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I think that's a pretty common misunderstanding of "escape velocity" but it's a little scary that a teacher would misunderstand it. Escape velocity isn't a speed that you have to travel constantly - you are correct that you could fly steadily away from the Earth at 1 mph and eventually escape the gravity well. My understanding was that escape velocity is meant to represent the "initial speed required to go from an initial point in a gravitational potential field to infinity with a residual velocity of zero," meaning (oversimplified) that if I wanted to stand on the ground and throw a baseball and have it just leave Earth's gravitational well, it would have to leave my hand traveling at 25,000 mph (the "escape velocity" your teacher referred to).

Additionally, Escape Velocity also happens to be one of the most awesome video games ever.

... The game eventually came out of Beta, and since I didn't get updates with my lack of license I eventually tried to give them my money again, because at this point I was having a blast with the game and wanted the new features. They took my money, I got the released version.

But... that was DRM, and you just proved my point. Because you didn't have a valid license key, you couldn't receive software updates, join public servers, and you were getting nagged that you hadn't bought the software. That is an example of well-implemented DRM.

This is similar to the DRM that I was advocating in my post. In fact, the article I linked above, talks about Captain Hector, who's described in this link:
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/support/faqs/products/escape-velocity/Does-Captain-Hector-serve-any-real-purpose

Just like Minecraft, the DRM doesn't prevent you from playing the game if you don't pay. If the payment servers are down, you can still play for a while. However, over the next few weeks, it slowly nags you more and more aggressively until you pony up. Once you do activate the game, it's activated forever and doesn't require the internet to play. This is stronger DRM than Mojang had in Minecraft, but I consider it very acceptable. It's NOTHING like "If our activation servers aren't available right now, you can't play your game (SimCity)."

I buy games with the above (acceptable) DRM, which means that Steam, Stardock, Mojang, and Ambrosia software are all companies I would purchase from. I will not be purchasing SimCity.

Stardock's stance on DRM (and software return/quality policies):
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/08/29/stardock-releases-gamer039s-bill-rights-pax#.UQhQT2eS98E

Escape Velocity Nova seems to work on modern Macs:

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/

Whoops, "almost modern" might be more accurate - it only lists 10.7 support.

Escape Velocity Nova seems to work on modern Macs:

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/evn/

Send in a resume claiming to be BloodNinja ?

I highly recommend using Snapz Pro X on your end. This can record all the audio and video that shows on your computer (which must be a Mac). You would just need to setup a Skype call with your interviewee, start recording and off you go. You can also set it to record only a section of your screen (e.g., the main Skype window). I've used it to record PowerPoint lectures pretty successfully (including ambient audio).

I believe iChat can have better video quality than Skype, but it is not sufficiently cross-platform for all your interviewees. So you're probably stuck with Skype unless you want to start posting videocameras back and forth to your interviewees.

You would probably do well to make a separate recording of the interviewer using a videocamera, and splice that in to the interview.

Concur. I bought a copy of Minecraft a year or so ago even though I had no interest in playing. It was more a matter of supporting the developer. I've tried playing it a few times, even following the video tutorials but just didn't really care about the concept (as interesting as it is). That said, I love space trader games, but yeah, there need to be other aspects. I think Escape Velocity was the closest I've come to the kind of thing I've wanted. Warpgate HD was a close second.

That WAS part of the original, all from the same guy. A more complete archive of his legendary cybertrolling can be found here: http://people.ambrosiasw.com/~andrew/funny/bloodcyber.html

It includes the "wizard hat" one, the kama sutra one, and many others. I have re-read it hundreds of times over the last ten years and still laugh uncontrollably at scenes like this:

Wellhung: I'm limp. I can't sustain an erection.
Sweetheart: I'm standing up and turning around; an incredulous look on my face.
Wellhung: I'm shrugging with a sad look on my face, my weiner all floppy. I'm going to get my glasses and see what's wrong.
Sweetheart: No, never mind. I'm getting dressed. I'm putting on my underwear. Now I'm putting on my wet nasty blouse.
Wellhung: No wait! Now I'm squinting, trying to find the night table. I'm feeling along the dresser, knocking over cans of hair spray, picture frames and your candles.
Sweetheart: I'm buttoning my blouse. Now I'm putting on my shoes.
Wellhung: I've found my glasses. I'm putting them on. My God! One of our candles fell on the curtain. The curtain is on fire! I'm pointing at it, a shocked look on my face.
Sweetheart: Go to hell. I'm logging off, you loser!
Wellhung: Now the carpet is on fire! Oh noooo!

This one actually reveals the fiction behind the scenes -- I find it difficult to believe she would stay in character, acknowledge what he was doing, and use proper punctuation even as he was wrecking the scene; she would have just left the conversation. But even if the whole thing is a work of fiction, it's the funniest damn story I have ever read in my life.

It is from bloodninja:

http://people.ambrosiasw.com/~andrew/funny/bloodcyber.html

Ambrosia Software did a similar thing with Escape Velocity in the 90's -- if you used a pirated serial number, Cap'n Hector would raid you in-game and steal all your credits. I recall un-registering my game and entering a pirated serial just to experience this entertainment....

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/

Thank you so much for causing me to ask Wikipedia about drop bears. From the article:

The game also features drop bear attacks and repellents. Purchase of the repellent, which cannot subsequently be discarded, dramatically increases the rate of drop bear attacks.

(Emphasis added.) This had me laughing out loud. Thank you. (And now I have a game to try.)

Need to look up the best way to get a Humvee out of a mud pit? There's an app for that.

Need to find the nearest supply depot while avoiding roadside bombs and enemy fire? There's an app for that.

Need to see the location of every friend and foe within a 100m radius without any additional devices or infrastructure? There's an app for that.

...via the usual Mac OS commands, due to new and improved DRM?

SnapzPro and WireTap to the rescue!

What you could do with Kaleidoscope and a handful of other extensions far outpaced what you could do with themes (with or without additional software) in the comparatively aged version of Windows (and while this site stopped updating in the early 2000's, I was using it in the early 90's so we are talking about Windows 95/98).

Some stuff Windows didn't get till Vista, some stuff it still hasn't gotten. Unfortunately, System 7 was so long ago, there aren't many examples I can point to online these days. Like I said, Kaleidoscope was just the tip of the iceberg. It's hard to even know where to start to explain all the stuff you could do to customize the system that just weren't possible or were the realm of the hardcore 'hacker' in Windows due the difficulty.

But even with just it, peruse the scheme archive and tell me things like that notepaper theme are possible, even today with Windows 7. Can you theme the standard widgets yet in Windows? I know you can mess with the borders of windows, but can you make the progress bars look like they are being scribbled in? The buttons look like sketches?

Don't even get me started about how much fun it was to play with AppleScript to get things to do what you wanted, when you wanted, even if it was telling a game to send a screen shot to an image viewer, ask it to crop the image by some preset parameters, and then have the image program pass that along to the email program to send it to the mailing list for that game.

And I don't know how many times I messed around with ResEdit hacking away at application menus to rename, reorder, or just remove stuff to fit my needs, replacing icons, fonts, graphics with ones I liked better, and all without having to use my computer science degree for anything more than "ok, you are holding a mouse. click the button".

Seriously, there were games out there that were almost as 'expandable' as today's Oblivion/Morrowind/Fallout 3 purely because their data files were based off Mac resource forks and so you could just copy the file, edit or add resources to it, and load it back into the game and have everything 'just work'.

For the uninitiated... Yes, I do realise where I am. I also realise that some here may be mechanical engineers, physicists, or work in medicine etc. and may not be aware of Bash.

Do you also realize that it predates Bash?

For the uninitiated...

Yes, I do realise where I am. I also realise that some here may be mechanical engineers, physicists, or work in medicine etc. and may not be aware of Bash.

Of course they later reversed their stance

According to Ambrosia Software's website, Captain Hector still shows up in Escape Velocity Nova.

See: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/support/faqs/products/ev-nova/Why-should-I-register-EV-Nova
or: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/support/faqs/products/escape-velocity/Does-Captain-Hector-serve-any-real-purpose

Ambrosia's FAQ says: "Hector is there to remind you that Escape Velocity is a shareware product. You have 30 days to try Escape Velocity before registering. Hector keeps track of the days and can become a nuisance when the trial period expires."

It sounds a lot like a simpler form of what Sony patented, as the previous poster wrote. I guess Sony does not look at Mac (and some Windows) shareware authors when it does searches for prior art. It's a shame, because shareware can innovate, too.

Of course they later reversed their stance

According to Ambrosia Software's website, Captain Hector still shows up in Escape Velocity Nova.

See: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/support/faqs/products/ev-nova/Why-should-I-register-EV-Nova
or: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/support/faqs/products/escape-velocity/Does-Captain-Hector-serve-any-real-purpose

Ambrosia's FAQ says: "Hector is there to remind you that Escape Velocity is a shareware product. You have 30 days to try Escape Velocity before registering. Hector keeps track of the days and can become a nuisance when the trial period expires."

It sounds a lot like a simpler form of what Sony patented, as the previous poster wrote. I guess Sony does not look at Mac (and some Windows) shareware authors when it does searches for prior art. It's a shame, because shareware can innovate, too.

I guess you did not bother to actually check the search results, right?

Because I can't find any report about a real virus in the wild.

I wonder if you didn't do the same you accuse GP of not doing. The second result for http://images.google.nl/search?q=osx+virus+in+the+wild is Mac users face first OS X virus in the wild. Now anyone who knows what they're doing shouldn't get infected. As New MacOS X trojan/virus alert, mostly a non-event says it takes some clicking and seems to be a "proof of concept". Now Tech Q and A: Are Macs Vulnerable to Virus Attacks? is an interesting read.

Falcon

Ooh, don't get the idea I'm a shill, for MS, Linux, or anybody else and don't like Macs. I'm typing this on my MacBook Pro and of the 7 new computers I've owned it's the best.

You know I try so hard to be respectful in my slashdot comments, but your ignorant, wrong, and illogical post has just put me in flamebait mode.

First of all, you spelled Sid Meier's name incorrectly.

Second of all, Sid Meier has nothing to do with SimCity. You are speaking of Will Wright.

Thirdly, Bungie is now one of the biggest game companies in the world. You honestly think they would just stick with the Mac, because what...they like Macs? Give me a fucking break. Put yourself in their position: "Oh should we piddle along and release great, underrated games, until we die, or should we accept the huge contract that will eventually help us grow into one of the biggest gaming companies in the world?"

WTF. I think the only exception to these innovative Mac gaming companies going corporate at the expense of their initial fans is Ambrosia Software of Escape Velocity fame. Oh the days...

Yeah, and look how great Ambrosia is doing compared to Bungie. Oh but wait, Ambrosia released EV Nova for PC!!! OMG what a bunch of sell outs!!!

Lastly, I love your statement of "Well Blizzard, I think you just died." I hope I make a company that is as dead as Blizzard some day (in your method of evaluating game companies).

I hear this guy is quite hawt4dag1rl5.

I've never played Starflight, but looking at Wikipedia the Escape Velocity series seems pretty similar in concept. EV Nova has been ported to the PC- you might want to try the demo.

My biggest complaint about the iPhone is that you have to crack it to do certain things, like copy over ringtones.

I've used iToner for over a year now and it continues to work flawlessly.

Indie games can be quite fun for a while and often are cheap (eg Audiosurf is just $10, and Defcon is $15).

Unless, of course, you want it for Mac-- in which case, it's $25. Actually, you can get all three of Introversion's games (Uplink, Darwinia, and Defcon for $33.20 for Windows/Linux, but Ambrosia charges $25-28 each for the OS X versions.

And people wonder why everyone games on Windows.

Something about this thread made me think of this

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/harry/

But, I haven't played it in years. We used to have a version at my office using real chairs, but none were motorized IIRC.

Or better still, put on your robe and wizard hat.

(Mildly NSFW)

No, I didn't forget to tell you how to do this; it's not a feature built into Mac OS X (or any other operating system of which I am aware). I use Snapz Pro X. It is capable of recording both a Mac audio track and a microphone track.

Adding additional steps to a process is just a tactic to refuse to admit that I proved you wrong. It only takes one more click to rename a file after the steps that I demonstrated. (Click and hold for a second on the file that is selected after "Reveal in Finder", then let go. You'll have Finder set for you to type a new name for that file.) So it takes a whopping three clicks and some typing to grab a still from a clip in iMovie and rename it. That's just so difficult it's criminal. Apple is stealing your time! If you merely want to extract stills (instead of actually editing movies) and are unhappy about how long it takes, you should be using Quicktime or another application, not iMovie. With the pro version of Quicktime, you can export the whole clip to a series of stills with only a few mouse-clicks and keystrokes, should you wish to do so.

You seem to be failing to state what should be in Leopard that isn't there.

You also seem to want to shift the debate from just how you're wrong to semantics. You failed to give an example of what would prevent your hypothetical grandmother from being able to "undarken" the subject line. Stick with the program, emo-boy!

In my video, if she does not know how to use the close button to close a window in Mac OS X, the Rules pane in Mail.app's preferences is the least of her worries. If that's the case, she doesn't know how to close ANY windows.

I came along a little later than black-and-white Macs, but I played Nethack, Spacestation Pheta, and Oxyd on a greyscale Powerbook. Even into the 90's, though, classic Macs still had something I play periodically today: Escape Velocity. http://www.ambrosiasw.com/games/ev/ That game will always hold a special place in my memory.

if there's one feature about Ubuntu that I love more than my Mac is that you can install a TON of applications from Synaptic or via the awesome Add/Remove app. OSX on the other hand, if you want to install some new piece of software, be prepared to pay for it, or to get a really useless trial version.

Ha!

I dropped $450 on a Macintosh G3 tower (400 mhz) years back mainly to play Escape Velocity. Of course, I've OC'd it to 450 mhz, and installed OS X on it. At the time it was the most ridiculous purchase for a single game I've ever made. Its still the most current Mac I own (until Xmas ;).

so get http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/iToner/ "iToner" for $15 and make as many ringtones as you want with whatever audio you want...

If you have a Mac, you can pay Ambrosia Software 15 bucks for their program that lets you create and sync as many custom ringtones as you would like to your iPhone. If you have Windows as far as I know you're SOL. Ambrosia has done Windows versions of some of their software in the past though. It wouldn't hurt to go to their website and request a Windows Version.

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/itoner/

http://www.tuaw.com/2007/07/27/create-iphone-ringt ones-from-itunes-previews/
http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/itoner/

I don't have an iPhone for testing, etc

What if I want to play a game here and there? Im screwed.

What if I want to play a game here and there? Im screwed.

What does a publisher add to a product, besides mark-up? 20 years ago they could claim "distribution", but now, they add NOTHING. Anything that can be translated to an electronic format can be sent anywhere in the world.

Actually, publishers still add something potentially valuable--their names and reputations. Take Ambrosia Software. Every Mac user knows about Ambrosia Software and about the fact that they only release quality products with their name on it. Yet, in recent years, Ambrosia has only released games that were actually developed by others--for instance, they distribute Introversion's games (Uplink, Darwinia, and Defcon) for the Mac. Ambrosia is one publisher that wouldn't even exist today but for the very technology you say makes publishers obsolete.

Linked version with condensed summary. I wanted to find out more about some of them. Others may benefit too.

Ecto a blogging client (but the site seems to be down: try this for more info). Shareware, $17.95.
Transmit an FTP client. Shareware, $17.95
Sync Services -- comes with 10.4
BBedit text/html editor. $125, but worth it.
Missing Synch for Windows Mobile - synchronize with PDA/smartphones. $49.95/$39.95
OmniGraffle - diagramming / flowchart program. $79.95 / $149.95
ConceptDraw - another diagramming / flowchart program. $299
IChat AV - built-in to 10.4
AppleScript, Scriptdebugger - also built-in. No link. I'm getting lazy.
Microsoft Entourage -- part of MS Office.
Sketchfigher 4000 Alpha -- a game from the great Ambrosia Software. $19.00
TypeIt4Me - keyboard macro expander. $27
NetworkLocation - automatically trigger configuration changes depending upon where you are on the network (e.g., at home, work, etc.). $15
Apple Remote Desktop 3 - control / configure Mac systems remotely. $499 / $299 (unlimited / 10 systems)
MacLinkPlus - file conversion software (e.g., from WordPerfect documents to/from Word, and many others). $79
Parallels Desktop for Mac - virtualization software (e.g., run Win XP simultaneously with OS X). $79.
Remote Desktop Connection - connect remotely to a Windows desktop. FREE
Snap X Pro - screen / movie capture. $29
Boot Camp - dual boot Windows. I'm lazy.
PDF - Portable Document Format from Adobe? What?
Lingon - tool for making launchd scripts for 10.4.
Workgroup Manager - manage local systems - part of 10.4 Server.

---
Okay, a mildly interesting list. Here's a few more suggestions:

Cyberduck - FTP and SFTP client. Donationware.
VLC - cross-platform video viewer / transcoder.
Blender 3D - cross-platform 3D modelling / rendering.
Bookends - excellent bibliography software. $99
Celestia - cross-platform real-time 3D astronomy simulator.
Plot - a, uh, plotting / graphing program.
proFit - another plotting / graphing program, non-free. $95
WordService - adds a bunch of text reformatting tools to the Services menu, making them accessible in any program. The same page has a bunch of other useful and free services.

The original article lists PDF, but no tools. While its true OS X native support makes PDF pretty easy to use, there's still some tasks that are awkward and some useful tools out there to do t

Linked version with condensed summary. I wanted to find out more about some of them. Others may benefit too.

Ecto a blogging client (but the site seems to be down: try this for more info). Shareware, $17.95.
Transmit an FTP client. Shareware, $17.95
Sync Services -- comes with 10.4
BBedit text/html editor. $125, but worth it.
Missing Synch for Windows Mobile - synchronize with PDA/smartphones. $49.95/$39.95
OmniGraffle - diagramming / flowchart program. $79.95 / $149.95
ConceptDraw - another diagramming / flowchart program. $299
IChat AV - built-in to 10.4
AppleScript, Scriptdebugger - also built-in. No link. I'm getting lazy.
Microsoft Entourage -- part of MS Office.
Sketchfigher 4000 Alpha -- a game from the great Ambrosia Software. $19.00
TypeIt4Me - keyboard macro expander. $27
NetworkLocation - automatically trigger configuration changes depending upon where you are on the network (e.g., at home, work, etc.). $15
Apple Remote Desktop 3 - control / configure Mac systems remotely. $499 / $299 (unlimited / 10 systems)
MacLinkPlus - file conversion software (e.g., from WordPerfect documents to/from Word, and many others). $79
Parallels Desktop for Mac - virtualization software (e.g., run Win XP simultaneously with OS X). $79.
Remote Desktop Connection - connect remotely to a Windows desktop. FREE
Snap X Pro - screen / movie capture. $29
Boot Camp - dual boot Windows. I'm lazy.
PDF - Portable Document Format from Adobe? What?
Lingon - tool for making launchd scripts for 10.4.
Workgroup Manager - manage local systems - part of 10.4 Server.

---
Okay, a mildly interesting list. Here's a few more suggestions:

Cyberduck - FTP and SFTP client. Donationware.
VLC - cross-platform video viewer / transcoder.
Blender 3D - cross-platform 3D modelling / rendering.
Bookends - excellent bibliography software. $99
Celestia - cross-platform real-time 3D astronomy simulator.
Plot - a, uh, plotting / graphing program.
proFit - another plotting / graphing program, non-free. $95
WordService - adds a bunch of text reformatting tools to the Services menu, making them accessible in any program. The same page has a bunch of other useful and free services.

The original article lists PDF, but no tools. While its true OS X native support makes PDF pretty easy to use, there's still some tasks that are awkward and some useful tools out there to do t

Linked version with condensed summary. I wanted to find out more about some of them. Others may benefit too.

Ecto a blogging client (but the site seems to be down: try this for more info). Shareware, $17.95.
Transmit an FTP client. Shareware, $17.95
Sync Services -- comes with 10.4
BBedit text/html editor. $125, but worth it.
Missing Synch for Windows Mobile - synchronize with PDA/smartphones. $49.95/$39.95
OmniGraffle - diagramming / flowchart program. $79.95 / $149.95
ConceptDraw - another diagramming / flowchart program. $299
IChat AV - built-in to 10.4
AppleScript, Scriptdebugger - also built-in. No link. I'm getting lazy.
Microsoft Entourage -- part of MS Office.
Sketchfigher 4000 Alpha -- a game from the great Ambrosia Software. $19.00
TypeIt4Me - keyboard macro expander. $27
NetworkLocation - automatically trigger configuration changes depending upon where you are on the network (e.g., at home, work, etc.). $15
Apple Remote Desktop 3 - control / configure Mac systems remotely. $499 / $299 (unlimited / 10 systems)
MacLinkPlus - file conversion software (e.g., from WordPerfect documents to/from Word, and many others). $79
Parallels Desktop for Mac - virtualization software (e.g., run Win XP simultaneously with OS X). $79.
Remote Desktop Connection - connect remotely to a Windows desktop. FREE
Snap X Pro - screen / movie capture. $29
Boot Camp - dual boot Windows. I'm lazy.
PDF - Portable Document Format from Adobe? What?
Lingon - tool for making launchd scripts for 10.4.
Workgroup Manager - manage local systems - part of 10.4 Server.

---
Okay, a mildly interesting list. Here's a few more suggestions:

Cyberduck - FTP and SFTP client. Donationware.
VLC - cross-platform video viewer / transcoder.
Blender 3D - cross-platform 3D modelling / rendering.
Bookends - excellent bibliography software. $99
Celestia - cross-platform real-time 3D astronomy simulator.
Plot - a, uh, plotting / graphing program.
proFit - another plotting / graphing program, non-free. $95
WordService - adds a bunch of text reformatting tools to the Services menu, making them accessible in any program. The same page has a bunch of other useful and free services.

The original article lists PDF, but no tools. While its true OS X native support makes PDF pretty easy to use, there's still some tasks that are awkward and some useful tools out there to do t

A very good one is hard to write. In this case, I guess nobody buys his software because they all use the very good one.

http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/

Ambrosia's EV Nova was found to be pirated on >50% computers after they added Internet verification of serials, and it's a game, so nobody's going to go out and buy it AFTER they've finished it. All the anti-piracy arguments don't quite match up to reality for everything...

Here are some alternatives:

iShowU is my favorite video screen capture tool.

SnapZProX is okay, but much too expensive. Its interface isn't as good as iShowU

I tried Display Eater a while ago, before this nonsense, and it wasn't very good. That's probably been a limiting factor in sales, which the developer interprets as piracy.

Cheap shot. Anyway, we have this this!

Yes it has. The first one written specifically for OS X came in the form of a trojan. I've also seen Mac classic viruses work fine on PPC OS X systems.

That was not a virus - that was a trojan (pretty huge difference if you know what the differences are!) And read through the final analysis of the work the user actually had to do to contract it.

Also, we are talking about OS X viruses not "legacy" viruses that in practice no-one will be catching since almost no-one uses Classic anymore. It's been years since OS X even shipped with OS 9.

Not really. Have you forgotten things like auto-installing widgets?

Which they fixed pretty quickly, as noted....


Apple being behind other BSD systems in patching old exploits?
Apple being behind in patching SSH, Apache?


Which don't matter as much since they come turned off by default (and still didn't see any exploits for OS X in the wild)...

Uh... You need to know stuff to write a windows virus too.

Not really, there is a lot more template material online on how to do so, and a number of Windows viruses in the past have been simple variants of existing worms and viruses.

Not according to Norton, F-secure and McAfee.

You're wrong. Care to provide any links as to why you think you're right?

Uh, again no. Give me some decent examples at least.

IE. Forgot about the elephant in the room again?

I don't know... Most of the security techniques Apple uses were developed back in the early 90s...

Oh, they were developed way before that - which is why it is so tragic Microsoft could not even be bothered to do that much until now.

However, the OS in my opinion is far from being a 21st century mind set in general. I mean, look at some of the stupid stuff we have todo.
Where we have to open a console and type
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

True there is no UI to modify some defaults like that. But anyone who wants to see ALL files in Finder is probably also going to be pretty familiar with the shell and not really mind editing XML files. Frankly I have never enabled Finder in that manner as if I want to be messing with files Finder cannot see by default, I greatly prefer to be using Terminal anyway.

What makes it an advanced OS is that you have a layer that is easily configurable by most users, and then a more advanced layer that is easily adjustable through a few means. The situation is still better than what Windows offered, where you had to basically write TweakUI to get at some settings that could not simply be activated in a text file at least OS X comes with means to modify every setting in the system, even if some are not behind GUI's.

Heh, or we could the simple things that have always worked well... Exploits against the user. Just send them a e-mail with a .pkg file that contains a rootkit (there are feasible methods to-do this on OS X), said hidden process scans the address books of users on Mac (Useful, since many Mac users actually do use the mail client on the system), then starts sending copies of that .pkg to those people....My point is, coming up with methods to make virii on Mac isn't that hard.

Yes that would work - but Mail would warn the user about running it, and the default security level most people run at would prevent it from getting as far into the system as most rootkits are. That is the reason OS X is more security, because of the very old concept of defense in depth applied across the OS, not because any one layer is invulnerable to attack!

Writing viri for any platform is dead simple if you are going to rely on the user to propagate it. But Windows has a million examples of stuff that needs no user even clicking on OK to run off and do its thing. That is another difference. That and of course, the fact that today there are no OS X viruses in the wild. Not just a few, but zero - despite many people such as yourself who think it would be easy to write one and would like to see one just to show up Mac users.

Have there been 100 Mac games worth paying for since the Lisa?

Hey, there are thousands of good games you can play on your Mac. You just have to install Boot Camp first.

Seriously, there is actually a pretty healthy Mac games market. I'm just not sure it's one that appeals to the average Slashdot reader. If you want the latest and whizziest FPS--or if you spend enough time gaming that you need a new epic game every few days--then yeah, you need to run Windows.

But for a more casual gamer, the Mac is a perfectly good option, even without Boot Camp. Many of the most popular Windows games eventually get ported to the Mac--the Sims, Doom III, Jedi Outcast, etc, etc, etc, are all available on a Mac. Then there are companies like Ambrosia Software, Pangea, and Freeverse that make games primarily or exclusively for the Macintosh. The smaller Mac market means that these games will sell fewer copies, and they therefore tend to have smaller development staffs. On the one hand, this means Mac-exclusive games often don't have the vast scope of original PC games. On the other hand, it means there's more room for quirky, off-beat stuff.

Have there been 100 Mac games worth paying for since the Lisa?

Hey, there are thousands of good games you can play on your Mac. You just have to install Boot Camp first.

Seriously, there is actually a pretty healthy Mac games market. I'm just not sure it's one that appeals to the average Slashdot reader. If you want the latest and whizziest FPS--or if you spend enough time gaming that you need a new epic game every few days--then yeah, you need to run Windows.

But for a more casual gamer, the Mac is a perfectly good option, even without Boot Camp. Many of the most popular Windows games eventually get ported to the Mac--the Sims, Doom III, Jedi Outcast, etc, etc, etc, are all available on a Mac. Then there are companies like Ambrosia Software, Pangea, and Freeverse that make games primarily or exclusively for the Macintosh. The smaller Mac market means that these games will sell fewer copies, and they therefore tend to have smaller development staffs. On the one hand, this means Mac-exclusive games often don't have the vast scope of original PC games. On the other hand, it means there's more room for quirky, off-beat stuff.

See our progress log for more info on the Mac port. If I'm lucky, I might be able get the cross-platform multiplayer working this week, which is what's holding up the (private) beta release.

I'm kind of surprised it doesn't work in Bootcamp.

What I do is play the downloaded iTMS files while Wiretap records it to an AIFF. Then iTunes happily rips the AIFF into MP3, I replace the m4p with the mp3 in my playlist, and I'm good to go.

Galactic Civilization 2 does not compete with the sorts of games EA puts out. The graphics are relatively simplistic and sparse. And the game is extremely technical. Now if you can handle GC2 then it is a fantastically fun game, but it's not a mainstream game by any means.

other high quality and innovated indy games:
Uplink
Darwinia
DEFCON

Galactic Civilization 2 does not compete with the sorts of games EA puts out. The graphics are relatively simplistic and sparse. And the game is extremely technical. Now if you can handle GC2 then it is a fantastically fun game, but it's not a mainstream game by any means.

other high quality and innovated indy games:
Uplink
Darwinia
DEFCON