New and Noteworthy: Mac security challenges; Three Reasons the Mac mini Would Make for a Terrible PVR; more

Mac security challenges SecurityFocus notes a flawed contest we reported on yesterday (where a Mac OS X system was allegedly hacked in thirty minutes) which became the focus of controversy because it originally neglected to mention that every attacker had been given an account on the system, making the contest much easier than originally portrayed, critics maintained, and reports on a new contest: "Later Monday, David Schroeder, senior Apple systems engineer for the University of Wisconsin's IT Department, set up his own contest inviting security researchers and hackers to attempt to breach a Mac with open SSH and HTML ports and two user accounts. A critic of the original contest, Schroeder stressed that his challenge is more fair, but that most users will not likely even have those ports open." More.

Three Reasons the Mac mini Would Make for a Terrible PVR eHomeUpgrade opines that Apple was right to keep the Mac mini a computer first, noting the difficulties in making the system a DVR replacement "The most striking feature of the Mac mini is it's small, compact case. In typical Apple style, the mini has spawned copy-cats that don't quite capture the elegance that can only be described as Apple style. However, as a PVR, the most striking feature of the mini becomes its most detrimental drawback. For music, DVDs and videos, the Mac mini works. Throw in television, though, and you've got a big problem. For one, TV tuners are mostly designed as internal PCI cards. External TV tuners are few and far between, and more importantly, do not adhere to the design aesthetics that Apple would want sitting next to a mini in your living room." More.

Previously on MacFixIt

• Universal QuarkXpress 7 beta #2 available
• Intel Mac mini (#3): Installing RAM, Resetting the SMC, more
• More problems caused by System Migration from PowerPC to Intel-based Macs
• Security Update 2006-001 (#3): Fix for -36 errors when connecting to Windows shares; More on VPN issues; more
• Sherlock issues and fixes
• Another reminder: PowerPC plug-ins don't mix with Universal applications (Safari and others)

Resources