PC Guy with a Mac

Why did I buy this thing?

Archive for March, 2008

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Mac users, your viral day of reckoning is nigh!

Published March 29th, 2008 in News and (mostly) Opinions | 2 Comments »

SophosLabs distributed a press release today, warning Mac users of a new Trojan named Troj/MacSwp-B (also known as Imunizator). Essentially, the Trojan tries to scare Mac users into purchasing unnecessary software by claiming that privacy issues have been discovered on the computer. Once installed, the user is infected.

Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, touts the same banner I do in this blog in the follow excerpt..

Windows users are no stranger to scareware like this, but it is rarer on the Apple Macintosh. Nevertheless MacSwp-B’s discovery does follow fast on the heels of other malware that has been identitifed on the Mac OS X platform in recent months

Mr. Cluley continues..

Cybercrime against Mac users may be small in comparison to Windows attacks, but it is growing. Apple Macintosh users need to learn from the mistakes made by their Windows cousins in the past and ensure that they have defenses in place, are up-to-date with patches and exercise caution about what they run on their computer.

This is definitely sound advice and I would recommend this course of action to any PC user, whether they be Vista, Mac, or Ubuntu. What I do take exception to is this response to the press release from MacDailyNews:

You mean don’t fall for a dumbass Trojan? Relax, we’re Mac users, dudes. And, we do take personal computer security seriously, that’s one of the reasons we have Macs. As always, do not download, authorize, and install software from unknown, untrusted Websites or any other sources.

No, what you are are USERS, Mac, PC or otherwise.  You and your ilk WILL one day install something you shouldn’t.

You did not purchase the Mac because you take personal computer security seriously. I know a few Mac users, and their buying decisions were NOT based on security, but rather style and functionality. In fact, with regards to security, I liken Mac users to the three little pigs in the straw house – sure, your doors are locked, but no one has really come by to blow your house down.

Welcome to the party Mac.  Oink.

My Response to MacBook Moistener

Published March 29th, 2008 in News and (mostly) Opinions | No Comments »

The Boy Genius Report posted an exchange between a man whose MacBook sustained water damage and the guy he decided to contact regarding the problem, Steve Jobs. The man, who in the post is named “Xxxxxx Xxxx” (way to show some balls, anonymous whiner), admits that the water damage was his fault but claims that “After three or four calls I was finally able to get a straight answer” regarding the repair, which he was “not at all happy with the answer.”

The answer was that the customer, who I will refer to as Boohoo McSomeonepayformyproblemsotherthanme, could spend $300 to get the MacBook repaired, but that there was no guarantee that they could get the unit working. “Boohoo” continues in his email to his Steve-ness..

I was horrified to learn that their is no system to assess the problem and bill once all damage is known. I am reluctant to put money into a problem that could easily grow. I have had three Apple computers in a row. I love using them but I am not sure if my replacement will be one. I feel powerless in the situation and the whole experience has turned me off of the Apple company.

Horrified? Really? <sarcasm>You know, the things that happen in Burma are kind of nasty, but this situation is downright horrific!</sarcasm>

After Steve received this email, his reply (according to the post) was as follows:

This is what happens when your MacBook Pro sustains water damage.They are pro machines and they don’t like water. It sounds like you’re just looking for someone to get mad at other than yourself.

Steve

Now, I don’t believe that Steve actually wrote this response, but it is a good reply nevertheless (not great, but good). My major problem with Boohoo is that he obviously wanted some kind of help with his situation, above and beyond what he really deserved. The way he thought he could get it was to (a) contact the guy in charge and (b) threaten to not be a customer any longer.

If it were me responding to this email, it may have gone something like this:

Dear Boohoo,

When we come out with a MacBook Pro with Scotchguard ™ I’ll send you a $300 coupon towards the purchase of a new unit. Until then, go jump in a lake (but be sure to not take your Dell with you into the lake, because I’m pretty sure Michael Dell will tell you to go f*ck yourself).

Best,

PC Guy with a Mac

I feel that every customer I have is a friend of mine on some level. The relationship is always give and take, even though it is based on an exchange of money for goods and services. Being a business owner, I will bend over backwards for any customer who is not only willing to pay my bill, but is nice and appreciates how much my crew and I care about their problems. Heck, there have been times that my guys and I worked on computer problems for Titans tickets and cookies (see: picture of fat headed blogger at top of this post).

For me, I guess it comes down to this: customer service issues are resolved in the best possible way when both the company providing the service is great and the customer is great. Now I’m not saying that customers shouldn’t be mad about problems that happen or products that fail to live up to expectations, but I do know that problems get worked out more quickly and smoothly when both sides of the issue, the company and the customer, are committed to a resolution.

I’m not in the corporate world, so everything I just said may be wrong. Oh well, I at least get to sleep soundly at night..

Pwn to Own

Published March 29th, 2008 in News and (mostly) Opinions | 1 Comment »

It took two minutes for a team of security researchers to seize control of a MacBook Air and walk away with $10,000 in prize money for doing so. The annual Pwn to Own contest pitted the MacBook Air against Windows Vista and Ubuntu machines, and all three made it through the first day when hacks were limited to over-the-network techniques.

But on day two, the rules changed in the contest to allow attacks to be delivered by tricking someone to open a maliciously coded web site or email. Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff, and Mark Daniel quickly gained control of the MacBook using a newly discovered zero-day vulnerability in Safari.

The team had attack code already set up on a Web site, and was able to gain access to the MacBook Air and retrieve a file after judges were “tricked” into visiting the site. According to the TippingPoint DVLabs blog, a newly discovered vulnerability in Safari was used to gain control of the Air.

Last year’s winners of the contest exploited a Quicktime vulnerability which, to Apple’s credit, was patched within two weeks. The contest rules stipulate that winners immediately sign a nondisclosure agreement relating to their technique, so that the vulnerability could be disclosed to the vendor, and TippingPoint said Apple has been informed of the vulnerability.

I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but I’m still trying to pick a fight with the Apple faithful to have them argue with me that Macintosh systems are more secure than Windows systems. Come on, bring it fan-boys! (and fan-girls!)

iCoffin

Published March 9th, 2008 in Unlocking the Mac-steries | 2 Comments »

I have been reading a lot of articles this week related to Steve Jobs and his personal and business relationships throughout the extent of his career. The one thing that stuck out through all of these readings is his manic insistence on having all Apple products adhere to his ideas of elegance and beauty.

This got me to thinking: what type of coffin would Steve Jobs be buried in?

Would it be corner-less and slick like an iPod? Would he insist that his coffin be thin enough to fit in a manila envelope? Maybe he would have the iCoffin’s design adhere to the same design standard that re-ignited Apple as a company, the iMac?

That would be cool – an orange, semi-transparent coffin where you could see Steve’s body lying in eternal smugness.

Flash on the iPhone – Don’t Hold Your Breath

Published March 9th, 2008 in News and (mostly) Opinions | 1 Comment »

During an Apple shareholder’s meeting this week, Steve Jobs addressed the iPhone’s inability to play Flash video (which is becoming a standard way to distribute video content, as evidenced by the success of video sharing sites like YouTube) and said that Adobe’s mobile Flash platform, the Flash Lite Player, isn’t advanced enough for the iPhone and “performs too slow to be useful.”

What kind of crap is this?

There have been a few times that I’ve considered purchasing an iPhone, solely based on the Safari browser integration and its ability to render pages in the same way that Safari on a desktop system would.  What keeps me from taking the iPlunge is the iPhone’s inability to play Flash.

I understand that there are battery and performance considerations to factor in allowing the iPhone to have this functionality, but to have the balls to off-handedly blame Adobe for the iPhone’s shortcomings is amazing to me.

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