Mac Hack And IE Loser-ness

Taking a brief break from politics, here are a couple stories about new technology that I find amusing.

Macs aren't really more secure

Charlie Miller has done it again. For the second consecutive year, the security researcher hacked into a fully patched MacBook computer by exploiting a security vulnerability in Apple’s Safari browser.

“It took a couple of seconds. They clicked on the link and I took control of the machine,” Miller said moments after his accomplishment.

The contest kicked off at exactly 3:15 PM and, within seconds, Miller launched his drive-by attack and claimed the $10,000 top prize.

I love this because it really puts in place all the fruit-heads who think Macs are invulnerable and superior. News flash to Apple junkies: Macs rarely get hacked not because they've got better security, but because there are so few of them out there! It's not worth hackers' time to mess with them except in contests like these. Get over yourselves.

IE8 is a big, fat dud

The honeymoon appears to be over for Internet Explorer 8 -- and it wasn't much of a honeymoon to begin with, either. Just days after the browser's big debut, its market share has fallen a full 28 percent from its peak. Alternative browsers, meanwhile, have held steady ground, losing no significant number of users to Microsoft's new offering.

With a steady decline, Internet Explorer 8 dropped down to 1.86 percent of the market by Monday morning. It's bounced up and down a bit since then, but thus far, there's been no sign of a second wave of supporters rushing to make the switch.

Compare that with the release of Firefox 3 last summer: Within just three days of its launch, Mozilla's next-generation browser more than doubled its beta share, jumping up to nearly 19 percent of the market.

"I suppose the kindest description of user reaction to IE 8's first public outing would be 'underwhelming'," says Aodhan Cullen, CEO and founder of online data firm StatCounter.

Even worse, it appears that the piddly 1.8% IE8 did manage to scrounge up was essentially all upgrades from IE7 users, so they pulled in essentially zero new users. The big problem for Microsoft is that IE8 was supposed to be the next leap-frog in the browser wars, putting Microsoft back in the lead for a while. Clearly, that isn't happening, and that could spell trouble for long-term prospects of Microsoft's domination of the browser segment.

And that, of course, would be a good thing for all of us who use browsers on a daily basis!

There's my two cents.