Author Archives: quill

How can I make a bootable OSX USB installer?

Posted on April 26, 2015 by quill

Reinstalling OSX on a Macintosh is sometimes necessary, whether you are upgrading or whether you need to repair a problem. The problem is that after Snow Leopard, Apple abandoned DVD media and gone exclusively to downloadable installers.  And, many recent … Continue reading →

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Can I build a $600 gaming machine?

Posted on April 26, 2015 by quill

The CAN$600 question is, can an uber-affordable machine deliver an acceptable gaming experience?  And the answer is: with the right expectations, yes. The first thing that has to go out the window is the idea that you have to play … Continue reading →

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Can I build a gaming computer under $1000? (Apr 2015 edition)

Posted on April 25, 2015 by quill

It’s April 2015 and we are revisiting our exercise in budget computing: Can we build a computer that will give acceptable gaming performance for under $1000 (In our 80 pound weakling Canadian dollars)? In the past year we have seen DDR3 … Continue reading →

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News: Apple admits 2011/12/13 MacBook Pro flaws, starts repair program

Posted on February 22, 2015 by quill

Apple finally has admitted that the graphic chips in the 2011 MacBook Pro machines are prone to failure, and have created an extended warranty program for owners who are experiencing black screens, garbled screens and unexpected shutdowns. The program covers … Continue reading →

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Superfish malware installed on new machines exposes HTTPS browsing

Posted on February 21, 2015 by quill

If you have a new Lenovo laptop, do this today: Check for Superfish and eliminate it Software called Superfish, a “Visual Search enhancer” product pre-installed on new consumer laptops from Lenovo among other brands, has been revealed to have severe … Continue reading →

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Event: DesertBus For Hope Charity drive

Posted on November 19, 2014 by quill

DesertBus 2014 is now in progress, http://desertbus.org/ My friends from the Loading Ready Run sketch comedy troupe in Victoria are playing the most boring video game ever made (Penn & Teller’s DesertBus*) to raise money for the Child’s Play charity. … Continue reading →

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Ventir: New Mac malware, Trojan Horse

Posted on October 20, 2014 by quill

As reported by The Safe Mac here, and Kapersky Labs here, a new trojan horse “Ventir” has been discovered which infects Macintosh OSX.  The vector for infection has not been determined, but the Ventir installer must be run, either as … Continue reading →

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Memory for the new late Apple 2014 5K iMac, Mac Mini

Posted on October 19, 2014 by quill

Apple has released a 2014 model of the iMac, with a stunning new “5K” 27 inch Retina screen.  Happily, unlike the previous Retina iMac models, Apple included upgradeable memory in this configuration. It can go to a maximum of 32 … Continue reading →

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What is the state of Thunderbolt drives? (October 2014 edition)

Posted on October 17, 2014 by quill

Thunderbolt drive news (Note 4/2020, many of the products introduced in 2014 are now out of date in 2020) Apple has left Firewire and adopted Thunderbolt as their recommended high speed connection for external hard drives (and monitors and other … Continue reading →

Posted in Hard Drive News, Hard Drives and SSD, Mac questions, News, Performance | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Selling it: pitching stem cells to the credulous

Posted on September 27, 2014 by quill

Hey, have you heard of all the medical advances and research being made with stem cells? Especially the near-magical abilities of these cells to regenerate and repair many different types of body cells.  Wouldn’t you like to harness the power … Continue reading →

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Q. How do you organize emails on an iPad?

Posted on September 1, 2014 by quill

How do you organize emails on an iPad or iPhone? You have a gazillion mail messages in your Inbox and you want get them sorted into folders. Background: The iPad and iPhone operating system iOS does not have a user-accessible … Continue reading →

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Another Phishing Email – “Your iTunes is frozen”

Posted on August 3, 2014 by quill

Online criminals continue with phishing expeditions. Phishing is sending phony emails that mimic legitimate emails from reputable sources, hoping to get you to click on them to download malware, or to steal your login and password when you arrive at … Continue reading →

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What are your pictures doing still on your SD card?

Posted on July 17, 2014 by quill

Every week it seems I read about someone who lost their camera, bungled an OS upgrade on their tablet, or had a phone stolen, and they are lamenting “There’s three years of irreplaceable family photos on it, of great sentimental … Continue reading →

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CryptoWall and Cryptolocker – what you need to know

Posted on July 2, 2014 by quill

Where did my data go? You might remember a series of viruses (or trojan horses) which “deleted” your data files and charged a ransom to get them back. These were frightening, but not fatal because they only hid files and with … Continue reading →

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NoScript with Firefox gives a higher level of security to web browsing

Posted on April 30, 2014 by quill

Web browsing is full of hazards. Even reputable websites can have poisoned banner ads from third parties, which can attempt to hack your machine or browser settings. You don’t even have to click on a “bad” website to be the … Continue reading →

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