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Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

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Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#321

Post by huffmsa »

j4yav wrote: post #215
huffmsa wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a lot of people, any non-normal state == bricked. Especially now, when the genius bar isn't open. And yes, there's a difference between a soft brick and a hard brick, and it depends on your ability to repair. Getting my phone stuck in a bootloop is usually a soft brick, but my Pixel went into one a few years ago for no apparent reason (likely mobo failure) and that was beyond my capacity to repair or diagnose, so…

In my experience people call those sorts of things broken or not working, rather than (soft or hard) bricked. So people would say things like "the power went out in my house and soft bricked my TV until the power company turned it back on"? It's interesting how language evolves.

No, downloading a bad patch for your smart TV that puts it in a bootloop or won't let you change inputs would be a soft(ware) brick.

Hardware errors are hard bricks.

This isn't a difficult delineation.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#322

Post by reaperducer »

Osiris wrote: post #48
ObsoleteNerd wrote: post #4

It's not "bricked" if you can fix it in Recovery Mode. Still bad that it's happening, but the term "bricked" is thrown around so flippantly these days. If a piece of tech is bricked, it's not recoverable at all.

I agree. Back in the day I often installed custom ROMs on my Android phones and there was a distinction between needing to use recovery mode or losing your data vs "bricking", literally meaning that you turned your phone into a brick. There were some "unbricking" guides but those usually required hardware voodoo, soldering, etc., things that most people couldn't do. Now it's a clickbait term that has lost its origina…

I remember the term being used at least as far back as the mid-80's. If you screwed up adding a second SID chip to your Commodore 64, the guides warned you about the potential for "bricking" the computer. Usually through static discharge.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#323

Post by thawaway1837 »

mmxmb wrote: post #227
xcalibre wrote: post #199

This has been mentioned quite a few times but Apple's software quality seriously has taken a turn for the worse in the last few years. I've usually updated my macs to the latest OS's within a couple of weeks of release, but Catalina is the first time where I still have yet to update. Stories of bugs such as this as well as mail messages getting blanked out and unrecoverable makes me actually scared to upgrade.

Does anyone know what might have caused this recent downturn in Apple's software quality?

I suspect it’s the need to deliver a new OS every year.

Apple used to maintain a 2 year (or longer) cadence earlier.

I suspect the first few months after each release used to be focused on hardening it. With the yearly release cycle they probably have to shift over to working on the next release almost immediately.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#324

Post by perardi »

I am quite the Apple apologist, but Catalina is awful.

1. As seen here, it's a bugfest.

2. For user-facing features, it brings…Sidecar? And a bunch of half-assed Catalyst apps, I suppose.

3. Such an exciting new set of security features—really met what I have to guess was their goal to quickly train me to click OK on every single dialog to get to work.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#325

Post by rincebrain »

thawaway1837 wrote: post #319
laumars wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bricked specifically means it’s unrepairable (ie: it’s now a paperweight, a brick). It’s fair to say “bricked” is a sub-category of “broke” but if something is software repairable then it isn’t bricked. Also aspirin and ibuprofen are very different chemicals. I wouldn’t advise conflating the two. The resulting effect could be worse than the brick/broke problem we are discussing ;)

No it doesn’t. The term unbricking also exists, which directly contradicts the idea that a bricked device cannot be recovered.

If a device requires extraordinary measures most people cannot or will not take in order to "unbrick" it, then it's possible for the usage to be correct even if such a procedure exists.

For example - years ago, NVIDIA got in some hot water over some of their mobile GPUs getting so toasty some of the solder points broke, leading to bricked systems. If you were the adventurous sort, you could heat the laptop enough to reflow the solder and end up with an unbricked system, but that's not an approach most people are going to take.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#326

Post by LordFast »

The quality of Apple's Apple's and software has been on a gentle downward trend since about 2015.

I still prefer them for now, but eventually the cost/benefit ratio just won't make sense anymore. If I'm paying for crappy quality, I'd rather just buy cheap.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#327

Post by pier25 »

None of our 5 macs at home have Catalina installed. We will stay with Mojave for the foreseeable future.

It seems Apple is finally getting their shit together on the Mac hardware front. Now they need to do the same for macOS.

Moving to yearly macOS releases was a bad idea.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#328

Post by unloco »

gbrown wrote: post #270
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Press and hold on the spacebar. Wait a second. Then you can move the cursor left/right from the spacebar. iOS is generally quite good at these things. Like any new platform, you can't expect it the UX to be identical to an old platform that you're more familiar with.

But if the UX is objectively worse, requiring additional unnecessary steps, it’s super annoying.

that's subjective. It's not an additional step, it's a different way of doing it. I personally feel like it's better. I dont have to worry about not placing the cursor at the right place. I just click it and move the cursor around where I want.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#329

Post by doc_gunthrop »

sv9 wrote: post #67

I'm consistently amazed by HN's ability to take the most meaningless, inconsequential part of an article (the scroll behavior, the whitespace, the usage of the word "bricked"), and nitpick it to hell and back instead of actually discussing the article. Bravo.

I'd imagine there is a word or phrase that describes this kind of situation, kind of like bike-shedding, but something more fitting.

Re: Nasty macOS flaw is bricking MacBooks: Don't install this update

#330

Post by zrm »

thawaway1837 wrote: post #319
laumars wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bricked specifically means it’s unrepairable (ie: it’s now a paperweight, a brick). It’s fair to say “bricked” is a sub-category of “broke” but if something is software repairable then it isn’t bricked. Also aspirin and ibuprofen are very different chemicals. I wouldn’t advise conflating the two. The resulting effect could be worse than the brick/broke problem we are discussing ;)

No it doesn’t. The term unbricking also exists, which directly contradicts the idea that a bricked device cannot be recovered.

The term "undead" also exists but if a person is currently alive it implies they were never really dead to begin with.
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