Categories
Apple

OS X – Do you really need to be admin ?

As a smug mac user, the one security point I often make to Windows users, is that I am not using a root level account by default, so unlike windows any malware on the mac (if there was any of course) could do only limited damage.

adminWhile my point is strcitly true, as this Mac Geekery blog post notes you are by default in OS X running an Admin account, which while not as scary as root, still offers more system level control than is really needed on a day to day basis.

The moral of this story is to change your user account to a standard account now, it’s very easy to do, as explained by Mac Geekery, taking just two minutes, and you will be that bit more secure..

Categories
Apple

Nice iPod Steve, but where is the content?

IPodSo the new iPod sports a 80Gb Hard disk, enough to store many hours of Hollywood Movies, TV shows, and of course your videos and music all purchased from the iTunes music store.. except if you happen to live outside North America.

The rest of the world is still waiting for Apple and the content owners to get together and work out how to license their content to geographies outside the USA, I don’t completely blame Apple for this – I know from personal experience the complexities of licensing content – and how slow traditional owners of content are at releasing the value in their vaults.

So the rest of the world will wait until next year for movie downloads, I don’t understand why Apple has not managed a deal with the BBC yet, I really can’t wait for the Monty Python Fish slapping dance.. but in the meantime, Mr Jobs.. I’m sorry no new iPod for me until I can get the content.

Can’t help but think there are lessons here for the GI industry…

Written and submitted from Starbucks, Upper Street , London, using the t-mobile wifi network.

Categories
Apple GPS

GPS management on the Mac

RouteBuddy

For a long time the Mac has been the poor relation of the Windows PC in terms of GPS managment software, the type of software that allows users to create and downlaod waypoints, display base mapping and user defined routes. RouteBuddy is a universal binary application that now fills this gap supporting Garmin and most other consumer GPS recievers which use the NMEA standard. It also works with bluetooth and allows Tele Atlas mapping to be downloaded.

Now if only we could convince ESRI or MapInfo to get back into the Mac software market.. but then again maybe we are all waiting on the expected windows virtualisation solution in OS X v10.5 Leopard ?

Written and submitted from home, using my home 802.11 network.