Any company using Macs in a world full of Windows users needs a virtualization program. You get Windows running on your Mac, so you can make sense of that fussy Web site that won’t behave well enough to run correctly on a Mac, for example. Parallels launched this kind of product, but the much-larger VMWare came out with Fusion about a year later to offer an alternative. Now we hear that Fusion, in any version below 2.0.4, can permit a Windows malware virus to take over a Mac.

Virtualization users run a copy of Microsoft Windows on their Macs. Most use XP, and an independent security company has announced that Fusion permits a Windows bug to take over the Mac OS. VMWare released a 2.0.4 version to fix the hole. This is the opening round of what will probably be a growing problem for Mac owners: viruses built to attack users of things like Fusion and Parallels.

The independent Immunity, Inc. has a video of the kind of hack Fusion permits. It’s enough to make you consider going to Parallels instead of Fusion, if you haven’t selected this kind of tool yet. What’s most important is to keep up with what the virtualization supplier reports about their product. Both of these companies are being proactive about closing these holes. Parallels even includes a one-year-free subscription to its Windows virus-malware protection tool.

David Pogue is amazing. The New York Times columnist (his Circuits writing is a fun must-read) has another life as an O’Reilly “Missing Manuals” author. His new Missing Manual on Digital Photography illuminates the sometimes-murky world of taking pictures with digital cameras. Even more important, Pogue sharpens the focus on what to do with the photos once you’re taken them.

Business users can overlook the power of pictures. The Web has become a high-value marketplace with social networks and blogs. Every one of these sites — Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, even free blogs on Blogger — is a marketing tool. And these messages from businesses stand out when they have a graphic element.

You could start with your own picture, and Pogue’s book begins with taking photos. He’s got a clear and illustrated 13-page Taking the Shot section right up front that answers questions of how to frame and shoot. This is all subjective, of course, but adding things like The Rule Guideline of Thirds shows flexibility. And Pogue has his own artistic sensibility, since he was a Broadway musical conductor in a prior career.

The book also covers 10 Decisions to make on camera options, like flash, manual mode, how much exposure. I’ve been taking photos for more than 25 years as a journalist, and Pogue’s advice refreshed me. Every enterprise has access to easier photography tools today. The basics are in this book, but it adds so much more in details, too. Read the rest of this entry »

Macworld Expo organizers have moved the 2010 conference and trade show back one month, into a more sensible February. It’s a welcome change for those of us who’ve been attending to learn, shop and network at the old early-January show dates.

The fate of the Feb. 9-13 conference, which Apple abandoned after this year, is not certain even though IDG World Expo has already said the event will happen no matter how much participation they get. The Expo organizers report that 90 exhibitors signed letters of intent to buy show floor space already. The cost per square foot has dropped, too. Best of all, free passes to explore the expo floor are available now.

As for attendees, the marketing has already begun many months earlier to get us to show up in those expo aisles. The word “conference” has been added to the event’s name, but every class and seminar is now packed into Moscone West; they once spread over two halls. But there’s decent learning on the expo floor, too. It’s worthwhile to make a trip to Macworld at least once if your business is built upon Macs and Apple products. It remains to be seen how much iPod commerce will fill the show aisles, rather than the higher-grade exhibition of business solutions in software and hardware. Read the rest of this entry »