Not if you have a firmware password enabled. That will prevent the computer from going into firewire target disk mode at all. That is a moot point, though. If the attacker has physical access to your system, there are ways for them to get to your data even if you have welded all of the ports closed (firewire, USB, ethernet, CD drive, etc.) You have to use File Vault or whole disk encryption to stop a physical attack.
Exactly, there are even ways around a firmware password (don't ask)
Or ripping the drive out of the machine and physically taking the platters out and reading them that way.
If the data on the drive is not in some form of the latest unbreakable encryption with a huge 30+ character password, it can be read.
Also dealing with Uncle Sam, with vast computers, manpower, money and secret deals/backdoors with industry that may leave them with a access code to the highest encryption standards.
Even if my tin-foil hat is a bit tight, there are also DNA computers of such huge calculation ability, which can calculate all the answers against your encrypted data based upon 100+ character password combinations of all a keys on a keyboard.
With a DNA computer, they can get all the answers, but it takes a considerable time finding the answers in that huge haystack. So back to a bank of supercomputers to sort though the answers.
Oh, I don't think any data is safe if Uncle Sam puts his mind to getting it.
Best data security is encrypted and portable, easily destroyed, like a SD card for instance. Provided Uncle Sam didn't trick you to visit a web site that installed a root kit, or snuck into your house and installed it that way or left a disk laying around for you to insert.
Personally, I hate the spring loaded slots as they never work right and tend to lead you to leaving the card in the device, but I would bet that the main reason they left such a mechanism out is that they are telling you (wordlessly) that the card is a temporary storage port and not a spare removable HD.
I can understand why there might be an occasional problem, I can't say I remember ever having a problem with spring loaded slot.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmurchison
Funny how our individual experiences mold our preferences.
I once had a HP work laptop and I popped my card in and it fit flush. Great ...downloaded my photos and all that and then "out of sight..out of mind" I forgot about it. Days later I'm grabbing my camera and I wonder where a bunch of my pics are. "Oh shit!" I left it in the laptop.
To me a card sticking out slighly is in fact a reminder that it's there and I like it.
It doesn't need to stick out half that far to serve that purpose.
Quote:
Originally Posted by macnyc
Exactly! about time too! And while we're at it, let's have one format already!
One format what? Card format? Video file format?
Quote:
Originally Posted by mitchelljd
maybe, but you could always turn the expresscard slot or USB into SD accessable.
I don't know if it's changed, but when I bought my EC multicard reader, none of them allowed the notebook to sleep when it's in the slot. So I have to leave it out if I want battery life. I don't know if anyone is at fault for that, but the practical upshot is that it wasn't as useful as it could have been.
Quote:
You can only turn an SD slot into very few things. it makes the laptop very very limited on what you can add to it.
But I can say that I use SD far more often than I use Express Card. Even though one of my camcorders uses Express Card as its physical media format, I still use SD far, far more. And apparently most people never use the EC slot if Apple's research is correct.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Haggar
And what about people with professional cameras that use Compact Flash cards?
That's kind of unfortunate, but my gut feeling is that SD is probably a far more commonly used card format.
One step would be to deliver OS X on an SD card (this will require all Macs to have the slot of course). But Apple could offer both retail packages options. That seems very un-Apple though.
They wouldn?t have to do that right away. When SL comes out they could just start selling all new Mac notebooks with the SD card restore disc. The problem is Mac desktops and the MacBook Air, if these don?t get the SD card port then I don?t see this an option. There is nothing from keeping Apple from using USB flash drives here, which every Mac already has and is going nowhere anytime soon.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TBell
Keep in mind if you have two Firewire enabled Macs now you can use one to access the other overriding any passwords. Firewire treats one drive as a master drive, and the other as a slave. The user level of the master drive dictates what you can access on the slave drive. So if you sign in on the master drive as an administrative user you will not be able to access a password protected user account on a slave drive. However, if you sign in as a root user on the master drive, you can easily by-pass any user passwords on the slave drive. I do it all the time.
You can do this with an external USB drive, too. Just hold down the Option key and choose the partition to boot from.
They wouldn?t have to do that right away. When SL comes out they could just start selling all new Mac notebooks with the SD card restore disc. The problem is Mac desktops and the MacBook Air, if these don?t get the SD card port then I don?t see this an option. There is nothing from keeping Apple from using USB flash drives here, which every Mac already has and is going nowhere anytime soon.
You can do this with an external USB drive, too. Just hold down the Option key and choose the partition to boot from.
Seems that a SD card left in the slot could be a very useful Time Machine backup drive for files that are not huge. Email/text/data files could be easily stored on a SD card. Sure, it would not fit all your video/audio projects, but for the day to day small files that we use, it could be the ticket.
I wish I had this a few weeks ago. My fucking camera irreversibly destroyed 100 of my holiday photos when i was in the process of transferring them using the supplied cable.
I'm pretty sure this is the exact purpose that Apple *doesn't* want you to use the slot for. It's that kind of gimmickry that is really out of place in the Mac World and one of the main reasons they don't generally like to put card readers on their devices.
Personally, I hate the spring loaded slots as they never work right and tend to lead you to leaving the card in the device, but I would bet that the main reason they left such a mechanism out is that they are telling you (wordlessly) that the card is a temporary storage port and not a spare removable HD.
Could you provide a reason, either technical or business, that Apple would care? Or would feel compelled to "wordless" tell me not to use the SD card slot for something other than transferring files between devices?
Letting it be a boot device, and having a support article specifically outlining how to format an SD card to be a boot device, certainly doesn't support your theory. I've used CF cards in a PC Card adaptor at a Time Machine backup drive on my old PB so that I'd have an automatic backup of my documents that I was working on while traveling. Works great.
I'm not saying there weren't reasons Apple didn't make it a flush slot (ie, space constraints), but I highly doubt it was for the reason you suggest.
BTW: Does anyone know if the 15" MBP's SD slot also leaves the card sticking out? There would certainly be enough space for a flush, spring-loaded slot. And considering the space they freed up by removing the ExpressCard slot, they could have at least added another USB or FW port.
BTW: Does anyone know if the 15" MBP's SD slot also leaves the card sticking out? There would certainly be enough space for a flush, spring-loaded slot. And considering the space they freed up by removing the ExpressCard slot, they could have at least added another USB or FW port.
.......but I would bet that the main reason they left such a mechanism out is that they are telling you (wordlessly) that the card is a temporary storage port and not a spare removable HD.
Perfectly stated! This is what I see as Apples game plan.
Can we please already drop CDs. Its been 20 years. Its time to switch to new media storage.
It was bad enough when album covers disappeared - some real art and writing was lost. CDs at least preserved some semblance of both (which is the only reason I continue to buy them).
Soon, it will be, "Hey, Mr. Musician, can you please autograph my SD card?"
Can't wait for the day to come. Ancient media, those are.
And I really don't give a sweet damn that the SD card doesn't sit flush. It isn't like you're going to leave it in there like some expanded storage module on a netbook or a camera. It's not an external HD. Slip it in, copy or move around files, then take it out.
BTW: Does anyone know if the 15" MBP's SD slot also leaves the card sticking out? There would certainly be enough space for a flush, spring-loaded slot. And considering the space they freed up by removing the ExpressCard slot, they could have at least added another USB or FW port.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr Strange Lulz
Yeah I wondered that to...
We can't be sure until we see the teardiwns of the 15" and 17" MBPs, but it's possible that there was less room to work with after The line-in jack was removed from the 13" MBP. Though looking at the 13" MBP and previous MBP teardowns it looks like it would have been tough just to get it in that far.
PS: To those who think Jobs didn't know about this change or had no say on it, be assured that the CEO who only took a leave of absence 5 months ago knew exactly what was coming.
But I can say that I use SD far more often than I use Express Card. Even though one of my camcorders uses Express Card as its physical media format, I still use SD far, far more. And apparently most people never use the EC slot if Apple's research is correct.
well, i can tell you that I do use my expresscard and i would miss it!!!! i use it for my internet when travelling, on a Verizon card.
1. I've taken SD cards out of spring loaded slots tens of thousands of times on laptops, camera's, cell phones and have never once, not a single instance had a problem with one, ever.
2. The card does not stick out 1/2 way. It sticks out exactly 1.1 centimeter. A standard SD card is 4 cm long.
3. I can confirm that I was able to set up time machine effortlessly with my 32gb Patriot SD card on my new 13" Macbook Pro. Tomorrow I am installing a 128GB Corsair SSD and 4gb Ram as soon as UPS drops them off, and I will do some speed tests for booting from Harddrive, SSD, and SD card.
Can't wait for the day to come. Ancient media, those are.
...It isn't like you're going to leave it (SD) in there like some expanded storage module on a netbook or a camera. It's not an external HD...
The good thing about cd/dvds is once it's burned, it stays that way. SD, USB etc data can get corrupted or pwned as it can be changed. But yes, disk storage days are numbered.
Having the ability to leave a large capacity SD card inside a laptop for a auto file backup/Time Machine or in the case when a 2TB capacity SDXC rolls out for Macs, a auto-cloned boot drive, would be a good thing.
SD cards hanging half out isn't a good thing, they are small and easily forgotten, laptop shoved into a carrying bag etc. A flush mounted spring release would have been better IMMO.
1. I've taken SD cards out of spring loaded slots tens of thousands of times on laptops, camera's, cell phones and have never once, not a single instance had a problem with one, ever.
2. The card does not stick out 1/2 way. It sticks out exactly 1.1 centimeter. A standard SD card is 4 cm long.
3. I can confirm that I was able to set up time machine effortlessly with my 32gb Patriot SD card on my new 13" Macbook Pro. Tomorrow I am installing a 128GB Corsair SSD and 4gb Ram as soon as UPS drops them off, and I will do some speed tests for booting from Harddrive, SSD, and SD card.
Cool!
I'm going to guess here, your boot time for the Patriot 32GB SDHC will be apx 3x slower than your hard drive.
Comments
Not if you have a firmware password enabled. That will prevent the computer from going into firewire target disk mode at all. That is a moot point, though. If the attacker has physical access to your system, there are ways for them to get to your data even if you have welded all of the ports closed (firewire, USB, ethernet, CD drive, etc.) You have to use File Vault or whole disk encryption to stop a physical attack.
Exactly, there are even ways around a firmware password (don't ask)
Or ripping the drive out of the machine and physically taking the platters out and reading them that way.
If the data on the drive is not in some form of the latest unbreakable encryption with a huge 30+ character password, it can be read.
Also dealing with Uncle Sam, with vast computers, manpower, money and secret deals/backdoors with industry that may leave them with a access code to the highest encryption standards.
Even if my tin-foil hat is a bit tight, there are also DNA computers of such huge calculation ability, which can calculate all the answers against your encrypted data based upon 100+ character password combinations of all a keys on a keyboard.
With a DNA computer, they can get all the answers, but it takes a considerable time finding the answers in that huge haystack. So back to a bank of supercomputers to sort though the answers.
Oh, I don't think any data is safe if Uncle Sam puts his mind to getting it.
Best data security is encrypted and portable, easily destroyed, like a SD card for instance. Provided Uncle Sam didn't trick you to visit a web site that installed a root kit, or snuck into your house and installed it that way or left a disk laying around for you to insert.
Ok, end tin foil hat mode.
Personally, I hate the spring loaded slots as they never work right and tend to lead you to leaving the card in the device, but I would bet that the main reason they left such a mechanism out is that they are telling you (wordlessly) that the card is a temporary storage port and not a spare removable HD.
I can understand why there might be an occasional problem, I can't say I remember ever having a problem with spring loaded slot.
Funny how our individual experiences mold our preferences.
I once had a HP work laptop and I popped my card in and it fit flush. Great ...downloaded my photos and all that and then "out of sight..out of mind" I forgot about it. Days later I'm grabbing my camera and I wonder where a bunch of my pics are. "Oh shit!" I left it in the laptop.
To me a card sticking out slighly is in fact a reminder that it's there and I like it.
It doesn't need to stick out half that far to serve that purpose.
Exactly! about time too! And while we're at it, let's have one format already!
One format what? Card format? Video file format?
maybe, but you could always turn the expresscard slot or USB into SD accessable.
I don't know if it's changed, but when I bought my EC multicard reader, none of them allowed the notebook to sleep when it's in the slot. So I have to leave it out if I want battery life. I don't know if anyone is at fault for that, but the practical upshot is that it wasn't as useful as it could have been.
You can only turn an SD slot into very few things. it makes the laptop very very limited on what you can add to it.
But I can say that I use SD far more often than I use Express Card. Even though one of my camcorders uses Express Card as its physical media format, I still use SD far, far more. And apparently most people never use the EC slot if Apple's research is correct.
And what about people with professional cameras that use Compact Flash cards?
That's kind of unfortunate, but my gut feeling is that SD is probably a far more commonly used card format.
One step would be to deliver OS X on an SD card (this will require all Macs to have the slot of course). But Apple could offer both retail packages options. That seems very un-Apple though.
They wouldn?t have to do that right away. When SL comes out they could just start selling all new Mac notebooks with the SD card restore disc. The problem is Mac desktops and the MacBook Air, if these don?t get the SD card port then I don?t see this an option. There is nothing from keeping Apple from using USB flash drives here, which every Mac already has and is going nowhere anytime soon.
Keep in mind if you have two Firewire enabled Macs now you can use one to access the other overriding any passwords. Firewire treats one drive as a master drive, and the other as a slave. The user level of the master drive dictates what you can access on the slave drive. So if you sign in on the master drive as an administrative user you will not be able to access a password protected user account on a slave drive. However, if you sign in as a root user on the master drive, you can easily by-pass any user passwords on the slave drive. I do it all the time.
You can do this with an external USB drive, too. Just hold down the Option key and choose the partition to boot from.
They wouldn?t have to do that right away. When SL comes out they could just start selling all new Mac notebooks with the SD card restore disc. The problem is Mac desktops and the MacBook Air, if these don?t get the SD card port then I don?t see this an option. There is nothing from keeping Apple from using USB flash drives here, which every Mac already has and is going nowhere anytime soon.
You can do this with an external USB drive, too. Just hold down the Option key and choose the partition to boot from.
Seems that a SD card left in the slot could be a very useful Time Machine backup drive for files that are not huge. Email/text/data files could be easily stored on a SD card. Sure, it would not fit all your video/audio projects, but for the day to day small files that we use, it could be the ticket.
Can we please already drop CDs. Its been 20 years. Its time to switch to new media storage.
Agreed. SD please. All my stuff works with SD.
I do not know why and how an common platform storage like SD Card can choose a Proprietary File System the exFAT.
I'm pretty sure this is the exact purpose that Apple *doesn't* want you to use the slot for. It's that kind of gimmickry that is really out of place in the Mac World and one of the main reasons they don't generally like to put card readers on their devices.
Personally, I hate the spring loaded slots as they never work right and tend to lead you to leaving the card in the device, but I would bet that the main reason they left such a mechanism out is that they are telling you (wordlessly) that the card is a temporary storage port and not a spare removable HD.
Could you provide a reason, either technical or business, that Apple would care? Or would feel compelled to "wordless" tell me not to use the SD card slot for something other than transferring files between devices?
Letting it be a boot device, and having a support article specifically outlining how to format an SD card to be a boot device, certainly doesn't support your theory. I've used CF cards in a PC Card adaptor at a Time Machine backup drive on my old PB so that I'd have an automatic backup of my documents that I was working on while traveling. Works great.
I'm not saying there weren't reasons Apple didn't make it a flush slot (ie, space constraints), but I highly doubt it was for the reason you suggest.
BTW: Does anyone know if the 15" MBP's SD slot also leaves the card sticking out? There would certainly be enough space for a flush, spring-loaded slot. And considering the space they freed up by removing the ExpressCard slot, they could have at least added another USB or FW port.
BTW: Does anyone know if the 15" MBP's SD slot also leaves the card sticking out? There would certainly be enough space for a flush, spring-loaded slot. And considering the space they freed up by removing the ExpressCard slot, they could have at least added another USB or FW port.
Yeah I wondered that to...
.......but I would bet that the main reason they left such a mechanism out is that they are telling you (wordlessly) that the card is a temporary storage port and not a spare removable HD.
Perfectly stated! This is what I see as Apples game plan.
Dave
Can we please already drop CDs. Its been 20 years. Its time to switch to new media storage.
It was bad enough when album covers disappeared - some real art and writing was lost. CDs at least preserved some semblance of both (which is the only reason I continue to buy them).
Soon, it will be, "Hey, Mr. Musician, can you please autograph my SD card?"
Begone CD's and DVD's!
Can't wait for the day to come. Ancient media, those are.
And I really don't give a sweet damn that the SD card doesn't sit flush. It isn't like you're going to leave it in there like some expanded storage module on a netbook or a camera. It's not an external HD. Slip it in, copy or move around files, then take it out.
BTW: Does anyone know if the 15" MBP's SD slot also leaves the card sticking out? There would certainly be enough space for a flush, spring-loaded slot. And considering the space they freed up by removing the ExpressCard slot, they could have at least added another USB or FW port.
Yeah I wondered that to...
We can't be sure until we see the teardiwns of the 15" and 17" MBPs, but it's possible that there was less room to work with after The line-in jack was removed from the 13" MBP. Though looking at the 13" MBP and previous MBP teardowns it looks like it would have been tough just to get it in that far.
PS: To those who think Jobs didn't know about this change or had no say on it, be assured that the CEO who only took a leave of absence 5 months ago knew exactly what was coming.
I really hope the issues with Apple unable to support SDXC brings the media and world to attention.
I do not know why and how an common platform storage like SD Card can choose a Proprietary File System the exFAT.
One can format a SD-SDHC card to GUID and install OS X on it. The new MBPs don't support SDXC yet in hardware/software.
But I can say that I use SD far more often than I use Express Card. Even though one of my camcorders uses Express Card as its physical media format, I still use SD far, far more. And apparently most people never use the EC slot if Apple's research is correct.
well, i can tell you that I do use my expresscard and i would miss it!!!! i use it for my internet when travelling, on a Verizon card.
1. I've taken SD cards out of spring loaded slots tens of thousands of times on laptops, camera's, cell phones and have never once, not a single instance had a problem with one, ever.
2. The card does not stick out 1/2 way. It sticks out exactly 1.1 centimeter. A standard SD card is 4 cm long.
3. I can confirm that I was able to set up time machine effortlessly with my 32gb Patriot SD card on my new 13" Macbook Pro. Tomorrow I am installing a 128GB Corsair SSD and 4gb Ram as soon as UPS drops them off, and I will do some speed tests for booting from Harddrive, SSD, and SD card.
Can't wait for the day to come. Ancient media, those are.
...It isn't like you're going to leave it (SD) in there like some expanded storage module on a netbook or a camera. It's not an external HD...
The good thing about cd/dvds is once it's burned, it stays that way. SD, USB etc data can get corrupted or pwned as it can be changed. But yes, disk storage days are numbered.
Having the ability to leave a large capacity SD card inside a laptop for a auto file backup/Time Machine or in the case when a 2TB capacity SDXC rolls out for Macs, a auto-cloned boot drive, would be a good thing.
SD cards hanging half out isn't a good thing, they are small and easily forgotten, laptop shoved into a carrying bag etc. A flush mounted spring release would have been better IMMO.
Couple points.
1. I've taken SD cards out of spring loaded slots tens of thousands of times on laptops, camera's, cell phones and have never once, not a single instance had a problem with one, ever.
2. The card does not stick out 1/2 way. It sticks out exactly 1.1 centimeter. A standard SD card is 4 cm long.
3. I can confirm that I was able to set up time machine effortlessly with my 32gb Patriot SD card on my new 13" Macbook Pro. Tomorrow I am installing a 128GB Corsair SSD and 4gb Ram as soon as UPS drops them off, and I will do some speed tests for booting from Harddrive, SSD, and SD card.
Cool!
I'm going to guess here, your boot time for the Patriot 32GB SDHC will be apx 3x slower than your hard drive.
SDHC supposely has a 20 MB/s read/write.