The MacValley blog
Welcome to the MacValley blog, your first stop for all the latest MacValley news and views.
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The MacValley blog Editor: Tom Briant
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Saturday, August 31, 2013
Fast Commander 1.1 for OS X -Rock-Solid program for simple needs
I recently reviewed the 1.0 version of Fast Commander. I didn’t give it a fair review. The developer, Mr. Piotr Zagawa, contacted me and offered me a free license to try out the latest version 1.1.
First, I’d like to show you pictures of Norton Commander 3.0 for MS-DOS, which in its day answered the prayers of many DOS users.
This is a shot I took of Norton Commander running under the Command Prompt on my Windows XP machine. Note the bottom menu, which shows the key assignments before holding down the Alt (Option) key.
This screenshot shows Norton Commander with the Alt key pressed down. The function keys change their assignments.
For instance, if your DOS machine’s graphics card supported it, you could display 43 lines of text in EGA (Enhanced Graphics Array) mode. You could also edit text files with the Alt-F4 key invoking an internal editor. You could also view Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet files and WordPerfect 5.1 files. In 1990, this was the state of the art.
Norton Commander worked so well that many users wanted to use it with succeeding operating systems. Every dual-pane file manager in use today, whether for Windows, Linux, or OS X, can trace its heritage back to Norton Commander for DOS.
Which brings me to Fast Commander 1.1. I admit I was too harsh on it in its 1.0 incarnation. But I do feel you’ll want to augment it in the future with more Mac features.
Fast Commander is designed for those who prefer to use the keyboard and function keys instead of the mouse & trackpad. I could not copy or move a file from one pane to the other using my mouse. On the other hand, it’s dead simple to select multiple items by pressing the Space Bar to select them and then pressing the F5 key to copy them to the other directory.
BEFORE
AFTER
Using the Function Keys is a feature copied from Norton Commander. I would like Fast Commander to include each Function Key next to the toolbar icon so that you don’t have to refer back to the File menu. Of course, if you came from Norton Commander, you probably have those Function Key assignments in your muscle memory.
In the meantime, you can use your mouse or trackpad with the clearly marked icons in the top toolbar.
Fast Commander does NOT make use of Quick Look; opting for its own View option. It displays PDF’s and JPEGs and PNGs in native format. You can copy from the Viewer window to another program, but no option to open a file immediately in Preview is available.
Fast Commander only shows locally attached drives and not network drives. If you have a NAS attached to your system as a central repository for music and media, you can’t access it from Fast Commander.
If you need access to the Finder, though, just hold down the Control + F keys to bring up the Mac’s Finder.
No Help is available. You have to either remember Norton Commander commands or learn on your own.
Summary
Fast Commander is a faithful homage to Norton Commander. It borrows many of Norton’s best features, such as using the same set of Function Key commands for copying and moving files from one folder to another.
In its file manipulation functions, it is not particularly mouse & trackpad friendly. You can use the mouse & trackpad to select the copy, move, make directory (folder), delete, compress and change permission icons across the top toolbar, though.
It does not make use of OS X’s built-in Spotlight search or QuickLook view, relying instead on its built-in search feature (Control + S) and View feature for PDF, JPEG, and PNG. It displays any text as a raw file and not formatted.
Let me state, though, that this program did not display any instabilities. It DID NOT CRASH at any time, as too many 1.1 versions will do. It displayed rock-solid reliability.
So who can I recommend this program to? If you’ve just come from the Windows world and want familiar looking programs, then I heartily recommend this program. If you have to move or copy a lot of files, this program would suit your purpose.
If you use the plain vanilla Finder and want something fancier, though; this isn’t for you. It lacks tabs across the top of each pane, which 10.9 Mavericks will bring to the Finder this fall. If you like the Finder’s sidebar, you will grow frustrated at Fast Commander’s inability to quickly access another drive or folder with just a mouse click
So I give a conditional Thumbs Up for this app for those of you coming from a Windows XP or MS-DOS background. You’ll find a stepping stone to the Mac here. It’s rock-solid reliable, if lacking the fancy features of other Mac file management programs.
Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth has still more articles for us
Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth has more articles for us. Blame the Editor for not posting them sooner (I’ve been busy)
Internet Architects Plan Counter-Attack On NSA Snooping
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-24/internet-architects-plan-counter-attack-nsa-snooping
Glendale California is paying service to monitor students online
http://www.glendalenewspress.com/tn-gnp-me-monitoring-20130824,0,4848313.story
What Snowden and Manning Don't Understand About Secrecy
What troubles me about them is NOT that they broke the oaths they swore when they took their classified government jobs, the thing that makes them liable to prosecution. Government finds all kinds of dubious reasons to keep secrets, sometimes nefarious reasons, and conscience can force one to break a promise. My problem is with the indiscriminate nature of their leaks.
The most famous leakers in American history were motivated NOT by a general opposition to secrecy but by a desire to expose specific wrongdoing.
The reporters and editors who published their leaks weighed taking that step seriously, ultimately deciding that the public’s need to know trumped the principle of secrecy. They concluded that the government in these instances was abusing its power.
There have been a few things in the Manning and Snowden leaks that might have warranted taking a principled stand, but the great bulk of what they delivered shows our nation’s military, intelligence agencies, and foreign service working hard at their jobs -- doing the things we the people, through our elected representatives, have ordered them to do.
“By no means was I treated as a hero when I first came forward. I was indicted and spent two years in court,” Mr. Ellsberg said in an interview. “But in those days, journalists were not turning on journalists. With Snowden in particular, you have a split between truly independent journalists and those who are tools — and I mean that in every sense of the term — of the government. Toobin and Grunwald are doing the work of the government to maintain relationships and access.”
Research Experiment Produces First Human Brain-To-Brain Interface
The end of Moore's Law may ultimately be as much about economics as physics
Moore's Law, named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, states that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles roughly every two years ........ ever more powerful laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Every new generation of integrated circuits is more expensive to design and build factories for. The up-front investment may be more than future profits.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57600373-92/end-of-moores-law-its-not-just-about-physics/
Unless its long-term strategy and internal culture changes, Microsoft under its next CEO won't be all that different than it has been under Ballmer's leadership.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/microsoft-needs-new-culture-more-than-ceo-sparkle-2013-08-30
NSA paying U.S. companies for access to communications networks
Although the companies are required to comply with lawful surveillance orders, privacy advocates say the multimillion-dollar payments could create a profit motive to offer more than the required assistance.
"It turns surveillance into a revenue stream, and that's not the way it's supposed to work," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center
Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth has more articles for us
More employers checking Twitter influence of potential hires
The number of followers a person has is valuable because many people think it is an "indicator of influence"
http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_23837569/more-employers-checking-twitter-influence-potential-hires
How IBM Created the Future of the PC -- and Almost Destroyed Its Own
The NSA-DEA police state tango
a secret branch of the DEA called the Special Operations Division - so secret that nearly everything about it is classified, including the size of its budget and the location of its office - has been using the immense pools of data collected by the NSA, CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies to go after American citizens for ordinary drug crimes. Law enforcement agencies, meanwhile, have been coached to conceal the existence of the program and the source of the information by creating what's called a "parallel construction," a fake or misleading trail of evidence. So no one in the court system - not the defendant or the defense attorney, not even the prosecutor or the judge - can ever trace the case back to its true origins.
the spread of tyranny only requires our silence.
while drug-war prosecutions are supposed to be just like other kinds of criminal cases, in practice they have a special status and are treated differently.
In theory, the DEA disclosures could and should have outraged Americans across the political spectrum, especially when added to all the other bad things we've learned about our government this year. Except that blind partisan loyalty now trumps everything in national politics, and almost nothing about our country's slide toward soft police state still shocks anybody.
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/10/the_nsa_dea_police_state_tango/
The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
Technology companies have to fight for their users, or they'll eventually lose them.
Do you remember those old spy movies, when the higher ups in government decide that the mission is more important than the spy's life? It's going to be the same way with you. You might think that your friendly relationship with the government means that they're going to protect you, but they won't. The NSA doesn't care about you or your customers, and will burn you the moment it's convenient to do so.
We're already starting to see that. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others are pleading with the government to allow them to explain details of what information they provided in response to National Security Letters and other government demands. They've lost the trust of their customers, and explaining what they do -- and don't do -- is how to get it back. The government has refused; they don't care.
Already companies are taking their data and communications out of the US.
The NSA isn't going to remain above the law forever.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/08/the-nsa-is-commandeering-the-internet/278572/
The Surveillance Speech: A Low Point in Barack Obama's Presidency
Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corp. and a personal friend of Steve Jobs, says NSA tracking is "essential"
I wouldn't be surprised if Oracle is working on NSA contracts.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/larry-ellison-says-nsa-tracking-is-essential-2013-08-13
If You Use Gmail, You Have No Legitimate Expectation Of Privacy
http://www.businessinsider.com/gmail-privacy-google-court-brief-2013-8
"Google has finally admitted they don't respect privacy," said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project director
Gamification, or the use of game elements to promote desired behaviors among customers and employees, has been a popular business strategy for decades.
Integration with social networks means these experiences are shared with friends, acquaintances and co-workers. A smartphone-carrying employee or consumer might be drawn into a gamified experience at any time, wherever they are.
http://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-gamification-done-right-2013-7
A perfect example of why it's harder to stay anonymous on the internet
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-14/wednesday-humor-kevin-henry-moonlighter
The Sweetest Dog Food Commercial Ever
One reader commented that he watched the ad twice to be sure it wasn't the human eating the dog food.
Watch the man and his dog move their heads in unison as they look both ways before crossing the street.
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-the-sweetest-dog-food-commercial-ever-2013-6
Three great cartoons on the surveillance state
http://www.dilbert.com/2013-08-13/
http://www.dilbert.com/2013-08-14/
http://www.dilbert.com/2013-08-15/
Friday Humor: The New Normal Miranda Rights
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-16/friday-humor-new-normal-miranda-rights
10 ways BlackBerry beats the iPhone
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-ways-blackberry-beats-the-iphone-2013-08-14
End of the road beckons for BlackBerry: company is looking for “possible transactions”
Beyond 'Jobs,' 9 great business-mogul movies
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/beyond-jobs-9-great-business-mogul-movies-2013-08-15
Steve Jobs movie slammed by critics - and Woz
As of Friday morning, "Jobs" is carrying a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 26% - meaning about three quarters of the reviewers tabulated have given the flick a Thumbs Down.
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/08/16/steve-jobs-movie-slammed-by-critics-and-woz/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
A Teen's Tumblr Blog Helps Save A Mother From Financial Ruin
"All I want is for [my mother's] business to get big and noticed a lot more," she wrote
Orders just kept coming in........
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/08/16/tumblr-save-mother-financial-ruin/
How to Catch a Liar on the Internet
Technology makes it easier than ever to play fast and loose with the truth-but easier than ever to get caught.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/09/the-way-we-lie-now/309431/
The end of the expectation that citizens' communications are and will remain private will probably change us as a people, and a country.
Mr. Hentoff sees the surveillance state as a threat to free speech.
The inevitable end of surveillance is self-censorship.
Mr. Hentoff once asked Justice William Brennan "a schoolboy's question": What is the most important amendment to the Constitution? "Brennan said the First Amendment, because all the other ones come from that. If you don't have free speech you have to be afraid, you lack a vital part of what it is to be a human being who is free to be who you want to be."
An entrenched surveillance state will change and distort the balance that allows free government to function successfully. Broad and intrusive surveillance will, definitively, put government in charge. But a republic only works, Mr. Hentoff notes, if public officials know that they—and the government itself—answer to the citizens. It doesn't work, and is distorted, if the citizens must answer to the government.
J. Edgar Hoover didn't have all this technology. He would be so envious of what NSA can do.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
Unhappy with the Mac's Finder? Here's Two Alternatives
Supercharge your Finder for $20 or should you wait until Mavericks?
While you and I wait for Mavericks to arrive this fall, the Finder for 10.8.4 remains much the same as it was with 10.4.11 Tiger. No Tabs and a single pane to view files. What can you do for $20 to supercharge the Finder today? I will look at two programs with differing approaches.
Fast Commander 1.0 by Piotr Zagawa
This app costs $19.00. When I double-clicked on it, it came up with the warning that it came from an unidentified developer. You must change your security settings to allow unsigned apps to open. Whatever the reason, this lack of identification is a definite minus.
If you came from a DOS background, you will recognize the default color scheme of Fast Commander as that of Norton Commander for DOS. Under Preferences, you have one option: to change the app's color scheme. You can change it to something more Mac-like or several other color schemes.
This program began to remind me more and more of Norton Commander. For instance, to open a folder, I had to highlight it with either a click or with the arrow keys, then press the ENTER key. No double-clicking here.
I could not drag and drop files from one pane to another. All file copying and moving must be done through the Function Keys or menu (and why not put what each Function Key does on the screen?!)
Quick View does not work. You press the Space Bar and this selects a file as part of a group. Again, Norton Commander for DOS and not Mac-like.
Fast Command uses the Control key, not the Command key, as the modifier key for most commands. While this helps new users familiar with using the Control key in Windows and DOS, it causes cognitive dissonance when a user tries to remember which modifier key to use.
And No Tabs. And No Sidebar to select other drives or add folders for easy access.
Summary: If you used and liked Norton Commander for DOS, you might want to check this program out. Check it out throughly for the 14 day trial period, though, before putting it on the plastic.
Total Commander 1.4.18 by Binaryage
This program enhances the standard Finder with tabs and a passable dual-pane mode which you can switch on and off with a hotkey (Command + U). It costs $18.00
It adds tabs across the top of the toolbar. To add a tab, use Command + T, same as you would with Safari and Chrome. To cycle through the tabs, TotalFinder uses the Control + Tab keys. This proved easy to use with my thumb on the Control key and my finger on the left Tab key.
This program allows you to drag and drop files between drives with no problem. You can also copy (Command +C) and paste (Command + V) files, and now Cut (Command + X) and Paste files Just use the standard Cut, Copy, and Paste commands
Summary: This program working as a plug-in to the Finder adds Tabs, a Dual-Pane Mode, and the ability to Copy, Cut, and Paste Files using the standard key combinations.
If you can't wait until Mavericks arrives and need those additional features now, look into TotalFinder by Binaryage. It works as a Mac application.
My verdict is thumbs up for TotalFinder and thumbs down for Fast Commander.
Disclosures: I downloaded Fast Commander 1.0 as a 14-day trial from macupdate.com. I got TotalFinder as part of a discounted bundle. I have received no consideration regarding reviewing these products.
Thomas Briant
Editor, MacValley Blog
Monday, August 19, 2013
Secrets of a KVM: How to get your Macs to work together with one keyboard and one acreen and how to use Appleworks with 10.8.4
Greetings from Macvalley Labs! You see on the left my Mac Mini running 10.8.4 and its 23” monitor. You see on the right my old MacBook notebook running 10.6.8. What’s the big deal? Both monitors have Appleworks 6.2.9 running on them
The computer running Appleworks under 10.6.8 on the right :
And the computer running 10.8.4 on the left:
How can this be? Didn’t Apple consign all old PPC OS apps, such as Appleworks, to the dustbin of history when it brought out 10.7 and 10.8? Yes, they did. But I’ve resurrected Appleworks for all those out there who need to use it and would prefer to run it on their brand spankin’ new 10.8 machines. The trick is, you use your old 10.6.8 machine, but view it on the new 10.8.4 Mac.
How does this work? Well, it takes two parts. First ,you need a way to link the keyboard of one machine to control either machine just by moving the mouse. Second, you need a way to view the Mac running 10.6.8 on the Mac running 10.8.4.
First step, how to do a West Valley mind-meld, with apologies to Mr. Spock. You can do it in one of two ways.
The first way is the fast and easy way, but it will cost you $30 to $40. You use a USB device called the JUC400 Wormhole Switch.
You can get them at Fry’s Electronics or Amazon. At Fry’s it’s 39.98, but you can have it today; or you can order it from Amazon for $28.79 plus free shipping and wait a few days.
What this device does is connect your Mac running 10.8.4 to another Mac running 10.6.8 and Appleworks together.
You get (1) a Keyboard + Mouse switch that switches the focus of your operations to either computer just by moving the mouse from one screen to another.
But that’s not all. You can also synchronize your clipboards, so that data you copy on the 10.6.8 machine can be pasted into a document on the
Two more tricks. You can drop and drag files from one machine to another. Take a screenshot on one machine and just drag the picture to the other one. And this works with Windows, too. But we’re concerned with Macs right now.
It’s a cinch to use. Just plug it in an available USB 2.0 port. The necessary software comes in the elongated USB plugs. No CDs to lose.
So now you can use a single keyboard control to control two computers and cut and paste documents between them. Now how to get everything on one screen.
To do that, you need to use Virtual Network Computing, which means “putting one computer’s screen on another computer’s desktop” It’s cross-platform, UltraVNCis an excellent implementation for Windows, but I digress.
You need two parts to make this work: the VNC server program on the computer you want to watch, and the VNC client program on the computer doing the watching.
You can find a perfectly good VNC server built into OS X. Just go to the Sharing preference pane in System Preferences.
This is the 10.6.8 Sharing preference pane. You want to select Remote Management. If you plan to exchange a lot of files between the two computers, you’d want to switch on File Sharing, too, instead of dropping and dragging files between the two desktops.
Now you need a VNC client program. Instead of the one built into OS X, I’m going to recommend a free 3rd party one called Chicken. It derives from an earlier program called Chicken of the VNC. You can get Chicken from the open-source repository SourceForge dot net here. That’s the stable 2.1.1. version. I’m using the beta 2.2b version, but I’ve had no problems with it.
Anyway, you install Chicken by dragging its app to your Applications folder. Click on it and you get this panel asking you to select the VNC Server. In this case, it’s my MacBook.
The program displays the IP address of the server, which I have blanked out. I trust you, just not the hackers looking for a IP address through which to steal a credit card number.
Select the desired VNC server, click on the Connect button at the bottom right-hand side, and within a few moments, you should see the other computer’s screen on your desktop in a window. It helps if your viewed computer has a smaller screen than your observer computer. My MacBook is 1280 x 800 pixels, but my 23” monitor with my Mac Mini is 1920 x 1080.
Now the text displayed on the VNC client may be smaller than desired. Two ways to get around this.
First, just zoom in on the screen. Go to the 
You want to use scroll gesture with modifier key. I use the standard Control key with my Magic Track Pad to zoom in on tiny text. You could also use keyboard shortcuts to zoom as shown in the illustration.
Second, you could just enlarge the text in Appleworks from your observer computer. Go ahead, it’s just as though you worked on the actual desktop of the observed computer.
Now would this work with, say, Windows 7/8 to Windows XP? Sure. Just recycle that old Windows XP box and plug the Wormhole Switch between the two Windows machines. Now you can use the one app that only works with Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6.
The Cheap, if not so easy, way to do a West Valley mind meld between two Macs.
If you don’t want to pay $30 to $40 for the Wormhole Switch, you can do much of its magic using Abyssoft’s Teleport app.
Abyssoft has three versions of Teleport. The latest, 1.1.2, supports Mountain Lion 10.8, Lion 10.7 and Snow Leopard 10.6. Earlier versions support earlier versions of OS X. Whether they will work together is the problem. I only tested Teleport in its latest version 1.2.2a.
Teleport installs as a preference pane on your Mac. Installing it is easy. You just double-click on the file and the installation process pops up. Do you want to install it just for yourself or for all users of the Mac? That’s the only question.
You do have to set up the arrangement of the Macs (and it’s only Macs, not Windows) using the Layout pane:
Under Settings, you set up whether you want to encrypt communication between the two (or more!) Macs. That requires a encryption certificate. I choose to dispense with encryption for this article.
Now you can choose to display a bezel that pops up in the middle of your screen when you switch to another Mac. You can also play a whooshing sound as you move from Mac to Mac.
One hint. Turn on your Firewall. Even if you have it turned OFF, turn it back ON. You will be asked during your first Teleport session if you want to allow teleportd.app, an ancillary app for the main Teleport preference pane, to access your Firewall. Say Yes and you’re good to go.
Teleport includes a PDF file which explains this to you. Read it!
As I said, this is the second way to mind-meld two Macs together. You use Teleport in collaboration with the VNC client/server so that you can control the second Mac from your current desktop.
You must put your cursor on the other’s Mac, not just on the VNC mirror of it, in order to copy and paste text from one Mac to another using Teleport. Same with dropping and dragging of files.
Here is the Settings panel:
And if you find it useful, drop the developer a few bucks.
Tom Briant
Editor, Macvalley Blog.
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth has more articles for you.
More employers checking Twitter influence of potential hires
The number of followers a person has is valuable because many people think it is an "indicator of influence"
http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_23837569/more-employers-checking-twitter-influence-potential-hires
How IBM Created the Future of the PC -- and Almost Destroyed Its Own
The NSA-DEA police state tango
a secret branch of the DEA called the Special Operations Division - so secret that nearly everything about it is classified, including the size of its budget and the location of its office - has been using the immense pools of data collected by the NSA, CIA, FBI and other intelligence agencies to go after American citizens for ordinary drug crimes. Law enforcement agencies, meanwhile, have been coached to conceal the existence of the program and the source of the information by creating what's called a "parallel construction," a fake or misleading trail of evidence. So no one in the court system - not the defendant or the defense attorney, not even the prosecutor or the judge - can ever trace the case back to its true origins.
the spread of tyranny only requires our silence.
while drug-war prosecutions are supposed to be just like other kinds of criminal cases, in practice they have a special status and are treated differently.
In theory, the DEA disclosures could and should have outraged Americans across the political spectrum, especially when added to all the other bad things we've learned about our government this year. Except that blind partisan loyalty now trumps everything in national politics, and almost nothing about our country's slide toward soft police state still shocks anybody.
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/10/the_nsa_dea_police_state_tango/
The NSA Is Commandeering the Internet
Technology companies have to fight for their users, or they'll eventually lose them.
Do you remember those old spy movies, when the higher ups in government decide that the mission is more important than the spy's life? It's going to be the same way with you. You might think that your friendly relationship with the government means that they're going to protect you, but they won't. The NSA doesn't care about you or your customers, and will burn you the moment it's convenient to do so.
We're already starting to see that. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others are pleading with the government to allow them to explain details of what information they provided in response to National Security Letters and other government demands. They've lost the trust of their customers, and explaining what they do -- and don't do -- is how to get it back. The government has refused; they don't care.
Already companies are taking their data and communications out of the US.
The NSA isn't going to remain above the law forever.
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/08/the-nsa-is-commandeering-the-internet/278572/
The Surveillance Speech: A Low Point in Barack Obama's Presidency
Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corp. and a personal friend of Steve Jobs, says NSA tracking is "essential"
I wouldn't be surprised if Oracle is working on NSA contracts.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/larry-ellison-says-nsa-tracking-is-essential-2013-08-13
If You Use Gmail, You Have No Legitimate Expectation Of Privacy
http://www.businessinsider.com/gmail-privacy-google-court-brief-2013-8
"Google has finally admitted they don't respect privacy," said John M. Simpson, Consumer Watchdog's Privacy Project director
Gamification, or the use of game elements to promote desired behaviors among customers and employees, has been a popular business strategy for decades.
Integration with social networks means these experiences are shared with friends, acquaintances and co-workers. A smartphone-carrying employee or consumer might be drawn into a gamified experience at any time, wherever they are.
http://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-gamification-done-right-2013-7
A perfect example of why it's harder to stay anonymous on the internet
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-14/wednesday-humor-kevin-henry-moonlighter
The Sweetest Dog Food Commercial Ever
One reader commented that he watched the ad twice to be sure it wasn't the human eating the dog food.
Watch the man and his dog move their heads in unison as they look both ways before crossing the street.
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-the-sweetest-dog-food-commercial-ever-2013-6
Three great cartoons on the surveillance state
http://www.dilbert.com/2013-08-13/
http://www.dilbert.com/2013-08-14/
http://www.dilbert.com/2013-08-15/
Friday Humor: The New Normal Miranda Rights
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-16/friday-humor-new-normal-miranda-rights
10 ways BlackBerry beats the iPhone
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/10-ways-blackberry-beats-the-iphone-2013-08-14
End of the road beckons for BlackBerry: company is looking for “possible transactions”
Beyond 'Jobs,' 9 great business-mogul movies
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/beyond-jobs-9-great-business-mogul-movies-2013-08-15
Steve Jobs movie slammed by critics - and Woz
As of Friday morning, "Jobs" is carrying a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 26% - meaning about three quarters of the reviewers tabulated have given the flick a Thumbs Down.
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/thetell/2013/08/16/steve-jobs-movie-slammed-by-critics-and-woz/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
A Teen's Tumblr Blog Helps Save A Mother From Financial Ruin
"All I want is for [my mother's] business to get big and noticed a lot more," she wrote
Orders just kept coming in........
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/08/16/tumblr-save-mother-financial-ruin/
How to Catch a Liar on the Internet
Technology makes it easier than ever to play fast and loose with the truth-but easier than ever to get caught.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/09/the-way-we-lie-now/309431/
The end of the expectation that citizens' communications are and will remain private will probably change us as a people, and a country.
Mr. Hentoff sees the surveillance state as a threat to free speech.
The inevitable end of surveillance is self-censorship.
Mr. Hentoff once asked Justice William Brennan "a schoolboy's question": What is the most important amendment to the Constitution? "Brennan said the First Amendment, because all the other ones come from that. If you don't have free speech you have to be afraid, you lack a vital part of what it is to be a human being who is free to be who you want to be."
An entrenched surveillance state will change and distort the balance that allows free government to function successfully. Broad and intrusive surveillance will, definitively, put government in charge. But a republic only works, Mr. Hentoff notes, if public officials know that they—and the government itself—answer to the citizens. It doesn't work, and is distorted, if the citizens must answer to the government.
J. Edgar Hoover didn't have all this technology. He would be so envious of what NSA can do.
- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323639704579015101857760922?mg=reno64-wsj.html%3Fdsk%3Dy
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
More Articles from Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth
The next Steve Jobs might be in school detention right now
A new study shows that rebellious adolescent behavior is a positive indicator for success as an entrepreneur—as long as you’re a man, and you don’t get caught.
http://qz.com/113815/why-the-next-steve-jobs-might-be-in-school-detention-right-now/
Obama's Apple Rescue
In June, the U.S. International Trade Commission banned the import of older iPhones and iPads, ruling that the devices infringed on one of Samsung's most basic patents, regarding the way cell phones connect to a network. On Friday, however, the Obama Administration came to Apple's rescue and vetoed the ban.
Had the Obama Administration not stepped in, the ban would have gone into effect this week. The ban would have derailed Apple's current strategy of selling older models to compete with Samsung's cheaper line of phones.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/08/apples-last-minute-rescue-by-obama.html
The History Of Apple's Lobby Spending
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-03/history-apples-lobby-spending
Apple Gets Its Day in Courts
An update about two legal conflicts: Apple vs. Samsung phone patents, and Apple's E-book price fixing trial.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-09/apple-gets-its-day-in-courts
Googling of certain things was creating a perfect storm of terrorism profiling. Because somewhere out there, someone was watching. Someone whose job it is to piece together the things people do on the internet raised the red flag when they saw our search history.
I had researched pressure cookers. My husband was looking for a backpack. And maybe in another time those two things together would have seemed innocuous, but we are in “these times” now. And in these times, when things like the Boston bombing happen.
And we got a visit from the anti-terrorist forces.
if I’m going to buy a pressure cooker in the near future, I’m not doing it online.
I’m scared. And not of the right things.
https://medium.com/something-like-falling/2e7d13e54724
It’s time Google came to grips with how it enables the surveillance state
Google, more than perhaps any other company, is aggressively putting sensors and the software to activate them into our environment.
1. Governments can listen in on just about anything…
2. … and if they can’t, they can always force companies to give it up
One reason Google and other internet companies periodically erase old data they have gathered about us is that they know that simply having that data around is a liability. If data exists, governments can compel internet companies to give it up. As Google’s then-CEO Eric Schmidt put it, when it comes to complying with national laws, however much Google doesn’t like it, “they have guns and we don’t.”
Is the simple act of recording ever more data morally defensible when there is always the possibility it can be mis-used for ever more intrusive surveillance?
US federal agencies want NSA data to help nab copyright violators
The primary defense of the necessity of the US National Security Agency’s broad spying powers ........ is that its activities are necessary to protect against terrorists and violent criminals. But ........ federal agencies with far more mundane mandates are unable to resist the lure of the NSA’s vast trove of data.
Such as copyright violators.
http://qz.com/111606/us-federal-agencies-want-nsa-data-to-help-nab-copyright-violators/
U.S. drug agents use secret NSA intercepts
A report cited at least one case where a DEA agent misled a prosecutor about the origins of an investigation, prompting the prosecutor to not file charges when he discovered the information came from a National Security Agency intercept.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-drug-agents-use-secret-nsa-intercepts-report-2013-08-05
NSA loophole allows warrantless search for US citizens' emails and phone calls
Spy agency has secret backdoor permission to search databases for individual Americans' communications
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/09/nsa-loophole-warrantless-searches-email-calls
On Friday, president Obama announced a plan to reform NSA surveillance.
The author of the editorial at the link below wrote:
"Don't expect much of anything to come out of it. It's a dog and pony show designed to make people feel better as opposed to any solid measures as to how much data government collects on everyone."
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/08/obamas-cream-puff-plan-to-reform-us.html
http://rt.com/usa/obama-nsa-statement-transparency-308/
How a simple three-digit number helps websites stick it to online censorship
Error 451 freedom of speech not found
Error 451 Unavailable for legal reasons
http://qz.com/111211/how-a-simple-three-digit-number-helps-websites-stick-it-to-online-censorship/
It's Getting Harder to Stay Anonymous, Facial Search Study Reveals
Technology is making it easier to find data about a person, without even needing the person's name. With facial recognition search, personal information can be uncovered from just a photo.
Alessandro Acquisti took photos of random students on his college campus and then ran the photos through a free facial recognition program that sifted through Facebook profiles and other websites. He was able to quickly identify many of the students and uncover their personal data, even including social security numbers in some cases.
http://www.techpolicy.com/Blog/May-2013/It-s-Getting-Harder-to-Stay-Anonymous,-Facial-Sear.aspx
I've been reading some good things about a search engine called
Here's some info about it.
So don't get tracked when searching.
Use DuckDuckGo instead.
And here's another private search engine.
The people who run it say:
"Our company is based in The Netherlands, Europe."
"Given the strong protection of the Right to Privacy in Europe, European governments cannot just start forcing service providers like us to implement a blanket spying program on their users"
"When you search with Startpage, we remove all identifying information from your query and submit it anonymously to Google ourselves. We get the results and return them to you in total privacy."
Here are two articles about StartPage.com
http://searchengineland.com/ixquick-changes-name-to-startpage-22069
Worried about the Mass Surveillance? How to Practice Safer Communication
US cloud computing firms worry Edward Snowden is wrecking their business, but the Patriot Act was already doing that
Cloud fears could drive new growth sector
Did you hear that the NSA tracks, reads, listens and records nearly everything you do on "the cloud"?
Of course you did, thanks to Edward Snowden.
I've seen many articles since then proclaiming the "Death of the Cloud".
But you have to "Flip It" once again. Is there any stopping the movement to the cloud?
Privacy is going to be a huge growth industry in coming years and will eventually provide us with some great alternative investment opportunities.
http://blogs.marketwatch.com/cody/2013/08/07/cloud-fears-could-drive-new-growth-sector/
Hacking Roundup for Sunday August 5, 2013
http://www.market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=223327
Bad News: Hackers Are Coming for Your Tap Water
Trend Micro [a company that sells anti-virus software] set up the decoys to draw attention to the state of critical infrastructure cybersecurity.
Ten of the cyberattacks, including the Chinese attack, were deemed "critical"—meaning that, in a real-life scenario, a hacker could have altered or turned off a city's water supply -- or so Trend Micro says.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/chinese-hackers-attack-trend-micro-honeypots
Lavabit, email service Snowden reportedly used, abruptly shuts down
Lavabit's founder and operator Ladar Levison wrote:
"Without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States."
http://boingboing.net/2013/08/08/lavabit-email-service-snowden.html
Microsoft plans to release Windows 8.1 upgrade on October 17th
If you use Windows 8, circle October 17th on your calendar. Microsoft will release the free upgrade at 7:00 AM Eastern Time/4:00 AM Pacific Time.
This blog has Windows 8 installed in a virtual machine on its main Mac, so l look forward to giving you a report on Windows 8.1 sometime after October 17th.
Tom Briant
Editor, Macvalley Blog
Monday, August 5, 2013
Further thoughts on Linux and Macs
I’ve received my first reaction to my rant from Sunday.
The key question they asked was, “How easy is it to transfer documents, e-mails, photos, videos, and music from Windows XP to a Mac?”
Good question. The answer is that for a Mac, it’s easy enough for the home user to do it. If you have qualms and $99, arrange to take the Windows XP box in so that an Apple technician will transfer your files over to your new Mac.
This $99 provides you with a year’s worth of services at the Apple Store. Ask about it when you go in.
I confess that I wrote my rant from my own perspective. I’ve dealt with two people who’ve lost their Windows machines to viruses or corrupt hard disks. In both cases, they didn’t have a backup. So if you don’t have a backup, go to Frys/Costco/Bestbuy/Radio Shack/Walmart and get a backup disk.
If you think a hard disk is too expensive, multiply the time you put in creating those files x $10/hour. Several thousand dollars, probably.
As for Linux, even with those two distributions I suggested, you have to put in some hard work. You have to transfer over your files yourself from Windows XP. Transferring e-mail is a royal pain.
Luke, I am your nerd uncle. Listen to me. Buy a Mac to save yourself headaches. Take your old Windows box to the Apple Store and let them transfer your data over to your shiny new Mac.
And Get That Backup Drive!
Tom Briant
Editor, MacValley Blog
Sunday, August 4, 2013
After having a beer and posting a long rant about Windows XP
Good afternoon all:
You’ve read my long rant about Windows XP, its impending expiration, and what you can do about it.
I expect we’ll see as much panic in the mainstream press over this as we did over the Y2K crisis. Remember that? That’s when a lot of executives realized that to save room, they had their mainframe programs use only 2 digits to indicate a year. That brought a lot of old COBOL programmers a nice extra paycheck.
I think NBC put together a Movie-Of-The-Week where Y2K essentially brought life on Earth to a standstill. Lots of explosions and scantily clad starlets running around screaming. Ah, the good old days.
Now on to other matters. I believe we’ve lost our privacy. Now we have to trust in boredom. Scarlett Johannesson is probably getting a lot of attention as a suspected member of Al-Queda. At least, that’s what the NSA analysts are telling their bosses. And Megan Fox. Even Sharon Stone. Kerry Washington? Definitely….
But you and I get the once-over quickly. Now if the NSA gets into targeted ads-gotta make up the trillion-dollar deficit somehow-we can expect all kinds of junk mail in our inboxes.
Now I can just hear those NSA analysts about how I, another cog in the Federal government, don’t appreciate the vital role they play.
I would refer you to a recent New Rules segment by Bill Maher. Bill Maher ran a slide of the MK-54, the so-called “suitcase nuke”. These have been around since the 1950s, so my guess-not Bills-is that constructing one of these has become an engineering problem and not a problem for nuclear physicists. Do we want our government keeping an eye and ear on whomever wants to make one or buy one on the black market? Yes, I do. You don’t make novelty coffee tables out of this.
And the pictures are available for a quick Google search.
So Remember guys, you’re looking for this:
And not this:
AT least not during business hours!
But Back to Apple News Now…
Apple Keeping an Eye on Inventory Levels
Now inventory isn’t as sexy as new Retina iPad Minis, iOS 7, and OS X Mavericks. Apple must keep an eye on its levels on inventory. It keeps plenty in the pipeline for high-volume products, such as the iPhone and iPad. Other products, such as the Mac Mini, not so much. This article in Appleinsiderexplains what’s going on and why it might take longer than you think to get that particular Mac you wanted.
Obama vetoes ban of Apple products proposed by International Trade Commission
No, this veto doesn’t affect new products. It relates to stuff in the past. But I think we can all agree it points to the Chief Executive having an iPhone in his pocket instead of a Galaxy. And Apple having successfully lobbied more Senators than Samsung did. Here’s the Appleinsider article.
Handy New App to Play with
Mac360 has a new program launching app to play with. It’s called Apptivate. I’m playing with it right now and I’ll have a report on its usefulness later.
Tom Briant
Editior, MacValley Blog
What to do with an aging Windows XP computer and their aging owner
Windows XP, the mainstay of many households, loses support from Microsoft in April 2014. No more security upgrades. You are on your own. You have to rely on unofficial support from blogs.
What does this blog recommend you do? Well, our first instinct is to shout at the top of our lungs, “DUMMY, BUY A MAC! A NICE MAC BOOK AIR!”
We’re passionate about our Macs. But we realize that you have relatives in this world who don’t want to get a Mac. They say it’s too expensive or too weird and that it won’t work with their 20 year backlog of Microsoft Word files.
As for expensive, yes, they cost more than some PCs. That’s because Macs use dual-core Core i5 as the minimum processor in their machines. Look at the Fry’s ad on the Web and see what a desktop or notebook PC with an i5 processor costs. They cost about the same or more than a Mac Mini for desktops or a MacBook Air for notebooks.
As for the charge of weirdness, FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE, HAVE YOU SEEN WINDOWS 8?! Go to BestBuy and try it. Ask the sales clerk how does it work with your older Windows software, such as Office 2010?
As for the charge that it won’t work with a 20 year old Microsoft Word document, I have Microsoft Word for Mac 2011 working with Microsoft 2.0a for Word documents. How far back are you going?
Download LibreOffice if necessary to work with these ancient documents. It’s free.
If they would like a Mac, you may meet other roadblocks:
- Neither the relative or you has enough money for a brand new Mac. Answer: Head to eBay or PowerMax or Small Dog Electronics and look at a used one. Look at Apple’s deals on refurbished Macs.
- They only have dial-up Internet. Believe it or not, some people continue to get by on dial-up. Get them on broad-band pronto! Whether they go with Windows 8 or OS X or even Linux, they’ll need broad-band to download the upgrades.
- They kept all their data on floppy disks. Invest in a USB floppy disk drive. Get the data onto a hard drive as soon as possible!
- The Old PC must stay for whatever reason
- If the old PC stays for whatever reason, and I’ll let Shakespeare and O’Neill deal with questions of family interactions, I have some advice for you.
- First, invest in a backup disk. Hard disks fail, but two usually do not fail at the same time. Go to Costco and pick one up along with the dog food and tilapia filets. If you want to gamble, go to one of those Indian casinos advertising on the radio, not with your 20 years of files.
- Second, clear off some room on the old hard drive and install a low-impact version of Ubuntu Linux. Right now, the full version of Ubuntu Linux now runs a GUI called Unity which demands as much graphic resources as OS X or Windows 8. If your relative runs a 10 year old PC, it won’t run full-blown LInux unless they installed a separate graphics card.
- Fortunately, you can get versions of Ubuntu that demand only a fraction of full-blown Ubuntu’s needs. I refer to Lubuntu which uses LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) and Xubuntu which runs the XFCE desktop environment. Underneath their hoods, though, they still run the guts of the latest version of this Linux distribution.
- This is the Lubuntu desktop. The Applications menu, like Windows, is in the lower left-hand corner.
This is the Xubuntu desktop. The application menu, is the upper left-hand corner. You’ll see an icon of a mouse’s head. Just click on it and you’re good to go.
- Which one to install? How to install it? Well, to the first question, download both distributions and burn them each to a DVD. Now let your relative try them out as a Livd DVD. Make sure the old PC is set up to boot up first from a CD or DVD.
- Just put the desired DVD into the optical drive and reboot. It takes its time coming up, but they’ll have the chance to play with Linux without wiping out their current Windows XP installation.
- Give them a week to try them out. Once they’ve made their mind up, you can install either Lubuntu or Xubuntu alongside the Windows XP installation in a dual-boot configuration. When they boot up, they come to a text-based menu for either Windows XP or Ubuntu Linux. Use the arrow keys to select which one they want and press the Enter key.
- If you run into trouble with the menu for selecting the operating system, such as it doesn’t appear and you end up at a command prompt of some sort; Don’t Panic! Carry a Towel and this CD. The Boot-Rescue-Disk. Burn it beforehand and mark it with a Sharpie pen. If you don’t know what version of LInux you have, go with the 32 bit version.
- Insert the Boot-Rescue-Disk into the optical drive and reboot the system. Follow the prompts, go with the failsafe session, and your boot menu will be good to go at the end
- I see I’ve reached the 800 word limit and probably the end of your attention span. If you haven’t experimented with Linux in the past, you’ll find it’s a great complement to Windows. You can use different desktops with it, unlike OS X which restricts you to Aqua. If you want a more full-featured desktop than Lubuntu’s LXDE or Xubuntu’s XFCE, you can try out KDE. KDE runs fine on the internal graphics of my 10 year old PC. It will remind you of Windows’ Start Menu.
- You can get KDE through Ubuntu’s Synaptic Package Manager, which is their version of Apple’s App Store. You want kde-standard.
- Last But Not Least!
If they do decide to keep around the old Windows XP in a dual-boot configuration or just skip Linux altogether, remind them that they have to keep their virus software up to date.
If they let the Norton Anti-Virtus trial subscription lapse, install a free anti-virus. I have had good luck with Microsoft’s own Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows XP.
And laugh at me if you want to now, but believe me…you’ll have lots of domestic drama on your hands if a relative turns to you in search of a way to retrieve their wedding photos or baby pictures or love letters from the grips of the FBI virus or another piece of malware.
At least get them to back up their wedding photos to an external hard drive! Now! Why are you sitting there? Costco is open! Get your buns over there!
Tom Briant
Editor, MacValley Blog
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Senior Correspondent Arnold Woodworth has a round of articles for you
Apple Fixes Threat from Fake iPhone Chargers in iOS 7
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple-fixes-threat-from-fake-iphone-chargers-in-ios-7
Apple to go Retina on iPad Mini
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9241289/Apple_to_go_Retina_on_iPad_Mini
Edward Snowden is NOT the story.
The fate of the internet is.
because of what the U.S. government assumed it could do with information it had the technological ability to intercept, American companies and American interests are sure to suffer in their efforts to shape and benefit from the Internet's continued growth.
The problem for the companies, it's worth emphasizing, is not that they were so unduly eager to cooperate with U.S. government surveillance. Many seem to have done what they could to resist. The problem is what the U.S. government -- first under Bush and Cheney, now under Obama and Biden -- asked them to.
The real threat from terrorism has never been the damage it does directly, even through attacks as horrific as those on 9/11. The more serious threat comes from the over-reaction.
XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data
"What the Department of Homeland Security became under Janet Napolitano is this monstrous surveillance and very intimidating group," said Rutherford Institute President John Whitehead
http://www.wnd.com/2013/07/big-sis-shockingly-dirty-secrets-go-public/
NSA Surveillance Programs to be Declassified
The U.S. intelligence community plans to declassify information about the National Security Agency's surveillance programs, CNN reported.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2013/07/30/cnn-nsa-surveillance-programs-to-be-declassified.html
Newly declassified documents on phone records program released
A breakthrough in cryptography could thwart a favorite attack of hackers
http://qz.com/109999/a-breakthrough-in-cryptography-could-thwart-a-favorite-attack-of-hackers/
How Musicians Really Make Money in One Long Graph
Some fear that technology is making us dumber. But others contend our gadgets could boost our intellectual abilities.
We are obsessed with making everything faster and cheaper. The result of this obsession is that we become less skillful.
Many people are relatively impulsive, with shorter attention spans and weaker impulse control. They are more easily distractible and dependent on technology. In comparison, reflective people are better at inhibiting distractions and inappropriate uses of technology. They are more likely to not answer a cellphone that rings while driving.
Our brains no longer have to store knowledge. We just need to know how to retrieve it, and we don't always know whether it's accurate or not.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/does-technology-make-us-dumber-2013-08-01
Inside Bitcoins conference: How do you regulate virtual currencies?
Inside Bitcoins conference: Why venture capital wants in
Pamir Gelenbe of Hummingbird Ventures, a small venture capital firm based in Europe, said part of his excitement about bitcoin is that he doesn't think a single regulator will be able to shut it down.
"Bitcoin is going to happen whether or not regulators want it to happen" he says.
What Google Knows About You
Pretty much everything
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-01/what-google-knows-about-you
Tweeting about a new job can get you sued
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tweeting-about-a-new-job-can-get-you-sued-2013-08-02
So Now Your Phone Will "Hear" You All The Time?
