Backup, clone, and erase drives with Atola's MultiDrive

Atola recently released MultiDrive, a freeware drive utility for 64-bit versions of Windows 10/11 & 2019/2022/2025.

Pros:

Backup, restore, clone, and erase entire drives
Both GUI & CLI modes
Backup and clone drives with bad sectors
Automatic retry for loose cable connections during operations
Detailed error reporting for drive-related failures
Run jobs in parallel
Portable version available

Cons:

According to the documentation, does not support ATA Secure Erase, at least for hard drives: "Does not support wiping methods based on Secure Erase command".
Requires manually expanding partition size in Disk Management after cloning to a larger drive.
When cloning a larger drive to a smaller one, MultiDrive will "display a warning box and ask for confirmation" then "clone all data from the source drive up to the target drive size."

❧ 2025-08-07

Convert MKV (DVD rip) with VobSub to MP4 with burned-in bitmap subtitles

DVD rips often include VobSub (dvdsub) subtitles, image-based (bitmap) tracks¹ that aren't supported in MP4 containers. Rather than extracting and OCRing (which can be slow and error-prone), burn them directly into the MP4 with ffmpeg:

Identify the subtitle stream:

Use ffprobe to confirm that the MKV contains VobSub (dvd_subtitle) subtitles:
```
ffprobe -v error -select_streams s -show_entries stream=index,codec_name:stream_tags=language -of csv=p=0 foo.mkv
3,dvd_subtitle,eng
```
Stream 3 is dvd_subtitle (VobSub), in English.

Convert & burn-in with ffmpeg:

This command burns in the bitmap subtitles, retains all audio, preserves chapters, and encodes the video using Apple's hardware-accelerated hevc_videotoolbox:

ffmpeg -i foo.mkv \
  -filter_complex "[0:v][0:s:0]overlay,format=nv12[v]" \
  -map "[v]" \
  -map 0:a \
  -map_chapters 0 \
  -c:v hevc_videotoolbox -b:v 6000k -tag:v hvc1 \
  -c:a copy \
  -movflags +faststart \
  foo.mp4

Flag exegesis

-filter_complex "[0:v][0:s:0]overlay,format=nv12[v]" defines a filtergraph to burn in subtitles and prepare the video for encoding:
- [0:v] selects the video stream from input 0.
- [0:s:0] selects the first subtitle stream from input 0.
- overlay burns the subtitle onto the video frame-by-frame.
- format=nv12 sets a pixel format compatible with hardware encoders like videotoolbox.
- [v] names the final video stream for later mapping.
-map "[v]" maps the filtered (burned-in subtitle) video stream ([v]) to the output.
-map 0:a includes all audio streams from input 0.
-map_chapters 0 preserves chapter metadata from the source MKV.
-c:v hevc_videotoolbox uses Apple silicon's hardware-accelerated HEVC (H.265) encoder.
-b:v 6000k sets bitrate to match 480p DVD quality, close to typical on-disc MPEG-2 rates.
-tag:v hvc1 ensures compatibility with Apple players (QuickTime, Safari, iOS) by setting the correct codec identifier.
-c:a copy copies audio tracks without re-encoding.
-movflags +faststart moves metadata to the beginning of the file for faster playback or streaming.

Footnote

Blu-ray subtitles use PGS, an image-based format like VobSub that's also best burned in for MP4 compatibility and to skip OCR. ↩

❧ 2025-08-06

Compile MacDown for Apple silicon

Restores "Recent Documents" to the MacDown Dock icon in Sequoia and drops the Rosetta 2 dependency (macOS 27 will be the last to fully support it). Install Xcode and brew then run:

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

echo "Installing dependencies..."
brew install ruby@3.2

# Add Ruby and gem binaries to PATH (avoids duplicate lines in ~/.zshrc)
echo "Configuring Ruby path..."
LINE='export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/ruby@3.2/bin:/opt/homebrew/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/bin:$PATH"'
grep -Fxq "$LINE" ~/.zshrc || echo "$LINE" >> ~/.zshrc
export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/ruby@3.2/bin:/opt/homebrew/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0/bin:$PATH"

# Uninstall any outdated Bundler versions
echo "Cleaning bundler..."
[ -d /opt/homebrew/lib/ruby/gems/3.2.0 ] && gem uninstall -aIx bundler || true

echo "Installing bundler and CocoaPods..."
gem install bundler cocoapods

echo "Cloning MacDown..."
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/MacDownApp/macdown
cd macdown

# The next 4 commands are only necessary if you want the last official pre-release version, 0.8.0d71 (1079)
# rather than the default 0.8.0d32 (1111) version:

git checkout v0.8.0d71
git submodule update --init --recursive

# Work around broken Slovak localization file in v0.8.0d71
echo "Replacing broken Slovak localization file..."
echo '"DUMMY_KEY" = "DUMMY_VALUE";' > MacDown/Localization/sk.lproj/Localizable.strings

echo "Removing outdated Gemfile.lock..."
rm -f Gemfile.lock

echo "Installing Ruby dependencies..."
bundle install

echo "Installing CocoaPods dependencies..."
ruby -e 'require "logger"; exec "pod", *ARGV' install

echo "Building PEG Markdown parser..."
make -C Dependency/peg-markdown-highlight -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)

echo "Opening Xcode..."
open MacDown.xcworkspace

cat <<EOF

Setup complete.

When Xcode opens, press Cmd+B to build; find MacDown.app via
Product > Show Build Folder in Finder > Products/Debug
EOF

Notes

Inspired and informed by Daniil-Gusev's guide.
Tested on a clean macOS 15.6 Sequoia install with Xcode 16.4.
If copied to another Mac, "'MacDown.app' is damaged and can’t be opened. You should move it to the Trash." may appear on first launch; resolve via xattr -rc /Applications/MacDown.app.
See also:
- Original build instructions
- v0.8.0-as by gnattu

❧ 2025-08-06

macOS Finder modification date off? Try stat

stat foo.sparsebundle
..."Aug  2 07:53:48 2025" "Feb 23 09:09:25 2022" "Aug  2 07:53:10 2025" "May  7 08:30:24 2014"...

Access (atime): Last time file was read (not always updated on APFS or recent macOS versions).
Modify (mtime): Last time file content was modified. This is what "Date Modified" in Finder usually shows.
Change (ctime): Last time file metadata changed (e.g., permissions, ownership, even renaming the file).
Birth (btime): File creation date — what Finder calls "Created".

❧ 2025-08-06

Batch delete thousands of Gmail drafts in seconds

Mail in macOS has long suffered from a bug that can generate thousands of near-duplicate Gmail drafts (the simplest workaround is switching draft storage from server to local).

Selecting more than 50 drafts in the Gmail web interface via "Select all x messages in Drafts" disables the "Discard drafts" option, making large-scale deletion tedious.

A faster alternative is using Google Apps Script. While script executions are limited to 6 minutes, the following API-based method can delete thousands of drafts in seconds:

Go to https://script.google.com → New project

Paste and save the following script:

function deleteAllDrafts_FinalPaginated() {
  try {
    let allMessageIds = [];
    let pageToken;
    let pageCount = 0;

    // 1. Loop through all pages of drafts to get every ID.
    do {
      const response = Gmail.Users.Drafts.list('me', {
        maxResults: 500, // Fetch up to 500 per page for speed
        pageToken: pageToken
      });

      if (response.drafts && response.drafts.length > 0) {
        const messageIdsOnPage = response.drafts.map(draft => draft.message.id);
        allMessageIds = allMessageIds.concat(messageIdsOnPage);
        pageCount++;
      }

      // Get the token for the next page. If there isn't one, the loop will end.
      pageToken = response.nextPageToken;
    } while (pageToken);

    const totalDrafts = allMessageIds.length;

    if (totalDrafts === 0) {
      Logger.log("No drafts to delete.");
      return;
    }

    Logger.log("Found " + totalDrafts + " drafts across " + pageCount + " page(s). Processing in batches...");

    // 2. Process the complete list of IDs in chunks.
    const batchSize = 100;
    for (let i = 0; i < totalDrafts; i += batchSize) {
      const chunk = allMessageIds.slice(i, i + batchSize);
      const request = { ids: chunk };
      Gmail.Users.Messages.batchDelete(request, 'me');
      Logger.log("Deleted batch: " + (i + 1) + " through " + Math.min(i + batchSize, totalDrafts));
    }

    Logger.log("Successfully initiated deletion of all " + totalDrafts + " drafts.");

  } catch (e) {
    Logger.log("Error deleting drafts: " + e.name + " - " + e.message);
  }
}

In the left-hand menu, click + next to Services
Select Gmail API → Add
Click Run

During testing, used this script to quickly generate 105 drafts:

function createTestDrafts() {
  for (var i = 1; i <= 105; i++) {
    var subject = "Test Draft " + i;
    var body = "This is test draft number " + i + ".\nGenerated for batch deletion testing.";
    var recipient = Session.getActiveUser().getEmail();
    
    GmailApp.createDraft(recipient, subject, body);
  }
    
  Logger.log("105 test drafts created.");
}

❧ 2025-08-06

Blink reminders for macOS

Title	Trigger	Price	Size	Notes
AutoBlink 2.1.1	time/camera	$9.99 (3-day free trial)	2MB	App Privacy: "Data Not Collected"
Blinks 1.7	time	$4.99	2.5MB	App Privacy: "Data Not Collected"
SightKick 1.0.64	time/camera	free	3.7MB	"Data Not Linked to You: Health & Fitness, Usage Data, Identifiers, Diagnostics"
eyeREST 0.2.0	camera	free	25.5MB	"Data Not Linked to You: Location, Usage Data, Identifiers, Diagnostics"
Eyeblink 3.7.4	time/camera	free	27.8MB	Windows version also available
ScreenBlink 1.0.0	time/camera	open source	390.7MB	Windows version also available

❧ 2025-08-03

Links page reborn

The Links page, fallow since 2006, has been resurrected as a stream of periodic headlines. Not enough to justify an RSS feed, but an occasional scroll may surface something of interest.

This Python script make posting fairly frictionless while allowing for editing of existing entries:

import os
import html
from datetime import datetime

FILENAME = os.path.join('..', 'website', 'links.html.html')
# before changing to saving as links.html.html and to ../website/, the above line was:
# FILENAME = 'links.html'
BEGIN_MARKER = "<!-- BEGIN LINKS -->"
END_MARKER = "<!-- END LINKS -->"

def get_today_header():
    return datetime.now().strftime("%b %-d, %Y")  # e.g., "Oct 1, 2025"

def prompt_for_link():
    title = input("Title: ").strip()
    url = input("Link: ").strip()
    return title, url

def format_link_li(title, url):
    escaped_title = html.escape(title)
    escaped_url = html.escape(url, quote=True)
    return f'  <li><a href="{escaped_url}">{escaped_title}</a></li>\n'

def update_links_section(existing_section, title, url):
    today_header = f"<h2>{get_today_header()}</h2>"
    link_line = format_link_li(title, url).rstrip()

    lines = existing_section.strip().splitlines()
    new_lines = []
    i = 0
    inserted = False

    while i < len(lines):
        line = lines[i]
        if line.strip() == today_header:
            new_lines.append(line)
            i += 1
            if i < len(lines) and lines[i].strip() == "<ul>":
                new_lines.append("<ul>")
                new_lines.append(link_line)
                i += 1
                while i < len(lines) and lines[i].strip() != "</ul>":
                    new_lines.append(lines[i].rstrip())
                    i += 1
                new_lines.append("</ul>")
                if i < len(lines):
                    i += 1  # Skip </ul>
            inserted = True
            break
        else:
            new_lines.append(line.rstrip())
            i += 1

    if not inserted:
        # Prepend a new section
        new_section = [
            today_header,
            "<ul>",
            link_line,
            "</ul>"
        ]
        new_lines = new_section + new_lines

    # Add back any remaining unprocessed lines
    new_lines += [line.rstrip() for line in lines[i:]]

    return "\n".join(new_lines)


def insert_link(title, url):
    if not os.path.exists(FILENAME):
        print(f"{FILENAME} not found. Please create it and include the markers:\n{BEGIN_MARKER} ... {END_MARKER}")
        return

    with open(FILENAME, 'r') as f:
        html = f.read()

    if BEGIN_MARKER not in html or END_MARKER not in html:
        print(f"Error: markers '{BEGIN_MARKER}' and '{END_MARKER}' must be in {FILENAME}")
        return

    # Extract everything between and around the markers
    pre, middle = html.split(BEGIN_MARKER, 1)
    content, post = middle.split(END_MARKER, 1)

    updated_links_html = update_links_section(content, title, url)

    new_html = (
        f"{pre}{BEGIN_MARKER}\n"
        f"{updated_links_html.strip()}\n"
        f"{END_MARKER}{post}"
    )

    with open(FILENAME, 'w') as f:
        f.write(new_html)

    print(f"Link added to {FILENAME}")

# --- Run the script ---
if __name__ == "__main__":
    title, url = prompt_for_link()
    insert_link(title, url)

❧ 2025-07-30

Offline Apple serial number database

Apple's serial number lookup page was down today, first with a looping GIF saying "We'll be back. We're busy updating our support tools and will be back soon." in 19 different languages and later with a page simply stating "We are unable to complete your request at this time."

Needing to identify a Mac but unwilling to use a third-party web service, retrieved the serial number via dmidecode -s system-serial-number in GParted Live then searched OpenCore's modelinfo_autogen.h for the last 3 characters (8QR), which corresponded to "MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008)".

While the model identifier can be obtained via dmidecode -s system-product-name (in this case "MacBook5,1" which Mactracker also reports as "MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008)"), some identifiers like "MacBook5,2" correspond to multiple models ("MacBook (13-inch, Early 2009)" and "MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2009)").

Note that Apple replaced structured serial numbers with randomized ones in 2021:

❧ 2025-07-12

Backup, clone, and erase drives with Atola's MultiDrive

Convert MKV (DVD rip) with VobSub to MP4 with burned-in bitmap subtitles

Flag exegesis

Footnote

Compile MacDown for Apple silicon

Notes

macOS Finder modification date off? Try stat

Batch delete thousands of Gmail drafts in seconds

Blink reminders for macOS

Links page reborn

WSL for macOS

Offline Apple serial number database

Same store, same product, different price by platform