By John Gruber
WorkOS launches auth.md — an open protocol for agent registration.
Linked List: September 21, 2006
Thursday, 21 September 2006
- Mac OS X Horizontal Scroll Trick ★
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Hold down the Shift key to make your scroll wheel work horizontally.
- AMD CEO Hector Ruiz Predicts Apple Will Eventually Use AMD Processors ★
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Bloomberg News:
“Everybody wants choice,” Ruiz said. “Knowing Apple, why would they want to be held hostage like everyone else has been?”
- Apple Releases AirPort Security Updates ★
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Apple today released AirPort Update 2006-001 and Security Update 2006-005, with several AirPort-related fixes. Apple says the issues were uncovered by an internal audit commissioned in the wake of the SecureWorks “MacBook Wi-Fi Hack” drama, but that these issues were not discovered or reported by SecureWorks. From Macworld:
Apple has maintained that SecureWorks has provided no proof that Mac drivers are vulnerable in any way.
“They did not supply us with any information to allow us to identify a specific problem, so we initiated an internal audit,” Apple spokesman, Anuj Nayar, told Macworld. “Today’s update preemptively strengthens our drivers against potential vulnerabilities, and while it addresses issues found internally by Apple, we are open to hearing from security researchers on how to improve security on the Mac.”
- New iPod Display and Video Resolution ★
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Judging by my email, there’s obviously a lot of confusion about the new 640 × 480 resolution video support in the new iPods (and in the version 1.2 firmware update for older 5G iPods). Here’s the deal: all 5G iPods have displays with 320 × 240 resolution. That’s how many pixels are on the displays. The old firmware only supported video at up to 480 × 480 resolution. The latest firmware — which is what the brand-new iPods come with from the factory, of course — now supports video at up to 640 × 480.
When played back on the iPod, it is downsampled to fit the 320 × 240 screens. When played back on a TV, via the S-video or composite video output of the dock, the video is displayed at the higher resolution.
- When Apple Hit Bottom ★
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David Pogue reminisces about Apple, circa 1996:
The Financial Times, 7/11/97: “Apple no longer plays a leading role in the $200 billion personal computer industry. ‘The idea that they’re going to go back to the past to hit a big home run…is delusional,’ says Dave Winer, a software developer.”
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While the candy-colors-and-lots-of-transparent-effects cosmetic look-and-feel of Vista is quite obviously inspired by Mac OS X’s Aqua, at a deeper level, Microsoft’s and Apple’s UI design patterns are diverging. It was one thing when Mac menu bars were anchored at the top of the screen and Windows menu bars were tucked under each window’s title bar — that’s just placement. But it’s a deep fundamental shift not to have menu bars at all.
This trend is dangerous for Adobe, methinks — it’s getting less and less tenable for them to continue shipping Mac and Windows apps that are so similar in design. They’re either going to ship Mac versions that don’t feel Mac-like, Windows versions that don’t feel Windows-like, or, both.
(Via Michael Tsai.)
- HP CEO Mark Hurd Allowed ‘Sting’ of Reporter ★
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Ellen Nakashima and Yuki Noguchi, reporting for the Washington Post:
Hewlett-Packard Co. chief executive Mark V. Hurd approved an elaborate “sting” operation on a reporter in February in an attempt to plug leaks to the media, according to an e-mail message sent by HP Chairman Patricia C. Dunn.
So Dunn was forced to step down as chair of the board as a result of this fiasco, but her replacement as chair, Hurd, was involved too? Jeebus, what a mess.
- Hybrid Web/Desktop Apps ★
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Brent Simmons on using WebKit to create hybrid web/desktop apps. I think this is one of the most important trends in Mac app development. (Not a new link, but I missed this when it was new last month.)
- The Greatest Trick ★
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Charles Miller:
In many ways, the recording industry is the biggest dupe in the DRM wars. They have repeatedly been sold, and have repeatedly bought heavily into copy-prevention schemes that don’t work, can’t work, and only give more power to the DRM vendor. Why does the record industry always cave in to Steve Jobs’ iTunes pricing model? Because the industry accepts it as a point of faith that they can’t sell music online without DRM, and Steve controls the only DRM recognised by 80% of portable digital music players.