Posts by Matthew Poole
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It's just that you have such a distinct way of writing, especially compared to must other PA System regulars
That could be because I'm very rapidly approaching the point where I'll have been using the 'net for half my life. 1/3 was passed two or three years ago, and 1/2 is under four away. So I've been expressing myself in type for relatively a very long time. Tends to result in certain idiosyncrasies.
On the MMS thing, it is very strange. They got stick for it with version 1, and they've done it again. The iJobs doesn't like system inter-operability, based on Apple's past MO, so I guess they decided that SMS and calls was sufficient functionality for a phone before they were getting too deeply into those nasty IEEE/IETF standards.
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How many of those for OSX were for applications like quicktime and safari?
A quick count showed three that weren't listed as affecting "Mac OS X". One for Apple Mail, one for iChat, one for iCal.
And that's not exactly a good measure since FreeBSD releases for vulnerabilities in bind, for example, which is part of the base install but frequently not in use and is totally third-party software. Plus, you can't disconnect QuickTime from OS X because it's integrated into Aqua so tightly. It's like trying to disconnect IE from Windows, only harder. They're one and the same, which is why QuickTime updates require reboots.
I use Secunia as my source. Interestingly Secunia has zero releases for FreeBSD 7, which went -STABLE at the end of February. It's been affected by all the same bugs as 6, though, so the counts are the same for both.
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What is MMS and why is so important?
AKA pxt. Multimedia Messaging System. Even phones that can't send them can receive them, with the exception of the iPhone. I don't think there's been a GSM phone made with a colour screen in the last five years that doesn't do MMS, except the iPhone.
And mock all you like, but not everyone speaks in a monotone. I try and impart the same inflections in type as I would in a conversation. Some people use italics, some use quotes, I use bold.
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while 20% of people would willingly take to public transport, 80% would not give up their car until someone prised their cold, dead fingers from the steering wheel.
I'll quite happily take public transport. I do, in fact, though at the moment it's because I'm recovering from a dislocated shoulder so cycling is off the cards. Last weekend I took the bus to Hamilton and back for a family 'do' - $24 return is hard to argue with!
But, that said, I would feel quite naked without a car. I can go a week without using it, or more, but public transport in Auckland simply isn't a total replacement for a car. I don't necessarily have 20 minutes to wait for a bus (and my selection is much, much better than the average for Auckland, because I live next to GSR) if I've just decided to go and meet friends in town. Spontaneity dies without a car, because everything must be planned around the vagaries of bus/train timetables.There's also the small matter of shopping. It's pretty much a physical impossibility to go shopping for five adults by public transport. Nine litres of milk, 1kg of cheese, half-a-dozen tins, etc. I'm not built like Arnie!
I do wonder, too, how many of the respondents live in places where a car is the only option. If you live 20 minutes' brisk walk from the nearest bus stop, you're not going to be too keen on public transport in the middle of winter. Take it to 30, and the appeal wanes further. But those are small distances indeed when compared to people who live 20 minutes' drive from the nearest bus stop. If you have to drive that far, you may as well drive the rest of the way.
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An mpeg player would be best since most of my extensive music collection is on my PC drive, specifically on my WMP. Help, please?
If it's protected WMA files, forget about an iPod. If they're standard WMA files and you can convert them to MP3s then an iPod can play them, but iPods can't do WMA. Any other MP3 player can, however.
One other thing to be aware of is that battery life is shortened by playing protected WMA files. The encoding requires more decoding, and that uses more power. Yet another reason to hate Digital Restrictions Management. -
Apple is based on an open source unix system. No system is ever secure, but Apple's base system is out in the open
The core is, kinda. Darwin is based on FreeBSD, but it's not actually FreeBSD. It's Darwin. The base of developers is quite a bit smaller.
And the GUI, Aqua, is absolutely closed. GUIs are a good source of security holes, so whatever benefit may be gained by having an OSS base is totally negated by a proprietary GUI layer over the top.Plus they've taken FreeBSD's modular architecture and turned it monolithic, which is why updates to QuickTime require a reboot (see earlier comment about taking the worst bits of Windows). That's an even better way to introduce security holes.
As a rough indicator, last year and this FreeBSD has been subject to a total of 15 security announcements. OS X is up to 33 for the same period. They've clearly deviated pretty far from the underlying system.
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Mac viruses, Wooo! Wooo! the bogeyman will get you! the bogeyman will get you! Yawn.
Still if it serves as a comfort blanket for you.
Nice, rational argument there Peter. I didn't say there were here now, I said they'll happen. When the Mac had a small-and-vanishing market share in the days pre-internet, viruses and other nasties for it simply weren't a problem. Nobody denies that. But to deny that it'll ever be a problem means that when the Russian mafia or whoever actually sets their formidable assets on the task it'll be a total slam-dunk because all the Mac admins will be so far in denial.
Nothing's immune to a dedicated examination of its flaws. Mac OS X has plenty of holes allowing remote privilege escalation, which is all it takes for a virus to do its thang. Throw some criminal money and minds at it, and bad things happen
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Apple has never been strong on the number of features per se, rather being strong on implementing the right features properly, especially with respect to the UI.
That Apple does something in their UI a particular way doesn't make it the "right" way. The whole maximise/minimise/close group being top-left, instead of top-right like every other system I've used, still gets me after 18 months of using a Mac for my job. They have consistency, yes, but consistency is not the same as being "right". That said, all the stuff I've read on UI design stresses the importance of consistency throughout a system, pretty much to the point that nothing else matters if you don't have it. So in that respect they do, I'll admit, have it "right".
Other than that, it's. A. Phone! Its primary purpose is making and receiving calls, and sending and receiving short messages. On any other phone, that'd include MMS. Even if I accept that Apple's all about implementing a few features well, which I'm prepared to concede for these purposes, a modern phone, especially one that's supposedly a multimedia device, isn't even vaguely close to complete without MMS. You haven't implemented the basic functionality properly without MMS, and I notice that it's an omission that gets regular comments from reviewers. None of them favourable.
The camera's not done properly either. It's the same as in the 1st Gen, and it wasn't exactly great then. It doesn't do video. It has no flash. It can't be rotated. That's the key gripes I've seen against the camera in the last 24-ish hours since the phone was released. Nobody thinks it's good enough. Adequate, sure, but it's not implemented "properly" by modern standards.To accept that Apple has produced a great phone, despite the glaring inadequacies and omissions, is to accept that Apple can ignore the basic functionality offered by any other device that is price-competitive and still have a "great" phone. Which gets me back to the Cult of the iJobs. If Nokia or LG or Samsung came out with a phone at that level of the market that had a camera that sucked when it was first introduced in a previous model, and that didn't do MMS, they'd be laughed at. They'd be told to take it back and design it again. Properly. But Apple can get away with it, because they're Apple. iBaaaaaaaaa.
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I'm more of the: "You had the opportunity to clear up what happened; your side of the story would have been prominently conveyed on every news service in the country. And yet you settled for a two-word euphemism."
I was talking about this with a couple of friends last night, one of whom was trying to suggest that maybe breaking her back was an accident, that he pushed her and she fell on a table or something, etc. The other two of us pretty much shouted him down on the strength of the DomPost article, which he hadn't seen.
Sent him the link just now, and in the ensuing discussion I had this realisation: By not denying the kicking to the point of vertebral fracture, which is incredibly damning even by the standards of domestic violence, Veitch effectively confirms one of two things. Either it happened pretty much as the DomPost posits, or the truth is much, much worse. I don't think it's the latter, but it's certainly possible. -
Ooh, going to have to be a total bore & pedant and point out you'd never hear a V10 burbling away in a Ferrari unless you're in an old F1 car.
OK, my bad. I'm much more familiar with Lamborghini's line-up than Ferrari's. A V8 or a V12, then. Happy?