....that the same company that designed your desktop and server operating system was also responsible for providing oversight of its security?....
Would you trust the same contractor that built your house should also install strong doors and decent locks? We expect this in houses, so why not in computers software? Should the security systems and safety systems such as seat belts, airbags and anti-lock brakes etc. not be installed by and warranted by the car manufacturer?
If MS and the PC makers did what everybody in other industries does and is responsible for, there would be no big security industry, or at least it would only be as important as vault makers are to banks. Everyone else doesn't need a vault with two foot steel walls and 3 ton doors. Computer security doesn't need to be foolproof, only good enough to reasonably protect the value of the contents of the average computer. Mac OSX is a good example of this approach.
..... it is a construction companies responsibility to make your house burglar-proof.......
It is their job to make it at least burglar resistant by putting locks on doors that are not made out of cardboard. MS is like a construction company that put up plastic curtains instead of doors and windows. If MS computers were houses or cars, the appropriate Government agencies would have long ago gotten on their case to make the houses safe. For most physical things we have developed safety and operational standards, but evidently not for software.
.....The best use of AV software for MS is as a short-term patch.....
The best use of an A/V patch would be not to need one in the first place. There is no need for such crap on Mac OSX. How many Mac owners run special anti-virus software? How about Linux users? Why can't MS make their OS at least as secure as OSX? Maybe they don't want to? Security should be built in, not added on by third party software. By reducing the number of services needed by most users and limiting their system access, Apple makes their OSX a much more difficult target in the first place.
....and it is a feature that SHOULD be part of an operating system.....
Indeed true. Is it too much to hope that VISTA on its own will be at least as secure as Mac OSX? There is no need for any performance robbing malware from third parties since the OSX is pretty safe as all OS should be. After spending about 5 years on their VISTA OS it seems that the world's largest software company should be able to come up with a product at least as secure as Apple's. If a computer is intrinsically reasonably safe against malware, why waste money on additional security? If the standard locks on a house mostly keep burglars out, why spend more on security?
.....Your backup should be encrypted - what happens if someone steals your backup?.......
Make sure the backup is in a place where it is extremely unlikely to get stolen or damaged. A remote server in a secure room or an external HD locked in a safe might be workable for most situations. If the backup is in a physically secure place, such as on a HD or DVD locked up securely, encryption is probably overkill. The link to the backup server must be encrypted, but the data on a physically secure server need not be. If the user of the laptop forgets the password needed to decrypt the sensitive data, at least the backup can then be used to restore.
......Mac OS X has had filevault [apple.com] for years now.......
Filevault only encrypts only the user's home files if that user turns it on. For a while I had some data which I did want to keep reasonably secure. I created a separate encrypted user account for this. Encryption does noticeably slow down the computer, so only encrypting the things that are really sensitive will minimize this performance hit. Encrypting music, video and pictures, such as would take place for whole disk encryption is a big waste, excepts perhaps for military grade secrets. Except for the performance, the encryption is not noticeable and is invisible to the user. Fast user switching makes it easy to go from the unecrypted main account to the special encrypted one.
......a platform you can run 10-20 year old binaries.......
So what? What's so great about that? My G5 runs Photoshop from 1993 and other ancient programs just fine. I use newer version of course but they STILL work just fine, thank you. I can boot up and run an old DOS program or two under virtual PC if I feel so inclined.
No, the Macs don't need extra performance robbing items such as these. Macs may not be immune, but AFAIK few if any Mac users have ever gotten malware on their computers. Maybe, someday there will be a REAL honest to goodness virus or worm that will affect large numbers of Mac users, but, so far there has not been any such thing.
90% of users use only the same kind of apps that can be had for both platforms. 90% or more of actual computer JOBS have software available for either Macs or Windows. Games is the only large category where Windows has a major advantage. Not having to worry about and spend money on performance robbing anti-malware programs on Macs is a MAJOR advantage, far more than not being able to get your favorite games. It is because of this, that we all use Macs and got an X-box to play games on. Only dreamers think that VISTA will be anywhere near as malware free as OSX, although hopefully better than XP. I'd bet that within the first month of its release there will be more malware infected VISTA machines than infected Macs of all time.
.... I expect responses to this telling me that I am insane and alone (if I get a comment at all), but tell me why any of this fluff is worth a shit.....
I suppose you'd be most happy going back to DOS and a command line driven computer. Computers worked fine before all that fluff and so did cars without air conditioners and radios. A fancy GUI is not needed to get a computer to compute, nor is a radio or air-conditioner needed for a car to get your body and your stuff from A to B. These things are nice however. People wouldn't buy cars without radios and air-conditioners and computers without the ease of use a GUI such as Apple first made available for the masses.
........ If you optimize for only the systems you make you can obviously get a lot better performance.......
That's why the Mac will ALWAYS be a better computer for most ordinary users. Apple can make and TEST the the hardware and the software together as a united, integrated whole. Ipod users have caught onto this and slowly, but surely many Windows users are turning into FORMER Windows users. A computer and its software are a much bigger investment than a music player and there is also the hurdle of learning a new way of doing certain things. Even so, more and more people are making the switch to Macs, especially for laptops.
.....This may or may not change in the future (Vista closes the gap).....
Why should VISTA change anything? Apple is and will still be the only PC maker that makes the WHOLE computer as a SYSTEM. It is the OS and the hardware that together make a working computer, just as the engine and transmission drive train are the essence of a car.
It is the SOFTWARE that makes a computer do what it does. It is the equivalent of the drive system of a car. In computerdom, it is like there are numerous car makers, but they all use the same engine and transmission bought from engine-soft and thus they are all really pretty much the same in performance. Apple is the only one who also makes their own engines, rather than buying the standard engine from engine-soft and then customizing the the knobs on the transmission lever and gas pedal shape. Apple is not going to allow their engines to be installed in other cars. Apple can and does make the car and engine perform as a totally engineered whole vehicle. Gartner is saying that Apple should stop making cars and only build engines in competition with the much bigger engine-soft company. Ridiculous I'd say.
.....Personally, if my daughter's school banned friggin' tag, I'd pull her ass out of that school so damned fast......
A better thing to do is to march into school WITH her and supervise a game of tag with all the other kids. Then if the principal or some other do-gooder from the school tried to stop you or tell you to leave, ignore them until they called the cops. Then there would be a court case and lots of publicity against them and their stupid rules. It would surely make the school officials look dumb in the eyes of the entire community.
.... I admit, though, that the hard drive crash is a problem,....
Why is that a problem these days with dirt cheap external hard drives? Just copy your entire user folder (including the DRM music files) to such a drive and then use one of the many sych programs to keep the data on the external disk drive updated. It is not likely that both drives would die simultaneously, especially if the external drive only powered on when it is actually needed. There are also a number of programs that allow the copying of iPod songs back to a computer.
.... then you are exposed at least up to the limits of that money amount.....
So then is this case the court can take any money that Spamhaus has or will have in the USA, but that's about all. If anyone brings whatever into or does whatever onto US soil, then and only then does a US court have jurisdiction. If the US and a particular foreign country have a treaty or agreement on a matter, the foreign court, as a representative of that government is obligated to enforce the decree of the US court because of the treaty. That's how extradition works in cases of criminality. The accused, whether criminal or civil is still generally entitled to a hearing in his/her home courts first. AFAIK there is no treaty concerning spamlists.
Big international corporations are able to buy politicians in many countries to pass laws and treaties in their favor. Copyright and DMCA type laws come to mind here. Even so, if someone like M$ wants to pursue a megapirate in some asian country, they have to use the courts there to enforce the laws or treaties of that country.
....Take it like a man and maybe start respecting the court.....
Why should someone in the UK respect, obey or even consider an American court anymore than an American would think twice about a decision of an Iranian or Afghanistan court?
......you need at least some clue about how the legal system works......
Really now, a US court can order a foreign entity around? I think NOT. The plaintiff doesn't understand the legal system. If you have a complaint against someone, in a foreign land, you file it under their legal jurisdictions. The **AA understood this when they filed their beef against DVD Jon in his land of Norway. It seems their judges over there know and follow their laws better than our US judges do the same for US law. He should have thrown that spammer out of court and told him to go sue them in the UK.
.....IQ tests are a reliable measure of one's ability to perform well on IQ tests......
This is not only for IQ tests, but for all tests. Some people have a hard time and get nervous whenever tested, others are what amounts to professional test takers. Timed tests of all sorts can give a big edge to those who are able to work fast, but not necessarily always correctly, versus someone who thinks more slowly, but when he/she finally gets the answer, it is invariably right. Physics tells us that it is impossible to measure *anything* with perfect accuracy. The very act of measuring ALWAYS affects the thing being measured. For example, measuring the voltage of a very high impedance circuit will give a very wrong reading unless the impedance of the voltmeter is much higher than that of the circuit being measured. In all testing, keeping the error small must be the goal. That is often easier said than done.
Depending on how this thing we call "Intelligence" is defined, will very much determine the test and its outcome with different people of different cultures and backgrounds. There are may different types of intelligence. The intelligence needed to survive in the Amazon jungle is quite different for that needed to cope in the asphalt jungle of a big modern city. I think that supposed correlation between the nebulous thing called intelligence and the equally uncertain BMI index amounts to unscientific hocus-pocus.
....can't buy a Mac that doesn't come with MacOS either.....
You can't buy a Honda without an engine either -- so what? Apple makes their own OS in the same way that Honda and other car makers build and provide engines in their cars. Only the PC with Windows is weird that way. Here a centralized engine plant builds one standard engine for most cars. Apple, like most manufacturers of consumer goods makes a COMPLETE product and take responsibility therefor. Only in the computer business is a customer asked to agree to a EULA which basically absolves the maker of responsibility for providing a useable, safe working product. If standard product liability laws were applied to computers, Bill Gates would be in jail or collecting welfare payments by now.
I can see that MS will eventually mostly be relegated to the large enterprise business world, like IBM was in the beginning of the computer age and Apple will supply consumers and small businesses with easy to use, integrated devices which will also do computing as needed.
.....Apple is now in a virtual monopoly position on the online-music market.......
Monopolies in themselves are not illegal. Apple is not forcing anyone to buy music from them. There are online music services that work perfectly well with iPods. Any DRM free service can provide content that will work on an ipod. Only DRM content will not play on an ipod unless it is Apple DRM. Of course MS DRM won't play on ipods because it is specifically designed NOT to do so.
....They can't compete with iTunes because 90% of people get iPods and iTunes is the only thing that works with it.....
If you would check with your iPod toting friends as to the percentage of music on their ipods from ITMS vs other sources, you'd be surprised how little music on iPods is from the ITMS. In my case it is less than 5% some of my friends have zero songs from ITMS. If DRM were not required by the big recording companies no online music service would have it and ALL music players without exception, would work with ALL online services. Blame the existence of DRM forced upon Apple and the others for any and ALL incompatibilities in digital music players. There is a common format that every music player I have ever heard of can play.
.....Second, I would rather be able to sync spcific stuff......
There are a number of file and folder sync programs available. A subsequent poster has pointed to UNISON which I have never used, but appears to be very powerful for use by a knowledgeable user. The program I use has a number of settings for one way sync and excluding or including a list of files and folders from the sync process. It is a simple drag and drop shareware program called FoldersSynchronizerX made by a company that has a site called www.softobe.com, where the details can be learned.
......Just because you have your home directory on an iPod connected to a foreign Mac doesn't mean that you can authenticate and log in....
I have a small, bootable 80Gb FW HD which usually works with any Mac which is physically accessible. I have never tried to make a bootable iPod, but that should work also, in theory at least. Boot the foreign Mac with the external HD. Dismount (eject) the Internal HD. Do your work. You may have to fiddle with the network control panel and may not be able to get past some network security settings in some cases however.
When all done, reboot the computer and unplug your external drive when you hear the startup sound. The owners of the computer will never know nor care, since nothing was changed on the guest computer.
......But most importantly, I want well-supported syncing between systems. I've got two Macs now (an iBook and an iMac),.....
I have been doing this kind of thing for at least two years now, using a program called "Foldersynchronizer". I connect my G4 PB as a disk drive (hold the "T" key at startup) to the desktop G5 and synchronize the two needed user folders. When I get back from a trip, a second sync run from the PB to the G5 has all my changes done on the trip back on the desktop G5. The PB serves as a handy backup device whenever I'm not traveling. Sometimes I have to change the "location" setting for the Network although the normal "automatic" settings work almost everywhere.
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....that the same company that designed your desktop and server operating system was also responsible for providing oversight of its security?....
Would you trust the same contractor that built your house should also install strong doors and decent locks? We expect this in houses, so why not in computers software? Should the security systems and safety systems such as seat belts, airbags and anti-lock brakes etc. not be installed by and warranted by the car manufacturer?
If MS and the PC makers did what everybody in other industries does and is responsible for, there would be no big security industry, or at least it would only be as important as vault makers are to banks. Everyone else doesn't need a vault with two foot steel walls and 3 ton doors. Computer security doesn't need to be foolproof, only good enough to reasonably protect the value of the contents of the average computer. Mac OSX is a good example of this approach.
..... it is a construction companies responsibility to make your house burglar-proof.......
It is their job to make it at least burglar resistant by putting locks on doors that are not made out of cardboard. MS is like a construction company that put up plastic curtains instead of doors and windows. If MS computers were houses or cars, the appropriate Government agencies would have long ago gotten on their case to make the houses safe. For most physical things we have developed safety and operational standards, but evidently not for software.
.....The best use of AV software for MS is as a short-term patch.....
The best use of an A/V patch would be not to need one in the first place. There is no need for such crap on Mac OSX. How many Mac owners run special anti-virus software? How about Linux users? Why can't MS make their OS at least as secure as OSX? Maybe they don't want to? Security should be built in, not added on by third party software. By reducing the number of services needed by most users and limiting their system access, Apple makes their OSX a much more difficult target in the first place.
....and it is a feature that SHOULD be part of an operating system.....
Indeed true. Is it too much to hope that VISTA on its own will be at least as secure as Mac OSX? There is no need for any performance robbing malware from third parties since the OSX is pretty safe as all OS should be. After spending about 5 years on their VISTA OS it seems that the world's largest software company should be able to come up with a product at least as secure as Apple's. If a computer is intrinsically reasonably safe against malware, why waste money on additional security? If the standard locks on a house mostly keep burglars out, why spend more on security?
.....Your backup should be encrypted - what happens if someone steals your backup?.......
Make sure the backup is in a place where it is extremely unlikely to get stolen or damaged. A remote server in a secure room or an external HD locked in a safe might be workable for most situations. If the backup is in a physically secure place, such as on a HD or DVD locked up securely, encryption is probably overkill. The link to the backup server must be encrypted, but the data on a physically secure server need not be. If the user of the laptop forgets the password needed to decrypt the sensitive data, at least the backup can then be used to restore.
......Mac OS X has had filevault [apple.com] for years now.......
Filevault only encrypts only the user's home files if that user turns it on. For a while I had some data which I did want to keep reasonably secure. I created a separate encrypted user account for this. Encryption does noticeably slow down the computer, so only encrypting the things that are really sensitive will minimize this performance hit. Encrypting music, video and pictures, such as would take place for whole disk encryption is a big waste, excepts perhaps for military grade secrets. Except for the performance, the encryption is not noticeable and is invisible to the user. Fast user switching makes it easy to go from the unecrypted main account to the special encrypted one.
......a platform you can run 10-20 year old binaries.......
So what? What's so great about that? My G5 runs Photoshop from 1993 and other ancient programs just fine. I use newer version of course but they STILL work just fine, thank you. I can boot up and run an old DOS program or two under virtual PC if I feel so inclined.
....You get those free with apple computers?....
No, the Macs don't need extra performance robbing items such as these. Macs may not be immune, but AFAIK few if any Mac users have ever gotten malware on their computers. Maybe, someday there will be a REAL honest to goodness virus or worm that will affect large numbers of Mac users, but, so far there has not been any such thing.
.....with just enough apps to get by.....
90% of users use only the same kind of apps that can be had for both platforms. 90% or more of actual computer JOBS have software available for either Macs or Windows. Games is the only large category where Windows has a major advantage. Not having to worry about and spend money on performance robbing anti-malware programs on Macs is a MAJOR advantage, far more than not being able to get your favorite games. It is because of this, that we all use Macs and got an X-box to play games on. Only dreamers think that VISTA will be anywhere near as malware free as OSX, although hopefully better than XP. I'd bet that within the first month of its release there will be more malware infected VISTA machines than infected Macs of all time.
.... I expect responses to this telling me that I am insane and alone (if I get a comment at all), but tell me why any of this fluff is worth a shit.....
I suppose you'd be most happy going back to DOS and a command line driven computer. Computers worked fine before all that fluff and so did cars without air conditioners and radios. A fancy GUI is not needed to get a computer to compute, nor is a radio or air-conditioner needed for a car to get your body and your stuff from A to B. These things are nice however. People wouldn't buy cars without radios and air-conditioners and computers without the ease of use a GUI such as Apple first made available for the masses.
........ If you optimize for only the systems you make you can obviously get a lot better performance.......
That's why the Mac will ALWAYS be a better computer for most ordinary users. Apple can make and TEST the the hardware and the software together as a united, integrated whole. Ipod users have caught onto this and slowly, but surely many Windows users are turning into FORMER Windows users. A computer and its software are a much bigger investment than a music player and there is also the hurdle of learning a new way of doing certain things. Even so, more and more people are making the switch to Macs, especially for laptops.
.....This may or may not change in the future (Vista closes the gap).....
Why should VISTA change anything? Apple is and will still be the only PC maker that makes the WHOLE computer as a SYSTEM. It is the OS and the hardware that together make a working computer, just as the engine and transmission drive train are the essence of a car.
It is the SOFTWARE that makes a computer do what it does. It is the equivalent of the drive system of a car. In computerdom, it is like there are numerous car makers, but they all use the same engine and transmission bought from engine-soft and thus they are all really pretty much the same in performance. Apple is the only one who also makes their own engines, rather than buying the standard engine from engine-soft and then customizing the the knobs on the transmission lever and gas pedal shape. Apple is not going to allow their engines to be installed in other cars. Apple can and does make the car and engine perform as a totally engineered whole vehicle. Gartner is saying that Apple should stop making cars and only build engines in competition with the much bigger engine-soft company. Ridiculous I'd say.
.....Personally, if my daughter's school banned friggin' tag, I'd pull her ass out of that school so damned fast......
A better thing to do is to march into school WITH her and supervise a game of tag with all the other kids. Then if the principal or some other do-gooder from the school tried to stop you or tell you to leave, ignore them until they called the cops. Then there would be a court case and lots of publicity against them and their stupid rules. It would surely make the school officials look dumb in the eyes of the entire community.
.... I admit, though, that the hard drive crash is a problem,....
Why is that a problem these days with dirt cheap external hard drives? Just copy your entire user folder (including the DRM music files) to such a drive and then use one of the many sych programs to keep the data on the external disk drive updated. It is not likely that both drives would die simultaneously, especially if the external drive only powered on when it is actually needed. There are also a number of programs that allow the copying of iPod songs back to a computer.
....I'd feel cheated. Wouldn't you?....
No I wouldn't. I'd sell that non-iPod piece of crap to some sucker for cheap and then buy a new iPod. End of problem.
.... then you are exposed at least up to the limits of that money amount.....
So then is this case the court can take any money that Spamhaus has or will have in the USA, but that's about all. If anyone brings whatever into or does whatever onto US soil, then and only then does a US court have jurisdiction. If the US and a particular foreign country have a treaty or agreement on a matter, the foreign court, as a representative of that government is obligated to enforce the decree of the US court because of the treaty. That's how extradition works in cases of criminality. The accused, whether criminal or civil is still generally entitled to a hearing in his/her home courts first. AFAIK there is no treaty concerning spamlists.
Big international corporations are able to buy politicians in many countries to pass laws and treaties in their favor. Copyright and DMCA type laws come to mind here. Even so, if someone like M$ wants to pursue a megapirate in some asian country, they have to use the courts there to enforce the laws or treaties of that country.
....Take it like a man and maybe start respecting the court.....
Why should someone in the UK respect, obey or even consider an American court anymore than an American would think twice about a decision of an Iranian or Afghanistan court?
......you need at least some clue about how the legal system works......
Really now, a US court can order a foreign entity around? I think NOT. The plaintiff doesn't understand the legal system. If you have a complaint against someone, in a foreign land, you file it under their legal jurisdictions. The **AA understood this when they filed their beef against DVD Jon in his land of Norway. It seems their judges over there know and follow their laws better than our US judges do the same for US law. He should have thrown that spammer out of court and told him to go sue them in the UK.
.....IQ tests are a reliable measure of one's ability to perform well on IQ tests......
This is not only for IQ tests, but for all tests. Some people have a hard time and get nervous whenever tested, others are what amounts to professional test takers. Timed tests of all sorts can give a big edge to those who are able to work fast, but not necessarily always correctly, versus someone who thinks more slowly, but when he/she finally gets the answer, it is invariably right. Physics tells us that it is impossible to measure *anything* with perfect accuracy. The very act of measuring ALWAYS affects the thing being measured. For example, measuring the voltage of a very high impedance circuit will give a very wrong reading unless the impedance of the voltmeter is much higher than that of the circuit being measured. In all testing, keeping the error small must be the goal. That is often easier said than done.
Depending on how this thing we call "Intelligence" is defined, will very much determine the test and its outcome with different people of different cultures and backgrounds. There are may different types of intelligence. The intelligence needed to survive in the Amazon jungle is quite different for that needed to cope in the asphalt jungle of a big modern city. I think that supposed correlation between the nebulous thing called intelligence and the equally uncertain BMI index amounts to unscientific hocus-pocus.
....can't buy a Mac that doesn't come with MacOS either.....
You can't buy a Honda without an engine either -- so what? Apple makes their own OS in the same way that Honda and other car makers build and provide engines in their cars. Only the PC with Windows is weird that way. Here a centralized engine plant builds one standard engine for most cars. Apple, like most manufacturers of consumer goods makes a COMPLETE product and take responsibility therefor. Only in the computer business is a customer asked to agree to a EULA which basically absolves the maker of responsibility for providing a useable, safe working product. If standard product liability laws were applied to computers, Bill Gates would be in jail or collecting welfare payments by now.
I can see that MS will eventually mostly be relegated to the large enterprise business world, like IBM was in the beginning of the computer age and Apple will supply consumers and small businesses with easy to use, integrated devices which will also do computing as needed.
.....Apple is now in a virtual monopoly position on the online-music market.......
Monopolies in themselves are not illegal. Apple is not forcing anyone to buy music from them. There are online music services that work perfectly well with iPods. Any DRM free service can provide content that will work on an ipod. Only DRM content will not play on an ipod unless it is Apple DRM. Of course MS DRM won't play on ipods because it is specifically designed NOT to do so.
....They can't compete with iTunes because 90% of people get iPods and iTunes is the only thing that works with it.....
If you would check with your iPod toting friends as to the percentage of music on their ipods from ITMS vs other sources, you'd be surprised how little music on iPods is from the ITMS. In my case it is less than 5% some of my friends have zero songs from ITMS. If DRM were not required by the big recording companies no online music service would have it and ALL music players without exception, would work with ALL online services. Blame the existence of DRM forced upon Apple and the others for any and ALL incompatibilities in digital music players. There is a common format that every music player I have ever heard of can play.
.....Second, I would rather be able to sync spcific stuff......
There are a number of file and folder sync programs available. A subsequent poster has pointed to UNISON which I have never used, but appears to be very powerful for use by a knowledgeable user. The program I use has a number of settings for one way sync and excluding or including a list of files and folders from the sync process. It is a simple drag and drop shareware program called FoldersSynchronizerX made by a company that has a site called www.softobe.com, where the details can be learned.
......Just because you have your home directory on an iPod connected to a foreign Mac doesn't mean that you can authenticate and log in....
I have a small, bootable 80Gb FW HD which usually works with any Mac which is physically accessible. I have never tried to make a bootable iPod, but that should work also, in theory at least. Boot the foreign Mac with the external HD. Dismount (eject) the Internal HD. Do your work. You may have to fiddle with the network control panel and may not be able to get past some network security settings in some cases however.
When all done, reboot the computer and unplug your external drive when you hear the startup sound. The owners of the computer will never know nor care, since nothing was changed on the guest computer.
......But most importantly, I want well-supported syncing between systems. I've got two Macs now (an iBook and an iMac),.....
I have been doing this kind of thing for at least two years now, using a program called "Foldersynchronizer". I connect my G4 PB as a disk drive (hold the "T" key at startup) to the desktop G5 and synchronize the two needed user folders. When I get back from a trip, a second sync run from the PB to the G5 has all my changes done on the trip back on the desktop G5. The PB serves as a handy backup device whenever I'm not traveling. Sometimes I have to change the "location" setting for the Network although the normal "automatic" settings work almost everywhere.