Bullshit. It's not a grey area at all. It's totally legal.
You're paying in rubles for a legal download in russia. The *only* thing that matters in that case is russian law (the law applies where the transaction occurs - ie. russia).
The RIAA etc. would love people to believe it's illegal so they can continue to shaft people by charging more than the CD price for a DRM'd compressed copy - and millions fall for it.
The only way they could hope to make it illegal is to impose huge import duties on the songs - which may happen in the US.. luckily the world is bigger than that.
It was monsantos antics in the 3rd world that caused a lot of that (no you can't feed your family! That would be copyright infringment!).
The general unease about a blatantly unethical company making random modifications to your food didn't help either. They got enough lobbyists to legalise it in the UK (our government isn't too expensive to buy) but nobody will buy food with it in, so there's no point in growing it.
Blizzard uses a customized BitTorrent client to download patches
And it sucks. Hard.
We pay for their bandwidth - waiting a week for their sucky client to download at 1k/second isn't acceptable (no I do *not* port forward on my network. I give a shit about security, for some insane reason).
That's why I wait for someone to mirror the patch before downloading.. means I can't play for a day or so though.
That means apple have got it about right in my eyes.
You're a power user... you want 20" monitor, maxed out RAM, etc. At your spec, apples fastest machines are the best value.
For me, who's looking at my first mac, the more I spend is more wasted if I decide I don't like it, hate OSX, or whatever. I want cheap, functional. The mini is better value for me.
Re:On the off chance someone hasn't mentioned this
on
Apple Releases Mac Mini
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Not so obvious...
I'm sitting here on a laptop - non-upgradable (I hear they're selling quite well nowadays...). All my PC boxes are being migrated to shuttles (which aren't very upgradable, TBH, but I don't care).
*most* people don't keep the same box going for 5 years. They upgrade. Slashdotters are more likely to do it bit by bit, but I bet the average slashdotter has spent a lot more than $1000 on hardware in the last 12 months.
The things that I upgrade most (memory, hard drive) are still upgradable on the mini, albeit with a little work... but you get that with laptops too.
99.99% of the 'real world' never upgrade. Heck, they never even run Windows Update let alone upgrade their hardware. This is the market these boxes will fly off the shelves in.
There's some doubt whether installing RAM could void your warranty. If you do it right then I don't think they'd be bothered as long as the fault wasn't related.
USB keyboards are hard to find on the high-street. *every* keyboard on sale in the local store is PS/2.
I just ordered the apple one.. a little pricy but it'll fit the same decor and look nice.
Re:In an attempt to put some news into this story.
on
Apple Releases Mac Mini
·
· Score: 2, Informative
1. It's apparently the quietest mac ever made. That's pretty damned quiet. TBH It's so small I doubt you'd fit a fan into it! Of course nobody actually has one yet...
2. The RAM looks like standard SDRAM (most sites say one slot only). The lid looks like a bugger to get off but give it a few days after release and there will be detailed instructions all over the web. No info on the bluetooth & airport - if they've used the same cards as on other macs then it should be easy.. if not, then you'll need to wait for availability.
3. Compare with a similar speed powerbook.
4. With a mini? No, because they're not available yet....
WoW needs 1GB to be happy anyway otherwise you get massive lag from all the swapping... You could add a 1GB stick (from Crucial - don't pay Apple prices for the memory!!) and it'd probably run OK.
The graphics are less of an issue.. just turn them down until it works.
For a low-end machine it's not too bad. It's not really a games machine... I know a lot of people who could really use this - mostly they muck around on itunes and maybe write some emails. Some of them have cheap powerbooks & this gives a lower entry-level for the others.
Untrue. Britain has some of the strongest anti-pornography laws in the world and one of the highest sexual crime rates.
as an increase in the use of soft drugs leads to an increase in instances of addiction to harder drugs
There's no cause and effect here... the illegality of soft drugs causes increased exposure to those selling harder drugs. The huge increase in the use of cannabis however has not increased the use of harder drugs as the glut in supply means that people don't get exposed to the criminal element. In fact, when there was a local canabis cafe the drug crime actually *fell* around 20%.
When I lived in Manchester, it was possible for a criminal to buy unregistered guns very cheaply.
Bullshit. I live there.
There is little or no gun crime here. Criminals may be able to get guns but they don't *want* to.
Being caught in possession of a gun is a *minimum* 10 year jail sentence. Whether you own it or not. If your fingerprints are on it you go to jail. If it's in your house you go to jail. And the courts are really eager to enforce this.
Nobody is going to burgle a house or steal a car with a gun. Even criminals aren't that stupid... for joyriding you might get maybe 6 months (if that) - why add 10 years onto it?
You do get gun culture around the crack heads and dealers, but they only deal with addicts anyway - they keep it within their own culture.
Yes, 3 people (I think) were shot late last year in Birmingham. And that made the *national* news, because it's so unusual.
I've never seen a gun. I don't want to live somewhere where I'm likely to either.
Slashdot Mirror
Bullshit. It's not a grey area at all. It's totally legal.
You're paying in rubles for a legal download in russia. The *only* thing that matters in that case is russian law (the law applies where the transaction occurs - ie. russia).
The RIAA etc. would love people to believe it's illegal so they can continue to shaft people by charging more than the CD price for a DRM'd compressed copy - and millions fall for it.
The only way they could hope to make it illegal is to impose huge import duties on the songs - which may happen in the US.. luckily the world is bigger than that.
Would you let someone in who'd been sleeping rough for 6 months and hadn't had a bath, shower or change of clothes for that long?
I'd just call the police and have him removed.
I typed 'life' into kazaa but couldn't find it.
Where did you download yours from?
Unsliced bread?
It was monsantos antics in the 3rd world that caused a lot of that (no you can't feed your family! That would be copyright infringment!).
The general unease about a blatantly unethical company making random modifications to your food didn't help either. They got enough lobbyists to legalise it in the UK (our government isn't too expensive to buy) but nobody will buy food with it in, so there's no point in growing it.
Blizzard uses a customized BitTorrent client to download patches
And it sucks. Hard.
We pay for their bandwidth - waiting a week for their sucky client to download at 1k/second isn't acceptable (no I do *not* port forward on my network. I give a shit about security, for some insane reason).
That's why I wait for someone to mirror the patch before downloading.. means I can't play for a day or so though.
If we could liberate 50billion that easily there are a hell of a lot of better things to be doing with it than building walls.
That means apple have got it about right in my eyes.
You're a power user... you want 20" monitor, maxed out RAM, etc. At your spec, apples fastest machines are the best value.
For me, who's looking at my first mac, the more I spend is more wasted if I decide I don't like it, hate OSX, or whatever. I want cheap, functional. The mini is better value for me.
Not so obvious...
I'm sitting here on a laptop - non-upgradable (I hear they're selling quite well nowadays...). All my PC boxes are being migrated to shuttles (which aren't very upgradable, TBH, but I don't care).
*most* people don't keep the same box going for 5 years. They upgrade. Slashdotters are more likely to do it bit by bit, but I bet the average slashdotter has spent a lot more than $1000 on hardware in the last 12 months.
The things that I upgrade most (memory, hard drive) are still upgradable on the mini, albeit with a little work... but you get that with laptops too.
99.99% of the 'real world' never upgrade. Heck, they never even run Windows Update let alone upgrade their hardware. This is the market these boxes will fly off the shelves in.
There's some doubt whether installing RAM could void your warranty. If you do it right then I don't think they'd be bothered as long as the fault wasn't related.
. 19 FCC%25OhNoSPAM%40pacbell.net
http://groups.google.co.uk/groups?selm=BE0A26D9
£330.21 (not £339) is about $620.
$120 difference (£63).
Not bad for Apple, who normally operate on a £1=$1 conversion. The probably saw what that did to their ipod sales over here and thought better of it.
Still sucks that we get charged a premium though.
I'm told the emailer makes a profit, so they keep making them.
They've just done the colour one with video calling, although I'm not sure how they get that data down an analogue phone line.
All the USB keyboards I've seen have a port on the side for the mouse, so you only need one.
OTOH USB hubs are dirt cheap.
Unforunately your comment
"This is a dupe"
has been rejected as it is a dupe.
USB keyboards are hard to find on the high-street. *every* keyboard on sale in the local store is PS/2.
I just ordered the apple one.. a little pricy but it'll fit the same decor and look nice.
1. It's apparently the quietest mac ever made. That's pretty damned quiet. TBH It's so small I doubt you'd fit a fan into it! Of course nobody actually has one yet...
2. The RAM looks like standard SDRAM (most sites say one slot only). The lid looks like a bugger to get off but give it a few days after release and there will be detailed instructions all over the web. No info on the bluetooth & airport - if they've used the same cards as on other macs then it should be easy.. if not, then you'll need to wait for availability.
3. Compare with a similar speed powerbook.
4. With a mini? No, because they're not available yet....
WoW needs 1GB to be happy anyway otherwise you get massive lag from all the swapping... You could add a 1GB stick (from Crucial - don't pay Apple prices for the memory!!) and it'd probably run OK.
The graphics are less of an issue.. just turn them down until it works.
For a low-end machine it's not too bad. It's not really a games machine... I know a lot of people who could really use this - mostly they muck around on itunes and maybe write some emails. Some of them have cheap powerbooks & this gives a lower entry-level for the others.
Go with the basic. Get the RAM and keyboard from 3rd parties.. a *lot* less than $1422.
3 year warranty is pointless - I'd have the lid off within 30 minutes.
I bought one as soon as they were announced.
I'm a PC person really but have been looking to do the mac-thing for a while... at this price it's definately a winner.
That's without a DVD-ROM or any Software except XP Home (the Mac comes with the full version of OSX not a cut down version).
So you've got to add:
XP-Pro (at least)
DVD-ROM
Quicken 2005
Office
Video editing suite
*then* start comparing prices.
Untrue. Britain has some of the strongest anti-pornography laws in the world and one of the highest sexual crime rates.
as an increase in the use of soft drugs leads to an increase in instances of addiction to harder drugs
There's no cause and effect here... the illegality of soft drugs causes increased exposure to those selling harder drugs. The huge increase in the use of cannabis however has not increased the use of harder drugs as the glut in supply means that people don't get exposed to the criminal element. In fact, when there was a local canabis cafe the drug crime actually *fell* around 20%.
Funilly enough, the safest city in the world to live a couple of years ago was Belfast - right in the middle of the fighting.
Basically because the streets were full of soldiers with guns so nobody is going to try anything stupid.
It wouldn't surprise me if the petty crime rate in iraq is really low... the murder rate, however...
When I lived in Manchester, it was possible for a criminal to buy unregistered guns very cheaply.
Bullshit. I live there.
There is little or no gun crime here. Criminals may be able to get guns but they don't *want* to.
Being caught in possession of a gun is a *minimum* 10 year jail sentence. Whether you own it or not. If your fingerprints are on it you go to jail. If it's in your house you go to jail. And the courts are really eager to enforce this.
Nobody is going to burgle a house or steal a car with a gun. Even criminals aren't that stupid... for joyriding you might get maybe 6 months (if that) - why add 10 years onto it?
You do get gun culture around the crack heads and dealers, but they only deal with addicts anyway - they keep it within their own culture.
Yes, 3 people (I think) were shot late last year in Birmingham. And that made the *national* news, because it's so unusual.
I've never seen a gun. I don't want to live somewhere where I'm likely to either.
Not really.. the number of lines of code to count the number of apps... 10? 15?
Add in an 'if' statement to limit the monitor size to 800x600 and rebuild. Voila, a whole new OS in under an hour.
They didn't get rich by actually working for it you know...
I installed it using Windows Update.
It apparently install a file called mrt.exe, which creates mrt.log in c:\windows\debug. It then deletes itself I think, as I have no mrt.exe anywhere.
There's no UI at all on the one that is being distributed at the moment.