Category: newbie2mac

Sep
11
2012

Anger might’ve been the answer
What if I’d hung my head
And said that I couldn’t wait?
But now I’m strong enough to know it’s not too late

‘Cause a thousand words
Call out through the ages
They’ll fly to you
Even though I can’t see
I know they’re reaching you
Suspended on silver wings

Oh, a thousand words
One thousand embraces
Will cradle you
Making all of your weary days seem far away
They’ll hold you forever
- "1000 Words" From the video game Final Fantasy X-2

11 years ago, on September 11, 2001; thousands of lives were extinguished in an attack against the World Trade Center in New York City. While I will never forget that event – after all I watched in play out in real-time and was involved in the aftermath at Ground Zero – I don’t think I need to re-hash the events themselves here.

Instead, I want to turn my annual moment of remembrance to something that should have come from that set of events, but didn’t. It’s true, the terrorists did not win. The United States of America is still here, and despite our problems, we continue to be a strong country. However, we could be doing something more.

I’m not talking about what our elected officials should do. I don’t mean to reference what business should do.

What I want to talk about is you.

According to FactCheck.org; in the USA, in the 2008 elections – which recorded the highest voter turnout in decades – only about 62% of eligible voters actually turned out to cast ballots. This means that a huge number of citizens just decided not to vote. The founding virtue of our form of government – representative legislature – was not participated in by over one third of the citizens of that government.

We talk a lot in this country about how our lawmakers have lost touch with their constituents. We rail against the night in rallies to reform government, recall politicians who have lost their way, decry the corruption and wrongness of the system the way it is.

But, one third of us don’t even vote – and that was a Presidential election year, where a much higher percentage of people turn up at the polls than normal.

One third of eligible voters did not cast a ballot.

I think it’s time to remember that the 9-11 attacks were carried out by people who thought our freedoms, our policies, our government, and our nation are wrong. They were misguided, to say the least, and homicidal maniacs to say the truth.

And we need to prove them wrong. Right now. Today.

Go take half an hour and find out how to register to vote in your local, state and federal elections. Head over to RockTheVote.org or any other site that can show you how and where to sign up. Then go get registered. In November, exercise your Constitutional rights, and vote in the general election.

It really is as simple as that. People are fighting and dying around the world for the right to do what one third of our eligible citizens already could do, but don’t. We cannot let that continue to be the norm in this country.

Register. Vote. I cannot imagine a better way to send a message to the world that the terrorists who struck on 9-11-2001 did not win. More importantly, it will send the message that those who believe as they did cannot ever win, because we will not allow it.

This is our country, they are our leaders, and we – and only we – have the right to pick and choose them as we see fit. Send those who seek to destroy us the most powerful message imaginable, show the world that every vote counts.

But, first remember that no vote will count unless you actually cast it.

By Mike Talon •
Uncategorized •
0

Sep
11
2012

Anger might’ve been the answer
What if I’d hung my head
And said that I couldn’t wait?
But now I’m strong enough to know it’s not too late

‘Cause a thousand words
Call out through the ages
They’ll fly to you
Even though I can’t see
I know they’re reaching you
Suspended on silver wings

Oh, a thousand words
One thousand embraces
Will cradle you
Making all of your weary days seem far away
They’ll hold you forever
- "1000 Words" From the video game Final Fantasy X-2

11 years ago, on September 11, 2001; thousands of lives were extinguished in an attack against the World Trade Center in New York City. While I will never forget that event – after all I watched in play out in real-time and was involved in the aftermath at Ground Zero – I don’t think I need to re-hash the events themselves here.

Instead, I want to turn my annual moment of remembrance to something that should have come from that set of events, but didn’t. It’s true, the terrorists did not win. The United States of America is still here, and despite our problems, we continue to be a strong country. However, we could be doing something more.

I’m not talking about what our elected officials should do. I don’t mean to reference what business should do.

What I want to talk about is you.

According to FactCheck.org; in the USA, in the 2008 elections – which recorded the highest voter turnout in decades – only about 62% of eligible voters actually turned out to cast ballots. This means that a huge number of citizens just decided not to vote. The founding virtue of our form of government – representative legislature – was not participated in by over one third of the citizens of that government.

We talk a lot in this country about how our lawmakers have lost touch with their constituents. We rail against the night in rallies to reform government, recall politicians who have lost their way, decry the corruption and wrongness of the system the way it is.

But, one third of us don’t even vote – and that was a Presidential election year, where a much higher percentage of people turn up at the polls than normal.

One third of eligible voters did not cast a ballot.

I think it’s time to remember that the 9-11 attacks were carried out by people who thought our freedoms, our policies, our government, and our nation are wrong. They were misguided, to say the least, and homicidal maniacs to say the truth.

And we need to prove them wrong. Right now. Today.

Go take half an hour and find out how to register to vote in your local, state and federal elections. Head over to RockTheVote.org or any other site that can show you how and where to sign up. Then go get registered. In November, exercise your Constitutional rights, and vote in the general election.

It really is as simple as that. People are fighting and dying around the world for the right to do what one third of our eligible citizens already could do, but don’t. We cannot let that continue to be the norm in this country.

Register. Vote. I cannot imagine a better way to send a message to the world that the terrorists who struck on 9-11-2001 did not win. More importantly, it will send the message that those who believe as they did cannot ever win, because we will not allow it.

This is our country, they are our leaders, and we – and only we – have the right to pick and choose them as we see fit. Send those who seek to destroy us the most powerful message imaginable, show the world that every vote counts.

But, first remember that no vote will count unless you actually cast it.

By Mike Talon •
Uncategorized •
0

Sep
11
2012

Anger might’ve been the answer
What if I’d hung my head
And said that I couldn’t wait?
But now I’m strong enough to know it’s not too late

‘Cause a thousand words
Call out through the ages
They’ll fly to you
Even though I can’t see
I know they’re reaching you
Suspended on silver wings

Oh, a thousand words
One thousand embraces
Will cradle you
Making all of your weary days seem far away
They’ll hold you forever
- "1000 Words" From the video game Final Fantasy X-2

11 years ago, on September 11, 2001; thousands of lives were extinguished in an attack against the World Trade Center in New York City. While I will never forget that event – after all I watched in play out in real-time and was involved in the aftermath at Ground Zero – I don’t think I need to re-hash the events themselves here.

Instead, I want to turn my annual moment of remembrance to something that should have come from that set of events, but didn’t. It’s true, the terrorists did not win. The United States of America is still here, and despite our problems, we continue to be a strong country. However, we could be doing something more.

I’m not talking about what our elected officials should do. I don’t mean to reference what business should do.

What I want to talk about is you.

According to FactCheck.org; in the USA, in the 2008 elections – which recorded the highest voter turnout in decades – only about 62% of eligible voters actually turned out to cast ballots. This means that a huge number of citizens just decided not to vote. The founding virtue of our form of government – representative legislature – was not participated in by over one third of the citizens of that government.

We talk a lot in this country about how our lawmakers have lost touch with their constituents. We rail against the night in rallies to reform government, recall politicians who have lost their way, decry the corruption and wrongness of the system the way it is.

But, one third of us don’t even vote – and that was a Presidential election year, where a much higher percentage of people turn up at the polls than normal.

One third of eligible voters did not cast a ballot.

I think it’s time to remember that the 9-11 attacks were carried out by people who thought our freedoms, our policies, our government, and our nation are wrong. They were misguided, to say the least, and homicidal maniacs to say the truth.

And we need to prove them wrong. Right now. Today.

Go take half an hour and find out how to register to vote in your local, state and federal elections. Head over to RockTheVote.org or any other site that can show you how and where to sign up. Then go get registered. In November, exercise your Constitutional rights, and vote in the general election.

It really is as simple as that. People are fighting and dying around the world for the right to do what one third of our eligible citizens already could do, but don’t. We cannot let that continue to be the norm in this country.

Register. Vote. I cannot imagine a better way to send a message to the world that the terrorists who struck on 9-11-2001 did not win. More importantly, it will send the message that those who believe as they did cannot ever win, because we will not allow it.

This is our country, they are our leaders, and we – and only we – have the right to pick and choose them as we see fit. Send those who seek to destroy us the most powerful message imaginable, show the world that every vote counts.

But, first remember that no vote will count unless you actually cast it.

By Mike Talon •
Uncategorized •
0

Sep
11
2012

Anger might’ve been the answer
What if I’d hung my head
And said that I couldn’t wait?
But now I’m strong enough to know it’s not too late

‘Cause a thousand words
Call out through the ages
They’ll fly to you
Even though I can’t see
I know they’re reaching you
Suspended on silver wings

Oh, a thousand words
One thousand embraces
Will cradle you
Making all of your weary days seem far away
They’ll hold you forever
- "1000 Words" From the video game Final Fantasy X-2

11 years ago, on September 11, 2001; thousands of lives were extinguished in an attack against the World Trade Center in New York City. While I will never forget that event – after all I watched in play out in real-time and was involved in the aftermath at Ground Zero – I don’t think I need to re-hash the events themselves here.

Instead, I want to turn my annual moment of remembrance to something that should have come from that set of events, but didn’t. It’s true, the terrorists did not win. The United States of America is still here, and despite our problems, we continue to be a strong country. However, we could be doing something more.

I’m not talking about what our elected officials should do. I don’t mean to reference what business should do.

What I want to talk about is you.

According to FactCheck.org; in the USA, in the 2008 elections – which recorded the highest voter turnout in decades – only about 62% of eligible voters actually turned out to cast ballots. This means that a huge number of citizens just decided not to vote. The founding virtue of our form of government – representative legislature – was not participated in by over one third of the citizens of that government.

We talk a lot in this country about how our lawmakers have lost touch with their constituents. We rail against the night in rallies to reform government, recall politicians who have lost their way, decry the corruption and wrongness of the system the way it is.

But, one third of us don’t even vote – and that was a Presidential election year, where a much higher percentage of people turn up at the polls than normal.

One third of eligible voters did not cast a ballot.

I think it’s time to remember that the 9-11 attacks were carried out by people who thought our freedoms, our policies, our government, and our nation are wrong. They were misguided, to say the least, and homicidal maniacs to say the truth.

And we need to prove them wrong. Right now. Today.

Go take half an hour and find out how to register to vote in your local, state and federal elections. Head over to RockTheVote.org or any other site that can show you how and where to sign up. Then go get registered. In November, exercise your Constitutional rights, and vote in the general election.

It really is as simple as that. People are fighting and dying around the world for the right to do what one third of our eligible citizens already could do, but don’t. We cannot let that continue to be the norm in this country.

Register. Vote. I cannot imagine a better way to send a message to the world that the terrorists who struck on 9-11-2001 did not win. More importantly, it will send the message that those who believe as they did cannot ever win, because we will not allow it.

This is our country, they are our leaders, and we – and only we – have the right to pick and choose them as we see fit. Send those who seek to destroy us the most powerful message imaginable, show the world that every vote counts.

But, first remember that no vote will count unless you actually cast it.

By Mike Talon •
Uncategorized •
0

Aug
30
2012

I mentioned a few posts back that I was holding off on OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) until the first major patch was released. Well, 10.8.1 is here, and so I took the plunge.

“So far, so good.” is my verdict, though with a few qualifications on that statement overall.

First, upgrading. As I had recently reinstalled 10.7 due to a goof in deleting pref/kext files, I had already removed all applications that I didn’t run or need. This is a good thing, as not every app out there is ready to roll on 10.8. SoundSource, a small tool used to flip which output (headset, speakers, etc.) audio is played through, for example, isn’t available for Mountain Lion yet. So I do suggest going through your installed apps and properly uninstalling any you don’t use, don’t need, or don’t want. Use an app delete utility (like AppDelete or CleanMyMac) to completely uninstall them, as just dragging them to the trash can leave bits of the app behind.

After you clean up what you no longer need, have a look at what’s new in OS X 10.8. There are many new features, several of which you will probably want to shut off. For example, I don’t want my Mac to natively talk to Twitter or Facebook, as I have several accounts (home, web, work) that I use those services with, and don’t want anything automatically posted to the wrong one. So before you even start downloading Mountain Lion, find out what features you will use, which you won’t, and make plans to turn off the unwanted ones.

Make a backup of everything on your Mac. You could use Time Machine, but I prefer a 3rd-Party tool such as CrashPlan or ChronoSync. It’s rare that a 10.8 upgrade causes any kind of issue, but it has happened, and you should be prepared.

After that, provided you’re on 10.6 or higher, head to the Mac App Store (Apple menu, App Store) and purchase Mountain Lion for US$19.99. The software will first download – which could take some time as it is a 4GB file – then pop up a window offering to begin the upgrade. Close all applications except the upgrader, and you’re ready to roll.

The upgrade itself happens in two parts. First the upgrade app will configure settings and write out new files within your OS X session. This prepares the Emergency Recovery system and sets the Mac’s boot system to load up the rest of the installer. When that’s done, you’ll see a prompt to reboot (the system will reboot automatically in about five minutes if you do nothing here).

Once the Mac reboots, you will automatically see the OS X installer come up. If you have used FileVault, you’ll be prompted for your disk password, but otherwise the process is completely automatic. A progress bar tells you about how long you have left before the upgrade is complete, and like all progress bars, it lies. For my iMac, it took about 40 minutes to perform the upgrade, start to finish. The MacBook Air took about 30.

In my case, after the installer was done, I found myself at the normal Emergency Recovery screen. Varied reports say that you may or may not see that screen when the install is complete, but if you do, all you need to do is go to Apple Menu and choose Restart. This will reboot the Mac into the newly-upgraded OS.

All settings and preferences that exist in both 10.7 and 10.8 were maintained, and the new feature sets were in their default configuration. This means that you will need to — for example — define your settings for the new Notifications Area, but not change your display and power settings.

One special note on 3rd-Party applications: GateKeeper is a new security system in OS X 10.8 that blocks any app from running if it does not have a signed Apple Developer signature on file. This means that many apps will be unable to run, unless you change your GateKeeper settings in System Preferences. Turning GateKeeper off is a matter of some debate, if you’re unsure, then you should leave it on. Apps already installed to your Mac should run fine, and you can set exceptions and/or turn it off later if necessary.

And there you have it. Mac OS X Mountain Lion installed and ready to roll. I’ll be blogging more about features and settings in future posts, but I can indeed verify that the upgrade process is smooth and easy.

By Mike Talon •
General Info, OS X Mountain Lion •
0

Aug
20
2012

Recently, a security blogger put up a post that set the iOS world on fire. That, in and of itself, isn’t exactly a rare occurrence, but this particular problem is pretty serious.

The basic upshot of the post, in plain english, is that someone can send you an SMS text message and make it look like it came from someone else. That means your iPhone would show that the text came from your Mom, even though it came from an attacker instead. The reason this is a problem is that your Mom might ask for sensitive personal information — like your Social Security Number — and you’d be likely to give up that info if someone you think should have it is texting you.

One thing to note before we go forward. The security hole is in SMS itself, not specifically in anything iOS does with text messages. iPhones are simply the first major platform to be publicly outed as being vulnerable to the issue.

So how do you fix it? Well, you cannot directly fix the issue, as it is part of the core code-base of iOS and not something you can fiddle with. Apple may fix it with iOS 6, and so it may not be an issue for much longer, but the fix is NOT in the beta releases so far.

In the meantime — and even if you’re not on Apple gear — you can take some security precautions to protect yourself:

1 – Always assume the person texting you isn’t the person who shows up in the name header of the text itself. Much like with email, it’s just too easy to forge the “From:” field, allowing people to masquerade as whoever they want to be.

2 – Never give out personal information in SMS text messages. This is a basic rule of thumb online, you do not email or text anything that’s private information, even if you DO know who you are talking to. Call the person and tell them the information instead. This goes for Social Security numbers, medical information, system passwords, or anything else you’re not comfortable sharing with the whole world.

So, if Mom does ask for your SSN in a text message, tell her you’ll call her in a few minutes and tell her what it is on the phone.

By Mike Talon •
iDevices, Security •
0

Aug
16
2012

For the majority of users, reinstallation of an entire OS isn’t something they need to deal with. Ever. That being said, there may be instances where it’s required. In those cases, you can indeed re-install OS X from scratch, and here’s the basic overview of what you need to do.

NOTE: This is critical. BACK UP everything. Read that again, and then read it once more. Be certain you have a non-Time Machine-backup of every piece of data that you will need. This includes (but is in no way limited to) documents, music, other media, application installers, and your mail, contacts, and calendars. Time Machine backups may be restore-able, but it’s highly likely that they will not be if you reinstall the OS, so use some other tool to get your data onto removable media first.

NOTE 2: Is this trip really necessary? Usually, you do not have to install a fresh copy of OS X from scratch unless you’ve seriously messed up your Mac. Starting with 10.7 (Lion), the OS installs a hidden partition on your hard drive which permits emergency reinstallation while keeping everything it can keep in place. If you’ve just corrupted part of OS X, you don’t have to completely wipe the drive and start over. Just reboot, holding CMD+R from the time you hear the “bong” sound until you see the Apple logo and spinner show up on the screen. That will boot you into the Recovery Volume, which will allow you to re-install the OS in-place (by choosing Install Mac OS X), retaining apps and settings whenever it can.

Now, if you have trashed the OS – perhaps you got infected with malware or something else took out most of the OS itself – then a fresh installation may be the only fix available. If you’re not familiar with installing OS’s (Linux, Windows, OS X, etc.) then go to an Apple Store and let the Geniuses do it for you. If you have installed OS’s in the past, then a fresh install of OS X is actually quite easy to perform.

If you already have Lion or Mountain Lion installed, you have two choices:

1 – Use the Recovery Disk by holding CMD+R from the time you hear the bong until the Apple logo and spinner appear (just like for an in-place refresh), or

2 – Get hold of (or create) a USB or DVD OS X installer.

Then, after you are sure you backed up everything from the existing install (since I know you skipped over that part earlier), you can begin.

Boot into the Recovery Disk with CMD+R or boot to the DVD or USB image by holding down Option when you hear the bong and holding it until the Apple logo and spinner show up, then selecting the USB drive listed as “EFI Boot” or the DVD drive.

Once booted into the Lion or Mountain Lion installer (from DVD, USB or the Recovery Disk), the first thing you’ll need to do for a fresh installation is to erase/wipe the existing OS X partition. From the startup page of the installer, choose Disk Utility. Then chose the partition that holds OS X (note: NOT the physical drive, just the partition beneath it that holds the OS X system). If you used FileVault, you’ll need to unlock the partition with your login password in order to do anything with it. Just right-click the partition in the left-hand column of the page, then choose Unlock and provide your password.

Erase the partition (you DID follow the instructions to back everything up, right?) using the MacOS Extended (Journaled) choice for how the drive should be formatted. This erases all data off the drive. Choosing to overwrite the data (called “wiping the drive”) is more secure, but can take upwards of 8 hours on large disks, and is totally unnecessary on SSD’s – the choice is yours though. Once the erase/wipe is complete and you have a blank system partition, you can close Disk Utility.

Then, back on the start page for the installer, choose to Install Mac OS X. This will guide you through the basic configuration information. Choose the same partition you just formatted as the install partition, give the installer a few other pieces of data, then sit back and relax. In about 10 minutes, the installer will reboot the system.

Do not hold down any keys during this reboot, and the Mac will boot into the newly-installed OS X partition, install remaining components of OS X, and walk you through the standard OS X first-start routine.

You now have a newly-installed version of OS X on your machine, with no trace of any of the old apps, settings or data. At this point you should immediately go to the Apple Menu, select Software Updates and let everything download. Do this at least twice, but optimally you should do this until no updates are available. On Mountain lion, this will take you to the App Store, follow the same idea and install any/all updates that are waiting.

Note: Unlike other OS’s, when you download OS X you get the very latest version of the software, not just the original build that was released when the OS first came out. That means that the number of updates you’ll need is going to depend on when you downloaded the OS X image you are using for the reinstall, so keep running Software Update until no other updates are available for you.

Now you can install applications and start restoring data from your backup to your fully renewed OS X installation.

Remember, it’s nearly never necessary to do a complete reinstall of the OS. If you’re not sure, don’t do it. Try some of the tricks in previous articles (reset PRAM and other system settings, clean up permissions, etc.) and/or bring the machine to an Apple Genius. However, if a clean reinstall is called for, at least for Lion and Mountain Lion, Apple does make it pretty painless.

By Mike Talon •
HowDoI?, OS X Lion •
0

Aug
8
2012

Periodically, we all need to clean out the crap that collects in any OS. OS X (in my case Lion) is no exception. I noticed a lot of left-behind files and daemons from software I thought I had deleted, as well as various caches and leftover files. So, I went looking for ways to go through and clean up the detritus and came across about five hundred different pieces of software that claim they can do it.

Being the cynical type, I didn’t take any of the claims at face value, and did a bit of research to find a tool that could do what it said without destroying my Mac in the process. Many tools that provide automatic cleaning can remove things you may actually want to keep, causing more problems than they fix. I have had that particular problem with Windows-based “speed up” tools, and didn’t want to get bitten by that bug again. Others are thinly-veiled malware, looking to take advantage of desperate users trying to clean up their systems by serving up ads and solicitations for services you don’t want, don’t need, or can’t use.

In my searching, I found CleanMyMac by MacPaw. The software received generally good reviews from folks across the web, and so I felt secure in at least installing it and trying it out. What I found was a great piece of software that was flexible enough to let me do what I wanted, without forcing me to do *everything* at once.

The interface is pretty simple, you install the software from the DMG file, then run the app and are presented with a one-time dialog box asking what languages you routinely use on your Mac. I selected a few, and then was taken to the main screen with the ability to run scans, delete apps, shred files, etc. I clicked “Scan My Mac” and let it roll.

About 7 minutes later, the scan was done, and CleanMyMac had found a ton of different things I could get rid of. The problem is that I might have a bunch of things that CleanMyMac thinks are worthless that I really want to keep. Thankfully, the software doesn’t just go and automatically remove things by default.

Clicking on each category (Caches, Logs, Language Files, etc.) brings up a list of what the tool found in a right-hand pane. You can check/uncheck items to either confirm you want to get rid of them, or keep them. There is also a setting to permanently ignore anything you don’t want CleanMyMac to even check for in future. So I unchecked what I wanted to keep (or those things I wasn’t even sure about, just to be safe) and watched as the system efficiently cleaned up everything that I told it to.

While that alone is a great help, what I needed was to pick through the system to find left-behind preferences and extensions from apps I had deleted before I learned that you really need to use something like AppDelete and not just drag apps to the Trash. There were quite a few, and they all showed up on the various tabs of the Manage Extensions section. I was able to pick just those I had definitely tried to uninstall in earlier days, and let the software then go through and remove them for me. This section works the opposite of the main scan, with files being de-selected until you manually check the boxes of those you want to trash. That’s a huge thing, as you’re talking about the guts of your applications here, and don’t want to accidentally rip out a preference file for something that’s still installed.

Right below Manage Extensions are sections for *properly* deleting applications and securely or quickly erasing unwanted files. This keeps you from getting stuck with the left-behind preferences and extensions in future. Yes, there are many tools (some free, some paid) that can also do this, but it’s nice to see them included in once tool with the rest of the cleanup functions I’d want to run.

Overall, I give CleanMyMac 4 out of 5 stars. The one-star ding is for very sparse information on the info panel that slides out to the right when you select and item and click the “i” icon in the lower-right. Native and built-in plug-ins, for example, are not listed with any detail. This required me to do some web searching to find out what the preference or extension was, to determine if it was safe to delete or not. I can completely understand that info not being available for 3rd-Party tools, but those tools that are part of OS X should have some details there.

There are – as I mentioned – free or lower-cost apps that can individually do all these things (including removing unused languages and cache files). For me, having all these tools and controls for handling them in one piece of software is worth shelling out a few bucks.

CleanMyMac is well worth the price (US$14-25, depending on options) and a good bet if you have pesky files hanging around way past their welcome. Just remember not to delete anything unless you know what it is – which will usually take some web searching to figure out. When in doubt, leave it alone, but otherwise this software can help clean out the crap in your Mac.

By Mike Talon •
Product Review •
0

Aug
1
2012

With much fanfare, Apple released version 10.8 of the OS X platform, named Mountain Lion. While there are many features and functions in ML that are great, I’m holding off for a bit. Here’s why:

First, it’s brand new. Apple has become much like Microsoft in producing OS software that isn’t quite ready for prime time right out of the gate. There are generally a few highly annoying issues that launch with new OS X versions. Luckily, Apple does fix them quite quickly, and within 30-60 days after release there will be 10.8.1 to address them. So I’m waiting for that release.

Secondly, a large portion of ML was written to merge with iOS 6, which isn’t yet available outside of the Apple iOS Developer Program. So until I have what is seen as “the other half” of OS X 10.8, there’s no real reason for me to rush to upgrade.

I’m definitely looking forward to Mountain Lion. The Notifications system, next generation Messages client and a few other features are big for me, and I’ll happily upgrade in the very near future. I’m just not ready to leap on the bandwagon yet. When the first major patch is out, and iOS 6 is ready to roll, I’ll be downloading ML from the App Store and will be writing what is – I’m sure – the first of many blog posts on it for you then.

By Mike Talon •
General Info, OS X Lion •
1

Jul
19
2012

Yup, I’m on a train again.

As many of you already know, I prefer the trains to the airlines these days because I can get much more done, and it’s much more comfortable to boot. Strip-searches at the TSA Checkpoints aside, the seats are roomier, the view is better and the cafe car is open nearly the whole trip.

But, back to the blog, there are a few things that you should be thinking about when traveling with your Mac that revolve around security. Today, let’s talk about digital security while you’re on the road with OS X or iOS.

Specifically, let’s talk connectivity. When you’re traveling, there is a huge temptation to use all those free wifi hotspots you come across. If it is at all possible for you to avoid them, do so.

Let me repeat that – never connect to a free wifi hotspot unless you know for absolute certain who owns it, who’s on it, and what the vendor is doing with the data you send across it.

Public wifi sounds like a great idea, but the current state of our technology – at least here in the US – doesn’t allow you to be sure that “ATTWiFi001″ is actually a hotspot created and maintained by ATT until you’re already connected to it. Even when you know it’s a free carrier hotspot, you have no idea who else is on that same connection with you, and how much control they’ve carved out for themselves.

What that means is that an attacker can already be connected to your device before you know that they’re there. They’ve got the ability to start introducing malware and doing all forms of nasty stuff. Added to that, if you send or receive information across the network (which is, of course, the whole point), then the attacker can see all of that traffic “in the clear” and gain personal information from you as you surf. While SSL (secured) connections can remove some of this risk, if you’re on a hostile wifi hotspot then this tech cannot completely protect you.

A much safer bet is to use your own personal hotspot. Most iPhones can perform that function (for an extra fee to your carrier), and most wireless carriers also have stand-alone devices that can provide connectivity over their networks when you’re out and about. This gives you direct connectivity via a wifi access point (the device) that you know is connected to your carrier, and not an unknown access point.

If that’s just not possible, then protect yourself. Use a personal VPN service like WiTopia to shield your connection and the data going over it. While not totally foolproof, the idea of this kind of tool is to encrypt your data traffic from your laptop to one of their data centers. Once there, the traffic is allowed to enter the internet just like normal, but anyone listening in on the wifi hotspot you’re connected to will see gibberish.

These services are not free, but WiTopia is reasonably priced (US$50/year) for personal use. They’re great for that extra level of protection when you’re stuck using a network you just don’t have a good feeling about.

Note that WiTopia is just one of several providers of these services. I have used them for about a year now, and haven’t had any issues, but they’re not the only game in town. Ask around to see who the best fit is for you in your geographic region and for the type of things you do online.

Have fun on the road. Stay safe, think smart, and always suspect that “free” wifi hotspot you just picked up.

By Mike Talon •
HowDoI?, Security •
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