How to update your firmware, reset the SMC, and reset the NVRAM (or zap the PRAM), and what they do. Updated for High Sierra.
Mac
Just when you thought it was safe to update, everything goes terribly wrong. Before you lob your Mac out of the window, try these.
Safe mode, or Recovery? Which type of Recovery? How to engage all those useful modes at startup, and when shutting down.
Barriers to living in more remote areas with high quality of life are being removed, but self-sufficiency is important. Changes in macOS do not help.
Got a setting that you just can’t get to stick properly? Here’s a listing of preference files for Sierra, and pointers to all sorts of other settings too.
What do you do when you open a document, only to find that the wrong app opens it? Here’s how to tackle that and more.
Digging into macOS Sierra and its logs to examine how Recent Items works. Useful insights into Launch Services, and potential historical info about documents opened.
It’s a System Prefs problem. No, a preferences file problem. No, it’s something else, but Apple once again won’t tell us how Recent Items works, or doesn’t.
Shutdown cause codes, wake reasons, ACPI, and sleep states – diagnosing problems from hardware events.
Developers should consider letting users export and import suites of settings, to determine an app’s persona, or flavours of working environment.
The Eclectic Light Company 