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NC #763 First Mac Impressions from a Windows User, Night Before Christmas, QLab, Security Bits

Hi, this is Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast Apple Podcast, hosted at Podfeet.com, a technology geek podcast with an EVER so slight Apple bias. Today is Sunday, December 22, 2019, and this is show number 763. Thanks to many awesome listeners, we’ll have full shows for every one of the holiday weekends.

Because of these awesome listeners, I’ve been able to do my Christmas shopping, wrap presents, go to a holiday party, see Kyle for his birthday AND finish a video tutorial for ScreenCastsOnline. In a weak moment I agreed to a delivery date of December 23rd! I cannot thank all of the contributors enough for making my holidays more enjoyable and helping me to not disappoint the listeners. All of the reviews are fantastic.

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I can’t remember what I told you we’d play this week (and I’m too lazy to go back and look), so here’s what we’ve got on deck. Jill McKinley bought my 2013 15″ MacBook Pro and as a long-time Windows user, she’s going to tell us about her early experiences.

Then we’ll take a holiday interlude while Steve continues his annual traditional reading of his rendition of “Twas the Night Before Christmas” … With an EVER so slight Apple Bias.

Next up we have an excellent review of the software QLab by Andy Dolph. Now you haven’t heard Andy’s voice since 2012 on the NosillaCast in episode #385 (17:41min), when he explained to us the difference between different audio compression methods. I think you’ll really enjoy his storytelling about QLab using a two-foot steam gauge engine in a Christmas story as his example. I just told you that part so Bart and Brett’s ears will perk up to listen.

We have the second half of Security Bits that Bart and I recorded last week, but a huge story broke this week so Bart and I did a quick, impromptu recording on it which I’ll play first.

Blog Posts

First Mac by a Long-Time PC User — Jill McKinley

The Night Before Christmas

QLab for Timing Audio/Video Productions — by Andy Dolph

Support the Show

I talk a lot about using the Amazon Affiliate Links and I’m not sure everyone understands that it’s not just tech stuff that helps the show. If you click on a link to an SSD in a blog post, but you continue shopping, everything in that session counts! I absolutely cannot see who buys what, but I can see what was purchased. For example, in Canada we’ve got some Lee’s Jeans, an Instant Pot, and a smart meat thermometer. In Germany we’ve got some single malt scotch whisky, and Office 365 (they’ll need the whisky after using Microsoft Office). The UK went for a subscription to the Telegraph, some batteries for holiday toys, a camping stove, and some tech with a solar power bank and a Logitech Crayon. Back in the US, someone is staying safe with flashing light shoe clips, and reading an Arctic Guide to Wildlife in the Far North. While Canada favored Lees, the US bought Levi’s, and someone is fixing to make some recordings for the NosillaCast with an ATR-2100 USB mic. There’s a lot more but I got tired of pulling all of the links to add to the shownotes!

See what I mean? Every little bit sends a small percentage to help the show. Thank you to everyone who remembers to click those tech links and then keep shopping at Amazon.

Pre-Security Bits

Zynga Hack is still breaking but what we know now:

  • Zynga, who make popular games Words with Friends, Draw Something, and Facebook games. In September they released info on a hack with little details
  • Naked Security got in touch with the hackers: 218 million Words With Friends players lose data to hackers | Naked Security in which they found:
    • Names, Email addresses, Login IDs, Hashed passwords SHA1 with salt, Password reset token (if ever requested), Phone numbers (if provided), Facebook ID (if connected), Zynga account ID
    • Bad news is they used SHA1 (old and busted), good news it it was salted
    • Worst news is the combination of information outside of the passwords makes for a high chance of phishing. But with this much collated information they could automate the phishing.
  • Also in October, there was a smaller database stolen called OMGPop, and that only had 7m passwords, and they were completely unprotected.
  • This week they got 172,869,660 unique accounts protected with some salting and hashing. The data file has made it to Have I Been Pwned so it’s not the word of the hackers 170m passwords stolen in Zynga hack, monitor says | The Guardian

If you’ve used any Zynga games for anything, be super alert for phishing for a very long time.
OMGPop – change passwords
Can check haveibeenpwned.com to see if you’re affected
If you logged in via FB, your password hasn’t been hacked, but you’re in the phishing pile.

Story 2:

  • Behind the Scenes of iOS and Mac Security at Black Hat 2019
    • Steve Sheridan brought our attention to a 45-minute talk by Ivan Krstić of Apple at the Black Hat security conference. It isn’t often that we get to hear from Apple in the wild so this is a unique opportunity to hear from their head of security engineering and architecture.
    • Behind the Scenes of iOS and Mac Security at Black Hat | YouTube

Security Bits – 22 December 2019

I’ll add to Bart’s comments and wish you a very safe and happy holiday season with lots of good cheer, family fun, nifty geek toys, and joy.

That’s going to wind this up for this week. Don’t forget to send in your Dumb Questions, comments and suggestions by emailing me at [email protected], follow me on twitter @podfeet.  Remember, everything good starts with podfeet.com/. podfeet.com/patreon, podfeet.com/facebook, podfeet.com/slack!  And if you want to join in the fun of the live show, head on over to podfeet.com/live on Sunday nights at 5pm Pacific Time and join the friendly and enthusiastic NosillaCastaways.   Thanks for listening, and stay subscribed.

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