Angela Booth’s Writing Blog: Giggle of the Day: Acronym for Vista:
How unkind. From David Pogue at the NYT:
Vista is actually an acronym for the top five Windows problems: “viruses, infections, spyware, trojans and adware.
Oh, Microsoft. Your feeble attempts at control are so cute. (Boing Boing)
Continuing to clean out my virtual notebook with a bunch of links from the tech world.
(Via Slashdot) There’s a new version of spyware coming to town, and it’ll be nearly invisible and practically impossible to get rid of. The “kernel rootkit” can modify the system kernel and intercept system calls. Here’s the kicker to the article in The Inquirer:
...the only way to be sure that you have killed a kernel rootkit is to completely erase an infected hard drive and reinstall the operating system from scratch.
Via MacFixIt, we find that Walt Mossberg’s new column points out that the Mac isn’t for everybody. While I’d certainly grant that gamers and folks who use proprietary accounting or business software aren’t the most likely switchers, I’d argue that many of the groups Mossberg claims wouldn’t be happy with Macs actually might be if they were willing to make a few small compromises and learn a few new tricks.
I live without Microsoft Office for example, and I don’t miss Outlook for a minute. Instead, Neo Office, Aquamind’s Notetaker, and Apple’s built-in productivity tools take up the slack.
I’ve had to learn some new ways of doing things on the Mac—like using the Apple key instead of Ctrl, and understanding that closing a window doesn’t exit the program—but I’ve found that the Mac way actually makes more sense.
The only reasons I still have a PC are that a) there’s no cross-platform upgrade price for programs like Photoshop and Dreamweaver; and b) some websites, like the one my wife needs to use for her real estate business, absolutely refuse to work properly in any browser available for the Mac.
Still, I spend 90% of my time on my Powerbook, and I love it. The biggest benefit for me of the Mac over the PC is that I spend more time actually using my computer, and far less time fixing things. Wouldn’t you be willing to trade your need for an ultralight laptop or your addiction to Napster for more time to use and enjoy your computer?
I’ve had my head buried deep in a couple of projects for the past few days, so I’m sorry for not posting lately. I’ve got some links piled up to blog about, if I can find the time, and podcasting to attend to and, and…
Well, other matters take precedence right now, but I did want to extend Gmail invitations to anyone who wants one. I’m showing 50—yes, 50!—invites available, so just send an email to stumaxis@gmail.com if you want in on the Gmaily goodness.
Love your bodies!
You know, there’s one problem with using Macs: It’s easy to get lulled in to a false sense of security. I was just using a program called Taco HTML Edit, which I like because it shows a preview of my HTML page that’s updated as I change the code. About an hour into some page design, the program crashed, and of course I hadn’t saved my work. D’oh! Dumb move on my part, but I just got into the groove and didn’t think about it.
[sigh] Back to work…
10×10 / 100 Words and Pictures that Define the Time / by Jonathan J. Harris
Wicked cool way to browse the news. It’s beyond me to try to explain just now. Check it out.
I was inspired by this discussion over at 2blowhards.com to leave a very long comment, which I’ll repost here:
Michael B., I think that it will be a while before the mainstream press truly understands what’s going on in a way that they can write coherently about it. It’s one thing to notice that technology is creating a revolution. It’s another thing entirely to really embrace it, understand it, and use it to the fullest. Just in the last few weeks, my understanding of how to use technology has shifted dramatically. RSS, Gmail, Flickr, del.icio.us, and desktop Wikis have all caused me to rethink my options for collecting and managing information. I’ve said for years that we’re still in the dark ages when it comes to computers. I think we’re a long way from living in a mature world of computer and network technology, much less really understanding it. I’m not sure many people really can see where this is going.
For instance, I’m working on a new project. I’m attempting to create a new kind of online history book. I’m developing a wiki where the narrative and encyclopedic entries about characters and events will be developed simultaneously. I’m doing this on my own right now, but will soon open it up for others to contribute, much as Wikipedia has been built by the efforts of a large community. As I develop this project, I realize that there’s really no limit to what can be included in or linked to from this wiki. My long-term goal would be to have original source material for every aspect of the period I’m studying available online – a one-stop-shop, if you will, for people interested in this historical event.
Now, I’m not way out there on this. Others (like Michael Brooke, it seems) are working on similar “deep resource” projects. How will this impact culture? We’re going to move from the idea that knowledge is something filtered and parsed by individuals to something that is created and managed by the group. I think this core idea has always been true, yet the methods we’ve had to deliver content – books, radio, television, and so on – have mostly been filtered through the narrow perspective of one person or one organization. It hasn’t been practical in the past to develop and disseminate group-think. Once a book is printed, that’s it until the next edition, if there is one. Any mistakes remain; ideas aren’t reconsidered in the light of new evidence. Moreover, sources remain unavailable to the media consumer in many cases, so independent evaluation of an author’s conclusions are impossible.
However, group-reviewed, dynamically updatable resources are available now, the tools to create these are starting to mature, and more of these resources will come online when people start to see how powerful and useful they are. Libraries are starting to digitize content like Shakespeare’s quartos and Lewis Carroll’s scrapbook. The balance of power in cultural filtering is shifting. It’s as if gold went from being something only prospectors could locate in far-off locations to something anyone could create with their own personal alchemy machine.
(I’m also seeing a shift in the way we perceive top-down hierarchies in general. In business, for example, there are some who suggest that the wisdom of the group is more valuable and “right” in many cases than the wisdom of the manager or the CEO.)
Culture will change – back, perhaps – from something you consume to something you participate in. I’ve already seen a couple of wikis that attempt to facilitate group-created stories. More will follow.
Technologically speaking, we are in the midst of a mini-revolution in which computers move from being separate machines with discreet installations of data and programs (analogs of our personal experience) to “network appliances” connecting us to a world where applications data, and experience reside on the network and are easily shared. Everything will interconnect, and we will develop tools (like RSS readers) to help us manage the torrent of information. Experiences, expertise, and ideas will be shared freely.
Raymond: What can digital do? It can make all this possible. People won’t simply consume. Portability and interconnectivity will open humans up to a level of collaboration that was previously impossible. Wikis and social bookmark sites like del.icio.us are the tip of the iceberg. This isn’t a subtle shift. Once people start to grasp what’s possible in an interconnected world, the sky’s the limit. It’s no small thing, for instance, to consider digitizing the Library of Congress so that the information contained therein is available instantly and everywhere.
Perhaps I wax rhapsodic. I tend to believe that people will use new tools in the best, most culturally enhancing way possible. It’s just as likely, I suppose, that people won’t. However, I am optimistic that once the infrastructure and tools are built, creative people will be called upon to use them. Culture will grow, as it always has, in the proper medium and conditions, and I like to imagine that this new medium is fertile indeed.
Interesting article at the Daring Fireball: Broken Windows, comparing Mac and Windows security. The author compares Windows to a seedy neighborhood where the residents don’t care about keeping the buildings maintained and the streets free of litter. That tolerance for disrepair, he argues, opens the door for viruses and spyware to flourish. The Mac, on the other hand, exists in a clean neighborhood, where residents absolutely don’t tolerate disorder.
It’s a fine argument, but I must say that if Windows users don’t care about their neighborhood, they also act like cheap whores. I’ve used a fair number of different operating systems in my day, and I currently have a Mac PowerBook, a Windows XP box, and a couple of Linux boxes. My XP box is on 24 hours a day, and – knock on wood – I have had to deal with viruses exceedingly rarely, perhaps once per year or less. I have had to remove spyware on occasion, but for the most part my machine has remained clean. I don’t even run anti-virus software (mostly because Norton completely sucks, but I digress…) though I do have a ZoneAlarm firewall installed. Mostly, though, my defense is to be exceedingly careful about what software I install and what email I open.
One of the major problems in the Windows world is the appalling lack of sophistication among the users, and the even more appalling necessity that Windows demands they be sophisticated to use all the whiz-bang software Redmond keeps saying is good for us. (And if you can parse that sentence without getting a headache, you get a cookie.) Mac shows us that it’s possible to make an operating system that doesn’t take a genius to understand and use while providing excellent security. To keep Windows working properly, however, requires years of experience with its quirks and tendencies, and a tenacious attention to maintenance. Most users assume that they can’t break their computer, and that software should “just work.” Unfortunately for them, they’re only right if they’re working on a Mac.
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