Flashback masquerades as an Adobe Flash updater. It is said to have infected 600000 Macs throughout the world. That is about 1% according to some estimates.

Do you have Flashback on your Mac? If so,now can it be removed? Read on.

Detection:

You can tell if you have Flashback by running a couple of commands. You can also check Kaspersky’s Flashback detection page, which checks your Mac’s ID against their database of infected machines.

To check for yourself, open up Terminal (in your Utilities folder) and type these lines and press return. You can copy/paste them one at a time instead – much easier.

defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment
defaults read /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment
defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES

This is one of the few times you want to see an error message. You should see something like ” the defaults pair does not exist.” if you see that error for each of these commands, you are clean.

If not, you have some cleanup to do. You can use Kaspersky’s removal tool, or proceed to remove them manually.

Removal:

See this F-Secure page for step-by-step instructions. I don’t see any reason to repeat them verbatim here.

Next steps:

Once you’re clean, youll want to stay that way.

If you haven’t already, run Software Update (in the Apple Menu) and install all available updates. Repeat until it tells you your Mac is up to date. You’ll possibly want to disable Java in your browser, too. It’s not used terribly often these days, and this is the way it got in in the first place. If you run into a legitimate web page that needs Java, you can always turn it back on temporarily.

You may also want to install antivirus if you don’t already have it. There is no guarantee it will catch the next new variant to come out right away, but it might help. Sophos and ClamXAV both have good reputations and are free.

Obviously, Felix approves. He’s waiting for the Painting Game For Cats, I think.

Setup on the new iPad is a breeze. Pick your country, language, and connect to a wireless network. Add email accounts if you have them. You can add your iCloud account or create a free one. If you’ll be downloading apps from Apple’s App Store, you’ll need payment info.

In my case, I’ve already purchased apps on my phone and in iTunes, so I just had to download the ones I wanted to play with. I’m currently using the WordPress app to write this.

Thoughts on new features

The new Retina screen looks great. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to compare side by side with the iPad and iPad 2 screens tomorrow.

Voice dictation sounds promising, but so far I’m not impressed. It looks like it doesn’t process speech until you press the mic button again. There is no ongoing feedback, so it feels very clunky. I’d much rather have a continuous stream of text appearing. It’s annoying. To pause and drop out of my stream of thought.

Now is time for all good men to come to the aid of their killer.

Him that’s not what I said.

Mom’s iPad is here. Mine is still on a FedEx truck. Go figure.
Setting Mom’s up with a few basic apps.

So far:
Looks great, seems really fast. The cat seems intrigued, but not blown away.

Read more: http://www.macnn.com/#ixzz1p8wZhPIP

This one will be iPad-focused. Got an iPad? Got questions? Come on in.

Bring your iPad, your AppleID if you plan on downloading any apps, and an appetite for coffee.

One for Mom down south, one for me. And just because I know I’ll never get to use my own iPad if it’s the only one in the house, one household iPad.

I’ve set up many iPads (iPad 1 or iPad 2) for clients until now, but its about time I get one too. It will be interesting to see how much day to day work I can offload onto the iPad.

I’m eagerly looking forward to getting these going. I plan to set mine up as a huge GPS navigation screen, a mobile POS, mobile offload for my camera (Nikon D5100), documentation repository, and time-logger for on-site work.  That’s just the beginning.

The household one will get its own email and calendar for household use, a few games, and various recipe and shopping list apps. It will likely live in the kitchen. I haven’t decided where to mount it, though.

Mom’s iPad will be used for text-to-speech and general browsing/email. I’m counting on the ‘Universal Access” features to help counteract vision loss. The zoom features, test to speech, and dictation should come in handy.

Stay tuned for new iPad unboxing photos

I’d tried to grab an extra set a while back while I was at the shop, but we couldn’t find the blanks. I was left thinking I’d have to order blanks online from the UK. I’d rather not – it takes a while, and shipping is pretty high for a few grams of metal.

Second time around, I asked offhandedly while I was in the shop setting up their new PC. This time, after lots of fiddling around, and a bit of browsing obscure Mini sites on my phone, we found them. Three new keys and a squirt of lock-barrel lube, and I’m good to go. (The PC is another story – looks like we need to downgrade the Operating System, as many locksmithing programs just don’t like Win7 65-bit).

Need keys? Stop in and Marty or Robert will get you going. They do lockouts and mobile service too.

A Quick Key Inc.
7540 NE Sandy Blvd
Portland OR 97213
503-257-1313

For reference, here are equivalent blanks – This was easy to find, once we had one correct blank to start with.

1991(or so) Mini Cooper.
Ignition key: Ilco NE48
Same groove pattern on both sides.
Nickel plated brass.
Can be cut using a standard key machine.
This blank is also equivalent to other manufacturers part numbers, including:
Curtis RV-1
Dominion NE48
ESP NE48
Ilco X170
Ilco EZ NE48
JMA NE-11
Original NE48F
Silca NE38
Taylor X170

Doors and Trunk: Ilco 62FS
Different groove pattern on both sides.
Nickel plated brass.
Can be cut using a standard key machine.
This blank is also equivalent to other manufacturers part numbers, including:
Curtis UN18
Dominion 62DR
ESP 62FS
Ilco 62FS
Jet UN18
JMA UN-1FS
Old Ilco EN2
Original FS
Silca UNI11A
Star UN3
Taylor S71B

Gas Cap: Ilco PN1
Haven’t found equivalents for this one yet.

Part II of “Childproofing your Mac”. These are more general thoughts, and apply to PCs as well.

To recap, last week, we setup separate accounts for everyone.  Now the kids have their own accounts, and we’ve set up things so everyone has to enter a password to get back in (to keep them out of each others’ and our stuff).

But wait – that means my kids have their own stuff, and I can’t see it.

There is a wide spectrum of opinion on this issue, ranging from kids should have absolute privacy, to kids are kids, parents know best, and  I’ll look at anything, any time.

Personally, I tend toward the middle here.

We started out with “ask before using the computer, period.” and “The computer lives in the living room / dining room”. So the kids are using the computers with permission in public space.

This has worked well. The girls, despite an occasional tendency to want to continue on with whatever game they’re playing, have not abused the privilege.

Starting sometime last year, I relaxed my rule. As they began using the computer for schoolwork  and personal research more often, I acquired a second Mac, and expanded their privileges and responsibilities.

If they had homework or research (crafts, cooking, hobby) or were emailing friends and family, they could use the spare Mac without asking.  Its a laptop, so they were allowed to take the laptop to any available seating area in public space – living room, dining room, landing, etc.

We still required permission to a) use the computer for games, or b) remove the computer to a private space.

Will we? Depends. There are two schools of thought in the house currently – one is “not unless behavior or demeanor indicates more than the usual teen/preteen issues” and the other is “that’s the duty of a parent of a teen.”  I suspect we’ll be somewhere in the middle. Perhaps an occasional check, but no daily/weekly/all-the-time checks. On occasion,we’ll have a short dialog something like this:

"What are you doing?"

"email."

"Really, what about?"

"I'm emailing my friend/teacher/grandparent about  our project / homework / birthday gifts".

"All right".

I’ll be wanting a closer look if  that last answer becomes “nothing” or “Roowr! None of your business!!!”

I’m voting for extending reasonable amounts of trust and privileges  to my teens, until and unless they abuse that trust. Then we reign them in.

Keeping the computing happening in public space, and encouraging ongoing dialog about their usage seems to be working well so far.

Do I need to know their passwords? Not really, in my case. However, I do. Being the admin user of the computers, I could change their passwords at need and login, but that’s a bit of  a pain. Also, if they know that I know, I think that instills a small sense of “better not go there…”.

I do think parents should know their kids’ email login and password, and should be ‘friends’ on social networks. While this may not always be necessary, it does help instill a sense of responsibility in what one posts online, or at least a tendency to think first, before clicking “post”.

We’ve chosen a middle ground for our kids. Some kids have full contol of their own computers (and sometimes the parental computers too – really, don’t do this.) and some are severely restricted. Some of those in either set should really be in the other. In some cases, when inappropriate computer use impacts grades, home life, or behavior, parents do need to step in and set hard limits, up to and including taking away the gadgets for a time.

Need help setting things up, or even deciding how strict to be?  Give me a call.

I can help with the former, and advise (but not decide for you) for the latter.

A S A P Mac & PC Services

503 255-2419 / 503 683-2727

Whether you are sharing your baby with your babies, or your kids have their own Mac, there are a few simple steps you can take to keep your Mac safe and keep your family safer online.

First steps – each user gets their own space.

Picture this  scenario – you loan out your laptop for a quick bit of homework.  When it comes back, the window you had open in Word contains your third-grader’s book report on “How to Eat Fried Worms“. The fiscal-year summary you’ve been slaving over for the boss? History. All those icons that cluttered the desktop? History. Tax return you were working on (one of those icons)? History.

If you setup everyone with their own desktop, they leave your stuff alone, you leave theirs alone, everyone gets along.

This is *very* easy to setup, especially if you do so early on.

Step 1: Setup the accounts

  A.  Open System Preferences (from the dock, in Applications, or under the Apple menu top left of the screen). Click on “Accounts” or “Users” or “Users & Groups” (varies, based on which version of Mac OS X you are using.

If it says at the bottom “click here to make changes”, do so, and enter your password. This is the one you enter when you install programs, do updates, or when you first set up your Mac.

  B. Add a user.

Click the plus sign (lower left portion of the window), and enter a name for the new user account and give it a password. (Note: Do *not* check the “allow user to administer this computer” button).  Click “Ok” or “Create User” to save your work.

Don’t get too creative here – each person’s actual name is fine. If you’re setting up to share this with your kids, have them help you pick a password. It should be something they can remember, and you should write it down (see “Should I Know my Kid’s Password”). For younger kids, even “cat” is fine. Just the fact that there is a password helps keep everyone segregated. Not only do you not want the kids logged in to your account and messing up your files, you don’t want your spouse inadvertently saving files on the kids’ desktops and then being unable to find them later.

  C. Add more users.

Repeat the above for each additional user. I also like to add one for “everyone else” to use, for when Uncle Marty comes over.

2. Make it work automagically

Now we set things up to keep everyone from inadvertently logging in as someone else.

If you haven’t yet created additional users on your Mac prior to this, it will likely be set to log in automatically. Under the list of users in System Preferencs->Accounts, click on “Login Options”, and set “Automatic Login” to “Off”.

Last, set it so you can ‘sleep’ the Mac, or walk away and have it lock the screen after a short while. Still in System Preferences, click on “Show All”, then on “Security”.

Set “Require password after sleep or screen saver” to “Immediately” or at least a short interval.

Then, set the machine to lock after inactivity. You can do this either in ScreenSaver or in Energy Saver section of System Preferences. Set the “display sleep” in Energy Saver, or the “Start Screen Saver” in Screen Saver preferences to a small number – just a few minutes, usually.

Stay tuned for “Thoughts on Kids: Passwords, Rights and Responsibilities”!