Real Kato Blog: 2009 July

Here's a good one. Apple Hints at OSX on PCs. The logic behind this is that Apple is implicitly sanctioning a hack that would allow Mac OS X to run on Dell Mini netbook computers.

But what really happened is that someone posted a link to a hackintosh utility (a bootloader that would allow Mac OS X to boot on a Dell Mini) on some Dell forum website. Dell didn't take action against this post, and Apple didn't take action against Dell for not taking action. Somehow, inaction over inaction over unsanctioned user activity has become Apple officially "hinting" at something that makes no business sense whatsoever. Come on.

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Posted by Ken in: techwatch

Circular Reasoning

Wednesday, 2009 July 29 - 5:27 pm

There's an increasing problem in the Interwebs these days. It goes something like this.

A blogger or small-time web site posts an unsubstantiated rumor or speculation about something (like, say, an Apple "iTablet").
A semi-mainstream media outlet, like CNet's news.com, picks up on the rumor, but makes the rumor sound like fact by putting a headline on it like "Apple ready to release iTablet this fall".
Executives from companies unrelated to the rumor (like record company execs) read these reports and speculate about the rumored product.
Mainstream media outlets publish these quotes as evidence that the rumored product is actually coming to market.
Bloggers quote the mainstream media article and now reference the rumor as certainty.