Blog R.I.P., Mac Support Site Lives On

I have decided, after much deliberation and thought, to discontinue this Mac Support Site Blog, and only continue my actual Mac Support Website. This is due to time constraints, etc.

I will leave all the information that's currently on this blog on the Internet for some amount of time, and I will update my Mac Support Website from time to time, but I will no longer be maintaining this blog. It was good while it lasted, but nothing lasts forever! Farewell!

P.S. You can also check out some other cool sites I will continue to maintain at LifeisaPrayer.com.

Pixar's 'Incredibles' DVD a Smash-Hit Success

Today, I noticed on MacMinute that The Incredibles DVD has already sold 5 million copies—In its first day on the market. I am happy to say that I am one of those 5 million purchasers - at Wal-Mart, you could pick a copy of the 2-disc Collector's Edition DVD for $11.99!

I personally attest that not only was the movie incredible, but Pixar also did an incredible job on the DVD. 'Jack-Jack Attack' was very entertaining, and so was another short made to look like an old 'Incredibles' cartoon. You'll have to see them for yourself - I can't adequately describe them in words. The other bonus footage is pretty fun, as well, and the menu structure, design and transitions are simply icing on the cake.

Google Labs: "OS X Rocks" - New 'Google X theme' [UPDATED]

Today Google Labs has released 'Google X' - an alternative home page for the Google Search engine that features a dock-like interface for clicking on different sections to search - News, Pictures, Video, Froogle, Local, etc. It even includes Magnification

I played around with it, and it's pretty cool. The icons will magnify as you move your mouse over them, while other icons move to make room for the bigger icon. It's not 100% as fluid as Dock magnification, but that's acceptable; not even Google can match Apple's Quartz engine ;-)

UPDATE: It seems Google has pulled Google X from its site. No reason has been given. I will post again if I can find more information.

Linux Creator Linus Trovalds Switches to Mac (...Hardware, that is)

It would seem that the creator of Linux is using a dual-processor G5 as his main Linux-running computer now. From CNET News.com:

Torvalds, who initially created Linux for the Intel x86 platform, revealed to the Linux Kernel Mailing List in February during a discussion on kernel size reduction that his main desktop machine no longer featured an x86 processor.

"My main machine these days is a dual 2GHz G5 (aka PowerPC 970)--it's physically a regular Apple Mac, although it obviously only runs Linux, so I don't think you can call it a Mac any more ;)"

It doesn't surprise me when I see many people using Mac laptops and G5s who don't even run OS X -- don't get me wrong; I still think OS X (especially Tiger, when it comes out) is the de-facto standard OS for the masses, but the hardware is also much more stable and better than any X86 on the market. This means that people running Linux or UNIX workstations may find it advantageous to purchase a high-end Mac G4 or G5; Mac software works great, and Mac hardware runs like a dream.

Use Your Old PowerBook or iBook's Trackpad for Scrolling

In addition to SideTrack and uControl, you can now install a replacement mouse driver on a pre-2005 G4 PowerBook or iBook and scroll using the trackpad the same way you would with a new PowerBook G4:

From Apple.com:
"Scrolling through web pages or large documents on a trackpad can challenge even the most nimble fingers. That’s why every PowerBook G4 features a new trackpad with scrolling capability. Just drag two fingers over the trackpad to scroll vertically and horizontally or pan around any active window. Change this feature to suit your needs: Customize your trackpad settings or turn off scrolling completely via System Preferences."

If you go to this website (iScroll2), you will find a downloadable installer that enables this new scrolling functionality on older iBooks and PowerBooks, as long as you have a new kind of trackpad (use this utility to check if you have a supported trackpad). To install the trackpad driver, go to this website and follow the directions for downloading and installing the driver found on the page. I have been using it for a couple of weeks now and it works great for me! I love being able to scroll horizontally using the trackpad like I can with my Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse 2.0 while I'm at my desk. Kudos to the author of that web page!

Microsoft Employees - Favor Apple iPod Over Dozens of MS-Compatibles

From Wired News:

"Microsoft's leafy corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, is beginning to look like the streets of New York, London and just about everywhere else: Wherever you go, white headphones dangle from peoples' ears.

To the growing frustration and annoyance of Microsoft's management, Apple Computer's iPod is wildly popular among Microsoft's workers.

"About 80 percent of Microsoft employees who have a portable music player have an iPod," said one source, a high-level manager who asked to remain anonymous. "It's pretty staggering."

I think it's a good sign that the iPod is better than any Windows-Media-Compatible devices when the employees of the competing company use it! I personally attest to this fact. I would not trade my iPod for any other player, for the simple fact that it is so easy to use, and it stores a complete backup of every document I have on my system (besides the video stuff, which takes up nearly 150 GB of space right now...).

Mac mini - The Mac Media Center Project (Was I right?)

It looks like my earlier predictions of the Mac mini being used as a 'Media Center PC' type computer could bear fruit. I recently discovered a group producing an application for use as a Tivo-like package:

The Mac Media Center Project

"This projects plans to develop a free Media Center application for the Apple Macintosh, bringing togther the power and intuitiveness of the Macs' built in applications under a simple interface, for use as part of a Home Theatre system.

We also have information on 5.1 audio, remote control and video output solutions for the Mac.

The Project aim is to turn the Mac mini into a Mac Media Center."

Apple Most Recognized Brand - Ousting Google

From Reuters:

"Apple, whose iPod has replaced Sony's (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) Walkman as the personal media player to be seen with, topped both the global and North American rankings in the poll, displacing Google despite the splash caused by the search engine's $1.7 billion auction-style initial public offering last year.

Apple, which launched the iPod three years ago, has sold 10 million of them, but the fact that almost half of these were moved in the final quarter of 2004 suggests an avalanche in demand.

"Apple's just done an extraordinary job with innovation, technology and design. The iPod is what has put Apple in the lead this year," Rusch said.

"Sony has had less luck tying together its products as a lifestyle. From a branding perspective, they haven't caught up with Apple's design and ability to capture the imagination."

Read the full article here.

What does this mean? This means Apple is doing a great job at bringing their products out into the world; through not only TV ads, magazine ads, movie placements and conventional advertising, but also by making solidly-built, functional, and user-friendly products that friends will recommend to their friends. And now people don't have to complain about high prices, either (with the iPod shuffle and Mac mini appealing to cost-conscious PC people).

Let us see what 2005 has in store for Apple...

More Windows Woes: New Worm Attacks Vulnerable Windows PCs

"Malicious hackers have launched a zero-day bot attack against default Windows installations of the MySQL database engine, infecting vulnerable systems at the rate of 100 per minute, security experts warned on Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT The bot takes advantage of the publicly released "MySQL UDF Dynamic Library Exploit" to break into the open-source MySQL package. Once a database is hijacked, infected systems will connect to an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) server and retrieve propagation instructions."

Of course, you might say, more people use Windows, so, once more people start using Macs (if that ever happens), more Mac worms and viruses will come out (there are currently 0, nada, none, zilch Mac OS X viruses). Right?

Wrong. Macs are built more secure from the ground up. True, no computer system is perfect, but the Mac is leaps and bounds ahead of the Windows PC. So, what are you waiting for?

For more info on why I like Macs more than PCs, be sure to check out this page.

Windows 'Genuinely Disadvantaged' - Crazy 'Activation Schemes'

[UPDATE: Another good news headline (from eWeek): A 'Genuine' Pain in the Neck]

After reading a blog entry about Microsoft's Product Activation strategies, written by Ed Foster of InfoWorld, I was led to thinking about what implications Microsoft's new product developments could have on the computer industry.

I have followed Microsoft's anti-piracy efforts on-and-off for some time now, and I have decided to provied a few observations. I notice that many people (especially individual consumers) who use Windows, (a) don't like giving out any information to companies like Microsoft, (b) are confused when registration things pop up on their screens that don't go away by pressing 'cancel', and (c) hate having their computers constantly watched in some way by a large company such as Microsoft.

Every time someone updates their Microsoft-OS-based PC, he will soon have to let Microsoft check whether or not he owns a 'non-pirated' 'legal' copy of the Microsoft OS. Not only could their be potential problems with this scheme, but also many people will become frustrated by the details of the program -- especially large corporations who will have to implement new updating procedures for their hundreds (sometimes thousands) of Windows PCs.

So, what implications does this have for Apple? Apple currently has no required registration, and they are quite lax with licensing. This makes everything easier for the end user, and prevents much of the frustration present in the Microsoft scheme. Apple can continue with its whole 'user-friendly' experience and begin taking back marketshare. They now have the hardware; they simply need to keep making easy-to-use and install software.

Microsoft Software "Plagued by 'Extremely Critical' Flaws"

Is it any surprise, really?

IE Plagued by 'Extremely Critical' Flaws (Tech News World)

"Secunia recommends users drop IE and use an alternative browser. "Although hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on securing SP2, perfection is impossible," the security firm said in a statement."

Millions of Internet Explorer 6 users are at risk from thre "extremely critical" security holes that give hackers open access to PCs running the browser -- even if Windows XP Service Pack Two has been installed.

The first issue centers on the browser's drag-and-drop capability, which does not validate new files correctly. This means that, potentially, a document downloaded from a Web page using drag and drop may contain malicious code.

The other problems affect all Windows systems, including those protected by Local Computer zone lockdown, which comes with SP2.

The first allows specially designed (.hhk) files to be used to include malicious code on systems, and the second stems from a zone restriction error that could allow code to be downloaded from Web sites involuntarily.

At least one of the flaws was reported to Microsoft last year, but no patches have so far been made available.

...And PC users ask "Why are Macs better?" Hmm... I can think of a few reasons!

Meanwhile, us Mac users have no worries about viruses or any of the other 'plagues' of pestilence found on Windows PCs; we have, instead, "High Hopes for Macworld".

Microsoft's Passport a No-Go; More Viruses for XP

Well, here are some nice end-of-the year stories to cheer up the loyal Mac fan:

No-go zone for Passport (CNET):

"Microsoft's Passport authentication technology lost a prominent partner this week when eBay announced that it would stop supporting customer logins through Microsoft's Passport and .Net services.

The online auctioneer decided to stop supporting the service after Microsoft made an "architectural change" to its online authentication service, an eBay representative told CNET News.com on Thursday."

So it would seem Microsoft's 'awe-inspiring' Passport system that would 'change the way people store personal information online' is now going the way of the horse carriage. Too bad.

Trojan Slips through XP's Back Door (Tom's Hardware Guide):

"Online miscreants have released a Trojan horse that can infect computers running Microsoft's Windows XP, installing programs to remotely control a victim's system. Symantec warned in an advisory this week that the program - dubbed "Phel", an anagram of "Help" - infects visitors to a maliciously created website through Internet Explorer's Help controls. A bug in the malicious program may prevent it from infecting some computers, the security company said."

Hmm... XP seems to have more than one back door, with all these viruses, worms, and trojan horses going around. Even after SP2! Well, I can rest well tonight, considering I have OSX on my computer; the worlds most secure operating system.

Why Friends Don't Let Friends Use Windows

Ugh.

That's all I can say after having spent two hours of my life installing a simple game on a client's Windows PC yesterday.

First of all, I must say that Windows and Microsoft are not all bad; no, quite the contrary, I receive around 30% of my income because of Microsoft ;-) . Other than that, though, I can't find a reason why anyone would want to put himself through the torture of owning anything with Windows on it.

Here's the story:

I received a phone call just before dinner, informing me that the client's son received Backyard Baseball 2005, a game designed in part by Microsoft Game Studios, but the son could not install the game due to difficulties with his video card. Thus I was called over.

Before going any further, I'd like to say that if you are also having problems with Windows Logo Certified software installations, please visit Microsoft's Support site to view this document: "You cannot install some updates or programs" - one of the various solutions should help you.

Being no stranger to working on PCs (I make much of my living off of working on them), I dove right in and found a plethora of problems. First of all, as often happens to unknowing, innocent PC buyers, the Dell PC the son was using had no real video card. It was one of those 'economy PCs' with 'integrated' (i.e. nonexistent) video. So, first of all, a trip to the computer store was necessitated.

After installing a new ATI Radeon 9200 128DDR video card, I found that DirectX 9.0b, the latest DirectX version, could not be installed from the game CD, the ATI Radeon Install CD, Windows Update, or the Microsoft Support download. Why did Microsoft's own product fail on Microsoft's own operating system? Because it wasn't 'Windows Logo Certified'.

Hmm... let me get this straight: Microsoft's own brand-new product won't run on Microsoft's own newest operating system, Windows XP. Well, ain't that nice?

So it was off to Microsoft's shoddy support site for help. Only, I couldn't find anything either there, or on Atari's website (the game's other developer). Well, I said, Google's done it before, let's do it again! I searched for "Can't Install Windows Logo Certified" on Google, and within two pages of results found a little nugget on an online forum. It referred me to a vaguely-named topic on Microsoft's support website titled "I can't install certain software because it is not Windows Logo Certified Even though It Is" (something along those lines...).

I find that, in order to get a proper install, I will have to go through about a 30-step process involving some vague commands in the Windows command line, typing in things like "msblahblah32 /u rrislis.dll" over ten times (substitute some odd gibberish inside the quotes, and that's what I did...).

Finally, after about four restarts and more steps, DirectX would properly install, but in an unorthodox way; 'InstallShield Wizard' (who comes up with these names?) wouldn't run, so I had to find a semi-manual DirectX installer (without the 'Wizard') on the ATI Radeon CD, and install from there.

Lo and behold! After two hours of idiotic procedures and such, Backyard Baseball 2005, a game designed in part by Microsoft, would finally run on Microsoft Windows XP Home (an outrageously expensive OS for the features), using a piece-of-junk Microsoft screen-drawing environment, DirectX.

As I said before: ugh.