Newton’s Lore

If you’ve got the latest Apple Developer tools installed, you’ll notice that attempting to ./configure the clamav-0.93 package doesn’t work because of a gcc compiler bug. The way I found around this is to “fink install gcc43″, then retry the configure command after having set the CC to be /sw/bin/gcc-4 and then you can make and make install as per usual.

Apple has released Common Criteria security tools for Mac OS X 10.5. There’s also an Apple Common Criteria support page with links to whitepapers and the not-yet-updated-for-Leopard Admin guide.

MacJournals has reprinted its article on why Input Managers shouldn’t be considered ‘plugins’, namely because they’re hacks, rather than interacting via a sanctioned plugin API.

Apple’s Security Update 2008-002 seems to break ssh based utilities, causing them to bus error when run. There is some discussion on the Apple support forum.

A recent article on Slashdot about using FireWire’s direct memory access (DMA) capabilities to rewrite memory on a Windows box reminded me a lot of the 1st place winning 2002 MacHack hack “FireStarter” perpetrated by Quinn, which wrote a QuickTime movie of burning flames on the screen of any Mac you plug in via FireWire. As mentioned on TidBITS at the time.

Some of Quinn’s hacks are here.

Somewhat tired of Thunderbird continually mysteriously hanging on me I downloaded and installed the current nightly trunk build. So far, not as much hanging, plus a new update every day, seemingly fixing some bugs (certainly crashing ones I experienced and reported). However it did seem to handle some account settings differently as it complained that my mail server didn’t support SMTP-AUTH, whereas it’d never complained about this previously. I managed to fix this by opening the ‘Account Settings’ panel, scrolling to the end where the Outgoing SMTP accounts are listed after all the accounts for receiving mail, and then unchecking the “Use username and password” option for the appropriate accounts.

From the Mac OS X 10.5.2 release notes, here are some of my observations: User Interface:

• Apple has added a Time Machine icon to the Menu bar (it can be turned on in the Time Machne control panel)
• The menus are less translucent (who would have thought with everyone complaining that that would have been a problem) and transparency can be turned off in the Desktop & Screen Saver preference pane
• List view is back in the Stacks (presumably they got a lot of complaints), and they have a new grid view background (presumably for better visibility)

It remains to be seen if they’ve added the Size column back to the Spotlight column view though.

Support for new things (ie you may want to try plugging some old stuff that didn’t work in again to see if it does now!):

• You can now iSync Samsung D600E and D900i phones
• Airports Express and Extreme now support more printers connected via USB
• New RAW camera formats supported:
  • Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III
  • Canon Powershot G9
  • Hasselblad CF-22
  • Hasselblad CF-39
  • Leaf Aptus 75s
  • Nikon D3
  • Nikon D300
  • Sony Alpha DSLR-A700
• Supports more 3rd party routers in iChat and Back To My Mac

Interesting bugs fixed:

• Fixed a problem when ejecting a CD could write to it! (presumably instead of just ejecting it)
• Fixed a problem where the Leopard Setup Assistant would re-appear (as noted in this TidBITs article by Glenn Fleishman)
• Mail now automatically disables the (unsupported) third-party plugin GrowlMail version 1.1.2 or earlier to avoid issues.
• Addresses “accuracy issues” with the web content filter (in Parental Controls) perhaps to now block unboxing porn?
• The computer will now shut down if an automatic disk repair does not succeed during startup. (Hopefully it tells you why it just shut down?)

Open source disk encryption software TrueCrypt is now available for the Mac platform. Release notes here.

Forensic, security and drive tool maker Wiebetech have been acquired by security company CRU-Dataport. Probably Wiebetech’s coolest product is the HotPlug which lets you isolate a computer from mains power and then transport it somewhere else. Great for that server move… Make sure you check out the HotPlug video and advanced video showing the cable pierce method. Note that when he mentions the plugs are hot, they’re at lethal mains voltage so you’d want to be careful what you’re doing.

Worried about the little green light on your MacBook, MacBook Pro or iMac turning on (Or rather, not turning on at an inopportune moment? Maybe you need an iPatch.