Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Things that catch my geeky interests that don’t fall into a more specific tag.
Bill Gates, in an interview with Steven Levy for Newsweek:
Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine.
There’s a few other doozy quotes in there as well, but that’s the one that really got my attention.
More under the jump…
Three amusing articles, all via /.:
My fellow Geeks! Below you will find a list of the 20 coolest, funniest, dare I say sexiest hackers and computer geeks that have graced the silver screen. While we may be misunderstood and maligned in everyday life, geeks have always been portrayed with a certain power, mystery and intrigue in movies. Practically since the word ‘computer’ entered the American lexicon, Hollywood and the public have been fascinated with the people who make these strange electronic boxes do such cool shit.
There are two guidelines for this list. One, they must exist only in the world of movies or TV. Second, they need to fit the following definition: A server is a computer system that provides services or data to other computing systems—called clients—over a network or other communication device.
I understand that Hollywood needs to dress things up to make them more entertaining, but in the case of programmers, code, and hackers they’ve done more than dress things up – they’ve morphed a little stuffed teddy bear into a cybernetic polar bear covered in christmas lights and phosphorescent hieroglyphics with a fog machine pumping rainbow smoke out of his ass. In other words, they’ve layered a ridiculous amount of extravagance on top of something that in reality is very grounded.
Andy Ihnatko does a wonderful job of slaughtering the Zune, Microsoft’s new iPod competitor…
Yes, Microsoft’s new Zune digital music player is just plain dreadful. I’ve spent a week setting this thing up and using it, and the overall experience is about as pleasant as having an airbag deploy in your face.
“Avoid,” is my general message. The Zune is a square wheel, a product that’s so absurd and so obviously immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity.
[…]
The Zune is a complete, humiliating failure. Toshiba’s Gigabeat player, for example, is far more versatile, it has none of the Zune’s limitations, and Amazon sells the 30-gig model for 40 bucks less.
Throw in the Zune’s tail-wagging relationship with music publishers, and it almost becomes important that you encourage people not to buy one.
The iPod owns 85 percent of the market because it deserves to. Apple consistently makes decisions that benefit the company, the users and the media publishers — and they continue to innovatively expand the device’s capabilities without sacrificing its simplicity.
Companies such as Toshiba and Sandisk (with its wonderful Nano-like Sansa e200 series) compete effectively with the iPod by asking themselves, “What are the things that users want and Apple refuses to provide?”
Microsoft’s colossal blunder was to knock the user out of that question and put the music industry in its place.
Ouch.
(via /.)
As part of an effort to streamline things while I’m in school, I’ve been working here and there on paring down the number of newsfeeds I subscribe to. One of the steps I took a couple weeks ago was removing the majority of my mac-specific site feeds (Macintouch, MacFixit, and various others), figuring that if any big news broke, chances are good that I’d hear about it from plenty of other places.
Boy was I right on that assumption. I can’t count the number of different places I’ve seen mention Boot Camp, and I’m only up to around noon yesterday in my newsreading. Crazy.
Boot Camp, on the off chance it hasn’t crossed your radar yet (not likely, but possible), is Apple’s just-released official methodology for setting your new Intel-based Mac up as a dual-boot Mac OS X/Windows XP system.
You’ve got to love the language they chose to use in their promo materials (emphasis mine)…
Developers can learn all about the sixth major release of Mac OS X this century at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, to be held August 7-11 in San Francisco.
Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology called EFI to handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries.
Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means it’ll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world. So be sure to keep it updated with the latest Microsoft Windows security fixes.
Heh. No, no snark there. None at all.
Of course, since this is an option only available for Intel-based Macs, it’s something I’m not able to take advantage off — my first generation dual 2.0Ghz G5 PowerMac just won’t cut it. Not that (still) being unable to run Windows natively on my Mac is really a crushing blow to me…as long as I can run my math class software under Virtual PC, I’m good to go.
In the meantime, PC world has a ‘first look’ at running Windows natively on Mactel hardware.
It works. Impressively well. With games, even. That’s our first impression of Windows XP running under Apple’s Boot Camp on our 20-inch iMac.
[…] Back in Windows, I got right down to business and installed a few games to put the graphics and sound support to the test. The quick and dirty verdict on performance? Most impressive. Doom 3 and Far Cry both ran smoothly with high-end graphics options turned on.
In both cases, I had to tweak visual settings manually, since the games automatically set themselves to very low settings. Far Cry, for example, autodetected very low settings, but it ran without a hitch when I bumped the resolution up to 1280 by 720, with all visual quality options set to “High.”
Our 20-inch iMac came with a 2.0-GHz Core Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, and an ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card with 128MB of GDDR3 memory. That’s roughly equivalent to a high-end laptop machine, and anecdotally the performance I obtained was about what I’d have expected from that type of PC.
“Roadblock, The” by Ridgway, Stan from the album Earphoria (1991, 4:40).
Isn’t that about time to start kindergarten?
John Siracusa has a nice look at five years of OS X on Ars Technica today.
A side-by-side test-drive of Mac OS X 10.0 and 10.4 is shocking. The eternal debate is whether this gap exists because 10.4 is so good, or because 10.0 was so, so bad. That said, Apple’s ability to plan and execute its OS strategy is not open for debate. In five short years, Apple has essentially created an entirely new platform. Oh, I know, it’s really just the foundation of NeXT combined with the wreckage of classic Mac OS, but I think that makes it even more impressive. Two failing, marginalized platforms have combined to become the platform for the alpha geeks in the new century.
Today’s Mac users span a much wider range than those of the past. Mac OS X’s Unix-like core reached out to the beard-and-suspenders crowd (and the newer source-code-and-a-dream crowd) while the luscious Aqua user interface pulled all the touchy-feely aesthetes from the other direction. In the middle were the refugees from the Mac-That-Was, but they aren’t the story here. Mac OS X is about new blood and new ideas—some good, some bad, but all vibrant. The Mac is alive again!
After spending half my life watching smart, talented people ignore the Mac for reasons of circumstance or prejudice, it’s incredibly gratifying to live in a post-Mac OS X world. When I encounter a tech-world luminary or up-and-coming geek today, I just assume that he or she uses a Mac. Most of the time, I’m right. Even those with a conflicting affiliation (e.g., Linux enthusiasts) often use Apple laptops, if not the OS.
“Related Vortex” by X-Dream from the album Spirit Zone Vol. 2 (1996, 8:48).
Well, no, it’s not a Mac. I’m just being cute. Or at least trying to.
Anyway…
This is the kind of geeky science stuff that I love: quantum computers that give results when they’re turned off.
Even for the crazy world of quantum mechanics, this one is twisted. A quantum computer program has produced an answer without actually running.
The idea behind the feat, first proposed in 1998, is to put a quantum computer into a “superposition”, a state in which it is both running and not running. It is as if you asked Schrödinger’s cat to hit “Run”.
With the right set-up, the theory suggested, the computer would sometimes get an answer out of the computer even though the program did not run. And now researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have improved on the original design and built a non-running quantum computer that really works.
They send a photon into a system of mirrors and other optical devices, which included a set of components that run a simple database search by changing the properties of the photon.
The new design includes a quantum trick called the Zeno effect. Repeated measurements stop the photon from entering the actual program, but allow its quantum nature to flirt with the program’s components – so it can become gradually altered even though it never actually passes through.
“It is very bizarre that you know your computer has not run but you also know what the answer is,” says team member Onur Hosten.
This scheme could have an advantage over straightforward quantum computing. “A non-running computer produces fewer errors,” says Hosten. That sentiment should have technophobes nodding enthusiastically.
Word has recently broken about the first confirmed piece of malware for OS X, a file that was originally distributed via a post to Mac Rumors, and has been disassembled by Ambrosia Software‘s Andrew Welch.
Key points: this is not a virus, rather, it’s a trojan horse; it’s buggy (doesn’t perform all the intended actions); and for most people, activating the payload involves entering their password, which should tip most people off that something’s not right.
Here’s Andrew’s summary of the situation:
A file called “latestpics.tgz” was posted on a Mac rumors web site http://www.macrumors.com/, claiming to be pictures of “MacOS X Leopard” (an upcoming version of MacOS X, aka “MacOS X 10.5”). It is actually a Trojan (or arguably, a very non-virulent virus). We’ll call it “Oompa-Loompa” (aka “OSX/Oomp-A“) for reasons that will become obvious.
Unless you work for an anti-virus company, please don’t email/message me asking for a copy of this trojan. It’s not going to happen.
You cannot be infected by this unless you do all of the following:
- Are somehow sent (via email, iChat, etc.) or download the “latestpics.tgz” file
Double-click on the file to decompress it
Double-click on the resulting file to “open” it
…and then for most users, you must also enter your Admin password.
You cannot simply “catch” the virus. Even if someone does send you the “latestpics.tgz” file, you cannot be infected unless you unarchive the file, and then open it.
A few important points:
- This should probably be classified as a Trojan, not a virus, because it doesn’t self-propagate externally (though it could arguably be called a very non-virulent virus)
It does not exploit any security holes; rather it uses “social engineering” to get the user to launch it on their system
It requires the admin password if you’re not running as an admin user
It doesn’t actually do anything other than attempt to propagate itself via iChat
It has a bug in the code that prevents it from working as intended, which has the side-effect of preventing infected applications from launching
It’s not particularly sophisticated
To be on the safe side…
DO NOT DOWNLOAD OR RUN THIS FILE
When unarchived (it is a gzip-compressed tar file), which can be done by simply double-clicking on the file, it appears to be a JPEG file because someone pasted the image of a JPEG file onto the file.
After it’s been unzipped, tar will tell you there are two files in the archive:
._latestpics latestpics…the
._latestpicsis just the resource fork of the file, which contains the pasted in custom icon meant to fool people into double-clicking on it to (in theory) open the JPEG file for viewing. In actuality, double-clicking on it will launch an executable file.The file “latestpics” is actually a PowerPC-compiled executable program, with routines such as:
_infect: _infectApps: _installHooks: _copySelf:
The rest of Andrew’s post goes on to detail the exact methods used by the attack.
Again: this is not going to be a concern for most people. Not only is this a relatively low-impact attack, but it’s been identified quickly. Admittedly, it’s a shame that neither Slashdot nor The Register are mentioning this fact, preferring to use the Chicken Little approach to news reporting (at least The Register correctly identifies it as a trojan).
However, even given that this is a fairly low risk trojan, it is the first confirmed OS X trojan. Too many people have fallen into the trap of believing that OS X is immune to viruses or trojans. It’s not — there just haven’t been any until now, and due to the architecture of OS X, any attack is limited in the amount of damage it can do. But as OSX/Oomp-A (or Lamp-A, as Sophos named it) shows, we’re certainly not immune.
“Been Up Long (Falsedawn)” by Prodigy, The from the album Always Outsiders Never Outdone (2004, 4:28).
Someone discovered a fun easter egg in Apple’s Final Cut Pro 5:
Open up “Final Cut Pro.rsrc” (
/Applications/Final Cut Pro HD/Contents/Resources/Final Cut Pro.rsrc) in any text editor and you will stumble upon this hidden message:If we can’t ship this puppy by then, we might as well be herding yaks. I’m glad it’s getting weird again. I didn’t understand it when it wasn’t weird. The C switch statement: Mmmmmm! Chock full of nooses! That would be like crossing the streams or something. Mmmm… Chicago style pizza! I’ve got my blankie, I’m good to go. A lot of this job is mental. “Mostly clockwise, sometimes reverses…” What’s the sound of one luma clamping? I just wanna be in the app! Oh, rough and woeful music which we have! Cause it to sound! The Yak is a delightful creature… rather like a visit with a bovine Confucious…
There’s a lot more there, I’ve snipped it for the sake of brevity. I think it’s a hilarious little random screed — and my guess is that they just took every little “in-joke” from the FCP programming team and tossed them all semi-randomly into a single text file. That’s what it reads like to me, at least — with the recurring Yak theme and the general random silliness of what’s in there, reading it reminded me a lot of some of my old brainstorming sessions with friends.
My iLife ’06 package showed up today. I can’t stay up incredibly late to play, so this is just going to be a cursory overview to begin with, but it’s a start.
First things first: the package has gotten much smaller. Where iLife ’05 used a more traditional box size, the box for iLife ’06 is barely bigger (width by height) than a CD. Still about an inch or so deep.
Apple’s customary flair for design on even the smallest little things shows through again. As you open the box, there are small accordion folds on the flap, and rather than being just dropped inside, the software and materials are nestled inside a small cardboard tray that slides out.
What you get in the box:
One installation was done, I poked around briefly with iPhoto and iWeb.
As noted by John Gruber, iPhoto has gained “iTunes’ theme-without-a-name”. Looks pretty slick, actually. And, while I haven’t done any stress-testing yet, it’s definitely feeling snappier than the prior version (apparently I’m not the only one seeing this, either). I like the full-screen editing mode, too — for simple edits, that’ll actually cover me without heading into Photoshop. Nicely done.
iWeb is definitely looking to be worth poking around with. It’s not restricted to .mac (yay!), though without .mac you don’t have the one-click-publishing option — rather, you ‘publish’ to a local folder, and then you can either serve directly from there (if your Mac is a webserver), or you can upload the generated files to a remote server. The markup isn’t terribly pretty, but that’s not a big surprise. Feel free to check out the one sample page I’ve made so far to see what you think (though that is just a single page, and I haven’t delved into multi-page sites, blog publishing, or much of anything else). On the bright side, there was only one error preventing the page from validating…on the down side, that’s in part because the generated page is all images and link maps. Hmmm. Definitely reserving judgement on this one until I get a chance to play more.
That’s all I can do for tonight, though — it’s after midnight, and I’ve got class at 10am tomorrow morning. I’ll play more as soon as I can grab a few hours…
“Club 69 Future Mix Vol. 1 (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Club 69 Future Mix Vol. 1 (full mix) (1998, 1:14:02).
Along with the Mac OS X 10.4.4 update that was released today, Software Update notified me of two other updates to install: QuickTime 7.0.4 and iTunes 6.0.2 (which doesn’t seem to have a support document listing the updates made to the program).
Apparently, one of the changes made to iTunes was more advertising! Yay! I was just lamenting the fact that I didn’t see enough ads while deciding which song to play next, and here Apple’s gone and taken care of that for me.
Thankfully, there’s a new little button added to the group at the lower-right that allows you to toggle the MiniStore on and off, so I can kill this little monstrosity. Still doesn’t make its inclusion any less obnoxious, though.
“Jerry Springer” by Yankovic, “Weird Al” from the album Running With Scissors (1999, 2:46).