Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Steve Jobs hates me: Viewing Mac OS X Lion Parental Control logs

OS X Lion is not all bad. [1]

Yes, it's a memory hog (64 bit hurts). Yes iCal and Address Book drive strong geeks to drink. Yes, it's insane that it can auto-quit background apps (really, that's nuts).

On the other hand, 10.7.0 is less buggy than 10.6.0 or 10.5.0. That's progress. I might even upgrade my main machine after version 10.7.3 instead of waiting for 10.7.4.

Better yet, Mission Control and Full Screen are very nice on an 11" MacBook. Well done Apple.

Indeed, Mission Control is so good I dared to hope that Apple had fixed one of the most ridiculous bits of OS X -- the non-resizeable Parental Control log file window (See: Viewing Mac OS X Parental Control logs).

In 10.5 and 10.6 this screen has a control for a resizeable window, but it would only extend vertically. Most of the logged URLs were unreadable.

So what happened in 10.7?

You are guessing nothing. You would be wrong. The resize control was fixed. It now correctly indicates that the window can only be sized vertically.

Think about that.

Apple recognized there was a bug. They put some (small) amount of resources into fixing the bug. Instead of making the window resizeable however, the engineer fixed the control.

That can't be incompetence. That has to be malice.

There's only one possible explanation.

It's personal.

Steve Jobs hates me.

[1] The best review isn't the celebrated, and quite good, Ars Technical Review. It's Robert Mohn's Macintouch review. If you are only going to read one, read that one.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I would love a Parental Control Guide for Parents of Teenagers addressing using an Apple Extreme with Apple's parental controls settings for limiting kids internet use, similar to your Ipad for 80 year olds guide!

I think I have 3 issues: 1) keeping them safe and away from inappropriate sites and 2) no access during bedtime hours, and 3) limited hours of PS3 use ( I think I can control by MAC address). I know how to control computer hours of use and hours per day.

I am trying to discuss trust and respecting family rules, but I fear more drastic steps may be warranted. I tell them their Mom is a geek and can and will see most everything, but parental controls may be safer. So how about it, a Guide for Parental Control with Kids? or links to info you have found useful.