Mac Update 10.6.5: the Borked Mysteries

So the most recent update was released today and I waited a fair amount of time before taking the plunge -- approximately half a day. No, really, it just so happens I was poking around the news and found out about it. There was no official System Update notification at all. Strange? Nah, its Apple holding off for fixing feedback most probably.

Step #1. First things first was to run a Time Machine backup as instructed by the Knowledge Base (KB) article. That took about 30-minutes for me including connecting my external hard drive and backing up somewhere around 500-MB of data.

Step #2. Next was to say farewell to the world and update everyone about the attempt through the usual social media like Twitter and FaceBook -- this was of course easily done via a single post on Plurk. This is an optional step, but for those of you who only have one way to be online apart from your mobile device (ie. iPhone) it at least notifies everyone why you could be unreachable for a while. :-)

Step #3. Just to be sure in case the update would actually cause drivers to fail, I downloaded the standalone combo update package from Apple's Support Downloads site (approximately 977.21-MB).

Step #4. My wife was previously badgering me to try out FaceTime for Mac, so I did that too. Another optional step, but just in case the update includes an official release then why not?

Step #5. Finally, I clicked on Software Update ... This then asked for my Administrative password for system changes and proceeded to pre-update the initial components. It then logged-off the system and updated the core components (this flow prevents interruption by running applications). Once done, it did a system reboot.

I logged-in and everything seemed the same, except ....

Borked #1. GrowlMail bundle gets disabled. Those of you who use Growl for Mail.app simply have to download the unoffical update or follow the manual instructions from reaperhulk.

So far nothing else looks amiss, but these issues will slowly be teased out eventually and I will update this blog entry as I come across them. One of the most probable issues would be headers needed by MacPorts, but thats just in theory and for later.

Until then.

Windows UAC vs Linux vs Mac OS X

There have been may articles written recently and surely they have their merits and by no means is this an attempt to discredit.

Simply stated, below are my perceived difference in Windows XP vs Windows Vista vs Windows 7 vs Linux vs Mac OS X on the User Account Control (UAC) issue from the standpoint of one who has them all installed in production use:

1. Pre-XP and Windows XP – unmanaged default installations have administrative (root) privileges, not good as we’ve seen; you can create unprivileged accounts and system changes will require administrator login (with a right-click clue on what account has it);

2. Windows Vista – a total paradigm shift for users and perhaps too aggressive an introduction to UAC causing administrator-level-addicts to make themselves root and/or totally ignore all the prompts; also got released with very minimal device drive support and the rest is history;

3. Linux – by default you had to do a few hoops to become root and in the most recent variants alerts you that your password settings for root and sub-accounts are of what quality; for any system-wide changes you had to enter your root credentials similar to Windows Vista;

4. Mac OS X (Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard) – introduced simple lockdowns similar to unprivileged Windows XP user by default; any system changes will require administrative login (and no unprivileged user clue as to who has it);

5. Windows 7 – released with better driver support and is as forgiving as Windows XP in terms of outdated driver compatibility mode; UAC is set to be less of a nuisance and allows the user to concentrate on getting things done rather than police the system;

All in all, I think the current generations of whatever OS you have is running the same playing field in the UAC user experience. There are some nuances in terms of what system hardening has to be done by the initial user but all of this is by now well documented in every OS start-up guide.

There will be some changes as well in the “when to patch” paradigm and as I’ve said before gone are the days when hold holding off when to patch is considered a precautionary measure given the speed of malware attacks on new systems that do not sit behind some other patch management and/or firewall. Today's patches do not just deliver fixes but also much needed compatibility upgrades.

And yes, perhaps one thing that has made me move (and be confident) to Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) is that when fixable compatibility issues occur it actually tells me if one is available from Microsoft or whether I should be contacting my device vendor to get a new one made. Nicely done!

Mac OS X: Finally the GIMP !

Its been some time that Yna'd been looking for an Adobe Photoshop-like application for her Mac. Early in February I remember looking to get this down via MacPorts but couldn't seem to get it down right. :-(

Myself, I was pretty happy with The GIMP via its port from Linux to Windows. Of course, having just moved to the fun side of computing myself it became apparent that though the Mac has some pretty neat applications by default however I was sorely missing anything that resembled at least Painbrush!

Thanks to Wilbur who loves Apple and and a pointer to DarwinPorts I was able to get The GIMP going on Leopard without much hassle. Of course it does help that Apple bundled the latest XQuartz on its installation CD (and that I had to do some messing around before trying to get LiveQuartz working).

Now for some serious layer manipulation!

Mac OS X: Playing Nice on a Mixed Network

"Halt!", says my Macbook. "Who are you, and where are you going?!"

Anyone who's ever been on a large network would know the intricacies of granular file permissions. Access Control List (ACL), some people pronounce it like "uncle", have been around long before but during regular conversation you'll most probably hear this from people administering a dominantly Microsoft Windows network.

On Windows XP you get this granular feature if you turn off the easy file permission management which opens up other management tabs such as Audit trail when you start to share files and directories. Mac OS X has a similar neat feature better than Windows in its own version of the Control Panel called Shares under System Preferences.

What was missing was granular ACL ... until now. Have a gander at Sandbox for your specific sharing needs. BTW, it now works for Leopard, too! :-)


Postscript following morning at 9am:

Argh, just to say where no one has gone before is not the case, someone else made a few comments about the new file sharing properties on Mac OS X here.

Apple Time Machine, Back to the Past

Thats right, the first thing about the Macbook Pro to blog about is the backup software called "Time Machine". Its an interesting concept on Mac OS X similar to System Restore on Windows XP with a plus.

The main complaint so far has been that Apple wants you to use their own brand of backup drives (a) when the reality is that most modern homes right now are probably running a NAS or other network storage device. What is worse, if you do decide to do option (b) then you may end up having to format that external storage using the proprietary Mac OS X file system.

Thats easy enough to fix by modifying a registry entry to allow an unofficial modification (c). Not one to be limited, thats exactly what I did to redirect storage to my Promise NS4300N. The transfer time over the network though is understandably slower than direct plugged (and even worse if you're really pushing your luck like I am via wireless-N).

SIMS to be a Hacintosh?

After a few weeks playing around compatibility questions, I decided to take the challenge and see if my old ThinkPad X40 was up to the task of running any version of Mac OS X. This is the actual machine, not using VMware like suggested in other forums. This was to take advantage of whatever resources from the laptop itself.

I recently got Yna a Macbook from eBay and must say its a very exciting piece of equipment. My thoughts on that later ....

Now there are perfectly legitimate reasons for doing this, my primary motive is to have an exposed machine out there that I could use for work to surf all those bad Mac sites and to have it catch all the bad stuff that a normal Mac user would face. Most recently ZLOB and DNSchanger were seen in the wild having crossed over from the Microsoft Windows platform (sorry Mac zealots, your false sense of security is what we call "denial"). So creating a "MacPot" or "ApplePot" if you will.

To test performance, I installed a copy of The Sims for Mac. As you can see here the graphics work. In terms of speed and response its almost at par with the Macbook even though it had a newer processor. The reason? More RAM. My X40 has 1GB of it while Yna's Macbook as only about 512MB. That should be a clue for later projects involving speed, eh?