How to remove Rootkit malware from an Apple computer

On 5/04/2020 2:55 am, nospam wrote:
In article , Scott Schuckert
wrote:

In article ,
Whisky-dave wrote:
A friend had on one the early LCD screen iMacs and the disk eject used to
eject the disc right out and fell onto the table, he asked if it was meant
to do that. I said no and I've not seen any do it.

The standard floppy mechanism shouldn't do that, under standard
gravity, unless something was broken. I do vaguely recall one
aftermarket manufacturer of external floppy drives used to shoot them
out pretty good.

imacs never had an internal floppy drive, nor did they need one.

depending on the imac, there was a cd or dvd drive, either tray load or
slot load.

an 'early lcd screen imac' would be the lamp, which had a tray load and
therefore could not eject a disc onto the table.

the following model was a similar design to today's imac, but white. it
had a slot load drive, but did not push a disc out far enough that it
would fall, plus the wipe foam would hold it in place.


Somebody once gave me some sort of Mac with a floppy (and built-in CRT)
that seemed to have to access the floppy just about whenever a command
was entered.

That would have been about 1990, and I abandoned it in Baghdad when I
departed (donated to a local). Have occasionally had a whim to revisit
Baghdad out of curiosity, but have never felt the inclination to revisit
Apple Mac.

geoff

On 5/04/2020 9:49 am, nospam wrote:


pcs didn't have either. they were all ****ty manual inject/eject.



Far less to go wrong for something so trivial to operate.

geoff

In article , geoff
wrote:

Somebody once gave me some sort of Mac with a floppy (and built-in CRT)

there were numerous such macs, going back to the very first mac in 1984.

that seemed to have to access the floppy just about whenever a command
was entered.

commands are not entered on a mac. you're confused.

however, a mac with a floppy drive will obviously access the floppy if
it needs to open or save a document. it will also briefly access it
when a floppy is inserted or ejected.

That would have been about 1990,

probably a mac se or se/30 then.

and I abandoned it in Baghdad when I
departed (donated to a local). Have occasionally had a whim to revisit
Baghdad out of curiosity, but have never felt the inclination to revisit
Apple Mac.

your loss.

In article , geoff
wrote:

pcs didn't have either. they were all ****ty manual inject/eject.


Far less to go wrong for something so trivial to operate.

it may be trivial, but it's *very* nice to have and guarantees file
system integrity.

put another way, the failure mode for not having auto eject is *much*
worse. replacing a floppy drive is easy. replacing lost files is not.

the eject motor rarely, if ever, failed. more likely the floppy drive
would go out of alignment, something *very* common with pc floppy
drives because they just weren't as good.

you're also apparently unaware that auto inject/eject is standard
pretty much everywhere, including cd/dvd drives, cassette recorders and
vcrs. bashing a mac for having the very same feature is hypocritical.

On 5/04/2020 11:35 pm, nospam wrote:
In article , geoff
wrote:

Somebody once gave me some sort of Mac with a floppy (and built-in CRT)

there were numerous such macs, going back to the very first mac in 1984.

that seemed to have to access the floppy just about whenever a command
was entered.

commands are not entered on a mac. you're confused.


This was 30 years ago. All I remember was having to waiting several
seconds for a floppy access for just about anything significant to occur.


however, a mac with a floppy drive will obviously access the floppy if
it needs to open or save a document. it will also briefly access it
when a floppy is inserted or ejected.

That would have been about 1990,

probably a mac se or se/30 then.

and I abandoned it in Baghdad when I
departed (donated to a local). Have occasionally had a whim to revisit
Baghdad out of curiosity, but have never felt the inclination to revisit
Apple Mac.

your loss.

I'm devastated.

Actually I lie - I have got an iPod ( originally purchased specifically
for a couple of apps).

Um, and out of necessity Itunes - I rest my case. Undeniably(?) the
worst application ever designed.

geoff

On 5/04/2020 11:35 pm, nospam wrote:
In article , geoff
wrote:

pcs didn't have either. they were all ****ty manual inject/eject.


Far less to go wrong for something so trivial to operate.

it may be trivial, but it's *very* nice to have and guarantees file
system integrity.

put another way, the failure mode for not having auto eject is *much*
worse. replacing a floppy drive is easy. replacing lost files is not.

the eject motor rarely, if ever, failed. more likely the floppy drive
would go out of alignment, something *very* common with pc floppy
drives because they just weren't as good.

you're also apparently unaware that auto inject/eject is standard
pretty much everywhere, including cd/dvd drives, cassette recorders and
vcrs. bashing a mac for having the very same feature is hypocritical.


Not bashing - just pointing out a potential area for failure.

I've never had a manual floppy fail mechanically or data-wise. PC or
several other platforms.


geoff

In article , geoff
wrote:

This was 30 years ago. All I remember was having to waiting several
seconds for a floppy access for just about anything significant to occur.

If the Mac was old enough you were actually running apps or the OS from
the floppy, or storing files... Duh. Even if not, the classic (pre-OSX)
OS would "blip" a mounted floppy volume before disk I/O to make sure it
was still there.

Come to think of it, my PC still has a vestigial 3.5" floppy and it
does the same thing.

In article , geoff
wrote:

that seemed to have to access the floppy just about whenever a command
was entered.

commands are not entered on a mac. you're confused.


This was 30 years ago. All I remember was having to waiting several
seconds for a floppy access for just about anything significant to occur.

floppies are slow, plus computers back then were also slow.

the same thing would have happened with a pc running off a floppy.

put apps and documents on the hard drive and then there is no need to
use the floppy drive anymore, one reason why it was removed with the
first imac.



Actually I lie - I have got an iPod ( originally purchased specifically
for a couple of apps).

Um, and out of necessity Itunes - I rest my case. Undeniably(?) the
worst application ever designed.

no, there are much, much worse.

itunes works quite well for managing music and syncing idevices.

its biggest problem is that it grew to do all sorts of other tasks,
including the itunes store, initially for music but later videos and
apps, activating idevices, managing photos, videos, apps, ebooks,
podcasts, contacts, bookmarks, ring tones, and more, ultimately
resulting it being split into three separate apps.

In article , geoff
wrote:

pcs didn't have either. they were all ****ty manual inject/eject.


Far less to go wrong for something so trivial to operate.

it may be trivial, but it's *very* nice to have and guarantees file
system integrity.

put another way, the failure mode for not having auto eject is *much*
worse. replacing a floppy drive is easy. replacing lost files is not.

the eject motor rarely, if ever, failed. more likely the floppy drive
would go out of alignment, something *very* common with pc floppy
drives because they just weren't as good.

you're also apparently unaware that auto inject/eject is standard
pretty much everywhere, including cd/dvd drives, cassette recorders and
vcrs. bashing a mac for having the very same feature is hypocritical.


Not bashing - just pointing out a potential area for failure.

anything can fail.

most products are very reliable and the extra features are very useful.

you're trying to rationalize a lesser product by bashing the better one.

I've never had a manual floppy fail mechanically or data-wise. PC or
several other platforms.

big deal. i've never had auto-inject/eject fail.

i have seen head drift, but that can happen to any floppy drive, not
just macs. i've also seen a floppy drive be unable to read/write disks,
but the eject motor still worked.

the point is that by having auto-eject, there is *zero* possibility of
directory corruption because the directory is flushed prior to
ejecting. this was an intentional design decision. that also allowed
users to continue to access the contents of a floppy disk when it was
*not* in the drive.

In article , Scott Schuckert
wrote:

This was 30 years ago. All I remember was having to waiting several
seconds for a floppy access for just about anything significant to occur.

If the Mac was old enough you were actually running apps or the OS from
the floppy, or storing files... Duh. Even if not, the classic (pre-OSX)
OS would "blip" a mounted floppy volume before disk I/O to make sure it
was still there.

no it didn't.

Come to think of it, my PC still has a vestigial 3.5" floppy and it
does the same thing.

it had to, since it had no way to know if the user ejected it.