Trexar Improves Privacy with MacWasher -- Trexar Technologies has released MacWasher, a Macintosh version of a program by Webroot Software that "washes" (deletes) pre-defined files from your hard disk to prevent later snooping and save disk space. MacWasher can empty the Trash to prevent electronic dumpster diving, and it cleans the Recent Documents and Recent Applications folders, so people can't see what you've been working on. MacWasher also cleans the Temporary Items folder, MacsBug StdLog files, and enables you to set up custom folders or files for cleaning. MacWasher also cleans up after Netscape Communicator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and America Online, deleting cache files, cookies (Netscape users can save selected cookies), and history to prevent someone from seeing where you've been online. MacWasher can also delete the Netscape Messenger Trash to eliminate deleted messages, but it doesn't perform this task for other email programs. Of course, deleting a file doesn't necessarily remove its data from your hard disk, so MacWasher lets you "add Bleach," which overwrites files up to ten times with random characters. Using the MacWasher application, you can change settings, simulate a wash (so you can see what it will do), or actually delete files. You can also set up automatic washing on a schedule or at startup or shutdown. MacWasher 1.0 is $30 shareware and is a 2.1 MB download. It requires a 68040 Mac or higher with System 7.5.1 and at least 5 MB of RAM. [ACE]
Extract Directly from Time Machine
Normally you use Time Machine to restore lost data in a file like this: within the Time Machine interface, you go back to the time the file was not yet messed up, and you restore it to replace the file you have now.
You can also elect to keep both, but the restored file takes the name and place of the current one. So, if you have made changes since the backup took place that you would like to keep, they are lost, or you have to mess around a bit to merge changes, rename files, and trash the unwanted one.
As an alternative, you can browse the Time Machine backup volume directly in the Finder like any normal disk, navigate through the chronological backup hierarchy, and find the file which contains the lost content.
Once you've found it, you can open it and the current version of the file side-by-side, and copy information from Time Machine's version of the file into the current one, without losing any content you put in it since the backup was made.
Submitted by
Eolake Stobblehouse
Published in TidBITS 508.
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