mi2g, a London-based “digital risk specialist” firm, has published an analysis entitled “Deep study: The world’s safest computing environment”. They bill it as “their most comprehensive study ever undertaken”. Over twelve months they studied operating systems and applications, to determine “the world’s safest and most secure 24/7 online computing environment”. And what was the most secure environment? You guessed it. Mac OS X, with its Open Source BSD and Darwin underpinnings, by a staggering amount. The mi2g study goes on to point out that “the last twelve months have witnessed the deadliest annual period in terms of malware – virus, worm and Trojan – proliferation targeting Windows based machines in which over 200 countries and tens of millions of computers worldwide have been infected month-in month-out. Whether it’s the small Mac market share, or the relative impenetrability of the UNIX-based Mac OS X, or the fact that hackers hate Microsoft, it doesn’t matter. No viruses, no worms, no Trojans, no pop-up windows on Macs. Nuff said.

Here’s a big “DUH” recommendation. If you’re considering an iPod as a holiday gift for that special someone (or for yourself, for that matter), I would order one now. There should be no further iPod updates before the holiday season kicks in, and conventional wisdom is that they’ll be hard to find. Same with popular iPod accessories.

Speaking of accessories, iPodLounge, a web site that focuses on all things iPod, has published their 2004 iPod Buyers Guide. You can download it for free at: www.ipodlounge.com. It’s a 4.5 MB download, so dial-up-ers beware.

Speaking of megabytes… I recently replaced the original 80GB hard drive in my Mac tower with a larger drive (due in most part to the burgeoning photographic talents of the fetching Mrs. Z). What do I do with the old drive? That’s simple. Turn it into a portable FireWire drive. But, wait a minute. That internal drive is an IDE drive, not a FireWire drive, and besides, it has no power supply or a box to live in. Well, for around $50, you can purchase an enclosure that’ll house, power, cool, and connect that drive to your computer. You can do the installation yourself. Giving your old drive a new, FireWire-based lease on life has many advantages. Use it as a “lifeboat” drive to back up your important data. It’s much faster than burning a CD or DVD.

© 2004 Peter F. Zimowski