Security news leads off this issue, with Apple’s release of Security Update 2007-002 to address more of the Month of Apple Bugs (MoAB) exploits, Glenn Fleishman’s thoughts about what the MoAB actually accomplished, and Joe Kissell’s look at the Microsoft Office 2004 11.3.4 update. In other topics, Andrew Laurence examines Apple’s Daylight Saving Time updates to both Tiger and Panther, Jeff Carlson relays the details of the Final Cut Pro 5.1.3 update, and Adam looks at the now-open Google Gmail and explains how to create permanent links to articles in the New York Times. Also this week, a single-question interview with prominent Macintosh developers about the most important Apple technologies!
Apple has released Security Update 2007-002, the second security update of the year that addresses bugs identified by the Month of Apple Bugs (MoAB) project
Anyone who has helped a complete novice learn how to use a Mac, especially during a stint in a help desk environment, simply must watch this hilarious video, which demonstrates well that all interfaces must be learned
Apple last week released a set of updates which reflect the changes in Daylight Saving Time that go into effect this year in the United States and elsewhere (for additional information, see my article "Daylight Saving Time May Bite the Out-of-Date," 2007-01-29)
Microsoft last week released the Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.4 Update. In addition to providing improved spam detection in Entourage, this update "fixes vulnerabilities in Office 2004 that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code."
This update requires that you have already installed the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.3 Update, released last month
Apple has released Final Cut Pro 5.1.3, a maintenance release that adds some missing commands to the default keyboard layout, makes render files work properly on PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs, and fixes an issue where cross dissolves in nested sequences would not appear correctly
Congratulations to Ron Gillmore of victoria.tc.ca, Lorne Chapman of shaw.ca, and Ben Maiden of hawaii.rr.com, whose entries were chosen randomly in last week's DealBITS drawing and who received a copy of Rogue Amoeba's Fission, worth $32
I introduced last week's DealBITS drawing for Rogue Amoeba's Fission audio editing program by talking about how good it was to see simple, focused programs returning to a field after the major applications had become more complex than was desired by many early users
In TidBITS, when we link to pages elsewhere on the Web, we hope they'll remain accessible indefinitely, much as we've taken pains to do with all of our articles from the very beginning
Google has at last opened up its well-regarded Gmail email service to all comers, eliminating the need to receive an invitation from an existing user before signing up
Two hackers wanted to show the world that Apple's much-vaunted operating system wasn't as secure as it was cracked up to be. The Month of Apple Bugs (MoAB) ran from 01-Jan-07 to 31-Jan-07, with the final day promising a future serious bug
The pool of Macintosh software has become incredibly deep over the years, containing a vast number of applications for nearly every imaginable purpose
Month of Apple Sales #3: Tame the Tiger -- Working with big cats requires skill and knowledge, and Mac OS X Tiger is no exception. Hone your technical chops with this carefully chosen collection of our most in-depth ebooks about tricky Mac OS X issues
Database Syncing -- Our Macworld Expo superlatives article mentioned SyncDeK for synchronizing databases, but a reader points out that fmSQL Synch has done similar work for years