Computers get clogged with digital stuff over time, and while we all like to think were good at managing all that D-detritus, theres somehow never quite enough time to clean things up. If youre new to the Mac, or even if youve used an Apple computer for decades, you need to learn these tips to prune the trash. But first, open the Finder item in the Menu and choose Empty Trash.Youd be surprised how many Mac users forget to do so regularly.Check your storageYour Mac has a really excellent storage management system that is available in System Settings in the General tab. (This is also available via the Apple menu, About this Mac, More info). Open that tab and then select Storage. Your Mac will have a little think and reward you with a nice graphic that shows you what is taking up most space on your machine. This information is divided across numerous sections:ApplicationsBinBooksDocumentsiCloud DriveMailMessagesMusicPhotosPodcastsTVOther Users & SharedmacOSSystem DataNow that youve got a birds eye view of your storage, you can begin to get rid of some of the clutter.Use the RecommendationsApple has built a system to help you delete some of the most commonly accumulated stuff, which it makes available as Recommendations. These Recommendations usually appear at the top of the list of stored media, just beneath the image in Storage. You will not see these if you have already followed them, but if you do these may include:Store in iCloud:This stores all your Desktop and Documents files in the cloud and only keeps recent files locally available on your Mac. The too will also store messages, attachments, photos, and videos for you. This maximizes storage space.Optimize Storage:This tool automatically removes movies and TV shows sourced from Apple from your Mac, though you can still download them again.Empty Trash automatically:This tool is recommended as it will automatically erase anything that has been in the Trash for over 30-days.Open your IsTake a look at the above and youll find that each section has a small I beside it. Tap this and youll get more information to help you manage each of those sections. Tap the I icon for Applications, for example, and youll find all those you have installed; you should delete all those you no longer use. if you find any software you dont need, you can select it in this view and hit Delete to get rid of it, freeing up a little space.Its good to take a look inside each category, particularly Messages, where you can delete some of these huge attachments you might not realize you have stored on your device.What about your Downloads folder?When did you last take a look inside your Downloads folder? Open it now. (Go>Downloads in the menu bar). Most Mac users find they have lots of items stored there, many of which might still be important. You can free up huge quantities of space on your Mac by going through what you have stored in the folder, filing important items in relevant folders on your Mac, and deleting the rest. Of course, the easiest way to review all those items is to view the files as a list using View>As List.Manage all your largest filesHeres a way to quickly review all the largest files you have stashed on your Mac. Lets create a Smart Folder to monitor for larger files.In the Finder Menu choose New Smart Folder.A New Smart Folder window appears. Youll see an option to search This Mac. Select that.Look to the left along the row and youll see a Save command (which we will use later). You will also see a Plus (+) button. Tap this.A set of choices comes up. The first defaults to Kind. Tap this to access a drop down menu where you should tap Other.A long list appears; the one you want is File Size, which you should check.Once you do so, youll be able to select it in the drop down list to replace Kind.In the next item on the row, youll get to choose a parameter. I suggest you use is greater than.Two more choices appear in the row; the first lets you set a number try 100. The second lets you define a size try MB.You will immediately see every file on your Mac that is larger than 100MB. You can delete any of these items by control-clicking them and choosing Move to Bin. But be certain not to delete any System files, as doing so may damage your system. In general, its a good rule not to delete anything you do not recognize.Now you have this birds eye view into large items on your Mac you can Save it for future use.Return to the original Row you first looked at, and tap Save.Give the search a name, such as Large Files.By default, the search saves in Saved Searches, which is as good a place as any.Also by default, the search can be added to the sidebar just make sure this option is ticked.In the future, youll find your new Large Files search is available to you in Favorites from within the Finder sidebar, making it super easy to swiftly identify any space invaders you still have on your system.Take a look in MailYour email application is full of stuff. All those Mail attachments mount up over the years, and while you need to keep some of them some of the time, you probably dont need to retain all of them forever. The best practice is to delete attachments in emails you no longer need; you can do this by deleting the message itself or selecting a message and choosing Remove Attachments in the Messages menu.You can also create a search in Mail that lets you identify emails containing attachments. Try Mailbox>New Smart Mailbox, select contains attachments and save. This is a very unsophisticated tool that just makes it easier for you to monitor any emails you might have received that contain attachments, though it still makes for a very manual process. This is actually the problem with Mail: it doesnt let you easily manage emails containing large attachments. It does let you do one more thing, however, which you should do now: Open Mailbox and choose Erase Junk Mail to get rid of all the junk that has accumulated. You should also select Erase Deleted Items.Run Onyx or CleanMyMacThere are numerous applications that claim to help you free up and better manage space on your Mac. I like the freeOnyxapplication, which has been my go-to troubleshooting solution for years. But many users also like MacPawsCleanMyMacapplication. What these applications do is make it possible to delete data you cant easily or safely get to on your Mac, including unwanted database files, bloated logs, and more. Apple says that macOS will automatically clear such data including temporary database files, interrupted downloads, staged macOS and app updates, Safari website data, and more when space is needed on your Mac. But some users might prefer to be proactive.With Onyx, install the software, open Maintenance and select and run the Cleaning options available there.Using CleanMyMac, run the Cleanup routine, which will scan your Mac to present you with a selection of choices of what to clean.What both applications do is force the Mac to run tasks it should do automatically. Delete old user profilesIf you are using a shared Mac it is likely it will also be a managed Mac, in which case the following option might not be available as it may be managed on your behalf by IT. The problem this solves is that each user on a Mac gets its own user profile which contains all the data and documents that relate to that user. Thats fine when everyone is actively using the Mac, but when someone stops using the machine it becomes necessary to delete their profile to free up the space though they should get the data they need off the Mac before you do.To delete an unwanted User profile open System Settings>Users & Groups. If you see the word Admin under your name you will be able to follow the rest of these steps, once you click the lock icon and enter the password. Then choose the user you intend to delete and click Delete User by clicking the (minus) button.Three options appear:Save the home folder in a disk image: All the information will be archived for potential restore,Dont change the home folder: Everything is left in place and the user can be restored.Delete the homefolder: Everything is deleted.Before choosing the third option, its incredibly important to ensure you have the right to delete the user.If you have additional suggestions, please let me know.You can follow me on social media! 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Satechi's SM3 Slim Mechanical Backlit Bluetooth keyboard is its first full-size version, offering many of the key features of the smaller predecessor, the SM1.Satechi SM3 Slim Mechanical Backlit Bluetooth Keyboard - Image credit: SatechiDuring CES 2024, Satechi introduced the SM1 Slim Mechanical Backlit Bluetooth Keyboard. For 2025, it's introducing a bigger version.The SM3 Slim Mechanical Backlit Bluetooth Keyboard is Satechi's first full-size mechanical keyboard. It offers a very similar spec list to its stablemate, the SM1, including the use of low-profile brown switches and a rechargeable battery, but it's a lot bigger. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Apple is expanding its presence in the Evergreen State, signing a direct lease for nearly 193,000 square feet of office space in South Lake Union.Image Credit: Discover South Lake UnionThe deal, rumored since 2019, has finally materialized. Initially, it was speculated that Apple would purchase roughly 630,000 square feet of office space.That's a far cry from the nearly 193,000-square-foot deal the Cupertino tech giant actually signed. However, it still marks the largest new office space least since 2019, according to Komonews. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Pick up the M3 15-inch MacBook Air with a bump up to 512GB of storage for just $1,299 in the latest price war.Apple retailers are engaged in a MacBook Air price war.The $200 price drop on the upgraded laptop can be found at both Amazon and B&H Photo as the Apple Authorized Resellers engage in a price war.Get the M3 15-inch MacBook Air with 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD for $1,299 at B&H and Amazon Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

The latest Dodge Momentum Index (DMI) report for the month of December has indicated an encouraging 10% increase to a new score of 212.0 after Novembers revised reading of 192.3. Over the month, commercial planning increased by 14.2% while institutional planning improved by 2.5%."Commercial activity rebounded strongly in December, thanks to a re-acceleration in data center and warehouse planning activity," states Sarah Martin, the associate director of forecasting for the Dodge Construction Network. "Overall, the strong performance of the Momentum Index this past year is expected to support nonresidential construction spending throughout 2025."Data center projects once again propelled growth on the commercial side, while strong healthcare and education activity helped support the institutional portion.Decembers DMI was up 19% when compared to year-ago levels. The commercial segment was up 30% from December 2023, while the institutional segment was flat over the same period.T...

Portrait of a Jester looking through his fingers, circa 1548 The Phoebus FoundationWhile the fool is often associated with the Middle Ages, the figures role evolved a great deal in the centuries that followed. Now, an exhibition at the Louvre in Paris is celebrating the complex character, following the fools dance through art history.Titled Figures of the Fool: From the Middle Ages to the Romantics, the show features eight sections that examine the fool in different contextssuch as In the Beginning: The Fool and God, The Fool and Love, The Fool at Court and Fools in the Cityto teach visitors how the character changed with the times.La Collation, circa 1520 GrandPalaisRmn / Michel UrtadoThe figure of the fool walked off the margins of medieval manuscripts into the unholy courts of the Renaissance, then returned to the page as Hamlets Yorick, writes theWall Street Journals Dominic Green. Later, in the age of reason and democracy, the parodist of royal dignity became a mirror of the universal condition: Dostoevskys holy fool and Picassos grubby clowns; Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.Museumgoers can peruse more than 300 pieces of art from 90 European and American institutions. These items follow the fool across hundreds of years, beginning in the Middle Ages and ending in the 19th century.Such characters appear in architectural adornments, frescoes, tapestries, etchings, ceramics and ivory or carved-wood miniatures, or in chess sets as an alternative to the bishop, writesArtforums Charlotte Kent. Fools came from all social strata. One drawing has them falling from trees; an anonymous Netherlandish oil on panel shows fools hatching from eggs beneath an enormous chicken.Aristotle and Phyllis, Aquamanile, circa 1380 The Metropolitan Museum of ArtLater depictions often portray the fool as someone to relate to rather than someone to mock. As the Louvre explains on the exhibition website, the character became a figure with which artists identified, wondering: What if I were the fool?Many of the fools in the exhibition wear bright, colorful outfits and evoke a sense of levity. But many others dont fit this stereotype, appearing morose or burdened.In Jan Matejkos 1862 depiction ofStaczyk, a famous Polish court jester, the figure sits slumped over in a chair, having just discoveredpresumably indicated by papers on the tablethat the Polish city of Smolensk has been lost (1514) during war with Moscow, per Encyclopedia Britannica. Behind him, the rest of the court enjoys a ball.Staczyk, Jan Matejko, 1862 Varsovie, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie / Piotr LigierThe fool allows for a figurative representation of questions troubling society, Elisabeth Antoine-Knig, one of the exhibitions curators, tellsArtnetsThese days, most of us dont want to be called a fool. Still, the exhibitions curators think modern audiences have a lot to learn from the character. I feel that the figure of the fool, as it existed in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, is lacking today, in helping us face the crises we are experiencing, Antoine-Knig adds.Figures of the Fool: From the Middle Ages to the Romantics is on view at the Louvre in Paris through February 3, 2025.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Art, Art History, Artists, Arts, Exhibitions, Exhibits, France, History, Medieval Ages, Painters, Painting, Renaissance, Sculpture

Though small, the snail darter has played an outsize role in American law, conservation and biology. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters via FlickrSenator Howard Baker of Tennessee described an awful beast in 1979. That beastwhich he also called the bane of my existence, the nemesis of my golden years, the bold perverter of the Endangered Species Actwas none other than the snail darter, a fish no more than 3.5 inches in length. Still, the tiny creature had plagued the politics of Tennessee throughout the decade.Since its discovery in the 1970s and protection under the Endangered Species Act, the snail darter has cast a long shadow over American law, conservation and biology. Against Bakers wishes, a Supreme Court ruling about the endangered status of the little fish upended progress on a controversial dam in Tennessee for years.But now, a new study published last week in Current Biology suggests the snail darter isnt a genetically distinct species at alland that it was therefore never endangered in the first place.There is, technically, no snail darter, Thomas Near, an ichthyologist at Yale University and a senior author of the study, tells Jason Nark of the New York Times.Instead, Near and his co-authors argue, the tiny fish known as Percina tanasi that embodied a David and Goliath battle against the Tellico Dam is an eastern population of the stargazing darternot a distinct or endangered species. The Tellico Dam in Tennessee, where the fish known as the snail darter held up construction for several years. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters via FlickrThe controversy began in 1967, when the Tennessee Valley Authority initiated construction on a dam on the Little Tennessee River, some 20 miles southwest of Knoxville. Environmentalists, local farmers and the Cherokee, whose land and ancestral sites were to be flooded, opposed the project, per the New York Times. They sought a way to halt the dam, and, in 1973, a zoologist at the University of Tennessee named David Etnier found that solution.Etnier was snorkeling with a group of students in Coytee Spring, not far from the dam site, when he discovered a previously unseen fish darting across the riverbed. He called it the snail darter, because of its feeding habits, and it received endangered species protection in 1975.Heres a little fish that might save your farm, Etnier reportedly told a local, according to The Snail Darter and the Damby Zygmunt Plater.Plater, an environmental lawyer, represented the snail darter in front of the Supreme Court after its endangered status went challenged by the TVA. He was initially victorious in protecting the fish: In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that the Endangered Species Act prohibits impoundment of the Little Tennessee River by the Tellico Dam because of the presence of the endangered snail darters.The ruling in Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill gave teeth to the new Endangered Species Act and helped to shape environmental law for decades to come, according to a statement from Yale.But lawmakers like Baker were still eager to see the dam completed and derided the decision as environmental overreach, seeing little reason to delay a major project for a seemingly minor fish. Representative John Duncan Sr., a fellow Tennessee Republican, called the snail darter a worthless, unsightly, minute, inedible minnow, according to the New York Times.The anti-fish brigade ultimately triumphed in 1979, however, by adding a rider that exempted the Tellico Dam from the Endangered Species Act to a spending bill. Jimmy Carter signed the whole bill into law, and the dam opened just a few months later.In the meantime, conservationists scrambled to save the small fish by moving it to other waterways, as David Kindy wrote for Smithsonian magazine in 2021. Their efforts resulted in a resurgence of the snail darter population that led to its removal from the endangered species list in 2022.U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland called its recovery a remarkable conservation milestone that tells a story about how controversy and polarization can evolve into cooperation and a big conservation success, according to the Associated Press.But Nears new study casts this entire history into doubt. A historical range map for the snail darter (Percina tanasi) in the Tennessee River watershed is shown in red, and the stargazing darter's (Percina uranidea) historical range is shown in blue. Ghezelayagh et al., Current Biology, 2024. Photographs courtesy of Uland Thomas and Jon Michael MollishJeffrey Simmons, a co-author of the study and former biologist with the TVA, was wading through the creeks near the Mississippi-Alabama border in 2015, when he thought he saw a snail darter far from where it was known to dwell. This apparent discovery prompted a team of scientists led by Ava Ghezelayagh, then an ecologist at Yale, to undertake anatomical and genetic research of the fish.Our approach combines analyses of the physical characteristics and the genetics, which scientists werent doing in the 1970s, Near says in the statement.Despite its legacy, the snail darter is not a distinct species, the authors of the study conclude.But the disputed fish has not left its controversy behind quite yet.Plater, the lawyer who defended the fish in court, takes issue with the study, calling the researchers lumpers instead of splitters, according to the New York Times. That means they tend toward reducing species with their research rather than expanding them.Whether he intends it or not, lumping is a great way to cut back on the Endangered Species Act, Plater says of Near to the New York Times.Near, for his part, argues that, while were losing the snail darter as a biological conservation icon, our findings demonstrate the capability of genomics, in addition to studying an organisms observable features, to accurately delimit species, he says in the statement. And, in other genetic and anatomical research, his teams have uncovered new species.Were discovering species that are truly imperiled, which helps us better understand where to devote resources to protect biodiversity, he adds.This is still a success story, Simmons says to the New York Times. Its listing under the Endangered Species Act worked, regardless of what you call this fish.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Animals, Biology, Congress, Conservation, Ecology, Endangered Species, Fish, Law, Water

For several months, archaeologists carried fragments of the shipwreck to the surface. Jose Antonio MoyaArchaeologists have raised a 2,600-year-old shipwreck from the waters near southeastern Spain.Divers initially located the vessel in 1994, according to CBS News Emily Mae Czachor. The 27-foot-long wreck, which had been carrying a load of lead ingots when it sank, was discovered near the town of Mazarrn.Known as the Mazarrn II, the ship was located just six feet beneath the surface of the Mediterranean, roughly 200 feet away from a beach called Playa de la Isla. It was covered in sand, which helped keep it hidden for centuries.Comena l'extracci del Mazarrn 2: un projecte pioner d'arqueologia subaqutica, liderat per la UVWatch on More recently, changes along the coastlineincluding coastal construction and shifting sea currentsmade the wreck site more vulnerable.The wreckage can no longer remain where it is because its sand protection is now disappearing, said Carlos de Juan, an archaeologist at the University of Valencia who led the excavation project, in a July 2024 statement. The wreckage has survived for centuries, but now it is time to roll up our sleeves and ensure that we can continue to enjoy this asset of cultural interest.For many years, the wreck had been covered by a protective metal box. But a group of experts who studied the wreck site between 2017 and 2019 found that the metal box was sinking and threatened to crush the shipwreck.In the summer of 2023, archaeologists began to formulate a plan to raise the shipwreck from the seafloor. They spent 560 hours diving at the wreck site to make detailed diagrams of its many cracks and fissures. The wreck will be conserved, protected and eventually reassembled. Jose Antonio MoyaIt is more reasonable to rescue the ship, treat it and exhibit it in a museum for people to enjoy it, rather than worrying every time a big storm arrives, de Juan toldReuters Emma Pinedo in June 2023.Between September and November 2024, a team of 14 divers carefully brought the wooden shipwreck to the surface, piece by piece. Now, those fragments are going to a labat the Museum of Underwater Archaeology in Cartagena for conservation and reconstruction. That work is expected to take at least four years, reportsEl Pas Virginia Vadillo.To preserve the ship, experts will start by removing the salt from each of the pieces, per El Pas. Next, they will apply resins to help fill in some of the places where the wood has rotted away. They will then freeze-dry the pieces before reassembling the ship.Conclou l'extracci del derelicte fenici Mazarrn IIWatch on Archaeologists think the ship belonged to thePhoenicians, a group of maritime traders and merchants who inhabited the eastern Mediterranean coast from around 1500 to 300 B.C.E.Mazarrn II is one of the few Phoenician-era shipwrecks thats still largely intact, and it could offer new insights into Phoenician shipbuilding techniques and culture, the archaeologists say.It will tell us what types of wood were used to build the boat, where it was built, what navigation was like at the time, the degradation processes of the wood, the contamination that may have occurred in shallow waters, saidAgustn Dez, a historian at the University of Valencia who also worked on the project, in the statement.Another shipwreck, called theMazarrn I, was discovered in the same area off the coast of southeastern Spain in 1993. Archaeologists raised it from the water two years later. After many years of conservation work, the ship went on display at the National Museum of Underwater Archaeology in 2005.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Adobe and HKUST researchers unveil TransPixar, a breakthrough AI system that creates transparent visual effects from text prompts.Read More

Atelico's new AI Engine doesn't require "prohibitively expensive cloud solutions"Founders say "we've built something different"Image credit: Studio Atelico News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on Jan. 8, 2025 Gaming Startup Studio Atelico has announced a new AI Engine to "allow game developers to deliver game experiences powered by GenAI that run on-device without requiring prohibitively expensive cloud solutions."The team said the Atelico AI Engine "significantly reduces costs for developers while also providing full control and flexibility thanks to its modular design."To showcase the engine, the team has built a tech demo called Generative Agents Realtime Playground (GARP) that "runs locally in real-time on a Nvidia RTX 3090 without incurring any additional costs." Its developers say it is "easy to embed in game engines" and is "a tool for harnessing AI to craft expansive worlds that respond to players in ways never thought possible."The revolution is upon us. GenAI is enabling new interactive experiences that have never been possible before," said CEO Piero Molino."However, the current, large-model approach that Cloud AI providers are taking is fundamentally flawed for video games. Game developers currently implementing GenAI in their games are struggling due to the high costs and the lack of fine-grained control needed in video game development."We've built something different - an AI Engine for video games that solves these problems by running on the players device and giving the developer a modular toolset to integrate in Unreal, Unity, and Godot. Our Atelico AI Engine finally makes GenAI possible for every game developer."