I bought an app the other day that didn't work. I went to my apple account, clicked the "Report a problem with this purchase button" under recent purchases, explained the problem, and was issued a refund the same day.
I don't know if they'd do the same thing if you just said "hey this game sucks can I return it" but then how many stores will let you return video games after they've been opened?
Exactly. It's the exact same as if you give your kid a $20 and he goes to the arcade. There's no "free" games and it's highly likely that he'll want more money. That's not really evil on Apple's part.
The prevalence of in app purchases is disappointing though. I'd prefer to pay a couple bucks for an app and have it work all the time (without any "energy" issues). But because some users have more money that good sense, the business model of give the app away for free charge a shit ton is for some strange reason prevalent.
In app purchases clearly say that they cost something. $0.99 for more energy or whatever you're buying.
The problem is that giving a kid an iphone with an apple account is like giving them a credit card. And, given the self control of most children, even if you think yours is different, it's a very dumb idea to give them a credit card.
Not completely true. Fly on a european airplane[1] and when you turn on the channel that shows where the plane is going, how fast it is going, and how high, there will generally be a) the information in english b) the information in the native language of the airline, marked in m, kph, etc.
[1] Yes not for all countries true as Ireland and the UK are imperial
Vegetarianism is not one size fits all. You have all different degrees.
Some vegetarians will, for instance, not eat cheese because you may have to kill cows to make it (little known fact, often something from the gut of cows is used to make cheese)
Others won't eat eggs (have you seen what they do in chicken farms!)
Others will eat fish because they don't see fish as animals.
So while, yes, YOU may be a vegetarian who does not need to take B12 supplements, SOME vegetarians do (basically the closer you get to becoming a vegan the more likely you are in that group.
Which means, if you'd like to be a vegetarian, you should probably know if you are in the needs-to-take-B12 group.
Just like you should be aware of any other nutrient deficiencies in your meat inclusive diet.
No, actually not. The paleo diet stresses it's not just eating meat that's healthy, but healthy cuts of meat.
Our ancestors would have slaughtered and killed a buffalo that had spent it's days running around all the time.
Modern humans eat a cow that's been force fed grain to make it fatter.
One is healthier then the other. And certainly eating grass fed beef is both delicious and more healthy.
The problem (and the reason I am no longer paleo) is the difficulty it really is to be "healthy." Pretty much if you're not rich you're fucked. And forget about going out to a restaurant and getting something to eat.
Well like it or not the pathways your body uses to process and digest food ARE the results of natural evolution.
And as I evolved to be a hunter, probably sitting on my ass in front of a computer every day has resulted in my being over weight (even if I go to the gym for an hour, I just can't undue the damage of not being active).
Humans need to have a better feel for what their bodies are designed for. Little things like standing up while in front of a computer can help you be healthier and feed better.
It's not about outlawing things like computers because they're "unnatural"
Or, you can come up with a pill / treatment that will allow me to counteract the fact that I'm living a sedentary lifestyle.
I know as a girl I was seeing for a bit of time was a vegetarian. She used to take shots of wheat grass juice every on a regular basis as it contained some of the missing B vitamins. Depending on how you're doing the vegetarian thing, you might not be getting sick (e.g. if you are actively eating wheat grass).
But it's not sufficient to simply stop eating meat, you need to make sure your diet covers appropriate vitamins and minerals as well.
...being a vegetarian is bad for the longevity of the species, and thus wrong.
Humans did not evolve to be vegetarians. Vegetarians and particularly vegans will end up needing to take supplements of some vitamins found solely in meat (e.g. vitamin B12).
You should do some more research into the Paleo diet before posting such nonsense.
Most of it is about avoiding foods that your ancestors 100 years ago, and perhaps 10,000 years ago would not define as food (depending on how strict you are).
Highly processed foods (e.g. twinkies) very rarely end up being healthy for you, and often contain ingredients your body has not evolved to digest. Case in point: high fructose corn syrup. The pathway for your body to get rid of it involves directly converting it into fat in your liver. Burn enough fat you may be OK eating that twinkie, but in general, it's healthier to avoid.
In addition, there are more strict versions of paleo that avoid things like pasta and bread because, while perhaps not as bad for you as a twinkie, there is some evidence that it's not processed by your body as efficiently as meats and veggies.
The interesting thing is if you actually read a book on Paleo they'll point out the grey areas. For instance, we evolved to drink milk some 100,000 years ago. Depending on your background, you may be more or less able to handle milk.
Many cars can be compromised with a screwdriver and thin piece of metal to open them.
Many anti-shoplifting devices can be disabled if you know how.
The list goes on.
True security costs money and effort. A LOT of it.
For most applications, as a society, we err on the side of too little security (and accept the small chance that security will be compromised, because it's not an issue).
This is because, historically, security issues have been quite local. People don't steal enough in most neighborhoods to justify putting bars on your windows. People don't shoplift enough to justify a full cavity search of anyone entering or exiting a department store.
Technology is of course changing all of that. Before, if we know there is a 1 in a million chance of a bad guy in the population, most small communities were not afraid. Now, it is possible for a single determined hacker to do all kinds of crazy things. That's where people have not caught up, and in the future we will have to start making choices with regards to whether we want to expend the resources for true security. And we might do it if there are enough incidents to justify it -- but perhaps not before.
More importantly, can the pictures be trusted in a world of Photoshop.
If it's one picture, it should be taken with a grain of salt.
My sister affectionately refers to my niece as "the little monkey." So I photoshopped giant monkey ears and some hair on her and sent it to my sister. Everyone laughed. But if you found it on my facebook, believe me, it wouldn't be evidence my niece is the missing link.
I could see it being "cool" to photoshop the equivalent of a scar face photo.
And maybe if someone was out to get you, it would make sense to do all the photoshopping necessary to create this evidence.
It's entirely possible he might have stumbled accidentally over SQL injection. Maybe he was filling in a "Contact Us" form and used some quotation marks or something.
But instead of stopping there he went in to nose around and see that there were 600,000 users, credit card information, etc., available.
So it was sort of a cache-22 on his part. He knew, maybe based on the fact that some idiot spit out the output of all SQL statements into some debug statements on the page, that he could just use SHOW TABLES; or SELECT * FROM ; or any other number of things to get the data.
But without trying, he couldn't have known if perhaps the database was secured in the back end : the user did not have privileges for a SHOW TABLES statement or to select system tables, or to do anything except insert a comment.
Best case should have been to email and say "Hey I can't submit a form using quotes, what gives?" However, that only will be helpful if the person answering the help email understands the ramifications to this.
And if no one looks at it, perhaps it's only fixed when 600,000 people have to be informed their credit card information was stolen by malicious hackers.
So it's a tough question. And there is no simple answer.
Well I guess the key question is why he was doing the "research" to begin with
If he was actively using portscanners and other tools to try to find exploitable systems on the internet, his intentions are questionable.
I guess with SQL injection it's conceivable he could have simply been filling in something like a comment form, and gotten an error when the form wasn't properly handled....
From TFA "Rogers confirmed to WIRED that the vulnerability he found was a SQL-injection vulnerability"
However, TFA also states "The database contained the full names, addresses, home and mobile phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, and a nine-digit extract of credit card numbers used at the site"
So maybe he stumbled innocently onto this. But somehow he got around to seeing exactly WHAT he could find in the database. And that's where it get's fuzzy if he's really doing a good deed or not.
There was rumour Apple was going to kill off the Mac Pro for similar reasons.
If you buy an iMac, even though it's a little more expensive then a build-your-own you get a phenomenal package (yes, some people do care about looks), easy to set up, with Apple support. Ridicule it all you want, but it's the same reason people buy Louis Vuitton bags instead of just getting a magic marker and writing LV on a grocery bag. (Lesson: just because it's not important to you doesn't mean it's not important to other people).
Who is the MacPro for? Now it is clear -- they want the sort of people who do on the fly editing of 4k videos, real power users for whom cost is not an issue. There is a clear market, and if you care about saving a couple hundred bucks, you're not the target market.
If you read my post you'll see i have no problem agreeing the old mac pro was over priced because of the lack of refresh.
The other models and the new mac pro are marginally more expensive. But they come in a much better form factor then something you might be able to build yourself. AND with apple support.
The old Mac Pro was in need of a refresh for quite some time. Literally they stopped refreshing them which is why at the time this article was written he could build something similar for so much less money.
But spec out the new Mac Pro. They're not something you could build for $1,100 or even close to that.
But I recently (within the past year switched to Mac). There are plenty of apps available, and I am as productive, if not more so then under Windows or Linux.
The website you list is actually quite funny because it seems to reveal Apple hardware is quite well priced.
In the mac mini, for instance, to save money he leaves out wifi, and uses an i3 instead of an i5.
And OK maybe you won't use wifi. But you will need a keyboard and mouse and he leaves those out of the price as well.
Or, when the 21.5" imac is listed as being very over priced he lists "Any 21.5 monitor (1920x1080)"
IAAP (I am a Photographer) and I can tell you that the Apple screens in the iMacs are very, very high quality. To get a similar screen you'll be shelling out some money.
For most of these models, you're paying more for the Apple brand and look, yes that's true. But in many cases that look is much smaller (compare the size of his custom iMacs -- they're HUGE!) and you get Apple support (can you just walk into an apple store with your hackintosh)?
Of course that's all personal preference, and maybe sexy design isn't worth an extra $100 for you.
Regarding the Mac Pro, that's been in need of a refresh for quite some time. And they're finally out!
It would be interesting to know how much a hackintoshes for those cost :
The Mac has plenty of productivity software. If you want to write a report, code, surf the web, or whatever, you'll have no problems.
It does lack some special case software. That's slowly changing, but I can imagine that if you need to run an electron software designed for Windows XP you're SOL.
But such cases are few and far between. And if you really really wanted, you could purchase Parallels and run the windows software anyways.
Of course, maybe your favorite ____ isn't for a mac and you'll need to find an equivalent. And if you're looking to run the best new multiplayer games, you'll be saddened by the lack of selection.
Slashdot Mirror
Do you even own an iPhone?
I've had an iPhone for a couple years now, and it's always been clear to me when an app wanted my money.
Technically it IS a free app.
It used to be games had "cheat codes" to allow people who didn't want to put in the time and energy to master a game to move to the front of the row.
Then someone figured out if you get rid of the cheat codes you can make people pay.
I do understand though. It is frustrating that since the introduction of the iPhone shareware has been passed off as fully functional software.
I bought an app the other day that didn't work. I went to my apple account, clicked the "Report a problem with this purchase button" under recent purchases, explained the problem, and was issued a refund the same day.
I don't know if they'd do the same thing if you just said "hey this game sucks can I return it" but then how many stores will let you return video games after they've been opened?
Exactly. It's the exact same as if you give your kid a $20 and he goes to the arcade. There's no "free" games and it's highly likely that he'll want more money. That's not really evil on Apple's part.
The prevalence of in app purchases is disappointing though. I'd prefer to pay a couple bucks for an app and have it work all the time (without any "energy" issues). But because some users have more money that good sense, the business model of give the app away for free charge a shit ton is for some strange reason prevalent.
I call BS.
In app purchases clearly say that they cost something. $0.99 for more energy or whatever you're buying.
The problem is that giving a kid an iphone with an apple account is like giving them a credit card. And, given the self control of most children, even if you think yours is different, it's a very dumb idea to give them a credit card.
Not completely true. Fly on a european airplane[1] and when you turn on the channel that shows where the plane is going, how fast it is going, and how high, there will generally be a) the information in english b) the information in the native language of the airline, marked in m, kph, etc.
[1] Yes not for all countries true as Ireland and the UK are imperial
Vegetarianism is not one size fits all. You have all different degrees.
Some vegetarians will, for instance, not eat cheese because you may have to kill cows to make it (little known fact, often something from the gut of cows is used to make cheese)
Others won't eat eggs (have you seen what they do in chicken farms!)
Others will eat fish because they don't see fish as animals.
So while, yes, YOU may be a vegetarian who does not need to take B12 supplements, SOME vegetarians do (basically the closer you get to becoming a vegan the more likely you are in that group.
Which means, if you'd like to be a vegetarian, you should probably know if you are in the needs-to-take-B12 group.
Just like you should be aware of any other nutrient deficiencies in your meat inclusive diet.
No, actually not. The paleo diet stresses it's not just eating meat that's healthy, but healthy cuts of meat.
Our ancestors would have slaughtered and killed a buffalo that had spent it's days running around all the time.
Modern humans eat a cow that's been force fed grain to make it fatter.
One is healthier then the other. And certainly eating grass fed beef is both delicious and more healthy.
The problem (and the reason I am no longer paleo) is the difficulty it really is to be "healthy." Pretty much if you're not rich you're fucked. And forget about going out to a restaurant and getting something to eat.
You may be blessed with great genetics. Feel lucky LOL
Well like it or not the pathways your body uses to process and digest food ARE the results of natural evolution.
And as I evolved to be a hunter, probably sitting on my ass in front of a computer every day has resulted in my being over weight (even if I go to the gym for an hour, I just can't undue the damage of not being active).
Humans need to have a better feel for what their bodies are designed for. Little things like standing up while in front of a computer can help you be healthier and feed better.
It's not about outlawing things like computers because they're "unnatural"
Or, you can come up with a pill / treatment that will allow me to counteract the fact that I'm living a sedentary lifestyle.
I'm open to either one :D
I know as a girl I was seeing for a bit of time was a vegetarian. She used to take shots of wheat grass juice every on a regular basis as it contained some of the missing B vitamins. Depending on how you're doing the vegetarian thing, you might not be getting sick (e.g. if you are actively eating wheat grass).
But it's not sufficient to simply stop eating meat, you need to make sure your diet covers appropriate vitamins and minerals as well.
And there are citations....
first link on google :
http://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/nutrition/b12.aspx
google results :
https://www.google.nl/search?q=b12+supplement+for+vegetarian&oq=b12+supplements+for+ve&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l5.6627j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=119&ie=UTF-8
...being a vegetarian is bad for the longevity of the species, and thus wrong.
Humans did not evolve to be vegetarians. Vegetarians and particularly vegans will end up needing to take supplements of some vitamins found solely in meat (e.g. vitamin B12).
You should do some more research into the Paleo diet before posting such nonsense.
Most of it is about avoiding foods that your ancestors 100 years ago, and perhaps 10,000 years ago would not define as food (depending on how strict you are).
Highly processed foods (e.g. twinkies) very rarely end up being healthy for you, and often contain ingredients your body has not evolved to digest. Case in point: high fructose corn syrup. The pathway for your body to get rid of it involves directly converting it into fat in your liver. Burn enough fat you may be OK eating that twinkie, but in general, it's healthier to avoid.
In addition, there are more strict versions of paleo that avoid things like pasta and bread because, while perhaps not as bad for you as a twinkie, there is some evidence that it's not processed by your body as efficiently as meats and veggies.
The interesting thing is if you actually read a book on Paleo they'll point out the grey areas. For instance, we evolved to drink milk some 100,000 years ago. Depending on your background, you may be more or less able to handle milk.
Most locks can be picked with a lock pick
Many cars can be compromised with a screwdriver and thin piece of metal to open them.
Many anti-shoplifting devices can be disabled if you know how.
The list goes on.
True security costs money and effort. A LOT of it.
For most applications, as a society, we err on the side of too little security (and accept the small chance that security will be compromised, because it's not an issue).
This is because, historically, security issues have been quite local. People don't steal enough in most neighborhoods to justify putting bars on your windows. People don't shoplift enough to justify a full cavity search of anyone entering or exiting a department store.
Technology is of course changing all of that. Before, if we know there is a 1 in a million chance of a bad guy in the population, most small communities were not afraid. Now, it is possible for a single determined hacker to do all kinds of crazy things. That's where people have not caught up, and in the future we will have to start making choices with regards to whether we want to expend the resources for true security. And we might do it if there are enough incidents to justify it -- but perhaps not before.
More importantly, can the pictures be trusted in a world of Photoshop.
If it's one picture, it should be taken with a grain of salt.
My sister affectionately refers to my niece as "the little monkey." So I photoshopped giant monkey ears and some hair on her and sent it to my sister. Everyone laughed. But if you found it on my facebook, believe me, it wouldn't be evidence my niece is the missing link.
I could see it being "cool" to photoshop the equivalent of a scar face photo.
And maybe if someone was out to get you, it would make sense to do all the photoshopping necessary to create this evidence.
It's entirely possible he might have stumbled accidentally over SQL injection. Maybe he was filling in a "Contact Us" form and used some quotation marks or something.
But instead of stopping there he went in to nose around and see that there were 600,000 users, credit card information, etc., available.
So it was sort of a cache-22 on his part. He knew, maybe based on the fact that some idiot spit out the output of all SQL statements into some debug statements on the page, that he could just use SHOW TABLES; or SELECT * FROM ; or any other number of things to get the data.
But without trying, he couldn't have known if perhaps the database was secured in the back end : the user did not have privileges for a SHOW TABLES statement or to select system tables, or to do anything except insert a comment.
Best case should have been to email and say "Hey I can't submit a form using quotes, what gives?" However, that only will be helpful if the person answering the help email understands the ramifications to this.
And if no one looks at it, perhaps it's only fixed when 600,000 people have to be informed their credit card information was stolen by malicious hackers.
So it's a tough question. And there is no simple answer.
Well I guess the key question is why he was doing the "research" to begin with
If he was actively using portscanners and other tools to try to find exploitable systems on the internet, his intentions are questionable.
I guess with SQL injection it's conceivable he could have simply been filling in something like a comment form, and gotten an error when the form wasn't properly handled....
From TFA "Rogers confirmed to WIRED that the vulnerability he found was a SQL-injection vulnerability"
However, TFA also states "The database contained the full names, addresses, home and mobile phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, and a nine-digit extract of credit card numbers used at the site"
So maybe he stumbled innocently onto this. But somehow he got around to seeing exactly WHAT he could find in the database. And that's where it get's fuzzy if he's really doing a good deed or not.
There was rumour Apple was going to kill off the Mac Pro for similar reasons.
If you buy an iMac, even though it's a little more expensive then a build-your-own you get a phenomenal package (yes, some people do care about looks), easy to set up, with Apple support. Ridicule it all you want, but it's the same reason people buy Louis Vuitton bags instead of just getting a magic marker and writing LV on a grocery bag. (Lesson: just because it's not important to you doesn't mean it's not important to other people).
Who is the MacPro for? Now it is clear -- they want the sort of people who do on the fly editing of 4k videos, real power users for whom cost is not an issue. There is a clear market, and if you care about saving a couple hundred bucks, you're not the target market.
If you read my post you'll see i have no problem agreeing the old mac pro was over priced because of the lack of refresh.
The other models and the new mac pro are marginally more expensive. But they come in a much better form factor then something you might be able to build yourself. AND with apple support.
So to have a bigger screen, I place it further away from me?
Sure I could get a big screen TV and sit on the couch but I'd rather have a 15" laptop monitor a normal laptop spacing away from me.
The old Mac Pro was in need of a refresh for quite some time. Literally they stopped refreshing them which is why at the time this article was written he could build something similar for so much less money.
But spec out the new Mac Pro. They're not something you could build for $1,100 or even close to that.
http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/mac-pro
YMMV of course.
But I recently (within the past year switched to Mac). There are plenty of apps available, and I am as productive, if not more so then under Windows or Linux.
What kind of a place would slashdot be if people only opened their mouths when they knew what they were talking about?
The website you list is actually quite funny because it seems to reveal Apple hardware is quite well priced.
In the mac mini, for instance, to save money he leaves out wifi, and uses an i3 instead of an i5.
And OK maybe you won't use wifi. But you will need a keyboard and mouse and he leaves those out of the price as well.
Or, when the 21.5" imac is listed as being very over priced he lists "Any 21.5 monitor (1920x1080)"
IAAP (I am a Photographer) and I can tell you that the Apple screens in the iMacs are very, very high quality. To get a similar screen you'll be shelling out some money.
For most of these models, you're paying more for the Apple brand and look, yes that's true. But in many cases that look is much smaller (compare the size of his custom iMacs -- they're HUGE!) and you get Apple support (can you just walk into an apple store with your hackintosh)?
Of course that's all personal preference, and maybe sexy design isn't worth an extra $100 for you.
Regarding the Mac Pro, that's been in need of a refresh for quite some time. And they're finally out!
It would be interesting to know how much a hackintoshes for those cost :
http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/mac-pro
What useful software are you missing?
The Mac has plenty of productivity software. If you want to write a report, code, surf the web, or whatever, you'll have no problems.
It does lack some special case software. That's slowly changing, but I can imagine that if you need to run an electron software designed for Windows XP you're SOL.
But such cases are few and far between. And if you really really wanted, you could purchase Parallels and run the windows software anyways.
Of course, maybe your favorite ____ isn't for a mac and you'll need to find an equivalent. And if you're looking to run the best new multiplayer games, you'll be saddened by the lack of selection.