I was browsing thousands of log entries from Software Update and its relatives when something caught my eye. Here’s what became of it.
Mints
How to discover the version of ‘fallback’ Recovery, Bridge versions of T2 chips, and a whole lot more info about a Mac. And a bonus for Ventura.
Browse log entries for a recent boot, examine the entries for Time Machine, and check for errors in another subsystem.
Mints gains a new tool to examine the activities of triald and trial in the Unified log. Here’s a quick survey of what happens in a quiet day.
For some images, Visual Look Up fails so completely that it’s not even offered. Could this be exploited as a way of blocking image recognition?
Visual Look Up also recognises flowers, landmarks and pets, as well as well-known paintings. Here’s how it does those, and how Live Text is different.
The first phase analyses, classifies and detects any objects within the image. When the user clicks on the white dot, this completes with a search for the best match.
Not only does this version of Mints extract information from the log detailing what happens during Visual Look Up, but it includes it own browser window to look up with.
Confused by this on APFS? So you should be, as it’s complicated by features like snapshots, sparse files, and the file system itself. There’s no single figure.
An exploration of how Time Machine backs up to APFS, using Mints to make log access quick, simple, and easy to understand. And notes on changes in Monterey.
The Eclectic Light Company 