TidBITS#826/17-Apr-06
=====================
We follow up last week's articles about Boot Camp and
virtualization with a collection of hard-won tips that will
help you experiment with Windows XP safely and efficiently.
Also this week, Matt Neuburg reviews the NovaMind mind-mapping
application, and Adam extracts useful lessons from a week of
hardware troubles. In the news, Apple released Aperture 1.1
and Apple Remote Desktop 3, and since TidBITS marks its 16th
anniversary this week, we're taking off for vacation. Look for
our next issue 01-May-06!
Topics:
MailBITS/17-Apr-06
Draw What's On Your Mind With NovaMind
A Bad Week for Hardware
Windows Tips and Tricks for Mac Users
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/17-Apr-06
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-826.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2006/TidBITS#826_17-Apr-06.etx>
Copyright 2006 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license
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MailBITS/17-Apr-06
------------------
**TidBITS 16th Anniversary Vacation** -- This week marks the 16th
anniversary of TidBITS, which we're celebrating with a West Coast
vacation that will also feature a dinner with the Seattle-based
members of the staff, along with a visit to our Xserve at
digital.forest to install Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Server. We can't
guarantee we'll have (or want to use!) Internet access for much
of the trip, so don't expect quick responses to email while
we're away. Nevertheless, we're packing a slew of technology
so hopefully I'll have plenty to write about once we're back.
With all that, we're taking next week off, so look for our next
issue on 01-May-06! [ACE]
**Aperture 1.1 Gains Intel Support, Improvements** -- Apple has
released Aperture 1.1, an update that enables the photo editing
and workflow tool to run on Intel-based Macs, fixes bugs, and
boosts performance. The new version improves its controls for
handling RAW-formatted images, and adds a Color Meter tool and
the capability to specify pixel resolution when exporting or
sending images to Photoshop. With this update, Apple also dropped
the price of Aperture from $500 to $300 in its continued vigorous
effort to attract professional photographers who are now tempted
by Adobe's Lightroom beta and the long-standing features found
in Photoshop. People who bought Aperture 1.0 before 13-Apr-06
can download a coupon worth $200; licensed users of Aperture 1.0
Academic can receive a $100 coupon. The Aperture 1.1 Update is
a 32 MB update via Software Update or as a stand-alone download.
[JLC]
<http://www.apple.com/aperture/>
<http://labs.macromedia.com/technologies/lightroom/>
<http://www.apple.com/promo/aperture/>
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/aperture11update.html>
**Apple Remote Desktop 3 Released** -- Apple released Apple Remote
Desktop 3 last week, the third major release of the company's
remote control and management software. With Apple Remote Desktop
3, Apple focused on adding features that take advantage of new
capabilities in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, including Dashboard,
Automator, and Spotlight.
A new Dashboard widget provides an observation view of remote
screens; over 30 Automator actions are available for automating
repetitive system administration tasks; and you can use Spotlight
to search across multiple client Macs running Tiger. Other new
features include much-requested items that help Apple Remote
Desktop compete better with Netopia's Timbuktu Pro remote control
software, including drag and drop of files and folders between
local and remote computers, copy and paste between local and
remote computers, significantly faster file copying, and AES
128-bit encryption for secure communication. In terms of desktop
management, Apple Remote Desktop 3 now offers system status
indicators that display the overall health of remote systems,
AutoInstall for staging software for installation on mobile
systems, Curtain Mode for hiding the actions of the remote
controller, a persistent Task History and Task Templates to save
and replicate frequently performed tasks, Application Usage and
User History reports to monitor software compliance policies,
and Smart Computer Lists for dynamically managing sets of systems
based on specified criteria. Unfortunately still missing is the
capability to change the ports the program uses; this feature
would make it easier to use Apple Remote Desktop to connect
to multiple computers behind a NAT gateway using port mapping.
Apple Remote Desktop 3 costs $300 for managing up to 10 systems
and $500 for an unlimited client license; educational prices are
$150 and $300 for the two licenses (there is no special upgrade
pricing). Apple says the program "is intended to run on" (although
the press release doesn't say "requires") any Mac running Mac OS X
10.3.9 or later; that implies to me that it may work on earlier
versions, but that Apple hasn't tested such systems. It's a
universal binary for those using Intel-based Macs. [ACE]
<http://www.apple.com/remotedesktop/>
Draw What's On Your Mind With NovaMind
--------------------------------------
by Matt Neuburg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
NovaMind, the flagship mind-mapping program of the Australia-based
NovaMind Software Pty Ltd., has recently attained a new maturity
with the release of its version 3. This is extraordinarily
impressive software, proving once again that you don't have to
be a large company - in fact, it's probably better not to be -
in order to produce an application that's original, interesting,
useful, and attractive.
<http://www.nova-mind.com/News/>
A mind map is a drawing, connecting words and images that radiate
ultimately from a single central idea. As someone who has been
viewing and drawing mind maps all his life (since they are, in
essence, just the kind of thing any decent teacher is constantly
developing on the blackboard while talking), I was surprised to
discover that someone thinks he has invented them and has even
made the term "mind map" a registered trademark, and has made
selling them, as a technique for remembering, learning, planning,
and presentation, the basis of a big business.
<http://www.buzanworld.com/>
<http://www.buzanworld.com/images/thumbnail_mind_map_3_large.jpg>
Now, as TidBITS readers already know, my tool of choice for
arranging ideas is the outliner, with variations; and a mind
map seems to me, at first blush, merely a variation on an
outliner - and a poor one at that, distracting the eye with
colors and pictures and squiggles, and crowding the hierarchy
into the clutter of a single canvas. But despite my personal
reservations over the mind map hype, I do also understand that
some people simply swear by them; for those to whose mental makeup
a traditional outliner, with its rigid hierarchy and primarily
verbal logic, feels cold and restrictive, a mind map's warm
visual and associative appeal can open those same mental doors
of organization using, as it were, a different key.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07847>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07157>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=06959>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=02381>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=02542>
So perhaps mind maps are not, for personal use, my natural cup of
tea (though, as I say, I've often covered blackboards with them
while tying ideas together for my students); but in that case,
the fact that I'm so struck by NovaMind - the fact, indeed, that
NovaMind makes me reconsider my prejudices - testifies all the
more strongly as to how stimulating this software is.
**Drawing On Both Sides of the Brain** -- NovaMind, then, is a
drawing program, specialized for mind maps in much the same way
as OmniGraffle is specialized for diagrams. To some extent, the
comparison is an apt one: with NovaMind, you are placing objects
into the drawing which then stay connected to other objects no
matter where you move them, just as in an OmniGraffle diagram.
NovaMind's interface makes heavy use of floating inspector windows
for seeing and setting the characteristics of a selected object
in much the same way as OmniGraffle - which is no coincidence,
as NovaMind uses the same inspector window code as OmniGraffle
(the wonderful Omni Frameworks).
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08420>
<http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/>
<http://www.omnigroup.com/developer/sourcecode/>
Every object, consisting effectively of some text (which,
according to the "laws" of mind-mapping, should be kept short),
is created as either the child or the sibling of some other
object - except, of course, for the original central object,
which is always "just there" and can have only children.
NovaMind provides automatic assistance with object placement
and rearrangement, if you like, so you can brainstorm rapidly
without attending to how things look. When you do attend to
this, though, you get lots of interesting ways to add interest,
variation, and expressiveness to an object.
The text can sit on a line, which can be straight or wavy,
or inside a rectangle or ellipse. The text, and whatever
it sits on or inside, can have color and a shadow, and can
incorporate a picture, which you can import from just about
anywhere (and NovaMind comes with a big collection of graphics).
Lines (including connecting lines) can have different thicknesses
and dot patterns. An object or connected group of objects can be
surrounded with an automatic shape, for emphasis and isolation.
An object can display an "adornment" (a little icon that might
signify the object's type). An object can have any number of
free-floating graphics and text boxes attached to it; they need
show no visible connection to the object, but when you move
the object, they move with it. And you can even draw a link
line between any two objects, including attached graphics,
perhaps to show a connection of ideas that cuts across the
hierarchy.
<http://www.nova-mind.com/Gallery/business.html>
Then there is a whole boatload of features letting you can use
your mind map in interesting ways. An object can have a checkbox,
a start/end date, a priority, and even a little pie chart showing
the percentage accomplished. Also, an object can be assigned any
number of "resources," which are entities global to the mind map.
Thus, a mind map can be a to-do list or a rudimentary project
manager (and you can export from NovaMind to Merlin, a dedicated
project manager). Objects can acquire automatic numbering, as in
an outline. An object can have longer text attached to it, in a
separate window, making NovaMind a writer's tool; there is even
a specialized version of this feature, designed for screenwriters.
Sections of the map can be hidden or shown. An object can have a
hyperlink, which can be to a URL, a file on disk, or to a specific
object in another mind map.
<http://www.projectwizards.net/en/merlin/overview>
<http://www.nova-mind.com/Merlin>
**Getting Out of It and Getting Into It** -- NovaMind can export
to a great variety of formats. Besides the obvious graphic
formats, and plain or styled text, you can export to OPML,
to Keynote and PowerPoint, to Mind Manager (a Windows-based
competitor, though there is now also a Windows version of NovaMind
itself), and to HTML (Web pages) using an image map, a JavaScript-
based navigation outline frame, or Java. Personally, though,
I didn't find any of these export modes compelling. They may
be helpful for presentations based on a NovaMind document, but
NovaMind would not be a good venue for creating a dedicated
Keynote presentation, and you probably are not going to use
NovaMind to generate complex custom informative Web sites as
you would use, say, Tinderbox. Also, many exports I tried lost
some information of one sort or another.
When I asked about complete export to pure XML, I was amazed to
learn that a NovaMind document is in fact XML - but neither a text
editor nor NovaMind itself will give you direct access to this
XML! That's because the XML is "tarred and gzipped" (those are
Unix terms of art); so, you can access the XML from the command
line, but only if you know the secret. Since, from the XML,
you can effectively create your own export transforms, it would
be nice if revealing the underlying XML were a feature of the
program.
The documentation is generated with Help & Manual, a tool that
makes both PDFs and JavaScript-based, easily navigable, searchable
Web pages; so the form is quite good. But the content leaves
much to be desired: it's rather tedious, full of careless errors,
and in an odd order. I learned much more from some old tutorials
and some new movies at the NovaMind Web site, and I soon realized
that (contrary to the impression given by the manual) NovaMind is,
at bottom, very easy to learn and to use, especially if you just
draft your map's content first, and tweak and decorate its
appearance later.
<http://www.helpandmanual.com/hmpage.htm>
<http://www.nova-mind.com/Tutorials/>
**A List of Laments** -- In some areas, NovaMind fails to conform
to prior art. I'm not suggesting that all drawing programs
should be rigidly alike, but some conventions are second nature,
and some drawing programs set examples that others should follow.
For instance, Shift-dragging a rectangle's corner should (but
doesn't in NovaMind) mean "preserve the rectangle's proportions
while resizing" (in fact, I could find no way to do this). And
Option-dragging an object should (but doesn't) copy it; instead,
it's the signal to detach the object from its parent and attach
it to a different parent. There's a default shape and style for
newly created objects, but if you manually change one object
to a different shape, that different shape becomes the default,
which seems to me contrary to what a default is. Also, I was
surprised to find there are no "styles" in the OmniGraffle
sense; you cannot even copy the color of one object, say,
to another object. So it's rather hard to achieve uniformity
of characteristics between objects.
Among other surprising shortcomings: an object can have only
one hyperlink, and it emanates from the object itself, not from
particular text within it; connections between objects cannot have
text labels; objects cannot be rotated; NovaMind isn't scriptable.
Some of these are slated for fixing in some future update. I hope
the developers will take a look at OmniGraffle and Intaglio and
consider bringing NovaMind closer to that level of drawing
prowess.
Some behaviors seemed to me to be downright bugs. For example,
suppose you have an object that incorporates a graphic image.
There are three settings for the arrangement of the image and
the object text: the text can be above the image, below it,
or centered in it. If the text was originally below the image
and you change the setting so that it's centered, the image
is distorted (it stretches), and there is no way to say,
"Hey, restore this image to its original proportions."
**Conclusions** -- My quibbles notwithstanding, NovaMind is a fine
program and a remarkable piece of work - and a boon to those who
already love mind mapping or think they might love it. To try
it out, download the demo (a 20.9 MB download; it watermarks
your output as "Unlicensed," and after 30 days it stops saving).
NovaMind is $100 ($20 more for the Screenwriters edition), with
a 30 percent educational discount. It requires Mac OS X 10.3.9
or later (Tiger is recommended), and is a universal binary.
Extra graphics libraries, and a "branch proposal system" that
recommends words related to the one you start with, are free
additional downloads.
<http://www.nova-mind.com/Downloads/>
A Bad Week for Hardware
-----------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
By the time you read this, Tonya and Tristan and I will be
on a well-deserved vacation trip to see family and friends
in California, Oregon, and Washington (so we won't be reading
much email for the next week). Aside from our usual work and the
extra tasks that always seem necessary when preparing to leave
on vacation, I've been suffering some hardware failures of late
that have hurt my productivity (and to an extent, my pride -
I'm not supposed to have these problems, I'm a Mac user!).
**Monitor Death** -- It all started when my left-hand Apple
17-inch Studio Display flickered briefly and went dead. It had
gone black once about a week before unexpectedly, but it came
right back that time. This time it was just dead, and my Power Mac
promptly rearranged all the windows to account for the fact that
it saw only one monitor. For those of you who use two monitors
for increased productivity (and if you don't, you should), having
one monitor is better than none, but only slightly. I dove into
troubleshooting mode, verifying that the problem was not the
DVI-to-ADC adapter, nor the video card, nor the Mac itself.
The monitor was just dead. (Lesson 1: It's always worth checking
all the connected components in a system to see exactly where
the problem lies.)
Luckily, we have a 23-inch LCD television that has a VGA port,
so I was able to bring it up as a second display fairly quickly
with an additional video card we had lying around, but it was
so much brighter than my remaining Studio Display and so fuzzy
in text display that it wasn't at all comfortable to use.
Nevertheless, it was better than dropping down to a single
monitor, so I suffered through using it while I arranged for
a replacement. (Lesson 2: Backups are good, but it's also good
to have a line on backup hardware as well. That's one reason
I make sure to have a fairly capable PowerBook, just in case
my desktop Mac dies.)
Dell makes excellent monitors that are far cheaper than Apple's
equally excellent monitors, so I first looked into buying a new
matched pair of Dell 20-inch displays. Unfortunately, the way the
low prices at Dell work, you must wait until a sale rolls around,
and there weren't any happening at the time. I could have spent
about $550 per monitor right then, but when I could see from old
sales that the price might drop to about $400, it was galling to
pay that much more. Plus, Dell claimed the monitors wouldn't ship
for 5 to 7 days, which was a long time to be staring at that TV.
I looked on eBay, where the prices for new Dell monitors were more
in line with the sale prices, but a friend warned that making sure
any such monitor had an original Dell warranty was key, since he'd
had to send Dell monitors back for warranty service.
I was waffling about what to do when a friend who had heard about
my predicament told me that he had a monitor identical to my dead
one sitting unused because it hadn't worked with his Developer
Transition Kit, and he was happy to sell it to me for a reasonable
price. That proved to be the best option, and I didn't have the
stress of working with an unknown quantity on eBay. (Lesson 3:
In such situations, it's often worth asking around if anyone
you know has older hardware they are not using and would be
happy to sell. Lesson 4: Replacing dead hardware with a device
of equivalent age can help you avoid spending a lot on new
hardware.)
When all was said and done, I was right back where I'd started,
but with a newfound appreciation for my double-monitor setup.
I've also started tracking the Dell sales via dealnews; at some
point - perhaps when I get a new Mac - I'll spring for a pair of
new monitors and keep the old ones for backups.
<http://dealnews.com/>
**Pining for 10.4.5** -- Apple has a habit of releasing updates
on Monday afternoon, which drives us absolutely batty, since
we've usually finished compiling our issue for the week and
must scramble to cover the release. The most recent was Mac OS X
10.4.6, which appeared two weeks ago. Strangely, although other
staff members were able to see it in Software Update, my copy
wouldn't pick it up, which is unusual. Little did I realize that
this was in fact a good thing. So, we all collaborated on the
write-up using the release notes and the experiences of those who
had been able to install it. (Lesson 5: Apple clearly schedules
updates just to mess with our heads.)
The next day, though, my copy of Software Update announced that
I could install 10.4.6, so I did, remembering that Apple promised
an odd double-boot sequence after installation. After the first
reboot, though, I got a kernel panic screen (a gray screen with
a black box telling me to restart my Mac in four languages) but
with the spinning startup gear rotating underneath it. I thought
this was strange, but let it go, and indeed, the second restart
happened automatically. Unfortunately, when the Mac came back up,
it didn't think my Ethernet network was connected to my PCI
Ethernet card, so I rebooted again. This time I got the kernel
panic screen again, but then the Mac just shut off. Turning it on
again resulted in the kernel panic screen with the spinning gear,
and it booted normally after that. Ethernet worked, and I breathed
a sigh of relief. Then I realized that Menu Meters (which I quite
like; it's open source software from Raging Menace) wasn't showing
any activity on one of the two CPUs in my dual 1 GHz Power Mac G4.
Activity Monitor confirmed the problem, but everything else seemed
to work normally. Every subsequent reboot either displayed the
kernel panic screen and then booted (presumably one CPU was having
a panic attack while the other remained calm) or shut off entirely
after the kernel panic screen appeared. (Lesson 6: Although I
didn't have to revert to my backup of the previous night, making
a backup before installing an update to Mac OS X is a smart thing
to do.)
<http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/>
Once again, I launched into troubleshooting mode, trying Safe Boot
(boot with the Shift key down), removing the now unused video card
and my PCI Ethernet card, booting from and testing with Micromat's
TechTool Protege FireWire RAM drive, and booting from my PowerBook
in FireWire Target Disk Mode (it was still running 10.4.5).
Booting from both the Protege and my PowerBook worked perfectly,
with no kernel panics, whereas Safe Boot and removing the PCI
cards made no difference. To my mind, that meant that 10.4.6 was
indeed the culprit, and not merely an innocent bystander that
I'd installed at just the wrong time.
<http://www.micromat.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&;
Itemid=49>
I reported the bug to Apple, but since it didn't produce any
panic.log files, there wasn't much else to do but revert to
Mac OS X 10.4.5 by performing an Archive & Install using my
original Tiger DVD and then installing the combo update for
10.4.5. Of course, this all took two days, since I'd just lent
my Family Pack Tiger DVD to my father so he could install Tiger
in order to get multiple-person video iChat working. And, although
Archive & Install is tremendously useful and easy to use, there
are always a number of programs, like USB Overdrive, the driver
for Seiko's Smart Label Printer 430, Subversion, and StuffIt
Deluxe, that break and must be reinstalled or that need to be
re-registered, like Snapz Pro X. (Lesson 7: Never assume that
a clean install will be quick.)
Just as with the monitor debacle, at the end of this process,
I'd spent a number of hours troubleshooting the problem and
recovering from it, all to end up exactly where I was when I
started, though at least I didn't have to pay for the privilege
this time. (Lesson 8: At least when you're a writer, you can get
an article out of such situations!)
**The Writing on the Wall** -- Two thoughts occurred to me
throughout this entire process. First, and most notably, I feel
bad for people who have problems but lack my level of experience,
extra hardware, and connections. This sequence of events could
easily have turned someone off the Mac for good if they didn't
have the perspective that PCs suffer from similar, if not far
worse, troubles. And even if they remained a fan of the Mac,
I can only imagine how much effort or money someone else would
have had to throw at the problem. It's no wonder consultants
remain in business.
Second, you can see why people with troublesome older computers
often just toss them and buy something new. Perhaps this is more
common in the spyware-ridden Windows world, again, but it wouldn't
take much for someone to interpret these events (a monitor dying,
a computer acting truly weirdly) as an indication that it was time
for a new computer. Heck, I'll admit that the thought even crossed
my mind, and if Apple's Intel-based replacements for the Power Mac
had been available, my Power Mac might have found itself relegated
to server duty.
Windows Tips and Tricks for Mac Users
-------------------------------------
by Kevin van Haaren <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
It has been possible to run Windows in virtual machines on Macs
for many years. However, with the recent switch to Intel chips
and the beta releases of Apple's Boot Camp and Parallels
Workstation for Mac OS X, interest among Mac users in running
Windows has expanded significantly. This article is intended
to help new - and perhaps even long-time - users of Windows with
a few tips I've learned over the years of suffering at the help
desk of a Windows-using corporation.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08494>
<http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08495>
<http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/>
**Licensing and Activation** -- If you own an old Windows PC and
hope you can move that computer's Windows license to your shiny
new Boot Camp-enabled Macintosh, or even a virtual machine,
you may be out of luck.
OEM (original equipment manufacturer) versions of Windows XP,
such as those that came with a system, have different end-user
licensing agreements (EULAs) than the retail versions of XP.
Many of these EULAs do not allow transfer to a different system.
To complicate matters, Windows XP has a mandatory activation
process where the installation must be "approved" by Microsoft
within 30 days of installation. If you install an OEM version
of Windows XP on a Macintosh, the activation may not work.
<http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2005/10/11/030/82390>
Retail versions of Windows XP do allow transfers to new
systems, although you will still need to run through the
mandatory activation and may need to spend some time on the
phone with Microsoft explaining what you are doing. You can
view the EULAs for Microsoft's products at the Web site below.
<http://www.microsoft.com/legal/useterms/>
**Installation** -- I have only three tips for installing Windows
XP, and Mac users who are not used to the evils of the Windows
world should pay particular attention to them.
* Do not connect your computer to the network until you
have Service Pack 2 installed.
* Use a strong password.
* Install remaining patches once connected to the network.
For a Boot Camp installation, leave your network cable
disconnected. For a virtual machine installation, you should be
able to disable the virtual network card manually in the machine
settings (Virtual PC does this, I'm not sure about other products
such as Parallels Workstation). If in doubt, disconnect the
network cable from your computer.
Windows XP is notorious for being infected immediately after a new
installation, before the user has time to install system patches.
Windows XP Service Pack 1 installations have been reported
compromised in as little as 4 minutes after being placed on
a standard DSL connection.
<http://www.avantgarde.com/xxxxttln.pdf>
If your Windows XP installation CD does not include Service
Pack 2, use your Mac to download the standalone Service Pack 2
installer (a 266 MB download). You can use this to install SP2
prior to connecting to the network. If you use a slow dial-up
connection, Microsoft will mail you a CD for free.
<http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=
049c9dbe-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&DisplayLang=en>
<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/>
Once you have installed Service Pack 2, be sure to visit
Microsoft's Windows Update to download the patches released
after Service Pack 2. You may have to reboot and reconnect to
Windows Update several times to ensure you have all the patches.
Windows Update requires Internet Explorer.
<http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/>
If you will be doing numerous Windows XP installations, to many
machines or just repeated installs on your own, you may wish to
build a custom install CD with patches already included on it.
The nLiteOS and Bart's PE Builder are popular tools for building
specialized Windows XP boot CDs.
<http://www.nliteos.com/>
<http://www.nu2.nu/bootablecd/>
**Additional Security** - Always leave a firewall turned on,
whether that's the built-in Windows one or third party software.
This is a good idea even if you're computer is behind a hardware
NAT firewall. The Windows firewall acts more like Little Snitch on
the Mac, informing you of each program that attempts to access the
network. This is good for finding spyware that was installed with
a downloaded application. Two popular third party firewalls are
Zone Alarm and Kerio Personal Firewall. Both offer feature limited
free versions as well as paid versions with more features.
<http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm>
<http://www.zonelabs.com/>
Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool should have been
installed as part of the Windows Update during installation.
This tool is not a replacement for a full-featured anti-virus
package, but it can be helpful in removing hard-to-purge malware.
It is updated once a month.
<http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/>
**Anti-Virus** -- Speaking of viruses, you definitely want
to install an anti-virus package. With the thousands of
Windows viruses in existence, anti-virus software is a mandatory
requirement for all Windows XP installations. I am not personally
fond of the packages produced by big name vendors such as Symantec
and McAfee; however, if you work for a corporation that licenses
one of these products, home use versions are frequently available
for little or no cost. I prefer Grisoft's AVG product; home users
can get it for free.
<http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/global/>
<http://www.mcafee.com/>
<http://www.grisoft.com/>
<http://free.grisoft.com/>
**Spyware Removal** -- Be sure to install spyware detection and
removal software. Most anti-virus products and firewalls do not
block spyware installations. Some spyware is maliciously installed
via deceiving Web pages, but quite a bit comes bundled with free
applications. Unlike the Mac world where most free applications
are just that, in the Windows world free programs are frequently
ad-supported software: they download ads from the Internet and
display them to you. There is nothing wrong with this business
model (Eudora has offered an ad sponsored version for a long time
and never been accused of being spyware), but unfortunately some
adware vendors install ad software that:
* Is not removed when its host software is uninstalled
* Hijacks your Web browser
* Can cause crashes due to bugs
* Displays ads all the time
* Tracks the Internet sites you visit
This type of abusive software can be difficult to remove.
Two popular tools for removing spyware are LavaSoft's Ad-Aware
and Safer Networking's Spybot Search & Destroy. The Personal
edition of Ad-Aware is free of charge to home users. Spybot
Search & Destroy is free for all. You may wish to install both
products and keep them updated. Frequently one application will
catch something the other won't.
<http://www.lavasoft.de/>
<http://www.safer-networking.org/>
Also, be wary of other malware removal tools. Some are actually
spyware installers rather than uninstallers.
<http://blogs.zdnet.com/Spyware/?p=802>
<http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm>
**Alternate Web Browsers** -- Internet Explorer is one of
the biggest security holes in Windows XP. I highly recommend
installing an alternate browser. Firefox is probably the
most popular Windows browser after Internet Explorer. Opera,
a popular browser on the Mac, is also available on Windows.
<http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/>
<http://www.opera.com/>
**Other Utilities** -- So far, most of my suggestions have been
about protecting and securing your new Windows installation.
What follows are utilities I've found useful in actually
accomplishing tasks in Windows. Although a ton of free utilities
are available for Windows, many of them can be completely useless,
or worse, buggy or infected with spyware. Finding software you
trust can be tricky. Be sure to dig around for suggestions from
other Windows users.
* Working with Zip Files: Like Mac OS X, Windows XP includes
built-in functionality for working with Zip files. However,
if you need extended features like disk spanning you might want
to look at some of the other Zip programs available. StuffIt is
also available for Windows and can expand StuffIt archives created
on the Mac (resource forks are skipped, but if the file is usable
on Windows, like Word documents, the resource forks are probably
unnecessary anyway).
<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306531>
<http://www.winzip.com/>
<http://zipcentral.iscool.net/>
<http://www.stuffit.com/>
* Media Players: Windows XP comes with Windows Media Player by
default. QuickTime is also available, but unfortunately Apple
decided to make the default installation of QuickTime include
iTunes. If you already use iTunes on your Mac, you may not want
it running in Windows XP on the same Mac. If you dig around you
can find a QuickTime-only installer from Apple.
<http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html>
Other popular media players include Nullsoft's WinAmp for audio
files and VideoLAN's VLC for video media. Note that Windows XP
does not include a DVD player by default.
<http://www.winamp.com/>
<http://www.videolan.org/vlc/>
Google includes the Google Video Player in its Google Pack
software collection. The Google Video Player is required for
watching videos purchased from Google Video.
<http://pack.google.com/product_info.html?video>
* Working with Photos: Also included in the Google Pack collection
is Picasa, a free utility similar to iPhoto.
<http://picasa.google.com/>
* Working with PDF: Like the Mac, the free Acrobat Reader
is available for reading PDFs on Windows. However several
alternatives are available for both creating PDFs and reviewing
and editing PDFs. The University of Wisconsin has made several
PostScript and PDF handling utilities available under the GNU
Public License. These utilities can be used for viewing, printing,
and creating PostScript and PDF files. CutePDF offers a free
PDF Writer tool for creating PDFs.
<http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/>
<http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp>
**Brave New World** -- Thousands of Mac users are undoubtedly
experimenting with Windows XP via Boot Camp and Parallels
Workstation right now, but we all need to remember that Windows XP
isn't just Mac OS X with a different look and feel. In particular,
it's essential to maintain good security practices at all times,
something that's not second nature to many Mac users. I hope these
hard-won tips will ease your initial explorations into Windows XP,
and that you'll be able to make the most of the additional
flexibility of running Windows while being able to stick with
the familiar face of Mac OS X for everything else.
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/17-Apr-06
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The first link for each thread description points to the
traditional TidBITS Talk interface; the second link points to
the same discussion on our Web Crossing server, which provides
a different look and which may be faster.
**Comments on: WinOnMac Smackdown** -- Last week's article about
Boot Camp and Windows virtualization brings up questions of
separate hard disk partitions and hardware virtualization.
(6 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2966>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/797/>
**How to join two 802.11g access points?** Questions and answers
about extending the range of a wireless network. (5 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2967>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/798/>
**New to Mail.app** -- A reader moving his email from Eudora to
Apple's Mail application runs into problems, which might be solved
by rebuilding the errant mailbox's index. (2 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2968>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/799/>
$$
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