I'm about to start doing a 32 page black and white magazine for a friend, and I've been waiting till I got Pages to start the layout. It's not pro-level yet, but it oughta work for now, since I can't afford and refuse to pirate Quark or InDesign.
The live reflow is definitely a killer app feature. My boss struggles constantly with trying to do page layout type stuff with Word, so I brought the iBook to work and she was blown away by that feature alone.
I wonder if a less priveleged account could exist entirely within a chroot/Jail-type sandbox. If so, a checkbox could be added to the Users pref that would effectively do that and make it painless for the clueless.
Your overall point is correct, that a limited hardware pool is key to getting near perfect interaction with the OS, but it's not *just* the hardware they sell. The third party Mac peripheral market right now is thriving.
Getting drivers for the generic hardware should be no problem since they run on a BSD kernel anyways. The drivers for the most part will already be there. Just a few tweaks and optimizations and you're set.
OS X runs on a Mach microkernel. BSD is there as a userland environment, and OS X can even be installed without it. So in terms of porting CLI apps from *nix, you're right. But in terms of drivers, no such luck. I don't know how the move to x86 would affect the whole driver porting question, though. I kinda think it still wouldn't make it trivial, but I really don't know enough to say for sure.
I'd like to see them add an interactive egress filtering interface to IPFW like the one I purchased from Objective Development, and maybe add hooks to Fast User Switching to encourage its use as a sandbox environment.
Perhaps someone (like myself if I worked at it and managed my time better) could write a Widget that interprets top to show exactly what executable owns processes not shown in the Dock. I also think Dashboard should have much more fine grained preferences regarding both 'net and filesystem access, but I suppose that could also be handled with a Widget.
And I don't know if you've seen it or not, but the added stuff in the root password request box are not in the form of added stuff to click through, just more info shown in the existing box, so I don't think it really adds to the 'cry wolf' syndrome.
And personally, I use the ultimate sandbox: the iBook I'm typing this on. My G4 isn't air gapped from the 'net or anything, but any non-Apple stuff I install for the first time goes here first so I can check it out in an environment that contains nothing I actually care much about. I love my iBook, and I'd hate to lose it, but I treat it as something that could be stolen at any moment as far as data on the drive goes (and that includes stored passwords, etc.)
They could have *easily* locked it down to only boot on the transitional development boxes if they didn't want it out there. The fact that they didn't leads me to believe there's no serial number. It's all about plausible deniability.
It makes sense to me, if you think of this as sort of a skunkworks marketing effort. They're playing a delicate game with Microsoft, and one thing they need, at least for the time being, is plausible deniability.
No, this won't get 10.4 (codename: GoodBuddy) on my mom's machine, but it might just get it onto her boyfriend's machine, who is more technologically adept (although, I'm proud to say that she's been online longer than I have), and even more frustrated with Winders than she is.
So if this is really what they're trying to do, it's only gonna get 10.4 GoodBuddy onto 1% of the PCs out there, if that. But there's two things about that number: first, it would be a *sizable* increase in their market share (even if they can't officially claim those users), and many of those intrepid users who do try it will tend to be the ones with more influence over other, more typical Winders users.
I'm torn: I wanna grab the torrent to give to some coworkers tomorrow morning, but I don't do that sort of thing anymore. But if that's what Apple wants people to do, it's not exactly wrong then, is it? Hmm. I probably won't. But if someone brings me a DVD later this evening, I will take a copy to the office just to see the looks on their faces.
Yeah, I figure it'll either be the spreadsheet or the graphic app that ships next. I've been playing with Pages lately, and as a former PageMaker and then later Quark guru, it rocks. It's not meant for hard core prepress like those packages, but for a 1.0, it's astounding. It's already ten times better than MS Word for basic office-grade page layout.
10.3 added notifications of apps being launched for the first time under certain circumstances, and 10.4 seeks confirmation on the first launch of a Dashboard Widget. They've also added a bit to the root password prompt telling you what privelege is being sought, and by which app (with path shown). Not that those two features are all that will ever be needed to prevent malware, but they are definitely helpful, and I doubt that's the entirety of their efforts.
Like all Mac users with any sense, I worry about the malware question and am cautious about what I download and especially what I will give a root password to. But I am fairly confident that they're devoting a whole lot of energy to the question, and I suspect that OS X86 probably has more defensive measures that we haven't seen yet.
Is Microsoft saying, in effect, that if [the rulers of a country where they do business] ever decides to crack down on democratic movements Microsoft will be happy to provide dictionaries and spellcheckers with the proscribed thoughtcrimes removed?
You really think they're gonna sacrifice their empire for mere romantic idealism? You better believe they're gonna ride whatever tide comes ashore, in *any* part of the world.
I was kind of impressed by that, actually. Maybe they're just overcompensating in order to avoid an appearance of conflict of interest, but the net result is that (at least for now) they're not afraid to report unfavorable news about their parent company. Let's hope that lasts.
No, in the South they add extra syllables to the vowels, pronounce a trailing '-a' as '-er' and just generally mush unwanted consonants together, so they soun-- oh, you meant the South of China, didn't you?
We, the people, agree to let X corporation own the right to demand money for the viewing of an individual work of art or entertainment for a precise and limited amount of time agreed upon when the copyright was granted.
All excellent points, except that copyright was intended to grant those vaunted limited monopolies to the creator of the work, not a corporation. Being able to assign the rights to a work to a corporation may seem a harmless thing, but as we've seen, it can be rather, uh, problematic. [pardon the late hit, just found this on metamod]
Heh. I was just gonna comment that it was an utterly vapid "review" and that the first five comments on his own site summed it up pretty well.
This dude doesn't even know what video card is in his computer, and it doesn't seem that he tried to actually, you know, *produce* anything with the app.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm about to start doing a 32 page black and white magazine for a friend, and I've been waiting till I got Pages to start the layout. It's not pro-level yet, but it oughta work for now, since I can't afford and refuse to pirate Quark or InDesign.
The live reflow is definitely a killer app feature. My boss struggles constantly with trying to do page layout type stuff with Word, so I brought the iBook to work and she was blown away by that feature alone.
I wonder if a less priveleged account could exist entirely within a chroot/Jail-type sandbox. If so, a checkbox could be added to the Users pref that would effectively do that and make it painless for the clueless.
And here's the dialog I was talking about.
*whoosh*
Your overall point is correct, that a limited hardware pool is key to getting near perfect interaction with the OS, but it's not *just* the hardware they sell. The third party Mac peripheral market right now is thriving.
Hell, we still haven't had confirmation that a single x86 user has installed it successfully, have we?
Jeebus.
Getting drivers for the generic hardware should be no problem since they run on a BSD kernel anyways. The drivers for the most part will already be there. Just a few tweaks and optimizations and you're set.
OS X runs on a Mach microkernel. BSD is there as a userland environment, and OS X can even be installed without it. So in terms of porting CLI apps from *nix, you're right. But in terms of drivers, no such luck. I don't know how the move to x86 would affect the whole driver porting question, though. I kinda think it still wouldn't make it trivial, but I really don't know enough to say for sure.
I'd like to see them add an interactive egress filtering interface to IPFW like the one I purchased from Objective Development, and maybe add hooks to Fast User Switching to encourage its use as a sandbox environment.
Perhaps someone (like myself if I worked at it and managed my time better) could write a Widget that interprets top to show exactly what executable owns processes not shown in the Dock. I also think Dashboard should have much more fine grained preferences regarding both 'net and filesystem access, but I suppose that could also be handled with a Widget.
And I don't know if you've seen it or not, but the added stuff in the root password request box are not in the form of added stuff to click through, just more info shown in the existing box, so I don't think it really adds to the 'cry wolf' syndrome.
And personally, I use the ultimate sandbox: the iBook I'm typing this on. My G4 isn't air gapped from the 'net or anything, but any non-Apple stuff I install for the first time goes here first so I can check it out in an environment that contains nothing I actually care much about. I love my iBook, and I'd hate to lose it, but I treat it as something that could be stolen at any moment as far as data on the drive goes (and that includes stored passwords, etc.)
The Microsoft Procurement Dept. were later slightly confused by the order for "100 barrels of hot, flaming napalm".
Yup, that's Microsoft for ya. See, Apple would order the napalm, take the time needed to get it strategically placed, and only *then* light it off.
Ya know, kinda like what they just did.
They could have *easily* locked it down to only boot on the transitional development boxes if they didn't want it out there. The fact that they didn't leads me to believe there's no serial number. It's all about plausible deniability.
It makes sense to me, if you think of this as sort of a skunkworks marketing effort. They're playing a delicate game with Microsoft, and one thing they need, at least for the time being, is plausible deniability.
No, this won't get 10.4 (codename: GoodBuddy) on my mom's machine, but it might just get it onto her boyfriend's machine, who is more technologically adept (although, I'm proud to say that she's been online longer than I have), and even more frustrated with Winders than she is.
So if this is really what they're trying to do, it's only gonna get 10.4 GoodBuddy onto 1% of the PCs out there, if that. But there's two things about that number: first, it would be a *sizable* increase in their market share (even if they can't officially claim those users), and many of those intrepid users who do try it will tend to be the ones with more influence over other, more typical Winders users.
I'm torn: I wanna grab the torrent to give to some coworkers tomorrow morning, but I don't do that sort of thing anymore. But if that's what Apple wants people to do, it's not exactly wrong then, is it? Hmm. I probably won't. But if someone brings me a DVD later this evening, I will take a copy to the office just to see the looks on their faces.
Yeah, I figure it'll either be the spreadsheet or the graphic app that ships next. I've been playing with Pages lately, and as a former PageMaker and then later Quark guru, it rocks. It's not meant for hard core prepress like those packages, but for a 1.0, it's astounding. It's already ten times better than MS Word for basic office-grade page layout.
10.3 added notifications of apps being launched for the first time under certain circumstances, and 10.4 seeks confirmation on the first launch of a Dashboard Widget. They've also added a bit to the root password prompt telling you what privelege is being sought, and by which app (with path shown). Not that those two features are all that will ever be needed to prevent malware, but they are definitely helpful, and I doubt that's the entirety of their efforts.
Like all Mac users with any sense, I worry about the malware question and am cautious about what I download and especially what I will give a root password to. But I am fairly confident that they're devoting a whole lot of energy to the question, and I suspect that OS X86 probably has more defensive measures that we haven't seen yet.
Want to a lay a wager that Apple doesn't have a seceret division working on an Office just in case Microsoft pulls out?
Yeah, too bad the name 'AppleWorks' is already used up. Maybe they could call it 'iWorks' or something silly like that.
Is Microsoft saying, in effect, that if [the rulers of a country where they do business] ever decides to crack down on democratic movements Microsoft will be happy to provide dictionaries and spellcheckers with the proscribed thoughtcrimes removed?
You really think they're gonna sacrifice their empire for mere romantic idealism? You better believe they're gonna ride whatever tide comes ashore, in *any* part of the world.
You must be new here. Eventually they'll tan the hide and hold a drum circle.
I was kind of impressed by that, actually. Maybe they're just overcompensating in order to avoid an appearance of conflict of interest, but the net result is that (at least for now) they're not afraid to report unfavorable news about their parent company. Let's hope that lasts.
Can't one place be free of McDonalds, MTV, Democracy and Coca-Cola?
One of these things is not like the other.
Idiot.
No, in the South they add extra syllables to the vowels, pronounce a trailing '-a' as '-er' and just generally mush unwanted consonants together, so they soun-- oh, you meant the South of China, didn't you?
We, the people, agree to let X corporation own the right to demand money for the viewing of an individual work of art or entertainment for a precise and limited amount of time agreed upon when the copyright was granted.
All excellent points, except that copyright was intended to grant those vaunted limited monopolies to the creator of the work, not a corporation. Being able to assign the rights to a work to a corporation may seem a harmless thing, but as we've seen, it can be rather, uh, problematic. [pardon the late hit, just found this on metamod]
I was getting kind of disappointed with slashdot; hadn't found a new asshat to foe in quite some time.
And you, sir, are quite the asshat. Cheers.
Courtesy of App-- err, marijuana.
And being halfway through reading that review, MS may just have a winner on its hands, no matter what the beta of v.4 looks like.
Heh. I was just gonna comment that it was an utterly vapid "review" and that the first five comments on his own site summed it up pretty well.
This dude doesn't even know what video card is in his computer, and it doesn't seem that he tried to actually, you know, *produce* anything with the app.
I'm hoping the spreadsheet module will be next, or at least concurrent.