TIPS & TRICKS: Recalibrate a Sticky iPhone Home Button

Didn't know about this trick until today. Apparently, if the home button on the iPhone is sticking or not responding, recalibrating it could help to get it working again. Here are the steps:

1. Click on a native iOS application (i.e. Stocks, Email, Messages, etc.).
2. Push and hold the power button on top until the "slide to power off" screen appears.
3. Let go of the power button. 
4. Push and hold the home button until the "slide to power off" screen disappears and let go of the home button. 

The home button should be recalibrated now. 

Hope this helps someone. 

TIPS & TRICKS: Adobe Acrobat Licensing Error

Encountered this error message:

The scenario is that this error shows up after deploying a custom Windows 7 image. When a new user logs into the machine and tries to launch a PDF file, this error message appears.

Here is Adobe's knowledge base article on this:

http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/error-213-19-licensing-acrobat.html

Part of the problem is that the user needs to have full access to \ProgramData\Adobe (I found that just giving an administrative account explicit access to that folder temporarily and launching Acrobat once was enough). However, the more specific problem is that Adobe forces a window on first launch of Adobe Acrobat that asks you to register the software. If that process can either get disabled or launched prior to imaging (without getting reset during the Sysprep process), then we can avoid this error message. Thanks a bunch Adobe.

RANTS: The Day Has Finally Arrived

People have been saying for some time that Macs are safe and are not susceptible to malware infections. As a result, anti-malware software is not needed. The market more or less followed this trend. But, this has changed. Malware is not something that only PC users have to deal with anymore. I've been asked many times in the past whether anti-virus or other anti-malware was needed. I've always said that it's better to be proactive about protection than to wait until there's a problem. By then, the computer would've already been infected.

Here's a BBC news article about Macs becoming the right size target for attackers to pay attention:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17623422

Here's the F-Secure link about how to figure out if your Mac might be infected:

http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/trojan-downloader_osx_flashback_i.shtml

Hope this helps someone.