Tag: Tech

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OS X 10.10.2 Update

OS X Update 10.10.2

Apple releases OS X 10.10.2 Update build 14C109.

About the update

  • This update includes the following improvements:
  • Resolves an issue that might cause Wi-Fi to disconnect
  • Resolves an issue that might cause web pages to load slowly
  • Fixes an issue that could cause Spotlight to load remote email content when this preference is disabled in Mail
  • Improves audio and video sync when using Bluetooth headphones
  • Adds the ability to browse iCloud Drive in Time Machine
  • Improves VoiceOver speech performance
  • Resolves an issue that could cause VoiceOver to echo characters when entering text on a web page
  • Addresses an issue that could cause the input method to switch languages unexpectedly
  • Improves stability and security in Safari

Enterprise content

For enterprise customers, this update:

  • Improves performance for browsing DFS shares in the Finder
  • Fixes an issue where certain Calendar invitations could be displayed at the incorrect time
  • Fixes an issue for Microsoft Exchange accounts where the organizer of a meeting might not be notified when someone accepts an invitation using Calendar
  • Addresses an issue where Safari could continually prompt for credentials when accessing a site protected by NTLM authentication
  • Adds the ability to set “Out of Office” reply dates for Microsoft Exchange accounts in Mail

Security Content

This update is said to include fix against “Thunderstrike” (via iMore).

One thing I noticed with the pre-release build, the computer was no longer incremented. The last time it happened my MacBook Pro was named “Deus ex Macintosh (13)”.

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Desperate and Delusional BlackBerry CEO

Desperate and Delusional BlackBerry CEO

BlackBerry CEO, John Chen:

Unfortunately, not all content and applications providers have embraced openness and neutrality. Unlike BlackBerry, which allows iPhone users to download and use our BBM service, Apple does not allow BlackBerry or Android users to download Apple’s iMessage messaging service. Netflix, which has forcefully advocated for carrier neutrality, has discriminated against BlackBerry customers by refusing to make its streaming movie service available to them. Many other applications providers similarly offer service only to iPhone and Android users. This dynamic has created a two-tiered wireless broadband ecosystem, in which iPhone and Android users are able to access far more content and applications than customers using devices running other operating systems. These are precisely the sort of discriminatory practices that neutrality advocates have criticized at the carrier level.

I wonder if John Chen realized how ridiculously wrong he is. The chief reason BlackBerry “allows” iPhone and Android users to download and use BBM service is that an overwhelming majority of users do not want BlackBerry phone. Thus, less and less people using BlackBerry BBM service.

BlackBerry, formerly Research In Motion, dismissed the threat of the iPhone back in 2007. That’s one of their first mistakes.

BlackBerry would never care to release BBM on other platform if they were the most popular platform.  Right now they are just desperate to keep the company afloat. John Chen is just delusional. Apple and Netflix do not have the obligations to make any of their services available on each and every single platform out there.

P.S.
One of my associates is still a BlackBerry user; she just acquired a BlackBerry classic. Yet, she prefers using SMS on the phone and iMessage on her iPad.
My relatives are still using BBM on their Android phones, that’s because they were BlackBerry users. They were.

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The Cult of the Dumb

Cult-of-Dumbass

File this one on the “Stupidity Knows No Bound” file.

Cult of Mac (cached version, no direct link.)

7 things Steve Jobs would have hated about Apple today
Luke Dormehl (5:00 am PDT, Jan 7th)

Unless Cult of Mac’s Luke Dormehl performed a seance and spoke to the ghost of Steve Jobs, who passed away on October 5, 2011, only then this post would make any sense whatsoever.

No surprise from a “publication” that hires Mike Elgan.

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More Data Please

It is only the second day of 2015 and I am running out of “data” on my T-Mobile plan. Luckily I’m only a few days away from the new cycle of my plan. I was burning through 1GB of data in one hour, tethering my MacBook to my iPhone.

3GB of Data is used T-Mobile

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Apple Issues Patch for Critical NTP Vulnerability

Apple NTP Security Update 20141222

Apple issues OS X NTP Security Update for Mountain Lion, Mavericks and Yosemite.

OS X NTP Security Update
ntpd

Available for: OS X Mountain Lion v10.8.5, OS X Mavericks v10.9.5, OS X Yosemite v10.10.1

Impact: A remote attacker may be able to execute arbitrary code

Description: Several issues existed in ntpd that would have allowed an attacker to trigger buffer overflows. These issues were addressed through improved error checking.

To verify the ntpd version, type the following command in Terminal: what /usr/sbin/ntpd. This update includes the following versions:

Mountain Lion: ntp-77.1.1
Mavericks: ntp-88.1.1
Yosemite: ntp-92.5.1

CVE-ID

CVE-2014-9295 : Stephen Roettger of the Google Security Team

From ICS-CERT:

Google Security Team researchers Neel Mehta and Stephen Roettger have coordinated multiple vulnerabilities with CERT/CC concerning the Network Time Protocol (NTP). As NTP is widely used within operational Industrial Control Systems deployments, NCCIC/ICS-CERT is providing this information for US Critical Infrastructure asset owners and operators for awareness and to identify mitigations for affected devices. ICS-CERT may release updates as additional information becomes available.

These vulnerabilities could be exploited remotely. Exploits that target these vulnerabilities are publicly available.

Products using NTP service prior to NTP-4.2.8 are affected. No specific vendor is specified because this is an open source protocol.