Amit Singh, author of Mac OS X Internals, is one of the biggest experts on Mac OS X there is. He’s always got something compelling and interesting to say. He just recently weighed in on Macarena.
I usually find the security-related smugness of Mac users rather jarring. What’s often even more jarring is the reasoning behind such smugness. That said, I have to say that the recent furor regarding the so called OSX.Macarena “virus” amounts to, well, bulls***. If anti-virus companies are pretending to “recognize the threat” and therefore attempting to “increase awareness” by supporting the propagation of FUD, that’s not right, albeit understandable (viruses being relevant to their business and all). Far too many people use computers but far too few understand computers. This imbalance makes the situation quite lucrative for some.
He goes on to explain why Unix doesn’t rule out the possibility of viruses. Rather, the problem is in trying to spread them. Another tidbit I just found out is that he is the manager of Macintosh engineering at Google.
[via Daring Fireball]
MacUser is your source for news, info, and opinion about Apple, the Mac, and the iPod. Our dedicated team of bloggers covers everything that is relevant to Mac users — and, okay, some stuff that’s not quite relevant, but is still a lot of fun.
Amit Singh is also scheduled to give a preso as part of the Mac IT track at Macworld Expo in January.
I'd bring my copy of Mac OS X Internals to be signed, but it's like toting around the unabridged Oxford English Dictionary. I think it'd tip my check-in bag over the weight limit.