From TFA: Users can mitigate the threat by disabling the "Open safe files after downloading" option in Safari.
If I'm not mistaken, this option is already turned off by default in Safari, so this exploit would only affect those users who have deliberately turned it on. It still sucks, but at least the number of affected users is somewhat small.
Last year at this time, Halo 2 was selling like hot cakes. US$125 million in sales within the first 24 hours when it launched Nov. 9, 2004. By January, it had sold 6.4 million copies (* US$50 = US$320 million). No doubt this also spurred sales of the Xbox Live online service. Last year was an exceptionally profitable time for MS's gaming division.
This year, not only have Halo 2 sales slowed down, but they also went through the expense of launching a new console, which includes not just the cost of the console itself being sold at a loss, but also the costs in marketing, distribution, etc.
Couple those two things together and it's no surprise that the games division is down from last year.
The PowerBook was renamed to MacBook Pro because they want "Mac" to be part of every product name, not because they're trying to remove "Power" from the names. I predict that PowerMac will stay the same, and the iBook will be renamed MacBook (without the pro). This will also be more intuitive for first time buyers, since it will be more clear from the names that the MacBook Pro is for hardcore users and the MacBook is for more casual users.
I helped my parents shop for an HDTV last year. When they got their TV, they also switched to DirecTV since the local cable company only had one HD channel. So the setup guy from DirecTV comes to install everything. I had left a DVI cable sitting out right in front of the TV for him to use when connecting the HD tuner. Next time I talk to my parents on the phone, they tell me the TV looks like crap and they're thinking about taking it back. When I came over, I discovered the brilliant technician had connected the TV with composite video (the yellow cable), which is pretty much the worst possible connection besides old school coax.
Had I not been there to see and fix the mistake, they would have taken the TV back or been stuck with a shitty picture and not known what the problem was. You'd think that someone who does this all day for a living would know the difference between composite video and DVI or component video. Ugh.
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From TFA:
Users can mitigate the threat by disabling the "Open safe files after downloading" option in Safari.
If I'm not mistaken, this option is already turned off by default in Safari, so this exploit would only affect those users who have deliberately turned it on. It still sucks, but at least the number of affected users is somewhat small.
Last year at this time, Halo 2 was selling like hot cakes. US$125 million in sales within the first 24 hours when it launched Nov. 9, 2004. By January, it had sold 6.4 million copies (* US$50 = US$320 million). No doubt this also spurred sales of the Xbox Live online service. Last year was an exceptionally profitable time for MS's gaming division.
This year, not only have Halo 2 sales slowed down, but they also went through the expense of launching a new console, which includes not just the cost of the console itself being sold at a loss, but also the costs in marketing, distribution, etc.
Couple those two things together and it's no surprise that the games division is down from last year.
The PowerBook was renamed to MacBook Pro because they want "Mac" to be part of every product name, not because they're trying to remove "Power" from the names. I predict that PowerMac will stay the same, and the iBook will be renamed MacBook (without the pro). This will also be more intuitive for first time buyers, since it will be more clear from the names that the MacBook Pro is for hardcore users and the MacBook is for more casual users.
I helped my parents shop for an HDTV last year. When they got their TV, they also switched to DirecTV since the local cable company only had one HD channel. So the setup guy from DirecTV comes to install everything. I had left a DVI cable sitting out right in front of the TV for him to use when connecting the HD tuner. Next time I talk to my parents on the phone, they tell me the TV looks like crap and they're thinking about taking it back. When I came over, I discovered the brilliant technician had connected the TV with composite video (the yellow cable), which is pretty much the worst possible connection besides old school coax. Had I not been there to see and fix the mistake, they would have taken the TV back or been stuck with a shitty picture and not known what the problem was. You'd think that someone who does this all day for a living would know the difference between composite video and DVI or component video. Ugh.