Since interesting news that I'm actually knowledgeable about is still a little hard to come by, I have to work a little harder. This is something interesting to discuss: John Gruber, rather famous Apple blogger, is now arguing that Apple is in fact not fighting the jailbreaking community. Wait, what?
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Member since:2007-10-15
Member since:2005-07-11
Just so you know, there is no 100% proof of evolution or climate change, both have a lot of holes in them, that is why they are currently classified as theories and not laws (no matter what Carl Sagan said - LOL). Creationists and those that argue that there is no climate change (or at least, induced by humans) have a lot of holes in their arguments too.
We don't know all the facts about Apple's motives. We can look at the evidence and try and have an educated guess, but the fact is, we don't know the facts about most things, and certainly not Apple's motives, just as we don't know what MS's motives are or indeed Google and so on.
To suppose otherwise is arrogance (as has been pointed out).
The fact is, if there is a security hole, then Apple (and I would hope other companies) should fix them and pronto. If you are currently jail-breaking (or should I write gaol-breaking) your phone, then this will be an expected inconvenience.
Personally, I would like to have root access on my phone, and it would be nice if Apple provided that (as they currently do with their desktop OS X). How this would be managed would be very interesting.
My guess (and it is totally a guess) is that Apple isn't so much against jail-breaking as much as carriers might be more against it. Allowing people to find ways to not pay AT&T (or Optus in my case) wouldn't be in their best interest. I do understand that Apple would lose revenue from the App Store too, so they have a vested interest also.
Member since:2005-11-13
From the article:
Why? If I buy a new PC, format the hard drive and install whatever I want, should that also void my warranty? And what are smartphones other than pocket-sized PCs?
I wouldn't expect them to support me software-wise if I jailbroke and installed unsupported apps, or if I took iOS off altogether and installed Android, but unless I just completely brick the phone while tinkering with it (user error), shouldn't I still be able to get support if, for example, the home button completely stopped working, or the screen died?
Edited 2010-08-31 00:50 UTC
Member since:2010-08-31
"that is why they are currently classified as theories and not laws"
You mean like the kinetic theory of gases? Or the theory of relativity? Or Copernicus's heliocentric theory?
The truth is Newton's *Law* of Gravity is less successful in describing gravity than Einstein's *Theory* of General Relativity.
You can look up scientific "law" and "theory" on wikipedia. Your naive understanding of the terms does not reflect actual usage in science.
Member since:2008-10-26
Sorry, this is off-topic and I do not want to start a discussion on climate change, but the "just a theory" line of reasoning always annoys me:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scientific_theory
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Scientific_law
Summary: in science, laws are observations and theories are explanations. Really good theories don't become laws, they become established and accepted scientific theories. The theory of evolution explains why we observe evolution. The theory of global warming explains why we see global warming. Of course, if the theory does not match the facts, then it is a bad theory, but an established scientific theory will have experiments and measurements that give reason to believe it is a good model for the way the world works. Science never "proves" anything; it provides evidence that a given explanation seems to work very well.
Member since:2010-06-19
Christ, there's always one.
"Just so you know, there is no 100% proof of evolution or climate change"
There's just no reasonable objections and few reasonable objections, respectively.
"both have a lot of holes in them"
Bullshit.
"that is why they are currently classified as theories and not laws (no matter what Carl Sagan said - LOL)."
Sigh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_law
Theory > law. People really shouldn't pretend to knowledge.
"Creationists and those that argue that there is no climate change (or at least, induced by humans) have a lot of holes in their arguments too."
Understatement. Even mentioning the latter in the same breath as Anthropogenic climate change and evolution, is to afford these kooks more credibility than they're worth. Creationists and (largely) AGW deniers belong to the same clade as astrologists and NWO conspiracy theorists. Placing them on the same pedestal as biologists and climatologists, is to denigrate them and their body of work rather abhorrently.
(Sorry for the OT rant but I can't abide by this kind of vapid nonsense.)
RE: Why are people so delusional?
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing."The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run.
"There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
The new WebKit Opera for Android has been released. "Opera 14 for Android is built on top of Chromium 26, with a total overhaul of the UI in native code, making it fit well with the latest Android design guidelines. Go get the build from Google Play or point your browser to m.opera.com, and give it a spin!"
The Verge pointed me to a blog post by Leap Motion - which reveals how their Kinect-like motion control works with Windows 8. "From the second you plug in your Leap Motion Controller, you'll be able to browse the web and interact with your computer just by moving your hands and fingers in the air. With Leap Motion technology and Windows, you can do everything that's possible with multi-touch inputs - without actually touching anything. This also means that existing applications in Windows 7 and 8 will respond to your natural hand and finger movements. Soon, we'll show you how Leap Motion will work with Mac OS X." Quite cool.PocketNow interviews Marc Dillon, and there's an interesting note about why Jolla is keeping the display properties under wraps: "We're leaving some of those details out because we do understand that there are a lot of really big players in the market and they tend to take certain components in the market and dominate them. We created the ability to actually be able to run Sailfish on multiple hardware displays and be able to swap components, so this is part of the demand and supply planning phase. We are committed to this industrial design which is a 4.5-inch display, an 8 megapixel camera on the back and a front-facing camera at the front, and the exact specs of the display we'll provide when we're close to delivery." Something you rarely hear anything about."This is my NeXTstation Turbo Color booting the Mac System 7.1 Operating System using a hardware add-on called 'Daydream'. The Daydream has a Mac ROM and a few custom ICs in it and hooked up to the NeXTs DSP port. Turns your NeXT into a full fledged 68k powered Mac." So cool.
Member since:
2009-10-04
Why do so many people so easily and willingly delude themselves so much?
Honestly, I really hope that Gruber was joking. Obviously, fixing security vulnerabilities is a good thing, but it's easy to see that Apple does everything they can to prevent jailbreaking.
It's not just Apple fanatics though. People like RMS will tell you that proprietary software is unethical, and that everyone should just start using open source for every purpose. Countless people will argue that climate change and evolution are hoaxes. For every obvious fact, there will be millions of people who ignore the truth and try to push their flawed views onto everyone.
When are people going to wake up?