Interesting Software and System News

[.: Mac :.]

x86 turns 30

[bob3160]

Sandy may not be a real person, but her usefulness will probably make you think that she is.
This online service is so easy and natural to use, and this means that you won’t have to complicate your life by trying to make it simpler.
All you have to do is include Sandy as a recipient of certain e-mail’s that contain tasks that she needs to take care of,
and she’ll notice them because of special keywords that you use to give her assignments. She obviously can’t do everything that a real assistant can do,
but she’ll help organize my life and give me reminders, and that’s enough for me to start telling people that I have an assistant who goes by the name of Sandy.
I find this an easy way to add  "to do" items to an easy to use calendar.
Enjoy. 

Thanks to Brandon Watts of  Lockergnome for finding this useful on-line service.

[bob3160]

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[.: Mac :.]

Apple Previews Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard"

Not a lot of new Features just improving Security and performance. Macworld even hinted that this may be a free or reduced cost upgrade. My guess is Apple wants to Get Mac OS X Polished for windows 7 release so Apple can keep the momentum moving forward (aka market share increasing) like it did with the Failed Vista Launch  .

[DavidR]

If you had to pay for a .1 incremental OS update that is disgraceful even M$ wouldn't pull a stroke like that

[.: Mac :.]

If you had to pay for a .1 incremental OS update that is disgraceful even M$ wouldn't pull a stroke like that

All 10.4.x, 10.5.x, etc.  incremental updates are free. Major upgrades (10.4.x -> 10.5.x) usually are not. Although 10.0.x to 10.1.x was a free upgrade several years ago, users just went to the nearest Apple store to get their copy.

Snow Leopard is hardly a Incremental update, its just that most of the "Meat" of the upgrade will be for developers.

[DavidR]

I thought that 10.5 was the last major update that people purchased, that would make 10.6 a .1 incremental update

[.: Mac :.]

I thought that 10.5 was the last major update that people purchased, that would make 10.6 a .1 incremental update

In Apple's Version Scheme Major Updates are:

10.2 Jaguar
10.3 Panther
10.4 Tiger
10.5 Leopard

Incremental Updates are:
10.5.1, 10.5.2, 10.5.3, etc.

The Incremental Updates like the recently released 10.5.3 update are similar to Microsoft's Service Packs. Windows is the same way. Windows 2000 was Windows 5.0 and Windows XP was windows 5.1 yet it was a paid upgrade.


Any Clearer?

[DavidR]

Clearer, yes, but I'm just used to the more usual whole (or .5) number increment of major developments and .1 increments being usually minor changes.

This update numbering also fell down in the avast 4.7 to 4.8 update (I seem to have been on avast 4.x forever ), as that was a major update IMHO and many other security applications would have bumped it up a whole point or called it a 2008 or 2009 version

[bob3160]

or called it a 2008 or 2009 version

We know that there is an avast! 2oo8 version available but it happens to be a Rip Off 
NOT put out by Alwil. 

[DavidR]

Note I said, other security applications (intentional) and not avast 2008

many other security applications would have bumped it up a whole point or called it a 2008 or 2009 version

[.: Mac :.]

Clearer, yes, but I'm just used to the more usual whole (or .5) number increment of major developments and .1 increments being usually minor changes.

This update numbering also fell down in the avast 4.7 to 4.8 update (I seem to have been on avast 4.x forever ), as that was a major update IMHO and many other security applications would have bumped it up a whole point or called it a 2008 or 2009 version

Well I Prefer the xx.yy.zz version scheme like Avast and Apple use over the use of versions named after the year. Huge.Major.Incremental just makes sense to me 

[Lisandro]

Well I Prefer the xx.yy.zz version scheme like Avast and Apple use over the use of versions named after the year. Huge.Major.Incremental just makes sense to me 

Fully agree. The advertisement is the only reason for doing an yearly version: renew your license!

[.: Mac :.]

While reading the Authentium (Command AV) Virus Blog they had a post on Their new Engine. But part of the post was talking about their sample collection and the makeup of it:

94.7% of samples where Windows PE executables. Mobile malware were 0.00851%. Unix malware (including Mac OS X and Linux) were 0.15% of the samples.

5.2% of the samples were categorized as potentially unwanted applications. That includes Dialers and Adware.

So the Mobile Malware threat is not what some security companies Hype it to be.


http://blogs.authentium.com/virusblog/?p=240

[Vladimyr]

PC Tools has released AV for Mac, if not for .: Mac :.