Mountain Lion – New OS for Mac

The new system, known as OS X 10.8 and nicknamed Mountain Lion, went on sale today as a $19.99 download through Apple's App Store.

The strategic idea for the new OS introduction is based on positioning of your computer as just one in the line of Apple computing devices, along with iPhone and iPad. Apple wants to make it easier to switch between all these gadgets back and forth.

It is already relatively easy switching between iPhone and iPad. For instance, songs and apps you buy on an iPad will automatically pop up on your iPhone through Apple's iCloud online-storage service. Mountain Lion brings the Mac into the full compatibility and functionality of the iPhone-iPad family.


There are some new outstanding features:

• A notification center slides out from the right of the screen to offer calendar reminders and the latest mail items. It mimics, down to the background color, layout and font, the way you get Facebook updates, news alerts and other notices on your iPhone.
• The Mac's iChat app has been scrapped in favor of Messages, which is made phone friendly by incorporating the iMessage service for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users to exchange texts, photos and video. Now you can send messages from your Mountain Lion computer to your mobile friends, or reach another Mountain Lion user from your phone. The way conversations are presented feels more like texting than instant messaging.
• Mountain Lion borrows a "Share" button from iPhone and iPad apps. The iPhoto image organizer on Lion had that, but it's now built into other apps such as the Safari Web browser and the Preview document reader. The options change depending on the app. In Safari, for instance, you can send a Web page by email or post a link on Twitter. In Preview, you can share a photo on Flickr or add it to iPhoto.

Facebook integration is coming this fall. You'll be able to limit who sees your post and add your current location through that share button. No longer will you have to cut and paste links. Mountain Lion will also sync contact information on Facebook friends with your Mac's address book. You need to sign on to Facebook only once, and Mountain Lion takes care of the rest.

That "single sign-on" feature is available right away for other services, including Twitter and Flickr. Once you're signed in, you don't need to enter your username and password again when accessing that service from another app.

Mountain Lion brings over another remarkable change from the iPhone. For the longest time, personal computers let you install anything without question. But with Apple's mobile devices, you are limited to pre-approved software from the company's App Store. Apple wants to protect you from bad experiences, but it has also rejected some apparently harmless apps.

Mountain Lion adopts that gatekeeper philosophy, though the restrictions aren't as severe. If software you try to install doesn't come from the App Store, it has to be from a software developer who has registered with Apple for $99. The company doesn't review software unless it goes through the App Store, but the Mac checks to make sure the registration is valid. A registration can be yanked if a developer turns out to be evil.

 iCloud integration makes a big difference for the Mac users. All you need is an Internet connection and an Apple ID, which links your experience across the various devices. The iCloud service comes with five gigabytes of free storage, and you can pay for more, if you need.

Pages, Numbers and Keynote - Apple's versions of Microsoft's popular Office programs for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations – allow storing automatically all documents online through iCloud, unless you change the location to a folder on your computer. That means your documents follow you wherever you go. Type a sentence in a document on your MacBook and see the changes on the iPad a half-minute or so later. You can access your files even if you don't have an Internet connection. Copies are stored on your computer, and changes will be replicated to the iCloud folder once you're back online.

You get the benefits of iCloud when surfing the Web on Safari as well. You see what websites are open on other devices, so if you started researching that dream vacation at home, you can quickly access those same Web pages in the office. Think of it as automated bookmarks. For this to fully work, your mobile devices need the iOS 6 upgrade this fall.

A number of other features you may find useful:

• The search and address bars are now combined on Safari, just as they are on Google's Chrome browser.
• Safari's Reading List now works offline. If you are reading a Web page and need to go somewhere, just click the small "glasses" icon for the browser to store a copy. You can continue reading in the car or on a train, even if you don't have an Internet connection.
• Gamers will appreciate Game Center, which started out as a way for mobile users to find opponents and keep track of high scores.

Some older computers are not supported by the new OS, though there's apparently a workaround for Intel-based Mac Pros that involves upgrading the graphics cards and using an emulated firmware. Do note that this hack is not guaranteed to work perfectly and it cannot be used on Apple laptops, as the graphics cards on these machines cannot be changed. 

Those who have bought a Mac computer on, or after June 11, are eligible for a free upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion via Apple's Up-to-Date program.

Based on the users’ feedback, Mountain Lion upgrades can take as little as 13 minutes and as long as almost an hour. Upgrade is a hands-off affair once the user has downloaded the 4GB installer from the Mac App Store, allowing Mac owners to step away from the machine and come back when the new OS is installed.

Screenshots:

You can find OS X Mountain Lion in the Mac App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-mountain-lion/id537386512?mt=12.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/25/mountain-lion-review_n_1703873.html

http://asia.cnet.com/os-x-mountain-lion-now-available-for-us20-62218142.htm

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9229655/Mountain_Lion_upgrades_take_from_13_to_57_minutes_says_Apple_reseller

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/25/os-x-mountain-lion-review/

Do you Really Believe that “Obama pays your bills”?

Do you really believe that anyone will pay your bills, no matter how high they are? If it sounds like a scam and if it smells like a scam, it is definitely a scam. And, in this case, it is far from being harmless.

A multistate identity theft scam that claims President Barack Obama will pay your utility bills is not a fresh scheme on the dangerous rumors market, but it has recently found a new group of unsuspecting victims. More than 2,000 customers in Tampa, Florida, fell for the fake offer last week.

The scheme was first reported in May 2012, when Dallas-based Atmos Energy warned its 3 million customers in 12 states that scammers had been asking for Social Security numbers to enroll in the faux federal program. According to the pitch—distributed via email, Facebook, text message, phone and, in some cases, door-to-door sales—the government would pay a month of energy costs through credits offered by the Obama administration.

PSE&G, the New Jersey gas and electric delivery utility, issued a similar warning the same month. According to MSNBC, there were 10,000 reported victims in New Jersey in recent weeks and thousands more in North Carolina, Indiana and Pennsylvania.

To make the offer look more genuine, it even includes a fake Federal Reserve bank routing number for those who enroll, and solicits "success stories" to pass along to friends online. Note that the payment service initially “accepts” the payment but then declines it within a few days when the bank account number is discovered to be a fake one.

While there are indeed various government programs to assist low-income households with their utility bills, there is definitely no government program that provides blanket grants to cover everyone's utility bills in full for a whole month. So, be careful, and do not fall for this scheme. You may be counting multiple losses and complications later as a result of your identity been stolen.

The Better Business Bureau urges citizens to investigate any offer that sounds too good to be true, by calling the BBB at 800-646-6222 or visiting www.bbb.org. Never provide your Social Security number, credit or bank information to anyone who calls you, regardless of whom they claim to represent. Always think safety first. Remember, once your personal information is out there, you don't know who will be using it or how it will be used.

Sources and Additional information:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/obama-pays-bills-scam-163528180.html

http://www.wctrib.com/event/article/id/95531/group/homepage/

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/story/18981737/bogus-offer-claims-president-obama-will-pay-your-utility-bill

Renaming Big Ben to Large Liz

Big Ben "has been one of the most recognized landmarks in Britain since it was completed in 1859," "Why mess with tradition?" In an age when "names have become little more than interchangeable brands," it's a shame to change a name that stretches back that far. Besides, "what does a clock tower built in 1859 have to do with a monarch whose reign began nearly 100 years later?"

Vancouver Courier, June 27, 2012

Big Ben is one of the most famous names in the world, up there with the Eiffel Tower and Statue of Liberty. But now London's Big Ben clock tower is to be renamed Elizabeth Tower to mark the queen's 60th year on the British throne.

The announcement this week followed four days of celebrations earlier this month to mark 86-year-old Queen's Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee. The jubilee celebrations underscored a surge in popularity for the Queen in recent years, and included the biggest flotilla on the Thames for more than three centuries, a star-studded concert and a horse-drawn procession through the capital.

The landmark, part of Britain's Houses of Parliament, is officially called the Clock Tower but is commonly known as Big Ben, the name of the giant bell in the tower that chimes the famous bongs in the capital.

Prime Minister David Cameron welcomed the name change. "The renaming of the Clock Tower to the Elizabeth Tower is a fitting recognition of the Queen's 60 years of service. This is an exceptional tribute to an exceptional monarch," he said.

The ornate 315-feet-high neo-Gothic tower features four gilded clockfaces and was completed in 1859. There are 393 steps to the top of the tower, sited on the bank of the River Thames in the heart of London's Whitehall government district.

The name change was proposed by Conservative Party lawmaker Tobias Ellwood and accepted by parliamentary authorities.

"The House of Commons (parliament) Commission welcomed the proposal to rename the Clock Tower Elizabeth Tower in recognition of Her Majesty the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and will arrange for this decision to be implemented in an appropriate manner in due course," a House of Commons spokesman said.

However, many Britons were opposed to the tower name change. A YouGov poll last month found that 44 percent of Brits oppose the name change, while only 30 percent support it. The British media has already dubbed the rechristened tower Large Liz, while Twitter has been clogged with tweets bemoaning the change.

Still, there is not the first incident when British politicians renaming towers after monarchs. In 1860, the west tower of Westminster was renamed the Victoria Tower after Queen Victoria, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.

Historical Facts

The construction of Big Ben was commissioned during the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster in the wake of an 1834 fire. Parliament determined that the new buildings should incorporate an impressive clock tower and passed a bill to that end in 1844.

The clock tower was constructed on the northern extremity of the new Houses of Parliament that were built next to Westminster Hall. The commission for the clock itself demanded a high level of accuracy; the specifications drafted by Astronomer Royal George Airy required that "the first stroke of the hour bell should register the time, correct to within one second per day, and furthermore that it should telegraph its performance twice a day to Greenwich Observatory, where a record would be kept."

Many clock makers were skeptical that such accuracy could be achieved in a mechanical clock, but Edmund Beckett Denison, a lawyer and amateur horologist, rose to the challenge. He completed a pendulum clock design in 1851, and its assembly was begun by Edward John Dent, the owner of a prominent clock making company, and finished by his son Frederick Dent. It was completed in 1854, but construction on the tower lasted until 1859, providing Frederick Dent five years to test and perfect the clock.

Denison also designed the hour bell. The prototype, cast in August 1856 by John Warner and Sons, cracked beyond repair during testing. Under owner George Mears, the Whitechapel Bell Foundry (the oldest foundry in Britain, which coincidentally had cast the original Liberty Bell that cracked and had to be recast upon its arrival in the American colonies), met with more success when it melted down and recast the hour bell. Completed in April 1858, the second and final version of the hour bell was the largest ever cast in the United Kingdom.

In fact, it was so colossal—over seven feet high and weighing more than 13 tons—that a team of 16 horses was needed to pull the wagon upon which it rested from the foundry to the Palace of Westminster. The transportation took on the character of a parade, with enthusiastic crowds lining the streets as the caravan made its way through London. It took several days in October 1858 to hoist the bell to the top of the tower.

Following the installation of the hour bell and four smaller quarter chime bells, Big Ben rang out for the first time on May 31, 1859. Due to the fitting of an oversized hammer stipulated by Denison, the hour bell cracked the following September and did not come into regular service until its repair in 1862. The distinctive imperfect tone of the bell is the result of the crack, which was merely patched by a square piece of metal to bolster the bell's strength. A lighter hammer was also installed to prevent further damage.

Setting of the clock was initially coordinated with the Greenwich Observatory via telegraph, and throughout its existence, Big Ben has garnered a reputation for remaining extremely accurate—as a result, it was not deemed necessary to replace the telegraph line after it was destroyed by German bombs during World War II.

Living up to Airy's specifications, there have been very few instances of the clock's accuracy straying more than one second. The most notable example was in 1962, when a buildup of snow on the clock arms caused Big Ben to ring in the New Year 10 minutes past midnight. Surprisingly, the accuracy of the clock has been maintained by a relatively primitive method; pennies are used to adjust and balance the swing of the clock's pendulum.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47966872/ns/travel-news/

http://theweek.com/article/index/229907/renaming-londons-big-ben-stupid-move

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/big-bens-tower-to-be-renamed-after-queen-elizabeth/2012/06/27/gJQA44gq6V_blog.html

http://www.bigbenfacts.com/Big-Ben-History.html