When Apple replaces the DVD drive with BluRay, Coursedesign will fall in line with Apple's marketing of its now better because Apple has invented it with a new name.

I couldn't care less what Apple does with its drive slots. So far I don't see that they have done anything different from most Windows-only computer manufacturers, and there are 3rd party drives for both.

Apple could not call a DVD unit a DVD drive...

Apple has never called a DVD drive anything but a DVD drive.

Are you perhaps confused about everybody's need for a less tongue-twisting name for "DVD-R/-RW/CD-R/RW drives"? Apple called them Superdrives, others called them (eventually) "Combo Drives" and I find both those names rather non-descriptive.

...because they [would] be admitting they did not create the technology, which they never really do, just borrow someone else's work and use it.

You mean like they've been driving Firewire, OpenCL, and a slew of other technologies in for example the iPhones?

Don't be surprise if Apple tries to tie all Apple products together in a big virtual network on top of the net... No third parties invited without permission. ;-)

Oh, you mean they could pull a "Microsoft" on us?

I don't think they could do that even in smartphones (you know, the ones that can even make phone calls when you can't reach someone by e-mail). Microsoft tried mightily to do that through an acquisition ("borrowing someone else's work") for their "Pink" Phone Project, but they quickly fired most of the key people in the company they bought, and disregarded the advice of the rest, so their plan for world dominance in smartphones [i.e. "no third parties invited without permission"] seems to have collapsed under its own weight.


I never bought into HD-DVD, so I have no stake in that either. I did have a large collection of classic movies on Laser Disc though, from this I learned not to collect movies in any format, if those movies can reasonably be expected to reappear in the next couple of formats at least.

I generally prefer to get my movies from Netflix, and since I rent them I don't care what comes next.

"I couldn't care less what Apple does with its drive slots" ;-) maybe, but you are an Apple fan ;-) I know, coursedesign, its an L.A. requirement to survive! ;-) ---- just pulling your Apple strings.... a little.... ;-) A little more humor, it is Fall and you know what happens to apples......................... ;-)

iPhone has many issues, especially in the beginning but it did bring to market the needed multi touch interface, long over due! And clever packaging design.

"Don't be surprise if Apple tries to tie all Apple products together in a big virtual network " I was not joking about this. iTunes has been fairly successful locking up iPods. Apple computers numbers are small enough to be manageable and easily connected to a modified Cloud network, --- a super iTunes, iFacebook, gaming across platforms......etc.......... This would be good thing to protect Apple products from some hacking..... and "content control" issues..........

"Oh, you mean they could pull a "Microsoft" on us? " I hope not! I think Apple will do a better marketing job!

Microsoft is showing leadership in the race for smartphone dominance:

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20091012/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_t_mobile_sidekickSidekick contacts, data gone, T-Mobile says[/link]:
Owners of Sidekick phones, made by a Microsoft subsidiary [...] may have lost all the personal data they stored on the phone, including contact numbers.

This is reminiscent of the past Microsoft Hotmail multi-day outages and open password events...


[iPhones sync with your computer. If your iPhone dies, you just take the SIM card out and put it in a new iPhone (which would be free if under warranty or $49 AppleCare after that). If your computer was ever to die at exactly the same time as your iPhone, you pull your contacts, calendars, e-mails, bookmarks, etc. from your MobileMe cloud storage (or via Google's cloud if you prioritize free over no effort).

I particularly like that my iPhone calendar is synced with my desktop calendar over the 3G network within minutes of a new entry or change on either side.]

Sony is now making it more affordable to create Blu-Ray disks:

Now through December 31, 2009 you can take advantage of reduced pricing:

Blu-print™ is now only $53,000 — Blu-print allows you to create projects in both HDMV movie mode and BD-J mode with enhanced support for BD-Live content.


How could I resist ordering two copies of each (except the $15K PC) so I can author on my laptop also?

That means savings of $56,000 with this Special Offer, for a net expense of only US$214,000.00 (+ 9.75% California sales tax, so $234,685.00 total).

Savings like these greatly appeal to my Lutheran upbringing.


These tools are truly great and have received very good word-of-mouth in Hollywood.

I just think Sony would make more money if they also offered simplified but disk-feature-complete authoring tools for somewhere south of 1% of the cost of the tools above.

That would still be $530.00 for a basic "Blu-Print" module + $240.00 for the Interactive Java = $770.00 (equivalent to a 99% discount off the already discounted Special Offer pricing above, but with some developer features removed, a la Telestream's products that come in both limited desktop and unlimited server versions).

"Microsoft is showing leadership in the race for smartphone dominance:"

Coursedesign! PLEASE do not swear and threaten humanity! ;-) I almost spilled my expresso on the local Secret Service Agents at S.B.s, were discussing our daughters' yr-around softball league experiences. Microsoft or Macro-bloat should never permitted to furnish any critical code products............ "Gee, the patients dying of a heart attack and the phone keeps reseting....." the EMT says.

I could point out iPhone battery and transmitter issues, of the old (we hope) or it's software issues but Macro-bloat concerns me more.......... in critical realtime apps, ie. trying to get the FAA to use them in radar data management. I'm still trying to understand the Royal Navy running Windows on their nuclear subs in critical functions.

"Blu-print, Blu-code" products is Sony's way of telling the world of wanna-be producers and etc.. that Apple is not new big kid on the block and that Sony can do things the other big kids are still working out. ;-)

Sony's focus here is great 1920x1080 imagery. With TVs getting better sales, their pushing "content" issues(more aggressively) to all the networks and studios........ worldwide. Even Toshiba believes viewing 1920 is the only real current future for tvs.

In fact, both Toshiba and Sony have working 4k displays. 4K displays will be BLuray dependent for awhile. The big question when will "content" be ready. I think many studios view 4k will be the next "anti-privacy" move for the studios; kill the pirates with too much data. ;-) Its like MS bloatware approach..... ;-)

The EMT and nuclear sub use is scary.

A few years ago, an X-ray machine that gave a patient 100x the intended dose because of a bug in the desktop OS they used (the name began with "W"), instead of a proper RTOS...


The iPhone has four radios (transmitters and receivers). If you leave all of them on continuously, the daily battery life will need help from an add-on battery (or a cigarette lighter adaptor in the car).

I don't use Wi-Fi other than at Starbucks (where it's free and I might as well use it), so I keep that off normally.

With just the other 3 radios on (3G, Edge, and Bluetooth), the battery lasts just fine with good reserve at the end of the day.


Has the FAA already updated their olde vacuum tube computers?

'Has the FAA already updated their olde vacuum tube computers?" good question.... a while Perot systems was the leading contractor but that was delayed when they failed to demonstrated a functioning and stable network system. I don't know off hand if it has really changed much. I should inquire more about it but don't like the politics and excuses. A regional FAA official during a political lunch had commented a few weeks ago that MS was making great progress in automation( ? ), I was surprised and "assumed" that it was more a office management app than flight issues. But the USAF has been listening to MS talk about tactic management issues, I should look a little closer about DARPA requests. per USAF I do worry about MS & FAA........ But I've not follow the FAA data network liked I used too. The X360 has been an engineering failure in terms reliability, how could MS design any thing requiring 24/7 stable ops?

So its easy to see that MS failure to properly engineer products is Apple fault! ;-)

Coursedesign,

Apple is not immune to OS bugs, viruses and boneheaded corporate decisions. I tried searching for a news story on the x-ray overdose being caused by a bug in the Windows OS, but I couldn't find any mention of it anywhere. I also called a friend of mine at the national headquarters of ASRT (American Society of Radiologic Technologists) and she had never heard of that specific case either. Do you have a link?

Regarding your iPhone battery life, no one seems to talk about what happens at the end of its battery life when you need to get it replaced. If you go through official channels, you will have no phone for up to three business days while the battery is being surgically replaced. The service costs $79 plus $6.95 for shipping for an out-of-warranty iPhone. Thanks, but I prefer my electronics have a user replaceable battery.

I rather doubt that mission critical stuff like a subsystem on nuclear submarine is being run on XP or Vista, if anything they are most likely using Win2k or WinNT, both perfectly stable operating systems.

Were it not for Microsoft and specifically, Windows, Vegas would not exist. I tend not to bite the hand that feeds me (very well.) If Apple products get the job done for you, then what the heck.

John

Apple is not immune to OS bugs, viruses and boneheaded corporate decisions.

They sure have had plenty of OS bugs and boneheaded corporate decisions.

Viruses? Can you name even ONE that was actually out in the wild hurting an end user who was not a security researcher trying to show a discovery?

The X-ray overdose was a few years ago, I should have a link to it on an older machine, will check.

Please note that my point wasn't that Windows was any worse of a choice than OS X would have been. I simply do not find it acceptable to use a desktop OS for life-critical anything.

I even disagree with its use for money-critical applications like ATMs. I have great photos of BOFA ATMs showing a Windows XP failure as its cause for being unable to fork over any money :O).

Embedded computers should run the smallest possible real-time OSes because these tend to be more reliable (because of their simplicity), and have fewer attack points.

If they need to show a fancy GUI, that should be handled on a networked PC with totally separate memory space.

I just added a 1-year warranty extension to my iPhone 3G, cost $49 and covers not only the battery but everything else.

I prefer my electronics have a user replaceable battery

I would have agreed with you in the past, but my experience has shown that using a custom non-user replaceable battery reduces both thickness and weight, both of which reductions I appreciate in daily use.

I am not planning to keep my iPhone beyond the next year, because by then I'll either get the 3Gs or whatever comes next.

(Btw, there are great outfits such as Techrestore.com for doing overnight work for less.)

A few years ago, an X-ray machine that gave a patient 100x the intended dose because of a bug in the desktop OS they used (the name began with "W"), instead of a proper RTOS...

You might be thinking of the very famous Therac-25 -- one of the most notorious "computer bug" examples when such discussions occur. But that was in the mid-80's, the equipment ran on a PDP-11, and had nothing (at all) to do with Windows. User interface was via a VT-100 terminal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25

http://courses.cs.vt.edu/~cs3604/lib/Therac_25/Therac_1.html

I thought NCR wrote all the software fot ATMs.
JJK

No, the X-ray case was more recently, not the Therac-25 which I never heard of.
VT-100 and PDP-11... makes me nostalgic (although I spent more time with PDP-8 and PDP-15 (the latter was an 18-bit computer, so it could store three .SIXBT text characters in one 18-bit word).

BOFA's ATMs came from Diebold in the past, I'm not sure about their latest generation that scans checks.

"No, the X-ray case was more recently, not the Therac-25 which I never heard of."

Now, it should be pointed out that in the last 15 yrs catscanners have successively reduced the amount of X-Rays per scan(one pass, one loop) because of improve detectors and better software. ;-)

X-Ray radiation data use per patient from catscanners is a very protected subject; the industry plus Radiologists fear legal "hindsight" suits like dentists fear discussions about mercury compounds used in the older days.

Information from internal GE and Philips service divisions relate to catscanners being improperly used most of time by failure to follow safety guidelines, but not always. X-ray radiation from a catscanner per patient has been without a strict FDA standard for a long time. Usually patients are scanned during what some call a calibration scan for fine adjustments, this varies from site to site based on technician training and site operational guidelines. There are cases that patients are over scanned for no real reason and without patient knowledge of risk.

Usually suspected failures related to extremely high amount of X-rays usually traced back to variable power supply that is overpowering the x-tube, the other most common failure is the timing circuit that pulses the xtube on/off, where the circuit thinks its working correctly and some tech has disable the feedback safety signal,( this a very simplified example).

But todays scanners are a lot safer in all areas.

-----------------------------------------------

"Please note that my point wasn't that Windows was any worse of a choice than OS X would have been. I simply do not find it acceptable to use a desktop OS for life-critical anything.

I even disagree with its use for money-critical applications like ATMs.
Embedded computers should run the smallest possible real-time OSes because these tend to be more reliable (because of their simplicity), and have fewer attack points."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I Agree, this argument about OS's is really a critical issue. MS for desktops is ok, maybe great sometimes ;-) . Even Apple's OS has a place....... a dark place... ;-)

"
They sure have had plenty of OS bugs and boneheaded corporate decisions.

I chose my words pretty carefully, I didn't say that Macs have had viruses, I said that there is nothing about the technology in the Apple OS that makes it inherently immune to viruses. The only reason that there have been no widespread attacks is the relatively small MAC user base. Windows presents a MUCH larger target. If you're writing a virus to cause some mayhem and destruction, would you write it to infect 95% of the computers or 5%?

While were on the subject of desktop operating systems and money machines, there are a lot of casinos around here and I happened to be around recently when one casino was installing a bunch of brand new WMS Gaming penny slots with large LCD displays. As they were booting them up, I noticed that these slot machines were running the Windows 95 OS with 256 meg of RAM, an nVidia 6000 series graphics card and a network card. I just found that curious.

"running the Windows 95 OS with 256 meg of RAM" with its small os footprint, I'm not too surprise. 95 has been a workhouse for many county gov's, it's probility better understood that any of the new MS os's.

I chose my words pretty carefully, I didn't say that Macs have had viruses, I said that there is nothing about the technology in the Apple OS that makes it inherently immune to viruses.

You did choose your words carefully, and I agree that there is nothing in OS X that makes it totally immune to future viruses. But see below.

The only reason that there have been no widespread attacks is the relatively small MAC user base. Windows presents a MUCH larger target. If you're writing a virus to cause some mayhem and destruction, would you write it to infect 95% of the computers or 5%?

That is a big factor, but it is not the whole story by far. If it was, the lots of people looking for something to prove would choose to beat up "the easy target in the corner."

OS X has a number of defenses that are usually unknown to those who don't use it every day (and of course many of its users are oblivious to what's going on behind the scenes to protect them).

Here are just a few I can think of at this moment:

When a program that has been downloaded from the internet starts up, the OS tells the human user, "This program was downloaded on 10/12/09 at 03:44 am from www.caca.cn/foreigndevils.htm, do you want to run it?

When you download what you believe to be legitimate programs, code signing is used more than it is in Windows, where the expectation is that any PC program created since 1981 should be allowed to run today.

There are many more clever mechanisms to avoid trouble in OS X, but I gotta scoot.

While not making it impervious, OS X's protections are better.

They made some tough design choices that Microsoft didn't want to make; Microsoft got compatibility with nearly anything that could be loaded, Apple got better security at the expense of needing more app updates.

This deals with Xray catscanners;

in the NYTimes 10/15/2009, article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/us/16radiation.html?_r=1&hpw

Coursedesign wrote:

"They made some tough design choices that Microsoft didn't want to make; Microsoft got compatibility with nearly anything that could be loaded,

=============================

Hacker Says Snow Leopard Is Less Secure Than Windows 7

"One of the most often used superiority claims that Apple users utilise against Windows is the apparent additional security
that Apple Snow Leopard offers over Windows 7. However, security experts have chipped away at the myth that macs are more secure than PCs. These include a key mac hacker who has pointed out a key feature that makes Snow Leopard less secure than Windows 7. "

Full article:

http://windows7news.com/2009/09/18/hacker-says-snow-leopard-is-less-secure-than-windows-7

"Windows7news.com" must have been desperate for something to write about. In the same breath Charlie Miller uses to say that the unreleased Windows 7 is safer than Snow Leopard because it has stronger address space randomization, he admits that Macs just aren't attacked because hackers go after 90% of the market rather than 10%.

If that was all there was to it, it would actually still be OK.

But I just saw an equivalent article that said "Windows 7 has a huge security flaw in the SMB (file system access) that allows attackers to take down your machine."

It is goofy to say that OS A is more secure than OS B because there is one particular potential future attack vector in OS B . One...

It helps to look at numbers here:

You may recall having seen newspaper headlines about major Windows security holes every month (or sometimes every week!) for the past 10+ years or so.

Anti-virus programs for Windows are currently scanning for, what, 180,000+ virus signatures?

In the meantime, 99.999% of Macs don't use any AV software, because they have never seen a need.


I am using a Windows workstation next to my Mac, and I sometimes think that I could live without AV software, because I don't visit sites that I'm not reasonably sure about, and I take a lot of precautions.

But I I just can't take the risk of some new simple attack, so I have to spend money every year on AV.

Would you let a non-computer-savvy family member use a PC without AV?

I don't think so, because at least my Windows machines have been attacked within 10 minutes of being hooked up to the internet, and I hear the same thing from so many others.

Macs on the other hand seem to just work even in the hands of non-geeks.


There will always be some entry vector no matter what you do, but there is protection in a) numbers (10% vs. 90%), and in having a less cluttered OS (and I'm glad to note that Windows 7 finally made some progress here thanks to EU lawyers suing them).

I'm expecting my pre-ordered Windows 7 next week, but won't install it on anything mission-critical until the
"bleeding edge" adopters have stopped bleeding.

"I'm expecting my pre-ordered Windows 7 next week, but won't install it on anything mission-critical until the "bleeding edge" adopters have stopped bleeding."

Actually, I did that with Vista. Now, I have an OS I never installed because the blood seemed to continue to ooze.

Never again.

Ha-ha-ha!

Me too.

Anyone wanna buy a Vista Ultimate and a Vista Business? (The latter came free with my workstation, even though I had ordered it with XP).

I have much higher hopes for Win 7 though.

If it doesn't work out for some reason, we'll all move on to lamenting the lack of 128-bit drivers for Windows 8 (which is rumored to be 128-bit)...

:O)