I am adding this blog entry to help people get some answers about KisMac. I am getting several emails a week, sometimes asking the same questions. While I do my best to answer each email, it is starting to be time consuming.
If you have a question about KisMac please read the comments on this blog entry before emailing me…
Also check out the following resources:
- Read the KisMAC FAQ.
- Check the KisMAC Mailing List.
- Use resources (IRC channels, forums, mailing list) specific to Mac OS X. They can often be very helpful.
- Visit the KisMAC boys at #kismac on irc.freenode.net
- Last but not least try your luck at Google.
Secunia has released a vulnerability advisory about a new ‘Zero Day’ vulnerability that is currently being exploited by malicous websites. It seems that Microsoft beat everyone to the punch on this one, and released the original advisory. Internet Explorer 6 and 7 is one of the attack vectors, so stay away from any dodgy websites if you insist on using IE.
Bought a video iPod made after the 12th of September 2006? It may have shipped with a trojan virus. Check out the full story here.
Can Apple get anything right at the moment???
I have had my MacBook Pro back in my possesion for a couple of weeks now, but we still have an old problem and two new problems…
Here is the current list:
- Creaking sound when placing left palm on the MacBook Pro to type. The new bottom case doesn’t fit properly.
- There is now a grinding sound coming from the right hand rear side of the unit.
- There is still a dark bar accross the left hand side of the LCD when the screen dims.
Remember people this units cost me over $4000 when I originally pruchased it. That is over 8 months of saving for me.
The saga continues…
Gizmodo is currently running a contest to develop Windows drivers for the iSight webcam. It has been going since July 2006 so hopefully there will be a positive outcome soon.
Check out the site here.
I’ve had a problem where I was unable to see my iPod Shuffle in iTunes. This started after a recent software update from Apple, as a result I was unable to update my iPod with new songs. After reading multiple articles and forum posts that had some whacky solutions that included, banging the iPod on a desk while holding down the power button, I found the solution myself. If you have the same problem, try running the “iPod Updater” found in Applications/Utilities and restoring your iPod. It will wipe all the songs from your iPod, but that is better than not being able to update it at all.
Michael Sutton has an interesting post on his blog about web application vulnerabilities specifically SQL injection. He has cobbled together a small tool in C# that makes use of a Google API key to search the Google databases for web application vulnerabilities.
Check out his post for more info.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, take yourself over to the Metasploit project and check out the development version of Metasploit 3. HD Moore released this version at BlackHat this year. He did some cool demos, and it has some cool features like in VNC, launching the Start Menu even if the user isn’t logged in.
Well worth a look…
I should have known, when I bought my MacBook Pro back in April and they had to swap it over twice in the first week for DOA faults that life with my new Mac wasn’t going to be easy. I was already on my thrid MacBook Pro and these babies cost AUS $4000 each. For that sort of price you don’t expect any problems, at least not in the first twelve months.
By the second month I’m starting to get sick of all the faults. Here is a list:
- Lower case has warped, especially around the latch area. (I believe due to overheating…)
- Two black bars on the LCD, the bar on the left is especially noticable when the screen dims. The width of these bars are the same width as the speaker grills. (Could this be due to overheating too?)
Whining Hard Drive (although resonably quiet, is still very noticable in a quiet room)- HardDrive has now died and has multiple sectors that are unreadable, including my encrypted profile. The MacBook Pro is completely unusable now. Bye Bye photos… : (
I took the unit to NextByte where I purchased it and asked them if they could swap it over for a newer model as the one I had was a “lemon”. NextByte was unable to do this and told me I should contact Apple Customer Relations directly. So I did this and spoke to a guy by the name of Kevin Smith who told me to email him with some photos of the problem with the case. I complied with his request and emailed him the pics. I heard nothing from Apple for almost two weeks, at which time I was starting to get a little bit anxious as to what was going on, so I started chasing Kevin for information. I would have thought it was in a “Customer Relations” person’s job description to be following up with the client. Hrmmm. I tried to escalate the issue to a manager and was put through to Simon’s voicemail. I left a message asking Simon to call me back as I felt as though I was being treated poorly by his agents. He must have passed tha buck because I never heard from him and Kevin eventually got back to me stating that Apple was not going to replace the unit, and the warped case was not due to a heat issue as I had claimed.
I was not happy with this response and called back trying to get hold of a Manager so I could escalate the problem. I was put through to another agent (can’t remember her name) and she wouldn’t escalate the problem either and told me to return my faulty unit to the place of purchase and they could look at it for me. So after four weeks of chasing Apple Customer Relations about my faulty Mac I was back to where I started. I was little upset to say the least. I asked to be put through to Simon (Customer Relations Manager) and was told to put it in writing and send it to her and she would pass it on. Fuck that!
Try getting hold of the “Customer Relations” manager at Apple Australia and see how you go. It seems as though all the lower level gimp staff are like his Pitt Bulls and won’t give out his details. It took some social engineering but I managed to get his details.
To save you some time they are: Simon Fenton and his email address is sfenton@asia.apple.com
So I sent Simon an email outlining all of the faults with my Mac in addition to the objections I had to the way I had been treated by his incompetent staff. I also asked him to reply directly to me and not pass my details onto one of his staff to do his dirty work. As a result of this Apple asked that I ship my Mac to them and they would have a look at it. Kevin was then tasked to organise a courier to pick up my unit…Guess what? They courier never arrived and I had to chase up Apple again. By this stage I am fed up with the whole situation and just want to throw the $4000 paper weight into the Yarra River.
I take it BACK to NextByte and ask them to just fix the problems under warranty as I didn’t need to stress of dealing with the Customer Relations fruit loops any more. Before they could do that it had to be sent to Apple in Sydney so they could look at it and close the case…OK…This has been going on now for three months and I have now been without my Mac for the last two weeks and someone has finally started working on it today. I might be able to pick it up next week…Yay!
I won’t hold my breath though.
A man believed to be a Manchester Fireman has sparked a probe into the dangerous prank where he climbed into a tumble dryer and went for a ride. The Fire bosses aren’t happy because it wasn’t his truck he was riding in.
Here is the link:
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/
Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/