What is on your Christmas list? - Page 2

[jbennet]

yeah a lot more expensive and you pay a lot for the data rates (the contract is crap compared to the one in the us)

[sneekula]

The iPhone is too much a computer and prone to virus attack. You might end up with an astronomical phone bill.

[jbennet]

The iPhone is too much a computer and prone to virus attack

doubt it. Windows CE based devices have been out for nearly 10 years and there are no known viruses. Is the iPhone UNIX based?

[scru]

but c'mon. Can you say that as a malicous software programmer you would be motivated to "attack" a windows ce device?

Would you say the same for an iPhone?

[jbennet]

yes

[TheNNS]

supposedly the iphone runs "mac os x".
Yeah right.

[jbennet]

probably does. OSX is unix based and the iphone has a good spec

[TheNNS]

ok, but it's a really stripped down version of osx, and super limited.

[Infarction]

The iPhone does run some sort of minimal OSX install, which makes it prone to many of the exploits released against the Mac platform, especially where Safari is concerned. Pretty sure there's been a couple exploits found on the iPhone that were previously not found on OSX.

[Infarction]

doubt it. Windows CE based devices have been out for nearly 10 years and there are no known viruses. Is the iPhone UNIX based?

I'm sure there's gotta be some viruses out there, they just never made the news. Kinda like a lot of the Mac-targeted viruses up till fairly recently. Not newsworthy enough, so no publicity, so nobody realizes they exist.

[TheNNS]

a mac virus isn't going to affect that many people. A windows virus, on the other hand, can affect a lot.

[Infarction]

True. On the other hand, the Mac community is stereotypically middle to upper class and/or working professionally from their computer. This makes a workable exploit still profitable, especially if stealing IP is involved. For instance, I recall hearing (from an industry source, not the media) about an exploit in Photoshop on OSX only that would upload the user's projects to a server owned by the exploit authors. This only affected a very small population (people using that version of PS on that version of OSX) so it wasn't publicized - which might also allow the exploit to live longer - and the payoff was a bunch of potentially valuable content.

A windows virus has the potential to have larger global effect, which makes it more desirable for short term use (e.g. DDoS) or for building a bot net (like Storm). If it gets well known, it will be blocked by AV products sooner than later and the virus will be less successful, plus if the media talks about it, then people will [hopefully] know how to avoid getting it or how to get rid of it.

[edit:] another thought: Apple doesn't want publicity about OSX exploits, as it will damage the "safer than Windows" image of their product. Also, a good many Windows-specific exploits are for Windows-specific software but not the OS itself. Having the OS hardened can prevent a lot of exploits from running, but they'd break compatibility with most software. The end-user usually isn't willing to make that compromise. Yes, I'm sounding a bit like a MSFT fanboy, but my point is that neither side is perfect by any means.

[TheNNS]

thank you Infraction, you are the voice of reason.

[TheNNS]

to joshSCH,

why do you have to give bad rep you hate macs?

[sneekula]

Those iMacs are cool, my brother in law has one so I can envy him. I guess, if you sit in front of a computer a lot, you might as well have something that looks neat and unboring.

[jbennet]

you might as well have something that looks neat .

Thats why i use the windows classic theme

[Infarction]

Those iMacs are cool, my brother in law has one so I can envy him. I guess, if you sit in front of a computer a lot, you might as well have something that looks neat and unboring.

Sitting in front of a computer a lot, I put a lot more emphasis on having a system I know how to use than one that looks pretty. After enough hours, the eye candy wears off anyways. As I've never used a Mac very much, I find it very frustrating to try and use them now, and besides, Vista looks just as good (IMHO).

[John A]

I'm sure there's gotta be some viruses out there, they just never made the news. Kinda like a lot of the Mac-targeted viruses up till fairly recently. Not newsworthy enough, so no publicity, so nobody realizes they exist.

The Unix-based "viruses" seem to be pretty lame, in my opinion. I have yet to see a real virus exist on Mac OS X, the only thing close to it that I've seen is the LeapA Trojan which works by a user downloading, installing and entering their administrator password to authorize the install. It then transmits itself to all the people on the user's iChat contact list. ("Transmitting" meaning that each user choosing to receive such a file transfer must also install the Trojan and enter their administrator password.) All the rest are just normal Trojans, which tend to be damaging programs authorized by the user with good social engineering (and usually requiring porn-hungry victims). I haven't been keeping up with the news lately, but Windows Vista seems to be doing fairly well in the security side of things as well.

As for my Christmas list? Nothing. Mainly because there's nobody really giving anything to me (may have something to do with the fact that I rarely give presents to other people in the first place :P), but also because the stuff which I'm planning to buy is too expensive for Christmas presents (MP3 player, skis, digital SLR camera, and various computer parts).

[Brad.Soung]

I wanna she comes back to me and love me forever

[vegaseat]

I wanna she comes back to me and love me forever

May your wish be fulfilled. I hope she isn't too big for Santa's bag.

[blud]

I have a pretty long christmas list, but I refuse to post it, in fear of *someone* finding it.

[Serunson]

I'm still wishing for that wireless router :P

[mayo_tech11]

an ipod video
a new 29 inch plasma tv
a pass to the oscars hehehe
100,000 pesos gift cerficate in powerbooks

[scru]

I'm withdrawing my wish for a better gf.

So for christmas all I really want is to be visited by the perpetual christmas ghosts. That and maybe a Zune. Maybe.

[jasimp]

I got a new 19 inch LCD screen for my computer. YAY!

[zandiago]

I got a new 19 inch LCD screen for my computer. YAY!

Same here...for about USD100.00

[sneekula]

USD 100 for a 19 inch LCD computer monitor. Where was it manufactured?

[scru]

USD 100 for a 19 inch LCD computer monitor. Where was it manufactured?

Ya mine was $200, but that was a lot earlier this year.

[Infarction]

I got a new 19 inch LCD screen for my computer. YAY!

I'm going to hope that this isn't your Christmas present. It's no fun knowing beforehand. :P

[Infarction]

The Unix-based "viruses" seem to be pretty lame, in my opinion. I have yet to see a real virus exist on Mac OS X, the only thing close to it that I've seen is the LeapA Trojan which works by a user downloading, installing and entering their administrator password to authorize the install...

True enough, but the number of viruses that target operating systems is pretty steadily decreasing. Unix-based and Vista* systems are both rather difficult to exploit, so far as the OS itself is concerned. It's a lot easier to write programs that take advantage of 3rd party software made by companies who don't want to afford the costs of hardening their applications, such as Symantec's AV software (just had to throw that in :P). Also, there's a disturbing trend towards social engineering attacks (i.e. phishing) that cannot be programmatically distinguished from authentic software. The stereotypical Linux user (though this is changing) is probably best suited to handle this new attack vector, as they [stereotypically] are more aware of such methods. The average Mac or Windows user is probably quite vulnerable to this sort of attack.

Maybe this should be in a different thread... but it's a fun discussion :D

*: Vista is still young, so time will tell but it's been largely rearchitectured with security in mind. It is certainly doing better than previous Windows versions.