Category: Operating Systems

Articles

A look at Apple’s Flashback removal tool | MacFixIt – CNET Reviews

Apple releases fix for Flashback malware | Engadget

Downloads – Apple’s support Website

Java Update for MacOS 10.6

Java for MacOS Lion

My Comments

Apple has reacted to the groundswell of concern about the recent Flashback malware and have issued updates to its Java runtime environment for both MacOS Snow Leopard and Lion.

Here, they have implemented a check-and-remove routine for this Trojan as part of the installation routine for the new Java runtime environment. For most Macintosh users, this will simplify the process of removing any existence of this malware as well as keeping this runtime environment up-to-date.

The CNET article also gave a detailed review of what goes on as well as how to fix situations if the installation takes too long and the procedure hangs. As I have posted previously, Apple could improve on the issue of providing system maintenance and desktop security software so that Mac users can keep these systems in good order.

Introduction

In the late 1980s when the scourge of computer viruses hitting popular home and small-business computing platforms was real, this issue was exposed across all of the platforms that were in use during that year. This encompassed Apple’s two desktop platforms i.e. the Apple II and the Macintosh; along with the Commodore Amiga, the Atari ST and, of course the MS-DOS-driven “IBM” platform. Of course, the computer magazines ran articles about this threat and how to protect against it and disinfect your computing environment from these software pests.

But through the 1990s, the Windows / DOS systems were the main malware target, especially the Windows 98 and XP systems that ran Internet Explorer due to their popularity. The other platforms weren’t targeted that much due to their lesser popularity in the field and the computer press didn’t touch on that issue much. It was also because some of these platforms like the Amiga and Atari ST weren’t being supported any more by their manufacturers.

But lately there has become a trend for people to hop from the Windows platform to the Macintosh platform due to reduced targeting by malware authors and the perceived hardening that Apple has done to this platform. This has been recently augmented by the popularity of the iOS mobile-computing devices i.e. the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad as well as elegant computing devices available to this platform. All of these factors has led to an increased popularity of Apple Macintosh computers in the feild and they have become a target for malware authors.

But most Macintosh users run their computers with the Apple-authored Safari Web browser and are likely to implement Apple iWork or Microsoft Office productivity software. They also run these computers without any desktop-security or system-maintenance tools because they perceive that Apple has made the task of keeping these computers in ideal condition easier than with the Windows platform.

What can Macintosh users do

Macintosh users can harden their computers against malware by installing and keeping up-to-date a desktop security suite. A free example of this is the Avast program that has been recently ported to the Macintosh platform and another paid-for premium example is the Kaspersky desktop-security suite. These programs are, along with a system-maintenance suite like Norton Utilities, a must-have so you can keep these computers working in an ideal condition.

Another practice that I always encourage is to keep all the software on your Macintosh computer lock-step with the latest updates. This can also help with dealing with any bugs or stability issues that may affect how the software runs on your computer. Here, you may want to enable a fully-automatic update routine for security and other important updates or a semi-automatic routine where the Macintosh checks for these updates and draws your attention to any newly-available updates, that you then deploy.

It is also worth disabling Adobe Flash Player, Java and similar “all-platform runtime” environments if you don’t need to run them. There are many articles on the Web about this in response to the Flashback Trojan Horse. Otherwise make sure that the runtime environments are kept updated. Similarly, you may want to change your default Web browser to a purely-open-source browsers like Firefox or Chrome, which is more likely to be kept up-to-date against known bugs and weaknesses. This was also made easier with new-build installations of MacOS X Lion i.e. when you had a new Macintosh with this operating system “out of the box”. Prior operating systems had the Java runtime installed by default and this survived any operating-system upgrade.

What Apple needs to do

Apple needs to come down from its silver cloud and see the realities of what is involved with keeping a computer in good order. For example, they need to provide desktop-security and system-tuning tools so that users can keep their Macintosh computers in tip-top condition and free from malware. They also need to transparently and immediately implement all updates and upgrades that Oracle releases for the Java environment in to their distribution or allow Oracle to distribute the Java environment  for the Macintosh platform.

As well, they need to take a leaf out of Microsoft’s book by implenenting a “default-standard-user” setup that has the user operating as a “desktop-user” privilege level by default. Then the user is asked if they want to go to an “administrator” privilege-level when they perform a task that requires this level and only for the duration of that task. This is important with home and small-business computer setups where there is typically only one fully-privileged user created for that system.

Conclusion

What the recent “Flashback” Trojan Horse has done is to bring the Apple Macintosh platform to a real level where issues concerning desktop security and system maintenance are as important for it as they are for other platforms.

Article

Apple iOS 5 review: Modest, but definitely worthwhile | iPhone Atlas – CNET Reviews

From the horse’s mouth

Apple – iOS 5

Previous coverage in HomeNetworking01.info

Apple iOS 5 to be updated without the need to tether your device

My Comments

Now the iOS 5 has been released, it will offer some major benefits for your iPhone or iPad. You will have to tether your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to your computer to update it to the new version but this will be the last time you need to tether the device according to Apple.

Here, you will have the operating-system updates able to be downloaded over the air using the same method as what is used for delivering and updating the apps for your device. Newly-deployed iOS devices will not need a computer to be present as part of their setup process anymore.

As well, if your iDevice is charging and the computer that hosts your device’s parent iTunes collection is on, the device will be synced over the home network. This is something that has been offered by competing mobile platforms with their desktop software.

There are some benefits like improved operation for some of the integrated apps. This also includes a “notifications” screen similar to what Android users have had; as well as an integrated Twitter client. Of course it supports an iP messaging service that works between Apple iOS devices and I am not sure if there are clients for the desktop operating systems.

As well, I detailed on a speech-driven agent app called Siri which interacts with the iOS 5 devices by responding to your spoken requests. This function has been promoted in relation to the iPhone 4S smartphone.

There are a few functions that the competing mobile platforms still have an advantage over the Apple iOS platform. One is the provision of always-displayed screen items that programmatically change or act as a user interface to a program. These are in the form of “widgets” and “live wallpaper” in the Android platform and “tiles” in the Windows Phone 7 platform; and could show running data like time, weather or stock-market data. The Apple platform only allows apps to attach a “bubble” to their screen icon that can show a number or a “traffic-light” colour to show certain events; and this has severe limitations. For example, you can’t control or monitor multiple devices or functions using a single monitor app. This could be something that could be rolled out in a subsequent major update for the iOS platform.

At least this operating system will be a major break for your iOS device by offering it a lot more.

Article

Apple releases Lion Recovery Disk Assistant, asserts its dominance over Snow Leopard | Engadget

Resource Links – Apple Support

Apple Lion Recovery Disk Assistant

Further Details

My Comments

Now that Apple are distributing the “Lion” version of the MacOS X operating system in an online manner, you may think of how you may be able to do a bare-metal recovery of your Macintosh computer. This is where the computer has a hard disk on board but it doesn’t have the operating system to work from. This is because there is no physical disk that came with the upgrade which you can install from when you need to reinstall the operating system.

Now Apple have provided a recovery disk program that allows you to create the recovery image on to an external disk like a USB memory key or a USB external hard disk. It avoids the need to reuse Snow Leopard (which may be on an install DVD) in order to download Lion again as part of the recovery process.

Normally, an upgrade to MacOS X Lion would create a recovery partition on the Mac’s system disk. This wouldn’t be good enough if that hard disk crashed. When you run this utility, you create a copy of the same recovery partition on an external disk which you can then boot from during a bare-metal install or system rebuild.

Like the internal copy, this would allow you to do a “ground-zero” OS install, reinstall from a Time Machine backup, use MacOS Disk Utility to check and repair the hard disk as well as use Safari to visit Web-based resources.

When you prepare the Recovery Disk, you would have to create a separate partition (logical disk) on the same USB physical disk which should be greater than 1Gb. As well, the Mac should have a Recovery HD partition created on it during the Lion OS install or upgrade. This is because the Recovery Disk Assistant formats the drive to create the partition. As well, the partition will be hidden from view when you use the file-system utilities like Finder or Disk Utility.

It will come in to play when you have the external disk connected to the Mac and you reboot it while holding down the Option key. Here, the new Recovery partition will be listed as an option in the Mac’s “Startup Manager” boot menu.

Articles

Windows 8 And Its Incredibly Cool New Touch Interface | Gizmodo.com

Windows 8 Gets A Radical Facelift And Touch Functionality (Videos) | eHomeUpgrade

Windows 8, iOS 6 set for tablet face-off in 2012 | CNET

My Comments

Basic comments about Windows 8’s touch screen user-interface

A key user-interface concept in the next version of Windows will be a “Start Screen” that looks like a cross between Windows Phone 7’s home screen and the Windows Media Center interface. Here, this dashboard will have “Live Tiles” which present always-updated information in the window panes.

The applications represented on the “Live Tiles” can be a fully-fledged Windows application or a HTML5/JavaScript “mobile-like” app that links to a Web resource. This is taken further with Internet Explorer 10 implementing this functionality.

There will be the full integrated support for tablet computers and similar devices with an interface that works best with these devices as well as a regular keyboard / mouse interface. One issue that may affect software developers is that they may have to work the software so it can behave properly with a “no-keyboard” interface as well as a “keyboard” interface. Of course, the touchscreen keyboard interface will support a split layout so that the user can work the keys with their thumbs.

For some programs that primarily use mouse interaction like strategy or puzzle games, there won’t need to be much work done on having the programs work between a keyboard interface or a touch interface. But on the other hand, programs that rely on text entry such as email, the program may have to work with remapping the user interface to permit use of the virtual keyboard interfaces.

But where could this all lead to when it comes to the design of Windows-based computers?

Ever since Windows allowed for “tablet-style” computing with the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, where the computer is operated using a stylus rather than by touch, there have been two form factors put forward to the market. One was the “slate” form factor which is like the tablet computers such as the iPad, where there isn’t a keyboard but the computer could work with a USB-connected keyboard; and the other was a “convertible” notebook computer with a screen that swivelled 180 degrees and folded flat to become a stylus-operated PC. There have been a few touchscreen variants of these form factors released subsequently once Windows Vista provided the touchscreen interface option.

The “slate” or “tablet” form factor could exist as an alternative to the iPad and Android-based tablet computers; and they could allow for operation with small keyboards for word-processing and emailing. But the computer press have forgotten about the “convertible” notebook form factor which has seen some resurgence with some manufacturers running with “netvertibles” – netbooks that have a touchscreen which can swivel between a traditional layout and a tablet layout.

Windows 8 vs the Apple platforms.

Another article had raised issues about Windows 8 becoming a competitor for a subsequent version of Apple’s iOS platform, especially the iPad implementation.

But they also raised the spectre of it competing with the next version of MacOS X, known as “Lion”. The main factor about this is that Apple were viewing the MacOS platform as a “horizontal” platform and the iOS platform as a “vertical” platform; with scant mention of any touch-enabled Macintosh computers coming on the scene.

The possibility of a granular touch-based computer marketplace

What I would see with these touch-based operating systems is the ability for hardware manufacturers to provide a granular marketplace for touch-based computing devices. This means that there could be a touch-based computing device that could suit particular users’ needs and budgets.

It would range from the 7” coat-pocket tablets serving as an alternative to a dedicated ebook reader through 10” tablets like the iPad fulfilling most general-purpose “dedicated-tablet” needs to 13”-14” convertible notebooks appealing to those of us who do plenty of emailing, word-processing or similar work on the road.

Of course, the operating environments for units that are 10” or above will differ across the marketplace in a similar way to what is happening with the smartphones. Here, users may place emphasis on factors like software availability, operating-system flexibility, battery runtime and system performance as they choose the operating environment.

Conclusion

The proposed Windows 8 environment could then become a game change when it comes to the touch-based computing environment.

Article:

ARM The Next Big Thing In Personal Computing | eHomeUpgrade

My comments

I have previously mentioned about NVIDIA developing an ARM-based CPU/GPU chipset and have noticed that this class of RISC chipset is about to resurface in the desktop and laptop computer scene.

What is ARM and how it came about

Initially, Acorn, a British computer company well known for the BBC Model B computer which was used as part of the BBC’s computer-education program in the UK, had pushed on with a RISC processor-based computer in the late 1980s. This became a disaster due to the dominance of the IBM-PC and Apple Macintosh computer platforms as general-purpose computing platforms; even though Acorn were trying to push the computer as a multimedia computer for the classroom. This is although the Apple Macintosh and the Commodore Amiga, which were the multimedia computer platforms of that time, were based on Motorola RISC processors.

Luckily they didn’t give up on the RISC microprocessor and had this class of processor pushed into dedicated-purpose computer setups like set-top boxes, games consoles, mobile phones and PDAs. This chipset and class of microarchitecture became known as the ARM (Acorn RISC Microprocessor) chipset.

The benefit of these RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) class of microarchitecture was to achieve an efficient instruction set that suited the task-intensive requirements that graphics-rich multimedia computing offered; compared to the CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing) microarchitecture that was practised primarily with Intel 80×86-based chipsets.

There was reduced interest in the RISC chipset due to Motorola pulling out of the processor game since the mid 2000s when they ceased manufacturing the PowerPC processors. Here, Apple had to build the Macintosh platform for the Intel Architecture because this was offering RISC performance at a cheaper cost to Apple; and started selling Intel-based Macintosh computers.

How is this coming about

An increasing number of processor makers who have made ARM-based microprocessors have pushed for these processors to return to general-purpose computing as a way of achieving power-efficient highly-capable computer systems.

This has come along with Microsoft offering a Windows build for the ARM microarchitecture as well as for the Intel microarchitecture. Similarly, Apple bought out a chipset designer when developed ARM-based chipsets.

What will this mean for software development

There will be a requirement for software to be built for the ARM microarchitecture as well as for the Intel microarchitecture because these work on totally different instruction sets. This may be easier for Apple and Macintosh software developers because when the Intel-based Macintosh computers came along, they had to work out a way of packaging software for the PowerPC and the Intel processor families. Apple marketed these software builds as being “Universal” software builds because of the need to suit the two main processor types.

Windows developers will be needing to head down this same path, especially if they work with orthodox code where they fully compile the programs to machine code themselves. This may not be as limiting for people who work with managed code like the Microsoft .NET platform because the runtime packages could just be prepared for the instruction set that the host computer uses.

Of course, Java programmers won’t need to face this challenge due to the language being designed around a “build once run anywhere” scheme with “virtual machines” that work between the computer and the compiled Java code.

For the consumer

This may require that people who run desktop or laptop computers that use ARM processors will need to look for packaged software or downloadable software that is distributed as an ARM build rather than for Intel processors. This may be made easier through the use of “universal” packages that are part of the software distribution requirement.

It may not worry people who run Java or similar programs because Oracle and others who stand behind these programming environments will be needing to port the runtime environments to these ARM systems.

Conclusion

This has certainly shown that the technology behind the chipsets that powered the computing environments that were considered more exciting through the late 1980s are now relevant in today’s computing life. These will even provide a competitive development field for the next generation of computer systems.

Next Windows to have ARM build as well as Intel build. Apple,used to delivering MacOS X for Motorola PowerPC RISC as well as Intel CPUs, to implement Apple ARM processors on Macintosh laptops.

A lot of my computing-support work has been to help many friends of mine who haven’t had much exposure to computers with many different computing skills. Typically, they would buy a Windows-based desktop or laptop or have their business buy one of these machines, but I often end up having to show them through various techniques associated with using this computer.

I had come across this book title and others in the “For Seniors” series at Belgrave Book Barn in Melbourne and bought this one for AUD$29.95 tax inclusive. Amazon currently have this book online for US$9.53.

This book is part of the “For Seniors” series of computer books that are pitched at older people who haven’t had much experience with computers. There is a similar book called “Laptops For Seniors” which focuses on the use of Windows-7 laptops rather than desktop computers which this book focuses on.

This book covers Windows 7, whether you install it yourself such as through an upgrade or have the operating system delivered with your new computer, which will be the most popular way to acquire it. Here, it will show what can and can’t be done on different versions of the operating system, especially with the user interface.

All techniques are covered complete with illustrations, easy to read typesetting and reduced jargon. If they need to use jargon, they explain it out properly. Even the pictures used to illustrate Web pages and digital-imaging techniques are based on landscapes and other similar imagery.

As far as Internet connection goes, this book talks about “dial-up” or PPPoE connections where the computer’s operating system manages the connection and pushes the now-common network-based Internet connections to the “Networking” chapter later on in the book. At least they tell users who use the network-based methods to head to that particular page.

When it talks of email use, it describes how to do email using Windows Live Mail or using the free webmail setups. The free webmail setup that is illustrated in this book is the ubiquitous GMail service and it explains how to work your existing account or set up a new account with GMail.

As far as anti-virus programs are concerned, it had suggested the use of free programs like the AVG Free antivirus program. This is even though the new Microsoft Security Essentials anti-malware program had come out recently, but has at least it has exposed a free program that can do the job.

What I have liked about this book is that it covers most computing tasks that can be done with Windows 7 and treats the older novice computer user with respect. Even the title comes across to the reader in a respectful manner. As well, it covers the common usage scenarios that the older people will encounter as they use their new Windows 7 computer.

So I would recommend this book, along with the “Laptops For Seniors” and other books in this series as a computer guidebook for older novice computer users.