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Apple Security Update 2007-005
Thursday, May 24, 2007, 9:31 PM
Apple has released a recommended security upgrade for all users today. Here are the release notes as they show up on my MacBook Pro:
Security Update 2007-005 is recommended for all users and improves the security of the following components:
- bind
- CarbonCore
- CoreGraphics
- crontabs
- fetchmail
- file
- iChat
- mDNSResponder
- PPP
- ruby
- screen
- texinfo
- VPN
Security Update 2007-004 has been incorporated into this security update.
For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798
Back home, playing catch up
Sunday, May 20, 2007, 10:30 PM
I am back home after an eight-day stay in Washington, D.C. I took a ton of photos, saw some new birds, and spent a lot of time exploring museums and historic sites in the U.S. capitol.
A few Apple-related tidbits from my time in D.C.:
- I saw thousands of people using every possible version of the iPod on the Metro lines and on the streets of the city, and not a single Zune.
- Macs were everywhere as well. I saw nearly as many Macs as PCs in the coffee shops.
Apple unveils an updated MacBook
Tuesday, May 15, 2007, 5:58 AM
Apple has refreshed its MacBook lineup today, with a faster machine running up to 2.16GHz. I also see that the MacBook page notes a MagSafe airline power adapter. I am not sure that was a shipping product previously...
What I am up to this week in Washington, D.C.
Monday, May 14, 2007, 8:06 AM
This week I am taking a break from the West Coast to hang out with my wife as she meet with Congressional members in Washington, D.C. I arrived on Saturday morning and so far I am enjoying the varied weather - including a nice thunderstorm on Saturday night that temporarily flooded the streets and left us stranded under and awning until we dashed into one of the bazillion Starbucks outlets around Dupont Circle to dry out and let the storm pass.
This is a vacation week for me, and although Washington, D.C. may not seem like a vacation destination for many, it is such a vibrant and intellectual city that it serves well as a vacation spot for me. Yesterday we returned to the Dupont Circle area for brunch, browsed the shelves in Kramer Books and then walked to view The Phillips Collection - an art museum that Natalie fell for on one of her recent solo visits to the nation's capitol. Then last night we made our way to Georgetown to eat Ethopian food at Zeds restaurant. Today we will visit the Corcoran gallery and take a look at some of the memorial sites that I missed on my last visit to D.C. - the FDR memorial and the Jefferson memorial.
This promises to be an interesting week of taking photos, visiting interesting sites and eating at some of the best restaurants we know in Washington, D.C. It's a different kind of vacation than my last rest period along the shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, but I hope it will be equally stimulating!
Amazon acquires one of the most useful photo sites - dpreview.com
Monday, May 14, 2007, 7:48 AM
I see the news this morning that Amazon.com has acquired one of the most useful digital photography sites on the Web - dpreview.com. This sounds like good news for the continuation of the site and its thorough reviews of new camera gear.
How to change your default Web or e-mail app under OS X
Wednesday, May 9, 2007, 6:38 PM
MacFixIt offers tips on how you can switch your default Web browser and e-mail applications under Mac OS X. Unless you add a third-party application, freeware or shareware, you can change your default from Safari or Mail.app by making a switch in the preferences within those applications. For me, I switch my Web browser preferences one of two ways - from within OmniWeb's preferences panes or within the preferences for the application URL Manager Pro.
Read the tip on MacFixIt: Instructions for changing the default Web browser/Mail application in Mac OS X
Experimenting with Google Reader
Monday, May 7, 2007, 9:53 PM
Over the last week I have been experimenting with Google Reader as a secondary way to follow my RSS feeds. The main reason - it works pretty well on my Treo 650 mobile phone, which should come in handy next week while I am wandering around in Washington, D.C. One of the more interesting things I have learned while experimenting is that Google Reader updates feeds much quicker than my NetNewsWire reader. Who cares? Well, speed matters at work, where I track a number of local feeds.
The next logical question is why I don't just switch to Google Reader full time? The answer is simple - NetNewsWire offers a much better way to track a large number of feeds, and it works great as a tool to build an ongoing catalog of useful blog posts that I want to read later. Browser persistence between sessions makes NNW a more useful tool for me.
What is mind mapping? Here's a primer
Monday, May 7, 2007, 8:42 PM
In Saturday's post about Get Smart Tacoma! I mentioned that I was going to create a mind map of my notes from the kick off of the community learning summit. What is a mind map? Grigor offers a good primer today on his behind the glasses blog. It's worth checking out even if you already know what a mind map is and how it can be used.
Notes from Get Smart Tacoma!
Saturday, May 5, 2007, 9:58 AM
Last night I attended the kick off of the two-day Get Smart Tacoma! community learning summit, and I took my MacBook Pro along to make sure someone would at least have good blog notes from the keynote address by Suzanne Morse. Here are my liveblogging notes that I plan to convert into a mindmap in Tinderbox over the weekend:
Building Communities keynote remarks by Suzanne Morse
 - success from the beginning is defined by the designers
- what will it take to create a new vision for Tacoma? Resolve over resignation. Success over failure.
- things we do now will have reprecussions for generations to come - it is time to fix and change the things that need our attention most right now
- communities that excel do things differently
- strong and united business community
- concern for issues like the environment and education'
- emphasis remains on what it means to be a community
- we have become a microwave society, no longer a team rowing in the same direction
- We blame and whine and complain and look for what is wrong, but the smart communities understand that it is what happens directly in the community that makes a real difference
- need people at the core who are community champions with big vision of the community and where it can go, people who won't stop until they find a solution. Those who know for sure that if we don't do things differently then we cannot expect different results.
- We still need to learn how to do the important things - reduce poverty, reduce violence, keep our kids in school
- scarcist real estate in our society today is common ground
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KEY STEPS TO COMMUNITY BUILDING
invest right the first time
- reducing high school drop out rates by 1% would stop 1000 crimes
- communities must invest in things that give the greatest return
Where to invest in Tacoma?
- get every child up to grade reading level
- same with math
work together
- in surveys, the main thing Americans can agree on is that we should work together
- think about economic development, community development and civic development at the same time
build on assets
- focus on what you have, not what you don't have
- recognize your asset
- untold assets in Tacoma - museums, Port, golf course...etc.
practice democracy
- find a way for citizens to have a role in decision making in the community
build on the past
- preserve buildings, culture, ideas
- heritage can change the way that a community thinks about its future
- define yourself by building on your past to plan for the future
- citizens make a difference when they work together
grow new leaders
- embrace community changers
- build your bench strength
- prepare others to be part of the success, to play a role
- every person should work together, have a leadership position, have a first class education
invent the future
- successful communities create a vision and then realize it
- take what you know and move it to the next step
- the smartest communities never give up
----------------------------------------------------
What drives a community?
- high wage jobs and low unemployment
- to get there you need arts, environment, learning, etc.
- quality of life matters
To start?
- assume we do the job right the first time
- make much more use of avail assets
- we need the best and brightest in the classrooms teaching
- develop standards and assessments to evaluate
- create high performance schools
- provide early childhood education
- give support to those children who need it the most
- bring literacy and science and other skills to unskilled adults
- think about how we work together regionally
- don't even think that the schools can do all of this - this is a blueprint for community involvement to solve community issues that came into the schools
What will it take?
- vision and persistence
- no cookie cutter approaches
Does anyone think that Tacoma is not up to the challenge?
NO
If it fails, try something else
Don't give up
Above all, try something
Q&A:
How do we get more of our community involved?
- This is a starting point. We need parents at the table. One of the issues facing the Tacoma Public Schools is poverty.
Are Montesori schools an answer?
- It is one option, but it is not a universal solution. We need to leverage the schools we have now to enable more people to be successful. Make opportunities possible.
What role will health and human services have in building this community?
- What happens when they are not in school - that is where the community starts to come in. providing health care to children is critical. Leading pedatric health care issue is tooth decay. We have to change how we think about health care.
Are there examples of how we get our best minds into education?
- Often communities that train teachers in their own community have the worst school systems. High cost of housing is an issue. We have to be strategic about how we recruit teachers. Find a way to forge a partnership with the colleges in the community. Find out how to engage those students in a different way to encourage them to stay here. Do research, but children who come into school behind will stay behind. Solve the problems you already know exist. 28,000 new students will start school in Tacoma in September. Now is the time to impact them.
Can you give an example of communities you have researched that help retain students in programs within the city? To build those leaders?
- One question is about bringing in new leaders, and the other is about careers. I don't think we are doing a good job in growing our own or keeping our own. I don't know of any one community that is doing a great job, but you could start one right here in Tacoma. Ideas could include apprenticeship programs, to provide a pathway to people.
How about innovations in creating a seemless transition from traditional education and workforce education?
- It is not just the major educational skills. There are shortcomings in social skills. It is not just what they don't know, but also that many don't know how to act in the workplace.
We seem to have forgotten about vocational schools and trades as gateways for people to learn. Is it important in communities for these programs to come back?
- Absolutely. We have to find ways to prepare people for those hands on jobs. We have to think creatively about how to involve people who don't accel in traditional schooling. We know you sit in a community that is creative, gritty, has a history of being able to work hard together, you have built a community where people want to live and bring up children. We have to find how to create jobs to create value added for a global economy.
Tacoma is a world class city, and don't you forget it. Convince the people who live here that if there is an answer to be found, it is going to be found in Tacoma.
Get Smart Tacoma! kicks off today
Friday, May 4, 2007, 7:11 AM
The Get Smart Tacoma! community learning summit in Tacoma, Washington, kicks off tonight with a keynote speech by Suzanne Morse, head of the Pew Partnership for Civic Change. I will be in attendance after working off an on over the last six months with the organizing committee for the event. My hopes are high for a successful summit that will lead to the creation of a tangible action plan for ensuring that the kids of today are prepared for the jobs of tomorrow.
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