“people who buy iPhones are image-conscious fad-following idiots”.

The words of Apple pundit John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame, not mine. But a pretty good summary of the situation.

Gruber was complaining about the brilliant Samsung Galaxy S II ad making the rounds. Here is the long version (1m25s) which you might otherwise miss. There's lots of additional clever repartee not in the airplay version: "I guess this is what adultery feels like," says one of the Apple fans in the queue with the Samsung Galaxy in his hands.

long form version of the brilliant Samsung ad

I'm one of the people who moved from iPhone to Android and is really happy about it. Here's why. I owned an iPhone 3GS. After the initial thrill of ownership wore off, I became very tired of:

• being forced to update to the latest version of iTunes every week
• having my mobile phone tied to my credit card and personal account at Apple, sending all the info in my mobile phone to Apple anytime Apple chooses
• fighting with a virtual keyboard which fills most of the screen when you are using it
• really slow network switching (I live on the border between Slovakia and Austria and need to switch networks often), usually requiring turning the iPhone on and off
• having to hack the iPhone to be able to share the internet connection from the iPhone even to a Mac: and then to be worried that any given update could kill my tethering set up
• looking at really lousy photographs, worse than my two year old Nokias

Samsung Galaxy S II

iPhone 4G

HTC Desire Z

 

After the iPhone, I bought an HTC Desire Z on a contract renewal and gave the iPhone to my girlfriend (strangely enough she likes it, as I'd already set her up with a MacBook a couple of years ago: she doesn't do much with a phone and liked its simplicity but could never really figure out the tethering).

The HTC Desire Z is so much better an experience than the iPhone:

• I haven't had to even log in to Google in order to have a first rate experience.
• The SIM card and account are only hooked up to my mobile provider and my private email (our own server) offering me far more privacy.
• The slide out chiclet keyboard allows typing at about half normal speeds and is very accurate. I also enjoy the full resolution of my screen for viewing and writing while typing.
• Network switching is relatively fast and doesn't require turning the Desire Z off (for bonus points to get internet working again - I have data turned off on when roaming - hit the Airplane mode setting and then turn wireless on again).
• A Wifi hotspot app is built-in. Share your mobile internet connection and data plan with up to 8 devices. This really works well. It's my main internet connection when travelling now. You can even swap another carrier's card in when travelling abroad (I did this in Czech republic, switching from T-Mobile Austria to o2 in five minutes right in the store with no manual configuration necessary).
• In fairness, I'm not sure photos are any better than the iPhone 3G and the movie mode is probably better in the iPhone.
• Paying a normal contract fee, not an inflated iPhone contract. The difference is about €15/month or $25/month, i.e. $840 over the course of a two year contract. Paying taxes to the government is okay: they provide roads and schools. Paying taxes to Apple is just stupid: they don't provide different data than another telephone.

Samsung smartly shows iPhones are for pretentious wannabes who are behind the times. That Apple is trying to create a walled garden in the smartphone industry with their lawyers indicates just how accurate Samsung's television commercial is. The iPhone cannot complete on merit in the marketplace.

All in all, anyone who buys an iPhone at this point is an image conscious, fad following idiot. Android and the Android manufacturers are offering faster, more flexible and more reliable devices with a minimum of hype.

By Alec

People who buy iPhones are image-conscious fad-following idiots

Post from: Foliovision

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Basecamp uses Textile as the main editor (well 37signals have added some kind of WYSIWYG editor lately but for those of us writing messages, comments and writeboards for the last seven years, Textile is in our blood).

So what I want to be able to do is write all my posts and drafts in Textile and then convert them to html for publication (saving the original in Textile for further editing).

For a while I used iTextile a wrapper around a Python script. It worked pretty well but was kind of ugly and not customizable. I gave up on iTextile due to ergonomics. When I went to fire it up again yesterday, it turns out iTextile is PPC only and requires Rosetta. On my most recent machines, I've managed to get rid of Rosetta completely so I was warned about installing Rosetta. I'd prefer not to have the emulator overhead hanging around waiting to steal memory and cycles, so I said no.

There is an interesting application called MarkMyWords from xelaton.com in Germany. MarkMyWords allows you to write in the mark up language of your choice (important ones include Markdown, Textile, BBcode and Wiki syntax) and get html out on the other end.

Preview is live which is very cool.

MarkMyWords does what it promises very well and even includes full screen and distraction free modes. If you are looking for a new text editor, MarkMyWords has a lot to recommend it.

MarkMyWords edit window

MarkMyWords Downsides:

• MarkMyWords is another application to install and maintain and learn across all your computers
• MarkMyWords requires a change in workflow (I write mainly in BBEdit and other people have their own text editor prefernces)
• The icon is fussy and ugly.

MarkMyWords icon

Textile Editing on BBEdit

At this point, I was thinking what I really need is to get Textile into BBEdit. I don't know why the BareBones guys have been so lazy about adding a Textile module themselves. Apparently there's been Markdown syntax for a long time.

I found a reasonably good article about how to add Textile to BBEdit but the explanations aren't very clear and one of the download links is broken and the other doesn't give the right filename when unpacked. [Update: dpkendal's original version was broken - our own Martin Vicenik has fixed it for you and uploaded it.]

So for non-programmers, here's how to get Textile editing working on BBEdit:

1. download our Textil.sh filter from Github.
2. unpack the very long file gist1348479-0d1929ba5ff2b3e2b4293dd63254604b72d62b58.tar
3. you will get a folder with a file with this name in it: "Textile.sh"
   

   Note:If the github ever disappears, here's a local copy. We found that this script has some bugs in it's current version (the constants are not properly added). Before this gets submited to Github.com download the fixed version here: Textile.sh.zip
   Our version also won't convert single and double quotes to HTML entities. This should be an option in the original version, hopefully our changes get into Github.com soon.
   

4. move this file to /Users/~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit/Unix Support/Unix Filters/
5. go ahead and write some Textile
6. open up the Unix Filters palette: Windows -> Palettes -> Unix Filters
7. you should see Textile.sh at the bottom
8. when you are ready to convert your Textile to html, just doubleclick the Textile.sh item. You can create a hot key as well (very useful)
9. as it's BBEdit you can see your html and get a preview of it and then just use undo (command-Z) to get back to the Textile version for further editing
10. when you save your file, make sure you save the textile version
11. for bonus points before posting into WordPress or even Basecamp run the html optimize filter on the result to get rid of all line breaks: Markup -> Utilities -> Optimize

BBEdit unix filters palette

Bingo, you now have full Textile writing inside of BBEdit at zero cost. Apparently this filter will work for other text editors which accept php filters (TextMate among others) but I can't provide step by step instructions as BBEdit 8.7.2 is my weapon of choice.

I may still buy MarkMyWords as I have something of a fetish for text and html editors (own at least ten of them) and earn my living writing and coding. $25 for another work tool is no big deal. But I wouldn't encourage it's adoption across our company as that would be $200 for what most people wouldn't use nearly enough. Our programmers will be much happier with a working php script. On the other hand, Textile.sh doesn't require me to change my workflow at all.

This article full of ordered and unordered lists was written in BBEdit and Textile.sh with no issues.

Marked does not get a review here as Marked is AppStore only. I will not sign into or buy anything from the AppStore or even let it run on my computers (the AppStore is effectively a back door).

By Alec

Textile Editing on OS X: BBEdit, iTextile, MarkMyWords

Post from: Foliovision

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However - don't not forget to check the site and email functionality afterwards. We will take about the emails and IMAP in here. Specially about IMAP not storing Sent Messages in Apple Mail after the site has been moved.

Testing IMAP Sent Messages Folder in Apple Mail

1. Make sure you are sending the mail through the right SMTP server (the same one as IMAP)
2. Send a some email.
3. It should appear in Sent folder.

   
   Apple Mail sent Messages

4. It should appear in the "Sent Messages" or "Sent" folder on webmail.

   
   Webmail Horde Sent Messages

Fixing issues with IMAP Sent folder

First thing to check is the mailbox preference this enabled storing of sent messages (Store sent messages on the server). This is on by default.

Apple Mail Account Mailbox Behaviors

So you probably already have this checked. But what happens when you

• close the settings window
• open up Apple Mail's Activity Window
• send a test mail?

You probably won't notice any errors in the Activity Window, but when you open the settings window again, it might have "Store sent messages on the server" unchecked.

When troubleshooting these issues we found that it's caused by the ~/Library/Mail/IMAP-user@example.com@mail.example.com directory.

If you moved from one server to another and mail.example.com has changed to mail.your-server.com, that's just another place where the things could go wrong, as it's clearly still showing the old mail server name in the directory name.

Since you are using email, we recommend that you:

1. Login to webmail and check if all the received and sent messages are there
2. Backup your ~/Library/Mail/IMAP-user@example.com@mail.example.com directory
3. Remove the account from Apple Mail Preferences
4. Quit Apple Mail
5. Remove ~/Library/Mail/IMAP-user@example.com@mail.example.com directory
6. Launch Apple Mail and re-add your account - it will get all the email via IMAP from the server.
7. If you had some older messages in your INBOX, you can copy them from the backup of ~/Library/Mail/IMAP-user@example.com@mail.example.com folder.

Now your IMAP should return back to its normal operation.

By Martin

Apple Mail: Fixing Broken IMAP accounts after a server move

Post from: Foliovision

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Something we are working on is some additional capacity in peak periods (as auto manufacturers have additional suppliers they can bring online if a sudden surge in demand appears). Gradually we are getting there. In the meantime, I take great care not to take on more work than we can handle. There's at least a $100,000/month of business which I'm not seeking as we just couldn't maintain quality standards yet. We are working on increasing capacity first and then slowly adding those additional clients.

My girlfriend is shocked and horrified that we are leaving this kind of money on the table. Her shock diminished when I explained that every day Foliovision leaves millions on the table in Slovakia alone:

• Tesco and Carrefour selling food and kitchenware we could be selling
• VUB, CSOB, Unicredit, Slovenska Sporitelna are picking up banking fees which we could have
• T-Mobile and Orange are collecting mobile communication fees which we could enjoy instead

Every day every company in the world leaves millions if not billions on the table. There is simply not enough time to earn all the money in the world. You have to make choices. As an example, even Apple Computer has taken the computer out of their name and have dropped in the last few years:

• Xserve: server production
• Shake, one of the top video post-production tools, extensively used in Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and The Dark Knight to name just a few productions.
• Aperture as professional photo processing gear (hopelessly behind in Lightroom 3 in terms of image quality for low light and lens correction)
• DVD Studio Pro
• Final Cut Pro as a full scale professional editing application

In general, Apple despite their huge profits and huge bank accounts can't manage to maintain focus on desktop systems at the same time they develop iOS and iPhones and iPads. Despite buildings, even campuses full of programmers.

The focus on creating this iOS universe is extremely disturbing for those who have been their long-term customers and advocates. We are slowly looking at Linux. Many of us just won't be taking the Lion train. We don't want to hand over the keys to our computer to Apple.

By discontinuing Final Cut Pro Studio alone, Apple is giving up selling thousands of $10,000 edit suites.

But Apple doesn't care. They've run the numbers and catering to us would cost them billions. So Apple stay focused and are the second largest company in the world, leaving their long time rivals at IBM, Microsoft and new rivals at Google behind in their dust.

This is a principal lesson to be learned from Apple for Foliovision. Focus and quality. Choose your path and follow it. Leave money on the table. Your business will be better for it.

Increasing capacity means developing our flat management structure which is another post.

By Alec

Focus in Business Means Leaving Money on the Table: Apple

Post from: Foliovision

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If you don't already have a mobile version of your site, it's time to put one in right now. Here's how you do it, from A to Z. If the beginning seems a bit complicated, just push ahead. There's an easy point form summary at the bottom of the article.

If you have even a reasonably busy WordPress site, you need to have a caching solution in place. Without caching, you'll get your site kicked off shared hosting lickety-split or you'll cripple performance on your VPS. Visitors like fast sites and cached sites are two to five times faster than uncached sites. For WordPress, there are three major choices in caching solutions: WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache and Hyper Cache.

For a mobile site, you need to have a caching solution which will pass through mobile clients quickly and reliably to your mobile version.

Of the three above, by far the most reliable is WP Super Cache. Donncha O Caoimh has been providing reliable code (and an almost unspellable name) for five years now. (Donate here. We did.)

WP Super Cache mostly works.
A real work horse, Super
Cachejust keeps on ticking

Sometimes high performance,
always high maintenance, deploying
W3 Total Cache is like taking the
space shuttle to the grocery store

Hyper Cache seems to work
the new kid on the block,
showing promise. We've
had issues with Hyper Cache
on some of our bare bones
Debian server.

Start by making sure your caching plugin is properly set up. These settings are not the default but are where you want to be. Donncha includes the most compatible and much slower defaults in his plugin (good idea, as new WP users can get some benefits with little risk). Here are Donncha's main instructions to get WP Super Cache to really fly and to reduce your load times for Google (good for SEO):

• Mod_Rewrite. The fastest method is by using Apache mod_rewrite (or whatever similar module your web server supports) to serve "supercached" static html files. This completely bypasses PHP and is extremely quick. If your server is hit by a deluge of traffic it is more likely to cope as the requests are "lighter".
• If you are not using legacy mode caching consider deleting the contents of the "Rejected User Agents" text box and allow search engines to create supercache static files.
• Likewise, preload as many posts as you can and enable "Preload Mode". Garbage collection will still occur but it won't affect the preloaded files. If you don't care about sidebar widgets updating often set the preload interval to 2880 minutes (2 days) so all your posts aren't recached very often.

Now it's time to get ready to set up the mobile version. First you need to make a choice on building your own mobile solution or starting with a mobile plugin. We recommend using a plugin as starting from scratch is a lot of busy work. There's really not all that much room 320 x 240 pixels for creativity (the exception proves the rule guys) so you may as well set up something attractive and standard and business-like. There are a couple of good plugins out there to give you a running start.

Free and slightly unreliable: WP Mobile Pack.

WP Mobile Pack works or broken

Paid and very good but with some issues outside of Apple's i-universe: WP Touch Pro. Here's a WP Touch Pro feature chart (there is/was a free version as well).

You'll want a full list of user agents for which you will serve the mobile version. Next, make sure the list of user agents match in both your mobile plugin and in your cache plugin.

Here's a list to match WP Super Cache's list of mobile user agents which you can copy and paste into the user agent theme preferences in WP Touch Pro.

Mobi
Mobile
MMP
240x320
400X240
AvantGo
BlackBerry
Blazer
Cellphone
Danger
DoCoMo
Elaine/3.0
EudoraWeb
Googlebot-Mobile
hiptop
IEMobile
KYOCERA/WX310K
LG/U990
MIDP-2.
MMEF20
MOT-V
NetFront
Newt
Nintendo Wii
Nitro
Nokia
Opera Mini
Palm
PlayStation Portable
portalmmm
Proxinet
ProxiNet
SHARP-TQ-GX10
SHG-i900
Small
SonyEricsson
Symbian OS
SymbianOS
TS21i-10
UP.Browser
UP.Link
webOS
Windows CE
WinWAP
YahooSeeker/M1A1-R2D2
iPhone
iPod
Android
BlackBerry9530
LG-TU915 Obigo
LGE VX
webOS
Nokia5800
iPhone
iPod
incognito
webmate
Android
dream
CUPCAKE
froyo
BlackBerry9500
BlackBerry9520
BlackBerry9530
BlackBerry9550
BlackBerry 9800
BlackBerry 9780
webOS
s8000
bada
IEMobile/7.0
Googlebot-Mobile

This list doesn't include the WP Super Cache substrings as they are too short and dangerous to use in WP Touch Pro as WP Touch Pro matches substrings throughout the user agent, while WP Super Cache matches substrings against just the beginning of the user agent. Pasting the full list of substrings into WP Touch Pro makes full Safari and Opera display mobile versions (they match on "tosh"). We'll keep working on a better version of mobile agents for WP Touch Pro and post it here.

If there's a problem, all that will happen is that mobile user will get the standard site uncached.

Here's the WP Touch Pro theme preferences where you should paste the user agents above:

WP Touch Pro user agents

There's some discussion about whether to give a full site or the mobile site to an underpowered device which can't really handle the full WP Touch experience.

In principle these weak web browsers like Opera Mini 4 have special mobile modes to deal with standard sites, doing the reformatting themselves. But the reformatting will be easier if they are starting from WP Touch's advanced mobile version.

The difference won't be that great.

Here are some screenshots of WP Touch Pro iPhone version and Opera Mini minified version.

Opera Mini WP Touch Pro version
Not bad for a start if a bit too wide

Opera Mini WP Touch Pro filtered mobile
that's more like it and includes site colours

The minified version of the normal website through Opera's built-in mobile proxy is not much worse but the navigation (not shown) is much more difficult. And you have to rely on the end user to turn on minified versions. Relying on the end user is a fool's game.

Opera Mini full site Opera mobile proxy filter

WP Super Cache handles mobile settings a bit differently than W3 Total Cache and Hyper Cache. WP Super Cache doesn't let you hand in a list of mobile devices but generates it itself and puts it in .htaccess along with the basic rewrite rules. Here's what the list looks like:

RewriteCond %{HTTP:X-Wap-Profile} !^[a-z0-9\"]+ [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP:Profile} !^[a-z0-9\"]+ [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !^.*(2.0\ MMP|240x320|400X240|AvantGo|BlackBerry|Blazer|Cellphone|Danger|DoCoMo|Elaine/3.0|EudoraWeb|Googlebot-Mobile|hiptop|IEMobile|KYOCERA/WX310K|LG/U990|MIDP-2.|MMEF20|MOT-V|NetFront|Newt|Nintendo\ Wii|Nitro|Nokia|Opera\ Mini|Palm|PlayStation\ Portable|portalmmm|Proxinet|ProxiNet|SHARP-TQ-GX10|SHG-i900|Small|SonyEricsson|Symbian\ OS|SymbianOS|TS21i-10|UP.Browser|UP.Link|webOS|Windows\ CE|WinWAP|YahooSeeker/M1A1-R2D2|iPhone|iPod|Android|BlackBerry9530|LG-TU915\ Obigo|LGE\ VX|webOS|Nokia5800|iPhone|iPod|incognito|webmate|Android|dream|CUPCAKE|froyo|BlackBerry9500|BlackBerry9520|BlackBerry9530|BlackBerry9550|BlackBerry\ 9800|BlackBerry\ 9780|webOS|s8000|bada|IEMobile/7.0|Googlebot-Mobile).* [NC] RewriteCond %{HTTP_user_agent} !^(w3c\ |w3c-|acs-|alav|alca|amoi|audi|avan|benq|bird|blac|blaz|brew|cell|cldc|cmd-|dang|doco|eric|hipt|htc_|inno|ipaq|ipod|jigs|kddi|keji|leno|lg-c|lg-d|lg-g|lge-|lg/u|maui|maxo|midp|mits|mmef|mobi|mot-|moto|mwbp|nec-|newt|noki|palm|pana|pant|phil|play|port|prox|qwap|sage|sams|sany|sch-|sec-|send|seri|sgh-|shar|sie-|siem|smal|smar|sony|sph-|symb|t-mo|teli|tim-|tosh|tsm-|upg1|upsi|vk-v|voda|wap-|wapa|wapi|wapp|wapr|webc|winw|winw|xda\ |xda-).* [NC]

The advantage of this system is that it makes bypassing normal processing ultrafast (the movement happens at an OS level, rather than on invoking PHP).

It also means you as the end user don't get to fiddle endlessly with what devices to include. You'll have to count on Donna to choose the right ones.

Which it seems he does.

As you can see, it's very complete, including iPhones, Androids, Palm, Blackberrys, Palms, Nokias, Symbian.

On the other end though, if you are using WP Touch Pro, you'll have to give it a list of devices. Look out for versions under 2.2. The Skeleton template 1.0.8.1 does not handle blackberrys very well. Skeleton Template 1.2 definitely does, so if you're having trouble, make sure to upgrade WP Touch Pro to the latest version and then update your template.

Both Hyper Cache and WP Super Cache have built in compatibility with WordPress Mobile Pack. If you haven't already jumped on the WP Touch Pro bandwagon, WP Mobile Pack might be worth a try as it's already fully integrated to two of the top cache plugins and free. Unfortunately, WPMP appears to have some compatibility issues and is not kept up to date. You'll have to do some digging of your own to get it to work properly.

Once you are up and running, you'll want to test your settings. Here are the easy tests. Opera has a desktop emulator for their advanced mobile browser and an online java version for Opera Mini.

http://www.opera.com/mobile/demo/
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/opera-mobile-emulator/

Test for iPhone with Safari by enabling the developer menu and then reassigning user agent. On a Mac, I recommend Keyboard Maestro to set up a hot key on the menu command (usually application menu items can also be done in keyboard section but it's a bit trickier). I've assigned command-U and it really speeds up testing for different user agents. You can also then use Safari to test for Blackberry user agents and other exotica.

Ideally you'd have at least a few real mobile devices with which to doublecheck your site. An iPod Touch is a great inexpensive stand-in for an iPhone/iOS. Opera Mini will install into most devices in parallel with the main browser. Make sure to navigate around to be sure everything is working.

When you know that your mobile versions are making it through you'll want to sit down and have a think about what someone visiting your site on a mobile browser would want to see (insurance calculator, mortgage calculator, listings search, catalogue or weblog posts) and put those front and center. You might even want to remove large sections of your site which won't display well on a mobile device from mobile navigation.

With multiple mobile device formats (think iPad), WP Touch Pro has alternately display models which it handles internally.

So to recap here are the steps.

How to Quickly Build a Great Mobile Version of Your Site

1. Put together a list of user agents which you would like to show a mobile version (the longer the merrier, there's no sense in being parsimonious here).
2. Set up your cache plugin not to pass through mobile devices (not to show cached full pages). Recommendation: WP Super Cache which comes with baked in list.
3. Set up your mobile plugin to serve a mobile version to those same user agents (if you miss a few, no worries). WP Touch Pro recommended.
4. Check appearance with Safari in iPhone mode and with Opera Mini online emulator.
5. Tweak appearance to match site colours.
6. Tweak menu items to show what is important for mobile and hide what is irrelevant for mobile or will not display well.
7. Remove mobile plugin branding (branding on commercial plugins/themes is obnoxious: are you listening Brave New Code?).
8. Add a large 512 pixel icon for people who bookmark, create automatic apps in Safari. (WP Touch Pro feature).
9. Test that mobile versions are being served up to the principal user agents and browsers with Safari.
10. Test on whatever real devices you do have.
11. Send your client to visit the site on his or her mobile device (remember what I said about adding Blackberry user agents: this is the moment of truth, an astonishing number of clients will have Blackberrys).
12. Prepare to do this for all the rest of your clients.

Every site should have a mobile version now. WP Super Cache and WP Touch Pro make it very easy for developers to provide high quality mobile versions at an affordable price. There's no excuse not to offer clients an affordable mobile version of their site.

By Alec

Ten steps to build a great mobile version of your website

Post from: Foliovision

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One of our principal areas of business at Foliovision is SEO. So when I upgraded to Apple's Snow Leopard on my main work computer (I only upgraded since Leopard 10.5 won't run on a Macbook Air 11": still prefer Leopard and its quiet reliability), I was horrified to see that I could only get 10 search results from Google in both Safari and Omniweb.

So I thought the problem was with Safari 5 or webkit as Snow Leopard forces an upgrade to Safari 5. I tried the latest version of OmniWeb. Same issue. Impossible to get 100 results. Now I was really unhappy. My work life was about to become miserable rooting through Google search results ten at a time.

I had just installed Chromium* to see how it compares in memory usage with a lot of tabs open as I have just dropped from 8 GB of RAM to 4 GB of RAM and was feeling the pinch. Safari 5 uses a lot of memory with 40 tabs open - what is disappointing is that when you close all the tabs, Safari hangs onto a lot of the memory. Chrome creates a separate mini-application for each tab using even more memory than Safari but when you close a tab it gives back all of its meemory.

So I decided to run the Google results test on Chromium. No problem to get 100 results with Google Chromium.

Google Instant 100 search results in Chromium

Considerably more research alerted me to a solution: turn off Google instant in Google's settings and Safari would yield 100 results again.

Strangely I could get 100 results with Google instant on Google's Chromium, the open source version of Google Chrome. So the issue is not with compatibility between 100 results and instant (I thought perhaps it was a bandwidth issue).

It looks more like a deliberate crippling of Safari and Omniweb to give Chrome a leg up in the Apple browser wars. Even more diabolical, you have to save your settings twice in Safari after turning off Google Instant to get your 100 setting back.

Google wins our Microsoft Embrace-Extend-Extinguish award of the month for their attack on Safari and other webkit browsers.

"Don't be evil." Maybe. Apparently, a little bit wicked is completely fine. See footnote for evidence of outright evil.

* Note: Don't ever use Google Chrome, it's spyware which will not even run without an admin level updater application on your computer! Get the latest build for Chromium for OS X here: cherish that direct link, Google hides it.

By Alec

Google Search Settings won’t stick in Safari or OmniWeb: turn off Instant!

Post from: Foliovision

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A tendency to multiply outgoing draft messages is the most irritating characteristic of Apple Mail IMAP. Sometimes they expand to 25 versions of the same outgoing message. You don't want to delete the most recent one but you do have to stomp them out like weeds, sometimes several times per day. Due to this issue, I was considering moving back to POP. There are no settings on the server or in your account settings which seem to cure this trait.

Apple Mail IMAP draft messages

Fortunately there is one clever workaround. Stop using IMAP for your drafts. If you set Apple Mail to save your drafts locally, they don't proliferate. There is a significant disadvantage. Any drafts which you have locally will not be available on your other computers.

For me, the absence of drafts across my secondary computers is a price worth paying to not have drafts proliferating like rabbits on my main computer* all day every day.

* A Macbook Air 11" 1.6 GHz 4GB these days: the Macbook Air is holding up well under stress apart from the 4GB of memory which is very tight in a busy Safari sessions with photo editing in the background when one is writing web log posts. Like now for instance.

By Alec

Apple Mail: Getting rid of multiple draft messages in IMAP

Post from: Foliovision

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We've always had a very different view of privacy than some of our colleagues in the [Silicon] Valley. We take privacy extremely seriously.... A lot of people in the Valley think we're really old-fashioned about this...Privacy means people know what they're signing up for, in plain English and repeatedly.... let them know precisely what you're going to do with their data. That's what we think.

But use of an Apple computer on the ground suggests differently.

Apple Aperture violating your privacy

Let's start with a simple example from a pro app: Apple's Aperture goes after configuration.apple.com every time even with all web checkboxes turned off. l.google.com (location for Google) is understandable if you are using Aperture's built-in geo location services. But not if you have it turned off as I do.

I'm not the first one to find Apple's monitoring of our use of their apps disturbing. The issue of iLife '06 phoning home was a sore spot as far back as 2006. What goes on with iPhones with individual apps tracking every use along with your unique iPhone ID and your Facebook profile is astonishing.

But with the pro apps for which we are paying hundreds of dollars, one would think that one had more than paid for the right to privacy.

Apparently not.

What is even more disturbing is that with a virgin Little Snitch install, almost all Apple servers and services are considered safe and permitted out of the box. Why does Objective Development implicitly trust Apple? Moreover, there is nothing to prevent Apple from engineering around Little Snitch and Apple has certainly done so.

known Apple privacy violations in Aperture

I am slowly becoming convinced that there are back doors into even our fruity and once alternative Apple computers. I wonder if user tracking was a deal Apple signed with the devil to be given free road in telecommunications. For decades, Microsoft has taken the side of the US government and security institutions against users. There are hidden files on Windows computers which log all your internet visits and emails in plain text. Very handy for law enforcement. Here's what one IT professional's experience:

Internet history, documents and all sorts of potentially sensitive data is cached as well. When recovering documents for users I've found copies of those documents in some really strange places. The user was just glad I recovered some or all of their lost work. I just sat there scratching my head as to why there was a copy there and not in the normal temp dir where you'd think such files would be kept. Varies from version to version as to where those things turn up.

If this doesn't worry you as a US citizen, take a closer look at the supervisory protection offered by your courts. No requests for wiretaps were turned down in 2009 out of 2,376. These are only the visible wiretaps and not the secret ones rubber stamped behind closed doors. That none were turned down suggests that US law enforcement is not being supervised by the courts. It's the same as all students getting A+ on their exams.

The Obama administration is openly insisting on unrestricted access to all online communication. Governments all over the world and most notably the UK have enacted laws to force you to reveal the key to any encrypted data with penalties of up to two years in jail. In the case of the UK, even the assessment of taxes or any charge payable to a government department justifies invoking RIPA. The list of agencies who are allowed to invoke the act is forty or more and includes local councils including fire authorities and the Charity Commission.

There is perhaps nowhere where your data is less secure than the UK. Basically if you are travelling to Britain, you'd best take a laptop with next to no information on it: just the bare minimum to access your email.  You are free to complain to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal about inappropriate use of surveillance authority under RIPA. In ten years, 956 complaints were registered: only 4 were upheld. Again, the case of all students receiving A+. Those grades don't tally well with the five law enforcement officers jailed for running illegal surveillance networks using RIPA means to ill ends.

Glenn Greenwald quotes surveillance expert Julian Sanchez:

If you want to sift through communications in bulk, it's only going to be feasible with a systemic backdoor.

Apple is doing their share in providing those backdoors and detailed tracking of its users. It does no harm that the data they are collecting on consumers gives them enormous power in the marketplace. So not only do they get favours from the powers to be, they make money to. Plutocratic oligarchy at its best.

What is Apple doing with all its loot? Spending it on filing more patents. The spurious patent strongbox of Apple is filled like a pirate's chest.

Google is no better than Apple and probably worse. So as a computer user, you have three commercial choices of whom to trust with access to your data:

• Google, the greatest data miners in history and close allies of the US government
• Microsoft, proven collaborators (how much of their poor security practices are deliberate and how much is intentional is the only question)
• Apple who is slowly violating its core principles and tracking you for all its worth

No matter where you turn, you are compromised before you leave the gate, easily trackable at every moment online and with your cellphone. You are always in the matrix.

Google's Chrome browser installs invasive tools by default that check in with Google on every run, ostensibly looking for updates. A more privacy aware open source version of Chrome called Chromium exists for Mac OS X in nightly builds no less. For some reason Google hides those builds on their Chromium public pages, only offering instructions on how to build the damn browser from scratch.

Google offers only Chromium build source

It's looking more and more like Linux is our only option if we want to retain our privacy. I'm surprised to see Steve Jobs sell out like this. I suppose he'd call it pragmatism. I'd suggest it's betrayal.

If I decide to stop using Apple computers, that's 5 personal computers down and ten more company computers. I think it's time someone took the bull by the horns and started producing sanitisers for of OS X which shut down all of this phoning home with a combination of Little Snitch behaviour and automated creation of hosts files, with regular monitoring and testing of other backdoors. The task is very onerous as Apple can always enclose special keys or particular data in encrypted files. The only way to prevent your computer being compromised is to allow no outgoing communication at all without your assent and a minimum at that.

Particularly vulnerable is Mobile Me. With Mobile Me, you are able to share Mail, Contacts, Calendar and control your computer remotely depending on what options you enable. Presumably Mobile Me communicates all of the requisite information, whether you turn on selected services or not. So once you've used Mobile Me even once, US authorities have full access to all of your computers.

I had to help my own sister with her Mac. The only system which worked reliably to access her Mac and help her with it was Mobile Me. Mobile Me was a blessing to be able to get her new Macbook Pro working just right. On the other hand, signing up and enabling some of its features on my own computers probably compromised decades of relatively secure computing practices.

One of the reasons that Microsoft got away from its antitrust case after an initial guilty verdict are their ties with national security in the US. The cost to national security by breaking down the computer OS monopoly were considered larger than the gain by enforcing anti-monopoly and antitrust legislation. The backdoors and collaboration with national security were Microsoft's get-out-of-jail card. Google plays the same card and thus can break privacy and copyright laws with relative impunity.

Steve Jobs is no fool. Having seen competitor one thrive and survive via collaboration (Microsoft) and seen competitor two burst from zero to exceed Apple's market capitalisation earned over decades in just a few short years (Google) via such collaboration, there's just no way the gentleman feels in a position to protect users.

On the other hand, Apple users are said to be wealthier and better educated than Windows users. Surely one day we'll be smart enough to realise we've been had and we are all sailing in boats with sieve ridden hulls.

Ironically, these backdoors can help to protect the innocent. In one case, the surveillance backdoors on the iPhone saved an innocent man from 5 consecutive sentences of 14 years on false rape charges. But the exception proves the rule. We are under more and more tacit surveillance using our Apple phones and computers.

What could Apple do to reengender trust among its users? Remove any calls to its servers without explicit authorisation from the OS or their own applications. For those who want a simpler experience, give them a global security setting which means something. Something like three simple options:

• No calls home without specific authorisation (i.e. manually checking for version and software updates).
• Anonymous information for updates without system profiles and for time with no location information.
• Full functionality for the best and simplest Apple experience.

Unfortunately I don't think it's going to happen.

Sooner or later if you value your privacy, a permanent exile in the Antarctic icecap with the other penguins looms. For political activists, Linux should be de rigeur as the starting OS. It's a little difficult for me at this point with decades now invested in expertise and productivity on Apple computers. I own and use dozens of great OS X only shareware programs as well as commercial graphics and video applications like Aperture, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro for which there are no adequate equivalents at the South Pole.

It's looking like a second computer is in line now for just private writing and private life. Even if you can't leave behind Microsoft, Google and Apple for your business life, you should get a second machine Linux machine which never goes online. Even an Apple computer would be fine, as long as you never ever plug it in. The recommendation is epoxy for the networking ports which include Ethernet and Firewire and removal of wireless functionality. DHCP is just too easy and tempting. You'll need to hold on to USB for backups.

By Alec

Apple’s Privacy Policies look more and more like Microsoft

Post from: Foliovision

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

Update 20100326: Spell Catcher rose from the dead recently when I just plugged in an old hard drive. I was totally unable to type in Open Office or TextEdit due to a "Alert: Couldn't Contact Spell Checker". It took another hour of chasing around info on forums and a full cache delete via TinkerTool System 2 to get rid of the Spell Catcher zombie. Even more annoying is Spell Catcher developer Evan Gross's aggressive attitude that this is Apple's fault and user error. I was on deadline for an article rewrite for press. Not fun.

Verdict: Avoid like the plague.

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

Bill wants to stop 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. 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.

Update: The background process I didn't like is actually the logging daemon. The test Bill does against other copies of BackTrack in use is done once at startup, according to Bill. If anyone has other information let me know, but as far as I can tell that's how it works.

I use BackTrack myself on my primary computer where I do most of my writing. I like it as it's easier to recapture missing text than any other solution. BackTrack is clever software well-executed and fairly priced.

Verdict: Highly Recommended.

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. BackTrack. BackTrack provides great safety and ease of use. The little bit of CPU and memory it costs me is worth it for the moment as with BackTrack restoring text is a pleasure rather than a chore. I wouldn't install or use it on a computer dedicated to heavy duty video editing or rendering though, as you want to keep such a rig as clean as possible. Normally one doesn't do much typing on such a rig. BackTrack is for people who write a fair amount.

In the meantime, I recommend either BackTrack or logKext depending on your level of technical expertise. As a free alternative, logKext is excellent but logKext requires substantially more technical expertise to install and troubleshoot.

By Alec

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

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Apple Mini DisplayPort Dual Link DVI Adapter MB571Z

Here's what recent reviews on Apple's own store say (just two of two hundred):

Flicker two or three times a day – GM, Dec. 9

I am a totally MAC fan. I love their stuff. It is always quality. This thing is awful. I depend on my monitor as I do a lot of photo work. I had an older macbook pro which had the DVI output. Ok, so I have buy a 100 adapter now, I am sort of ok with that. Then I find it takes up one of my USB ports as well. A little less happy, but give me a product that works. Now this… Two or three times a day I need to cycle this thing. Very poor. I really hope they fix this.

bad, bad, bad – VC, Dec. 9

This thing is junk. Sadly I have to re boot or put my computer to sleep at least three or four times a day because it goes out and comes back with the dreaded TV Snow we all hated as kids when the cable went out. Apple should have gotten this right by now. As a consumer and big spender on apple product I'm disappointed again. Windows 7 anyone? (Joke) Is Apple listening?

Apple Mini DisplayPort Dual Link DVI distortion

Straight out of the box with 10.5.6 and without SuperDrive EFI update 3.0 and Performance Update 1.0, the issues were extreme. Flickering every few minutes, with the screen lost in blurry double vision every half hour or so.

The only cure was to unplug the MiniDisplayport and replug it. Absurd remedy.

The adapter was on the fast track back to the store at that point.

The next step was to do some research about what is and what is not working. I updated everything to the most recent versions. It took about 4 cycles to get everything updates, but most of the changes were with iLife and iLife applications and Digital Raw compatibility. That was a good start. But there was one more step to go for success.

I'm on firmware 1.01. There is a 1.02 out there but apparently it can slow down response time for the screen. In this case, the cure might be worse than the disease. In any case the 1.02 firmware is not available for download.

The final step was to delete a couple of lurking preference files:

• Library —> Preferences —> com.apple.windowserver.plist (I don’t know why)
• User —> Library —> Preferences —> ByHost —> com.apple.windowserver.xxxxx.plist

Afterwards, you should the PRAM (Command-Option-P-R and reboot). Which I did, several times (I recommend keeping at least one Apple keyboard around for this sort of troubleshooting: I had to pull mine out of the closet). Often a single PRAM reset won't ferret out all of the lurking settings.

Immediately afterwards, the issues were far less. I could even turn my HP LP3065 display on and off without getting a fuzzy distorted picture. That's gone now and I get the fuzz whether I switch off the monitor and turn it on again or switch between displays. During work, the adapter works pretty consistently.

Apple Mini DisplayPort Dual Link DVI Snow

• unplug and replug MiniDisplay connector
• unplug and replug USB jack
• put the computer to sleep and wake it up

All of those are a hassle and involve hands leaving keyboards searching for small plugs (there's a good chance you'll knock Apple's magnetic power plug loose) or long waits.

But you don't need to go so far. There's a trick which makes the issues just bearable. Just sleeping the screen is enough.

There are two easy ways to sleep the display:

• press Shift-Control-Eject. Your display will turn off and your hands don't even need to leave the keyboard. If you use an Apple keyboard as your primary keyboard, this is the easiest and fastest.
• If you don't use an Apple keyboard, there is a way around it. Go into System Preferences —> Exposé and Spaces —> Exposé and set the lower left corner to Sleep Display. I chose the lower left corner as it's the one I visit least and it's never too far out of the way.

After you've slept the display, you can almost immediately just move the mouse to wake it up. The work interruption isn't more than a few seconds. Not exactly productive but a lot better than reaching for the plugs on the back of your computer.

The biggest time saver: if you think that you will be able to make this work perfectly yourself, give it up. I've even tried plugging the Dual DVI MiniDisplayport adapter's USB connector into another USB hub. No better results. Perhaps it would help with a laptop. But on a Mac Mini do plug in the USB connector to the USB plug farthest away from the MiniDisplayport.

Mac mini back late 2009 Mini DisplayPort USB

If you are thinking about buying alternative hardware, forget it. You'll need a male MiniDisplayport cable to female DisplayPort (1,2). That didn't exist a couple of months ago but exists now. But from there you'll need DisplayPort to Dual DVI. Dell has one but it also costs $100/€100 and also requires USB power. I.e. it looks like it wll cost more and be more complicated (extra MiniDisplayport to DisplayPort adapter).

If you are shopping for a new 30" monitor to use with Apple computers, I highly recommend buying one of those which comes with displayport in. Currently the Dell UltraSharp 3008WFP looks like the only one. Samsung announced in 2007 but didn't deliver: their 305T is still Dual DVI.

Personally, I find it incredible that Apple can't or won't fix this problem for their 30" monitor users. It makes them look incompetent and I'm sure it's costing them a lot of sales (I didn't buy one of their high end notebooks as a consequence). I'm an old Mac hand so I was able to find the resources necessary to get this issue partially under control. It took hours, as if I were on Windows. What a new Mac user would feel, I can hardly imagine.

If all of the above prevents you from buying a Mac Mini or a Macbook Pro, so be it. If you do want to go Apple (and we do), plan to avoid going with 30" monitors or buy Dell until this adapter issue is fixed.

Additional Resources

• Apple Support Threads 8680802 & (Warning: very long!) 8674416
• Gizmodo
• 9to5Mac
• DisplayBlog
• Michael Tsai (developer of EagleFiler and SpamSieve)
  My 15" Powerbook & Mini DisplayPort Improved

By Alec

Apple Dual DVI Mini DisplayPort Adapter MB571Z Problems Solved

Post from: Foliovision

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