the JoshMeister's Weblog

A conversation with Steve Jobs: a dream

2011-10-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

I just awoke from a dream. In it, I met and had a conversation with Steve Jobs shortly before his death.

Steve and I met in a casual setting. We encountered each other by chance in an Apple Store. Of course, in reality our conversation would have probably been cut short as he was mobbed by hordes of adoring fans. But somehow, this didn't happen.

In my dream, Steve was walking through the store, and suddenly he paused by a video or a still image of the Safari logo on the wall. He suddenly stopped and asked nobody in particular though facing the direction of my friend and me, "What browser do you use?" Somehow I sensed that he was talking about mobile browsers, so I answered, "Safari, of course." At this point in my dream, the person I was with at the store faded into the background as Steve began asking me questions.

"Why?" he asked aloud. He wanted to know why I used Safari on the go rather than any other browser. I explained to him that it simply offered the best browsing experience, the same rich experience as the desktop; you get to see the whole Web page, wherever you are, without being dumped to an awful "mobile-friendly" version of a site. I explained how my relative youth and good eyesight influenced my desire to see the actual site scaled down on a Retina display. Oddly, I think at this point we walked several feet over to some sort of tall apparatus in the store and Steve began testing my eyes while we continued our conversation. (Hey, dreams aren't always terribly realistic.) I discussed how people of my parents' generation (roughly the same as Jobs' but a little older) may have a different opinion about reading text so small on such a small screen, in spite of the fine resolution of the iPhone. I explained that I had been thinking about a solution to the problem. Steve smirked a bit as I explained that obviously they couldn't use a garish round magnifying glass to see the screen better, and I told him that I had been pondering a solution, including the possibility of a seamless, smooth, flat, magnifying layer with tapered edges that could be placed on top of the iPhone's display surface (in reality, I had never imagined such a thing prior to my dream).

Steve pondered my responses and continued his inquisition. I reveled in the opportunity to have my brain picked by the master. I secretly wondered for a moment if this would lead me to a job in the creative inner circle at Apple. The conversation then shifted to what type of phone my mother uses. I began to tell him about how I had tried to convince my mom to buy an iPhone but she hadn't yet. The wheels in his head were turning. Steve's brilliant mind was trying to figure out what could be done—what he could do—to capture the imagination of those who didn't yet use an iPhone. His inner passion was to bring the world to nirvana though embracing great technology. "What does she use?" he inquired. "Some stupid flip-phone, a Samsung I think. Just some horrible dumbphone." I explained that I had shown her several of my iPhone's features that I believed she would enjoy using, but that every time I did she always cut me off and said that was enough. (This is not reality, by the way. My mom actually does want an iPhone and is considering getting one.) I expressed my incredulity about her not comprehending that an iPhone would simplify her life, that she would never again have to take horribly grainy pictures on her low-res dumbphone camera, that she would be able to sync all her photos to her iPhoto library and check her e-mail in Mail while on the go. I then explained that she did, however, have an iPad, and that she uses it for Mail—but mostly she just uses it to play Words With Friends with her retired friends and current coworkers (this is reality).

At some point as the conversation continued, we were far from the Apple Store, lying on our backs in a grassy field staring up at the sky while discussing how to bring the world to technological enlightenment. Somehow, he and I both knew that his time remaining on the earth was short. We shared this bit of knowledge through an unspoken connection between us, and others who had been near us in the Apple Store seemed unaware of this most unfortunate fact. But for the most part, Steve seemed at peace with it. He was just trying to make the most out of the little time he had left. Perhaps this all took place after he resigned as CEO. But somehow, I knew, and he knew that I knew.

I awoke. This, of course, was all just a dream. A fantasy. But I was grateful to have had the opportunity to speak with Steve Jobs before his death about the thing he was most passionate about in life: making the world a better place through great technology.

Although I don't normally have cool dreams like this, you can follow me and my passion for technology and other things on Twitter and Google+.

Netflix Doesn't Care About You

2011-07-12T23:59:00.000-07:00

If you're a current Netflix customer with a DVD or Blu-ray plan and you also stream movies with Watch Instantly, Netflix has a clear message for you: We're lowering our prices (which really means we're jacking them up sky-high, but you're stupid enough to believe us, right?), and if you don't like it, buzz off; we don't really even care about you, anyway.

Let me provide some context. Prior to today, Netflix already offered a $7.99/month plan for streaming only (or "Watch Instantly" in Netflix parlance). If you wanted to rent DVDs by mail, you paid $9.99/month and you also got streaming as a bonus (originally there was no streaming-only plan, and streaming was first introduced as a bonus for DVD customers). If you wanted the option to get Blu-ray discs instead of DVDs for titles where Blu-ray was available, you paid an additional $2/month.

Today Netflix announced that they're now offering a DVD-only plan for $7.99/month, a totally new option. Good for them; everyone should be happy, right? Well unfortunately that's not the only change Netflix made. The company also announced that it will be increasing the cost of the DVD plus streaming plan from the current $9.99/month to $15.98/month ($7.99 + $7.99; you pay full price for both the DVD and streaming plans, with no discount for bundling the two).

So basically, you get absolutely no improvement to your service whatsoever, but you now have to pay 60% more (an additional $6 more per month, which translates into $72 more per year) than you were paying before, and you get nothing new in return.

Remember how I said you could pay an additional $2 more per month on top of the old $9.99 plan to get Blu-ray discs when available? Netflix didn't say anything in their announcement about Blu-ray, but logging into https://www.netflix.com/SubscriptionChange confirms that there will still be an additional $2/month Blu-ray fee on top of the new $15.98/month plan. This means that if I decided to go with the new Blu-ray and streaming plan (which Netflix intends to opt me into on September 1st), I would go from paying $11.99/month to $17.98/month (over $215/year). Notably, more than half of what's in my disc queue right now is only available on DVD, not Blu-ray.

So why am I bothering to write a big ol' rant about all this? Netflix is a business, and it has the right to change its pricing structure and plans as it sees fit. I just find it extremely disappointing that a company that has historically been an innovator and leader in movie rentals is taking a major turn in the wrong direction with this egregious price hike (while simultaneously claiming to be "offering our lowest prices ever" in typical doublespeak PR-spin fashion). Maybe on some level this move could benefit the company, since Netflix will likely increase its revenue even if a significant percentage of current DVD or Blu-ray customers were to abandon Netflix completely or switch to one of the $7.99 plans. On the other hand, it's a fact that Netflix is going to lose loyal customers over this, and it's going to damage the company's perception amongst potential, current, and soon-to-be former customers.

If you're frustrated with Netflix over this boneheaded move, don't worry; there are plenty of options available to you. I'm not aware of other companies that offer a subscription plan that includes both discs and non-disc rentals for one flat rate, but you can easily mix and match from various services if you're unwilling or unable to pay Netflix's burdensome new prices.

If you want streaming or downloadable rentals:

Hulu (hulu.com) offers streaming of many TV shows and movies for free (with advertisements)
Hulu Plus costs $7.99/month and offers access to more content in higher definition on more devices, and although it unfortunately doesn't preclude you from advertisements, it may be a better fit for you than Netflix if you're more interested in TV shows than movies
Amazon Instant Video (amazon.com/video) currently has about 6,000 videos (movies and TV episodes) for individual rental or purchase, all of which can be viewed at no additional charge for Amazon Prime members (Amazon Prime gives you free two-day shipping on all Amazon-fulfilled orders for a flat rate of $79/year, which breaks down to about $6.58/month)
Apple's iTunes Store (apple.com/itunes) has lots of movies and TV shows for individual rental or purchase (no monthly subscription option is available)
Blockbuster (blockbuster.com) offers individual streaming rentals (some of which are free), but their software is only compatible with Windows and their device support is rather limited
You can downgrade your Netflix plan to $7.99/month for unlimited streaming only (https://www.netflix.com/SubscriptionChange)

If you want DVD or Blu-ray rentals:

Redbox (redbox.com) is a really inexpensive option (typically $1 or $1.50 per DVD/Blu-ray, which you rent from a local kiosk), but their selection is very limited and mostly consists of popular new releases plus a few video games
You can try your local video rental store for items that Redbox doesn't stock (search your local phone directory or try searching bing.com/local or maps.google.com for the phrase 'video rental near' followed by your city and state)
Blockbuster also has a rent by mail plan for $11.99/month (with Blu-ray and video game rentals included) which allows up to 5 trade-ins per month at local Blockbuster stores (which is great if you still have a Blockbuster store in your area) and claims to get some new releases up to 28 days before Netflix and Redbox
You can downgrade your Netflix plan to $7.99/month for DVDs only, or $9.99/month with Blu-rays included (https://www.netflix.com/SubscriptionChange)

Do you know of any other good Netflix alternatives? Please leave a comment.

As for my family, we're not the least bit interested in spending over $215/year on movie rentals, and we're strongly considering putting our account on hold on August 30th for 90 days (https://www.netflix.com/AccountHold) to give Netflix a chance to reconsider its pricing structure, after which we'll probably cancel our membership. Frankly, this could be a good opportunity for Netflix customers to consider cutting out some distractions in their lives to focus on more important things.

Missing Friends in Japan

2011-03-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

When I was a young boy in the 1980s, my family used to host Japanese students at our home, and we even had one stay with us for a year. In 1989, my parents and I visited Japan for a month and stayed with some of their families and met many wonderful people.

As you can imagine, last week when the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, I was immediately concerned about all our old friends there. Thankfully, Google Person Finder was quickly updated to include a registry for people seeking information (or able to provide information) about people in Japan who might have been affected by the disasters. At the time I'm posting this, there are over 161,000 name records in the registry.

So far I've only received information about one person that we've added to the registry, who thankfully was in Peru at the time of the disasters (although I suspect her house in Sendai may have been damaged). I have not yet heard anything about three families that we added to the registry a couple days ago. If you have any information on the following people, please submit an update to Google Person Finder via the links below and post a comment here on this blog.

Hisako Abe from the Aoba-ku area of Sendai
Yuji and Mari Mori from Natori City (Miyagi Prefecture)
Yuji and Erika Hayasaka from Ishinomaki (Miyagi Prefecture), who have at least two young children: a boy about age 9, and a girl about age 5 or 6

UPDATE, 5 June 2011: All of these names have been removed from Google Person Finder, but I still have not heard anything about these families. If you have any information about these families, please leave a comment. I review all comments on this blog before publishing them, so please specify if you wish for your comment to remain private.

UPDATE, 8 October 2011: We heard from Erika this week! She and her family are fine, but her car and her workplace were destroyed and about 7,000 people from their city lost their lives.

We know many other people from Japan, but these are the only people for whom we have a mailing address who live in the area of Japan most affected by the disasters. We have not had contact with these friends within the past couple years, so they may have moved since we last spoke with them.

If you have any information about other people from Japan, please check Google Person Finder and submit the information you have.

Please consider making a donation to a reputable organization participating in relief efforts, for example the American Red Cross or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Here are direct links for making secure donations online:

Donate to the American Red Cross - Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami
Donate to Latter-day Saint Charities Humanitarian Aid Fund

Also, if you are a religious person, please keep the people of Japan in your prayers. It is easy for those of us who have not been directly affected by a disaster to forget about what has happened, but many people are suffering due to the loss of everything they had, including and especially their loved ones.

Over 1 Million Podcasts Downloaded!

2011-01-22T20:04:00.000-08:00

This week I reached a significant milestone as a podcaster:

My podcasts have been downloaded over 1 million times!

I'm most well known for the JoshMeister's LOST Podcast, which accounted for the largest share of episode downloads. The podcast I currently produce is MacTech Live, the official podcast of MacTech Magazine. You can find links to all my shows, past and present, at http://podcasts.thejoshmeister.com

Some people who deserve special thanks include:

Ryan Ozawa, founder of the Lost Podcasting Network, without whom my LOST podcast probably never would have become as popular as it was
Orien Colmer (Big-O), who became a good friend of mine through LOST podcasting, was later a host on my short-lived Tech Pulse podcast, and cohosted MacMod:LIVE (the precursor to MacTech Live) with me
Anthony King, cofounder of MacMod, who was a regular host on Tech Pulse and invited Orien and me to start MacMod:LIVE
Neil Ticktin, editor-in-chief and publisher of MacTech Magazine, who kept the podcast alive after acquiring MacMod
Alex Castex-Porter (congested), Jack and Jay Glatfelter from The Lost Podcast with Jay & Jack, Andy Page (DarkUFO), Josh Spivack (Spivvy) and Amanda Hafer from The Lost Flashbacks Podcast, Cliff Ravenscraft from GSPN's Weekly Lost Podcast, Matt and Steve from The Smoke Hatch, Curt Yanko from the Black Rock LOST Podcast, Jon Lachonis (DocArzt), Sam McPherson from Lostpedia, Master Nak, diesel929, baileybear, KateJack, kane, MsAmaris, shelley5, James721, PsychoBabblinMom, Robin C., Aerc, Matthew K., Bob Naidus, Judy L., Mark Hunter from Podcast User Magazine, Mister Payne, Jeff Roney from RoneyZone Radio, Code 42, Audioengine, LogMeIn, and the many others who have participated in, promoted, donated to, or sponsored any of my shows

To everyone who has downloaded my podcasts, thanks a million!

Why YOU Should Attend MacTech Conference!

2010-10-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

I recently posted just a brief mention of it, but I felt I should explain in greater detail why

I'm more excited about MacTech Conference than I've ever been about a conference, even CES or Macworld.

Did that get your attention? If you're a geek, it should have—and you should read on to find out why I'm so excited about it!

When and where?

MacTech Conference is just around the corner—November 3–5, 2010. It's based at the Sheraton Universal Hotel, just around the corner from Universal Studios Hollywood, near Los Angeles. This is an amazing hotel which recently underwent a $30 million renovation. It's also near the historic Griffith Observatory (I'll get back to that). There's more information on the hotel and travel here.

Who will be there, and who's it for?

MacTech Conference is primarily for IT professionals, developers, and other geeks who use, manage, or develop for Apple products like the Mac, iPhone, and iPad. People from numerous companies and organizations will be in attendance, including Apple, Google, Disney, Sony Pictures, Adobe, Texas Instruments, Parallels, VMware, Western Digital, a number of science and technology labs, lots of universities including MIT and Stanford, several school districts, and many others.

The keynote speaker is Andy Ihnatko, the beloved Chicago Sun-Times tech journalist and co-host of MacBreak Weekly on Leo Laporte's This Week in Tech podcast network. Macworld VP and Editorial Director Jason Snell will host a special panel discussion on trends in virtualization with representatives from VMware and Parallels, including the inventor of Parallels Desktop. There are a number of other speakers covering a variety of topics, including Misha Leder from Google, Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster, Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software, Adium and Growl developer Peter Hosey, and more. And of course, I'll be there too. ^_^

With hundreds of attendees rather than thousands, MacTech Conference is the perfect size for a conference of its kind. It's big enough that you're guaranteed to meet lots of new people, make new friends and connections, and get to personally meet and chat with a wide array of great people from the Apple community. It's small enough that you won't get lost in an enormous mob of attendees. In part, it's very much in the style of TED or "unconferences" where everyone in attendance is viewed as an equally important person, and the presenters are also there to learn from everyone else.

What is there to do at the conference?

MacTech Conference is so much more than just sitting and listening to people speak. It's a fully immersive experience, with entertainment and all meals included.

On the first night of the conference, attendees get an exclusive evening at the beautiful Griffith Observatory and planetarium. When I say exclusive, I mean the observatory will close early that day just so our group can have private access for the evening.

While we're on the space theme, MacTech Conference will also host the first public showing outside a university or research setting of Mac-based planetary exploration rovers controlled by iPod touch, demonstrated by Professor Wolfgang Fink from the University of Arizona and formerly from Caltech—read more about the rovers here.

On the second night, we'll all head over to Jillian's for another exclusive evening of entertainment (dinner included, of course), featuring bowling, billiards, and video games including Guitar Hero.

Anything else?

Yep! Attendees also get a one-year subscription to MacTech Magazine (or a one-year extension for current subscribers), a conference t-shirt, and (optionally) their name and details listed in the conference directory for networking with others at the conference. If you want to get an Apple certification, you can take a certification exam on the last day of the conference (more about that below). The main conference page teases that "there will be a few surprises along the way, too."

How can I attend?

Register as soon as possible; the conference is coming up fast! If you register by Friday, October 29th, 2010, you either get a free Apple certification exam (worth $200) with the full conference price of $899, OR you get $100 off the price of registration (bringing the conference price—including all meals and entertainment—down to $799). Hotel accommodations are extra, but you have your choice of hotels in various price ranges (I recommend calling the Sheraton first to ask whether rooms and special conference rates are still available), and if you need to reduce your expenses you can split a room with another attendee or stay with someone you know who lives in the L.A. area.

To get one of these conference registration discounts (through October 29th), and to let MacTech know that I invited you, register here:

http://bit.ly/mactechconf

If you can't make it, please share this with friends or coworkers who might be interested in attending.

I hope to see you at MacTech Conference!

Meet me at MacTech Conference!

2010-09-07T12:13:00.000-07:00

To all my readers who might be IT professionals or developers, I want to let you know that I'll be at MacTech Conference from November 3-5, 2010 in Los Angeles. It's going to be a really fun event, and I'd love to meet you there!

For more details and a link to save $100 off registration, please see my post about MacTech Conference on my security blog.

Telltale Games Cheats Strong Bad Fans, Mac Gamers

2010-03-01T00:49:00.000-08:00

Strong Bad gives Telltales Games
the "Double Deuce"

I was so excited when Telltale Games announced it was going to bring its games to the Mac. I only knew about the company because it developed Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (SBCG4AP), a popular PC and WiiWare game based on the Homestar Runner universe. I was thrilled to find out that Telltale Games was even going to let people vote on which game would be the second one to get ported to Mac (the first was Tales of Monkey Island, which was released simultaneously with the Mac announcement). Strong Bad should have been a shoo-in; it was up against Sam & Max and Wallace & Gromit, and early numbers indicated that the latter wasn't even close to getting the most votes.

Naturally I was dismayed when the announcement came that Sam & Max had won (by a very, very slim margin; I checked the votes earlier in the day). But it wasn't a fair fight at all. The good folks at Telltale Games made a critical error in the voting form; Sam & Max (which was listed first) had its vote button preselected, so anyone who accidentally submitted the form without first changing their selection would unintentionally cast a vote for Sam & Max. But that wasn't the only problem. To make matters worse, the form only allowed one vote per IP address. If you accidentally voted for the default selection instead of the one you really wanted, you had no way of changing your vote or casting an additional vote for the one you had intended to vote for. Furthermore, there was no way to check on the current status of the poll before voting, so some people probably cast their one and only vote for Sam & Max when they expected to be able to go back and cast a vote after finding out who was winning so far.

What about households with more than one gamer? Since only one person per IP address could vote, whoever got there first stole the opportunity from everyone else who lived in the same home, worked at the same company, or otherwise shared the same IP address with other gamers. I understand trying to prevent clever individuals from stuffing the ballot box using methods such as deleting cookies or voting with multiple browsers or multiple computers, but one vote per IP address simply wasn't a fair way to do things because it prevented many people from being able to cast a vote at all. And what's more, for most home users it's actually fairly trivial to change one's IP address and vote again, so even restricting the poll to one vote per IP address couldn't really have prevented determined individuals from voting as many times as they wanted to.

Perhaps prefilling the voting form wasn't an oversight after all. Might it have been a devious plot by the company (or at least the webmaster) to give their favorite game the edge it needed to win the vote? Maybe Telltale Games had already been working on porting Sam & Max to Mac and didn't want to put it on hold to work on Strong Bad, so they decided to give Sam & Max a little boost. Whatever the case, Telltale Games did a disservice to Mac gamers with their loaded poll and overly restrictive measures to try to prevent ballot box stuffing.

Thanks a lot, Telltale Games. I mean, seriously, thank you for turning to the light side and committing to Mac development, and thanks in advance for eventually bringing Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People to the Mac, but no thanks for your bias towards that other game.

Oh, and when SBCG4AP finally comes out for Mac, I want a review copy. Thanks, ol' pals! =)

First Impressions of Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard

2009-08-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to the Apple Store for the launch of Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard. Here's a video with some of my initial thoughts and notes, followed by a few additional details.

You can get Snow Leopard at a discount from Amazon through this link. As of when I'm posting this, it's only $25 with free shipping!

Following are some of the notes I took at the Apple Store (some of which made the cut to this video).

Apps that I tested and found to still work fine in Snow Leopard:

Security notes:

Safari: the Status Bar is still hidden by default
Finder: file name extensions are still hidden by default
CoreTypes now detects two specific types of Mac malware when downloaded from specific applications such as Safari—read more about this at my security blog—but all other malware is not detected, nor is the eicar.org test file

Other random stuff:

New autocorrection feature: In TextEdit, if you type "eicar" it autocorrects to vicar, even if you put it in quotation marks. Weird. Apparently autocorrect is a new feature, but it's not very smart. Autocorrect should fix typos, not completely change the word. The letter e and the letter v are far away from each other on the keyboard. Autocorrect is interesting, though; it automatically fixes misspelled words like keybord, keybored, keybaord, keyborad, even kybord, etc. It doesn't fix certain common typos like accidentally hitting the m key when trying to hit the comma, such as keyboardm, housem, applem, etc.
Screenshots are still saved on the desktop, but now the filename makes it clear that the file is a screenshot and gives it a name based on the date and time it was taken, e.g. "Screen shot 2009-08-28 at 9.23.21 AM". It's saved as a .PNG file.
Wi-Fi signal strength now shows up in the AirPort menu for each access point, not just the one to which you're currently connected
Trimming movies is super easy in the new QuickTime Player; it works very similarly to the iPhone 3GS
The final build of 10.6 is Build 10A432
There's no visible difference between .RTF and .RTFD files in the Finder; two files in the same folder that in reality have different names look like they both have the same name because the file extension is hidden by default
I don't know yet whether iChat videoconferencing works between 10.5 and 10.6 because I didn't have a 10.5 machine in the store with which to test it. Video chat is not possible between 10.4 and 10.5, but I'm hopeful that 10.5 and 10.6 may be compatible

My related sites:

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and other social networks: http://social.thejoshmeister.com
Check out my computer security blog at http://security.thejoshmeister.com
Subscribe to my podcasts at http://podcasts.thejoshmeister.com

Google Picasa: How to Fix the "Localhost" Image Problem

2009-05-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

Picasa is Google's photo management application for Mac, Windows, and Linux. (I've always thought that Picasa for Mac was kind of redundant seeing how iPhoto comes preinstalled on every new Apple computer, but I digress.) Today my wife installed Picasa on our iMac because her sister, who uses Picasa on Windows, recommended it for creating photo collages for her blog. I got my first taste of the program when my wife informed me that when she tried to post the photo collage she'd created, she could see it in her browser, but her sister couldn't see it when she viewed the blog on her PC. Naturally, since I'm the one-man tech support staff for our home, I had to investigate.

I quickly found the problem. I opened Picasa and found the collage that my wife had made. When I clicked on the BlogThis! button, then selected the blog, layout, and image size I wanted and then clicked Continue, I was given something that looked like this:

<div style='text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;'><a href='http://localhost:63927/748c32b0f480bb22083a99404387413a/image/60488be178128f6b.jpg'><img src='http://localhost:63927/748c32b0f480bb22083a99404387413a/image/60488be178128f6b.jpg?size=400' border='0' alt='' /></a> </div>

My wife is savvy enought to know that that's HTML code, and she knew how to copy and paste it into her blog, which she did. When I looked at the code, I instantly saw what the problem was: the server on which the images were supposed to be located was "localhost".

For those who might be unfamiliar with the term, localhost is a fancy way of saying "the computer I'm currently using." Web browsers can use localhost (or the IP address 127.0.0.1) as a way of pointing to the selfsame computer to view a locally hosted image, for example. That's what Picasa was doing, and why my wife saw the picture in her own browser but everyone else on the Web couldn't see the image in her blog post.

So here's the solution: I clicked "Save As Draft" in the Picasa: BlogThis! window, then I went to my Web browser and pulled up the Blogger Dashboard, and then I clicked on the "Edit Posts" link for that blog. Voilà! The code was no longer pointing to localhost; Picasa had actually uploaded the image this time, so the code was legit. Here's what it looked like:

<div style='text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;'><a href='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LO2ns0hgXtQ/SgkVHZZksqI/AAAAAAAAAPo/zJDtQ_xMyxU/s1600-h/Halloween+Fun+with+the+Taylors.jpg'><img src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LO2ns0hgXtQ/SgkVHZZksqI/AAAAAAAAAPo/zJDtQ_xMyxU/s400/Halloween+Fun+with+the+Taylors.jpg' border='0' alt='' /></a> </div><div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>

Whoa, that's a lot more code than before. Apparently, Google really wants the whole world to know that you're using Picasa, because it sticks a little Picasa logo after your image—without asking for your permission to do so. If the logo annoys you, it's easy enough to remove; just copy everything up to and including the first </div> (right about in the middle of all that code). Then from your Blogger Dashboard, click on Edit for the blog post to which you want to add the image, and paste the code. In this example, the code I pasted looked like so:

<div style='text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;'><a href='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LO2ns0hgXtQ/SgkVHZZksqI/AAAAAAAAAPo/zJDtQ_xMyxU/s1600-h/Halloween+Fun+with+the+Taylors.jpg'><img src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_LO2ns0hgXtQ/SgkVHZZksqI/AAAAAAAAAPo/zJDtQ_xMyxU/s400/Halloween+Fun+with+the+Taylors.jpg' border='0' alt='' /></a> </div>

That's all, folks! There might be a couple more steps in there depending on whether or not you're already logged into Blogger within the Picasa program, etc. I should also mention that if you want to create a brand new blog post with an image from Picasa, you can just delete everything after the first </div> and then finish your blog post right there in Picasa (just click "Publish Post" when you're done), or you can Save As Draft and then finish the post in your browser if you prefer.

Also, I suspect that these instructions should work on Linux or Windows as well. A Google search for picasa localhost brings up results from people using both platforms who had the same problems and couldn't figure out the solution (hence my decision to blog about this rather than just show my wife how to fix the issue).

If you found this information useful, please consider making a donation of any amount. Even $2 or $3 would be awesome! Thanks!

California Proposition 8: What Is It, and How Does It Affect You?

2008-10-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

California Proposition 8 (Prop 8) is a proposed amendment to the California state constitution that provides that "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California."

Background
In 2000, California voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 22 which contained the same wording as above. It was a landslide victory; 61.4% of Californians voted in favor of Prop 22. On May 15, 2008, four out of seven California Supreme Court judges voted to overturn the voice of the voting public on this matter. Thus, nearly two thirds of California voters—over 4.6 million people—had their voices silenced by four judges. Beginning on June 17, 2008, California began recognizing same-sex marriages.

What Does a Yes Vote Mean?
If the majority of Californians vote "Yes" on Proposition 8, then the traditional definition of marriage will become part of the state constitution, the voice of the people will be restored, and state Supreme Court judges will no longer be able to overrule California voters on this matter. California will only recognize marriages between a man and a woman. Over forty states have already passed legislation clarifying marriage as being between a man and a woman, twenty-seven of which have made amendments to their state constitutions.^[1]

How Would a Yes Vote Affect Gay and Lesbian Couples?
If Prop 8 passes, same-sex marriages would no longer be recognized in California. However, gay and lesbian couples wishing to legally unite themselves would retain the right to enter into domestic partnerships, which under California law offer "the same rights, protections, and benefits" that are offered to married couples. Quoting from the California Family Code:

"297.5. (a) Registered domestic partners shall have the same rights,
protections, and benefits, and shall be subject to the same
responsibilities, obligations, and duties under law, whether they
derive from statutes, administrative regulations, court rules,
government policies, common law, or any other provisions or sources
of law, as are granted to and imposed upon spouses."^[2]

California domestic partners are treated equal to married couples, including but not limited to hospital visitation and health care rights, insurance policies, property and state taxes, etc. A domestic partner may even take the other partner's last name after registration if desired.^[3] Under California law, there is effectively no difference between married couples and domestic partners. Proposition 8 does not change that.

What Does a No Vote Mean?
If the majority of Californians vote "No" on Proposition 8, then the May 15, 2008 decision of four activist judges would remain in effect, and gay marriages would continue to be performed and recognized under California law. There would also be a number of other effects that may be less obvious on the surface, a few of which I will outline here.

Prop 8 and Education
Unless California voters pass Proposition 8, public schools will teach about homosexual marriage as being equal to heterosexual marriage. The California Education Code requires the following of all schools (emphasis added):

"51890. (a) For the purposes of this chapter, 'comprehensive health
education programs' are defined as all educational programs offered
in kindergarten and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, in the public school
system, including in-class and out-of-class activities designed to
ensure that:
(1) Pupils will receive instruction to aid them in making
decisions in matters of personal, family, and community health, to
include the following subjects:
...
(D) Family health and child development, including the legal and
financial aspects and responsibilities of marriage and parenthood.
...
(2) To the maximum extent possible, the instruction in health is
structured to provide comprehensive education in health that includes
all the subjects in paragraph (1)."^[4]

The California Education Code also requires the following of all schools that teach about sexual health (emphasis added):

"51933. (a) School districts may provide comprehensive sexual health
education, consisting of age-appropriate instruction, in any
kindergarten to grade 12, inclusive, using instructors trained in the
appropriate courses.
(b) A school district that elects to offer comprehensive sexual
health education pursuant to subdivision (a), whether taught by
school district personnel or outside consultants, shall satisfy all
of the following criteria:
...
(7) Instruction and materials shall teach respect for marriage and
committed relationships."^[5]

According to the California Department of Education, "96 percent of California school districts provide comprehensive sexual health education,"^[6] and all of these school districts are required by law to "teach respect for marriage"—which currently includes gay and lesbian marriage. If Prop 8 does not pass, it is an indisputable fact that homosexual marriage will be taught in California schools.

If the majority of Californians vote "No" on Prop 8, children will be taught in school that same-gender marriage between a man and a man, or between a woman and a woman, is no different from traditional marriage between a man and a woman. If Prop 8 fails, California law would even permit kindergarten teachers to teach students about homosexual marriages without fear of consequences, according to the laws quoted above. In fact, such changes have already started to take place in San Francisco, where first graders were recently taken to City Hall to witness a lesbian wedding^[7] and throw rose petals on the new brides.^[8] The school director happily approved this first-grade field trip, calling it "a teachable moment."

Can parents opt out of having their children taught about gay marriage, or at least be notified when the subject is discussed? According to the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a major opponent of Prop 8, under California law parents have no right to be notified or to opt their children out of "instruction or materials that discuss gender, sexual orientation, or family life" as long as there is no discussion of "human reproductive organs and their functions"^[9] (PDF, page 50; text-only mirrors: ^[10]^[11]). Thus, according to NCLR's view of the law, California parents have no right to be pre-notified or to exclude their children from discussion of gay marriage or related subjects.

In 2003, the state of Massachusetts began recognizing same-sex marriage due to a 4-3 court ruling^[12] similar to the recent rulings in California and Connecticut^[13]. Since then, a Federal court ruled that Massachusetts parents have no right to be informed when gay marriage or homosexual topics are being taught to their young children, and parents have no right to exempt their children from such discussions or from being read books that promote and endorse homosexual lifestyles.^[14] Shockingly, this ruling is in spite of Massachusetts legislation dating back to 1996 which is supposed to give parents the right to "exempt their children from any portion" of "curriculum which primarily involves human sexual education or human sexuality issues".^[15] In this video, two Massachusetts parents discuss how the redefining of marriage in their state has begun to permeate the entire school curriculum. "And the tolerance that the gay community cries out for is not demonstrated to people who have differing points of view," says one parent.

If the majority of Californians vote "Yes" on Prop 8, it would restore the traditional definition of marriage and would not force the idea of homosexual marriage on impressionable children in K-12 schools.

Other Consequences
There are a number of legal ramifications for any number of industries, religious groups, and individuals if Prop 8 fails to pass. Following are some examples of legal rulings in other states, and they provide only a small sampling of potential consequences in California.

A Methodist organization in New Jersey lost some of its tax benefits^[16] for declining to allow a lesbian civil union to take place on its private property. Some legal experts believe that churches in California that refuse to perform gay marriages—and even parachurch non-profit organizations—could have their tax-exempt status completely eliminated^[17], which in many cases would force such organizations to shut down.
A New Mexico photographer declined to photograph a lesbian civil union ceremony because of her religious beliefs^[18], and she was subsequently ordered to pay over $6,600 in legal fees to the couple.^[19]
When a Mississippi mental health counselor declined to provide therapy for a woman who wanted to improve her lesbian relationship, the counselor was fired, and the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the employer's decision on the grounds that the counselor's religious beliefs were in conflict with the employer's interests.^[20]

Adoption services, private schools, youth groups such as the Boy Scouts of America, and other organizations have all been adversely affected by such rulings^[21], and in each case First Amendment rights intended to guarantee freedom of religion have been trampled underfoot by the courts. If Proposition 8 does not pass, religious liberties and the free exercise of religion in California and throughout the United States of America will continue to erode.

Even those who are not religious will ultimately be affected by the outcome of Proposition 8. Many church-funded non-profit organizations freely provide public services or emergency relief that are beneficial to all members of communities, and such organizations could be forced to close down or reduce their services if they were to lose their tax-exempt status or endure other hardships as a direct result of Prop 8 not passing. There are countless and far-reaching social and political ramifications, and it is likely that we do not yet realize all the ways in which society would be negatively affected if Prop 8 fails.

Conclusion
Proposition 8 is not an attack on the gay lifestyle. It does not prevent anyone from engaging in consensual homosexual relationships or living together. It does not take away any legal rights or benefits from gay couples; domestic partnerships will still be legal and in full effect regardless of whether or not Prop 8 passes. Proposition 8 is about restoring the traditional definition of marriage, preserving religious liberties, and preserving the right of parents to have their children taught in public schools without being subjected to homosexual indoctrination.

As for me, I seek to love and respect all people regardless of their sexual orientation, political views, religious beliefs, or other factors. The bottom line is that marriage has always been defined as being between man and woman, and activist efforts to redefine marriage in California are not truly about gay rights or civil liberties; the institution of domestic partnership already offers homosexual couples the same rights that marriage offers straight couples. I will vote Yes on Proposition 8 to restore, protect, and defend the traditional definition of marriage, to defend my rights as a parent of young children, and to defend the Constitutional rights of religious individuals and institutions. I hope that you will take these things into consideration as you decide how you will vote on Proposition 8.

Materials for Further Study
· The Divine Institution of Marriage
· PreservingMarriage.org - Videos responding to concerns about Prop 8
· NPR: "When Gay Rights and Religious Liberties Clash"
· LA Times Opinion: Protecting marriage to protect children
· ProtectMarriage.com - Official Yes on 8 campaign site / (español)
· The American Family Association's Proposition 8 Video
· A Statement of the Catholic Bishops of California in Support of Proposition 8 / (español)
· The Family: A Proclamation to the World / (español)

Respectful comments from readers are welcome.

PayPal to Ban Apple's Safari Browser? [Updated]

2008-04-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I wrote an editorial at MacMod.com about PayPal's intentions to prevent Safari users from accessing its services. I am republishing my article here because it covers topics that are important for Apple and PayPal customers to be aware of, as well as security-conscious readers in general.

Anyone who has listened to either MacMod Live or Tech Pulse or has read my blog knows how frustrated I am that Apple has been negligent about adding anti-phishing functionality to Safari. The feature had been announced by Apple in August 2006 and already existed in early private beta builds of Safari 3 before being dropped inexplicably in the Public Beta. Apple clearly had the technology in place, so why in the world did they decide to drop the feature?

Well, the latest news on this front is that PayPal has plans to prevent its users from accessing its site if they're using a browser that PayPal deems to be "unsafe." eWeek quotes PayPal Chief Information Security Officer Michael Barrett:

"'At PayPal, we are in the process of reimplementing controls which will first warn our customers when logging in to PayPal of those browsers that we consider unsafe. Later, we plan on blocking customers from accessing the site from the most unsafe--usually the oldest--browsers,' he declared. Barrett only mentioned old, out-of-support versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer among this group of 'unsafe browsers,' but it's clear his warning extends to Apple's Safari browser, which offers no anti-phishing protection and does not support the use of EV SSL certificates."

In an interview in late February, Barrett advised PayPal users to stop using Safari, stating that "Apple, unfortunately, is lagging behind what they need to do to protect their customers," and that he would "love to say that Safari was a safer browser, but at this point it isn't."

Netcraft, an anti-phishing organization, recently released a report saying that EV SSL ("Extended Validation," which means that the browser bar turns green when you access a page with a really expensive SSL certificate) is vulnerable to cross-site scripting in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, meaning that in theory scammers could exploit a vulnerable site that uses EV SSL (such as Sourceforge, whose site was discovered to be vulnerable last year and still hasn't been fixed) and phish users in spite of the "trusted" green bar. EV SSL is clearly not a good thing, as it only gives users the illusion of more perfect security when the feature itself can be exploited by scammers. And yet this is one of the things that PayPal wants to make a requirement in order to be considered a "safe" browser from which one can access his or her PayPal account.

If PayPal goes through with its plans, and if Apple doesn't deliver anti-phishing functionality and EV SSL before then, what would this mean for Apple customers? Those who prefer Safari, or those who simply use it because it came with the computer, will be forced to download and start using a different browser, which is not good news for Apple if it wants to continue to increase its share of the browser market. Additionally, PayPal's plans would make it impossible to access PayPal on the go via an iPhone or iPod touch.

(original source: eWeek via Slashdot)

UPDATE: A representative of the Wall Street Journal "spoke to PayPal" (wow, the whole company?!). Apparently, "contrary to many reports [PayPal] will not block Apple's Safari browser" in spite of the seemingly contradictory remarks from PayPal's Chief Information Security Officer quoted above.

lolphone [Updated]

2008-03-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

My cell phone (or more accurately, the Verizon Wireless network) was having major issues in my area on Tuesday night. The phone couldn't keep a signal for more than a few seconds, no matter where I went inside and outside my house. I decided to take advantage of the situation and took this photograph, my first lolcats-inspired work. I hope you enjoy it. =)

UPDATED: The above is actually a revised version. The full text is "i can has resepshun?" [sic]. The full text of the original that I posted earlier (see it here) is "i am in ur hand wit no barz droppin all ur callz". Both of these are much funnier if you're familiar with lolcats, of course.

How to Delete Stubborn Files in Mac OS X

2008-02-19T23:25:00.000-08:00

Have you ever tried to empty the Trash, only to get a message such as this?

The operation cannot be completed because the item "filename.blah" is in use.
( Stop ) ( Continue )

Obviously the first thing you should do is to verify that any application that might have opened that file is no longer accessing it. An easy way to do that is to quit any related applications. After doing so, try emptying the Trash again. Still no luck? Here's a tip that usually does the trick:

Drag the offending file, folder, or application out of the Trash.
Open the Terminal (found inside the Utilities folder, inside the Applications folder).
Type "rm -r " (without quotation marks, and with a space after the last r) and then drag the stubborn file, folder, or app onto the Terminal window. This will add the full path into the Terminal window. Click on the Terminal window to make sure that it's in front, and then press either the Return or Enter key on the keyboard. Tah-dah! That should do it.

In some rare circumstances, it's possible that even the Terminal trick may not work. If all else fails, restart the computer and then try to empty the Trash again.

If you found this tip helpful, please consider making a donation:

The Correct Way to Spell "the JoshMeister"

2008-02-18T23:11:00.001-08:00

People often misspell "the JoshMeister" or leave off the "the." Here are some rules to follow when writing my nickname:

The "the" in "the JoshMeister" is an integral article, meaning that it's always supposed to be there. My nickname should always be written as "the JoshMeister," never just "JoshMeister."
Also incorrect are "the Joshmeister" (lowercase m) and "the Josh Meister" (space between Josh and Meister).
The "the" should never be capitalized; "The JoshMeister" is incorrect. Even if my nickname is used at the beginning of a sentence, I prefer for the word "the" to not be capitalized. If that is unacceptable to you, you may wish to avoid starting sentences with my nickname.
If you ever want to abbreviate my nickname, you can write "tJM." The same capitalization rules apply to this abbreviation.
Pronouns are fine, of course. You can refer to me using words like "he," "him," "his," etc.
For clarity's sake, I should note that quotation marks are not part of my nickname.
Although my LOST blog's URL and related e-mail address contain the string "thelostmeister," I don't actually use that as a nickname. I apologize for any confusion this might cause. Please refer to me as the JoshMeister instead.

Here are some sample sentences that demonstrate proper usage: "I love the JoshMeister's podcasts. They're really cool. the JoshMeister writes some pretty awesome blog articles, too. I'm such a big fan of tJM that I'm going to add him on all my social networks."

So, in short, please refer to me as the JoshMeister. Thank you!

I'm the JoshMeister, and I approve this message.

New LOST Alternate Reality Game

2008-01-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

I'm keeping track of the new LOST ARG, called Find 815, over at my LOST blog. If you're a fan of the TV show LOST (or just a fan of alternate reality games), be sure to subscribe to that blog for clues!

the JoshMeister's Audioblog

2008-01-01T03:32:00.000-08:00

I decided to create an audioblog which I may update occasionally. I recorded an Introduction episode (in which I explained who I am and briefly reviewed Wicked), and I also recorded a couple of brief shows to ring in the new year for the east and west coasts. Here are the direct links to the MP3s:

Introduction (22 minutes)
Ringing In the New Year, EST (18 minutes)
Ringing In the New Year, PST (20 minutes)

I'm So Totally Social!

2007-12-16T00:14:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been thinking about putting together a page with links to all my social networking profiles. Then when I started making the page, it occurred to me that I'm on a lot more than I thought, especially if you count sites like Flickr and Digg, which aren't specifically social network sites but allow you to designate "friends" and such.

So, anyway, here's where you can find links to a bunch of my social networking profiles: http://social.thejoshmeister.com

My list currently includes Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Jaiku, Digg, Flickr, Ma.gnolia, del.icio.us, Orkut, and The Zune Social (uh, no, I don't own a Zune, but I had to create an account to submit my podcasts to the Zune podcast directory). Feel free to add me to your networks!

Update, 25 Dec 2007: Added Pownce and Slashdot.
Update, 14 Jan 2008: Added LinkedIn and YouTube.

Twitter Facebook App: How to Fix the Double Feed-Post Glitch

2007-11-10T18:32:00.000-08:00

The Twitter application on Facebook has an optional feature that's kinda cool but has a really annoying side effect. I'll get to the side effect in a minute and tell you how to fix it.

If you go to http://apps.facebook.com/twitter/ and click on "Want Twitter to update your Facebook status? Click here!", Twitter will thereafter permanently update your Facebook status (i.e. the "[First name] is ..." text) whenever you post a message on Twitter (with the exception of replies or references to other Twitter peeps using the at symbol followed by the Twitter username, e.g. @theJoshMeister). So if I post "There's a new episode of Tech Pulse up at http://techpulsepodcast.com !!!" on Twitter, my Facebook status would then change to say "Josh is twittering: There's a new episode of Tech Pulse up at http://techpulsepodcast.com !!!"

Now here's the annoying side effect: Your Facebook News Feed and Mini-Feed will now double-post every time you update Twitter. (First you'll get an item in your feeds with the Twitter "t" logo and the contents of your new tweet, and then immediately after that you'll get a Facebook status update with the exact same contents, but preceded by "[First name] is twittering: ".) Here's a visual example from the profile of another Facebook and Twitter user, iJustine:

After a lot of frustration, I finally found a setting that will allow you to go back to having just one instance of your Twitter message in your feeds. Basically, you just have to remove the Twitter application's permission to post messages in your feeds. Here's how:

1) Log into Facebook (if necessary)
2) Go to http://www.facebook.com/editapps.php?
3) Next to "Twitter", click on "Edit Settings"
4) Uncheck "News Feed" and "Mini-Feed", and then click "Save"

To clarify: this disables the feed items that have the Twitter "t" logo, but it leaves the "[first name] is twittering: " status update feed items enabled.

I hope this helps someone out there who has been as annoyed by the dual Facebook feed posts as I was. If you found this tip useful (or any other on this site), please consider making a donation:

shutdown: halt by root: Shutting down due to power loss!

2007-11-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Note: This is a very technical, geeky article that very few people will appreciate. I just thought I'd post this since I couldn't find an answer doing a Google search, so I wanted to make my findings public.

My Mac (a Blue & White "Yosemite" Power Macintosh G3) has been acting kind of flaky for the past couple weeks. Specifically, sometimes when iTunes 7.4.2 has automatically downloaded a podcast, I can't drag the file from iTunes over to my flash memory card on the desktop, and when I right-click on the podcast episode in iTunes and select "Show in Finder," the Finder would activate but the folder containing the file would not open. Very weird. I've been able to work around this glitch by quitting and relaunching iTunes, but the issue recurs later. I repaired permissions and that didn't help. I thought I'd try cleaning out my hard drive's caches by restarting and using AppleJack—and that's when I ran into a scarier problem.

AppleJack was doing its thing; it got through the "repair disks" phase (no problems found), the "repair permissions" phase (no problems), and then it got to step 3, "cleanup cache files." The CPU halted and the system shut down during this process. That was freaky—the cleaning process hadn't finished, and moreover I didn't tell AppleJack to shut down the computer. I started the computer again, tried cleaning cache files, and the computer shut down again. I noticed an error message before the CPU was halted:

shutdown: halt by root: Shutting down due to power loss!

Power loss? The only power loss was the computer shutting itself down. I Googled the full error message in quotation marks and came up with no results. I tried just the second part, "shutting down due to power loss", and both results had "UPS" in the page title. That makes sense; I have my Mac plugged into an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), with a USB cable from the UPS to the Mac. The cable allows the UPS to communicate to the Mac that it's running off of battery power and how much battery time remains.

Although having the UPS plugged into the Mac had never caused this problem to happen before, naturally I decided to unplug the USB cable. Success! AppleJack was able to get through the whole cache cleaning process and clean an individual user's cache. After the computer restarted, I plugged the USB cable back into my Mac and it booted normally into the Finder.

Please note this issue is NOT AppleJack's fault. I'm not certain, however, whether something changed in the OS or whether the UPS is communicating differently with the Mac now. I'm currently running Mac OS X v10.4.10 on the PowerMac, but I'm pretty sure I've run AppleJack since upgrading to 10.4.10.

Anyway, the solution to the "shutdown: halt by root: Shutting down due to power loss!" issue is to unplug the UPS's USB cable from the Mac before booting into Single User Mode.

Did this tip (or any other on this site) help you? Please consider making a donation:

California Wildfires Close to Home

2007-10-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

I'm one of the fortunate ones who hasn't been required to evacuate my home here in Southern California. I live in San Bernardino County, where several blazing fires have been causing devastation the past couple days. Last night when getting home from work, I was surprised to see a handful of people with cameras around their necks standing in the driveway of my complex and staring at something off in the distance. I glanced over my shoulder and was shocked to see tall orange flames very clearly. After parking, I walked back over to investigate, taking our digital camera and analog video camera with me. Upon further investigation, I discovered that the fire was actually quite far away, and the still camera couldn't zoom in far enough to take a good shot, although I got some good footage on my video camera. It turns out that the fire was in Running Springs, roughly 10 miles away. I found a good map (courtesy of this article) that shows how close the fire is. I live near the "R" in Redlands, near the bottom-right corner of the map below:

For up-to-date information on the fires in San Bernardino County, see this page on sbcounty.gov or search Google News.

Mitt Romney is a Mormon... So What?

2007-10-06T21:31:00.000-07:00

I fully realize that the subject of Mitt Romney being a Mormon (that is, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) has been written and blogged about countless times. In fact, that's one of the main reasons why I'm writing this article. I find it fascinating (and at times frustrating) that this issue seems to always be raised whenever anyone talks about Mitt Romney. What, if anything, does the fact that Mitt Romney is a Latter-day Saint have to do with his U.S. presidential candidacy? I would like to briefly examine this question and offer some points of consideration.

Why does it make any difference?
Many journalists and bloggers try to spin Mitt Romney's religion as some secretive, mysterious extremist sect that consumes his every thought and makes him incapable of making his own decisions. Non-scientific, loaded polls are often cited as evidence that Americans are concerned about having a Mormon president. I have no doubt that many Americans would be concerned about it, but this is largely a result of the media's typically negative slant when discussing the religion, not to mention pastors' sermons preaching against a church that they would have their parishioners believe is a "cult." (I'll return to that argument in a moment.) Although I do not know Mitt Romney personally, I get the distinct impression from perusing his Web site, watching video interviews and debates, and reading quotes concerning his political views that Romney is a very intelligent individual who thinks for himself and carefully chooses his positions based on what he feels is best for his country. There is simply no evidence to suggest that he has any ulterior motives, nor is there any reason whatsoever to believe that he does.

To Christians
At the third Republican debate, Mitt Romney responded to a question about his religion as follows:

"I think it's a fair question for people to ask, what do you believe? And I think if you want to understand what I believe, you could recognize that the values that I have are the same values you'll find in faiths across this country. I believe in God, believe in the Bible, believe Jesus Christ is my savior. I believe that God created man in his image. I believe that the freedoms of man derive from inalienable rights that were given to us by God."

Having been raised as a Christian, I can attest that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is indeed a Christian church. It is founded on the teachings of Jesus Christ as found in the Holy Bible and as revealed to ancient and modern prophets who receive revelation directly from God and His divine Son. Time does not permit me to go into great detail about the doctrines of the Church, but I would direct the reader to be cautious about selecting sources of information on this subject. Many articles about Mitt Romney and specifically about the Church are written by people who have an extremely limited understanding of the teachings of the Church, and much of what is written by journalists in regard to the religion is very confusing. Naturally, the most accurate source for learning what Mormons believe is to seek answers directly from the Church itself. The best online resource is www.mormon.org, an official site of the Church that discusses the most fundamental doctrines and provides answers to frequently asked questions. Another reliable Web site is www.lds.org, the Church's main site. I publish a podcast (a free, downloadable collection of MP3 audio files) called Introduction to Mormonism which primarily consists of talks given by prominent Latter-day Saints, and although the collection is not produced by the Church it may also be a useful resource.

To All
Whether you consider yourself a religious person or whether you believe in no religion at all, Mitt Romney deserves to be recognized for his achievements and qualifications that make him a top presidential candidate. Mitt Romney is a well-educated individual with a keen business sense and a knowledge of politics and foreign affairs that is simply remarkable. He has high moral standards. He is a strong leader. He is a firm believer in the Constitution of the United States. I invite everyone to browse through Mitt Romney's campaign site including his brief biography and his positions on the major issues, and consider him because of who he is and what he stands for.

In closing, I would like to leave you with a few words from Martin Luther King, Jr. that sum up my feelings about considering a candidate for United States president: "I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'"

Uninstalling Safari 3 Public Beta for Mac

2007-06-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

If you have trouble with Safari 3 Public Beta and you want to revert to Safari 2, the first thing you should try to do is run the uninstaller that came with it. If you already trashed it, you can download it again from here.

If the uninstaller doesn't work for some reason, you can try restoring the original Safari application and WebKit framework using the hidden backup made by the installer. You can find the backup by clicking on the Finder in the Dock, then pressing Command-Shift-G and typing or pasting "/Library/Application Support/Apple/" (without quotation marks). Details can be found here, plus you'll need my freeware app Invisibility Toggler to see the hidden archive. After running Invisibility Toggler, click on ".SafariBetaArchive.tar.gz" and press Command-D to duplicate the file. Remove the period from the copy's file name, then run Invisibility Toggler again. Double-click on the archive, then double-click on the second archive if necessary. You should now have a folder containing the old Safari application and WebKit and JavaScriptGlue system frameworks. If you can't figure out what to do from here, please check the discussion thread linked below at the Apple Discussions forum.

Based on a tip from "boxhead" on the Apple Discussions forum.

What's New in Safari 3 Public Beta

2007-06-11T22:59:00.000-07:00

(Subscribe to the Tech Pulse podcast to hear discussion of Safari 3 Public Beta, scheduled to be recorded LIVE this Saturday at 5 PM Pacific!)

Safari 3 Public Beta is now available for Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.9 and, in case you haven't heard, Windows XP and Vista! While that's really cool in and of itself, this article will focus on what's new in Safari 3 Public Beta for Mac (version 3.0, build 522.11, released 11 June 2007), and will examine whether it's worthwhile to install the beta version on your Mac and whether it's truly a "Firefox killer" as Apple would have you believe.

Inline Search—Showing All Occurrences At Once
This is definitely my favorite new feature in Safari. I've long lamented that Safari 2.0.x and earlier had an annoying "Find" window that pops up when you press Command-F (or go to the Edit menu, select "Find," and then select "Find...," which I can't imagine many people do). In the old days, you had to do all your searching from that annoying little window, and you could click Next or Previous buttons to find individual occurrences of your search term. I'm very pleased to say that that is finally gone. Observe the beauty of Safari 3:

That's right. Inline searching. But not only that, this is multiple occurrence inline searching, which means that every instance of your search term will be highlighted at the same time. (Firefox has a similar feature, but it's not enabled by default and it's really ugly in comparison.) Safari's visual effects are very cool, too: the rest of the page dims to make the matching phrases stand out, and each time you press Return or Enter (or click on an arrow next to the number of matches found), the next instance on the page is highlighted with an eye-grabbing 3D "pop" effect as the white highlighting switches to a bold orange highlight with white text.

If there are more than 100 matches on the page, then only the active occurrence is highlighted (in orange). If there are fewer than 100 occurrences of the search term on the page, the current match is highlighted in orange while all other matches are highlighted in white (or with a white border, if the page background is dark).

Improved Window Session Recovery
Firefox 2 (again with the Firefox comparisons...) has a really handy feature built in that allows you to reopen recently closed tabs, and it also has an option to restore the last windows and tabs automatically the next time you open the browser. Safari 3 tries to copy this, and although it falls way short of Firefox, it's markedly better than what Safari 2 offered (which was next to nothing). In Safari 3 Public Beta, there are a couple of new options in the History menu:

Unfortunately, at least as of the current Public Beta, Apple has chosen to not include recovery of individual tabs, even though (in my experience, at least) it's much more common to accidentally close a tab than to close an entire window. On the other hand, since tabs aren't enabled by default in Safari 2, a lot of users probably don't use them anyway, so they might find the Reopen Last Closed Window feature much more handy than I do.

The "Reopen All Windows From Last Session" feature (which becomes enabled after you quit and reopen the application) is again a great addition to Safari, although it would have been nice to see a feature in the Preferences to do this automatically when Safari starts up like Firefox, Opera, and Netscape can do.

Tabbed Browsing Improvements
The biggest change to tabbed browsing is that you can drag a tab out of the tab bar and into its own window, which is a pretty cool trick. You can also do this by selecting "Move Tab to New Window" from the Window menu, or you can "Merge All Windows."

Also, users can now reorder tabs in a window just by dragging them around—yet another feature found in other browsers that's finally making its way to Safari.

Noticeably Missing: Anti-Phishing Functionality
Strangely, Apple has chosen not to include the Google-based anti-phishing functionality that was announced at last year's WWDC, and which has been rumored to be included in private developer builds of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard since last October. There doesn't seem to be any mention of Safari's planned anti-phishing capabilities on Apple's updated Leopard pages. Was the feature canned, or is it still undergoing private testing and just wasn't ready for inclusion in the public beta? Time will tell—Leopard is still on track to ship in October, just four months away. For what it's worth, Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, Opera 9, and Netscape 8 and 9 all include features to block fraudulent Web sites, so if Safari 3 does not include this, it would be the only major cross-platform browser to not do so. Anti-phishing protection would be a natural complement to the rest of the new security features in Leopard, so I hope to see it in Safari 3 when Leopard ships.

Upgrade Now, or Wait?
So, Mac users, should you install Safari 3 Public Beta now, or just wait until Leopard? Ultimately, that's up to you, but here are some things to consider:

Safari 3 Public Beta comes with an installer package that replaces Safari 2.x on your Mac. It also comes with an uninstaller, so you should theoretically be able to revert to Safari 2 without any problems, although I haven't tried it yet. If you decide to install the public beta, you might want to make a backup copy of the old Safari application first and put it in a safe place. UPDATE, 14 June: If you want to restore Safari 2, please read these instructions first.
Another note about the installation process: a system restart is required, which some people may find annoying in some cases. Plus, the fact that the beta comes with an installer (as opposed to just a drag-and-drop app), combined with the fact that the install requires a restart, seems to strongly indicate that something other than the Safari application itself is changed by the installer (presumably the WebKit underpinnings). If that scares you, you may want to avoid this.
On MacFixIt, many users (especially those with G5-based Macs) report problems getting Safari 3 Public Beta to launch, but your mileage may vary. For what it's worth, it's working fine for me on my first-generation MacBook Pro (Core Duo). Also, if you rely heavily on third-party plug-ins or Safari add-ons, you might want to wait on testing Safari 3 Public Beta because several add-ons may not work with the new version yet.
If your company has a policy against installing beta software, if your system is used as a critical file or print server, if it would be a major setback to you if Safari stopped working properly, or if you're a highly paranoid or anxious person, it's probably not wise to throw beta software onto your machine.

Firefox Killer?
Is Safari 3 a "Firefox killer"? Apple sure advertised it as such in Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote, showing a market share pie chart with Internet and Explorer and Firefox, which switched to a pie chart showing Internet Explorer and Safari instead (implying that Apple would like to totally wipe out Firefox, which is obviously a pipe dream). I've been a Firefox user for years, and I love it. Sure, it's not as "Mac-like" as Safari or Camino, but I'm addicted to certain extensions (Adblock, Filterset.G Updater, and Flashblock) that provide functionality that just doesn't exist in Safari. And yes, I'm aware that there are Safari add-ons that can add these features, most notably PithHelmet, but 1) it's not free like Firefox extensions are, and 2) whenever there's a major new update to Safari, PithHelmet (like other add-ons) often totally breaks the browser until the third-party developer releases an update. Not everyone wants ad blocking in particular, but that's beside the point—the point is that Safari is just not as extensible as Firefox, and power users may find its lack of easy extensibility frustrating. Web developers will probably start using Safari for Windows to test compatibility with the default Mac browser, and speed freaks might switch to Safari because of its speed, but don't expect Safari to completely overtake Firefox's market share anytime soon.

For more commentary on Safari 3, tune into the Tech Pulse podcast, which debuts LIVE this Saturday, June 16, 2007, at 5 PM Pacific (8 PM Eastern). Tune in at that time via talkshoe.com.

Daylight Saving Time 2007 Patches for Windows 98/Me/NT/2000 and Mac OS 8.5-10.2.8

2007-05-25T16:13:00.001-07:00

Microsoft is no longer fully supporting versions of Windows prior to XP with ~~SP2~~ SP3 and Apple is no longer supporting versions of Mac OS X prior to ~~10.3.9 (Panther)~~ 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) nor Mac OS 9.2.2 or below as of 2011. If you own or support computers that run an older operating system, and upgrading the OS isn't an option,* what are you supposed to do about the Daylight Saving Time changes that are now in effect as of 2007?

Fortunately for you, there are some kindhearted third-party developers out there who have developed free DST patches for the following operating systems. Naturally, Microsoft and Apple won't support these fixes (nor can I), so use these at your own risk.

Unofficial DST ~~2007~~ 2009 Patch for Windows NT and 2000
Read about IntelliAdmin's free patch
Download the NT/2000 patch now

Unofficial DST ~~2007~~ 2009 Patch for Windows 98 and Me
Read about IntelliAdmin's free patch
Download the 98/Me patch now

Unofficial DST 2007 Patch for Mac OS X 10.0 through 10.2.8 (Jaguar)
Read about the University of New Hampshire's free patch
Download the 10.0-10.2.8 patch now
( Mirror: http://macfiles.brothersoft.com/utilities/system/DST_Update.mpkg.zip )

Unofficial DST 2007 Patch for Mac OS 8.5 through Mac OS 9.2.2
Read about Glenn Anderson's free patch
Download the 8.5-9.2.2 patch now (please read the above article first for important notes, and see here to learn when DST changes in the U.S. now)
Read about an alternate fix suggested by Marcel Brown here

What about Windows 95?
According to Steve Wiseman from IntelliAdmin (the guy who made the 98/Me patch above), "Daylight saving time is simply broken in Windows 95, so I wouldn't even bother trying to apply the patch to these systems." If you want to try to manually patch it, there are instructions available on the Web, for example here or here. You can also try keeping your time in synch with a freeware/donationware (free and donation-supported for home and education use; $10 required for commercial use) utility called Dimension 4.

What about [insert some other OS here]?
Windows Vista has native support for the 2007 DST changes.
Windows XP SP2 has a patch available through Windows Update or from here (if using XP SP1 or XP without a service pack, upgrade via Windows Update first).
For more information from Microsoft on how the DST change affects its software, please see this page.
Mac OS X 10.4.6 (Tiger) has native support for DST 2007 (if using 10.4.5 or below, upgrade via Software Update; if using 10.4.6 or later, no patch is required).
Mac OS X 10.3.9 (Panther) has a patch available through Software Update or from here (if using 10.3.8 or below, upgrade to 10.3.9 via Software Update first).
For more information from Apple on how the DST change affects its software, please see this article.
For any other OS or product, check with the manufacturer or Google it.

*Please note that Daylight Saving Time shouldn't be your only concern when running an OS that's no longer supported. System security is also a potentially serious problem after the manufacturer stops releasing security-related updates for the product, and chances are that many developers of third-party software will have stopped releasing updates that are compatible with your OS as well. This can potentially leave your system vulnerable to a multitude of attacks. From a security standpoint, it's always best to use a system running a currently-supported OS and keeping it patched rather than continuing to use legacy systems.

If you found this information useful, please consider making a donation of any amount. Even $2 or $3 would be awesome! Thanks!
UPDATE, 31 Oct 2011: A reader notified me that the links for the Mac OS X utility were no longer working. Thankfully, the Internet Archive Wayback Machine has copies of both the utility and its homepage, so I've updated the links. I also included the address for another site offering the file, updated other links, gave a link to Dimension 4 for Windows 95 users, and made a few other tweaks.

You can follow the JoshMeister on Twitter and Google+.

Calling All Potential Tech Podcasters!

2007-05-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

Now that LOST is going to be on hiatus for quite a while, I'm thinking about starting a technology-based podcast. Stuff that I'd like to include:

Tech discussion amongst 2 or 3 regular co-hosts (I'd be the main host)
General discussion of the computer/tech industry including interesting news and trends
Mac and Windows tips and tricks, including stuff that's useful for admins and home users
Mac and Windows software/hardware picks
Recorded before a live Internet audience
Produced 1-3 times monthly
Clean content that's appropriate for all ages
Similar in format to MacBreak Weekly (but with fewer ratholes)

Here's what I need before I can get started:

MOST IMPORTANT: 1 or 2 regular co-hosts, either male or female, whose qualifications should include at least some of the following:

is a tech geek, minimum age 16
can live anywhere in the world, but must be available to record podcasts either Monday-Friday in the evenings (Pacific time zone) or on Saturdays, and must speak English well
has a high-speed Internet connection
has a computer microphone
preferably reads tech news sites or listens to other tech podcasts to keep up with basic tech news and industry trends, etc.
preferably works or has had experience in the computer industry, and/or has studied Computer Science or a similar field
preferably has a good sense of humor
if you're interested, please e-mail me at theJoshMeister+TechPodcast at gmail dot com

A name for the podcast which meets these standards:

sounds cool
is easy to spell and easy to remember

isn't already used by someone else
is OS/platform-neutral
if you have any suggestions, please e-mail me at theJoshMeister+TechPodcast at gmail dot com

Preferably, a cool logo for the podcast artwork

if you'd be willing to design it, please e-mail me at theJoshMeister+TechPodcast at gmail dot com

Preferably, some cool, podsafe intro/outro music

if you have any suggestions, please e-mail me at theJoshMeister+TechPodcast at gmail dot com

I look forward to hearing your suggestions!

Access Mac HFS+ Volumes in Windows (Perfect for Boot Camp!)

2007-01-08T19:17:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm one of those Mac geeks who asked for an Apple laptop when the other guys at work all wanted Windows notebook PCs. When convincing my boss that I needed a Mac, one of the things that made it an easier sell is the fact that Intel Macs can dual-boot Windows. I got to order a MacBook Pro, and I absolutely love it.

When I installed Boot Camp, I read the available documentation and decided to format the Windows partition as FAT32 instead of NTFS so that Mac OS X Tiger would be able to write to it without any unsupported hacks. Having a FAT partition works great for transferring files from the Mac side. But what am I supposed to do if I want to access the Mac OS Extended (Journaled), aka HFS+, partition within Windows? Unfortunately, Windows does not (and probably never will) natively support HFS+, so the partition doesn't show up at all when I boot into Windows XP. I've heard about MacDrive, which is probably one of the prettiest and most well-integrated solutions, but $40 to $50 is way out of my price range, and its functionality is not critical enough to ask for my work to pay for it.

I searched around a bit, and I eventually found a solution that fits the bill rather well. Erik Larsson's HFSExplorer [alternate link] is a freeware Java app designed to let you browse the contents of any HFS+ drives and partitions installed in your system. In addition to viewing the contents of said partitions, you can even extract files to any Windows-writable disk. This is almost exactly what I was looking for—although there isn't any HFS+ write support. (Not yet, anyway. I e-mailed the developer and asked if he was considering write support, and he says that he's thinking about it, but would like to implementing some other features first. I got the impression that if more people contact him (erik82(a)kth.se) to thank him for the software and request HFS Plus write support, he'd be a little bit more motivated to implement it.) I extracted a couple of files from my Mac partition and it worked great. The developer intends to open-source his code under the GPL after he cleans it up a bit.

Note: If you used Boot Camp Assistant to partition your volume, you will probably need to click on "Load file system from device" in the File menu and select "Harddisk0\Partition2". The developer told me that he may implement automatic Mac partition detection in a future version.

Heroic MacBook Pro Saves iMac: Film at 11

2006-11-08T19:00:00.000-08:00

This is exactly why I wanted to get a Mac laptop at work (well, one of the reasons, anyway)...

Yesterday when I was at a site troubleshooting an iMac, whose boot screen kept flashing between a question mark and a System Folder (often an indicator of a failing hard drive or a corrupted system file), I tried and tried and could not get the thing to boot using any of the standard tricks (including zapping the PRAM and resetting the OpenFirmware settings). It wouldn't even boot from a CD or from the MacBook Pro while hooked up via a FireWire cable. I ended up getting the iMac to start up in FireWire target disk mode (holding T when the iMac started up) and this was the only thing that worked—and it enabled me to mount the iMac's hard drive on the MacBook Pro's desktop. I immediately saw the problem: the iMac's HD had been renamed to a backslash character, which must have made the iMac unable to locate the drive during the boot process. I renamed it to "Macintosh HD" and restarted the iMac, and lo and behold, the iMac booted flawlessly, without hesitation. If I didn't have the MacBook Pro and a FireWire cable, that iMac probably would have been thrown out under the assumption that it just didn't work anymore.

Lessons to learn from this experience:

Mac OS 9 and earlier can't boot if you rename the hard drive to "\".
There doesn't seem to be a freeware extension to prevent the accidental (or intentional) renaming of the hard drive in Mac OS 9 or earlier. (If you, dear reader, know of some way to do this, by all means please post in the Comments section!)
Having a Mac laptop is indeed an awesome tool when fixing Macs. If your boss raises an eyebrow when you ask for a Mac laptop, you can refer him or her to this article. If you need more firepower, try this page—gets 'em every time. Or, at least, it did in my case; your mileage may vary. If all that doesn't work and you're forced to use a non-Mac, at the very least you can strut around in your "SMUG VIRUS FREE MAC USER" shirt to show everyone which computer you'd rather be using.

AOL IMAP Server Supports "IDLE"

2006-09-28T23:35:00.000-07:00

I listened to the latest edition of the MacBreak Weekly podcast (or netcast... whatever) today and Leo Laporte mentioned a plugin for Apple's Mail.app program called "IMAP Idle." I did a little digging and found out that anyone can check whether their mail service's IMAP servers support IDLE (RFC 2177) using a simple telnet command. Here's what I found out about America Online's (and apparently also Compuserve's) IMAP mail service:

telnet imap.aol.com 143
Trying 64.12.138.215...
Connected to imap.cs.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK imap-m08 v50_b4.1 server ready
a capability
* CAPABILITY IMAP4rev1 LITERAL+ XAOL-ENVELOPE XAOL-ENVELOPE-TF XAOL-NETMAIL XAOL-OPTION XAOL-FBR.OLD IDLE BINARY AUTH=XAOL-UAS-MB XAOL-FILTER QUOTA XAOL-REPORTSPAM XAOL-UNSEND XAOL.STATUS UIDPLUS NAMESPACE
a OK CAPABILITY completed
z logout

In other words, AOL supports IDLE. Yippee! Of course, if I had bothered to check the IMAP Idle blog entry to find out that there's a new version of this spiffy Apple Mail plugin available, I would have known that it now tells you whether your IMAP server supports IDLE or not. D'oh! Oh well, I hope someone on the Internet finds my research useful. You're more than welcome to post here if the info above helped you in some way.

Sweet Drive Cloning Software for Windows

2006-04-18T23:13:00.000-07:00

Recently at work we've been looking for a solution similar to that popular disk cloning utility, only affordable. That is, we needed a program that wouldn't charge us per machine cloned like the other guys do. We also needed something that supported SATA drives (and preferably SCSI drives, too). Well, after a lot of searching, I finally came across what we've been looking for: Casper XP. Works with all the versions of Windows that we use, and apparently supports any sort of drive (IDE, SCSI, SATA, USB, FireWire...) and file system (NTFS, FAT32, FAT16...) that Windows natively supports. It even runs from within Windows rather than from a bootable disk,* which is very convenient. And the 30-day trial version is actually functional, so we were able to get started with a major project right away. So far, it's been awesome.

UPDATE: November 8, 2006
*Clarification: Casper XP SystemBuilder Edition (which is what we use) comes with a bootable CD-ROM. You can actually use Casper XP either from within Windows or booted from a CD. If you're not a technician and just want to use Casper XP for home use, you can get a CD-ROM ISO for an extra fee when you buy the standard edition of Casper XP.

And while I'm revisiting this subject, I recently came across some free utilities that you might want to check out if you're interested in drive imaging or replication (please note that I have NOT tested any of these programs yet, so I don't necessarily recommend them; however, you might find them useful):

DriveImage XML - Drive imaging allowing individual files to be restored from an image, plus direct drive-to-drive cloning
DrvImagerXP - Drive imaging software
DrvClonerXP - Partition-to-partition cloning software
NewSID - Apparently, after replicating a drive for use in a second machine, changing the computer name isn't sufficient; that's where this SysInternals/Microsoft utility comes in handy

Also, on a recent edition of the MacBreak Weekly podcast I heard about a free (for personal use only) backup utility for Mac OS X: iBackup.

First post in over a year!

2006-04-17T22:44:00.000-07:00

Wow, I only posted once last year. I guess it's no great surprise considering everything that's gone on in my life during that time. Since my last post, I finished my bachelor's degree, started my master's degree, became a father, started teaching a college class on Saturdays, and I recently started a new full-time job. Oh yeah, and we bought a town home. I just picked up our keys this afternoon. So, yeah, I'd say I've been just a smidge busy as of late.

In fact, I'm still busy. It's just after 11:00 PM and I still need to fill out some paperwork for my Saturday job and try to post something on my university's discussion board so my teammates don't think I've forgotten about this week's group project.

A little about my current interests:

I'm into the TV show "LOST" (which, since we don't get ABC with our rabbit-ear antennae, I download on iTunes the day after each new episode airs). I enjoy listening to The Official LOST Podcast starring the show's executive producers, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof.

I converted from Palm to Windows Mobile (aka Pocket PC), largely because of the unreasonably high price of built-in Wi-Fi on Palm and because WM supports MS Remote Desktop (Terminal Services) in addition to the ubiquitous VNC. I now use my WM PDA instead of my Palm to listen to audio in the car. So far this year I've finished the New Testament, the Pearl of Great Price, the Doctrine and Covenants, a couple issues of the Ensign, the April General Conference, and I just started on the Old Testament (all of these are free downloads from here). I also listen to LOST podcasts in the car.

By the way, my "Future Mac User" baby gear has become my best-selling product line on CafePress. I also have a cool black version of my "VIRUS FREE (i use a Mac.)" t-shirt.

Got a better design idea? Create and sell your own stuff (it's free).

New Mac gear!

2005-03-28T21:40:00.000-08:00

Here's some new gear that will make you the envy of all your friends...

Check out the new bright yellow "SMUG VIRUS FREE Mac USER" laptop/book bag! Also, new shirt styles, one of those hip oval stickers for your car, a black "VIRUS FREE (i use a Mac.)" cap to keep your head warm, a "SMUG" wall clock, baby clothes, and more!

Disabling Applications with Active Directory

2004-12-01T11:23:00.000-08:00

I often search for "how tos" like this on Google and often I can't find the information I need. I had to spend a while trying to find this hidden setting today, and thought I'd help others by posting a brief tutorial. Hopefully someone will find this post helpful in the future.

How does one disable application programs for a specific group of users via Active Directory? The following directions assume you're running a Windows 2000 Server.

Log into your server. Click on Start, Programs, Administrative Tools, Active Directory Users and Computers.

Navigate to the group for which you want to edit the policy. Right-click on the group's folder/directory icon, and select Properties. Click on the Group Policy tab.

If you wish to edit a current policy, click on the policy's name under Group Policy Object Links and then click on the Edit button. If you want to create a new set of policies, click on the New button, name your new Group Policy Object, and then click on Edit. A new Group Policy window will appear on the screen.

Under User Configuration, expand Administrative Templates and then click on System (you don't need to expand it; just click on the name). Double-click on "Don't run specified Windows applications." (Note that there is also a "Run only allowed Windows applications" policy. If you want to specify only a few specific programs that the user group can run, you may wish to use this instead.)

Make sure Enabled is selected. Click on the Show... button. Add the file name of any program you want to block (for example, telnet.exe). Apply all changes and exit the program.

Magically delicious!

ER Solutions

2004-11-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

Last Friday evening I got a phone call. A woman asked me if I was Joshua, and I said yes. The person who called said, "I have some important business information for you. Could you verify that the last four digits of your social security number are [****]?" How strange, I thought, that someone was asking me to verify whether they had my social security number before introducing themselves. Well, it wasn't my social security number, but sensing a scam I told the lady "That's none of your business. It's not right to ask for someone's personal information, especially a social security number, over the phone." I hung up, satisfied that I had foiled some telemarketer or scammer.

Yesterday (Monday), I got another call from a different lady who asked me the same questions. Wow, I thought, these scammers are serious. Again I refused to verify whether the four digits she supplied were indeed part of my social security number. I asked what company she worked for, and she said a name rather quickly and mentioned that it was based in Washington. She asked me if I had ever lived at a particular address, one which I had never heard of. I tried explaining to her that my phone number is on the National Do Not Call List, and she rudely cut me off saying that it didn't matter. I told her in a little louder tone that I had never signed up with any "D. R. Solutions" or whatever she said the company's name was, and she yelled rather brashly, "You don't sign up with a collection agency." The plot thickens.

So was this a real collection agency, or was this a scam? I had no idea. All I knew was that if this was a real collection agency, I wasn't the person they were looking for, but if it was a scam to try to telephonically phish for my real social security number by process of elimination, then I didn't want to talk to these people anyway. Regardless of what the real situation was, I had no business with this group.

I don't recall exactly how the conversation ended, although I remember the lady saying that if I refused to verify whether the social security number or address had ever belonged to me then I would continue to get calls from them.

Tonight (Tuesday night—apparently they only take the weekends off from harassing people) I got another call. This time it was a man. When I picked up the phone he asked for Joshua, and rather than confirming my identity I asked who was calling. The man refused to tell me and said that it was an important business call and he needed to verify that I was who they were looking for before he could give me any information. Like the two before him, he asked me if my social security number ended in a certain four digits. As far as I could remember, it sounded like it may have been the same as before, although I hadn't written it down when the other two people called me. Again, I told the person that social security numbers were too private to verify over the phone, and a similar conversation to the one last night ensued. This time, however, I was starting to get pretty ticked about being harassed by some company when I had no way of knowing if it was legitimate, and I told him so. The man was even more brash and rude than the lady last night. He accused me of being the person they were looking for simply because I refused to answer his personal questions, and for the remainder of the conversation he talked to me as though I was this other Joshua they were supposedly looking for.

So why didn't I just admit I wasn't this other guy and get it over with already? Because I still had no way of knowing the legitimacy of this company. Anyone can call someone and claim to be someone else. I don't have Caller ID, but even if I did it's not very trustworthy. Anyone can hack Caller ID. The man offered to give me the address of their Web site, and I immediately told him that anyone can have a Web site claiming to be part of some legitimate company. I told him that if I called someone and told them I was from Microsoft and told them to go to www.microsoft.com, that wouldn't prove anything. Of course, that probably made him more angry.

After a few minutes of trying to explain myself to no avail, I told the guy to give me the company's Web address. He didn't even know it off-hand and took about 30 seconds to find it and give it to me (hmm, I thought, real legitimate). He told me that his company was called ER Solutions, and the address he gave was www.e-r-solutions.com (hm, dashes in funny places... that looks legit). I also asked for his contact information, something I could use to look up the company and call him back, and he said something to the effect of "Certainly, sir. When you're ready to admit who you are and pay what you owe, you're welcome to call me back and we'll talk." Whatever. I told him that if I continued to be harassed I would notify the police, to which he replied "Oh, I'm not afraid of that at all, sir. You go right ahead." Right. If it was a scam, what better way to make someone trust you than to say you're not afraid of the authorities?

After getting off the phone with this man, I began contemplating my options. I had looked up the Web site (which begins with a cheap Flash intro, while the rest of the site looks like it was designed in the mid-1990s). I Googled for the 800 number he provided (1-800-847-2461) and it turned up no results. So far, no evidence that this was a legitimate company. I wondered whether I should call the police right then and file a report. I looked up the local police phone number. The phone book said to dial 911 for emergencies (which this wasn't) and another number for "business calls." I didn't think my call fell into either category, and we don't have the non-emergency number 311 in my area, so instead I pondered a few more minutes. I realized that I didn't know if the phone number given me was actually real, so I called it and asked for the man by name. They transfered me to him, and I could tell by his voice (and his attitude) that it was indeed the same person. So now I finally had a real solid link between the information he gave me and his company... but unfortunately I still could not verify whether the number really belonged to a legitimate collection agency since Google hadn't turned up any results for it. As I sat processing this for another minute, an idea occurred to me of how I could get them off my back without giving them any of my private information.

The first time I was on the phone with the male employee, he jumped to the conclusion that I must be the man that they were looking for, and he revealed that the man in question had a Verizon Wireless bill of over $300 that had not been paid. I told the guy that I had never had my own Verizon Wireless account, nor had I ever cosigned with anyone else (of course, he didn't believe me). The man said that his company was contracted by Verizon to find me. Now as I sat pondering my options, the thought occurred to me that I had a Verizon account—not a Verizon Wireless account, but I did have a Verizon home phone number under my name. So, I thought, if Verizon was working through this company to find me, why couldn't the company just contact Verizon, give them the number at which they had been harassing me, and ask them to verify whether the social security numbers on the accounts matched? This seemed like a good idea; if the people who had been calling me were legitimately working for a Verizon-contracted collection agency, then Verizon would have no problems sharing information that could help track down those who owed them money. On the other hand, if Verizon knew that these people did not work for them, then Verizon would (hopefully) not divulge private customer information.

I decided to call back the man I had talked to and present him with this brilliant idea. I was certain that this would prove one way or the other whether this was an elaborate social engineering scam or a legitimate collection agency that had called the wrong person. Again I asked for the man by name, but this time I was told that he was unavailable (how convenient). I asked if I could leave my name and number (which they already had on file) so he could call me back, and the lady who answered the phone offered to help me personally. I decided that there was nothing wrong with that, since I had already verified that this phone number indeed belonged to the man's organization. I was perfectly honest with the lady, who actually let me explain myself rather than cutting me off or making accusations like the others. I explained to her why it did not seem possible for me to verify whether her company was legitmate, and that regardless of whether the four digits of the social security number matched mine I did not want to reveal this information in case it was a scam. I offered my suggestion that she contact Verizon and give them the phone number at which they kept calling me, and simply ask Verizon to verify whether the social security numbers matched. The lady informed me that Verizon Wireless was a separate branch of Verizon than the one that handles home phone numbers, and that her company was contracted specifically by Verizon Wireless. Well, my brilliant idea was foiled... but what she was saying did seem to make sense. In regard to my concern about the company being legitimate, she explained that they had three locations in the U.S. and that they were registered with the Better Business Bureau and operated under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA—she didn't know a Web address for it, but I looked it up later). She explained that my first and last name are fairly common, and she said that it may have been possible that I could be a different person with the same last four digits of my social security number (this wasn't the case, but theoretically it could have been possible). She read me the entire social security number that she had on file, and asked me if that was my number. Perhaps because she was making a lot of sense and had given me more ways to research the legitimacy of her company, perhaps because she had listened to me rather than raising her voice or accusing me, and perhaps just because I wanted to get the whole thing over with, I confirmed to her that the complete social security number she read was not mine. She asked me if I had ever lived at the address I had been previously asked about, and I confirmed that I had not. She said that she was very sorry for the trouble that her company had caused me and that I would not receive any more calls from them about this case. Before hanging up, she asked me if the man I had talked to earlier had allowed me to hear the whole social security number or any part of it other than the last four digits, and I said that he had not. She said something to the effect of, "Okay, well as long as he didn't accuse you of being the other person, that's okay." I said with a chuckle, "Well, actually, he did accuse me of being the other person." She said she would talk to him about that and wished me well. I asked her for her name before we hung up, she obligingly gave it to me, and I thanked her for her help.

I felt a little better after having talked with her. I still did not know with absolute certainty whether an elaborate plot was at work here. However, I felt obligated to do some more investigation in case I had just given into some scheme after all, and after some more Googling I came across a page that contained several bits of information on the company that matched what I had heard on the phone. Considering all the pieces that seem to fit together after more research, the probability of this being an extremely complicated scheme is very, very slim.

Nevertheless, the tactic used by this collection agency is rather intrusive and sounds rather fishy to the street-smart. Maybe some people just volunteer their social security number on the phone, but even though I had nothing to hide I wasn't about to confirm anything to anyone without sufficient proof of the caller's identity.

Be very careful about giving personal information to people who call, e-mail, or instant message you, or even show up at your door without invitation. Anyone can pretend to be someone they're not, or to be affiliated with a group when they're actually not. Know your rights, and do a little investigation before you share anything as personal as your social security number, credit card information, or bank account information. Ask yourself what's worse: dealing with a belligerent collection agency for a couple days, or having your identity stolen, your credit or your reputation fouled up, and potentially having to deal with the effects of this identity theft for years to come?

The Incredibles Lives Up to Its Name

2004-11-19T18:02:00.000-08:00

Have you seen The Incredibles yet? You have, haven't you?? If not, get out and see it already! It rocks.

I'll admit I had somewhat low expectations for the latest Pixar movie. The previews seemed less than incredible. But I have to say that this movie is definitely my new favorite Pixar film. I'll probably get it when it comes out on DVD -- and that means it has to be good, because I almost never buy things for myself.

The Incredibles is packed with nonstop action, humor that the whole family can enjoy, and of course it's powered by Pixar's legendary animation. For adults and kids alike, I highly recommend The Incredibles.

"Virus Free" Mac T-shirts!

2004-10-19T09:05:00.000-07:00

Check out my brand-new t-shirt designs!

Other shirt styles are available, as well as a "Smug" mug.

The first design (shown here on a hoodie) reads "SMUG VIRUS FREE Mac USER" and on the second is "VIRUS FREE (i use a Mac.)"

Now you can be stylish, teach others that the Mac is virus- and spyware-free and help them switch, all at the same time!

On sale now. Reasonable prices. Show the world you're proud to be a VIRUS FREE Mac user! (And until November 1, 2004, you can get $4 off the hoodie by entering coupon code CPSWEATSAL.)

Want to make your own products? It literally costs you nothing. No setup fees... no fees whatsoever. Just make some cool designs, upload them, and CafePress.com takes care of literally everything else.

A Capital Idea

2004-08-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

Okay, this is just plain idiotic...

Remember Wired magazine? How it used to be all cool and stuff way back in the 1990s? And how nobody cares about it anymore? (I hear you asking, "Wow, that thing still exists??") Well that same Wired magazine has a Web site now, which is apparently called Wired News. This Internet publication declared that as of today it is changing some long-standing grammar rules; namely, Wired will no longer capitalize Internet, Net, or Web.

So, this begs the question, "Um, and just who do you think you are, Wired News? Aren't you that washed up lame-o news rag that nobody reads anymore?" To which Wired News would probably reply, "Why, no, we have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. We own the internet." To which you'd reply, "Um, you misspelled Internet, doofus." To which it would reply, "Actually, that's how it's spelled now. We're not German, you know."

I'm serious. Wired would say exactly that. How do I know? Because they said almost exactly that in their article. Go ahead, open it in a new tab and take a look. Now the Almighty Wired thinks it's proper to make fun of Germans. Didn't that go out of style shortly after World War II? Come on, Wired, Germany's cool now. It has been for a while. Wolfenstein? Rammstein? Franken—oh, wait, no, not that one. Well, anyway, Germany's cool. So while you're stuck in ye days of olde, the rest of us are right here in the present. Not liking your attempts to poke fun at Germany or changing English grammar rules.

Really now, even if Wired was some kind of actual Internet authority, where does it get off thinking it can change the English language?

Oh my gosh. I just realized that the fool who wrote this Wired article has my last name. That just makes me mad.

For the love of all that is good in this world, don't start lowercasing Internet or Web. I don't care if you lowercase Net (since I always thought a more grammatical way to write it was 'net anyway), but Internet and Web are supposed to be capitalized. Microsoft Word marks "internet" as a grammatical error because it is. "Web" is supposed to be capitalized because it's an abbreviated form of "World Wide Web," and even Wired still plans to capitalize "World Wide Web" (because it's a "more official entity," which apparently the Internet is not... go figure).

Honestly, I think Wired is mainly doing this as a publicity stunt ("Wait, you're really serious that Wired still exists?!"). And now, like a fool, I'm giving them free publicity. Because, you know, now all two of you who read my blog might actually click on the links I gave to Wired's site. Nevertheless, I feel that as a netizen I have the duty to uphold and defend all that is true and right. Like the capitalization of "Internet" and "Web." And so I call on you, my fellow netizens, to take a stand against the washed up Wired publication. Take a stand and keep on capitalizing! Show Wired just how little it means to us!

Do it because you're a good netizen. And because, you know, I said so.

Moof! Clarus the Dogcow Lives (in Classic)

2004-06-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

At work yesterday I was in the middle of a project involving a multiple-OS networking environment when I stumbled upon a cool Easter egg:

"Moof" is what Clarus the Dogcow says. Clarus is somewhat of an Apple developer mascot. As the Apple Turns tells the tale of a Clarus-modded iBook that received a smile of recognition from Apple founder/CEO Steve Jobs at a WWDC.

But I digress. I'm guessing that this little "Moof" Easter egg was being used by developers as a placeholder or something and was accidentally left in the Mac OS. It sure was fun to come across it, though!

Let me assure you that this is a real Easter egg, not something I made up; nor is there anything at all on the network named "Moof". Here are the circumstances involved so you can try to reproduce it on your own systems: Screenshot taken on Mac OS X 10.2.8 running a Classic app. This is a standard Save dialog in Navigation Services-enabled Mac OS 9 apps. The network volume is a shared folder on a Windows 2000 Server with AppleTalk sharing enabled.

Mmm, can't-go-to-sleepy goodness

2004-06-05T03:29:00.000-07:00

Well, with hours to go before I get married, I'm sharing a hotel room with my parents and my brother, and my parents can't stop snoring — and I can't get back to sleep. It's 3:36 am. I was finally able to get to bed about 12:30, and was planning to get up at 6:00. So basically it looks like I'll be running on a half-tank on my wedding day — 3 hours of sleep. Fun stuff, eh?

Thank goodness for my brother Seth. He's also wide awake because of the parental snoring. He was thoughtful enough to bring his AirPort-equipped PowerBook G4 on our trip (and this happens to be a Wi-Fi enabled hotel), and now he's being kind enough to let me use it. Well, at least until he realizes he can't get back to sleep either. =)

2 hours and 15 minutes 'til 6:00 and counting...

Shrek 2

2004-05-30T00:16:00.000-07:00

Just saw Shrek 2 tonight. Good movie! I liked it even better than the first. When the movie started I very much doubted it would end up as good as the first, but by the end of the movie I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now don't get any crazy ideas about me being a Dreamworks Animation fan. No way. Dreamworks' stupid Shark Tale movie advertised in the previews is clearly a dirty ripoff of Pixar's Finding Nemo. And don't even get me started on the Antz/Bug's Life conspiracy. (Too late, now I've gotta explain myself.) K, first Steve Jobs (Apple and Pixar CEO) came back to Apple, and Apple started turning around and becoming hugely profitable again with great, innovative products. So what does Microsoft do? Owning a huge chunk of Dreamworks, it gets the movie company to begin churning out a crappy knockoff of Pixar's A Bug's Life as fast as possible to beat the Pixar flick to the theater. Why? To keep Steve Jobs focused on Pixar instead of Apple. Or so the rumor goes (search for "Antz" in the latter two pages).

Anyway, I've enjoyed all of Pixar's movies, and I'm a loyal Apple fan so all the more reason to love and defend Pixar. Nevertheless, Shrek 2 was good. As much as I hate to admit it.

General Purpose Statement

2004-05-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

This is the JoshMeister's blog. Basically it's Josh's personal journal. He's often found in front of his computer, so in his estimation, the easiest and most logical way to keep a journal would be to have it hosted by a spiffy type-and-publish blog site like this one. So here you have it.

You're welcome to browse my postings here, if you're bored or something. You might find something insightful here on occasion. Anything's possible, right?

I'm getting married in 20 days

2004-05-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

That's right, all zero of you who know about my blog (heck, I just put it up last night -- what do you expect?), I'm getting married in 2 weeks and 6 days. In fact, exactly 2 weeks and 6 days from now I'll already be married. Wowee! It's coming up quickly.

I have finals this week. They actually started on Thursday, and then I have a test tomorrow and a final that's worth 20% of my grade for the class on Wednesday, then the following Monday I have my final final. All this while preparing to move into my first apartment and trying to shove most of my posessions in the little place so I can get officially moved in. Did I mention I work full-time? Well, I do. So I've been pretty darn busy lately and I expect to be for a while yet.

Finally!

2004-05-15T23:02:00.000-07:00

the JoshMeister finally has a blog!

... First Post!