The Mac Experience in Business & Home: Help, Tips, Discussion & Radio Show Notes

This update contains several improvements to enhance security and stability, including fixes for vulnerabilities that an attacker can use to overwrite the contents of your computer’s memory with malicious code.

System requirements

Before you install this update, make sure that the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.3 Update is installed on your computer. To verify that you have installed this update, select the Microsoft Component Plugin file in the Microsoft Office 2004/Office folder on your hard disk, and then on the File menu, click Get Info.

Additionally, your computer must meet the following minimum requirements:

It has been brought to our attention, with the rest of the corporate computing world, that the new version of Microsoft Exchange is cutting its ties with Outlook. In the most recent release of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Outlook 2007 has been stripped of its CAL ( Client-Access-License). In previous versions of Exchange, users who bought Exchange CALs also received Outlook CALs. Merely an assumption here, but many people will be outraged that their previously free mail client is suddenly no longer free. This could force a material shakeup in the market-share, not bad news at OnDeckTech. We host an Exchange alternative called Zimbra, a powerful alternative to Outlook/Exchange.

Located at the Apple Consultants Network: At-a-Glance website, the story is entitled: Consultant Opens the Door to Multi-platform Collaboration with Zimbra on the Mac.

The story is a brief overview of our Mac consulting at an advertising firm in downtown Chicago that provides comprehensive branding services for a variety of Fortune 500 companies, where we installed and support a Zimbra 4.0.4 server running OS X Server on an Xserve, among other select services.

More evidence Microsoft Exchange is not required for enterprise collaboration, nor blackberry/treo/windows mobile synchronization! You can see the full story on Apple Computer, Inc.’s Consultant Network website here.

On November 28th, I posted a blog about a customer’s equipment being destroyed by her local cable company, and the data recovery that ensued. The intended effect was to remind people people of the importance of backing up their data. Nearly all of the responses to the blog expressed disbelief that the event happened, and questioned the authenticity of the damage to the components. Evidence of the catastrophe follows.

I asked this customer permission to use her detailed account of what transpired along with photographs that she took at the scene.

Forwarded to me by an old friend of mine and my parents who has worked for the IRS for many, many years, this is True, although it’s been floating around by e-mail, and I had doubted it, if you’re a US tax filer, it will make you at least $30 if you follow its straight-forward instructions. What’s more, if you’re a business, you can get quite a bit more. “Businesses get a bigger refund, based on the actual phone bills,” says Greg Mermel, CPA, whose column on the subject will be posted on 12/22/06.

At last I met the new Apple Xserve, at the Radiological Society of North America’s annual conference in Chicago last week, where Apple showed up with a team of knowledgeable specialists, 2×24″ iMacs, and a posse of MacPros running a variety of relevant software. Not only is there art and science in the new Macs, but also Apple is into Science, calling OS X “The Platform for Discovery.” Movies and pics of what was discovered follow. Come, visit the Apple booth at RSNA with me!

There are many ways to lose important data, and not just on your computer (where did I put my keys?). While it is almost always unexpected, and we as computer-users are often unprepared - occasionally data-loss occurs in ways that make you sit back and consider the infinite.

Recently at the OnDeckTech 24×7 help desk, I received a call from a customer who was upset, suspecting she had just potentially lost a TON of very valuable data. A video editor here in Chicago, she has a 15″ Powerbook with an 80GB HD, two Maxtor 300GB External Drives, and one 160GB LaCie Porsche drive. ALL of which fell victim to one of the most bizarre disasters I have encountered.

Zimbra WSJ article.
Where we learn more than the name comes from the Talking Heads song (actually called “I Zimbra”, from their cerebral Fear of Music).

Looking for a deal prior to the holidays? Gearing up for the season, the Apple Stores seem to be cleaning out their inventory of computers that were either on the floor as demos, or systems that were returned by customers because they changed their minds for some reason within the 10-day return policy.

The AppleCare on these demo and refreshed systems is as new, 90-days complimentary phone support and 1 year hardware support, or 3-years with the purchase of AppleCare Plan for computer systems (an available option for all demo and refreshed systems).

The news is VMWare is producing a competitor to Parallels called Fusion, enabling Windows and other platforms on the Mac. According to reports, the private beta site describes the product: “Fusion is the codename for a new VMware desktop product for Mac that will enable Intel-based Macs to run x86 operating systems, such as Windows, Linux, NetWare and Solaris, in virtual machines at the same time as Mac OS X. It is built on VMware’s robust and advanced desktop virtualization platform that is used by over four million users today.”