Apple needs to focus on having server applications/OS that are useful in an enterprise environment before they worry about the hardware. 10.5 and 10.6 Server weren't terrible, but there's little they could do that AD and a Linux box couldn't do much better. 10.7 Server is absolute rubbish and isn't suitable for, well, anything.

I'm not saying they shouldn't come up with enterprise-ready hardware, just that they have bigger fish to fry.

> Opening an encrypted tunnel to circumvent packet inspection sounds like a wonderful way to bring in viruses, or send out classified materials.

The (perhaps incorrect) impression I got from the poster was that this isn't for a single computer, but would instead be available to multiple machines and would be used to circumvent a country's restrictions and/or packet sniffing. As there would be network equipment involved before the machines connected to whatever was handling their VPN traffic, the Navy official that was in charge of it could easily set up port mirroring in order to inspect the traffic.

I've had my run-in with this before. I'm just a generic every day sysadmin and have no real involvement with the security community, short of idling on IRC with a bunch of more active people. Here are my experiences:

In 1997 or '98 I was the sysadmin for a mom 'n pop local ISP. We got hit by a massive DOS attack - keep in mind this was in the pre-smurf/DDOS era, so it really did warrant the attention of the feds. The owner contacted them, and they talked to me about getting any logs we might have (which of course I was ready to provide). I asked them where they wanted me to send them, and... "No, why don't you meet us out somewhere? We'll buy you lunch.". Despite the offer of free food, the alarm bells were going off by this point. So, I met them at a local coffee shop, and out of the 30 or so minutes I was there, they spent maybe two minutes discussing the DDOS with me, and the rest of the time attempting to get me to inform on the local 2600 group. I declined repeatedly, and they continued to make more forceful and threatening requests. Every time I disagreed with them, they looked at each other - and this was the creepiest (and obviously rehearsed) behavior I've ever seen. They never did get those logs from me.

After that I didn't hear anything until around 2005 or so when one of my ex-coworkers from another company called to tell me two men came by looking for me, and that they had government plates on their car. They left a card, but since I'm not under any obligation to call them, I never did. As the years went by, I received more calls from different people with a similar story.

And my last run-in with them was only a year or two ago - someone called me from a cell phone claiming he was with the FBI, and he had my computer and I needed to come to the local field office to pick it up. I found that to be rather unlikely since I tend to hang onto them until they're dead, I certainly wasn't missing one, and then they (minus the drives - I still have those) go into the bin. After a week of ignoring his calls he stopped bothering me.

To this day I have no idea what they wanted, but the entire thing reeked of ill-spent tax dollars.

I really don't care anymore, so the hell with posting as AC...

It's on Hulu, so go watch it now and redeem yourself. Peter Sellers did such an awesome job in it.

Trivia: The set with the interior of the bomber in it was designed completely by guessing what it would look like; no one on the crew of the film had ever seen one before as it was classified when the film was made. The end result was so accurate they received a visit from the military wanting to know who had leaked information about it.

They came in below the bar in the police state contest the US and UK seem to be competing in. I guess they decided they didn't want to be the losers.

Hooray for the underdog! Oh, wait...

I just picked one up for that exact purpose - Newegg has a Rosewill wifi adapter (with external antenna connector) for $20. Works great in Linux and OSX, as it's a RTL8187 device.

Same here. When FileVault (VileFault, if you like) first came out I ran into the same problem as you. I was able to repair it, log in, and recover some of my data (most resulted in the spinning beachball of death). Trying to convert back to a non-encrypted FS resulted in the machine telling me I needed roughly 12 petabytes of free disk space.

Shame really, it was a good idea, but a very bad execution I think.

Same here, after years of owning PPC macs and never having a problem, I've had endless trouble from my MBPs.

The first one I had was a first generation one and I kinda expected the worst, but it lasted three years with two trips into Apple Service (logic board replaced twice). The new one (last of the previous body style MBPs) is garbage though, it's been non-stop odd behavior that I can't pin down to any one thing. Crashes consistently and runs slowly with Linux or OSX. Won't buy another one.

It's not really fine. Well, sort of. The health care system has major problems because no one can really afford it without insurance. In fact, if you try and purchase medical care, the hospital will charge you more than they would charge an insurance company.

Funny, that. Most of the Blackwater guys that were here after Katrina were wearing plain clothes and weren't (AFAIK) deputized. They were just out of town thugs with guns, not too different from the local thugs with guns. The only way you could tell them apart from the local thuggery was that they had better weaponry.

I wasn't actually referring to Blackwater, even though it is of course applicable here. I was more referring to the NOPD guys that beat the schoolteacher up during Katrina, the ones that mug you, the ones that guard warehouses full of cocaine, the ones that in 2008 opened fire at an inspection sticker station because they didn't feel like waiting in line. People like Antoinette Franks and Len Davis (both NOPD officers and on death row).

Come to New Orleans. The only difference between the criminals and the police is a uniform.

Try Movable Type. It's maybe not what I'd really call "lightweight", but it isn't huge either.

As much as I'd love to work in the EU, it isn't that easy. I seriously looked into it a few years ago (and still do from time to time) only to come to the conclusion that many EU employers really don't want Americans working there. They'd much rather take care of their own and employee EU residents. Sucks for me, but I do see the truth of it.