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Home Zone is a small application that manages your screen-saver password settings and other security features.

When you’re at home, security is not as important as when you are on the road. Enter Home Zone. You establish a set of criteria (in this case, bluetooth or wireless networks) to trigger a script that will either enable or disable your security system. I use this program in combination with Apple’s File Vault. I don’t worry about my personal data being compromised now should my laptop be stolen.

The program is still in development, but it seems to work really well so far.

Steve Jobs 1, John Lennon 0

I know everyone’s going on and on about the iPhone, so I’ll spare everyone the posting. Instead, I want to talk about the other big product from MacWorld: the Apple TV

At first, the product sounds interesting. It does provide high definition content and has the connections to do so. It is wireless, using the 802.11n (draft) standard. If combined with the new Airport Extreme (also based on 802.11n), it should be a pretty speedy device. The device is not, however, all that it could be.

On possibility was that the Apple TV could have been a TiVo competitor. It could have been a one-stop DVR and media center, connecting the television to the iPod. This model does not make much sense, though, considering Apple’s recent venture into the sale of television shows and movies.

Another possibility was that the Apple TV could have been an iTunes device, a focal point for all of your digital media. You could connect your iPod, make purchases from iTunes, and generally centralize digital media across an entire household. But the Apple TV fails at this, too. It has a paltry 40GB HDD, half the storage capacity of the largest iPod, not that an iPod can be connected to the device, anyway. Apple TV does not seem to be able to pull content itself; instead, content must be delivered to the device (except possibly for movie trailers, but how often do people watch those) over the network.

I was anxious to see what Apple had in mind with their Apple TV (formerly iTV). However, instead of expanding upon their domination of the American media market, Apple has unveiled a device that is mediocre at best that appeals to no consumer. If the iPhone had not been the flagship product yesterday, Apple’s stock would have plummeted 7 points, not grown. You dodged a bullet on this one, Steve.

I got my MacBook Pro back from Apple today. One of the two internal fans died and the other sounded like it was on its way out. I can’t complain about the time it took to repair (about 1 day), but I am upset about two things:

1. I think they broke part of my case. There’s an extra part number on the work order that wasn’t on the estimate, and the computer smells like it is brand new. If anyone knows what “Top Case Assy” (Item Number 885909100996), please let me know.
2. They neglected to reconnect my backlit keyboard. The keyboard itself works great, but I’m a bit annoyed that it wasn’t reconnected properly.

I’m going to call in the morning and complain about it. Hopefully, they can fix it the same day. I’m leaving for Rotterdam in just a few days.

If you visit my site recently, you might notice the look has changed. This is because the FTP client, Transmit, has deleted all the content of my WordPress directory when I tried to update it today. My content stayed intact (it’s in a database elsewhere), but all my themes, plugins, and add-ons have been destroyed.

Simply put, this is unacceptable. I do not recommend that anyone use this or any other product produced by Panic.com.

UPDATE: I’ve managed to get the theme back up and the important plugins installed again. Thank goodness all my content is located in an isolated database. I guess this teaches the value of making backups, too.

My MacBook Pro was running a bit slow recently. At first I thought I might need more system memory, then I came across this little nugget on the Apple discussion boards. Apparently, duplicate fonts will cause a major slowdown.

The solution? Open up Font Book, delete any of the duplicate fonts (they are the ones with a bullet next to them), and restart. You will see a noticeable difference immediately.

Incidentally, I was on the Apple discussion board because I think one of my system fans has stopped running. I think my notebook is going to make a trip to the Apple store after finals.

A while back, I wrote about some OS X freeware that I’d been using. I now present the second round of my software adventure, in no particular order.

1Passwd by Agile Web Solutions
Cost: Free to $29.99

1Passwd is a password manager and form filler for OS X. It has a wide array of features that range from simple password management to secure password generation. It integrates quite will with the operating system and seems like a nifty little add-on.

Skype by Skype Ltd.
Cost: Free (additional purchase necessary for full functionality)

Skype is not a new application by any means, but I feel that it is worth mentioning, especially given my upcoming trip. Skype is a Voice Over IP (VoIP) application. It allows users to make free “calls” to other comptuers and to phones at a very low rate. I’m planning on using this on my trip to the Netherlands to keep my phone costs low (and, consequently, my beer fund up).

Quicksilver by Blacktree, Inc.
Cost: Free

I’ve recently discovered this application, and I must say, I’m in love. Quicksilver is an powerful application launcher for OS X. It simplifies the interface process so I never have to take my hands off the keyboard again. I was using Apple’s Spotlight to perfom some of the same functions, but Quicksilver is so much faster, not to mention that it learns what I’m doing. I highly recommend trying this one out.

ChocoFlop by Santiago (Jacques) Lema
Cost: Free

ChocoFlop is a non-destructive image editor for OS X. It runs natively on my Intel Mac and does more than enough for me so that I don’t have to *buy* Photoshop.

UPDATE: I almost forgot an app I use all the time.

Inquisitor 3 by David Wantabe
Cost: Free

Inquisitor is a plugin for Safari that enhances the web search bar. It not only will auto-complete, it will also add search suggestions. “Oh, and it’s free.”

Recently I posted about some of my favorite Mac freeware. This week, I’m writing to talk about what I keep on my Dashboard.
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