The Tips - Mac Kung Fu - page 374

Creating a Hardware and Software Snapshot
If you just want to dump all the hardware capabilities of your Mac into a file,
along with what software you have installed—perhaps for sending to somebody
else via email—you can open a Terminal window and type the following:
SYSTEM_PROFILER -XML -DETAILLEVEL FULL > ~/DOCUMENTS/SYSTEMPROFILE.SPX
This will generate a SYSTEMPROFILE.SPX file in your DOCUMENTS folder that, when
double-clicked, will open in the System Profiler app for easy reading. Thus,
this is the best format for sending to another Mac user. If you want a plain-
text version for viewing on just about any computer, the following command
will output a simple SYSTEMPROFILE.TXT file in your DOCUMENTS folder containing the
same extensive information:
SYSTEM_PROFILER -DETAILLEVEL FULL > ~/DOCUMENTS/SYSTEMPROFILE.TXT
Once again, be aware that personal information is included in the dump,
such as your username and Mac's hardware serial number.
Tip 361
Search for Carriage Returns and Tabs
Holding OPTION while hitting TAB or RETURN within a Find or Find and Replace
dialog box in most OS X apps will insert an “invisible” tab or carriage return
character, allowing you to search for tabs and carriage returns within the
document. Such invisibles can be combined with any other search term.
Tip 362
Work Better in Sunlight
If you have a portable Mac, you might know how difficult it can be to see the
screen in very bright and sunny conditions, even with the screen illumination
turned up full. One solution is to invert the screen colors so that any text
becomes white against a black background. To do this, hit OPTION + COMMAND +F5
so the Accessibility palette opens, and then check Invert Display Colors under
the Display heading. Repeat later to restore screen colors to normal.