I work for a government contractor, and the message is legit. In 2000/XP there is a registry setting that lets us throw up a login message saying that the machine is DOD. I've never thought about trying to do the same with an OS X box. I don't think its specific to a build it should be an option for any OS X install. At least that would be cool.
As an aside. My friend is a graphic artist that does school curriculum for a living. Before they moved to macs they got a stupid login message saying something like, "These are the company machines provided to do you your work...". He hated that stupid message. Fortunately once his department switched it was back to a normal login. Not sure what the point of that was but anyhow.
Yeah I checked with somebody who works for catipillar today, they have DOD computers in the building, and this is the exact message they contain. I'm guessing the screenshots are just from jaguar (10.2) as OS X is one of the best OSes in the world for smartcard authentication (it's one of the little features not talked about often) For example Purdue University research center that develops for the US military switched to ALL OS X when it came to developing smart card technologies.
Quote:
Originally posted by Mr Beardsley
I work for a government contractor, and the message is legit. In 2000/XP there is a registry setting that lets us throw up a login message saying that the machine is DOD. I've never thought about trying to do the same with an OS X box. I don't think its specific to a build it should be an option for any OS X install. At least that would be cool.
As an aside. My friend is a graphic artist that does school curriculum for a living. Before they moved to macs they got a stupid login message saying something like, "These are the company machines provided to do you your work...". He hated that stupid message. Fortunately once his department switched it was back to a normal login. Not sure what the point of that was but anyhow.
Miles Flinn writes that Mac OS X quietly adds Smart Card support for Military Use to OS X 10.2.3 and higher with a Federal Smart Card package that supports the Department of Defense Common Access Card to enable login authentication, encrypting and signing of email, and login to protected web sites. "If you log in as a government employee (Select Gov. Then middle option) it will provide you with a link on the right hand side. It is a $50 option. ...Basically this shows under the hood improvements to OS X and a growing trend toward making the OS comply with Government Standards." Additionally, The Apple SmartPay Store is designed for federal customers to purchase Apple and third-party products using their federally issued SmartPay credit card.
7B68 has landed. Supposedly only potential problems with Classic and mounting AFP servers on this build. New xCode build included as well. I suspect next build will be RC1... definitely appears we'll have it by Halloween, which I've said before I think would make for excellent marketing opportunities.
Getting close and I for one am pretty stoked! It's about time to place the useless but fun "what build will be released as final?" game.
Has the performance of Dock menu for folders been improved in Panther? I for one like to put my application folder on the Dock, but it always takes several seconds for the menu to appear after I right click it. I'm running Jaguar on 500Mhz G3.
Has the performance of Dock menu for folders been improved in Panther? I for one like to put my application folder on the Dock, but it always takes several seconds for the menu to appear after I right click it. I'm running Jaguar on 500Mhz G3.
It's improved as much as general UI performance has improved in panther. It's faster, but not very much. The slowness of the dock folders is also due to the harddrive having to read the content of the folder, which is often quite a bit of objects in an Applications-folder. It's slow the first time, but if you click if once more the second time, it's much faster, both in jag and panther.
Has the performance of Dock menu for folders been improved in Panther? I for one like to put my application folder on the Dock, but it always takes several seconds for the menu to appear after I right click it. I'm running Jaguar on 500Mhz G3.
No improvement there. Applications->Utilities is particularly a problem. That's been around since OS 9 though - I think if Apple really wanted to cache the lists they would have done so by now. There must be something we're missing.
At least there should be an instantaneous response when the user moves the cursor OFF an unwanted menu item (say trying to get to "Applications" you get stuck on waiting for the unwanted "Library" folder to open).
It's improved as much as general UI performance has improved in panther. It's faster, but not very much. The slowness of the dock folders is also due to the harddrive having to read the content of the folder, which is often quite a bit of objects in an Applications-folder. It's slow the first time, but if you click if once more the second time, it's much faster, both in jag and panther.
That's a bit disappointing .... I understand accessing a large amount of files on HD takes time (unless it's cached, like you indicated.. but for someone with small memory/cache like me, the cache gets washed away pretty quickly), and I wouldn't mind the delay while using Finder. But for folders I put on the Dock, particularly something like the Applications folder, I wish they could optimize it a bit, like maintaining an index somewhere that's faster to access than through the file system. Having a more responsive Applications folder would certainly help me reduce the overcrowding of application icons on my Dock. But anyway, maybe the minor speed bump you mentioned is good enough for me... we'll see.
No improvement there. Applications->Utilities is particularly a problem. That's been around since OS 9 though - I think if Apple really wanted to cache the lists they would have done so by now. There must be something we're missing.
At least there should be an instantaneous response when the user moves the cursor OFF an unwanted menu item (say trying to get to "Applications" you get stuck on waiting for the unwanted "Library" folder to open).
Ya I agree, it should at least preempt opening up a folder when I back out of unwanted menu items.
I think the reason why Apple never optimized it is not because they can't, it's just because they don't want to create a special case for the applications folder. I mean, the file system is inherently slow for listing large folders, in order to speed up (without relying on the cache) is some type of a hack that stores and maintains a specialized index just for the applications folder. For example, Windoze's start menu->programs is fast, and it's fast because it doesn't actually access the file system to get the list of programs, it just uses some specialized index; although it's actually a different story on Windoze, since programs are scattered all across the hard drive, it wouldn't even be possible to get the list of programs from the file system. But while I appreciate the simplicity/consistency of having applications folder be just like a regular folder, I still wish Apple would optimize it as a special case since it's a folder that the all Mac users accesses all the time.
Another question... in Jaguar, whenever the Installer finishes installing something, the optimization takes forever. Has this been changed in Panther? And actually, I really want to know what exactly is the Installer optimizing that takes so long?
Another question... in Jaguar, whenever the Installer finishes installing something, the optimization takes forever. Has this been changed in Panther? And actually, I really want to know what exactly is the Installer optimizing that takes so long?
Good question. The software has already been installed, so how could anything be optimized afterwords?
BTW, optimising has never been a problem for my G5. What system are you using?
"Optimizing" is Apple's euphemism for pre-binding all the frameworks to the applications that refer to them. It has to happen after the installation of the software, but I would imagine that they could find ways of speeding up this process. Just don't ask me how.
I've been doing erase installs since the WWDC , and the optimizations don't take that long (667 MHz PowerBook), I kind of find it snappy.
I only have one complaint about the iDisk integration. I have an unrenewed .Mac account and if I click on the iDisk icon int left pane of the finder it wil try to mount my iDisk and then I can't unount from the Desktop, I won't allow me to access the iDisk preference pane because it count login under my account because it shows up as espired. the totally bums me out.
Comments
Originally posted by inkhead
you can't screenshot the login window.
Yah-huh...
I've been taking screenshots of the login window since 10.0.
You just gotta know how to find the saved file. It doesn't save where you might expect it.
Originally posted by Brad
What Eugene said.
I've been taking screenshots of the login window since 10.0.
You just gotta know how to find the saved file. It doesn't save where you might expect it.
Er...the method I use allows me to dictate the exact file location of the screenshot...
Originally posted by Brad
Well, the "easy way" is just to press command-shift-3 on the login screen and that'll save the screenshot to the root user's ~/Desktop directory.
so whats up w/ me getting an alert sound when i try?
As an aside. My friend is a graphic artist that does school curriculum for a living. Before they moved to macs they got a stupid login message saying something like, "These are the company machines provided to do you your work...". He hated that stupid message. Fortunately once his department switched it was back to a normal login. Not sure what the point of that was but anyhow.
Originally posted by Mr Beardsley
I work for a government contractor, and the message is legit. In 2000/XP there is a registry setting that lets us throw up a login message saying that the machine is DOD. I've never thought about trying to do the same with an OS X box. I don't think its specific to a build it should be an option for any OS X install. At least that would be cool.
As an aside. My friend is a graphic artist that does school curriculum for a living. Before they moved to macs they got a stupid login message saying something like, "These are the company machines provided to do you your work...". He hated that stupid message. Fortunately once his department switched it was back to a normal login. Not sure what the point of that was but anyhow.
Mac OS X quietly adds Smart Card support
http://www.macnn.com/news/19206
Miles Flinn writes that Mac OS X quietly adds Smart Card support for Military Use to OS X 10.2.3 and higher with a Federal Smart Card package that supports the Department of Defense Common Access Card to enable login authentication, encrypting and signing of email, and login to protected web sites. "If you log in as a government employee (Select Gov. Then middle option) it will provide you with a link on the right hand side. It is a $50 option. ...Basically this shows under the hood improvements to OS X and a growing trend toward making the OS comply with Government Standards." Additionally, The Apple SmartPay Store is designed for federal customers to purchase Apple and third-party products using their federally issued SmartPay credit card.
Getting close and I for one am pretty stoked! It's about time to place the useless but fun "what build will be released as final?" game.
I predict... 7B94.
I say it's going to be 7B87!
Originally posted by Moogs
... definitely appears we'll have it by Halloween, which I've said before I think would make for excellent marketing opportunities.
Why? When I go trick or treating and pass by your house, I'd better get a copy of 10.3 in my candy bag or I'll egg your house.
Originally posted by giba
Has the performance of Dock menu for folders been improved in Panther? I for one like to put my application folder on the Dock, but it always takes several seconds for the menu to appear after I right click it. I'm running Jaguar on 500Mhz G3.
It's improved as much as general UI performance has improved in panther. It's faster, but not very much. The slowness of the dock folders is also due to the harddrive having to read the content of the folder, which is often quite a bit of objects in an Applications-folder. It's slow the first time, but if you click if once more the second time, it's much faster, both in jag and panther.
Originally posted by giba
Has the performance of Dock menu for folders been improved in Panther? I for one like to put my application folder on the Dock, but it always takes several seconds for the menu to appear after I right click it. I'm running Jaguar on 500Mhz G3.
No improvement there. Applications->Utilities is particularly a problem. That's been around since OS 9 though - I think if Apple really wanted to cache the lists they would have done so by now. There must be something we're missing.
At least there should be an instantaneous response when the user moves the cursor OFF an unwanted menu item (say trying to get to "Applications" you get stuck on waiting for the unwanted "Library" folder to open).
Originally posted by Zapchud
It's improved as much as general UI performance has improved in panther. It's faster, but not very much. The slowness of the dock folders is also due to the harddrive having to read the content of the folder, which is often quite a bit of objects in an Applications-folder. It's slow the first time, but if you click if once more the second time, it's much faster, both in jag and panther.
That's a bit disappointing
Originally posted by lundy
No improvement there. Applications->Utilities is particularly a problem. That's been around since OS 9 though - I think if Apple really wanted to cache the lists they would have done so by now. There must be something we're missing.
At least there should be an instantaneous response when the user moves the cursor OFF an unwanted menu item (say trying to get to "Applications" you get stuck on waiting for the unwanted "Library" folder to open).
Ya I agree, it should at least preempt opening up a folder when I back out of unwanted menu items.
I think the reason why Apple never optimized it is not because they can't, it's just because they don't want to create a special case for the applications folder. I mean, the file system is inherently slow for listing large folders, in order to speed up (without relying on the cache) is some type of a hack that stores and maintains a specialized index just for the applications folder. For example, Windoze's start menu->programs is fast, and it's fast because it doesn't actually access the file system to get the list of programs, it just uses some specialized index; although it's actually a different story on Windoze, since programs are scattered all across the hard drive, it wouldn't even be possible to get the list of programs from the file system. But while I appreciate the simplicity/consistency of having applications folder be just like a regular folder, I still wish Apple would optimize it as a special case since it's a folder that the all Mac users accesses all the time.
Originally posted by giba
Another question... in Jaguar, whenever the Installer finishes installing something, the optimization takes forever. Has this been changed in Panther? And actually, I really want to know what exactly is the Installer optimizing that takes so long?
Good question. The software has already been installed, so how could anything be optimized afterwords?
BTW, optimising has never been a problem for my G5. What system are you using?
I only have one complaint about the iDisk integration. I have an unrenewed .Mac account and if I click on the iDisk icon int left pane of the finder it wil try to mount my iDisk and then I can't unount from the Desktop, I won't allow me to access the iDisk preference pane because it count login under my account because it shows up as espired. the totally bums me out.