[geeks] Mac definitions (was: Smart phone data usage)

[Jonathan Patschke]

On Thu, 7 Jul 2011, Sandwich Maker wrote:

> " My dad has tools older than me, which are just as useful working on my
> " truck as they were working on his dad's cars.  Yet, the players in this
> " industry can't hold direction for a decade at a time.
>
> not a fair comparison.  rate of tech evolution in the auto industry
> has been more evolutionary than revolutionary since about 1930,
> whereas the pace of change in computers has 5yo tech outdated.

It'd be an unfair comparison if modern operating systems weren't
variations on 30-year-old themes.  This sort of junk is just change for
the sake of change, though.

> having said that, the auto industry seems to be doing its best to
> eliminate diy repairs.  a fellow jeep-lister who works at a gm
> dealership told of replacing a door on a chevy pickup recently.  it
> required reprogramming/updating the car security system;

The rest of the auto industry is thankfully nowhere near as insane as
General Motors.

> and yet, they put entertainment systems on the canbus without any
> firewalling between the bluetooth transceiver and the pcm.

Oh yes, you can sniff (and poke!) all manner of interesting things with a
'232<->CAN bridge.

> just armchair qb - arch linux?  supposed to be less stupid / more geek
> oriented than most.

I've heard of it, and will probably try it in a VM.  There's an audio
application[0] I'd like to play with, and it really only wants to run on
Linux.


[0] Din: http://dinisnoise.org/
-- 
Jonathan Patschke |
Elgin, TX         | "He who is contented is rich." -- Lao Tzu
USA               |