TheMacStream http://www.themacstream.com/blog/ en-us Nucleus CMS v3.24 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.themacstream.com/blog//nucleus/nucleus2.gif TheMacStream http://www.themacstream.com/blog/ FireGPG http://www.themacstream.com/blog/index.php?itemid=20
Installation and setup are easy. Install the plugin, then go into the plugin preferences and make sure it has the correct path for GPG.

Get it here.

Screenshot of Gmail with FireGPG Firefox plugin]]> Privacy http://www.themacstream.com/blog/index.php?itemid=20 Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:43:45 -0400 Achieving Pretty Good Privacy on a Mac http://www.themacstream.com/blog/index.php?itemid=19 Phil Zimmermann and his PGP legacy, the Background section on his web site offers a decent overview. In a nutshell, PGP is a very strong private-public key cryptography system, not easily cracked even by large governments, that enables confidential communication as well as author validation over a public network, e.g., the internet. Being a fan of the technology, I recently set out to find the ultimate freeware PGP implementation for my MacBook Pro. I found it in the Mac port of GnuPG.
Mac GnuPG Logo


Overview


GnuPG
This compiles and runs great on Mac. It is available as a binary package or through MacPorts if you want to compile from source the lazy way and update easily in the future. It is amazing that you can do just about everything from the command-line with this tool. You need to install this to make most everything else work.

GPG Keychain Access
Works pretty well for being version 0.7. I was disappointed that it doesn't appear to be able to view certain key properties, such as photo ID. However, this is the best GUI option available for your daily key ring management needs.

GPG File Tool
This is hand for all your file signing/encryption needs. Supports encrypt/decrypt and sign/verify of files as well as clearsign and detached signatures.

GPG Drop Thing
To be honest, I was disappointed with this. I'm sure it will get better. For now, install if you have applications you want to be able to encrypt and decrypt from that don't otherwise support it. It adds functionality via the services menu. If all you need is sign/verify capability, use GPGServices.

GPGPreferences
This adds a preference pane to Control Panel for GPG. The most useful functionality it adds is probably on the Key Server tab where you can set a default key server and enable automatic retrieval of keys when verifying signatures. It made my install list.

GPG Tools
This may be a better option than GPG File Tool and GPG Drop Thing for some. It is a very similar app that replaces the functionality of both. One glitch I experienced; it seemed to throw errors, even though it worked, saying operation failed. Very annoying, that was enough for me to uninstall it.

GPGServices
This was the best application that provided actions in the services menu, likely because that is it's primary function. The only caveat is that this utility only gives services for pasting your public key, importing a public key to your keyring, signing, and verifying - there is no encrypt or decrypt functionality.

ABKey
A plugin for Address Book, this shows relevant information when you pull up a contact whose email address matches a public key in your keyring. It also supports showing photo IDs. Really cool.

GPGMail, Eudora GPG, EntourageGPG, and Mailsmith-GPG
Mail client plugins for Apple Mail, Eudora, Entourage, and Mailsmith respectively. All integrate sign/verify/encrypt/decrypt functionality into the mail client. A must have if you use any of these.



Installation


To get started, I installed GnuPG on my system using MacPorts. With MacPorts, installation is simplified and upgrading will be easier later, so, if you don't have it, download it here. After MacPorts is installed, type:

sudo port -v selfupdate

to ensure you are up to date with the latest version. After that, installing GnuPG is as simple as typing:

sudo port -v install gnupg +idea

The '+idea' compiles in support for the IDEA algorithm and provides for greater compatibility. In the future, to check for and install updates to GnuPG and any other software installed using MacPorts, execute the following:

sudo port -v selfupdate
sudo port -v upgrade outdated

Now, MacPorts installs everything under /opt/local, so to make things easier I created a symbolic link from GnuPG in this location to the default location:

sudo ln -s /opt/local/bin/gpg /usr/local/bin/gpg

This is required to use GPGPreferences and a few of the other binary packages.

GPGPreferences is installed by copying GnuPG.prefPane to /Library/PreferencePanes and GPGServices is installed by copying GPGServices.service to /Library/Services
If either folder doesn't exist under /Library, just create it.

The rest of the applications are distributed as binary applications that can simply be copied to your Applications folder.

Give these tools a try as a start. If you stumble upon any other useful public key encryption utilities on the Mac, drop me a line. I originally intended to review PGP's desktop product as their "trial" is actually free for permanent non-commercial use, available here. However, the horror stories over on Version Tracker scared me off trying it on my laptop.]]> Privacy http://www.themacstream.com/blog/index.php?itemid=19 Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:35:20 -0400 Blizzard to Add Quicktime Recording to WoW http://www.themacstream.com/blog/index.php?itemid=18 World of Warcraft. This version has way too many enhancements to mention here, so you can find more information on the Public Test Realms forum. There are a bunch of Mac-specific improvements.

One of the coolest enhancements that I saw in the 2.2 software is the ability to record in-game video to QuickTime. It does this using H.264, Motion JPEG, or Pixlet codecs. This is a configurable option. You can also specify the resolution and frame rate. Not all Macs are capable of smoothly capturing video at high frame rates, and users will have to find settings appropriate for their specific machine. This function requires OS X 10.4.9 or newer and QuickTime 7.1.6 or newer.

Blizzard also notes that additional graphics optimizations have been made which utilize AltiVec on PowerPC-based Macs and SSE on Intel-based Macs. These enhancements have have increased performance on systems where vertex animation shaders aren’t available, such as Mac minis and MacBooks that use Intel integrated video.

A Mac Options dialog has been added to the primary options panel. The dialog contains options for features that are exclusive to Macs, such as iTunes Remote and Movie Capture.

]]> General http://www.themacstream.com/blog/index.php?itemid=18 Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:23:37 -0400 Shredder Widget 1.1 http://www.themacstream.com/blog/index.php?itemid=17
Screenshot of the Shredder widgetJust start dragging the offending file, tap F12 and let it drop on the shredder widget - it will clean up your mess. The tool has three different settings:

Low - useless to me, this just skips the trash can

Medium - deletes the file using a 7 pass DoD wipe

High - obliterates the little bugger with a 35 pass Gutmann algorithm

Why take chances? Be as paranoid as I am; Install the widget, set it on high, and sleep better at night.

Update: For the record, the image above is from the author who, in spite of possessing skill to write this nifty widget, can't spell 'sensitive'.]]> Widgets http://www.themacstream.com/blog/index.php?itemid=17 Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:43:16 -0400 iPhone Backup Files Cracked! http://www.themacstream.com/blog/index.php?itemid=16 Click here for the full story.]]> General http://www.themacstream.com/blog/index.php?itemid=16 Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:33:00 -0400