Wednesday, November 28, 2007

20 Terminal Commands for Hidden Settings in Leopard

One-line Terminal commands for changing hidden preferences in Mac OS X Leopard. Change settings for Spaces, Stacks, iCal, Spotlight, Dock, Finder, Safari and Time Machine that aren't accessible through the application or system preferences. All are easily reversed using a different Terminal Command.

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Windows XP Speed Boost Coming with SP3

Running an Office productivity test suite on a preview version of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, Devil Mountain discovered a 10 percent performance boost over the current version of Windows XP, the company reported on its blog. "Vista's biggest competition isn't Apple or Novell or Red Hat; it's Microsoft itself, it's XP," Benjamin Gray, an analyst at Forrester Research, said about that survey. With SP3 due for release in the first quarter of 2008, many enterprises are interested in extending the lifecycle of XP for quite a bit longer before taking the plunge into Vista.

read more | digg story

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Apple Digital Lifestyle

There is now a web site called The Digital Lifestyle that offers 24 hour video coverage of every thing Apple. You will see computers, iPod, iPhones and any thing else they can find that deals with Apple products. So I did a brief checkout of the site and they seem to have 100 viewers most of the time. I hope they will last!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Stop Dressing Your Daughter Like a Prostitute

This is an interesting story from The New York Sun. " The princess had just graduated to a size seven when everything went to hell. We headed for our favorite department store, ready to take that leap into the world of 7–16. Bye-bye, 4–6X, I thought to myself with a tug of sadness. My baby was growing up, and apparently into a prostitute. "There must be some mistake," I said. "These are, well, slutty-looking. I'm talking about clothes for a little girl in first grade." "That's all we've got." "But these look like things a hooker would wear!" She smiled sadly. "You have no idea how many times I hear that every day."

read more | digg story

Desktop Evolution: Windows and Mac OS Comparison (PIC)

Since Windows 95 dropped more than a decade ago, our desktops have evolved to no end. Having recently had a fresh Leopard install on our Macs, we at Gizmodo thought we would take a look back, with a side-by-side comparison of Windows and Mac operating systems. All the major releases are here, and it is interesting to see the general progression made. Jump for our ridiculously large and awesome image.

read more | digg story

Monday, November 19, 2007

Top 15 Leopard Hints

It’s been almost a month since Leopard was officially released, and in that month we’ve had some time to play with the OS and get to know it. Here are the Top 15 Leopard Hints we’ve come across this past month.

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How to take a course at MIT free -- at home

"You may not have the grades, the money or even the means to get to a physics class with one of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's best lecturers.But if you have an Internet connection anywhere in the world, you can watch a video of the Dutch-born physics professor, Walter Lewin, swinging on a cable across the front of a lecture hall in his "Classical Mechanics" course to demonstrate that weight doesn't affect the time it takes a pendulum to complete a cycle of motion. And you can do this for free."

read more | digg story

The Tao of Dilbert

Most IT people and they will agree that many times Dilbert reflects their life at the office. How many times have you read the comic and said to yourself oh that sounds like so and so at my office?

 Amazon started selling Kindle an electronic book, newspaper, and blog reading portable device for $399.00. Now at $400 bucks would you buy it? I mean that's the same as buying another iPhone if you have one. Do you really hate carrying around a paper book so much that you would spend $400 bucks???

PC Magazine recently pointed out the Microsoft's Zune can't win when compared to the iPod. I agree and I think they should spend their efforts on oh lets say fixing all the problems with Vista. Really I think the big problem with Microsoft (other then stealing ideas, squishing competition) is that they lack focus. If they put all their effort into a few core area's then they might actually produce some great products.

The tinfoil hat groupies were busy this week tossing out conspiracy theories about how Apple is tracking you via the iPhone and in the end their claims have been found to be bogus

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Bad Security?

It seems like a never ending cat and mouse game between the hackers and the software programmers. To be sure much if the holes boil down to bad programing habits and also lack of imagination as it why on earth would some one do that? 

Microsoft Windows XP is a very popular OS and its very common so no surprise this week when "a Microsoft executive calls the ease with which two British e-crime specialists managed to hack into a Windows XP computer as both enlightening and frightening." It very common for an novice computer user to buy a computer and toss it on the Internet with out patching it. "After all who has time for that I have work to do!" I have been told my more then one manager the he was frustrated that I was always patching systems. "After all I can just go down to the computer store an buy a computer from the store and it's ready to go!" Scary right? Well all too common a mind set that IT Pro have to deal with.

This week a hacker found over 492,000 unprotected Oracle & Microsoft SQL database servers connected directly to the internet an not even protected by a firewall. True even with a good firewall it's possible to use an SQL injection attack to nuke a database. But IMHO some security is better then none at all. 

Even if you use a smart phone you may not be totally safe. Before Apple released the iPhone 1.1.2 patch there was a security hole that users we using to add software to their iPhone. The Fast Company recently published a story about how it might be possible to hack an iPhone. Click here to see the video.


Digg!

Friday, November 16, 2007

Apple Store Black Friday Sale

Well it's that time of year where there may be deals to be had on computers so if your computer is feeling a bit slow then swing by Apples online store on November the 23rd and see what they have on sale it might save you a few dollars on your next computer purchase. While you may be a PC person now I strongly suggest you take a few moments and see what Apple has to offer (really its the best of both worlds). If you need additional help Walt Mossberg has a great FAQ.

This week Apple has released a number of patches and updates some of the most notable are the Tiger 10.4.11 and Leopard 10.5.1 and Safari for Windows updates. In both causes I recommend you NOT use software update and go directly to the Apple web site and download the combo updaters. Don't be thrown for a loop only the Tiger update is listed as a combo updater however if you look at the leopard update you will notice that it's much larger then the one offered via software update so it's a combo update. 

Thursday, November 15, 2007

The Vista Death Watch

So what can Microsoft do to improve things with Vista? Here are three suggestions:Microsoft has extended the life of Windows XP because Vista has simply not shown any life in the market. We have to begin to ask ourselves if we are really looking at Windows Me/2007, destined to be a disdained flop. By all estimates the number of Vista installations hovers around the number of Macs in use.1. It can give up on the stupid variations and lower the price on the one good Vista, Vista Ultimate. I’d say $99 would be a price everyone can live with.2. Microsoft can scuttle the entire product. Why not? Work on a whole new OS starting today with one team and work on SP3 for XP with another team to keep users on Windows.3. Roll out Vista 2.0. Figure out some way to add some nifty features, perhaps stolen from the next version of the Mac OS. Bring in some outside designers if you have to. Oh, and lower the price on this one, too.

read more | digg story

Why English isn’t the only language you should know

"Although English is spoken by almost 500 million people around the world, it is impossible to deny how countries such as China, Japan, Russia and India are becoming increasingly important, both in the world of politics and the world of business. Here are some reasons to expand your horizon and learn a new language." Chinese & Japanese are not that easy to learn. Spanish is much simpler at least for me in California as even if you don't want to learn its almost impossible not to pickup some thing. However as for myself I am working on Russian. IMHO think China & Russia offer good opportunities for business now and in the future.

read more | digg story

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

iPhone selling like hot cakes in Europe

Well The iPhone is selling well in Europe and despite the inclement weather in the UK many waited in long lines just like in the USA while some stores reported almost no lines. There are reports that O2 sold iPhones at the fast and furious rate of 4.2 per second across all authorized outlets for around 70,000 units and O2 said that the iPhone has been the fastest selling device they have ever sold.

StarWars HelpDesk


There are reports that Apple is working on a new ultra-light notebook. The notebook will ship with Leopard and may even have a NAND Flash drive. However the rumor mills can't seem to find out if the 12" or 13" or if it will have a internal optical drive or an external one.

If you have a Mac Pro tower with PCI-E a slot and you want the best performance from your computer. Then check out the Expansion Slot Utility located in /System/Library/ Core Services. Once you have your optimum settings selected you will need to save them and reboot.

Monday, November 12, 2007

The SNL iPhone sketch that never aired

Gizmodo.com has posted a very funny Saturday Night Live iPhone sketch that was never aired for some reason. The tipster who filled us in on the real story behind the hacked iPhone that appeared on Saturday Night Live also linked us to this video which never aired that night, cut for another sketch. In fact, it may be the last in the series ever produced given the recent writers strike.

read more | digg story

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Leopard spanks Vista!

Today Computerworld wrote that  "There's really no contest. Tiger is a better OS that Vista, and there are no long-term downsides to Leopard. Vista doesn't measure up. " I also found and interesting article about the myth that buying a Apple costs more then a PC. The author explains how that PC you are thinking of buying really will cost more then the an Apple Macintosh would. Looks like Apple is also working on 10.5.1 and it's said to have at least two dozen fixes. Also included are updates to Leopards FireWall. iLounge talks about the secrets & features of iTunes 7.5.  My odd bit of interesting news for the day was a Digg Story the spooky side of Scientology




Sunday, November 4, 2007

Interesting news from Europe & USA

There have been a flurry of articles on the net this weekend and I am sure more will follow this week talking about the iPhone (part touch iPod and phone) that will start selling in the UK this Friday. The iPhone is going to do wonders for Apples bottom line and so far the iPhone has been a total success even though it's not selling overseas yet un-lockers have been shipping them to needy buyers. But that's not all Macintosh sales have seen a strong increase and that's good news all around. Those of us in the USA who travel can now enjoy the new AT&T international plan with rates starting as low as $25! 

What about those rude cell phone users doesn't it make you crazy the way they yell into their phone and then give you the evil eye for daring to look their way? Some people it seems lack the common sense to step out side or if that's not possible talk in a whisper. After all do we really need to know what outfit your wearing in the morning or what an idiot your boyfriend is? Well now there is a solution, however lets just say it's not legal but oh does it sound fun! 

Not only those who are developers might find the article "Why Cocoa Bloat is Nonsense" an interesting read. 

I am sure you have all had a chance to hear about how Leopard is a security risk because they have an open firewall. Well that's in part true ipfw only has one rule that allows all incoming traffic but then it routes that traffic to a new custom Apple firewall. So its a bit of a mystery as to why Apple went the custom route for their firewall but I am sure they will be forthcoming with details soon.

Asus is shipping the Eee PC starting at $399. This PC is running a custom Linux install that is said to be very simple for new computer users to learn. However the Eee PC seems to suffer from a lack a space to store your documents or even install new programs. The Eee PC is very small and light but still even if Im a new user I want room to grow. This weekend I know I saw an ad in the local news paper saying they were selling an Acer laptop with Windows Vista for $399 so I am not sure what the advantage of buying an Eee PC would be? I hear if you buy the Eee PC in bulk then the price drops to $199. I think Id save my money for a MacBook.

Digg!

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Tidbits from around the Internet

Time Magazine online has said that the Invention of the year is the iPhone. While I don't personally have an iPhone yet I want one! I have used Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Palm phones and they just don't stack up to the iPhone. I have yet to meet a person who owns and iPhone say they hate it.

Heros actress Hayden Panettiere recently was in Japan attempting in vain to save some dolphins  children should not click on this link (WARNING GRAPHIC). If you have a moment swing by her my-space page and well I learn something new every day as it looks like she can sing too!

Oh my gosh there is a new virus for OS X, NOT! There have been a plethora of articles on the Internet today all talking about security problems with OS X and a new virus. Nothing has changed and OS X 10.5 is still one of the most secure operating systems in the world not matter how much others might not like it. However nothing will save you on any OS if you download a program and double click it. So no there is no OS X virus but there is a trojan that can be found if visit porn sites. Even if that were to change remember as of today there are no Macintosh viruses and there is virtually no malware that is targeting Leopard and one new Trojan does not change this fact. So if it makes you sleep better to buy anti-virus software (there is a free option too) for our Mac then by all means do so. But its not required as in the Windows word. While we are at it here is short list of how to avoid a virus on your computer:
1) Don't go to porn sites!
2) Don't go to sites that offer pirate (stolen) software or music!
3) Turn on your computers FireWall software.
3) If you purchased anti-virus software don't be cheap pay for your updates. Outdated software is useless.

AppleInsider has written a very informative article not only covering the early origins of Apple Developer tools but all the new features of the Apple Developer tools for Leopard. Some have complained that Leopard does not have the most current Java 6, but really most corporations as still a version behind so it's really much ado about nothing.