This is a simple guide to windows 8 and a brief introduction to its features. Theres a second article on why 8 is not quite ready yet:
1. Windows 8 Pro: Features IT pros need to know about – ComputerworldUK.com http://joki.us/dc
2. Windows 8 – Eight reasons new Microsoft OS not ready for the desktop – ComputerworldUK.com http://joki.us/dd
Windows 8 Pro: Features IT pros need to know about – ComputerworldUK.com.
2012 London Olympics Schedule Calendar – ical, Outlook, Sunbird, Gcal, Yahoo Calendar | GoSeeThem.
They took a lot of care over this!:
As the Olympics take place over such a short space of time, events do clash with each other. We created calendars for each of the different sports. You may download all the events in one calendar or just select the sports you particularly enjoy. The screenshot below shows how the events appear in a Google calendar.
Here’s the link repeated: Olympic 2012 listings
Mac OS X Lion Update Bug Exposes Passwords | TechWeekEurope UK.
Apple’s latest security update to OS X Lion, 10.7.3, was shipped with the debugging switch left on, leaving passwords open in plain text in a folder that had previously been encrypted with the first version of the company’s FileVault encryption.David I. Emery, owner of DIE Consulting, disclosed the flaw on the Cryptome encryption mailing list on Saturday, 5 May. – Apple released the buggy update in February.Emery reports that the debug switch (DEBUGLOG) seems to have been left on inadvertently. The security hole causes log-in passwords for the encrypted home directory tree (legacy FileVault) to be left readable, in a systemwide log file, by any user with root or administrative access.
Mac backdoor Trojan embedded inside boobytrapped Word documents | Naked Security.
The folks at AlienVault discovered an interesting new Mac malware attack this week.
A backdoor Trojan horse, which would allow a remote hacker to access your Mac computer without your knowledge and potentially snoop on your files and activity, has been discovered hidden inside a boobytrapped Word document.
The targeted attack relies upon a critical security vulnerability discovered in Microsoft Word back in 2009, which allowed remote code execution (MS09-027).
In a nutshell, if you open the boobytrapped Word document, a Trojan horse gets dropped onto your Mac opening a backdoor for remote hackers. Furthermore, a decoy document called file.doc is also dumped onto your drive.
see also Mac malware evolves – time for Apple owners to wake up | Naked Security http://joki.us/d2
Hands-on: Chrome Remote Desktop Beta free and easy to use, no speed demon. It’s Beta, but this development looks very useful. If you are running chrome browser you will now be able to use the remote desktop to link 2 machines, regardless of platform or system. Both computers have to be running Chrome browser and the requisite extension though.
Rip Blu Ray’s on your Mac. Had to do a bit of this lately for different people and although this page is from last year: you can download MakeMKV here
– it seems to work well although I know people prefer Blu-Ray Ripper
if they’re prepared to pay something for the privilege.
see also: the region free macbook
– for the Matshita DVD-R UJ-868 in macbook pros then this link
In this day and age you would be amazed at the number of times I still have to optimize WinXP for different clients. One of the most common complaints is slow startup times (still!). You can do a bit of analysis yourself with the cloud/crowd sourcing soluto (www.soluto.com), but sometimes a more thorough analysis is required. This tip from ars technica several years ago has often helped me.
Before attempting to use Bootvis to analyze or optimize the boot performance of your system, make sure that the task scheduler service has been enabled ? the program requires the service to run properly. Also, close all open programs as well ? using the software requires a reboot.
To use the software to optimize your system startup, first start with a full analysis of a fresh boot. Start Bootvis, go to the Tools menu, and select next boot. Set the Trace Repetition Settings to 2 repetitions, Start at 1, and Reboot automatically. Then set the trace into motion. The system will fully reboot twice, and then reopen bootvis and open the second trace file (should have _2 in the name). Analyze the graphs and make any changes that you think are necessary (this is a great tool for determining which startup programs you want to kill using msconfig). Once you have made your optimizations go to the Trace menu, and select the Optimize System item. This will cause the system to reboot and will then make some changes to the file structure on the hard drive (this includes a defragmentation of boot files and a shifting of their location to the fastest portion of the hard disk, as well as some other optimizations). After this is done, once again run a Trace analysis as above, except change the starting number to 3. Once the system has rebooted both times, compare the charts from the second trace to the charts for the fourth trace to show you the time improvement of the system’s boot up.
The standard defragmenter included with Windows XP will not undo the boot optimizations performed by this application.
via Windows XP Tweaking—Startup and General Performance Tweaks.
If you are working on a LAN with other Macs running OS X 10.6 and above, or working off a common group on an OS X server, you might want to take a look at Kickoff Collaboration tool for small groups – Kickoff:
Kickoff now fully uses the new and shiny 10.7 SDK to benefit even more from the goodness provided by Lion. Including: the fullscreen mode. You can now cover every pixel of your screen with Kickoff’s sexiness
Kickoff obviously stays compatible with Snow Leopard but without those Lion-specific features… …Kickoff’s meeting room is the heart of the app, the place where everyone shares stuff and discusses the project. We thought we should make it more prominent so we’ve integrated it right in the main window. It’s still possible to detach it via the preferences but we really encourage you to stick with the one-window layout for maximum awesomeness
I’d been looking at new ways to sync with OSX Lion changing stuff around (see http://joki.us/8). Syncmate might fit the bill.
When using free SyncMate you can sync Contacts and Calendar in your device and Mac, read mobile phone’s messages on your Mac (SMS Reader plugin, offered for Windows Mobile and Nokia S40 devices) and view detailed info about connected Windows Mobile device.
With SyncMate Expert you can do even more. You can sync ToDo’s, Safari and Firefox bookmarks, Mail notes and Entourage notes, favorite music, videos, photos, Stickies, Mail (the latter from Mac to device only), Folders (in real time) and more. With Expert Edition you can create, delete, send and search through SMS messages right from your computer with SMS Manager plugin (messages can be exported to TXT, CSV and HTML formats) and sync Mac with device automatically.
via Mac synchronization software, synchronize Mac, syncing Mac.
I’d read somewhere that the best way to manage flash use in safari 5.1 was to switch it off completely (remove the plugin that would mean), and use the Developer menu (you have to activate it) to switch anything where you need flash to Chrome, leaving Safari flash-free. But Topher here has some other ideas and I leave it to readers to see which they prefer. I particularly like the idea of FlashToHTML5 which will force Safari to use html5 for flash content wherever it can:
Options for reducing Flash usage when browsing in Safari | MacFixIt – CNET Reviews.
