The Matrix Data Bank » Macintosh

OS X and iOS are not jails

Benjamin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:39:44 +0000

The Unofficial Apple Weblog, dissect Richard Stallman, and discuss why OS X and iOS are not jails.

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How Sandboxing may not be the answer for Mac OS X…

Benjamin — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:44:22 +0000

Will Shipley discuss how Sandboxing may not be the security bandaid that Apple is promoting it to be…

The Mac needs to be as secure as the iPhone. The good news is Apple already has the tools. The bad news is they are forcing developers to use the wrong ones.

There are three primary ways Apple increases security of applications running on the Mac and the iPhone: Sandboxing, Code Auditing, and Certification. While all these are incrementally valuable, none is perfect on its own.

The problem Mac developers are facing is that the two that Apple is enforcing on the Mac App Store (Sandboxing and Code Auditing) are implemented currently to be actively bad for developers and not particularly good for users. And the method that would provide the most benefit for developers and users (Certification) isn’t enforced broadly enough to be useful.

Real Security in Mac OS X Requires Apple-Signed Certificates.

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Wozniak Tearfully Remembers His Friend Steve

Benjamin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:12:44 +0000

Make posted an Associated Press Interview of Steve Wozniak (Apple Co-Founder) regarding Steve Jobs death. This was recorded on October 6, 2011.

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Ripping Out iCal’s Torn Page

Benjamin — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:35:04 +0000

One complaint about Leopard is the faux leather appearance of the interface…

If that is annoying you, then take a look at:

Big Bucket – Archive – Ripping Out iCal’s Torn Page - How to remove the “Turn page” elements from iCal
OS X Daily details how to return iCal to the non-leather appearance.

Please keep in mind, that these changes are not plist changes, they modify the actual iCal application. So backup your old ical application before you attempt either of these changes.

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Mac malware ‘explosion’ missing in action

Benjamin — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 19:13:09 +0000

The appearance of the MacDefender trojan back in May provoked a lot of back-and-forth between various tech writers (including your humble correspondent). Was this a sign that the good times were ending? That the Mac platform would come under ever-fiercer attack from malware authors? That soon we’d all be running resource-sucking virus scanners and a-fearing every link we clicked?

Well, in a word: no. It wasn’t. And I’ve got some science to prove it.

Mac malware ‘explosion’ missing in action

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Invisible Library Folders getting you frustrated?

Benjamin — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 12:24:51 +0000

Rumor has it, that Lion makes the User’s library folder hidden. Which could make it annoying to power users that need access to the library folder.

One option, is to use the Go To Folder command, and type “~/Library”. That will open the library folder in a standard finder window.

Another option, is to “unhide” the Library. To do so, open terminal, and type:

chflags nohidden ~/Library

In addition, if you simply hold down the Option key “Library” appears in the “Go” menu of Finder.

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Malware on the Mac: is there cause for concern? Ars investigates

Benjamin — Tue, 24 May 2011 13:47:21 +0000

Malware on the Mac: is it mostly hype or a real problem faced by real people? If you ask John Gruber, the answer might be the former—there are lots of proof-of-concept scenarios and virtually none that manifest themselves beyond a slow news day. If you ask Ed Bott, however, the answer would be the latter—he recently interviewed an AppleCare employee who claimed that the recent release of fake antivirus app ‘MAC Defender’ has caused a spike in malware reports among Mac users.

The truth is hard to tease out. Partly because Mac OS X still makes up a comparatively small percentage of the global OS market share, and partly because Apple itself is a secretive company, it’s not easy to find out whether malware on the Mac is indeed becoming more common, or it’s simply being reported on more often.

Still, we tried to do exactly that. Ars spoke with 14 different Mac support specialists—including several Apple Store Geniuses—in order to get a handle on whether things have changed when it comes to dealing with malware. Their experiences are all over the map, but the general consensus does seem to lean towards a low amount of malware problems—until you get to the Geniuses.”

Read the story at Ars Technica - Malware on the Mac: is there cause for concern? Ars investigates

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Poor Defenseless iMac. Those iFixit folks did it again…

Benjamin — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:05:56 +0000

Can you believe it? The cruel inhumanity of it all, the poor defenseless creature, brutally torn apart and cataloged…

The 21.5″ iMac (EMC 2428) scored a very respectable 7 out of 10 Repairability Score. Most of the disassembly is pretty straightforward and accomplished using a T10 Torx screwdriver and suction cups. A casual user can easily replace the RAM, and it’s moderately difficult to access the hard drive and optical drive.

Seriously, though, iFixit has examined the system, and gives it good marks. The complete tear down is available on their site…

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