Comments on: Apple does not read this blog

By: Bruce Garlock

Bruce Garlock — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 15:02:11 +0000

There is a rumor that Bill Gates has a mild form of Autism, called Asperger’s. That would explain a lot of his actions (I think). He seems to act like a child with little emotion or concern for others’ feelings, so it is entirely possible he does have this disease.

Although he does seem to be taking these ads to heart, so maybe he does have feelings. If it were not for his wife, he would probably be more ruthless than Ballmer. This is all just payback for all the cruel things Microsoft has done to Apple in the OS wars through the years. Karma rocks!

By: The Macalope

The Macalope — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:27:53 +0000

Andy,

The Macalope has now had time to go back and watch Bud Tribble’s address and he was rather unimpressed. It’s not really an in-depth discussion of secuirity so the Macalope doesn’t want to be too hard on it, but it doesn’t address what Apple might be doing in the area of implementing new technologies (other than FileVault which is really more related to physical security) like Microsoft has done.

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 01:10:00 +0000

Donn said: “Vista’s security prompts are ubiquitous to the point of being meaningless.”

This is part of the point, as well as the fact that they don’t ask for a password: you are exasperatedly clicking, allow allow allow- you may accidentally click allow when you mean cancel. And, anyone sitting at your computer can also click “allow” for anything.

Seems kind of absurd.

This is a great ad, the funniest yet. That security dude is one cool cat- disengaged and yet totally condescending…

By: Senioré Soosy

Senioré Soosy — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 20:15:09 +0000

Yes, the point of the ad is that dealing with security on Vista is still a pain.

By: dogfriend

dogfriend — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 19:59:52 +0000

I like the ad. I think it points out the difference between MS’s approach (accept or deny everything) vs Apple’s approach (just ask for Admin PW when installing a program or modifying a system component). Not too many people will get it, but the some people will get it.

By: The Macalope

The Macalope — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:58:04 +0000

Obviously the Macalope does not think it was filmed over the weekend. Please. His comment was in reference to the timing of its release - not its creation. It is a little unusual that this ad was released by itself and seems to have bumped one of the ads released two weeks ago off the page of new ads.

More realistically, though, it was probably just held for the Vista launch.

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:54:05 +0000

Hey Jay,

Isn’t “Great Aunt Clicky” married to Artie McStrawman?

By: CTinSF

CTinSF — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:23:39 +0000

Disgracefu! The cool kid is beating up on nerd again. This bullying will drive Bill’s *insecurities* about Vista to such new heights the anxiety will cause him to wet the bed.

By: Blain

Blain — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:15:41 +0000

Agreed with Follower. It’s not the case of prompting, it’s the case of crying wolf. True, For the Mac, I’d like to see an addition/change to the API where you have to enumerate in the details all that you’re going to do, but:

1) It only comes up for major surgery (Overriding unix permissions, or accessing hardware in a guts-level way)
2) even then, only once per session. Software update, for example, only asks for the password once, even if you’re updating 4 packages.
3) Details give some hint about what the program is trying to do,
4) Well-behaved apps will ask for lower levels of permissions, only wanting installer privileges.
5) It’s not asking for ‘cancel’ or ‘allow’. It’s making you put in your password. This reduces (But not eliminates) the habit of users to just click through any dialogs automatically.

There does need to be some way to make this dialog box unique, however; I can see decoy security boxes used for phishing.

The only saving grace is if, IF, Vista allows a way to adjust this feature on an ACL-level. That is, ‘For this folder, always prompt. For this folder, never prompt for this, this, and this user. For this folder, always require an administrator password.’ For some reason, I don’t see this happening.

By: Donn

Donn — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:09:03 +0000

I think Erik hits it right on the head. It’s totally about user experience, and I think many of us thought this was the funniest ad yet because it’s the truest so far.

I don’t run Vista, but in my experience when Mac OS X prompts you for your administrative credentials, you are doing something you know to be altering the system. It’s deliberate. If it’s not, and the dialog comes up, you are more likely to go, “hmm, what’s this about, maybe that script I downloaded is suspect.” Not that this has ever happened to me, and I would be curious to hear from anyone for whom it has.

AFAICT from anectdotal evidence, Vista’s security prompts are ubiquitous to the point of being meaningless. It is precisely their ease of dismissal, Bergamot, that makes them pretty silly in terms of actual security. It all comes down to the user experience and interface, once again, to allow the user to operate their computer in a secure yet productive manner.