Technical information

Page 14
< http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.
html?nid=71506>
Protection = do not leave your iPhone close to your com-
puter.
Security of Siri On iPhone 4S
Apparently Siri on your iPhone 4S can be used to make
calls and send emails and texts even though you have it pass-
code locked.
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-20122632-37/
bad-siri-shell-let-anyone-use-a-locked-iphone-4s/>
Security of Google Chrome Browser
In May this year Google began encrypting Chrome web
searches by default for signed in users. Others have to manu-
ally set encryption until Google enables default encryption for
all. I was not aware of this and as Chrome is my primary web
browser and search engine I have now enabled encryption. I
hope Google does this quickly because encrypted searches in-
volve a two step entry of the search term, for me at least as I
am not a G Mail customer and thus am not permanently signed
in to Google. Maybe someone who has done this manual fix
can tell us a shortcut.
<http://www.zdnet.com.au/google-to-encrypt-searches-
by-default-339324584.htm>
<http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thr
ead?tid=2bb320ad0f84ec93&hl=en>
That’s enough for Security, let’s move on.
Bluetooth
If you use a Bluetooth connection it may be useful to know
the strength of the signal. The signal strength obviously varies
depending on the location of the two devices relative to each
other.
OS X 10.7 Lion has a way of telling you where is the best
Bluetooth signal strength. I do not know if this available in
earlier OS versions. See here:
< http://hints.macworld.com/article.
php?story=2011091514050082 >
Repair Permissions
I have not run ‘Repair Permissions’ for years as I see no
point in it. I know other Mac Users do so and swear by it. But
the for and against argument seems like a Middle East peace
conference so we won’t go there.
But interestingly Apple has introduced a second ‘Repair
Permissions’ which is hidden from the ordinary user. Apple has
installed a lot of stuff which is hidden from mere mortal users,
for example Lion’s Home Folder Library, because they think you
have no need to see it if everything else ‘just works’ or if they
do not want to run the risk of you meddling with things which
don’t or shouldn’t concern you. Apparently Lion only — don’t
know about any other OS version. See here:
< http://blog.chron.com/techblog/2011/09/
want-to-really-repair-permissions-on-your-
mac-try-this/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_
medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+houstonchronicle/
techblogfulltext+(TechBlog+-+Full+Text)>
Reset Home Folder Permissions
This topic is different from the one above. Snow Leopard
and Lion, don’t know about other OS versions. This procedure
may well obviate a system restore. See here:
<http://www.fixkb.com/2011/08/reset-home-folder-per-
missions.html>
Automatic Maintenance
Many years ago, in 2004 actually, I wrote an article for the
Newsletter about OS X automatic housekeeping tasks. These
tasks were referred to as cron jobs and cleaned up some the
system’s hidden maintenance requirements of cleaning caches,