MS06-040: The worm that can't be cured

The writing in this InfoWorld column is not to my tastes, but there's an interesting story here: Enterprise Mac | InfoWorld | Sequelae of that seldom-seen, irrelevant, could only happen on Windows worm | August 25, 2006 05:44 PM | By Tom Yager.

Yager is a Mac Enterprise software writer (surprisingly, one exists). He experimented with a Windows server and was infected by the "MS06-040" worm. Since then he's been writing about the sequelae. He quotes a SANS article:

You really cannot and
* Even if you delete the keys that start the malware,
* your settings will be mangled, e.g. a test infection with the wgareg.exe:
* created 17 new registry keys
* modified 77 other keys including keys used for firewalls, sharing of files, etc.
* That was just the infection itself, no follow up, no communications with the C & C
* Like any bot it is unpredictable in what the C & C caused the bot to do

I wonder how NAV handles this. I've been unimpressed by NAV, though my current XP solution, Windows OneCare (or whatever it's called) has it's own issues.

The bottom line is that in the new XP world backups are increasingly important -- because if you get infected you'll need to wipe everything, restore data only to some safe location, cleanse the data, then restore the data -- if that can be done. Hmm. Maybe the better solution is to restore the data to an OS X machine and forget XP.

I wish I knew how many NAV users who think they don't have a problem are infected, I have no idea how common that is.

Sharing iTunes Libraries ... err ... backing up

iTunes 7 includes a backup and restore feature that uses the iTunes directory structure …

How To: Back up your music using iTunes 7 - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

... This feature allows you to back up all your tracks to either CD or DVD.

Sounds great, right? But is it easy? Yes, yes it is. Read on for a detailed step by step tutorial. ...

Hmm. The obvious mis-application is backing up one’s non-DRMd tunes to transfer to another machine.

iTunes 7: control from remote speakers?

The iTunes advanced preferences options include "Allow iTunes control from remote speakers". Wow. That would be incredibly useful. This suggests the next version of the AirPort express will allow control of speakers from some kind of remote.

It's grayed out now of course, but what a nice surprise.

The other interesting feature is that the Windows installer now offers to install Apple software update for Windows - a new product. I wonder if that's part of how Apple is trying to sell the movie companies that their products will be secure. Forced updates will help.

iPhoto: command click to select white point and bring up levels tool

This is a very obscure tip. Undocumented but very useful:
macosxhints.com - OS X tips and tricks!
: "You can command click on the photo to immediately select the white point which also brings up the adjust panel".

The Apple-approved method of removing Classic (macosxhints.com)

MacOSX Hints has a somewhat geeky Apple official method for removing Classic from an OS X machine: macosxhints.com - The Apple-approved method of removing Classic …

Easy enough to do, though more steps than I’d have liked. One of the odd lacunae in OS X is the lack of Apple supported uninstallers.

DateBk6 for Palm is out

PalmOS is a dead platform, but I still rely on it. So it's nice to see that one of my favorite vendors is still in business, Pimlico has released DateBk6. On the one hand it's hard to imagine what could be added to DateBk5, but on the other the ToDo sort/filter features sound very much like what I'd asked for a year or so ago. The upgrade is a ridiculously reasonable $13; I'll pay up just as a way to say thanks, but I won't updgrade for a while...

SmugMug + PictureSync vs. Google Picasa Web Albums

[Update 9/12/06: The CEO of SmugMug responds in the comments section. I'm impressed. I slightly edited one part of the original post as noted below. Also, I disovered on rereading it that my original post was mangled by an error in Blogger's RTF editor -- it choked on a less than sign and truncated a paragraph. I've added in the missing paragraphs from memory.]

Lately I've been disgusted with SmugMug's weak iPhoto uploader. Their latest OS X uploader is supposed to capture caption data from iPhoto, but it failed miserably for me on 10.3.9 (probably never tested on that platform) and 10.4.7 (though there subtle iPhoto issues may have played a role I think subtle iPhoto data bugs in my Library may be responsible, I need to retest on a clean Library).

This is more annoying than usual because Google's beta OS X uploader for their (beta) Picasa web albums works great. I payed Google $25 or so (love that Google checkout!) and I've used about 15% of my 9GB limit so far.

OTOH, Google Picasa albums don't have any printing services, you have to download images one at a time, and you can't password protect an album. SmugMug has passwords, though I don't recall if you can do multi-image download. If your Picasa "secret" URL is discovered anyone can view the album -- and I don't think there's any way to change the "secret" URL -- you'd have to create a new album, move the images, and delete the old one.

SmugMug has unlimited storage though images must be less than 10 MB, Google Picasa provides only up to 9GB though I expect that to increase. SmugMug, but not Google, will send a library CD to you for a fee -- a good backup to your backups. Both SmugMug and Google allow anyone to download a full resolution image, unlike stinky services like Ofoto/Kodak Gallery. Neither force viewers to sign up and both are very good about avoiding spam.

I don't believe either SmugMug or Google Picasa provide any facility to transfer images and metadata to a competing service, but I think both publish an API that might allow a developer to provide such a service.

Bottom line - I wouldn't mind if SmugMug were an option again. Happily the PictureSync Beta seems to have corrected the bug that rendered the production version useless. So SmugMug may turn out to be acceptable. I'm keeping them in the picture for now -- though if Google adds good print services SmugMug will be hanging by a thread.

If you do opt for SmugMug (always assume these services will go out of business tomorrow!), you can generate a kickback from me by using this link, or entering my email address (jfaughnan@gmail.com ) or my coupon number (sTHk2jeMi228c ) in the 'Referred by' field. Just don't blame me if the service goes under along with your photos -- only Google's still beta photo service is likely to last over 10 more years ...

Update: See the comments from SmugMug's CEO -- he's saying their finances are more solid than one might suspect ...