| Friday, April 22, 2005 |
15:19 - Trickle keepalive
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While you're waiting for me to finish my pupation into some kind of hybrid human/keyboard sort of creature, here are some links.
Via BrianD: a genuinely good use of QuickTime VR—not the usual panoramas, but interactive models of simple mechanisms. Just click and see.
And hey, let's make it a two-fer: a genuinely silly use of $15. (Scroll to the bottom.)
Finally, via Kris, Kelly Martin of Symantec's SecurityFocus magazine writes in The Register to make some pretty audacious claims about Mac OS X and viruses: namely, that not only is there less malware on the Mac than on other platforms, there's virtually none. We might cluck and wag our fingers about the necessity of installing Virex or somthing to keep our Macs protected, but the everyday reality seems to be that if Windows users are generally way too blithe about viruses, Mac users are comically overcautious. The article's writer is hardly a person with a cavalier attitude toward security, or even to the fragile social interleavings that contribute to any given computing phenomenon including security breaches—and yet there it is. The thesis, outlandish though it sounds at first, is that there just aren't people who are Mac owners and who are willing to cause harm to Macs. There just isn't that destructive, vandalistic urge that people have who couldn't care less about the integrity and aesthetics of the system they're on. It makes more sense the more you think about it...
Unit sales of Apple Computer's OS X based computers grew by 43% in the past quarter, over the same time last year -- in business terms, that's incredible growth. Revenue grew by 70%, and profit grew by an unbelievable 530%, thanks to the little music revolution they call the iPod and the iTunes Music Store.
. . .
Why, then, are there no viruses for OS X?
Just as Windows users have become accustomed to 140,000 viruses, Apple users have become accustomed to none. It's a major cultural difference that admittedly, sometimes causes Apple users to do stupid things -- and get away with them. It's hard to describe the freedom of using a system with no malware known to have spread. It's liberating.
Beyond critical mass, I would like to believe there's a better reason for the lack of viruses on OS X, and it's based on the culture of the Mac -- which is distinctly different from other platforms. Is it wrong to try a new computer system and actually enjoy the user experience, for a change? Can you imagine a world where (today) you can click on anything and never worry about malicious intent? Can we not continue this unwritten rule that there can be a platform out there that is simple, easy-to-use, with Unix (and a cool ports tree) underneath that has no threat at all from viruses?
Perhaps I'm living in a pipe dream, but that reality is here today. Linux is also close, but OS X is already there. Perhaps Apple's big virus is really just the market enthusiasm that translate to new unit sales, spread like a contagion, that fuels their 70% year-over-year revenue growth.
And yet, as always, their stock tanks right after they announce these nosebleedy numbers. I guess I should take that as a positive sign: if AAPL is in the dumper, Apple's doin' great.
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Brian Tiemann
