Hello 2015

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It’s been a while since I added anything here… oops.

Well, a few items of note:

All of these relate to security matters, and sadly none of them are really new – it’s much of the same-old same-old.

I am firmly of the opinion that nobody in their right mind installs Flash on their computers – there is just too long a track record of security holes in that product to justify its existence. I don’t have it on any of my Macs – I do have an install of Chrome though, which comes bundled with a Flash install – so in Chrome I have a Flash-blocking extension installed! My default browser is Safari, but if I need to look at a Flash site I can fire up Chrome and then explicitly allow the specific Flash object to run. This doesn’t happen often, and it takes a lot to get me to do this. Apologies to those who sent me a Flash based Christmas e-card, but I didn’t actually look at them.

On a related matter to Adobe Flash, I’d not recommend installing Adobe Reader either. On the Mac Preview is mostly ‘good enough’, and on Windows Foxit Reader is free and excellent. The Adobe Reader web browser plugin is another gaping security hole which has been exploited time and again. Better to just not install it.

As for the adware/scareware field, these problems are generally self-inflicted. If you think there is a problem with your Mac, don’t install some random program – ask your computer support officers for assistance. And don’t install random browser plugins which offer to help you find downloads of Game of Thrones episodes (you know who you are!)

Continuing on the security thread, two final notes:

  • With the release of Yosemite, Apple is now only supplying security patches for OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) and up. Anyone still on 10.6 or 10.7 needs to update, stat.
  • I’ve been evaluating the campus copy of Symantec Endpoint Protection for OS X for a while. While anti-virus software remains of dubious use on OS X, the University has a sensible policy of requiring some sort of AV to be installed on computers. Typically I’ve recommended ClamXAV on OS X, since it’s unobtrusive and free. However SEP seems much less terrible than it used to be, and should it continue to not kill my Macs I’ll be less uncomfortable installing it in future. Please note my very purposely constructed statement!

Finally, in a day or so I’ll be updating my ‘recommended’ laptops list. Rumours about the future of the MacBook Air have had me thinking about the entry-level laptops.