Hack-A-Mac, macOS High Sierra security vulnerability discovered

On Fri, 1 Dec 2017 23:34:10 +0100, Anonymous
wrote:

In article
nospam wrote:

In article , Doomsdrzej
wrote:


I pointed out in the post that you're quoting that it isn't up to my
parents to remedy a problem that Apple created. They asked my parents
to pay top dollar for Mac Mini and then offered performance that was a
fraction of what Windows offered on the same hardware.

nonsense.

prices are similar for similar configurations, often less expensive.

Disagree.

I can buy a decent 15.6" brand new laptop for less than $400.

I see a LOT of "refurbished" MacBooks at $460+, but they are 11,
12, 13 inch models with practically no real disk space available.

Same experience for me. These Mac zealots are a truly delusional
bunch.

In article , Doomsdrzej
wrote:

further, comparing the prices of a used computer off ebay with no
warranty whatsoever with a new mac that has a full warranty and support
is as disingenuous as it gets.

Idiot. The guy said that he could _replace_ his PC with one on eBay
for $100. He mentioned nothing about needing it to be new or to have a
warranty.

you're comparing two wildly different things.

a used computer with no warranty from ebay will be cheaper than a new
computer with a warranty from an established manufacturer.

there also are used macs for cheap on ebay. big deal.

In article
nospam wrote:

In article ailer.nl,
Cornelis Tromp wrote:

macbooks are entirely ssd. not a single hd in the lineup.

Yep and most people in line at the Apple store are having
problems with those drives and TRIM not working or some other
stupid thing that should work, but doesn't.

nonsense. trim works perfectly fine.

if it works so well, why are they in the store complaining about
it?
upgrade the ssd, it's not automatic. has to be enabled.

Then there is the magical backup where data goes into the iCloud
and simply disappears, never to be found again.

more nonsense.

not nonsense. happens every day with iphones, macs, anything
apple.
apple encourages stupid behavior. dropping phones, putting them
in water, bending them on purpose, commercials of people driving
while using them. thank goodness for darwin.

On Fri, 01 Dec 2017 17:51:16 -0500, nospam
wrote:

In article , Anonymous
wrote:


I can buy a decent 15.6" brand new laptop for less than $400.

yes you can, and possibly even for less than that, however, it will not
have anywhere near the same specs as a 15" macbook pro.

Lies. You can get the same specs as a Mac for much less since the
specs in a Mac are usually at least one generation outdated by the
time they reach store shelves. What Apple sells as new, PC users are
selling as pre-owned on eBay.

the display on that $400 noname piece of junk won't be a wide gamut
dci-p3 retina display that's found on a macbook pro, nor will that $400
noname piece of junk have a touchid sensor or thunderbolt 3 (40 gb/s).

My wife's Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 has such a screen and she didn't pay as
much as she would have for a Macbook Pro which doesn't even have a
friggin' touch screen and can't be converted into a tablet.

microsoft's surface laptop starts at $1000 with a paltry 128 gig ssd, 4
gig memory and an i5 processor, more than twice your noname piece of
junk with unknown specs.

Absolutely _no one_ in this newsgroup suggested a Surface Pro as being
a reasonably-priced Windows machine. We all already know that
Microsoft is charging a lot. They're competing for the idiots with
loose wallets that Apple attracts. However, the Surface Pro is still a
much better deal than any Mac.

the only way to get 512 gig ssd on the surface laptop is by moving up
to 16 gig memory and an i7, which brings the price to $2200, over four
times as much as your noname piece of junk.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/stor...op/90FC23DV6SN
Z?cid=surfacelaptopinterstitial630

By all means, point the finger at whoever suggested the Surface Pro as
a suitable replacement and considered it a properly-priced machine.

However, consider that a Surface Pro has a touch screen and can just
as easily be a tablet or a laptop. Amateur artists can also use it as
a graphics tablet to create a masterpiece or simply to add some flair
to a presentation. Does your expensive Mac have the ability to turn
into a tablet or offer a touch screen? Of course not.

It DOES have some idiotic bar on top of the keyboard though. I mean,
that's the ultimate must-have feature. Why would you want to draw with
your laptop? What are you, some kind of fruit?

On Fri, 01 Dec 2017 18:20:16 -0500, nospam
wrote:

In article , Doomsdrzej
wrote:

further, comparing the prices of a used computer off ebay with no
warranty whatsoever with a new mac that has a full warranty and support
is as disingenuous as it gets.

Idiot. The guy said that he could _replace_ his PC with one on eBay
for $100. He mentioned nothing about needing it to be new or to have a
warranty.

you're comparing two wildly different things.

a used computer with no warranty from ebay will be cheaper than a new
computer with a warranty from an established manufacturer.

there also are used macs for cheap on ebay. big deal.

Good then find us a used Mac with similar specs for $100 that isn't
broken in some way. I implore you.

In article
nospam wrote:

In article , Doomsdrzej
wrote:


The word "power" and Macs do not go together. My mom has a fairly
recent Mac Mini and even with 8GB of RAM, that thing is so sluggish
that it's embarrassing.

either it's misconfigured or you're lying.

Yeah, because adding RAM to a Mac Mini is soooooo complicated.

8 gig memory is plenty for most people, certainly for parents who
aren't likely to be doing much more than web surfing and email.

you were also talking about hd versus ssd speeds, not memory.

since you're trying to move the goalposts, it's clear that you're lying.

I imagine the fact that Apple is cheap enough
to continue selling that hardware with HDs in an era when everyone
else has at least an SSD/HD hybrid is a part of it and no, it's not up
to my parents to shell out _more_ money to remedy Apple's decision.

it wasn't apple's decision. *she* chose the configuration.

A Mac Mini purchased from Best Buy doesn't offer a "choice," you ****.

yes it does. best buy and other resellers sell every configuration.

Best Buy collaborates with the FBI to forensically examine hard
drives of every customer who brings their computer in for repair.

The FBI pays a bounty of $500.00 for every "discovery".

You're willing to risk your freedom with Best Buy / Geek Squad?

Not everyone believes in going to the Apple site to replace a Mac Mini
that just died. They wanted one NOW and that's what they got. The fact
that Apple uses an HD in a default configuration and still charges top
dollar is a testament to what kind of thieves run that social justice
clown company.

it's not apple's fault if best buy was out of stock of the other
configurations.

they could have gone to another store or ordered online with next day
delivery.

imacs and mac minis offer a choice of hd, hybrid or ssd.

macbooks are entirely ssd. not a single hd in the lineup.

And I'd wager that they're STILL slower than the same machine running
Windows or Linux because optimizing code or making it secure doesn't
sell as many overpriced Macs.

you'd lose.

In article , Nathan
Hale wrote:

macbooks are entirely ssd. not a single hd in the lineup.

Yep and most people in line at the Apple store are having
problems with those drives and TRIM not working or some other
stupid thing that should work, but doesn't.

nonsense. trim works perfectly fine.

if it works so well, why are they in the store complaining about
it?

nobody was in the store complaining about trim, but out of hundreds of
millions of macs, there will always be a small number of problems, no
matter what the product.

upgrade the ssd, it's not automatic. has to be enabled.

trim is not support for third party ssds because some of them have very
buggy trim implementations, which in some cases, can cause data loss,
but for those who want trim, it's easy to enable.

Then there is the magical backup where data goes into the iCloud
and simply disappears, never to be found again.

more nonsense.

not nonsense. happens every day with iphones, macs, anything
apple.

that happens with *every* product, including android, windows and much
more.

nothing is perfect.

apple encourages stupid behavior. dropping phones, putting them
in water, bending them on purpose, commercials of people driving
while using them. thank goodness for darwin.

nonsense.

In article , Doomsdrzej
wrote:

Oh yeah, an operating system that allows you to log in as root simply
by writing root into the username field and pressing enter is truly
stellar software.

a bug, which only affects 10.13.1 and was fixed in under 18 hours, and
also has nothing to do with graphics.

Why would such _stellar_ software need fixing? Why would such
_stellar_ software have such a bug in the first place?

all software has bugs. nothing is perfect.

remember heartbleed? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartbleed

or more recently, krack? a lot of devices will never be patched.

In article , Doomsdrzej
wrote:

further, comparing the prices of a used computer off ebay with no
warranty whatsoever with a new mac that has a full warranty and support
is as disingenuous as it gets.

Idiot. The guy said that he could _replace_ his PC with one on eBay
for $100. He mentioned nothing about needing it to be new or to have a
warranty.

you're comparing two wildly different things.

a used computer with no warranty from ebay will be cheaper than a new
computer with a warranty from an established manufacturer.

there also are used macs for cheap on ebay. big deal.

Good then find us a used Mac with similar specs for $100 that isn't
broken in some way. I implore you.

i've bought five of them in the past year alone, all of which were less
than $50 each and work quite well. the owners "didn't know anything
about macs" or just didn't care.

the dvd drive in one of them doesn't work, but who cares. i can't even
remember the last time i used a dvd drive.

In article ers.net,
Anonymous wrote:

I imagine the fact that Apple is cheap enough
to continue selling that hardware with HDs in an era when everyone
else has at least an SSD/HD hybrid is a part of it and no, it's not up
to my parents to shell out _more_ money to remedy Apple's decision.

it wasn't apple's decision. *she* chose the configuration.

A Mac Mini purchased from Best Buy doesn't offer a "choice," you ****.

yes it does. best buy and other resellers sell every configuration.

Best Buy collaborates with the FBI to forensically examine hard
drives of every customer who brings their computer in for repair.

The FBI pays a bounty of $500.00 for every "discovery".

You're willing to risk your freedom with Best Buy / Geek Squad?

then don't bring your computer to best buy to be repaired, not that
they're any good at repairing anything anyway.

that has absolutely nothing to do with *buying* a computer (mac or pc)
or anything else from them.

On Fri, 01 Dec 2017 18:49:23 -0500, nospam
wrote:

In article , Doomsdrzej
wrote:

Oh yeah, an operating system that allows you to log in as root simply
by writing root into the username field and pressing enter is truly
stellar software.

a bug, which only affects 10.13.1 and was fixed in under 18 hours, and
also has nothing to do with graphics.

Why would such _stellar_ software need fixing? Why would such
_stellar_ software have such a bug in the first place?

all software has bugs. nothing is perfect.

remember heartbleed? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heartbleed

or more recently, krack? a lot of devices will never be patched.

Luckily, Apple's social justice programmers would never produce
anything that runs slowly, requires too much memory or has pathetic
security issues...

.... oh wait, that's pretty much the only thing they produce.

On 2017-12-01 3:23 PM, Nathan Hale wrote:
In article
nospam wrote:

In article ailer.nl,
Cornelis Tromp wrote:

macbooks are entirely ssd. not a single hd in the lineup.

Yep and most people in line at the Apple store are having
problems with those drives and TRIM not working or some other
stupid thing that should work, but doesn't.

nonsense. trim works perfectly fine.

if it works so well, why are they in the store complaining about
it?
upgrade the ssd, it's not automatic. has to be enabled.

Then there is the magical backup where data goes into the iCloud
and simply disappears, never to be found again.

more nonsense.

not nonsense. happens every day with iphones, macs, anything
apple.
apple encourages stupid behavior. dropping phones, putting them
in water, bending them on purpose, commercials of people driving
while using them. thank goodness for darwin.


What complete and utter bull****.

In article
nospam wrote:

In article , Doomsdrzej
wrote:


The word "power" and Macs do not go together. My mom has a fairly
recent Mac Mini and even with 8GB of RAM, that thing is so sluggish
that it's embarrassing.

either it's misconfigured or you're lying.

Yeah, because adding RAM to a Mac Mini is soooooo complicated.

8 gig memory is plenty for most people, certainly for parents who
aren't likely to be doing much more than web surfing and email.

you were also talking about hd versus ssd speeds, not memory.

since you're trying to move the goalposts, it's clear that you're lying.

I imagine the fact that Apple is cheap enough
to continue selling that hardware with HDs in an era when everyone
else has at least an SSD/HD hybrid is a part of it and no, it's not up
to my parents to shell out _more_ money to remedy Apple's decision.

it wasn't apple's decision. *she* chose the configuration.

A Mac Mini purchased from Best Buy doesn't offer a "choice," you ****.

yes it does. best buy and other resellers sell every configuration.

Best Buy collaborates with the FBI to forensically examine hard
drives of every customer who brings their computer in for repair.

The FBI pays a bounty of $500.00 for every "discovery".

You're willing to risk your freedom with Best Buy / Geek Squad?

Not everyone believes in going to the Apple site to replace a Mac Mini
that just died. They wanted one NOW and that's what they got. The fact
that Apple uses an HD in a default configuration and still charges top
dollar is a testament to what kind of thieves run that social justice
clown company.

it's not apple's fault if best buy was out of stock of the other
configurations.

they could have gone to another store or ordered online with next day
delivery.

imacs and mac minis offer a choice of hd, hybrid or ssd.

macbooks are entirely ssd. not a single hd in the lineup.

And I'd wager that they're STILL slower than the same machine running
Windows or Linux because optimizing code or making it secure doesn't
sell as many overpriced Macs.

you'd lose.

On 2017-12-01 11:08 PM, Anonymous wrote:
In article
nospam wrote:

In article , Doomsdrzej
wrote:


The word "power" and Macs do not go together. My mom has a fairly
recent Mac Mini and even with 8GB of RAM, that thing is so sluggish
that it's embarrassing.

either it's misconfigured or you're lying.

Yeah, because adding RAM to a Mac Mini is soooooo complicated.

8 gig memory is plenty for most people, certainly for parents who
aren't likely to be doing much more than web surfing and email.

you were also talking about hd versus ssd speeds, not memory.

since you're trying to move the goalposts, it's clear that you're lying.

I imagine the fact that Apple is cheap enough
to continue selling that hardware with HDs in an era when everyone
else has at least an SSD/HD hybrid is a part of it and no, it's not up
to my parents to shell out _more_ money to remedy Apple's decision.

it wasn't apple's decision. *she* chose the configuration.

A Mac Mini purchased from Best Buy doesn't offer a "choice," you ****.

yes it does. best buy and other resellers sell every configuration.

Best Buy collaborates with the FBI to forensically examine hard
drives of every customer who brings their computer in for repair.

The FBI pays a bounty of $500.00 for every "discovery".

You're willing to risk your freedom with Best Buy / Geek Squad?

Sorry, but I call "bull****".

Got any proof?

On 2017-12-01 2:34 PM, Anonymous wrote:
In article
nospam wrote:

In article , Doomsdrzej
wrote:


I pointed out in the post that you're quoting that it isn't up to my
parents to remedy a problem that Apple created. They asked my parents
to pay top dollar for Mac Mini and then offered performance that was a
fraction of what Windows offered on the same hardware.

nonsense.

prices are similar for similar configurations, often less expensive.

Disagree.

I can buy a decent 15.6" brand new laptop for less than $400.

Show us one...


I see a LOT of "refurbished" MacBooks at $460+, but they are 11,
12, 13 inch models with practically no real disk space available.