There ARE non-Microsoft security problems ...

If someone wrote this into a movie, no one could accept it as being remotely possible, it would be just another one of those Mission Impossible sort of things, HOWEVER ...

Computer Server Security Problem ... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ohgeez.gif

Brazen is an understatement. These terrorists had major cohones. Unfortunately, you cannot trust anyone these days, especially in the aviation sector. Some heads are going to roll for this one...


Ed.

No computer is safe if it has a phone line connected to it these days!
This physical computer theft is one thing, but theft of data from a remote source is another. It brings to mind the hackers that got into the MoD computer system using a ZX81 and some very clever software!

Tomas,

Absolutely wild. I think this would make a very good movie and wouldn't be surprised to see the idea in some movie in a year or two.

Paul

Not a National Security issue. LOL!!!!! From the article, I would say that inside help was provided.

Other non-Microsoft security problems:

Many constantly say, over and over, that it is lack of users (only about 5% of the installed base of desktop computers are Macintosh) that keeps Mac's safe from viruses.

Interesting information from the databases listing known viruses ... Of the 71,000+ known viruses out there in the wild (per Network Associates, sellers of the McAfee and Virex antivirus products), 579 of them could have affected Macintosh computers since 1984.

Of that 579 viruses, 533 of these so called "Macintosh Viruses" were Macro viruses which run exclusively on some versions of--you guessed it--Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel.

Yes, over 95% of these so-called "Mac" viruses are actually directly made possible by Microsoft software.

If you take these out of the equation, which seems reasonable since there are solid alternatives on the Mac to Word and Excel, you're left with the following number of viruses that affect the Mac and can't be blamed on Microsoft in any way, shape or form: 26.

Yes, that's right: 26 out of a total of over 71,000.

All 26 of these, along with the other 553 Word/Excel Macro viruses, were designed for the OLDER versions of the Mac OS in use since 1984. None of this has anything to do with Mac OS X, which is the current system.

The total number for OS X is zero.

Does it really matter why?

I like the odds much better over here - 71,000:26 - no matter why it is. (Or 71,000 to zero if one uses OS X.)

For those who say things like "but if Mac's had 90% of the market..." there is still the fact of those numbers, and unless Mac's DO get to be 90% of the market we really won't know or care, will we?

I'm comfortable here I am, thank you.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif Hi from across Best Buy Tomas. You may not have seen me, I'm in one of aisles with 95% of the games, financial software, word-processors, music-software, educational software, video cards, sound cards, storage drives, and assorted other computer products out there today. You were kind of easy to pick out standing in front of that rack of Mac products. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon6.gif But hey you can always take satisfaction in how you don't have to fear Windows viruses. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I remember reading a column by John Dvorak describing how he's watched Apple users in the office jump up and down railing about the superiority of Macs and how they trounce Windows at image manipulation, harware compatibility, stability, ease of use, etc. Meanwhile, the Windows users would listen, nod their heads politely and turn back to their pc's where they would uneventfully complete their computing tasks.

Hi MichiganMan /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I wasn't going to get dragged back into this, but I can't help it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I'll give you the games. There are simply more first person shooters for the PC. Obviously that doesn't matter much to me or I would have bought a PC by now! The rest is just silly. Just because Best Buy doesn't carry it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

A quarter to a third of the boxes in the windows section (in every section except the games section) will have (if you look closely enough) a little sticker on them saying that the disk inside is already cross platform. Thats right, lots of Mac software hiding in the windows shelves of Best Buy /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif (and anyway, if I buy it on the net I don't pay the outragious sales tax and nobody tries to sell me an extended warrenty on the thing)

I have personally used 2 or 3 different financial programs. I can use Quicken and several others that exist for the Mac. The only one of any quality that doesn't run on the Mac is Microsoft Money and you can't really fault them for that /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

How many word processors do you need? I can run Word, Appleworks, NisusWriter, and half a dozen others. There are certainly more of them for windows, but how is this an issue worth making a point out of?

I do know of 2 or 3 music programs that don't run on the Mac. But I can name as many or more that don't have any Windows counterpart. The best digital recording and sequencing software available today runs only on the mac and is written by the same people that make some of the best digital recording hardware available. http://www.motu.com/ The hardware is compatible with your PC, but their Digital Performer software isn't. All the other great ones are cross platform, Reason as an example. I don't have sonic foundry, I do have digital performer. It's a non-issue. Anything you've got, I've got an equally good alternative for.

I run literally tones of educational software for my daughter. There is no problem finding any.

Macs are restricted to only about 80% of the high end video card market. that means a choice of only 100 different cards instead of 120 different cards. Big deal. sound cards? Whats a sound card? My mac already has as many in's and outs as I could want and any more can be added inexpensively with a USB or Firewire device. How is this a problem? Storage Drives? What can you possibly be talking about here? Literally EVERY USB/Firewire/PCMCIA/ATA/SCSI/ or any other drive of any interface method will plug into my Mac as easily as it will plug into your PC. There is absolutely no difference here at all. Except for the fact that on my Mac I will not have to install any drivers for it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Same with the rest of your "assorted computer products"

I don't really care that you want to use windows. There is no sub $1000 dollar Mac offering and this is a good reason for a lot of people to go with windows. But don't try to tell me that this somehow makes your choice more valid than mine. It's just not true. Also Windows users should not be upset when Mac users suggest that perhaps a Mac would solve certain problems. You wouldn't get mad if you were asking about problems you've had with an Epson printer and somebody suggests an HP.

The reasons for NOT getting a Mac are mostly old news. The reasons for sticking with Windows for you might be perfectly valid, but that doesn't mean that everybody else has to be wrong. Chill out /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink2.gif

Oh I wouldn't ever be unchilled with Tomas,

as for the other stuff, HE STARTED IT!

Just one thing I felt I should mention, MM ... In things like word processors or spredsheets, the MS Windows platform may have many, many more available, BUT once you've delved past the top few who cares? Since both MS Windows and Apple Macintosh can run the best there is for the desktop, who really cares if there are a hundred inferior ones, too?

In most serious areas there's really little to fault the selection on either MS Windows or Apple Macintosh. The one thing that is ALWAYS brought up, and I readily concede on, is games.

Of course the last game I ran on any of my machines was "Adventure.' It's a text based game that came out with the first releases of Bell Labs UNIX, and was eventually morphed into "Zork I, II, and III" for the PC and Mac. Thing is I always ran it on a real UNIX system ... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Speaking of UNIX, that's really what the Apple Macintosh is running these days, Apple did put a nice GUI on top of it so you don't have to see the ugly stuff underneath, but any time one wants to use the BSD UNIX hiding under there, it's ready.

It even has the standard UNIX editors and word processors and formatters, etc. Things like emacs, ed, sed, awk, vi, grep, and whatever else. In fact when I was busily writing tech manuals when I was at Bell Labs, all of my stuff was written using vi and formatted with nroff and troff before being sent to the publisher.

Anyway, I guess my question is: Does it matter if MS Windows has a hundred inferior word processors available for it so long as it also has a few good ones?

I didn't think so either. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Take care,


P.S. We just had a Fry's open here recently, and today was the first time I wandered in to it. I came out several hundred dollars lighter, but among things I did buy was yet another USB hub, two applications from Adobe, an LED keyboard light, a replacement Wacom graphics tablet with pen and mouse (three button plus scroll wheel) and a bunch of blank CD's. All are for use on my little Mac. None of them were in the Mac section. None of them require any special treatment to work natively on the Mac.

I did buy one thing in the Mac section, though, and that was a new enhanced USB keyboard. I didn't like the ones in the "Windows" Section. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif The gal I was with, though, did buy a keyboard in the "Windows" section for her Mac.

T