account

After installing OS X 10.7.2 and enabled the new iCloud services that Apple unveiled yesterday, a number of users have found that the system is displaying a Guest User account at the log-in window.

Upon clicking this account, the system will show a warning that states the system will restart into a Safari-only mode for the guest user, and if any accounts are currently logged in then they will be forced to log out and may lose unsaved work.

For people seeing this, if they go to the Users & Groups system preferences, the guest account will be … Read more

In the sometimes slippery world of the Web, it can pay to cross your "t"s and dot your "i"s.

Case in point:

A colleague sent me a link to a tweet that at first seemed to show that Applebee's Twitter account had been hacked. The account had tweeted: "Poop is food."

As catchy as that tagline might be, it seems a little weird coming from a major restaurant chain. And on closer inspection I thought the page looked a bit suspicious. Only nine tweets had gone out from the account, and … Read more

Facebook has announced a ton of new features today during its F8 conference. The first feature rolled out is called Timeline. While it's not currently available to most Facebook users, you can sign up, making your account eligible to receive the new feature earlier than most.… Read more

In OS X, user passwords are encrypted and then are stored in files called "shadow files" which are placed in secure locations on the drive. Based on system permissions, the contents of these files can then only be accessed and modified by the user, or by administrators provided they first give appropriate authentication. This means that only the user can change its password, or if needed, then an administrator can do this by first authenticating.

Unfortunately, recent discoveries have shown that in OS X Lion this security structure is not intact, and any user on the system can … Read more

In OS X, the creation of separate user accounts is useful not only for keeping work and private documents separate, but also so users can have their own settings and system customizations that will not interfere with those of other users. User accounts can be added or removed in the Accounts System Preferences (called Users and Groups in Lion), but in some situations, people are finding that they cannot remove some accounts from their systems, and when they try the accounts will show up the next time they open Accounts.

Account access and management problems may happen when you perform … Read more

NirSoft's Nir Sofer writes small but useful programs that do small but useful tasks for even smaller fees, usually no fee, otherwise known as "free." His Mail PassView is a compact freeware tool that recovers and displays passwords and account details for several popular e-mail clients, including Outlook and Outlook Express, Thunderbird, and Eudora. It can handle POP3, IMAP, HTTP, and SMTP accounts, depending on the particular client.

Mail PassView opened with our Outlook 2010 data displayed in its plain main view, including not only our password and account name but also server, server port, account type, … Read more

OK, I take hacking of Twitter accounts seriously now--former Rep. Anthony Weiner's spurious claims notwithstanding.

When someone I follow sent me an annoyingly long string of tweets last month that read "Can you please enter your e-mail so I can get a iPad2 please!" I pinged her. To my surprise, she hadn't even noticed. An embarrassing hack, but no real harm done.

Then, a few weeks later, my account tweeted some political drivel. Which I expressly don't do. Just like her, I hadn't checked my own Twitter feed (the tweet had been out there … Read more

Gone are the days of managing your finances with a calendar and a checkbook; personal finance software has almost completely automated what used to be a tedious chore. Unfortunately, Household Accounting Book is not one of the more capable programs we've encountered. In fact, there's not much of anything that we liked about it.

The program's interface is rather sparse, with a handful of drop-down menus and buttons and a logo that looks like it was created in Microsoft Paint. Transactions are split into three categories--income, fixed expenses, and variable expenses--and you can create subcategories in each … Read more

Sharing your computer with other people can be detrimental to your personal settings. Unlike a lot of services and features you can customize, Google+ offers the ability to back up your account data in case of tampering.

Once logged in to Google+:

Step 1: Click on your profile menu in the top-right corner (the one with a miniature version of your profile picture) and choose Account settings.

Step 2: You will see the Account overview area. Now select Data liberation from the menu on the left side.

Step 3: Click the Download data button near the top of the next … Read more