Editorial: Behind the MacBook "Hack"

A crisis? Are you kidding? That was an entire post saying absolutely nothing in particular except "pay attention to me while I capitalize on the paraonia of Mac zealotry."

This story is worthlessly dead and not worth expounding on. If you don't understand what happened with the supposed exploit, you have no business writing about it, or anything else relating to it for that matter.

Here.

http://www.smallworks.com/archives/00000455.htm

*That* guy knows what's going on. And even if he's not 100% spot-on, it's concrete information that educates the people who read it. Would you get off the soapbox for two seconds and actually put together something that isn't just a six paragraph baseless opinion?

25. « Pot shots like the Washington Post article do nothing but rattle the cages of those who even after buying their first Mac STILL think they might have made a mistake going with that "toy" computer (switchers remorse). »

Why do you feel so insecure? You really think those frail vulnerable gullible spineless switchers will be convinced by that kind of article and ditch their brand new Mac in a heartbeat? Oh sure, Apple will be beleaguered again and the worldwide anti-Mac conspiracy will cause the plateform to die a painful death. They will take your drug away from you and Darkseid will transfer you to Apokolips where Rob Enderle will torture you personally in a fire pit until the end of time. :-D

I think #10 hit it dead on. The smugness is well-earned.
But I also see this from another angle. I see this as the first jaunt towards the MAC platform. When I switched to a MAC back in 2000, it was becuase I figured out I could do all my computing wihout the hassle of fourteen firewalls, two virus programs, and having to "sweep" my machine after every session on the web. I think as we see Mac gain more market share you will see this negative press and attack on macs because it will be the "it" thing to attack. It's the two-edged sword of Apple. As a stock holder in AAPL, I love to see the macs gain market share, and Apple sell the hell out of iPods, but as a user, I see the problems M$ has had, becoming more and more probable everyday.
Black hat is picking on Apple/MB beacuse they are threatened by the ads. They are being challenged on "their" platform of choice. I associate this with the fight or flight model, instead of just watching the ads[and laughing], they are taking [not the defensive], but the offensive.

It's advertising, so thier product is the best! Saw a FORD commercial lately, Did you kow they made the best trucks?? Of course they do, IT"S THEIR AD!

This story reminds me of the experiment in which a room full of people each whisper something to the person next to them in order to see how much the story changes when it gets to the last person.

This wasn't a MacBook Pro... it was a black MacBook. The truely astonishing part is that a MacBook doesn't even have an ExpressCard slot, so this was obviously a hoax (watching the video might help). So much for the power of the "blogosphere" to get to the truth!

"Not until the rest of the world stops discounting our platform as an experiment that will eventually fail.

We're talking about a company that almost went out of business 8 years ago."

Malformed ego issues...pure and simple.

Why do we...care...again?

The "rest of the world" will NEVER, EVER see it your way. It is human nature, and by design. It doesn't matter, they do NOT care. The value of the Mac, and the Apple platform isn't "worth it". Its just the way it is.

All of the jumping up and down, pissing and moaning, nasty, stupid emails and MacPravda-like MacDailyNews spin in the *world* combined will never, ever change this.

Moreover, and again...why do you care? Do YOU have doubts and waverings that run so deep that you have to convince others, and by extension, yourself/yourselves that you computing platform of choice is a good and solid one?

I mean, this kind of reaction seems more like a position of doubt than certitude. When you're "right" you're right. Mere Enderle's and Dvorak's cannot change this...only if YOU have doubt is there a need for this kind of nonsense...because they are wrong....right?

"When Apple has a 50% marketshare, maybe then you'll see it go away."

This is un-possible. Only about,say 10% of *anyone* in any group, computers or otherwise, can perceive the value of "quality positioned products" in their niche/group/scene/whatever.

Its just the way it is.

"Or your Mac does everything you need it to do, so have no complaints."

So the Mac and Apple platform are *perfect* and without flaw? To you? Really? *Nothing*...nothing at all?

Uhhhh...huhhhh. Well then...why upgrade...why improve the OS or the hardware with the discovery of new techniques, research and development?

Objective people, regardless of what "side of the fence" you sit on can't look at statements like these and *not* think that Mac people are out of their minds/smug/cultists...its not even rational or sensible.

Or maybe...its just me. And Dan. And like 5 other people in the world with Macs.

Its one thing to correct something that is wrong...and a whole other thing entirely to engaged in Scorched Earth tactics...that whole "Measured Response" doctrine.

*shrugs*

It's a cache thing. I don't think it's a coincidence that right a that point Apple is poised for a major resurgence and big growth spurt in market share, some of the old timer Guru’s suddenly want to run to Ubuntu or whatever and tout how fantastic it is. ( Sure it looks sweet stacked next to windows, but what doesn’t, and somehow this is carrying over some to Apple ?)

Why? Because the more mainstream Apple computers get the more they lose some of that cool kid club mystique anti-mainstream persona.

It’s going to be hard to be a perceived as a Mr. Know it all guru, if lot’s more people know most of it. They can stay in the bunker mentality of we few, we happy few.

.

If this hack works on a third party wireless card in Mac, Windows and Linux PC laptops, then why is Apple being blamed for this when it's obviously not even close to entirely their fault? My read on this is not to buy that third party wireless card. And if this hack can work with Airport, then I would venture to guess that it works with various wireless cards as well. Can you put blame on Apple? Sure. But it is a crime to come down on Apple as heavily as we are. A damn shame, really. This will be fixed in the next couple of software/security updates, if not the next one. Really, this is far from a BFD.

As for the "security" Mac commercial, let's analyse it:

PC: Stand back. Last year there were over 1400 viruses for PCs.
Mac: PCs. But not for Macs.

Was Mac telling the truth? Yes; Macs didn't have 1400 viruses against them last year. And that's was all that was said. Mac didn't ramble on about how impervious he was to viruses or other hacks, or that they'll never be any viruses or hacks, he just said that there weren't 1400 against him in a said time. The commercial wasn't smug, it was humorous. I don't know anybody who took it as arrogant. If you want to see smug, you should come around when my Windows loving Uncle, who is afraid of opening a forwarded email because it could trash his system, comes around and says "Oh, I thought Macs can do..." I show him up and shut him up.

Here is the real [cliched] "Crisis 2.0." The real crisis is coming from the self-important Mac pundants. bloggers, and yes some users who seriously believe that they could run Apple so much better than Steve Jobs, when in fact they approach everything with a chicken little, the sky is falling, mentality, and who don't have the ability to read a situation correctly. They're the first to admit that Apple isn't perfect. But hell hath no fury like their scorn when Apple isn't perfect, and they demand nothing but Apple's head for the corporation's act of imperfection. To me, this is nothing sort of ponderous, And it's far from helpful to Apple. To me, this is where the real hurtful arrogance lies.

"Enough is enough. Heal from within, I say."

Not until the rest of the world stops discounting our platform as an experiment that will eventually fail.

We're talking about a company that almost went out of business 8 years ago.

Pot shots like the Washington Post article do nothing but rattle the cages of those who even after buying their first Mac STILL think they might have made a mistake going with that "toy" computer (switchers remorse).

The Amiga users were a pretty quiet and likable bunch in the face of people saying their machines were only good for TV production artists and look at where they are today... oh, yeah, sorry.

If there's a flaw with an Apple product that's fine; report about it. But take a pot shot at them because you think they're users are too smug, get ready to be hammered.

I've convinced 2 friends to buy Macs in the last 5 years. One for business and one for home use. They both LOVE them, however they still sometimes wonder if they should change to a Windows PC because it's "more compatible" and more people use it (that's group think for ya). All they need is something like yesterdays Washington Post article and they're off to Circuit City looking at HP's and Acers.

That is why there's zealotry, it's always present in underdog fan groups.

When Apple has a 50% marketshare, maybe then you'll see it go away.

just like all religious wars this OS religious war will never end until people change fundamentally in their outlook on life. Everyone feels the need to be better than someone else, and no one likes to notice personal flaws or flaws in the things they use as they take it as a reflection on themselves. Sure you made some good points in the article, but you have to know that its not going to change anything its just going to inflame people as we've seen here in the comments.

Among geeks, operating systems are one of the things that are not suitable for 'polite dinner conversation' right next to abortion and gun control (in america)

Its noble to try, but the differences aren't going to be resolved, not for a long time, and not until Operating Systems fade more in their importance (no idea what that'll look like, but basicaly nothing will change until interests are less heavily vested in one or the other systems)

>>Say it quietly, to yourself. Can you do it? If not, you're one of those "arrogant Mac Users" we're talking about.

Or your Mac does everything you need it to do, so have no complaints.