Airport Screening

I think this is the best description of airport security yet. Most people just don't grasp the real purpose of it.

Remember the point of passenger screening. We're not trying to catch the clever, organized, well-funded terrorists. We're trying to catch the amateurs and the incompetent. We're trying to catch the unstable. We're trying to catch the copycats. These are all legitimate threats, and we're smart to defend against them. Against the professionals, we're just trying to add enough uncertainty into the system that they'll choose other targets instead.

Read more at http://www.schneier.com...

Daring Fireball: Familiarity Breeds a User Base

Also known as inertia. The reason for a lot of Windows users not willing to switch to a Mac is just a lack of familiarity to it.

I went through this switch almost five years ago. I had used a PC, in some form or another, for about 8 years at that point. I was reluctant to leave the comfort of commodity hardware, but I had just reached the point where I was sick of having to fix things on my computer. My day-job requires a lot of tinkering, and I just wanted a computer that I could work with and rely on without all that extra tinkering.

Probably the biggest reason, though, for the switch, was that I was never really ingrained into the Windows world. My first computer was a Coleco Adam, which taught me a lot about BASIC. My next computer, which I fell in love with, was a Commodore Amiga 500. That computer was just so far ahead of it's time... It was truly a computer for artists, and I still really identify with that. I learned so much on that computer that it's ridiculous. I entered the wider world with BBSes, I learned graphics animation, photo editing, music composition, video game creation, and C programming.

The first PC I bought (a Dell) actually started with OS/2 on it. This was pre-Windows 95, but I tried to keep that thing running for awhile. After eventually moving to Windows 95, I tried BeOS for awhile. That OS had some promise, but just no market share. The file system was brilliant. I then experimented with Linux for awhile, but I couldn't get much past that. There was just too much to tweak with, and I ended up not getting anything else done.

Shortly after OS X 10.0 was released, I took the plunge with an iBook. Now, 5 years later, I don't want to go anywhere else. Things on the Mac just get out of the way and let you get to the work you want to do... I can't explain it much better than that.

To sum it up, I didn't have a lot of inertia, so it was never much of a pain for me. I think change is good, and with computers, you need to be prepared to jump ship whenever a better ship comes along. This is why open data formats are so important. Sink or Swim, baby.

Inspired by daringfireball.net/2006...

Apple SVP Schiller: Co. Isn't 'Trying to Replace TiVo' || The Mac Observer

At least not yet, anyway. I keep wondering why people are all speculating about a new "Airport Express" that will also have a "Front Row" like app embedded in it. It's a great idea, and the addition of Bonjour to the software will make this much easier to implement, as you're just going to be pulling off media from other computers on your network. The price isn't right, yet, for a Mac Mini to be this device, and it just does more than necessary for a media box.

Incorporating Front Row into an "Airport Express" may prove more difficult, as that device just isn't a computer. I would look for this functionality to come from a totally new device, probably after the Intel transition is complete. Another intriguing option would be to push the new wireless networking standard (802.11n) to with a new device. There is much more bandwidth with this protocol, and would be better suited to video. Perhaps that would fit into a larger base-station device, and not an 'Express'.

Read more at www.macobserver.com/art...

PaulStamatiou.com » Intel Mac Mini is Upgradable

This is exciting news. With the new pictures surfacing of the Mac Mini's internals, it looks like they are using socket-based processors. This makes it fairly easy to upgrade, if there aren't any other changes between the base and upgraded models.

I am having flashbacks to the old days, when I used to build my own PC, before I went Mac. There also used to be some jumpers you'd have to set, and perhaps a BIOS setting. I have no idea how this works in a modern Intel system, with EFI. Perhaps it is all handled for you now, and the hardware just adapts to the new chip.

Read more at www.limeprint.com/2006/...

Why Peak Oil is Probably About Now

This article is for all those people who keep asking why the price of gas isn't going down. It is a good summary of oil production levels. Now, keep in mind that as production stays flat, demand certainly isn't going down. Supply < Demand = Higher Prices.

Read more at www.theoildrum.com/stor...

In Defense of Apple's Announcments - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Now these guys have it. The big thing about all the new Macs is how little the change looks on the outside of the box.

Apple has so far transitioned half of it's product lines into a completely new chip architecture, and no one is batting an eye. In fact, people are clammoring, "Is that all ?"

They are pulling this off by only introducing minor external changes, and just adding a sprinkling of new features -- making it look like a small upgrade. These new boxes are anything but a small upgrade.

By the time they are done with this transition, they have paved the way to allow another revision of hardware fairly quickly, and can introduce new physical designs to increase demand. The whole key to this chip swap is to reassure everyone on how little has changed, and to not rock the boat just yet. Rock the boat later, when you don't have to explain to everyone how stable the product lines are.

Read more at www.tuaw.com/2006/03/01...

China gives itself its own top-level domains

The golden age of the Internet is about to end. In this dream that is now coming to and end, there was no confusion about how to resolve DNS addresses. It was a simple, fairly straightforward process. Once this is broken, and certain rules are no longer followed, we may all need to purchase update 'maps' to the information superhighway at regular intervals. Certain roads may also be closed occasionally, and on the authority of whoever controls them.

Read more at arstechnica.com/news.ar...