Discoveries

As we know main sync software on Mac OS X is ITunes. And you’re probably aware of the fact that smartphones based on Windows Mobile (like my Samsung) are not compatible with this sync method. Have no fear! There is great app called SyncMate which will solve all your problems (at least related to syncing). In basic (free) version it syncs calendar and contacts which is really enough for me, but if you’re willing to pay for expert edition you can sync literally everything. Just tested and it’s really working! Love it!

Microsoft developed tool which would help government agencies to retrieve data from computers of suspects. However the idea is good, I can’t stop thinking that it would be greatly abused:( More about Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) here. I believe more than to pursue really bad criminals it would be used to fight computer piracy.

I’ve been invited to test threadsy.com which is some kind of aggregation site which combines your mail, Facebook and Twitter (and more) accounts into one data stream. After some troubles with creating my account (it’s still in testing phase, so it can happen) I’ve added my Gmail, Twitter and Facebook accounts into it and begin to play. It’s pretty impressive. Everything is divided into two streams. One on the left called “inbound” consist every message which is posted directly to you. Left stream, called “unbound” is everything posted by your friends which is not addressed directly to you. You can post comments to Facebook posts directly from the stream, you can “like” them as well. You can post your post from it either and it’s possible to post both to FB and twitter simultaneously. It saves some time. But two things are pretty awesome:

TechCrunch published interesting article about Boston’s Route 128 and why it lost with Silicon Valley, more here. I haven’t heard about it before. If I had then I would definitively tried to see this when I was there. It’s maybe not so surprising as MIT is there, so it’s normal that many of these bright people would want to stay there, but still. Second Silicon Valley, well how would you know:)

As newbie Mac OS user I’ve faced problem “where the f**k are page up, page down, etc. keys?”. A little of exploration and here it is (MacBook Pro):
fn + arrow down = page down
fn + arrow up = page up
cmd + arrow down = end
cmd + arrow up = home
fn + backspace = delete (this is quite annoying that on PC I’ve had one button for that)

As I have new toy (MacBook), I need new software for it. As I’m a little paranoid about security (yeah, I know, there are no viruses on Mac) I’ve wanted to add some antivirus to my new system. I’ve worked with many such programs in the past, so I know that sometimes (or mostly) it happens that they’re slowing down computer. I’m new to Mac OS and very happy already about it performance, so I don’t want to ruin it. Obvious thing for me was to try some trial version, before I would buy it. As I’m using Norton on my desktop PC I’ve wanted to buy Symantec product also for Mac, I’ve didn’t noticed any trial version on their website, but didn’t gave up and called support. They’ve told me that indeed there is no trial, but I can buy it and return it if I’m not satisfied in 60 days. OK, it’s not bad I thought and was planning to buy it as soon as I would get back from work. When at home I’ve recalled that Kaspersky was about to release antivirus for Mac, so I’ve checked their site and yeah, there was trial. I’m using it right now and didn’t noticed any slowness (well, system is starting up and shutting down a little longer), so I would probably buy it after 30 days trial. Even though it’s 10$ more expensive than Norton.

Have you ever seen something like it?! Wow! I’m impressed, hope it would find it’s way through market.

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

Bruce Schneier is the person well known to everybody interested in IT security. Recently he published blog post about why two-factor authentication is not solving all security problems. For those who don’t know what this term means, two-factor authentication is basically system where first you’re giving your “constant” password (password which doesn’t change), then if you’ve provided correct password system is sending you another one which is generated for you just for this single use (this password can be generated also by some small device provided to you by system admin). When you’ll provide valid second password system would let you in. Mr. Schneier is writing that it’s not as safe as many people used to think, because it can be intercepted (for details read his post), so he suggest to use transaction based authentication, instead of session.

I’m using VMWare Workstation a lot to virtualize my testing environments. Along with many other OSs that I’m using there are Linux systems and one of the most useful functionality in Linux are (in my opinion) virtual terminals. Virtual terminal is like your another monitor, so when doing many things you can avoid mess by using few “desktops” instead of one. In Linux you’re creating and switching between terminals by pressing CTRL+ALT+F1-12. Problem with VMWare is that CTRL+ALT has special meaning there, so pressing mentioned combination does nothing. Instead you can use workaround, first press CTRL+ALT+SPACE, then release SPACE and press F1-12 button.

Awesome!