Great Deal on a Macbook

If you know anyone in the market for Apple's least expensive Macbook, Microcenter is running a rebate deal until 11/15/09 that gets you $200 off list price ($799 after rebate - the form is in a link to a PDF file at the bottom of the page)

The rebate is a $200 Visa giftcard - usable anywhere that takes Visa, but can't be converted to cash at an ATM. I've got a slightly older version of this laptop and it's a perfectly pleasant, usable machine.

Pass the word around to anyone you know who might be interested...

Selectively run Adobe Flash under Mac OSX

Oh now this is sweet. The Adobe Flash player plugin has always been a real CPU hog on Mac OSX machines. There's no way to heat up your Macbook faster than playing a Flash movie on YouTube...

Well I've discovered an OSX add-in called ClickToFlash which fixes all that:

Ever wanted to get rid of the scourge of the web that is Adobe Flash, but still retain the ability to view Flash whenever you want? With ClickToFlash, you can! Using ClickToFlash, all of those icky Flash bits that have infected most webpages on the internets are replaced with a nice, smooth gradient and the word "Flash" set in a nice, pleasing font. When you want to view the Flash, just click on it!

The advantages of ClickToFlash are numerous. Since Flash isn't loaded until you specifically ask for it, your CPU usage will stay at normal levels when browsing the web. This has tons of benefits: web browsing stays speedy, your Mac laptop won't get as hot, and your Mac's fan won't come on as often. In fact, we guarantee* that ClickToFlash will quintuple your battery life and that it will protect those precious parts of your body on which you rest your laptop! (*note: not actually guaranteed)

Best of all, ClickToFlash even supports viewing all those ADORABLE meowing cat videos, annoying dog videos, and hilarious rickrolls from YouTube without using Flash at all! That's because YouTube also offers H.264 videos, which are used when viewing YouTube on the iPhone. With ClickToFlash, you get access to those same, higher quality videos.

Oh happy day!

HOWTO: Install KeePassX for Ubuntu 'Hardy'

KeePassX is a cross-platform application that can store various bits of useful information like passwords, software license keys, account numbers, etc... in an encrypted database. It is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and the database it keeps is portable between these platforms.

The packages for Windows and OS X look pretty straight-forward, but installing it under Ubuntu 8.04 'Hardy' this morning was an unexpected pain. Here's how to do it:

1. goto the KeePassX downloads page and grab the version under "Linux...Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)" labeled "DEB binary package v0.3.4 (x86)".
   
2. edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file to enable the 'backports' repositories.
   
3. use the Synaptic package manager and install the following: libqt4-core libqt4-gui libqt4-dbus libqt4-network libqt4-script libqt4-test libqt4-xml libqt4-assistant libqt4-designer libqt4-opengl libqt4-svg (you'll probably get all of these, plus a few more, as dependencies once you mark the first few for install).
   
4. then launch the gdebi package manager by double-clicking on the KeePassX '.deb' file you downloaded in step 1 and click the 'Install' button.
   

KeePassX should now install w/o any dependency-based errors and show up in your "Applications..Accessories" menu.

I suspect much of this libqt-based nonsense would be moot if you run the KDE version of Ubuntu named 'Kubuntu,' as KDE itself depends on the Qt libs. But this is how I got it to install under GNOME on the std. Ubuntu 8.04.

Search Lifehacker.com for tips & tricks on using KeePassX, and the orig. Windows version KeePass.

IE Users Should Switch

The Times of London reports Internet Explorer users warned to change browser over security fears:

Microsoft admitted today that a serious flaw in security has left all users of Internet Explorer, the default web browser for most people, vulnerable to attack from hackers.

The loophole allows criminals to commandeer victims’ computers by tricking them into visiting tainted websites that steal passwords. Computer users are advised to switch to an alternative internet browser, such as Firefox or Google Chrome, to be certain to avoid hackers who have so far corrupted an estimated 10,000 websites.

Here are the links to the Firefox and Opera web browsers. Microsoft has also has a security advisory on TechNet if you're, you know...insane enough to stick with their products...

Or for sweet heaven's sake, dump all this nonsense once and for all, and get a Mac :)

UPDATE: Microsoft issues a temporary fix.

15 reasons Macs are Still Better Than Windows PCs

APC, the longest running computer magazine in Australia, posts a list of why Macs are still better than Windows PCs:

I long ago stopped actively seeking out Mac vs PC discussions (partly because Macs are now PCs -- so the argument is more about Mac OS X vs Windows vs Linux than a proprietary Mac architecture vs an x86 PC architecture), but I still find it confounding that after all these years, people still don't know the basics of the upsides of Macs and OS X...

So here's my answer. Note, despite what I said above about the argument really being between operating systems these days, I've looked at Macs as a hardware and software combination in this article, pitted against regular PCs running Windows. ---APC Web Editor Dan Warne

The full article is here. Some of my favorites are:

• Apple seems largely to be lameness free.
  
• Apple doesn’t load the system up with crap.
  
• More useful apps out of the box.
  
• Still no need for additional security software.
  

Plus one of my own - the power and stability of Unix married with the most well-designed personal computer user interface experience on the planet (so far).