The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Apple’ Category

It looks like everything signed by an Adobe Code Signing Certificate can be malware

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/09/29

If I read Inappropriate Use of Adobe Code Signing Certificate my conclusion is that anything signed by the Adobe Code Signing Certificate since 2012-07-10 potentially can be malware.

As a precaution, I will manually revoke the certificate on all my systems (that’ll take a while!). If anyone knows how to automate that process, please post a comment showing how to.

Hitching on a trusted certificate of a big software company comes close to the ultimate hack: trojaning signed malware in the distribution of an OS vendor.

–jeroen

via: Inappropriate Use of Adobe Code Signing Certificate « Adobe Secure Software Engineering Team (ASSET) Blog.

Posted in *nix, Adobe, Android Devices, Apple, HTC, HTC Sensation, iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod, iPod touch, Linux, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Opinions, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Zero-day Java exploit fixed: Either update Java immediately, or disable it if you don’t use/need it

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/08/31

On monday, I wrote it was Time to disable Java for a while: Zero-Day Season is Not Over Yet.

Today Oracle released a fix, which you should either install immediately (that is NOW, don’t hesitate!).

For this vulnerability, it is enough to disable Java from your browser – see: How to disable Java in your web browser – but as with any software: if you don’t need it, just disable/uninstall it.

Disabling/uninstalling on a Mac may impose a problem, as Apple hasn’t come with an update for the OS X editions that came with Java pre-installed.

Most other users can either install the version on their current system on-line from Download Free Java Software, or download offline installers for other systems at Java Downloads for All Operating Systems.

I might actually try the Java Unattended Silent Installer and Updater from Ninite – Install or Update Multiple Apps at Once.

–jeroen

via:

 

Posted in *nix, Apple, LifeHacker, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, MacBook, MacBook-Air, MacBook-Pro, Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

Time to disable Java for a while: Zero-Day Season is Not Over Yet

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/08/27

Hmm, time to disable Java for a while:

Malware Intelligence Lab from FireEye – Research & Analysis of Zero-Day & Advanced Targeted Threats:Zero-Day Season is Not Over Yet.

–jeroen

Posted in *nix, Apple, Chrome, Google, Linux, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, MacBook, MacBook-Air, MacBook-Pro, Power User | 3 Comments »

SSH tricks

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/08/24

SSH tricks

SSH tricks

Recommended reading:  SSH tricks

Quote:

SSH is a protocol for authenticating and encrypting remote shell sessions.

But, using SSH for just remote shell sessions ignores 90% of what it can do.

$ ssh home -L 80:reddit.com:80

This article covers less common SSH use cases, such as:

  • using passwordless, key-based login;
  • setting up local per-host configurations;
  • exporting a local service through a firewall;
  • accessing a remote service through a firewall;
  • executing commands remotely from scripts;
  • transfering files to/from remote machines;
  • mounting a filesystem through SSH; and
  • triggering admin scripts from a phone.

–jeroen

via: SSH tricks.

Posted in *nix, Apple, Cygwin, Endian, Internet, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, MacBook, MacBook-Air, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Tonido as alternative to DropBox (via: Bei sensiblen Daten lieber eigene Cloud-Lösung – c’t – PresseBox)

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/07/30

On the research list (wow, Google Translate is very accurate this time!): Tonido

More and more programs allow users to cut the cord of cloud providers like Google and Dropbox. The Tonido software is suitable for example for users who want to make sensitive customer or patient data accessible on multiple devices without outsourcing it to an external server. “Once you have installed Tonido on your PC and create an account, you can in the local network, but also on the move access to a PC or mobile devices on the complete data set”

Original German text from the mid December 2011 issue of c’t Magazin:

Immer mehr Programme ermöglichen es Anwendern, sich von Cloud-Anbietern wie Google oder Dropbox abzunabeln. Die Software Tonido eignet sich beispielsweise für Nutzer, die sensible Kunden- oder Patientendaten auf mehreren Geräten zugänglich machen wollen – ohne sie auf einen externen Server auszulagern. “Sobald man Tonido auf dem eigenen PC installiert und ein Konto angelegt hat, kann man im lokalen Netz, aber auch von unterwegs mit PC oder Mobilgeräten auf den kompletten Datenbestand zugreifen”

Thanks Noud van Kruysbergen for translating the German c’t article into Dutch.

–jeroen

via: Bei sensiblen Daten lieber eigene Cloud-Lösung – c’t – PresseBox.

Posted in *nix, Linux, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »

Mac OS X: Copy and paste the full path of a file in the Finder (via: Reality Distortion)

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/07/27

FilePathToClipCMPlugin is a live saver.

  1. Download it.
  2. Open the .dmg
  3. Open a new Finder window
  4. Point it to the folder “/Library/Contextual Menu Items/” or to “˜/Library/Contextual Menu Items/” (create the latter if it does not exist).
  5. Drag the required plugins there
  6. Restart your machine (restarting the Finder did not work for me)

–jeroen

via: Copy and paste the full path of a file in the Finder — Reality Distortion: Macs, Mac OS X, and Apple stuff.

Posted in Apple, Clipboard, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, MacBook, MacBook-Air, MacBook-Pro, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Reference desktop client for the Google Authenticator (OS X, Windows, Linux) – via: mclamp/JAuth · GitHub

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/07/20

It runs on OS X, Windows and Linux:

JAuth is a reference desktop client for the google authenticator. Intended

as an alternative to the iPhone Google Authenticator app and similar.

And it comes with installers in addition to source code.

Interesting.

–jeroen

via: mclamp/JAuth · GitHub.

Posted in *nix, Apple, Google, GoogleAuthenticator, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Power User, Windows | Leave a Comment »

Hollerith and why we have digraphs in Pascal and trigraphs in C/C++ (nostalgia, Apple ][ plus)

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/07/04

Apple ][ plus keyboardSome nostalgia (:

In the mid 80s, when programming in UCSD Pascal and Turbo Pascal, I learned that Pascal has (. and .) digraphs that translate into [ and ], similar to the (* and *) digraphs that translate to { and }.

In fact I thought the English word was bigraph (as bi- is a prefix for twice, just like tri- is a prefix for thirce).
The digraphs are lexical alternatives (Pascal ISO  standard 7185:1990 paragraph 6.1.9 or Extended Pascal ISO standard 10260:1990 paragraph 6.1.11). There is even one more: the @ at-sign is a lexical alternative for the ^ caret.

Back then (I was in my teens, there was no internet yet and school library had nothing on programming) I thought these were because keyboards like those of the Apple ][ plus couldn’t emit [ and ], but I was wrong: it was in fact the Hollerith Card Code that could not represent these characters.

That limitation was because of the first Pascal implementation was done on a CDC 6000 series that used punched card readers/writers.  You could not punch arbitrary numbers of holes on each row (lace cards lacked structural strength) limiting the character codes you can represent.

They still work in the Delphi compiler for arrays and for comments (I just learned that various Pascal implementations use different rules of mixing digraph and normal comments (some even allow nesting)).

While I taught myself C and C++ just as I taught myself Pascal, somehow I never learned that they use lexical alternatives too. It was only recently that they do, both as trigraphs and as of C99 also as digraphs and that there is even a trigraph tool as part of the C++ personality of RAD Studio 2007.

–jeroen

Posted in Apple, Apple ][, C++, Delphi, Development, History, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User, Software Development | 1 Comment »

How much USB power does a device use or provide? Apple Computers and Displays: Powering peripherals through USB

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/05/28

Two quotes:

Apple peripheral devices may request more than 500 mA (Milliamps) at 5 V (Volts) from a port to function or to allow for faster charging. Such Apple peripheral devices include:

  • Apple MacBook Air SuperDrive (when connected to supported computers)
  • Aluminum Wired Keyboard*
  • iPod
  • iPhone
  • iPad

Open System Profiler to find more information about peripheral power requirements, or contact the manufacturer of your peripheral. For the most accurate information about power usage, make sure your device is connected directly to your Apple computer or display before opening System Profiler.

All this because of the iPad charging challenge.

–jeroen

via: Apple Computers and Displays: Powering peripherals through USB.

Posted in Apple, Gadget, Power User | Leave a Comment »

Mac keyboard shortcut to move things to the Trash – Mac Guides: command-backspace #mac #keyboard #shortcut

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/05/18

Some shortcuts on the Mac are difficult for me to remember. For instance the one to move something from the Finder to the Trash.

The guides on Trash at MacRumours.com to the rescue:

Deleting items

You delete files and folders by moving them to the Trash. You can:

Drag and drop a file on the trash icon in the dock

Control-click on a file and select “Move to Trash” from the menu

Select a file or files and use the keyboard shortcut: command-backspace

Select a file or files and choose “File > Move to Trash” from the menu bar

Notes:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Apple, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Power User | Leave a Comment »