I love how you say this as if it is implied truth. My experience has shown that Mac users tend to delude themselves into believing OS X is way better than it is. They seem to overlook its many shortcomings because to recognize them would be blasphemous or something. I used OS X as my primary desktop for two years. The one thing going for it is that it's pretty. Other than that, it's unnecessarily slow, has a shitty filesystem, is no more stable than XP and certainly not Vista, always had issues sleeping and waking, ilife was buggy (specifically iPhoto), is only secure through obscurity (as we've seen with the recent pwn2own contest).
This is pretty much my experience too. I only ran OS X for a bit over a year before going back to Linux but it mostly felt to me like a prettier Windows with a weird interface with odd bugs and several strange inconsistencies. I can't really comment on its stability compared to that of Windows since I only run Windows XP occasionally for the odd game and haven't really touched Vista but it certainly wasn't as stable as my Linux machines. Overall it was OK. It's just that I didn't like it much. The interface wasn't friendly in my eyes (compared to a typical X11 desktop) and the Unix side was so messed up that it was completely incomprehensible. So after a while the Apple laptop started a new career as a paperweight and I went back to what I was comfortable with.
Overall it seems to me that Apple, following in Microsoft's steps, doesn't care all that much about security (although presumably for different reasons). Granted the Mac machines are currently mostly safe because like the Linux and assorted Unix they represent a minority of users. But should that change, they would quickly become ripe targets. Of course the same could apply to the Unix machines. But they aren't the ones that fall flat on their face in all the hacking contests.
Genuine question from someone wanting an iPod alternative - Which ones are fine and work well?
I tend to stick with Cowon and iRiver here (had trouble with Creative in Linux because they refused to behave as a proper USB storage device). They typically have very good sound (if you get a better headset, I use a Shure) and come in all sizes. I currently use the Cowon D2 which suits my needs just fine (although it's too small for your requirements).
You're right, no faking with gummy bears - duplicating the ear-generated sounds will require slightly more sophisticated tape recorder technology...
And I'd like to know where they get their super hi-fi phones. It's regularly hard enough to hear people on cell phones, never mind the echo from their inner ears...
I can't wait for the medical applications for remote echography ("Did you put the gel on ? Good, now press your phone firmly just above the navel" "Oooh It's a boy ! I'm mailing you the pictures").
The electric car is a lot more efficient, which is why cars are going more electric rather than more diesel. Though the 75% max theoretical efficiency does make diesel good for fueling power plants to make the electricity that charges the cars. Especially when they're powered by biodiesel.
Unless you start factoring in the making of the electricity of course. Then the efficiency seriously plummets.
Hey, reality called -- electric cars take time to charge (on the order of a few hours) and they only have a range of a hundred miles or so.
Nah, every other day we get an article right here about this new battery design that charges in minutes and yet we never see them on the market. Obviously there is a secret plot by highly organized taxi drivers who don't want to invest in new cars and who suppress new technology (if you work in energy research, remember never to take a cab).
Because I have yet to see a single legitimate reason NOT to upgrade XP from SP2 to SP3?
A bit like not upgrading from IE6 ? Just came back from a short month in Indochina. Didn't see a machine with a Windows browser above that version. A few had had Firefox installed (although visibly by passing users since the locals had no idea what it was) though.
People are always saying this on here (from NT 4.0 onwards) but how does the average user determine whether their hardware is faulty, their drivers are buggy or their OS is just a load of bloated crap?
So when I have a machine that craps all over the place under Microsoft's current offering (and assorted vendor's drivers), it might indeed be because of any of these reasons (despite the designed for <insert Microsoft OS here> stickers liberally applied all over each available surface). However when the same hardware works flawlessly in Linux (what I normally use apart from the occasional gaming session) where the drivers *also* come from all over the place, I can't help but wonder if there isn't something wrong with Microsoft's design, either of the OS or at least of their driver signing/certification sequence.
So it's half informative list, half a clever ploy to drive traffic to obscure porn sites and half an attempt to lure pervs to fake pedo-porn sites run by TLA agencies so they can save the children ?
Read the qmail source code sometime. Every time the author wants to assure himself that data has been written to the disk, it calls fsync. If you don't, you risk losing data. Plain and simple.
You mean a programmer actually RTFM ? That's crazy talk !
I actually found this bug before last year's Pwn2Own but, at the time, it was harder to exploit. I came to CanSecWest last year with two bugs but only one exploit. Last year, you could only win once so I saved the second bug. Turns out, it was still there this year so I wrote another exploit and used it this year.
So in a way what this event did is help keep a known vulnerability open for a year more than it should have been. Which means that there is a fair chance that in the mean time some body else might have found and used it in the wild.
They recommend setting the maximum password age to 42 days too. And the default is to remember the last 24 passwords and stop people reusing them.
And that's when PostIts start to appear because people are fed up with remembering a new variant of "89fZ#9I$" every month. So you've substituted one security problem for another.
Password expiration isn't all that it's cracked up to be.
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Not to defend Apple here, but please explain to me how, for example, a CPU or RAM "degrades".
I think after a while, bits fall off...
< *ducks* >
I love how you say this as if it is implied truth. My experience has shown that Mac users tend to delude themselves into believing OS X is way better than it is. They seem to overlook its many shortcomings because to recognize them would be blasphemous or something. I used OS X as my primary desktop for two years. The one thing going for it is that it's pretty. Other than that, it's unnecessarily slow, has a shitty filesystem, is no more stable than XP and certainly not Vista, always had issues sleeping and waking, ilife was buggy (specifically iPhoto), is only secure through obscurity (as we've seen with the recent pwn2own contest).
This is pretty much my experience too. I only ran OS X for a bit over a year before going back to Linux but it mostly felt to me like a prettier Windows with a weird interface with odd bugs and several strange inconsistencies. I can't really comment on its stability compared to that of Windows since I only run Windows XP occasionally for the odd game and haven't really touched Vista but it certainly wasn't as stable as my Linux machines. Overall it was OK. It's just that I didn't like it much. The interface wasn't friendly in my eyes (compared to a typical X11 desktop) and the Unix side was so messed up that it was completely incomprehensible. So after a while the Apple laptop started a new career as a paperweight and I went back to what I was comfortable with.
Overall it seems to me that Apple, following in Microsoft's steps, doesn't care all that much about security (although presumably for different reasons). Granted the Mac machines are currently mostly safe because like the Linux and assorted Unix they represent a minority of users. But should that change, they would quickly become ripe targets. Of course the same could apply to the Unix machines. But they aren't the ones that fall flat on their face in all the hacking contests.
Genuine question from someone wanting an iPod alternative - Which ones are fine and work well?
I tend to stick with Cowon and iRiver here (had trouble with Creative in Linux because they refused to behave as a proper USB storage device). They typically have very good sound (if you get a better headset, I use a Shure) and come in all sizes. I currently use the Cowon D2 which suits my needs just fine (although it's too small for your requirements).
You're right, no faking with gummy bears - duplicating the ear-generated sounds will require slightly more sophisticated tape recorder technology...
And I'd like to know where they get their super hi-fi phones. It's regularly hard enough to hear people on cell phones, never mind the echo from their inner ears...
I can't wait for the medical applications for remote echography ("Did you put the gel on ? Good, now press your phone firmly just above the navel" "Oooh It's a boy ! I'm mailing you the pictures").
Cochlear implants are perceived by some elements of the deaf community as a sinister means of destroying their culture.
Aren't they also lobbying for the blind to kill their dogs ?
(although I too have heard of this from multiple sources)
The electric car is a lot more efficient, which is why cars are going more electric rather than more diesel. Though the 75% max theoretical efficiency does make diesel good for fueling power plants to make the electricity that charges the cars. Especially when they're powered by biodiesel.
Unless you start factoring in the making of the electricity of course. Then the efficiency seriously plummets.
Hey, reality called -- electric cars take time to charge (on the order of a few hours) and they only have a range of a hundred miles or so.
Nah, every other day we get an article right here about this new battery design that charges in minutes and yet we never see them on the market.
Obviously there is a secret plot by highly organized taxi drivers who don't want to invest in new cars and who suppress new technology (if you work in energy research, remember never to take a cab).
That's simple, bathing.
Heh, good one :)
So?
It may not be necessary, but there are many times when it's convenient.
And then you're going to need a screen, a keyboard, what next ? A mouse ? Sound ? A webcam ? A USB feet warmer ?
Because I have yet to see a single legitimate reason NOT to upgrade XP from SP2 to SP3?
A bit like not upgrading from IE6 ?
Just came back from a short month in Indochina. Didn't see a machine with a Windows browser above that version. A few had had Firefox installed (although visibly by passing users since the locals had no idea what it was) though.
There is more free software available for windows then there is for all other operating systems combined.
Photoshop is *not* free software, don't believe what you read on Usenet !
People are always saying this on here (from NT 4.0 onwards) but how does the average user determine whether their hardware is faulty, their drivers are buggy or their OS is just a load of bloated crap?
So when I have a machine that craps all over the place under Microsoft's current offering (and assorted vendor's drivers), it might indeed be because of any of these reasons (despite the designed for <insert Microsoft OS here> stickers liberally applied all over each available surface).
However when the same hardware works flawlessly in Linux (what I normally use apart from the occasional gaming session) where the drivers *also* come from all over the place, I can't help but wonder if there isn't something wrong with Microsoft's design, either of the OS or at least of their driver signing/certification sequence.
Dont be so short sighted. We should run Cat6, if not fiber.
I thought tubes were the big thing these days.
Either way I'm sure will irk the Turks.
Advanced Diplomacy end of year exam : "Find a topic that will not irk the Turks".
You have four hours.
You know, America isn't the center of the known world.
I typed "here be dragons" in their thing and got nothing back, so it doesn't work anyway.
Actually, Conroy said it wasn't the actual ACMA blacklist, but said that many of the links were in fact part of it.
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25214571-15306,00.html
So it's half informative list, half a clever ploy to drive traffic to obscure porn sites and half an attempt to lure pervs to fake pedo-porn sites run by TLA agencies so they can save the children ?
Wait, I put too many halves in there...
So Mr. Goatse and his wife may have fooled around, starting with a finger or two and moving on to inserting whole forearms years later.
Forearms ? Mr Goatse must have repeatedly inserted his whole wife from the look of things.
I mean fooling around is fine and everything but I still would have loved to see he look on the doctor's face when they first looked at the xray.
"Well, I hadn't noticed my wife was already on the chair when I sat you see..."
"uh huh, sure"
We are not independent. We are constitutional monarchy, which means that the Queen is still the Head of State.
Then write to her and graciously complain (or however it's done). She'll smite the wrongdoers and send them to the salt mines. Or something.
The last two are nebulous, but the first is obvious. *You own your body.*
Living people's genes can and have been patented, so that's not as obvious as it seems.
Is it just me that is a bit fed up with this sort of situation?
Inter corporate relations look more and more like a kindergarden recess.
You infringed my patent, I will sue !
Did not nyah nyah
Did so, I'm telling on you
Oh yeah ? Well you infringed first, so there !
Read the qmail source code sometime. Every time the author wants to assure himself that data has been written to the disk, it calls fsync.
If you don't, you risk losing data. Plain and simple.
You mean a programmer actually RTFM ? That's crazy talk !
3D pie charts that show only 2 numbers are the devil's work.
Wait, are you saying the pie is a lie ?
That's exactly what happened this year:
I actually found this bug before last year's Pwn2Own but, at the time, it was harder to exploit. I came to CanSecWest last year with two bugs but only one exploit. Last year, you could only win once so I saved the second bug. Turns out, it was still there this year so I wrote another exploit and used it this year.
So in a way what this event did is help keep a known vulnerability open for a year more than it should have been. Which means that there is a fair chance that in the mean time some body else might have found and used it in the wild.
Brilliant.
I mean, people were dying for thousands of years!!
Did they suddenly stop ?
Why didn't I get the memo ?
That would explain a lot of the problems we've been having lately...
They recommend setting the maximum password age to 42 days too. And the default is to remember the last 24 passwords and stop people reusing them.
And that's when PostIts start to appear because people are fed up with remembering a new variant of "89fZ#9I$" every month.
So you've substituted one security problem for another.
Password expiration isn't all that it's cracked up to be.