Why I Am Right And Rui Carmo of The Tao of Mac Is Wrong

Thomas Ptacek | August 5th, 2006 | Filed Under: Apple, Uncategorized

Rui Carmo, predictably and understandably, does not agree with my assertion that he is more qualified to complain about the button shapes in Mail.app than about the validity of David Maynor’s work.

I stand by what I said (until I don’t, and then I’ll say so), and I’ll take the Pepsi Challenge against his security reasoning any day of the week, especially since I read his blog/wiki-thing every day. But I won’t subject the rest of our readers to that, so I’m taking the rest of this response over here. I warn you in advance, you probably don’t want to read it, because I am in fine (read: not fine) form. I make no apologies; the similarity between blogging and Usenet is what got me started blogging.

One thing I do want to make clear is that Rui, Jim, and John’s arguments shouldn’t reflect on Apple’s own diligence in resolving these issues. Securing an operating system is difficult. I’ve met some of the people Apple has involved in that project and I’m confident they’re up to the challenge. They just need better cheerleaders.

(So, uh, “GO TEAM!”)

[update 9:20PM]: commenter “#cb”, who says that the core issue is whether the built-in, shipped drivers are vulnerable, has a fair point. In particular, John Gruber is not really going off on Dave Maynor in public; he’s reacting to how Brian Krebs is reporting on Dave Maynor. I preemptively apologize to John Gruber. I still think Rui Carmo and Jim Thompson are on crazy pills.]