Change Mac hostname from Terminal

Sometimes I have found that changing the Mac's hostname from System Preferences/Sharing doesn't do the job.  In these cases it is best to change the hostname from Terminal:

sudo scutil --set HostName [new hostname]

Example: sudo scutil --set HostName LDNMAC-1234




Show hidden user Library folder in 10.7 and 10.8

I keep having to look this up because I can never remember the Terminal command:

chflags nohidden /Users/[user folder name]/Library

example: chflags nohidden /Users/tom.smith/Library

High CPU usage with Lync and Outlook 2011

We have received numerous reports that having Lync and Outlook 2011 open at the same time is causing one, or both, of the processes to use 100% of the CPU.  This in turn causes Outlook to become unresponsive until you force quit either Outlook or Lync.  Having the applications open separately does not cause a problem- only when they are both open at the same time.

To troubleshoot the problem, open Lync, go to Preferences/General and put a tick in "Turn on logging for troubleshooting".  Restart Lync and then Open Outlook and Process Viewer.  Work normally until Outlook freezes and you see in Process Viewer that the CPU use for Lync and/or Outlook has spiked.

Close (or force quit) Outlook and Lync and open Console Viewer.

In Console Viewer, under Files/~/Library/Logs open the Microsfot-Lync-0.log.  Search the log for multiple (hundreds) of entries referencing the same e-mail address and having an "INFO" line of "FindOrCreateFakeContactModelForQuery"

Open Outlook and remove all references to the offending e-mail account.  This includes contacts and any auto-complete entries.

To clear the auto-complete entries, open a new mail and start typing the user's name; a box should open that displays the e-mail address; to the right will be an "X".  Click on the "X" to remove the entry.

Relaunch Outlook, open Lync and check that you no longer experience the high CPU problem.

When you are sure the problem has been resolved, make sure you turn off logging in Lync.

Search function on this blog is broken

I'm sorry to report that for the past several weeks the search function on this blog has been broken.  It returns "no results" to every enquiry. 

It seems to be a very common problem and there are lots of posts on Google's help site about it- unfortunately there is no fix as of yet. 

Since this blog is used as a knowledge base the search function is vital.  If Google can't resolve the problem soon I am going to switch to a hosting provider.

Very sorry for the problem!