If you’re headed home for the holidays and are dreading your family’s tech questions, this episode of Query is for you.
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Kbase Article of the Week: Lisa 7/7: Installing the Office System⇢
More Lisa goodness this week:
If the system reboots at any time during installation of the Lisa Office System software, make sure the diskettes are not write-protected. The red tab must show through to the front of the micro diskette for the Lisa Office system to use the diskette.
TeeVee #363: ‘Mr. Robot’ Season 3 Wrap-up Review⇢
I sat down with Jason Snell and Federico Viticci to discuss season 3 of Mr. Robot, which has become one of my favorite shows of all time.
Liftoff #62: Get Out of Low Earth Orbit⇢
After wading through a busy fortnight’s news including Trump’s lunar directive, Stephen and Jason wrap up their series on Project Gemini.
My thanks to our two sponsors:
- Squarespace: Make your next move. Enter offer code LIFTOFF at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase.
- Storyworth: A new way to bring the family together.
About Secure Boot⇢
Apple has clarified the Secure Boot function of the iMac Pro’s embedded T2 chip:
Full Security is the default Secure Boot setting, offering the highest level of security. This is a level of security previously available only on iOS devices.
During startup when Medium Security is turned on, your Mac verifies the OS on your startup disk only by making sure that it has been properly signed by Apple (macOS) or Microsoft (Windows). This doesn’t require an Internet connection or updated integrity information from Apple, so it doesn’t prevent your Mac from using an OS that is no longer trusted by Apple.
Connected #173: The Final Robin⇢
This week, on the year’s last episode of Connected:
Round out 2017 with fake apps and an anti-wishlist.
My thanks to our sponsors:
- Balance Open: Find out more about Balance Open and get $2 in Ethereum.
- TextExpander, from Smile: Communicate smarter with TextExpander. Get 20% off your first year when you tell them you came from this show.
- Incapsula: Secure and accelerate your website. Connected listeners get one month free.
Mozilla Foolishly Ships Mr. Robot Plugin⇢
Mozilla sneaked a browser plugin that promotes Mr. Robot into Firefox—and managed to piss off a bunch of its privacy-conscious users in the process.
The extension, called Looking Glass, is intended to promote an augmented reality game to “further your immersion into the Mr. Robot universe,” according to Mozilla. It was automatically added to Firefox users’ browsers this week with no explanation except the cryptic message, “MY REALITY IS JUST DIFFERENT THAN YOURS,” prompting users to worry on Reddit that they’d been hit with spyware.
But What About the Mac mini?
By writing about the next-generation Mac Pro, I invited the inevitable question:
But what about the Mac mini?
As bad as the Mac Pro’s lot in life has become, the Mac mini isn’t far behind it. The machine was last updated in late 2014 and is still powered by Haswell Core i5s and i7s. Those chips are one generation older than the MacBook Air. To make matter worse, that model removed the ability to upgrade the RAM in the machine.
Mac Pro Pricing Over Time⇢
I was reminded of this old article of Marco’s today. Will be interesting to see if my hopes for a lower-cost entry model come true.
Considering the (Future) Mac Pro’s Role in the iMac Pro World
While it isn’t shipping for another couple of weeks we now know a lot more about the iMac Pro than we did after WWDC. The base model, with its 8 cores, 32 GB of RAM and the Radeon Pro Vega 56 is going to smoke any other Mac on the market easily. The high-end models, which aren’t shipping until early next year, will give macOS-using professionals more power than ever.
That power comes at a cost, of course. A 14-core machine with 128 GB RAM the Radeon Pro Vega 64 will run you $13,199. If you want a VESA mount, toss in another $75, while another $149 will get you the mouse and the trackpad, both in Space Gray.
On the iMac Pro’s Apparent DFU Restore Mode⇢
The T2 chip in the new iMac Pro is doing a lot of stuff, including offering boot protection for macOS:
⑤ Security. This new chip means storage encryption keys pass from the secure enclave to the hardware encryption engine in-chip — your key never leaves the chip. And, they it allows for hardware verification of OS, kernel, boot loader, firmware, etc. (This can be disabled…) pic.twitter.com/qKJ6bHdtr8
— Cabel Sasser (@cabel) December 12, 2017
Net Neutrality Repealed⇢
Despite last-minute requests to delay the December 14 vote from some Republican members of Congress, it went through as scheduled, thanks to the support of a much longer list of Republicans who favored the repeal and urged the vote to be held without delay. As had been heavily predicted for months, the vote was split 3-2 along party lines, with the FCC chair Ajit Pai and the other Republican members Michael O’Rielly and Brendan Carr voting for repeal and Democratic commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel voting to protect it.