25-04-2021

Cool Mac Terminal Hacks

Welcome to our roundup of the best macOS tips, tricks and secret features. In this article we will tell you about some of the most useful features that have been introduced to the Mac operating.
Most dialogue boxes have a cool animation effect that looks cool. If you want to speed this up you can change the speed at which is renders so it appears almost instantly. The default is 0.2. Defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSWindowResizeTime 0.01. Thats 50 top Terminal commands, I wanted to go to 100 but I couldn’t find 100 good commands.
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Cool Mac Terminal Commands
Cool Mac Terminal Hacks

Jun 12, 2018 Just type any text in Terminal and your computer will speak it in your Mac's default voice. But there's about 20 voices and intonations to choose from plus the ability to convert an entire text file into speech. So here's a slick audiobook maker at your hand. Open up Terminal, type in: say followed by a space and any text you want to hear.

The Mac’s Terminal is an amazing utility. In fact, we have written about it more than once before. It is a greatly capable tool that has enough power to alter the very core aspects of your Mac.

However, not everything has to be work when it comes to the Terminal. You can also have a lot of fun with it if you follow these neat tricks.

1. Make It Snow

The holiday season might be over, but winter is still on everywhere. So what better way to get into the spirit of the season than to make your Mac snow?

Cool Tip:

You can make the Terminal window dark by choosing the Pro settings from the app’s Preferences.

To do so, just enter the following command into the Terminal window and you’ll have your Mac snowing in a second:

ruby -e 'C=`stty size`.scan(/d+/)[1].to_i;S=['2743'.to_i(16)].pack('U*');a={};puts '033[2J';loop{a[rand(C)]=0;a.each{|x,o|;a[x]+=1;print '033[#{o};#{x}H 033[#{a[x]};#{x}H#{S} 033[0;0H'};$stdout.flush;sleep 0.1}'

2. A Unique Take on Star Wars

This next trick is not just tremendously fun, but simply astounding if you consider the amount of effort put into it.

Have you ever watched Star Wars Episode IV? Well, perhaps you have, but believe me, not like this.

All you have to do is enter this command on Terminal…

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

..and you will be treated to the entire episode four of the saga (A New Hope) in ASCII code.

As you can see, this is really cool. Not only you get to experience the entire episode again, but you also get to see all your favorite characters rendered in this original artwork.

3. Your Own Personal Psychotherapist

There’s no denying that we all have problems of all sorts. Some of them more serious than others of course. And sometimes we all wish we could just talk to someone about them, right?

Well, it might not be the ideal ‘professional’ to talk to, but if you want, your Mac can help you deal with your issues in some quite funny and uncharacteristic ways thanks to the psychotherapist available through Terminal.

To call him/her up, just type the following command on the Terminal window:

emacs

Then press the Esc + X keys and introduce the following command when prompted:

doctor

The ‘doctor’ will pop up and prompt you to tell him/her your problem.

Just write them down, press Return two times and you will start getting some really curious/funny answers.

You might not find a solution to your problems, but you’ll definitely have a lot of fun.

4. And Don’t Forget the Games

We recently showed you how to play some classic games on your Mac such as Tetris and Pong. If you want more of those to choose from, just take a look at that article and add these names to the list of games you can find in Terminal: 5×5, blackbox, dunnet, gomoku, hanoi, landmark, mpuz and solitaire.

And there you have them. Now whenever you feel bored, you’ll know how to have a bit of fun with your Mac without even leaving your desk.

The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Also See#fun #Lists

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Terminal is not for mere mortals, you're probably thinking. It's a kind of a sacred knowledge that only geeks and Mac geniuses possess. But if you get through your first command line you'll find it's not that terrifying. In fact, using Terminal is like applying Harry Potter wizardry to your tasks. Once you know the right spells you can break any laws of how applications behave and do some unbelievable things that even the most experienced Mac people can't. Isn't it seducing to try?

We've chosen just a few of Terminal's most impressive features. For more serious take on Mac terminal commands, check out this article. Okay, are you ready to type in your first code? To start the journey, learn how to open Terminal app on Mac: Click Launchpad and then type Terminal in the search bar.

1) Make your Mac talk to you

One of the simplest commands which can be very fun, especially when you are planning a prank on somebody. Just type any text in Terminal and your computer will speak it in your Mac's default voice. But there's about 20 voices and intonations to choose from plus the ability to convert an entire text file into speech. So here's a slick audiobook maker at your hand.

Open up Terminal, type in:
say followed by a space and any text you want to hear

2) Customize Login Message

This is what makes Mac more personal and humanized. For example, you can write an inspirational motto or helpful information for other users, if it's a public library computer. It might even be a way to retrieve your MacBook if you lose it — if you set a login message with your contact information. Once again there's much room for pranking other people, but we won't go deep into that.

Open up Terminal, type in:

sudo write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText 'Custom Text Here'

3) Watch Star Wars in Terminal app

In Terminal symbols, of course. This could be the greatest trick which makes no particular sense, but even if just for the coolness alone you should try it. The Death Star, R2D2, spaceships and the rest of the Episode 4 story retold in Terminal graphics will blow your friends away at the party. And there is no sound by the way.

Open up Terminal, type in:
telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
On macOS Sierra and higher macOS versions, you should use a different command:

nc towel.blinkenlights.nl 23

4) Show hidden files in Finder

This isn't as funny as the previous one, but searching for important files is no joke. With this command, you'll be able to see everything on your Mac, even files which were omitted from standard display.

Open up Terminal, type in:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

This should summon Finder with previously hidden files shown grayed out.
To reverse this operation (be aware that you may be swamped with lots of irrelevant system files) just substitute TRUE for FALSE in the command line above:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

5) Pay a visit to a psychiatrist

Funny Mac terminal commands are many. This is a classic Easter egg type of joke macOS developers are famous for. When you're feeling stressful, talking to friendly chatbot will at least make you smile. Strangely enough, this therapy may be actually working because you are asked to verbalize your emotions, by giving them a closer look. And the psychiatrists (the real ones) will confirm that sometimes it works.

Open up Terminal, type in:
emacs and then hit Return. Press Esc, then x, and finally type doctor

6) See iTunes songs notification via Terminal app

A clever addition if you normally work with the music on the background. If you fell in love with a particular track from your playlist you don't need to open iTunes to find out the artist's name. It will pop up on your Mac Dock from now on. Though a bit strange this feature isn't included by default because it's really a timesaver.

Open up Terminal, type in:

Cool Mac Terminal Commands

defaults write com.apple.dock itunes-notifications -bool TRUE

Close the dock using the following command:

killall Dock

7) Play simple games

This is another retro cool feature to cheer you up once in a while. You can play Tetris, Pong, Snake and a dozen of other arcade games. Once you have unlocked these nice hidden toys, you'll surely get to love your Mac more. Prepare to use your arrow keys.

Open up Terminal, type in:
emacs. Press Enter to open it up, press Esc then x. Now you have to type the name of the particular game and that's it.
Game names:

tetris
pong
snake
solitaire
5x5
landmark
doctor