While you are multitasking you are instantly alerted to issues in uploading, memory leaks and paging, caches being permanently to disk, core processes or user projects getting stuck.

Frankly the cost of the instant info is having a fair amount of your menu bar taken up with the four indicators.

OS X MenuMeters Raging Menace

So on my most recent two Snow Leopard installs I tried to get by without MenuMeters. Bliss in simplicity. Higher productivity.

No such luck. Without instant visual feedback, your computer will bog down on a broken Internet connection or a runaway process, slowing one down more than the milliseconds to see where the issues are.

When you notice a problem, MenuMeters helps you dig deeper very quickly. Under the connection section you can instantly open up Network Utility, Network Preferences or Internet Connect.

Under the memory pie chart, you can see full details of what is happening with your memory.

MenuMeters disk usage

Under the processor indicators, you have the option of opening Activity Monitor or Console. Console is your best friend for quickly finding malfunctioning software, often from the nominally most reliable sources i.e. HP Print and Scan drivers. Most issues are clearly logged there). So having a directly link to it is great.

Normal mortals may not need this but if you are typically running 15 plus apps with lots of open browser tabs and open browsers (you know who you are), you should have this.

MenuMeters is truly well thought out software which helps one do one's work better and faster. The kind of software which makes owning an Apple computer a better experience.

Keep your Apple OS X Computer Running Fast with MenuMeters

Post from: Foliovision

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3. How to Build a Powerful Silent Computer

Just moving the library to another hard drive will result in all the files being disconnected. Unlike Aperture or Final Cut Pro, there is no automated path fix. If you want to correct the paths you have to do it file by file.

There's also a hidden function inside iTunes which is really deadly (I believe it comes turned on by default) to reorder your library. If you do that, compilation albums will often be broken into the individual song. Each in their individual artist folder.

Basically if you let iTunes loose on your library, you will entirely lose Finder organisation. Guess what? Then you will be fully dependent on iTunes as no finder based album play system (the excellent Vox for instance) will work well anymore. So there is method to the madness.

Even the songs which don't have correct metatags will all get dumped in a large virtual graveyard instead of being left in their date or album structure.

Assuming that you were clever or cautious enough to turn off allowing iTunes to organise your library, you don't want to let Apple get their grasping hands on your library now when you move it with consolidation or anything else.

There is a work around which requires getting your hands dirty but indicates just how easy it would be for Apple to get it right.

iTunes library files

1. Quit iTunes.
2. Go into your iTunes library (probably ~/Music/iTunes) Once you are there, backup the iTunes xml and database files.
3. Open up the iTunes XML (use a serious text editor like TextWrangler/BBedit or Smultron, we are talking about 10 to 20 MB of XML data for a six to twenty thousand song library)
4. Do a find and replace in the iTunes xml file to update all of the song locations. They are stored as simple paths like: file://localhost/Volumes/MusicHall/MusicMovies/Music/
5. Save and close the iTunes XML
6. Now open the iTunes Library file in a text editor, delete everything, and save. If you don't delete the data inside the library, iTunes will prefer the data from the database and erase your XML file (be careful with this one it happened to me the first time and deleted my special hand made XML file. I didn't have the right backup: in this case, delete the new iTunes Library and iTunes Music Library XML, put the original iTunes Library back in, regenerate the XML and start again and make sure to delete the data inside the iTunes Library but leaving the file in place).
7. Reopen iTunes: the library will be rebuild from the xml.

All your files should be in place now, including metadata. Apparently the date added will be changed to the current date but that's a small loss.

Why Apple must make basic maintenance so difficult, I have no idea. If it weren't for the internet (the base of this hint came from Metafilter), it wouldn't be much fun owning a Mac anymore, as it would be impossible to run it as a free machine.

One of my principle grips about iTunes is that it stores album art in a database, as well as all your song ratings, instead of in the original files as well. Earlier versions of Aperture were criticised for the same thing, but pro users were refusing to use Aperture because of the data lock-in. Apple can get away with a lot more with a free app which is obligatory for all those iPod and iPhone owners.

Apple iTunes Library: Move iTunes Successfully via the Finder

Post from: Foliovision

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Whatever happened to the CDDB and to FreeDB?

CDDB evolved into Gracenote. It looked like they were losing their stranglehold when Roxio moved to FreeDB in 2000. A closed settlement resulted in Roxio moving to Gracenote full time. I hope they were clever enough to get free stock in Gracenote for the pleasure.

The next death knell (although no one knew how important it was at the time) for FreeDB was that Apple went with Gracenote and then disabled any ability for users to submit to FreeDB (for a couple of years it was possible to use the FreeDB servers instead by monkeying around in one's hosts file, but it was a pretty techy solution). Without iTunes or Roxio's Toast, FreeDB was cut off from any oxygen in the Apple ecosphere.

Gracenote was recently sold to Sony for $260 million. The venture capitalists and the thugs at Gracenote managed to get something for their trouble.

In the meantime in about 2006, the FreeDB had a melt-down between the project owner and the lead developers. In the meantime, the horribly named Musicbrainz hit the scene with a music recognition algorithm. Terribly complicated, terribly slow. Apparently it works. But there is no easy way to submit data.

MusicBrainz

My inspiration here? There isn't a single tagging client I can find for OS X which will allow me to upload to either FreeDB or Musicbrainz!

There should be a client (free) which will grab the Gracenote/CDDB info which iTunes collects and resubmit it to both FreeDB and Musicbrainz. iTunes can't do something like that as part of its own license but the new client can.

If Gracenote wants to shut this client down, it begins as open-source and goes offshore. The client should include a manual option so that not all of the data is polluted. The client should allow itself to identify itself as alternative software (to make sure that the database recipient can't be faulted for accepting the external data).

Personally, I'd resubmit all my music info to Musicbrainz and FreeDB if this app existed. And I know a hundred more who would do so as well. Litigation is likely to drop off at this point, as the aggressive thieves at Gracenote have been paid out now.

I can't imagine Sony wants to go whacking through the bushes, snatching at end users.

The CDDB story is one of the best examples I've seen of how human beings can turn any act of grace (pardon the pun) into loathsome slavery.

This sad saga worries me as it suggests that Apple is more than prepared to turn our computers into corporate property. For the moment, OS X is very free and my data is my own, but frankly the rumours of DRM on the iPad for ebooks worry me.

If Apple thinks its core audience (hey remember us, we're the guys who kept you alive through that huge trough at the time of the clones) will put up with proprietary data formats and heavy DRM, they are very wrong.

In the meantime, I want a client to let me submit track and album info to FreeDB and Musicbrainz.

FreeDB or Musicbrainz: Why is there no software to upload album info in OS X?

Post from: Foliovision

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1. Apple iTunes Library: Move iTunes Successfully via the Finder
2. How to create multiple page secure forms inside Wordpress (or other PHP CMS)
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The way to do it is to block all connections except the ones you allow.

deny all connections Apple Mail Little Snitch

But for some services you do want to see the external images.

In my case one service for which I do want images though is Basecamp. 37signals finally upgraded their email notifications to html and they look a whole lot better and are arguably functionally better as well – as the presentation of information is clearer.

Basecamp html email notifications

So how do I get the thumbnails in Basecamp?

If you’re on OS X with Little Snitch and Basecamp, unblock:

• asset3.37img.com
• asset2.basecamphq.com

If these two don’t work, what you need to do is open the source of the email (in Mail command-option-U). Unfortunately 37signals chose to use Base 64 encoding for the html part (absolutely no need to do so).

You want to copy the part of the document that comes after this:

--mimepart_4b8295ce1ce1d_4f231be02701438a6 Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: Base64 Content-Disposition: inline

and before this:

--mimepart_4b8295ce1ce1d_4f231be02701438a6--

and then take it to ToastedSpam’s Base64 Decoder and plug it in.

You’ll now have plain html and you just have to search for asset or img in the html. Add those domains to Little Snitch to allow connections in Mail.

Allow Mail connections asset Basecamp HQ

If there are any other html emails for which you would like the images, you can use a similar technique to allow their images. Keep in mind most newsletters have a link to allow you to open the email in a browser which is a quicker and easier solution.

Apple Mail: How to avoid being tracked yet still see images

Post from: Foliovision

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1. Ghost Apple Mail Messages: “Show in Mailbox”
2. Little Snitch shortcoming: Badly needs wildcards
3. Losing Mail with Google Apps

• WYSIWYG style configuration now resides in plugin options.
  Easier configuration - no need to edit your CSS file to make your editor true WYSIWYG. Don't worry, your old configuration will still work.
• Image management tool now appears with the right year/month/ directory opened.
  Your blog contributors won't upload images into your root image directory anymore.
• All uploaded images above certain height and width (check out plugin options) are sized down to fit into it.
  Well, this won't handle those insane 5000 x 3000 px images some people try to put into their posts (as it's just too big for the PHP memory), but at least it takes care of the oversized 2000 px wide images which won't fit on your screen when opened. The default setting is 960 px of either width or height.
• Works on sites with secured wp-config.
• Insert FV Wordpress Flowplayer button added.
  Let's you use our popular video plugin with ease.
• Pasting dialog receives focus when it appears.
• Dreamhost JSON glitch fixed.

Head on to our Foliopress WYSIWYG plugin page or Wordpress.org.

New Foliopress WYSIWYG version released

Post from: Foliovision

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• Foliopress Testimonials
• FV Wordpress Flowplayer
• Embedded Menus
• FV Embedded Menus Pro
• Sniplets (created with John Godley)

Our embedded shortcodes look something like this:

[command parameter=something value=number]

The reason we use square brackets is that square brackets parse just fine in WYSIWYG editors including our own Foliopress WYSIWYG.

We've had a lot of simple questions about how to use our FV Wordpress Flowplayer. I couldn't understand why. The instructions are pretty straightforward.

It turns out that the shortcodes were being parsed and showing the result instead of the code people should be using. How anybody managed to get the plugin working without the short codes is a bit of mystery to me. But they did. Wow can people be ingenious sometimes.

So once I'd found the error, we weren't much better off. I couldn't get the square brackets to stop parsing. With angled brackets it's not so difficult. One just escapes them like this:

< >

But there is no such escape for square brackets (or rather the escape still gets parsed by our plugins).

It turns out that the shortcode won't trigger even if there is a non-breaking space:  .

But that is no real solution as it means that we are telling our users to insert a space or weird character where there is none. No, we needed a real invisible character to disable execution of the shortcode but leave no visible trace in the html.

After much poking around, I finally found one: ­ That's the soft hyphen character.

So I can boldly post commands like this:

[­flowplayer src=example.flv, width=400, height=300]

Which would otherwise result in this:

Would you like to replay the video or share the link to it with your friends?

Clearly showing an empty movie box isn't going to teach a visitor much about how to place an flv in his or her own post.

The long term solution is to code our plugins not to parse what is inside code tags. But in the meantime, soft hyphens can save you in a pinch from having embedded shortcodes execute when they shouldn't.

Alternate techniques (all in use on this site)

• use javascript to write the opening square bracket): not bad but I'd rather put in an invisible character than face fragile javascript in half a dozen tutorials
• use sniplets to hold the documentation (as sniplets don't get parsed a second time but just inserted).
  Downsides: unwieldy as you have to go over to sniplets to edit or change tutorials each time. Not easily moved between CMS's or even sites. Plugin dependent.

More readable source code without a javascript code parser

While I was at it, I decided to turn all code into a nice dark green to be more readable and made it a few pixels larger too. Previously code on Foliovision was an elegant but slightly difficult to read medium gray.

Using Soft Hyphens to Disable Embedded Shortcode in Wordpress or other CMS Web Tutorials

Post from: Foliovision

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D Link DI 804HV

Our router has to look after about eight to fifteen computers at a time so it's no longer the load of just a few computers. Our primary connection is 3 MB/sec download from Chello.

But we aren't doing much VPN work so our needs aren't extreme. It would be nice if Skype didn't drop off on us in the middle of work. Our main concern is redundancy. With 8 to 15 people working at any given time, even 15 minutes downtime is too much now. Four hours downtime would be nearly 40 hours work as most of our work requires Internet access at this point!

So we were shopping for a backup router, really as our workhorse was back in action. A router which would allow us to work for a few days in the meantime. We don't use any WIFI (or Bluetooth) at Foliovision as wirelesss is the biggest IT time sync and security risk. WiFi is also quite possibly unhealthy.

Most modern routers include the WiFi station whether you want it or not so there is a limited selection of basic routers without WiFi.

We bought two to compare and to keep one or both (I need one at home as well). We bought ZyXEL Prestige 334 and a D-Link DIR-100. I've had good experiences with D-Link and Asanté (not easily available in Europe) and horrid experiences with LinkSys and SMC (defective wireless cards sold in knowledge that they didn't work, useless return policy). We wanted something that would work properly out of the box.

ZyXEL Prestige 334

The ZyXEL cost about €30, the D-Link €25. In each case, less than $50. Not much for relatively full-featured boxes.

I prefer the classic D-Link look of the DI-804HV but the DIR-100 is very small, every elegant and very discreet. No complaints. The flashy silver ZyXEL looks like a refugee from a Star Trek set. Still, its silver shell is perfectly serviceable if a little bit more attention seeking.

D Link DIR 100

To test, we set each router up with its default setup with ports closed and ran SpeedNet tests.

I expected the D-Link DIR 100 to be not up to the test as it has just 2MB of RAM memory plus 8MB of additional flash. No problem. Handled our 3MB/sec cable connection perfectly, identical speeds to the D-Link 804HV.

D Link DIR 100 speeds

To my surprise the ZyXEL could only handle 1.4MB/sec download.

ZyXEL P 334 failure

The D-Link was very easy to configure with full features, so we didn't even bother wrestling with ZyXEL interface which has a reputation for being a little tougher to use as the other router/firewall manufacturers.

For an advanced router in the multiple hundreds of euros category (an area where ZyXEL has lots of candidates), the best way to go is with a custom built load-balanced solution. It will be more powerful and configurable and the software is all open source anyway. Based on what I've seen from ZyXEL's entry-level Prestige 334 unit, you are paying for brand and not performance.

For instance, the D-Link DIR-100 is open source. The operating system is MClinux. For the VPN section, the software is FreeSwan. D-Link is playing fair and releasing their source code. You can download the D-Link source code for their routers.

We run a Mac and PC mixed network now and the D-Link DIR-100 was easily configurable in Safari on Mac. No issues running it with both Mac and Windows running at the same time. In fairness, the ZyXEL didn't appear to have any issues either.

For a backup or basic router, the D-Link DIR-100 is the clear way to go. I might look up at picking up DIR-130 for its QoS (quality of service) priority filtering for our Skype calls. What's interesting about D-Link is the entry level DIR-100 is that it keeps up with their former mid-level 804HV. That's impressive and a wonderful migration of capability across the range over time.

Backup Router-Firewall for a Small Office: D-Link DIR-100 vs ZyXEL Prestige 334

Post from: Foliovision

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I tell them there is just no other payment service which works well for small international payments.

Precautions we take:

• we don't confirm our bank account numbers which technically means that Paypal can't withdraw funds from our bank accounts.
• they do do it anyway, but in our case it would be illegal and there's a very good chance that the bank would go after Paypal for the money themselves if Paypal did manage to snooker them into giving them cash.
• we run a balance under $2000. Over that and the money gets shunted off to one of our bank accounts.
• we are very good customers. We send lots of sales through and we buy lots of goods too. Occasionally we even have to switch currencies. Paypal makes a fortune off of Foliovision. We even introduce lots of new customers to them as well.

In general, limit liability and make yourself valuable. I recommend you do the same.

But then I go and read a post like this one about how Paypal single-handedly nearly ruined the Macgraphoto graphics bundle (sorry to have missed it Jacob: great idea for a themed bundle!). And I think we haven't done nearly enough and that we are playing with fire.

In the comments over at apparentsoft, someone recommend SWReg. Reasonable fees, big solid company, international operation. A lot to like on paper. But then it turns out SWReg is a shell of the original customer focused company built up by Steve Lee. SWReg is part of Digital River who specialise in two products these days, banes of the shareware world:

1. download guarantees (if you lose your license they will give you the code and let you download the software again). Any respectable shareware author does this free of cost.
2. reservations clubs. You sign up for $10/month usually unwittingly making you eligible for 10% off of 50% overpriced services and vacations. Great deal. Spend money to be marketed to at rip off rates.

So every time you send a customer to a Digital River company they will take his or her personal data and monetize/abuse it to the limits of the law and beyond. There is no way I'm putting any clients of Foliovision on that boat.

That knocks off RegNow, eSellerate, ShareIt, RegSoft, Reg.net, Emetrix in a single blow.

Someone else recommends Google checkout. Fortunately a more informed soul piped back that you'd be exchanging the frying pan for the fire. No one answers the telephone at Google (well AdWords does, but only AdWords).

PayPal certainly has its problems, but trust me, the alternative is NOT Google. Do not trust Google Checkout. If you think this story is bad, consider the following:

1. The author was able to speak to people.
2. He will eventually get the money.

If you have a similar problem with Google Checkout, your account will be closed automatically, there will be no one to talk to, and you will never, ever, ever be able to receive the money in the account. They keep it.

Here's Amy's full Google checkout horror story. In any case Google checkout is available only in the US and the UK. So much the better.

The payment provider to whom Apparent Software moved was often mentioned in the thread with Dan Engel, the FastSpring CEO even coming doing a drivethrough carrying a welcome sign. Unfortunately when you go to checkout the FastSpring site, you see that all that friendliness comes at a very high price: 8.9%. Ouch. That's triple Paypal and quadruple Google checkout rates. I'm afraid our accountancy firm and taxes already get a big slice of our revenue straight off the top. I'm not looking to lose another 10%. Thanks anyway Dan. While highway robbery with a smile may be better than a knife in the back it's still brigandry.

Kagi and Plimus are the same with 10% fees on sample $50/orders with Plimus scraping down to 9%.

kagi fees 10 per cent

Curiously Plimus likes big value sales, so we'd be in better shape with our larger value transactions at 4.5%. Plimus is also open to international businesses.

So where does the absence of customer service and extortionate fees leave us now?

We've implemented e-Junkie for clients and like it but e-Junkie only provides the shopping cart and delivery. They don't actually run the transaction for you. You're back to Google Checkout and Paypal.

There's just Avangate who gets high customer satisfaction rates. One independent provider in the world! But fortunately Avangate is international so they will accept us.

What are the rates like?

A bit confusing as there are two packages: 4.9% plus €1.95 or 8%.

On $50 transactions they both work out to $4.50 or 9%.

On a $300 transaction the 4.9% plus $2.50 fee costs $17.20 per transaction or 5.7%.

So for the international software or services seller who would like to break free of Paypal and Google and have a payment gateway, there are really two options. Plimus or Avangate.

Their existing customer base like Avangate much better: Avangate outscored Plimus on both ease of use and reliability. On the customer side, I don't like buying via Plimus as they are always holding up my orders for fraud verification. If I have to spend half an hour wheedling my $25 software out of the payment provider, I've just paid about $100 in hidden costs. I'm sure many of my clients would feel the same way.

Avangate as a buyer has been quick and painless.

My vote goes Avangate. Those clever Romanians, naming their company as if it were Stonehenge and somewhere in Britain. Who would guess that Avangate is headquartered in Their CEO Radu Georgescu is one of the few companies to best Microsoft in business, selling RAV anti-virus to Microsoft at an enormous profit and managing to keep his independence, retaining his company and his team in Romania. If Georgescu is smart enough to protect his software company from Microsoft, I expect he's clever enough to protect his merchant clients from fraud.

Avangate also shows enormous transparency, displaying names and photos of all their top management on their website, including links to their LinkedIn profiles. Elsewhere Avangate tell the whole story of their company, including products which they sold off. That kind of accessibility and transparency also earns heavy respect from me.

Avangate for the win by two full lengths.

avangate's Radu Georgescu: the man who outsmarted Microsoft and got his money and kept his life

Footnote:

Paypal sucks but so does Digital River and Google Checkout is no great shakes either

Post from: Foliovision

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2. Google algorithms creating spam
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Basically our rule is that if a software program can do it faster, then have a software program do it. This approach allows us to offer our clients more service within their budget. So we have contact with a lot of software. While out shopping online (how's that for a pleonasm) I've often seen sterling awards pages for what looks like really rubbish programming.

inventory builder bogus software awards

Where do these ugly little banners come from and how the software developers earn them?

It turns out just by submitting software. No, you say, impossible. Somebody's looked at the software. No, no one has ever looked at the software.

Prove it, you ask.

I don't have to. A gentleman by the name of Andy Brice already has.

He submitted a bogus piece of software to 1033 sites. His bogus soft included a screenshot like this:

bogus software submission screenshot

Andy's fake app was approved and listed on 218 software directories. Incredible. Even more shocking, he won 16 awards. Sixteen 5 star awards would be enough to give even the worst piece of malware a veneer of respectability.

So what is a shareware purchaser to do?

Buy a Mac. In the Mac universe, there are only three software download sites of any import with VersionTracker.com and Macupdate.com battling for top dog for the last three years, with IUseThis.com trailing.

The ratings and comments on all three are legitimate and minimally censored in favour of the developers. Even I'm aghast at some of the things I read on Macupdate in particular (Nate, for the most part, please keep them up, following the profiles of some of these curmudgeons is incredibly entertaining and keeps people coming back to Macupdate).

The sites are not perfect. One developer had friends inside Macupdate whom he tried to use to censor commentary (Misha, I believe). In the end, after some comments being pulled and the tempest in a teapot rising higher Nate finally intervened and put the review back online and warned off the developer.

In any case, these three sites don't hand out prizes. They allow developers to display user ratings badges on their sites like this:

If a developer posts an incorrect Versiontracker or MacUpdate badge he or she will be asked to pull the badge down immediately. In any case, it is standard practice for the badge to link directly to the developer's site. If a developer encourages sock puppet votes he's blacklisted. Unfortunately the list is only three developers long, so I'm not inclined to believe it's complete. On the other hand, perhaps Nate and team have caught and warned 200 developers but it didn't get to blacklist levels.

A couple of years ago, I had the feeling MacUpdate might become a bit smug as VersionTracker atrophied. IUseThis.com came along just in time and made MacUpdate pay more attention to the convenience of users of the site first. What kind of nuisance am I talking about? There was a period of six months where it was impossible to search MacUpdate from outside the site - you had to load their overly busy, distracting home page to do so. Finally they quit that about a year ago.

So in the Mac universe there are just three sites of any import. On any of them fake feedback is likely to be called quickly. There are no fake awards. If a Mac user sees any other award badges, s/he will ignore those banners.

Straightforward access to high quality shareware is another reason I decided to take Foliovision Mac-centric at the end of 2009. Previously we had only had one and then two Mac users in the company. Now we have moved to fifty-fifty. We do have some very bad copycat developers like Koingo Software (from beautiful BC just like me) who hawk their second class wares everywhere, but you can usually suss them out pretty quickly.

It would be nice if CNET would pull about three quarters of the javascript and half the ads off of Versiontracker so we could go back to a two horse race. I'm not quite sure what ails IUseThis.com but at least they are there as an insurance policy if MacUpdate starts to go off the same overly monetized rails as Versiontracker. But all in all, as Mac users we are quite fortunate in our developers and our shareware sites.

Especially in comparison to the Windows world.

Shareware awards just a scam? MacUpdate, Versiontracker and IUseThis.com vs the Windows world

Post from: Foliovision

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The question is not whether to use a keylogger but which keylogger
for Mac OS X to choose. If you value your time. Photo jgarber.

I've heard all the privacy arguments against keyloggers but I'm not sold. If you are typing into a computer, particularly one which is near constantly connected to the Internet, you need to accept that there is very limited privacy. For very private writing, it should be done on paper or on an old computer which is no longer capable of being hooked up to the Internet easily or at all (i.e. missing a network card and wifi and/or automatic DHCP).

Better to remove the floppy drive as well and unplug the USB connectors. You can do your backup to a zip drive for which you keep track of all the media (people don't carry around zip disks anymore, so if you have someone determined enough to come after your writing computer with an extra zip disk, nothing will protect you). You could also encrypt the disk on which your secrets are written, but my own experience with encrypted disk space is that the person who will suffer is you.

Even unencrypted hard drive storage is relatively unreliable. Once you bring encryption into the process, even with the slightest corruption no disk utility will ever be able to help you restore lost data. You just need a single bit to go wrong in your 20 GB of private space and au revoir your memoirs. No thanks.

Not prepared to take such measures? Then self-installed keyloggers are the least of your privacy concern. If you are using an encrypted disk, then you can and should store your keylogger files in the encrypted disk or folder.

Despite my relative lack of concern about privacy issues, the ideal keylogger would not log passwords.

So returning to the keylogger – the keylogger will save your backside at least a few times a month (sometimes in a week) when you think you've lost all your work (usually about a half hour or so). That means a keylogger is worth about 25 hours/year of your time. Your best time when the creative and intellectual juices are really flowing. I think there's about three to five such hours in any given day. That makes a good keylogger worth nearly a week's work (premium hours remember) per year. I.e. a good keylogger is worth between 4000 in most Western countries. If your week is worth much more than $4K, you are probably dictating and your assistant would be transcribing so you wouldn't get the same value out of a keylogger, but your assistant would.

What are the options on Mac OS X (we'll deal with Leopard and above at this point)?

Keyloggers for OS X: Candidates

Spell Catcher X, 10.3.3. $40.

A comprehensive spell checking suite with a feature called GhostWriter. I installed, bought and used Spell Catcher for about a month and then had it lurking around for a few months. Spell Catcher interferes with your input menus, is always turning itself on and off. GhostWriter was unreliable in my testing. Sometimes it was running, sometimes it wasn't. Having a browser crash and then learning that your typing wasn't not saved is extremely irritating.

Spellcatcher is one of the more invasive and troublesome apps I've had the displeasure of having on my computer. Verdict: Avoid.

Spell Catcher X GhostWriter Preferences
 

BackTrack, 5.1.1. $10.

Nice concept. BackTrack is the only keylogger which actually separates your typing by document and keeps it cleaned up. Seems to work. It does install an exta MySQL lite database which runs constantly so you are looking at some overhead.

But what I really object to and why I won't install or use BackTrack is that there is a daemon running constantly stealing processor cycles and pinging your whole network looking for other copies of BackTrack. Bill is effectively stealing your processor time in perpetuity. Not acceptable.

BackTrack textlog

What Bill is really after apparently is stopping people from running BackTrack on their own laptop and desktop at the same time. As many people, including me, have up to 3 Macs which are their own (although only two in the same place at any given time), per computer licensing is a bit annoying. I could live with a family pack but without the background checker. The pricing is right at $10.

A real pity as I would buy BackTrack in a minute for my own computer and for the 5 Macs in my company if Bill would remove the processor and network stealing background processes.

Bill, the pirates will always win (they beat Adobe everyday and Adobe is a lot better prepared for this war than you are). You should be worrying about the paying customers and not the pirates. Please let me know if and when you remove the spyware. My money is ready.

Verdict: Recommended with serious reservations.

logKext, 2.3. Free.

Really and truly free open source software. I think I remember running into occasional CPU issues and that the log format is very messy. A deep system hack. Not supported, as the programmer has abandoned the project (although D. Springfield left it with a functioning Google code page, very responsible. Trvia: D. Springfield also created the first SafariBlock adblock port from Firefox). Has some issues with stopping logging as well, but logKext is working in Snow Leopard so has at least a couple of years of life in it.

Uninstaller is partially broken. Logs come with all the delete gibberish and no date or time or applications stamping. But definitely priced right. Software is looking for a new owner. Perhaps Foliovision could pick this one up and make it work. We're bit too busy and don't have the right expertise in-house yet.

Verdict: Strongly Recommended if you can handle the command line and write your own grep parser to clean up the logs.

Keyword Spy 4.0, $20.

From a very strange and mysterious developer. The logs are also dirty with delete and backspace characters, although apparently application changes are noted. At $20, the nod has to go to either BackTrack or logKext, depending on one's own fluency. Verdict: Not recommended.

Aobo Mac OS X Keylogger, 3.0.1. $80 and $150.

Nasty expensive spyware which is supposed to send screenshots via email and ftp as well. Not tested, but clearly in the category of spyware rather than a keylogger. Website full of keyword stuffing as well. Even if I wanted this sort of software, I would be very careful before sending these jokers that kind of money. Seem like the sort of people who might even spy on their own clients. They seem especially obsessed with people spying on their own children. Verdict: Avoid like the plague.

Perfect Keylogger, 1.78. $34.

More of the same, arguably worse. Especially focused on the cheating spouses category. Primarily a Windows developer. Verdict: Avoid like the plague.

KeystrokeRecorder, 3.4.1. $29.

Used to be much ?more expensive before Camp Software came to their heads and/or competition came on the scene. In development since 2002, with lots of issues along the way. KeystrokeRecorder prides itself on making it easy to spy on people:

Use a good name, like "iTunes Optimizer", "Disk Speedup", "QuickTime Control", or "MP3 Accelerator" with the thought that if it looks useful or it makes the computer run better, people won't delete it. Please remember that changing the name of KeystrokeRecorder will create a new preferences file based on the name you provide.

At least now they do provide an address where you can find them and some names to blame when you buy their software. Verdict: Avoid like Chickenpox. ?

Obsolete: MonitorerX, 1.5.1. $12.

Last updated in 2003. The price is right but Monitorer doesn't work, runs up the CPU and is PPC. Verdict: RIP.

Out of business: Typeagent. Website is down.

It was lousy expensive software. Good riddance. If you got burned on Typeagent and it won't run on Snow Leopard, let me suggest logKext. You won't lose any money this time around.?

Out of Business: TypeRecorder X, $50.

TypeRecorder X was always one of the worst keyloggers for Mac, with a reputation for being expensive and unreliable. Incredibly enough Rampellsoftware managed to sell Typerecorder X to an even more macabre outfit, SpectorSoft who are flogging TypeRecorder X as overfeatured ?spyware for $170.

Install Spector Pro and start recording EVERYTHING your children or employees do on the computer and Internet.

This is what user Mickel Mackin has to say about his experiences:

This thing calls home in a very stealth manner LittleSnitch does not pickit up. I have two drives on my computer, but I only use one drive at a time. Apparently this makes them think I have installed the software on two different computers. They threatened to shut off my software. So if I sell this computer and get another one are they going to demand payment? Hard to say but my guess is yes.

These SpectorSoft people spy on you too!

Run do not walk. Verdict:? Avoid like HIV.

Recommendation

So what keylogger am I using? Alas, it must remain a secret. There's hidden functionality in one of my favorite applications which I sussed out. Unfortunately the developer is not yet prepared to release the keylogging functionality to the public. I am working on persuading him to change his mind and enhance the keylogging functionality a little bit. I'm glad I figured this out as it saves me having two utilities monitoring all my keystrokes, thereby keeping my OS leaner and faster.

In the meantime, I recommend either Backtype or logKext depending on your level of technical expertise.

Keyloggers for OS X – Why you should install one and which one to choose: Spellcatcher, BackTrack, logKext

Post from: Foliovision

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