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Comment Re:Developer unhappiness or Marketshare loss? (Score 1) 229

I'd assume this is about Mac OS X, not iOS. Mac OS X market share is actually growing (though not even close to iOS in market share, or especially sheer numbers). The truth is it's very easy to leave the MAS, many key software products never went there to begin with for whatever reason.

There is evidence that *some* developers who tested the waters of the MAS are turning away from it. Rich Siegel (of BBEdit fame) has recently said BareBones may pull some/all apps from the app store (at least BBEdit, which makes since, nobody wants a sandboxed professional text editor).

Comment Re:Too bad... (Score 2) 861

You do realize this is because the missiles being fired into Israel are being fired from civilian areas.

This is but one thing that separates terrorists from soldiers... terrorists hide among the civilians using them as shields and propaganda.

There is little honor to go around on either side of this, but hiding among the civilians is an act of supreme cowardice and Evil.

Comment Re:Overconstrained problem definition (Score 1) 402

Bzzzt... Actually some very excellent fixed focal length wide angle camera exist. Back in the "film" day most photog's I knew carried around Olympus SylusEpic's with the fixed 3.5 1:2:8 lens. Awesome camera!

Also see this: http://www.sigmaphoto.com/shop/dp2s-compact-digital-camera

A good fixed lens will beat a good Zoom lens in image quality every time.

Comment Re:Get a Lumix (Score 3, Informative) 402

I have an LX5, and it is an outstanding camera, however I recently picked up an Olympus E-PM1 and while I like the feel on of the LX5 better, the Olympus beats it in both picture and video quality. This should be expected since the LX5 has a much smaller sensor (though bigger then most compact digitals). (The LX-5 though is unique in using different area of the sensor for different aspect ratios... I really enjoy the 1:1 and the 16:9).

This was my first foray into the whole mirrorless interchangeable lens type camera so I didn't want to spend to much so it was down to the PanasonicGF3 and Olympus E-PM1 (I considered the new Nikon J system but it cost much more for much less). The two were very similar, but the Olympus had a hotshot for the flash and accessories and felt a bit more solid so that's what I went with.

I'm not giving up on my LX5, but I find it's no longer my go to camera.

Comment Re:If they weren't so pretty (Score 1) 584

Rather then attempt to go down that road, why don't you tell me some of things that you think you can do on your OS that you can't do on OS X?

Pretty much if you have the know how if you can do it on another *nix system you can do it on Mac OS X.

If I have to I can even run most (all?) Intel based systems on Mac OS X under a virtual machine.

In fact Apple doesn't restrict a damn thing on my computer. If I don't want to play by the App Store games I don't have to.... And to the paranoid I'm pretty sure I'll never have to. Apple has no need and no desire to lock down OS X (They have iOS for that). They do have a responsibility to provide a reliable secure system though. Also as for the App Store... It's Apples store... they can do whatever the hell they want with it. Oh I for one agree with sandboxing apps. I don't think Apple has it all figured out right now, and I think this is the reason they pushed the date back. Ultimately they will try to find a balance between developers and users, and based on history they will error on the side of pissing off developers rather then users. Developers will complain as they have for the past >20 years about how Apple doesn't respect them or some such nonsense.

Comment Re:Permissions conspicuous by their absence (Score 1) 584

Apple has always had undocumented API's that developers were supposed to avoid. Android also has undocumented API's that developers aren't supposed to use. Do you know why...

A. because the API is in flux and utilizing these API's may cause you App to break (with unexpected, potentially bad results) as they mature.
B. they utilize sensitive services and pose a high risk for abuse.

Comment Re:Stupid (Score 1) 584

As more and more applications rely on distributed data then the risk of some third party injecting malevolent data or tasks into the stream becomes a higher risk.

This isn't about saying that a developer is bad, or a user is doing something wrong, this is about someone else entirely having the power to inject their nasties in the middle. Sandboxing doesn't prevent this from happening (since this is happening outside the box) it does though restrict that damage that such a task could do.

BTW this sort of attack while currently rare, is on the rise and it has little to do with how smart you are as a user or what antivirus software you are using.

Comment Re:Why is this such a bad thing? (Score 1) 584

"...detrimental to the users..."

I've yet to see an intelligent balanced argument to support this general statement. Yes, there have been things here or there that may have adversely affected some users in some way, but usually as a trade off for helping more users or providing more helpful services.

Anyway let me fix this for you... I believe what you meant to say is "...detrimental to certain ideologies..."

It's perfectly natural to be worried when the illusion of control is wrestled away from you, but the question is, did you really have that control to begin with?

People keep throwing Android around here as the open, free counter to Apple, but Android only provides the illusion of control, and in this way is much more devious in my mind. Android is controlled by Google, new releases are controlled by Google and the devices are controlled by the manufactures and service providers. This is not an open system... If it was open then why don't I have the latest version of Android running on Evo 4G?

Comment ...User error... (Score 1) 831

Clearly this is all about user error.

First, use macports or fink, not both.

Second, if you are concerned with the kernel for web development you are doing it wrong.

Textmate is interesting, but BBEdit is fantastic. I've yet to find a GUI text editor that matches it. Oh yea Vim works well too.

BTW Apple has clear instructions on installing postgreSQL on their website (which is installed with Mac OS X server by BTW) and there are frequent releases of MacPython as binaries.

If pressed install Linux on a VM and get the best of both worlds.

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