Macs in Amateur Astronomy

Show me where Microsoft tell you to install Zone Alarm, a virus
scanner and a malware scanner and fail to configure them to operate
silently in the background.

Well, running in the background is a good idea, if possible. However,
anyone not running those kinds of programs on a Windows machine is an
idiot. Just too many security holes.

mt

Tim Auton wrote:

I don't see why you felt the need to pollute a useful resource for
Mac astronomers with an anti-Windows rant.

Agreed. We Mac users are just so sick and tired of hearing about
Windows problems -- the last thing we want is to visit a site, supposedly
designed for Mac users in mind, and find Windows content, good or bad,
within. Not mentioning Windows at all would have been more appropriate.

mt wrote:

Show me where Microsoft tell you to install Zone Alarm, a virus
scanner and a malware scanner and fail to configure them to operate
silently in the background.

Well, running in the background is a good idea, if possible. However,
anyone not running those kinds of programs on a Windows machine is an
idiot. Just too many security holes.

Hey, that's not fair. I don't run any kind of virus, malware, whatever on
my standalone Windows 2000 observatory computer. In fact, it's never
been patched and has no Service Packs. That's why Davoud has problems
and I don't.

In article , meow wrote:

mt wrote:

Show me where Microsoft tell you to install Zone Alarm, a virus
scanner and a malware scanner and fail to configure them to operate
silently in the background.

Well, running in the background is a good idea, if possible. However,
anyone not running those kinds of programs on a Windows machine is an
idiot. Just too many security holes.

Hey, that's not fair. I don't run any kind of virus, malware, whatever on
my standalone Windows 2000 observatory computer. In fact, it's never
been patched and has no Service Packs. That's why Davoud has problems
and I don't.

You're right. I made the assumption that all computers are on some kind
of network, which is really too big a leap.

MT

Hey, I enjoyed the Windows narrative (Microsoft can be insistently
intrusive), but then I'm a Mac aficionado from way back.

Nice list of Mac related astro software. I did note a small piece of
likely unjustified optimism vis-a-vis Voyager 4, however! :-)

You suggested waiting for it, as it's supposedly due in mid-2005. But
they've announced it only for sometime in 2005 (could be Dec 31), AND
given the company's track record over the past 5 years (search Google
for old threads, folks), I wouldn't hold one's breath. They've been
notoriously late--as in multiple years late--in the past.

Larry Stedman
Vestal

Whoops! Just read their "fine print" later on the page where they do
state "we expect to release the final version of Voyager 4 before the
second half of 2005". They also describe having passed out beta CDs at
MacWorld and getting good feedback. Wow! That would be great if they
could pull it off.

I gave up upgrading a couple of years back when an early 3.x version was
bizarrely buggy and dis-organized. That was in early 2000, so it will
have taken at least 5 years to get to version 4!

Still, they eventually responded well to a feature suggestions and bug
reports and put out a usable version (a year+ later).

I sure hope version 4 works out as the product does many things well and
is wonderfully customizable. And this will work under OS X natively.

Larry Stedman
Vestal