3 ms·

Buy an iPod, get a free virus.

4 points by ericb 19y ago

Going forward, I'm wiping new machines and reinstalling from disk when they arrive. Not to mention that the factory install of os X was seemingly screwed up on my MBP and missing tar and gnutar entirely.

ericb 19y ago
Going forward, I'm wiping new machines and reinstalling from disk when they arrive. Not to mention that the factory install of os X was seemingly screwed up on my MBP and missing tar and gnutar and I'm still not sure what else.
- eb 19y ago
  There was nothing wrong with your factory install. As I said in a previous reply, gnutar is installed as part of Apple's Xcode Tools. It is not included by default. There is no reason to format every factory-new machine that you receive. That's just paranoia. These incidents have been relatively rare.
  - ericb 19y ago
    And as I said in that post, I already had the Xcode Tools installed. In fact, based on your advice, I reinstalled the Xcode Tools to be sure. You're telling me that plain old tar should be missing, by default, on an OS X machine? I ended up taking tar and gnutar from a buddy's machine who did not have Xcode Tools installed. He's not a developer--he doesn't know what xcode is! He had both files from a clean install of his shiny new Leopard install disk. It's not paranoia. You trust strangers in China? What's the downside to reinstalling? Maybe an hour? The upside is reduced risk of someone emptying out your bank account. For these factory workers, the contents of one US bank account might be 5-10 years pay. If you think this is paranoia, hope you don't manage any security functions. I think it's just being safe.
    - eb 19y ago
      If you installed Xcode Tools/Developer Tools, then you have a copy of gnutar. Mac OS X, like other BSD systems, include their own version of userland tools in the base system. If you want the GNU version of specific tools, you have to install it separately. That's why gnutar is in MacPorts and that's why, if you extract the Developer Tools package, you'll find gnutar. It's not there by default. I find your claim that somehow your factory install is incomplete very unlikely. Your factory-new laptop is missing these specific files yet everything else operates normally? No.
      - ericb 19y ago
        Forget gnutar, let's talk about tar which was also missing. Can you show me that tar should be missing from a new os x install and is installed only with xcode tools? The problem is, if you could, that still wouldn't explain things, but I can tell you're dying to be right. Unlikely stuff happens, just less often. I appreciate that you were trying to be helpful and to you I'm just "random internet guy" but I'm being honest, I already fixed the problem, and it was as I am stating. Telling someone staring at a blue moon that "that's unlikely" is just going to piss them off. You've squandered the goodwill and karma your original helpful comment in the other thread merited. This conversation has nothing to do with xcode anymore, but a lot to do with tool. Can we stop the "it works on my machine" BS now and move on?
    - eb 19y ago
      It's foolish to live your life in fear, checking every meal you eat for poison. There are many things that require a leap of faith. Where's your tinfoil hat? These incidents mentioned in the article have been very rare. They did a pretty good job of scaring you. When a multinational conspiracy to steal your identity does occur, you'll be covered by your bank's insurance.
      - ericb 19y ago
        You mistake an easy risk management technique for paranoia. I leave it to you test the "bank insurance protects you from identity theft" plan. I invite you to try that out--these experiments usually go well: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm

4 points by ericb 19y ago

ericb 19y ago

eb 19y ago
There was nothing wrong with your factory install. As I said in a previous reply, gnutar is installed as part of Apple's Xcode Tools. It is not included by default. There is no reason to format every factory-new machine that you receive. That's just paranoia. These incidents have been relatively rare.
- ericb 19y ago
  And as I said in that post, I already had the Xcode Tools installed. In fact, based on your advice, I reinstalled the Xcode Tools to be sure. You're telling me that plain old tar should be missing, by default, on an OS X machine? I ended up taking tar and gnutar from a buddy's machine who did not have Xcode Tools installed. He's not a developer--he doesn't know what xcode is! He had both files from a clean install of his shiny new Leopard install disk. It's not paranoia. You trust strangers in China? What's the downside to reinstalling? Maybe an hour? The upside is reduced risk of someone emptying out your bank account. For these factory workers, the contents of one US bank account might be 5-10 years pay. If you think this is paranoia, hope you don't manage any security functions. I think it's just being safe.
  - eb 19y ago
    If you installed Xcode Tools/Developer Tools, then you have a copy of gnutar. Mac OS X, like other BSD systems, include their own version of userland tools in the base system. If you want the GNU version of specific tools, you have to install it separately. That's why gnutar is in MacPorts and that's why, if you extract the Developer Tools package, you'll find gnutar. It's not there by default. I find your claim that somehow your factory install is incomplete very unlikely. Your factory-new laptop is missing these specific files yet everything else operates normally? No.
    - ericb 19y ago
      Forget gnutar, let's talk about tar which was also missing. Can you show me that tar should be missing from a new os x install and is installed only with xcode tools? The problem is, if you could, that still wouldn't explain things, but I can tell you're dying to be right. Unlikely stuff happens, just less often. I appreciate that you were trying to be helpful and to you I'm just "random internet guy" but I'm being honest, I already fixed the problem, and it was as I am stating. Telling someone staring at a blue moon that "that's unlikely" is just going to piss them off. You've squandered the goodwill and karma your original helpful comment in the other thread merited. This conversation has nothing to do with xcode anymore, but a lot to do with tool. Can we stop the "it works on my machine" BS now and move on?
  - eb 19y ago
    It's foolish to live your life in fear, checking every meal you eat for poison. There are many things that require a leap of faith. Where's your tinfoil hat? These incidents mentioned in the article have been very rare. They did a pretty good job of scaring you. When a multinational conspiracy to steal your identity does occur, you'll be covered by your bank's insurance.
    - ericb 19y ago
      You mistake an easy risk management technique for paranoia. I leave it to you test the "bank insurance protects you from identity theft" plan. I invite you to try that out--these experiments usually go well: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm