radiant.matrix

Apple Support pretty much rocks.

Last week, I ordered a Wireless Mighty Mouse from the Apple Store. Today, FedEx sent me an alert saying it had been delivered. Unfortunately, my excitement wore off pretty quickly when I discovered that there was no package waiting for me. A quick trip to the FedEx site shows that it was signed for by someone I’ve never even heard of, and that it wasn’t delivered to my address.

Since FedEx doesn’t make it easy to get hold of them, I called the Apple Store support folks. There was no hold time, and I was transferred only once — and quickly at that. A very helpful gentleman by the name of Charlie apologized profusely (even though this is unlikely to be Apple’s fault, and more likely to be FedEx’s). He then blew my mind — a new Mighty Mouse was ordered at no charge, and given expedited shipping for free as well.

I get my mouse the day after tomorrow. Now that’s customer service, and it reinforces my decision to continue buying Apple’s products. Great job, guys!

An interesting quote from Frans Johansson’s book The Medici Effect came to my attention. Here’s the interesting bit, to me:

the researchers found that virtual groups, where people brainstormed individually, generated nearly twice as many ideas as the real groups.

I don’t know exactly why this is, but I suspect it has something to do with the same mechanisms that lead to groupthink. If someone has a particular idea, and you have one counter to it, you’re less likely to bring up your idea. Yes, most brainstorming sessions begin with rules and reminders that are supposed to prevent that behavior, but those rules and reminders operate at the conscious level. The tendency not to bring up something that countermands a colleague is far too ingrained to be changed by the presence of a simple rule.

So, what should we do? I have a couple of ideas.

Read more »

Jeff Atwood of Coding Horror seems to think that virtualization (in addition to other measures) is the lynch pin of Windows security problems. In his article Trojans, Rootkits, and the Culture of Fear, Mr. Atwood says: “if we add a little virtualization to the mix, I think we can almost completely eliminate most security threats.”.

Interestingly, the same article also says: “With virtualization, you stop caring about blacklists and signature updates; you’re protected against any possible threat, now or in the future. Well, except for the rare threats that target the virtualization layer, but that’s a much tougher nut to crack.”.

I certainly agree that virtualization is a useful security tool, but I’m always wary of those who’d claim any technology as a panacea. The very fact that threats targeting the virtualization layer exist — even if they are currently a rarity — is a large, heavy clue that virtualization isn’t going to be a massive boon to security.

Security is an arms race, and a closely-matched one at that. Even Mr. Atwood’s overall good advice to stop using administrator-level accounts for daily work is just a countermeasure, not a fix. If everyone started running in an unprivileged mode, we’d not see an end to threats. Rather, we’d see the threats evolve: social engineering and other privilege-escalation attacks would become more common and more advanced.

The use of virtualization faces the same issues. Yes, it betters the security of a system today, because the attacks that target virtualization are rare and sophisticated. That sophistication requirement will certainly help shield users — at least for now. However, I suspect that once virtualization becomes a popular way to secure systems, the attacks against virtualization will become more common and more advanced.

I’m not saying Mr. Atwood’s advice is bad — quite the contrary, in fact — merely that our security problems will not be solved by any particular approach or technology. The best we do is implement new security measures quickly, and try to stay a step ahead of the attackers.

Twin Cities Tai Chi is hosting a retreat this weekend — I’m excited to be going and having some time to think and practice (and, no doubt, learn a great deal). On the other hand, I’m not so thrilled that it’s going to be 90° and no A/C where I sleep.

Oh well, at least I’ll finally get a chance to crack open Anansi Boys. :)

Garrett Murray over at Maniacal Rage posts about Strange Movements on the new Apple wireless keyboard:

The new keyboard looks like it was meant to be a laptop keyboard (it functions nearly identically to the current MB and MBP boards), which doesn’t make much sense. How frequently are people adjusting brightness (dedicated special function keys F1 and F2) on a desktop? I’d guess very rarely.

I think he misses the point — Apple correctly surmises that most desktop users will use the wired keyboard. Those users want the lower price, handy built-in USB port, and even the larger footprint with a number pad and directional island. The wireless model is likely targeted at notebook users:

Demand for MacBooks and MacBook Pros during the quarter was exceptional. Notebook sales grew 79 percent year-over-year and accounted for 59 Percent of Macs sold during the quarter. — AppleInsider

Notebooks make for the majority of sales, and quite possibly the majority of users. It makes a lot more sense to me that a keyboard intended for notebook users would be designed for portability, and function as much like the notebook keyboard as possible.

Personally, though, I’m excited to pair this wireless keyboard to my Mac Mini — which I use as a media center — for use as the ultimate remote.