Why buy an Acura when a Honda is just as good (and made by the same company besides)?
This is telling. I'd buy the Acura. Heck, I drive a Lexus instead of a Toyota. They may be made by the same company, but they aren't the same car. The noise suppression alone is worth the difference in cost, but there are a dozen other reasons to choose the Lexus too, including resale value, dealer support, complementary car if you ever need warranty service, etc.
It all comes down to what you value. If you value price above all else, you're not the target audience for a Mac. If you care about elegance, simplicity, compatibility, and longevity, Macs are not a bad deal.
I'm not sure when liking a product that meets your needs turned you into some sort of fanboy deserving of an epithet, but it's sort of sad. I use a Mac ( a 5 year old one at that, but it suits my needs as a developer to have a UNIX machine with a good user interface and still be able to play an MMO game once in a blue moon). I also have an iPad, and I really like it for surfing on the couch. It's not that I have more money than sense, it's just that I like it, and I have enough money to buy it, so why shouldn't I? I use a Nokia N900 too, does that make me a socialist? I like Diet Coke, does that make me a shill for a sugar water company hellbent on making Americans fat and complacent? Maybe so, but somehow that's not how I identify myself.
People can be independent thinkers. Buying a product doesn't force you to assume a company's brand identity as your own.
It's very hard, when we look at this data, not to conclude that there is a problem. But it's a problem affecting a small percentage of users.... we care about every user, and we're not going to stop until every one of those is happy....Let me tell you what we're going to do. First think, we've released iOS 4.0.1, which fixes the wrong formula for bars and there was a nasty Exchange bug, and that's fixed too.We recommend that every iPhone owner update to it. Second, a lot of people have told us, the bumper solves the signal strength problem. Why don't you just give everyone a case? Okay. Everyone will get a free case.
He pretty much said exactly that. There's a problem. We want to fix it, here's how.
I'm not an iPhone user (I use a Nokia N900 and like it), but the response seems pretty much exactly what everyone wanted it to be.
Apple is a bit more like--You can get it next June in the apple store, and oh man is it going to be broken for the first couple releases but we'll take your money anyways.
Funny, as I type this on my iPad, which has been flawless, I have to disagree with you.
[quote]A Netbook is another name for a cheap laptop. You can do real work on a netbook, and by work I mean Microsoft Office and Quickbooks work.[/quote]
So you're saying that I've never done any work in my entire life? I've been working in corporate America for 16 years and I've never done "Microsoft Office and Quickbooks work".
There are other kinds of work than the kind you do. Personally, I hate Netbooks. Crappy, underpowered computers with cramped keyboards and terrible, tiny screens. I find the iPad a lot more useful than a netbook. Neither of them can replace the 23" monitor hooked up to the Linux machine where I do my software development. The idea of running Eclipse on a netbook screen makes me cringe. I have a Lenovo T400 with a 1440x900 screen, and I hate even doing development on it (though the idea of writing code on Windows is nauseating in itself). At least with the iPad, there's no false premise of it being a content creation tool like there is with a netbook.
I have to honestly ask, why do you like dollar coins? The last thing I want is a bunch of heavy coins in my pockets scratching my cell phone.
I hate change in all forms, and dollar coins are no exception. It's ridiculous that pennies are still being minted -- they're probably worth more in raw materials than the value on the coin.
You do know that Quake 2 is completely playable in HTML 5 and Javascript, right? How is that "rudimentary movement of objects"? A fully shadowed real-time 3D environment with particle physics at 60fps is hardly rudimentary.
I'm not "creative" because I see these efforts as the crap they are? Ask 100 people who aren't in marketing how they feel about online advertising. Guess what, 99% of them hate it. It's not because it's not creative. It's because "creative" is somehow intrusive. "They're not clicking on our ad, Bob." "you're right, Jim, make it blink, and scroll along the page as they scroll." I actually worked for 2 years at CNN.com on multimedia projects. I'm all too familiar with Flash and how artists want to use it.
You throw in math with some odd example, but as it turns out I have taken quite a bit of math from a very respected engineering school and probably have a lot more insight into what math is and is not than you seem to think. I'm not sure the relevance of your insult though, since my original comment had nothing to do with math.
And you're right; those idiots who now create worthless content in Flash will be using some other tool to make worthless content in HTML5. The plus side there is that I can block that using AdBlock too.
Honestly, aside from games, you can pretty much do anything nav-wise that you did in flash using DOM/html/Javascript these days. I'm not even talking about hand-coding anymore. Using things like GWT, SmartGWT, or one of the myriad of third party libraries (YUI, anyone?), you can do some amazing things without much hand coding at all. All of these things will work on the iPad, on your crappy smartphone, or on any future devices that use a modern web/js engine.
Honestly, Apple didn't invent this idea any more than they came up with removing floppy drives or adding USB, but as usual, Apple is the catalyst that starts a sea-change in an industry that was slow to happen on its own.
Flash exists because there is a gap between making disgusting prefabbed square forms, and fluid, interesting and deeply creative content; Something that tells your customers and competitors "hey, we have style!"
The problem is, we don't care if you have "style" or not. When I go to your site, and I can't read the text because of all the pseudo-scroll widgets and fake tabs, you failed to reach your target audience. Style is simple elegance. The perfect web site doesn't need drop shadows and background music -- the content speaks for itself.
Flash makes the web interesting, it's what powers the little widgets you find on the sides of blogs, it's what makes the Most Interesting Man in the World interesting, it's what lets me tell the designers "yes! I can render our company's portfolio in 3D"
Oh my God! You're everything that's wrong with the internet! People HATE those stupid widgets on the sides of blogs -- in fact most of us use Flash blockers specifically for things like that. Anyone who's not a marketing weenie avoids that sort of thing as much as their technical prowess (or lack thereof) allows them to.
We don't care about stupid online beer commercials. We don't want to see your company's portfolio in 3D. I'm quite sure it's no more compelling that way -- only slower, uglier, and looks like crap on my mobile device, if it renders at all. Content is king, not the stupid fluff you're promoting. Flash is the realm of porn browsers and morons, and the content created using it clearly caters to this subsection of online society. I for one will be more than happy when it is banished to the realm of popularity where Java applets live these days.
They went after Nokia first. Nokia is the 900 lb gorilla in the phone market, with 40% of worldwide marketshare. You pretty much can't make a GSM phone without using Nokia's patents.
I love Apple products, but they need to get their own products compliant with other people's patents before they go suing people.
This article is stupid. It reads as "waa, Apple won't give me a prototype, so I am going to throw a hissy fit."
Turns out that just because you can physically type an article doesn't mean you have any insight into anything that would make said article interesting or compelling.
The biggest issue is value. Most people who read NYT articles, myself included, couldn't care less if they charge. I'm certainly not going to pay to read their stories when I get the same news a thousand other places for free. There's no value, even if their article is written better.
I have "Up" on BluRay. It came with the DVD in the box, as well as an iTunes DRM'd copy of the movie. I haven't tried to rip it from the BRD or the DVD, but I suspect if I wanted to, I could do so using Fairmount.
Honestly though, why would I need to right now? I can play it in my theater on BluRay, on my family room TV or in my car using DVD, on my wife's iPhone or my son's iPod or my AppleTV using the iTunes version. In 10 years if I want to play it and iTunes is gone, I'll probably rip it using one of the several BRD rippers out there.
Generally speaking, I have far less reason to fear Google than Microsoft. Microsoft has repeatedly broken the law for its own end. As far as I know, Google has no record of similar transgressions.
I hate how everyone politicizes everything, but honestly, Schmidt is right. I don't google for how to make bombs, so I don't worry about someone thinking I'm some kind of nutjob.
The thing is, Apple doesn't sell a standalone OS. The OSX boxes in stores are upgrades to the OS that came with your Mac. Apple doesn't enforce this in the software installer, but this is in fact the case. If you don't own a Mac that came with MacOS installed on it, you are not legally entitled to buy and install the "upgrade" on your non-Apple hardware. The fact that Apple doesn't put the draconian upgrade checks into their OS installer like Microsoft does not change that fact.
I work for Nokia, and I hate to tell them this, but Nokia's been doing this for years, both with device variants and with remote software (Intellisync Mobile Suite).
I love going through all those posts and seeing how many dozens of people prognosticated how much of a flop the iPod would be. It wasn't just CmdrTaco, it was dozens of geeks. I wonder if I was amongst them. Certainly, I was around back then.
I came into the thread to post this same comment. Deus Ex was one of the best RPG/FPS solo adventure games I've ever played, and I'd love to see it redone.
Slashdot Mirror
Why buy an Acura when a Honda is just as good (and made by the same company besides)?
This is telling. I'd buy the Acura. Heck, I drive a Lexus instead of a Toyota. They may be made by the same company, but they aren't the same car. The noise suppression alone is worth the difference in cost, but there are a dozen other reasons to choose the Lexus too, including resale value, dealer support, complementary car if you ever need warranty service, etc.
It all comes down to what you value. If you value price above all else, you're not the target audience for a Mac. If you care about elegance, simplicity, compatibility, and longevity, Macs are not a bad deal.
I'm not sure when liking a product that meets your needs turned you into some sort of fanboy deserving of an epithet, but it's sort of sad. I use a Mac ( a 5 year old one at that, but it suits my needs as a developer to have a UNIX machine with a good user interface and still be able to play an MMO game once in a blue moon). I also have an iPad, and I really like it for surfing on the couch. It's not that I have more money than sense, it's just that I like it, and I have enough money to buy it, so why shouldn't I? I use a Nokia N900 too, does that make me a socialist? I like Diet Coke, does that make me a shill for a sugar water company hellbent on making Americans fat and complacent? Maybe so, but somehow that's not how I identify myself.
People can be independent thinkers. Buying a product doesn't force you to assume a company's brand identity as your own.
It's almost like you wanted him to say:
It's very hard, when we look at this data, not to conclude that there is a problem. But it's a problem affecting a small percentage of users. ... we care about every user, and we're not going to stop until every one of those is happy....Let me tell you what we're going to do. First think, we've released iOS 4.0.1, which fixes the wrong formula for bars and there was a nasty Exchange bug, and that's fixed too.We recommend that every iPhone owner update to it. Second, a lot of people have told us, the bumper solves the signal strength problem. Why don't you just give everyone a case? Okay. Everyone will get a free case.
He pretty much said exactly that. There's a problem. We want to fix it, here's how.
I'm not an iPhone user (I use a Nokia N900 and like it), but the response seems pretty much exactly what everyone wanted it to be.
Apple doesn't offer Blu-Ray on any machines, not even the highest end workstations.
Apple is a bit more like--You can get it next June in the apple store, and oh man is it going to be broken for the first couple releases but we'll take your money anyways.
Funny, as I type this on my iPad, which has been flawless, I have to disagree with you.
While it does run on iPhones/iPads/Android devices, it's pretty difficult to play effectively with the touchscreen.
I'm sure I've been living in a hole, but that site has some seriously funny stuff on it. Examples that made me actually laugh out loud:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/facebook_suck
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell
http://xkcd.com/739/
Nothing to see here, move along.
[quote]A Netbook is another name for a cheap laptop. You can do real work on a netbook, and by work I mean Microsoft Office and Quickbooks work.[/quote]
So you're saying that I've never done any work in my entire life? I've been working in corporate America for 16 years and I've never done "Microsoft Office and Quickbooks work".
There are other kinds of work than the kind you do. Personally, I hate Netbooks. Crappy, underpowered computers with cramped keyboards and terrible, tiny screens. I find the iPad a lot more useful than a netbook. Neither of them can replace the 23" monitor hooked up to the Linux machine where I do my software development. The idea of running Eclipse on a netbook screen makes me cringe. I have a Lenovo T400 with a 1440x900 screen, and I hate even doing development on it (though the idea of writing code on Windows is nauseating in itself). At least with the iPad, there's no false premise of it being a content creation tool like there is with a netbook.
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/04/21/its-coming-farmville-heading-to-iphone-and-ipad/
Ring Ring.
I have to honestly ask, why do you like dollar coins? The last thing I want is a bunch of heavy coins in my pockets scratching my cell phone.
I hate change in all forms, and dollar coins are no exception. It's ridiculous that pennies are still being minted -- they're probably worth more in raw materials than the value on the coin.
I'm not "creative" because I see these efforts as the crap they are? Ask 100 people who aren't in marketing how they feel about online advertising. Guess what, 99% of them hate it. It's not because it's not creative. It's because "creative" is somehow intrusive. "They're not clicking on our ad, Bob." "you're right, Jim, make it blink, and scroll along the page as they scroll." I actually worked for 2 years at CNN.com on multimedia projects. I'm all too familiar with Flash and how artists want to use it.
You throw in math with some odd example, but as it turns out I have taken quite a bit of math from a very respected engineering school and probably have a lot more insight into what math is and is not than you seem to think. I'm not sure the relevance of your insult though, since my original comment had nothing to do with math.
And you're right; those idiots who now create worthless content in Flash will be using some other tool to make worthless content in HTML5. The plus side there is that I can block that using AdBlock too.
Honestly, aside from games, you can pretty much do anything nav-wise that you did in flash using DOM/html/Javascript these days. I'm not even talking about hand-coding anymore. Using things like GWT, SmartGWT, or one of the myriad of third party libraries (YUI, anyone?), you can do some amazing things without much hand coding at all. All of these things will work on the iPad, on your crappy smartphone, or on any future devices that use a modern web/js engine.
Honestly, Apple didn't invent this idea any more than they came up with removing floppy drives or adding USB, but as usual, Apple is the catalyst that starts a sea-change in an industry that was slow to happen on its own.
Flash exists because there is a gap between making disgusting prefabbed square forms, and fluid, interesting and deeply creative content; Something that tells your customers and competitors "hey, we have style!"
The problem is, we don't care if you have "style" or not. When I go to your site, and I can't read the text because of all the pseudo-scroll widgets and fake tabs, you failed to reach your target audience. Style is simple elegance. The perfect web site doesn't need drop shadows and background music -- the content speaks for itself.
Flash makes the web interesting, it's what powers the little widgets you find on the sides of blogs, it's what makes the Most Interesting Man in the World interesting, it's what lets me tell the designers "yes! I can render our company's portfolio in 3D"
Oh my God! You're everything that's wrong with the internet! People HATE those stupid widgets on the sides of blogs -- in fact most of us use Flash blockers specifically for things like that. Anyone who's not a marketing weenie avoids that sort of thing as much as their technical prowess (or lack thereof) allows them to.
We don't care about stupid online beer commercials. We don't want to see your company's portfolio in 3D. I'm quite sure it's no more compelling that way -- only slower, uglier, and looks like crap on my mobile device, if it renders at all. Content is king, not the stupid fluff you're promoting. Flash is the realm of porn browsers and morons, and the content created using it clearly caters to this subsection of online society. I for one will be more than happy when it is banished to the realm of popularity where Java applets live these days.
I'm pretty sure that the winner will be the one with the best icon. People are stupid.
They went after Nokia first. Nokia is the 900 lb gorilla in the phone market, with 40% of worldwide marketshare. You pretty much can't make a GSM phone without using Nokia's patents.
I love Apple products, but they need to get their own products compliant with other people's patents before they go suing people.
This article is stupid. It reads as "waa, Apple won't give me a prototype, so I am going to throw a hissy fit."
Turns out that just because you can physically type an article doesn't mean you have any insight into anything that would make said article interesting or compelling.
The biggest issue is value. Most people who read NYT articles, myself included, couldn't care less if they charge. I'm certainly not going to pay to read their stories when I get the same news a thousand other places for free. There's no value, even if their article is written better.
I have "Up" on BluRay. It came with the DVD in the box, as well as an iTunes DRM'd copy of the movie. I haven't tried to rip it from the BRD or the DVD, but I suspect if I wanted to, I could do so using Fairmount.
Honestly though, why would I need to right now? I can play it in my theater on BluRay, on my family room TV or in my car using DVD, on my wife's iPhone or my son's iPod or my AppleTV using the iTunes version. In 10 years if I want to play it and iTunes is gone, I'll probably rip it using one of the several BRD rippers out there.
Generally speaking, I have far less reason to fear Google than Microsoft. Microsoft has repeatedly broken the law for its own end. As far as I know, Google has no record of similar transgressions.
I hate how everyone politicizes everything, but honestly, Schmidt is right. I don't google for how to make bombs, so I don't worry about someone thinking I'm some kind of nutjob.
The thing is, Apple doesn't sell a standalone OS. The OSX boxes in stores are upgrades to the OS that came with your Mac. Apple doesn't enforce this in the software installer, but this is in fact the case. If you don't own a Mac that came with MacOS installed on it, you are not legally entitled to buy and install the "upgrade" on your non-Apple hardware. The fact that Apple doesn't put the draconian upgrade checks into their OS installer like Microsoft does not change that fact.
I work for Nokia, and I hate to tell them this, but Nokia's been doing this for years, both with device variants and with remote software (Intellisync Mobile Suite).
I love going through all those posts and seeing how many dozens of people prognosticated how much of a flop the iPod would be. It wasn't just CmdrTaco, it was dozens of geeks. I wonder if I was amongst them. Certainly, I was around back then.
I thought CDs were those coasters AOL used to send you.
To which a 15 year old would reply, "What's AOL"?
I came into the thread to post this same comment. Deus Ex was one of the best RPG/FPS solo adventure games I've ever played, and I'd love to see it redone.
For the uninitiated, here's the lowdown;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex