Membership to Mac-related online apps and sites adds to the unending thrill of being an Apple user, even if it means, like in my case, not  actually being as active or passionate in devoting the same amount of internet time as I used to as when I first signed up for these.

Somehow, Mac-related sites have always been kind of sleek, kind of more fun, requiring a bit more brain power than, say, Windows apps that seem designed with just end-user ‘fun’ in mind, a lot of smooth graphics and little else. This is not meant to be another of those “vs.” posts — never was a fan of that. It’s just how I see and experience it, having come from Windows since the DOS days.

Besides, I never can get into a “vs.” discussion in real life, especially if the discussants are hard core X vs. Y, “Apples vs. Oranges” kind of people.

Anyhow, great online apps and sites provide good diversions from routine and intensive brain+physical work. One such site is MacHeist. Not only are its games (called “Missions”) gems, the bundled apps they have given out so far are great.

While getting squeezed between two major activities in the past few days, I managed to respond to a November Macheist email notification because it was one the best bundles it has ever offered following the one in April ‘09.

MacHeist3 (the November edition, aka nanoBundle) includes the following apps:

• ShoveBox from WonderWarp, worth $24.95
• WriteRoom from hogbaysoftware, $24.95
• Twitterific from Iconfactory, $14.95
• TinyGrab from Keyone Productions, £10
• Hordes of Orcs from Freeverse , $24.95 (Win/Mac)
• Mariner Write from MarinerSoftware $49.95 (Win/Mac) - Mariner has loads of writing apps, by the way.
• and the highly-rated VirusBarrier X5 from Intego, $69.95

Except for Hordes of Orcs, I had been able to successfully download all apps as of this writing but have not installed all of them yet. I had used the early WriteRoom version previously and would be looking forward to what the latest has to offer. Meanwhile, still attempting to recover some personal time due to the two major events mentioned (and some other work in between that were not as loaded but were equally demanding of attention), I chose to install VirusBarrier X5 as a supplement to ClamXav.

By the way, I mention the thrill of being an Apple user but I can honesty say the Mac I work on is not all a smooth and easy ride. This Mac in particular is a 1st-generation MacBook Pro (ca. 2006) and its age is showing. It has, on the average, stayed on for 48 hours without shutting down. Its optical drive has been bricked by a nasty firmware update by Apple back in 2008, something, some say, Apple has hidden from the public: not a very noble move by Apple there. (NOTE: I dug up archived sites on this superdrive issue when I was looking for solutions which can be read here and here).

It’s a Mac Anti-Virus program

As the name suggests, VirusBarrier X5 is a virus scanner and anti-virus app for the Mac like ClamXav. It took about 2 hours and 15 minutes to scan the whole 80gb hard drive as it combed through 592,641-plus of combined apps and files.

VirusBarrier X5 interface design is a masculine feel, something the boys will love. It kind of reminds me of the Windows audio player app "Winamp".

The intital scan detected X97M/Yosenio.gen hidden within an Excel macro (.xla) file named “GhostWorld.xla” which, I discovered, was in the Mac. How I got this file is beyond me. Perhaps it was picked up by my USB drive after plugging it into the Windows computer at the neighborhood internet cafe a few weeks ago. (Strangely, all other GhostWorld associated files are dated “12/11/04, 5:29 pm” as revealed in Finder. It predates the Mac in which it now resides, and the installed Office applications, by two years.)

Since I had not run ClamXav after the period in which I suspect I got the Yosenio.gen file from the net cafe, there is no way for me to determine whether ClamXav could have detected or overlooked the file. I noticed that the Mac did exhibit certain unusual behaviors since that period, such as going through a soft crash or freezing up when I plugged in the USB wifi stick, etc. I did plug the USB thumb drive into my mother’s Windows laptop by mistake and, just as I had suspected, its default anti-virus scanner, McAfee, popped an alert faster than I could eject it.

Mac-ros

Ok, the point is Macs may be immune to Windows viruses but it serves as a temporary asylum in which these hibernate until such time that a device, such as a USB thumb drive, is stuck into its ports, and just as quickly as a Windows malware jumps into alien environment such as OS X, that it transfers  to an empty space in the removable device as it waits to be transported into another computer that it can infect or successfully cause trouble.

On the other hand, macro viruses are cross-platform viruses and can thrive in both Windows and Mac environments. Macros are helpful application commands designed to enhance certain features of, say MS Word or Excel files. However, since macros are not executable files and are document-related (e.g. they exist within an application’s files and do not need a command to invoke its execution), they are deemed more dangerous than trojans, worms and viruses.

I am always wary about getting Windows viruses because I’d like to avoid being responsible for infecting another computer, specifically a Windows-based computer. The Windows malware may not wreak havoc on the Mac and I can just proceed to work as usual, without any worry of my files being corrupted and such, because Windows malware are programmed to sniff out specific Windows files to play hookey with. But because the Mac serves as convenient transport zone for these suspicious files — as long as they stay undisturbed in a ’safe’ place (other than the Trash) — that it still makes me very wary of them. Having said that, if one is running Windows on a Mac, it is just as wise to install a Windows-based anti-virus program for one’s protection.

I’ve decided to keep VirusBarrier X5 inspite of my limited hard drive space. It puts an icon on the menu bar for instance access to its other features, and another icon in the dock. It is an unintrusive app that provides real-time scanning without hogging my limited resources. ClamXav, meanwhile,  can slow down my work during background scans, by the way.

I’m quite happy with VirusBarrier X5, and grateful that an excellent site like MacHeist, which has provide my license, has included this app in its bundle and have donated part of the ‘loot’ to charity in the process. I can’t wait to give the other applications a try and for the next bundle to come along.

Well done, Macheist and Intego.

The Guardian.co.uk’s landmark compilation of stories of 40 years of the Internet — and by those who make up the Internet: people like you and I — presents the most attractive Internet timeline just yet.

Scanning through online aggregator’s snippets, specifically of favorite, minimalist popurls.com’s site, led me to the 40-year tapestry of stories in short but very engaging prose. The linear web of accounts outlines the most important and updated milestones in the ‘Net’s continuing story that I simply feel compelled to share it here, especially to the generation that may not understand the exhilaration associated with (nor recognize the sound of) a digital modem handshake: the generation reared in broadband speed and e-games or playing “house” for hours in their chairs clicking away on their keyboards, or being highly dependent on online search engines — if not their cellphone keypads — for their homework.

 

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…the first message (only the “L-O” of the word “L-O-G-I-N” travelled from UCLA to SRI before the first ‘Net crash…

 

 

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Vinton Cerf et al. published a proposal to link up Arpa-like networks. (It) is notable for containing the first published use of the word "internet"

⇔

The year 1969 is notable for many significant events.

In the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos was reelected for another 4-year term; The Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati (then, a municipality of Rizal Province, now, a city of Metropolitan Manila) had its campus groundbreaking and admitted its first batch of students[1].

In the Middle East, Moammar Khaddafy staged a coup and ousted Libya’s King Idris. In Asia, “the United States, governments of South and North Vietnam, and the Viet Cong met for the first plenary session of peace talks in Paris, France” [2|"American Assistance to the South"], yet Cambodia was at the receiving end of the USA’s B-52 bombs[3] as exposed in the New York Times by William Beecher the same year.  Meanwhile, Andy Warhol and Gerald Malanga co-founded Interview Magazine[4], The Boeing 747, which we grew up to know as the “Jumbo Jet”, took off ground for the first time [5] (as did France’s Concorde in its test flight). Dorothy Fisher became the first female heart transplant recipient under Dr. Christian Barnaard [6], and the first manned spaceflight lands on the moon [7].

Oh, that generation’s version of homeschooling, Sesame Street, premiered in the US the same year, too, and many Filipinos of the 70s, including myself, learned English grammar and alphabet from people interacting with puppets. In the flesh and beauty arena, dusky 18-year old Gloria Diaz made headlines for winning the Philipines’ first Miss Universe crown.

(if video above does not load, watch it here)

In the same year, Seiko unveiled the first quartz watch [8], the microprocessor chip was born [9], and UNIX was developed by Bell Labs [10].

⇔

This post is populated by information made possible in one sitting without getting off my chair, as I, like many from today’s generation who I mean to address, and from the generation ahead of mine, am a beneficiary of all the events mentioned above; but, more profoundly, by this much less significant event in 1969 that is now capable of calling back the past at one’s behest.

The Guardian.co.uk calls it’s project A People’s History of the Internet and starts with the ARPANET research project that was borne out of the Cold War.

These days, many attribute the Internet as this generation’s “great leveler”. It is  just 40 years old, yet, like many of the darkened areas of the world maps back in those days, the internet — as technology and way of life — has still to touch the world’s majority population.

I wonder what people’s history will be like, how the ‘Net will play out in the next 40 years, if we only look back to any of the these significant events, and learn, particularly from those that deal with conflict, crises and territoriality, to build a better world for others from here.

…or why decent, proprietary Internet access remains a dream for the Filipinos in the Philippines while Finland enforces rules[1] to make Internet access a legal right for all by 2010.[2]

HUWEI E1552
HW v. CD6ATCPU
FW v. 11.608.10.00.00
Mac OS 10.4

The Philippines will probably take decades to even catch up with Finland at this point as it has other Internet and computer technology-related issues to deal with.

And so, I write this post, a follow-up post to an earlier one about Globe Tattoo (Postpaid). I am posting this from a neighborhood internet cafe as sending a 786kb zipped file attachment was a painful experience all day today.

It also did not help that Gmail was both slow to load and even slower in uploading the file. I wasn’t sure if the slowness in the Tattoo connection had anything to do with Google and Gmail’s much slower response time which resulted in my being disconnected several times.

Another recent development with regards Globe Tattoo is how its desktop interface freezes up on manual disconnection.

I have had to force-quit the app several times today. Out of 6 attempts, 4 of them would quit on the Option+Command+Escape window, but remain among the open apps that show up on Alt+Tab toggle command.

I had to do a hard reset 4 times just today because of it; this is not good for the laptop.

Anyone else had a similar experience with Globe Tattoo, especially recently?

WP Notes

By the way, this is my first ever post using a 14in. monitor at the ‘net cafe and, my, do I miss the real estate of the home-based portable.

I am posting on the WP “HTML” view option on Windows XP and IE 6.0(!!!) as the “Visual” view messes up the widgets to the right, causing them to stay on top of the post window.

Oh well.

HUWEI    E1552
HW v. CD6ATCPU
FW v. 11.608.10.00.00

I understand that the recent typhoons rendered some base stations and cellsites damaged by Ondoy/Ketsana last week, resulting in a slowdown in most cell networks, Globe included.

While Peping/Parma hovers over the north-eastern part of Luzon as of this writing, Globe Tattoo’s USB wifi connection has been painfully slow.

It’s 4 am in Quezon City and I had not gone past any significant webpage, viewed sites or uploaded/downloaded attached files successfully from Gmail. I am on WCDMA network now in which my download speed is at 39 kbps and upload at 1.6kbps.

I’m supposed to be getting better bandwidth because almost everyone in the Philippines is asleep, thereby freeing up some data transfer rates but there is no marked difference between WCDMA now and GPRS an hour ago. It does not help that the remote server keeps on disconnecting &emdash thrice since 1am earlier &emdash if not an “error in connection” from unknown reasons.

I had been viewing email on Gmail using the basic HTML version for a week just so that I can successfully open and respond to several mails.

Are we getting a raw deal from this postpaid Globe Tattoo USB wifi stick? Should I tweak the firmware to make this connection alive and moving? Should I dump it in favor of Sun USB wifi modem which has been getting favorable feedback from users in the past month, or SmartBro PlugIt which has been a second choice of several mobile wifi users?

What gives, Globe?

If I were to rate this from 1-5, with 5 as “recommended”, I’d give this a “1″, unfortunately.

I created an ALL ONDOY SHOUTOUT PAGE for information on rescue and donations, a CENTRAL HUB, a DISASTER MAP and Twitter posts.

Watch a visualisation of all posts on ONDOY in the Twittersphere.

Please help when you can.

Currently needed for donations:

CANDLES

READY-TO-EAT FOOD that will NOT spoil

TOWELS, TOWELETTES

ALCOHOL

DIAPERS

Also, NEW intimate wear for the women/girls and men/boys
SLIPPERS
MATS
MATCHES
BAGS for their belongings
FOOD HOLDERS or VESSELS to hold relief food.

Thank you.

Billy Corgan has finally announced on 16 September 2009 new updates and plans for the upcoming album to be called Teargarden by Kaleidyscope “…beginning around Halloween of this year…” | [late Nov-early Dec 2009, PHI time]

The best thing about this announcement — besides a box set with accompanying glorious artwork (as usual) — is:

Each song will be made available absolutely for free, to anyone anywhere. There will be no strings attached. Free will mean free, which means you won’t have to sign up for anything, give an email address, or jump through a hoop. You will be able to go and take the song or songs as you wish, as many times as you wish.

Not only is this offer a generous one, it comes directly from a band which knows how the Internet works in the most equitable way that fans can enjoy its music.

The full announcement and SP’s blog can be read in one the web’s most visually satisfying sites here.

And so it’s great that a boxed set will available, and I am hoping to get a hold of it, too. It would make a fine match to my other SP set that’s been in the collection by its lonesome for some time now.

Also, read Billy Corgan’s new personal site everythingfromheretothere.com

~/K

with heads up from /tribeofnoise a great follow for things music. | tribeofnoise.com

I am listening to all of Nature’s collection of drum rolls in its arsenal right now.

~ 2:29 pm, Quezon City

Post scriptum

Really, when Nature puts on a show, everybody halts to listen, watch or do some inward reflection.

After all, what else can we do when caught in a light show in the mid-afternoon, with incessant rolling and barreling and banging of the skies above, and a burst, an unstoppable flow of the skies’ mighty waters that rushes our negligence away.

And then, a deafening silence. And a sigh. And then the sound of every body’s routine creeping back in, slowly breaking the hush, taking over what was, for a few minutes there, a reminder of our fragility.
~ 3:27pm

http://www.philippineblogawards.com.ph

An animated short to promote Swarovski’s crystal line by Mr. Court Productions.

I also love the illustrations of Brigette Barager. “Camille”, “Theo”, “Pierre” and “Marie” are like my cats.
- – - – - – - – - – - – -

Credits
Directed by Courtland Lomax
Music by Brian Young
Compositing by Ethan Metzger
Backgrounds and Designs by Brigette Barrager
Layouts by Sean Jimenez

Animation:
Adam Muto
Jules Soto
Shiyoon Kim
Bert Youn
Matthais Bauer
Eric Fountain
Courtland Lomax
Leo Matsuda
Matt Pugnetti
Jennifer Hager
David Nam

Cleanup:
Sean Jimenez
Esther Shin
Jinyoung Park
Juliana Park
Kelli Kuest
Matt Pugnetti

Michael Jackson, performer and compleat artist Aug. 29, 1958-June 25, 2009

Thanks to Garry, co-founder of Posterous.com’s Michael Jackson tribute page, from whom I read about this. Truly a post worth re-republishing.