Yeah, and I picked up a 2004 Honda Accord for $1,000. What's your point? That you found a good bargain? Not to mention everyone on this thread is gonna throw their BS flag at you, because a 2.4ghz dual core AMD chip alone is worth far more than twenty bucks (not to mention the hard drive, and the ram).
A comparable Apple box would run you $1,200, and apparently (according to TFA) a comparable Dell box would run you $300 more. Why not ammend your title to say, "Mossberg, and Mike Dell Can Bite Me Both"?
Hey, I have all that stuff (minus the benz or the bimmer) but I'm hardly rich (*firmly ensconched in the middle class is more realistic*). I'm not sure I'd use this service, though, since it is only one studio's movies. Since most movies are crap, it would take all the studios jumping on board for me to be able to find a movie worth renting from time-to-time.
You sound bitter and jealous by your example. How does renting a movie via digitial download apply only to the wealthiest of society?
as far as I know, every attempt to deliver a pseudo-rental experience by providing a time-limited copy--as opposed to a physical copy that is physically returned--has failed.
Well if anyone can make a failed model work, it's definitely Apple.
Anyone wanting to run a PC that is advertised as relying on the internet for full functionality over dial up, is going to be frustrated by anything they buy, no matter how powerful because dialup sucks.
I was gonna ask, "who uses dial-up anymore?", then I realized this was an article about Wal-mart and $200 computers.
This thing is crap because it is crap hardware, not because it runs Linux. If you put another OS on it, the hardware would still be crap. That would be expected from a $200 computer. Hell, I'd expect any computer under $1000 to be pretty dodgy when it comes to quality and performance. You get what you pay for.
Doesn't Apple TV use a similar interface to Front Row? Once you've bought the movie in iTunes, it would show up in the Movies section of Front Row. Are you just wanting to be able forego the computer altogether and surf the iTunes store from the Apple TV? That sounds like a good idea. If we can buy songs wirelessly on the iPhone, why not movies with an Apple TV?
Until I can cut out the movie theater altogether (i.e., watch movies that are showing in theaters at home, in my better than any movie theater around here home theater room), there will always be a middle man. And that middle man thinks I'm stupid enough to pay $7 for a tub of stale, synthetic popcorn that otherwise would cost about 38 cents. The same middle man that refuses to upgrade 50 year old projection technology and uses a bunch of buzzwords for audio quality that usually just means the left rear speaker is crackling loudly, ruining the sound stage for the entire movie. And lastly, the same middleman who invites rude people into my movie experience, yapping on their phones and munching their $7 popcorn like it was their last meal.
Otherwise, this is a pretty good first step, as long as they add more studios.
Man I can't believe your well moderated post got modded "flamebait". I guess that goes to show how hard core the "anti-DRMists" out there really are! If you even suggest that DRM might not be as evil as everyone makes it out to be, in a perfectly logical, well thought out post, you get ye olde slashdot FLAMEBAIT scarlet letter.
"It's the first Windows computer that I would put in the same class or even sightly ahead in terms of its hardware design".
There it is for ya. Don't forget, though, that in Mossberg's final word, he still recommends the iMac over the Dell in spite of the "slight" hardware advantage the Dell supposedly offers.
Hell, I live in Austin, the home of Dell, Inc., and I can get better service from Apple (admittedly, they also have a major campus here in town, but mostly for iPods/iPhones/iTunes) than I can from Apple. It takes a long time for my call from Austin to go to Austin then get diverted to India, then be re-routed back to Austin.
The not funny post above yours got modded "5, Funny", yet nothing for your superior post! The injustice! Now that I think about it, though, most of the nerds on slashdot wouldn't get your cleverly stated counter-point.
Man, I use an iPhone and grab a coffee at Starbucks or Seattle's Best pretty much every morning (I'd prefer local, but none on my route to work). I never knew I was rich though! Maybe, just maybe, the overwhelming majority of Starbucks and Apple customers are, oh I dunno, middle class, like myself?
It's embarrassing when the drink you want contains 5 or more words in the name.
I dunno, "Large Latte" works for me. Sometimes I add "Please" and "with two sugars". Does that make six words? I guess I could say "Make me one of those double shot's of espresso with the steamed milk", but "latte" seems to get me the same thing every time.
Something tells me that Apple is a bit too busy to make socks, but is plenty eager to offer a third-party accessory (socks) on their online store. This is the exact sort of lifestyle thing the previous post is talking about. Apple gets it, slashdot users don't. More people in the world would buy a sock for their iPods than would register an account on slashdot (as if that mattered one bit, other than Apple understands what their customers want).
Well, there's also the whole, "it only takes 2 seconds to open a G4 tower" issue. I've seen sites on how to get to the motherboard on an iMac. Let's just say I'm pretty brave, but not THAT brave (coming from a guy who overclocked a 233mhz G3 to 300+ mhz one month after he purchased it).
Wow. Unfortunate timing for your unsubstantiated bitching, given the NY Times article that came out today that heaps tons of praise on the Apple Store retail model. The strength of the stores, according to the article, is the customer service. I'd like to know which store you frequent, because here in Austin, both stores have more employees than your average Wal-mart, and all of them have those little scanner thingies to ring you up anywhere in the store. I paid cash for my Airport Extreme and the guy with the scanner happily took my cash and walked it back to the register for me.
So the spirit of the hyphen is close in lieu of commas or parentheses, but you have to make it the longer em dash version. Your complaint is a common misconception about proper English grammar. Your example - without a doubt - is incorrect, in that it uses hyphens instead of em dashes (and only one would be needed at the beginning), and, well, isn't really a break in thought. A better way to think of this is to use em dashes in lieu of the semi-colon, since most Americans get confused on the proper use of semi-colons, colons, commas, and parentheses.
(Cursed APA writing style and the grammar nazi college professors pushing it down my throat)
To be fair, the one promo video I've seen of the surface table focused solely on the ability to order food from the menu at a restaurant using the surface table technology.
Thanks for posting this. I've never figured out how people could consider a $150 mp3 player to be a status symbol, especially since anyone can buy one, and other mp3 players aren't dramatically cheaper.
Your post says way more about your insecurities than it does about Apple users supposedly flaunting their devices in public. Did it ever occur to you that Apple users use their phones/laptops in public in pretty much the same was as that Dell guy over there and that Razr girl over there?
Or better yet, maybe somebody IS sophisticated, and they just happen to use an Apple product (no correlation should be implied). I'm confused. Are you criticizing Apple products for wanting to be sophisticated, or are you criticizing sophisticated people for aspiring to be something more than a valued Wal-Mart customer?
Orders should be taken first come, first served, period.
You've obviously missed the point that every bank, coffee shop, and fast food restaurant in America gives priority to the drive-through window customers. Are you gonna run outside and spill your coffee on the drive-through customers?
Are you serious? Why would you repeat such myths about the Macbook trackpad, when they have been rebuked a million times just on this site. Not only does the Mac trackpad register taps as clicks, it does double clicks, click and drags, two finger scroll (right and left AND up and down), AND second finger right clicking. Perhaps it doesn't carry over into Windows, but is that really Apple's shortcoming, or Windows (or probably both, since Apple would need to make the driver and Windows would need to support it)? Or maybe it does work in Windows too?
Do a clean format, do a clean install, get those four programs on there, THEN connect to the internet. So long as you download the updates on a semi-regular basis (roughly every couple of weeks or so), your PC will be locked down.
All needless steps if you just get a Mac. But isn't that half the fun for PC nerds, keeping it secure and downloading the latest greatest system tweaks?
Slashdot Mirror
A comparable Apple box would run you $1,200, and apparently (according to TFA) a comparable Dell box would run you $300 more. Why not ammend your title to say, "Mossberg, and Mike Dell Can Bite Me Both"?
You sound bitter and jealous by your example. How does renting a movie via digitial download apply only to the wealthiest of society?
This thing is crap because it is crap hardware, not because it runs Linux. If you put another OS on it, the hardware would still be crap. That would be expected from a $200 computer. Hell, I'd expect any computer under $1000 to be pretty dodgy when it comes to quality and performance. You get what you pay for.
Doesn't Apple TV use a similar interface to Front Row? Once you've bought the movie in iTunes, it would show up in the Movies section of Front Row. Are you just wanting to be able forego the computer altogether and surf the iTunes store from the Apple TV? That sounds like a good idea. If we can buy songs wirelessly on the iPhone, why not movies with an Apple TV?
Otherwise, this is a pretty good first step, as long as they add more studios.
Man I can't believe your well moderated post got modded "flamebait". I guess that goes to show how hard core the "anti-DRMists" out there really are! If you even suggest that DRM might not be as evil as everyone makes it out to be, in a perfectly logical, well thought out post, you get ye olde slashdot FLAMEBAIT scarlet letter.
The better video card, built-in camera, and OS X more than make-up for the lack of tv-tuner and sd-card readers anyway.
There it is for ya. Don't forget, though, that in Mossberg's final word, he still recommends the iMac over the Dell in spite of the "slight" hardware advantage the Dell supposedly offers.
Hell, I live in Austin, the home of Dell, Inc., and I can get better service from Apple (admittedly, they also have a major campus here in town, but mostly for iPods/iPhones/iTunes) than I can from Apple. It takes a long time for my call from Austin to go to Austin then get diverted to India, then be re-routed back to Austin.
The not funny post above yours got modded "5, Funny", yet nothing for your superior post! The injustice! Now that I think about it, though, most of the nerds on slashdot wouldn't get your cleverly stated counter-point.
Man, I use an iPhone and grab a coffee at Starbucks or Seattle's Best pretty much every morning (I'd prefer local, but none on my route to work). I never knew I was rich though! Maybe, just maybe, the overwhelming majority of Starbucks and Apple customers are, oh I dunno, middle class, like myself?
Something tells me that Apple is a bit too busy to make socks, but is plenty eager to offer a third-party accessory (socks) on their online store. This is the exact sort of lifestyle thing the previous post is talking about. Apple gets it, slashdot users don't. More people in the world would buy a sock for their iPods than would register an account on slashdot (as if that mattered one bit, other than Apple understands what their customers want).
Well, there's also the whole, "it only takes 2 seconds to open a G4 tower" issue. I've seen sites on how to get to the motherboard on an iMac. Let's just say I'm pretty brave, but not THAT brave (coming from a guy who overclocked a 233mhz G3 to 300+ mhz one month after he purchased it).
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/27/business/27apple.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin
So the spirit of the hyphen is close in lieu of commas or parentheses, but you have to make it the longer em dash version. Your complaint is a common misconception about proper English grammar. Your example - without a doubt - is incorrect, in that it uses hyphens instead of em dashes (and only one would be needed at the beginning), and, well, isn't really a break in thought. A better way to think of this is to use em dashes in lieu of the semi-colon, since most Americans get confused on the proper use of semi-colons, colons, commas, and parentheses.
(Cursed APA writing style and the grammar nazi college professors pushing it down my throat)
To be fair, the one promo video I've seen of the surface table focused solely on the ability to order food from the menu at a restaurant using the surface table technology.
Thanks for posting this. I've never figured out how people could consider a $150 mp3 player to be a status symbol, especially since anyone can buy one, and other mp3 players aren't dramatically cheaper.
Or better yet, maybe somebody IS sophisticated, and they just happen to use an Apple product (no correlation should be implied). I'm confused. Are you criticizing Apple products for wanting to be sophisticated, or are you criticizing sophisticated people for aspiring to be something more than a valued Wal-Mart customer?
Are you serious? Why would you repeat such myths about the Macbook trackpad, when they have been rebuked a million times just on this site. Not only does the Mac trackpad register taps as clicks, it does double clicks, click and drags, two finger scroll (right and left AND up and down), AND second finger right clicking. Perhaps it doesn't carry over into Windows, but is that really Apple's shortcoming, or Windows (or probably both, since Apple would need to make the driver and Windows would need to support it)? Or maybe it does work in Windows too?