Windows not fit for online banking, says Washington Post blog

It would be easy for Linux and Mac users to point to this blog post by Brian Krebs at the Washington Post's Security Fix and feel smug. The post flat out states that the simplest, most cost-effective way to avoid online fraud is: "Don't use Microsoft Windows when accessing your bank account online."

If you're a Windows user, ouch.

But hold on a second. The thing is, Krebs isn't endorsing the Mac or Linux platform in his condemnation of Windows. Rather, he's pointing out that Windows is the most-targeted platform, but that certainly doesn't mean that Macs or Linux machines are invulnerable.

Krebs points out that the safest way to avoid malware and make sure your banking session is secure is to boot your machine from a Live CD that is a pristine, uninfected environment. Live CDs are typically Linux variants, but the OS doesn't really matter -- what matters here is that you are booting an operating system that malware can't infect because its state is not persistent.

This is solid advice, and it leads me to wonder how long it will be before the major OS makers offer a locked-down virtual machine, or better yet a locked-down banking partition that is a fast booting light OS containing only a secure browser with which to do your most sensitive online tasks.

                                                                            (From downloadsquad.com)

From Outlook to Entourage to …. Outlook for MAC

I notice lots of folks keep on asking about a method to import their Data from Outlook to Entourage.

Knowing that entourage could only import .mbox files, and Outlook could only export .pst files.

The way i usually do it is:

I go to the windows machine, install Mozilla Thunderbird , and import everything from my outlook to Thunderbird.

That WILL NOT convert the .PST files, it will simply make MAPI calls to outlook to retrive the mailboxes.

And Thunderbird will store them in a .mbox format.

After that , i close thunderbird, and go to
%AppData%\Thunderbird\Profiles\xxxxxxxx.default\,

copy the mail folder which contact all the mbox files (although they will be shown as unknown files, because the .mbox extension won’t be there).
copy the MAIL folder,

go to Mac Mail , and import from Thunderbird, when the wizard ask for the path, locate the copied MAIL folder.

And taraaa

I would also like to note, that Microsoft will release Outlook for Mac in 2010 and that will replace entourage.

Key features about Outlook 2010 (information taken from http://www.downloadsquad.com):

• Built on Cocoa. The application is being constructed from the ground up on Cocoa to make integrating with Mac OS a lot easier.
• New Database. A high speed file-based database with support for backing up files with Time Machine and Spotlight searching.
• Information Rights Management. Helps prevent sensitive information from being distributed to or read by people who do not have permission.