kdmurray.blog

The crossroads of life and tech

Monthly Archives: December 2008

Apple OS X 10.5.6 BSOD?

Apple BSODIt looks like Apple may have helped some of their users join the coveted Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) club this week with the latest update to Mac OS X.

This update has caused a great number of problems for Mac users, something that isn’t typical of updates to the Apple OS.  For the few who read this notice prior to installing the update, there was a clue on the Apple support website in the article discussing the update which indicated that this update may cause problems:

You may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modifications installed, or if you have modified the operating system through other means, or if you have moved Apple applications from their default locations (the /Applications or /Applications/Utilities folders). (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)

This kind of warning isn’t typical and has led some to speculate that maybe this update wasn’t truly ready for prime time.

The rather hefty software update, much like a Windows service pack, weighs in at 190MB containing fixes for a number of known, and unknown, OS X issues.  The problem is with the problems that have arisen since the update became available.

The majority of sites are reporting problems with the update installation process itself citing extremely long load times and installations not completing, these are leading to people trying to reboot their machines part-way through the install process which is always a recipe for disaster.

Ars Technica is also reporting that there are a number of other hidden <ahem> “gems” in the 10.5.6 update not the least of which is some code to prevent the jailbreaking of 3G iPhones and iPod touches.  Nice, Apple. And thanks for leaving that little detail out on the list of features/additions etc.  Jerks.

Thanks to MacOS Ken, IT Wire, Ars Technica, and others.

Random Image Selector 1.5.0 Released

The latest version of the Random Image Selector plugin for WordPress is available. This is a relatively minor update which precedes the v2.0 update that I’m hoping to release early in the new year.

This update includes a major function addition (generateRandomImageUrlEnc) which spits out a properly URL-encoded version of the random image’s URL.

There’s also been a full review of the code to ensure that it works as expected with WordPress 2.7, thankfully there was precious little to change.

I’m hoping to get the next major release done just prior to WordCamp Whistler so that I can do a quick talk on image randomness and specifically this plugin.

As always, thank you to everyone who has downloaded the plugin in the past, and to those who continue to comment on the blog.  Your suggestions are all valued and I’ll be working some of them into the upcoming 2.0 release.

Twitter Acquires Sandy and Stikkit

twitter logoHere’s a clip of a post I did over on the AGP Blog about the acquisition of Sandy & Stikkit by Twitter. It’s going to be very interesting to see what Twitter decides to do with the newly acquired technology, particularly in the wake of reduced services in nearl every country outside the US (read: no more SMS!!!).  Here’s a clip from the feature-length version:

Twitter has snapped up the IP behind a couple of popular Web 2.0 services.  I Want Sandy and Stikkit were both acquired by Twitter a few weeks ago.  The services were originally scheduled to go offline last week, but this window has been extended until the end of business (17:00 PT) this Friday, December 19th.

Check out the original post over on the AGP blog.

Time will tell…

Security on the Mac

Recently I came across a discussion on a Mac forum with some people discussing how shocking it was that Apple had been recommending that its Macintosh customers consider using anti-virus software.  This is a discussion that has always raised my ire, as the supposed superior security of the Mac has always been an issue of numbers.

No operating system is perfect, they’re all designed by people and are full of flaws as a result.  It’s important to keep in mind that one of the reasons that Mac OS X has had precious few problems with viruses and other nasties is market share.

Writing viruses is much like sending out mailers for advertising your new business. The more people you reach with your message (or malware) the more people you’ll connect with (infect).

If you want to infect lots of people, you write your malware for Windows.

Five years ago the market share of the Mac was in around the 5% mark, meaning that if you wrote a virus for the mac and distributed it to 20 million computer users you’d infect 100 people (at a rate of 1 in 10,000). If you write for Windows and infect people at the same rate, you’ll infect 1900 people.

With the market share of the Mac increasing, so does the surface area for attacks. Many Mac owners have become complacent over the years believing that they are safe because they use a Mac. As a result the infection rates of Mac systems could be much higher than Windows-based PCs if malware authors decide to target the Mac platform.

Food for thought.

WordPress 2.7 “Coltrane” Released

I really don’t have any time to do a nice full-length post on the release of WordPress 2.7 tonight. So I’ll provide a whole bunch of links for you to get your 2.7 fix.

If you’ve not tried 2.7 yet, read over the new info then give it a shot.  The super-new-and-improved admin interface is well worth the upgrade!

WordCamp Whistler 2009 Details Released

WordCamp Whistler is a go for 2009!

January 24th and 25th in Whistler a meeting of WordPress minds will meet up in Whistler, BC. The keynote speaker for the event will be Blogging Evangelist Lorelle VanFossen.

If you’re in the Vancouver-Whistler area, or can plan to be here the $35 entry fee is a great price for such a high-quality event. If you’re already registered, grab a badge and pimp the event on your site, your twitter or anywhere else!

One Year Anniversary: Random Image Selector 1.2.0

I can’t believe it’s been one year since the last major release of the random image selector.  Since the plugin’s initial inception last summer it has received a fair amount of attention garnering nearly 11,000 downloads.

Random Image Selector - Downloads Per Day

Random Image Selector - Downloads Per Day

I’m glad that it’s proven useful for people and there will be a major update coming out over the Christmas break to coincide with the WordPress 2.7 release.  This update will include a few bug fixes, a couple of minor feature changes and one significant addition.

Thanks to everyone who has downloaded the plugin, and to those who have left feedback on the blog!

Google Launches Tasks for Gmail

GmailToday Google announced on the official Gmail blog that it had added tasks to Gmail Labs.

The new feature provides a simple task list that can be activated using the labs menu.  To activate this, click on the green beaker at the top of the screen.

The task list in and of itself is basic, and provides a point that Google can use to extend its functionality in the future… features like integration with Google Calendar (yea, they left that out) and the ability to collaborate & share tasks through Gmail.

While this won’t likely satiate the desires of the Getting-Things-Done crowd, it’s a decent to-do list for keeping track of a non-complex list of items.  The most functional advantage that this has over desktop-based task solutions like Outlook is the ability for it to be accessed anywhere you can hit-up your Gmail.

Overall I’m a big fan of Google’s “Labs” concept. Pre-releasing new functionality in an opt-in manner is the hallmark of open-source and the web 2.0 community, and is a principle that the search giant seems to have embraced wholeheartedly.  Here’s hoping we see more useful features coming out of Mountain View.

Get more written: Write or Die

I came across this web application a few weeks back while listening to AmberMac‘s dulcet tones on CommandN #156.  The application is called Write or Die written by Dr. Wicked, and its aim is to make you a more productive writer.

Write or Die provides you motivation to write not based on the positive reinforcement of a job well done but on the fear of a web-based application inflicting consequences upon you.  Write or Die offers varying levels of “difficulty” from forgiving through to evil, and three types of consequences.

  • Gentle mode provides a polite pop-up reminder to keep writing
  • Normal mode plays REALLY awful music/sounds in the background
  • Kamikaze mode will begin deleting one word per second while you’re delinquent

The fear of having one’s work deleted is a serious motivator to keep writing.

If you’ve got a writing project to do whether it’s a paper for school like me, or you’re participating in a novel-writing event (WoD was originally built for authors participating in NanNoWriMo) give Write or Die a try.