PGP Public Beta v9.7 Released

Since the upgrade to OSX Leopard, I've not been able to use PGP, since it simple won't work. Yesterday I received an e-mail that the public beta of PGP 9.7 has been released (for Windows and OSX). This one does work on Leopard (until December this year though), so I guess that I need to BUY myself yet another version of PGP. I found one 'bug' in the meantime; I seem to be missing the encrypt and sign buttons in the OSX Mail app. Or I might be missing something? I don't want to use the PGP service which signs or encrypts everything. I want to sign and/or encrypt when I want to, and not when an app tells me to.

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iMac on it's Way

A couple of weeks ago, my Windows PC was starting to crash. Hard disks were going; 'plonk, plonk, rrrrrrr, tac tac, rrrrr '. Most of the times this resulted in system freezes or blue screens. So ever since that weekend, I've been looking into an iMac 24". Last weekend I ordered my iMac in the online Apple Store. It's the standard 24" with 320GB drive and 1GB of RAM. My current PC also has only 320GB of diskspace, and I'm not even close on filling that up. I will upgrade the 1GB of RAM myself. If I buy the memory at my 'local' computershop it saves me around 600 euro's on 4GB. The Apple prices for memory are just ridiculous. Another point of frustration is the keyboard layout. Every PC sold in the Netherlands (wel, almost every PC) has a English-US keyboard. Why isn't that layout available as an option. I hate the vertical 'enter', and the small 'left-shift' on the NL, and UK keyboards. Too bad, that you can't order an iMac without keyboard and mouse. So, anyone interested in a new (thin aluminum) Apple keyboard and MightyMouse (both on a wire). This only leaves me with my Windows server at the moment. It would be nice to replace that one with a Mac Mini.

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Aurora Be Gone

The default background image on OSX Leopard is this annoying Aurora/starfield kinda picture. To change this, just change the desktop background image by using the rightmouse button on the desktop.It's something different to change the background image on the login screen. Some searching revealed that it uses the DefaultDesktop.jpg in the /System/Library/CoreServices/ directory. 'Just' replace that file with your own picture. There is a small catch. If you replace it, it will get the wrong permissions on the file, and therefor won't show up on the login screen.Just 'reset' the permissions on the file like this:

• sudo chown root /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg
• sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/CoreServices/DefaultDesktop.jpg

You may need to enter a username and password while executing these commands.

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Oh Yeah, We Got a 'Trojan'

Every once in a lifetime, a virus/trojan or wahtever for Mac OSX raises it's 'ugly' head. And now we got a Trojan. Infection occurs through porn websites :-P, and it promises a codec with which you can view the x-rated content on the website(s). I guess that there's a sex-starved market out there. As you might have guesed, the trojan isn't exactly what it promises to be. It modifies your DNS settings, which are almost undetectable (for regular users). The result is that you might get rerouted to other sites than you originally intended. Since 'they' control the DNS, you might be typing your usernames and passwords for eBay on a site that's not really eBay. There are way of detecting and removig the darn thing.

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Finder Searches

The new Finder in Leopard has this neat feature that shows your documents (and other stuff) that have been accessed 'Yesterday', 'Today', and 'Past Week'. Very handy. Downside is that it shows not only the documents, but also every other file that has been changed. So a nice short list of documents is out of the question. After a day of workin, you might end up with a very, very long list of files. The 'Search For' is a nice way of exploring the crap on your machine after an upgrade of Tiger. Do an upgrade and use the 'Search For' feature the next day. I found some files that I didn't even knew I had. Most of them were mail related (kinda embarrassing attachments etc.). Oh, and if you're a person that wants to hide certain things on the computer, you might wanna disable spotlight (or whatever function is doing this), because it's one hell of a Parental Control mechanism. Even the items you used in the preference panel show up. B.t.w. Did I mention that the new Cover Flow feature in Finder just kicks ass. It runs as smooth as a baby's bottom... well you get the idea.

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Installed Leopard

It's been a long night, but I finally installed Leopard. The reason it took so long is that I didn't have a retail DVD of the the OS. I had to screw around with a diskimage. From the moment I successfully burned the DVD it took about half an hour to 40 minutes to upgrade Tiger to Leopard. Here are my experiences:

• First time booting into the desktop takes forever. I guess that spotlight is to blame for this, but I'm not sure.
• Eventhough I had correctly configured network interfaces, the network assistant thingy popped up, and kept bothering me (even after reboots). Removing it from the 'login items' stopped it.
• My Mail (all account were configured as IMAP) was unable to retrieve new e-mails from all accounts. After some poking around I deleted all accounts and mail settings. After recreating the accounts everything worked fine. This is the nice thing about IMAP. You can remove your account and settings, and you won't lose your mail, because it remains on the server.
• Adobe Lightroom seems to work, and so do all of my other image manipulation tools.
• PGP v9.6.x crashes. I had to remove it by hand. Too bad that there isn't a documented manual uninstall procedure. Guess I have to wait for an update. Just uninstall the app before upgrading.

Initial impressions:

• Faster than Tiger
• Very backwards compatible. Vista eat you heart out.
• The app improvements on Finder, and the Dock are great. Especially the coverflow view in Finder kicks ass, and runs great on my 'old' MacBook Pro.
• .....

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Installing Leopard

Well, nothing is as easy as it may seem. As I mentioned earlier, I downloaded a copy of Leopard to see if it's worth buying. This download was a so-called .dmg file. This file can be burned to a double layer DVD by the Disk Utility or by using Toast. The problem is that my MacBook Pro doesn't have a dual layer DVD burner, so I need to burn this one with my external USB NEC burner (which supports burning dual layer DVD's). For some weird reason it (my MacBook Pro) refuses to burn anything dual layer. So in the mean time I'm searching for another version of Leopard (preferably an ISO-file), and I'm using Super Duper! to backup my MBP. Both are taking 'some' time, so I don't think that I'll be upgrading this weekend :-( . UPDATE: Oke, I found a PDF from Adobe stating that Adobe Lightroom isn't fully compatible yet. So, no upgrade for me. Guess I can stop trying to get the downloaded DMG to work. Well, at least I didn't spend my Sunday on nothing. I figured out how to convert a DMG to ISO.

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Apple OSX 10.5 aka Leopard

If you have lived under a rock, you might have missed the news about the release of Leopard. No, not the animal, but the latest and newest release of Apple OSX 10.5. As usual, the final release is leaked onto the Internet before it hits the shelves. This gives me time to try the release before actually buying it. Don't worry, I will buy Leopard. I'll get it with a new iMac, a new MacBook Pro, or I'll buy the shrink wrapped version. The question is, should I buy it immediately? I use some apps that might not work with Leopard. So first, I'll Super Dupe my hard drive, so if things go wrong I can go back. After that I'll try to upgrade and see if all apps still work. If not, I still have a way of getting back to Tiger (10.4.x). I guess I found a way to spend my weekend. Oops.. getting back the the old OS, might be a reinstall. Super Duper isn't fully tested on Leopard;

Leopard Infomation

SuperDuper! 2.1.4 is not yet fully Leopard compatible.

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Dolby Digital and DTS MIA

Most of the TV series I watch, I watch on my MacBook Pro. I just hook up the laptop to my 40inch HDTV, and enjoy Stargate Atlantis, Heroes, Lost, House, etc. in HD quality (mostly 720p, because the MBP isn't fast enough to decode 1080p :( ). But the only way of enjoying this to the fullest is with Dolby Digital or DTS, but Quicktime doesn't support this. Only Dolby Surround is supported by Quicktime. Last week I installed Perian. This is a so-called codec pack which enables Quicktime to play more video formats. After installing Perian, it's even possible to play Matroska files from within Frontrow, but still no DD or DTS support..... I wonder why Apple hasn't added support for DD or DTS. It's shouldn't be too hard (the DVD player does support DD and DTS). Especially, since Apple is the choice for content-creators.... I guess VLC is here to stay for a bit longer.

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iPhone Bricking. Who's to Blame?

Still, it's not official if the latest update is bricking the iPhone. Reports are mixed on the several Apple related sites. This might mean that even less people than you might think had converted their iPhone. One would think that if thousands of people had removed the simlock, that the reports are pooring in. But they don't (so far). Another possibility is that everyone is waiting to see what really happens. Apple could have avoided this be making sure that everyone who buys an iPhone also gets a carrier subscription before they leave the store. But somehow this wasn't the case. It was possible to buy the iPhone, take it home, and choose the subscription when you activate it. This leaves lot's of room to find way around the AT&T carrier service. And this is what's happening. Apple (and AT&T) wouldn't mind as much if every unlocked phone had an AT&T carrier subscription with it. Hell, they will get their (monthly) money anyway. No matter what SIM is inserted. So, I can't blame the users for unlocking their phones. And I can understand the measures Apple is taking, cause they might be loosing money on those unlocked phones. But they somehow let it happen by releasing unactivated phones into the wild. Knowing the nature of the average resident of the United "I will see you in court" States this hasn't ended yet :-) B.t.w., here in the Netherlands, it's quite normal to sign a contract before you get the 'sponsored' phone. After that they don't care what you do with the phone. The carrier gets his money for the next (couple of) years no matter what.

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