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Sony Music CD's Contain Mac DRM Software Too
brjndr writes "A MacInTouch poster has found that certain Sony CD's also contain a smaller extra partition for 'enhanced' content. Running one of the applications found within this partition installs kernel extensions containing DRM software by SunnComm. In Sony's defense you're told what is being installed within a EULA which pops up when the program is loaded. Thankfully we all read our EULAs completely."
Autorun is turned off by default on Macs, and there's never a good reason to turn it on. There's no way this could interfere with the usual insert/launch iTunes/click Rip method most people use.
the summary fails to mention that OSX has no autorun. There is no way it can install something behind your back like windows does.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
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We may not all read our EULA's. However I have found the following software EULAlyzer really handy in highlighting important items in the EULA.
Its not a substitute for truelly reading the whole EULA, however I find it good at helping me and my customers identify 'dodgy' software.
DSLIP Web Design and Content Management Australia.
If you use a mac, you'll find that you type in your password far less than you might think you would. I don't do it that often, I don't think I'm that desensitized... I don't do it that often on my linux boxes either. My roommate however tried to set up a non-admin account on his windows computer and found it impossible to get any work done without changing over to admin all the time... Worse yet, things would fail mysteriously without any inidication of what the problem was "why can't I delete my documents on my external harddrive?!?!" He was just complaining about that today.
Because of OS X default security, even when running as the administrator, you still need to click to run the program, then type in your password. Deceptive, but not really secretive or automatic, thanks to the default Mac security.
;)
In Windows, you just insert the CD. Maybe into someone else's system when their back is turned. Windows OS trusts external content much more than the user sitting at the desk. "Do me", it says.
Unfortunately, people are still stupid enough to follow these ludicrous steps. Remember the teddy bear "virus" in Windows? Consisted only of an email, the instructions to delete a standard Windows exe file, and a directive to resend the email to all of your friends.
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Everyone is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts.
No, it doesn't.
/Applications, which is mode 775 (meaning users can create items in the directory, but not alter files owned by someone else, including root). Most installs you simply drag an item into the Applications folder.
You are not often challenged for your password in Mac OS X. The default installation location is
If something's asking you for your password and isn't (a) your security manager wanting to fetch your keychain for a website, or (b) something that should be installing drivers, be very worried and don't type your password until you understand exactly what it's doing. My mother has to type her password so infrequently on Mac OS X that she can never remember what it is.
Even Microsoft Office is a drag-and-drop-to-install application (as well as being a drag), ferchrisakes.
(and mods, please mod parent down for using Andrew Tanenbaum's name).
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
I spend most of my time on a Mac (at work) but have a PC at home. If I had the money for a new computer I'd buy a Mac, but everytime I think of ditching my PC altogether I have to stop and think...
well, I won't be able to play most of the games I bought anymore...and there's an application or two that's Windows only that I need occasionally...
It pisses me off because I don't want to use Windows. I guess I could live without the old games, but there have been many times where I think, well, at least I can just open that in windows and re-save it.
The best situation I can see is that OS X and/or Linux gets enough market share so that it's common for certain businesses/people to have a PC for occasional compatibility purposes only, which will lead to Mac/Linux converters that will eliminate the need for a PC, so that 100% Mac/Linux shops will have to be a consideration at least.
If I may go on a tangent here...
I used to work at a pre-press company (my title was "Mac Operator" which I always thought would be a cool 80's rap name. I'd change it to "Mac O" in the 90's [a la P. Diddy], then to "MOpe" around 2003). Anyway, we had one WinNT machine we kept around for the clients who were too low-scale to realize that all print work was done on Macs.
Any Windows job was a guaranteed pain-in-the-ass, mostly for compatibility reasons, but also because WinNT was stupid about networking and printing issues. It always seemed stupid to me that, while we printed to million dollar imagesetters and had clients like the Dell computer catalog, we had to keep this red-deaded stepchiled to run a Windows version of Quark (or for the real low-rent clients who submitted Windows Pagemaker files).
I'm a video editor now, and I still get annoyed when someone wants a non-Quicktime movie file. Some of the blame surely lies with Apple who won't even let you import an MP3 into Final Cut Pro unless you convert it into a Quicktime file first, but for the most part Apple tries to be universal, whereas Microsoft's attitude is "Fuck everyone else. If you're not using .avis and Word .docs you can go screw yourself."
Thank god that blu-ray won out so we don't have do deal with even more forced-incompatibility issues. I just want shit to work. I'm not totally computer-illiterate (I know enough to install a new OS, or random expansion card, or hard drive. I've used Linux a bit on my personal computer), but when there's work to be done I don't want to have to use Google to search for the best way to convert a file or get a random piece of PC hardware to work on a Mac.
You don't need to authenticate to install applications on Mac OS X. Installing applications - like Microsoft Office - involves just dragging the application (or the folder it's in) from the CD into the Applications folder on your hard disk. Even things like Real One Player and Windows Media Player work this way.
I would also like to point out that even when you are dragging and droping apps into the Apps folder it will prompt you once to say "You are about to run (application name) for the first time. Are you sure you want to do this?" which is a pretty good fail safe for programs that are trying to run silently.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
iTunes patches seem to bring up the permission box every time :P
;-)
Yeah, Mail and Safari patches do the same, I assume it keeps track of the Applications filename / it's location / MD5 of the binary / etc. which is why it requires confirmation the first time you run the new version of the application (so that someone - or some software - can't switch the legitimate application with a trojan copy).
Good Thing(TM), even if the iTunes patches are a little too frequent.