I did state that there were vulnerabilities. While I do think that it is important that they are acknowledged and that people know about them, I do not appreciate the sardonic tone, Darkdata.

I take it you are an Apple hater? You and others like you (e.g. Linux haters, Microsoft haters, etc) would do best to keep any caustic comments to yourself. Disliking something is fine, but given the ability for some of these things to become arguments, I would prefer to see some maturity and tact.

I do hope these vulnerabilities are resolved swiftly. The most recent version of Safari also fixes a good many things. One of these is something I deal with at work, so I am happy to see improvement.

I also did not notice when I did my testing earlier, but I hear that Safari uses Apple's sub-pixel rendering style on text even in Windows? I shall check later.

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Dual booting is a very good idea if you think you will actually boot into both operating systems and work things out.

Personally if there is any sense of things being mission critical then I would stick with the mature operating system (XP). Vista will take a little more time.

If things are not mission critical and/or you feel adventurous, Ubuntu Linux is quite a well done, usable Linux distribution that you may enjoy. Using a Linux distribution is also a great learning experience, and if you wish to pursue a career in Information Technology may be quite a worthwhile experience.

Likewise if things are not mission critical then you may find no disadvantages in using Vista.

If things are mission critical another option I would recommend is a Macintosh (and Parallels) if you are interested. OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is a mature operating system also having been out two years, with many of the features that you will also find in Vista. Parallels is virtualisation software which will allow you to also run Windows or Linux.

The myth that Apple computers are "expensive" is just that -- a myth -- but I see why it exists. If you actually compare similar, comparable computers, Apple compares very very well price-wise to very similar PC hardware. The problem is that there is a limited range of Apple computers and so there are occasions where there is a suitable PC solution for a user and no similar comparable Apple one.

As for my earlier statements about Linux being a valuable learning experience, I will repeat that about Mac OS X. If you are interested in Information Technology as a career it may be in your interest to make yourself familiar with as many operating systems as you can -- you never know when you may wish to apply for a fantastic job which has Macintosh or Linux requirements.

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I would need more information to know if you are making a fair comparison or not, Xkeeper.

Anyway, I just think it's extremely disempowering to cut yourself off from any one operating system. By doing that, that's one tool you effectively have no access to thanks only to your mind and belief set.

While this might not bother you too much for personal use, particularly when you have comparable tools available to you, I think it's silly if you want to pursue a career in computing.

I am finding more and more mixed systems in my day to day work. If you are a Microsoft fanboy you might be lucky and find a one-eyed Microsoft fanboy business to work for, but chances are nowadays you may be expected to deal with Macintoshes, or Linux computers too. By having cut yourself off from those tools by a mindset, someone without that mindset then has an advantage in getting that job over you...

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Posted by Xkeeper

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Posted by Tarale

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I would need more information to know if you are making a fair comparison or not, Xkeeper.

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Too bad. Apple's "we only deal with morons who don't want to actually know how things run" mindset is nice enough to only give that much information without having to do a lot of digging ("Select" just takes you to CUSTOMIZE YOUR MAC ONE STEP AT A TIME!, thanks but no)

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Funny, I've never had to do a lot of digging to find out detailed specs.

I think someone has a bit of a disempowering mindset problem

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No, I do think that Apple should be held accountable for errors, just as any other software company is, Xkeeper. However, I do not believe that that this "accountability" by Apple gives licence to users of the forum to post general anti-software-company comments in such a way as to invite argument.

My point was simply that given that we KNOW that operating systems / the companies that make them are contentious issues, we should NOT invite said argument and post with some tact.



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Posted by Xkeeper

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I've had enough of dealing with Apple's site in general ("let's make everything fade and slowly transform into what it should be, hurhrurhuruhrurh") to go digging past the initial equipment list.

I can find detailed specs ont he main product page with any other site I buy from. Why should Apple be any different? It just makes it much more complicated (and goddamn annoying) to look up details.

Then again, they know anyone who buys Apple products will always buy them, so they can afford to do this shit.

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That is a fairly unfair set of generalisations. Different manufacturers display their product information (and entire website) differently, some better than others, some worse. Likewise, some people find some websites usable and others don't.

And I would not say that "anyone who buys Apple products will always buy them" either. The "Switchers" go both ways, you know This said, Apple do enjoy a remarkably loyal userbase, and there is a reason for that. Apple's products are "right" for those people / companies.

Settle down, Xk. It's not worth getting so cranky about.

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I use a variety of operating systems.

At the moment I am on a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.4.9.

I have a Mac Mini also running OS X 10.4.9. Also there are two computers here running Windows XP Professional w/ Service Pack 2. And one computer running Server 2000.

I used to also have a machine running a derivative of Red Hat Linux, but it died (hard drive failure) and I've since not really needed to replace it.

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Failure first appeared when I blew a fuse making lasagna.

Computer detects IDE2 as faulty. But given what happens when I disconnect the drives, I am wondering...



Also my troubleshooting is weird. RAID-5 array.

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I do not run an operating system that has a "System Tray".

Best I can show you is my Dock. And I won't.

It has Finder, Quicksilver, Firefox, Adium and iTunes. And that's it.

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I got rid of iTunes.

And yes, that makes three applications.

But one of those applications is Quicksilver, which amongst other things can be used as a launcher. The Quicksilver icon effectively then is also any other application or file I wish to open. Just click (or use the keyboard shortcut) and start typing...

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I'm guessing this isn't a serious topic, but I'll give it a serious answer anyway.

Learn to exercise some self control. There is a lot more to life than simply being a slave to one's impulses.

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Ahh, the ole antivirus argument.

I don't have any antivirus programs on this computer. Or my other computer.

At work, we use McAfee, the enterprise edition, and actually I don't mind it, it's not half bad. I think that its Anti Spyware module leaves a lot to be desired however, but generally I don't find I have problems with it. It's pretty good, and the ePolicy Orchestrator makes it pretty easy to keep up to date across a huge network. We don't tend to have any noticeable performance issues.

I don't like the consumer version of McAfee though. It's just.... hard to believe that it shares the same name with the Enterprise one, the product is so different.

I wonder if this is the same with Norton's consumer and enterprise versions.

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I miss all the interesting things.

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I tend to not like those canned things. Although I will occasionally eat them when budgetary retraints force my hand.

I had Weet-Bix for breakfast, drizzled with honey. I also had some Sen Cha green tea, which was delicious.

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Posted by FirePhoenix0

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No, no, no, it's a spa for eggs that is a novelty in Tula, Russia. Crazy Russians and their spa-ing eggs. It doesn't help cook the thing at all. I was cheated out of $6.83.

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Last I was in a spa, it was hot enough to cook things.

But I wouldn't want to eat anything that was cooked in that mess of spa water, spilled beer, man-sweat and back hair...

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Posted by Trax

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But in general, the fact that a computer program can sneek up in important folders and/or mess-up with important files without the user doing anything stupid still puzzles me completely...

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It's called a Vulnerability and some have an exploit which allows bad people to do nasty things to your computer.

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Posted by Trax

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With that kind of "nutrition", it's no surprise to see people getting cancer at 40 and dying at 60...
Speaking of nutrition, an article about Soy, in three parts:

Newest Research On Why You Should Avoid Soy

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It's disappointing but it's becoming cheaper to eat badly than it is to eat healthy.

Which is why I said I only ever tend to eat things like that when budget restraints force my hand. It's a pity, the healthier food is much nicer, but when you have less than a dollar (Australian) and you need to eat, you're pretty much looking at instant noodles or tinned goods...

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I check BPAY Biller Codes at least three times before paying a bill in my Internet Banking.

I check a lot of things like that repeatedly. Particularly numbers or codes, I do not trust myself to get it right.

But I'm not so bad. Mum insists on using particular coloured clothespegs when she hangs out the washing. You have to use the blue ones first, then the white ones, then the red ones....

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Posted by FirePhoenix0

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Ewwwwww...

I feel like I need a shower after reading that post...

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I needed a shower after that spa.

Oh, and it got worse after I got out. But you don't want to know...

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I think it's fairly obvious, but meh. Somebody did eventually piss in the spa. More beer was spilled along with other alcohols too.

All in all, I got out of the spa while it was pretty clean, the next day the spa water was a stinky brown colour.

Spas + drunken idiots = ew

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