[geeks] Apple applications phoning home

[Mark]

On 24 Oct 2007, at 03:56, Shannon Hendrix wrote:

> Nah, it's pretty clear without coffee.  I like tea better anyway.

I like tea too but the stuff they drink at work sucks.

> Address Book needs a lot of work anyway.
>
> Having said that, like most Apple software, it has some surprising
> features that really help you get things done.

It's a very utilitarian app compared to most other Apple apps. It  
does the job, no questions asked. It has minimal 'whiz-bang'  
features. I kinda like it but it's a bit... well dull I guess.

> Well, I can't get it to trigger a notice.

That's real odd. You must have something set differently.

> Oh well, not a big deal, just annoying for now.

That 3D Dock in Leopard will make it all better, I swear ;)

> Seems to me the main thing is they just don't give out the details.

As the saying goes: "The Devil is in the Details."

> The whole .Mac site seems to be based on bog standard Apache and  
> WebDAV.
>
> They just don't describe its configuration to the public.

You have to consider their side of it - what security vulnerabilities  
would that open up for example? Even so, you're right. They are doing  
it for money though ;)

> It's just that I can see it being very useful to set up a .Mac server
> of your own for a lot of reasons, including private and secure
> networks in Apple shops.

Maybe it'll come in the future. They have servers with all the gear  
on them...

> I thought about buying it just to save time in getting content out
> for family and things like that.  It's certainly convenient, and it
> seems to work well even with non Mac machines, the website I mean.

I personally would like to see some kind of online calendar, and  
maybe a decent address book manager. Both are missing and present in  
a lot of other online 'Life' services.

> I guess it really doesn't cost any more than most other hosting
> services either.

But typically a web developer gets less for the money than, say, a  
home user. Horses for courses I guess...

> I just wish I could use Apple's tools to export to other websites
> too.

A lot of them will. It's the few that don't that are irritating.

> Even if I get .Mac, I'd still want to publish some stuff to
> other sites, and it would be nice to use the same tools.

> They don't even provide basic exports like galleries and the more
> popular website content systems.
>
> Oh well, third parties do it.

Depends on the App really. I've found most of iLife will dump a  
website to a folder as well as to .Mac.

> Me, I want to learn Objective C and Cocoa.

So do I, but it's all time. It wouldn't help my job much and I  
already know Ruby on Rails ;)


Re: Windows

> I just can't use it as a daily OS.

Me either.

> It just drives me nuts and I can't get things done.

I find myself stopping every time I finish a task in Windows. It has  
a habit of  breaking up my workflow. "Oh... time for another coffee!".

> In fact, right now if not for the games, I'd probably ditch it  
> completely.

Yup.

> Although, I'm kind of surprised at the airflow problems in the Mac  
> Pro.

Hmm. I don't have any of that but then I live in the UK we don't  
exactly get hot weather here (esp. not this year!) :)

> It is a neat system, but it has three huge flaws:
>
> - one of the *VERY* hot bridge chips is underneath the first two
> DIMMs and it heats them up a *LOT*

I wondered why those 3 parts were the only 3 above 40 Celcius :)

> - the airflow intake to the memory passed through the CPUs first, and
> the entry is severely restricted

Agreed, but that's more the fault of Intel and the BTX form factor  
than anything else.

> - the SMC fan control runs too slowly, and doesn't react to
> temperature increases properly

Yeh I've heard that being said elsewhere.

> RAM can hit 190F before SMC boosts fan speed.  This has been a
> problem since the Pro came out, and Apple still hasn't released a fix
> for it.

They've tried I think, I've had to install at least 1 SMC upgrade on  
mine since I got it. It evidently didn't fix the issues completely  
though.

> If you have a cold home or office, it won't matter, but if your
> computer room hits 80F now and then, the ambient temp in the Mac will
> easily hit 90F, and the RAM overheats.

Is it actually causing errors? You can monitor it via System  
Profiler, in the 'Memory' section.

> SMC appears to favor being quiet over keeping the machine cool.

That's an Apple thing too. Steve Jobs has ALWAYS hated machines that  
made noise unnecessarily. The original Mac/Mac 512k/Mac Plus was  
another example - a great little machines in their time but suffered  
from overheating if you left em on for more than a few hours in a  
warm room. All because Steve INSISTED it have no fan. Funny, the  
first major product he released after rejoining Apple in 1997 was the  
iMac... and it does exactly the same thing for exactly the same  
reason (although the time scales are much longer)!

> I've already noticed that.  I'm not a fan of Finder looking like
> iTunes, which I've never found to be a great UI anyway.

I'm used to iTunes, I've been using it since it was released in 2000.  
I have to say though, a lot of people not used to the paradigm do  
find it awkward.

> However, some of the other features look nice.

They do, especially on the developer side.

> For $10.50, I'll give it at try... :)

Heh, you're lucky mine cost me GBP 85... wait I said that already...  
or did I?

> I wish I could try it now while I have more free time, but I probably
> won't get my copy for some time since I ordered Monday.

They are supposed to ship by Friday 26th so yeah, they won't be  
around until Monday save for those that requested next day shipping  
(which must have cost some as it's a Saturday!).


-- 
Mark Benson

My Blog:
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"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."