AppleSauce, December 2009 - South Australian Apple Users' Club

Musings...
The view from BC
Mike Millard
Recent Apple updates
In mid-November, Apple released the Mac
OS X 10.6.2 update. Amongst other things,
it fixed the bug that saw user accounts being
deleted after access to the Guest account on a
machine. But it also brought grief to hackers
who had installed Snow Leopard on netbook
computers running the Intel Atom processor.
By Apple’s rules, installing Mac OS X on
a non-Apple computer is a ‘No Way!: 10.6.2
looks for this set-up and will just refuse to run
on such netbooks.
Concurrently with the release of 10.6.2, Apple
released Security Update 2009-006 for Leopard’s
10.5.8. But, in keeping with its past
practice, Apple will not be issuing any more
security updates for Tiger (OS X 10.4).
How many user log-ons?
How many user log-ons do you have on your
Mac at home? For many people, I’d guess
just the one, that got set up when you set up
your Mac, and you likely have things set to log
yourself on automatically when you boot up.
It will be an administrative account, so you
can install new software, make changes, etc.
There is also a recommendation to create
separate log-ons for an Admin user and a
Updates, user accounts, a cautionary tale...
Standard user. You log on as the Standard
user to do your regular work, and only go on
as an Admin when you actually have to perform
some system maintenance. This way a
‘visitor’ who comes upon your machine while
it is logged on as Standard — or you! — cannot
do anything untoward inadvertently.
As an extension to this practice, I have found
it useful to set up a separate user log-on for
each additional function or project I work on
on my machine. I edit the ApplesBC newsletter
and keep the membership database of
another club on my machine. It is certainly
easier to work on these things when they are
not in amongst the files on my personal logon.
I make use of Fast Switching a lot. Often,
Mike and Editor are logged on at the same
time, with frequent switching between the
two. Fast Switching makes this easy.
(This set-up is just as applicable to a Windows
environment.)
“Thatcher is dead!”
This is a cautionary tale about how modern
communications technology is used nowadays.
The message “Thatcher is dead” was received
on smart phones in Toronto in mid-November,
at a gala held to pay tribute to the Canadian
military. The Canadian prime minister,
Stephen Harper, was present. Buzz went
quickly around the room: “Lady Thatcher has
passed away!”. Mr. Harper’s aide was despatched
to confirm the news with London,
and to begin preparing an official statement
of mourning.
It did not take long for word to come back
from the Olde Country that British PM Gordon
Brown’s office and Buckingham Palace
had no idea what the Canadians were on
about. “Lady Thatcher is very much alive!”
After about twenty minutes a correction
started circulating at the dinner.
Turns out the original was a terse message
from John Baird, the Canadian Transport
Minister, reporting the demortalisation of his
dear 16-year-old moggy. Baird had named
it out of admiration for one of his political
heroes.
November 2009
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