New iPod

I just ordered a refurbished iPod from Apple courtesy of Apple Gift Cards from my family.

Thanks guys.

My Darth Vader Pod is on the way.

Acolytes, Zealots, and Pedants

I can't put my finger on it, but sometime during the last year, the continuous debate over Mac vs. Windows ceased to be fun. Maybe I'm just a jaded flame-warrior, but now it just sucks. Everyone's got an opinion (including me) and everyone's got the data to support it, especially when they ignore data that disagrees.

The example that brought this up was from TUAW in a post by David Cartier. His post, titled Fuzzy Tactics Aren't Helping the Mac Community takes to task a 'Digged' blog post that compared the Total Cost of Ownership between Windows and OSX.

The original article by Daniel Eran tried to compare cost of upgrading OSX from 10.0 to 10.4 versus the cost of upgrading Windows from 2000 to XP SP2. An interesting idea, but ultimately pointless, because the numbers are hard to consider.
Just a few questions I'd ask: Do you count OEM versions of Windows? Do you count the 10.1 upgrade disc that people could buy? And, how in the hell did Thurrott get to $750 for upgrades to OSX? Did he count every version of OSX, including Leopard at $129?

The article tries to compare all the variations, and then adds in Anti-Virus and Geek Squad Support to the Windows total. Apparently, unhappy about his numbers, Eran decided to stack the deck.

This is unfair, and Cartier is right to call him on it. Both Eran and Thurrott have an agenda to serve and they're going to manipulating the numbers to suffice.

What does this mean for the average user? Jack squat. The average user didn't update from 10.1 through 10.4, they skipped updates. Or they waited for the next thing, or they used that time to buy a new computer. Users don't like to upgrade their OS, they like to leave it alone until they have to change. Many OSX users can still get by with Jaguar or Panther. Windows users are the same, many are still using 98 and 2000 (some poor souls even still use ME).

So, for them, what's the TCO? That's a tough metric to give, and it entirely depends on the user and their application, and anyone who pretends there's a nice cut-and-dry number that proves one OS is better than other is serving an agenda.


Edit: See Eran's comment, and also I changed my headline to reflect that no necklaces were involved in this particular posting, which he was kind enough to point out on his follow-up story.

Another Example of People are Idiots

Justin Long, newly famous from the "Get a Mac Ads" talks to the LA Times about being harassed by people offended by the commercials.

Link

I've finally been convinced that the new Apple commercials don't work, Apple has sustained some bad press and managed to offend a sub-set of people who have emotionally tied themselves to their choice of computers. Getting these people fired up is a bad idea, simply because they're such a vocal and apparently aggressive bunch of lunatics. Although John Devorak has been making a mint doing this to Mac users.

While bashing Microsoft during a WWDC is a perfect time to fire up the troops, these commercials aren't very effective at showing what's great about the Mac and merely gets mired in the old PC vs. Mac arguement.

However, Apple should sustain a television commercial campaign because that presence, that constant reminder that a Mac is a great choice and does really cool things, is going to sell Macs.

John Gruber Agrees...

Leander Kahney at Wired mag has completely missed the point of a World Wide Developer's Conference. Here's Gruber's well-written post about what Kahney, and a surprising number of other people, missed at last week's WWDC.

Link.

Apple and Rumors: A Less Than Perfect Relationship

Apple loves hype, or more specifically, Steve Jobs loves hype. He feeds on it, uses it, and mostly controls the hype that flows around Apple Computer.

But, sometimes the hype bites back. For weeks rumors fly and there are whispers of astounding products, amazing products. Even Scoble, noted blogger and Microsoft enthusiast, gets caught in it, leaving less than cryptic hints in an entry about Vista.
The rumors create a wave of feeling, a rising white-tipped wave that no product could ever hope to absorb. Minutes before Jobs' keynote on Monday, the IRC channels ready, MacRumors pushing posts directly from the floor, there was a feeling that Apple was about to announce "The Coolest Thing Ever."

And, then Jobs' ruined it by being the CEO of an outstanding company and announcing the new Mac Pro and previewing Leopard. Rather than being a superhero, Jobs was merely mortal, and Apple merely a computer company. And, there was the collective yawn.

Leander Kahney asked "Has Steve Jobs Lost His Magic" and wondered if Jobs' health was declining. And Scoble offering his mea culpa noted that Apple's announcment went "over like a lead balloon."

But, what was really expected? An iPhone? A new iPod? At a Developers conference? Really.

And, here it is, we get to see a glimpse of Leopard and rather than focusing on the maybe and on the cool things we did see, lots of people assume that its. And then we get into geek wankery about whether Apple was being mean to Microsoft because of some sharp pokes at Goliath, which is quickly followed by the official Who Copied Who Game. By the way, Paul Thurrott isn't the most unbiased source for Apple vs. Microsoft discussions considering he runs the Windows Super Site. And, he should know this discussion goes back to the beginning and coould include Xerox PARC. Yes, the discussion is that freaking geeky and irrelevant.

Apple did what they should have done at this year's WWDC, they showed the attendees some of the things Leopard could do, including very cool technologies like Core Animation, not to mention the full porting of the OS to 64-bit and the transition from PPC to Intel in 210 days.

While Microsoft's been screwing around with Longwait, sorry Vista, Apple has managed to radically change their OS's architecture to work on 64-bit Intel chips, while managing hurdles with Rosetta and Universal Binaries. And, they deserve praise for that not the collective yawn of a buch of jaded rumor-mongers.

The cool hardware and a new iPod are coming. Just not today.

On Predictions

Well, I was hit and miss, just like everyone else. Even Robert Scoble has been forced to offer a mea culpa after his post that mind-blowing things were about to come out. Either Scoble's source was dead wrong, or as my sources tell me, Jobs didn't want to blow the load at once.

This makes a certain amount of sense, the WWDC is about Developers and thus focused on Leopard and the Mac Pro, which looks like an awesome machine and I'd buy one if I didn't think my Visa card would burst into flames.

Rootkits and Wireless Vulnerabilities, Oh My!

A friend of mine recently sent me this email which includes a description of the wireless 'vulnerability' from the Washington Post.

" I just read an article in the morning paper about how easy it is to hack into any computer (including a Mac or mac book) of people who are using wireless connections at airports, restaurants, libraries etc. They drop something called a root kit into the computer by exploiting the wireless card - the root kit is an undetectable program that logs passwords and accesses sensitive files. The demonstration showed that they can quickly hack into the laptops of people with the wireless cards in their computers who are using their computers in public places even when they are not logged onto the wireless system or online."

This is why the headline was so damaging and so dangerous. From this description all the nuances of the vulnerability have fallen away and we remain with the words rootkit and the idea that anyone can send a rootkit into any system, anywhere. If people like me then point out the subtleties of this particular problem it makes the Washington Post article seem false and overblown. Do this enough times and people will start ignoring the message just as they now seem to ignore articles about viruses and malware.
The Washington Post blog headline was irresponsible.

Quick Prediction on Apple's WWDC

The WWDC keynote is about 10 hours away, but I just wanted to write down my predictions, so I can point back to it on Tuesday and say: Wow, I'm clueless. 

Mac Pro. Totally, the new Intel chips are exactly what the G5 replacement needs, and this puts pressure on Adobe to finish their Pro App. It also simplifies the Apple line to all Intel. 

Leopard. I'm forced to agree with John Gruber over at Daring Fireball, the Finder is going to undergo some major changes. Spotlight will be updated, and I'd expect a lot more iChat integration due to the increasing ubiquity of iSight cameras in the iMac, MacBook lines. 

And, Windows will not be integrated into Leopard, but Apple will be happy to sell copies of Parallels. 

iPod Video. Not today, but soon. Maybe during Paris, but I'd expect a special event in August. iPod Nanos are also due for a change, which explains the Educational Discount that includes a Free iPod Nano coupon. 

iPhone, iHome, iTablet. All would be excellent products and would sell like hotcakes, to use a well-worn phrase, but not for WWDC. 
Of the three, the iHome (a Mac DVR) is most likely, but Jobs would totally change the phone industry with an iPhone. And Jobs likes changing the world. 

More on Wireless Flaw

On a follow up to yesterday's post, John Gruber at Daring Fireball makes a similar case. The problem is the Washington Post's story, the presentation, and the failure of the writer to ask specific questions about what this vulnerability means.

Sensational Headlines: or Why Apple Never Made a Yellow iMac...

Headlines are misleading. They're created as trailers for news stories, trying to give you the explosions and the broad dialogue to hook you and get you to read the story. This is an old story, and yet I'm occasionally surprised at just how far this goes. Technology stories are troublesome in this regard, because the story offers relies on specific details to make sense, and sometimes while writing a fantastic headline someone goes too far and changes the meaning of a story.

This happened with the Washington Post's story on a demonstration of wireless-card driver flaws. The headline is "Hijacking a Macbook in 60 Seconds or Less." Now the headline is descriptive in this part, because the researchers did use a Dell laptop to hijack a Macbook. However, this headline is also misleading because it uses the Macbook as the focus. The problem isn't the Macbook, it's the driver implementation of a third-party wireless card and this problem exists for Windows as well.

Although the story buries this fact deep into the story, the security researcher points it out immediately upon presenting the target Macbook. Of course, the blogosphere goes nuts with opprobrium and vitriol against Apple and 'smug' Mac users which seems like a particularly bizarre reaction, until you remember earlier reactions to Apple's new commercials.

This is a security flaw, and make no mistake about it, Apple needs to create a fix, but let's be clear: you can hack any wireless computer using this flaw. Furthermore, wireless networks are inherently insecure. There's too many ways to attack the network including sniffing the traffic and attaining passwords, creating false networks, and simple brute force attacks. This is just another problematic vector in an insecure system. But, this isn't an Apple problem and the word Macbook was in the headline to drive traffic.

A Fresh Start: A history of my writing, bad latin, and bad poetry.

Why bad latin? I actually spent a summer in a Latin intensive and I learned just enough to be utterly confused by Italian and to frequently garble legal terms into hopeless mishmash. And, please note, this happened in spite of the university's best attempts to teach me.

Why bad poetry? Sometimes I'm going to submit you poor unfortunates to some of my poetry and I felt it best to lower your expectations. If you feel the occasional bit of poetry is so fantastic you'd like to read an entire book of it, then let me know. If you feel the occasional bit of poetry is hopelessly childish and gauche, I warned you.

This blog is about me and my frequent obsessions, thoughts, and general rambling. I hold my opinions in low esteem simply because I'm a 29-year-old American with just enough education to be dangerous.

I believe in a few things: the power of literature, good design, the progress of technology—despite the numerous blowbacks and unintended consequence—and smart people who try do good in the world.

Hope you enjoy this blog, another grain of sand in the blogosphere, and hope it find you well and interests you, if only for a moment.