As an administrator of 100-odd macs myself, used in advertising design and textile design, let me give you a foolproof recipe to making your life 95% easier:
1 Mac OS X Server, configured with all users in Open Directory, and policy to lock out users from system preference panes they have no business being in
1 FileWave server for application deployment and file integrity checking, obtainable from www.filewave.com (note, this will cost money, but will pay for itself the first time you don't have to reinstall an application, because whatever file the user just fucked up just got checksum'd and rewritten)
x users NOT running as a local administrators of the machine
1 unlimited license of Apple Remote Desktop, so that you can remote control / observe, execute code, get system reports, etc.
Mix ingredients together, bake at 350 (or 177 C) for 20 minutes.
And OS X (at least 10.4) still can't reliably connect to a network share (the network browser is *really* bad) while I can type ftp:// [ftp] or smb:// in any Linux desktop. Not sure how you could use an OS for an entire year without discovering the "Go > Connect to Server..." command where you can type in ftp:// or smb:// or nfs:// or afp:// exactly the same...
Frankly, I'm still wondering where in the Constitution it gives the Feds. the right to say what drugs are illegal. The legality of the drug restrictions is actually based upon the constitutional privilege of the government to collect taxes. The original act that started it all was the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act in 1914. Technically, unless you were licensed, you were evading taxes and thus jailable.
So really, the drugs are not illegal, but not paying your license taxes is. However, the government doesn't license anyone so you really can't get your license. Interesting, no?
Terms that I've used (or heard used) for drive imaging:
Drive stomp Rubber stamp Clone Imaging
The only time I've used the term "Bricked" in a professional context is when a user accidentally dumped tea all over their PowerBook. That required an inverter board, and logic board to un-brick.
You are correct, but it's actually FCC "Part 15" - "Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation."
What some call "pumping a whole heap of money into Apple" others call "settling copyright and patent infringement lawsuits out of court before we really take it up the ass."
QuickTime source code copied verbatim and put into Indeo / Video for Windows. Yeah, Microsoft was being altruistic and helping Apple to survive with that agreement. Thanks for your completely uninformed FUD.
What's odd, is on SE Gladstone St, there's a whole bunch of $ESTABLISHMENT At the End of the Universe places. Here's a couple addresses to look at on Google StreetView:
3304 SE Gladstone St. Portland OR - The Shop at the End of the Universe SE 28th and SE Gladstone St. Portland OR - The Pub at the End of the Universe
So either SE Gladstone St. is the end of the universe (meaning that Reed College is off the edge, but we already knew that), or there's something else going on.
I also live here in Portland, and work for a retailer that has stores throughout the northwest. We just heard today that the stores on the north coast got data and voice communications back last night, but still don't have external power. We did manage to get them fuel trucks for the generators though.
Oh, and we have a hard-line / "dry" goods (lawl) distribution center in Chehalis, right where Interstate-5 is shut down. This is presenting some delivery issues for stores on the other side of the flood, as you have to go 500+ miles out of the way to get through (north to I-90, east to I-82, southeast through Kennewick to I-84, then west to Portland / I-205 / I-5, or the reverse if Seattle-bound)
Jeez, even here at the main office in SE Portland, we have a lake on the street corner because the drainage and streets are in such bad shape...
You are exactly correct. This is why the most fearsome weapon ever built was not the "Tsar Bomba," but rather the Peacekeeper/MX ICBM. The Peacekeeper could physically hold up to 12 300kt warheads (limited by treaty to 10), each independently targetable.
Nukes kill with three types of damage: thermal, blast, and ionizing radiation. These three different effects scale differently, as you can read here.
Since the amount of blast-based destruction goes down rapidly the farther from "ground zero" you go (inverse-cube law), it makes sense that a big-ass fucking bomb like the "Tsar Bomba" doesn't get you very far. However, in the picture depicted here you can see how modern weapon desigs get around this - each streak is a dummy reentry vehicle from a single Peacekeeper/MX test launch; which if it were not a launch vehicle test would have a mushroom cloud underneath, each with 20x the power of the Hiroshima blast.
I'll skip over the 'OMG buy carbon credits to stop the earthquakes!' thing you have going on there, and instead laugh at you about your remark about incandescent light bulbs instead.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Do you realize the environmental impact that a wholesale switch to compact flourescent bulbs would have when those things start hitting the landfills? You think we have a problem with mercury in the groundwater now... just wait for THAT.
According to the EPA, CFLs contain an average of 5 milligrams of mercury, which increases the bulb's efficiency. But that also means you can't just trash them--CFLs must be properly recycled. Visit Energy Star or Earth 911 for disposal instructions.
I hadn't seen that product, but reading the description sounds like it's an application on a USB drive that just reads the logged in user's keychain file. This could likely be prevented by incorporating the screen lock functionality on the screensaver, and using a password that doesn't suck. For preventing the attack of the keychains of users that aren't logged in, well, that's what FileVault is for.
As far as the defaults go, Apple goes as secure as is merited for the average user. This means leaving unneeded services turned off, and locking file permissions on system and application folders to 755. The reason why they don't enable boot security by default is because if John Q. Homeuser blows up his system through some ill-advised file deletions and also numbskulls his Open Firmware password, he now has no way to reinstall the OS; since he wouldn't be able to boot from system CD either. This would result in massive support nightmares, and lambasting by the cynical tech public (as you see around here whenever Microsoft missteps).
The USB thing can be fixed via an Open Firmware password (G5 and below, though I'm sure there's an equivalent for intel). If you have one in place, holding down the option key on boot will present you with a password screen before the Boot Manager.
The only other ways to boot from an external disk if there is an Open Firmware is to use the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences (requires admin password) or to use the bless command in the terminal (requires sudo / root access).
Oh, and for those of you that *really* want to secure it, make sure you have a padlock on the case so that they can't open it up, change RAM size, and then zap the PRAM on boot to clear the OF password.
Basic hole filled with solutions that have been available since Mac OS 9.
Actually, the movement in packaging and materials that you're pointing to has been underway for some time. The PowerBook G4 moved to titanium from plastic. The G5 moved away from plastic cases to aluminum, and the Mac Pro follows. The Cinema Displays moved from plastic enclosures to aluminum. The packaging for iPod, Mac Mini, PowerBook G4, MacBook / MacBook Pro, etc has always been much smaller than competing products, bordering on ridiculously small.
All of these products launched before the first Greenpeace chest-thumping.
You see them making changes after, I see them continuing a trend started well before.
I do have an iPhone, and not only does this service work, but it recognizes that you're coming to their site on an iPhone and reorganizes the interface to fit the screen and work quite sensibly!
Oh, the "forward-thinking planners" in Portland that tried to cancel that freeway, and actually did kill at least three other freeways that are sorely missing now, causing our traffic to be some of the worst in the nation.
The 205 transitway that was used for the MAX right-of-way actually was put there by ODOT as a compromise to keep 205 being built. However, since the Mt. Hood Freeway was killed, there was nowhere for the transitway to hook up to for east-west bus traffic, and was left as a grass strip underneath overbuilt overcrossings for 30 years until the MAX red line used it, and they are building the green line on the southern end right now.
The highways in NYC and Portland have quite a bit in common actually, both being planned by Robert Moses back in the day. The difference is that Moses actually got the ones in NYC built, and Portland had "freeway revolts" which probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but has totally screwed us now, as we have two east / west freeways out of downtown - one that goes east of downtown, and one that goes through a tunnel (read: choked) west. Oh, and we have light rail lines that parallel the freeways, because that's useful.
The MAX system is heralded as being a great people mover, but the fact is it's only great if you are going where it goes, and you can probably get there faster via car, because it follows the freeways. Getting to SE Portland / Sellwood / Milwaukee via mass transit is a joke, unlikely to be solved until after 2012; and SW Portland / Tigard / Tualitin / Lake Oswego via mass transit is even worse.
Trust me, I wish I could ride the train to work, just watching movies on my iPhone, but it means I have to get up an hour earlier, drive to the MAX station, get on the train at 6:00a and ride for 20 minutes, wait for a bus for 15 minutes, ride the 9-Powell over the river into SE stopping every 4 blocks or so for 20 minutes, and then walk 6 blocks to my office. It takes 20 minutes total to drive it if I leave at 6:30a.
And people wonder why more don't just ride the MAX.
And at the same time here in Portland, we opened our MAX red line "train to plane" service in 2001. It cost $125M to buy additional light-rail cars, and build the 5.5 miles of track from the nearest transit center, up the 205 freeway, a flyover bridge, over the southbound lanes, a parallel track to Airport Way, and the station within 50 yards of the baggage claim in the terminal. It's quite a nice way to get across town to the airport.
$2B+ for the same job seems a bit steep for only 6 years later...
Not so funny sidenote: the first day it was in operation, it was used to quickly evacuate the airport terminal - September 11, 2001.
The update doesn't come over the cellular network - it comes through iTunes, and you push a button to actually make it happen. This does three things:
1. releases Apple from any complaints of "OMG they updated my shit without me knowing" because you pushed the button. 2. Customer assurance that your phone is always up-to-date. It checks weekly for updates, and has a display within iTunes telling you the last time it checked, the next time it will check, version information, etc. 3. Gives Apple an update path that is network independent, for either future multi-network support in North America, or worldwide support on disparate networks.
The firmware update comes through iTunes, and you press a button to actually load it on. There is no push directly to your device without you knowing about it.
Therefore, this law would not apply, because you're the one updating your handset.
Pretty rough, eh? I'm sure being a "Gentoo person" that you bothered to throw a "man mount" in there, right? It's also hard to google "VLC Codec Mac OS X" and follow the instructions.
Slashdot Mirror
As an administrator of 100-odd macs myself, used in advertising design and textile design, let me give you a foolproof recipe to making your life 95% easier:
1 Mac OS X Server, configured with all users in Open Directory, and policy to lock out users from system preference panes they have no business being in
1 FileWave server for application deployment and file integrity checking, obtainable from www.filewave.com (note, this will cost money, but will pay for itself the first time you don't have to reinstall an application, because whatever file the user just fucked up just got checksum'd and rewritten)
x users NOT running as a local administrators of the machine
1 unlimited license of Apple Remote Desktop, so that you can remote control / observe, execute code, get system reports, etc.
Mix ingredients together, bake at 350 (or 177 C) for 20 minutes.
So really, the drugs are not illegal, but not paying your license taxes is. However, the government doesn't license anyone so you really can't get your license. Interesting, no?
While I'm sure your post was in joking fashion, Rocketdyne was the company who made the five F-1 motors in the first stage of the Saturn V.
I know, I know... why ruin jokes with facts! Why, indeed - I'm an ass. That's why!
Terms that I've used (or heard used) for drive imaging:
Drive stomp
Rubber stamp
Clone
Imaging
The only time I've used the term "Bricked" in a professional context is when a user accidentally dumped tea all over their PowerBook. That required an inverter board, and logic board to un-brick.
You are correct, but it's actually FCC "Part 15" - "Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation."
What some call "pumping a whole heap of money into Apple" others call "settling copyright and patent infringement lawsuits out of court before we really take it up the ass."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_for_Windows
QuickTime source code copied verbatim and put into Indeo / Video for Windows. Yeah, Microsoft was being altruistic and helping Apple to survive with that agreement. Thanks for your completely uninformed FUD.
They did sell the stock after the agreement expired in 2001, and at quite the healthy profit.
I'd hate to see the slide hammer and the massive bucket of Bondo that will be used to fix it imo...
What's odd, is on SE Gladstone St, there's a whole bunch of $ESTABLISHMENT At the End of the Universe places. Here's a couple addresses to look at on Google StreetView:
3304 SE Gladstone St. Portland OR - The Shop at the End of the Universe
SE 28th and SE Gladstone St. Portland OR - The Pub at the End of the Universe
So either SE Gladstone St. is the end of the universe (meaning that Reed College is off the edge, but we already knew that), or there's something else going on.
I also live here in Portland, and work for a retailer that has stores throughout the northwest. We just heard today that the stores on the north coast got data and voice communications back last night, but still don't have external power. We did manage to get them fuel trucks for the generators though.
Oh, and we have a hard-line / "dry" goods (lawl) distribution center in Chehalis, right where Interstate-5 is shut down. This is presenting some delivery issues for stores on the other side of the flood, as you have to go 500+ miles out of the way to get through (north to I-90, east to I-82, southeast through Kennewick to I-84, then west to Portland / I-205 / I-5, or the reverse if Seattle-bound)
Jeez, even here at the main office in SE Portland, we have a lake on the street corner because the drainage and streets are in such bad shape...
You are exactly correct. This is why the most fearsome weapon ever built was not the "Tsar Bomba," but rather the Peacekeeper/MX ICBM. The Peacekeeper could physically hold up to 12 300kt warheads (limited by treaty to 10), each independently targetable.
Nukes kill with three types of damage: thermal, blast, and ionizing radiation. These three different effects scale differently, as you can read here.
Since the amount of blast-based destruction goes down rapidly the farther from "ground zero" you go (inverse-cube law), it makes sense that a big-ass fucking bomb like the "Tsar Bomba" doesn't get you very far. However, in the picture depicted here you can see how modern weapon desigs get around this - each streak is a dummy reentry vehicle from a single Peacekeeper/MX test launch; which if it were not a launch vehicle test would have a mushroom cloud underneath, each with 20x the power of the Hiroshima blast.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Do you realize the environmental impact that a wholesale switch to compact flourescent bulbs would have when those things start hitting the landfills? You think we have a problem with mercury in the groundwater now... just wait for THAT.
... Blu-ray player sales are up 4000%
Don't worry, NASA is readying two shuttles right now, and Ben Affleck and Bruce Willis are on the way to the Cape as we speak...
I hadn't seen that product, but reading the description sounds like it's an application on a USB drive that just reads the logged in user's keychain file. This could likely be prevented by incorporating the screen lock functionality on the screensaver, and using a password that doesn't suck. For preventing the attack of the keychains of users that aren't logged in, well, that's what FileVault is for.
As far as the defaults go, Apple goes as secure as is merited for the average user. This means leaving unneeded services turned off, and locking file permissions on system and application folders to 755. The reason why they don't enable boot security by default is because if John Q. Homeuser blows up his system through some ill-advised file deletions and also numbskulls his Open Firmware password, he now has no way to reinstall the OS; since he wouldn't be able to boot from system CD either. This would result in massive support nightmares, and lambasting by the cynical tech public (as you see around here whenever Microsoft missteps).
The USB thing can be fixed via an Open Firmware password (G5 and below, though I'm sure there's an equivalent for intel). If you have one in place, holding down the option key on boot will present you with a password screen before the Boot Manager.
The only other ways to boot from an external disk if there is an Open Firmware is to use the Startup Disk pane of System Preferences (requires admin password) or to use the bless command in the terminal (requires sudo / root access).
Oh, and for those of you that *really* want to secure it, make sure you have a padlock on the case so that they can't open it up, change RAM size, and then zap the PRAM on boot to clear the OF password.
Basic hole filled with solutions that have been available since Mac OS 9.
Actually, the movement in packaging and materials that you're pointing to has been underway for some time. The PowerBook G4 moved to titanium from plastic. The G5 moved away from plastic cases to aluminum, and the Mac Pro follows. The Cinema Displays moved from plastic enclosures to aluminum. The packaging for iPod, Mac Mini, PowerBook G4, MacBook / MacBook Pro, etc has always been much smaller than competing products, bordering on ridiculously small.
All of these products launched before the first Greenpeace chest-thumping.
You see them making changes after, I see them continuing a trend started well before.
I do have an iPhone, and not only does this service work, but it recognizes that you're coming to their site on an iPhone and reorganizes the interface to fit the screen and work quite sensibly!
Thank you for showing me this wonderful site!
Yeah, but the latency is a bitch!
Oh, the "forward-thinking planners" in Portland that tried to cancel that freeway, and actually did kill at least three other freeways that are sorely missing now, causing our traffic to be some of the worst in the nation.
The 205 transitway that was used for the MAX right-of-way actually was put there by ODOT as a compromise to keep 205 being built. However, since the Mt. Hood Freeway was killed, there was nowhere for the transitway to hook up to for east-west bus traffic, and was left as a grass strip underneath overbuilt overcrossings for 30 years until the MAX red line used it, and they are building the green line on the southern end right now.
The highways in NYC and Portland have quite a bit in common actually, both being planned by Robert Moses back in the day. The difference is that Moses actually got the ones in NYC built, and Portland had "freeway revolts" which probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but has totally screwed us now, as we have two east / west freeways out of downtown - one that goes east of downtown, and one that goes through a tunnel (read: choked) west. Oh, and we have light rail lines that parallel the freeways, because that's useful.
The MAX system is heralded as being a great people mover, but the fact is it's only great if you are going where it goes, and you can probably get there faster via car, because it follows the freeways. Getting to SE Portland / Sellwood / Milwaukee via mass transit is a joke, unlikely to be solved until after 2012; and SW Portland / Tigard / Tualitin / Lake Oswego via mass transit is even worse.
Trust me, I wish I could ride the train to work, just watching movies on my iPhone, but it means I have to get up an hour earlier, drive to the MAX station, get on the train at 6:00a and ride for 20 minutes, wait for a bus for 15 minutes, ride the 9-Powell over the river into SE stopping every 4 blocks or so for 20 minutes, and then walk 6 blocks to my office. It takes 20 minutes total to drive it if I leave at 6:30a.
And people wonder why more don't just ride the MAX.
And at the same time here in Portland, we opened our MAX red line "train to plane" service in 2001. It cost $125M to buy additional light-rail cars, and build the 5.5 miles of track from the nearest transit center, up the 205 freeway, a flyover bridge, over the southbound lanes, a parallel track to Airport Way, and the station within 50 yards of the baggage claim in the terminal. It's quite a nice way to get across town to the airport.
$2B+ for the same job seems a bit steep for only 6 years later...
Not so funny sidenote: the first day it was in operation, it was used to quickly evacuate the airport terminal - September 11, 2001.
The update doesn't come over the cellular network - it comes through iTunes, and you push a button to actually make it happen. This does three things:
1. releases Apple from any complaints of "OMG they updated my shit without me knowing" because you pushed the button.
2. Customer assurance that your phone is always up-to-date. It checks weekly for updates, and has a display within iTunes telling you the last time it checked, the next time it will check, version information, etc.
3. Gives Apple an update path that is network independent, for either future multi-network support in North America, or worldwide support on disparate networks.
The firmware update comes through iTunes, and you press a button to actually load it on. There is no push directly to your device without you knowing about it.
Therefore, this law would not apply, because you're the one updating your handset.
Mounting NFS:
/Volumes/Mountpoint
Go > Connect to Server... > nfs://server/path
-or-
$ mount_nfs server:/path
Pretty rough, eh? I'm sure being a "Gentoo person" that you bothered to throw a "man mount" in there, right? It's also hard to google "VLC Codec Mac OS X" and follow the instructions.