I prefer StuffIt over BOMArchiveHelper.app because StuffIt shows a status bar. Who cares if it's a little slower (which StuffIt seems to be), I prefer to know how long it's going to take. What's better: knowing it'll be a minute, or sitting there with NO clue for 50 seconds?

UPDATE: I just tested this on my old 10.3 Mac... and the same thing happens! How long has this been the case? I could have sworn I've used 'locate' many times in the past and not seen other users' files. Hmm...

(OK, now onto the original post.)

One of the first things I noticed in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard seems to be a bad change and I can't imagine why Apple made it. 'Locate' has worked fine since 10.0 came out over six years ago. (UPDATE part 2: seems I'm wrong--testing 'locate' on a 10.3 box shows the same insecure behavior--so I guess the only new thing is that they show the warning. This is so, so weird--I swear it didn't used to do that. I thought OS X just silently used 'slocate' like most Linux distros do.) Now that I've updated to 10.5, when I say
sudo /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb
it tells me
>>> WARNING
>>> Executing updatedb as root. This WILL reveal all filenames
>>> on your machine to all login users, which is a security risk.

Sure enough, if I 'su -' to another user, create a file with a unique name, switch back to me, and 'locate' that file, it pops right up. Why?

Just wanted to jot down one thought while it's in my head.

The 4 GB iPhone costs $100 more than the 8 GB iPod. For that, you lose 4 GB, but you gain...

Apple, you crafty bastards. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Mac minis. I'd love to get a new one but ever since they made the move to Intel, they've been overpriced. Apple quietly revved them earlier this month--the same day they introduced iLife 08--which leads me to my dilema: do I buy a cheap, refurbished, old model, or do I spend the full price on a new one and get iLife 08? Decisions, decisions.

The iPhone needs...
- voice recording capability (to take notes while driving)
- a scientific calculator (square root, sin/cos/tan, etc.)
- the ability to shoot video
- the ability to send MMS (text message + pic/video, for sending pics to friends who don't have email on their phone)
Anything else? Leave a comment below.

Just a few random notes re: things shown in the Keynote. This isn't commentary on every single point, just the ones that matter to me--mostly with regard to UI.

Apple has released a beta of Safari 3 for Windows. I will mostly talk about the UI compared to Safri on OS X and other Windows apps, but I'll also point out a couple new Safri 3 features.

I am soooo happy that Apple switched to Intel CPUs. Not because I care about x86 vs PPC, but because the new chips kick ass in general, and because they make one very cool thing possible.

Some people are complaining that Apple's new ads just spend too much time making fun of Microsoft. But a) Microsoft deserves it and b) Apple warned them.

One of my favorite quotes, ever:

"The aim is to 'commodotise the protocol'. By giving the stack away, maybe we can stop everyone obsessing over how to format the bits on the wire, and get them writing applications instead."

Craig Southeren, co-founder of OpenH323, 1998