Remember the human

Of Parallels, proxies, privacy and support

2011-07-23T15:07:17Z

Thanks to an incompatibility between Parallels Desktop for Mac and our company proxy server I learned that this software is designed to phone home without the user's knowledge. What several folks have reported in online forums as an annoying behavior with this product is really the result of an attempted violation of privacy.

I'm not accusing Parallels of breaking any laws but based on my interactions with them while troubleshooting an issue I have little confidence that they understand why I am concerned.

]]> I helped adopt Parallels as our Mac desktop VM software a few years ago when Apple introduced Intel hardware and Parallels Desktop for Mac was introduced. We've probably updated every license we've purchased since its early days and we've added licenses throughout the years. At home I use VMware simply to keep my knowledge up-to-date about both these major products in the virtual machine world.

I've been using Parallels Desktop 6.0 on my work computer since it was released in September 2010. Only recently did I learn that it was phoning home every time I launched it.

A problem with proxies

We have two proxy servers at work. A proxy server connects our company network to the Internet. All traffic between our company network and the Internet must go through a proxy. Proxy servers not only provide connectivity to the Internet but they can filter traffic too. For example, they can allow all HTTP and HTTPS traffic but block FTP and streaming audio/video. Or they can block certain addresses such as hacker sites and porn sites.

I use a special proxy server that allows me less restricted access to the Internet so that I can download software and research problems on sites that are often blocked by our more restrictive proxy server. Most everyone else uses the restrictive proxy.

While troubleshooting a user problem I had to switch to the restrictive proxy and during that time I launched Parallels Desktop for Mac 6.0. Almost immediately I received a proxy window asking me to enter my name and password for the proxy. This dialog only appears when software is trying to contact the Internet. I wrongly assumed this was an autoupdate request and tried to enter my credentials. It didn't work.

Later I reviewed my Parallels preferences and found that auto updates were disabled. I had done that earlier because the update windows were getting in my way and I wanted to update on my own. Two other items that could potentially phone home were the Parallels Mobile feature and customer experience improvement program. Both were disabled. All other settings looked benign but as a means of troubleshooting I disabled everything.

Again, every time I launched Parallels the proxy prompt would appear. My Windows virtual machine was not even started yet so that wasn't the cause.

After doing some research online I thought I'd found the solution. Parallels was wanting me to register and until I did so it would continue to prompt me. This was annoying because, again, their software appeared to be incompatible with our more restrictive proxy. But if that's what was needed then I was fine with that.

The solution offered a one line Terminal command to trick Parallels into thinking it had been registered. Since it wasn't getting through our proxy I thought this was the only solution I had.

It didn't work, though. The proxy requests kept appearing every time I launched the software. At this point I decided to contact Parallels support. If anything I expected to be another customer complaining about the forced registration process and if they didn't have a workaround then maybe at least they'd add my complaint to others they'd surely received. The date was Thursday, June 30.

Frustrations with first level support

First, I tried Parallels online chat support. Unfortunately, I don't have that transcript but the process was infuriating. Being technical support myself, I try never to assume I know more about an issue than the support technician. I simply state the facts, which were:

Every time I launch Parallels Desktop 6.0 for Mac it is trying to connect to the Internet. I know it is trying to connect to the Internet because I am receiving a prompt to enter my proxy server name and password. The Parallels software does not work with our proxy server. I have disabled auto updates, Parallels Mobile and the customer experience improvement program. How can I disable Parallels connecting to the Internet?

The support technician couldn't seem to understand this. Unfortunately, I had provided him two pieces of information, only one of which he latched onto:

Parallels does not work through our proxy

I want to disable Parallels from connecting to the Internet

No matter how hard I tried I could not get him to understand that the problem I wanted resolved was #2. He kept trying to fix #1.

After 30-45 minutes of trying to clarify my problem and him checking with other support staff, I finally ended the chat session saying something like:

I have spent too much time in this chat and believe you still do not understand my problem. That you for your help but I am NOT a satisfied customer.

Just to vent I threw out a comment on Twitter and within a few minutes received a response from the Parallels Twitter account.

Great! Not only did I receive a quick response but someone actually understood my issue in under 140 characters and confirmed they were focussing on this issue. Why didn't I just start here first?

So, I replied and received another response:

No problem! At this point I felt like Ralphie from A Christmas Story and that I was about to be awarded honors and benefits just for tweeting into the open air.

This exchange irked me for a few reasons.

Apparently Parallels wasn't monitoring anything as the first tweet stated. It was a poor way to approach me and disarm my outburst.
The person (or persons maybe?) did just like the chat support person and ignored information I presented upfront. On top of that I was Direct Messaging @ParallelsMac. It had "Mac" in the name. IE? Microsoft hasn't made IE for nearly 10 years and they removed it altogether from their website five years ago.
I was lobbed over the wall. That's when you contact a company and the representative says something like, "Sorry, I can't help you any further. You need to go down the hall, turn left and talk to someone there." Basically, my time invested here counts toward nothing later and I have to start over.

So, I pursued opening a ticket on the Parallels site.

Problem Subject: Parallels attempts to connect to Internet at launch

Just installed the latest version of Parallels (6.0.12092.670880).

The computer is on a company network and accesses the Internet via a proxy server.

Every time I launch Parallels it attempts to connect to the Internet and displays a proxy server prompt asking for my credentials. I have disabled auto updates, disabled Customer Experience Improvement and Parallels Mobile is turned off.

I have tried entering my proxy credentials and they are not accepted.

My issue is that I do not want Parallels contacting the Internet without my approval. I do not want my users to see the proxy prompt on their computers. They are not administrators on their computers. How do I disable Parallels from trying to contact the Internet at launch?

I have attached a movie file demonstrating:

1. Launching Parallels.
2. Displaying the proxy prompt.
3. Three attempts to enter credentials for the proxy and failure.
4. Auto update settings are disabled in preferences.
5. Parallels mobile is disabled.

Also, I am unable to create a Problem Report ID because it too displays a proxy prompt but will not accept my credentials. Auto update displays the same behavior.

Within an hour or so I received this response:

Subject: [Parallels #1166140] Created by Parallels Desktop Technical Support chat from William Smith

Hello William,

Thank you for contacting Parallels Technical Support.

As I understand, you are asked to enter proxy server credentials upon Parallels Desktop start-up.

This issue might occur when automatic update for Parallels Desktop is selected. The automatic update always try to connect to the internet when turned on.

However, the following commands can be executed in the MAC 'Terminal' to disable the automatic updates:

defaults write "com.parallels.Parallels Desktop" "Application preferences.Check for updates" -int 0

defaults write "com.parallels.Parallels Desktop" "Application preferences.Download updates automatically" -bool No

This will help you resolve the issue.

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

The method the technician provided was simply the command line way of doing what I said I'd already done in Parallels preferences and had demonstrated via an attached movie. Yes, I recorded a movie and uploaded that as part of my trouble ticket. Why? To avoid having to repeat myself and more clearly explain what I had tried so far.

My response:

No, this does not address my problem.

I stated in my original message that I did not have automatic updates
turned on and I showed the preferences window in the attached movie to
indicate they were not turned on.

Another response from Parallels:

Subject: Re: [Parallels #1166305] Parallels attempts to connect to Internet at launch

Hello William,

Thank you for contacting Parallels Technical Support.

With reference to your issue we understand that every time you launch
Parallels it attempts to connect to the Internet.

William, This issue might occur when automatic update for Parallels
Desktop is selected. The automatic update always try to connect to the
internet when turned on.

However, the following commands can be executed in the MAC 'Terminal' to
disable the automatic updates:

defaults write "com.parallels.Parallels Desktop" "Application
preferences.Check for updates" -int 0

defaults write "com.parallels.Parallels Desktop" "Application
preferences.Download updates automatically" -bool No

Regarding following issue: "Three attempts to enter credentials for the
proxy and failure" I would recommend you to contact your system
administrator to get the correct credentials of your proxy server and we
will not be able to help you in this regard.

You may also try the below mentioned Workaround:

Open internet explorer-select tools from IE menu- then click on "internet
options"-in general if you see any home page set kindly remove or click
on "use blank" then click on apply then exit IE and let us know if it
helps you in resolving the issue.

Note: we have not received attachment with this mails which you stated
that "I have attached a movie file demonstrating".

I am changing the ticket status to 'Resolved' and you can reply to this
ticket with in 14days from now.

Please let us know if you would require further assistance on the same.

Although the instructions were similar to the earlier instructions I received, this was from a different person and had a different ticket number. I wasn't sure why. Ah wait! The first response was from my earlier chat conversation and not a response to the ticket I opened online. However, had this person read any of my original reports (chat or online ticket) then he'd have understood that the instructions he provided me still wouldn't resolve my issue.

Let's keep going.

My response:

Subject: Re: [Parallels #1166305] Parallels attempts to connect to Internet at launch

Again...

Automatic updates are disabled. I included a movie in my original support
ticket demonstrating this.

The proxy credentials are correct. They are my own. They work elsewhere.

Why is Parallels trying to connect to the Internet at startup?

1. Automatic updates are disabled.
2. Customer Experience Improvement preference is disabled.
3. Parallels mobile is disabled.

I am using a Macintosh. Internet Explorer is not made for Macintosh.

My issue I NOT resolved.

Next message from Parallels but regarding my online chat ticket:

Subject: [Parallels #1166140] Created by Parallels Desktop Technical Support chat from William Smith

Hello William,

Thank you for your reply.

For further investigation of this issue we would like to access your desktop, please provide us with below mentioned details in order to arrange a callback.

1) Your contact number.
2) Two to three convenient dates and time frames?
3) Your timezone details.

Awaiting your reply.

Great idea! If they couldn't understand the problem in writing, movie or screen shots (yes, I included screenshots with one of my replies) then they would try to see the problem as I saw it. Actually, I received two requests to connect. One from each ticket. For one ticket I said I was working with someone else. For the other ticket I replied:

Subject: Re: [Parallels #1166305] Parallels attempts to connect to Internet at launch

I think this is a good idea.

We are on holiday until next Tuesday, July 5.

I suggest any of the following times next week:

Wednesday, July 6, any time between 3-5 p.m. CDT (1:30-3:30 a.m. IST)
Thursday, July 7, any time between 3-5 p.m. CDT (1:30-3:30 a.m. IST)
Friday, July 8, any time between 10 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. CDT (8:30-10:30 p.m.
IST)

I'm not sure what software you will be using to connect to my desktop,
however, if we have problems with it due to our proxy server then I have a
WebEx account that should work.

Now the tickets were merged.

A call from 'Secondline support'

The following Wednesday, July 6, I did receive a call but I was pulled into an unexpected meeting and could not chat for more than a few minutes. I was instructed to watch for an email with some requests to take some screenshots of Activity Monitor while Parallels was not running and then running:

1. So please make sure that Parallels Desktop is shut down and click anywhere on your Mac desktop and from the top menu bar click on 'Go' and click on 'Utility'.

2. Under 'Utility', please open 'Activity Monitor', please check if there is anything related to 'Parallels' or 'prl' listed over there, if yes, please make a note of it and let us know.

3. Now with this Activity Monitor still opened, please launch Parallels Desktop and check your activity monitor as to whether there are any new entries related to 'Parallels' or 'prl', please keep check this as you receive the message prompting you to enter your proxy credentials and let us know the 'Parallels' and 'prl' entries from activity monitor.

This will help us monitor and find out as to which service of Parallels Desktop is trying to go online and causing that issue.

I responded with the screen shots and included information generated by Parallels Desktop's problem report generator, which also wouldn't send through the proxy.

On Saturday, July 9, I received a message that my ticket had been escalated:

Subject: [Parallels #1166305] Ticket escalated -- Parallels attempts to connect to Internet at launch

Dear Sir/Madam,

Your ticket has been escalated to our Secondline support engineers for the further detailed investigation. We will address your request as soon as possible and kindly ask for your patience and cooperation. We will contact you as soon as any investigation updates will be available.

There is no need to reply to this message right now.

As long as we were making progress then OK by me.

On Monday, July 11, I received a call from Sergey at Parallels and we were able to get him connected to my computer so that he could remote control and troubleshoot.

I demonstrated the problem to him and showed him my settings. He open the Terminal application and ran several commands. He was generally quiet while he worked and I just sat back and watched. Everyone once in a while he would ask a question and I'd respond. I explained to him that I did not want Parallels trying to connect to the Internet without my knowledge and that the proxy is how I was getting alerted to this problem.

This type of activity did wonders to calm me down. Whereas I had been fit to get ulcers just from having to repeat and explain myself to the first level support folks, seeing a technician reproduce my problem felt good. I was not unreasonable and wasn't demanding an immediate fix. I knew that most software bugs can't be fixed right away. Knowing the problem, however, was 90% of the battle to getting it fixed.

Eventually, Sergey had to give up but I knew he understood the problem.

That was on Friday. A few days later on Tuesday, July 12, I received a message from another support person. (So far, I had been in touch with five other Parallels support folks.) Rashid wrote:

Subject: [Parallels #1166305] Parallels attempts to connect to Internet at launch

Hello William,

We will give you further update within 2 hours.

I kind of appreciated his brevity after wading through messages that in the end were not going to resolve this issue.

Another brief message from Rashid later:

Subject: [Parallels #1166305] Parallels attempts to connect to Internet at launch

Hello William,

We have passed the issue details to Parallels Maintenance Team. As they give us further instructions, we will let you know.

I still liked his brevity. One more message from Rashid:

Subject: [Parallels #1166305] Parallels attempts to connect to Internet at launch

Hello William,

We have passed the issue details to Parallels Maintenance Team. They have created an internal ticket in their database.

Unfortunately, we cannot provide an immediate solution and as further investigation is laid by Parallels Maintenance Team internally, current support ticket will be put to resolved state.

In case we receive further instructions or a workaround will be found, we will let you know.

Thank you for your understanding.

And I did understand. To me this was a perfectly acceptable answer. It may not have been a resolution but I knew someone at Parallels understood the issue and that it had a chance of being addressed in a future update.

A little less than a week later on Tuesday, July 19, Rashid sends me this message:

Subject: [Parallels #1175906] proxy request

Hello William,

Parallels Maintenance Team has provided a workaround.

It is needed to manually add access for Parallels Desktop to proxy credentials:

Screenshot is attached.

1) start "Keychain Access"
Applications -> Utilities -> Keychain Access

2) in Keychain "login" in category "passwords" find password to proxy ( on screenshot it is "proxy.qa.sw.ru" )
3) make double-click on it and in new dialog switch to "Access Control" tab.
4) click on "[+]" button and add "Parallels Desktop" ( /Applications/Parallels Desktop ) to list of applications witch have access to this entry.
5) click on "Save Changes" button
6) and start PD again.

PD should start without proxy credentials dialog.

As a probable solution has been provided, current ticket will be put to resolved state.

Once again, they were focussing on making the proxy work rather than trying to determine why Parallels was phoning home. JHC! I should have been popping Mylanta tablets by now. I was hoping for an "It Gets Better" campaign for folks who have to wade through support like this.

My reply:

Subject: Re: [Parallels #1175906] proxy request

Hello!

Sorry, but this does not work.

First, I don't want the Parallels application accessing the Internet at
all without my approval. Your workaround is to grant access to the
Parallels application to access the Internet without any prompt.

Second, this workaround does not work even if I attempt it. Adding the
application to the keychain item is equivalent to selecting "Remember this
Password" in the proxy dialog window. If I enter a name and password and
select the option to remember the password, Parallels continues to display
an empty proxy prompt window (name and password are not stored).

If I may suggest a course of action: You need to determine why the
Parallels application is trying to connect to the Internet at every
startup when all options to do so are disabled.

A day later I received this automated message about support person #7 working on this issue:

Subject: [Parallels #1175906] proxy request

Hello William,

Yana Bernadskaya started to work on your task "proxy request".
Yana Bernadskaya has 1 open tasks, and 0 of them are urgent.

Updates will be posted to:
https://support.parallels.com/SelfService/Display.html?id=1175906

The total number of support incidents open is now: 4

I wasn't sure what this meant but I took it that someone was working to resolve this issue and figure out why Parallels was trying to phone home and stop it. And then a message from Yana:

Subject: [Parallels #1175906] proxy request

Dear William,

Would you please specify options which you disabled in order to prevent Parallels Desktop from connecting to the Internet?

Good lord, here we go again! Did no one at that company ever read the incident histories? My terse response:

Subject: Re: [Parallels #1175906] proxy request

In the preferences for Parallels 6.0 (with latest updates) I have disabled
AutoUpdate, Parallels Mobile and the Customer Experience feedback options.

A response, this time from Rashid and not Yana:

Subject: [Parallels #1175906] proxy request

Hello William,

Parallels Maintenance Team has informed us that Parallels Desktop is designed that way to check some data over the Internet and this activity cannot be disabled.

Concerning the proxy dialog window appearance (even with the provided instructions performed), we have passed that information to Parallels Maintenance Team for further investigation. As an immediate solution cannot be provided, current ticket will be put to resolved state. In case we receive further instructions, we will let you know.

Thank you for your understanding.

Sorry, no, I don't understand:

Subject: Re: [Parallels #1175906] proxy request

What exactly is Parallels checking if it's not checking for updates, not
reporting customer experience data and not enabling Parallels mobile?
Please be specific.

And, finally, an answer:

Subject: [Parallels #1175906] proxy request

Hello William,

Parallels Desktop connects to the Internet in order to update promo screens. Unfortunately this feature cannot be disabled.

Concerning the Keychain Access, would you please send us three screenshots (see attachments) showing:

1) Parallels Desktop is in the "Access Control" list,
2) "Web Proxy (HTTP)" with credentials inserted
3) "Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS)" with credentials inserted.

Thank you for your cooperation.

You. Are. Shitting. Me!

All this hassle over promo screens? I didn't respond.

Rashid asked me for a follow up to his keychain solution the next day. The day after that I replied with:

Subject: Re: [Parallels #1175906] proxy request

Hi Rashid!

Now that I know the issue is with a built-in promo screen update and that
it cannot be disabled then I at least know the source of my problem. I
would send you the screenshots you requested, however, they will go no
farther in resolving my problem. Parallels' proxy support is simply
incompatible with our proxy server. This is not a permissions issue. This
is a privacy issue.

Do you realize that building Parallels to contact your servers without the
user's knowledge is a gross violation of privacy? Even if the Parallels
software not transmitting personal data, it is at minimum transmitting
location data (IP address), which customers may not want to share.

Customers have no way of knowing what information the Parallels
application is sending you and no way of knowing it is doing anything
except when they notice a proxy or firewall blocking this activity.

I strongly urge you to escalate this concern with your management and
change this policy. Until that happens our company will transition to a
different virtual machine platform.

Was "gross violation of privacy" too strong? At this point the entire support effort had been a gross violation of my time. But, yes, this was at least a violation of privacy. Parallels users are for the most part ignorant that each and every time they launch the application that it is trying to phone home.

Is it simply trying to update promo screens? Probably. Should I trust that answer? Absolutely not. Software companies have the right to know who has purchased their products. That's it. Nothing more. If customers choose to share more information then that's their prerogative not the developer's.

A day later, Saturday, July 23, I receive this ballsy message from Andrey Pottosin (Team Leader, Support Department):

Subject: [Parallels #1175906] proxy request

Hello, William,

Allow me to refer you to the End User License Agreement:

http://www.parallels.com/about/eula/

Specifically:
-----------
2. Intellectual Property and Confidentiality

* 2.1. Use Reporting, License Violations and Remedies. Parallels reserves the right to gather data on key usage including license key numbers, server IP addresses, domain counts and other information deemed relevant, to ensure that our products are being used in accordance with the terms of this End-User License Agreement. Parallels expressly prohibits simultaneous, multiple installations of our Software s and domain count overrides without prior written approval. Any unauthorized use shall be considered by Parallels to be a violation of this End-User License Agreement. Parallels reserves the right to remedy violations immediately upon discovery, by charging the then current list price of unauthorized keys to the credit card used to make the original, authorized purchase, or by any other means necessary. You agree not to block, electronically or otherwise, the transmission of data required for compliance with this agreement. Any blocking of data required for compliance under this agreement is considered to be violation of this agreement and will result in immediate termination of this Agreement pursuant to Section 4.
-----------

Parallels Desktop connection to our servers is not possible to disable, and moreover, doing so would violate the EULA. Having this in mind, I would say that the workaround Rashid Fatkhutdinov worked out with our Maintenance team is the best solution path to pursue. We would be glad to assist you in making it work. The information we need, to quote Rashid Fatkhutdinov, is the following:
-----------
Concerning the Keychain Access, would you please send us three screenshots (see attachments) showing:

1) Parallels Desktop is in the "Access Control" list,
2) "Web Proxy (HTTP)" with credentials inserted
3) "Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS)" with credentials inserted.

I'm sorry, what? For you to give me the option to disable updating your promo screens would violate your own EULA? Furthermore, you think a EULA gives you the right to violate privacy? Again, I don't really doubt that this is caused by the Parallels Desktop software trying to update promo screens. But I'm not going to trust that.

My response to Andrey:

Subject: Re: [Parallels #1175906] proxy request

Hello Andrey!

I've not said what you're doing is illegal nor have I said it violates
your EULA. That would be impossible since you write your own EULA.

I am saying simply that customers should have the ability to choose if
their software phones home. For any reason. Designing your software to do
so without giving them any knowledge that it is doing so is a violation of
their privacy. That's what you should change.

Following is a link to a short video clip of Walt Mossberg interviewing
Steve Jobs about privacy. Although they are discussing the iPhone and how
they handle it with their iOS App Store, Jobs' sentiment about privacy in
general comes through better than I can state it here. This is what I as a
Mac customer expect from not just you but all application vendors.

As for blocking any data that your application is trying to deliver to
you, we are not doing so intentionally. Again, your software is for some
reason incompatible with our proxy server. This is not an issue caused by
incorrect permissions. However, if you insist that you have the right to
collect data about how we are using Parallels in our business then we will
simply have to discontinue using your product. We cannot abide by that
restriction.

What Parallels does right and what it does wrong

This is my assessment of Parallels policy and Parallels support after 20+ days of frustration.

Right

Parallels support was aggressive. Not once did I feel my reports were getting dropped or forgotten.
Parallels support communicated with me. Was it too much? Not really. I felt as if someone were paying attention to me.

Wrong

First level support needs to understand the problem before offering solutions. Multiple times I included "auto update is turned off" only to receive a reply that essentially said "turn off auto updates".
Don't lob me over a wall. Is the @ParallelsMac Twitter account an official source of support? Well, if it's going to act like it then it should take ownership and at least hand me off with a case number to another technician. Don't tell me to start over with someone else.
All support tickets should have an owner. In this case I communicated with eight different support people. And I had to repeat myself multiple times. If someone had owned my ticket then I'd at least have felt much of my time hadn't been wasted.
Most importantly, understand what privacy means to customers. Know your boundaries. I don't care what your EULA says. You have no right to collect information about me without my knowledge. Even if you're not collecting information, don't give the appearance that you could be. Take Steve Jobs' comments to heart.

For now, my plan is to move our users to VMware Fusion unless I find something equally objectionable about their support and privacy policies. I still think the Parallels Desktop software runs very well and I am satisfied with the product overall. However, with the poor level of support that I received and the privacy concerns I have with their software phoning home without my knowledge, I'm not inclined to continue having our company using this product.

Microsoft Word humor

2011-06-25T18:04:18Z

In a couple of days the current Microsoft Office for Mac forums will be closing and folks searching for answers to their questions will be redirected to Microsoft Answers.

I thought the following exchange in the soon to be defunct Word for Mac forum was too good to lose.

]]>

Subject: Templates not English
Date: 6/25/11, 7:22 a.m.
From: spin498@officeformac.com

Version: 2011
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I see that this question was asked back in 2008 and no response was given, but I'm going to try anyway. I have Office 2011 for Mac. It is the English version. However I have discovered that all of my templates are in a language foreign to me. It looks like Latin, Italian maybe? How do I get these templates to come up in English?

Reply from: CyberTaz@officeformac.com

The content is merely placeholder text used to give the document some
'body'. Simply select it & replace it with your own.

Reply from: Phillip_M_Jones@officeformac.com

[Technically it] is an altered form of Latin Lorum Ipsom. It was design as a way to fully fill the template area. Its doesn't really convey any actual words. as CyberTaz says it is just used as place holder you put in your own information.

Reply from: spin498@officeformac.com

So it's just placeholder data. Latin seems like a bizarre choice but, ok.

Reply from: Me

No, what's bizarre is that it's called greeking. ;-)

Maybe an old script can see the light of day

2011-02-28T03:38:34Z

This post is for the folks on the YouTalk mailing list.

Over time Microsoft Entourage 2008 builds a list of recently used E-mail addresses based on messages sent and received. This list is called the Most Recently Used list or the MRU. As time goes on, this list builds and builds and becomes cluttered with outdated addresses or addresses from junk mail that wasn’t properly marked as “junk”.

]]> How do Entourage users get rid of these addresses?

The “Microsoft” way is to go to Entourage’s preferences and click a button to delete the entire list. Folks who only want to get rid of individual addresses can use a workaround where the name and address are added to the Address Book and marked as “junk”. Marking an address as “junk” removes it from the MRU. Then, they have to delete the contact record.

Wow, what a pain!

So, I wrote a script

It did all that business about creating a contact, marking it as junk and then deleting it. The only problem was that it didn’t work unless one preference was enabled in Entourage. Under the Entourage menu —> Preferences… —> General Preferences —> Security, the option Warn before allowing external application to access the address book had to be enabled.

Without this option the script simply didn’t work. With this option, the script threw up an alert.

No big deal! Just click that little Do not show this message again option, right?

Wrong. It should have been that easy but clicking that option clears the option in Entourage’s preferences to warn about the nasty external application trying to do something with the address book. Catch 22.

I shelved the script because I could just see it confusing folks. Today, however, someone on the YouTalk list has a need and so I release it after a 1-1/2 years.

To install the script, simply select About This Menu… from the Script menu in Entourage and click the Open Folder button. Drag the Delete Address from MRU\somD.scpt file into this folder and it should appear immediately under the Entourage Script menu.

To use the script first copy an unwanted address and then select Delete Address from MRU from the Script menu in Entourage (or type its keyboard command Shift + Option + Command + D). Click the OK button to confirm you want to delete the address.

Click the OK button again to dismiss the warning dialog but do not select the option Don’t show this message again.

Goodbye unwanted address from the MRU.

Download the script

Macworld without Apple is like an apple without its core

2011-01-29T15:26:01Z

Today is the last day of Macworld 2011 and could very well be the last of Macworld Expo altogether. This is my fourth show in the past five years and it's the second without Apple. What a difference their absence has made!

]]> What if God didn't show up?

Let's accept that Macworld Expo is pretty much a carnival. For a brief period of time vendors come to promote their products alongside other vendors and generate excitement in the community. That's what leads to sales and product recognition. At the same time a thriving but ephemeral community forms around the carnival with each member attending for his own pleasure and self edification. It's a symbiotic relationship and both sides win.

But Macworld Expo evolved into worship for some and one day their god didn't show up. When that happened the faithful were still faithful but just not sure what to do. Some vendors returned. Some didn't. Some of the community returned. Some didn't. It's fair to say some changed their religious habits pretty quickly while others honestly believed their god would return.

I'm not a very religious person myself but even I can see the ironic parallels here.

Losing my religion

I attended my first Macworld in 2007 where Steve Jobs announced the iPhone. It was the pinnacle of recent Macworld Expos. The keynote had lines forming the night before and the crowd overflowed into rooms with a video feed for those who couldn't fit into the conference hall. The Expo was two huge exhibit halls that took me a couple of days to explore. And Mac software giants such as Adobe, Microsoft and Quark had booths to match their status in the Mac software community.

Of course, nothing compared to Apple's spacious and elegant plaza that was the size of all the software giants combined. To call their space a "booth" would be an injustice. Walking into the Expo hall and seeing Apple was like getting to see the great and powerful wizard of Oz. It was awe inspiring and a little magical.

This was the Mac community's Mecca.

For the second time now Apple has been absent from Macworld and the show is quickly dying. The excitement of the first day has shifted from the opening keynote to the opening of the Expo doors. Enthusiasm for the new and fantastic gadgets and gizmos is all but replaced with "yet another iPad case". And the two huge halls are now one small hall where you can see the side and back walls from the entrance.

The giants are gone too. No Adobe. No Microsoft. No Quark. Not even FileMaker. The biggest name this year was Omni Group and really no one else. Some of the smaller names that I've seen at every Macworld are still here. Strangely their booths have grown no bigger but they seem to have a bigger presence now.

Growing up

Is Apple killing Macworld? That's not really a fair question--of course not. They didn't set out to destroy a seasonal community that evolved out of the excitement for their products. But to be honest Apple was the core of Macworld Expo and that core is gone. Without it, the show is withering from the inside out.

We've had the show for 25 years with two shows some of those years. During that time Apple has grown and we've grown up. Those we idolize as children can look very different through adult eyes.

Steve Jobs is mortal. We see that now with his latest need for medical treatment. The man and the company we've come to love is the same but different to us now. They're changing and doing things unexpected and that scares us.

But this is life not religion. We have to accept that and not confuse the two. I love the community that I've had a chance to be a part of online, afar and a few times in person here at Macworld Expo. We can still be a community and still share the excitement for something we really enjoy. It just probably won't be here any more.

Could the Mac App Store solve Enterprise licensing headaches?

2011-01-08T18:05:55Z

I'm very happy to see that Peter Borg updated Lingon for Snow Leopard, which he's now distributing via the Mac App Store. I see on his blog, however, that his will be the only method of distribution for his product.

The early behavior of developers to embrace the Mac App Store as their exclusive distribution channel could be an Enterprise administrator's headache but I see it as the potential to be a much needed solution for the corporate environment like iTunes was for the music industry.

]]> Licensing

First, Apple's licensing terms are:

"If you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, you may download a Mac App Store Product for use either (a) by a single individual on each of the Mac Product(s) that you own or control, or (b) by multiple individuals on a single shared Mac Product that you own or control.

I hate terms like this because, although generous, they're practically impossible to enforce. In some brief testing, I found that nothing prevents one user from downloading software under his own Mac OS X account and another user from using that software under a different Mac OS X account. Logging out of the Mac App store under the first account and the lack of Mac App Store credentials under the second account don't enforce "per user" licensing.

Mac App Store account management

Ignoring licensing, how can a company handle software purchases for products sold exclusively through the Mac App Store? Should it use a master Mac App Store account for all purchases or should it allow purchases under individual accounts?

A master account is administratively easier to manage but it requires one or a handful of administrators to enter the account credentials and download the software. This isn't an account that all users should be able to access. The downside to a master account is that all purchases are available on all machines. Nothing ties any one purchase to a particular user to enforce the "(a) by a single individual on each of the Mac Product(s) that you own or control" part of the licensing terms.

What happens when the licensing changes midstream and is no longer needed for just one user on one machine but is now needed for two users on two machines? Can a master account handle a second purchase? Not at all.

Should each user have his own account? That would somewhat help mitigate the licensing terms but what happens when an entire department (say 20 people) need the same piece of software? Does one company create 20 different accounts with the same credit card information? Volume licensing handles this situation well, however, the Mac App Store doesn't offer volume licensing options.

Software deployment and management

Volume licensing also offers administrators convenience and manageability with licensing. It generally provides one serial number for all installations and a method to deploy software to multiple machines quickly. The Mac App Store works against that model completely.

Assuming an administrator much purchase software sold exclusively through the Mac App Store for a department of 20 computers, that means an administrator must "touch" each machine 20 times. Even using remote control software, the administrator must log in to each machine, launch the Mac App Store, make the purchase and download the software. Volume licensing allows administrators to push to multiple machines at once and let users start using the software immediately. One hour for deploying a volume license piece of software could easily turn into multiple hours for the Mac App Store.

Do we really want to turn support personnel into purchasing agents?

Mac App Store for the Enterprise?

Fundamentally, the Mac App Store is for the home consumer. Can it be modified to work for the Enterprise? It could with some work. An administrator console for the Mac App Store would make sense here.

Licensing: Apple would first need to change the legal terms for using the software. Software should be purchased strictly for a computer and not licensed to any single user. The terms should be enforceable. Companies need the right to move software between computers and not worry about losing it or transferring it when a user changes positions or leaves.

Deployment: The method of downloading software from the cloud to each machine is impractical. It uses network bandwidth and is much slower than deploying from an internal network source. Companies like mine go so far as to block access to online software sites like iTunes, which means the Mac App Store is blocked too. Administrators need to be able to deploy from within their network.

Local Management: One administrator could purchase and download the software and maybe even use the console to deploy and manage seats. That's something the Enterprise needs not only for the sake of efficiency but also for managing licensing. Key servers and licensing servers are a pain to manage because they support one or a few applications. Being able to manage licensing the same way for dozens of apps at the operating system level would be a godsend.

Remote licensing: I have a handful of users that work at home but use company-owned laptops. These folks are administrators on their own machines because I can't manage these machines remotely. One final need is for me to purchase their software and get it to them. They're already on the Internet, so they can handle downloading their own software. I'd like to be able to send them a one-time, one-use key that they can plug into the Mac App Store and get the software they need. And I'd like that information to get reflected back to my administrator console for the Mac App Store.

Eliminate headaches and increase profits

Administrators slam Apple for its lack of support for the Enterprise (read through this message thread on the MacEnterprise list) but centralizing Mac application purchasing opens the door for application license management on a wide scale. Very wide!

Take away the need for something simple like a serial number and Apple takes away the need for administrators to have to locate and deploy license files hidden in a variety of clever and not-so-clever ways. Take away the need for recording licensing information in a locally managed database and Apple takes away the headache of auditing software licenses. Take away individual End User License Agreements and Apple takes away the legal downtime spent reviewing multiple software licenses.

For developers, like Peter Borg, the Mac App Store has the potential to greatly increase revenue. Just look at comments like those from Evernote. iTunes revolutionized the music industry by giving consumers an easy way to pay for music and increased sales dramatically. With that track record Apple has the same potential with the Mac App Store and the Enterprise market.

On being a geek on Saturday night

2010-11-21T04:46:07Z

OK, so I don't have a hyperactive social life anymore. My twenties are long gone and most of my Saturday nights are relegated to home life. While many folks my age (I'm only 42) might still enjoy heading out to the bars and making casual acquaintances, their partners may not really appreciate that.

I realized today how much I like being a geek at home on Saturday night. It's relaxing and never really boring. Life is a hundred times too short to ever be bored.

]]> Don't get me wrong. I don't usually spend all day playing around on my computer. This morning, for example, I drove my car to a few auto body shops to get quotes for a minor fender bender and a friend stopped by a little while later to pick up some items for local charity. This evening, I cooked baked potatoes with all the fixin's and made a batch of brownies too.

Yes, I took a nap this afternoon, but I enjoy those. Would love to have a nap every day. Naps on Saturdays let me stay up late so that I can spend some quality geek time in my office/man-cave.

I had a blog post to write for OfficeforMacHelp.com and thought this would be a good time to check out Snagit for Mac, which I'd read about on TUAW, for screenshots. We geeks luvs us some new computer utilities!

After watching the video tutorials for a while and oohing and aahing over my newly found toy, I finished the blog post and then went downstairs where we caught up on the latest Supernatural episode while eating dinner. Let's hope for Dean's sake that Sam finds his soul, huh?

While cooking dinner, I thought about how I spent Saturday nights when I was younger. My social life was much more active but even 15 years ago, I realized, some Saturdays were spent in front of the computer. However, I wasn't alone.

When we didn't have anything else to do on a Saturday night, my buddy Bryan and I would buy a 12-pack of Bud and hop onto AOL for the evening. The two of us would be sitting staring at a 15-inch monitor reading the chatter in the Oklahoma City room. I did the typing most of the time because I was a touch typist and together we injected "witty banter" of our own. You have to realize that this was a whole new and unexplored social avenue for us! AOL was charging per minute at that time rather than flat rate but the entertainment value was worth it.

We'd check out every profile of every person hanging out in the room. If we saw someone who looked interesting then we'd throw caution to the wind and instant message her. I'm pretty sure it was always a her. Two dudes and a few beers make for great online conversation. Some Saturday nights, we had one or two more buds with nothing do who'd join us and even Bryan's sister Melinda would come over. Extra people required moving the couch in front of the computer where we could all be comfortable.

This went on for a few months and then eventually Bryan got a computer of his own. We didn't hang out as much in my apartment but we were both still in the Oklahoma City room many evenings. And we started meeting people in person too. Remember, Chelé, Bryan? [Shudders!] Good thing we didn't let that stop us. We had some great offline AOL parties later.

The rest of my evening today was spent writing a quick second blog post for OfficeforMacHelp.com and finally this one. About time I paid attention to my own blog. Next Saturday night is game night at a friend's condo and also a small gathering for her birthday.

My response to an Adobe Acrobat team member

2010-08-21T15:56:53Z

Yesterday, I posted this as part of a quick response to question on the MacEnterprise mailing list:

"At one point I though the Adobe Acrobat updates were not scriptable but Mr. Neagle found a way around that."

I later received a direct communication regarding my comment from someone on the Acrobat update/install team at Adobe explaining:

"I'm trying to understand what folks are doing for silent install in 9, hoping to make this better in the future."

Below is my response. Yep, it's long-winded but, frankly, this is such a huge problem that it warrants all the detail. Sadly, I'm not saying anything that hasn't already been said. I'm just adding my voice, adding my experiences and happy that someone's paying attention.

]]> "No problem that you're contacting me directly. I appreciate the outreach. And I hope you don't mind that I've copied our Adobe representative on my response. I'd like someone there to note that I appreciate you contacting me.

"First, yes, you've found the article I was referencing and today I am using Greg Neagle's method as part of my deployment toolset, which is mostly Casper Suite and a bit of Apple Remote Desktop for maintenance and monitoring.

"Interesting that you're asking about silent installs with Acrobat 9.0. You do realize that there's nothing in the product nor the updates that enables silent installs, right? Had Greg Neagle not discovered the ability to use Python scripting, I and other administrators would be stuck with just three options:

Touch every machine by hand (as an admin) and update manually
Repackage Acrobat with the updates and re-deploy
Don't update

"I'm going to assume you're reaching out because your group has heard about enterprise struggles with Acrobat deployment. Hopefully, this issue has come to your attention. If you'll indulge me a little, I'd like to tell you mine. This is from the point of view of someone administering Macs...

"None of the above are good options.

"In the enterprise users are not admins on their machines. They shouldn't be. My company is a publishing company that has Acrobat on just about every workstation we deploy and that's about 5,000 computers (mostly Windows but a couple hundred Macs too). If we allowed users to be admins then they would install their own software, update their own software or use software that someone else isn't using--all in the name of 'getting the job done'. This, however, would lead to software conflicts and huge licensing issues. I won't even touch on the IT support needed when someone disables his entire system and can't work because he clicked on a link in a website to run antivirus software.

"So, that means in order for our support staff to update any version of Acrobat somebody has to coordinate with the user to log in to his machine either physically at the console or remotely, copy the updater and run it. Enterprises have spent literally millions of dollars throughout the years to avoid this time suck. This is time that we're not spending helping the user and not spending improving our systems. But it can only happen when third party software developers make their installer software compatible with the tools administrators are using. Adobe's not doing that.

"Repackaging is not uncommon. I do this a lot and I consider it a necessary administrative practice because sometimes third party software developers don't make their installers and updaters compatible with enterprise deployment tools. Repackaging involves me using a tool such as JAMF's Composer to 'watch' what I do as I install a piece of software and then run the updates. When I'm done Composer will pull together a list of new and changed files for me to weed through. I'll keep the application files I just installed and discard irrelevant files that were found to be new or changed. I'll then combine these files into a package that's compatible with my deployment system.

"Why doesn't this work with Acrobat? Two reasons. The Acrobat application is a drag-n-drop install, which is fine, but it has a nasty first-run process that requires administrator privileges to complete a secondary install. It tries to install printer software, it tries to install web browser tools and it tries to become the default PDF viewer application. None of this is scriptable. Even if I repackage everything that's installed after the first-run Acrobat has another nasty mechanism called SELF HEAL that requires administrator privileges. Many administrators have posted tips, tricks and articles devoted to how to thwart the SELF HEAL process. See these examples that I found just using Google:

http://itmac.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/adobe-acrobat-admin-password-self-heal-problems/

http://groups.google.com/group/macenterprise/browse_thread/thread/ed98ce131fd7f969/0db8effb12370dd0

http://www.brunerd.com/blog/2010/02/05/make-acrobat-pro-9-for-mac-shut-the-hell-up/

http://www.tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/2005-July/016625.html

http://subvert.org/?p=84

"In my experience, it's still hit and miss. When it's miss then I have a user calling me and telling me that he can't use his software because it's asking for an administrator name and password.

"My third option is to simply ignore updates and just deal with them when I need to do so. Because of the portability of the PDF format and its ever increasing complexity, though, it has become a security concern. Adobe quite often releases Acrobat updates to address security vulnerabilities. In the enterprise I have to pay attention to these risks on my systems because we're dealing with customer data, financial data and even HIPAA regulated data. Yes, on the Macs! My company and others have groups devoted to just IT security concerns like this and their reaction to anything released by Adobe as a 'security fix' is to get it installed quickly. That means once again a small staff of administrators must physically visit or remote control each machine and install the update.

"What do I need from the Acrobat team?

A scriptable installer for Acrobat.
An installer that can be run while someone is logged in or no one is logged in.
An installer that can be deployed to a non-boot volume (such as when imaging a machine).
An installer that will handle all components requiring administrator privileges at one time, including serial number.
An installer that I can customize to disable self-healing.
An installer that I can customize to disable automatic checking for updates.
An installer that I can use in conjunction with my deployment toolset (an Apple package).
An installer that's not separate from the Creative Suite installer when deploying the suite.
An updater that is a combo updater to patch all earlier versions of Acrobat.
An updater that only patches the installed software and doesn't attempt to replace the software I've chosen to not install.
An updater that does not attempt to do anything unrelated to updating like resetting the default application.
An updater that I can use in conjunction with my deployment toolset (an Apple package).

"FYI, these are installer 'best practices'. They're not administrator whims. That's very important to note!

"I know you've probably had your dealings with Mr. John C. Welch and I'll leave you to your impressions and experiences with him, but he does a great job at vocalizing the anger and frustration all enterprise-level Mac administrators have felt toward deploying and maintaining Acrobat. If you can look past the colorful language then read his post on this subject and then read the comments.

"IT folks are generally not Microsoft bashers, not Quark maligners and not Adobe haters. We appreciate software that works well regardless of who makes it but when software is made in such a way that it's a nightmare to deal with (and Acrobat wins this prize) then you'll hear about it. You'll also hear about it when it's a pleasure to deal with. I guarantee it. ;-)

"Feel free to contact me again and ask any further questions. I'm glad to answer."

Help Desk 2.0

2010-03-05T03:31:55Z

This post is about Extensis and the great over-the-top service I received from someone there today. I'm making sure my Extensis representative Girish sees this post so that he can go personally thank that someone for providing great customer service in under 300 characters.

]]> Today I had a Help Desk 2.0 experience. Help Desk 2.0 is my name for providing support using non-traditional or unconventional means. While working on a scripting project this morning I went searching for examples of how to script Extensis Suitcase, the font management software we use at work.

Google results were practically nil with most every link parroting release notes about AppleScript support in Suitcase but nothing really providing details of the syntax I needed for my project. While I'm a fairly good AppleScripter, the Suitcase dictionary wasn't helping much. All I needed were some snippets to get me started.

Sure, I could E-mail Extensis technical support but that requires a login and then waiting for an answer. Don't get me wrong, I'll do this but I just wasn't in the mood today. When you're going gangbusters on something you don't really want to stop. Forums are a great option too, but everything I found when searching for "AppleScript" returned results for Portfolio, another Extensis product.

Remembering an experience with VMWare, I looked for an Extensis Twitter account. Sure enough: http://twitter.com/extensis. Reading the tweets I saw a lot of dialog rather than marketing.

I tweeted:

@Extensis I'm an experienced AppleScript scripter but would like to see example snippets for Suitcase. Do you have a reference?

Wait and see.

Doing more research on some other forums I found one post that made my jaw drop:

Apr. 2, 2009

MacInTouch Reader

It should be noted that the latest version of Suitcase Fusion 2 v13 has NO Applescript support.

The previously strong scripting support has been completely removed and there is no replacement scripting support.

Without reading any further I decided to simply install a demo of v2 and use the Script Editor to look at the AppleScript dictionary. Sure enough, it didn't have one. What the hell!?

Pissed off, I tweeted:

You're kidding me @Extensis! You removed all AppleScript support from Fusion v2!? WTF!?

All I could think was that my plans for automating some tasks that I have to perform on nearly 100 machines a few times per month are now down the drain. What a let down from a company that's always had a strong Mac presence for years!

Then during a meeting not more than 20 minutes later, I received an alert on my iPhone. I had a tweet from @Extensis:

@meck We provide scripting support for Suitcase Fusion's font management core: http://bit.ly/cRItRR

Really now? Really? I tapped the link and viewed the first couple of pages of a PDF document detailing how to script both Suitcase Fusion v2 and the Universal Type Server client. Another tweet exchange with @Extensis and I learned that the scripting method was changed to offer cross-platform scripting. That just made me smile. I was really glad to eat my words.

Here's what I like about offering support via Twitter.

I know a few folks, including myself sometimes, who offer support via Twitter. It's not a framework for extensive communication. You can't elaborate and you have to severely edit sometimes. Simple cordialities like "Hello", "I hope you can help me", "I'm really sorry to bother you" and "thank you in advance for your time" are snipped in favor of "just the facts, ma'am."

This in turn makes offering support easier instead of more difficult. Help Desks that monitor E-mail accounts or answer telephones must often wade through incomplete details and even emotions that their customers inject into their messages. 140-character messages are faster to read and digest and 140-character answers are long enough to include straight-forward answers or even URLs to detailed answers. And the "respond" button is simpler to use than wading for an address or phone number that may or may not be buried in the details.

Help Desk 2.0 could make the future of the Help Desk so much more efficient. Imagine having an incoming tweet system monitored by multiple staffers. They can literally browse every incoming tweet and if one of the staffers can answer the question, he can flag it for himself and answer it.

All of this could happen in less than five to 10 minutes and the result is that the customer gets near instant gratification. A Twitter account that is "registered" with the Help Desk 2.0 staff would be as effective as an E-mail address, which often serves as verification of identity for low security situations.

So, Girish, please pass along my thanks to whomever your @Exensis tweeter is. For such a quick response I have to think it's someone in support. Maybe someone on your Help Desk. Whomever it was that responded to me made my day, enough so to write all of this you've read. I'm so glad you're using your Twitter account for something more than marketing fluff.

Trust but verify! Hell, don't even trust.

2010-02-24T04:00:47Z

MacBU announced the official name for its next version of Office, Office for Mac 2011, at Macworld Expo just two weeks ago. Inevitably, the beta gets leaked, screenshots begin filling rumor sites and torrents let the general public get a sneak peek.

Releasing a major software suite like Office for Mac to the world is akin to a writer releasing his next major novel. Some critics will praise it. Others will hate it. It's exposed to the world and you can't take it back. The developers, testers, product managers and everyone else at MacBU must be sorely disappointed (but maybe somewhat flattered) when their 2-3 years of hard work gets leaked to the public before it's ready.

Well, I'm sorry to say that it's been leaked. Or has it?

]]> Office for Mac 2011 is due to officially ship around U.S. holiday season of this year, which means around the fourth quarter of 2010. That means it must be going into beta within the next few months.

If I were to believe the bit torrent sites, I'd say it's already in beta because I can now search Google for "torrent Office 2011" and see plenty of places where I can download it. What a shame! But not for MacBU.

Practically every link on the first page of this Google search leads me to a bogus download. How do I know? Because what's being advertised is so blatantly wrong!

Based on past history, Office for Mac comes in two or three flavors—currently Home & Student and Business Edition. So, when I see "Microsoft Office 2011 Enterprise Corporate Edition", I have to laugh. Whoever named this obviously works in the Department of Redundancy Department.

This same torrent seems to be prevalent on several warez sites and even includes some firsts for Office for Mac such as InfoPath 2011, Publisher 2011 and Groove 2011 to name just a few. Wow! Microsoft has been busy! I'm so disappointed, however, to see that Access 2011 wasn't included. Oh, wait, there it is.

Of course, you can tell this is typical Microsoft software because they don't even understand Macs. Boy, won't their Mac customers be surprised when they release Office 2011 as Windows executable!

I wish there were some way I could know for sure that what I'm downloading is legit or is a scam. Something like this message would be handy:

Maybe something like this message from Safari will just give me a little bit of a clue:

At this point, I could spout so many clichés: "Curiosity killed the cat" or "You get what you pay for". But I won't do that… or your money back… Guaranteed! What I will quote is a phrase from the American President Ronald Regan who said this about the Soviet Union: "Trust but verify!"

I'll go him one better: "Hell, don't even trust." Just wait for the real thing.

Geek fest: Week 1

2010-02-15T16:43:55Z

I'm writing this post while sitting on a plane headed to Portland, OR. In a little while I'll be meeting fellow MVP Diane Ross and former MVP Allen Watson. We're driving to Redmond for this year's MVP Summit at Microsoft.

Flying is a wonderful time for me to catch up, reflect and look into new things, which is what I'm doing now. Beneath the iPhone in my hand are two issues of iPhone Life magazine, which I discovered at the Macworld Expo last week. I'm enjoying reading it and considering asking if i can write for it as well.

Last week's Expo was my third to attend, but it was the first where I actually presented a session. Nadyne Richmond from Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit and I presented "Administering Macs with Exchange" as part of the MacIT conference where we covered Exchange tips as well as Entourage troubleshooting. We had no idea what to expect for attendance, but Nadyne did a quick head count—52 people. A sizable group for a topic so specific.

More of my time was spent answeing questions in the Microsoft booth about the new version of Office for Mac to be released later this year. Lots of folks wanted to know about Outlook replacing Entourage and I wish I had had this next week come first so I could've answered them better. Maybe this is for the better since all this talk will be under NDA anyway.

Several months back I heard a saying that "Facebook is for friends you've met and Twitter is for friends you've yet to meet." I believe that. I met face-to-face for the first time three folks I've known at least a year only online. Two are prominant bloggers/podcasters and the third was my publisher at MacTech magazine. To add a warm handshake to those relationships was really nice.

So what did I see at Macworld? My favorite area had to be the iPhone apps area where each 4x4 table accommodated four app vendors. I think the area had at least 20-25 tables. I saw several gems there including two apps for creating and editing Office documents. Just Word and Excel.

Finally, I've found an app for grocery shopping that includes a barcode scanner! It won't be available for a few weeks. The app is pending Apple's approval process now. Can't wait!

I now have an app to take a picture of business cards and convert them to electronic contacts, which is handy. However, if a person has an iPhone then I'm going to insist he download Bump to transfer contacts more easily.

I reget not attending either of the two big parties. My nerves from before the presentation really drained me. Surprisingly, once I was on stage I thought it went really well. One of the attendees stopped by the booth the next day and said something to the effect of, "I went into the session with low expectations but came out thinking it was once of the best sessions this year." Made my day.

So this week I get to see quite a few old friends at the MVP summit and see sooper sekrit stuff I can't share here. This is a good month for a geek like me.

Tags: MVP, Macworld

iPhone blogging with iBlogger

2010-02-06T20:11:33Z

I just downloaded iBlogger to see how easily I could post entries from my iPhone.

The interface isn't very intuitive but it's not difficult to figure out either. Setup was easy, but then again once you set up MoveableType a few times, connecting to it isn't very difficult.

This will take a little getting use to and some experimentation, but I already feel the price was probably worth the $10.00.

Posting a quick picture of Monty and Mitch snoozing on the couch. They were convenient and willing models for this test. I appreciate the app's feature to define photos as top, left or right. No control for anything else, though.

Stylizing text appears to be non-existent and that's a bummer. Looks like I'll have to manually add strong and emphasis tags by hand. Wow, that was painful! Would be great if iBlogger supported SmileOnMyMac's TextExpanderTouch app for expanding shortcuts!

Fingers are a little cramped now but I wasn't really expecting to type entire entries on the iPhone anyway. I'm hoping this will be useful for posting quick pictures and short entries.

Pushing the Publish button now.

New life for old laptops or just garbage disposal?

2010-01-31T03:08:03Z

I'm torn.

A few times I've been asked by the director at GDC to evaluate some equipment that an organization is supposedly donating for just the cost of inspection and shipping.

The more I receive these requests to evaluate these machines, the more I think this is a great big scam.

]]> Joel, the director, usually forwards messages like this to me and asks, "Bill, what do you think of these machines?"

From: [redacted]@verizon.net
Date: January 29, 2010 3:13:08 AM CST
To: [redacted]@deafconnection.org
Subject: Laptop computers from [redacted]

Good morning Joel ... the five laptops mentioned below are no longer available; however, last week we received 12 Dell LATITUDE 620 laptops that [redacted] Laptop Gurus worked on earlier this week. Initial indications are that most are in good working order, but we found a couple where head phones or an external speaker is required to hear the sounds properly. We have order additional memory, DVD / CD-RW combo drives, and 60 GB hard drives for them. My understanding is that the WIFI cards that were purchased for the previous laptops will work in these. In addition we will need to replace some of the batteries.

So when we get them setup, they will be running at 2.16 GHz, have 1 GB of RAM (which can be upgraded to 2 GB) have a 60 GB hard drive, DVD player / CD Writer, WIFI, good battery and AC Adapter with Windows XP installed. We are looking to get $245 a unit. Since many who have acquired laptops from us have asked for carrying cases, we recently found a supplier where we can purchased carrying cases for laptops. If this is of interest let me know, I believe the ones we are looking at will run around $25 a piece.

Accordingly, if you are interested, please let me know soon. I anticipate the laptops being ready by the end of next week.

[signature redacted]

These laptops are most likely from corporations that have either donated or disposed of old equipment. They're probably four to five years old already. We've received them in several states of "used" condition ranging from pretty scratched up to duct taped. They still have OEM Windows XP Home or Professional stickers on the bottom most of the time. Nothing I can really re-install if needed.

In my opinion, these machines may have up to a year of usefulness before they break down and get buried in someone's garage a few years before heading to a landfill.

Joel's explanation for donating these laptops is compelling. Simply put, the people receiving them can get some use out of them. He plans to hand them over to other NGOs for grant writing. Most grant distributors won't take grant proposals in writing but instead require everything to be in electronic form. "Even one month's use," he says, "is enough time to write a few needed proposals asking for money."

Another time, Joel asked me to evaluate a U.K. organization's offer to ship 50 desktop computers each with "a minimum of 256MB", a keyboard, mouse and CRT monitor to Kenya. By the time they included installing an operating system, like Windows XP or Linux along with applications like OpenOffice and shipping costs, the price per machine was about $180.00.

After careful consideration of the proposal, I replied to Joel with this at the end of a message:

My personal and very prejudiced opinion:

These are computers that no one is willing to buy. The cost to dispose of them as "charitable donations" is appealing because they become a tax deduction and this also passes along the cost and hassle of disposal to someone else.

What will happen to these machines when they fail? They will be thrown into a landfill and not properly recycled. The mercury, lead and other pollutants will seep into the soil and cause environmental problems later.

I see this organization and others like it as a front for cheap disposal of hazardous substances in foreign countries that will have no rebuke.

****************************************************************************
* A true charitable donation would be to get fewer machines that will last *
* longer and it would also include a commitment for removal and proper *
* disposal of an old non-working computer for every new computer placed. *
****************************************************************************

At minimum, if you are going to donate these 50 computers then locate 50 non-working systems and pay for their proper disposal (recycled, not a landfill). This is just as important as donating a computer.

That's been my recommendation since writing that response to Joel. For everyone one in, take one out—properly, with the environment in mind. I don't want to see any country become our dumping ground.

Friends, past and future

2010-01-29T03:30:26Z

Since caving into the Facebook fever and opening an account, I've seen the following aphorism (paraphrased) come true:

Facebook is for friends I've met; Twitter is for friends I've yet to meet.

Next week, I'm gathering together folks at work to have lunch with former co-workers, some of whom I've really only met once or twice. Amazingly, we've been very in touch on Facebook.

In a couple of weeks i travel to Macworld and hope to run into some of the folks that I've been following and who are following me on Twitter.

These are not friendships I could have maintained without the Internet and without social networking sites. Who says the Internet stifles social interaction?

Fat friggin' iMac plugs! or "Oh, snap!"

2010-01-20T04:32:37Z

In my cube is a refurbished 24-inch iMac that I'm preparing to use for testing. We don't have many iMacs in-house but we're slowing migrating to them from the Mac Pros, which are more than we need.

iMacs are stylish and sleek, but I was cursing Apple's "design" this morning until I discovered they solved my problem before I had one.

]]> Like any cube, the desktop is modular but not easily adjustable and my power outlets are underneath. Tiny little gaps between the desktop and the back padded wall are the only cable management I have. None of those handy holes in the top for all those cords!

When I tried snaking the iMac's power cord in that barely 1-inch gap, I couldn't believe that both ends were too friggin' fat to fit! The three-prong end isn't much bigger than most power cords but the other end has this ridiculously large collar that fits into the back of the iMac.

"Some design!"

That's not what I was really thinking.

After 15 minutes of looking for larger gaps and trying to squeeze the prong end through the biggest gap I could find, I had resigned myself that the cable was just gonna have to snake over the front of my desk to get to the power strip below.

Then for some reason, I just looked at the collar end of the cord and pressed it with my thumb. If ever the words "Oh, Snap!" were more appropriate!

The collar snapped off—easily. This end of the plug now fit very easily through that little 1-inch gap behind my desk.

Apple really did think of everything.

Some geeky things

2010-01-16T22:19:48Z

Some days are interesting not just because something special or unique happens but because of the little things.

]]> SSH tunneling

At work I tend to collect little snippets of code or wisdom about Mac OS X administration in a folder called "Mac OS X Research". The folder's not organized in any special manner but I just happen to remember that I've put something there for later.

Yesterday, I pulled out a print from a post to the MacEnterprise list that I thought was interesting at the time and wanted to try. One of my users was complaining that after moving (and moving to a different network segment) he was no longer able to print to his printers, even after setting them up again.

I suspected he had probably connected to the local Windows print queues like a few folks have done before. These print queues are not properly configured for Mac clients. Protocol forbids me from connecting to his computer without his allowance while logged in but I wanted to see if I was right.

I ran this little command from that MacEnterprise message in the Terminal (replacing "user@remoteHost" with my login credentials and the address of his computer):

ssh user@remoteHost -L 2000:127.0.0.1:631

This ssh tunneling command allowed me to view his CUPS control panel from my computer, even though it is accessible only to "localhost". While browsing his printer settings I was able to see "smb://" connections, which means, yes indeed, he was connecting to the local Windows print queues.

SSH tunneling

While perusing Twitter this morning I saw a reference by a tech blogger that I follow about Blippy, a social website whose premise is to show others what you are buying in real time. Order a NetFlix movie or charge something on your credit card and others can see what you bought and how much you paid.

I was curious about how it worked, so I signed up. The first thing you have to do is add accounts and this is where I stopped cold. For example, if I wanted to connect to my Wells Fargo debit card I had to provide my user name, which is my social security number, and my online password to allow Blippy to monitor my activity.

My reaction?

VirusBarrier X6

Intego has updated its VirusBarrier product from X5 to X6 and it now includes firewall, anti-phishing and anti-spyware support along with permission to install one license on two computers.

Since I believe Macs should be good network citizens, I run antivirus software and have it set to check daily for updates. I'm experimenting with the new features incorporated from their old NetBarrier product and we'll see how long I can stand being prompted to allow various applications access to the network (I've set the settings pretty high).

The only problem so far is that I renewed my virus definitions subscription back in October for two years. Even though I provided my X5 serial number for the upgrade, I'm only seeing one year of definitions support. Interested in seeing how Intego responds to my E-mail message about this issue.