Thank you for finally fixing the bug in Safari that disabled Javascript mouseover events if you right-clicked on a link.

(before 5.1, you had to left-click somewhere else on the page to get them back; this also affected the automatic cursor changes as you moused around, which is probably why it got fixed)

Apple’s latest update for the RAW camera support in Aperture and iPhoto adds several new models, and, rather surprisingly, a Minolta camera that was released seven years ago, the Dimage A200. This is a cost-reduced version of the A2 that I own, which these days is part of my book scanner.

These were great little cameras at the time, and the A2 in particular is an excellent studio/still-life camera, but there aren’t a lot of them available on the used market, and of course Minolta got out of the camera business a long time ago, so there’s no service.

In OS X Lion, it is no longer possible to manually create 802.1x profiles. You must use the iPhone configuration tool to generate a .mobileconfig file for users to download and double-click.

1. Full-disk encryption is unlocked at power-on.
2. Users not authorized to unlock the disk can use the system normally once it has been unlocked. (subject to random kernel panics...)
3. Sleep does not lock the disk.
4. Hibernate does.
5. A sleeping Mac will automatically switch from sleep to hibernate if power is interrupted or the battery gets low.
6. A sleeping Mac may switch to hibernate under other circumstances, such as "been asleep for X minutes". The hooks are there, but I haven't seen this behavior yet on one that's not low on battery.
7. [Update] normally, when you shut down, you have the option to choose not to reopen applications on boot; if, however, other people are logged in, the override-and-shutdown-anyway dialog does not include this option. And, of course, you're not allowed to change the default behavior.
8. [Update] If you wake up the machine while it's very low on battery power, and manage to enter your password before it insists on going back to sleep, then when you plug it in and wake it up, you will not be required to enter your password. The "emergency low-power" sleep does not re-lock the screen.

Taken separately, each piece makes perfect sense. It’s only in combination that there are some surprising behaviors, which can become even more fun when you add in some of the poorly-thought-out iPadifications.

Apple’s goal (incompletely implemented and rushed out the door) is to blur the distinction between “on” and “off” at all levels, so that your Mac, like your iPad, is always in the state you left it, whether you put it to sleep, shut it off, crashed it, or whatever. For a single-user, single-task device like the iPad, this is a reasonable goal. For a laptop, especially one that doesn’t run only Apple-supplied software and may be used in very different environments, it may be the exact opposite of a good idea.

For a laptop that contains data sensitive enough to encrypt, it’s downright stupid. Left Hand, go have a little chat with Right Hand about what you’re doing, mmkay?

If you turn on the new Filevault full-disk encryption on a system that has more than one user, and have a secondary user (possibly limited to ones not authorized to unlock the disk), then if you allow the screensaver to activate (which by default will also lock the screen), clicking the “Switch User” button can cause a kernel panic. Not all screensavers will do this, but it is 100% repeatable for the ones that do.

Ironically, I first had this happen while running Jamie Zawinski’s BSOD screensaver…

[Update: okay, switching to a “safe” screensaver isn’t good enough if you actually log into the secondary account and then log back out. That’s triggering a panic for me, even with one of Apple’s supplied screensavers. Also, once the disk has been unlocked by an authorized user, it appears non-authorized users can log in just fine.]

…they’re strangling e-book competitors:

The store was removed because Apple rejected any updates which included it, period. They also rejected any updates which stated that Apple required its removal, or indeed any mention of ‘compliance with App Store guidelines’. It was further rejected for the cardinal sin of allowing users to create a Kobo account within the app. Then it was rejected for providing a link to let users create an account outside the app. Then it was rejected for simply mentioning that it was possible to sign up, with no direction on where or how one could do that. Then it was rejected for making any mention of the Kobo website. Then for any mention of ‘our website’ at all, in any language. We additionally cannot make any assertions that Kobo provides content for sale, however obliquely.

(from this review of the crippled app)

The new Mac OS X release includes an optional Japanese voice capable of reading any text in phonetically accurate Japanese. Lovers of the emotionless anime girl will enjoy Kyoko’s flat affect, but they may be a bit puzzled by her odd reading choices. In a quick sample, I found that 一人 is always “ichinin”, and 行って is always “okonatte” (which made the “how to get to the gas station” example I fed it quite entertaining).

Still, it’s a decent voice, and Apple once documented how to embed pauses, pitch, speed, and phonetic hints in a string to be read by their speech synthesizer. Unfortunately, the only info I can find at the moment goes waaaay back. You could get the old Macintalk to sing, but the voices were pretty crude, and every phoneme had to be encoded by hand to get it to create plausible Japanese. Perhaps they’ll release some documentation on the modern system.

Reading Gruber‘s opinions on Android is like reading a vegan review of roast beef. It’s clear that the mere thought of eating it makes him want to puke.

As far as I’m concerned, refurbished 1st-gen iPads are still about $200 over the price I’m willing to pay for such limited-by-design functionality, and I’m waiting to see if the Xoom and other Android tablets do better before I spend any money there. I haven’t bought into either ecosystem for a phone, either; my aging Blackberry handles work email effectively, and honestly does a better job as a phone.