The Macalope: An Apple blog

Matasano Security's Thomas Ptacek provides an excellent run-down of Leopard's new security features (tip o' the antlers to Ryan Naraine). Remember what the Macalope said a couple of weeks ago?

We can argue whether these are the right measures to be taken or how effectively they're being implemented, but this is still good news.

Well, a funny thing happened on the way to implementing Leopard's new security features...

Some of it's good, but much of it's bad or at least disappointing that Apple did not implement the features in a more robust method.

It'… Read more

Brier Dudley of The Seattle Times has taken Apple to task for supposedly rushing a buggy operating system out the door.

The problem with Dudley's thesis is that while there's certainly proof of bugs in Leopard, there's no proof of more bugs than in any other major OS release. See, there just isn't any non-anecdotal way to determine this because the "one need only peruse Apple's support forums" theory of applied statistics is about as useful as the "online polls say" theory but without the benefit of a bar chart. Simply … Read more

Internet Security for Your Macintosh reports (tip o' the antlers to MacJournals News) that Leopard's Back To My Mac feature bypasses local login and will allow full access to a machine it's enabled on solely via the .Mac login and password entered into the .Mac preferences pane.

So, if you lent your mother your .Mac password so she could post her kitty pictures to your Gallery...

...she can see you're looking at porn, dude.

Somehow the Macalope missed this in all the Leopard news, but one casualty of Apple's latest release is Sherlock.

Somehow it's always sadder when they anthropomorphise them. Don't get the horny one started on poor Cyberdog.

Jim Thompson via email gives us a good pre-Halloween scare.

First, Engadget reports that Elcomsoft has filed a patent for a way to leverage a computer's graphical processing unit to crack passwords in a couple of days instead of months.

And if that's not enough to make you hurl your candy, Jim notes, think about what the bot army will be able to do with this.

Thanks, Jim! Yeah, uh, thanks a lot.

Please pardon the Macalope as he quickly changes all of his online banking passwords to 142-character strings filled with random letters, numbers and punctuation marks.… Read more

The Macalope guests again on MacBreak Weekly as we take a look at Leopard and bid a fond farewell to Tiger.

PAGING ARTIE MACSTRAWMAN. ARTIE MACSTRAWMAN, PLEASE COME TO THE WHITE COURTESY PHONE. YOU HAVE A CALL FROM A MR. KINGSLEY-HUGHES.

What could/should Apple do to take sales and profits to the next level? Simple. Release an Apple branded Windows-based PC. I know, I know, this kind of talk is bound to upset the hardened Apple fanatic...

MR. MACSTRAWMAN, PLEASE MEET YOUR PARTY BY THE BAGGAGE CLAIM CAROUSEL ON LEVEL 4.

Sure, a few lunatics at the fringes who'd be upset, but that's only to be expected.

PAGING ARTIE MACSTRAWMAN. YOUR PARTY IS NOW AT THE SECURITY DESK … Read more

And as Tom Krazit reports, the number to keep an eye on is iPhone units. Will the silly pundits have egg on their faces? Stay tuned.

Rob Enderle opines: Changing of the guard: Sony waxes while Apple wanes

Wouldn't that be "Re-changing"? And wouldn't that also be a load of crap?

OK, Rob Enderle has been skewered to death (sadly, not literally) by many an Apple blogger, but sometimes it's nice to fall back on a classic. Something tried and true.

Sort of like returning to an old friend.

Just one that you hate vehemently.

Enderle, as is his wont, throws about 150 unrelated items up on the wall in the hopes enough of it will stick to form the pattern … Read more