O'Grady's PowerPage

Tag: Michael Tsai

  • SpamSieve updated to 2.9.4

    spamsieve2.jpg

    You can’t knock improvements to a pretty-much-indispensable shareware application.

    Michael Tsai’s must-have shareware program, SpamSieve, has just been updated to version 2.9.4. The new version, a 10 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and improvements:

    – Made various changes to improve SpamSieve’s filtering accuracy.

    – Revised and expanded the Frequently Asked Questions to make it easier for people to find, fix, and report problems.

    – Fixed a problem where SpamSieve could crash when processing messages from Apple Mail on OS X 10.8, particularly after the Mac had awakened from sleep.

    – Workedaround on an issue on OS X 10.8 that could cause training SpamSieve from Apple Mail to be very slow.

    – The Train as Good command in Outlook will now move messages from the trash back to the inbox.

    – Made various updates to the manual for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, for example clarifying that SpamSieve works (via Apple Mail) during a Power Nap.

    – Worked around a problem where Apple Mail couldn’t communicate with SpamSieve if the /etc/hosts file was damaged.

    – Improved the error reporting when SpamSieve detects that one of its files is damaged.

    – Added defensive coding to try to track down a notification icon problem when running in French.

    – You can now set the MJTSoundLoadFromApps default to false if you want to prevent SpamSieve from looking for notification sounds installed by other applications, e.g. to prevent mounting an encrypted Microsoft User Data folder.

    – Fixed a bug handling errors if a software update failed; if it succeeded, the .dmg file is now deleted to reduce clutter.

    – After purchasing, SpamSieve used to show your user image to indicate that it had been successfully personalized. It now shows a generic checkmark to avoid prompting you for Contacts access on OS X 10.8.

    – Added an icon for the crash reporter, since it’s now displayed under OS X 10.8.

    – Fixed a bug where Apple Mail on Mac OS X 10.5 would log (harmless) errors about _NSAutoreleaseNoPool.

    – Fixed a bug where the Apple Mail plug-in sometimes logged confusing error messages about not being able to launch SpamSieve even though it was already launched.

    – Fixed a bug where the Apple Mail plug-in reported the wrong installation path in an error message when running on OS X 10.8.

    SpamSieve retails for US$30.00 and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to install and run.

    If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback, please let us know in the comments.

  • SpamSieve updated to 2.9.3

    spamsieve2.jpg

    Michael Tsai’s must-have shareware program, SpamSieve, has just been updated to version 2.9.3. The new version, a 10 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and improvements:

    – Added support for the forthcoming Mac OS X 10.7.5.

    – Fixed a bug that could prevent SpamSieve from auto-launching on the forthcoming OS X 10.8.

    – SpamSieve is now able to recover from certain unexpected system errors on OS X 10.8.

    – Fixed a layout bug in the German-localized Statistics window.

    – Improved the Automatically Deleting Old Spam Messages instructions.

    – SpamSieve now tells the system that it can use the integrated GPU, which should reduce battery use on newer MacBook Pros.

    – SpamSieve’s disk image background is now displayed at Retina quality on eligible Macs running Mac OS X 10.7 or 10.8. (On Mac OS X 10.6, due to an OS bug, it will incorrectly display at double size.)

    – Fixed a regression where SpamSieve’s disk image icon didn’t display properly.

    SpamSieve retails for US$30.00 and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to install and run.

    If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback, please let us know in the comments.

  • SpamSieve updated to 2.9.2

    spamsieve2.jpg

    Michael Tsai’s must-have shareware program, SpamSieve, has just been updated to version 2.9.2. The new version, a 10 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and improvements:

    – Improved compatibility with the forthcoming OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.

    – The recommended condition for the Apple Mail rule is now Every Message rather than Message Type Is Mail. SpamSieve will auto-update your rules at launch on OS X 10.7 if Mail is running.
    SpamSieve is better at detecting a certain type of tricky spam message.

    – Worked around an OS bug that prevented SpamSieve from properly analyzing some message attachments.

    – False negative files now have the .eml extension so that they work with Quick Look, etc.

    – The Setting Up a Spam Filtering Drone section of the manual has been updated with simpler instructions for Apple Mail and new instructions for setting up a drone using Microsoft Outlook 2011.

    – Added the Using a Spam Mailbox on the Server section of the manual (for Apple Mail).

    – Updated various graphics for retina displays.

    – If the Apple Mail plug-in cannot be installed due to a folder ownership problem, SpamSieve will now ask for an administrator password to try to fix the folder for you.

    – Reverted to version 1.2.3 of the Growl SDK to avoid problems with high CPU usage, internal errors, and crashes.

    – Improved SpamSieve’s reporting of unexpected errors as well as script errors from Apple Mail.

    – SpamSieve no longer responds at all to certain invalid commands. This should work around an OS bug that could lead to crashes.

    – The crash reporter can now make recommendations for you based on the contents of the crash log.

    – Added a link to the forum in the Help menu.

    SpamSieve is available for a US$30 registration fee and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to run. The new version can either be downloaded directly from the web site or brought up to the current version via the program’s built-in update feature.

    If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, let us know in the comments.

  • SpamSieve updated to 2.9.1

    spamsieve2.jpg

    Michael Tsai’s must-have shareware program, SpamSieve, has just been updated to version 2.9.1. The new version, a 9.1 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and improvements:

    – Added support for Microsoft Outlook 2011 SP 2 (a.k.a. 14.2.x). If SpamSieve can detect that you were using Outlook 2011 before, and that SP 2 has been installed, SpamSieve will auto-update its scripts automatically. Otherwise, you can choose Install Outlook Scripts from the SpamSieve menu. Either way, the SpamSieve rules in Outlook will continue to work without modification.

    – SpamSieve now tries to detect whether its Apple Mail plug-in is damaged and auto-heal the installed copy if necessary.

    – If there’s an error updating SpamSieve’s Apple Mail plug-in, it now reports more information to try to diagnose the problem.

    – If the Apple Mail plug-in detects that it’s damaged, it will alert the user to download and install a fresh copy.

    – SpamSieve now checksums the Outlook script files (both the installed and built-in copies) to detect whether they are damaged.

    – Made a change to eliminate a particular cause of false positives for some users.

    – SpamSieve no longer triggers Mac OS X’s “accept incoming network connections” firewall dialog.

    – Added some exception guards to work around bugs in the Growl SDK.

    – When an unexpected error occurs and no stack trace is available, SpamSieve will now try to report the approximate location.

    – Improved the What information should I include when I report a problem? section of the manual.

    SpamSieve is available for a US$30 registration fee and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to run. The new version can either be downloaded directly from the web site or brought up to the current version via the program’s built-in update feature.

    If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, let us know in the comments.

  • SpamSieve updated to 2.9

    spamsieve2.jpg

    Michael Tsai’s must-have shareware program, SpamSieve, has just been updated to version 2.9. The new version, an 8.8 megabyte download, adds the following fixes and improvements:

    – Added support for upcoming versions of Mac OS X.

    – Made various changes to improve SpamSieve’s filtering accuracy.

    – SpamSieve is now code-signed using a Developer ID certificate for Gatekeeper.
    When training an Exchange message as good in Apple Mail, SpamSieve is better at moving it to the proper inbox.

    – Processing incoming messages with Outlook is more efficient. To take advantage of this change, choose Install Outlook Scripts from the SpamSieve menu.

    – If you’ve used the SpamSieve – Change Settings command in Apple Mail to tell SpamSieve not to use a local spam mailbox, training a message as spam will now try to move the message to a spam mailbox on the same server account, rather than always using the first account.

    – Added support for training messages as spam via Herald (version 2.1.2 and later), a notification plug-in for Apple Mail.

    – When sorting spam messages by color in Apple Mail, you can now use Grey as a synonym for Gray.

    – The score script command has a new auto training parameter that can be used to override the setting in the preferences on a case-by-case basis. This might be useful, for example, if you’re writing an AppleScript to triage messages that have already been classified, and you just want to get SpamSieve’s opinion without having to make any corrections.

    – Adjusted the drone AppleScripts so that they’re easier to troubleshoot.

    – If Apple Mail gives SpamSieve empty data for a message, the plug-in now assumes the message is good and does not pass it on to SpamSieve for analysis.

    – Added support for Growl notifications via GNTP (requires Mac OS X 10.7 or later).

    – SpamSieve is better at handling file permission errors.

    – SpamSieve is better at handling errors when running helper tools.

    – Improved SpamSieve’s ability to still function when the application package is damaged.

    – Added the AddStandardRules esoteric preference, which lets you prevent SpamSieve from creating its built-in blocklist and whitelist rules if you prefer to manage the rules yourself.

    – Fixed a bug that could reduce SpamSieve’s filtering accuracy for some messages with attached files.

    – Made various improvements to the documentation.

    – Updated the German localization.

    SpamSieve is available for a US$30 registration fee and requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later to run. The new version can either be downloaded directly from the web site or brought up to the current version via the program’s built-in update feature.

    If you’ve tried the new version and have any feedback to offer, let us know in the comments.