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OS X

15 Things Apple Should Change in Mac OS X 936

Posted by Zonk from the twitching-the-tiger dept.
richi writes "Two of Computerworld's top operating systems editors, a Mac expert and a Windows expert, compare notes on what Apple should reconsider as it develops Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Mac OS X 10.4, or Tiger, is (in their opinion) a noticeably better operating system than XP or Vista. But it is not perfect. OS X has its own quirks and flaws, and they set out to nail down some of the 'proud nails' for the next release." From the article: "7. Inconsistent User Interface. Open iTunes, Safari and Mail. All three of these programs are Apple's own, and they're among the ones most likely to be used by Mac OS X users. So why do all three of them look different? Safari, like several other Apple-made apps such as the Finder and Address Book, uses a brushed-metal look. iTunes sports a flat gun-metal gray scheme and flat non-shiny scroll bars. Mail is somewhere in between: no brushed metal, lots of gun-metal gray, and the traditional shiny blue scroll bars. Apple is supposed to be the king of good UI, and in many areas, it is. But three widely used apps from the same company with a different look? Sometimes consistency isn't the hobgoblin of little minds."
User Journal

Journal Journal: “Feel free to improve.” 3

Journal by BandwidthHog

That was the note scribbled in pencil at the top of the drawing.

It struck me as sort of the ultimate fortune cookie: Was it imploring me to improve the machine part depicted that I was about to revise a drawing of? Or merely to improve on the illustration itself? My personal favorite way to interpret is as a request for the illustrator to improve himself.
Slashdot.org

Journal Journal: Slashdot Deleting Comments? 1

Journal by BandwidthHog

I noticed something weird today. I often read slashdot threads once they’ve matured a bit, as I can often pick up a lot of useful information once the moderation system (such as it is) has done its work and some thoughtful discussions have taken place over a few days. But that’s not the weird part.
Wine

Journal Journal: Yay. A hurricane. 4

Journal by BandwidthHog

According to Weather Underground we’re getting nailed. According to the chick on the radio we’re getting nailed. But outside? Nah, not so much. The rain has been relatively light for the past six+ hours, wind is blowing “a little bit” according to my lovely lady hanging her head out the window behind me.

Debunking a Bogus Encryption Statement? 215

Posted by Cliff from the this-and-other-gems dept.
deviantphil asks: "Recently, a coworker tried to assert that encrypting a file twice with a 64 bit algorithm is equivalent to encrypting it once with a 128 bit algorithm. I know enough about encryption to know that isn't true, but I am having difficulties explaining why and how. Doesn't each pass of the encryption create a separate file header which makes this assertion untrue? Can anyone point me to references that would better help me explain this?" What other laughable claims have you heard attributed to encryption, and how were you able to properly lay them to rest?

Microsoft Acquires Winternals and Sysinternals 471

Posted by Zonk from the internals-are-eternal dept.
SJasperson writes "In a move that will be good for Redmond but may have consequences for the rest of us, Microsoft has acquired Winternals and Sysinternals. This gives them well-known developers Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell as well as dozens of well-loved and much-praised utilities, both commercial and freeware. Though Mark says on his blog that the Sysinternals site will remain 'for the time being,' this would be a good time to download the latest version of essential Windows tools like Process Explorer before they can go mysteriously missing or be locked up behind the wall of Windows Genuine Advantage."

Microsoft Releases IE7 Beta 3 277

Posted by Zonk from the another-beta-toy dept.
Kawahee writes "Microsoft has released IE7 Beta 3 to the public. From TechNet Flash: 'As a result of customer feedback, IE7 Beta 3 contains some feature changes in addition to the planned reliability, compatibility, and security improvements. If you've previously installed a beta of IE7, you should uninstall it before installing this release.' For the first time, the Administrator's Kit for Internet Explorer 7 is also available, which is described as 'the most efficient way to deploy and manage Web-based solutions.'"

Quake is 10 405

Posted by timothy from the shaky-decade dept.
cyclomedia writes "Late on 22nd June 1996 Quake was uploaded to cdrom.com's archives in the form of 7 1.44MB floppy disk images. Though it wasn't until the 23rd that everyone realised (or at least, that's my excuse for being a day late with the news submission). Cue much aggravation on the newsgroups as eager downloaders experienced glorious 2 FPS gameplay."

An IE-Based Tabbed Browser from China 163

Posted by timothy from the adversity-breeds-strength dept.
wannabgeek writes "CNET reports that a new browser, Maxthon is gaining wide popularity in China. 14 percent of Chinese websurfers have used it ... Part of the reason, it has features that help in circumventing the Chinese government censors. CNET says it was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas this year, and is slowly gaining foothold in Europe as well as the U.S."

U.S. Joins Hollywood in War on Piracy 358

Posted by Zonk from the taking-on-the-real-terrorists dept.
Section_Ei8ht writes to mention a Washington Post article about a new joint initiative between the U.S. government and the entertainment industry. The government will now be aiding efforts abroad to stop copyright infringement. They cite the recent Pirate Bay fiasco, as well as the problems Russia is having with the WTO as a result of their thriving IP black market. From the article: "The intellectual property industry and law enforcement officials estimate U.S. companies lose as much as $250 billion per year to Internet pirates, who swap digital copies of 'The DaVinci Code,' Chamillionaire's new album and the latest Grand Theft Auto video game for free."

Government Adds Consumer Databases To Mining Queries 179

Posted by Zonk from the next-up-grammar-school-records dept.
mrraven writes "According to an article in the Washington Post the government is increasingly using consumer databases for surveillance purposes. " From the article: "It is difficult to pinpoint the number of such contracts because many of them are classified, experts said. At the federal level, 52 government agencies had launched, or planned to begin, at least 199 data-mining projects as far back as 2004, according to a Government Accountability Office study."

Apple Pulls Out of India 696

Posted by Zonk from the curious dept.
tanveer1979 writes "Barely 3 months after it commenced India operations, Apple has decided to pull out its software operations from Bangalore. The employees will be given a severance package which is equal to two months' pay. The sales and marketing operations will remain on (these consist of around 30 people) but the software and support will be completely pulled out." From the article: "Apple had set itself a hiring target of 600 by the year-end. After a gala induction ceremony on April 17, the operations team went to Transworks for training. Some of the managers were about to leave for the US for further training when they were asked to stay put."

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Top Ten Things Overheard At The ANSI C Draft Committee Meetings: (5) All right, who's the wiseguy who stuck this trigraph stuff in here?

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