Jun 29, 2010

Are you looking in you Macintosh OS X Activity Monitor?  Do you see a process called hidd?  What is it?  Why is it consuming cpu and memory? Human Interface Device Daemon The hidd service is the Human Interface Device Daemon.  In fact, the hidd service is required for your Mac to operate properly as it is responsible for the operation of any human input...

Jan 9, 2010

If like me, you keep an eye on the Mac OSX Activity Monitor, you’ve likely noticed a process running called securityd and wondered what it is for?  Why is running? Securityd is the Macintosh OSX process that handles and maintains security contexts and arbitrates cryptographic operations and Security Authorizations.  I know I know, what does all that...

Jan 9, 2010

If like me, you keep an eye on the Mac OSX activity monitor, then you’ve likely seen ntpd and wonder what the heck it is. NTPD is the Unix (or in this case Macintosh OSX) Network Time Protocol Daemon.  NTPD is the service that your Macintosh computer uses to keep the time up to date (assuming you are using the system default setting – Set Date and Time...

Dec 14, 2009

If like me, you keep an eye on the Mac OSX activity monitor, then you’ve likely seen kernel_task and wonder what the heck it is. Well, we’re going to answer that today. A bit of background Mach is one of the more successful stories in microkernel development, Mac OS X is based around the Mach microkernel, as well as the NeXTStep of old, and even...

If like me, you keep an eye on the Mac OSX activity monitor, then you’ve likely seen cupsd and wonder what the heck it is. cupsd is the scheduler for the Common UNIX Printing System and used by Mac OSX. It implements a printing system based upon the Internet Printing Protocol, version 1.1. If no options are specified on the command-line then the default...

So you’re digging around your Macintosh activity monitor and you spot the process “ControlCenter” and now your wondering “Is it spyware or malware?”   The answer is simple. ControlCenter is the menubar application provided by Brother. It is for connecting to and operating remote Brother Printers and All-in-One devices.  It is...