Posts by x4zYYvb3

Re: In response to...

Windows Frames...?

Re: Lions don't drink coffee

You obviously don't have a Norwegian bank account. Java is required to log into internet banking websites in Norway. This means that a ten year old PC running XP is more secure than five year old Macbook running Leopard.

It's not just the programmers fault

"If big smart corporations such as Google have such large problems with a relatively trivial security matter because its programmers can't sufficiently visualize the security model so as to avoid it, then it begs the serious question as to what else can't programmers conceptually visualize with their software which may leave it with fundamental flaws."

Except that the problem is not just with Google programmers. Each phase of the process from global design specs, functional design, technical design, build and test should act as a review of the previous phase of the project. A functional designer should notice flaws in the assumptions of the architects, a tester finds problems with the build, whilst the programmer then discovers that fault lies not with their code but the technical design. In the meantime, the technical designer might already have realised that there is an ambiguity in the functional design and altered the technical specs. So it goes on and on.

You would have thought that such a process would have eliminated such a glaring flaw. Unless of course everyone working on the project thought it was a fantastic feature instead of a rather dumb idea.*

Perhaps the problem is that companies like Google employ too many "Wunderkinder" who are very good at design, programming, testing etc, from a technical point of view, but have insufficient experience and understanding of "the real world" to notice a stupid idea when it bites them on the bum.

*cf New Look Google.

Nice idea but are you sure?

I've taken the same decision to avoid Apple products a while ago, when I noticed that they had become the new Microsoft.

In principle avoiding giving any more of our hard earned cash to Apple seems simple. Just don't buy an iPhone, Macbook or Apple TV. However even if you buy the "Acme Internet Access Tray Model 2" you cannot guarantee that you won't still be giving money to Apple.

Apple has a huge patent portfolio relating to mobile and computing devices. Chances are that almost any wireless or touchscreen mobile device manufacturer will be paying a few cents (somewhere along the line), on each unit sold to their customers, to our friends at Apple (or MS or Google-Motorola for that matter). Hence our desire to never give Mr Jobs and his friends some of our money ever again, is a dream that is unlikely to be fullfilled.

If that is what you want, you will have to accept that you must stop buying all internet enabled devices until you can be certain exactly who gets a slice of the purchase price.

It is just a shame.....

...that they forgot to bundle a spell checker with Win 7.

I'm on my way out.

Snow Leopard runs on a PPC mac?

If Apple really took such threats seriously then they should have included a trojan blocker when MacOSX first was released. Whilst a trojan blocker in Snow Leopard is a step in the right direction, it still leaves plenty of Leopard users (including PPC mac owners for who there is no post-Leopard upgrade path) entirely unprotected.

Not to mention those using even older versions of MacOSX. It looks like none of the current MacOSX AV software supports Panther, which means Panther users are even less well protected than XP users.

Even now, after the appearance of the 'proof of concept' MACdefender, Apple do not appear to be taking the threat of trojans and malware seriously. Apple should, at the very, least be educating its customers about security rather than insisting its Apple store "geniuses" spread FUD about the issue.

Vomit?

I don't think the Skype UI designers vomitted all over the desktop, they let it pass normally through their digestive tracts and excreted it. Skype 5 for mac isn't a pavement pizza, it's a steaming pile of poo.

Fortunately there is a much better version available. For some reason the improved version has been called Skype 2.8 for mac instead of Skype 6 for mac. I never have understood the world of product marketing.

If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

"Canonical seem to have been infected with the same rabid management madness that is generally abroad these days - take a good service that is known, understood and loved and change it out of all recognition for no other reason than because you can. Then you sneer at your customers that complain, post mocking remarks about those who point out the shortcomings and refuse point blank to address anyone's objections with anything other than condescending patronage."

cf

Google instant preview - You can't turn this 'feature' off (needs Adblock plus to kill it)

Tabbed interface in Thunderbird 3 - you can't revert to the 2.xx non-tabbed UI if you don't like a tabbed email client.

The truly awful new UI in Skype 5 for mac - you can't turn it off, and there's no classic mode (thankfully v2.8 still works).

As you point out, now Canonical have added themselves to the list of companies eager to shoot themselves in the foot with 'bold new UX paradigms'.