Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels. The trouble makers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
While some see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

It all started with a benign email message from PayPal. I get spoofed PayPal messages once or twice a day so I didn’t think anything of it. It was a message that said that I had requested a password change. To change my password, ait wanted me to click the link in the email. Being an IT expert, I avoided clicking on the link and simply deleted it figuring it was a spoofed email. Then I went back to my work.

A few minutes later something caught my eye… and only because I was sitting at my computer and saw a GOWL alert that mentioned that my me.com password had been successfully changed. As I looked up at Apple mail, the message disappeared. Then another PayPal message came in. What the heck was going on. I could see messages come and go off my screen but I wasn’t doing anything in mail. While I had no idea what was happening, I knew I was in trouble.

I kicked into high gear screaming for my wife to call the Bank and issue a hold on all our accounts. She grabbed a phone and made the call. I grabbed my iPhone and the office phone. While my wife called our bank and fraud alert company, I called Paypal and ATTEMPTED to find an emergency number for me.com on the interent. I couldn’t find one, so I was force to use the general Apple Customer Service number. With one phone I dialed PayPal. With the other I dialed Apple Customer Support. While I was navigating a complex phone tree at PayPal, I kept trying to change the password on the PayPal web site, but it kept getting kicked back to a login screen. I later figured that the bad guys were in there while I was in there. Finally PayPal Answered. It was too late. On my next re-login, I saw it on the general account screen. The first charge cleared. A purchase from a website called RapidShare.com. It was a premium membership to their site costing me 54.99 EUR. I immediately informed the PayPal rep who placed a hold on the account and forwarded my phone call to a security expert. While I was on hold for the Security Expert, we finally got to someone at Apple Customer Service. While he was very nice, he was of little help. He was IM’ing someone in the me.com support area about my problem. He was waiting to hear something back. The Security Expert finally answered so I passed the Apple phone off to my wife who waited for a response. The Paypal Security Expert was great. She listened to my problem carefully and politely and assured me that my two accounts (business and personal) had been secured. She also said a full investigation would ensue and urged me to leave the accounts suspended until I was sure all was fixed. I completely agreed.

By this time, I figured that the bag guys knew I was onto to them so the race was on. I logged in the me.com account and was going to change the password. I was typing the new password in when I made the mistake of telling the Apple Rep what I was going to do. He urged me not change it as they would not be able to see what was going on and who was doing it. So I held back. In about a minute, I lost complete access to me.com and my email. The bad guys changed the password first. Then, incredibly, the Apple rep informed me that he had lost the chat with the person from me.com. So thats how they do it? iChat with each other? No back up phone numbers? You have to be kidding! He directed me to an Apple Support page where I could initiate the chat myself. So I did.

Of course it took me several minutes to establish the chat and another minute or two to explain what was going on. Who knows what these guys were doing that whole time. Eventually, I convinced the Me.com rep to change the password for me. Of course that was after I was directed to several support pages to explain how to change the password myself. I demanded an explanation on how my account was hacked into. I have always used very secure passwords… eight or more characters, mixed case, letters and numbers. She stated she couldn’t help me. I guess I made a big enough stink that she passed the chat to a “Supervisor”. I demanded to know whether the bad guys were still in there, where they were accessing the account from and what they did while they were in there. This “Supervisor” told me that he didn’t have that info. So I asked “who does”? He told me nobody would have that info. WHAT?????? I run my own mail server for my business and I can do that! Now I’m pissed! I wish I had copied the chat log so you could see the ineptness, but I closed the chat window in disgust!

I remember reading a story on one of the blogs about someone else who had their me.com account broken into, so I decided to Google it. The person who told the story swore she had never been to any questionable sites or used a weak password. I must confess… I questioned her statements too. I didn’t find the article I was looking for, but the very first article I did find, tells how to do it, in first person. Right from the bad guys mouths themselves.

http://www.electronicpulp.net/2009/04/24/salma-hayeks-apple-mobileme-account-hacked-couldnt-have-been-easier/

The second link mentions the place where the purchase was made.

http://rapid4me.com/?q=hack+premium+account

So to the other person who got hacked, my apologies for questioning your security efforts. Clearly Apple by now knows how flawed their system is, yet they choose to ignore the problem. Selma Heyeks problems began in April of 2009. It is now almost September 2009 and nothing has changed. I will admit that my security question was weak, but it was as old as my mac.com account. I used a security question I had abandoned along time ago after I realized how easy it was to find the answer to the question. What I didn’t know was that they would use the question in a web interface, showing it to the world. I though it would be the question used by a Customer Support rep to verify who I was.

So a word of warning. If you have a me.com account, you could already be hacked and not know it. The hackers delete the messages that they initiate as they come in, so you never see them… permanently. I just got lucky and caught them red-handed. They don’t change your password, otherwise you will know something is up.

So until Apple gets their SHIT TOGETHER, I will be abandoning my me.com email address. I run my own mail servers, which I know to be more secure. So maybe I will use something on there. Or there is always gmail. I used the me.com account because I wanted to keep personal stuff separated from business stuff. I’d love to go back, but for know I really worry for the millions of unsuspecting me.com mail users. I hope their new server farm has better security then their mail system.

Angry and stewing in Monroe, CT…

Phil

I’m amazed at the number of amateur and professional photographers, genealogists, business owners and individuals who have NO BACK UP STRATEGY. Many people have purchased single high capacity external hard drives, available from retails such as Costco, Staple and Office Depot (such as “Western Digital My Book”) as their extended external storage drive solution. The problem with this solution is that there is no built in-safety mechanism should the single drive fail. I cannot tell you how many people I know whom simply have all of their digital media stored on a single hard drive, hoping that it won’t fail. IT WILL FAIL! All hard drives fail. It’s not a matter of “if” it’s a matter of when. Now some of the more pro-active people may have bought two of the large capacity external drives and chosen to use back-up software to back-up one drive to the other. The problems with this solution are many, including the possibility that your back-up software silently fails to replicate the data.

Enter The Drobo

The Data Robotics Drobo represents the easiest to use, most economical way that you can back up and store your digital media. The Drobo is designed to safeguard your data automatically. It is a “Fully Automated SATA Robotic Storage Array.” This sounds a little intimidating, but it is probably one of the simplest pieces of technology to manage on your computer or network. It is about the size of a toaster and allows you to insert up to four SATA hard drives. The latest version of the Drobo 2.0, boasts improved Firewire 400/800 support and is now twice as fast as the old Drobo.

Drobo Flavors

The original first generation Drobo, which is USB 2.0 only, is still available for a limited time from Data Robotics and some retailers. The second generation Drobo can be purchased in several different configurations from Data Robotics, Amazon or any of their authorized retailers. My preferred configuration when purchasing the second generation Drobo is the empty configuration. With this configuration, I was able to buy two initial 1 TB drives from Amazon from just $153.00 each, giving me a total of 1 TB storage capacity. I can add two additional ones later and they don’t even need to be the same size.

How It Works

Your digital media and documents are stored and spread across up to four drives. If one drive fails you simply pull the old failed drive out and swap a new working drive in and you’ve lost NOTHING. The system heals itself with the new drive. It’s like you never had a drive failure at all. Your data is automatically replicated across all of the drives and protected from the dreaded single hard drive failure.

Set-up and Use

Drobo is both Mac and Windows compatible. If you use it on a Mac, I recommend the latest version of Leopard. If you plan to use it over an Apple Airport network, be sure you have the current firmware update for AirPort Extreme.

When you open the box, a three-step setup poster walks you through the basics: Insert the drives, attach the cables, (power and USB 2.0 or FireWire cable), and install the software. The user manual, inspiring in its clarity and its approachable layout, helps explain things nicely.

After you insert your drives, Drobo takes it from there. It stores any data that you write to it, automatically backing it up, and constantly monitors the health making necessary adjustments and repairs.

It’s really that simple.

SUMMARY

You should remember that just because you have a Drobo, your back up strategy should not end here. As good as Drobos are at protecting your digital media from disk failures, they still can’t protect against things like fire or theft. One solution may be to buy two Drobos and put them in different parts of the country and back up your files periodically on both machines. Another solution would be to swap Drobo’s and move one off-site every week or every month. The third possible solution is to utilize an off-site back-up service. This is a topic I will address in a future article.

"Steve Jobs has his Macworld keynote address coming and will no doubt deliver to us a few of the products we’ve all been predicting, presented with a level of showmanship simply not seen elsewhere in the industry. But my job this week is to look beyond products, to take a step back and give a long view of where Apple is headed. And the centerpiece of this analysis is my conclusion that Apple will inevitably buy Adobe Systems."….

and

…."Folks a lot smarter than I have wondered over the years about potential Apple mergers and acquisitions driven by Steve’s bloodlust. Apple-Disney, Apple-Google, Apple-TiVo, even Apple-Sun come to mind, but the only one that makes any sense to me at all is Apple-Adobe."….

and

"If such an acquisition were to take place it would have to be in 2008 while Avid and Microsoft still present credible competition to keep the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission from opposing such a merger. It would go easier, too, on W’s watch. I knew he was good for something."

Well that certainly is interesting and makes you think and wonder (and especially so if you happen to own Apple stock too I guess). This will be an interesting year for Apple that’s for sure.

Well the folks over at MacRumors.com have put together a guide that gives us a List of Applications Not Compatible with Leopard and what the current state of the compatibility problem is. If your still on a Tiger system or earlier you might want to check this list before you make the upgrade.

Once and for all, proof that Macs are cheaper than PCs

Let’s put to rest the myth that an Apple computer will set you back more than a Windows PC. In fact, it’ll cost you less.

It’s time to buy an Apple computer. Indeed, it’s been that time for the past five years, at least, but only now, slowly, are people waking up to this fact. Thanks to Apple’s relentless flash — the John Hodgman ads, the iPods, the iPhones — its Macintosh business is now in league with that of the biggest PC companies in the world. Everyone who’s used it agrees that Leopard, the operating system that Apple released late last month, is to its chief rival, Microsoft’s Windows Vista, roughly as Richard Wagner is to Richard Marx. This simple truth is dawning: If we forget about computer-industry network effects and monopolistic business practices, if we forget Apple’s various ancient missteps — if we’re going just by what’s better — the ages-old Mac-vs.-PC debate is over. Long over. Yell it from the rooftops: The Mac has won.

Read more…

I started by doing a clean install of Leopard, completely formatting the hard drive and installing a clean OS. All went easy…. too easy. Then I started loading on the games and educational programs. Of course, I suddenly realized that some of the educational programs required “Classic”, so into the circular file they went. As I am sure you have all noticed, there is no support for “Classic” (OS 9) in Leopard.

I then created a new user for my 5 year old. I chose to make him a user that was “Managed with Parental Controls. Easy enough. I then clicked on the button that brought me to the “Parental Controls”. I chose to use “Simple Finder” and then selected the programs I wanted him to have access to. I saved the changes by exiting the control panel. Then I logged in as him. When I opened his Simple Finder “Applications” folder, I only saw the applications made by Apple. I tried many different things before finally calling for Support.

I spent more than an hour on the phone with Tammy ( a Level 2 Support Technician) who was real pleasant to work with, but she was unable to help in the end. I did have one kernel panic during a shut-down of the computer. She suggested that the KP may have something to do with my problems.

After successfully re-installing the OS, I decided to add just one application. I chose KidsPix. Wah-la! It worked. After adding KidsPix in the Parental Controls (while logged in as me), I flipped over to my sons login and there it was in the “Applications” folder of the Simple Finder. I was so excited. So it must have been the Kernel Panic after all……. NOT!

After adding more than six other programs, not one of them showed up in the simple finder. If I turned simple finder off in his login, they are all there and work.

After much aggravation, I noticed something….

Each and every application that was not showing up, was within a folder within the main “Applications” folder. So I tried dragging the application for the “Cars” game out into the Applications folder. Guess what… it worked! It seems that the Simple Finder cannot make alias to the main application, if it is enclosed within another folder inside of “Applications”. All of the Apple applications were not enclosed within folders inside the “Applications” folder. It was just coincidence that the first time around I had not loaded KidsPix, which loads itself in the root of “Applications”.

Now for some of the programs, I was able to drag the application out of its folder and put it in the root of “Applications”. Others needed the support files that were in the folder along with the application. Separating them caused errors on launch. For now I left them where they are. My kids will just have to do without them until I find a solution.

So if you are having problems with applications not showing up in SimpleFinder, take a look to make sure that they are not within a folder within “Applications”. Other than this issue. all is well with Parental Controls.

FileMaker Pro 9.0v2 update delivers Leopard compatibility and more

FileMaker has released FileMaker Pro 9.0v2 and FileMaker Pro 9.0v2 Advanced, available now via a downloadable update. The 9.0v2 update provides compatibility with Mac OS X Leopard as described below, and other features, and is recommended for all users.

Here is a list of other fixes in the 9.0v2 update that developers will be most interested in:

Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard):
The application no longer crashes when creating files if the system language and region do not match.

General Fixes:
Mac OS X: Get(SystemVersion) now returns the correct version on Mac OS X operating systems ending with double digit revision numbers, i.e. 10.4.10.

The database consistency check initiated on launch will no longer incorrectly report that a database is damaged for some databases that can be opened and used without any problems.

Printing Fixes:
The update addresses issues which cause the application to crash when a page range is specified.

Relationships:
A relationship with a global field now returns all related records if the value of the other key is empty.

For a complete list of fixes please refer to the updater Read Me or FileMaker downloads at http://www.filemaker.com/support/downloads/index.html

Click here for the details and to download the FileMaker Pro 9.0v2 and FileMaker Pro 9.0v2 Advanced
Leopard update now.

Please note that this update does not fix issues with the FileMaker Pro 9 Instant Web Publishing (IWP) feature
running on Leopard. We intend to make IWP compatible with Leopard in an update expected in December 2007.

We expect to deliver a Leopard compatibility update for our Server products in early 2008. FileMaker Server 9 and FileMaker Server 9 Advanced currently do not deploy properly on Leopard. In
the meantime, FileMaker Pro 9 and
FileMaker Pro 9 Advanced clients running on Leopard do work with FileMaker
Server and Server Advanced running
on Tiger or earlier versions of Mac OS X.

For timely news on the availability of compatibility updates for IWP, and for FileMaker Server 9 and FileMaker
Server 9 Advanced, please subscribe to FileMaker News .

Click here for info on earlier versions of FileMaker software and Mac OS X Leopard.

-The FileMaker Team

Well that’s all good news for the most part but does it let the folks at FileMaker, Inc. (and Apple Computer which owns FileMaker) off the hook? Well maybe not. I think the clumsy way they all handled the news surrounding this upgrade has blown the sheet off of some of the no so nice aspects of how FileMaker deals with developers and users. read Matt Petrowsky’s blog post of Friday, October 26, 2007 – 2:25pm FileMaker Falls Behind for an excellent rant on FM Inc.

How’s all that make me feel? Am I turned off on FileMaker (and Apple) now? The whole story just illustrates that there is still a whole lot of room at the top for a lot of improvement and I’m actually looking forward to seeing those improvements in policy and mananagement one soon in the near future too.

1. Quit Mail.app
2. Rename the Mail folder at Users/Library to something like MailX
3. Start Mail.app (Appears to rebuild the accounts)
4. Close Mail
5. Restart Mail.app (Appears to re download and sync the directory structure and messages)

ENJOY!

===============UPDATE 10/29/2007 @ 23:15================

Matt Baker of Galaxy Design Pty Ltd reports another possible fix

“I have just deleted the Rules left over from Mail 2.0 and the IMAP is all working.

All of the mail in the folders that were not showing up are there now. Woohoo!!!”

I spent several hours on Saturday waiting for support. Here’s how it went.  After an hour and half of initial waiting, I spoke to a Level 1 Support Technician.  After 15 minutes, I was immediately escalated to a Level 2 Support Technician.  After waiting an additional 30 minutes for Level 2 to pick-up, I got disconnected. So I waited for another hour for Level 1 to pick up again, just so I could be connected to Level 2… again!

Yawn!

Eventually, I did get through to a Level 2 Tech who was awesome, even if he wouldn’t volunteer any inside info about the problem.

He did take all my information and forwarded it to an engineer.  It included info about my OS and the type of IMAP Server I was trying to connect to.  Unfortunately, he could not give me any more information other than that “they are working on it”.   But he did give me his email and told me that if I didn’t hear back from him within 5 days, to give him a call or email him.

Today… 10/29/2007…

The Level 2 Support Technician called me back and asked if I could help by sending some information about my system.  Of course, I was more than willing to do that! I want this thing FIXED!

We spent an hour in a Terminal window and a special Apple utility that does many different things.  Of course… errors were being thrown all over the place so he he didn’t get everything he wanted from me…. at least not initially.   Although he hung up with me, I’m still working on getting him the info he requested.  I’m trying to get him the info from any of  my four computers I upgraded to Leopard.

At least they are “working on it” .