Today kicked off the Apple World-Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) for 2017. This year’s conference takes place June 5-9, 2017 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California, USA. It’s a place for app developers to gather and learn about the latest innovations in Apple’s operating systems, Swift programming techniques, and have access to Apple engineers. […]
FileMaker as a CRM and ERP – Software Integration
Two software important industry buzzwords today are CRM (customer relationship management) and ERP (enterprise resource planning). Both CRM and ERP software help you to run a business better by managing a business’s operations, customer relations, and financials. They provide access to data, analysis, and reports that can help you make smarter business decisions. FileMaker is […]
Mac Laptop and iPhone Travel and Photo Accessories – Mini’app’les User Group
The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota is fortunate to have a vibrant and active tech community. One such group is the Mini’app’les User Group. It’s a group of of Apple users interested in sharing knowledge and experience with other Apple users and owners. Members vary from beginners, to consultants and developers of any age. […]
WordPress PHP CodeSniffer for your favorite editor
PHP Code Sniffer (PHPCS) is a code inspector that can help enforce coding standards by highlighting problems. We like it because using it is an easy way to make sure you’re using best practices while you’re editing, or before you commit your code. Because we work with WordPress, we use the the official WordPress coding standards […]
New Spam Vectors for Apple Users: Calendar and Photos Invites
Update: Response from Apple According to iMore, Apple is aware of the issue and has issued an official statement: “We are sorry that some of our users are receiving spam calendar invitations. We are actively working to address this issue by identifying and blocking suspicious senders and spam in the invites being sent.” I’m still hoping […]
Changing Database Versions in Pressmatic
I just recently (yesterday!) started testing Pressmatic for my local WordPress development. Up until now I’ve been running my own Apache, MySQL/MariaDB and PHP servers which I installed using Brew by following this tutorial. Pressmatic is very attractive because it lets you quickly switch PHP versions, swap Nginx for Apache and use a virtualized […]
Recover a Stolen Macintosh with Undercover
At our office we’re prepared for the worst to happen to our computers…and you should be as well. You never know when something bad is going to happen. If you depend on your software, hardware, and data for doing anything important you need to take note now. First, we use strong passwords to protect computers, […]
Ransomware on the Mac
Recently a ransomware attack was discovered that affects the Mac OS. The malware would encrypt your hard drive data and only allow access if you paid a fee. The Ransomware attacked the application Transmission…a BitTorrent Client. You were only vulnerable if you downloaded the full, infected installer from the developer. If you performed in-app updates, […]
The Upgrade Cycle – Have a Plan
We recently did a check in with a client that we hadn’t worked with in a while to see if they wanted to do any updates, enhancements, or maintenance. We built a custom FileMaker solution for this commercial printing company to replace their paper job tickets and manual production lists for scheduling. In the past, the Production Manager had to go […]
Should I Install MacKeeper?
This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series SecurityYou’ve probably come across ads telling you that you can improve the performance of your computer by installing MacKeeper. While it’s possible that MacKeeper may improve your Mac’s performance, it’s unlikely. Usually, if your Mac is acting slower than normal, it’s because of one of […]
Adware on the Mac
This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series SecurityAlong with fake security alerts, a nuisance known as adware is another type of vulnerability that Macs are susceptible to. (See our post on fake security alerts.) When afflicted with adware, your computer will start presenting a slew of pop up ads when you’re browsing the web and […]
Fake Security Alerts on MacOS
This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series SecurityWhile the Mac is still the most secure operating system known to man, several security threats are becoming more prevalent for Mac users. These threats are actually more of a nuisance than a critical security threat. You don’t have to worry about changing all your […]
Use it or Lose It Year End Tech Budget?
Often at this time of year we find clients with budgeted technology dollars that are “use it or lose it.” There are several ways we can help you to invest that budget dollar before year-end by doing valuable work or pre-paying work to be completed early in the new year that will payback in positive […]
What Technology Tool do I use When?
There is a world of choices out there in the technology world. Business owners are faced with the big decision of what software applications are best to run their company. There are a lot of factors involved in making this decision. Here we examine some of those factors that will lead you to an informed […]
Sticking with Apple
If anyone is having a bad day, remember that in 1976 Ronald Wayne sold his 10% stake in Apple for $800. Now with Apple worth $750 billion his stake would have been about $75 billion. Apple is worth more than a lot of big things…for example: the GNP of Switzerland, Google and Microsoft combined, Four Apollo […]
50 Years with Technology
Tim Cimbura, 9/26/15 I just turned 50 years old. I feel as young as ever though I need to wear glasses nearly all the time. About halfway through my life I know there’s a lot more to come. It’s interesting to reflect back on a half century of technology and how it’s influenced my career […]
Get a Powerful iMac computer for only $350 for FREE!
Last month, we wrote about how (assuming you were going to buy a good quality 27″ 5K monitor), you could get an iMac for only $350 more than the Dell monitor alone. Today, that deal is even better! Apple updated their iMac lineup with a new 4K 21.5″ option. But the 27″ 5K iMac that we […]
iOS 9, watchOS 2, and OS X 10.11 El Capitan Releases Coming Soon
Apple recently announced the release dates of two key software products that drive the future of innovation on their hardware and the Apple platform: iOS 9: September 16 for iPads, iPhones, and the iPod Touch Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan: September 30 for Macintosh laptops and desktops watchOS 2: September 16 for the Apple […]
LuminFire is Member of Apple Consultants Network ACN
LuminFire (formerly Cimbura.com) specializes in supporting Apple Macintosh systems for ease-of-use, low life-cycle cost, and reliable virus-free computer operation. All our custom applications and web solutions run completely cross platform on both Mac OS or Windows. With all newer Intel-based Macintoshes, you can run any Windows applications when necessary. On the mobile side we build custom solutions primarily for […]
LuminFire Mac OS X Desktop Background Image
Updated 7-5-17 We’ve created a beautiful LuminFire inspired desktop background wallpaper. It’s modern, classy, but not overly busy so that you can easily see your icons against the blue background. It is a jpg image set to the ideal size of 5418×3408 pixels at 300dpi as are other Apple-provided desktop backgrounds so that it will look […]
Windows 10 and FileMaker / WordPress
Windows 10 was released yesterday…and for many people it is a FREE upgrade so the temptation is great to upgrade right away. Take a moment to consider what this might mean for you. Breath deeply, slow down, and read on. Can I use FileMaker with Windows 10? The official supported Microsoft OS versions for FileMaker […]
How to Take a Screenshot
How do I take a picture (screenshot or snapshot) of my computer screen and send it to someone? Perhaps you want to share the way your screen looks with someone who needs your help or you need to include a view of the screen you’re seeing so that it can be enhanced or modified during development of […]
Dealing With Email Spam
How do I deal with all the Spam and junk email I get on a daily basis? (Not referring to the meat product from Hormel.) I don’t have a simple answer for this issue. Spam is a major problem with email in general. If it makes you feel any better, I get close to 1,000 junk mail messages […]
Summary of The March 2015 Apple Event and Impact on FileMaker
March 9, 2015 was a pretty incredible announcement day for Apple’s Spring Forward event. Our people at Cimbura.com got together for a pizza lunch and watched the technology unfold on the big screen with immediate commentary by our tech team…almost like being there. Seriously, if you saw it you might ask the question “Who says that Apple doesn’t […]
Updating to Mac OS 10.10 Yosemite
Question: I see a free offer to upgrade to Yosemite in the Apple App Store. Is there a compelling reason to upgrade? I believe it’s a good idea to stay up-to-date on Mac OS upgrades…but only cautiously with excellent backups in place BEFORE upgrading. Yosemite is FREE and it’s been out for a while…so it’s somewhat of […]
FileMaker and Issues with Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks and Yosemite
We’ve noticed some issues lately with some FileMaker clients running on Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks and 10.10 Yosemite. They include seemingly random disconnects of FileMaker from the server. The following error messages may appear as a symptom of this issue: “Communication with the host was interrupted and could not be re-established. All affected windows will […]
HTML Email Signatures and Free FileMaker Tool to Create Them
Email has proven to be a critical part of running a business. Whether it’s a small shop that monitors a single inbox or a large corporation tasked with maintaining thousands of accounts, everyone uses it. We, along with many other professionals, have been guilty of attaching images as part of our signatures. Here’s what my […]
Updating to Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks
Question: I see a free offer to upgrade to Mavericks in the Apple App Store. Is there a compelling reason to upgrade? I believe it’s a good idea to stay up-to-date on Mac OS upgrades…but only cautiously with excellent backups in place BEFORE upgrading. Mavericks is FREE and it’s been out for a while…so it’s […]
Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks is Here…and it’s FREE! Impact on FileMaker
Apple announced that OS X Mavericks, the latest Mac operating system, is free. The major update of OS X Mavericks became available October 22 at no charge via the App Store. Users with systems dating as far back as six years ago will be able to download and install the operating system. Mavericks can be […]
Dialing Your Phone From FileMaker
Update 11-11-15: PushDialer is no longer in development and is not available on the App Store. But, the good news is that there is a better way now! You can set up dialing your phone from FileMaker on MacOS using your iCloud account with iOS 9 and MacOS Yosemite or above. With iCloud support, you […]