One of the main problems with many technology writers is that they don’t understand the technology they write about. Hit whore extraordinaire Nick Farrell of the Inquirer:

IF YOU BELIEVE Apple’s marketing then you would think that the expensive fruity machines are more secure than PCs.

Nick doesn’t get out much. Apple seldom says anything about Mac security and only points out the facts about Windows security. Did I mention that 99.99 percent of all exploited vulnerabilities occur on Windows PCs? Nick and the hacks at the Inquirer didn’t know that.

After all, most of the viruses out there are designed for the PC and Apple users hardly suffer from the problem.

Nick, that’s true. I wonder why?

But this line of reasoning does not influence corporate IT managers who, were it true, would be trying to stave off hackers by installing shedloads of Apple gear. However that’s not the case. Most tell us that even if Apple gear was half the price it’s just security by obscurity. A determined hacker who wanted to get into corporate systems would be though it like a knife through butter.

Amusing, but totally false. Just like the old security by obscurity myth, perpetuated by clueless writers who don’t know anything about facts, but love to stir up fear, uncertainty, and doubt to get more visitors to their web sites. Just like anti-virus software makers stir up fear, uncertainty, and doubt to get more customers.

The Mac ships with more exploitable vulnerabilities already on a system when it is delivered. Further, Eric Johanson, a security researcher pointed out that the Mac OS X has far more published vulnerabilities per user than Windows.

Spreading falsehoods seems to be a Inquirer personality trait. If Mac OS X has all those exploited vulnerabilities, then why doesn’t someone use them? Oh, it’s that age old Inquirer problem with facts, right? Vulnerabilities do not exploited make. Since there are no facts to back up the Inquirer’s typically outlandish rubbish, what about plain old slurs?

The cappuccino company’s mindset, however, while reinforcing the myth of indestructibility of OS X, means that Apple users will be exposed much longer than Microsoft. A hacker can go to the web and find a list of vulnerabilities which are months old and be secure in the knowledge that they are less likely to be patched.

Nick never disappoints. Apple, the $180-billion cappuccino company with the hottest technology stock and products and with more money in the bank than Microsoft is a fruity, cappuccino company. What will it take to satisfy the Inquirer’s cravings for legitimacy as a readable rag?

One enterprising malware writer to pen an interesting bit of code that installs itself on a Mac, sniffs address books for friends with other Macs and works out the way to distribute itself to them too. It is not a huge technology challenge and when it is designed then Macs will fall over all over the world.

Funny. We’ve heard that same story for nearly 10 years.

For whatever the reason, malware writers don’t have much success against Mac OS X. It must be that the 120-million OS X users are not an attractive target. Or, maybe malware writers prefer Windows because it’s so much easier. Or, maybe malware writers don’t want the notoriety and fame associated with becoming the first to reall knock down Apple.

Uh huh. Right.

Goodbye Nick. Goodbye Inquirer. You’re not wearing any clothes and all the world can see your limp journalistic credentials. It’s not a pretty sight.

Kirk McElhearn in Macworld:

Google knows more about you than the NSA, and has recently shown that it doesn’t give a hoot about your privacy. The company has gotten too big, and has turned into just another corporation trying to maximize its assets—and those assets are you. Who’s to say Google won’t progressively loosen its privacy controls and monetize more and more personal information?

I’m ditching Google as much as I can, and when a competitor develops a search engine as good as Google, I’ll stop searching with Google, too. The trend that Google has been following has been looking darker and darker as the company nibbles away at the limits of privacy. This is no longer a company I trust.

Well said.

Quicken Essentials for Mac is the latest attempt by Intuit to win back the hearts and minds and money of Mac users. Ron in Mac360:

Quicken’s history with the Mac is long and spotted. It’s been ages since there was feature parity with the Windows version of Quicken. Quicken Essentials for Mac will continue that time-honored tradition.

Sigh.

Another new feature in Windows Vista. The downgrade to Windows XP. Microsoft gets to count XP sales as Vista sales. PC World’s Ephraim Schwartz:

Dell will preinstall XP Professional as a “downgrade” on a variety of desktop PCs and laptops… saving users the hassle of doing it themselves.

It’s funny how there’s no clamor among Mac users to downgrade OS X Leopard to Jaguar.

It’s opening day for the iPhone in NYC. I’m in the crowd. Somewhere. It was a little damp and I didn’t get my black Apple umbrella but I did get an iPhone 3G S.

Despite competition from the gloomy weather and a nearby Jonas Brothers performance, more than 400 Apple aficionados were waiting outside the company’s New York flagship store on Fifth Avenue at 7 a.m., when the iPhone 3G S officially went on sale.

Crowds were much smaller than a year ago, thanks to Apple’s pre-order system.