SVMUG - May 19, 2008

Introduction - Charles Gousha

“Sad Song Long” Mac Ad Pep Rally ad — The commercials keep on coming…

News and Announcements

new people? — just the vendors — but thank you for coming in…

new iPhone rumors… 3G, GPS, The retail channel seems to be drying up, maybe in preparation for the new model.

AT&T told employees not to take vacation between June and July, in preparation for a new product announcement.

WWWDC is in three weeks… sold out! 4000 to 5000 pre-registered attendees.

It may be that conference recordings will be available for purchase via the iTunes store, following the close of the conference.

Laptop rumor: new model in 3Q2008?

Last week, the Mac Book Pro did get a speed bump. The Mac Pro (tower) has gone to 8-cores.

Microsoft service pacs are out for Windows — and are said to actually fix things.

A service pac for MS Office on the Mac has been released.

Microsoft will be making Visual Basic available again in Office for the Mac, in 2010. Microsoft will be in next month to show Office 2008.

Maker Faire 2008 - it was fun - people were driving around in giant cupcakes. Lots of kits were available for purchase. Blinking spiders. Crafts and Electronics. fabulous clothes. life size R2D2 - functional! Robo wars with axes and flame throwers. Robot Battleships.

CNet has merged with CBS.

Book: Photoshop Anthology is available online in PDF for FREE! photoshop.aws.sitepoint.com

Psystar, who sells generic PC hardware that can run Mac OS X, has apparently been acquired by another company.

“Back to My Mac” has been used to catch a thief. A victim used remote access to snap an iSight picture of the thief.

Presentation - Symantec

Norton Anti Virus

— Mac Products 2008 presented by Mike Romo (Mac Product Manager) and Nick Uchida (Mac QA Lead) — Mike is a big Mac Nerd.

Symantec is offering the next generation of security tools for the Mac.

— Overview on Changing Threat Landscape —— Consumer behavior has shifted. —— We are on the Internet whenever we want. —— Attackers have also shifted. —— phishers, whalers, cross site attacks,…

Commercial black hat hackers sell tools to criminals to use very short windows of opportunity, from deployment of a new attack to the discovery and remedy by security companies.

—— exploiting browser plug-ins is on the dramatic rise. —— fake social network pages are used to force software installs —— news links are similarly exploited

Exploiting legitimate websites is the biggest threat today

Exploits focus on web browser and plug-in vulnerabilities, but attacks based on trickery are emerging as the dominant threat.

Products

1. Norton AntiVirus 11 for Mac = real time virus and vulnerability protection completely redesigned improved anti virus scanning performance vulnerability protection

2. Norton Confidential for Mac = online threat and identity protection Phishing protection for Safari and Firefox analyzes pages on the fly for phishing attacks file protection/access control confidential data protection vulnerability protection

3. Norton Dual Protection - combines Mac and Windows security software.

(These are for Mac OS X version 10.4.6 - earlier versions work with earlier OS.)

Annual updates of virus definitions are $24.95 for Anti-virus, and $24.95 for Confidential. The products should be viewed as primarily subscriptions, as the definition updates are crucial to the product functionality.

Break

Member Demo: Constant Contact, presented by Mike Ellard

Constant Contact provides for sending multiple emails. It allows the bulk sending of graphic based emails. Constant Contact is a server with a web-based interface, whereby subscribers may compose emails, schedule the mailings, to a selected mailing list.

A recipient when examining email from Constant Contact can notify Constant Contact that a given sender is a spammer. Such persons will be kicked from the Constant Contact service. In addition, any one may tell Constant Contact that he or she wishes to opt out of getting any bulk mail sent via Constant Contact. The service will then prevent any sender from adding you to a bulk mail list under the Constant Contact service.

For the sender, Constant Contact provides for monitoring email responses, via unique click-throughs. A list of recipients who click-through is provided. Bounces are also reported.

The mechanism is “web beacons” — a click-initiated download of a 1 pixel graphic. The path information in the clickable link includes recipient tracking information.

Groups of email addresses can be set up, which can be combined in various combinations. A sender account can be set up with several administrators, each of which may be set up to manage a given recipient group.

Member Demo: Circus Ponies Notebook, presented by David Strom

Notebook with automatic indexing and organization features. Organization is hierarchical as notebooks: sections: pages: cells: cell content of lists, paragraphs, pictures, video, audio, etc.

Q&A

1.a How do I eliminate Explorer as the default?

Use the system preferences internet settings, or the preference settings in the desired browser.

1.b How do I set up AOL as my mail client?

Use the AOL setup assistant.

1. What port is used to download mail? I get a port 25 error.

Port 25 is normally used to send mail. The port may be blocked for outgoing mail. Some ISP’s block the use of email servers other than the one set up by the ISP. Also the IPS server may not be available from remote locations.

1. When booting, a small question mark shows up briefly prior to the Apple logo.

This indicates that the computer is searching for a boot drive. It might be that the startup disk is set for a disk that no longer is connected to the computer.

1. One of my speakers (a plug in set) is not working. The circuit continuity shows open.

Make sure the sound preference balance is set correctly. Otherwise, the speakers may be dead.

1. I wish to print out the cmd-option-shift symbols.

Use the keyboard viewer and character palette. This is enabled in the system preference panel “International”.

1. How can I get the audio track of a DVD video into iTunes?

There is commercial software that enables this. DVD XDV. Audio Hijack.

1. I opened a phishing email. Can I check my Mac for possible infection?

Do a credit check on yourself.

1. Does an SE30 have any resale value? What is the best way to make the hard drive unreadable?

Try Craigslist to get bids.

Open the drive, pull the head magnets.

1. My Mac does not recognize my iPod Nano.

Check the pins on the iPod, but if it is not recognized, it can not be restored.

A Genius Bar may be able to use special low level modes to reformat it.

But we expect it is dead.

1. I wish to print the addresses from address book, with the addresses showing the group membership.

Use the print command, and choose list print. You will have to print one group at a time.

You can also export to CVS, and use a spreadsheet program.

1. Can I play DVD movies without using the built in hardware DVD Player on a Lombard? I am using System 9, and the DVD player hardware seems to overheat and burn out frequently.

Nope.

Raffle

eight copies of Symantec software

one copy of Circus Ponies Notebook

eleven copies of assorted O’Reilly books.

Closing Remarks

June 2 - SMUG - Microsoft Office 2008 June 16 - SVMUG - Microsoft Office 2008