Hello There Macintosh User!
If you are getting this email you have sometime been a client of mine — Thank you for your past custom!
I will be away from Wednesday 21 October to Friday 6 November.
1. Security on Your Mac: Nowadays there are a whole raft of things to be aware of but viruses and spyware are not part of them — yet! Phishing is responding to a false email and giving out your login details which can then be used by someone to pilfer money from your online accounts. If you get an email that looks like it comes from your bank asking that you ‘check the security’ of their website or many similar, seemingly reasonable requests, ignore it. Banks never send emails like that. Almost any email from a bank will be bogus, particularly if containing requests for information of any kind. Online Banking Two things about this useful service: 1) never go to the bank website from a link of any kind. Both an email link or from another website. Only ever type in the address in your browser and then bookmark it and use your own bookmark from then on to go to their login page. 2) when you finish the session and logout of the bank website close the page or tab you were using or quit the browser and reopen it. This makes it much harder for dodgy types (usually PC users!) to get at your user name password. Security Updates from Apple occur regularly via Software Update and are always worth installing as they patch security holes that appear in computer software. Bogus Virus Alerts come from websites that have sophisticated coding that pops up alert messages on your screen telling you that you have a virus that appear to come from your computer. They usually urge you to download and install anti-virus software that is often actually Spyware. Ignore them and keep away from the website. Viruses and Spyware do not exist for the Mac platform —yet! Perhaps they will appear one day but not so far. Free anti-virus software is available for the Mac from Clam XAV so if you want to be double sure, you can download it and sleep better. I don’t but I have faith…! http://www.clamxav.com Worms and Trojans are little bits of code that are similar to viruses in that they get into your computer but they don’t infect it and mess up the workings of the machine. They can be sent to other computers when you send them an email with a file attached that contains the Trojan but they can’t do it themselves. Big difference to a self-replicating virus. There is 1 Trojan that infects Microsoft Word documents rendering them Read-only so they can’t be edited. This can infect Word documents on the Mac and can be sent on to other Macs and PCs. Clam XAV will get rid of it but if you discover infected documents they will need to be trashed… Firewall This is built-in on all Macs, no need to install anything. Look in the System Preferences/Security and click the Firewall tab then turn it on. Also activate Stealth mode which is under the Advanced button. Keeps your computer incognito when online.
2. Arduino: Seems like this is something to control various devices like windows, lighting, freezers in fact almost anything. All Open Source, ie free software-wise and cheap hardware-wise, with off the shelf components, it is in the early stages of letting regular users control any physical things they like: fridges, security (for those of you in cities) anything that could do with being automated in fact. Very interesting indeed. http://www.arduino.cc/
3. Completely Novel: Is a new way to publish your book very cheaply with setup costs or minimum print run. You can also to read heaps of books by other writers for free or buy books. This is a new attempt to offer a more end user (that’s you) controlled approach to publishing and reading that deserves to be a success. http://www.completelynovel.com
4. Search and Replace: A free easy to use, powerful tool to find and replace text in files, rename files and folders sequentially and alter their names, add the creation or modification date to the file name or trim the beginning or end of file names. A very useful tool. http://search-replace.fr.tc/
5. doubleTwist: Created by the guy who cracked DVD encryption, doubleTwist is an alternative iTunes that lets any iPod or other MP3 player; iPhone or any other phone, connect to your music library and buy music from Amazon. Simple free and easy, but you either use iTunes or this. http://www.doubletwist.com/dt/Home/Index.dt
6. 3% of the Market?! : We always hear how Apple has 3 or 4% of the computer market but a more realistic view is held by Forbes who state that in the ‘over US$1000’ sector in the USA, Apple have 90% of the market. So for any computer costing over 2 grand Australian Apple sell 90% of them! Puts a slightly different slant on the stats doesn’t it. All those horrible cheap and nasty PCs that fall apart in 10 minutes are made for the great unwashed all over the world and we have our classy, slightly pricey machines! http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/17/travlos-iphone-china-intelligent-investing-apple.html
7. Handy Mail and Address Book Scripts: These scripts are simple and automate thing like getting multiple addresses from an email, finding duplicate emails and many others. http://homepage.mac.com/aamann/Mail_Scripts.html
8. iMovie Update: The latest incremental update to the current iMovie, version 8.05 adds support for a new video format called iFrame which creates smaller file sizes with high quality. It is beginning to be adapted in the latest cameras so if you are about to buy one check to see if it supports iFrame.
9. Predictive Text In Documents: If you select a character in a file and hit the Escape key a drop down menu will appear with a heap of suggestions you can choose from. Works in many applications…
10. BSMUG: The Byron Shire Macintosh User Group (BSMUG) Catering for Mac beginners as well as experienced Mac users. Visit the website and the forum for more information: http://bsmug.ozshop.net http://www.ozshop.net/ozforum/index.php 11. A Reminder of My Rates: I charge $88 per hour including GST. No call-out fee or travel charge in the Byron Shire. Half hour minimum. Telephone support costs the same in 15 minute increments. Email support is still free! Please include plenty of detail in your email inquiries. Serving the Byron Macintosh community for over 8 years.
Items for Sale is a free monthly service for my Mailing List. If you want to list something for sale send me the full description/specifications and contact details. Until next time, Thank you Tommi ;>)
Mr Macintosh Tom Hain PO Box 1040 Byron Bay NSW 2481 6685 5504 041 840 8869