Posted on 03/07/2009 3:51:48 PM PST by Halfmanhalfamazing
Apple Inc.'s Safari is the juiciest target in the upcoming PWN2OWN hacking contest, last year's winner predicted today.
"It's an easy target," said Charlie Miller, the vulnerability researcher who last year walked off with a $10,000 cash prize for breaking into an Apple laptop just a few minutes into the contest. PWNOWN is slated for its third appearance at the CanSecWest security conference later this month in Vancouver, British Columbia.
"It might be because I'm biased about the things I'm good at, but it's the easiest browser [to hack]," Miller said.
PWN2OWN's sponsor, 3Com Inc.'s TippingPoint unit, will pay $5,000 for each new bug successfully exploited in Safari, Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox or Google Inc.'s Chrome. IE8, Firefox and Chrome will be running on a Sony notebook powered by Windows 7, Microsoft's still-under-construction operating system, while Safari and Firefox will be available on a MacBook.
"Apple's products are really friendly to users, and Safari is designed to handle anything, including all kinds of file formats," said Miller. "With a lot of functionality comes the increased chance of bugs. The more complex software is, the less secure it is."
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
Or you could have unplugged the keyboard and mouse that you liked from your PC and plugged them into your Mac. The G4 supported standard USB keyboards and mice. Next to my keyboard as I type this is a Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer, an ancient mouse that I keep because I'm used to where the forward and back buttons are.
Oh yeah and their LCD screens are no sharper or brighter than those built by LG or or most other manufacturers...only 2-3 times as expensive...no better.
They have much better design and color correction. All the adjustments are in software -- no front-panel buttons or menus. If that's important enough to you to justify the price, then go for it. If not, just plug in that LG. I'm looking at a 20" Dell LCD, which used to be connected to my G4, as I type this.
No question, Apple peripherals and upgrades are pricey. That's a fair criticism of the devices, but not of the platform; there is nothing locking Mac users into Apple displays, monitors, keyboards or mice.
What happens when the warranty ends and the screen craps out?
Most likely you will shrug your shoulders and say, "Hey, this thing is ten years old and doesn't owe me anything . . . and the latest iMacs are so much faster, prettier, and bigger screened and/or lighter that I think I'll just buy new and give this one away even if it can be fixed.That's what I did with my six year old G4, and it wasn't even broken - and my daughter loves it!
The law of supply and demand (which is very low) would dictate that replacement screens are very expensive. I've heard they are about $900. It's not worth it on an old iMac... better to upgrade by buying a new computer.
This should be interesting to watch. I haven’t heard of exploits in Safari before, so am looking forward to see what they find.
I love these threads. As a student of human nature, I can say that there is quite a lot of entertainment in reading the carefully constructed verbal jousts from both sides of the Apple Wars forces circling around a technical issue. Let’s get some results from this event so the fun can start.
—————So, where does Bill Gates fall on the political spectrum?-————
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2181411/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2125091/posts
Of course. See one or two posts up, I gave another poster a few links to look at.
“I haven’t seen a Safari crash for several months and mine is on 24/7”
I was having a lot of lockups and the spinning wheel of death. No problems with FOXFIRE. Will download the beta version of Safari and try it.
Gates contributing to Obama is despicable indeed, but he gave to Bush the 2 elections before that. Maybe he’s coming out of the closet, or maybe he’s just an indpendent, but he’s still nowhere near as far left as those green party anti-capitalists like Stallman (”father of free software”) you support.
Oh jeez, not this sh*t again.(where is that graphic when you need it.
———————Gates contributing to Obama is despicable indeed, but he gave to Bush the 2 elections before that.—————
And it’s only half of the story. Gates has the mindset of a liberal.
Click the other link Eagle.
————but he’s still nowhere near as far left as those green party anti-capitalists like Stallman (”father of free software”) you support.——————
Surely you can point to any post here on FR where I’ve supported someone like Stallman.
"Oh no, I've just been outed again" is what you meant.
Surely you can point to any post here on FR where I’ve supported someone like Stallman.
Hysterical, considering you do it with practically every post since you first showed up on this site. Right at the top of your FR home page you say "Linux is where it's at, check it out", and as you surely know by now Stallman owns more copyrights in Linux distributions than anyone, by far.
He's a green party anti-capitalist, for those that never heard of him, who wants to put all proprietary software companies like Apple and Microsoft completely out of business. And here you are, just as you normally do, creating a thread attacking Apple, poor mouthing Bill Gates everywhere in it you get the chance, doing Stallman's bidding for him. And if you want us to ever believe otherwise you'll have to quit helping his agenda, as blanket denials in spite of your actions aren't working.
I don’t really see where that graphic is relevant, as discussions about how politics affects technology on a macro scale is a much ore important issue than who can build the cheapest PC these discussions unfortunately typically devolve into.
Better to upgrade to a regular computer with a second monitor then to avoid the expensive lesson the second time then. And better to buy the PC that costs 1/3-1/2 less than a comparible Mac.
I kind of disagree. At this point Flash really hasn’t done anything for 6 years except for upgrade small bits here and there, heck they still haven’t released a 64bit version for Vista or Windows 7. On another note CPU technology is starting to get stale a bit. While the Phenom II and C2D offer a fairly decent boost in performance in some areas, in others like internet browsing they offer no real boost to old first gen dual cores like the Athlon64 Dual Cores or even the single core Athlon 64. Which I can personally attest too, having 3 different generation cpu’s at my house. One is the internet machine which has the 5 year old Athlon 64, another a newer Phenom 4 core and another(my laptop) has a C2D and for internet use and word documents I notice no real difference in usage, at times even my single core actually outperforms both because I have more ram(4GB) than the other two which has three. Now if we are talking databases like Access or games, the newer the better, especially with the very large databases, which would want a fast cpu to peruse very large db’s) or newer games which of course rely on better hardware all around.
"Oh no, I've just been outed again" is what you meant.------------
oh no, I'm faced with an attempt to redefine my own words again.
--------considering you do it with practically every post since you first showed up on this site. Right at the top of your FR home page you say "Linux is where it's at, check it out", and as you surely know by now Stallman owns more copyrights in Linux distributions than anyone, by far.------------
And only in your mind could that stretch be made into "stallman supporter".
Your hard on for stallman is your own. I want no part of it.
----------who wants to put all proprietary software companies like Apple and Microsoft completely out of business.-------------
So what? Who cares? Let the liberals at MS and the liberals at Apple duke it out with Stallman.
----------And here you are, just as you normally do, creating a thread attacking Apple, poor mouthing Bill Gates everywhere in it you get the chance, doing Stallman's bidding for him.--------------
You're stretching again. Post some proof where Stallman has come out against the liberalism of Gates or Jobs.(or even anybody else who works at these companies)
I've already posted proof of Gates' liberalism. And Jobs' is well known around here at FR. So if you had any consistency for rejecting leftism you'd get rid of your computer altogether.
The irony here is that by buying MS or Apple products, you are giving money to left wing causes.
Being a FOSS user, I am never required to do that.
————I don’t really see where that graphic is relevant-—————
It’s relevant alright. You’re better at debating your own words than you are at debating what anybody else has actually said. Which is why so much of what you claim other people say they’ve never said.
Apparently you do, as endless attacks against software companies like Apple and Microsoft are right out of Stallman's plan to destroy all proprietary software companies and replace them with "free software" paid for by taxpayers instead.
The irony here is that by buying MS or Apple products, you are giving money to left wing causes. Being a FOSS user, I am never required to do that.
Oooh, those evil capitalists. While you like to present their mere existence as financially supporting leftists, your alternative Green Party anti-capitalist plan to do away with actual software companies and put in a "software tax" to pay for our software instead is as far left as they come.
-————So what? Who cares?
Apparently you do-—————
No, apparently I don’t. The reason I said these words is not the same reason you’ve spun them into.
————Oooh, those evil capitalists.—————
Another thing I never said. I said just the exact opposite.
One of the two of us supports liberals financially.
The other one of us does not.
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