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Long post from Wil Shipley exploring some of the seemingly greedy moves Apple has made of late. I've got a post like this one coming, but haven't had the time yet. John Gruber seems to agree, adding:

The best thing that could happen to Apple this year would be for Microsoft's Zune 2.0 to be a kick-ass product, both technologically and in terms of being designed to make customers happy, not entertainment conglomerates. Apple needs competition.
And I think he's right. Except what are the chances Microsoft is going to make a kick-ass product designed to make customers happy? That's exactly why we've all been counting on Apple.

Anyway, I still think Apple is going to dominate with the iPhone (and successors like the iPod Touch.) Part of the reason why is precisely that these products aren't aimed at geeks like me (and Shipley and Gruber, not to put myself in their company) - they're aimed at the masses. Apple controls the whole stack - the portable device, the computer it syncs with, the OS and software that runs that computer, and the online store it all connects to. They don't care about interop with 3rd parties, they don't care about making geeks happy, and they don't have to (except for the cell carriers, but they'll get rid of them as soon as possible.) It's an interesting dynamic.
- jim 9-20-2007 8:38 pm [link] [13 comments]

StorageMojo: CERN's data corruption research.

My system has 1 TB of data on it, so if the CERN numbers hold true for me I have 3 corrupt files. Not a big deal for most people today. But if the industry doesn't fix silent data corruption the problem will get worse.

- jim 9-20-2007 4:06 am [link] [add a comment]

From the comments at macosxhints.com comes an ingenious method for defeating hardware keystroke loggers:

The method above sounds adequate for techie types. I propose the following alternate method:

1. Buy a cat. This also necessitates cat food, litter box, etc., to meet said cat's needs. The cat must be installed at the same facility as the computer, and with access to the computer at will.

2. Spray the computer keyboard with catnip scent, and optionally decorate the keyboard and surrounding area with items likely to attract the kitty.

3. While away from your computer, switch to an application that can accept random input without harm to your system or files. Leave the keyboard out in the open.

While you are out, the kitty will play on your keyboard, filling up the memory buffer of any USB intercept device that may be present. Eventually the memory of the device will be full of complete nonsense keystrokes, thus rendering it useless to the perpetrator.
Genius!
- jim 9-19-2007 10:15 pm [link] [1 comment]

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