First, a little background:

Static routes are designed to allow user to manually (as apposed to dynamically) configure the path that their computer network traffic will take based on certain criteria.  Routing usually only needs to be manually changed if there is a lack of communication between two routers, or the router and the computer.

Say, for example, a computer has two network ports connected to two different networks; the computer will have two different IP addresses and two different gateways; therefore that computer has two different paths for accessing the Internet (assuming both networks are Internet-connected) which path will the computer take? With static routing all this traffic can be forced to take one path or another.  All that is being configured is the next hop in a series of hops for a particular interface.

Replace "computer" in the example with "router" and you can see why static routing can be important in the grand scheme of things.

Chances are, in reality not that many people are going to have their personal computers attached to two different internet-enabled networks, but that doesn't mean static routes are unimportant.

Just last week my personal router was having troubles overheating and had all sorts of erratic problems.  After several days of investigation, I found the issue.

For a little topology lesson: I have a router that distributes its signal to three computers and a number of other Internet-connected devices like Smartphones.  One computer, known as Joker, is connected via Ethernet, everything else is attached with WiFi.  Joker is the only desktop so it made the most sense to tether him to one place with a cord.  After I would wake him up from sleep his network connection wouldn't fully connect until I would physically reset the router.  Restarting the router every time I wanted to use the internet on Joker became old really fast.

Begin the investigation:

Screenshot of his "Local Area Connection" network connection details in Windows 7 while having these problems.

Network Connection Details

Everything looks totally legit here. Nothing out of the ordinary.

I was taught to look from the inside out, especially with network problems.  Pinging localhost is the fastest way to check if a network adapter is working properly.

ping localhost

That is all good.  Even pinging my local IP address seemed to work just fine as well.  After putting up with resetting the router for a few days, it dawned on me.. Why don't I look at my routes?  Here is a copy/paste from running the "route print" command in Windows 7 at the time of the problem (note that the two top entries were switched occasionally).

IPv4 Route Table
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination        Netmask          Gateway       Interface  Metric
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0         On-link       172.16.0.46     20
          0.0.0.0          0.0.0.0       172.16.0.1      172.16.0.46     20
        127.0.0.0        255.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        127.0.0.1  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  127.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
      169.254.0.0      255.255.0.0         On-link       172.16.0.46     30
  169.254.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link       172.16.0.46    276
       172.16.0.0    255.255.255.0         On-link       172.16.0.46    276
      172.16.0.50  255.255.255.255         On-link       172.16.0.46    276
     172.16.0.255  255.255.255.255         On-link       172.16.0.46    276
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
        224.0.0.0        240.0.0.0         On-link       172.16.0.46    276
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link         127.0.0.1    306
  255.255.255.255  255.255.255.255         On-link       172.16.0.46    276
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
  None

Reading this is table pretty straightforward, the Network Destination is the criteria (0.0.0.0 being a catchall), the Netmask is the mask for the criteria (0.0.0.0 ditto), the Gateway is where that criteria-filtered traffic is going to head where On-link is 127.0.0.1, the Interface is telling us which interface the rule applies to, and the Metric is sort of like the priority.

I find it somewhat funny, that exactly at the time I am researching routes... is the very time I needed it to solve a strange problem involving my routes.  The problem in the table above is that I have two "all traffic" rules, the top two entries.  Sometimes the two entries would be switched and other times they would look just like this.  The problem is that the routes table was telling Joker that the all Internet traffic could be found by going to 127.0.0.1, which is totally false.  I don't believe I am hosting the entirety of the Internet on my computer.

I blame this on the fact that the two rules have the same metric, and therefore the same priority.  When I would release/renew my IP address, the same problem would come up, but only on the Wired connection, which made it even more odd.

After a while the Vista/7 "you're connected to the internet" diagram would show a successful connection in Network and Sharing Center, seen below.

Internet Connected

The only way I could fix the routes was resetting the router and waiting for a new IP address.  Until I discovered this, the real problem, the routes were messed up.

The way I fixed this problem on a temporary basis is by running the route add/change command which goes something like this (format from route /?):

> route ADD 0.0.0.0 MASK 0.0.0.0  172.16.0.1 METRIC 20 IF 11
       destination^      ^mask    ^gateway    metric^     ^
                                                 Interface^

or

> route CHANGE 0.0.0.0 MASK 0.0.0.0 172.16.0.1 METRIC 20 IF 11

This command will either add a new entry with an "all traffic" as the criteria, and point it to the correct gateway, or it would change the current 0.0.0.0 entry to the correct gateway (I would use both, since sometimes the first one would throw an error).  Note that I didn't want to use the -p flag (persistent), which would make the route static, even when the system was rebooted, because I did not want to have to come back and delete it when I figured what the real problem was.  Yeah, I'm lazy.  I imagine the router was assigning two routes, and only the one that was supposed to work (172.16.0.1) was listed in the Network Connection Details as the correct gateway, as seen in the first picture.

Problem solved discovered. A firmware update and getting it out of the overheating situation lead to: Problem solved.

Blacklisting

next time...

I decided this post was too long, so I've broken it up in to two parts.  Look for the rest of it, soon.

http://koandjr.com is the address to the joined blog of ours.

Have no fear, I have a good post about Routes coming up soon.

Update: Routes post found here.

Abstract

Security in software is a big deal.  People live their lives on their computers quite literally.  A typical user will store personal pictures, movies and documents on their computer, not to mention visiting their banking, investing and other financial websites using this very same computer.  Users do not understand their computers very well; they only use them as a means to an end, much like cars.  Since end users do not completely understand computer security, this leaves a lot of the work of securing a system up to power users, administrators and the programmers of the software applications.  One way that attackers are invading end users is by executing buffer overflows on their computers.

Buffer overflows are an extremely common and popular way for attackers out in the wild to compromise a system by simply telling their target to do exactly what they want them to.  Since computers are very literal, they’ll execute the code exactly as you told them to, sometimes handing over root/administrator access without any fuss.  Buffer overflows are very scary and should be an item to watch out for no matter who you are.  Fortunately they are mostly detectable, preventable and fixable with a little knowhow and elbow grease.

Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) is no exception to these rules and must be programmed with the highest security standards in mind.  One professed advantage of F/OSS is that other users besides the original programmers can review the code and find potential security problems and fix it themselves and/or report the problem to the original manufacturer(s).

Buffer Overflows

Buffer overflows are a unique beast because it gives the attackers exactly what they need in order to own the system: execution of code.  In Figure 1 there is a simple example of two variables stored in memory, before and after a buffer was overrun.  The word OVERFLOW fell (or was pushed) into part of variable 2’s address space and corrupted the data residing there.

Figure 1, Overflow example

There are several ways that code can be injected into a system buffer so that it will be executed, but the most common is by injecting the code there manually and having the program step into it naturally, meaning the program will execute it.  This can be done by force-modifying what is called an activation record.  An activation record does many things, but the part buffer overflows are concerned with is what happens when a function is called; the function lays down on the top of the stack a memory address that the code needs to return to once the function has finished processing.  If an attacker can corrupt the activation record, they can cause the program to jump to their attack code.  This type of attack is called a “stack smashing attack” in the underground world, and makes up a large percentage of attacks on the buffer.

Prevention methods

Software prevention, stoppage at the source, is the ideal way to eliminate buffer overflows; but it isn’t the easiest or the most practical method.  There are two major ways to prevent attacks using software: the first is at compile time and the second is at run time.

Conception, Implementation and Prevention

One of the reasons it can be such a problem to implement secure software is business-related issues:  The boss wants the program to function properly and he wants it done this week!  In a big project this leaves very little time for the programmer to walk through the many steps it would take in order to properly secure their code.  In addition to the time pressures, it is a commonly accepted practice to sacrifice security and correctness for performance, which might lead to problems down the road.

Thwarting these issues isn’t an easy task, but it is possible.  Using a modern day high-level language which has strong typing makes you much less vulnerable to buffer overflows because the compiler will enforce a smaller variety of operations allowed on the variables included in the code.  “Strong Typing” means that the programming language restricts the procedures that code is allowed to execute on different types of variables, such as trying to put a pointer where a double might be or attempting to call a function defined foo(int) with a string instead of an integer value.  The more checks the compiler and coder do on these types of forced casting, the safer the code will be.

Reviewing code, testing code explicitly for security issues, re-writing older insecure code and replacing code for standard library alternatives which are time-tested and proven will give the best results when it comes to security practices.  The only issue is, the coder needs to actually implement these best practices, or else it doesn’t matter.

Even after bad code is compiled and the exploit code is later prepared, there is still hope.  Thankfully our friends in the operating system and processor worlds combined their knowledge and technologies to create two ingenious ways to foil an attack at the hardware and operating system levels.  The first step to stopping execution of arbitrary code from an un-trusted source is done by leaning on hardware to do some of the heavy-lifting in the form of an NX bit (No eXecute), Intel calls this technology XD (eXecute Disable) and AMD named it Enhanced Virus Protection.  These technologies attempt to automatically recognize when a buffer has overrun its bounds or when an area in memory marked as data storage only attempts to execute.  When either of these actions is found, the NX bit will kill the process responsible for the violation.

The second and third steps are known as DEP (Data Execution Prevention) and ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization), which is Windows OS terminology.  These same principles are carried over to most all of the modern operating systems including OS X and Linux in almost all flavors.

The DEP protection is simple, both software and hardware work together to prevent any execution from the activation record, the data stack and other places that executable code should never be stored.

Figure 2, DEP settings

ASLR is a little more complicated than DEP and has only recently been introduced in Vista and Windows Server 2008 (although it has been available for various distributions of Linux for several years).  When a non-ASLR protected system boots it loads certain system files and executable programs into a fixed location in memory (such as 0x77AF0000), this makes it very predictable where core resources are going to be and that much easier to find and exploit them.  That would be like someone driving in their car the same exact path at the exact same time every day while travelling to work.  If someone wanted to harm this person, since they are on a very predictable path and schedule, it would be extremely easy for the malicious people to pick them off.

ASLR randomizes the memory address space layout so that each service, program, library or executable integral to the systems performance and security can be randomly placed in up to 256 different locations.  In this way ASLR obfuscates critical memory locations, which will change on every system reboot, so that an attacker has a much smaller chance of writing repeatable programs that hit a code entry point simply by hard referencing the memory address.  It is also important to note that ASLR can be activated for any program, not just core OS executables; given that it is compiled according to Microsoft’s specifications.

The best recommendation, from a security standpoint, that I can make to anyone whether or not you feel like your system is up to date and secure or not, is do not run programs that you do not trust the sources whence it came.

Problems introduced

Problems that are presented when running either DEP and/or ASLR are many, and only a few will be discussed here.  The most important issue is the fact that when either DEP or ASLR catches a piece of software trying to execute a buffer overflow, the default action is to shut the program down.  Let’s pretend that you are Amazon.com running an Apache web server, and you are being subjected to a buffer overflow exploit on Apache via remote intrusion.  What would be the worst thing about automatically shutting down your webserver? One paper says:

Being taken offline persistently can be costly; reports in 2000 show that Amazon loses about $180,000 per hour of downtime.

While it may be true that Amazon would do better with disabled servers than compromised servers — that, in the end, is an economic question — it is, nevertheless, also true that it is difficult to distinguish exploitable vulnerabilities from mere (segfault-inducing) denial of service.  Neither an automated watcher program nor a system administrator working under time pressure can be expected to make the correct determination. (Shacham, Page, Pfaff, Goh, Modadugu, & Boneh, 2004)

The automated watcher program that they are referring to is a crash detection and reaction mechanism which they call a watcher.  A watcher daemon will detect intrusions and take one of two actions, the first is to notify an administrator and ask them to take action and the second would be to take matters into its own hands.  If the settings instruct taking the second option, it will shut down the program in question or attempt to prevent the attack.

This unintended stopping of programs can apply to non-malicious software as well, as Microsoft points out on their Vista website, DEP can have unintended consequences if the security settings are set too high.

A secondary problem with ASLR is memory fragmentation interfering with the effectiveness of the randomization process.  Memory fragmentation can be split into two parts, Internal Fragmentation and External Fragmentation.  Internal fragmentation occurs when a block of memory is requested and allocated to a program, but never used fully by the program.  External fragmentation is when memory is requested and allocated and a very small piece is left over (from the overall memory block) and can’t be effectively used. See Figure 3 below.

Figure 3, External and Internal fragmentation

Security Problems in F/OSS

"Many eyeballs" debunked

There are other security risks that are less prominent (in my mind) but are still applicable in open source software.  If open source software is comprised of a number of different people contributing to the codebase, in theory it would be easy for an anonymous person, who could be trusted by the open source group leader, to program something malicious, such as a back door and take over at some later point.  This is only because strangers are able to submit source code and have it included in the final product.  This is not code that I would want to be executing on my computer.  Anonymous code submission would not be allowed, let alone used, in closed source shops.  Also, many open source projects specifically exclude themselves from any sort of liability, such as Mozilla’s legalese:

5. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. EXCEPT AS REQUIRED BY LAW, MOZILLA AND ITS DISTRIBUTORS, DIRECTORS, LICENSORS, CONTRIBUTORS AND AGENTS (COLLECTIVELY, THE "MOZILLA GROUP") WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY RELATING TO THIS AGREEMENT OR THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE PRODUCT, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, LOST PROFITS, LOSS OF DATA, AND COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES AND REGARDLESS OF THE THEORY (CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE) UPON WHICH SUCH CLAIM IS BASED.

Works Cited

Finder

Address bar?

Finder does not have a editable location bar without pushing Shift+CMD+G; that is only if I want to jump to a new folder, my current location is not in there.  I am constantly copying my current location in Windows and using that in other applications, OS X does not provide an easy way to do this.  What do I do if I want to copy my current location?  No I do not want another plugin to extend the functionality of OS X to make it usable, but I might have to go that route.

Go To Folder (cmd+shift+G)

On the other hand, the option (alt) key does wonders for OS X window management, which solves a lot of the complaints I have.  Option+Close (either cmd+w or clicking the close button) will close all open (Finder in this case) windows.  Nice.  Second, option+move the mouse around will grab the bottom right window corner and allow you to resize windows without having to move your mouse down there to find it.  In addition to that, you can control+move mouse around and it'll move the window with it.

Edit: Turns out some of these functions are features added by the BTT (Better Touch Tool), and not a native function. -1 point for OS X.

Overlapping active windows

One concern that I have (and this might not be Finder, but might just be the window management system) is which window is really active? Sometimes when I click on a window and all it does it bounce the Dock icon at me and doesn't actually switch to the program I wanted.  This happens most frequently when I try to close an unsaved document in the background like the screenshow below.

Window on top of Windows

You can see the TextEdit Dock icon is bouncing, trying to get my attention.  This was right after I moved the mouse cursor from SLES 9 in VMWare to click the close button in TextEdit.  Why doesn't the TextEdit window bring itself to the foreground, especially when I click on it and it is trying to get my attention?  It's behind the VMWare window, which will require me another click to get focus on TextEdit, then another one to save or not save the file.  Very odd behavior and not all programs do this.

Device Manager, System Profiler

The closest thing to the Device Manager (which I spend a fair amount of time in) is the System Profiler; I feel System Profiler is more informational but less powerful.  The Device Manger lets you see every single device currently attached to the computer, and also as an extension lets you see what devices are being installed (if they are new) via the task bar tray.

The first picture is the thing you see right after plugging a new device in, and if you click on the bubble, it'll bring up the second pictures window, which enumerates every device driver that is being installed, in this case a new mouse.

Installing Device Driver

Driver Software Installer Window

System Profiler shows every device attached, but with no way to disable the device, update its driver and also no way to see easily what devices are new and either being installed or have just been installed.  There isn't a system-level way to tell if something that I just plugged in is actually working.  For an example, a USB headset, I would need to open Skype or a similar program and use its testing functionality to see if something worked, since in System Profiler it shows that the device is there, but doesn't say anything about it working or not.

The nice thing about System Profiler vs Device Manager is that the OS X version shows you tons more information, such as how much memory is installed, what brand it is and its speed.  In addition to this hardware info, they also show you software-related information such as all system fonts, what type of universal access (accessibility) options are turned on and what preference panes are active.  To find this information in Windows, you have to dig much deeper through the control panel, use third-party programs like CPU-Z or TweakUI (which I have not found a good replacement for Vista/7, btw).

System Profiler- Memory

Dock

This almost isn't worth its own section, but I view this as a very serious omission.

I have a minimized dock icon, that looks like this:

Minimized Window Dock Icon

Why, when I bring up the context menu for that icon (right-click or ctrl-click) does it show me one measly, worthless option?  It is almost not worth even having!

Minimized Window Dock Icon Context Menu

In Windows when I right-click a minimized window it at least gives me the option to close it, which I do very often.  They would rather me restore the window, then close it.. an extra un-necessary step.  Would it be so hard to add that?  Even after 6 major version of OS X, they still have not gotten basic window management correctly implemented.

Minimized Window Task Bar Context Menu

Automator & AppleScript editor

These two programs are too broad to go in to any amount of depth, but I will say that the inclusion of these two applications in the OS are neat, to say the least.

Automator

Automator does exactly what it sounds like it does:

Automator is an application developed by Apple for Mac OS X that implements point-and-click (or drag-and-drop) creation of workflows for automating repetitive tasks into batches for quicker alteration, thus saving time and effort over human intervention to manually change each file separately. Automator enables the repetition of tasks across a wide variety of programs, including the Finder, the Safari web browser, iCal, Address Book and others. It can also work with third-party applications such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop or Pixelmator.

Wikipedia

Automator Template Selection

AppleScript Editor

The AppleScript editor is a close equivalent to batch file programming in Windows, except you can take AppleScripts and make Applications out of them, just like in Automator, or you can create compiled scripts.  This is a very powerful tool, and just like Automator, can make many repetitive tasks become only as hard as running an application.

AppleScript- Test script

The test script I got from this blog.

That is about all I can say of those two applications, they are very extensive and I don't even think I have even scratched the surface on either of their full functionality.. and I haven't even used Xcode yet.

Final Judgement

OS X is just like an RPN calculator, if you have ever used one you'll know they are crazy hard to get used to.  After a while it isn't so bad, then you don't even realize you are doing things differently than you were before and you'll be able to jump back and forth from an RPN calculator to a normal one without even thinking about it.

OS X and Windows are different but, the same.  They both get things done and that's what is important.  It also makes me realize that I need to pay more attention to the pieces of software that I choose, I need to make certain that they are really cross-platform before investing in them (I'm looking at you Quicken).  I need to ensure that not only are there clients for both platforms, but that the data can be opened and edited by both clients without any trickery.  This is important, especially since OS X market share is on the rise.

On a side note, it will never be the year of the Linux desktop, so stop dreaming, it isn't going to happen.

I will also have you know that I have my last OS X/MacBook post (#6) in the final stages of its gestation.

That is all.

Initializing a cmd window

First, opening cmd can be pretty easy.  Running a single command is easy too, think ipconfig.  Combining both is only "difficult" if you want to have the window stay open when it's finished running the command.  I used to execute "ipconfig /all" from the run dialogue box only to have the little black window flash before my eyes before I could read any of the text.  After using a little bit of Google-fu I learned that "cmd /k ipconfig" will run cmd, run ipconfig and "/keep" the window open, at least that's what I'll pretend /k stands for.

tl;dr- How to keep the window open and run a command AT THE SAME TIME!:

cmd /k command

As a bonus, an easy way to run a cmd window as an administrator (on Vista/7) is hit the Windows key, type "cmd" then ctrl+shift+enter and the UAC should prompt you to confirm running as an administrator.

Environment Variables

I love Environment Variables in batch files because they are easily declared and easy to use.  Most likely you will use them through the "set" command, like so:

Declare and initialize a variable:

set varName=43

Declare and initialize to a value entered by the user, brackets not required:

set /p varName=[String to Display at the Prompt]

To display the variable or use it in a command simply type the variable name surrounded by %'s:

echo %varName%

del /q /f %varName%

There are a lot of built in variables that can be used to find out information about the computer you are using, to see some of them and their variables simply enter "set" and hit return.

Some of the most common ones that I use are %username%, %computername%, %date%, %time%.  They are especially useful for logfiles and the like.  Since most of my batch files are related to logging something, those variables are the best to recognize who is running the command, on what computer and when.

Sometimes you don't need the entire variable, that is where the ~ key comes in.  For a real world example, I needed to store the current drive in a filename as part of the logfiles name (because all the logfiles were being stored in the same place on the same directory).  If you view the %cd% variable it will look something like this:

C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop

As you all know : and \ can not be in a filename on windows, so it would be helpful if we could grab just a few characters from the beginning of the %cd% variable. %username:~0,5% will only display the 0th to the 5th characters of the %username% variable, or if you just wanted the current drive letter,

%cd:~0,1%

or to get the root of the system drive (where windows is installed):

%systemDrive:~0,1%

Directory Stacks

A directory stack works much like a computer stack does, meaning first of all it operates on a First In Last Out (FILO) or Last In First Out (LIFO) basis.  Directory stacks are very helpful if you need to perform a bunch of operations in many different directories.

The way Windows works is that when you run the "pushd" command it pushes the current directory into the directory stack, then cd's to the directory you set as the parameter.  The way to get back to the previous directories is to run the command "popd".

For an example, I want to run the dir command in a few different directories and then return to the original directory:

C:\Windows>pushd D:\Archive
D:\Archive>dir
D:\Archive>pushd C:\Games
C:\Games>dir
C:\Games>pushd P:\Movies
P:\Movies>dir
P:\Movies>popd
C:\Games>popd
D:\Archive>popd
C:\Windows>_

Jumping around different drives and different directories and running the dir command probably is not all that useful, but having a stack with previous directories in it certainly is.

That's it for now.

Okay, maybe not.  But, for the first time in a non-scholastic environment, I used Wireshark to solve a real-life problem.

I was at home, trying to get my MacBook connected to my Win7 Pro "Server" machine, and stream a movie file located on a share.  I do this streaming several times a week, and always have problems.

On a (somewhat) side note, I am pretty sure that Apple is against Windows shares because they NEVER show up in the Network locations place.

Network Empty

This screenshot is taken on a network with a NAS with a samba share and two Windows 7 machines, both with shares available and open.  I can sit and wait for the refresh period build into Samba and it never shows up.  I hate networking with Windows on this MacBook.  I can CMD+K in Finder and smb://serverName/ and it'll open right up, but the servers never show up in the Network for some odd reason that I have yet to discover.  Suggestions welcome.

Back on topic, I was CMD+K'ing with my Win7 boxes name and every time I would try to connect it would throw and error.  I started cursing Steve Jobs name because he just hates Windows.  Cue Wireshark.

For help with the picture, dent.local is the name of my MacBook and 192.168.1.15 is the IP of my Win7 pro box.

I set a filter so I could see all traffic between me and the Win7 guy, so I could find out what is happening.  After a little (17.1k packets) while of capturing I found the gem I was looking for- an Error!

Wireshark Capture

Sorry for those with small resolutions, that lightbox is going to fill your screen!

I found the problem, looked for a solution and ended up just restarting the Win7 box in order to connect to it.  It wasn't out of RAM, I could connect to it with other Windows boxes, but OS X just couldn't do it.  Strange behavior.  Thank goodness restarting always fixes even the worst of problems.

I understand there is a small privacy flaw in this distribution method, but I don't want them any more.

First come, first served.

Alerts, Books, Chrome, Docs, Earth, Finance, Groups, Health, Images, jQuery, Knol, Latitude, Maps, News, OS, Picasa, in Quotes, Reader, SketchUp, Talk, URL shortener, Voice, Wave, X, YouTube

Stay tuned.

Dashboard is a non-essential but cool aspect of OS X.  I would equate it to the Sidebar in Vista or Gadgets in Windows 7.  I wouldn't necessarily say that Windows ripped it off from OS X, but it could be likely.  Maybe Google Desktop and maybe Konfabulator? Who knows.

Dashboard is a graphical overlay that is the home to what are called widgets.  Widgets are little HTML/CSS/JavaScript/Objective C programs that perform a function.  Widgets generally only perform a single function, and are just fine hiding in the background not being seen.  These widgets can also interact with currently running programs, such as the notification program Growl.  Some of the default Widgets that are actually useful are:

• A pansy calculator (pictured)
• Weather
• Google Search
• iTunes controller
• Mini Calendar (pictured)
• A time-zone-changeable clock (pictured with Vancouver, no I don't know anyone that lives there)
• Unit converter
• ... and others

Dashboard with Finder

There are many third-party widgets available, since is all the widgets are made of is mostly HTML and CSS, they can be rapidly deployed by web programmers.  The best repository for third-party widgets is probably apples own dashboard widgets site.  About half of my currently-running widgets are third party, because Apple just didn't see the need, my favorite one is iStat Pro.

Installing widgets is fairly easy, once you download the file (which is a .wdgt btw) you'll double click on it and it will simply ask you if you would like to install the widget (pictured below).  Managing widgets is also pretty easy, and reminds me slightly of the iPhone's Mail/Messages interface (pictured below).  You can't delete built-in widgets, but third-parties are destroyed in a breeze.

Install Widget?

Widget Manager

The Dashboard is activated several ways: by a keyboard hotkey, by a mouse button or by visiting a hot corner.  The way that I am currently doing it is by a hotkey, because I don't see much sense in assigning a perfectly good mouse button to waste or using hot corners, they kind of bug me.  Oh, and Widgets is a stupid name.

Hot Corners (Active Screen Corners)

For those of you not familiar, if you simply move your mouse to a pre-defined corner (all four are free to use) you can make OS X do all sorts of cool things.

Hot corners preferences

Note that this is one of two places to edit the hot corners, the other place is in Desktop and Screen Saver > Hot Corners... button

It is not pictured here because I couldn't get a good screenshot, but the options are:

• Exposé All Windows
• Exposé Current Application Windows
• Show the Desktop
• Bring up the Dashboard
• Show Spaces
• Start the Screen Saver
• Disable the Screen Saver
• Put the Display to Sleep

The real problem I have with hot corners is I accidentally activate them constantly and when it does something annoying like sleep the display; it is very easy to disable that setting and not look back.

Spaces

Spaces are okay.  I enabled them a while back, only to find out that I only ever used on space anyway.

Spaces is OS X's solution to a virtual desktop manager.  I was first introduced to virtual desktops in the Windows XP era with the PowerToy called Virtual Desktop Manager.  This PowerToy allowed you up to four separate spaces that had their own start menu, task bar and desktop.

MSVDM

Spaces is similar in that it has its own desktop for different purposes, there are a few things that I am not okay with.  First: Each new space should have its own new dock, or at least the option to make it so. Second: If you have different documents opened by the same program in different spaces, when you cmd-tab to the application it will switch spaces to the one that has the most recently active document for that program.  The cmd-tab should have different selections for the different spaces even if it is the same program, although I understand that might confuse some people who are accustom to the OS X atmosphere of limited possibilities.

Everything else operates how I expect it should.  Exposé only works on the current space.  You are allowed to drag windows to the edges of the screen to switch that window spaces.  In the overview mode you can drag whole spaces around to switch positions of windows, also, you can grab individual windows and move them from space to space (as pictured, where I am dragging a picture of me and the Girl to the lower left space).  I would say that it is a fairly versatile piece of software, but I only use it with two spaces and have a VM is in full screen on one space and everything else is on the other.

Spaces overview, dragging

Now, on to my favorite topic of today...

Time Machine

This program is literally the coolest part about OS X.  Now, I might have said that before about some other feature in OS X, but this time I mean it.

Time Machine is an automatic backup feature that backs up your computer every hour.  The best part is automatic.  I have it set to back up to my Windows Server box (that was a nightmare to get Time Machine to accept an smb share) and it does a beautiful job.  I can only say that I have actually used Time Machine to restore one file once, but it was still a magical experience.  The best part about Time Machine (to me) is that it backs up your entire computer, programs, settings and all.  This allows you to wipe your machine and restore from a Time Machine backup without any extra work.

Since Apple will say this much better than I can, here is what type of backups (incremental) Time Machine does:

Following the initial backup of your entire Mac, Time Machine automatically makes incremental backups every hour, every day, copying just the files that have changed since your last backup. And it does this all in the background, so you can continue working while Time Machine is busy copying your files. Time Machine saves the hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for everything older than a month. -Time Machine explanation

The Time Machine program allows you to restore previous versions of not just files in Finder, but also in other first-party programs like iWork and iLife applications (although they are currently untested by me since I don't use them).  The interface is slick, once launched it hides all other windows and shows you the current Finder window with a cascade of previous versioned Finder windows slowly disappearing into the animation behind it (see picture).

Time Machine: Desktop folder

The screenshot is showing what my desktop looked like on Monday, Feb 1st.  I could easily restore the folder and its contents, which have been deleted, by selecting the files/folders and hitting the Restore button in the bottom right hand portion of the screen.  Off on the right hand side there are white tick marks that run up the side of the screen from the bottom to the top, this will let you select a specific day in history if you want to restore files from a certain point.  In the picture I have my mouse hovered over the Monday, Jan 25th restore date

I know it didn't get much screen time, but Time Machine is probably the greatest thing for regular users that are worried about losing all their kids pictures and baseball game memories, etc.  Windows has something similar as implemented by Shadow Copy but the interface of Time Machine is very slick.  What they need now is an online backup method (maybe as part of MobileMe?) like Mozy or Carbonite, except Apple.

I'll point you to the Wikipedia entry for more information (and probably more technically accurate), but I'll give you a dumbed-down personalized version here.

Data Execution Prevention was introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2, my favorite service pack btw, although the idea of DEP has been around for much longer than that.  The idea of DEP is to stop programs, malicious or not, from executing code from a non-executable region of memory such as the default heap, stack or some memory pool pages; it can also prevent the program from writing executable code to these areas.  A malicious program can take advantage of the way that an Operating System (Windows) handles exceptions improperly and then call up some code running in those special areas such as the default heap or stack and some special memory pools. DEP detects these anomalies and kills the process via standard operating system murdering tools.

The famous Blaster and Sasser worms used this method to inject code into (probably the stack) memory and executed it.  From the small amount of research that I have done already, it appears as if the Blaster work took advantage of the RPC (Remote procedure call)  in Windows.  The same story goes for the Sasser worm, which was the result of a buffer overflow in the LSASS (Local Security Authority Subsystem Service).

A simple explanation of what a buffer overflow is this: A legitimate program will have a fixed size of temporary storage in memory (a buffer).  This buffer is filled and emptied when the program needs to use it, a buffer overflow happens when more data that was expected enters the buffer and flows in to an adjacent memory space.  This extra information could be a malicious program that is pushed into an executable area, then executed shortly after.

For an analogy, you have a company owned storage unit and you are constantly filling it with things you want to store and taking things out you are finished storing.  You are also allowing a few employees to put things inside the storage unit when you need them to.  One day a malicious employee puts more things in the storage unit than you have room for, and instead of it not fitting (like would happen in real life) it spills over into the next guys unit.  Since computers are kind of dumb and obedient, they only do the things we tell them to, no matter how crazy it sounds, I'll say that the guy who owns the unit next to yours is very gullible and will do anything you tell him to.  The things that spill over into his unit are some plans that tell him to immediately give your malicious employee every penny he has.  Then he does it.

A lot of the time a buffer overflow will cause the original program to crash, or another program whose memory contents you've just overwritten, or both.  DEP and its variants are supposed to stop this from happening, and while it isn't a perfect option it is better than nothing.

If my opinion changes over time or I find that I am wrong in anything I posted here, I'll try to come back and fix it, but I don't make any promises.  Although, I've tried to make this as accurate as possible by doing some exploratory research.

As for some references to find out more:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352 (A detailed description of the Data Execution Prevention (DEP) feature in Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005, and Windows Server 2003)

http://www.watchguard.com/infocenter/editorial/135136.asp (Foundations: What Are Buffer Overflows?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_overflow

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasser_(computer_worm)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaster_worm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NX_bit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exception_handling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_pool

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stack_(data_structure)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heap_(data_structure)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Execution_Prevention

Mouse

It's puny.

OS X mouse cursor

Image from Anil's Technica

You can't customize its colors or size without using some third party program, what gives Apple?  Windows has had this option since at least Windows 95!  Oh and it's still super small.

Windows 95 Mouse pointers

Image from GuideBook gallery

Why isn't this option in OS X?  Maybe Apple just wants complete control over their UI, even if it's extremely limiting.

Not being able to change the cursor really isn't that big of a deal, I guess, I just find that a black cursor gets lost on a screen much easier than a white one.  The thing that really drives me nuts is where OS X considers the "point" of the cursor to be.

OS X cursor, red "point"

Instead of the tip of the cursor being the point of the icon, it drops down a few pixels and drops right a few pixels to where the black actually starts.  This is less precise and leads to many, many missed clicks.  Try it, ctrl+scroll up to zoom in and try to accurately click on something, you'll find that the cursor don't provide as much precision as you would have hoped.

Window Management

I'll admit, the Close, Minimize and Maximize (or zoom) buttons are kinda cool, kinda.  The buttons look different if you are hovering over them, or not and the especially great part is that when the document is unsaved, the close button looks differently to represent that.

Window, neutral state

Window, hovered over

Window, neutral but unsaved state

I think they should be on the right side, but that's just me saying that, coming from a Windows world.  The close button works as expected, the minimize works as expected but the maximize (or zoom) button works like a third grader designed it.  For being so obsessed with having a consistent UI, the zoom button basically does the opposite of that.

In Finder it fits to the contents, which makes sense for some folders but definitely not all.  In Safari it tries to fits to the contents, sometimes... it is janky and doesn't work the same for every web site, try Google Maps, it goes nuts... with multiple clicks, for me, it resized the window for a total of four different sizes, none of which filled the entire screen.  PowerPoint didn't resize the window and all.  Firefox actually maximized the window, but upon a second click in made a little box, which was totally unusable.

Mini Firefox

Thankfully someone came up with a mostly-useful and free program called RightZoom to fix this problem.  It makes most of the dumb zoom problems go away and can be customized to only work for certain programs or so that it will work with all programs with exclusions.

Without this extension, all programs and windows are a pain to force them to fill the entire screen.  You can even manually resize windows so that they will go behind the dock... like that was ever a good idea.

iTunes resized behind the dock

Even if windows are maximized so that they fill the entire screen, it is possible and very easy to accidentally move it out of its position, effectively moving part of the visible window off the screen.  This is because the windows edges are not locked to the edges of the screen, like they should be when maximized.

Why is there only one place on a resizable window to actually re-size it?  The bottom right corner, a very annoying place.  Why can't it be whichever side I want to resize, I can just grab that side and resize it?  Can't use the top, can't use the bottom, can't use either of the sides.  Only one measly corner.  In Windows you can resize 8 different sides, the top, the top right, the right, the bottom right, the bottom, the bottom left, the left and the top left.  What happens if that one magical corner flies off the screen because of a resolution change? How convenient Steve, how convenient.

Corner Resize

While I'm looking down in the corner, take a look at the default setting of the scroll bars. Grouped arrows.  I think Apple likes to make their users work as much as possible, by making you move your mouse to where they think the scroll arrows should be, together.  The logic escapes me of why anyone would want this turned on by default.  What I mean is that if I want to go up in a document the natural instinct is to look towards the top of the document to find some sort of control to force the content to scroll upwards.  Not in the world of OS X, they would rather you look to the most unnatural place, the bottom.

Grouped scroll bar arrows

Thankfully it can be turned off in Preferences>Appearance.

Place scroll arrows: Together

Finder

There are a few things I like about how Finder operates.  First, the four main views can be switched to/from very easily.  Either as CMD+1,2,3,4 or by pressing the buttons in the toolbar.  I'm going to show the same folder of pictures in the four different views to display some of their differences.

Icon view

I don't like icon view and almost never use it, mainly because the icons get moved around too easily and don't automatically align to some sort of grid without explicitly telling that specific folder to act that way.  It is nice for looking at pictures, since it shows thumbnails, and you can easily size the icons to different sizes with the slider in the bottom right corner of the window (or the top right when in mini mode).

Icons gone crazy!

This is my downloads folder about two months ago, why are these icons totally disorganized when I never come into this folder, except through stacks?  Oh well, let's clean it up and make it nice and pretty.

Icons are still pretty crazy..

Pictures in Icon view

List view

List view is my view of choice for pretty much every type of file except pictures.  It allows you to quickly see what is in a subdirectory without much commitment; by using with the tree-like arrows next to every folder (as seen by the indentation on images 0031-0038-1) you can drop down a file structure very fast if you know what you're looking for.  Plus, in list view, icons are not spread all over the place however they feel like arranging themselves that day.  In the various columns it shows pertinent information, such as the modified date, the file size and what type of file it is (if you can't tell by the visible extension, which I have turned on quite recently).

Pictures in List view

Column view

Column view was probably the single coolest thing about OS X, until I actually used it.  It looks neat, it looks functional... but the truth is, it really isn't.  It feels slower than any of the other views and doesn't display any useful information like the other views do; small thumbnails, no file size or modified date makes this view virtually useless to me.

Pictures in Columns view

Cover Flow

Since the Preview.app doesn't have an effective way to show an impromptu slideshow, Coverflow is the best you're going to get with OS X.  Coverflow works in Finder the same way it does in iTunes, it shows big ol' pictures of what you're looking at on the top half and a list of the files on the bottom half.   This is useful for quickly finding a file just by scrolling through the folders contents, but most of all I find it just gimmicky without a whole lot of actual practical use.

Pictures in Cover Flow view

Quick Look

The single most useful thing in a file management program I've ever seen.  Want to look at a picture without opening a picture editor or even Preview.app? Hit the space bar and all your dreams will come true.  Pictures and PDF's are the most useful thing to look at, but they work for a myriad of file types: Pictures, PowerPoint presentations, PDF's, Word documents and others.  It's much faster to find out specific information on a folder or file than going to the context menu and hitting "Get Info".  As a bonus, if you want to view it full screen option(alt)+Space will do the trick.

Quicklook on Siblings dog

Gripes

• The Enter (Return) key does not launch a file/application, instead it initiates a file-rename.  CMD+downarrow launches a file/application.  Even though in iTunes, the Enter key starts the playing of a song.
• Most of the time, my other Windows computers don't show up in the shared section on the sidebar until I CMD+K and smb:// to them.
• Trying to find out information on more than one file at a time is kind of a nightmare, see what happens when you select multiple files and click "Get Info".  Why can't I get one window that has the aggregate information contained in it?

Multiple Information windows

• The fact that items are sorted alphabetically no matter what (folder or not) used to really bother me and now not so much.  Why isn't this an option?  I don't want to have to sort by "Kind" every time I want folders on the top, then files. From the ever springing fountain of knowledge that OS X forums bring:

making os x more like windows SHOULDN'T be doable. nor should anyone want it to be. -edX, from this thread.  How rude.

Sort by...

• Icon transparencies shouldn't be treated as if the icon isn't even there.  For example, in the GarageBand picture, you can see that the cursor is well within the bounds of the icon, yet if you decide to click there (not on a tangible part of the icon) you will simply be clicking on the background. Why why why would you ever want this for any reason? WHY? In Windows (XP, Vista and 7 at least) once you enter the boundaries of the icon, you are fair game to click.

GarageBand icon Fail

VLC icon Win

• This might not be part of Finder, but why isn't there a hotkey to lock the computer like Win+L in Windows?  If you are so concerned about security, Apple, why wouldn't that be a first-party solution?  I don't want to download another third-party application to get OS X functioning the way it should be.  Through the depths of the keyboard shortcuts, I managed to get the hotkey set, but it doesn't respond when I press them.  Oh well, more mouse exercise for me.

Hotkey all set up...

Even shows up here, still no dice

There has got to be many other things that bug me about how OS X inefficiently works...  I'm sure I'll complain about them later.

Motherboard- Asus P5B
Processor- Intel E4500
RAM- 2x Corsair Value 1 gig sticks
Video Card- EVGA nVidia 7600 GT
Case- CM Elite 335

Nothing too advanced or complicated, but I had a lot of fun building a new computer on my own time.

Manage Themes

For some reason my Theme manager went on the fritz and I couldn't get it to go back to normal (see picture).  I changed the theme to the default and back, I changed permissions on my blog files in FileZilla from everything to 744 to 777 (I know 777 isn't good).  Nothing seemed to work.  I stumbled across a page that said it probably had something to do with database permissions and not having the write privilege on a certain db.  I don't do my own db hosting so I did the next best thing: Create a new database with my host that WordPress could use.  I created a new db user, created him a new database and copied the SQL contents over through phpMyAdmin, then I pointed my blog in the wp-config.php file to the new database location!  With no luck.

I gave up reading through forums and did what any good computer nerd would do.  Reformat!  ...or the closest thing I could get to it.  I exported my installation and imported it to a newly created subdomain with an even newer database.  Thankfully WordPress is very cool and during the import process jumped over to my disfunctional blog and pulled all of its files (pictures, sounds, etc) so that the new install would be running in no time.  After that the only thing I needed to do was grab my themes and plugins then change settings to how I wanted them, which didn't take much time at all.

Tools>Export,Import

Nevertheless if you notice any problems, tell me about it.  This is a brand new install and I tried to make things pretty close to exactly the same as they were before, but that doesn't mean I got everything 100% correct.

The Battle

Well, I don't know if I would call it a battle, more like a comparison. This is the opinion of a Windows lover on a brand new OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) installation. Since I have never really used another version of OS X I can't compare it to anything else but Snow Leopard.

Installation

Since the MacBook came with fresh Leopard install and the Snow Leopard DVD in the box, I was forced to do the install all by myself without any experience, if you subtract my Hackintosh days, which didn't last very long since it was a pain in the neck back when Tiger (10.4) was fresh.

After inserting the Snow Leopard DVD it brought up the second picture, which is pretty self-explanatory. From there it was a simple Next, Next, Next button mashing. I left for about two hours, and when I returned it was done so I'm not really sure how long it took. Although the word on the street is that it doesn't take all that long. I was greeted with a happy "we finished installing your OS now you should do some other things" screen. Windows 7 is almost identically easy, except with better colors.

Leopard before Upgrade

Screen after DVD was Inserted

First Install Screen

First stages of Install

Finished Install Screen

The Verdict: A tie. OS X took one click less; Windows 7 looks prettier. I'll claim a draw.

Software Installation

What the weird. I am fairly accustomed to double-clicking an installer file then pressing- Next, I agree, (Choose Location...) Next, Next, Wait.... Finished. This way I know the terms of which I am installing the program, I can deselect certain unwanted features, choose where I want to have the program go and so forth. The over-simplified process of installing a program is too effortless for me and I don't like it. Fortunately for Apple you only install a program once or twice and forget that you had to go through such a mind-numbing installation.   For those of you are not familiar, the process of installing a program consists of dragging an icon into either the Applications folder or a shortcut to the Applications folder. The Firefox example below shows a shortcut to the Applications folder.

There are a few programs that I've found which still use a "normal" installer, for which I am thankful. It shows that there are still at least a few sane people who prefer options over simplicity.

After you (probably) download the program you are looking to install, you'll notice it has an extension of .dmg which is an Apple Disk Image. These are similar to ZIP files, because they allow for compression and encryption. They differ in the fact that when you execute the .dmg file it will "mount" the image instead of extracting it, which essentially adds a drive which contains the contents of whatever is stored inside the .dmg file.

Mounted Flash Player DMG

Since the image is auto-mounted and the contents are auto-opened you are presented with either the installer or more likely just an icon, such as the case with Firefox.

Firefox Install

Honestly, if I had not seen someone else do this before I would be totally confused.  Since the only directions given are a single arrow.  What you need to do is drag the Firefox icon to the Applications folder shortcut like this:

Firefox Step 1

Once the dragging and dropping is finished, a copy dialogue box appears briefly which copies the contents of the .dmg file to your Applications folder.  Like I said there are a few actual installers I have found, Adobe's Flash was one of them.  My guess is that when you need to install something like a plugin or a program that changes system files or anything else that isn't just an application, you will need to have an installer.

Classic Installation

One thing that people seem to be complaining about with Windows Vista and Windows 7 is the UAC (User Account Control), which is the idea that users run without administrative rights unless a program requests access to perform an administrative action, with which you are asked to either click Continue/Yes or type in an administrators password in order to continue the process. If they don't, the program or action will not be executed.

Windows 7 UAC Prompt from ecj

Picture from E-commerce Journal. While doing "administrative" things is OS X, such as installing a program I was greeted with such a prompt. I am not complaining, because good security is in order here. I just find it silly that Mac lovers are attacking Vista/7 for security-based prompts when their operating system does the exact same thing.

OS X UAC?

The best part about installing a program is that since there really isn't a menu which you can cascade through to find the program you just installed you have to use the Spotlight search to execute your program. The other option is to open the Applications folder and find what you are looking for in there... then for quick access you can drag and drop the icon into your dock... which fills up very fast.

The Verdict: Windows 7 is the winner! Easier to customize, easier to find after installation and don't have to mount anything. Not to mention that Windows has an uninstaller utility, what is Apple thinking? Why would I install something then never uninstall it? That's just plain retarded.

The Dock and Multi-tasking

I've been using Windows 7 since the 10th or 11th of January this year (2009), so I am very accustomed to the new taskbar which is probably the greatest idea added to Windows 7. To spoil the end, the Dock is vastly and frustratingly inferior.

The dock is a icon holder that chills at the bottom of your screen (by default, although it can be moved to the right of left sides). It stores not only applications that you launch frequently, but also the applications you have open. If an application is currently running, it will have a little blueish dot below it.

Dock, nothing opened

Dock, hovering over Firefox icon

Dock with Firefox, VLC and Terminal launched

There are several settings associated with the dock which include the Size of the icons when in a rested state; whether or not you want magnification turned on or off when hovering over it and how much that magnification should be; the position on the screen (left, bottom, right); what type of effect you want when minimizing icons to the dock; whether you want minimization to take place into the applications icon or not; turn on or off the animation associated with launching a program; and finally if you want to auto-hide the dock that's an option too (not stated in the preferences but you can also press CMD+Option+D to hide/unhide the dock from any application).

Dock Preferences

The most useful feature of the dock I've found is the thing called Stacks. Basically it is a quick way to access folders and contents within folders. This feature is not very customizable, but it works for the most part.

Stack in Grid view

Stack in Fan view

Stack in List view

Things are fine and dandy if you only have one program open and one window within that program. When you start wanting to multi-task, that is where things become problematic. I would suggest that multi-tasking on OS X is sub-par at best. I'll try to list a few things that drive me nuts about just the Dock and multi-tasking.

I have three Firefox windows open; I want to switch from window to window. Let's go click on the dock..Which is the most logical place to go since that's what manages my programs and windows, right? Wrong!

If I currently have Firefox launched and I click on the Firefox dock icon in attempts to access another Firefox window hidden behind the currently visible one, this click will get me nowhere. This click is in vain. What is my next reaction? Minimize the current window to get to the one behind it. Inefficient, since now when I want to get back to the first window I have to come down to the dock again to find my minimized window, but this time it's in a different place since the dock does not group icons (minimized and/or maximized) next to anything its related to.

Minimized Firefox icons with VLC between

For whatever reason the minimized icons are put in a separate section of the dock: between the Trash and my Stacks. Not grouped with their original Firefox icon, not even grouped with each other, since it allowed VLC to butt between them.

Next, another experiment- lets right-click on the dock icon. Since right-click requires two fingers or a special section of the trackpad dedicated to just right-clicking, I will ctrl+click the Firefox icon, which is a lot of work if I am trying to quickly switch between windows. This brings up this fantastic little menu which shows the <title> of the page so I can select the window I want. Yay, my heart jumps a little bit because I accomplished my task, even if it took me more clicks that I was willing to sacrifice.

ctrl+click on dock icon menu

Another idea, Exposé! There are three modes of Exposé, All windows, Application windows and Show Desktop which are all accessed through the keyboard or partially through the trackpad.

Exposé settings in Preferences

So, I want to see my entire collection of windows.  Okay, fn+F9 or fn+F10 shows me this gory mess, but at least they are in lines and have titles:

Exposé All Windows

Exposé Application windows

So that's going to cost me pulling my hand off the mouse and pressing fn with on hand and F9/F10 with the other. Inefficient, again, a terribly flawed idea designed by Apple when it comes to multi-tasking. Thankfully the trackpad four finger swipe down will open the Exposé for all windows, it saves me moving my hands around a lot but it still looks like complete trash when I have more than one application open.

Since I am only a user of Snow Leopard, I am not sure if this next part is new or not. The only reason why I know this is because I saw it as a tutorial on a website (meaning the idea is not very intuitive). To activate Exposé for just one application you can go down to the dock and hold-click for about a half second the application icon. Whew, with mouse gestures I am finally able to switch between windows within an application! It only takes me a half second every time I want to do it. Inefficient again! Especially since it is making me click. I sure am being forced to click/tap a whole bunch of buttons in order to get something very easy done.

The only other option left, which I found on accident by pure dumb luck, cmd+` keyboard combination.  This switches blindly between windows in a seemingly random order.

Now let's try to accomplish the same thing in Windows 7:

Windows 7 Taskbar; Firefox 3 windows

Wow, that was intuitive, effective, simple, clean and not to mention pretty.

There is one more treat, in case you are willing to sacrifice a click. The jumplists, when right-clicked they spring up a list of places to go such as folders or things to do such as launch a specific game from Steam.

Windows 7 Jumplist- Explorer

Windows 7 Jumplist- Steam

The Verdict: Windows 7 wins all the way to the bank. If 7 "stole" the idea from Apple, I'm okay with that because they dramatically improved the idea. The dock is clean eye candy but not very functional at all.

I went to work on a day off so that I could pick up this new toy.  As with any gadget, I open it up and get it operational as fast as I could.  Being somewhat new to OS X I was stumbling to get things done, but since I am very familiar with computers it was not something I needed a Genius to hold my hand through.  I installed the essentials, Firefox and VLC.  I copied all my music shortly after, since iTunes on Windows is absolutely a huge fricking terrible mess of an application.

I started configuring things how I wanted and after about a week I was finally satisfied with how it was set up, at least the options that I knew of, that was September 9th.

Jump forward a few days, I was waiting at the Girls work... in the backroom just listening to music and hanging out waiting only about 30 minutes until she got finished with her labors for the day.  I don't recall the song I was listening to, but it started playing back very quickly like a broken record.  I figured it was some sort of application hang, as it seems I get them all the time in OS X.  I figured it was natural.  The mouse still worked, but all the applications I was using stopped responding.

Last known photo

So like a good computer nerd, I decided to diagnose my own problems.  Simple enough since Apple hardware is nothing special anymore, I got right down to it.  Let's boot the thing up.

Stuck Booting

I found out how to boot in safe mode thanks for the Internets on my phone.  As you can tell from the picture above it didn't get me all that far either.

Well, I thought, if it doesn't boot in safe mode then there must be something wrong with the hardware, right?  My OS install was practically brand new so that is what I suspected, especially the strange way in which it locked up and forced me to do a hard shutdown.

So being the fantastic Windows user that I am... What to do?  Boot from the install DVD and go from there.  Since the hard drive was the #1 suspect, I ran the Disk Utility (which I was only aware of from my Hackintosh days) Verify tool, which failed (see picture) and the Repair tool didn't work either.  I imagined I had a dead hard drive on my hands..

Disk Utility

I knew there was a little more I could get in to the system a little bit more.  Searching the Internets I found you could boot to the shell and try to repair problems from there.  CMD+S while the system is booting accomplished exactly what I was looking for.  Once getting into the shell, I tried to fsck the crap out of that thing.

FSCK!

FSCK2!

I discovered it was the Hard Drive almost for sure this time.  After a tiring night of diagnosing my busted brand new MacBook, I headed to bed and resolved to go to the Apple store in the morning (32.9 mi – about 45 mins).  When I got up, I figured I should call ahead to see what I should do.  I am glad I did this, because apparently you have to make a reservation with a Genius in order to get your computer fixed..  Seems odd to me, but when I arrived there was probably the maximum allowable number of people in the store according to fire code.  Man it was packed.  Explains why you need an appointment.

I got the laptop out of the box and set it down in front of the Apple guy and explained my situation, and told him all the steps I had already taken.  He pulled out some weird FireWire device and plugged it in the MacBook, then tried to power it on.  Since I could not see the screen I didn't have any idea what he was doing but his face said it all.  My crap was screwed.  After a few reboots he realized what I had already figured, the thing was dead.  He asked me if I wanted a replacement and I gratefully agreed.  It was quick and simple, he handed over the new MacBook in its box with a receipt, informed me that I could keep my current MagSafe adapter "for [my] troubles".  Before disappearing into the back room with MacBook #0 he asked me if there were anything personal on the hard drive I would potentially want wiped out (not sure how they would do it, but whatever).  I told him that I had used FileVault (Apple website) on my home directory, which he said wasn't a good idea since it hits performance so hard.  He sent me on my way with the new MacBook (and all its accessories) + a free MagSafe adapter.  Thank goodness I didn't upgrade my configuration on their website at all, or else he wouldn't' have been able to swap me straight up like he did.

I am very impressed with the way they treated me, aka: not like a criminal which is the way it seems a lot of companies treat their customers.  Even though I had a dramatic hardware failure within a week of purchasing a brand new piece of equipment from Apple it didn't damage their image in my eyes because they did so well cleaning up the mess.

I have tried to lay these sections out similar to how Apple lays out their Tech Specs, so it should be easy to follow.

Communications

• 802.11n Wireless card-  I am glad to see more and more computers coming installing with n wireless cards.  I've had a draft-n router in my house for 18 months or so and have not been able to take full advantage of it, since the drivers didn't work properly on my last one.  The wireless transfer speeds are incredible, and even rival some 10/100 Ethernet speeds.
• Bluetooth 2.1 EDR-  Thank you iPhone for not supporting file transfers via Bluetooth.  And I couldn't get any other computer to find it, so this couldn't be tested.  Oh well, I never use it anyway.
• 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet- Ditto for the wireless n card, I am glad to see this actually being used for notebooks.  Granted, this is a premium notebook so I would only expect it to have premium features.  Wired transfer speeds between me and a complimentary gigabit-connected Windows Server are blazing fast.  Exactly what I would expect.

Wireless Transfer

Gigabit transfer

Audio

• Stereo Speakers- I am not an audiophile by any means, but I like good and loud sounds.  Especially music.  I don't know all the ups and downs of terminology when it comes to speakers, but these are nice speakers for a laptop.  Music sounds awesome for coming out of invisible holes beneath the monitor, where the speakers are.
• Built-in microphone- Meh, its a microphone.  It works.  Hardly use it, but it works.
• 3.5mm headphones/microphone jack-  As I said in the first hardware-related post, they work.  What else could you ask for?  I personally would prefer to have the microphone and headphones separated into two different jacks, but I never have used a 3.5mm microphone anyway.

Display

I couldn’t decide whether to include this in the internal or external portion of my personal review since I would say half is internal and half is external.  Look where it ended up.

13.3" LED-backlit glossy screen

I couldn't have asked for a better screen (except maybe in a different size).  I am accustomed to a glossy screen, and actually very much like it.  I believe it makes the blacks darker and the colors more vibrant. I hear that since the 13" got the MacBook Pro title they have given inherited a better screen from the MBP family.  This does not surprise me, all of the colors are gorgeous and things truly look better on this screen than any laptop I've been on recently.  The LED-Backlit portion is impressive and effective, I'm glad that the screen is sucking less of my precious battery than it used to, and the screen looks very evenly lit.

Screen

Update: I have recently placed my laptop next to another MacBook 13" (the unibody before it was dubbed "Pro") and my screen is very noticeably better.  Viewing angle, colors, blacks and whites all look significantly better on mine.  We loaded one of the Aurora backgrounds that comes with Leopard/Snow Leopard on both of the machines at the same time; it looked almost like a different picture because the colors on his screen looked washed out.  Don't get me wrong though, his screen looked fantastic and he was perfectly satisfied with it.  You could only tell the difference if you were 1) Looking for it. 2) Had them side by side.

1280x800 native resolution

It is kind of a sad story, but my last laptop had a 15" screen and had the same resolution.  For such a small screen, it is a fine resolution.  If it got any larger, I think it would get to be hard to see some of the icons, and I am by no means old.

Ambient light sensor

This could technically be part of the display since it controls the displays brightness.  The sensor is a fantastic idea, but not as useful as I would like it to be.  Since my gripe is with the software and not the hardware, I'll leave it for another time.  For now, it's a good idea and I am glad that it is there.

iSight

640x480 is okay.  I don't have a real use for an iSight because I don't do a lot of video chatting right now.  It looks like a regular cell phone camera took the shot.  Colors are mostly terrible, but it's better than not having anything at all.  I am no camera connesuir so I don't know how many megapixels this is or if you even measure "webcams" in megapixels.  I heard that the the camera is capable of shooting 1280x1024 but the software dumbs it down, but oh well, I don't use it anyway.

Ambient Sensor, iSight and indicator light

PhotoBooth

Graphics and Video

nVidia GeForce 9400M

What a grand selection!  When I heard that Apple in late 2008 was going to be putting nVidia graphic cards into their new MacBooks is nudged me a little closer to wanting one.  Finally a laptop worth having.  It isn't as good as my desktop graphics card or even my old laptops graphics card, but it is something, and isn't really that bad.  I wouldn't have settled for anything non-nVidia, sorry Intel and ATI.  Since OS X isn't notorious for having real games, I have not really had the chance to test it, but I certainly have not had any video-related lagging while going about my daily work.  Since I am a hardware person, everything has to be perfect.  A discreet video card in a laptop isn't really all that important, but just think if I actually wanted to use it, then I can.  It connected it to the 62-63" HDTV in my house and it pushed that with native 1920x1080 resolution just fine.  No complaints about the video card at all.  The picture is in the Processor and Memory section.

Processor and Memory

When someone sits down and starts using a computer, besides the screen and the input devices, I believe people notice the processor speeds and amounts of RAM installed.  It might not be a cognitive recognition, but still recognized.  The processor is the overall speed of the computer how quickly "thinking-intense" tasks are performed by the applications, such as computing formulas.  It is literally the brains of the system.

RAM is where temporary information is stored for fast access.  So when you open a program, it is loaded in to RAM, and probably stays there until you close the program.  The amount of RAM you have decides how many programs you can have open at a time, how well those programs will perform and how well at multi-tasking the computer is.  You could compare the amount of RAM you have to the number of hands you have.  The more hands you have, the more things you can actively work on and the more things you can handle at the same time without setting anything down.  If we had eight hands, we could get a lot more done... That's if we were any good at multi-tasking, like Operating Systems are.

About This Mac

Hardware overview

This is where the griping will begin, with the most important specs of the computer.  This might be my own fault, but I got the default 13" configuration because I didn't want to get robbed by the Apple store and their high-priced upgrades.  To bump the processor up (2.26 to 2.53), you have to jump to the other configuration of the MacBook and that was at least $300. No thanks.  Ditto for the ram, in order to get two more gigabytes of ram, you'd need to fork over $100 in upgrade fees.  I will note that the upgraded configuration of the 13" also already has 4 gigs of ram and a larger (250 GB) hard drive.

2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Even for an entry level laptop this is slow.  Sorry netbook lovers, but 2.26 GHz is just not enough of a powerhouse for me.  This is almost the slowest processor that Apple offers their OS X loving customers.  The White MacBook (at the time of writing) has a 2.13 GHz processor and the Mac mini has a 2.0 GHz.  Especially while waking up from sleep and booting for the first time I notice huge hang times, which I blame squarely on the processor.  For regular and every day tasks like cruising the internet, listening to music and editing pictures in Picasa, it's fine though.  Running VMWare Fusion because Word for Mac is terrible beyond belief really makes the processors lack of oomph really shine.

2 GB 1066 MHz DDR3

Hardware-wise, 2 GB is probably the perfect amount.  It lets me get things done and it being DDR3 (at 1066 MHz) I know it is very fast.  My real complaint I have with 2 GB of RAM is that it seems to be eaten up by the OS very quickly.  I won't rant about it now, I'll wait for a more appropriate time, since I am strictly talking about the hardware here.

Logic Board, inc. Video and Processor

Back of Logic Board + RAM

Storage:

160GB 5400 RPM Hitachi 2.5" SATA Hard Drive

This is a bit of a soft spot for me because the hard drive in my first MacBook went kaput after just three days.  Thankfully I live near a few authorized Apple Retailers and even an Apple Store.  The whole story will be posted later with pictures, but the Apple Store took my "old" MacBook Pro and swapped me straight up for a new one.  Good thing I didn't upgrade my configuration at all, or else they wouldn't have been able to do even that.  Lost a few screenshots, but nothing I couldn't take again later.

Anyway, to the topic at hand.  I am not your typical computer user, 160GB hard drive in a laptop, for me, is almost un-necessarily large.  I could not possibly imagine what anyone would be doing with 160GB of space on a laptop.  For me, a laptop is something that you use "on the go" and not something that you would ever store files on.  Laptops are much more likely to break down or be stolen than a desktop and therefore should not be trusted for safe file storage.

I use Dropbox to keep my files in sync across my computers, I use a free account with 2.5GB of space available to me.  Music is manually copied over (using a synchronization program or by hand) from my main machine and ditto for Pictures.  Installation files, DVD and CD images, patches and most of everything else is stored on my desktop which has a much larger capacity and are significantly cheaper per gigabyte than laptop hard drives, not to mention faster.  If I need anything, I will copy it across the network or just mount the file across the network.

Hard Drive

SMS, Sudden Motion Sensor

This is somewhat related to the hard drive, so why not include it here?  The sudden motion sensor is an accelerometer-based sensor that can detect which way the laptop is sitting.  I believe it is called the SMS because when you suddenly pick up or drop the computer it detects it is moving fast; which sends a message to the hard drive that it needs to put its head away so it doesn't damage the spinning platters if it drops too violently.  I have quickly picked up the computer and heard the hard drive head putting itself into a resting place, which makes a click sound.  It can be used for gimmicks as well, like LiquidMac.

LiquidMac- Flat surface

LiquidMac- Tilted

8x slot loading "SuperDrive", DVD±RW/DL and CD-RW

I didn't think that I would like a slot-loading drive when I first got this guy.  My opinions went from stand-offish to neutral.  It essentially does the same thing as a regular DVD drive, except there isn't a tray that comes out, whoop-de-do.  It makes a LOT more noise than I have ever heard any DVD drive make when it is preparing the disc to be ready and when the system is booting.  While spinned up, the sounds are not that noticeable.  Despite what I said before, I actually did burn a few CD's for a co-worker, all music CD's and they burned fairly quickly through iTunes without any hitches.  I'll give it a 9/10 because I didn't find anything to complain about.

SD Card slot

Works just fine, even with SDHC.  Fast transfer rates; can't complain about having an SD built right in.  Sorry previous MacBook owners.

Battery

I recognize that my previous laptops battery really wasn't that good.  I knew that before I bought it, since I had used it extensively (purchased it from the place I worked at, a retail computer store).  I didn't mind, since almost all of the places that I use my laptop at, there is a plug right next to where I sit, so nbd.  Apple claims that this 10.95v 60Wh battery should have "up to 7 hours of wireless productivity" which as most people have come to find out isn't entirely accurate but it sure is much longer than I am used to, so I can't complain.  I've seen usually 4-5 hours without plugging in, but I have my screen brightness settings a little bit higher than standard.  It isn't user replaceable, which is fine, because they claim a long, full life.

The built-in battery in the new 13-, 15-, and 17-inch MacBook Pro is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at up to 1000 full charge and discharge cycles. -Apple

Also, AppleCare is about $250 which extends the warranty from one year to three.  To replace the battery is a $129 fix, so I might as well just buy the AppleCare... right?

Battery

Inside the box

Since this section doesn’t really belong anywhere, I’ve decided to include it here.

I bought my MacBook online (Apple Store), one day before Snow Leopard came out and I was ensured that Snow Leopard was going to be included.  Well, it was thankfully, I just had to install it.  What was included:

• MacBook Pro 13"
• Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6 CPU Drop-in DVD, Full install or Upgrade I am not sure, but I assume you can do both
• Little pamphlet about Snow Leopard labaled "Mac OS X Snow Leopard-  Installation, features and refinements"
• AC Power Cord Extension and Power brick
• Black box containing:
  • Users manual labeled "Everything Mac"
  • White box containing: Software EULA, Leopard Install DVD and Application Install DVD all labeled "Everything Else"
  • Black Microfiber rag
  • Two white Apple stickers (same as the ones you get with an  iPod)

Shipping Box

MacBook Out of the Box

Unboxing

What else is in there

The first thing that meets the eye.

I'll admit the real reason this elaborate purchase was made was to increase my knowledge of the Mac OS X world, which should make me more marketable when I graduate from the University, although I have had some desire to obtain a MacBook for some time, because of their attractive hardware.

I am new to OS X and Macintosh in general.  Since I don't know a thing, I will be documenting what it is like from a Windows power user perspective what this "switch" is like, pros and cons.  Since I have always been somewhat negative towards Macs, I might be focusing on the negatives a little more harshly but so far there are many foreseen positives. So here we go.

Unibody

The overall feel is fantastic, the same reason I refused to put the invisible shield on my iPod Touch, I just couldn't get over the "good feeling" of the metal in my hands.  The lid snaps together quickly with precision, something that my last laptop couldn't quite do because it was made out of plastic.  This is one of two reasons why I wasn't interested in the white plastic MacBook.  I am fairly certain the lid is held closed by some low-power magnets; it gives the clamshell a nice tight fit that sometimes isn't very easy to open.

Opened lid, trackpad visible

Closed lid, Sleep indicator

Ports, Battery Indicator

It is moderately attractive to me that all the ports for external devices and cords are on one side.  It makes it so that "docking" is much easier, since everything can be routed away from the left side instead of having to pull cables from both sides.

• MagSafe power adapter- The MagSafe power adapter is really nice, when it comes close to being plugged in the cord jump to the laptop and usually goes right in to place.  The multi-colored LED is helpful for a quick look to see if it is charged when the lid is closed.
• Gigabit Ethernet port- 100% Expected. If it didn't have this, I would consider the product seriously flawed
• FireWire 800- I am not sure why FireWire is so popular, I don't have or even know anyone that has ANY FireWire devices. Although, in my recent readings it appears as if you can control or at least grab files from one Mac to another using FireWire, too bad I don't have another Mac to test this with.  In addition to that, FireWire can pose a security concern since it has DMA.. not sure if that is a threat on OS X, but still an idea.
• Mini DisplayPort- Good and bad.  I find it stupid that the adapters are $30 from Apple.  Although, it’s neat that you can have HDMI, DVI and VGA all from the same port.  Thank you monoprice.com for low prices on those adapters.
• 2 USB 2.0 Ports- Could use more, but two is probably sufficient.
• SD Card slot- Much better to have this SD slot than anything else, most laptops these days have them, not sure why it took so long for Apple to get on the boat.
• Audio Out / Line in- Both work. Neat that they are in the same port, although I don't assume everyone has headphones lying around that are compatible with in and out functionality.
• Battery Indicator lights- I have seen this on other premium laptops, nice feature and is implemented quite nicely, a simple push of the button and the amount of lights relative to how full the battery is light up for a second or two.

Power, MiniDisplay, FireWire, USB

FireWire, Mini Display, USB x2, SD

MagSafe Adapter, not fully charged

Battery Indicator, fully charged

Trackpad, Keyboard

This glass trackpad is probably the single greatest thing I have found on a laptop.  All other trackpads leave my fingers and wrists feeling tired, but for some reason this one does not.  It could be the multi-touch scrolling, or just the fact that it is huge 4-1/8" W, 3" H.  I still use an external mouse a lot of the time, but using the trackpad doesn't bother me as much.  It is especially helpful when accessing Exposé or using the three-fingered "back" in FireFox.  Touching the glass reminds me of my iPhone, except more useful.  Smooth, flat with the aluminum, easy on the fingers and functional.. just what I like: form and function.

The keyboard lacks a 10 key, but what could I expect for a 13" laptop? Not much. I also find it most annoying that the keyboard lacks a "Function" row, such as F1, F2, F3 ... I realize I can just tap the fn key and access all those, but coming from a Windows world the function keys are a necessity, it seems a little off.  The backlit keyboard is a nice addition, my desktop has a backlit keyboard (I'm aware, Gizmodo's picture sucks) that I've been using for a while, and as expected, have become accustom to. Glad to see one when I go mobile.  Reason two for not getting the white plastic MacBook.

They keys are nice to the touch, quiet and rebound like proper keys should.  The minimal spacing between the keys (or island keys) used to bother me, because I thought that it would make them more likely to trap hair, crumbs, et cetera but that turns out to not be true, since it is much easier to fish foreign objects out when there is a wider space there.

Trackpad

Backlit Keyboard

The Other Side

The slot-loading CD/DVD tray makes me a little nervous, I am afraid that I will slip a CD in and never be able to retrieve it, since there is no manual force eject like most if not all other CD tray-styled drives.  It looks nice, that's something positive.. and it's fairly quiet.  I have not yet tried to burn a CD or DVD, so no reports on that.  I don't ever use physical media anymore, so I might never (out of necessity) ever burn anything on this one.

Kensington Security slot is somewhat of a standard, although I've only used them at work, when I was in retail sales.  I don't see much use for it in the real world.

Kensington lock port, CD/DVD combo

Weight, Power Brick

Something that I would fully expect from a smaller laptop- a smaller weight burden.  I was recently doing some training on Intel's website and I stumbled across this little gem:

I can fully agree with this statement, which was cited like this:

Source: Intel Internal Studies 2008

and that was it, I poked around their website a little bit to see if I could find it, with no luck.

This guy weighs in at 2256.9 grams, weighed on my totally 100% professional chemical scale at work.  For the grammularly uneducated that is 4.9756128 pounds.  That weight includes the MacBook with no accessories attached, but it does include the power bricks weight, because who is going to travel with their MacBook and not bring their adapter along?  Even if it just sits in your bag the entire time, you still have that burden to carry.

Speaking of the Power Brick, or whatever the Mac people call it.. it is absolutely ingenious.  I can't believe something so simple can be so helpful.

1. The brick has plastic pop-outs that the cord can wrap in, so you don't have to just wrap it around the brick itself.  For some reason, I have still seen people not use them and just wrap the cord around the brick.. like it is so hard to pop those little plastic wings out.
2. The prongs pop out of the brick, so that if you need a little more length you can attach a cord (included with the MacBook) without any real hassle.  Oh and not only does the entire prong contraption pop off, you can also fold the prongs back into the brick so it takes up less room and doesn't stab things in your bag.
3. Okay, this one isn't so amazing but still helpful- A rubbery clip to hook the cord to itself after you are finished wrapping it up.

The entire thing is not grounded, I don't know how important that is.. but it seems every other manufacturer (almost) has a grounded adapter.. I guess it makes it slimmer, but I would rather have safety than slimness.

Weight on Scale

Brick with removed Prongs

Prongs detached

Bricks wings and cord clip

Size

The last thing to note about the product is the size it comes in. 13" is the screen size, and that determines just how large everything else is going to be.

This is much smaller than I expected it to be, although not too small for my large appetite.  A netbook would just be too small for me.  The measurements are:

12 3/4" Wide
8 15/16" Deep
5/8" Tall (base, when opened)
7/8" Tall (entirety, when closed)

These are hand-measured by me with just a regular Staples ruler, so they might be a little off.

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I backed up my last post (the only one lost) and will be uploading it again after I get the pictures all fixed up... again.

Yay.