Mac OSX Security update released...

Apple Computer ^ | 6/8/2005 | Apple.com

[Swordmaker]

June security update for OSX. Click on Software Update under the Apple menu.

PING!!!!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[calenel]

But how can this be? Oh! The humanity!

[TheOtherOne]

Ok Swordmaker, you solved my http link in email problem, so I have another MAC question for you.

I appreciate any advice.

I like to see a preview of a file, especially a jpeg. A finder preview. The icon can be a preview of the file. Is there a way to make that a default. I have to run some files though another program so I can see actual visual icons on the desktop.

Thanks.

[John Valentine]

But how can this be? Oh! The humanity!

Are you trying to be sarcastic or gloating?

If so, why don't you wait until the first Mac virus or worm is detected replicating or infecting computers in the wild. It seems to me that it would offer a far more satifying gloating than these rather ordinary security upgrades.

If that was your point at all. I am left wondering.

[Swordmaker]

I like to see a preview of a file, especially a jpeg. A finder preview. The icon can be a preview of the file. Is there a way to make that a default. I have to run some files though another program so I can see actual visual icons on the desktop.

Some graphic files do not include a "thumbnail" that can be used as a preview... but the Mac addresses this. I

f you list your files in the "column" mode simply highlight a graphic and the next left column will display a preview of that graphic.

What's really cool is that if the file is a .mov, .mpeg, or other file supported by Quicktime the preview will be a full movie with sound! (without loading or invoking Quicktime.)

If its an MP3, .wav, .ACC or other sound file playable in iTunes, it will play the audio. (also without opening iTunes)

Unfortunately, this does not work with WMP files.

[Swordmaker]

But how can this be?

Very simply. OSX is, at its core, FreeBSD Unix. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of parts of Unix that are developed by many other coders not related to Apple. When THEY find a security issue and provide a patch, Apple includes it in their next security update along with the patches Apple finds are necessary to their code.

It's called being pro-active in security. It is one of the reasons that UNIX and OSX are among the most secure operating systems in the world.

[Swordmaker]

oops... make that "the next RIGHT column will display a preview".

[calenel]

Sarcastic, not gloating. OSX, nor UNIX in all its glorious flavors, suffer from an excess of perfection in spite of the propaganda put forth by their adherents.

"If so, why don't you wait until the first Mac virus or worm is detected replicating or infecting computers in the wild."

Tell me, do you have any sort of passing familiarity with epidemiology? There simply aren't enough targets for a Mac virus to spread easily. Should it ever come to pass that the Mac population is dense enough, viruses will be able to survive.

[John Valentine]

Should it ever come to pass that the Mac population is dense enough, viruses will be able to survive.

Already debunked.

[calenel]

As you wish.

[Swordmaker]

Viewing previews of images in the Finder

Thanks... I had forgotten that. I seldom use the icon view, prefering the columnar view.

[Swordmaker]

Tell me, do you have any sort of passing familiarity with epidemiology?

Do you have any sort of passing familiarity with the epidemiology term "vector"?

For a virus, live or computer, to be passed from one host to another, you have to have a vector... For computers, this means a way of transmitting and causing the virus to execute its code automatically. This is where OSX is most secure... no vector beyond the psychological approach, persuading a user to install and run the mal-ware, ala trojan programs. While certainly psych vectoring is not beyond imagination, mass infections by such means is.

The "security by obscurity" canard has been shot down many times. When virus writers release malware attacking a piece of hardware with fewer than 40,000 installed units or viruses tailored to a piece of software with only 350,000 sales, why isn't the Mac OSX operating system with 20,000,000 installed units attractive to them? As one expert Unix coder put it: "Making an OSX or Unix virus is not impossible... but, on a scale of 1 to 10, creating one is a 9.5!" When queried where a Windows virus came on his scale, he said "About 2."

[calenel]

As one expert Unix coder put it: "Making an OSX or Unix virus is not impossible... but, on a scale of 1 to 10, creating one is a 9.5!" When queried where a Windows virus came on his scale, he said "About 2."As you wish, too.

[TheOtherOne]

make sure your desktop finder window view is the three column type. click once/select on any jpg. you will get a new column to the right with the file info and a little triangle pointing to the right. click/turn the triangle down and the preview of the one jpeg will appear, and afaik,selecting any next jpeg will default view with the triangle down and the preview available. as for seeing all the icons of jpegs with preview thumbnails in the actual file icons,check the docs of the program you are using to export/manipulate files. iirc, there is usually a choosable preference for saving the files with or without the thumbnail of the image in the finder icon.

I have been using a free program called viewit to add 128x128 finder previews of jpegs, and it works pretty good. It just seems like there should be some OSX default that automatically shows full image icons in a folder or desktop.

The tiny ones on the 3 column display are okay, but not if you want to see what you are looking at.

Thanks for the tips though.

[Panerai]

If you have .jpg; .gif; .tif files and you want OS X to show a preview of those files by default, do the following:

1. On the Desktop, to go the top to FINDER > VIEW > Show View Options > and then a window opens up titled "desktop"; you have some options > CLICK ON "Show Icon Preview".

2. To set the same preferance for folders: Open a folder > Finder > View > Show View Options > (now you can set preferances only for this folder or all folders) click on "show icon preview"

Hope this helps

[TheOtherOne]

Thanks for the tips. I have been using some programs to manage my media files. Viewit and Iviewmediapro, anyway, they allow you to see large thumbnails of your video and photo files. I have converted some of my photo files, and now, on the desktop, the icon, instead of a jpeg defaut is a mini picture. This is obviously way better. But I have to run every file through a program to get the effect. I was wondering if there was some way to always see the full image. I guess it is not usually encoded unless specified when saved or added later.