805-720-9276

[email protected]

MacCog: I help humans.

... your Digital Life Coach and Apple support guru

Remote Support

Another reason to be glad you use a Mac

I just wanted to share yet another good reason that Apple is a superior user experience to Windows….

It seems that if you get the “upgrade” to the new Windows vista which just came out, not only is it confusing and complicated to figure out if your existing machine will run it, there is also no way to do a “clean” install of the system without having a copy of 2000 or XP on the system already.  Imagine now that when your hard drive dies and you’re paying someone like me to restore everything for you. Now imagine me wasting an hour just to install XP, only to then install Vista on top of it. What will they think of next?

» Vista Upgrade Edition is lame by design | George Ou | ZDNet.com

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=414&tag=nl.e589


….and if you’re curious about how exciting and fun it must be for windows user thinking about upgrading, check out how many different versions there are to choose from…. choice is good, right? ha!

oh, and compare the $200-$349 price to Apple’s $129 upgrade cost. Even I’m amazed they could manage to do things so badly…

justin

tivo to go finally works on the mac!

for the Tivo and mac lovers (they seem like natural partners, right)
out there… you FINALLY have a way to watch your TV shows on your
iPod and computer.
Tivo certainly had no idea what they were doing, since it took them
an unbelievable amount of time to come out with the mac version…
and in the end, it wasn't even Tivo that came out with it….

The good news is that it's out and it comes with another great
program. The bad news is that it isn't free like the windows
version.. it will cost you $100. There are still the hack-y versions
you can use if you want, but that technically violates the Tivo
agreement.
http://tdm.sourceforge.net/

Here's the Wired article:
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/mac/0,72420-0.html?tw=wn_culture_mac_6

justin

the Latest “proof of concept” Mac virus

November 03, 2006 11:42 am ET
Macworld
Related Topics: Utilities

Symantec details OS X ‘Macarena’ virus

By Peter Cohen

Symantec has posted details about what it calls a “low risk level” virus affecting Mac OS X called OSX.Macarena. The company has already updated the daily virus definitions file used by its Norton Anti-Virus software for the Mac to address the problem.

Peter Ferrie’s writeup for Symantec describes OSX.Macarena as “a proof of concept virus that infects files in the current folder on the compromised computer.” OSX.Macarena “infects other files when they are executed in the current directory, regardless of file name or extension.”

Writing for The SANS Institute (a resource for information security training and certification), Section 66 security consultant Swa Frantzen said, “to be honest the virus is no big deal in itself. But it is yet another warning for a lot of parties involved.

“As we said before the ability to have viruses and all sorts of other malware is inherently available in all modern operating systems, Mac, Linux, BSD, … included,” Frantzen added.


The Note from Justin about this article: This is an FYI and should not get anyone alarmed. I post this more as an example of the LACK of Mac viruses…. this is an ineffectual thing and you shouldn’t worry about it or any other “Mac Virus”… until further notice.

An email scam to beware of

Betty,

This message is a very cleverly written email trying to get you to click on the attachment called “Update…”, which is bound to be a virus of some kind.  You could not open and run it because you don’t use Microsoft Windows. Be thankful you have a mac in this case. But also beware of other types of scams that CAN affect mac users because they secretly send you to nefarious websites that attempt to collect personal logon information for monetary accounts like Banks and Paypal.


Below is a link to Earthlink’s page on Fraud Protection. Be sure to read it and take not of its tips:

And below is a link to email the fraud prevention folks at earthlink about this one:

keep working on those photos!
justin
On Sep 13, 2006, at 9:57 AM, Betty Kopley wrote:
Begin forwarded message:
Date: September 10, 2006 5:43:03 PM PDT
To: victim-email@address.com
Subject: Mail server report.
Mail server report.
Our firewall determined the e-mails containing worm copies are being sent from your computer.
Nowadays it happens from many computers, because this is a new virus type (Network Worms).
Using the new bug in the Windows, these viruses infect the computer unnoticeably.
After the penetrating into the computer the virus harvests all the e-mail addresses and sends the copies of itself to these e-mail
addresses
Please install updates for worm elimination and your computer restoring.
Best regards,
Customers support service
<Update-KB6906-x86.exe>

To my AOL friends… former and current…

I thought you would enjoy this story of the worst tech products of
all time, which AOL topped the list:

QUOTE FROM THE STORY:

1. America Online (1989-2006)

How do we loathe AOL? Let us count the ways. Since America Online
emerged from the belly of a BBS called Quantum “PC-Link” in 1989,
users have suffered through awful software, inaccessible dial-up
numbers, rapacious marketing, in-your-face advertising, questionable
billing practices, inexcusably poor customer service, and enough spam
to last a lifetime. And all the while, AOL remained more expensive
than its major competitors. This lethal combination earned the
world’s biggest ISP the top spot on our list of bottom feeders.

AOL succeeded initially by targeting newbies, using brute-force
marketing techniques. In the 90s you couldn’t open a magazine (PC
World included) or your mailbox without an AOL disk falling out of
it. This carpet-bombing technique yielded big numbers: At its peak,
AOL claimed 34 million subscribers worldwide, though it never
revealed how many were just using up their free hours.

Once AOL had you in its clutches, escaping was notoriously difficult.
Several states sued the service, claiming that it continued to bill
customers after they had requested cancellation of their
subscriptions. In August 2005, AOL paid a $1.25 million fine to the
state of New York and agreed to change its cancellation policies–but
the agreement covered only people in New York.

Ultimately the Net itself–which AOL subscribers were finally able to
access in 1995– made the service’s shortcomings painfully obvious.
Prior to that, though AOL offered plenty of its own online content,
it walled off the greater Internet. Once people realized what content
was available elsewhere on the Net, they started wondering why they
were paying AOL. And as America moved to broadband, many left their
sluggish AOL accounts behind. AOL is now busy rebranding itself as a
content provider, not an access service.

Though America Online has shown some improvement lately–with better
browsers and e-mail tools, fewer obnoxious ads, scads of broadband
content, and innovative features such as parental controls–it has
never overcome the stigma of being the online service for people who
don’t know any better.

🙂
justin

www.maccog.com

 Apple Consultants Network certified member

be careful what you wish (search) for

I don’t want to be alarmist and get people worried, but this article got me a little concerned about our privacy when we perform web searches. There are very few privacy laws protecting your search history from being subpoenaed by the government or any criminal case. This includes Google, MSN, AOL, Yahoo and others. So if you’re doing searches like “How to make a car bomb”… um… do it from a cyber cafe, not from your computer.
For those of you whose searches are not illegal, just embarrassing, don’t worry yet. But we should put pressure on Google and the others to delete users’ search histories after 30 days or so (ironically, AOL has the best policy on this. They delete all search history after 30 days already. Yeah, who woulda thunk it?)

http://news.zdnet.com/2102-9588_22-6034666.html?tag=printthis


Information about Mac Virus Scares…

A virus for the mac? Should you be concerned?

No, not really. But let me explain…

(this email is also available along with other posts of interest to Mac users on our MacCogBlog: http://maccognoscenti.blogspot.com/)

Over the last few weeks, the press has picked up on three different security concerns for OS X. As your Mac gurus, we feel like you should know about them and hear about them from us rather than someone who could make you panic about your security… so here we go:

First, we heard about a Bluetooth worm that would supposedly be able to spread from computer to computer over a wireless technology called Bluetooth. This could have been pretty bad… if Apple hadn’t already fixed it over 9 months ago. Yeah, you read that right. Apple fixed this vulnerability when it was still theoretical and if you’d been performing your “Security Updates” like the “Software Update” application tells you to, you’re fine.
Threat level: 1 out of 10
more reading:

Next, we heard about a Trojan Horse called Leap.A, also known as Oompa Loompa that could spread itself to your friends in your iChat buddy list. It doesn’t do anything malicious to your computer and requires you, the user, to give it permission to do anything. It works like this: You might see a message from an iChat buddy that says something about Leopard 10.5 pics. You might be curious to see Apple’s next operating system so you click on it and agree to download it. Note: this requires YOUR PERMISSION. And not just once, but it takes you clicking on it THREE TIMES. Hint: You should not be downloading stuff unless you know what it is and whether the person intended to send it to you. My suggestion is to text chat that person to ask them what they’re sending you before you accept. If it’s a virus trying to spread itself, they won’t have any idea what you’re talking about and you can refuse the file transfer… end of story. If they say, “Dude, you’ve got to check out those pics”, then by all means…
Bottom Line: If you excercise very basic precautions about downloading files to your computer, there is no way this Trojan Horse can get into your computer. If you’re not sure, don’t accept!
Threat Level: 2 out of 10
more reading:

Lastly, and most recently, we found out about an actual flaw in Safari and Mail’s handling of some types of files. Before I explain it, let me first say that Apple is working on a fix for it as I type, and there is an easy temporary fix you can do…
The flaw is there but the threat is still theoretical, by the way. It was discovered by a German security firm and picked up by lots of tech press around the world. To date, there is no exploit. This vulnerability allows someone to write a script on a web page that will download itself (only if you’re using Safari. Firefox is not vulnerable), appear to be a JPG or ZIP file, and could run malicious commands on your Mac. The problem is that Safari automatically opens certain types of files it thinks are safe… and incorrectly identifies this particular type of file. So until Apple releases the next “Security Update”, which you should always install when it asks, by the way, you can perform a quick and easy fix:
Go to Safari > Preferences > General > Uncheck “Open ‘Safe’ files after downloading”
The Mail program also has the unfortunate ability to execute programs that seem like other things like .jpg files. But YOU have to click on them. This is very easy and simple to avoid:
Don’t click on attachments unless you know where and who they came from! Period.
It’s that easy. Just use common sense. If you perform this fix on Safari and don’t open attachments you don’t know about, you’ll be fine.
Threat Level: 5 out of 10
more reading:

The moral of this story is that there is nothing yet to get worried about and you don’t need to rush out and buy virus protection software. I certainly won’t. BUT, it should serve as a reminder that even though MacOS X is very secure and MUCH more secure than Windows, it’s still important to exercise basic precautions when using the internet.

Still have questions? Email me at [email protected]

Justin


www.maccog.com

Apple Consultants Network certified member



This is a legit Paypal email

Ok, so I wanted to give you an example of a legit paypal email so you
can compare it to the scam one below. Note that this one doesn’t
include a link to the website and doesn’t make it sound like an
emergency.

Begin forwarded message:

> From: “[email protected]” <[email protected]>
> Date: January 13, 2006 12:40:56 AM PST
> To: Rhapsody <[email protected]>
> Subject: Credit Card Removal
>
> Dear Rhapsody,
>
> Because it has expired, your credit card ending in 1711 has been
> removed from your PayPal account.
>
> If this was the only credit card on your PayPal account, you will
> need to add a new card to continue sending instant PayPal
> payments.If you have a confirmed bank account attached to your
> PayPal account, you will still be able to send eCheck payments.
>
> To add a new credit card:
>
> 1. Log in to your PayPal account
> 2. Go to the Profile subtab
> 3. Click on the ‘Credit Cards’ link in the Financial Information
> column
> 4. Click ‘Add’
> 5. Enter your credit card information
> 6. Click ‘Save’
>
>
> Thank you for using PayPal!
> The PayPal Team
>
> GET MORE CREDIT
> PayPal Buyer Credit is a personal line of credit that you can use
> anywhere PayPal is accepted. Apply today and enjoy these benefits:
>
> Shop now and pay later – make low monthly payments
> Take advantage of promotional financing on select eBay items
> Getfull buyer protectionfrom PayPal for all your purchases
>
>
>
> Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored
> and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your
> PayPal account and click the Help link located in the top right
> corner of any PayPal page.
>
> PayPal Email ID PP031
>
>



Justin Bradshaw … [email protected]

Ben Lam … [email protected]

www.maccog.com