by Bob | Dec 2, 2008 | Local Tech Notes
Ars Technica churns out tech news articles faster than any service I know. And I follow ther outpout on Twitter. But sometimes they seem to just throw stuff out there without really giving much thought. Thus this article that points to a new Apple article that seems to indicate everyone should start using virus protection software (in spite of all their marketing hype that the Mac OS is invulnerable to virus attacks).The comments on the Ars Technica article are far more informative than the article itself. So, thank goodness for commentors.
Update: Looks like Apple took down the page because of the confusion it stirred up. I suppose it will replace it with a better written one.
The truth is no system is invulnerable. Some are just more so (various versions of Windows, for example). But the Mac OS has its own vulnerabilities. It’s main source of protection is still its lack of market share. No fun making a virus that attacks only 3% of the world’s computers. But as the Mac OS market share continues to grow, expect the attention by bad people to grow along with it. 8.9% market share isn’t bad
If you are looking for a free anti-virus program for Mac OS X check out ClamAVX.
by Bob | Jun 20, 2008 | Local Tech Notes
InfoWorld is reporting a new Trojan vulnerability for Mac OS 10.4 and 10.5. If this were a Windows alert I wouldn’t bother since there are so many. But Macs are often seen to be less vulnerable to this sort of thing and I believe most Mac owners have become lazy about security. I know I have. But as Macs gain more market share, look for more of these bastards attacking the system.
by Bob | Jan 23, 2008 | Life notes, Local Tech Notes
I didn’t go to Macworld, darn it. But I did read stuff and watched the keynote. The new MacBook Air is cool looking but way too expensive. I don’t own an IPhone so the new stuff for that didn’t hold much interest. I just got a Tivo so I’m not about to switch to Apple TV at the moment. So, was there anything unveiled this year that floated my boat?
Well, yes, although it hasn’t been released yet. Leopard, the latest release of the Mac OS ships with a pretty nice piece of backup software called Time Machine. I recently bought a new MacBook Pro that came with Leopard so I have this great software. But I haven’t used it because I don’t have a co
nvenient way of backing up to an external drive. And in our household we have more than one MacBook. So, the one thing Steve Jobs did announce that made my wallet flippity-flop was Time Capsule. It’s a hard drive (in either 500 GB or 1 TB models) with a built in wireless card. You can set it up so your MacBook automatically connects to the Time Capsule drive and gets backed up using Time Machine. Stick the thing in your office. Walk in with your laptop and open it up and you are being backed up over the wireless network. Just the thing to make my life a little easier. Sweet.
