MacBook

[~bk]

Yeah, that's what I thought. But you know, just in case.

 

[muzikool]

I don't use any AV software and I just have the built-in firewall enabled. Unless you're paranoid I wouldn't bother spending the money on one. As of right now, you would have to try really hard to get your Mac infected with something damaging.

 

[X-Istence]

Just one last question. For those of you who have MacBook, did you guys every buy the AppleCare Protection Plan? If so, how is it? If not, then is your guys' MacBook's still running smoothly?

I bought the AppleCare plan a few days before my now replaced laptop would run out, cause I was having so many issues with it and I just wanted to be sure that I'd have at least 2 extra years.

Then I got my replacement laptop, and had to move my AppleCare over to the new laptop and I lost an entire year (they keep the original date :/). I have had so many issues with my laptop though, the guys at the local Genius bar know me by face, when I walk in I don't even need an appointment.

They also know that I know my hardware and trouble shooting, so generally I can walk in, let them know what is wrong, they ask me a few questions, I tell them what I have tried and they go and order the part, and I come back a few days later and have them swap the old part out and put a new part in. Pretty awesome. No more going through troubleshooting steps with them, makes my trips to the genius bar simpler .

n00b question. Do you guys have any anti-virus / spyware removal softwares on your MacBooks? If so, which ones?

Nope. Anti-Virus on the Mac is horrible. Norton has one such piece of software and it slows the system down to a crawl, especially when one does a lot of opening of large files, also with just a few security practices in mind, they are practically not required, as you'd have to type in your username and password to let a virus take over your machine (*).

I don't use any AV software and I just have the built-in firewall enabled. Unless you're paranoid I wouldn't bother spending the money on one. As of right now, you would have to try really hard to get your Mac infected with something damaging.

Built in firewall on Leopard does not block everything, unlike the Firewall that came with Tiger. Which is unfortunate, but it was done to help customers that wanted a firewall but at the same time not have any problems connecting to remote shares and or corporate servers, so there was a trade off. mdns for example is still enabled and announces itself to the world, and the port is open incoming.

(*) There are still problems off course, as there is always in Software. There have been multiple errors in the way Quicktime handles rtsp handlers: http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/fulldisclosure/2008-01/0167.html

This has supposedly been fixed in the latest update, 7.4. As always, just be cautious when visiting sites you don't trust, and don't click on random links. Exploits being abused in the wild are not very common for Mac OS X.

 

[~bk]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm thinking of getting the AppleCare later on, in a couple of months maybe.

Nope. Anti-Virus on the Mac is horrible. Norton has one such piece of software and it slows the system down to a crawl, especially when one does a lot of opening of large files, also with just a few security practices in mind, they are practically not required, as you'd have to type in your username and password to let a virus take over your machine (*).

I think they have McAfee (I could be wrong) installed on the Macs at my university. I've noticed it slows down the startup.

I don't think I'll need to get one. My current PC hasn't been infected with anything for such a long time, according to all the scans. So I think I should be fine.

 

[X-Istence]

McAfee and Norton are both horrible on Mac OS X. Why that is, is not even known. But most of them only protect against Windows viruses and malware, which won't affect the Mac. They won't be much help when Quicktime for example gets owned, as they just can't check if an app is doing something out of the ordinary in that respect, and if a new "custom" payload is downloaded and installed they are useless as well.

As for Apple exploits and whatnot, just pay attention to the security industry, make an effort to every so often peruse slashdot, as they tend to announce these types of vulnerabilities.

 

[fitz]

McAfee and Norton are both horrible on Mac OS X.

Frankly, I think their consumer versions suck on windows too..

 

[Geffy]

So I can keep track of whats going out of my machine I've got LittleSnitch and I don't bother running AV on my Mac at the moment as there's no real need to. I've got AV on my mailserver which should take care of any windows viruses which might come in.

You can use ClamX-AV if you want to be careful but the majority of Mac AV software only really helps to prevent you from infecting windows machines you interact with and imo those machines should have their own protection and not rely on me not sending them something.

I try to keep abreast of any security issues and keep my software updated accordingly.

 

[~bk]

Woo. Got my MacBook

And I got a question already. I entered my account name as Bilal Karim. But then, I only wanna keep it Bilal. So it still shows up as bilalkarim in the Finder. How do I change that?

Loving it so far. *drools*

 

[muzikool]

Woo. Got my MacBook

And I got a question already. I entered my account name as Bilal Karim. But then, I only wanna keep it Bilal. So it still shows up as bilalkarim in the Finder. How do I change that?

Loving it so far. *drools*

That's your home folder name and changing it is a lot of work and not recommended. The better option is to create a new user account named Bilal, make it the administrator and then delete the original account. If you've already created documents under your current account then be sure to copy those over to the Bilal documents folder before deleting the account.

It's actually quite similar to how Windows creates and handles user account directories, so maybe that will help how you look at it.

 

[~bk]

Blah. I'll do it later. Too excited about the MacBook right now. The name isn't a huge problem.

Btw, no PhotoBooth in Leopard?

edit: Nvm, found it.

 

[X-Istence]

Blah. I'll do it later. Too excited about the MacBook right now. The name isn't a huge problem.

Btw, no PhotoBooth in Leopard?

edit: Nvm, found it.

Required applications:

QuickSilver (Quick app launcher. Once you use it, it is hard to be without)
Adium (Multi-protocol chat made easy. Ties into your address book)
VMWare Fusion
TextMate (Only if you are a programmer)
VLC (Allows you to watch almost any file format easily)
Perian (Same as above, but is a plugin to Quicktime. Does not always work, so keep VLC around)
Caffiene (Stops your Mac from ever falling asleep)
AppZapper (If you like to download new apps and try them out, and then decide to get rid of em)
HandBrake (DVD Ripping)
NeoOffice (Open Office that runs natively on the Mac, not under X11)
Transmission (Torrenting)
The Unarchiver (unpacks almost every single packed file format you can imagine!)

 

[~bk]

Oooh, nice. Thanks a lot for that list. I'll check those out. Had a couple in my mind.

 

[Grandmaster]

Photoszz!

 

[~bk]

After my exam on Wednesday.

And wow, Adium looks sexy. Looks better than the MSN for Mac.

 

[~bk]

What's a good FTP program for Mac? I don't like FileZilla anymore, ever since they launched the new version.

Has anyone tried Pixelmator?

And how do you uninstall programs? =P

 

[muzikool]

What's a good FTP program for Mac? I don't like FileZilla anymore, ever since they launched the new version.

I love Transmit. If you want something free I hear Fetch is good as well.

Has anyone tried Pixelmator?

Yes, but already having Photoshop makes it difficult to want to switch. If you don't have Photoshop, definitely give Pixelmator a shot and see what you think.

And how do you uninstall programs? =P

In most cases all you have to do is grab the application from the Applications folder and throw it in the trash. Nice, huh? There is also a utility called AppZapper that removes all traces of an application.

In OS X most applications don't use an installer -- all of the files are in a package that is represented by the application icon, so when you drag the icon to the trash you're tossing out all the contents of the application. You can look at all the files that make up an application by right-clicking on the application icon and selecting Show Package Contents. Some applications will create a separate folder under your user account in Library/Application Settings because it might have some settings that you personalize -- such as bookmarks in Safari or a list of servers in your FTP application. AppZapper gets rid of those files as well.

 

[~bk]

Oh right, X recommended that one. I'll give those a shot.

 

[Geffy]

Colloquy for IRC too
Delicious Library for keeping track of Books/DVDs/Games/Music
Kismac or AirMoose for Wifi scanning

I'd recommend spending a few hours trying to learn QuickSilver. It took me a while but now I've got the hang of it I can peruse my system at least 2 to 3 times quicker.

In terms of commercial or beta apps I tend to use a lot
TextMate, OmniGraffle, Skitch and Transmit

 

[~bk]

Thanks Geffy.

Btw, for those of you have Leopard, are you guys using Time Machine?

 

[muzikool]

Thanks Geffy.

Btw, for those of you have Leopard, are you guys using Time Machine?

I've just upgraded by PowerMac to Leopard and I've got two internal hard drives, so I'll be setting up Time Machine sometime in the next couple of days. I don't see any reason not to use it -- in fact I'm really looking forward to using it.