User Profile for SWriter

Camino 1.6.6 (Mac OS X)

doesn't hog memory like safari  

There are some sites that Safari just does not work well on, that's when I definitely use Camino. The thing I most like about Camino, besides being a lean mozilla browser are the hidden customization features, privacy control and its overall tweakability to make it even faster and which give it more refineable search features (don't use if you don't know what you're doing). Safari may be faster (and it does launch faster than Camino and is more stable than Camino overall), and for many 'prettier' but it's a frakking unrelenting memory hog/memory leaker! I have to quit safari many times per day to release the memory it leeches and never releases. Once Camino gets going (and it can take a while sometimes, at least the last couple of verisons of 1.6 that I've used, not sure yet about 1.6.7), but once launched, it stays comparatively lean re memory usage and it releases it along the way during usage. Camino is similar to firefox but from my experience much faster on macs than FF -- plus apparently Firefox for mac is not very secure without numerous add-ons that make it even slower and clunkier than FF already is; really clunky and s.l.o.o.o.w on mac ppc anyway. Opera does not have the intuitive user-friendly mac interface -- maybe it works for some but too different and hard to get used to for this long time mac and windoze user household. These plus some other great reasons are why camino is my #2 preferred browser, at least equal to safari. I use both every day. [alert admin]

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Thursday, April 02 2009 @ 08:53 AM PDT

Little Snitch 2.0.4 (Mac OS X)

2.0.4 seems a little hinky compared to earlier 2.0.x builds but is a must-have!  

Little Snitch (aka LS) should be in any serious mac-user's staple of must-have applications. For newbies it helps to understand what Little Snitch is all about -- it's about protecting you, your computer (and identity) security and your privacy first and foremost. Little Snitch's popups take some getting used to for new users in the beginning as you get the hang of 'training' it by setting rules. When LS pops up, someone/something is trying to retrieve something from your computer in some fashion -- whether it's serious or potentially harmful is up to you to find out. LS is just warning you that something potentially harmful is happening or about to happen in the form of outgoing extrusion from your computer (which might result in triggering an incoming intrusion too). Sometimes you will deny something and then have to go back and allow it otherwise you won't be able to access a site or page or feature such as http on port 80 or 8080 or https on port 443. Some possibly useful tips: If you're going to allow something that you're not sure about, while using your browser, choose the "allow until quit tab". In preferences: Alert > Check the Confirm Connection Alert Automatically. Pull down the deny connection attempts as the default. Give yourself more time by telling it 'after 30 or 60 or .... seconds' or more to give yourself time to look up the IP location and process id. Check the smart rule suggestion so you'll know what program triggers the alert and connection. Prevent Editing Advanced> Check "Mark New Rules as Unapproved" so you can more easily identify the ones you've customized in the list of rules as opposed to the defaults. It helps you analyze them better. Security > Check "Prevent Editing" and click the lock to prevent further changes if you don't want other users making changes outside of the admin account, (and theoretically to prevent other apps to override rules or malware rewrites, although this is not always failsafe as some apps have apparently developed secret outgoing extrusions around the LS barrier). It helps to use the mac Network Utility or other tools such as Who is, traceroute and Look up so you can learn who is trying to intrude into and extrude away from your computer. [One rapid learning strategy is to use the mac-optimized versions of Firefox, download the NetCraft.com Toolbar and use it in conjunction with the Noscript and flagfox add-ons. The netcraft toolbar and Flagfox are among those that can tell you the location/country and risk level of any site that you visit.) However, there are no 100% failsafe security strategies for most users. Little Snitch helps tip the balance a little more in your favor IF you take the time to learn how to effectively use it. Allowing browsers to connect to ports 80 and 443 are pretty standard. Allowing FTP apps to connect to port 21 is pretty standard. Allowing mail to connect to 995 is pretty standard .... (but you have to choose carefully) ... It's usually all those other ports and warnings re other processes and applications that people have to learn about and be concerned about. Increasingly more than ever. if you want just one good reason for using Little Snitch, Try to do a little reading at the New York Times technology / business / internet sections and blogs (or search the Security blog at the Washington Post and other consumer sites) about privacy, piracy, hijacking, computer, and browser security issues including how much data about you is being collected by google and other mega-corporations including your ISP. try reading this article http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20071109071246293 at the sister site of version tracker which includes: "Little Snitch starts out by being suspicious, essentially, of all outgoing signals except for certain types of signal sent by certain applications on your computer. For example, by default, all purely local network signals that don't reach the Internet (such as Bonjour) are okay; iChat signals are okay; and the main types of signal sent by Mail and Safari are okay. But apart from these and a handful of further built-in rules, Little Snitch's stance is to be suspicious and to alert you to all outgoing traffic. For example, if you use a different browser, the first time you try to view a Web page in that browser, Little Snitch will alert you. You can then say, Yes, this sort of signal (e.g. a TCP connection on port 80) from this application (e.g. FireFox) is okay from now on. That is an expected signal, but you might also encounter some unexpected signals, such as an application trying to "phone home" when you didn't know that it did that sort of thing. You might be surprised at what you learn!" and " the whole idea of a firewall is that it assumes that network traffic from inside your computer is good. For example, let's say you use your browser to navigate to www.macfixit.com. Your computer sends out a signal to MacFixIt's server, saying, "I'd like to see your front page, please." And MacFixIt's server obligingly sends a signal to your computer, providing the data for the MacFixIt front page that you see in your browser. How did that signal get past your firewall? Well, to put it simply, the firewall "knows" that you asked for the information in the first place. It lets the signal come in because all this started when you sent a signal out. Thus, a firewall doesn't do anything about filtering signals to the network that emanate from inside your computer. But not all signals from inside your computer are good. How do you know that some application isn't reading your name and phone number from your Address Book - or some even more sensitive information - and sending that information out to a waiting server on the Internet? That sort of trick is how certain kinds of malware do their stuff. If you are at all concerned with malware, therefore, or even if you are merely curious to know what signals are being sent out to the network by what processes on your computer, you need a filter that tracks outbound network traffic. And that's exactly what Little Snitch is. It intercepts all outbound network traffic and either passes it (because you've already told it that this kind of outgoing signal from such-and-such an application is okay) or blocks it (because it you've told it that this kind of outgoing signal from such-and-such an application is not okay) or alerts you (because it needs you to pass judgement on this signal). In the alert, you can permit the outgoing signal or deny it; if you permit it, you can do so on a one-time basis, or just while the sending application continues to run, or you can create a rule for all time that will allow this kind of signal from this application." Again, for anyone halfway concerned about privacy, hacking, identity protection, computer and family security, Little Snitch is more than worth the investment. If you are hyper ADD-oriented or want mindless computing where you don't have the patience to learn anything new or be detail-oriented (even for a little while) and don't care about your privacy or computer security, it's not for you. LittleSnitch does have a learning curve and takes some effort on the user's part. However, it's worth it to protect yourself, your kids, your family, computer, security....isn't it? PS be sure to let other users of your computer know that you've installed it -- if you set it up correctly, only an administrator-privileged user can modify it. So do a little learning and experimentation early on ... allow for some frustration and confusion in the beginning. If you have multiple users, you might assign one person to become the LS expert. [alert admin]

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Thursday, January 15 2009 @ 08:49 AM PST

AppleJack 1.5 (Mac OS X)

1.5 broke all applescript processes PPC G5 10.4.11  

since installing 1.5, have had a completely nonworking error generating ruined applescript scripteditor scriptrunner in my imac i don't know how to fix all related to applescript -- lots of errors including 1750; don't have a clean backup since i did not know it was broken when backing up and then need to downgrade back to what version? of 1.4.x? that still works properly on 10.4.11 ppc g5 imac can anyone help? thanks [alert admin]

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Thursday, December 18 2008 @ 12:45 PM PST

Leap 1.1.0 (Mac OS X)

memory hog  

so far i can't leave it on while i'm doing other stuff because it's a cpu hog. sometimes 49-65%! I assume it's re-indexing everything instead of using the OSX spotlight index? Waaaay too much cpu. if i can remember to re-launch it and let it index while I'm away, then i might give it another chance. for now it's not the least bit useful if it's hogging all the power this imac is sluggish enough as it is. using g5 ppc 1.5GB ram 2.0Ghz suggestions welcome. I'm not rating it now as that would not be fair since I really haven't been able to fully run it through the paces. [alert admin]

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Saturday, September 13 2008 @ 02:57 AM PDT

WaterRoof 1.8 (Mac OS X)

Only operates from the admin account  

even starting it from the admin account, it only showed the log for the admin account firewall ONLY so even if i went to the trouble of logging into the admin account to start it up, the only log/history info it showed was for admin activity not user account activity so that's pretty useless.... unless the guide/interface fails to instruct one HOW to start monitoring all Firewall log activities for all accounts -- which is possible because as one other reviewer mentioned, the documentation is so vague. but if it's only an admin monitoring app and if you only use your admin account (not recommended for security reasons) then you could test this out and get some add'l useful info. but if it's admin only and you're doing most of your day to day work in a user account, this won't serve much purpose. seems to have some useful features but the guide and app itself is not user friendly; for experienced highly technical advanced users. good thing it's free. it is however easier to get started and interact with than so-called GUI interfaces for other recent opensource/shareware/freeware/commercial ... but that ain't sayin much. [alert admin]

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Thursday, August 30 2007 @ 07:41 PM PDT

Firewall Builder 2.1.13 (Mac OS X)

Could not get it to launch.  

on 10.4.8 imac g5 nothing happend. plus there are no instructions or guide in the downloaded dmg. fyi/fwiw [alert admin]

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Thursday, August 30 2007 @ 07:01 PM PDT

Adobe Flash Player 9.0.47.0 (Mac OS X)

poor installation won't install  

error message repeatedly: It appears that a browser is still running on your system. Please close all browsers and click 'Continue'. done, done, done. still won't install. no help, no tips; quit everything even relaunched finder. zip nada zilch. another reason monopolies are dangerous - -they just stop giving a flying flip about their customers. [alert admin]

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Monday, August 20 2007 @ 10:41 AM PDT

iProtector 1.3 (Mac OS X)

Needs a KeyChain entry/link in case of lost password  

I am looking for something like this but I noticed it does not connect/link/add to the keychain app and based only on a cursory examination, I think that's a mistake in case of a lost password. I'd like the master password to be kept in my user keychain. [alert admin]

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Tuesday, July 03 2007 @ 10:27 PM PDT

The Informant 1.0.1 (Mac OS X)

can't someone take this & run with it?  

good idea, buggy. it automtically adds about 5 informants to the log-in, start-up items in the accounts preferences after I placed it there once. wish a developer would take and improve, stabilize because it really is a good idea.! apparently the developer has abandoned it / his site? not there last time i checked. in the era of multiple website hosting and mult-domain management, this is a true need -- simon is way overpriced. [alert admin]

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Friday, October 13 2006 @ 06:28 AM PDT

DEVONthink Pro 1.1.1 (Mac OS X)

Crashes every time!  

I'm not getting the promised mileage from either DT Pro or from Devon Agent. Very very very disappointed. I'm ready to ask for a refund -- it has crashed every single time I've used it and the Devon Agent results are no different than and often worse than google results. I had used an earlier version temporarily for a specific online research project and I remember it performing much better -- I don't understand how something can go downhill in less than a year. I have to agree with others that the interface is confusing and not well-integrated with native os x apps and existing features. To me, DevonThink & Devon Agent have gone backwards and therefore 'not there yet' Also, it does things like change flag status on all emails without telling you that it's going to do that and yet it does not index or import apple mail. what's up with that? cannot recommend at this juncture. [alert admin]

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Sunday, June 04 2006 @ 12:33 PM PDT

addendum to previous info  

see also: "Well Known" TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1629?viewlocale=en_US

Original feedback item : Read More

Thursday, January 15 2009 @ 06:09 PM PST

it helps to understand what LS actually does and doesn't do.  

try reading this article http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20071109071246293 at the sister site of version tracker which includes: "Little Snitch starts out by being suspicious, essentially, of all outgoing signals except for certain types of signal sent by certain applications on your computer. For example, by default, all purely local network signals that don't reach the Internet (such as Bonjour) are okay; iChat signals are okay; and the main types of signal sent by Mail and Safari are okay. But…

Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)

Thursday, January 15 2009 @ 07:57 AM PST

it helps to understand what LS actually does and doesn't do.  

try reading this article http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20071109071246293 at the sister site of version tracker which includes: "Little Snitch starts out by being suspicious, essentially, of all outgoing signals except for certain types of signal sent by certain applications on your computer. For example, by default, all purely local network signals that don't reach the Internet (such as Bonjour) are okay; iChat signals are okay; and the main types of signal sent by Mail and Safari are okay. But…

Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)

Thursday, January 15 2009 @ 07:56 AM PST

totally agree -- overly complexified & no clear explanation for what it does  

couldn't agree more with all the critiques -- it looks nice, impressive all that but wtf is it for? and if it's not intuitive & easy to simply use -- it's not mac-like at all

Original feedback item : Read More

Monday, July 31 2006 @ 02:37 PM PDT

Skeptical...& Disappointed  

I couldn't agree more! You are right on the money and I feel I have not well- spent my money -- the idea is better than the execution. The 'bundle' is very buggy, especially devonthink and the results in DevonAgent are very …

Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)

Thursday, June 08 2006 @ 10:19 PM PDT

This was most helpful comment for me  

Weird things happened; original dmg link i used at sourceforge, could not get the app to launch. Used this recommended zip link and launced azureus from the downloads folder. BUT when I moved it to a diff folder (sub-folder of utilities, it would not launch). Then moved it to applications folder and it launced. So I don't what all that means but I just know I needed the ZIP download location AND I needed to place…

Original feedback item : Read More(1 words)

Monday, March 13 2006 @ 05:10 PM PST