I think it is quite admirable that Apple is so dedicated to these security updates. Certainly there is one other operating system software company in the world that isn't as vigilant. *cough*
I know at work, whenever an exploitation was discovered on the PC, the IT department would wait and wait. After several weeks, when problems started happening, they would issue an advisory, telling the people workarounds and what not to do and such until an update happened.
They never did that for the marketing/communications Macs. The reasons are threefold:
a.) there are fewer exploits in Mac OS X's old age (read: UNIX/FreeBSD/Darwin),
b.) when there are holes, they are patched, almost always very, very promptly.
c.) they were afraid of the Macs, anyway.
I think the latter is the least substantial, but, nonetheless, still relevant.
Anyway. I wanted to make a note of this. I don't see how there's much else that we can regularlly pony up in Software Update discussions...
The idea of "anywhere" access isn't new. Almost every wireless company has included it in their.com business plans at one point or another. But there has always been a reality that it just isn't all that realistic for a single protocol. That is, it isn't very cost-effective to utilize a wide-area terrestrial wireless network when you are sitting five feet from an wi-fi base station.
I think that this card will bring mobile warriors a bit closer to the idea of truly affordable anywhere access.
This is going to be me, rambling. I'll be accused of being a liberal, tree-hugging, deficit-loving bitch, but it needs to be said.
Bush has, from day one, been all about, or so he says, cutting budgets. Everything but Defense, he says, is spending far too much. Education. Health and Human Services. AIDS research (his "broad" plan announced in the State of the Union address was a joke). NASA.
Time and time again, he has harped on cutting NASA's budget. He has forced the agency to abandon most all other programs, except extending the life of the shuttles.
Democrats and others have pleaded for Bush to reconsider. He hasn't.
One year ago, CNN discussed Bush's plans to dramatically reduce NASA's budget, INCLUDING safety spending, in favour of learning more about nuclear technology in space.
This PDF from the House Democrats makes Bush's cuts clear, in terms of NASA and science in general.
Worse yet, a year and a half ago, people were warning that these cuts were leading to an inevitable disaster in the shuttle program. A freaking year and a half ago.
And through all of this, the best Bush can say is "May God continue to bless America."
It's not a bad idea. The website talks more about security (PGP) and such, which would be my primary concern. (My porn, not their's...)
Seriously, though... Just as with P2P networks, it depends on a strong, diverse, and reliable mesh. Any natural disaster, bandwidth failure, or even power failure could wipe out most, if not all, of your peer backups. Tried and true remains for me.
The reality is that these "benchmarks" are, in all actuality, never really objective. The benchmarks from a few weeks ago were likely done by somebody who is less than a fan of the PowerPC G4 chip. The results from this article were written by someone who writes software for Windows and has decided to write a clean program for the G4 chip with its Altivec engine. Kudos to him.
The reality remains that benchmarks prove little.
People who are in love with Macintosh have, throughout history, had the speed card in their deck. At this particular time, many would argue they don't. (Many would argue they do...)
People whoa re in love with other platforms, hardware and software, like their platforms for specific reasons, as well. Speed may be one of them.
But, I think, deep down, Mac users are attached to the platform for more than just speed. It's the efficiency of the operating system, the attention to detail, the clean interface, the simple plug-and-play, the good support, the Apple iLife products...
Maine's outgoing (or gone?) governor introduced a program to provide iBooks to every student in Maine (initially beginning with Middle Schoolers).
It is further interesting to note that middle school labs in Maine do not include desktop systems. Maine middle schools have iBook mobile labs... I'm wondering if these "costs" were possibly why the Linux labs cost less?
I really am on the "capitalist pig" side of all of this, I guess.
If Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, and felt Retlaw/the Walt Disney company should own it, that's his business. As long as it is profitable for the Walt Disney Company to sell the likeness of Mickey Mouse, they should do it, and they *should* have the exclusive right to do so, considering that they "own" Mickey Mouse.
As for the fear that neglected works will never go out of copyright, and never be available, this is not true. Once a copyright holder fails to protect his or her copyright, they loose it. As such, if Disney ever stopped promoting Mickey Mouse, and some small company did for a while, and Disney didn't challenge them within a limited (actually limited) amount of time, then Mickey truly becomes a work of the "public domain."
"Limited" is entirely for Congress to decide. Not the Supreme Court. And, while, in recent memory, the Court has stepped into unprecedented territory, they're well within their rights and responsibilities to stay out of this one, as much as they can.
The second generation of iMacs were fanless. Running with the G3 chip and convection cooling allowed Apple to ditch the fan and make an (almost) silent computer. The new iMac G4 does have a fan, but it is fairly quiet and energy-efficent in its own right.
Wired, I'm afraid, is looking for a conspiracy where none exist. The team at Kaleidoscope is working on an OS X version of their classic (and Classic) appearance app.
As a former Kaleidoscope user, I can tell you that it, and just about any other "tweak" or "hack" app broke after most any update (from the System 7 days right up to the latest Classic). This isn't anything new. Apple is constantly updating the interface (Jaguar has quite a few interface changes, behind the scenes).
I downloaded Phoenix a few minutes ago. The speed improvements are flooring. There are a few quirky things with text input, as I see now that I am posting this comment. But for speedy web surfing, lynx might just have a new competitor.
"...I doubt that developers of those free p2p applications have gave much thought to efficiency..."
It is more than doubt. The downloadable P2P programs are made to pull advertising for revenues; that is their priority. Those dozens of pop-up windows weren't coming from Mars; efficiency had nothing to do with getting the biggest, fattest, most obnoxious ad possible on your screen.
"I have serious question about this, I am not sure we even have a finished product yet!" said the executive from New York. "I don't know what this is, but if it is the movie, or any portion of the movie, we will impose strict criminal penalties against anyone and everyone that downloads it!"
Notice that the executive said "if it is." While that last comment is fairly hillarious, they rightly have doubts about the legitimacy of any "leaked" copies. A week before, I could see that, coming from the theatres. But four months before? There likely is not a final cut yet.
Remember what they say: any publicity is good publicity.
piracyn the act of falsely representing the ideas or work of others as your own [syn: plagiarization, plagiarisation]
The anonymous author is misrepresenting the characters in this book as the genuine J. K. Rowling Harry Potter characters. The anonymous author is further having the publication printed using the names of various editors of the genuine books, and even J. K. Rowling herself, according to the BBC.
Sad, but true is that it'll take a lot of forward-looking folks to bring this to the fruition. As much as Verizon, Qwest, Bell South, and the other Baby Bells complain that they have to bear the costs of maintaining the copper, it is essential to their business future. If they didn't have that cross to bear (that is, if wireless were available), then what would they have to block out competition as effectively as they can today?
Wireless would be wonderful. But only companies such as Sprint, who is a minority player (relatively, on a national level) in the local market anyway, can actually afford to offer it... And even they've given up. The rest simply don't want to challenge their business plan that much. And can you blame them? The investors would have the head of Ivan Seidenberg.
The company I work for has been looking at VoIP for several months now. Since we have several offices across the country, it would be very advantageous, technologically, for us to use VoIP for the end-user phones, rather than the hodge-podge of systems we use today.
Unfortunately, the prohibiting factor has been the cost of the phones themselves. The cost for an actual system is within reason, but some VoIP telephones run into the $700 range.
At this pricepoint, it seems much more affordable and reasonable. And while the GUI would need work to make it dummy-friendly, we have no shortage of graphics designers and programmers who could make that work.
One step closer to VoIP from beginning to end makes me happy. And I know it'd make our CFO happy, too. =)
Lindows also has offered financial assistance to open source developers, in addition to contributing code back to Wine and the other open source programs those scumbags you're talking about are using.
The recording industry just wants someone to blame poor management on. The truth is that with Napster gone, it makes their job more difficult: they can't now pin it on just one company. It was easy to just sue Napster... Now they have to go after end-users, or find some way to tighten their bandwidth access.
Look at the ridiculous deals they signed just before the economy slowed here in the United States... The Mariah Carey deal, which failed. The Michael Jackson "biggest album ever" which sold about ten copies.
It's easy for the CEOs of these companies to place blame somewhere else, besides themselves. And the Boards and shareholders have so far wagged their tails, nodded their heads, and watched their portfolios halve in value.
Someone earlier said that XM Radio had agreements with car manufacturers and that Sirius did not.
Sirius does, actually, have agreements with more care manufacturers than XM does. They are: Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes, Mazda, Jaguar, and Volvo. Sirius will also be installing radios in Freightliner and Sterling heavy trucks.
I'm glad someone noticed that CIPA was unconstitutional. Sometimes the ACLU can be a little overactive... But even the American Library Association opposed the law. Not because it would have made librarian's jobs harder... It actually would have made their jobs easier.
But the truth is that filtering software is shoot-and-miss, at the very best. Filtering software can often be stereotypical... We all know the examples: breast cancer, gay suicide, etc. And for the government, or anyone to put some "Big Brother" software into place is silly. Librarians do a good job of keeping the kiddies off porn. Let them do their job.
Slashdot Mirror
I think it is quite admirable that Apple is so dedicated to these security updates. Certainly there is one other operating system software company in the world that isn't as vigilant. *cough*
I know at work, whenever an exploitation was discovered on the PC, the IT department would wait and wait. After several weeks, when problems started happening, they would issue an advisory, telling the people workarounds and what not to do and such until an update happened.
They never did that for the marketing/communications Macs. The reasons are threefold:
a.) there are fewer exploits in Mac OS X's old age (read: UNIX/FreeBSD/Darwin),
b.) when there are holes, they are patched, almost always very, very promptly.
c.) they were afraid of the Macs, anyway.
I think the latter is the least substantial, but, nonetheless, still relevant.
Anyway. I wanted to make a note of this. I don't see how there's much else that we can regularlly pony up in Software Update discussions...
justen
I have been waiting for this for quite a while.
.com business plans at one point or another. But there has always been a reality that it just isn't all that realistic for a single protocol. That is, it isn't very cost-effective to utilize a wide-area terrestrial wireless network when you are sitting five feet from an wi-fi base station.
The idea of "anywhere" access isn't new. Almost every wireless company has included it in their
I think that this card will bring mobile warriors a bit closer to the idea of truly affordable anywhere access.
justen
Are a great idea, as is this. DNC lists aren't as effective as we'd love for them to be, but that's all right.
:(
The real benefit here is the possibility to sue for damages. If your email is on a "do not email" list, then, perhaps you could sue...
The unfortunate part is that with so many states, this will end up being a patchwork of different laws that may not end up have that much impact.
justen.
This is going to be me, rambling. I'll be accused of being a liberal, tree-hugging, deficit-loving bitch, but it needs to be said.
Bush has, from day one, been all about, or so he says, cutting budgets. Everything but Defense, he says, is spending far too much. Education. Health and Human Services. AIDS research (his "broad" plan announced in the State of the Union address was a joke). NASA.
Time and time again, he has harped on cutting NASA's budget. He has forced the agency to abandon most all other programs, except extending the life of the shuttles.
Democrats and others have pleaded for Bush to reconsider. He hasn't.
One year ago, CNN discussed Bush's plans to dramatically reduce NASA's budget, INCLUDING safety spending, in favour of learning more about nuclear technology in space.
This PDF from the House Democrats makes Bush's cuts clear, in terms of NASA and science in general.
Worse yet, a year and a half ago, people were warning that these cuts were leading to an inevitable disaster in the shuttle program. A freaking year and a half ago.
And through all of this, the best Bush can say is "May God continue to bless America."
Oh, and Saddam is an evil, evil man.
Growl.
jrbd
It's not a bad idea. The website talks more about security (PGP) and such, which would be my primary concern. (My porn, not their's...)
Seriously, though... Just as with P2P networks, it depends on a strong, diverse, and reliable mesh. Any natural disaster, bandwidth failure, or even power failure could wipe out most, if not all, of your peer backups. Tried and true remains for me.
jrbd
The reality is that these "benchmarks" are, in all actuality, never really objective. The benchmarks from a few weeks ago were likely done by somebody who is less than a fan of the PowerPC G4 chip. The results from this article were written by someone who writes software for Windows and has decided to write a clean program for the G4 chip with its Altivec engine. Kudos to him.
The reality remains that benchmarks prove little.
People who are in love with Macintosh have, throughout history, had the speed card in their deck. At this particular time, many would argue they don't. (Many would argue they do...)
People whoa re in love with other platforms, hardware and software, like their platforms for specific reasons, as well. Speed may be one of them.
But, I think, deep down, Mac users are attached to the platform for more than just speed. It's the efficiency of the operating system, the attention to detail, the clean interface, the simple plug-and-play, the good support, the Apple iLife products...
It's all in the eye of the beholder.
jrbd
Maine's outgoing (or gone?) governor introduced a program to provide iBooks to every student in Maine (initially beginning with Middle Schoolers).
It is further interesting to note that middle school labs in Maine do not include desktop systems. Maine middle schools have iBook mobile labs... I'm wondering if these "costs" were possibly why the Linux labs cost less?
Justen Deal
As for the artist, she likely made the decision upon /pressure/ from Disney Legal.
Legally, an item of artistic and/or editorial value that is not made specifically to "steal" the copyright is permissible.
jrbd
I really am on the "capitalist pig" side of all of this, I guess.
If Walt Disney created Mickey Mouse, and felt Retlaw/the Walt Disney company should own it, that's his business. As long as it is profitable for the Walt Disney Company to sell the likeness of Mickey Mouse, they should do it, and they *should* have the exclusive right to do so, considering that they "own" Mickey Mouse.
As for the fear that neglected works will never go out of copyright, and never be available, this is not true. Once a copyright holder fails to protect his or her copyright, they loose it. As such, if Disney ever stopped promoting Mickey Mouse, and some small company did for a while, and Disney didn't challenge them within a limited (actually limited) amount of time, then Mickey truly becomes a work of the "public domain."
"Limited" is entirely for Congress to decide. Not the Supreme Court. And, while, in recent memory, the Court has stepped into unprecedented territory, they're well within their rights and responsibilities to stay out of this one, as much as they can.
jrbd
How about PDF or QuickTime exporting?
The second generation of iMacs were fanless. Running with the G3 chip and convection cooling allowed Apple to ditch the fan and make an (almost) silent computer. The new iMac G4 does have a fan, but it is fairly quiet and energy-efficent in its own right.
jrbd
Wired, I'm afraid, is looking for a conspiracy where none exist. The team at Kaleidoscope is working on an OS X version of their classic (and Classic) appearance app.
As a former Kaleidoscope user, I can tell you that it, and just about any other "tweak" or "hack" app broke after most any update (from the System 7 days right up to the latest Classic). This isn't anything new. Apple is constantly updating the interface (Jaguar has quite a few interface changes, behind the scenes).
No conspiracy, sorry!
jrbd
I downloaded Phoenix a few minutes ago. The speed improvements are flooring. There are a few quirky things with text input, as I see now that I am posting this comment. But for speedy web surfing, lynx might just have a new competitor.
jrbd
"...I doubt that developers of those free p2p applications have gave much thought to efficiency..."
It is more than doubt. The downloadable P2P programs are made to pull advertising for revenues; that is their priority. Those dozens of pop-up windows weren't coming from Mars; efficiency had nothing to do with getting the biggest, fattest, most obnoxious ad possible on your screen.
jrbd
"I have serious question about this, I am not sure we even have a finished product yet!" said the executive from New York. "I don't know what this is, but if it is the movie, or any portion of the movie, we will impose strict criminal penalties against anyone and everyone that downloads it!"
Notice that the executive said "if it is." While that last comment is fairly hillarious, they rightly have doubts about the legitimacy of any "leaked" copies. A week before, I could see that, coming from the theatres. But four months before? There likely is not a final cut yet.
Remember what they say: any publicity is good publicity.
jrbd
According to Princeton University:
piracy n the act of falsely representing the ideas or work of others as your own [syn: plagiarization, plagiarisation]
The anonymous author is misrepresenting the characters in this book as the genuine J. K. Rowling Harry Potter characters. The anonymous author is further having the publication printed using the names of various editors of the genuine books, and even J. K. Rowling herself, according to the BBC.
So, yes, it is piracy.
jrbd
Sad, but true is that it'll take a lot of forward-looking folks to bring this to the fruition. As much as Verizon, Qwest, Bell South, and the other Baby Bells complain that they have to bear the costs of maintaining the copper, it is essential to their business future. If they didn't have that cross to bear (that is, if wireless were available), then what would they have to block out competition as effectively as they can today?
Wireless would be wonderful. But only companies such as Sprint, who is a minority player (relatively, on a national level) in the local market anyway, can actually afford to offer it... And even they've given up. The rest simply don't want to challenge their business plan that much. And can you blame them? The investors would have the head of Ivan Seidenberg.
Face it, we're stuck.
jrbd
The company I work for has been looking at VoIP for several months now. Since we have several offices across the country, it would be very advantageous, technologically, for us to use VoIP for the end-user phones, rather than the hodge-podge of systems we use today.
Unfortunately, the prohibiting factor has been the cost of the phones themselves. The cost for an actual system is within reason, but some VoIP telephones run into the $700 range.
At this pricepoint, it seems much more affordable and reasonable. And while the GUI would need work to make it dummy-friendly, we have no shortage of graphics designers and programmers who could make that work.
One step closer to VoIP from beginning to end makes me happy. And I know it'd make our CFO happy, too. =)
jrbd
Lindows also has offered financial assistance to open source developers, in addition to contributing code back to Wine and the other open source programs those scumbags you're talking about are using.
Link.
jrbd
The recording industry just wants someone to blame poor management on. The truth is that with Napster gone, it makes their job more difficult: they can't now pin it on just one company. It was easy to just sue Napster... Now they have to go after end-users, or find some way to tighten their bandwidth access.
Look at the ridiculous deals they signed just before the economy slowed here in the United States... The Mariah Carey deal, which failed. The Michael Jackson "biggest album ever" which sold about ten copies.
It's easy for the CEOs of these companies to place blame somewhere else, besides themselves. And the Boards and shareholders have so far wagged their tails, nodded their heads, and watched their portfolios halve in value.
They'll wake up... Someday... Maybe...
jrbd
Someone earlier said that XM Radio had agreements with car manufacturers and that Sirius did not.
Sirius does, actually, have agreements with more care manufacturers than XM does. They are: Ford, Chrysler, BMW, Mercedes, Mazda, Jaguar, and Volvo. Sirius will also be installing radios in Freightliner and Sterling heavy trucks.
jrbd
I'm glad someone noticed that CIPA was unconstitutional. Sometimes the ACLU can be a little overactive... But even the American Library Association opposed the law. Not because it would have made librarian's jobs harder... It actually would have made their jobs easier.
But the truth is that filtering software is shoot-and-miss, at the very best. Filtering software can often be stereotypical... We all know the examples: breast cancer, gay suicide, etc. And for the government, or anyone to put some "Big Brother" software into place is silly. Librarians do a good job of keeping the kiddies off porn. Let them do their job.
jrbd
I imagine this is going to be a hit with universities, especially those that already use Macintosh client units.
I think the RAID server that they announced (not shipping until later) will be pretty hot, too...
- 3U height
- 14 bays
- Fourteen 120 gB ATA drives (hot pluggable)
- 1.68 tB
- dual 2GB Fibre Channel on system
- 400 mB/second storage throughput
At $3,000, this is a fairly good solution. I just wonder what this "repair kit" will include??
jrbd
Top Ten Affects of Die-Hard Mac Users on the World
10. On a certain day in January and July, Akamai traffic increases... Ten, err, Xfold.
9. Gap can always fall back on selling black mock turtlenecks and deep-blue denim jeans in an economic recession.
8. The world's goldfish will always have a place to live. (Today, in the Mac Classic. Tomorrow in the hollowed iMac G4 dome...)
7. Translucent irons, toothbrushes, speakers, mice, cat bowls, and lingerie.
6. Grandparents. Surfing. By themselves. Ahh!
5. MacOSRumors. The single largest scam on the Internet, today.
4. iPhoto coffee-table books. (Trust me: It's the ONLY way "The Osburne's" will ever make it into print... I hope.)
3. The Trash. Call it what it is, damnit! Recycle Bin my arse: Microsoft trying to please the tree-huggers.
2. Aquafied slashdot. Whodathunkit?
1. Grandparents. Unix. AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
jrbd
"...the largest distributed computing project in the world..."
Shouldn't it be "this" world? =)
jrbd