Greg In The Desert

F-Secure makes anti-virus software. F-Secure would like you to be afraid of computer viruses so you will buy their software. In the case of the iPhone there are reports of Viruses only for iPhones that have been jailbroken, or modified in such a way that any software can be installed.

“Apple hasn’t been too interested in developing antivirus solutions for the iPhone, because there are no viruses, which of course, isn’t exactly true.”

He said that recent worm outbreaks targeted jail-broken iPhones, and suggested that Apple wasn’t interested in protecting these, as it didn’t approve of jail-breaking to begin with.

“So our recommendation is to avoid jail-broken phones, because it will weaken the security of a phone, whether the iPhone or any other device,” he said.

Apple doesn’t want you to Jailbreak, F-Secure doesn’t think it’s a good idea. But yet, they still want you to be scared.

“Apple is doing a good job of keeping everything in its own hands, but the fact of the matter is that if you are an end customer who bought an application not from the app store, something could happen,” he said.

I don’t completely agree with Apple’s review process for application on the iPhone but they are doing what they intended. I feel pretty confined that no one will access my iPhone without my knowledge. Perhaps the solution for F-Secure is to sell software for jailbroken iPhones through Cydia.

After Newsgater totally screwed up NetNewsWire with the last release I have started using Google Reader’s web based interface (and ByLine on the iPhone) for RSS reading. I would love to use a desktop app for reading RSS feeds on my Mac but other than the now banned NetNewsWire, none of the other Google Reader compatible applications are stable.

That leaves me with the web interface in which I have a love hate relationship. I now how two more reason to love Google reader since they added an Explore section and a Personalized ranking.

The personalized ranking has done a pretty good job of pulling out the most interesting items from the several hundred subscriptions I have. When I run out of my own feeds to read (often known as reaching the end of the internet), google can show me the most popular feeds from everyone else’s feed and suggest other feeds.

Since the iPhone has been out on AT&T for nearly two years, they finally release appllication that lets users view usage and pay bills. Good job AT&T. myWireless Mobile is free on the iTunes App Store.

Use the AT&T myWireless application to manage your AT&T wireless account from your iPhone.

With this application (portrait view only), you’ll be able to manage account functions including

viewing and paying your bill
viewing voice minutes and data usage
adding or removing features

Note: You must have an active AT&T Mobility account that is registered for online account management to use this application. If you’re not already registered, visit www.att.com/mywireless to register and then return to download the AT&T myWireless application.

Intel has notified AMD that AMD has breached it’s cross patent licensing by sharing those patents with AMD’s spin-off foundry company. What I find most humorous is one part of a Buisnesswire article.

In response to the notification AMD claimed Intel breached the agreement by notifying AMD of its breach.

Good job AMD. That will show Intel!

I don’t buy this iPod nano leak. Yes, i think the device is real but I don’t think the leak was an accident. This is all part of Steve Job’s reality distortion field and Apple’s ploy to build hype before the September 9th event and still maintain the perception of their no-preannounce secrecy scheme.

There are two dangers in leaking products early. If it’s leaked too far in advanced competitors get an idea what your up to and can make adjustments to their products. The iPod nano doesn’t count here because it was only leaked a few weeks before it’s official release.

The other danger is the leak could kill sales of the older model leaving an unwanted inventory. Several days before Kevin Rose posted about the new model, Appleinsider reported that the older model of nanos were discontinued and inventory was running out.

Besides, the nano isn’t the most exciting of Apple’s devices or a new device so leaking it only helps drive speculation about what else Apple could announce. Apple told a east cost journalist that they should be at the event on September 9th because it will be a big deal. I wouldn’t want a Apple event to be anything but a big deal..

The RDF is building and the internets are caught in it. Good job Apple.

As a former Palm OS user, I was accustom to syncing my Palm device with both my Mac and PC. My primary interest with this cross sync is to get the same contact and calendar information on all three devices. This is a path that can be wrought with disaster since none of these devices have exactly the same fields. For my Palm devices, I used third party apps to deal with these differences. Pocket Mirror on the PC and Missing Sync on the Mac. They did a very good job and I almost never had to worry about data getting messed up or deleted.

Cross syncing with the iPhone is a different experience, it reminds me of the early days of the Palm. Syncing the iPhone on both Windows and MacOS is done via iTunes. iTunes does not expect a iPhone to sync calendars and contacts with different computers so it puts a extra dialog telling you this and asking if you want to replace or merge the data. This is an annoying extra step. The Windows iTunes interface is exactly the same as the Mac, including the sync dialogs.

The iPhone’s calendar application is lacking in many ways. It does not duplicate iCal exactly, it’s missing categories, it doesn’t display attendees and the alarms are not persistent like they are the palm (they alarm once and that’s it). Syncing with Outlook in a exchange environment has been safe so far the several times I have synced. iTunes has not wiped out categories or attendees or any meetings. I have noticed if I delete a individual appointment in a repeating event, it does not get removed from the iPhone. I’m suspecting that the iPhone stores categories and attendee information but it’s not shown in the calendar interface.

Syncing the phone with the Mac, after syncing with outlook, results in a single category in iCal called “Outlook Calendar”. if the iPhone does remember the categories and attendees, it doesn’t transfer them back into iCal. For that reason I’m not syncing the iPhone with my Mac, Outlook wins in this case.

Syncing contacts works a lot better. The iphone contacts application (if you can call it that, it’s actually located in the Phone application) does know groups, which is the equivalent of categories in Outlook. I first synced my contacts with my Mac, the with Outlook and there were no contacts missing or screwed up. When I synced back to the Mac and used the Check For Duplicates function in found lots of duplicates, I told it to merge them and I couldn’t find any missing information. I think that category information might be lost with the sync but the contact entry is kept. The Mac’s address book is kind of weird in the way it displays groups, so it might have the same contact under a group and not assigned to a group. I need to experiment with this a little more to understand what’s going on. Since it’s not loosing information I will continue to sync contacts and use the merge duplicates feature in Address Book.app.

This is my first look at cross syncing. I haven’t researched it beyond my early attempts here. I can live without the calendar information on my Mac for now. I need contacts on all three systems. This cross syncing is working for me at the moment even if it’s imperfect. It’s no where near as good as it was on the Palm. I hope that either Apple improves the syncing experience or, more likely, a third party will step and take over the syncing.

I enjoy cooking. I’m no master chef, but I’m think I’m pretty good at the small list of things I can make. One of my favorite things to make is Thanksgiving dinner.

Assuming people aren’t just being nice, I’ve received good reviews on my turkeys. There’s no secret to how I make it, I follow Alton Brown’s recipe pretty much verbatim.

Thanksgiving isn’t thanksgiving without mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes are my favorite food. I’ve spent years trying to perfect the recipes and a few years ago I found something that allows me to cheat. The Steam’N Mash by Westinghouse. I does a good job at making mashed potatoes, but it’s nearly as fun to watch and/or demonstrate the machine.

Finally, I have started making home made turkey gray in the last few years. My favorite so far is generically called Turkey Neck Gravy. There’s many variations of it, this website seems to have the basic recipe that I use. I only use the neck, the heart and gizzard go in the trash. Animal organs shouldn’t be eaten as far as I’m concerned. I also like to add mushroom, then again I like to add mushrooms to everything.

I won’t be making the main thanksgiving dinner this year. I will be making 15lbs turkey on Saturday.

I primarily listen to my music collection through my iPod. I don’t care what Apple says, the shuffle feature of the iPod (and to a lesser degree iTunes) does a poor job of preventing the same Artist from playing randomly. Even with the the scheme I came up wit here, my iPod still played 3 songs from Metallica in a row the other day. These methods do a good job of addressing the issues.

I start off with master playlist called “Filtered”, it’s filtered for genres. Second playlist is “Filtered – 4 Stars + Played”. This ensures that songs which are rated have actually been played. I ofter will rate new songs high but not really listed to them (I have another playlist for new songs). The next playlist is “Filtered – 4 Stars + Played last 14 days.” Finally I’m to my primary playlist, “Filtered – 4 Stars + w/o last 14 days.”

Unfortunately the iPod does not automatically update these playlists, they only get updated when I sync my iPod with iTunes. At one time “The Stroke” had 2x as many plays as any other song, I like that song but not that much, this does a reasonably good job of reducing this effect. I’d prefer to have a playlist that removes, say the top 10% of played songs, but iTunes doesn’t have this option in the filter lists. This also doesn’t prevent the same artist being played in a row.

I need a lawnmower. Despite the fact that I haven’t been able to actually water the lawn, nature has conspired to provide me with weeds. No no. It couldn’t sprout grass, it had to sprout all manners of plants that are not grass. Although my Black & Decker CST2000 12 Volt 12″ Cordless GRASSHOG Trimmer / Edger does a good job, it’s not up to the task of mowing my lawn.

I have no desire to deal with the tomfoolery of a gas powered device. I’m a modern man, and I’m willing to accept the limitations of a electric powered lawnmower and allow the power plant to do the polluting far away rather than generate the pollution in my back yard. Lets then, stick to what I know, Black & Decker.

At first I looked at the Black & Decker MM875 19″ Electric Mulching Mower. I gotta have a mulcher to fill my compost bins, otherwise don’t waste my time. The reviews seem positive, and it seems to meet my needs. Although it may test the limits of my needs, I’ve already said I know going into this that there will be limitations and at about $200 I can handle it. This, however is a corded mower. I can’t bee seen mowing my backyard with a cord hanging off my mower. What am I, some kind of jerk?

Moving on to cordless models I find the Black & Decker CMM1000 24 Volt 19″ Cordless Rechargeable Mulching Mower. Yes yes, I know i read the reviews. I can handle the limitations of a electric mower already. I’m willing to go over the lawn over and over again to get it all cut. One thing I failed to initially notice was the price, at $400 – $500. That’s in US dollars.

I guess I won’t look like some sort of jerk pushing around a corded mower, for that matter any kind of mower. At least for now. By the way, looks like iRobot is going to come out with a Robotic Lawnmower. Oh sure, it will be just as cheap. I will buy two.

I never believed the moon landings were faked. However I had seen some of the claims and wondered what the answer was to some of them. This site does a good job debunking those that believe in the fakery.