Being able to log in twice as the same user does not shout any obvious advantages at me, but that might just be that they are advantages but not obvious in my use.
PDF will sometime have its faults too, as we agree nothing is invulnerable, so its best to plan well. We also both hope Apple is doing so but its unclear until its implemented longer. The FTP with the Finder thing, eh, the Finder sucks for FTP and FTP is not a secure protocol. Also FTP use of the Finder is very limited. I think we will see this change a lot in the future.
The whole point of services and core resources is to share the ability of one application with others so that you do not have to double up on functionality everywhere you want it, you can just tap what already exists. A very basic example would be the system wide spell checker. I agree it can be scary and it needs to be done with gloves on and a lot of consideration. I hope they do it well.
Most users do not download a file that comes in compressed in an archive to store it, they do so to use it immediately. Those users also generally don't understand what .sit is, what an archive is, what compression is, or why they should care. Those same people are so used to closing dialog boxes without reading them just clicking OK over and over that putting in another one does not fix the issue. Its a very tough spot to be in. None of these concepts are hard, yet the masses are not real eager to learn them.
Folder actions is an excellent example of depth of a product. However, most users do not get to the point where they know what a folder action is let alone how to use it. Most aren't even familiar with the name. And if you explain those steps to the average joe he will say, why can't I have it like it was before when I didn't have to do these steps [even though its a one time thing]. People view it as a disruption, it sucks really, they want a lot of things that are very hard to deliver and even harder to deliver safely. So there is a call for balance.
I disagree with the problem not having some grounding in the OS knowing between a file and an application. People will always be misled, we can rightfully shift the blame to those who infect their own computer by double clicking a virus and say, the OS did what you told it to. But that does not fix the situation, the problem still occurred, the virus still infected the system, the data was still lost, the downtime still occurred, the IT people still ran up over time, the damage was done.
Blanket solutions generally suck. Companies block all attachments from e-mail because they can't trust their users to know what is good and what is bad. Companies tell their employees don't open any attachments. Its silly, it defeats the whole purpose of the functionality. Yet the solution lies in balancing the responsibility of the user and the system to protect themselves. I don't have any illusions about it being an easy road.
David
On Apr 13, 2004, at 12:26 PM, Peter da Silva wrote:
I don't know what you're calling virtual consoles but they're definitely a
local thing here, the main difference is that I can log on twice with the
same user ID using virtual consoles, I can't with FUS.
No if Apple is very very careful. But Apple has already done
things like using Finder as the default FTP helper that indicate they're
not being careful.
That's good. IF the HTML engine is completely separate from ANY internet
related APIs and resources. Otherwise it's just a matter of time before
someone opens the door a little too wide...
And I'd almost rather go the other way, and take more advantage of the PDF
core in Quartz rather than introduce a new rendering model.
I don't think they should do that. I don't think they should hide archives
and compression utilities from users. It's *not* a big hurdle, and it *is*
a very dangerous hole.
I download a .sit and I sometimes open it right away, sometimes I set it
aside. If you want to have it automatically exploded then:
1. Set up a folder action to do it. 2. Set that folder as your download folder.
That way you have a single place where this happens and a single folder that
you have to worry about. Save files elsewhere and they don't leave timebombs
around the place. What should be the default?
"You're downloading a file for the first time. Would you like me to set up a download directory where downloaded files will automatically be unpacked...?"
The vulnerability is not "double clicking a file runs code". The vulnerability
is "users can't be sure whether it's safe to double-click a file".
You can create an application called "virus.mp3" with an iTunes icon and
get the same result.
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