A strange thing happened last Friday: while I was putting together last week’s news summary, HP printer connections on Macs all over started showing strange error messages. First suspicions were on the Xprotect update published a day before, but then HP had to admit that they had ‘accidentally’ revoked a certificate that was still very much in active use. As usual, Howard Oakley and Mr Macintosh covered the issue in much detail.
macOS Big Sur is still in beta did a surprising step from “11.0 beta 10” to “11.0.1 beta 1.” This probably means that there will be new Mac hardware soon that ships with a version of 11.0, and immediately prompt for an update when they are run for the first time.
Even though the 2020 conference season is not over yet—you can register for Everyworld here—Jamf has gone ahead and announced that JNUC 2021 will also be virtual. This will planning uncertainty for the organizers, speakers, attendees. Virtual JNUC 2020 was already a great event, but there were many aspects that can be improved on and I am happy that Jamf is taking the time necessary to take that on.
On the topic of conferences, the MacAdmins Podcast had Patrik Jerneheim from the MacSysAdmins Conference talking about the experience of MacSysAdmin Online.
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News and Opinion
- Last Week on My Mac: Are silent security updates a vulnerability? – Howard Oakley
- Who’s ready for JNUC 2021? – Jamf
- A Guy Walks Into an Apple Store – Matt Birchler
macOS 11 Big Sur and iOS 14
- Mac OS Big Sur logbook – More UI refinements – Riccardo Mori
- What’s New in macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 Beta 1 (20B5012d)? – Mr Macintosh
- macOS Big Sur & MDM: The Comprehensive Guide for Mac Admins – Kandji Blog
- iOS 14.2 Update Pop-Up Problem! + Fix – New iOS update is now available
Coronavirus and Remote Work
- Five Nonobvious Remote Work Techniques – Thomas Limoncelli, ACM Queue
- Aerosol transmission of Covid-19: A room, a bar and a classroom: how the coronavirus is spread through the air – Mariano Zafra, Javier Salas, El País
MacAdmins on Twitter
- Alexander Blach: “TIL: you can use a Lightning to USB3 Camera Adapter to migrate data to a new iPhone using a wired connection (no Wi-Fi) while also charging both iPhones from a single power adapter.”
- Tim Perfitt: “Yes, this is probably from Xcode, but Xcode isn’t running nor is an iOS simulator. I have no idea what to answer here and I am an Apple developer since before Swift! How would I know if I should trust this? If I deny it, there could be issues with development” (Thread)
- Mr. Macintosh: “As to why we are getting 11.0.1 This could mean that 11.0 is GM for Apple Silicon Macs currently in production. When they arrive in customers hands, 11.0.1 will show as an available update. Doing it this way hides the AS installer data so we can’t look at the new DeviceIDs.”
- Erik Gomez: “I think it’s less to hide things and more that Big Sur just isn’t ready.”
Bugs and Security
- Apple notarizes new Mac malware… again – Joshua Long, Intego
- Whose computer is it? – tinyapps.org
- Quarantine and the quarantine flag – Howard Oakley
HP Printer certificates
- If you suddenly can’t print to your HP Printer from your Mac, you’re not alone: Code security cert snafu blamed – Chris Williams, The Register
- Why have my HP printers stopped working? How to check their software signature – Howard Oakley
- What happened with security updates and HP printer software? – Howard Oakley
- Code signatures: 1 How they work, and stop working – Howard Oakley
- HP Printer Driver Certificate Issue! “Driver will Damage your Computer” – Mr Macintosh
Support and HowTos
- There’s more to files than data: Extended Attributes – Howard Oakley
- macOS: App sandboxing via sandbox-exec – Karl Tarvas
Scripting and Automation
- Scripting with SwiftUI (I) – Coding a color picker View – Alexis Bridoux
- Bash Redirects – Julia Evans, Wizard Zines
- NetNewsWire TechNotes – YellowDuck.be
- Updates to the AutoPkgReviewAndRun.py script – Alan Siu
- mvdbent/onAirScanner: Look for an online meeting, and control via API HueLights
Updates and Releases
To Listen
- Macsysadmin: The Show Must Go On – Mac Admins Podcast
- Interview With Jon Brown, founder & CEO of Grove Technologies — Command-Control-Power
- Are Macs more secure than PCs in the enterprise? – Apple @ Work Podcast, 9to5Mac
- Testing in Production – MacDevOpsYVR
- Finding consumer value in Cybersecurity Awareness Month with Jamie Court – Lock and Code, Malwarebytes Labs
Support
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