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Content caching question
#52690 10/15/19 12:14 AM
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The top image here shows my pref setting, but, as per the bottom image, it doesn't seem to be sticking.

Am I misunderstanding the pref or experiencing a bug?

This is relatively new, but I haven't upgraded to Safari 13, so it began in some incarnation of Safari 12.


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Re: Content caching question
artie505 #52692 10/15/19 12:10 PM
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I believe you are misunderstanding the pref. It took me a good while to sort it out and calling it CONTENT caching certainly doesn't help!

Content caching is for sharing downloads, etc. with other computers on your LAN. Basically allowing one computer to act as a download server for all the other computers on your LAN. The way it works is when it is turned on and the sharing computer downloads, caches, and installs say a MacOS update, the other Macs on your LAN will automatically discover the shared cache and instead of downloading the update from the internet, they will download it from the sharing computer's cache. I have no idea how the discovery process works. confused

Safari, on the other hand downloads and caches lots of website stuff as part of its normal operation, but those caches are not shared. You definitely want Safari to cache website content as it greatly improves overall performance.

I have a computer on my LAN with content caching turned on and have had for over a year. Personally I have not noticed any difference in download performance. crazy


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

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Re: Content caching question
joemikeb #52696 10/15/19 02:28 PM
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Thanks for clearing that up.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Content caching question
artie505 #52697 10/15/19 03:12 PM
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In that case, is there any way to turn Safari's caching off?

I'm finding that those items that appear in Activity Monitor are accumulating into the multi-GB range and slowing things down, and to make matters worse, they mostly relate to websites that I look at once and am done with.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Content caching question
artie505 #52699 10/15/19 05:42 PM
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I seem to recall from several years back there was a Safari setting, but that seems to have gone by the board.

There is an advanced command in MacPilot to disable Safari caching, but unlike most MacPilot commands it is a proprietary script and not a unix command string and is not revealed. frown



If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Content caching question
joemikeb #52704 10/16/19 11:52 AM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
I seem to recall from several years back there was a Safari setting, but that seems to have gone by the board.

There is an advanced command in MacPilot to disable Safari caching, but unlike most MacPilot commands it is a proprietary script and not a unix command string and is not revealed. frown

Now you mention it, there was an option under Develop. but it never worked for me, and I'd long since forgotten about it.

The MacPilot command would be nice, but it's simply not worth $80.

This caching thing is real PIA, because after I've bounced around the web for a while I find large portions of my RAM tied up in Cached Safari Web Content, and it slows my MBP down.

Has it always been this way, but just not obvious?

I don't recall having seen so much of my RAM in use as a matter of course in the past.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Content caching question
artie505 #52709 10/16/19 03:39 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
The MacPilot command would be nice, but it's simply not worth $80.

I bought MacPilot years ago for a lot less than $80 and kept it up to date, because it offers so many (over 1,000) "hidden" configuration options. I find it immensely useful and use it frequently.

Originally Posted By: artie505
This caching thing is real PIA, because after I've bounced around the web for a while I find large portions of my RAM tied up in Cached Safari Web Content, and it slows my MBP down.

Has it always been this way, but just not obvious?

Caching is the basic tool used by all browsers to speed downloads and backing up to previously visited pages, so yes it always has been "this way". Most of that caching is in storage on the hard drive, not in memory (RAM).

Originally Posted By: artie505
I don't recall having seen so much of my RAM in use as a matter of course in the past.

Beginning in Sierra, Apple made major changes in virtual memory management using compressed RAM and other techniques to MINIMIZE the use of storage based swap files by MAXIMIZING the use of RAM. Much swap file storage has been transferred from storage to compressed storage in RAM because that creates much faster system throughput. That is also why memory pressure has supplanted swap file usage as a way of determining if you have enough RAM on your system. If you aren't seeing a LOT more use of RAM then there is something seriously wrong somewhere.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Content caching question
joemikeb #52715 10/17/19 10:24 AM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
I bought MacPilot years ago for a lot less than $80 and kept it up to date, because it offers so many (over 1,000) "hidden" configuration options. I find it immensely useful and use it frequently.

I've looked at it numerous times but have never been drawn to it, its MacUpdate reviews having contributed mightily to that.

I wonder if people are actually paying $80 for it? Its MU screenshots aren't the least bit of a sell.

Originally Posted By: joemikeb
Much swap file storage has been transferred from storage to compressed storage in RAM because that creates much faster system throughput. That is also why memory pressure has supplanted swap file usage as a way of determining if you have enough RAM on your system. If you aren't seeing a LOT more use of RAM then there is something seriously wrong somewhere.

Yes, I am seeing a LOT more RAM usage, and I've decided that as long as Activity Monitor tells me this, I'll be best off living sans MenuMeters, which seems to have fallen behind the times and gives me readings that are both no longer relevant and aggravating.

It would be nice, though, if Safari Web Content (Cached) were identified by website, same as open tabs, i.e. https://www.ebay.com, so they could be quit individually, rather than en masse.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Content caching question
joemikeb #52757 10/26/19 01:07 AM
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I just noticed that MacPilot has got a new price structure:

Optional Plan: Lifetime License (no subscription) - $99
UPGRADES ARE FREE FOR LIFE!
or
Price: USD$2.50 PER MONTH (BILLED ANNUALLY)


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Content caching question
artie505 #52758 10/26/19 03:00 PM
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Although I would not have paid $99 for MacPilot when I first got it, even if it had all of the additional features that have added over the years, but I may have paid that much for upgrades in the long run. Be that as it may I am now at the “free upgrades for life” point and use it enough to make it worthwhile keeping around.

Advertising screenshots cannot begin to tell the story. There is nothing in MacPilot that cannot be done through the command line IF you are aware the capability exists and know where to find it. (Say you have spent 1,000 or so hours pouring over the developer’s documentation for MacOS and the major Apple and third party apps.)

To me MacPilot is NOT a must have utility nor is it one you are likely to realize the value of until you have used it. It was only after browsing through its well over 1,000 unpublished preference settings that I began to appreciate the possibilities for customizing the user experience. While I do not consider MacPilot an essential like TinkerTool, I put it in the nice to have category, sometimes rising to the really nice to have, or even thank goodness I have it categories.

At this point I am obligated to say, “I have no pecuniary or other relationship with MacPilot or its publishers other than that of a satisfied customer.”


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Content caching question
joemikeb #52759 10/26/19 11:49 PM
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I forgot to point out that MacPilot cost only $79 ten days ago (also including free upgrades for life, I think).

That's a pretty steep price increase!

At $99, it's as pricey, but, to me, anyhow, nowhere near as "sexy" as DiskWarrior, TechTool Pro, Toast, et al.

My memory is fuzzy on this, but I'm pretty sure that MacPilot began life as a $15 app, and it wasn't long enough ago to hang your hat on inflation.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Content caching question
artie505 #52761 10/27/19 02:40 PM
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Originally Posted By: artie505
My memory is fuzzy on this, but I'm pretty sure that MacPilot began life as a $15 app, and it wasn't long enough ago to hang your hat on inflation.

Certainly it didn't cost enough for me to remember what it cost and although a LOT of additional functionality has been added, $99 is steep — even for a lifetime license, and $2.50 a month seems the upper limit of what I would be willing to pay for a subscription.

The software subscription pricing model is, for good or ill, the wave of the future as software developers struggle to maintain sufficient cash flow to keep their doors open and support their products in a slowly but steadily shrinking market. I have to give Koingo credit for their effort to offer an alternative that resembles the old price model that served everyone so well when the computer market was expanding exponentially. More and more developers are being forced to a subscription pricing model. Just this week I found that Quicken is now subscription only 😠, and even my WiFi router (Plume) has moved to a subscription basis — but they have pledged to always honor and support the original lifetime licenses. 😃

I just looked at several of Koingo's apps and the $99 lifetime license or $2.50 per month subscription seems to be their standard pricing for a SOLO license/subscription (they offer six different price ranges, seven if you include the Utility bundle). I used to use their AirRadar, MacClense, and MacPilot, but only MacPilot remains because the others were priced out of range of my perceived utility value. Koingo's Senior/Student rate of $49 for a lifetime license ($1.50/mo subscription) might fit my personal cost/benefit ratio for some of their products and I am unquestionably a senior. Whether Koingo has arrived at a viable price point for their market, only time will tell.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein

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