Oh, Apple, how do we love thee? Let me count the ways...
We reported a few weeks ago about Apple’s hidden message to hackers within the hardware restrictions of OS X. It wasn’t much, but “Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext” was a shot across the bow of would-be hackers. (Perhaps it should have had the extension .kthnks?)
Today, maxxuss sends word that a few pieces of OS X look for a secret message in “commpage” that gets decrypted via the TPM… basically a decoder ring for geeks. It seems that Apple wasn’t just content with sending an obvious message – they wanted one that sounded pretty too.
Your karma check for today:
There once was a user that whined
his existing OS was so blind,
he'd do better to pirate
an OS that ran great
but found his hardware declined.
Please don't steal Mac OS!
Really, that's way uncool.
© Apple Computer, Inc.
While this is obviously not the work of Milton or Wordsworth, you’ve got to give mad props to the Apple designers for taking the time to put their warning in verse.
In this spirit, we would like to humbly offer up our own poem to the developers of the “OS that ran great.”
Rime of the Ancient Hacker
There once was a hacker named Maxxuss
who Steve did not think was a genius.
But Steve pondered awhile,
grabbed the phone with a smile,
and said “Bill, there’s a thing to discuss…”
Write your own poem here!
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