Tuesday, November 28, 2006
It's beginning to look a lot like...
A few things to keep you uplifted folks:
- new 'Get A Mac' ads - 'Gift Exchange' is killer
- The Wii is now officially everywhere
- Super Princess Peach has it's own WEBSITE - how cool is that?!
- For all you Firefox (and variant) users out there, you NEED to check out this Javascript whitelist security addon called NoScript that Matt G hooked me up with - it's the shizzat. (whitelisting is so awesome!)
- GODDAMN I wish I had a 500 hp LS1 in MY Volvo!
- The new Bond film is awesome. I'm going to LOVE this new set of films with D Craig.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Fit For The Sarlacc Pit
Wil Wheaton does a bang up job reminding us what's really going on when we get so worked up about the Star Wars movies. Wesley Crusher couldn't have said it better himself.
Friday, November 03, 2006
The JD Way
People ask me fairly often about how I set up my Mac OS X computers and why I do it that way. This happened again last night, so I thought I'd put something up here I can refer to when this question comes up. Maybe you can use it when directing your friends about how to be safe and have fun with their Mac OS X computer.
I recently wrote an e-mail to a friend on this very topic, so I'll paste in most of that letter below:
Okay, here's the skinny on setting it up the JD way.
First of all, the account you created when you went through the little setup wizard thing (when you first turned the machine on with the funky tunes playing in the background) is an 'Administrator' account. With that account you can install anything anywhere, and change settings and pretty much do anything you want to. That sounds great to you, but it would sound great to a hacker or a piece of malware as well, so do yourself a favour and don't use an admin account.
Create another account and don't give it admin privileges, and use that as your day to day use account. You can set it up to auto-login to this new account if you want (most people seem to like this). One thing to keep in mind is that Mac OS X's user permissions are based on UNIX permissions, and are different than the chintzy Windows style user permissions. On your Windows machines you're probably used to just always using an 'Administrator' account, but that was a bad idea too. The reason most people do that is because you can't do ANYTHING on a Windows machine unless you're an admin user. On Mac OS X, you can pretty much do anything you need to from a 'user' account, and you'll never notice, except it will be much more secure - people won't be able to screw with you, even if they have physical access to the machine.
Another couple of notes on user accounts. In UNIX there are sort of three levels of accounts: user (the lowest and safest), administrator/superuser (can do almost anything depending on how the system is set up), and root which is a special account that can do absolutely anything. In Mac OS X this root account is disabled by default, and although you can find instructions on how to enable it and use it on-line, DON'T DO IT. THIS IS THE SINGLE BEST WAY TO OPEN YOUR MACHINE UP TO ATTACKS.
Also, it's good to set up a 'Guest' account, so that if you want to let someone else use your machine (like your mom or your dad) when you're not around, you don't have to worry about them messing anything up. Just create the new guest user, don't give it a password (this will let people log in and do stuff without needing to know a password - Mac OS X is perfectly fine with this, though it will warn you about it when you create the account), and you can even set up further restrictions if you want to make sure people don't use certain apps or preferences panes or whatever.
So, now that you're not using an admin account anymore, you won't be able to save/modify files anywhere except in your 'home' directory. ("/Users//") This may seem restrictive but it's actually very good. It'll take some getting used to for someone who's used to storing everything in new folders (like "C:\stuff", "C:\junk", etc) but it's very handy. For one thing it keeps you organized, for another it's safe, as you won't be able to change 'system' files and screw the machine up (without your admin account password that is). The best reason though, is for recoverability - if the machine dies (for whatever reason: you drop it in the lake or off the roof, or you spill coffee into it, or it just dies (it happens)) - it will be much easier to recover your stuff if it's a) in one place and b) in your 'home' directory. When you run the Mac OS X installer it gives you the option of 'archiving old home directories' which means you can reinstall the whole OS and hang on to your user folder and all your docs/music/whatever. Very cool and very handy in case something goes wrong.
Log in as the admin user about once a month and run software update, and then forget about that account again until you go back to do it next month.
For file sharing, you should find a good bit-torrent client pretty easily (like Transmission), and Aquisition is a great P2P app.
http://transmission.m0k.org/
http://www.acquisitionp2p.com/
By the way, I find it handy to store all the apps that I download and install myself in a special 'Applications' folder in my home directory ("/Users/joel/Applications") and I just put a button for it in the sidebar of my finder windows so it's easy to get to. This way, I don't have to switch to the admin account to install software in a logical place (because you won't be able to write to the system's apps folder ("/Applications") with your regular 'user' account ) and also you won't have to reinstall them in case of a crash - they will get archived along with everything else in your home folder. One nice thing to do is to set this /Users//Applications folder's permissions up so that other user accounts can 'read' from that folder so that other users can go in there and use those apps too. (like if you're in your Admin account and need an app you downloaded while using your regular account, or you want to let your Guest account use those apps) - But I know for instance that Morgan doesn't do this and she gets along fine, so it's up to you. There's definitely a good argument to be made for keeping everything in one place.
On the topic of applications, there's not really any 'installing' and 'uninstalling'. Most apps you download will come in a disk image, which will get mounted to the desktop, and you drag the files somewhere on your harddisk, and eject the (no longer needed) disk image, to install. To uninstall, just drag those same files to the trash. Easy peasy. No goddamned registry to mess around with.(!!)
I really like the iLife apps, and they're super easy to use, so take advantage of them. They're usually considered to be 'best-in-class', AND they were free when you buy a machine.
For a word processor, don't screw around with MS-Office - I hate it. (Mac AND PC) Go get OpenOffice or the Mac OS X-ified version NeoOffice.
http://www.openoffice.org/
http://www.neooffice.org/
For all the nifty tips and tricks, plus a GREAT user forum, go to macosxhints.com.
Some of the tricks up here are dangerous so be careful.
Turn the bluetooth adapter off if/when you're not using it. Same for airport. They suck batteries like mad.
Read the literature on how to take care of your battery. It seems like a pain in the ass, but it really can make your batter last longer (as in, more charges)
Here's some stuff to get you started (There's lots more out there on this topic - read as much as you can stand):
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50666
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=18241
If you're switching between Mac OS X and Windows a lot you might find it easier to use the same browser. I LOVE Safari, esp it's bookmarking, but it can be a pain to be switching all the time. The OS X version of Firefox is great, and that way you can still use all your extensions (I'm a bit of a Firefox extension junky) - and there are optimized builds esp for the OS X/processor matchup you have that are supposed to be lightning fast:
http://www.beatnikpad.com/archives/2006/10/26/firefox-20
To maintain your machine, every week or so follow these simple instructions for running the maintenance scripts (people with laptops usually don't have these things run for them because the machine is off or asleep when they are scheduled - this will force them). It will take a while so be patient:
1. Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities).
2. Type: sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
3. Press Return.
4. Enter your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.
5. Quit Terminal when the task is complete.
And as always, be careful about what you download and run and click on and look at - the internet is a dangerous place for a computer. Just because there aren't currently any viruses for Mac OS X that doesn't mean they can't exist ever. You can use the built in firewall if you like (Mac OS X has probably the nicest implementation of a firewall around because it doesn't piss you off with annoying pop-ups every time you try to do anything) but it is likely not necessary.
Happy computing!
I recently wrote an e-mail to a friend on this very topic, so I'll paste in most of that letter below:
Okay, here's the skinny on setting it up the JD way.
First of all, the account you created when you went through the little setup wizard thing (when you first turned the machine on with the funky tunes playing in the background) is an 'Administrator' account. With that account you can install anything anywhere, and change settings and pretty much do anything you want to. That sounds great to you, but it would sound great to a hacker or a piece of malware as well, so do yourself a favour and don't use an admin account.
Create another account and don't give it admin privileges, and use that as your day to day use account. You can set it up to auto-login to this new account if you want (most people seem to like this). One thing to keep in mind is that Mac OS X's user permissions are based on UNIX permissions, and are different than the chintzy Windows style user permissions. On your Windows machines you're probably used to just always using an 'Administrator' account, but that was a bad idea too. The reason most people do that is because you can't do ANYTHING on a Windows machine unless you're an admin user. On Mac OS X, you can pretty much do anything you need to from a 'user' account, and you'll never notice, except it will be much more secure - people won't be able to screw with you, even if they have physical access to the machine.
Another couple of notes on user accounts. In UNIX there are sort of three levels of accounts: user (the lowest and safest), administrator/superuser (can do almost anything depending on how the system is set up), and root which is a special account that can do absolutely anything. In Mac OS X this root account is disabled by default, and although you can find instructions on how to enable it and use it on-line, DON'T DO IT. THIS IS THE SINGLE BEST WAY TO OPEN YOUR MACHINE UP TO ATTACKS.
Also, it's good to set up a 'Guest' account, so that if you want to let someone else use your machine (like your mom or your dad) when you're not around, you don't have to worry about them messing anything up. Just create the new guest user, don't give it a password (this will let people log in and do stuff without needing to know a password - Mac OS X is perfectly fine with this, though it will warn you about it when you create the account), and you can even set up further restrictions if you want to make sure people don't use certain apps or preferences panes or whatever.
So, now that you're not using an admin account anymore, you won't be able to save/modify files anywhere except in your 'home' directory. ("/Users/
Log in as the admin user about once a month and run software update, and then forget about that account again until you go back to do it next month.
For file sharing, you should find a good bit-torrent client pretty easily (like Transmission), and Aquisition is a great P2P app.
http://transmission.m0k.org/
http://www.acquisitionp2p.com/
By the way, I find it handy to store all the apps that I download and install myself in a special 'Applications' folder in my home directory ("/Users/joel/Applications") and I just put a button for it in the sidebar of my finder windows so it's easy to get to. This way, I don't have to switch to the admin account to install software in a logical place (because you won't be able to write to the system's apps folder ("/Applications") with your regular 'user' account ) and also you won't have to reinstall them in case of a crash - they will get archived along with everything else in your home folder. One nice thing to do is to set this /Users/
On the topic of applications, there's not really any 'installing' and 'uninstalling'. Most apps you download will come in a disk image, which will get mounted to the desktop, and you drag the files somewhere on your harddisk, and eject the (no longer needed) disk image, to install. To uninstall, just drag those same files to the trash. Easy peasy. No goddamned registry to mess around with.(!!)
I really like the iLife apps, and they're super easy to use, so take advantage of them. They're usually considered to be 'best-in-class', AND they were free when you buy a machine.
For a word processor, don't screw around with MS-Office - I hate it. (Mac AND PC) Go get OpenOffice or the Mac OS X-ified version NeoOffice.
http://www.openoffice.org/
http://www.neooffice.org/
For all the nifty tips and tricks, plus a GREAT user forum, go to macosxhints.com.
Some of the tricks up here are dangerous so be careful.
Turn the bluetooth adapter off if/when you're not using it. Same for airport. They suck batteries like mad.
Read the literature on how to take care of your battery. It seems like a pain in the ass, but it really can make your batter last longer (as in, more charges)
Here's some stuff to get you started (There's lots more out there on this topic - read as much as you can stand):
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50666
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=18241
If you're switching between Mac OS X and Windows a lot you might find it easier to use the same browser. I LOVE Safari, esp it's bookmarking, but it can be a pain to be switching all the time. The OS X version of Firefox is great, and that way you can still use all your extensions (I'm a bit of a Firefox extension junky) - and there are optimized builds esp for the OS X/processor matchup you have that are supposed to be lightning fast:
http://www.beatnikpad.com/archives/2006/10/26/firefox-20
To maintain your machine, every week or so follow these simple instructions for running the maintenance scripts (people with laptops usually don't have these things run for them because the machine is off or asleep when they are scheduled - this will force them). It will take a while so be patient:
1. Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities).
2. Type: sudo periodic daily weekly monthly
3. Press Return.
4. Enter your Admin password when prompted, then press Return.
5. Quit Terminal when the task is complete.
And as always, be careful about what you download and run and click on and look at - the internet is a dangerous place for a computer. Just because there aren't currently any viruses for Mac OS X that doesn't mean they can't exist ever. You can use the built in firewall if you like (Mac OS X has probably the nicest implementation of a firewall around because it doesn't piss you off with annoying pop-ups every time you try to do anything) but it is likely not necessary.
Happy computing!
