4 ms·

You would think that at least geeks would be appalled by Apple and avoid their products because of this. But every geek I know (save one or two) is raving about

by geoka9 15y ago

You would think that at least geeks would be appalled by Apple and avoid their products because of this. But every geek I know (save one or two) is raving about their Apple gadgets.

tlrobinson 15y ago
It's a little like how people are aware that farm animals are often mistreated, but meat is delicious so they eat it anyway. Yum.
Bud 15y ago
Most Apple products, of course, are not $59 DB-9 cables. They're a bit more functional and have a bit more design appeal than that, to be fair. I'm sure you agree.
blhack 15y ago
You can make that three geeks. I got pretty upset earlier this week. I wanted to do a site-survey of the wireless network that covers my company's campus. The iPad is a wonderful tool for this, you'd think. It has a wifi chip, and a GPS. What I wanted was to drive around and pair signal strengths with GPS locations. Except I can't do this on my iPad because Apple doesn't want me to. The API for getting wifi signal strength is off limits, and utilizing it will keep you out of the app store, which is the only legitimate pathway to getting applications onto the device. They've built the tricorder from star trek...but they've locked it inside of a box and won't let anybody use it. This is absurd to me. Here apple has this really wonderful piece of hardware that is packed full of all kinds of sensors and things, and they're telling me that I can only use them for playing silly games? What the hell is that? I ended up still doing the site survey, I even used apple hardware to do it, but the amount of hoops I had to jump through[1] was stupid. [1]: I wrote a few lines of javascript that pulled GPS data from the geolocation api, and then called an ajax script to log this info into a mysql database with a timestamp. I then ran a script on my laptop that polled System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport, and parsed the output for signal strength. This got logged into another file, with a timestamp. It was a simple matter to mesh these files together, and generate a KML file for google earth. Now...this is all accessible to me because I'm a hacker; it should be accessible to everybody, and it shouldn't require that amount of duct tape and chicken wire.
- endgame 15y ago
  Four geeks. Proprietary control (at the software or hardware level) isn't some abstract bogeyman that only Free Software Hippies need to worry about. It's a very real threat.
  - econgeeker 15y ago
    Except that Apple doesn't exercise any proprietary control, except if you want to sell in the App store. If you just want to hack on your hardware, Apple doesn't care. You might void your warranty, but that's it. Apple keeps the consumers protected, and doesn't stop the hackers. This "very real threat" is literally an imaginary bogeyman that only "Free[1]" Software Hippies care about. [1] So long as you use our license and only our license and never express an opinion contrary to the Chairman Richard Mao Stallman. PS -- I've never met a real geek who thought Apple was exercising proprietary control outside of their realm. All of the people who complain about Apple like this-- that I know personally-- are not geeks who got into linux (and the "free" ideology) because it was cool, not because they're really hackers with engineering skills. But that's just my personal experience. Of course, they think they are the "real geeks" and that people who use macs use them because "they come with training wheels" and stuff like that.
    - blhack 15y ago
      >I've never met a real geek who thought Apple was exercising proprietary control outside of their realm. All of the people who complain about Apple like this-- that I know personally-- are not geeks who got into linux (and the "free" ideology) because it was cool, not because they're really hackers with engineering skills. Is this a joke? The real hackers are...apple fans, and the people who got into linux because they thought it was cool are all a bunch of posers? M. Night Shyamalan, is that you?
- econgeeker 15y ago
  Wait, did you want to hack together a solution, or sell something in the App Store? You can run any software you want on your devices without Apple caring at all. Either your company is an enterprise licensee, or you pay your $99. Big deal. $99 keeps the script kiddies out-- you know the ones who download iOS betas to show their friends and then complain that they managed to brick their device?
econgeeker 15y ago
Wait, why should a geek be appalled that Apple cares about the quality of accessories people sell? Its not like two weeks ago, before this product, you wouldn't hook an iPhone up to an RS-232 port! You could always do that if you wanted to hack together a solution. Apple just made it official. And really, $60? Seems a bit high, but there's the fact that this is a specialty product for a specialty market, and realy, if you're hardware hacking the time savings of buying a working product is well worth the $60. I truly do not understand the idea that "geeks" wouldn't love Apple. To me, geeks are either people who really love technology, or people who have very strong engineering skills. I have both. And because of both, I really appreciate Apple doesn't waste my time , money or energy with crap. Apple makes first rate products, and that means I get to spend more time geeking. People also seem to think that Apple has everything locked down. I don't see that at all-- you can work with nonstandard hardware if you're a developer by using the Apple supplied accessory SDK. Sure, consumers-- that is to say, non-geeks,-- are kept from hurting themselves to some extent by Apple, but that's a good thing. Means I can recommend their products to my mom.

by geoka9 15y ago

You would think that at least geeks would be appalled by Apple and avoid their products because of this. But every geek I know (save one or two) is raving about their Apple gadgets.

tlrobinson 15y ago

It's a little like how people are aware that farm animals are often mistreated, but meat is delicious so they eat it anyway. Yum.

Bud 15y ago

Most Apple products, of course, are not $59 DB-9 cables. They're a bit more functional and have a bit more design appeal than that, to be fair. I'm sure you agree.

blhack 15y ago

You can make that three geeks. I got pretty upset earlier this week. I wanted to do a site-survey of the wireless network that covers my company's campus. The iPad is a wonderful tool for this, you'd think. It has a wifi chip, and a GPS. What I wanted was to drive around and pair signal strengths with GPS locations. Except I can't do this on my iPad because Apple doesn't want me to. The API for getting wifi signal strength is off limits, and utilizing it will keep you out of the app store, which is the only legitimate pathway to getting applications onto the device. They've built the tricorder from star trek...but they've locked it inside of a box and won't let anybody use it. This is absurd to me. Here apple has this really wonderful piece of hardware that is packed full of all kinds of sensors and things, and they're telling me that I can only use them for playing silly games? What the hell is that? I ended up still doing the site survey, I even used apple hardware to do it, but the amount of hoops I had to jump through[1] was stupid. [1]: I wrote a few lines of javascript that pulled GPS data from the geolocation api, and then called an ajax script to log this info into a mysql database with a timestamp. I then ran a script on my laptop that polled System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport, and parsed the output for signal strength. This got logged into another file, with a timestamp. It was a simple matter to mesh these files together, and generate a KML file for google earth. Now...this is all accessible to me because I'm a hacker; it should be accessible to everybody, and it shouldn't require that amount of duct tape and chicken wire.

endgame 15y ago
Four geeks. Proprietary control (at the software or hardware level) isn't some abstract bogeyman that only Free Software Hippies need to worry about. It's a very real threat.
- econgeeker 15y ago
  Except that Apple doesn't exercise any proprietary control, except if you want to sell in the App store. If you just want to hack on your hardware, Apple doesn't care. You might void your warranty, but that's it. Apple keeps the consumers protected, and doesn't stop the hackers. This "very real threat" is literally an imaginary bogeyman that only "Free[1]" Software Hippies care about. [1] So long as you use our license and only our license and never express an opinion contrary to the Chairman Richard Mao Stallman. PS -- I've never met a real geek who thought Apple was exercising proprietary control outside of their realm. All of the people who complain about Apple like this-- that I know personally-- are not geeks who got into linux (and the "free" ideology) because it was cool, not because they're really hackers with engineering skills. But that's just my personal experience. Of course, they think they are the "real geeks" and that people who use macs use them because "they come with training wheels" and stuff like that.
  - blhack 15y ago
    >I've never met a real geek who thought Apple was exercising proprietary control outside of their realm. All of the people who complain about Apple like this-- that I know personally-- are not geeks who got into linux (and the "free" ideology) because it was cool, not because they're really hackers with engineering skills. Is this a joke? The real hackers are...apple fans, and the people who got into linux because they thought it was cool are all a bunch of posers? M. Night Shyamalan, is that you?
econgeeker 15y ago
Wait, did you want to hack together a solution, or sell something in the App Store? You can run any software you want on your devices without Apple caring at all. Either your company is an enterprise licensee, or you pay your $99. Big deal. $99 keeps the script kiddies out-- you know the ones who download iOS betas to show their friends and then complain that they managed to brick their device?

econgeeker 15y ago

Wait, why should a geek be appalled that Apple cares about the quality of accessories people sell? Its not like two weeks ago, before this product, you wouldn't hook an iPhone up to an RS-232 port! You could always do that if you wanted to hack together a solution. Apple just made it official. And really, $60? Seems a bit high, but there's the fact that this is a specialty product for a specialty market, and realy, if you're hardware hacking the time savings of buying a working product is well worth the $60. I truly do not understand the idea that "geeks" wouldn't love Apple. To me, geeks are either people who really love technology, or people who have very strong engineering skills. I have both. And because of both, I really appreciate Apple doesn't waste my time , money or energy with crap. Apple makes first rate products, and that means I get to spend more time geeking. People also seem to think that Apple has everything locked down. I don't see that at all-- you can work with nonstandard hardware if you're a developer by using the Apple supplied accessory SDK. Sure, consumers-- that is to say, non-geeks,-- are kept from hurting themselves to some extent by Apple, but that's a good thing. Means I can recommend their products to my mom.