How to Try macOS on Windows 10 With a Virtual Hackintosh

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Windows 10 is a great operating system. Sure, it has its quirks and annoyances, but what OS doesn’t? But even if you’re beholden to Microsoft and Windows, that doesn’t mean you cannot shop around. And what better way to do that than from the safe confines of your existing OS and a virtual machine Top 5 Linux Operating Systems You Should Try in a Virtual Machine Top 5 Linux Operating Systems You Should Try in a Virtual Machine Five Linux operating system distributions are particularly suitable for running virtual machines, so let’s take a look at them. Read More .

In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how run macOS in a virtual machine, making a virtual Hackintosh. “Hackintosh” is the name given to an unsupported system running any Mac operating system. Unsure if you’d get along with a Mac? 7 Practical Reasons to Start Using a Virtual Machine 7 Practical Reasons to Start Using a Virtual Machine The term “virtual” has been co-opted in so many ways. Virtual reality. Virtual RAM. Virtual schools. But Virtualization in the context of PCs can be confusing. We’re here to clear it up. Read More Give this a try and see.

You Need These to Get Started

Before we begin, you need to download and install a couple of things. I’m going to show you how to create virtual machines in both Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager (“VirtualBox”) and VMware Workstation Player (“VMware Player”).

We’re going to need a copy of macOS Sierra, too. Techsviewer has made an Intel version [Google Drive download] available, and you’ll find an AMD version courtesy of AMD OS X.

Unsure what is powering your system? Press Windows Key + X and select System. Check what’s listed alongside “Processor.” Once you’re sure, download either the Intel or AMD version.

The download can take a little time. It is a whole OS, after all. When the download completes, extract the contents to a memorable location. This is a Virtual Machine Disk Format (.VMDK) file containing the OS.

Once you’re ready, move onto the next section.

VirtualBox: Create the macOS Virtual Machine

Open VirtualBox. Select New. Type macOS. VirtualBox will detect the OS as you type. It defaults to Mac OS X. However, we need to change this. Under Version, select Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan.

Next, set the amount of RAM the virtual OS can use. I’d suggest a minimum of 4 GB, but it can only be a share of total RAM available. Finally, we need to assign a hard disk. In this case, we will Use an existing virtual hard disk file.

Select the folder icon and browse to where you extracted the Virtual Machine Disk Format file. Open it. Ensuring you’ve selected the correct virtual disk, hit Create.

Edit Virtual Machine Settings

To make sure our virtual machine is going to function correctly, we need to tweak some settings.

Select Settings, followed by System. Remove Floppy from the boot order. Ensure the Chipset is set to ICH9.

Select the Processor tab. Assign two processors. If you have an i7 with power to spare, consider adding more. However, this isn’t vital.

Under Display options, set Video Memory to 128 MB. Hit OK to save the changes. Now, completely close VirtualBox.

Minor Tweaks

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work straight off the bat. We need to essentially patch VirtualBox before the macOS virtual machine will function. This requires us to enter some code in the Command Prompt. Don’t worry though, I’ll guide you through.

Start by pressing Windows Key + X, then selecting Command Prompt (Admin) from the menu. Next, use the following command to locate the Oracle VirtualBox directory:

cd "C:Program FilesOracleVirtualBox"

Now, enter the following commands, one by one. Adjust the command to match the name of your virtual machine. For instance, my virtual machine name is “macOS MUO.” Here are the commands:

VBoxManage.exe modifyvm "macOS MUO" --cpuidset 00000001 000106e5 00100800 0098e3fd bfebfbff

VBoxManage setextradata "macOS MUO" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemProduct" "iMac11,3"

VBoxManage setextradata "macOS MUO" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemVersion" "1.0"

VBoxManage setextradata "macOS MUO" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiBoardProduct" "Iloveapple"

VBoxManage setextradata "macOS MUO" "VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/DeviceKey" "ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc"

VBoxManage setextradata "macOS MUO" "VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/GetKeyFromRealSMC" 1

After the completion of the commands, and presuming you encountered no errors, close the Command Prompt.

We’re Ready to Boot

Reopen VirtualBox. Double-click the macOS virtual machine to start it. You’ll see a long stream of text, followed by a grey screen. The grey screen can take a moment or two to clear — but don’t panic. When it resolves, you’ll arrive at the macOS “Welcome” screen.

From here, you can set your macOS virtual machine up as you see fit.

VMware: Patch VMware Workstation Player

Prefer VMware over VirtualBox? I’ve got you covered. We can use the same VMDK file containing the OS, but the patch process is a different. In this case, you’ll need to download an unlocker (i.e. patcher). We will use the Unlocker created and provided by InsanelyMac.

Download the Unlocker and save it anywhere you want. We’re going to need it in a moment.

Browse to the location you downloaded the Unlocker to. Extract the contents of the archive. This process works best when the folders are on the same drive (e.g. the VMware root folder and extracted archive are both found on the C: drive).

Once extracted, ensure VMware is completely closed. Then, right-click the win-install command script, and select Run as administrator. The script will open a Command Prompt and the patch-script will run. Pay attention! The script will whizz by, and you need to catch any “File not found” messages.

The most common reason for a “file not found” or “system cannot find the file specified” is installing VMware Workstation Player in different location to the default folder, and executing the patch from a different directory as mentioned above.

Once the patch completes, reopen VMware.

Create macOS Virtual Machine

Select Create a New Virtual Machine. Choose I will install the operating system later. On the next screen, select Apple Mac OS X from the drop-down menu. If you do not see the Apple Mac OS X option, the patch hasn’t installed.

Next, we need to choose a name for the virtual machine. Choose something easy to remember, then copy the path below to a memorable location — we’re going to need it to make some edits in a moment. On the next screen, stick with the suggested maximum hard disk size, then select Store virtual disk as a single file. Complete the virtual disk creation wizard.

Now we have to edit the hardware specifications, as well as tell VMware where the macOS VMDK is.

From the main VMware screen, select the macOS virtual machine, right-click, selecting Settings. Like VirtualBox, bump the virtual machine memory up to at least 4 GB. You can allocate more if you have RAM to spare.

Next, edit the number of available processors to 2.

Underneath, remove the hard disk we created. Immediately select Add > Hard Disk > SATA (Recommended), then Use an existing virtual disk.

Browse to the same VMDK used in the VirtualBox section of the article. Select Open, then Finish. Now, close VMware.

Minor Tweaks

We have to make a small edit to a single file now. Head to location you stored the macOS virtual machine. The default location is:

C:UsersYOURNAMEDocumentsVirtual MachinesYOUR MAC OS X FOLDER

Browse to macOS.vmx, right-click, and select Open with…, selecting Notepad from the “How do you want to open this file” panel. Of course, if you prefer an alternative text editor, use that. Scroll to the bottom of the configuration file and add the following line:

smc.version = "0"

Save, and exit Notepad.

Open VMware, select the macOS virtual machine, and press Play.

Troubleshooting

There are a couple of things that can (and probably will) go wrong during the macOS virtual machine installation in VMware Player Workstation. I’ll list a few, and their quick troubleshoot.

If you cannot see “Apple Mac OS X” during the virtual machine creation wizard, then you need to revisit the patch process. Ensure every process associated with VMware Player is off.

If you receive the message “Mac OS X is not supported with binary translation” when starting the virtual machine, there is a strong chance you need to activate virtualization in your BIOS/UEFI configuration.

If you receive the message “VMware Player unrecoverable error: (vcpu-0)” when starting the virtual machine, you need to head back to the macOS.vmx configuration file and ensure you added the extra line and saved the edit.

Try It Out!

You’ve now created a macOS virtual machine in either VirtualBox or VMware Player. Give macOS a try out What’s New in macOS Sierra? The New Features Coming to Your Mac What’s New in macOS Sierra? The New Features Coming to Your Mac OS X is dead, long live macOS. Read More before you make the switch from Windows 7 Tips for Switching from Mac to Windows 7 Tips for Switching from Mac to Windows You’ll be surprised to see how much Windows has to offer. Transition smoothly from Mac to Windows with our advice. Read More , or use it to access some of the best apps Apple has to offer.

What do you use your macOS virtual machine for? Do you prefer VirtualBox or VMware Player? Let us know your thoughts below!

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What is modern Vim? — usevim — Medium

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Drew Neil, the author of Practical Vim and Vimcasts is writing a new book called Modern Vim. Modern Vim is a great title and captures the significance of Vim 8 and Neovim: both of these versions add key features that streamline plugin management and improve the responsiveness of Vim’s UI (even in text mode!).

One of the main innovations in Vim 8 is asynchronous I/O, which allows plugins to communicate with other processes without interrupting the UI. If you’ve ever used a plugin that extends Vim’s search or autocomplete behaviour then you’ve probably noticed that the UI blocks while results are displayed.

Asynchronous I/O totally changes the behaviour of Vim, adding interactive features that are typically only enjoyed in GUI editors. Editors like Atom and Visual Studio Code come with real-time autocompletion out of the box, and although this can feel noisy and distracting to old school Vim users like me, it is definitely useful when working on new or complex projects.

If you’re not yet a Vim 8 or Neovim convert, then I recommend setting up a new installation of Neovim with asynchronous plugins in mind. The first plugin that I discovered had a real benefit to my workflow was w0rp/ale, an asynchronous linting engine. In my older Vim setup the linter only ran when I saved a file, but ale runs without any invocation.

Realtime linting with ale

Another great plugin is roxma/nvim-completion-manager, which shows the kind of autocompletion you might have seen in Atom. The following screenshot demonstrates nvim-completion-manager autocompleting Vim script functions.

nvim-completion-manager

Make sure you read the readme if you want to install the tern completion script. This vastly improves JavaScript completion, but requires an npm install to get everything ready. I was able to do run npm automatically by using Vim Plug’s do option:

Plug 'roxma/nvim-completion-manager'  
Plug 'roxma/nvim-cm-tern', {'do': 'npm install'}

I use fuzzy finding all the time because I tend to remember file names rather than a file’s exact location in the source tree. Installing fzf requires some Python packages, so make sure you follow the readme properly. You’ll also want fzf.vim which adds some handy Vim scripts for working with fzf. The fzf.vim bundle can do things like search files, Git, buffers, Ctags, and many more lists of things.

Neovim still offers one large feature over Vim 8: an integrated terminal. By typing :term you can open a terminal that works like any other Vim buffer. That means you can quickly perform Git commands or any other project lifecycle tasks. The biggest strength of using a terminal embedded in the editor is for a REPL-based workflow: you can quickly yank code in and out of an interpreter to try out code as you’re working. It’s very similar to the benefits of working with split windows in tmux or iTerm 2, except the editor integration means all of your Vim editing and movement shortcuts work seamlessly.

Working with a split terminal in Neovim

Any command-line tool that you enjoy using alongside Vim can be used in Neovim’s split terminal. For example, if you like using tig, the text-mode Git interface, then you can open a panel that runs tig! This instantly gives you the power of integrated Git, without waiting for Neovim or a plugin author to add this functionality. Again, this usage is similar to the benefits of using tmux alongside command-line Vim, but you might prefer the integrated approach because it adds a modal layer for movement and yank/paste over tig.

Neovim and tig

Modern Vim is an editing style that draws on richer sources of information to improve developer experience. It’s also a runtime environment that provides plugin authors with tools to extend the editor, facilitated by features for asynchronous I/O and saner plugin management features. I’m looking forward to reading Drew’s book, not just because Practical Vim was excellent, but also because I want to see how far Drew can go with the concept of modern Vim.

Political Strategy Notes — The Democratic Strategist

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As we commemorate Memorial Day, Samantha Layne’s “9 Ways Republicans Could Have Helped Veterans…But Decided Not To” at reverbpress.com provides good talking points. A couple of her examples: “H.R. 466, which was the Wounded Veteran Job Security Act was a bill designed to provide job security for vets receiving medical treatment for injuries sustained while serving our country. Employers would be forbidden from firing veteran employees who miss work due to treatment related to a service-related disability. The bill had 24 co-sponsors, 23 of which were Democrats. Sounds great, right? Blocked by the GOP…Then there was H.R. 1168, theVeterans Retraining Act. This bill was designed to provide financial assistance to unemployed vets while they retrain for the current job market. But, unfortunately, Republicans decided to not pass it. Sorry, vets, but be sure to stop by for a photo op where they can shake your hand and thank you for your service!”

At The Nation, John Nichols reports “Christine Pellegrino did not just declare victory after a remarkable special-election win that saw her flip a historically Republican New York State Assembly seat to the Democratic column on Tuesday. The elementary-school teacher turned candidate announced that Long Island was sending a message that will resonate far beyond a legislative district that backed Donald Trump last fall but that has now will be represented by a bold progressive activist…New York’s 9th Assembly District is one of 710 state legislative districts nationwide that have been identified by the Ballotpedia website as including all or part of so-called”Pivot Counties,” which “voted for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 and then voted for Republican Donald Trump in 2016.” As of April 2017, the website explains, “477 state house districts and 233 state senate districts intersected with these Pivot Counties. This includes districts that intersected with only small portions of a county as well as districts that overlapped with multiple counties. These 710 state legislative districts account for approximately 10 percent of all state legislative districts in the country.”

How Mr. “Art of the Deal” got played…again :

For Further evidence that the GOP brand is tanking precipitously, check out Philip Bump’s “The more a poll mentions Republicans, the less popular the party’s health-care bill” at  the Washington Post. Bump notes that the mere mention of the word “Republican” in recent polls evokes dramatically lower levels of support from respondents for their health care bill. “For Republicans worried about the political effects of the American Health Care Act,” writes Bump, “it’s a big old warning flag. People who hear repeatedly that the bill is a Republican one are much less likely to support it.”

From Paul Kane’s article, “The lesson of Montana for Democrats: They need serious candidates — and a policy agenda,” at PowerPost: “…After receiving just 44 percent of the vote, Quist may demonstrate the limitations of quirky, first-time candidates…What Montana showed was the need to field candidates with backgrounds that appeal to voters who have tended to back Republicans in congressional races. It’s not necessarily an ideological requirement to be a centrist — serious candidates, such as Sens. Bernie Sanders ­(I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), can reside at the edge of the ideological spectrum. But they nearly always need more gravitas than Quist brought from a decades-long career as a guitar player in a popular bluegrass band in the Mountain West…Democrats might pull off the win in Price’s seat, but if they are going to ride a wave all the way to the majority, they probably need more experienced candidates than Ossoff and Quist — and with a sharper message than Ossoff’s introductory ada few months ago.” That said, it should be noted that Quist’s opponent, Gianforte was not exactly Mr. Gravitas.

Kyle Kondik notes in his post “What to Make of Montana” at Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “PredictWise conducted a snap poll Thursday afternoon and found that Gianforte’s lead had dipped to five points from 12 points in polling it had done a week ago (see more here from PredictWise’s David Rothschild). So perhaps this did shave a few points off Gianforte’s margin of victory, but it’s impossible to know with much certainty without robust exit polling, which was not conducted in Montana.” Regarding 2018, Kondik writes, “…Gianforte still has a misdemeanor assault charge hanging over his head, and perhaps an opportunistic Democrat may smell blood in the water looking ahead to next year. Then again, Gianforte’s body slam may eventually blow over and not do him any lasting harm, and Democrats may very well be looking at many other districts next year.”

GA-6 early voting starts tomorrow and continues through June 16th. Volunteers, including those who would like to participate in telephone canvassing, no matter where you live, can sign up here.

The Plum Line’s Paul Waldman makes a salient point about the power of “a new clarity” on policy benefitting Democrats:  “For instance, The Affordable Care Act is an uncharismatic policy that is meant to solve an intricate, interlocking series of problems in the American health-care system. But you know what is a charismatic policy? Single-payer health care. It’s easy to understand, and it promises terrific benefits. And right now, there’s an argument brewing between leftists who want the party to stand firmly for single-payer, and liberals who support it in principle but worry about the political and practical difficulties of getting there. To those liberals, the leftists respond:”We need to aim high, speak in broad strokes and not get bogged down by self-imposed constraints about the possible…What we can say is that there will almost certainly be other issues on which Democrats will discard their previous “It’s complicated” position for ones that take a firm, clear stance and leave the compromises and complications until after the election.”

Alice Ollstein reports at Talking Points Memo that “Florida GOPer Helped Russian Hacker Disseminate Dems’ Voter Turnout Data.”  As Ollstein writes, “A Republican political operative in Florida asked the alleged Russian hacker who broke into Democratic Party organizations’ servers at the height of the 2016 campaign to pass him stolen documents, according to a report Thursday by the Wall Street Journal…In return, that operative received valuable Democratic voter-turnout analyses, which the newspaper found at least one GOP campaign consultant took advantage of the information. The hacker went on to flag that same data to Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of Donald Trump’s who briefly advised his presidential campaign, and who is currently under federal investigation for potential collusion with Russia…The Wall Street Journal’s report presents the clearest allegations to date of collusion between people connected to Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia.” Seems like this should be more of a BFD.

Europeana Photography

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Explore a wealth of vintage photographs with Europeana Photography

Today, we’re proud to launch Europeana Photography, our latest thematic collection. Photography lovers and researchers can explore more than 2 million historical photographs, contributed by over 50 European institutions in 34 countries. Europeana Photography presents images from the first 100 years …

Adobe brackets on GitHub

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Welcome to Brackets!

Brackets is a modern open-source code editor for HTML, CSS and JavaScript that’s built in HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

What makes Brackets different from other web code editors?

• Tools shouldn’t get in your way. Instead of cluttering up your coding environment with lots of panels and icons, the Quick Edit UI in Brackets puts context-specific code and tools inline.
• Brackets is in sync with your browser. With Live Preview, Brackets works directly with your browser to push code edits instantly and jump back and forth between your real source code and the browser view.
• Do it yourself. Because Brackets is open source, and built with HTML, CSS and JavaScript, you can help build the best code editor for the web.

Brackets may have reached version 1, but we’re not stopping there. We have many feature ideas on our trello board that we’re anxious to add and other innovative web development workflows that we’re planning to build into Brackets. So take Brackets out for a spin and let us know how we can make it your favorite editor.

You can see some screenshots of Brackets on the wiki, intro videos on YouTube, and news on the Brackets blog.

How to install and run Brackets

Download

Installers for the latest stable build for Mac, Windows and Linux (Debian/Ubuntu) can be downloaded here.

The Linux version has most of the features of the Mac and Windows versions, but is still missing a few things. See the Linux wiki page for a list of known issues and to find out how you can help.

Usage

By default, Brackets opens a folder containing some simple “Getting Started” content. You can choose a different folder to edit using File > Open Folder.

Most of Brackets should be pretty self-explanatory, but for information on how to use its unique features, like Quick Edit and Live Preview, please read How to Use Brackets. Also, see the release notes for a list of new features and known issues in each build.

In addition to the core features built into Brackets, there is a large and growing community of developers building extensions that add all sorts of useful functionality. See the Brackets Extension Registry for a list of available extensions. For installation instructions, see the extensions wiki page.

Need help?

Having problems starting Brackets the first time, or not sure how to use Brackets? Please review Troubleshooting, which helps you to fix common problems and find extra help if needed.

For a list of common Linux issues and workarounds you can visit this guide.

Helping Brackets

I found a bug!

If you found a repeatable bug, and troubleshooting tips didn’t help, then be sure to search existing issues first. Include steps to consistently reproduce the problem, actual vs. expected results, screenshots, and your OS and Brackets version number. Disable all extensions to verify the issue is a core Brackets bug. Read more guidelines for filing good bugs.

I have a new suggestion, but don’t know how to program!

For feature requests please first check our Trello board to see if it’s already there; you can upvote it if so. If not, feel free to file it as an issue as above; we’ll move it to the feature backlog for you.

I want to help with the code!

Awesome! There are lots of ways you can help. First read CONTRIBUTING.md, then learn how to pull the repo and hack on Brackets.

The text editor inside Brackets is based on CodeMirror—thanks to Marijn for taking our pull requests, implementing feature requests and fixing bugs! See Notes on CodeMirror for info on how we’re using CodeMirror.

Although Brackets is built in HTML/CSS/JS, it currently runs as a desktop application in a thin native shell, so that it can access your local files. (If you just try to open the index.html file in a browser, it won’t work yet.) The native shell for Brackets lives in a separate repo, adobe/brackets-shell.

I want to keep track of how Brackets is doing!

Not sure you needed the exclamation point there, but we like your enthusiasm.

What’s Brackets working on next?

Contact info

US Government Launches Code.gov To Showcase Its Open Source Software

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An anonymous reader shares a VentureBeat report:_ The White House has announced the launch of Code.gov, a website that shows off U.S. government open-source projects and offers relevant resources for government agencies. By launching this site the White House is hoping to improve public access to the government’s software and encourage the reuse of software across government agencies. The launch comes four months after the White House introduced the Federal Source Code policy, which specifically mandates that government agencies “make custom-developed code available for Government-wide reuse and make their code inventories discoverable” at Code.gov, with certain exceptions. The new site already has almost 50 code repositories from more than 10 agencies, U.S. chief information officer Tony Scott wrote in a blog post._