As the Apple Turns: Scene 4246: 10.2.8 v.2 Variant B Mod. II (10/3/03)

10.2.8 v.2 Variant B Mod. II (10/3/03)

Still beating yourself up over blithely running the 10.2.8 update without waiting for other feckless rubes to troubleshoot it first? Yeah, so are we, but hey, everyone's got to wear the Feckless Rube Hat™ once in a while. Plus, we personally were relatively lucky, since we appear to have avoided pretty much all of the nastier known bugs-- and the weirdness and instability that crops up every so often was almost worth the giddy thrill of opening the About This Mac window and seeing a Mac OS X version number a point higher than the latest official version listed at Apple's site. Ooooo, it's like we be pirates! Arrrrr, matey!

Still, though, even to the easily amused like us, it was starting to get a little old, and we found ourselves wondering just how much longer we were going to be using a Mac without a country before Apple stepped up to the plate and fixed things. Well, for those of you in the same leaky boat, here's some good news: it's back. Faithful viewer Vaska was first to report that 10.2.8 has resurfaced in Software Update; it just showed up, so details are a little sketchy, but Think Secret had previously reported that Apple had "seeded a new build of the Mac OS X 10.2.8 update" to developers-- whereas the version currently plaguing our systems is build 6R65, the new one is reportedly 6R73. Which means it's a full eight better. That ought to be enough, right?

Interestingly enough, the operating system installed by this new updater is apparently also called 10.2.8, implying that the Mac community might wind up dealing with two completely different 10.2.8s out there-- which, frankly, we always assumed was precisely the sort of situation that version numbers were supposed to prevent in the first place. AtAT sources reveal that the new version wasn't dubbed 10.2.9 due to Apple's sensitivity to the ever-worsening global 9 shortage, and will instead be branded "10.2.8 version 2," just to keep things absolutely clear.

Think Secret provides no further details on the new seed beyond Apple's own terse statement that "this build addresses some issues found in the last seed"; we are left to assume that said "issues" include the widely-reported "where the hell is my network" issue, the "why the hell won't my iMac boot" issue, the "who the hell scrambled the video on my PowerBook" issue, the "how the hell can I get my PowerBook battery to hold more than a twenty-minute charge again" issue, and of course the ever-popular "when the hell did Apple start subcontracting quality assurance testing to Microsoft" issue. Each and every one of these is fixed in 10.2.8 v.2, report our sources, although they also provided a list of known issues with the new update:

10.2.8 v.2 fixes the network connectivity problems of the previous version, provided that the Mac's Ethernet port is kept within .2 degrees of alignment with the star Pherkad Minor at all times.
10.2.8 v.2 restores PowerBook battery capacity to previous levels, but administers a mild electric shock from time to time just to remind you who's boss, bee-yatch.
10.2.8 v.2 will occasionally knock over a nearby liquor store and then email expertly Photoshopped images of you pointing the gun at the clerk, thereby neatly framing you for armed robbery.

Not to worry: a "10.2.8 v.2 variant B" is already in the works to fix the above problems. Reportedly it will only frame you for public drunkenness, which is generally only a misdemeanor and therefore carries no jail time. Progress!

(And yes, we're waiting a little while before installing this one. Our Feckless Rube Hat™'s at the cleaners.)

SceneLink (4246)

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The above scene was taken from the 10/3/03 episode:

October 3, 2003: Duck and cover, soldiers: 10.2.8 is back, and who knows what's rattling around loose in there this time? Meanwhile, former Apple CEO John Sculley voices his regrets over HyperCard and the Newton, and Microsoft faces a possible class action suit that attempts to hold it liable for allowing all those nasty viruses to reduce society to a smoldering ruin...

Other scenes from that episode:

4247: Does He Do Endorsements? (10/3/03) Man, aside from the last-minute 10.2.8 release, talk about a nothing news day! It's times like this that we regret that Apple isn't designing and producing Macs in a post-apocalyptic netherworld in which life is cheaper than dirt and blood flows in mighty rivers amid the epic and murderous struggle for the control of the world's rapidly-dwindling fresh water supply...
4248: Grab A Bat And Get In Line (10/3/03) And hey, what better way to head into the weekend than with the warm fuzzy feeling only the possibility of a class action suit against Microsoft with potentially "millions of plaintiffs" can provide? Don't get us wrong-- we're as opposed to the proliferation of frivolous litigation as anyone, but it's a proven scientific fact that the amount of litigation in process at any given time is a universal constant, so aiming a few million plaintiffs at Redmond means that the rest of the planet-- Apple included-- can take a little break from getting sued for a change. Besides, who says this lawsuit is frivolous?...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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