Apple “Windows Developers” continue to not impress me.  Check out the latest in “I decided to release something too early”-product from Steve Jobs and Apple.  I haven’t yet decided if Steve Jobs is trying to take down the Windows Empire with crappy Apple Software, or if Apple is just inept at creating anything but software for Apple.  I prefer to think Steve Jobs just forces Mac Developers to begrudgingly work on Windows Software, instead of actually hiring developers that are passionate about Windows Development.

Tags: Apple

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Common courtesy is very important for all application developers to follow especially when they are dealing with users settings. Especially for common file formats, where the user has probably already set up their preferences how they like. And most importantly to not piss off your install base.

As you might have gathered from the title Apple has screwed up in this area yet again. In their never ending battle to try and forcibly get an install base, from some of their crappiest application. The Apple developers must taken the same “Our shit doesn’t stink”-attitude as many of their users, and started taking over the preferences on the users machine with out asking.

Like any good .NET developer I had the XML file format being opened by Visual Studio, it has a nice viewing, and editing interface that is hard to beat. Today I saw their was a QuickTime update while watching the Facebook Conferences presentation in anticipation of my previous post today. So as I decided to do the update, what a nightmare that has turned out to be. First of all it was 70 MB download, because Apple also decided that iTunes and Safari needed to be downloaded with Quicktime, and bundled them all together. Then it decides to take over all my documents in my system, including HTML, XML, and a bunch of other web related documents. See below.

Then to boot their XML “Rendering” sucks.

Hey news flash Steve Jobs this is how a real browser renders XML, and does a damn fine job at it.

At least if you are going to take over my system, and forcibly put your software on my computer, the very least you could do is not make it suck. Is that too much to ask.

Steve Jobs has to learn that Windows users don’t put up with the same amount of shit as Apples users do, because one we don’t bow down at the alter of Steve Jobs, and two we have other options. I am not going to let Steve Jobs take a steaming pile of shit on my PC, change all the settings, install one of the worst browsers on earth, and then forgive him. He is going to have to do something grand with Safari to get it back on my PC.

I am really pissed that I now have to uninstall a program that I never wanted installed in the first place, and then go through the registry and clean up after an Apple Developer that couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag.

Maybe they should spend less time trying to achieve an ACID3 milestone that won’t be standard for another couple of years and work on the basics that IE for the better part of a decade now.

Tags: Apple, IE, iTunes, QuickTime, Safari, XML

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Today Apple had their big iPhone SDK press release. They opened up the phone and added a bunch of Enterprise features that many small to large corporate customers have been asking for. But they still haven’t implemented the features I am looking for in a smart phone, and until they do, they will not see my money.

1. Microsoft Exchange Direct Push
2. Tethering
3. 3G Network (I currently use Verizon)

I know #2 will be coming, if not through Apple somebody else will do it, since Apple has unlocked the iPhone to developers.  However #3 is the one that I may have to wait for Verizon to switch to GSM in the distant future.  Other than my last 2 requirements I am sold on the iPhone.

Tags: Apple, iPhone, News, Verizon, Windows Mobile

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So today I was reading Jeff’s Post on The Dramatic Password Reveal, and I had a flash back, to about a year or more ago, when I was working for a large bank based out of Pittsburgh who shale remain nameless. The flash back was to the usability nightmare that Lotus Notes and Lotus Sametime provided to anybody that had to do a simple task such as sending an e-mail (or Memo in Lotus Notes terminology). I think Jeff summed it up nicely and probably let Lotus Notes off a little easy by calling it a a massive train wreck.

Lotus Notes was so bad that I was actually considering quiting my job just to get away from the piece of software. Every time I had to look at the client interface I thought to myself where did I go wrong. This wasn’t a bad job either, it paid very well, had good benefits, however the job wasn’t really challenging. Combine that all on a 4 year old computer and a 15-inch CRT and you have my life at this job. So the lack of fulfillment and Lotus Notes drove me to look for another job after only a month and a half at the company.

I refer to Lotus Suite of Products as the AOL for the Corporate World for a couple of reasons. You have to think about AOL in terms of mid-to-late 90’s mainframe terminal interface, not AOL’s website in the new century. Unfortunately IBM hasn’t brought Lotus Notes in to this century or even the late 90’s. The following is my reasons for comparing AOL and Lotus Notes:

1. Every link you get in your E-Mail (or Memo) needs to be opened with in the Lotus Notes client. Just like AOL required when clicking on a link in their Mail system.
2. Every corporate form to collect information is done in a proprietary Lotus Notes data collector that tries to imitate Microsoft Access imitating a web form. Much like AOL did with all the forms available for their bazillion different pop ups.
3. Lotus notes constantly crashed my computer. AOL did the same.
4. Lotus notes had a built in proprietary IM client called Sametime. So did AOL. (See Lotus Sametime)
5. If you think of everything you company has implimented, time tracking, specialized databases, calendars, task lists, corporate web, internet browsing, etc. You can bet Lotus notes has half assed that feature in to their product some how. Much like AOL did before they realized people hated that.
6. The login screen. No real gripe with AOL about this, at least AOL didn’t have hieroglyphics.
   

   This dialog box contains several security “features”:

   • The hieroglyphics on the left of the dialog box are supposed to distract anyone who is peering over your shoulder trying to learn your password as you type.
   • The number of characters you type is hidden; a random number of X’s appear instead of one asterisk per character.

   Is any of this nonsense really necessary? If I want to learn someone’s password as he or she types it, I will look at the keyboard, not the screen!

7. The inefficient use of screen real estate. We all take writing an e-mail for granted with our nice large boxes for TO, CC, Subject, and Attachments. However in the Lotus Notes world your name and some numbers that only mean something to Lotus Notes takes up half of the real estate. I can only image this is in case you forget who you are.

Is it any wonder why it’s often referred to as a train wreck of colossal proportions.

Apple fanboys are always talking about their wonderful interfaces that behave like a user is suppose to interact with a computer.   As sort of a sick, but probably boring, reality show I have always wanted to sit them in front of Lotus Notes and tell them to have at it.  Sort of a last man standing competition.

Also after a month on Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook and Exchange started to look like a gift from Heaven.

So that is my rant on Lotus Notes, it is now 12:30 AM, but I just had to get that all out.  And that was just from seeing one picture on Jeff Atwood’s website.  Imagin having to work with the application every day.

Interviewing Tip: Always ask your future employer if they used Lotus Notes, if they say yes, politely end the interview and don’t look back.  Or just bolt from the room at full speed with out looking back.  Either will allow you to achieve you goal of staying away from Lotus Notes.

Tags: aol, Apple, Exchange, IBM, Instant Message, Lotus Notes, Outlook, Rant, Sametime

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Hi loyal readers,

I have to apologize, I have been a really bad blogger lately. I have neglected my blog because of a new job and a brand new Web 2.0 site that I am about to release. At the end of the month I will make an announcement about this project and all the new technologies that many of you have probably heard of but few have implemented. But until then please keep visiting and I really enjoy your comments on the following popular postings:

• Setting Up iTunes on Windows Vista 64-bit
• Apple wants Vista to Run Un-Secured to install iTunes

Thanks,
Nick

Tags: Apple, iTunes, Microsoft, Windows Vista

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Just saw this article over at The Register about the virus turning 25.

Elk Cloner, which spread between Apple II computers via infected floppy disks, has the dubious distinction of the first computer virus1 to spread in the wild. The malware is thought to be the work of Rich Skrenta, a 15-year-old high school student from Pittsburgh, who released it in July 1982.

So when ever a fan boy starts talking about how secure OS X is, you can remind the that it was Apple that had the first unsecured computer in the world.

Tags: Apple, Security

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Steve Jobs must have been kicking ass and taking names. Because only 3 days after the initial release, of Apple’s Safari Web Browser for Windows that had 6 security bugs known as of this article, Apple has released an updated version, version of the Safari software. According to Engadet the following bugs have been fixed with this new release.

CVE-ID: CVE-2007-3186
Available for: Windows XP or Vista
Impact: Visiting a malicious website may lead to arbitrary code execution
Description: A command injection vulnerability exists in the Windows version of Safari 3 Public Beta. By enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted web page, an attacker can trigger the issue which may lead to arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue by performing additional processing and validation of URLs. This does not pose a security issue on Mac OS X systems, but could lead to an unexpected termination of the Safari browser.

CVE-ID: CVE-2007-3185
Available for: Windows XP or Vista
Impact: Visiting a malicious website may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution
Description: An out-of-bounds memory read issue in Safari 3 Public Beta for Windows may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution when visiting a malicious website. This issue does not affect Mac OS X systems.

CVE-ID: CVE-2007-2391
Available for: Windows XP or Vista
Impact: Visiting a malicious website may allow cross-site scripting
Description: A race condition in Safari 3 Public Beta for Windows may allow cross site scripting. Visiting a maliciously crafted web page may allow access to JavaScript objects or the execution of arbitrary JavaScript in the context of another web page. This issue does not affect Mac OS X systems.

This is a nice turn around time indeed, but my heart goes out to the Safari developers because they probably worked night and day for the last 72 hours, with the watchful eye of Steve Jobs over them. Good job Apple, now get some rest.

So if you feel inclined and don’t think you already have too many web browsers:

Download Safari

Tags: Apple, Internet Browser, Safari, Security

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Apple has just released a public beta of its Safari browser for Windows yesterday. And there have been already 6 zero day exploits and many, many crashes for the browser. You can read about them here here here and here. Which makes the following image from the Apple website, borrowed from aviv.raffon.net, all the more funny.

Also Apple has the following to say under the Security tab of their website:

Security

Now you can enjoy worry-free web browsing on any computer. Apple engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one.

For starters, Safari uses robust encryption to ensure that your private information stays that way. When you browse a secure site, Safari displays a lock icon in the upper-right corner of the browser. If you want to know more about the credentials of a secure site, click the lock icon and Safari displays detailed information about the site’s security certificate.

Safari supports SSL versions 2 and 3, as well as Transport Layer Security (TLS), the next generation of Internet security. Safari uses these technologies to provide a secure, encrypted channel that protects all your information from online eavesdroppers. And Safari lets you use standards-based authentication such as Kerberos single sign-on and X.509 personal certificates, or proprietary protocols like NTLMv2 to log in to secure sites.

Safari also supports a variety of proxy protocols — services that help firewalls control what flows in and out of the network — including Automatic Proxy configuration, FTP Proxy, Web Proxy (HTTP), Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS), Streaming Proxy (RTSP), SOCKS Proxy, and Gopher Proxy.

I don’t know about you, but it’s one thing to say that you have designed your browser to be secure from day one, but it’s another to actually prove it. Apple has fallen flat on its face with this release, and I know it is only a beta, but Fire Fox and IE have both been in beta before and haven’t nearly had this many problems.

All that I have to say is when you venture out in to the Windows world Apple, where the market share is at 90% you are not protected by your small margins anymore.

Tags: Apple, Internet Browser, Microsoft, Performance, Safari, Security, Windows Vista, Windows XP

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Last week Apple released iTunes Plus. Which is a higher quality download with no DRM for $1.29 US. However many people in the blogo-sphere have interpreted DRM-Free as being privacy in your purchase. However this is totally wrong way of looking at DRM:

Digital rights management (DRM) is an umbrella term referring to technologies used by publishers or copyright owners to control access to or usage of digital data or hardware, and to restrictions associated with a specific instance of a digital work or device. The term is often confused with copy protection and technical protection measures, which refer to technologies that control or restrict the use and access of digital content on electronic devices with such technologies installed, acting as components of a DRM design.

In fact DRM-Free is exactly what it means you are free to do with the song what you like but your purchase is still registered as being your purchase. A better way to think of Apple iTunes Plus program is the same way you think of the DMV, you are free to use your car however you want, no body is restricting you from loaning your car to your friend or where you can drive it and how far. Even though your car is your property free and clear of any rules, you still have to license the car, and register the VIN with the DMV. Also the license plate on the car is only checked if you are committing a crime. In the same respects Apple is no longer telling you how many times you can burn your song, or how many iPods it can be placed on, or who you can lend the song too, but the registration of the song still needs to be licensed with iTunes. They are only going to check the license if you are committing a crime with the song such as violating the EULA, which I am pretty sure includes posting to a P2P site.

So before everybody starts getting hot under the collar about your information showing up in the song you licensed from iTunes and EMI, just sit back and think for a second, about how much this doesn’t effect you. Essentially the song is there for you to share with all your friends just like a CD or anything else, however if you start posting the song publicly which is the same as playing a CD in a large venue you have violated the license agreement of your purchase and you should pay the price.

I personally congratulate Apple for taking this critical step for having a DRM free world.

Tags: Apple, DRM, iPod, iTunes

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I am happy to announce that Apple iTunes 7.2 has been released and this is the first release since Windows Vista was released 6 months ago that worked through Apples normal install process with out any problems. I just wanted to keep everybody updated since I have talked about the problems of installing iTunes on Windows Vista x64 in the past.

If you want any more information about this release, please view Mac Rumors.

Tags: Apple, iTunes, Microsoft, Windows Vista

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