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My First Mac Post


teacher

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This is it. I am online. What a delightful start up. I was surprised to suddenly see myself on screen. I had forgotten it had a built in camera. I found it easy to get the initial stuff done. Since i had my ipod and my account set up already with Mac it transferred all the info in.Now I am sitting here with the basic Mac doing my updates. I must ask though. There has been some talk in the past few weeks about Mac viruses and such. I know that like Linux, the Mac is much more secure out of the box. However, what would you recommend as added assurance? Any work better than the others?

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Most Mac users will tell you not to bother with any anti virus programs. When I got my first Mac, I added Norton's Internet Security for Mac. I uninstalled it a short while later. I've since added ClamXav. I run it once every month or two. It never finds anything. I'm not even aware of any Mac anti spyware programs. One program I do like is Little Snitch. It alerts you to any unauthorzed outbound connections. For example, when I start up my ftp program, it alerts me that it's trying to phone home. Granted, it's doing this to check for program updates, but I still like knowing that it's going on. These two, ClamAVX and Little Snitch, are the only security related programs I'm running. I do, of course, have the OS X firewall turned on. Being behind a router, I don't think the firewall ever does anything, but it doesn't hurt to have it on. Have fun! :whistling:

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Thanks. Email is setup. One step at a time. I'm getting there. :whistling: It sure is hot on my lap compared to my Gateway.

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Because you have the Intel wireless controller it is vulnerable to the same security flaw found on the Windows side (updates released the other day). A couple of hackers at this week's Black Hat conference in NYC said they can take control of a MacBook Pro in 60 seconds over a wifi connection.

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I remember reading about the MacBooks having heat issues, but not the MacBook Pros. Then again, my PowerBook sometimes gets too hot to keep on my lap if I'm wearing shorts.

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In comparison to my tablet it is hot. However, I don't need hotpads on my lap in order to use it. :DPeachyThat is what I was thinking. I want to make sure this puppy is secure.

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Guest LilBambi

Yep ... much about this over at ZDNet report on the Black Hat conference:http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=256And it certainly isn't only the Mac:Protecting against vulnerabilities in wireless drivershttp://www.networkworld.com/columnists/200...rc=rss-security

One of the talks announced for the Black Hat conference this summer in Las Vegas is about 802.11 driver vulnerabilities, which can affect users even if they aren't connected to a network.All modern operating systems, such as Linux, BSD, Windows, and Mac OSX, have a similar fundamental security measure: the separation of kernel and user code. The kernel is the core of the operating system and controls processes, disk access, and hardware access. While programs are typically prevented from accessing the memory of other programs or directly controlling the hardware, the kernel has no such restrictions.
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I think that like most of the "Security Concerns" about the Mac, I would take this one with a grain of salt. I read this yesterday http://www.macobserver.com/article/2006/08/03.4.shtml and they think it's along the lines of the virus scares. If you take reasonable care and think about what you are doing before blindly rushing into it, most of these things seem pretty harmless. But that just my opinion :hysterical: BTW, I run clamXav whenever I remember to and have it scanning my downloads folder and desktop and emails continuously but it has never found anything real, just notes that a couple of files are suspiciously large.

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My intentions are to be smart and not assume i am safe because i am on a Mac. I do not leave my laptops running when not in use and I do not scan for wireless. I just use my home wireless which will be reconfigured to WEP in two weeks when the neighbors leave for the summer. Until then, they are sharing my connection. We had a Mac party last night with three Macs in a row lined up on the counter in the kitchen while the tuna was on the grill.Thanks for the links everyone. It made for some good reading/watching this monring. It sounds like all computers need to work on this - not just Macs. What about Mac firewalls?

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What about Mac firewalls?
Just turn on the Mac firewall and use Little Snitch (see my post above) to monitor outbound traffic. That should take care of everything!
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As pointed out by roger2002, it is kinda odd that they didn't do this exploit against the AirPort interface. Also, the fact that because you can't be connected to two wireless networks at the same time from one wireless interface means this would be a very hard exploit to use.

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I have Little Snitch turned on. I guess the next step is to find the Mac firewall. :)
The firewall should be on by default. Assuming it's in the same place on your MacBook Pro that it is on my PowerBook, you'll find it under System Preferences > Internet & Network > Sharing.
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Today's big learning process was how to connect a wireless router for a printer. I have a Motorola Print Server WPS870G. It said that it works with XP, Linux and Mac. I never quite go tit owrking in Linux. I guess I did not try very hard. Today I battled with outdated instructions. Everything referred to appletalk which did not have anything to do with it in 10.X so I was a bit confused. I went in and assigned an ip numer to my wireless router. Then I finally ignored the insructions and on a whim set it as a lpn - line printer. Very strange setting for a color laser printer. B) Anyway. It printed the cover for the router manual pdf beautifully. It looks like I am in business on that one. B) Where's that happy dance emoticon? :)

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How 'bout Balki and cousin Larry doing the dance of joy?dance_of_joy.gif
Perfect! Absolutely perfect. I just had 24 hours away from my computer so I have not done any exploring today - just cleaning my classroom. :w00t: On to more exploring. :thumbsup:
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Printing issue solved. The next thing was how to save a podcast to an .ogg or mp3 format. Is there a program that works well with this? I saved a podcast and converted it fromn the .band format to wp4a. I have not figured out how to get it to .ogg or .mp3. Anyone have any clues? I was able to reduce 10 minutes in size to 2.4MB but I really want one of the other two formats. Hints, clues?

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Been there. That gives me a color wheel that spins but nothing works! I guess I am going to have to find a different program.

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I went and redownloaded Audacity and it worked this time. B) One more thing that is working great. I did not realize there was so much open source software for Mac nor that there were so many programs that came with a Mac. It is more like Linux than Windows in as far as software included - it really does come with quite a bit.

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I did not realize there was so much open source software for Mac nor that there were so many programs that came with a Mac.
That's one of the common misconceptions regarding Macs, no software. I think I'm a pretty typical computer user, and I've been able to find a Mac program for everything I've wanted to do. Some, I've had to buy, while others have been open source / freeware. Just wait until you want to remove a program from your Mac. Unlike Windows, there's no Add / Remove program routine to go through that invariably asks if you want to delete some obscure file that "might" be needed by some other program. Want to delete a program? Simply drag its icon from your Applications folder to the trash. Gone! There might be a prefs file in Library > Preferences that you can also drag to the trash. That's it. All traces of the program are gone. Some programs have an uninstall routine, but it's pretty rare. For example, if you don't like Safari (Apple's browser), drag the icon to the trash to remove it. Try that with Internet Explorer on your XP system.If you're curious what might be coming from Apple, watch Steve Jobs' keynote address from WWDC 06. You can watch it here. It's just over an hour 20 minutes long, but well worth the time.
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Thanks. I will have to take a look at that. I hav e been reading bits and pieces here and there. Right now I am busy learning..... Amazing. Today I learned a bit about different boot options and what to do if it does not boot right (after trying a Linux distro). I had to figure out to hold down the option key with the power key to get it back to booting from the hard drive. B)

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I'll do some searching. My nephew, who lived in Alburqurque and just moved to Oregon has an Apple notebook. He is a struggling artist (as in very little money) so when I find things to help him, I send emails. A few months back, I sent him cheap ISPs that were posted as reliable on Freedomlist (why spend $15/month when you can find an ISP fo $5/month or $8/month that is reliable?). I didn't know how to set up a DUN on an Apple but I researched and sent him step by step directions so he didn't have to download software to connect. Now I'll look for some good free items to add to his notebook and email him some more links.

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