MacTubes 3.1.6 is out

Since I received a few emails about this over the last 3 days or so I wanted to report that this amazing app has been updated to fix all the things that broke earlier this week.

I can confirm that it works perfectly again as always after a fix.  Any of us that use this owe a great deal of gratitude to the developer for all the hard work they do.  The main contribution this has made in my opinion is that it allows you to have no need for flash at all which is a blessing in itself.


Download

The tangent that needs a home

The PowerMac G4 Tangent (Digital Audio) has been claimed.


On a personal note

I want to personally thank Graeme in the UK for his donation this morning.  Very kind of him indeed.  This goes far beyond anything in terms of motivating me to keep writing.  Knowing that my fanboy unfriendly writing is understood and appreciated by people is a great feeling if for no other reason than I'm not alone in my thinking.


I will have a lot more free time soon to start writing feature length articles again.

Up for grabs

I was going through my parts closet today and decided I no longer need a few of the items and never will.  I hate to see perfectly good things go to waste or be unused so I am offering these items to you the readers free of charge.  All you have to pay is the shipping and I will ship anywhere in the world.


Items:

- 2x Adaptec PCI SCSI controllers (need a B&W G3 or higher)

- StarTech PCI 10/100 ethernet (only works with OS X 10.4 and earlier)

- 100 MB internal Zip drive (beige face)

- 100 MB internal Zip drive (transparent grey face)


Items will be removed as they are claimed so if it's listed above then it's still available.

To claim an item email me with the subject title being the item you want.  I will instruct you on how to pay the shipping.

powerpcliberation@gmail.com



Claimed items
    

By Jorge in Spain:

- Full set of PowerMac G4 Sawtooth case handles (fit B&W G3 and all G4 towers)

- 512 MB PC100 RAM kit for B&W G3 through Mystic (4x 128 MB)

- 4x full size memory heat spreaders (black)


By David in the UK:

- 400 MHz G4 7400 CPU w/1 MB 2:1 L2 (pulled from a Sawtooth)

- ATI Rage 128 Pro 16 MB AGP video w/DVI/VGA (pulled from a Sawtooth)


By Amanda in the US:

- MDD optical bay rear cover (these are highly coveted by some)

- MDD rear case plastics (dual 867 MHz label)


By Gilbert in France:

- ATI Rage 128 Pro 16 MB AGP video w/ADC/VGA (pulled from a Mystic)

- 1 GB DDR2 SODIMM RAM kit for early Intel Macs excluding the Mac Pro (2x 512 MB)

A few things

I'm sure many of you have noticed that my posting frequency here has reduced in the last while.  This is not a lack of interest on my part but rather a lack of free time to write new content.  My professional life always becomes very busy near the end of the year when clients want to spend what is left in their annual tech budget.

I spend most of my work life building and maintaining Mac based cluster systems and a project can engulf my life for a week or more at times.  Since I started this blog in August this year I have always felt bad when I have to go a few days or even a week between posts.  Although I don't have time to write a feature sized post at the moment there are a few things I wanted to get out there for you guys.


Text computing will never die

Many users in the computing world overall really don't have any mental concept of why text based computing still exists today.  Some are even so ignorant as to call it "primitive" or "meaningless" which is truly stunning.

What these people and many others don't understand is that a GUI can only do what it is coded to do.  You only get the abilities that the buttons and menu options give you.  A text/terminal interface is what you need to harness all a computer and it's software is capable of.  It is this premise that BSD especially exists and also Linux.  Although many BSD users do install a GUI it is not nearly as common when compared to Linux.  OS X itself is based on an Apple variant of BSD named Darwin.

There are many novice level Mac users out there that have done things like disable or alter certain X features via a terminal command found in a guide or forum they read.  This is a perfect example of a GUI limitation.  Apple didn't write a massive amount of Darwin abilities into the GUI.  I would say the X GUI only gives you about 60-70% of the capability that Darwin possesses.    Darwin is also the only part of X that is actually open source.

Many people feel very intimidated by text based computing these days because it's not user friendly in any regard.  These people are only interested in point and click computing which only really involves typing to write something.  If this is all you want there is nothing wrong with that but why not at least try to evolve?  I have seen very young children learn how to point and click around within 5 min. when using a computer for the first time.  There are even videos of apes and monkeys that know how to use windows and Mac OS because of how dumbed down technology has been for well over 15 years.  Things like the ipad dumb it down to a truly primate level.

Along with the industry itself dumbing the users down there are people like Dan Knight at LEM which push this even farther by discouraging readers from using Linux based on nothing but his own inability to use it.  Never trust anyone that actively promotes limiting your own computing experience and skill development. 


Stop looking for help where only misinformation exists

I get a few emails a week from people referencing something on MacRumours PowerPC board and I want these people to know that you go there at your own peril.  There are half a handful of people that do know their stuff but at least 95%+ have no clue what the hell they are saying.  You are far more likely of being misinformed or misdirected than actually helped.  The place is swimming with people that like to pretend they know things and will happily offer up info that they cannot even confirm is correct. 

When I first created this blog I wrote a post where I pointed out all the specific people which advice should never be taken from.  After a few weeks I thought it was too negative and personal so I deleted the post.  I now take the stance of someone who will no longer help people that come to me saying they were misdirected there and are looking for better answers from me.  If you want my advice you need to come to me directly.  I refuse to clean up the mess left by the ignorant mass that exists there.  You have been warned not to go there and why so I will end it there.  I don't go there anymore so stop sending links.  Future emails or comments about MR will be ignored. 

Anyone who helps spread awful things like flash or anything else that is a security threat should also be ignored.  These things are spread to "help" the user and "help" them stay a slave to horrible things that are no longer supported on PowerPC.  The technical equivalent of sharing the flu online. 

Don't mistake my aggressiveness for anger or hatred because it's only done in the spirit of fighting the spread of ignorance or anything that will hinder your computing world.


Sketchiness in the PowerPC community

Anyone who has gone to MMC (my mac collection) will be aware that the site recently "gave" away a PowerBook in a contest where donations were also asked for which is why gave is in quotes above.  As if that wasn't sketchy enough the winner was sent a dead laptop after a donation to "win" it.

So now not only is MMC a place filled with useless and harmful information that asks for donations to "give" things away but those things are dead computers.  MMC is a place that has helped spread flash and now scams their readers and donators.

Taylor Almond is the ignoramus scammer that runs this fan boy in denial link dump.  Avoid him and his shit hole site if you don't desire the things I have described.  He has nothing to offer other than things the most basic of computer users already know.  No technical insight of any kind.


In closing

I will never promote things that stunt or hurt you the reader and the only real way to fight harmful ignorance is to call it out as I have here.  If you desire polite ignorance over direct and honest accuracy then this blog is not for you and never will be.  The reality of the world is there is a lot more ignorance than mindful accuracy.  Those of us that do know and have a fight for what is right spirit owe it to the tech world to fight against this. 

I will always be happy to be the bad guy and tell it like it is.  My mission is to evolve a "dead" technology in PowerPC and fighting ignorance is a huge part of that.  This means I have to seem like the bad guy at times which I am happy to do if it means that even just a few people evolve past the primitive thinking phase many PowerPC users are stuck in. 

DigiNotar neglect on PowerPC

The post title has a bit of a dual meaning.  Apple neglected to update this security vulnerability on PowerPC and I neglected to mention it in my Leopard security in 2012 post.  Today I was looking through Keychain and was reminded of the DigiNotar certificate simply through memory because it hasn't lived on any of my macs since late 2011.  It's one of those things I set and literally forget in this case.  Luckily for the sake of a screenshot, I have an older drive I keep with a stock Leopard install for just these occasions.

In 2011 Apple announced that they were no longer going to update Leopard at all on PowerPC or Intel.  Then around spring 2012 they ended up releasing a security update for Leopard that fixed the DigiNotar issue.  This update was Intel only unfortunately.  Truly pathetic.  Thanks Apple.

The good news is that disabling or deleting this vulnerable certificate has not changed anything in terms of function or behavior in my web life.  For the ultimate level of security when it comes to certificates like this you should use a browser with a private browsing function along with script blocking.  Those things combined together would give you a browsing environment nearly as secure as current OS X and even save you a bunch of CPU cycles.

Along with DigiNotar you should make it a habit to look through your certificates every so often and delete or mark as "Never Trust" to disable any expired items that might exist.


How to disable DigiNotar or any other certificate:

1. Open "Keychain Access" from the Utilities folder in Applications.

2. Select "System Roots" in the top left.  It may take a moment to show them all.

3. Navigate to the "DigiNotar Root" certificate.  Double click to disable or select and delete.

4. If you're choosing not to delete and have double clicked it simply expand the "Trust" settings.

5. Set the top option named "When using this certificate" to "Never Trust" which will automatically set all the trust functions the same way.  Use the screenshot below for reference.

Screenshot


I will be sure to update you in the future when other certificates or anything else becomes vulnerable.  These days I am paying more and more attention to Leopard security because it is at a point now where it will only become less secure as the months and years go by.  There are far too many people that are either in denial or ignorant to this fact.