Blog Archives
FastTasks 2 v2.8 released
This update sees the introduction of a major new feature, the TaskPad. If you’ve ever been frustrated by the limitations of Apple’s Notes and Reminders apps and wondered why they didn’t, well, just combine the two, then FT2’s TaskPad may be for you.
Inspired by one of my favourite free apps from the Snow Leopard era, Lighthead software’s Remember.app (still available but sadly never updated to 10.7 and beyond), the TaskPad keeps things light and simple, while having a lot of power to keep you organised and on task.
You can set due dates, add rich-text notes, as well as order and re-order via drag and drop. If you want to use the same database across more than one mac, that’s possible, too (requires an independent syncing service such as Dropbox or similar). You can also maintain more than one list database and switch between them as you need.
Since FastTasks is all about being fast, you don’t need to wade through the main menu to call up the TaskPad (though of course you can do that if you want!). Just hold down the Command key and click the F2 icon and the TaskPad will immediately appear.
Another change in this update is that the Eject Disks function will now let you eject individual disks as well as all disks. We’ve also updated the Analyser with new definitions.
The FT2 2.8 update is available to users on 10.10.5 or above. Unfortunately, FT2 no longer supports OS X Mavericks, but 10.9 users can still download the previous version (2.7) of FT2 for the time being.
news: FastTasks v2.6 released
An update to FastTasks 2 was released earlier today adding further adware definitions to the Analyser function. FT2 is available for free from here. Requires OS X 10.9 or higher.
news: FastTasks v2.3 update released
FT2 v2.3 is now available from sqwarq.com. The release notes are here.
Enjoy! 🙂
how to deal with the Finder bugs in El Capitan
A number of 3rd party apps, including my own DetectX and FastTasks 2, offer a GUI way to hide/reveal invisible files in the Finder.
The standard method for doing this, either in Terminal or in code (via NSTask) has always been
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true; killall Finder.
In every version of OS X from 10.6 thru to 10.10 this works as expected. In 10.11 I see a reproducible though not always consistent bug when using any GUI-wrapped app to toggle this Finder setting. The bug basically ends up with Finder showing the opposite of both what the app shows and what ‘defaults read’ shows (see image above; the value should be ‘1’ when invisible files are visible).
We believe a related bug is that Finder sometimes fails to show the new version of an app in the Finder preview after the app has been updated.
In both cases, there’s a couple of ways to deal with it (albeit temporary until Apple applies a proper cure):
i. log out then log in
ii. issue a ‘killall Finder’ on the command line
iii. purge the RAM then toggle the setting again in whatever app you’re using to toggle invisible files.
If you’re running FastTasks 2, you can purge the RAM from the FT2 menu, avoiding a trip to the Terminal. For DetectX, use the ‘Reset Hidden Files’ function located in the Preferences.
🙂
news: FastTasks 2.2 update released
FT2 v2.2 is now available from sqwarq.com. The release notes are here.
Enjoy! 🙂
news: FastTasks update 2.1 released
FT2 v2.1 is now available from sqwarq.com. The release notes are here.
Enjoy! 🙂
news: FastTasks Update
With recent adware attacks exploiting a vulnerability in OS X and giving themselves sudo permissions without the user providing a password, we thought it’d be a good idea to have FT2 show you info on the Sudo permissions file. This feature has been added in today’ update, FT2 v1.68.
The file in question, sudoers, lives in the (usually) hidden /private/etc folder at the root of your hard drive. Most ordinary users won’t have cause to go digging around in there and probably don’t even know it exists. However, sudoers is the file that determines who can get admin access in the shell (aka ‘the Terminal’), and adding a user to the sudoers file gives them pretty much a carte blanche over the system.
It appears that Apple have already taken steps to block the recent attack, and the next version of OS X (likely due out next month) will restrict what even sudoers can do to the system (although not to the user). Nevertheless, we think it’s good idea to have an easy visual check as to whether the sudoers file has been modified or not. You can find the sudoers information in the Analyser just before the System section (marked by the green dashed line).
Be aware that it is entirely possible that if an attacker gains access to your system, they could not only modify the sudoers file, but completely replace it with a new one. That’d give a new creation date but no modification date. With that in mind, it’s worth checking just when the file was created. Running the public release of OS X Yosemite, build 14E46 (you can find the build number in FastTasks menu), my default sudoers file has a creation date of 2014-09-10. If you are running a different build of Yosemite or OS X you may see a different date. Obviously, if you have modified (or given an app or process permission to modify) the file, that will cause you to see different dates also.
how to detect WireLurker malware
Security researchers have this week been getting themselves het up about a new malware threat to both iOS and OS X. WireLurker appears to be emanating out of Chinese file exchange sites and, at least at the moment, looks fairly limited in both its spread and its damage (update: Business Insider is reporting that Apple has blocked WireLurker-infected apps from launching).
However, researchers at Paolo Alto Networks are pointing out that what makes WireLurker particularly worrying is that the malware exploits weaknesses in Apple’s software that could, they claim, be easily be used for far more dangerous threats.
You can easily scan for the malware threat with my free app FastTasks 2 (v 1.53 or later). If you don’t see the warning as in the screenshot above or any results in the Analyser ‘Issues’ pane, you’re clean of any of the currently known files associated with WireLurker. If you do see the warning, locate the infectious files from the Analyser pane and delete (OS X will demand your Admin password to remove some of them), then restart your mac.
🙂
FastTasks version 1.18 released! 💥
I’ve just posted an incremental update to my free system utility, FastTasks. The update fixes a bottleneck in the launch code that caused FastTasks to take excessively long to load. I’ve also added the System Uptime, which you can also refresh with the new keyboard shortcut, ‘command-U’.
FastTasks saves you having to role up your sleeves and get mired in the exotic world of Terminal’s command line for a number of common tasks. FastTasks v1.18 offers you system info down the left side of the panel, all of which can be updated by the shortcuts displayed on the panel, and access to some common Terminal commands on the right.
If you haven’t tried FastTasks yet (or got tired of the slow launch times with the old version), this is a great time to grab a free copy of v1.18 as I’ll soon be replacing the app by FastTasks 2.0, a paid-for app with a whole new interface and extra functions. Nevertheless, support for FastTasks 1 will continue and bug fixes will still be forthcoming as necessary. Grab it while you can, folks!🙂
Download FastTasks v1.18 from here…
Note: FastTasks requires OS X 10.6.8 or higher
enable TRIM with FastTasks v1.17
Update: how to enable TRIM (for Yosemite 10.10.4+)
FastTasks has been updated to version 1.17 to support users who have installed their own SSD drives.
FastTasks now makes it simple to check the current TRIM status of your disk, and to either enable or disable it with a simple click, particularly useful if you find that TRIM has been turned off by an OS X software update or upgrade.
Note that you need to restart your mac after using the radio buttons to change the TRIM status in order to complete the process.
🙂
applehelpwriter.com 