Unsanity.org claims every OS X update is a game of russian roulette

It's an incredibly claim, made by a company that specializes in an OS X "hack" (called a haxie). The claim is that each time you apply a significant OS X update you run the risk of being hit by a known OS destroying bug.

It sounds like my usual pre-update practice is not a bad way to avoid this alleged bug:

1. Download full update for major updates so it's stored locally.
2. Do a "safe start" to trigger the routine diagnostics then shutdown.
   
3. Reboot machine into my admin account (no startup items, simple account).
4. Run the update and walk away from the machine.
   
5. When the update is done, restart.
6. After this restart is done do a full shutdown.

By contrast, Gruber's is more minimalist. He logs out, then logs in holding the shift key (suppresses startup items -- I didn't know that one!). My admin account has no startup items so I don't need to worry about them.

Gruber and the Unsanity article both agree that you should not do anything while an update is running. As is often the case, the harsh part of the following is the claim that Apple has known about this bug for at well over a year -- and hasn't fixed it.

Unsanity.org: Shock and Awe: How Installing Apple's Updates can Render Your Mac Unbootable and How You Can Prevent it

... When you see the "Optimizing System Performance" phase of a software update, Mac OS X is really updating prebinding. Updating prebinding has a very, very nasty bug in it (look at _dyld_update_prebinding). If multiple processes are updating prebinding at the same time, then it is possible for a system file to be completely zero'd out...

... I've been tracking this particular bug for about 18 months now. Most of the real "random" failures reported on various Mac OS X "troubleshooting" sites after a user has installed an Apple software update are actually manifestations of this bug...

... Every single time you install an update to Mac OS X whether it be an iTunes update, a QuickTime update, an update for daylight saving time, a security update, an Airport update, or an actual Mac OS X update, you can be hit by this bug. In order to prevent yourself from being smacked in the face by this bug, follow this simple rule: When "Optimize System Performance" appears during the update process do not touch your computer and definitely do not launch any applications. Just back away from your computer box as if it were a swarm of bees...

... The worst sign you've been hit by this bug is an inability to boot after installing a Mac OS X update. Sometimes the little wheel will just keep on spinning. Other times you'll get to the point where you should see your desktop but all you see is a blue screen (because [the] loginwindow is repeatedly crashing due to a missing library). The "easiest" sign is an application will crash either at launch or when you do a specific action and the console.log /Applications/Utilities/Console (or a crash log) will spew out a message about dyld that says: "Reason: no suitable image found." and then sometimes "file to short" [sic]. The file is too short because it is zero-length...

... This bug has been filed with Apple, along with steps to reproduce it 100% of the time (at least in my testing). It was marked as a duplicate, which means the bug was already in Apple's system before I filed it. And since it is duplicate, I don't know what is going on with it. Yes, before anyone mentions it, I know prebinding is deprecated. However, Mac OS X still does it when installing Apple updates...

The full article has some diagnostic steps to try and discusses recovery . I think for most people recovery is to boot in firewire mode, remove data, and reinstall.

If this if for real, and it's really been 18 months, Apple is not showing its best face ...

Phil Bradley's functional classification of Web 2.0 applications

"I want to" Web 2.0 is organized by goal, such as "collaboration" or "communication". It's a handy way to see what's being developed in different domains.

ScanHelper: route scan output to the desired application

Scott Gruby has written a small application to allow OS X users to quickly swap which application should be used for scanning. I'm guessing it looks to the software that controls the scanner like a client application that accepts scans, but it's really a router to a scanning application:

ScanHelper is a small application that places a menu in the menubar that lets you select which application should be used for scanning. Simply tell the ScanSnap Manager to use ScanHelper and then ScanHelper routes the scans to the selected application. You can now easily select a destination right from the menubar. I’m releasing this as free software, but if you like it, please buy my ReceiptWallet application.

This sounds clever! I'm going to try it. Gruby suggests you buy his ReceiptWallet product if you like it.

One Number to Rule Them All

Pogue writes about a unified phone numbers scheme: One Number That Will Ring All Your Phones - New York Times. Free for up to to two numbers.

My thoughts:

1. The real play here is for identity and reputation management. That's where the conquer-the-world ROI Is.

2. Others will do this.

3. Your number lasts only as long as the startup

4. The switching costs are very high. So if you commit and the price goes to $400/year don't cry. Let me repeat: you are signing a contract in blood.

5. It will be buggy and unreliable. That won't fly well.

6. Various vendors have sold this sort of thing for years, but it's always been very expensive.

7. I'd wait for Google.

Update 3/26/07: I signed up with GrandCentral.com after all. Why? Well, in part to preserve a username that I wanted. However, I also figured out why this useful for me now.

Nobody wants to carry two cellphones, but if you get a corporate phone you either need to carry two phones or be tied to a phone number that you lose when you switch jobs. GrandCentral solves this problem. I can get the corporate phone, but publish a number I own that redirects to the corporate phone. The number stays with me, even if the phone doesn't.

DateBk for PalmOS: the DST fix

I don't do much new PalmOS any more, but I still rely on my T2. That might change when the iPhone is real, but for now I use my old apps every day. One of my favorites is Pimlico DateBk, a product that deserves better than the decaying Palm platform. I'm on version 5 and I don't feel driven to upgrade, but the time feature on v5 is out of whack. Happily, DateBk's rules for time zones are data driven, and one can simply edit the data. This description is for DateBk6 but it's the same for DateBk5:

DateBk6 FAQ's

USA has changed DST rules for 2007 - what do I need to do if I'm using TimeZones?

All you need to do is edit the WORLD TIMEZONES memopad record that has all the timezone information including the rules for handling Daylight Savings in different parts of the world. The default data in that record uses rule 'A' for the USA and for 2007 it should be defined as:

.A 2103 1111 US Std. - for 2007 (old value was: .A 1104 L110 US Std.)

2103: The '2' says the "second" day of the week, the '1' indicates Sunday, and 03 indicates the month of March. 1111: The '1' says the 'first' day of the weeks, the '1' indicates a Sunday, and 11 indicates the month of November. So DST runs from the second Sunday in March through the first Sunday in November for 2007.

You can also just download the current release of DateBk5/6 and unzip the dbSetup.prc (dbSetup6 for DateBk6) file and run that to re-install the World Timezones database as that now includes the correct information for 2007.

I realized after posting this that he mentions an update to DateBk5, the version I use. I installed that dbSetup as per the above directions.

Coding Horror builds a new PC

It's been years since I built my XP box, and it's likely I'll not build another one (Apple doesn't work that way.)

Even so, I like reading about a state of the art build like this one?Coding Horror: My Work PC, or, Taking Your Own Advice. The systems came it at $650, including a 10,000 rpm drive.

Keyword Assistant updated for iPhoto 6.0.6

iPhoto has had a small update, so my copy of Ken Ferry's indispensable Keyword Assistant has put itself into safe mode.

Happily, Ken was right on top of this update. KA has been updated:

Software: Keyword Assistant

This version requires iPhoto 4.0.3 - iPhoto 6.0.6 and Mac OS X 10.4.8. It runs natively on Intel- and PowerPC-based computers. See the changelog for what's new.

As with all prior versions, you need to switch to an Admin account to install KA. I've complained about this to Ken (at least it should provide a helpful error message), but it's hard to bellyache too much about a free product.