Everyday Nerd

The remote control tool LogMeIn Free for Mac was released today after a few months of beta testing. I wrote about the beta version, which is substantially unchanged in its release, in “LogMeIn Adds Remote Control for Mac,” 2007-06-11. The program allows you to connect to any of a group of computers that you have set up or that others have given you access to after the installation of a lightweight client. Little configuration is needed once you’ve registered the software and set up groups of machines.

The software is a little clunky working within a browser window, but it can traverse network address translation (NAT) gateways, a feature that lets you connect to otherwise unreachable computers. Leopard’s Screen Sharing feature can tunnel with inconsistent success, too, via Back to My Mac and iChat AV 4. (Back to My Mac works among a set of computers you register with a single .Mac account; iChat Screen Sharing requires you to grant or request permission for a buddy to see your screen or vice versa.) For a run-down of other options, see the TidBITS article noted above.

The company, eponymously named LogMeIn, also announced a beta of LogMeIn Rescue with Mac OS X support, extending their existing support for Windows. This tool, designed for remote technical support, lets a customer install a tiny applet with zero configuration to allow remote control; the beta includes Mac OS X remote control. The software costs $99 per month per technician paid as a lump sum of $1,188 for a year’s subscription, or $129 per month per support person for a single month’s service at a time.

Both products require Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5.

Source: “LogMeIn for Mac Released” — TidBITS

I know a lot of you Mac users are out there saying “I use a Mac, so I don’t have to use anti-virus program” - well guess what?  I had a user, just a little while ago report to me that she had a message from her anti-virus program (on a Mac G5) that a virus had been found, and repaired.

Here is a screen shot of the log file:

The virus was called Exploit-PhpBB, and will exploit a vulnerability in any forum using phpBB. 

Update:  The virus did NOT come from absoluteurban.com - it came from a healthcare website.

So, the moral of the story is this:  Use some sort of anti-virus program - no matter what OS you are running.

OK, so you went out and got yourself an iPhone, found out the root password (alpine) and have been having a ball hacking around in it… until you bricked it… uh oh…

No fear - now you can hack a restore image back onto your iPhone.

Download Image here

Source: http://www.hackint0sh.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1316

Happy hacking!

(Note, I don’t have an iPhone, so don’t ask me how to hack it…)

Source: http://www.binaryfortress.com/itunes-sync/

I personally don’t like iTunes, but I know that a lot of people do, so here you go…  I must say, that with this program, I *might* consider using it… nah… :)  All kidding aside, this add-on to iTunes is great for anyone that owns a non-iPod MP3 player.

iTune software has, until now, been only for iPod users.  Enter iTunes Sync: 

• Setup a playlist in iTunes that you want to sync to your MP3 player
• Configure your MP3 player in iTunes Sync by giving it a name, selecting an “identification file or folder” and selecting a playlist from iTunes

You can configure as many different MP3 players as you need and synchronize each one with the different iTunes’ playlists.

Adium is a free instant messaging application for Mac OS X that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber (Google talk), Yahoo, and more.

If you are on a mac, and need to chat, this is the software to do it with!