The great Mac OS X Software Update chart


Recently, my friend Rob posed a question to twitter:

Is Mac OS X 10.5.7 the single biggest patch Apple has ever released, or just one of the biggest?

I thought that was an easy question to anwser.

I was wrong.

I looked all over the web for this information, and no one seemed to have it in one place.

So, I present to you: the comprehensive Mac OS X software update chart, current as of May 28, 2009. When the downloads are still available, I’ve linked to them on Apple’s site.

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Doctorow: reign in ISPs to foster innovation

Writing for The Guardian, Cory Doctorow explains why net neutrality is essential and dispells myths about billing to show us we need a free and open Internet to allow for innovation:

Take filtering: by allowing ISPs to silently block access to sites that displease them, we invite all the ills that accompany censorship – Telus, a Canadian telcom that blocked access to a site established by its striking workers where they were airing their grievances. Around the world, ISPs co-operate with censorious governments in their mission to keep their citizens in the dark: for example, ISPs in the United Arab Emirates are blocking access to stories about a UAE royal family member who was video-recorded torturing a merchant with whom he had a business dispute. As a matter of policy, Transport for London isn’t allowed to block us from riding the tube to a rally in support of striking transit workers; British Gas doesn’t turn our heat off if they suspect we’re housing a benefits cheat; and BT doesn’t divert our phone calls if we’re ringing up a competitor to change carriers. Giving an ISP censorship powers — and then layering censorship in secrecy and arbitrariness — we make the internet a less trustworthy and less useful place to be.

Deep Agriculture: Michael Pollan at Long Now

Our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it’s creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they’re contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs.

—President Barack Obama, as quoted by Michael Pollan during his Long Now talk.

Think about this: It takes up to 55 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce 1 calorie of food energy.

Go watch.

How many usability engineers does it take to buy a light bulb?

For those of you who just want the answer, here you go:

  • Range hood bulb: 10 Watt G4
  • In-oven bulb: 50 Watt 130 Volt GY6.35

Head to your corner store and pick one up. Now, on with the story.
Continue reading “How many usability engineers does it take to buy a light bulb?”

One Less Torture Advocate

I can’t really say this any better than The New Republic already did. Seems right-wing radio shock jock Eric Muller lasted all of seven seconds of waterboarding before he gave up and admitted it was torture:

Turns out the stunt wasn’t so funny. Witnesses said Muller thrashed on the table, and even instantly threw the toy cow he was holding as his emergency tool to signify when he wanted the experiment to stop. He only lasted 6 or 7 seconds.

“It is way worse than I thought it would be, and that’s no joke,” Mancow said, likening it to a time when he nearly drowned as a child. “It is such an odd feeling to have water poured down your nose with your head back…It was instantaneous…and I don’t want to say this: absolutely torture.”

Verizon willing to let man die over unpaid $20 phone bill

Check out this piece in the Dover, Ohio Times-Reporter. Seem Verizon was wouldn’t help the cops until they paid the victim’s overdue phone bill:

Williams said he attempted to use the man’s cell phone signal to locate him, but the man was behind on his phone bill and the Verizon operator refused to connect the signal unless the sheriff’s department agreed to pay the overdue bill. After some disagreement, Williams agreed to pay $20 on the phone bill in order to find the man. But deputies discovered the man just as Williams was preparing to make arrangements for the payment.
…
“I was more concerned for the person’s life,” Williams said. “It would have been nice if Verizon would have turned on his phone for five or 10 minutes, just long enough to try and find the guy. But they would only turn it on if we agreed to pay $20 of the unpaid bill. Ridiculous.”

Credit card companies whine to press

Yesterday’s New York Times covers changes to credit cards. They spoke with David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report, which tracks the credit card business.

Robertston lays it on thick:

People who routinely pay off their credit card balances have been enjoying the equivalent of a free ride, he said, because many have not had to pay an annual fee even as they collect points for air travel and other perks.

He’s claiming I’m getting a free ride. As if the poor credit card companies somehow aren’t making money off me because I pay my bills in full. This is, of course, complete crap.

Suppose I spend $10,000 and my average transaction is $25. That means I’ve made 400 transactions. First, American Express makes 25-50 cents per transaction. Next, AmEx’s discount rate is just above 2.5%. Adding it up, they have $256 from their discount rate + $175 in transaction fees. So AmEx has made $431. That’s not bad for sitting on their butts.

The Times ends by talking to a more sensible voice:

Austan Goolsbee, an economic adviser to President Obama, said that while the credit card industry had the right to make a reasonable profit as long as its contracts were in plain language and rule-breakers were held accountable, its current practices were akin to “a series of carjackings.”

“The card industry is giving the argument that if you didn’t want to be carjacked, why weren’t you locking your doors or taking a different road?” Mr. Goolsbee said.