A few things...

1. I've added more RAM to the Macbook. In fact, I've upgraded from 768MB of RAM to 2GB. I couldn't resist the price. I bought the RAM from Best Buy because they were having a sale. I got 2GB for $37.

2. I've learned a new key combination for Macs. I wanted to know if there were key commands to capture screenshots. The key command is 'commmand + shift + 4'. The only issue I had was that once I executed those key strokes, I didn't know if I had to paste the screenshot somewhere or access an already generated screenshot. I eventually decided to use the capture utility to do the same thing.

1 & 2:

Screenshot of #s 1 and 2:























3. My battery charger and adapter broke. It appears that the cord near the square brick got too hot or something...there is now a hole in the outside plastic coating. The power adapter was also very hot to the touch. I'm currently using the wife's adapter to charge my notebook until I can either purchase one or (more than likely) schedule a Genius Bar appointment.

4. There's a piece of plastic flaking off of my Macbook behind the screen toward the bottom, where the big enlongated vent is. This wasn't there a week ago. It hasn't broken off yet and I still have Applecare on this 1g notebook. I may let it pass but I'm beginning to see several casing flaws that are beginning to add up. I'll post pictures later.

OS X DNS Changers, part three

Excerpt

Well it looks like my first day on duty I have the pleasure of sharing the latest and greatest in OS X DNS hijacking script. For those long time readers of ISC this topic may sound somewhat familiar, that is because this subject has been covered twice before in some detail. Since this entry is on the long side of things, I will very quickly cover the important part for readers who DO NOT have the time to read all of this.

http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=5390

OSX on a Dell Mini??!!

http://vimeo.com/2206943

New Line of Macbooks and Macbook Pros!

http://www.apple.com/macbook/

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

* Note:  I linked to Apple's product pages...these will change as the products are improved, but I didn't want to directly archive the pages.  If you're looking at this years after the fact, please use Google to search and keep the date of the post in mind.

The huge change is the Macbook. It is now all aluminum and appears thinner. The touchpad now also functions as a large button and can handle large gestures. The battery power level indicator is also now on the side or edge of the Macbook (vs. the bottom). There also appears to have been a HUGE graphics card upgrade, enabling intensive 3D gameplay.

Time to trade up! :) Either that, or just get an iMac (which is where I'm leaning).

:*(

Not good. Yeah, it's mine. It was in my lap while driving my kid to daycare and I'd forgotten about it when I stepped out of my truck.

I do have a new one (Best Buy replaced it for me). It took me 1.5 hours to get a replacement. I need to find me a good case for this thing. The case I have now is a DIO...it will suffice until I find some real armor for the iPhone. I got rid of the Griffin POS one.

Apple recalls iPhone 3G power adapters over shock risk

Apple on Friday afternoon recalled the ultracompact USB power adapter for iPhone 3Gs with warnings that they might pose a hazard to owners.

Read more here

iPhone Didn't Want To Awake!

So, I'm chatting with my wife on the way home from work, hang up and noticed five minutes later that the phone doesn't want to wake up. I kept fiddling with it and holding down the sleep keep for 10-20 seconds.

Finally, I pulled over and took out my Macbook. I plugged the phone into the Macbook. It made the chime sound but still wouldn't power up. I looked at iTunes and noticed that iTunes saw the iPhone without issue.

I decided to take the phone to Best Buy so they could sort it out. I left not long after, because the kids were acting like they were on crack and because the sales people had their heads up their bungholes.

When I got home I did a quick google search and saw that you could power-cycle the iPhone by holding both the sleep and home keys for ten seconds (first link in the google search). I did this and got a silver apple...and after a sixty-second wait, I saw the phone was back to normal. And just in time, too, because the phone immediately starts ringing (it was my wife telling me that she was on the way home).

It's been...what...going on three weeks? That's the first and only issue I have with the phone, so far.

Oh yeah, its now running software version 2.1 (and can go several days without a charge, which is far better than before the update).

I Bought an iPhone 3G 16GB!

I'm the proud owner of an iPhone 3G 16GB! I opted for the white model (just to attempt to be different). I got a Black Griffin Elan clip for it, which will tie me over until I get a full clear case for it. The case came with clear film to place over the touch screen...the film was a b!tCh! to align and even after being careful, I still ended up with a grain of sand (or something) under it. I've left it alone for now but looking at the film bubble is highly annoying!

I bought the phone from Best Buy and the tech guy attempted to sync my old phone's data with my new phone but couldn't get syncing to work. I took it home and tried it and it wouldn't work, but instead of trying to sync them together, I synced the old phone with my Macbook, then synced the iPhone with the Macbook...worked flawlessly!

I'm also able to use my red Motorola H500 bluetooth earpiece with my new phone. It also syncs with my TomTom GPS (yeah, I know....iPhone has GPS capability, so I guess the wife can now use the TomTom).

One cool thing this phone does is utitize wifi...this is awesome and I spent half of last night browsing from the phone. This morning, I accessed my Gmail from the iPhone.

One thing I have yet to do is download apps for it...I plan on doing this sometime this evening.

The charger for this phone is cool...it charges via USB but has this wall adapter that the USB plug connect to so that you can charge via an AC outlet.

The crucial accessory to get is the acrylic case...yeah, I've dropped it already...thank God it was on a linoleum floor (instead of outside on asphalt or concrete).

I'll keep you guys posted as to my iPhone experience. :)

Jing and Copernicus

Jing (which I downloaded @ http://download.techsmith.com/jing/mac/jing.dmg) and Copernicus (which I downloaded from http://danicsoft.com/projects/copernicus/) are screen capture tools.

Both capture either screenshots or desktop movies which can be used for tutorials, for example.

I've installed both and will be evaluating them. I will try not to compare them...I'm just looking for a good capture tool for OS X.

Stay tuned!

Macstyles

I bought decorations for my Macbook. I usually don't care for items of this nature but because I've the "yellowing" issue that was never rectified by the manufacturer, I wanted to be able to cover up the blemishes.

What did I get? I went to MacStyles.com and bought a Macstyle and Macpad. I got black in color, as I thought it would contrast the most. I was right.

Pics are stored here.

Now, with the Macstyle, I sorta messed things up a bit. I stuck it onto the Macbook upside down, which makes the apple on the lid uncentered. I'll fix this later, but it's gonna require another purchase. This also means I have to remove the current Macstyle, which isn't a 5 minute job. Maybe I'll get another color (not sure on that, though).

iTunes Issues

I'd forgotten about my iPod being synced to the iTunes install that was on the hard disk that crashed.

I had a new problem: getting the content that's on the iPod to my new iTunes installation. The problem is that you can't normally transfer songs themselves from iPods to whatever has your iTunes software (laptop, desktop).

I went here and followed the instructions. Although the instructions are straight-forward, I did issues with two of the recommended 3rd-party packages before I actually had success in backing up the data that resides on the iPod.

The software I had issues with were iPodRip and YamiPod. With the former, the software started fine but would choke on file transfers that involved more than one file. The software would lock up and I'd have to force-kill it. With the latter, the software never loaded, locking up without the GUI showing. I'd also had to force-kill the process (this one locked the software up in a way that the system fans would kick in after 10 sec of the software trying to load).

I was successful with Senuti.

I installed Senuti, then had it back up the iPod's data to the default iTunes library location. From there, I backed up this location's files to another place (just in case). I then synced iTunes with my iPod successfully!

The only issue I actually have (had) is that my playlists didn't sync. :( That was expected, though.

So, my music is good now. I just have to remember to back up my music to something other than the MacBook's hard disk (maybe an external drive, which I've several).

FileZilla for OS X

FileZilla

Instead of using CyberDuck as an FTP client like I've done in the past, I wanted to try something different (and free), so I'm giving FileZilla a try. So far it is good and seems better laid-out than CyberDuck.

I've also used it to upload a movie to my public web server, a 10Mb file. I made this movie with Photo Booth. I'd not tried this software before to make movies. I'd previously used it to take pictures, though. The movie feature is very handy and easy to use. I can make short movies to send to family and friends via e-mail (or upload them to my server so that larger files don't have to be transferred via e-mail). The sound quality is surprisingly clear and loud.

Latest Mac Happenings

Heya,

Two things of interest:

1. My Macbook is fixed. I went to the new Apple Store in Fair Oaks Mall and left it overnight while they replace the hard disk and reinstalled OS X. While I had Tiger (v10.4.something), they installed Leopard (v10.5.2).

2. During my 5-6 month of Mac downtime, my Macbook's battery went south for the winter. After following the steps in the manual and help pages at Apple.com, I finally realized it was really dead. Fortunately, the Genius replaced it under warranty.

3. My wife now has a late rev Macbook. Hers outspecs mine across the board, with the exception of my system's SuperDrive...her hard drive is bigger, she has more system RAM, and she has a 2.1GHz CPU while mine is a 2.0GHz CPU (both systems are dual-core). She won this system at a PTO raffle. She bought my daughter's whole book of raffle tickets, just to help her out then the following week, my kids came home excited, saying that the previous Friday, my wife's ticket was drawn. Later that day, my wife got a call from the school office telling her she actually won two drawings, one the laptop and the other a $25 coupon for use at The Cheesecake Factory.

So, I can do two things: back up this install of Leopard ASAP onto an external drive, or just buy Leopard (if I have to reinstall the OS, I'll have to revert back to Tiger, since my system disks are Tiger.

I'm going to have to redo my iTunes setup and reconfigure the laptop...this will be fun, especially since I'll be doing new stuff (learning Leopard).

Fun times!!

New Apple Store!

There's a new Apple Store in the Fair Oaks Mall, in the Fairfax, VA area.

I intend to visit between now and Sunday to check things out and see a Genius about my poor Macbook.

DNS Changer Trojan Revisited

(Minor) evolution in Mac DNS changer malware

This article tracks the state of this trojan since it was first reported. Apparently, more AV products will alert on the trojan since its initial discovery, although the authors are now attempting to evade notice by obfuscating the install code.

This is a nice, short, and sweet article.

Macbook won't boot

My Macbook has been non-functional for months. Sorry I didn't report this sooner. My findings so far is that the hard disk is bad...I can boot the system up with the Apple install disk and can't see the hard disk.

Now, I could replace it myself, but I've been meaning to use the AppleCare experience to see how Apple handles this. I've been dreading it getting shipped but I also have some other issues that they can maybe address. For one, I've the yellow staining of the area to the sides of the touchpad. I also have a touchpad button that sometimes hangs.

I'm hoping the Genius people can fix it without having it shipped out...the possibility is high that it will be shipped if I complain about the staining, but I'm hoping the Genius will see it and notice it without me saying anything.

I may visit the Apple store in Tyson Corner the coming Monday, but I've been saying similar things for awhile. It may be in my best interest to just get a hard drive locally and replace the bad one to see if that fixes the issue. I'd say my chances are better that the drive is bad instead of it being a SATA controller issue, but we'll see one way or another, I guess.

Macbook Air Cracked in Minutes

http://blogs.computerworld.com/macbook_pwned_in_two_minutes_and_fly_me

Apparently, there's an issue with Safari...another reason yet again to use Firefox, especially since there is now the Firekeeper plugin.