welshdog

s.metcalf said:

What she describes sounds (unfortunately) typical of most corporates and is very believable.  I can imagine working for an employer that has such a comprehensive—even overwhelming—employee monitoring capability, and an internal crack squadron of “ threat officers” (the so-called Apple Police) would be stressful, even without employer problems.  You’d want to consider that when negotiating a salary with Apple, that’s for sure.

Not convinced airing your grievances on Twitter is the right approach, however.

I worked for Apple a total of 5 weeks as an iOS At Home Advisor (phone tech support). Four weeks of that was training which was great. The actual work was too stressful and I had to quit. One factor was the shocking amount of monitoring they did on me while I worked. One time after a call, I was doing the cleanup (notes etc.) and I heard a voice calling my name. A window opened on my iMac and my manager appeared wanting to know why I was taking so long. I was not used to that sort of oversight. Every employer I had ever had in my life gave me the responsibility to get the work done without someone standing over me. There were a lot of rules including shutting off the iMac  when done working and not using it for anything until the next shift. Even if it was related to my work, like checking my schedule for example, was not allowed. Plus then there was this whole complex system of demerits you got for being late, or going to a doctor's appointment or anything else related to life in general. None of this is unique to Apple of course, but it is alien to me. At age 64 and retired, I do feel very sorry for people stuck in this sort or corporate gulag. I could not do it and won't even entertain the thought of working for a large corporation ever again.

Soap does not kill most bacteria, unless it is anti-bacterial soap which we aren't supposed to use because of the creation of resistant strains of bacteria, because soap will not kill them - wait what just happened?

So if he had access to customer data then he was probably in the Customer Support network. When I did iOS support from my home I connected to the network via some sort of VPN on the provided iMac. The iMac came preconfigured for access. When I was using the Apple provided Java app that was the core of all work that I did, I had access to all aspects of customer data including credit card information. Basically you could do anything. But, when you were in the app, Apple was fully aware of and montioring everything you did. If I went into the area with credit card info, it left a trail of what I did that could be reviewed later.  I don't know for sure, but I suppose all this data is available to others in the company, but I don't know how they would have accessed it. Seems like it would be wise to limit not only who has access, but to limit how they can access it. Like I seriously doubt that Tim Cook could call up customer data on his iMac.  I gotta figure that this customer data in raw form (like pulled off a server drive) would be pretty cryptic and pretty difficult to decipher.  Also, surely it would have been encrypted? Maybe that is how Apple can say he had no access to customer info - he had data but had no way to make it readable.

Initially 5G is going to be big disappointment to a lot of early adopters. The millimeter wave radio cannot penetrate wall, windows or even leaves.  Spotty coverage will be an understatement for 5G.  It will take many years before there are enough transmitters to provide usable coverage.  However, the huge fiber backbone they are installing/improving to support 5G will likewise give 4G a boost as the article mentions.  In fact, 4G will remain in place for a long time as it will serve as a fallback for when your phone can't receive 5G.

bobolicious said:

genovelle said:

bobolicious said:

...and at $200 is the vesa adapter both questionable in need (vs four threaded holes) and more than the cost of many stands and arms ? There are four high capacity Ergotron arms in this studio and they were all less than $200 US and came with multiple adapter plates, albeit one must turn (undo) four knurled knobs to detach... Would magnetic attachment be better as a BTO option or kit vs all in ?

I’m sure they went with the best VESA adaptor possible, because I would be a huge problem for this $5000 display to find its way to the ground. 

You raise a good 'magsafe' point - I hope the magnets are strong enough that an inadvertent knock doesn't drop this beast of a screen to the desk - think late for a meeting & jacket, shoulder bag, drawing tube, etc hitting the monitor edge...

From Apple website: "These magnets guide the connection while latches automatically engage and securely lock the stand to the display. Detaching it is as simple as unlocking the slider."

Soli said:

I don't even understand how this could happen. Was this jokey data that was setup for testing or demo purposes?

Probably yes some sort of testing or place holding. I used to work in television news and people were always doing things they shouldn't and sometimes it got on air.  One guy at the master control switcher liked to watch the Carson show at 10:30 on his preview monitor - this was at a CBS station in Austin.  One day something happened that got him a bit panicked, he stabbed a button and put the Tonight Show on CBS air for a few seconds.  Sometimes, when creating Chyron text pages for later in the news, people would type in fake stuff as a place holder - to be replaced when the actual info arrived in the station.  Inevitably, one of these pages either partially or in full would hit the air during a newscast, followed by much screaming and cursing at the Chyron operator.  I'm betting this is exactly what happened today.

Did some reading and learned that the ink is used as part of the anodizing process. Anodizing builds up a thicker oxide layer on the part which better accepts the ink (dye). The part has to be sealed after ink application, sometimes with nickel acetate. There are many variables in anodizing parts so it's hard to say what specific process Apple uses. 

tyler82 said:

I recently ordered the top of the line 15", coming from the 2008 unibody MacBook. Do you think I will notice a difference?

I have my top of the line 15" right now, and I retired a Mid 2010 15" which was an Edsel in many ways.  The difference is huge.  I don't do any work that is processor intensive (actually don't do any work at all as I'm retired/lazy), but I keep my MBPs a long time like you do.  In order for the computer to remain usable in the long term I max out everything when I buy.  This MBP has 1 TB drive, Touch Bar, AMD Radeon Pro 560 in Space Gray.

I actually like the keyboard a lot.  Somehow I am able to type much faster than I was before.  I guess it's the really short key travel.  It is a bit noisier, but that's not really an issue for me.  The speed of pretty much everything is great - I haven't found anything processor or drive performance related to complain about yet.  I have had to turn wifi off and on a couple of times for unknown reasons.  Could just be my Google Fiber Network Box - I find it's a bit weird sometimes.  Also enjoy the Touch Bar and use it frequently.  Love the way it feels and responds.  Customizing it has been fun.  I have the screen capture button added to it and really like that convenience.  I did buy a few dongles and they work well.  The Anker USB + Ethernet adapter is great.  The Internet speed of this computer on ethernet and Google Fiber is pretty amazing.

And BTW nice video AI.  Good summation and comparison.  PS I bought my new MBP from Adorama with the AI discount.  Thanks for that!