Apple M1 MacBook - XCode update panic issues

I ordered a first-edition Apple MacBook Pro (with M1 chip) following the product announcement in August 2020. There were some challenges getting my favorite tools on-board but I ultimately got them all resolved and the system has been working great!

This past couple of days, however, the system has started taking spontaneous panics occasionally 😟 I can't be sure, but it seems like it may be related to the recently distributed XCode 12.5.1 update. First, the update never completes - it seems to just hang towards the end. And ever since it went partially on, the panics have started.

I hope Apple will resolve the issue soon, as the user experience is currently like driving down a road with random landmines! 😨🤞

Mac Dock!

Getting all the external I/O connections hooked up to your MacBook can be a daunting task! This nice tethered dock by Henge Docks provides a nice all-in-one solution via USB 3.1 for around $199 MSRP. When you consider that a single Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter goes for around $30, the price tag to "Solve Everything" may not be that bad.

Installing Robot Framework on a MacBook

I recently faced challenges getting the open source Robot Framework to work on my MacBook, which is running OS X El Capitan. In general, the installation process should be trivial, but here's what finally worked:

1. If you have the brew package manager installed, update it:
   
       brew update
   
2. Use brew to install (or upgrade) the chromedriver program:
   
     brew upgrade chromedriver
   
3. Make and use a Python virtualenv for the framework installation:
   
     pip install --upgrade virtualenv
     source virtualenvwrapper.sh  # Note: Depends on where virtualenvwrapper.sh was installed to.
     mkvirtualenv robotframework
     workon robotframework
     cdvirtualenv
4. Install the necessary framework packages:
   
     pip install --upgrade robotframework
     pip install --upgrade robotframework-selenium2library
     pip install --upgrade requests

Now, you'll be able to use the robot command to run test scripts OK :-)