buffer.h:60:40: note: candidate function not viable: requires 5 arguments, but 1 was provided
NODE_EXTERN v8::MaybeLocal<v8::Object> New(v8::Isolate* isolate,
                                       ^
In file included from ../binding.cpp:1:
../../nan/nan.h:427:26: error: no member named 'Use' in namespace 'node::Buffer'
    return node::Buffer::Use(data, size);
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
fatal error: too many errors emitted, stopping now [-ferror-limit=]
20 errors generated.
make: *** [Release/obj.target/binding/binding.o] Error 1
gyp ERR! build error
gyp ERR! stack Error: `make` failed with exit code: 2
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.onExit (/Users/<user>/.nvm/versions/node/v8.1.2/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/build.js:258:23)
gyp ERR! stack     at emitTwo (events.js:125:13)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:213:7)
gyp ERR! stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (internal/child_process.js:197:12)
gyp ERR! System Darwin 16.7.0
gyp ERR! command "/Users/<user>/.nvm/versions/node/v8.1.2/bin/node" "/Users/<user>/.nvm/versions/node/v8.1.2/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /Users/<path-to-project>/assets/_gulp/node_modules/gulp-sass/node_modules/node-sass
gyp ERR! node -v v8.1.2
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v3.6.2
gyp ERR! not ok

    Go to package.json and look at the versions. Most likely the version is locked to a very old version of node-sass or gulp-sass in your project (or the project you're using), switch it's version to something recent, (as of writing this, it is "gulp-sass": "^3.0.0", or "node-sass": "^4.7.2"). Congrats, it'll now install!

  • Jan 8, 2018

    Safari's Autofill needs to be redesigned

    All major browsers have built-in login managers that save and automatically fill in username and password data to make the login experience more seamless. The set of heuristics used to determine which login forms will be autofilled varies by browser, but the basic requirement is that a username and password field be available.

    Login form autofilling in general doesn’t require user interaction; all of the major browsers will autofill the username (often an email address) immediately, regardless of the visibility of the form. Chrome doesn’t autofill the password field until the user clicks or touches anywhere on the page. Other browsers we tested [2] don’t require user interaction to autofill password fields.

    Thus, third-party javascript can retrieve the saved credentials by creating a form with the username and password fields, which will then be autofilled by the login manager.

    Source: freedom-to-tinker.com

    Ironically before the holidays, I had to deal with this from the opposite end as auto-form filling from Safari was filling out hidden fields.

    Consider the following

    • Safari's autofill can fill out more than just username/password.
    • Safari's autofill does not give you the ability to view the stored information in its local database other than site entries.
    • Safari's autofill will fill out visibility: hidden and display: none
    • Safari's autofill does not trigger a DOM event on display code>visibility: hidden and display: none. Safari does allow to query for input:-webkit-autofill but testing for this means super hacky setTimeout and setInverval hacks.
    • Safari does (mostly) respect the HTML5 convention but will ignore autofill off on username or password fields

    This leads to a bizarre world where Safari is egregiously handing out info that can't be vetted.

    Safari Autofill Manager

    Pictured: Safari's autofill manager for non-username/passswords (other), doesn't allow you to see what information its autofilling or edit the values. I found some surprising entries in my Safari autofill manager.

    I had the problem where a donation form was falling our API validation as Safari's autofill was completing hidden form elements without invoking changes and creating scenarios we hadn't previously considered. It took error logging to figure out Safari was the culprit, and a heavy dose of intuition to figure out that it was autofill.

    The solution was to add autofill and disabled but lead me to wonder about the potential abuses of autofill. Apparently, I wasn't the only one.

  • Dec 21, 2017

    ImageOptim vs Squash 2 - Comparing PNG optimization - A Squash 2 review

    For years I've leaned on ImageOptim as my go-to for image optimization. I tend to be a little obsessive, using modern formats (WebP, JPEG 2000) and testing out avant-garde projects like Guetzli by Google. I recently decided to finally try out Squash by Realmac Software.

    Over the years, codecs have improved remarkably, especially in the realm of video: For example: H.261 (1984, 1988) -> MPEG-1 (1988-1991) -> MPEG2 aka H.263 (1996-2015) ->MPEG4 aka H.264 (1999-current) -> High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) aka H.265 or MPEG (2015 - current). Each iteration with the ultimate goal of improving video quality with at lower bit rates. This doesn't even cover the other formats, VP8, VP9, Ogg Vorbis, DIVX, 3IVX, Sorenson, Real Media and the many others that occurred the past 30 years which all have had variations of mainstream success. Audio has had a similar vector from LMA4:1, Mpeg, MP2, Mp3, ACC, Ogg, AC3, DTS to name a few.

    However, static images haven't had the wide range of codecs (most formats are lossless proprietary files used by various image editors) and have been almost entirely relegated to five formats, SVG, BMP, PNG, JPEG and GIF for distribution. You may occasionally PSDs or EPS files, or photography formats like DNG or standard-free RAW, but those fall into the same category as video codecs like ProRez, DNxHD, Cineform. These are intermediate formats that require specialized software to view/edit and converted when distributed beyond professional means (sans EPS).

    We're starting to see future image formats like Google with WebP, and Apple with JPEG2000 and HEIC, and Safari allowing inline MP4s to be treated as images but for the past 10 years, much of the action in image compression has been trying to squeeze out ever last single byte out of the existing formats, almost entirely for JPEG and PNG (and SVG but that's a different story) A lot of the slow movement of web formats has to do with the W3c. It took Cisco buying and distributing the Mp4 patent for free to move MP4 to the accepted video formation for Microsoft, Apple, Google, and Mozilla. It may take some similar act of corporate benevolence to bring a successor to JPEG.

    Interestingly though, there's a been a concerted effort to squeeze every bit of optimization out of the existing formats: JPEG has MOZJpeg, Guetzli, JPEGOptim, and Jpegtran. PNG has Zopfil, PNGOUT, OptiPNG, AdvPNG, PNGCrush. These all differ as some are encoders, and some are strictly optimizers but the end game is to extract the most out the formats which often involves trickery to exploit the compression. Both ImageOptim and Squash are GUI front ends that make use of these optimizations to create the best JPEG or PNG per kilobyte possible. These libraries do not come without a penalty, that being CPU cycles. These all can take minutes to execute on larger images, and the longest being Guetzli, a 8 MP image can take around 40 minutes to encode even a 5th generation Core i7. We're probably quickly approaching the end of the law of diminishing returns. If you're using Guetzli, I'd argue it's easier to provide alternative image formats (WebP / JPEG 2000) as opposed to burning hours encoding a hand full of images as you'll get better results for the people who can see them (Safari and Chrome users). The rest, however, are still viable.

    PNG Compression tests

    Settings used: ImageOptim (default)

    • Zopfli
    • PNGOUT
    • OptiPNG
    • AdvPNG
    • Strip PNG meta data
    • Lossless
    • Optimization Level: Insane

    Squash 2

    • More Compressed (slower)

    Test 1: Complex Webpage screenshot

    Kaleidoscope Show differences results: >No differences

    Winner: Squash
    Squash Savings over ImageOptim: 21,939 bytes (21.9K), 1.3%

    Test 2: Simple Webpage screenshot

    Winner: Tie

    Kaleidoscope Show differences results: No differences

    Neither of these is terribly surprising, Squash uses LibPNG and Zopfil, which are open source PNG optimizations. I'm a little surprised that Squash shaved off a few more K. To make sure this wasn't a fluke, I tested another screenshot, 2.9MB (2,880,886 bytes), again Squash 2 won, (1.1 MB) 1,116,796 to (1.1 MB) 1,140,793, for a savings of 23,997 bytes (24k). On very large PNGs, Squash 2 has the advantage. I checking PNGCrush, brought it down 1,126,420 bytes.

    Test 3: Large Photograph

    Kaleidoscope Show differences results: No Differences

    Winner: Squash

    This last test weighs in the most for the favor of Squash, 330,665 bytes is significant, even if only a 6% difference

    The Results...

    While hardly the epitome of comprehensive testing, Squash does provide slightly better PNG compression. That said, ImageOptim is quite good for the sticker price of free. Squash 2 is part of SetApp collection or $15 stand alone. Squash isn't as accomplished in JPEG optimization as ImageOptim but seems to be best PNG GUI utility for OS X. It's surprising too, as ImageOptim offers more options for optimization and the same optimization libraries. You can't really go wrong using either utility.

    Mini Review of Squash

    Squash is essentially a drag and drop no brainer utility, drag images in and Squash does the best. If you've used ImageOptim then you're familiar with it. The big differences between ImageOptim and Squash are mostly cosmetic as both do the same operation. Squash appears to be no faster than ImageOptim nor does it have has as many options. The UI does provide a goofy animation and annoying sound (I killed the sound effects immediately).

    Where Squash won at PNGs, it lost out on lossless JPEG compression. Test routinely showed that ImageOptim shaved off on average about 5% more off JPEGs although individual tests differed wildly.

    Squash 2 is a minimalist utility through and through. Drag images in and it outputs compressed ones. Quite possibly the best thing Squash offers over ImageOptim is one of the most simple, it allows you to create new versions of the file appended with a suffix. ImageOptim overwrites images which can be undesirable.

  • Nov 22, 2017

    Detecting Content Blockers is a losing battle, but you can be smart and ethical when doing so...

    There's been a bit of a cat and mouse game between adblockers/content blockers and advertisers/analytics/trackers. The short answer is you aren't going to defeat them single-handedly. Many of the libraries designed to detect them will fail as they're inevitably blocked once a content blocker is updated to detect them. As someone who once ran a website, that hit 150,000 unique visitors a month funded by advertising, I'm sympathetic the publisher's plight. As a content writer, I value analytics, I use google analytics on this site as it helps me understand what content resonates, what channels people use to find my content and how they consume it. As developer with a touch fo UX, logging and error tracking is extremely helpful. A service like loggly can help me find errors, and design better to catch edge cases that aren't on the "happy path" and make data-driven decisions about a product. However, the advertising industry has perniciously proven they are not to be trusted. There's a reason why as a user I surf with Ghostery/1blocker, block cross-origin cookies (on my desktop, kill all cookies), use a VPN, and disabled flash long before most people to dodge the dreaded forever flash cookie. Privacy matters.

    This is my attempt create an ethical framework around content-blocking from the perspective of a developer/content create/publisher.

    A quick list of observations

    I've assembled a list of facts/observations about content blockers.

    • Adblock/Adblock Plus focus on advertising but not analytics. This could change in the future.
    • 1blocker and Ghostery are particularly good content blockers. Both will block <script> tags from loading, or any onerror codes at the src level
    • Content blockers are not fooled by appending <script> tags via javascript to the DOM.
    • 1blocker and Ghostery will not be removed from the DOM, thus any checks to see if they exist will be true.
    • 1blocker and Ghostery can detect anti-blockers popular scripts and prevent them.
    • Browsers are more aggressively pushing privacy settings, FireFox leading the charge and Safari not far behind.
    • If your website fails to work with one of the popular content blockers working, you are cutting out 20% of audience.

    But I'm a special snowflake!
    Using powers for good

    So as a developer/UX designer you're suddenly faced with a problem. Your website or web app has features that break when content blockers are enabled. You've already made sure that your core functionality isn't tied to anything that will be blocked by content blockers.

    Likely your client or manager will ask "can't you just go around the content blocker?".

    The short answer is "No". You will not forcibly defeat content blockers, and if you try, you're signing up for the unwinnable, all consuming, cat and mouse game. However, you can potentially detect content blockers, rather than defeat them. With a service like Loggly, you can easily check if the _Ltracker var has loaded. 

      if (typeof _LTracker === 'undefined' || _LTracker === null) {
    //execute code
  }

    Suddenly we're at the ethical precipice as we can do a number of things with this information. I've assembled a list of the ethical paths.

    Ethics of content blocking code

    Most Ethical:

    Website/WebApp's core features work any warnings until user reaches an ancillary feature that may be broken. User is able to complete core functions (consume content, use navigation, submit forms).

    Example: Videos still work. User is able to place orders but 3rd party chat tech support may be broken. User is informed.

      if (typeof _LTracker === 'undefined' || _LTracker === null) {
    //If and only if function on page requires service
    //inform user.
  }

    Fairly Ethical:

    User receives warnings on every page, encouraging to whitelist site regardless if functionality is affected.

    Example: User is pestered with a whitelist site message. User is still able perform operations. Videos still work. User is able to place orders. 3rd party live chat tech support may be broken. User is informed.

      if (typeof _LTracker === 'undefined' || _LTracker === null) {
    //display global message.
    //Inform user that analytics are helpful for improving the service
  }

    Least Ethical:

    User is blocked from consuming content until site is white listed regardless if functionality is affected.

      if (typeof _LTracker === 'undefined' || _LTracker === null) {
    //display global message.
    //obfuscate content/block content/disable features when error is present.
  }

    No Ethical Stance: Site does not attempt to detect any blocked content. Site either functions or does not. This is the majority of websites.

    This model isn't free of problems, its almost entirely from the lens of a non-advertisement supported website, like a campaign site / company site/ ecomm / SaaS. While these sites may contain advertising and tracking, all the aforementioned are either have revenue generated by sales (Sass/Ecomm) or lead generation (Campaign/Company). Websites that are dependent on ad-revenue adhere a different set of ethics and variables.

    Other methods for checking for a script loaded.

    Checking for variable existance is the most fail safe method to see if a script has loaded. While the onerror will not work on an individual scrupt tag, you can write in scripts to the head with the following code. This though comes at a mild expense of code execution and may not work in all scenerios.

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