Just spotted this article from ComputerWorld about fake security software on Mac. You'll want to be knowledgeable about this threat. Apple discussions has more than 20 entries on this, with the most recent dated today, 5-2-11.
Jim Hamm sends us this from The Unofficial Apple Weblog with specifics for finding and deleting -- as well as preventing -- the MacDefender app. The article tells us to uncheck "Open 'safe' files after downloading" in Safari Preferences. And the writer closes with, "For those of you who haven't been hit by the MacDefender app, take care while downloading images for the next few weeks."
Who ARE These Mac People?
Are you a typical Mac person? Allen Laudenslager sends this survey report which is good for a chuckle, at least. He also sends a "thanks!" to John Carter for his earlier tip on how to add a link to your email. You'll find that entry back on April 1 with the title, "Mac Email Tip."
Prevent a Hard Drive Catastrophe (updated 8/26/2015)
John Carter to the rescue! This article on protecting your Mac against a catastrophic hard drive failure is still worth looking at. John refers to Macworld Hints as "THE place to look for tips and techniques about the Mac. However, you can spend a whole lot of time filtering through the thousands of submitted articles and comments to get a concise answer for your question. You might find just what you’re looking for or you might feel like you’re wasting your time. "For example, I did a search for 'time machine backup' (using the advanced search and searching titles only) and got 516 hits, the first 14 were comments and the rest were hints about different aspects of using Time Machine in connection with backups." John advises, "One of the best hints is 'Make a Bootable Backup.' This is one way to protect yourself against a catastrophic hard drive failure, but it doesn’t give you the option to boot up from an external hard drive and continue using the Time Machine disk for backups." So, read how to do it, and then do it. It's easy and it's logical.
PR Position Filled
De Prez Howard LaPittus announced to Saturday's PMUG meeting that Ann Schwab has volunteered for the PR position. Ann is now appointed to the Board and will specialize in public relations for our Mac group.
If you haven't already meet our smiling new gal, here's a little about Ann in her own words.
Ann Schwab is a new resident of 2 years to Prescott, moving from Orange County, Calif. Originally from a Naval family that moved often, Ann grew up in LA and attended college in the northwest. Working in Calif. as a speech therapist for the Anaheim High School district, she was a speech therapist at St. Jude in Fullerton for several years and at various rehab hospitals. Prior to that Ann had a banking career, but didn't find that it had enough verbal opportunities!!
"Moving to Prescott for semi-retirement, my current job is focused on school age clients and luckily I can do it in just half a week."
Ann has an adopted dog and cat who take a lot of energy. The dog is a Doberman who needs lots of walks, and luckily Prescott has wonderful trails and parks. She adds, "Bike riding is also favorite of mine and I am hoping to meet more people who ride."
She concludes, "The Mac users group was appealing because of networking opportunities, but also learning new ways to use and enjoy a computer. Most of my experience with computers was in my former life as a banker and more recently with assistive technologies for communicatively-handicapped persons. But, being at home in a beautiful place and using the computer to keep in touch with others is truly rewarding, and I am looking forward to learning more ways to do just that!"
Apple Support Communities Welcome You
Take a look at the new and improved Apple Discussion feature. Formerly the "Discussion Forum," it's been replaced with the Apple Support Communities. Art Gorski comments that when he was looking for the solution to a Mac problem that was the place to search, but this new system is a more social set of forums. Thanks, Art, for this link.
Adobe Critical Update
Adobe calls it a "critical update" and you'll want to read about it here. Thanks to Jim Hamm for alerting us this afternoon. Go to Adobe here to see what version you already have installed. Then go to this help page to specify settings you want for privacy, storage, security, notifications, playback settings, and peer-assisted networking panel. Are you giving permission for companies to access your computer's microphone and camera?
Ready to Blog
Ready to blog? Why? Why not? It's fun, it's easy. Take a tour, watch the video, read the Buzz. Maybe you've noticed this PMUG newsblog and have seen the results of the new template: "Simple." You have other choices in Template Designer.
(Double click to enlarge the following illustrations.)
| It's easy to post text, photos, links. You can restrict who can view it or set it up so it is available to all on the Internet. |
Note: you must allow Cookies in order to post to your blog, but you can delete them and change to "Never" when you're finished posting.
Like other features on Mac you will have fun experimenting and learning by doing. Take a look at other blogs and see what you like. Type "blog sites" and explore.
This is the menu bar for our PMUG blog.
This is the menu bar for our PMUG blog.
Try it -- you'll like it. If you have a blog ready to view let us know.
(The above is the April 16, 2011 handout at the PMUG meeting from Elaine Hardt.)
New IPv6 Info is Here
Boring? Sort of. But we do have a need to know. Jim Hamm keeps us on our toes with info about IPv6. Maybe a brush-up look at Wikipedia can get our brains going with the history, features, timeline, and references of the Internet Protocol. A chart lists Application Layer, Transport Layer, Internet Layer, and Link Layer. Scrolling down to the end notes it was last modified April 15, 2011. So far, so good.Now, we're ready to plunge into Jim's info. "This isn't something we need to sit up nights and worry about, but the availability of IPv4 addresses is coming to an end. Asia has recently run out. "Out of curiosity, I checked my internet connection with Cox Communications here in Scottsdale and it is only IPv4 at this time. I'll soon be back up in Prescott and will take this test with Cableone. I'd guess it is only IPv4 also, at this time. "What I wonder is, when ISPs start converting to IPv6 addresses, do the old IPv4 addresses have to be converted, or can a dual address system be operating?"
Privacy Features in Today's Update
Earlier today we found out that Apple plans to add a new privacy feature to Safari that keeps online advertising networks and other tracking tools from monitoring user activity. We posted this and we thanked David Passell for this info.
Later this afternoon after reading what MacObserver said up came notification for Security update 2011-002 for Leopard and Snow Leopard, iPhone, and Safari. Read all about it, and keep up with these great improvements.
Travel Adventure with iPad
The iPad is finding a home in outdoor sports. Jim Hamm suggests, "Take a read on this article. Be sure to watch the video on 'snowboarding with a splitboard.' Can't believe someone does that, and calls it fun. Look at some of the steep mountain sides they come down on. Mighty scary, and dangerous too. It's possible this was filmed with an iPad, but I'm not sure."
These tips for adventure travel from National Geographic conclude, "Starting in May, Apple is going to offer free travel app workshops for consumers at their 200+ U.S. stores. At these workshops, Apple instructors will show the latest and best travel apps available."
Botnet News
The FBI in an unusual move, closes in on a zombie PC gang involved in botnets. David Passell sends us this BBC news article dated 4-14-11. For more information read these two earlier reports (one) (two) about botnet crime. The second article states an estimated 2.2 million PCs in the US were found to be part of these networks of hijacked home computers.
Look at Lion
A sneak preview of Lion, Apple's new OS X 10.7, comes from Jim Hamm who mentions this About site. Going to Apple's site brings up big photos and more detailed descriptions. Read about new features such as App Store, Launchpad, full-screen apps, Mission control, Gestures and animations, Auto save, Versions (which records the evolution of a document as you create it every hour while you’re working on it), Resume, Mail 5 full-screen with improved search and Conversations that groups messages, AirDrop, All-new FileVault, and Lion Server. Sounds like fun!
Solid State Drives (SSD) Discussed
"Here is a good, understandable guide to solid state drives (SSD)," begins Jim Hamm. And now John Carter adds to the information.First, from Jim, "The article clarifies the importance of using a program like TRIM with an SSD. As I understand it, the new Mac laptops with Thunderbolt do support TRIM, and OS X 10.7 (Lion), when it comes out this summer, also supports TRIM. Whenever I purchase my next Mac laptop, it will be with SSD. I think this is the storage technology for the future, although, as the article states, spinning hard drives will be around for years." This article has a link to download or read online a 21 page "Hard Drive of the Future" booklet. John writes, "There’s no reason to wait until LION comes out to upgrade to an SDD with any OS. TRIM is not hardware dependent. You can use the Mac Disk Utility as explained here to fake a TRIM operation. In the MakeUseOf article, they identify several SSD vendors that provide standalone TRIM utilities, but probably not any that work with the Mac. "Be aware that you need to know which SATA interface to specify for the SSD. My iMac and MacBook Pro have the SATA I interface. The much faster and more expensive SSD drives are SATA II (3GB/s vs 1.5GB/s), and then the newest SATA III is 6GB/s. Please do NOT purchase a SATA II device to plug into a SATA I connector -- you do NOT get the speed advantage of the SATA II device." And John recommends we read this article.
Spring Cleaning for Mac
How do you keep your Mac keyboard - trackpad - Mighty Mouse - etc. clean? With spring cleaning in mind I queried Ruth Davis who spoke to PMUG last year. She passes along info from support.apple:
Scroll down the page for cleaning tips for iPads, iPhones, iPods, Displays, Computers and Peripherals.
Thanks to Macintosh trainer Ruth Davis, who publishes the Mac to School Tip of the Week for more than 400 subscribers. In closing she adds, "If you want to feel more confident and be more productive on your Mac, sign up for a FREE subscription to the tips at www.mac2school.com."
Speed Up Your Mac
A free system maintenance and cleaning utility for Intel Mac OS X 10.6 or later is brought to our attention by John Carter. He asks, "Does it take a long time to launch an application? Tired of waiting for 20 seconds or more for iPhoto to come up? Would 4 seconds be better? Is Mail launching almost instantly?
"You can vastly improve the performance of your Mac by running a third party application called Maintenance. If it doesn't automatically install in Applications > Utilities, I suggest moving it there."
John suggests, "When you run Maintenance, I recommend selecting all the options at least the first time. Otherwise, the defaults are probably good enough unless you don’t see a major improvement in the time to launch your favorite application.
"Be aware that after running Maintenance, the first time you launch any application it will take much longer. Also, if you use Spotlight to find and launch an application it won’t be found the first time you attempt to find an application after running Maintenance, so you have to launch the application from Finder the first time. In addition, it will take longer the first time you are able to launch an application from Spotlight after running Maintenance, but subsequent launches are much quicker.
"To confirm that running Maintenance actually improves the launch time, I opened Gimp before running Maintenance. The time was 22 seconds. Then I ran Maintenance. The first time I opened Gimp it took 28 seconds. I closed Gimp and X11 (which is required for Gimp) and reopened Gimp. It took 8 seconds. A similar performance improvement was noticed with iPhoto and NeoOffice. Mail now launches almost instantly (after the first time)."
John concludes, "Actually, Maintenance is provided by the same developer that provides Onyx, a similar, free application. And the download page for Titanium shows different versions of the apps for different versions of Mac. (I've got to look deeper into Deeper. Pun Intended) I have used Onyx, but never got the performance improvement from it like I did by using Maintenance. Each application has its own benefits and has different features."
A Look Back at the Osborne 1 Computer (updated 8/26/2015)
Remember back to April, 1981? This article makes an interesting observation of the Osborne 1. Jim Hamm remarks, "I knew nothing of the Osborne 1 then, and had the same lack of knowledge about computers: period. If any of you had or used an Osborne 1, I'd be interested in hearing about it."
Summary of Internet Security
This report from ArsTechnica declares that social networking sites are a huge target for malware. They also mention that URL shortening services mask the actual URL. Smartphones are attracting malware. Thanks to Jim Hamm for keeping us informed.
Do Taxes Online? Consider This . . .
It's Tax Time and here's a sobering message from Jim Hamm first thing this morning. He writes, "According to this article, Intuit was not affected by the recent hack into Epsilon's e-mail data file, but warns its customers to be careful anyway. We use Intuit's Turbo Tax online system to do our tax return each year. The possibility of a breach of a company's security system is one downside, and risk, of storing personal data online. But, with the popularity of online shopping, banking, etc., it's almost impossible not to do so."
Listen to the Music
Ah, time for a break from the really serious stuff. How about some music? Where do you keep yours? Jim Hamm suggests we store music on an external hard drive. He says he's not a big fan of cloud storage or of streaming music from the cloud. There's a lot of useful info and links in this article about Amazon's Cloud Drive and Cloud Player.
Things About Trojans You Need to Know
Ever watchful, here's from Jim Hamm. With the title, "I Smell a RAT" we know that there's something here to read! What are trojans and how do you get them? How do you protect your Mac? Jim comments, "It's oft been said the best protection from the malware lies between the chair and the computer!" While you're at it, you might want to sign up to get Small Dog Electronics' Tech Tails.