Re: [Fed-Talk] Remember when we owned our macs?
Re: [Fed-Talk] Remember when we owned our macs?
- Subject: Re: [Fed-Talk] Remember when we owned our macs?
- From: "Pike, Michael (IHS/HQ)" <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2012 16:59:00 +0000
- Thread-topic: [Fed-Talk] Remember when we owned our macs?
On Aug 14, 2012, at 10:04 AM, Shawn Geddis wrote:
> Michael,
>
> A few comments on your recent post...
Hi Shawn,
I'm aware of the develop menu in Safari, it's always been there if enabled, but there is at least one key piece missing from the inspector now, and that is the resources area. This is where things such as the actual URL to specific video content would be displayed (such as an SWF, MP4, etc.) Resources show, but certain media types are no longer shown.
It can be hammered through the source code, but it used to be readily available. The activity window was an easy one stop shop to see what was working on a page and what wasn't. This was particularly useful for checking web content filtering and rules. For example, I frequent Macworld.com - sometimes the page would freeze in mid load... I used to be able to go to the activity window and see, within seconds, what content was red and not coming and and make a determination if a portion of a page was blocked and let the appropriate people here know if it shouldn't be... that is gone. I don't know why Apple would remove functionality... it wasn't hurting anything sitting there. And it's not just Safari, I'm sure you've already read the frustrations that Sandboxing causes with a lot of stellar developers. Quicktime X is so watered down from the old Pro it's unusable for anything but watching content.... I could go on...
And look at Server... whoa Nelly.... there is no way that is enterprise class anymore. It was a tough decision but that's why I moved the applications I develop and host for our agency to Ubuntu... and I fought long and hard for Apple... years worth of fighting, because at that time in my opinion it was the best platform for workstation and server.
>
>
>> I'm going to shut up now... But who wants to help develop a Linux that is what Snow Leopard started to be?
>
> I'll admit I may be misreading your sentence (i've tried several times), but are you saying that OS X is linux ? That may be were the confusion begins for you, since OS X is a BSD/Mach based OS and is not in anyway a variant of Linux. That may not be the real point you are trying to make, but your sentence above struck me funny.
You misread or I mis-wrote :) I know OS X is BSD based, but what I was going for was using a Linux kernel and desktop manager based upon an existing distribution and tweaking it to be what Snow Leopard was on the front end... there are a lot of resources already available for Linux that could be used to build an SL type desktop OS. I was of course just venting, it would be a large undertaking and years of work to get to that level... but the level of frustration I have with Lion, and now even worse, Mountain Lion and it taking away advanced functionality we are used to gets me to the point where I am seriously considering looking elsewhere. The whole Mac App store (and maybe you can address this with someone at Apple, because everyone I know there is gone now, or at least out of touch) and purchasing is terrible. I wrote a big blog entry on it in fact...
Let's say I purchase an application through the Mac App Store (I'll give you a perfect example)... Navicat....
When Navicat:
1) Decides to pull the app themselves or
2) Apple pulls the app or
3) Navicat decides to not renew their Apple developer account
That application is GONE. If I ever need to re-download it from the App store, despite the fact it is promoted that "all of your apps are safe in the cloud, on the Mac App store", unless I backed it up to a local drive, and it does not use some type of validation, that app is gone forever... apple won't let me re-download it...
Navicat did this with one of their MySQL clients (which I use quite a bit)... when the new version came out with the Mac App store I figured "I'll try it from the App store... then I'll always have it and wont fill up my dropbox with DMG backups anymore"... Navicat pulled the app. Cannot be re-downlaoded. I think that Apple needs to be very transparent to the end user on this fact, and they aren't. In the fine print of the EULA it does say something to the effect of "Not all content may be available." But really.. who reads that? Not a novice user. Not even a pro user most of the time. Navicat is a PRICEY app to throw away.
the iOS App store is the same way... if you backup to iCloud, and an app gets pulled.... and then you have to restore from that iCloud backup, the app that was pulled for any of the above three reasons will NOT be restored.. it's gone forever. That's why I back up to iTunes.. otherwise I might trust iCloud for that. Case in point, the Match.com app - Apple pulled it, I still have it, I can restore it to my iOS devices from iTunes, but iOS devices I have that backup to iCloud.. it's gone... there are a lot of other apps too, that's just the one I can mention that most people on this list will know what it is. Display Recorder is another one.. stellar app.. I knew it would be pulled so I bought it... iOS devices backed up to iTunes.. always there.. iCloud... you're out of luck.
>
>> Remember the first iSight camera? (I've got a few if you don't), it had the rotating front to put a screen in front of the lens to prevent spying because of Steve's paranoia and belief in privacy.
>
> I am not sure the parallel you are trying to draw between the iSight camera, the title of your message and the claim that you can't see activity relating to web connections using Safari.
The sentence above regarding the iSight was me contrasting the Apple we used to know versus the one we do now, and the changes we are seeing. I was stating that if Steve's health were not going down hill for so long with his untimely passing, we might be seeing things a bit differently from a quality standpoint. Steve once said, and I am paraphrasing I believe, "We do a lot of great things at Apple, but a lot of them don't see the light of day. Once you give someone something and they like it, you can't take it away, so we are very careful on what we release." - Well Activity window was taken away :) Among a lot of other things.
> I will BET the next OS X requires signed apps if not only apps from the app store.
>
> Take a closer look at Gatekeeper which intentionally allows you to set the protection to the associated trust level you have to where an installer came from -- with related integrity validation that it provides. You can set Gatekeeper to only allow applications downloaded from "Mac App Store" (codesigned from App Store), or "Mac App Store and identified developers" (codesigned from App Store or an Apple issued Developer ID) or back to the wild frontier and allow installation of software from "anywhere" which may not even be signed at all. I personal feel your bet is misplaced.
>
I hope it's a misplaced bet, and I am aware of the Gatekeeper, app signing, etc. But, to sign an app the developer must pay for a developer license (99 per year)... a lot of developers aren't going to do that... a lot of developers do things for free and aren't going to lose money to sign an app. Is this a move for security on Apple's part? Yes it is... but I also think there are profit motives. Ingenious marketing in my opinion though.... every release of OS X gets more restrictive... there are apps that CANNOT be on the App store because of sandboxing policies. As a user I want to decide what I can and can't install.. and while right now I have that ability with some tweaks in security, my fear is eventually that will even be taken away.
In closing, I still use Apple... won't touch Windows except for where necessary, and even then it's under Parallels.... but I'm getting closer and closer to looking at other platforms for the first time since 2002. I know I vent a lot about Apple (some may even say I'm Apple bi-polar :)) - but the level of end user power erosion really has me weighing options. I am sure I am in the minority on this.. Apple is doing great... but are those of us who do more than just Facebook, Twitter, and email.
Mike
Sorry if English is broken, late for a meeting and Lion's auto-correct often makes me type like English is a second language... and no time to proofread.
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Fed-talk mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden