Why be Scared of a Mac OS X IPv6 Network Exploit?

Talk about sensationalism... Information Week's title reads: Apple's Mac OS X Vulnerable To Networking Exploit. If you read further, you'll find: a proof-of-concept exploit that takes advantage of a flaw in the way the Apple implements IPv6 support. IPv6? Very very few organizations have deployed IPv6. And, I'll guess most of those few do not use many Macs. On the other hand, the article's author did get me to read the article. So, I guess he did a good job with that scare title. :-)

Neither VMware Fusion nor Parallels Desktop Likes Windows VIsta ISO Files

I updated both Parallels Desktop for Mac 3.0 and VMware Fusion 1.1 to the latest builds last weekend. It looks like neither one can install Windows Vista from ISO files that are from the Microsoft MSDN subscription. However, the installation is going fine (using VMware Fusion right now) using a physical Vista DVD (also from MSDN).

iMovie 06 Downgrade Download

The Apple PC vs. Mac commercials may make fun of people wanting to downgrade from Windows Vista to Windows XP. However, Apple has its own downgrade candidate: iMovie 08. I rarely use it, but I had a little project today (literally onhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifly 5 seconds long) that required me to fire up iMovie 08 today. Um, yuck...

So, here's where to find the iMovie 06 downgrade file: iMovie HD 6.0.4

Parallels 3 Build 5584 and VMware Fusion 1.1.1 Build 72241

I finally have a replacement for my long departed G4-based Mac mini (RIP Fall 2007). Since I finally have an Intel-based desktop, I'm moving my virtualization environment and related work from my 1st generation Macbook to the desktop. I used the opportunity to finally update both Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. Moving from a 1GB Macbook to a 2GB desktop really made a difference (as expected) when running virtual machines. I brought in an existing Windows XP Parallels Guest OS configuration to Parallels and built a new Fedora 8 Linux Guest OS in VMware Fusion. Although the common wisdom is that VMware is better, I think I still prefer Parallels. But, VMware Fusion is growing on me.

How to Find the Actual Bento 1.0.2 Updater

If you go to the FileMaker Bento home page and click on the 1.0.2 updater link, it throws to what is probably a firewalled internal server at...

http://alpha-skyline.filemaker.com/support/updaters/bento1.0v2.html

This leads to a Connection refused error. Just remove their internal server name (e.g., leave http://filemaker... ) and you will get to the update page.

My Take on MacHeist

The MacBreak podcast spent two episodes discussing the cons (first episode) and pros (second episode) about the two (so far) MacHeist software bundles. Both episodes featured discussions with developers on both sides of the opinion line (pro and con) as well as a person from MacHeist. So, let me throw in my opinion as an ordinary end user who took advantage of the second bundle (after being just an observer of the first event's activity).

As a Mac software consumer, the MacHeist price is obviously a huge attraction. Although the individual developers may not make a huge profit (or maybe any profit?), I think they will benefit from this in the long run. Why? Here's my take... There were 12 packages in the last MacHeist offering. I might have bought one or two of those. But, one I probably would NOT have tried is Pixelmator? Why? I have Adobe PhotoShop Elements 4 (which runs horribly slow on Intel Macs) and was waiting for version 6 to come out later this year. I had never heard of Pixelmater and wasn't actively learning more about the product. But, since it was in the bundle, I gave it a try and found I liked it a lot. I may not even bother upgrading PhotoShop Elements now. And, guess who might get my hard earned $$$ when a Pixelmater major upgrade is released?

I have not tried any of the other MacHeist bundle applications yet. But, I would not be surprised if I find a couple more products useful that I might not have even tried otherwise. And, they too will probably get my upgrade $$$ at some point in the future.

On the Windows side of my computing work world, I've been using JASC PaintShop Pro since version 4 (it is currently version 11). I haven't upgrade on every upgrade cycle. But, I have upgraded most of the time (I think I skipped two upgrade releases). It is a good stable product (well, there was one release that wasn't :-) that has served me well for probably a decade in various versions. They've earned a good chunk of upgrade $$$ from me. If Pixelmator continues to release a quality product, they have probably earned my business going-forward too.

Is Aperture 2.0 for the "Rest of Us" (Middle of the Road Photographers)?

I've never spent more than $100 on any single photo editor software. I've used JASC PaintShop Pro for many years on the Windows side. I pay a reasonable (usually in the $40 to $60 range) every couple of years to upgrade it. I also use the free Paint.net app on Windows. I used the Open Source SeaShore editor on my Mac until I upgraded to Leopard and it started to crash a lot. I used PhotoShop Elements 4 on my old G4-based Mac mini. But, it was was too sluggish on an Intel-based MacBook running in Rosetta emulation mode. However, Pixelator runs fine fand fast. So, I've been using that for the last couple of weeks.

When Apple announced Aperture 2 yesterday, the thing that most interested me was the price drop to US$199. That's more than I ever paid for a photo editor and more than twice what PhotoShop Elements 6 will be when it is released for the Mac. But, I'm very interested in learning more about Aperture 2 to see if it would be a useful tool for a middle-of-the-road digital photography hobbyist like me. So, I'll be following the blog posts over at the O'Reilly Media Inside Aperture blog very carefully as I try to figure out whether or not to buy Aperture 2 for myself.

Transfer Purchases from Your iPod

Hey, was this Transfer Purchases from NameOfYouriPod feature always here? It in in the iTune File menu. I just noticed it tonight. I had bought a bunch of stuff on the Mac mini that was my daily use Mac until it died. I finally saved up enough nickels and dimes to replace it recently. I attached my iPod video, clicked on the option and a bunch of purchased items appear to be flowing from my iPod to my new Mac. I guess I'll find out in a little while if things flowed over.

Next project? Need to buy a 1.5 inch putty knife to open up the dead Mac mini and see if I can fix it.

Firefox 2.0.11 Doesn't Like Panther

Believe it or not the iBook G4 in my office still runs Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther). I didn't feel like upgrading it to Tiger when Tiger came out. And, I figured Leopard might be too much for it (512MB RAM). The emergence of Firefox 2.0.12 reminded me that 2.0.11 failed when I ran it on the Panther-based iBook. Camino runs fine on it so far though. Fingers crossed the Camino devs support it for a while longer. The old iBook seems to be running fine after all these years (knock on wood). And, I take it to all my meetings for note-taking since the battery life is still great (no need to carry a power adapter).

PowerPoint 2008 to iPod

Just tried the feature that lets me export a PowerPoint 2008 slidedeck to iPhoto and from there to an iPod (iPod touch in my case). The procedure worked fine and the slides look quite good on the iPod touch.

Mac Tricks and Tips: Top 100 Mac Applications

Nice list from Mac Tricks and Tips...

Top 100 Mac Applications

Finally Got the Second iPod touch Upgraded to the January Upgrade

Apple responded to the second problem report I submitted about being charged for three iPod touch January Upgrades even though I attempted only two upgrades for two devices and only one was successfully upgraded (great run on sentence, eh?). They credited the third charge and resent the upgrade for the second touch device (my Daughter's). The upgrade finally took. But, I had to completely reset her iPod touch (yuck). More later. I think I'll post the details on the O'Reilly Mac Center later this week.

Only One New Voice Included with Leopard

I've been running Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) since the day it was released. But, I only noticed today that there is only one new Text to Speech voice included with it (the "Alex" voice). It sounds much better than the older TTS voices. I wish Apple had included a couple of other TTS voices to choose from though.

Looking at Bento's Date Format

I've been using FileMaker Bento (casually) for a week now. Before trying it, I assumed I would compare it to Microsoft OneNote (only available for Windows). But, as the price comparison between it and OneNote might indicate ($49 vs. $199), they really are quite different products and shouldn't be compared. Instead, I started thinking about it in terms of the flat file database I use the most at the moment: The web-based Zoho Creator.

Right now, I'm struggling with the way Bento works with date formats. It absolutely refuses to import dates from a CSV file that imports fine into products like MySQL. The date data I'm trying to import is in the common DD-MM-YYYY format. Bento, however, will only import dates in the format MM/DD/YYYY. I suppose I could write a Ruby script to pre-process CSV files before importing them into Bento. But, it seems to me like Bento should just deal with this date format correctly.