azslow3

Anderton
 The latest example of ransomware using a command and control center in the Tor anonymizer network to encrypt data and then demand a ransom from iPhone users is perhaps something Apple couldn't have prevented, but apparently they didn't anticipate it, either.

That has absolutely nothing to do with Apple, as clear explained in the article.

 
Yes it does - it targeted Apple phones. One of Apple's points of pride was always the supposed immunity to the viruses and malware that affect the PC platform. There's no equivalent function I know of like UAC that lets you know when something wants to modify your system. Again, I don't claim to know about code so that may be making the wrong connection between the two, but it seems targeting Apple + no way of knowing your phone is being targeted makes Apple responsible on some level.
 

subtlearts
We always had an album's worth of music in the bag at the end of the week. It probably sounded terrible, by any reasonable standards, but I still look back very fondly on the music we made, and yes, on the process. No staring for hours at computer screens, no auto-tuning, no micro-editing MIDI velocities. A lot more playing, and a lot more fun. 
 
With 10 million options for every decision, I am far less productive and creative now.

IMHO too many people obsess about details that no listener cares about. I mentioned in another thread about my "Recording on the Fast Track" seminar, which is all about recording quickly and smoothly, and how I often put in one-knob "placeholder" effects to keep the process going...yet I often don't replace them at the mixing stage because they do what's needed.
 
Every now and then it's fun to give yourself a time limit on a song. I occasionally make a point of recording a song from start to finished mix in under four hours. It's a fun exercise 
 
Don't mean to hijack the thread about bugs, but just wanted to emphasize that those 10 million options are indeed optional. Live dangerously! Ignore most of them 

Anderton

azslow3

Anderton
 The latest example of ransomware using a command and control center in the Tor anonymizer network to encrypt data and then demand a ransom from iPhone users is perhaps something Apple couldn't have prevented, but apparently they didn't anticipate it, either.

That has absolutely nothing to do with Apple, as clear explained in the article.

Yes it does - it targeted Apple phones. One of Apple's points of pride was always the supposed immunity to the viruses and malware that affect the PC platform. There's no equivalent function I know of like UAC that lets you know when something wants to modify your system. Again, I don't claim to know about code so that may be making the wrong connection between the two, but it seems targeting Apple + no way of knowing your phone is being targeted makes Apple responsible on some level.

I do not think that Apple have ever claimed it is immune to programs in general. Let me describe parallel example (which I hope will never happened).
 
Let say someone has hacked my site and put (signed!) executable in place of AZ Controller. Reading this (official) Cakewalk forum, someone went to my site and has downloaded it. And that has installed the malware. Unlike with my original unsigned AZ Controller, he will not be warned by UAC. He will be asked to install signed(!) software, but that was his intention by downloading... He thought to install some software, just not the software he was really installing! And then, that someone will start to blame... Microsoft! He can also start to blame US President, as the head of the country which has registered Microsoft company while has asked Verisign to proof (and sell...) certificates for developer, from which the certificate was used to sign the malware...
 
In the original case, people blame Apple for trusting certification services which issued the certificate, probably stolen by hackers to sign bad program...
 
If you seriously think such a chain of responsibility is valid, you should agree that Cakewalk should take full responsibly not only for all Roland products with Cakewalk label but also for all other products from all other companies Cakewalk has ever claimed to be compatible with Sonar

Ah, I see what you're saying...as far as the iPhone was concerned, it was a totally legitimate program, vouched for by Apple as secure because it had the correct signature...right? In other words, it would be like a lock not knowing the key being used to open it had been stolen at gunpoint.
 
(But as an aside...early on Apple fans, and Apple in its promotions, emphasized that Apple computers were invulnerable to viruses and such, IIRC because parts of the OS loaded from ROM and couldn't be hacked. That seemed to have changed when Apple went to Intel processors. Concerns became exacerbated when Mac viruses started becoming more common in 2011 and Apple told support reps to neither confirm or deny if a customer's Mac was infected. I think that was also around the time of the Flashback malware? Suffice it to say I don't think Windows or Mac are safe, although so far no problems with either my Mac desktop or laptop.) 

Wow, this discussion took a strange trajectory.  Can we move the latter part to an Apple Forum ;)
 

Anderton
Ah, I see what you're saying...as far as the iPhone was concerned, it was a totally legitimate program, vouched for by Apple as secure because it had the correct signature...right? In other words, it would be like a lock not knowing the key being used to open it had been stolen at gunpoint.

According to the article, that was the case. And they have "banned" the key once informed.
 

(But as an aside...early on Apple fans, and Apple in its promotions, emphasized that Apple computers were invulnerable to viruses and such, IIRC because parts of the OS loaded from ROM and couldn't be hacked. That seemed to have changed when Apple went to Intel processors.

There is a (big) difference between viruses and malware. Virus is a program which enter your flat without a key, either breaking the window or by silently follow you when you come in. Only the first case is completely covered by the statement "invulnerable to viruses", with the second case all OSes are fighting hard. UAC, locked bios, "loaded from ROM" are targeting that scenario.
 
Malware is completely legit program from OS perspective. It is "a friend" you have invited yourself, which steal your guitar before leaving. If that guitar was locked in a strongbox, that will be a virus. But if you let him touch your guitar, how your "flat" can spot he is a "bad boy"?
 

Concerns became exacerbated when Mac viruses started becoming more common in 2011 and Apple told support reps to neither confirm or deny if a customer's Mac was infected.

You have found the article. What was your thoughts? Apple is not protecting iPhones... Windows save my passwords. What is common reaction? They spy us! And your are extremely smart person. How you think Aplle/Microsoft/(and looking in Analytics thread, Cakewalk) can explain "average" user what is really going on? Especially in case of support team, which normally has no XYZ system programming skills and users which wash hands after using computer mouse because "many viruses are transfered by mice".
 

RD9
Wow, this discussion took a strange trajectory.  Can we move the latter part to an Apple Forum ;)

I guess they will ban both of us quickly...

Anderton
Every now and then it's fun to give yourself a time limit on a song. I occasionally make a point of recording a song from start to finished mix in under four hours. It's a fun exercise 

Agreed (and also not trying to hijack the thread, though I guess this is pretty much the definition of off topic)... I actually started a project a few years ago - still alive but on hold while other things have priority - which is explicitly dedicated to this idea. It's called Sound Fascination, and it sprang from a desire to a) explore a more from-the-hip mode of composition, and b) use some of the 10 gazillion synth sounds and sample sets I've amassed over the years. Basically the concept is to find a sound that seems interesting, record pretty much the first thing that comes to my fingers on it, and base a piece on that - but the idea is to start and finish it in about an hour, or in any case in a single sitting, without stepping back and remixing or overthinking anything. Then it gets posted immediately to the blog. 
 
It's been a very illuminating project on a creative level, and much of the music - mostly kind of melodic ambient sketches - has found a new home in a soundtrack project I'm working on now, a kind of cinematic audiobook. You never know where these things will go! But if you don't start something, it rarely goes anywhere at all...

Apple have had some viruses in the past though. There was one that affected PC and Macs through images that were being picked up through things like google image search a few years ago.

Anderton

lingyai

jpetersen
Not sure how many clients I'd still have if I took that as a professional leitmotif.

Exactly. I code for a living -- complex financial models ... they could get me sued / fined.

But presumably your company has the money to pay for that degree of quality control, as well as personnel with the required expertise not to make mistakes. 
....
A factor that's often overlooked is how much are people really willing to pay for bug-free software? I'm not just talking about SONAR by any means. ... I'm sure SONAR could be very close to bug-free if Platinum cost $15,000.
 

The Linn drum, Fairlight and Synclavier were high ticket and yet buggy items because they were low volume.
 
I do project software and similarly to lingyai, it's a question of diligence and taking client's concerns seriously. If a bug is holding up a project I jump immediately or risk losing that client forever.
 
Comparing problem reports to bugs actually fixed reflects on how seriously client's concerns are taken.
 
And the question on who decides what bugs to fix is still open.
 
I was struck speechless when I read in Newburyport that the Clean Audio Folders utility, something that was written for the Windows 3.1 days and which everybody uses once and then never again, after over a decade it has suddenly been discovered that it could hang when scanning multiple drives and has been given priority to have this fixed.
 

This is simply an absurd statement..and completely misses the point.
 

Anderton
 
A factor that's often overlooked is how much are people really willing to pay for bug-free software? I'm not just talking about SONAR by any means. When you have a tiny, overcrowded market competing with free downloads from torrents, and users who by and large aren't CEOs of multibillion corporations and don't have a lot of disposable income, something's gotta give. I'm sure SONAR could be very close to bug-free if Platinum cost $15,000.
 

 
This is an engineering view of an engineering problem...
 
What we currently have with Sonar is a developmental philosophy which on a monthly basis introduces new features and hence ALSO clearly introduces the opportunity for new bugs...  This is just a poor process from a Q&A perspective as at no time is there a known gold release to fall back to, and is significantly inferior a methodology than the prior annual (plus 1-4 maintenance updates).
 
Were new features quarterly, with space for maintenance monthly interims if required, then it would be different, but as it is?.. it simply leaves me dumbfounded...
 
monthly updates ?.. it. makes. no. sense.