Sat, 19 July 2008
Just came across an interesting discussion on Whirlpool, where a poster asks why there are no viruses for OS X. The quick and obvious answer by a few “enthusiast experts” was that the market share of OS X is so small that nobody really bothers writing any malware for Mac.
Yes, this is the most common answer you get from people who also answer “right-click” when asked what Macs can’t do that Windows can. Sigh!
I liked the reply by the user TwoFruits, so I thought I’d share his very down-to-earth analysis of the malware absence phenomenon on Macs.
There is no silver bullet answer as to why not, its a combination of reasons :-
1. OS X is built on UNIX. UNIX was a multi user system with a security architecture built into it at the beginning. WINDOWS came from a single user architecture with security and multi user capability as an after thought.
2. UNIX had networking built into it from the beginning, again in Windows this was bolted in at a later date.
3. Windows built Internet Explorer into the O/S at a very deep level, and allowed code execution within the browser. In OS X the browser is a completely separate application, its not a integral part of the OS. IMHO, this is the fundamental screw-up Microsoft made, as they created so many hooks into which someone can attack the OS.
4. In earlier Windows everything ran as the system user, so the capability to compromise an entire system was easier. (see reason 1)
5. Microsoft’s backward compatibility mantra doesn’t do them any favours as to run old software they need so many old APIs, all of which can have holes in them.
6. OS X has no registry. IMHO, second fundamental flaw Microsoft made.
7. OS X asks for your password before allowing you to run new software or install something. Not fool proof, but at least fool resistant.
Personally I don’t buy the “lack of market share” reason. Consider that in pre OS X days Macs did have viruses. Also interesting, that at that stage Macs were suffering point 1 & 2.
No system is totally safe, but Macs have a lot of architecture working in their favor.
Posted in Mac 
49 Comments »
Sun, 29 June 2008
If you love Yahoo mail and your email address looks like someone_38724@yahoo.com, there is some good news for you. A few days ago Yahoo released two new mail domains - ymail.com and rocketmail.com.
The ‘good’ ones are running out fast, but there are plenty of available user names that don’t involve underscores and numbers. So if you’re after something like yourname@ymail.com go to Yahoo and sign up.
Posted in Internet 1 Comment »
Tue, 10 June 2008
GDocsUploader is a Mac OS X application for easy and quick uploading to Google Documents and Picasa Web Albums.
GDocsUploader creates an icon that can be placed on your Desktop or in the Dock. Simply drag and drop a Google Documents supported file onto the icon and your file will be uploaded. Otherwise you can double click on the icon and select the file to upload.
Works on OS X 10.4 and later. Download GDocsUploader via Google Code. Visit developer’s site.
Via VinodLive
Posted in Internet, Software 1 Comment »
Tue, 10 June 2008
‘Give Good Food to your Mac’ is a community action where independent Mac developers come together and build exciting promotions.
No junk food, just healthy, tasty and innovative products. And because we are speaking ‘haute cuisine’ everybody gets to create their own combination of titles matching their own and unique taste.
This time, for the ‘Special Developers Edition’, Mac users will be able to discover the finest development tools for Mac with discounts ranging from 20% to 50%.
30 gourmet Mac applications are being served from this delicious kitchen between 9th and 23rd June 2008. The list of apps includes BannerZest Pro, SubEthaEdit, RealBasic, Navicat, Changes, Unity and many others.
The promo is avalable via http://www.givegoodfood2yourmac.com Enjoy!
Posted in Software 1 Comment »
Fri, 6 June 2008
We all know the story very well, we just bought a new Mac and thinking of selling the old one, but have no idea what the second hand Macs are really worth. Local paper, eBay, Craigs List, friends, co-workers … plenty of oprtions to sell, but at what price?
Thankfully Mac2sell can be of some help here. Simply select your country, your Mac model, CPU, memory, display size and you’ll get the approximate value of your machine in a nanosecond… or so.
How do they know? The calculation is based on the specific configuration, on Apple’s prices, local taxes and used Macs market in different countries. And best of all, the values are updated daily.
Posted in Internet, Mac 5 Comments »
Sat, 31 May 2008
Firefox is my default browser for several reasons, but the number one is AdBlock. Yes, other browsers have some sort of ad blocking, either built in or as a plug-in, but nothing comes even close to AdBlock on Firefox. Period.
Another function I use a lot is text zoom. When I’m using my MacBook Pro, there are quite a few websites with fonts so small that I sometimes find it a bit challenging to read past the first paragraph. This where the Command-+ (hold Command and press the plus sign) keyboard shortcut comes to the rescue. The font increases and becomes easier to read. I can repeat it number of times and the font gets bigger and bigger.
I like this a lot, but there is a problem. If you go too far with the font size, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Software 4 Comments »
