A few more freebies that I like

Happy New Year! More free Mac stuff - enjoy!

If you use a MacBook Pro or a Powerbook with a backlit keyboard, this is for you. Labtick is a cool free app that allows you to adjust the backlight level on the laptop (and overrule the sometimes erratic ambient light settings that the laptop chooses.) (10.4 and 10.5 friendly)

Mactracker is a great program. It is a list of every Mac ever made and the specs to go along with them. When I am trying to help someone figure out how much RAM they can put in the PowerMac 9500, it comes in real handy... it is also fun to look at the specs of the first Macs compared to where we are now. They also have added Apple iPods, keyboards, displays and just about every other Apple branded item to the database. (10.4 and 10.5 friendly)

Monolingual is a free utility that will remove all of the other languages installed on your computer. If you are running low on memory, this can free up some space. A lot of progams install a whole boatload of languages even though most of us never get away from English on our Macs. I would suggest backing up your machine before running this... just in case.

This last one is a program that I stumbled across and it looks like it could be fun to play with. It is called MacOSaiX and does what the name sounds like... makes mosaics out of your photos. (It is supposed to be 10.4 and 10.5 friendly)

TSA and batteries... an update

It turns out that DC based photographer Greg Mathieson has been working behind the scenes to get this mess sorted out. Here is an email he sent out this morning (Dec 31) regarding the progress he has made towards this fix:

I just got off a conference call with TSA,DOT and DOE and all the powers that be and they are currently going to rewrite the regulation in that there will be no limit on how many batteries can be carried aboard an aircraft. It seems that the PAO putting out the release and notice did not get the facts right in that the issue is the Watt hours, per each individual battery and not that of the combined amount of power or lithium content. What they are trying to prohibit or restrict is that of a single size battery exceeding a set about of lithium, such as a 130WH battery or greater. Only the larger space power batteries that stand alone next to a laptop provide that type of power and some camera crew batteries do as well.

It's recommended though that once the new press release and notice is put out by TSA and DOT that members carry a copy if they are carrying large quantities of batteries onboard an aircraft. Just in the event some TSA guy never got the word or is reading the old notice.

All the best for a happy new year,

Greg E. Mathieson
MAI Photo News Agency, Inc.

So hopefully a new memo will be out soon that will get this straightened out. When it is released, I will post it here.

One lingering concern... it still remains to be seen what this means for photographers that travel with portable light kits that rely on heavy-duty batteries for power....

Airline travel is about to become even more fun!

So the TSA has dropped their latest bombshell on all of us that travel frequently. A new ban on too many rechargeable batteries. Apparently the new rule (effective Jan. 1, 2008) says you can bring two rechargeable batteries other than those actually attached to the devices they were intended for in your carry-on bags. Batteries are now forbidden in checked luggage.

They also need to be in individual baggies to keep them from shorting out or catching fire. But if putting them in a baggie renders them safe, who cares how many you bring on the plane???

I guess I'll be using Fedex to send all my batteries ahead of me on shoots from now on.

Read the release here.

Securing Your Laptop - software and firmware

How easy would it be exploit the contents of your laptop if it was taken? What kind of information is stored on your laptop that you wouldn't want to fall into the hands of criminals? Passwords, banking records, serial numbers, images, contacts and access to any online account that you have "remember me" set up for. Think about all the times people say "I have my entire life on my laptop."

Which means if your laptop gets stolen, and it isn't secure, the person that swipes it suddenly gets to be you... with access to your email, banking and whatever else they can find on it until you can change all your passwords... unless the bad guy beats you to the punch and changes them all for you, effectively locking you out of your own online life.

Here are some things you can do to help prevent this from happening.

1. In System Preferences go to "Security" and check the boxes that say "Require password to wake this computer from sleep or screen saver" and "Disable automatic login."
   
   By doing this, your computer will require you to input your password every time you start your computer and to wake it up from sleep or the screen saver. So if someone steals your laptop, they won't be able to start your computer or use it because they won't know your password.
   
   
2. Use a real password that is at least 6 characters long that uses both letters and numbers and a capital letter or two for good measure. pswd, 0000, 1234, abcd, qwerty, admin, and guest are really not secure passwords... those are all things that crooks are going to try if they are attempting to get into your computer. Avoid your name, your kids names, Canon and/or Nikon for that matter as well... those are all easy to guess.
   
   After you've crafted your password, make sure you remember what it is. Don't write it down on a piece of gaffers tape and stick it to your laptop. That defeats the purpose of having a password. Keep in mind that if you have a password written down, someone could potentially log into your machine over a wireless network you share and access your data that way as well... keep your password a secret.
   
   
3. Enable the firmware password for your laptop. Here are Apple's instructions on how to do it. By turning this feature on, it prevents someone from being able to boot up your laptop from an external device (like a hard drive) or boot it up in any of the diagnostic modes that exist under OS X. The only option for someone would be to do a clean install of the entire machine with an OS X DVD.
   
   This means that your computer is pretty much a brick to anyone that swipes it and doesn't have your user password or the firmware password. If they want to use your computer, they would have to start all over. This means that your data potentially stays safer and is much, much more difficult to access than if you laptop was wide open.
   
   
4. Protect critical data with encryption. Use File Vault (built in) or use Knox to create secure folders on your hard drive to protect critical data. That adds yet another layer of security to your Mac laptop. Password protecting Word, Excel, or other documents is not really any protection at all. There are a ton of ways to quickly crack password protected files.
   
   
5. Protect serial numbers, passwords, and banking info on your laptop. Laptops allow us to run our business from where ever we happen to be. That means that we also have to carry around all the logins and passwords to be able to do that. Securing this data is critical.
   I have recently found 1Password which I am totally taken with because of its ability to autofill passwords on websites, sync between my different computers using my .Mac account and the fact that it is locked tight when not in use. It is the best $25 you could spend to secure and synchronize your password data.
   
   
6. GET REVENGE. A really cool app that has been released for the Mac (and specifically for the MacBook and MacBook Pro with their built-in cameras) is called Undercover. What it does is installs software in the background of your computer that does nothing except check in with their server every so often when it is online. If your laptop gets lifted, you alert Orbicule (the folks that make Undercover) and the next time your laptop goes online and checks in with their server it will start sending photos of the user taken with the built in camera, logging the websites that the user goes to and what he types while he is there, logs their IP addressand send all that stuff to Orbicule in the background so the bad guy has no idea that his every move is being recorded. You then forward all that to the cops and they can get your laptop back and a free trip to the gray bar hotel for the jerk who took it.