How I like my macOS

System Preferences

• Text to Speech (in Accessibility):
  • High WPM.
  • Download Samantha voice.
  • Set ⌥ ⎋ shortcut under the ⓘ on the Speak Selection toggle.
• Keyboard:
  • Layout is Colemak.
  • Enable Emoji viewer.
  • Caps is Escape.
  • Disable spelling corrections.
  • Press Fn key to: Show Emoji & Symbols.
  • Add → and ← expansions to the Text tab.
• Trackpad:
  • Click to drag.
  • 3-finger drag (in Accessibility).
• Hot corners:
  • Lower left: Quick Note.
  • Lower right: Notification Center.
  • Upper right: Mission Control.
• Lock Screen:
  • Set Require password after screen saver begins or display is turned off to After 5 seconds.
• Night Shift:
  • Display, Night Shift, set Schedule to Sunset to Sunrise.

Misc stuff

• No emoji autocomplete in Messages:
  • Edit, Substitutions, unset Emoji Replacement.
• Week numbers in Calendar:
  • Preferences, Advanced, Show week numbers.
• Plain text in TextEdit:
  • Preferences, switch from Rich text to Plain text.
• Show URLs on hover in Safari:
  • View, enable Show Status Bar.
• Other Safari settings:
  • General, set Safari opens with to All non-private windows from last session.
  • General, unset Open “safe” files after downloading.
  • Tabs, set Tab layout to Compact.
  • AutoFill, unset User names and passwords.
  • Search, set Search engine to DuckDuckGo.
  • Advanced, set Show features for web developers.

No .DS_Store files on remote devices

$ defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteUSBStores -bool true
$ defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool true

Nix

1. Install Nix.
2. Add /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin to $PATH in ~/.profile.
3. Add experimental-features = nix-command flakes to ~/.config/nix/nix.conf.
4. Bootstrap minimal flake.nix for home-manager.
5. Add ~/.nix-profile/bin to $PATH in ~/.profile.

To use the Yubikey for Git over SSH:

$ nix shell nixpkgs#git nixpkgs#gnupg nixpkgs#home-manager
$ gpg --card-status
$ export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=$(gpgconf --list-dirs agent-ssh-socket)
$ git clone ...
$ home-manager switch --flake .

If the profile-creation bug is still there:

$ mkdir -p ~/.local/state/nix/profiles
$ ln -sfn ~/.local/state/nix/profiles/profile ~/.nix-profile

Misc / other

• Resetting the SMC can apparently help if e.g. the GPU is being screwy.

Disable Spotlight for a directory or volume

$ touch /path/to/directory/.metadata_never_index

How to print double-sided / duplex

1. In the print dialog, click Show Details, then Paper Handling.
2. Set the Pages to Print to Odds Only.
3. Print.
4. Take the paper direct from the out-tray to the in-tray.
5. In the print dialog, click Show Details, then Paper Handling.
6. Set the Pages to Print to Odds Only.
7. Set the Page Order to Reverse.
8. Print.

Custom sound effects

1. Move e.g. Honk.aiff to /Library/Audio/Sounds/Alerts/.
2. Open System Preferences > Sound > Sound Effects.
3. Select “Honk”.