TidBITS#920/24-Mar-08
=====================
Issue link: <http://db.tidbits.com/issue/920>
The Mac platform is not magically immune to the threat of viruses
and other malware, but should you install antivirus software to stay
protected? Security expert Rich Mogull weighs in on when antivirus
tools are right for Mac users. In other news, Apple finally appears
to have enabled Time Machine backups to a hard drive connected to an
AirPort Extreme base station with the latest AirPort updates, and
Adam passes along information about the popularity of the iPhone in
countries that lack an official carrier. The staff has also been
busy in other venues: you can watch Adam's Hacking the Press talk
from the C4 conference; Glenn Fleishman chats in a podcast with Clay
Shirky, author of the book "Here Comes Everybody"; and Adam
speculates about the iPhone SDK on the MacNotables podcast. Also
this week, Michael Ash explains why software updates tend to be
multi-megabyte downloads, Adam explains his workflow for verifying
Web links in PDF files, we look at the new Safari 3.1 and Photoshop
Elements 6, and we release "Take Control of iWeb: iLife '08
Edition." Lastly, in the TidBITS Watchlist, we note updates to
Airfoil, Audio Hijack Pro, Nicecast, PDFpen, Dejal Narrator,
BeLight's Disc Cover, Toast 9 Titanium, 1Password, and Geophoto,
along with the release of Security Update 2008-002.
Articles
AirPort Update Extends Time Capsule, Adds AirDisk Support
Adobe Ships Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac OS X
iPhone the Hot Ticket Item in... Syria?
DealBITS Discount: Save 25% on IPNetMonitorX
Discussing the Importance of the iPhone SDK on MacNotables
Watch Adam's Hacking the Press Talk from C4
Safari 3.1 Enhances Performance and Web Standards Support
The Internet Organizes Itself: Here Comes Everybody
Why Do Simple Updates Require Big Downloads?
Verifying Web Links in PDF Files
Should Mac Users Run Antivirus Software?
Take Control News: Produce Professional-Looking Sites with iWeb
TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 24-Mar-08
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/24-Mar-08
------------ This issue of TidBITS sponsored in part by: --------------
* READERS LIKE YOU! Support TidBITS with a contribution today!
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/contributors.html>
Special thanks this week to Gene Reeves, Paul Johnson,
Rick Cricow, and Samuel S. Phillips for their generous support!
* Fetch Softworks: Fetch 5.3 has a new look for Leopard,
and new support for Leopard technologies. And you can
upload with the oldest technology of all, Copy and Paste!
Download your free trial version! <http://fetchsoftworks.com/>
* WebCrossing Neighbors Creates Private Social Networks
Create a complete social network with your company or group's
own look. Scalable, extensible and extremely customizable.
Take a guided tour today <http://www.webcrossing.com/tour>
* MARK/SPACE, INC: The Missing Sync provides the very best in
synchronization for Mac users with BlackBerry, Palm OS, or
Windows Mobile devices. Integrates with Address Book, iCal,
Entourage, iPhoto, and iTunes. <http://www.markspace.com/bits>
* VMware Fusion. The most seamless way to run Windows on your Mac.
Backed by nearly a decade of proven virtualization technology.
Try VMware Fusion today for free, or order online for only $79.
Visit: <http://www.tidbits.com/about/support/vmware-fusion.html>
* StuffIt Deluxe 12: breakthrough compression of MP3 files, PDFs,
iWork and MS Office files! Reduce JPEG file sizes with no loss in
quality, burn to CD/DVD, back up archives to iDisk and more. Buy
today for only $59.99! <http://www.stuffit.com/mac/deluxe/tb/>
* ConceptDraw Business Suite: Take control over your business
workflow with this powerful set of tools. Mind Mapping, Project
Management, Business Graphics - all easily created on your Mac!
Right now Special Price: $449! <http://www.conceptdraw.com/tb>
* DealBITS: Get the word out about your product AND generate sales!
It's easy: give away a few copies and offer a discount to entrants.
A DealBITS drawing is quick to set up and can easily pay for itself.
For more info and rates, visit <http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/>.
---------- Help support TidBITS by supporting our sponsors ------------
AirPort Update Extends Time Capsule, Adds AirDisk Support
---------------------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9517>
The 7.3.1 firmware update for Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme Base
Station network gateways, released last week, adds two significant
improvements, neither of them mentioned in Apple's release notes.
You can now archive the internal drive in a Time Capsule appliance -
copying its contents, including backup images of networked systems -
to an externally connected USB drive at full USB speeds, without
round-tripping the backup through a mounted AFP server. And,
apparently, USB-connected drives on an AirPort Extreme Base Station
are available for Time Machine backups in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/timecapsuleandairportbasestation80211nfirmware731.html>
The firmware update (labeled "Time Capsule and AirPort Base Station
(802.11n) Firmware 7.3.1") has no real release notes, and the same
is true for a matched update, Time Machine and AirPort Updates 1.0,
released earlier in the day. The former updates three models of base
station (Time Capsule and the two 802.11n models), while the latter
updates Leopard. The notes mention bug fixes, driver fixes, and
compatibility improvements without enumeration or description. One
security improvement that affects just the AirPort Extreme Base
Station with 802.11n (both models) is mentioned and detailed, having
to do with maliciously crafted AFP packets.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/timemachineandairportupdatesv10.html>
<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1226>
The Archive option, found in the Disks tab of AirPort Utility 5.3.1
(available for download for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Leopard, and
Windows XP/Vista) should ameliorate a primary flaw in the Time
Capsule conception: it has an internal drive that you could
previously copy only over the network via AFP, which can be slow.
This new option lets you archive the drive, copying its contents to
a drive you connect via USB. The internal drive - like all networked
Time Machine backup volumes - contains sparse disk images with the
Time Machine backups of networked Leopard volumes; it can also hold
other data, because Time Capsule shares the internal drive as an
ordinary volume over AFP. These sparse images can be mounted like
normal disk images, or used to restore systems via Time Machine,
move data with Migration Assistant, or set up a system with the
Leopard installation DVD.
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2008-03/tc_archive_small.jpg>
The other improvement is a little sketchier. Before Leopard shipped,
Apple listed a Time Machine feature that would let you back up
Leopard systems to a USB drive connected to an 802.11n AirPort
Extreme Base Station. When Leopard appeared, that feature was
missing; no explanation has ever been forthcoming from Apple as to
why (see "Time Capsule and Its Associated Rage Factor," 2008-01-17).
Networked backups using Time Machine work only with AFP volumes that
are shared by Leopard clients or Leopard Server. Time Capsule's
externally connected USB drives are also valid target volumes, which
added insult to injury.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9407>
Without any fanfare, Apple appears to have added AirPort Extreme
external drive backups in this firmware release. If you open the
Time Machine preference pane in System Preferences, you can click
Change Disk and see all networked AFP volumes and Time Capsule
volumes. If you first mount an AFP volume from an AirPort Extreme
gateway, that volume is now a valid selection for Time Machine; this
wasn't the case before this update.
It's unclear if this was intentional or an error. If intentional,
it's odd that you can't see the base station just as Time Capsule
shows up; if unintentional, it's an odd slip for a contentious issue
with base station buyers.
Adobe Ships Photoshop Elements 6 for Mac OS X
---------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9522>
A major overhaul of Photoshop Elements for Mac OS X shipped today,
Adobe Systems announced. Version 6 of the software reaches parity
with the same-numbered Windows version, released last year.
Photoshop Elements 6 offers an interface - almost identical across
Mac OS X and Windows versions - which is simpler than Photoshop's
and includes a number of useful new features for those who don't
want to master Photoshop.
<http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelmac/>
Photomerge is a fascinating feature that I wouldn't have believed
had I not seen fellow TidBITS editor Jeff Carlson working with it.
It allows you to take two or more similarly composed images and mark
the best parts of each. The software then creates a merged image
that appears seamless. Jeff used it to create a composite photo of
his nephew and niece who were too wiggly to sit still at the same
time. Photoshop Elements 6 also improves a magic brush option for
painting a selection by color, has better automated tools for
adjusting exposure, and has a batch adjustment option.
(Jeff, by the way, recently completed "Photoshop Elements 6 for
Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide." Since the Mac OS X and Windows
version are nearly identical in features and interface, have no
fears about buying this book to get up to speed on the new Mac
release. The most significant difference between the two platforms
is in organizing photos: The Windows version uses a separate mode
called the Organizer to manage and tag images; the Mac version uses
Bridge CS3 to handle those tasks. The next biggest difference? The
appearance of the document title bar!)
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321524632/?tag=tidbitselectro00>
Photoshop Elements 6 requires a Mac with a PowerPC G4 or G5 or Intel
multi-core processor - that leaves out one model of Mac mini? - and
Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later. It's available as a universal binary. It
costs $89.99 retail, or $69.99 when upgrading from any version of
Photoshop Elements (the last was version 4), Photoshop Album,
Photoshop LE, or Adobe PhotoDeluxe.
<http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelmac/upgrade/>
iPhone the Hot Ticket Item in... Syria?
---------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9514>
TidBITS reader Julian Allason reports that the iPhone has spread
well beyond Apple's supported countries, even to places that might
not come to mind as Apple's next major iPhone launch market, like
Syria. Julian writes, "You will be amused to hear that the hottest
topic everywhere I have been in Syria is - the iPhone. Almost
everyone recognises mine and rushes over (well, not the women, who
merely ululate from a distance). It is freely available with, I
think, v. 1.1.4 unlocked. Prices are US$600-625 with a 'bulletproof'
guarantee! The two Syrian cell networks offer very cheap minutes,
but then prices outside the Four Seasons Hotel are low here. Where
do these iPhones come from? One theory is that the iPhones originate
with U.S. forces in Iraq and come back on the empty convoys of
lorries."
After this piece was posted on the Web and I commented about it on
Twitter, I heard from readers in other countries as well. In Kenya
the iPhone goes for about $1,000, and in Brazil (traditionally a
Macintosh stronghold), an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 iPhones have
been sold unofficially.
Internationally, BusinessWeek estimates that between 800,000 and
1,000,000 iPhones have been sold on the gray market, and the Market
Share site by Net Applications shows that Web browsing from the
iPhone is taking place in nearly every country at rates that likely
exceed the amount used by travelers.
<http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2008/tc20080211_152894.htm>
<http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=21>
DealBITS Discount: Save 25% on IPNetMonitorX
--------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9509>
Congratulations to Gabriel Jolivet at gmail.com and Simon Horn at
gmail.com, whose entries were chosen randomly in last week's
DealBITS drawing and who received a copy of the $60 IPNetMonitorX.
If you didn't win, don't fret, because you can save 25 percent on
IPNetMonitorX; it's only $45 through 03-Apr-08 if you use coupon
code "TidBitsPromo" when ordering from Sustainable Softworks. Thanks
to the 984 people who entered this DealBITS drawing, and we hope
you'll continue to participate in the future!
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9507>
<http://www.sustworks.com/site/prod_ipmx_overview.html>
Discussing the Importance of the iPhone SDK on MacNotables
----------------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9516>
On a recent two-part MacNotables podcast, Chuck Joiner and I talked
for a while about the iPhone SDK. In the first part, we examined the
level of control Apple is exercising, the positive response from
developers, and the future of the jailbreaking community. In the
second part, we talked about the business model of the iPhone App
Store, the enterprise aspects of the announcement, and why the
iPhone makes sense mostly in urban environments.
<http://www.macnotables.com/wordpress/macnotables-813-adam-engst-and-chuck-joiner-analyze-the-iphone-sdk-announcement/>
<http://www.macnotables.com/wordpress/macnotables-814-the-iphone-as-a-new-platform-the-iphone-apps-store-and-more-with-adam-engst-and-chuck-joiner/>
Watch Adam's Hacking the Press Talk from C4
-------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9515>
Back in the late 1990s, I came up with an idea for a presentation
that I, as a non-programmer, could give at the MacHack programmers
conference. I called it "Hacking the Press," and it was designed to
explain to software developers running their own businesses how to
work with the press. It was always big fun to give, since I made
sure to ask for an open-ended block of time, and my session usually
went at least 3 hours, or until people stopped asking questions. I
later turned some of the contents of the talk into a series of
articles, and I've heard from many developers over the years that my
talks and articles were helpful to them as they launched products.
But with the demise of MacHack (and its renamed form, ADHOC), it had
been a while since I'd given the talk.
<http://db.tidbits.com/series/1172>
That's when I got email from Wolf Rentzsch, with whom I'd shared a
room one year at MacHack and who was the mastermind behind the C4
conference for independent developers that served much the same need
as MacHack (see "C4 Conference Rethinks MacHack," 2007-08-20). Wolf
wanted me to reprise my Hacking the Press talk at C4, and I jumped
at the chance. I had a great time at C4, but I didn't attempt to
describe the sessions in great detail, given that many of them were
over my head anyway. Since then, however, Wolf has gradually been
releasing the videos of the talks on Viddler, and the video of my
talk is now up for viewing along with the rest. Be sure to watch Wil
Shipley's talk on marketing as well, if only for his opening joke
about the iPhone (I disagree with some of Wil's advice, but it's a
hilarious talk).
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9121>
<http://www.viddler.com/explore/rentzsch/videos/12>
<http://www.viddler.com/explore/rentzsch/videos/4/>
Safari 3.1 Enhances Performance and Web Standards Support
---------------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9510>
Boasting about blazing performance, Apple has released Safari 3.1,
the latest version of the company's free Web browser for Mac OS X
and Windows. In its press release, Apple claims that Safari 3.1 is
1.9 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and 1.7 times faster than
Firefox 2, at least on a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo-based iMac with 1
GB of RAM running Windows XP. What, you're not running Windows XP as
the primary operating system on your iMac? Luckily, on the main
Safari page, Apple presents other benchmarks run under Mac OS X
10.5.2 claiming that Safari loads pages up to 3 times faster than
Firefox 2, and executes JavaScript up to 4.5 times faster than
Firefox. JavaScript performance is an increasingly big deal as more
and more sites provide interactivity in their interfaces by using
JavaScript. Unfortunately, nowhere does Apple compare Safari 3.1's
performance with that of Safari 3.0, so there's no telling how much
of a speed boost current Safari users might see.
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/03/18safari.html>
<http://www.apple.com/safari/>
Apple also made a big push to support cutting-edge Web standards,
enhancing Safari 3.1 to support CSS Web fonts that let designers
specify fonts that will be downloaded on the fly as needed, CSS
animations, HTML 5 media, and HTML offline storage. Improved too is
Safari's support for dynamic SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) images.
(See the Safari Product Overview PDF for more details.) Along with
those features, Safari 3.1 includes fixes for a number of security
vulnerabilities. Of course, since lots of other browsers don't
support these standards, Safari's support is merely a welcome paving
stone on the road to future Web improvements.
<http://images.apple.com/safari/docs/Safari_Product_Overview.pdf>
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307563>
Of particular interest to us is HTML 5 offline storage support,
which should help to enable Web applications like Google Docs or
Zoho Writer to provide optional offline access to data, storing it
in a local SQLite database. Google has started to address this
problem with Google Gears, an open-source approach to offline
storage that, on the Mac, works only in Firefox. The two are
similar, but incompatible, though there may be ways of bringing them
together.
<http://webkit.org/blog/126/webkit-does-html5-client-side-database-storage/>
<http://glazkov.com/blog/html5-gears-wrapper/>
Safari 3.1 is available via Software Update or as a 40 MB standalone
download. Panther users need not bother clicking through, since
Safari 3.1 requires Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later. Presumably due to the
fixes in Safari's underlying WebCore and WebKit frameworks, which
are used by a wide variety of programs, the update does require a
restart.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/safari31.html>
The Internet Organizes Itself: Here Comes Everybody
---------------------------------------------------
by Glenn Fleishman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9512>
I started using the Internet in one of its early forms in the late
1980s, and full time in 1993 just as it started to commercialize. It
was clear from the earliest days of my use that putting tens of
thousands of people together in a medium that didn't restrict the
way in which we connected would lead to emergent behavior. That is,
there would be no way to predict the forms of communication or the
new kinds of interaction that people would engage in with an
unfettered ability to exchange information, record that information,
and build upon it.
Clay Shirky has been thinking about these issues for over a decade
as a journalist, consultant, and professor, currently at New York
University. His book "Here Comes Everybody" (The Penguin Press,
2008) explains his views on the power of individuals to organize
into groups without companies, hierarchies, or outside efforts.
Without borders, with few limits, and with almost no social
approbation, the Internet is disruptive in ways that are just now
being understood. It's not just about MySpace, ecommerce, and
Google; rather, students protesting in Belarus, anorexics
self-un-helping each other, and ex-Jehovah's Witness members meeting
are all part of the new mix.
<http://www.shirky.com/bio.html>
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1594201536/?tag=tidbitselectro00>
In his book, Clay recounts many anecdotes about how groups of people
behave in new ways, and he expands upon these stories with
statistics, research, and observation. For instance, he notes that
when the TV network that aired Buffy the Vampire Slayer decided to
shut down a long-running Buffy discussion board, the community
raised their own funds to build a system to continue their
existence. Shirky notes in the book that the group had one request:
"no major changes." The group didn't want to disrupt the way in
which they had learned to communicate, using simple but effective
tools for discussion.
I sat down with Clay on 14-Mar-08 to talk about the book for a short
article that appeared in the Seattle Times, focused on the business
side of his book. However, the Seattle Times allowed me to publish a
podcast of our roughly 40-minute conversation.
<http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2004286876_btshirky17.html>
<http://www.tidbits.com/podcasts/Clay_Shirky_Interview.m4a>
Shirky and I were at Yale together, and we both majored in art, Clay
four years ahead of me. We knew each other in passing then from
working on a play (he lighting, me sound), and were amused to
discover our mutual interest in this topic several years ago. I tend
to write more about the how-to and underpinnings; Clay about the
bigger picture.
Why Do Simple Updates Require Big Downloads?
--------------------------------------------
by Michael Ash
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9519>
[Editor's note: I was foolhardy enough to ask Michael Ash, a
software engineer at Rogue Amoeba, why the company kept pushing me
10 MB updates of Airfoil for every micro-release. After reading my
comment on the company's blog entry about an update to their
products, Mike sent me an expanded explanation that slightly boggled
me. He agreed to adapt it into this article, which explains why we
download so much. Consider this a look inside the sausage factory of
software development. -Glenn]
<http://www.rogueamoeba.com/company/staff/>
<http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/2008/03/19/security-update-2008-002-compatibility-fix/>
It would be nice to push out just tiny update packages to our
customers when we make minor updates to our software, but it's not
practical. Because we've built the Sparkle software updater into our
system, we've traded a lot of ease-of-use for our users and
ourselves for the extra overhead. It works out in the end. There are
three approaches for integral software updaters that we could have
taken, and we chose the last of them.
<http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/>
At the very bottom of the options, you have true binary "diff"
updates, where only the changed portions of the changed files are
included. This can be done by preprocessing the differences between
the new version and the previous version, but this approach is
unreliable and tough to pull off well. On Leopard, adding an
unsigned program to the firewall list will alter the binary, causing
problems for any such delta or difference-based updater. The same is
true for any other modification or inadvertent corruption to the
program, as the updater is now trying to apply changes to a file
which doesn't match. An alternative approach is to add more
server-side smarts so that the updater computes the differences on
the fly using checksums - a kind of shorthand that uniquely
identifies a stream of data - like the Unix utility rsync does. This
ensures that you always end up with what we have. But more server
smarts means more server resources and maintenance. At this point,
carrying out updating using plain HTTP stops working and you have to
use fancier protocols, which means more points of failure and more
cases in which users need help.
As an intermediate level, you have file-granular updates, where the
updater downloads only changed files. I've personally written two
such systems at other companies, and they work decently well. The
server gives the application the capability to download each file
individually, something which can be done with a regular Web server,
and a list of files and checksums. The app compares the checksums
against what it has stored locally, downloads anything that has
changed, and you end up with an updated program. The problem with
this approach is that the largest files in an application are also
those which are virtually guaranteed to change with any new build:
the actual program binaries themselves. This intermediate approach
saves you from having to re-download any resources which haven't
changed from one release to the next, but the savings aren't as big
as you might hope.
And then at the end you have whole-app updaters such as Sparkle,
which is what we use (for more on Sparkle, see "Sparkle Improves
Application Update Experience," 2007-08-20). The Mac developer
community seems to have more or less standardized around Sparkle
these days. I'm amazed at how often I open an application and find
that it's using Sparkle to keep itself up to date. Aside from the
programs where I implemented it myself, I don't recall the last time
I saw an application using a more granular updater. Even Apple seems
to publish monster updates for their applications. Apple does use
more granular packages for sequential updates to the operating
system itself, but in some situations, these seem to cause problems
that are fixed by reinstalling using the latest Mac OS X combo
updaters.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9122>
Verifying Web Links in PDF Files
--------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9500>
Our ebooks have tons of Web links in them, and for a long time, one
of the most tedious production tasks was verifying that the links
were still valid since the author added them in the manuscript. In
an effort to simplify this task, I came up with the following
process.
Unfortunately for those trying to replicate it, my process relies on
an expensive plug-in, the $699 Aerialist Pro from ARTS PDF. I
initially purchased Aerialist Pro because it can generate PDF links
from page numbers to the associated pages in a PDF; I used it to
link up all the page numbers in the index of the ebook version of
iPhoto '08: Visual QuickStart Guide. That task would have taken many
hours using the astonishingly bad linking tool in Acrobat
Professional 8, so I was able to justify the price. On the Mac,
Aerialist Pro runs only in Acrobat Professional 7, so I was glad I
kept that version around, and copies still seem to be available via
Amazon.com.
<http://www.artspdf.com/arts_pdf_aerialist_pro.asp>
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/iphoto7-vqs.html>
<http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatpro/>
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00069E7IQ/?tag=tidbitselectro00>
Aerialist Pro has other useful features, including the capability to
produce a report listing all external links, which gave me what I
needed to develop the rest of my process. (Unhappily, another
Aerialist Pro feature that I would love to use - the capability to
set link properties like zoom level and appearance en masse - turns
out to have a bug that causes problems with documents viewed in
Continuous mode. ARTS PDF has confirmed the bug, and I hope they fix
it, along with enabling Aerialist Pro to work inside Acrobat
Professional 8.)
Aerialist Pro's external link report is itself a PDF, so my first
step is to save the report from Acrobat as a plain text file, called
Dependency Report.txt (the extension isn't optional). But in the
end, I need a .html file, so I set up Noodlesoft's Hazel to look for
a file called Dependency Report.txt in a specific folder, rename it
uniquely and with a .html extension, and open it in BBEdit.
<http://www.noodlesoft.com/hazel.php>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2008-03/PDF-link-checking-Hazel.png>
Once I have the file in BBEdit, I run a text factory that takes the
rather plain output from Aerialist Pro, strips out the cosmetic
parts, and turns all of the links into proper HREFs. It's a lot of
grep pattern matching, and while it wasn't trivial to create, it
wasn't all that hard.
<http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/>
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2008-03/PDF-link-checking-BBEdit.png>
The next trick is to check all the links. After much searching and
testing, I found a $25 utility called Braxton's Link Tester (BLT)
that does a nice job of checking links and reporting back on which
ones have problems. After running the BBEdit text factory and saving
the file, I drag the file's proxy icon (the little icon in the title
bar of every window; just click, hold, and drag to use it just as
though you were dragging the file's Finder icon) to BLT's Dock icon.
In BLT, I then click the Check Links button and go do something else
for a few minutes while it visits all the links.
<http://www.bltformac.com/>
What I like about BLT is that it's easy to deselect the green
checkmark tab that shows all the good links, since I don't care
about those, and focus in on broken links (for the screenshot below,
I left the good ones showing). BLT goes beyond a simple
thumbs-up/thumbs-down display, identifying failed links, forbidden
links, links that time out, links forbidden by robots.txt, server
errors, email links that must be verified manually, and protocols
that BLT doesn't recognize.
<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2008-03/PDF-link-checking-BLT.png>
Most of the time there are only a couple of broken links, if any,
and then it's just a matter of going back into the original Word
document and the working PDF file and either removing the links or
replacing them with correct links.
I won't pretend this is the only way to automate link checking. It
might be possible, for instance, to write an AppleScript that would
identify and check the links, reporting back on which ones had
troubles. But I do hope this will give you a sense of how you might
be able to eliminate a manual step in producing PDF files that work
as they should.
Should Mac Users Run Antivirus Software?
----------------------------------------
by Rich Mogull <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9511>
When people find out I'm a security expert, I can almost guarantee
the ensuing conversation will evolve in one of three ways. If they
are technologically illiterate, I'll have to explain I don't know
anything about trading securities and can't help them with any hot
tips. If they use Windows, I'll tell them to back up their data and
reformat the system. But if they use Macs, the discussion usually
becomes a little more complicated.
There is a misperception among much of the security community that
Mac users don't care about security. Since joining TidBITS I've
learned that Mac users are just as concerned about their security as
their Windows brethren, but they aren't really sure what they need
to know. Even the most naive Windows user understands that their
system is under a constant barrage of attacks, but the Mac user
rarely encounters much beyond the occasional pop-under browser ad
and, of course, oodles of spam.
When people find out I'm a Mac security expert, they ask, "Oh, so do
I need to worry more about security?", quickly followed by, "Do I
need antivirus software?" While the antivirus answer isn't
completely straightforward, it's also not all that difficult.
The reality is that today the Mac platform is relatively safe.
Hundreds of thousands of viruses and other malicious software
programs are floating around for Windows, but less than 200 are
known to target the Mac, and many of those are aimed at versions of
the Mac OS prior to Mac OS X (and thus have no effect on a modern
Mac).
It's not that Mac OS X is inherently more secure against viruses
than current versions of Windows (although it was clearly more
secure than Windows prior to XP SP2); the numerous vulnerabilities
reported and patched in recent years are just as exploitable as
their Windows equivalents. But most security experts agree that
malicious software these days is driven by financial incentives, and
it's far more profitable to target the dominant platform.
Desktop antivirus software is also only a limited defense, and one
that's typically very resource intensive. By even the most positive
assessments, antivirus software catches only 85 to 95 percent of
known malicious software (viruses, worms, trojans, and other nasty
stuff) in the wild. This leaves a significant level of exposure,
especially considering you're running software that brings your
system to its knees whenever you have a full scan scheduled.
Antivirus tools are intrusive by nature, don't offer nearly the
security they advertise, and can be costly to maintain over time. I
personally rely on other defenses to prevent malicious code from
ending up on my computers in the first place, and so far (fingers
crossed) have never had antivirus software find anything on any of
my Windows XP systems. I don't even bother to run it on my Windows
Vista systems, due to that platform's stronger security and the
limited number of malicious programs that target Vista. When I've
tested Macintosh antivirus programs, they typically only find
infected attachments in my spam folders. Scanning all your incoming
mail at the gateway, maintaining safe browsing habits, and using a
browser plug-in or two can be more effective than desktop antivirus
software, as I'll discuss.
Even if Mac OS X is no more secure, we Mac users are currently at a
lower level of risk than our Windows counterparts. It's reasonable
to assume that this dynamic could change, but considering the
current level of risk, and the resource intensity of most antivirus
software, it's hard to recommend antivirus except under limited
circumstances. Here are the factors I suggest you consider before
using antivirus software.
1. I do not recommend desktop antivirus software for the average Mac
user, but you need to take other precautions. While desktop
antivirus software isn't necessary (I don't use it), make sure you
use email accounts that support spam and virus filtering, such as
Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Hotmail. Spam is one of the major vectors for
malicious code propagation, and gateway protection will reduce your
risk should an email-driven Mac virus appear. Consider switching to
the Firefox Web browser with the NoScript plug-in. NoScript
selectively, and non-intrusively, blocks all scripts, plug-ins, and
other code on Web pages that could be used to attack your system
during visits. I also recommend you keep your eyes open and
subscribe to a news source like TidBITS so if something does change,
you'll know sooner rather than later.
<http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/>
<http://noscript.net/>
2. If you engage in risky online behavior, use antivirus software
and definitely switch to Firefox with NoScript. Risky behavior isn't
just limited to browsing Web sites you might want to avoid at work.
Installing strange software from non-standard locations, failing to
filter for spam, installing any random social networking plug-in you
find, or creeping around unusual corners of the Internet can also
lead to a malicious code infection. Some other examples of risky
behaviors include online gambling, hacker research, illegal file
sharing (or legal file sharing on the same network that supports
illegal activity), browsing media-heavy sites other than brand names
like YouTube, or downloading software posted to forums or
lesser-known sites. It's hard to determine exactly where to draw the
line, but my general advice is if you download a lot of content,
engage in clearly risky behavior, or spend a lot of time browsing
fringe sites (especially forums), you should take extra precautions.
If you let your children, including teenagers, use an unmonitored
Mac you should also take these precautions and make sure they use a
non-administrative account.
3. If you exchange large numbers of potentially risky files
(especially forwarded email messages with attachments that aren't
otherwise scanned) with Windows users, and your email isn't scanned
at your mail server, consider antivirus software for their
protection. If you like to pass on every email joke and greeting
card that hits your inbox, you should either change your habits or
consider antivirus software so you don't spread something to your
Windows-using friends. If you use an email service that includes
outbound filtering, and don't exchange files other than through
email, you can skip the desktop filtering.
4. If you use your Mac in an enterprise environment with antivirus
policies, you still need to use antivirus software. Ideally, this
should be provided by your company's IT department so it is
compatible with corporate standards and is centrally managed. Use of
antivirus software in the corporate environment is often required
for a variety of reasons, including compliance or as a response
mechanism in case of an internal infection. Even though your Mac
might be safer, you don't want it used to spread an infection to
Windows systems or become a compliance deficiency. If you're in
corporate IT, some major enterprise antivirus tools support Macs and
can be deployed with policies consistent with your Windows systems.
While you might have reasons for not supporting Macs in the
enterprise, lack of available antivirus software isn't one of them.
5. If you run Windows on your Mac, via Boot Camp or virtualization,
install Windows antivirus software. Even if you're running Mac
antivirus tools, they won't help you when you're running Windows.
You need to protect that partition or virtual machine just as if it
were any other Windows system.
At some point, assuming Apple continues to make appealing products,
we Mac users will become bigger targets and face a higher level of
risk. Adam J. O'Donnell, Ph.D., is the Director of Emerging
Technologies at Cloudmark and has recently been using game theory to
analyze at what point Macs become more targeted for malicious
attack. He states, "Game theory shows that an inflection point will
come when the rate at which a malware author can reliably compromise
a PC rivals that of the Mac market share. It is at this time you
will see monetized, profitable Mac malware start popping up." For
example, Windows Vista is a dramatically more secure product than
its predecessor. As it's deployed more widely, we could hit an
inflection point where the combination of growing Mac market share,
and increased difficulty in exploiting Windows, makes the Mac a more
profitable target.
How can we avoid this? That's mostly up to Apple. In Mac OS X 10.5
Leopard, Apple began implementation of a number of anti-exploitation
technologies that could increase the difficulty in exploiting the
platform, but most features weren't fully completed and don't
provide the necessary protection to limit attack effectiveness (see
"How Leopard Will Improve Your Security," 2007-10-22). If Mac OS X
maintains even just security parity with Windows, yet Mac market
share stays in the low double digits, Windows should remain the
dominant target. We need to continue to pressure Apple for a more
secure platform so these technologies are fully implemented before
the malicious software market dynamics shift. Better library
randomization, sandboxing, and QuickTime and Safari security
features will go a long way to protect Mac users.
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/9251>
In short, at this point in time, I don't recommend desktop antivirus
for the average Mac user. You only need to deploy it if you engage
in risky behavior, need to protect friends on Windows, or comply
with corporate policies. It's quite probable this will change in
time, so it makes sense to take some reasonable precautions today
and stay aware of the world around you. Better yet, let's continue
to pressure Apple for stronger security so we can completely avoid
resource leaching desktop antivirus in the long term.
Take Control News: Produce Professional-Looking Sites with iWeb
---------------------------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9523>
Apple intends iWeb '08 to help Mac users create polished-looking Web
sites, but not all of iWeb's features are easily understood or fully
explained by Apple. The new "Take Control of iWeb: iLife '08
Edition," a 133-page ebook by iWeb expert Steve Sande, provides
step-by-step instructions and plenty of time-saving tips to help you
build a Web site and publish it on either .Mac or another Web host.
You can watch over Steve's shoulder as he enhances iWeb's templates
with a designer's eye, using tools like masks, reflections, and
Instant Alpha. Steve teaches you the best ways to make all types of
iWeb pages - including blog, podcast, photo, and movie pages - and
he covers topics that go beyond the basics and way beyond the online
help. You'll learn how to add special elements to your site, such as
iPhoto albums and galleries, YouTube videos, Google AdSense ads,
Google maps, and forms that feed into Google Docs. You'll also find
coverage of how to edit graphics so your site loads faster, how to
import podcasts and videos, how to make image maps, and even ideas
for working with CafePress, Google Checkout, or Zen Cart to create
an online store. The book is available for $10 in PDF form; those
who would prefer a book-like, professionally printed copy can get
one using the Print link on the cover of the ebook for an additional
$10.99.
<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/iweb.html?14@@!pt=TB920>
This new edition updates Steve's "Take Control of iWeb: iLife '06
Edition" with more tips, more advice, and more insider techniques
than ever before. Owners of the previous edition who purchased
before 01-Aug-07 can click the Check for Updates button on the first
page of their copy of the ebook to access a special upgrade
discount, and everyone who purchased after that date and who
selected the "Notify me" checkbox when placing an order should
already have received a download link for a free update. Contact us
at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for more details if you asked not to be
notified or if our email didn't arrive.
TidBITS Watchlist: Notable Software Updates for 24-Mar-08
---------------------------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9513>
* Geophoto 2.0 from Ovolab lets you pan, zoom, and fly through photos
in a three-dimensional representation of the planet, generated from
high-resolution satellite images. Version 2.0 can now match time
stamps on your photos with track points from a GPS and makes it
easier to "geotag" photos by positioning them on a street-level map
view.
<http://www.ovolab.com/geophoto/>
* Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 2.0 from Apple extends RAW
file compatibility for Aperture 2 and iPhoto '08 to a number of new
cameras, including the Hasselblad CFV-16, Hasselblad H3D-31,
Hasselblad H3D-31II, Leaf Aptus 54S, Leaf Aptus 65S, Nikon D60,
Olympus E-3, Pentax *ist DL2, Pentax *ist DS2, Pentax K100D Super,
Sony DSLR-A200, and Sony DSLR-A350. Get it via Software Update or as
a standalone download.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/digitalcamerarawcompatibilityupdate20.html>
* 1Password 2.5.12 from Agile Web Solutions enables the password
manager to work with Safari 3.1, adds improvements to the 1Password
Reader for Palm, moves 1Password Help into Apple's Help Viewer, adds
an assistant for first time users, and adds compatibility with the
latest nightly builds of Camino.
<http://1password.com/>
* Time Machine and AirPort Updates 1.0 from Apple includes
"compatibility improvements for using Time Machine with Time
Capsule, as well as AirPort driver fixes." It's available via
Software Update or as a standalone download.
<http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/timemachineandairportupdatesv10.html>
* Airfoil 3.1.2 from Rogue Amoeba updates their audio-streaming
software to handle an incompatibility with the new 802.11n AirPort
Express, and version 3.1.3 fixes a bug with the Instant Hijack
component revealed by Apple's Security Update 2008-002. Also
receiving a new version of Instant Hijack to address this issue are
Audio Hijack Pro 2.8.1 and Nicecast 1.9.2.
<http://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/>
<http://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/>
<http://rogueamoeba.com/nicecast/>
* Toast 9 Titanium from Roxio adds support for recording HD content
from camcorders, TiVo DVRs, and EyeTV devices to Blu-ray discs or
standard DVDs, along with simple editing for trimming unwanted
segments before burning. Toast 9 includes the new Roxio Streamer for
streaming video content on a home Mac to an iPhone, iPod touch, or
other Mac. Also new is the capability to record any audio, including
Internet streaming audio, with audio fingerprinting to add title,
artist, and genre information automatically.
<http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html>
* Disc Cover 2 from BeLight Software enhances the company's CD/DVD
labeling software with numerous new designs, integration with
Apple's Aperture, grouping functionality, support for gradient
fills, and integration with the company's Art Text textual graphic
software.
<http://www.belightsoft.com/disccover/>
* Narrator 2.0 from Dejal Systems is a major release of the company's
text-to-speech utility that can read marked portions of a text
document, using different Mac OS X voices and speech attributes for
specific passages in a document. New features include export to
iTunes or AAC sound files, support for multiple chapters in a
document, and substitution of words or phrases for better
pronunciation.
<http://www.dejal.com/narrator/>
* PDFpen 3.4 from SmileOnMyMac brings significant performance updates
and bug fixes to the PDF editing and form-filling tool, which we
find invaluable when creating samples of Take Control ebooks.
<http://www.smileonmymac.com/PDFpen/>
* Apple Security Update 2008-002 fixes a host of flaws in Mac OS X
10.4.11 and 10.5.2 (client and server flavors) that could allow a
local user to gain privileges or allow a maliciously crafted URL to
exploit Tiger or Leopard. Updated components include Apache and PHP.
<http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307562>
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/24-Mar-08
------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/9520>
**Adobe Reader Working Reference** -- A TidBITS Talk reader looks for
help with Adobe Reader. (2 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1905>
**G3 iMac problem** -- Resurrecting an older Mac brings up a few
problems, including how to repartition the hard drive, making an old
AirPort card work on modern wireless networks, and replacing the
machine's internal battery. (8 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1906>
**What I Don't Like About Time Machine** -- Time Machine addresses a
problem long ignored: how to make ongoing backups easily. But is the
once-per-hour implementation overkill? (11 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1907>
**Drobo and Time Machine over a network** -- The Drobo hard drive
storage device would seem to be an excellent Time Machine backup
destination, but a reader is looking for more information on how it
performs. (3 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1908>
**Bluetooth headsets w/ Macs** -- How well do Bluetooth headsets work
with desktop Macs? (3 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1909>
**Safari 3.1 & Firefox 3 trumped by WebKit Nightly?** Apple and
Mozilla have upgraded their Web browsers, and of course each claim
dramatic performance gains. But is something slowing them down? And
what about standards support? (19 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1910>
**AppleWorks Replacement** -- Apple may have long ago abandoned
AppleWorks, but the software still gets plenty of use. As a reader
faces the future, what software can replace the stalwart, and how
can he maintain the capability to open old AppleWorks files? (37
messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1911>
**Should Mac Users Run Antivirus Software?** Readers point out that
other browsers besides Firefox offer script blocking capabilities
and respond to Rich Mogull's article on antivirus software. (2
messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1912>
**MacBook Air Causes Black Eye** -- PBS talk show host Charlie Rose
took a spill with his MacBook Air, leading some to wonder why he
chose to protect his computer instead of his face - and realizing
that we do that with other possessions, too. (4 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1913>
**Finder file mapping** -- The Finder doesn't always seem to be
consistent when assigning applications to file types. (15 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1914>
**Google, Firefox & MacBook Pro** -- Odd cookie-assigning behavior in
Firefox seems to be the fault of Google, not the browser. (2
messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1915>
**Goose Your Network to Gigabit Ethernet** -- Adam's article on
upgrading his Ethernet network leads to talk of cabling (and prices)
and preparing for future networking. (10 messages)
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/1916>
$$
This is TidBITS, a free weekly technology newsletter providing timely
news, insightful analysis, and in-depth reviews to the Macintosh and
Internet communities. Feel free to forward to friends; better still,
please ask them to subscribe!
Non-profit, non-commercial publications and Web sites may reprint or
link to articles if full credit is given. Others please contact us. We
do not guarantee accuracy of articles. Caveat lector. Publication,
product, and company names may be registered trademarks of their
companies. TidBITS ISSN 1090-7017.
Copyright 2008 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license.
Contact us at: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
TidBITS Web site: <http://www.tidbits.com/>
License terms: <http://www.tidbits.com/terms/>
Full text search: <http://www.tidbits.com/search/>
Subscriptions: <http://www.tidbits.com/about/list.html>
Account help: <http://www.tidbits.com/about/account-help.html>
--
If you want to unsubscribe or change your address, use this link
http://emperor.tidbits.com/webx?unsub@@.3c557dc4!u=306a67f9
