A great video from Michael Mace explaining the interface problems in Windows 8, namely that it isn’t intuitive or discoverable.
Dropquest 2012
If you love and use Dropbox like I do, you’ll want to get some 1GB of extra space through Dropquest 2012.
Here are the speedrun instructions to do the Dropquest quickly:
http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/dropquest-2012
Rejuvenate Original iPhone with Whited00r
No Apps
The original iPhone can only be updated to run version 3.1.3 of iOS. This means that the vast majority of apps in the iTunes App Store can not be loaded onto the original iPhone. It would be nice if Apple allowed developers to keep old versions in the App Store for people with old devices. But since they don’t, it’s great that you can jailbreak the phone to allow many apps to run.
Jailbreak Steps
I followed these instructions from iPhoneBlogr. This not only jailbroke the phone. It also unlocked the phone so that it could be used on non-AT&T carriers, especially useful if I want to use the phone when traveling abroad.
Then I restored the phone in iTunes using Whited00r 5.1.
Whited00r gives you a new app store with a links to older working versions of Skype, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Conclusion
Performing the jailbreak can be a little scary for some people. But if you have your iPhone 2G or original iPod Touch in the closet or ready to go in the trash, give this a try. They are still good devices if you make the Whited00r updates.
Spam Scam
This will be my last post. I’m retiring since I won “some huge amount of United States Dollars” in the lotto. How did I win when I’ve never played the lotto? It’s easily explained in this email I got today. I just need to send the Lieutenant General or General all my personal information. I literally can’t believe my luck.
I am Lieutenant General Peter A. Blay (Chief of the Defense Staff (Ghana). I am mailing you in respect, of the present development going on here in my country GHANA.
I decided to contact you, after much investigation which was carried out by the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) and the Ghana Police Service, to make sure our country is free of these fraudulent activities,which is going on here in Africa and for our country to bear a good name.
The Airport Authority detected some trunk boxes after been scanned the authorities detected that the boxes contains funds on your name and email that has been tempered on, they were been smuggled into the country by foreign Personnel who were on transit from London.
These men were trying to enter the country with the trunk boxes, when the airport authority detected that these boxes contains, some huge amount of United State Dollars. After much investigation we found out that these men were among those men, spoiling the good name of Africa.
They opened up to us that, they actually work with a Lotto company before their dismissal and used the opportunity to perpetuate their crimes, they told us that the funds inside the boxes was won by you, but now they planned to turn back on you and decided to take the money all to themselves out of the country. We later found out on the investigation that was carried that, these men are truly members of a well established organization to act on their criminal activities.
As I write you this mail now, the three(3) men that were caught are now in the custody of the Ghana Police Service over here in our country Ghana,while we are trying to track the others left, because they have proved to us that they belong to one organization.
That is why we have to reach you by your mail address and name that was tagged the boxes, so we can make the arrangement on the transfer of the funds to your designation.
Your urgent response will be very much appreciated as soon as you have received this email.
Thank you for your kind attention, for us to make sure our beloved country Ghana, bears a good name.
Please in your reply include your
A: FULL NAMES
B: ADDRESS
C: DIRECT CONTACT PHONE NUMBER
D: SCANNED COPY OF YOUR INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT OR ANY RELEVANT IDENTIFICATION PASSPORT.As this information will be required, by the authorities in Ghana to draft the new change of ownership in your name as the rightful owner of the funds in our custody and also to verify the information given to us because the documentations covering the boxes have been tampered on.
Regards,
General Peter A. Blay
First Real Malware for Mac
Flashback
Flashback is the first malware (malicious software or virus) for the Mac that people should worry about. It can infect computers through a vulnerability in Java. It’s estimated that 600,000 Macs have been infected, about 1% of Macs in use. Flashback collects personal information such as bank and login information. To see if your Mac is already infected, follow the instructions from Macworld.
Unlike with Windows PCs, this phenomena is new to Macs. The closest previous infection I remember was when a torrent version of Apple iWork ’09 contained a trojan. But that just impacted people who downloaded the pirated torrent. Flashback is far worse since someone can get it by just visiting a website.
Protection
It’s easy to protect yourself against malware and viruses on a Mac. There is no need to buy anti-virus software which doesn’t really help much on a Mac. Instead, take these steps that deal with the exploits of Java and Flash.
1. Perform Software Update
Apple’s updates automatically patch Java and remove Flashback. Open System Preferences and go to Software Update, Check Now.
2. Disable Java in any web browser you use
Safari
Go to the menu item:
Preferences -> Security -> Web Content
Uncheck Enable Java
Chrome
Go to the URL:
chrome://plugins/
Click Disable for Java
Firefox
Go to the menu item:
Tools -> Add-ons
Click on Plugins and click Disable for the Java Applet Plug-in
3. Install a Flash Blocker
My favorite is ClickToFlash, the Safari Extension which gives you access to Flash content if you click on the Flash window. This has the additional benefit of hiding annoying Flash ads.
Another tool I use is FlashFrozen, available for $0.99 through the Mac App Store. This handles all Flash running on your computer. It is especially useful for Mac laptops which can have their batteries quickly run down by errant Flash sites.
UPDATE: Oracle (the owners of Java) have released their own Java updates now. If you have Java installed on your system, you should get the latest Java SE Development Kit from here:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk-7u4-downloads-1591156.html
After installing, go to Utilities – Java Preference. From there, drag the latest Java to the top. As of this writing, that is Java SE 7. Uncheck the older Java versions. The next time you start a program that uses Java, it will now use the newer Oracle Java that has the latest security patches.