Category: Mac

Fixing Arduino Board Manager Downloads on macOS

Downloading new board definitions in the Arduino IDE’s board manager may fail due to certificates missing from the JRE certificate chain. This may for example happen with the ESP32 board, where the host dl.espressif.com is using a Let’s Encrypt certificate. The Let’s Encrypt root certificates can be added to the JRE keystore using the following instructions: https://drissamri.be/blog/2017/02/22/trusting-lets-encrypt-java/ Most interestingly, the…

Preventing Finder from reopening windows on startup

By default, the macOS Finder re-opens all windows from the last session when logging in. The following LaunchAgent uses AppleScript to close all Finder windows on startup: Put it into ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.example.CloseFinder.agent.plist and load it using launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.example.CloseFinder.agent.plist On the next startup, there should be no more open Finder windows from the last session.

Using an ergonomic mouse on OS X

I really like the Apple Aluminum Keyboard, however, I think Apple’s mouses are just awful from an ergonomics point of view. At least this is what my wrists say after some weeks of continuous use for more than eight hours a day. Severe pain. This is when I went on eBay and checked out some of the vertical / ergonomic…