Korean Movie Review – What A Man Wants 바람 바람 바람

Brent's World Posted on by

 

 

What A Man Wants 바람바람바람

A fresh Korean comedy by Byeong-heon Lee

  I have said it before, and I’ll say it again.  My, how time flies!  It has been 8 months since our last Korean movie review The Accidental Detective!  Between computer projects, traveling, and trying to stay cool during a record setting summer in Korea there has not been a lot of time to search for and watch movies!  We will break our dry spell by reviewing Byeong Heon Lee’s, What A Man Wants. Which also has the dubious honor of being one of the newest films I have reviewed.

  What A Man Wants stars Lee Sung-min as Seok-Geun a middle aged former roller coaster designer turned womanizing taxi driver and Bong-Soo (Shin Ha-Kyun, who also played Min, Hee-do in The Devils Game), the half owner chef at a failing restaurant owned by his wife and brother in law  Seok-Guen. Bong-soo believes the restaurant would be more successful as a Korean-Chinese fusion restaurant, but his wife Mi-Young has her heart set on it being Italian. Mi-Young, who wants only 2 things.  To get pregnant, and for the restaurant to be successful. 

  Seok-Geun believes he has been able to hide his philandering ways from his wife Dam Deok, though we find out later in the film she has known all along, but loved Seok-Geun so much she was able to come to forgive him his dalliances.

  Stressed out from running the restaurant and depressed his wife won’t him chase his dreams Bong-Soo begins an illicit affair with Je-Ni (Lee El), who encourages him to follow his dream and demand his family listen to him and try his menu.  Given the go ahead by his wife and Seok-guen the restaurant becomes succesful.  Hilarity ensues as Bong-Soo tries to hide his affair from Mi Young and Seok-Geun.  The irony being that Seok-Geun was the one in the beginning encouraging Bong-soo to cheat on his wife, believing it would actually make his marriage stronger.

  Things change for Seok-Geun when his wife is killed in a tragic car accident, and he begins to regret not being faithful to his wife, this puts more pressure on Bong-Soo to keep his relationship with Je-Ni secret. Je-Ni finally demands that Bong-Soo chose between Mi-Young or herself, and we get to watch as Bong-Soo must try and put everything right!

  I found What A Man Wants to be a fun, fast paced romantic comedy. You did have the typical Asian Greek tragedy thrown in the middle (Someone has to die!), and while you had a rare happy ending where everyone seemly got what they wanted, (Which is rare in an Asian film.), you did have to wonder if somehow everyone was still screwed, after screwing each other! 

  I recommend What A Man Wants, it is good fun, and perfect for a couples movie night!  With Halloween coming up, be sure to also check Shin Ha-Kyun in The Devils Game.

Trailer:

Where Can I find What A Man Wants?

Amazon:
Prime Video : Free With prime video subschttps://www.catracing.org/hendrb/forumription
I was not able to find a Blu-Ray or DVD version of this film.

After watching What A Man Wants, head over to our forums to discuss the film.

iOS Apps – iMissal & IMissal Catholic Bible

Brent's World Posted on by

iMissal & iMissal Bible

iOS apps Catholics should not be without.

  For last month’s Brent’s World blog,  I shared the experience of my first Korean Mass at Saenamteo (Click link to read blog).  This weekend I returned for their 10:30 Mass in the main church. 

  Since I knew the mass would not be in English, I brought along my iPad so I could use iMissal to follow along with the reading and order of Mass.  I purchased iMissal and it’s accompanying iMissal Bible several years ago, and have used it regularly, let’s take a look at these apps in more detail!

  iMissal™ by Cantcha, is a Catholic Missal (A missal is a liturgical book containing all instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year.). app for the iPad.  It contains 4 separate reference sources in one app.

        The daily missal, with calendar and mass readings.

             The missal can also be expanded to fill the screen as seen here.

        My Daily Bread, which will provide you with a daily Bible verse.

        Prayers, which provides a great reference of many prayers for different events, such as the one below for after communion.

       And finally, Catholic News, which requires a WiFi connection, will give you the latest Catholic news from around the world.

  IMissal Bible is a companion app, that contains the entire 2010 New American Bible. It interfaces seamlessly with iMissal by taking you directly to the book, chapter and verse of the days reading, or Gospel by a single tap in Imissal.

  If you are searching for good Catholic reference apps for your iOS, I highly recommend iMissal, and iMissal Bible.  Not only can you use them during Mass, by the collection of prayers, and easy access to the Bible with iMissal Bible will help you immensely for bible study before or after Mass.  It was also a great help during the Korean ceremony, as I could keep pace with service even though it was in a foreign language.

  iMissal is available at Apple’s App Store for $4.99

  It is also available for Android, Kindle Fire, and Windows Phone users.

  iMissal Catholic Bible is available separately and is $9.99

  If you have used these apps, or end up purchasing these apps on our recommendation, please come back and comment!  I highly value the feedback of my visitors!

  Please Note: Brent’s World is NOT monetized in any way.  I do not make any money from you purchasing items or clicking on links provided on my blog.

I Thought You Packed it! – Working around lost or forgotten gear.

Brent's World Posted on by

I thought you packed it!

Working around lost or forgotten gear.

  Over the years, I have done a remarkable job of not leaving important camera gear at home on the myriad of trips I have taken.  I am not sure what it was about our recent pension trip that put an end to that streak.  Perhaps I was just so wrapped up in trying to get prepared for driving in Korea for the first time that my head just wasn’t in my photography.

   In total, here is what got left behind.  My Canon Speedlight, (Which would have been very helpful at the Samtam Art Mine), the power adaptor for my battery charger (I hope those 3 spare batteries hold out!), and most importantly the tethering/data transfer cable (As I had planned to blog daily, this was a serious setback!).  Since Canon went to USB 3 on their cameras and use a micro USB3 connector I couldn’t just run into a convivence store and buy a spare.

  Forgetting the Speedlight was no big deal, just bump up the ISO.  Even if I get extra noise in my photos I am taking pictures of an abandoned mine, so at worst I am going to end up with a film grain look, that won’t hurt the content anyways, so that is what I ended up doing.

  So how did I end up getting the pictures off my camera?  I figured I had two ways of getting my photos. The first and the simplest and was to just take the JPEGS that I capture to the 5DMKIV’s SD CARD slot. The 5D MKIII and MKIV have dual card slots that can be configured to either store RAW files to both, or RAW files to one slot and JPEGS to the other.  I have mine setup to store RAW to the CF card slot and JPEG to the SD CARD slot.  After this trip I may go ahead and shoot RAW to both.  When I purchased my new MACBOOK PRO in April, one of the reasons I chose the older 2015 model is that it still has anSD CARD SLOT.  I did have to compromise with being limited with the amount of post processing I could do in Lightroom, but I was still able to get quality content posted to the blog.

   What if I needed to get access to the RAW files?  The 5D Mark IV allows wireless tethering and file transfers.  Thought it would have been slow, in a pinch it could be done.

   How would you go about doing this?

   First you need to set up Wifi pairing with your computer. See our stub article on this, Wifi Pairing The Canon 5D Mark IV.

  The easiest method is to use the Canon EOS Utility 3 to transfer your photos, then import them into your photo management software. 

Click on ‘Download images to computer’  The following window will display and you have the following options.  

Start Automatic Download, This will automatically transfer images from your camera using the settings that can be configured by clicking the ‘settings’ button.  Below are the automatic download settings you can choose from.

If we select the ‘Start automatic download’ option with the ‘Images not yet downloaded’ set, the computer will immediately start downloading your imaged .jpg first then RAW files

If we select and download. We will be presented with the following window where we may select which files we want to transfer.

Select the files you wish to have transferred to the computer (Note: in the upper righthand corner you select which of the two memory cards you are transferring from) be sure you have the correct card selected (In my case it would be card 1 for RAW files and card 2 for JPEG) and click Download.  We may now select a custom destination, or choose to change the filename, for now we are just going to leave it at its default and click OK.

The EOS utility will now transfer our pictures to the computer where we can import them into the photo management/editing software of our choice.

As you can see, in most cases forgetting gear is not something to panic over, and certainly not something to just leave your camera in the room in disgust.  Go out and shoot and work around the issues later!  At worst you will need to use a different lens, a setting your not used to, or in the case of the USB cable, wait until you get home.

Next month for our technical blog we will look at another method of getting your files from your camera to your computer, through sFTP.  Thank you for visiting Brent’s World and I hope you come back soon.  If you want to be sure you do not miss new content, REGISTER today!  You will then receive an automatic email when new content is posted.

WiFi Pairing The Canon 5D Mark IV

Brent's World Posted on by

Pairing Canon EOS 5D Mark IV WiFi

  One of the new features of the Canon 5D Mark IV is it’s built in WiFi features.  This allows you to remote control or transfer photos from the Camera to a computer using EOS Utilities or an iOS device using (iOS software name).  This stub will take you step by step in pairing the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with these devices.

Pairing Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with Camera Connect on iOS

STEP – 1 Power on camera and press the MENU botton.

                                    Using the LCD Touch Screen or the M-Fn dial select the Wrench Icon.

                                    Using the LCD Touch Screen or the large scroll wheel on the back select Communication settings and press the SET button.

                                    Using The LCD Touch Screen or using the large scroll wheel on the back select Built-in wireless settings, and press the SET button.

STEP-2 Enable Wi-Fi/NFC

                        Using the LCD Touch Screen or the large scroll wheel on the back select Wi-Fi/NFC                      DISABLE, and press the SET button.

                        Using the LCD Touch Screen or the large scroll wheel on the back select Enable and press the SET button.

STEP – 3 Register a Nickname

                                    Select OK when the below message is displayed.

                       Using the LCD Touch Screen or using the large scroll wheel and SET button on the back to enter your desired WiFi nickname.  Press or select the Trash Icon to delete a character, the INFO/Cancel button to discard changed and exit. or the Menu/OK button to save changes and exit.

STEP – 4

                        On your iOS device (I am using an iPhone 6), launch your CameraConnect app then select ‘Easy Connection Guide’.  Select the camera by the model and nickname we just setup in step 3.

Follow the instructions on your iOS device.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On your camera, press the Menu Button, and navigate to the wrench icon, and screen number 4 and select Communications settings, then built in wireless settings. Select the Wi-Fi function menu.

Select “Connect to smartphone” on the LCD touch screen, or press the SET button.

Select ‘ Easy Connection’, and press OK on the LCD touch screen, or select OK, and press the SET button.

When the following is displayed on the back of the camera, proceed to the next step.

On your iOS device go to Settings > Wifi and find your cameras Nickname in the Wifi list.  Select it and enter the 8 digit code displayed on the back of the camera.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If the password is correct you will be connected to the cameras Wifi, and you will see the following on the back of the camera.  On your iOS device, launch the CameraConnect app. 

Once you see this screen on the CameraConnect app look at the LCD screen on your camera.

press OK on the LCD touch screen, or select OK, and press the SET button.

\Your camera is now connected to your iOS device.

 

Pairing Canon EOS 5D MARK IV with a MacOS X computer.

  We will now cover pairing the Canon 5D MARK IV with a MacOS X computer, for this demonstration I will be using my 2015 MacBook Pro, as this is what I use on the road.

Step 1 – Turn on camera, and set WiFi nickname

Turn on your 5D Mark IV, and press the MENU button on the back. Navigate to the 4thWrench screen, and select ‘Communication Settings’ then ‘Built in wireless settings’. 

If you have already setup a WiFi nickname in the first section you can skip to step 3.  Otherwise perform step 3 from the Pairing Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with Camera Connect on iOS instructions above.

 Step 2 – Paring EOS Utitlity with 5D Mark IV

Select the Computer Icon ‘Remote control (EOS Utility)’ icon using the touchscreen LCD.

On the ‘Connection method screen’ select Easy connection, and select OK using the touchscreen LCD.

On your MacOS X computer go to your WiFi settings and select your camera nickname as defined previously, and enter the Encryption key as displayed on the back of the camera as the WiFi password. Click Join.

Using the touchscreen LCD select OK when asked to ‘Start pairing devices’.

When you see this message on the back of the camera, Launch the EOS Utility on your computer.

Step 3 – Launch EOS Utility

                        The Canon EOS Utility Launcher will open and display the following window

                        Click Pairing over Wi-Fi/LAN

                         The ‘EOS Pairing Software’ window will open.

                        Select your Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and click the Connect button.

 

                       You will see the following message on the back of your camera.  On the touchscreen LCD select OK.

 

                        Once connected EOS Utility 3 will automatically launch.  If you receive an error message, you may need to download the latest version of EOS Utility 3, by clicking here. 

Your camera is now connected to your Mac.

Please be sure to return next week for part two of this blog!  I thought your packed it!  Forgetting important gear and how to work around it.  Don’t miss another blog!  register today and receive automatic email notification when a new blog is posted.  To register click here!

Camping on Mt. Palomar (A vacation within a vacation.)

Brent's World Posted on by

Camping on Mt. Palomar

(A vacation within a vacation)

  How long has it been since I have been camping?  Not since I came to Korea, so about 8 years! So one of the things I wanted while back in the states would be to go out and do some sleeping under the stars!  What better place to do that than Mt. Palomar?  Home of the world famous Hale telescope. 

  The first problem is that I have never been able to reserve a camp site in the past, every time I have tried the campgrounds have been booked solid.  I was in luck this year, as there were plenty of spots available at the Observatory campground.  The other problem was that all my gear is in Korea.  No worries!  I just ordered a new tent, stove, and lantern from Amazon about 2 weeks prior to departure. I can either have the new equipment shipped later or donate it to a family member.  Being that Mt. Palomar is known for its stars, the main road from Interstate 15 to Palomar Mountain SR-76 is known as “Highway to the stars” I bought the brand new Rokinon 14mm f2.8 AF just for star photography, but more on that later!

  The big day finally arrived, and of course I ended up waking up late, than dragging my feet getting my gear ready and packed.  I had intended to leave early, take my time on the drive up taking photos along the way, I did not get on the road until about 1pm, which means I got up to Mt. Palomar aroundt 2:30 in the afternoon.  This wasn’t really a big real since the checkin time for the camp site was 2pm,  I decided to drive up to the Palomar Observatory and have a look at what was once the world’s largest terrestrial telescope.  The observatory was designed by George Ellery Hale in 1928, and was operational in 1948, it contains a 200 In. Pyrex mirror that at the time was the largest in the world and held that record for the next 45 years.

 

  

  After checking out the observatory, it was time to check in at the camp site and setup camp.  I made reservations online for site number 6 at the Observatory Campground. 

  The campground far exceeded my expectations!  The site was set back from the vehicle parking space, had plenty of privacy and the picnic table area, and the spot where I setup my tent offered plenty of shade by oak trees.  There was even a stream running behind the picnic table that offered some relaxing white noise during the night.  Though it also meant the ground was saturated.  So be sure to bring a ground cloth for your tent, as the bottom was quite damp and had to later be dried and cleaned at home. 

  It took about an hour to get everything setup, then it was time to cook dinner.  I BBQ’d a nice thick cut of steak marinated in a premade Jack Daniels sauce, served with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables.

  After dinner it was time to start the camp fire and get ready to look at some stars.  I did say I was here for the stars, right?  Well I was not to be disappointed, at least not by the stars, because out they came!

  I was disappointed with the performance of the new Rokinon lens for star photography, which I will do an in-depth review on later, let’s just say for the purpose of this blog that I was very frustrated just getting what I got here, and if you are looking for a lens to do star photography stick with the manual focus offering by Rokinon.

    I should also note, that one of biggest things to get used to was the amount of quiet!  Coming from Korea, where there is always so much going on around you 24 /7. When you suddenly find yourself in a place where the only thing you hear is the chirping of birds, the occasional scurrying of animals, and the creek running behind your campsite, it is both wonderful, and disconcerting all at the same time!

  I had intended to get up at 6am, and make breakfast, but for the first time on the trip my body decided to sleep in until 10am.  No Time for breakfast!  It was time to hit the trails.  So off I drove to the actual Palomar Mountain State Park.  Since I stayed in a Federal Campground, and Palomar is a state park, I was not sure if my camping fee’s also covered the park entrance.  It was only an additional $10 so I decided to pay just to be safe.  The plan was to hike out and get pictures at the weir Site. The weir was built to measure the waterflow on Doane creek as there were thoughts of building a hydro electic dam to power the mountain. 

  Even with a park map it was confusing at first to find the trail head, I ended up on a sketchy 1 lane dirt grade and took me out of the park. The side trip did have one upside! I was able to pull over at one place and get some selfies next to a fallen log.

I was eventually able to find a place to turn around and get re-oriented and found the trail head at the Doane Pond parking (Just follow the signs to the School Camp.).  The start of the weir trail is to the right of the parking lot. It is a little hard to see. You then cross the road you drove in on and are once more on the trail.  It was a very relaxing high that keeps you in the shade of the most part.  There are quite a few fallen timbers on the trail, but only one that the rangers have not sawed through to make a passage through.  When your just about to the weir you will have to cross Doane creek on this narrow blank (In Asia we would call this a monkey bridge!), It is very stable and I had no problem crossing it (Several times in fact for selfies!), though the first time was a bit unnerving with all the camera equipment on my back! 

  Finally here I am at the weir site,

  I had seen a picture on someone’s blog where they were framed in the upper story window that I was trying to duplicate.  I was never able to scramble up there fast enough!  The best I could do was get a picture of Doane creek using the window as a frame. 

  The joke turned out to be on my however, as when I climbed onto the little rock wall to the left of the weir.  I am almost level with the second floor window, and there is an opening on the side.  I could have avoided all of this however if I had just brought my iPhone and used the remote trigger feature via Wifi.  The trail continued behind the wier, but was completely choked with poison oak, so I turned around and hiked out the way I came in.  So if you wish to hike beyond this point, I recommend bringing a pair of gardening glove and a long sleeve shirt!

  The hike was awesome!  I really appreciated that it was not a very strenuous hike, and how shady it was , except the small stretch where you parallel lower Doane Valley and are exposed to the sun you stay relatively cool!   It was time to head back to the camp site, take a shower and relax before dinner and the final camp fire! 

  I really enjoyed camping at Mt Palomar, and I highly recommend the Observatory Campground!  If site 6 is available go ahead and reserve it.  If you do come back here and tell me if you agree with my recommendation.  It is close to one of the pit toilets (Which are well maintained and do not smell.), but far away from the main flush toilets and showers that you don’t have constant traffic coming by your site. It is also on the other side of the campground from the Observatory trail that you don’t have stray foot traffic either.  The site is set back from the road with plenty of foliage for privacy and the picnic table area is shaded by tall oak trees.  Please remember to walk your campsite on the day of departure and pick up any trash, even if it is not yours!  Leave the site better than you found it! 

How to get to Mt. Palomar

From San Diego. 

Take I-15 North to East – 76, Then turn left on South Grade Road (County S6).  You will follow S6 up the mountain then turn left to continue on S6/Canfield Road).  Keep a look out for the campground ahead ¼ signs.  They come up quickly.  The observatory campground is the first one you will come to on your right.

GPS Coordinates

33°20’30.856″ N
116°52’41.748″ W

Closest Mappable Address (Within 2 miles)

35899Canfield Road, Palomar Mountain, California

RESERVATIONS:

https://www.recreation.gov/camping/observatory-campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=7231

Something Different – The Enigmatic Hipstamatic.

Brent's World Posted on by

Something Different – The Enigmatic Hipstamatic.

  If you have been following my blog on a regular basic you may have noticed something a bit odd about my last blog, https://www.catracing.org/hendrb/going-home-again-day-1-the-long-haul/. Most if not all of the photos on my blogs have been shot with a DSLR, very rarely have I used pictures taken with my iPhone.  I wanted to document my travel experience on the flight  over but did not want to keep taking out and putting away my 5DMKIV.  So I thought what the heck!  I’ll use my iPhone exclusively, but to be really different I will use an app that I have had for a number of years called Hipstamatic. It couldn’t possibly hurt and will add some creativity to the blog.

  What is Hipstamatic?  Hipstamatic is a iOS or Windows Phone created by Hipstamtic LLC <Click here for website>.  Which allows it’s users to take old fashioned square style photographs with carious software filters applied.  Various effects can be closen by selecting a style of camera, film, and flash.  Or you can choose to select a random selection which is what I used.

  Here is a sample of a photo taken with the “Enigmatic” Hipstamatic.

 Pictured here is the ‘back of the hipstamatic, showing the flash lever (When pressed you will hear the sound of the flash charging, ISO selection wheel, view finder, and shutter button.  There is also a photo timer. 

Clicking on the arrow, will display the front of the camera, which will allow you to change lenses, film, flash, or camera body. 

 

Each of these items will provide a different retro look to the pictures taken with the Hipstamatic.  Clicking on the arrow again, returns you to the camera back.

Hipstamatic saves 2 versions of the file, the one seen here with the filter applied and the original photo with no filter applied.

Which is nice if you decide you like the photo better with no filter applied.

  Hipstamatic is available for free from the App Store, and works with either the iPhone or iPad.  The free app comes with a base back of several camera bodies, film, and flashes, and additional “accessories” are available as in-app purchases. Hipstamatic is also available for the Windows Phone.  Their website can be found here.  http://hipstamatic.com/camera/

   I have rarely used my iPhone for the photos for my blog.  Though that may change.  I certainly liked the concienence, and do feel they have a unique look.  If you use your phone to take photos perhaps give the Hipstamtic a chance!  After all the app and base back are free, and you can always decide to use the picture without the effects applied.

  Thank you for visiting Brent’s World.  Please come back next week for more great content!  If you wish to be notified by email when new content is posted you may register by clicking here!

San Diego Restaurant Review – Sunnies Ocean Beach Mexican Food

Brent's World Posted on by

Sunnies Mexican Cuisine & Coffee

Ocean Beaches Mexican Cuisine & Coffee

  One of the traditions in my family seems that we all at one time or another have worked at Sea World.  Either in Park Operations or Food services.  My niece has been carrying on that tradition, however with a new twist. She also works as a waitress at a cozy little Mexican restaurant on Point Loma Ave in Ocean Beach called Sunnies. She is the first teenager in the family to hold down two jobs at the same time.  So of course during my visit I had to run down and blog about it.

  Once you walk in the door, take a moment to peruse the large menu on the wall to the left then step up to the counter and place your order, then take a seat either inside or at one of the tables directly out front or around the corner at “Java Beach”.  Once your food is ready it will be brought out to you by one of the servers.

  I ordered a side of Chips, Cheese, Salsa, and Guac, and a #2 combination plate, which consisted of 2 beef enchiladas (You also had a choice of chicken), beans, and rice.

Here is a fish tacos, on a corn torilla.

  The food was tasty and filling, the environment was nice and it was great to sit down and talk over Mexican food and soda.  The restaurant offers coffee, tea, soda, and bottled water.

  If you are down in the Ocean Beach area and are looking for a quick bite of Mexican food, morning, noon, or night (Breakfast is served all day), give Sunnies a try!  Tell them you heard about them from catracing.org.  Below is their to go menu, however you can also order from the fulfl menu posted above.

ADDRESS:

4723 Point Loma Ave
San Diego, CA 2107
Phone #: (619)693-5298

Website:

www.sunniesoceanbeach.com

Hours:

Mon – Sun 8am – 8pm.

Directions:

            From 5 South:

Exit Sea World Drive head towards the beaches (Cross the Nimitz Bridge), keep right onto Sunset Cliffs BLVD.  Continue on Sunset Cliff BLVD until Point Loma AVE and make a right.

            From 8 West:

Continue to the end of the freeway, and stay in the right lane.  Keep right onto Sunset Cliffs BLVD.  Continue on Sunset Cliff BLVD until Point Loma AVE and make a right.

Technical: macOS X Security – Part 1 – Boot Security

Brent's World Posted on by

Technical: macOS X Security

Part 1 – Boot Security

 

  Technical blogs, oh how I loathe thee.  While one hand they are fun to research, and I do enjoy delving more and more into the inner workings of macOS X, To me these posts feel the most like actual work.  I do not get the enjoyment of taking photographs like I do for travel articles.  Or put myself in a well deserved food coma after reviewing a resturant.  It’s just mostly research, typing, and the screen shots that go with the article

 

They do provide a service to my readers and remain in the top viewed list continuously, so in there in itself is my reward!  Now that I have my belly aching out of the way, let’s start a new technical series on Brent’s World, macOS X Security, which will be a multi part blog on keeping your Mac, and your data safe!  We will begin with the boot loader, utilities available on the recovery partition and the vulnerabilities they impose and how to protect your system from these vulnerabilities.  Subsequent posts will deal with user accounts (Local, and network), file system permissions and access control lists (ACLs), drive and folder encryption, and ending with the sharing options offered with macOS X what they do, and how to lock them down.

So after that long winded preamble, lets dive into the heart of the matter.

Security, security threats, vulnerabilities, hackers, and bad actors.  This is something we hear about daily but as Mac users, especially standalone (devices not part of an enterprise environment.) is something we really take no notice of, these happen to other people, people who own PCs.  If we do anything at all we install an antivirus package such as Sophos and call it a day!  What if I told you there are many more threats out there then just viruses, worms, or ransomware?  Those risks raise exponentially if you are a Macbook or Macbook Pro user, simply because if you lose physical control of the device the thief can attempt to gain access at his leisure.  “So, my device is password protected!”  What if I told you, it is possible to get access to all your data and I don’t even need to enter your password, or that I could change your password from the recovery partition built into your Mac? Let’s take a look at some scenarios, starting from the simple and moving into the more complex.

 

  • The boot loader.

Rebooting or starting a Mac with the option key depressed will invoke the Apple Boot Loader. This will allow me to boot off an external drive such as a thumb drive or external hard drive.  Great for troubleshooting, imaging the operating system, or installing the OS if you have completely replaced the system drive.  It also opens up your system to several vulnerabilities such as allowing an unauthorized individual the ability to take an image of the system drive, or simply copy the data to an external drive

  • The recovery partition.
               Holding down Command – R after the startup chime will invoke loading the recovery partition, this is a hidden partition that contains a limited, bootable version of mac OS X that will allow you to set an OpenFirmware password (More about this later), access a shell via the terminal.app, Reinstall Mac OS X from a Time Machine backup, Reinstall Mac OS X, and Disk Utility. The recovery partition utilities are very useful when used for their intended purposes, but if left unsecured, by not setting an OpenFirmware password allow several holes into your system.  Let me demonstrate.

 

  • Single User Mode (SUM)

Holding down Command – S after the startup chime will place the macOS X computer in “Single User Mode” as the root level account (Even if root is not enabled.). The system volume is loaded as read only, but this can be changed by unmounting and remounting it as read/right.  This allows the person who booted the Mac into single user mode full access to any unencrypted data on the drive, the ability to mount removable media to copy this data off the drive.  The possibility of installing malicious code, as well as being able to change system preferences from the command line.   You may also change any user’s password on the system using Single User Mode.

So we have demonstrated 3 vulnerabilities present at the Mac boot loader, what can be done to harden your computer so bad actors will have a more difficult time exploiting these vulnerabilities?  You can set an OpenFirmware password that you will be prompted to anytime you hold down the Command Key during startup.  In order to enter the Recovery Partition, or Single User Mode you must enter the OpenFirmware password correctly.

CAUTION: If you lose your OpenFirmware password, you will need to take your Mac to either an authorized service center, or to the Genius Bar at an apple store to have the password cleared.  While older Macs (Pre-Intel), did have a reset button on the motherboard.  Newer Macs do not.  Zapping the PRAM will not clear the OpenFirmware password.

Let me now demonstrate how to set the open firmware password.

NOTE: If you sell your Mac, make sure you either include the OpenFirware password, or clear if before you deliver the Mac to its new owner.

These are the vulnerabilities that exist on your Mac during the boot process, while these might not have much impact if you are using a desktop Mac, it might be something to think about for mobile users. 

Thank you for visiting Brent’s World, please come back frequently for more great content.  If you wish to be notified by email when new content is posted, please register, by clicking here!

Book Review – The Second Korean War by Ted Hallstead

Brent's World Posted on by

Book Review – The Second Korean War by Ted Hallstead

  I was feeling a little guilty pushing back the normally scheduled technical blog by a couple of weeks, (which I promise will be worth the wait!) until I realized that is has been almost a year since I published my last review on 2 books The Devil Dragon Pilot, and Defector -Click Here To View-. 

  Let’s face it!  I read, I read a lot!  When I am not working, eating, or sleeping you will find me with my nose buried in the Kindle app on my iPad!  It is not often that I come across a book that is so captivating that no matter what I do I cannot put it down, or will stand out in my mind forever.  Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy, (Which is the first book I read of his), Blindsight, and Godplayer by Robin Cook, and The Lord Of The Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien to name a few titles.

  The Second Korean War by Ted Hallstead is just such a book!  Like Larry Bonds Red Phoenix (Which coincidently follows the same general format and prose of Red Storm Rising). Takes place in present day Korea, Kim Jon Un has died in a plane crash and the new North Korean leader has a plan to reunite the Korean Peninsula by force and replacing their government and using a political/economic system similar to China’s one country two systems policies of Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions. 

  How can North Korea hope to succeed? By threatening to detonate a nuclear bomb under the heart of Seoul itself, and to keep the US Military from coming to their allies aid a nuclear device has also been smuggled into a large US city and will be detonated if the United States interferes. 

  The only fly in the ointment is that an honest and hard working Vladivostok police detective has stumbled onto the loose ends left by the arms dealer who sold North Korea an old and forgotten about man portable nuclear weapon (Suitcase bomb).  With the help of an FSB agent they track down the device in the United States.  Will they be in time?  Will the North Koreans be successful in detonating the device in Seoul? 

  The book was well written, and did not bog the reader down with technical details or drone on about military strategy, or political details like Clancy’s books tend to.  While the editing needs a bit of work as there are spelling and grammatical errors, the book is still very enjoyable.  I pulled an all nighter in a coffee shop unable to put the book down while I was supposed to be out practicing nighttime photography in Seoul!

  If you are looking for a good entertaining military thriller, based loosely around current events, I highly recommend picking up The Second Korean War.  When finished you may also want to read Red Phoenix by Larry Bond (Though somewhat dated, still remains a good read, and hypothesis of what a second war on the Korean peninsula would look like.

  The Second Korean War can be purchased in book or Kindle form by clicking HERE.  Please note, Brent’s World is not monetized in any way!  I do not receive money or credit from Amazon.com if you purchase from this link.

  Be sure to come back next weekend for our regularly scheduled blog article on OS macOS X security, Securing the boot loader.  If you want to ensure that you do not miss any great new content from Brent’s World, be sure to register by CLICKING HERE.  You will receive an email whenever new content is posted.

Technical – My Top 5 macOS X utilities

Brent's World Posted on by

Technical – Top 5 Utilities You Should Have For Your Mac.

   I cannot believe I’m doing this!  I loathe the internet’s fascination with creating top 5 lists for anything!  Next, I will be reporting that dogs and cats are in fact living together.  In our last article, I recommended buying a bigger USB thumb drive than needed for your rescue USB stick where you could create a second bootable partition containing useful troubleshooting utilities. What utilities do I actually recommend you putting on this partition or on your Mac for normal use? In this week’s quickie article, I will rate, and briefly describe my top 5 macOS X utilities.  All the utilities listed here are 3rd party utilities, so they must be purchased separately.  So let’s get started!

Paragon NTFS – While mac OS X gives us the ability to read NTFS formatted drives and partitions, it does not allow us to write to them. There is a way of enabling writing to an NTFS partition, but it is slow, buggy, and you may lose data.  Neither APPLE nor myself would recommend that method for anything other than an emergency solution.  This is where Paragon NTFS comes in.  Paragon NTFS allows reading, writing, and formatting/partitioning NTFS drives.  You may download and try Paragon NTFS for 10 days, after the 10 day trial you must pay $19.95 to continue using it.  Paragon’s website is found here: https://www.paragon-software.com/ufsdhome/ntfs-mac/

Carbon Copy Cloner – This next utility in my arsenal also highlights an annoyance I have right now with Apple. Did you know that Apple’s own Disk Utility does not like you image devices that are formatted with the new Apple File System (APFS)? Seems hard to believe. Right?  So what are we to do if you need to image a disk that has been formatted or converted to APFS?  This is where Carbon Copy Cloner ‘CCC’ comes in and why I recommend that you put this on your rescue utility disk.  Carbon Copy Cloner has full APFS support for disk images. Great for transferring or making backup copies of your system disks!  Carbon Copy Cloner by Bombich Software is available with a 30-Day trial license, and costs $39.99 for a full license.  You can download directly from Bombichs’ web site here: https://bombich.com/.

 

Stuffit Expander – If you have been a Mac user for a long time, you would know that Stuffit Expander is the Mac equivalent to Winzip. Stuffit ‘.sit’ archives was the predominant file compression standard before .dmg.  Stuffit could also uncompress .zip archives before mac OS X had the ability built in.  So if the most common format of compressed files in the wild today are now .dmg or .zip files, why would I need to concern myself with Stuffit Expander?  Stuffit Expander has the ability to decompress a wider range of formats than mac OS X can by default, one of those archive types is .rar files.  Which I have a time or 2 had the need to uncompress.  Since Stuffit Expander is free, why not add it to your tool bin? Stuffit Expander can be downloaded from SmithMicro at http://my.smithmicro.com/stuffit-expander-mac.html, or the Mac App Store

Sophos Anti Virus – I would include Sophos Anti Virus to protect yourself from malware, and to run a virus scan on drives without Sophos installed that you may not want to boot off of.

While not exactly a utility I highly recommend installing the Homebrew repository, which will allow you to add additional functionality to your shell environment, such as htop shown below. Additionally you might want to think about installing telnet which was removed from macOS X 10.13 due to security reasons (telnet is a non-encrypted protocol and sends everything in clear text, including passwords.  However it can be very useful for testing ports and protocols, as I am demonstrating below connecting to Google.com’s SMTP server.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to visit Brent’s World, Please come back next week for another great article about Korea.  I visit the Mr. Toilet House Toilet Museum in Suwon!

Don’t miss out on new context when it is posted, register today to be emailed when a new blog is posted.  To register click HERE!