Aurora Jones

Macs are not immune to viruses

Aurora Jones — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 01:22:37 +0000

Up until recently, even I as an IT professional was never TOO worried about my macs getting hit with viruses. Sure, we put anti virus software on them, but did it almost with a chuckle. Nowadays ye be warned! Macs are targeted much more than they were in the past.

Over 700,000 Mac computers were infected last year. As they become more and more popular, more and more hackers want to get their kicks. Additionally, the exponential rise in the use of iPhones and iPads make them another tasty target for hackers who in the past focused on frying Windows machines. Experts say that the 700,000 would have been much less if only those users had anti virus software on their computers.

ALL computer users, Mac or PC, need to stay up to date with their operating system patches and antivirus updates. Here are a few links for more info on the anti virus programs available to you.

McAfee VirusScan for Mac or PC

ClamXav Free for Mac

Sophos Free for Mac

Microsoft Security Essentials Free for PC

Again… ye be warned!

Apple no longer “green”?

Aurora Jones — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:06:44 +0000

I’m a HUGE Apple fan, have been since I was but a wee lass playing on my Apple IIe. I must say, however, the recent news that Apple has dropped out of EPEAT® has me questioning if I want to continue purchasing their products.

I’m by no means perfect when it comes to being environmentally responsible, but I do like to try as best as I can to make sure I’m doing my part to help out Mother Earth. EPEAT® is a “comprehensive environmental rating that helps identify greener computers and other electronic equipment”, according to their website. Apple decided to drop out of this program, indicating that their newest designs, such as the MacBook Pro with Retina Display, don’t allow for compliance with EPEAT. Really? Are we moving backwards now, where we don’t care that our stylistic preferences and comfort take precedence over being environmentally friendly?

Again, there is room for improvement in many areas of my life in terms of being “green”, but I’ve been happy as a clam with Apple computer designs that apparently were EPEAT friendly, and wish they would continue to be so my conscious won’t have to struggle with purchasing the new MacBook Pro.

iMac Resurrection

Aurora Jones — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 21:02:45 +0000

This 24 inch beauty (even being 6 years old) was just too pretty to have to chuck into a salvage pile. It stopped booting up for the user all of a sudden, and taking a look at its specs I realized that, while a bit old, it was still a pretty decent machine and more than capable of being put back in to use. All evidence pointed towards a bad hard drive, so I took a chance to try to replace it.

I took the iMac apart (which was no walk in the park hehe) and after some search and rescue was able to make it to the hard drive. I swapped in a spare hard drive, put all the bits and pieces back together and voila!

It was probably the most labor intensive repair I’ve done to date. Took a lot of tools, a decent chunk of time, and very dexterous fingers but I’m happy to say it’s alive! It’s aliiiiiiive!

TOOLS NEEDED:

T-6 Torx screwdriver
T-8 Torx screwdriver
T-10 Torx screwdrivers
Phillips screwdriver
Pliers
Spare Hard Drive