by Gil Poulsen | Oct 31, 2014 | Medical
APOLOGIES FOR the lurid yet fiendishly-clever-as-usual title, but trust me–it’s no less appropriate than was last week’s POODLEs reference. Not only is today All Hallows’ Eve, a time for all things sanguinary, but it just happens to be the 2nd anniversary of my stem cell transplant, undergone whilst witnessing the devastation of Hurricane Sandy from my hospital room window.
Plus, I’m way overdue for a medical update, and what with all the security breaches and new operating systems with which we’ve been inundated recently, I figured you could use a break from the geeky computer stuff. So let’s jump right into some geeky medical stuff instead.
As I noted right around this time last year, the sheer volume of blood moved in and out of one’s body prior to said transplant is about as sanguinary as it gets. Yet through it all, the docs and I remained sanguine and thus, here I prattle to report on my current condition re: chronic graft vs host disease and an innovative but, ah, sanguinary new treatment for that most vexing of conditions afflicting much of the cGVHD population–keratitis sicca, a.k.a. dry eye.
BECAUSE OF the way cGVHD causes a stubborn and severe inflammation of the tear ducts, we transplant patients end up with a pretty high-octane version of dry eye–the kind that is virtually debilitating at times, and doesn’t respond to artificial tears, lubricants or even the vaunted Restasis–although that does seem to work quite well for the attractive eye doctor in the TV commercial.
So what have the best and brightest researchers recently conjured for us keratitis sickies? As you’ve probably deduced from all of the above, it has everything to do with… blood.
Seems that the only area of our body that is not threaded through and through with blood vessels is the cornea–the clear outer covering of the eye over the pupil. Clear being the operative term here–if the cornea were intertwined with blood vessels, it would no longer be clear, and we’d have only four senses with which to work.
SO HOW DOES the cornea receive the nutrients that blood transports to all the rest of our cells, if the blood has no way to get there? Why, tears of course. Seems they’re not just for keeping your eyes lubricated (courtesy of the tear film that covers and protects the cornea); they also carry the same nutrients that your blood supplies to all other parts of your body.
These researchers therefore theorized that if they mingled the blood from an individual suffering from severe dry eye with artificial tears, in just the perfect proportion, they could create an autologous serum in the form of eye drops that would work as well as the real McCoy. Tears of renown, if you will.
Sounds simple, perhaps, but the early returns have been promising. Here’s an excerpt from a recent study published at the Wiley Online Library:
Theoretically, autologous serum eye drops (AS) have a potential advantage over traditional therapies based on the assumption that AS serve not only as a lacrimal substitute to provide lubrication, but also contain other biochemical components mimicking natural tears more closely. The application of AS in dry eye treatment has gained popularity as a second-line therapy in the treatment of dry eye. Published studies on the subject indicate that autologous serum could be an effective treatment for dry eye.
THE REST, as they say, is history. To wit: In a most happy coincidence, AS happened to be exactly what Manuel B. Datiles, M.D., the ophthalmologist with whom I was fortunate enough to meet at last year’s NIH trial, was–and still is–experimenting with.
This smidgen of information I gleaned at the trial led me to broach the subject of AS with one Leonard Bielory, M.D., he of the STARx Allergy & Asthma Center in Springfield, NJ and the immuno-ophthalmologist I’ve been visiting recently. In an even happier coincidence, he’s already been preparing AS for some of his patients, and has offered to whip up a batch for yours truly in the very near future–but only if I agree to just a little more bloodletting, of course.
TO WHICH I say: Why not? It is Halloween, after all. And what’s Halloween without a little, er… blood let for tears.
The Team G pumpkin, as carved by sister Lori and family
Next: Back to computer/technology stuff that I’ll pretend you’re actually interested in
by Gil Poulsen | Oct 22, 2014 | Mac, Technology
Plus: The Return of Camera Roll, and the debut of Yosemite
SO THERE I was, in the midst of crafting one of my typically droll and yet diabolically clever headlines for this post, when the perfect title was dropped right into my lap. Well, right into my Inbox, to be precise. Long-time client and Gilmore Girls fan Regina just happened to send along a completely unrelated email with that very subject line, which–according to the unparalleled resources of the Urban Dictionary–“can be used to shut up a person that is talking non-stop about a certain subject.”
Given that the primary focus of this missive is POODLE, an acronym for the latest security exploit capable of bringing the Internet to its knees, I feel well within my rights to assert that this expression can also be used to “shut up an Internet that is afflicted non-stop with certain security vulnerabilities.” As in: “Heartbleed? iCloud celebrity hack? Shellshock? And now POODLE? Oy with the POODLEs already!”
Ah, if only a well-turned phrase would serve to dispose of these technological threats… So just what is POODLE? Like Heartbleed, it’s a vulnerability in the system that encrypts information sent between devices and/or across the Internet, so that data like passwords and credit card numbers are protected from prying eyes. The POODLE vulnerability exists specifically in the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 3.0 protocol, which was superseded by the newer and more secure TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocol a while back.
UNFORTUNATELY, a small percentage of Web sites–and other devices that encrypt data, like routers–still use SSL 3.0 instead of TLS, and most Web browsers are set to “fall back” to SSL when they talk to a server if they can’t find TLS running, so that they can still conduct an encrypted “discussion.” When that happens, the POODLE (Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption) vulnerability in SSL can be exploited by a hacker, and the no-longer-secure data can be decrypted and accessed.
So what can we do about this? Fortunately, as of this past Monday it’s pretty simple. Just run Software Update from the Apple menu, and it will deliver Security Update 2014-005, which prevents your Mac from using SSL in Safari, even if a server is offering it to you.
Firefox is also safe as long as you’re using version 33.0 (go to “About Firefox” from the FireFox menu to check/update). Google Chrome is still vulnerable as of this writing, per my visit to the POODLE Test site just a moment ago. And for anyone using 10.7 “Lion,” 10.6.8 “Snow Leopard,” or older, Apple is not providing a patch ;-(
APPLE HAS, however, provided a few other goodies in the past week. Namely, the iOS 8.1 update which, due to, er, popular demand, brings back the Camera Roll album. Not only that, it brings back the My Photo Stream album as well, if only to vex and confuse those of us who still don’t quite understand why Photo Stream photos are different on all our devices, and why they sometimes go away but other times stay forever.
Since Photo Stream will soon be replaced by the iCloud Photo Library, now available to try in a beta (test) version, there’s no point dwelling on the nitty gritty details. Suffice to say that those of you now using iOS 8 should definitely upgrade to 8.1 ASAP, since it squashes a lot of other bugs as well.
Should any of you out there feel adventurous enough to try out the iCloud Photo Library, it can be activated in Settings–>Photos & Camera on your iDevice. I’ll be curious to hear your experiences with it, so please feel free to share them in the comments below. For me, so far so good but I have only a few dozen photos up there at this point.
APPLE HAS ALSO released “Yosemite,” aka OS X 10.10, and in the process eliminated “Mavericks” 10.9. So if you haven’t yet upgraded to 10.9, it’s no longer an option. But trust me, you weren’t missing anything. While Mavericks brought little more than tabbed Finder windows (and major printing/email issues for some), Yosemite offers Handoff and Continuity features for iDevice users, as well as some other nifty stuff, like the ability to annotate email attachments and to sign documents with your trackpad.
I touched on Handoff and Continuity a few posts back, but just to review, these features enable iDevice users to do things like start an email on your iPad and finish it up on your iMac, or take a call from your iPhone on your MacBook Air. In fact, you can even initiate a phone call from your Mac, as long as your iPhone is nearby. For my money, Handoff and Continuity have the potential to be the most valuable features to come along in a new OS since 2007, when Time Machine debuted way back in Mac OS X 10.5.
So should you upgrade to Yosemite now? Well… if you’re already using Mavericks 10.9, and your Mac has slowed down appreciably since upgrading, or if it has caused problems with your Apple Mail program (especially if you’re a GMail user), I would go for it.
FOR THOSE USING Mountain Lion 10.8 or who have had no issues with Mavericks, I would at least wait until Yosemite 10.10.1 shows up, which is typically within a month or two after the initial version release. So far I have not seen any of the horror stories that often accompany a brand-new system, but since your mileage may vary, discretion is probably the better part of valor here.
As with iCloud Photo Library, any early adopters of Yosemite are encouraged to share their experiences below.
by Gil Poulsen | Oct 1, 2014 | Mac, Technology
ANOTHER WEEK, another set of crises for Apple to weather. On the heels of August’s celebrity photo iCloud hack comes the Shellshock vulnerability, freshly discovered on Sep. 24 and rivaled only by this spring’s Heartbleed bug as the Vulnerability With The Most Compelling Monicker so far this year. At virtually the same moment, reports of the new iPhone 6 Plus bending after spending an extended period of time in users’ pockets began to surface on various forums.
Let’s begin with Shellshock. Also known as the Bash bug, it’s a legitimate issue present in most UNIX-based operating systems, of which Mac OS X is one. The name “Shellshock” arises from the area of the vulnerability, specifically the Bourne Again Shell (bash), a program used to issue commands to the system. If the bug is present, an attacker could potentially take over control of the shell, and thus the entire operating system.
FOR THE AVERAGE Mac user, however, it’s unlikely to become a real problem unless he or she has messed with some advanced UNIX settings from the command line. Still, Apple has taken it seriously and has issued downloadable patches (see end of article) for Mac OS X 10.9, 10.8 and 10.7. A future OS X security update will push the proper patch to your Mac shortly if you don’t apply it now.
There’s a way to test your Mac for the bug, but it involves using the Terminal app to run a UNIX command; if you’re all about that sort of thing, then check out Lifehacker’s instructions and dive right in. Otherwise, just download and install the appropriate patch below (go to About This Mac from the Apple menu if you’re not sure which version of Mac OS X you’re using).Those of you still running OS X 10.6 are unfortunately out of luck, as Apple stopped issuing security updates for Snow Leopard late last year.
ON TO THE iPhone 6 and the debate over whether, well, whether this whole “bendable” thing is worth debating. According to Apple, in a statement made to the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets on Sep. 25th, the company has received only nine complaints of the iPhone 6 plus bending under normal use. On the other hand, a quick Web search reveals all sorts of references to angry users, YouTube videos of folks bending their phones until they snap, and most recently two 15-year-old boys who actually recorded themselves on video bending–and breaking–an iPhone 6 Plus in the Norwich, CT Apple Store.
Are the new iPhone 6 models particularly vulnerable to bending under normal use? The first few days of reports and YouTube videos were often compelling, but for the most part on the unscientific side, while Apple on Sep. 25th invited the medis to its “torture-test” facility and demonstrated the various stress tests they perform on the iPhones to ensure durability, in an effort to show how tough the phones actually are.
SO WHO TO believe? On September 26th, no less an authority than Consumer Reports weighed in on the debate by publishing the results of their own stress tests on not only the new iPhones, but the iPhone 5, LG G3, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and HTC One (M8) as well. I’ll let you read the results for yourself, but to sum up:
- “Significant force” was required to damage any of the phones tested; the testers deemed them all to be “pretty tough”
- The iPhone 6 Plus turned out to be stronger than the iPhone 6
- The iPhone 5 was approximately twice as strong as either iPhone 6 model
- The most durable phone was the Samsung Galaxy Note 3; the least durable was the HTC One (M8)
- “While nothing is (evidently) indestructible, we expect that any of these phones should stand up to typical use.”
I’ll add my own $0.02 here, if I may: Thanks to a concept known as “physics,” the thinner smartphones become, the less durable they’ll be. From my own perspective, I’ve always been afraid to place a phone in my back pocket–not for fear of bending it but rather that I might crack the screen upon sitting down.
And just in “case” this isn’t patently obvious, most iPhone owners (86% according to this Business Insider survey) employ some type of protective case. In fact, the survey revealed that over 25% of the respondents used OtterBox cases, meaning that they take their protection pretty seriously.
LET’S WRAP UP by bringing a little sanity into this debate. Regardless of the “bendability,” or lack of same, of the new iPhones, resist the temptation to ride bareback and enclose your device in a protective case of some sort. Avoid putting the phone in your back pocket, even if you’re not intending on sitting down for a while. Last but not least, do not conduct any of the previously-referenced stress testing on your $700 iDevice.
AltiM@c Consulting: Proudly keeping our readers from becoming shell-shocked–or bent out of shape–since 1995.
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Shellshock patch for Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1769
Shellshock patch for Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1768
Shellshock patch for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1767
