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Fish

How does that saying go? 'Give a man a fish, and he will eat for day - but teach a man how to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime.' Something like that?

The exact words - if there is any such thing in this context - aren't important; the meaning is. And it's fairly certain anyone reading this can pick up the meaning. It's one of those basic assumptions we make about people: their ability to learn.

Something has happened to Amerika.

Something has happened in the wakes of both the 1995 Home Computer Revolution and the 1984 Macintosh Revolution, and it wouldn't seem to have much to do with either computer platform, but would instead seem to have something to do with the quality of education in the country.


Apple recently announced the 10.2.8 point update of their fabulous OS X Jaguar operating system, and then pulled it as soon as they had it online. The official reason? Quoting Apple good ol' boy Anuj Nayar:

We have temporarily removed the Mac OS X v10.2.8 software update while we resolve an issue affecting Ethernet networking on a small number of Power Mac G4 desktop systems. We anticipate that the issue will be resolved soon.

But it turned out that there were quite a few more difficulties than the Ethernet, and 'hacker' site MacFixIt took on the task of elaborating them all.

And so the unexpected question in this scenario: Are MacFixIt giving away fish, or do they fully intend to teach people how to fish on their own some fine day?


  1. Download/extract/restore the earlier version of the AppleGMACEthernet.kext file (we provided a link to a copy of the file yesterday).
  2. Launch Terminal from within an admin-level account, and type sudo -s (Provide your account password when prompted.)
  3. Type cd /System/Library/Extensions and press the return key.
  4. Type rm -rf AppleGMACEthernet.kext and press the return key. This deletes the newer, problematic kext file.
  5. Type mv (be sure to include a space after the "mv"). Do not press return/enter yet.
  6. Drag the older AppleGMACEthernet.kext file (the one you just downloaded/extracted/restored) into Terminal. The path to the kext file will be automatically typed for you. Do not press return/enter yet.
  7. Press the space bar once, and then type /System/Library/Extensions/AppleGMACEthernet.kext and press the return key. This executes the command, which moves the older kext file into the Extensions directory, replacing the newer (problematic) version.
  8. Type cd /System/Library and press return.
  9. Type rm Extensions.kextcache and press return.
  10. Type rm Extensions.mkext and press return.
  11. Immediately restart your computer.

How retarded do these people at MacFixIt think Mac users are? Do they mean to say Mac users are so stupid that after all these years, that instead writing

use the 'sudo -s' command to start a shell with root privileges

is not better, more informative, and ultimately more to the point? Because then at least the poor suckers will know what they're doing?

Not to speak of what happens with a single typo: As they've not explained what they're doing, how are the poor unwitting users who read it supposed to 'debug' it?

The mind boggles at these signs of progress in humankind.

Press the space bar once...

Huh? What are these people doing? They are taking away from Mac users the right to be able to understand what they are doing - to not be just a bunch of ignorant keyboard punching monkeys anymore.

How about taking the first instruction and then:

  1. sudo mv <your new AppleGMACEthernet.kext file> \
    /System/Library/Extensions/AppleGMACEthernet.kext
  2. sudo rm Extensions.kextcache
  3. sudo rm Extensions.mkext

And then just forget the next seven instructions and get the whole thing done today?

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