* Posts by t3h

34 publicly visible posts • joined 17 May 2007

Apple TV goes to the movies

t3h
Jobs Halo

... and we get called fanboys?

>NO ONE is writing any 3rd party software for it

Perhaps because it doesn't support third party software.

>and I don't know a single person that has ever bought one.

Would you? Considering you're a mindless hater, you wouldn't be friends with anyone who owned anything Apple, because that's all that matters to you.

And what makes you think the iPhone is a flop? The sales figures are nothing short of amazing. They sold more in the opening weekend than Palm sells Treos in an entire year.

You are right however that the flop shelf is dusty. It doesn't see much usage :)

It's always fun when the Apple haters accuse us of all being mindless koolaid-drinking fanboys, and we get posts like this.

Oh, and fix your caps lock key.

HP whips out d*** in a box

t3h
Alert

Got a higher res version of the pic?

Is that an error I see at the Windows screen? Looks like it, but I can't see enough detail at that size. It may be something perfectly normal.

Home snoop CCTV more popular than Big Brother

t3h

Actually quite cool

Brings a new meaning to "reality TV"...

Apple hit with another class action

t3h

Can you say...

... stupid money-grabbing class action lawsuit?

Sounds very much like it to me...

@Tom Ross (2nd paragraph)

We can only hope.

Mac OS X Leopard - Time Machine

t3h
Jobs Halo

@Matt

>Gee, for just the price of buying an extra device you can make use of a backup feature. Lovely.

>Why not just have a RAID 1 system in the first place if you're going to run two drives?

------

I think you were so eager to bash Apple here that you completely missed the point of what a backup system even does. Backing up your files onto the same hard drive is kinda pointless, isn't it?

As for running RAID 1 - on a desktop, maybe. And the user can do that if they desire - OS X supports it. But what about the laptop user who is now forced to drag their external drive round with them? Sure RAID can work with only one of the drives present, but when you unhook the other, the RAID has to be rebuilt when it is reconnected. Since the rebuild process is basically synchronising the two drives... a backup of sorts.

Time Machine, on the other hand, stores incremental copies on the external drive and provides a very easy to use and intuitive interface to browse them with. This is in the true Apple fashion - sometimes they are not the first to offer that kind of software (let's face it, backup software has been around for a long while) - but they are often the first to make it usable by the average person. I'm not talking one of us - but the average person who wouldn't know how to do a backup otherwise, or use a computer. The kind of person who wouldn't understand a shell script to do the same thing that many others on here are claiming to be just as good.

Leopard data loss glitch uncovered

t3h

Oh yes it will...

>Neither Windows nor Linux or any other correctly written OS will delete the source

>file being moved until the file has copied completely to the destination.

Oh yes it will. It's happened to me many many times with flash drives and Windows. Hence why I always copy and never move.

Reality distortion for Java on Leopard?

t3h

There's a beta floating round...

There was a beta posted on the ADC website that later disappeared. Given previous experiences this usually happens when there's nasty last-minute bugs. It usually surfaces in a few weeks.

Microsoft fires cannon at counterfeiters

t3h

Parallel importing is wrong?

In recent months, Microsoft has been making similar legal noises in Europe, clamping down on the so-called "grey software" or parallel importing market, where branded goods bought in one country are flogged elsewhere at a marked-down price.

-------

Just me, or should that be perfectly OK? I don't see what's wrong with buying it, at the normal sale price, perfectly legitimately in one country and selling it in another. Just because it ruins their price gouging in one country, isn't it?

Macs seized by porn Trojan

t3h

Malware will always exist, no matter what platform.

The thing is, the user is the weakness. Any platform capable of running custom software will be capable of having at least some form of malware for it, no matter what the OS developer does. Whether a laptop, a desktop, a PDA or a mobile phone.

Even if they lock the user out of the system files to prevent damage, by far the most important thing on the computer is the user's files. Those can by definition be accessed by the user, and damaged by anything running as the user. So a program doesn't necessarily need root/system access to do harm.

#!/bin/bash

echo "The system needs your password for important maintenance"

sudo rm -rf /

Data recovery firm sounds Mac hard drive damage alert

t3h

You missed the point...

@Pascal Monett

>Actually, it is you. First you talk about Apple "detractors" (hint : a detractor is

>generally against what your subject is), then you mention Mac zealots (hint :

>zealots are 110% FOR the subject).

I think you missed the point he was making. He's saying that the Apple detractors now are just as bad as the '90s Mac Zealots. I agree with him. He was not saying that they hold the same position on the subject, which seems to be what you think.

Also, on the topic, this is why I don't use Seagate hard drives.

Dreaded Blue Screen of Death mars some Leopard installs

t3h
Stop

Apple should have tested? Since when?

"From the sound of it, it is a very common app but they couldn't be bothered testing with it because it wasn't created by Apple."

This app hooks into many low level critical system processes. Apple themselves strongly recommend not installing it. Leopard had many many changes to these low level critical processes. Why should they have to work around some third party shareware developer? It's like (if we must use the expected car analogies) the manufacturer being responsible if the wiring layout changes between models and someone rewiring it breaks something.

t3h
Dead Vulture

Not Apple's fault - read the workaround

>To remedy, users were instructed to rip a technology known as APE, short for

>application enhancement, from the Leopard's maw. The process is too gory for us

>to print here, but suffice it to say that, among other things, it had users use a

>command line to purge files with names like "Enhancer.prefpane" and

>"com.unsanity.ape.plist."

APE, short for "Application Enhancer" is a third-party app (look at com.unsanity.ape.plist - this signifies that it's an app called "APE" from unsanity.com) that has deep and potentially unsafe hooks (/hacks) into the system, to modify applications and system functions. It's not really a surprise that it screws up when an entirely new version of the OS is dropped in there in front of it (It should check this, and not load...)

http://unsanity.com/haxies/ape/ and refer to http://www.unsanity.com/products/compatibility where it is listed as "not compatible with Leopard".

That is why I recommend an "Archive and install" not an "Upgrade install". You just don't know whether your previous apps will fully work with the new system ESPECIALLY if they are hacks like this.

Search for the post by "Chris Mcculloh" and read all the replies to it.

And from reading that thread, nearly everyone who did an "Archive and install - where the installer puts all the previous system files in a folder called Previous System and installs a fresh new system, instead of overwriting in place, had a successful install.

Reading any lower, I see that someone else reports another workaround for those ones that still don't work. Look for the post by indiekiduk. He says that there is another problem with ShapeShifter - a third party theming tool that again, messes with system internals.

And further down, 4F!ller recommends removing iScroll - a third party trackpad driver.

So as far as I've seen, the vast majority of these issues come from third-party software that has been installed. This isn't Apple's fault, and Apple should not have to support these bits of software. These pieces of software SHOULD check to see what OS version they are running on, and demand that they be updated if the software is installed. It's kind-of like expecting engine bits from your old car to work in your new car without damaging it (if we must bring out the inaccurate car analogies). That said, IMO, Apple should make Archive Install the default, not the in-place install.

"but where does the Blue Screen Of Death come from, shouldn't it be a gray screen with a transparency window in the center or something?"

You know that blank light blue screen when you shut down? That shade of blue. My guess is that it's stopping critical system processes from starting up, and leaving the system with no apps running (not even the login window).

GMail shakes IMAP out of coma

t3h

Pop3 supports SSL already

"IMAP with SSL connections also avoids the tedium of VPNs, you can securely read mail from anywhere."

Pop3 supports SSL anyway, and in fact, Gmail requires a SSL connection.

Hackers unlock iPhone - again

t3h

You can refuse the update

>So the question is, does iTunes forbid any more transfers to the iPhone once a new update has been detected but refused?

You can refuse the update. It says something like "A new update has been detected" (I don't have one, and can't remember...)

You are not forced to apply it.

Hackers hit back at iPhone update

t3h

$1m damages because the price went down by $200?

>Apple, meanwhile, is facing another legal action, from a woman who is angry that

> the firm slashed the iPhone's price by $200 only weeks after its release. New

> York woman Dongmei Li is looking for $1m in damages, claiming Apple broke

> pricing laws, and saying in court that early purchasers are suffering as a result of

> the cut because they can't gain the same profits when reselling the iPhones as

> later purchasers. Apple offered early adopters in-store credit as compensation.

Hmm, both my Palms went down by about $50 after I bought them.

So did my phone... and a ton of other stuff. Any lawyers in the house?

"can't gain the same profits when reselling"? Get over it - Apple didn't make the phone for you to resell... and how the hell is it worth $1m damage? For that, she would have to have bought 5000 iPhones. And I'm sure she didn't.

Microsoft revamps Zune with Flash

t3h

Wifi? A good move?

>Zunes can also now synchronise content with a user’s PC over a wireless

>network. For example, a sync process will start automatically when a Zune

>comes within range of a user's WLAN, or it can be started manually.

As much as I hate anything Microsoft, this actually was finally a good move from them. Only thing is it's kind-of pointless as the wlan sync runs the batteries flat, and if you're plugging it in to charge, you might as well plug it in to sync, and sync much faster that way.

Apple iPod Nano third-generation

t3h

Switched around cabling

>all they've done is switch the cabling around

Before someone jumps on this and tries to put it as a bad thing, normal 3-channel 3.5mm sockets are made so that you can use a normal stereo cable for video/mono audio. If Apple had it wired this way, one side of the headphones wouldn't work - hence the swapped wires.

Canadian privacy commissioner slams TJX data policy

t3h

Damn obvious...

This is the same shop that used WEP to protect their wireless networks. And we need an investigation by the Canadian privacy commissioner to find that?

Elgato EyeTV 250 Plus TV tuner with MPEG 2 encoder

t3h

PB G4 12" and USB 2

What model is the G4 12"? Is it the 867MHZ one?

The later revisions in fact did have USB 2... (typing this from a 1.33GHZ one now).

Apple reminds customers who's boss

t3h

Openmoko? Read this...

>if you want a truly good phone thats open with many more feature than the iphone

>and no network lock in wait for the openmoko neo due out in october

Read this: http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q3.07/B10AE668-EAD3-46DC-A042-5EF3461D63EF.html

Points of note:

"OpenMoko therefore isn't a new “open phone,” it’s merely a version of Linux designed to run on a specific vendor's proprietary implementation of Windows Mobile. Buying an FIC phone to run OpenMoko is like buying a Dell Windows PC to run Linux. You're not changing the world, you're merely funding development of Microsoft's platform while giving yourself the opportunity to work with community software."

"In contrast, Apple delivered the iPhone at the promised date, price, and feature set it advertised in January. The Neo1973 is 160% of the thickness of the iPhone and 136% of its weight. The iPhone has twice the system RAM, but more importantly has 4 or 8 GB or Flash, compared to the quarter GB of Flash in FIC's phone. Since the Neo1973 uses all its system RAM to run Linux, it has to run additional apps from separate Flash cards."

"The FIC phone has no support for EDGE, so users will only have the much slower GPRS for data. All of the crying over the iPhone's lack of support for 3G data service will look like a party compared to the reaction of users to the glacial GPRS data service on the Neo1973. The existing model also lacks WiFi support, although it is promised to appear in a later hardware revision. The FIC phone also lacks a camera of any kind."

" The FIC phone also uses a mobile mini-port audio jack rather than a standard audio headphone port, and uses USB 1.1 for syncing, ensuring that data sync and file transfers are as painfully slow as the 2001 Nomad audio players that were blown away by the speed of Apple's first generation of Firewire iPods. The iPhone uses USB 2.0, which is forty times faster than USB 1.1."

PC superstore refuses to take sack in hand

t3h

Portable floppy drive for the iMac...

"went as far as promising a customer that a portable floppy drive for the new iMac (the first generation of them) would be released within 2 weeks."

There are tons of USB floppy drives on the market, and pretty much any of them work on a Mac. I used to have one (I still do... somewhere!), but I haven't used it in years.

Something like this: http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10086

Of course, the salesman was clearly making stuff up...

PC superstore unhinged by Linux

t3h

Bad comparison on two counts

The "Ford engine in a BMW" comparison is bad enough. Saying that the Acer laptop is a BMW, on the other hand, is FAR worse...

Apple restricts ringtone rights

t3h

To all the Apple haters

To all the Apple haters who have posted here: Haters are fanboys too.

Apple lobs $100 credit at iPhone buyers

t3h

I say again...

You start off by arguing that $600 is too expensive. Then when Apple drops the price to $400, now you're complaining that they were screwing the early adopters. Are you guys ever happy with anything iPhone related?

>That's how much the company pilfered from all those gullible souls over the past

>month and change.

It's a fair stretch of the imagination to say that Apple pilfered (read: stole) the money from the buyers...

Apple slashes iPhone prices

t3h

In obvious news:

Product goes significantly down in price. People who just bought said product get annoyed because it's now cheaper. It happens all the time... but since it's Apple, it's suddenly newsworthy? And it's a bad thing?

Siphoning MySpace tunes using Safari

t3h

Works for Youtube as well.

Works well for YouTube / Google Video as well - you can install Perian into QuickTime (if you're on OS X), and play those FLV files straight out of QT player.

Camera pole puts you in the frame

t3h

Seen this before.

Chindogu (the art of Japanese "un-useless" inventions) claims prior art on this one. I could have sworn I saw this exact same invention in a certain book I read years ago :)

http://www.amazon.com/Bento-Unuseless-Japanese-Inventions-More/dp/customer-reviews/0393326764

"* Self-portrait camera stick - a 57-cm telescoping pole which allows young and apparently shy couples to take pictures of themselves without having to bother passing strangers. The only sacrifice is the constant appearance of the pole in every shot. "

OK, this one's longer, but same idea.

Nokia issues battery warning

t3h

Hazardous?

"Actually I've tried to distribute as many hazardous items in the general direction of the bean counters just on the off chance."

Just leave the "battery testing device" (aka a piece of wire between + and -) in place when handing over the laptop. Be prepared to run...

Another 1,400 Sony batteries sent for slaughter

t3h

Has anyone been keeping count?

What's the sum total of all the batteries that have been recalled? Anyone kept count?

ATI driver flaw exposes Vista kernel

t3h

SSH to localhost?

> So ssh root@machost will get you in with full access by default, if port 22 is open on that host. You are not warned that there is no password on the root account.

SSH itself won't allow a login to a passwordless account, especially root... on any system.

Malware license agreement tells it straight

t3h

Censored?

How come the screenshot has the four-letter-word censored out and yet it's printed in the article? Censorship double standards?

Is AV product testing corrupt?

t3h

All we need is...

...an independent review of the reviewers. Problem solved.

BOFH: Talking to tradesmen

t3h

Feed for BoFH

http://feed.theregister.co.uk/rss?a=Simon%20Travaglia

Feeling left out? Get your PC infected today!

t3h

Wow, look at the above

Interesting. An article that doesn't even mention Apple at all, and an Apple hater has to come in here, and dump a load of garbage in the comments about how bad they are. And you're trying to prove the point that WE are all fanboys?

The other strange thing is that apparently since Apple just released an update fixing a large number of bugs, that means that their system is very buggy? Software update hell? Those bugs are fixed when you apply that update, not created...