Most of the time, when Apple deprecates a technology it's because there are legitimate arguments that a superior replacement is available. (And of course, they implement the replacement.) That simply hasn't happened here. USB has its advantages for some scenarios, but there are many more where Firewire is better.
Since this is Apple, there's been no statement about long-term plans anyway. There are a variety of reasons Apple may have left it off this model, even if they don't intend to stop using Firewire in general. Maybe they had trouble making another port fit on the side of the case. Maybe the chipset they got from Nvidia for the MacBooks doesn't include an option for Firewire and they didn't want to do the work to add it on their own. Maybe they're just trying to force some customers to buy MacBook Pros.
Look to the next round of new "consumer"-line Macs for guidance: if new iMacs or minis are released without Firewire, that'll be a very strong signal.
Colbert has commented in interviews that it didn't feel like he "bombed" at all. It was a giant room with like 3000 people in it. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, that while all the people up front may not have been laughing, there were 1000 at the back who where. And so with every joke, he got a good response. The problem with the video everyone has seen is that the only microphone is the one Colbert is speaking into. It simply doesn't pick up sounds from the room unless they are overwhelmingly loud.
There's a FREE recording on iTunes of a book reading Colbert did at an Apple store. In the Q & A period at the end, he talks about this. It's about 45 minutes in.
At my very large employer, where I've worked for about a year and a half, we receive bonuses at the end of the year. The bonuses are given only to overtime-exempt employees. I think the company's perspective -- which I agree with -- is that if you're eligible for overtime, you were already compensated anytime you went above and beyond a typical day's work.
If IBM is going to continue to expect their employees to work as many hours, it wouldn't surprise me if some of them make more than they did before the change and base pay cut.
Who are these "many" Mac users who are supposedly upset about Java 6? There were a couple of very loud-mouthed blog posts at the 10.5 release date, but other than that.... Java developers surely don't make up a group of "many" Mac users.
It's a fabulous blog about the process of development and managing developers. He's actually got a book coming out very soon that's an expansion of past blog entries, but the stuff on the site is excellent.
A basic article about a 2-year-old OS is news?
on
Mac Systems Management
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· Score: 1, Insightful
Why is this on Slashdot? I guess it might be of some interest to people who don't manage OS X professionally. But this is a fairly basic overview of features from an OS released over 2 years ago! I cannot imagine why anyone would spend time writing this now. It's not like the information isn't already out there... like in the product documentation. Seriously, why is this on Slashdot? Did the editor think it was about 10.5 or something?
Many HDMI cables will not be routed to a TV. They'll be routed to a receiver, which acts as a convenient switch for multiple video/audio sources. Many people who are buying HD TVs probably have a DVD player, a video game system, a digital cable box, and who knows what else. With audio and video on the same cable, each component needs only a single cable to the receiver.
Is this for real? If it is, it makes me a little queasy. Silly hairdos and bizarre obsessions aside, Kim Jong-Il is a tyrant whose power rests on the backs of millions of underfed, opressed people. And while a free bandwidth arrangement is one thing, accepting an offer of citizenship...! Sorry, but copyright infringement is not a noble cause, and the people who run The Pirate Bay are not champions of global freedom. I hope this arrangement brings that home to people.
I'm a former Apple employee, my current job is primarily about supporting Macs, and I do independent Mac-related consulting on the side. And even I think most of the time, for most employees, it's dumb for large companies to shell out $$$ for individual computers. Remote terminals based on something like a Citrix server are so completely the way to go. The vast majority of corporate users do email, web, spreadsheets, and text documents. Most organizations already give users a network home for their documents rather than running backup software on every single desktop computer. It makes no sense to go through the headaches of software management, hardware maintenance, etc on hundreds/thousands of computers when you can do it all with a few servers.
I love it when Apple moves into a new space. But until you can do something like a Citrix session to a Mac OS server, I don't think their stuff has any role as a standard workstation in large businesses.
And this is different from American customer service how?
Oh, you can always tell when the American on the other end of the phone doesn't have a clue. Long silences, lots of "ummmm", etc etc. Or they put you on hold after every question you ask because they have to ask someone else for the answer.
Mac OS X has no startup sound. All Macintosh computers have a startup sound built into their hardware. It plays before the OS ever loads. That's why you'll hear it on an Intel Mac, even if you're using Boot Camp to go directly to Windows.
Nigel Kersten is on the staff at a university in Australia. I have no idea exactly why he's on the list, but he sends zillions of useful answers to questions on Apple's macos-x-server email list. (http://lists.apple.com/)
My explanation was a bit off, but the logic holds true. The original complainer has it backwards: it's consistent with Mac behavior for all the windows to come forward. The weirdness is that the OS will let you layer windows between applications. I think it's a wise compromise: it makes drag-n-drop actions far easier by making it possible to visually arrange windows as you need them, but keeps the consistency of having a foreground application.
Regardless, I think it's an absurd example of how an OS is going downhill. Sometimes you have to just say "it works this way" in the name of functionality over absolute consistency.
The Finder's well-known to be almost total crap. However, so is your example. It's not even possible! In OS X, you can't manually layer the windows of different applications because bringing any of an application's windows to the foreground will bring the entire application forward. (I think iChat behaves differently under some circumstances, but that appears to be bug.)
The third step of your example is to "put a new finder window over the app's window". In doing that, you've already switched back to the Finder, bringing all of its windows forward. If you close the top-most window, of course the second Finder window will be on top. That's how it works.
I can't imagine where you got the idea that it should work any differently.
Both of these guys switched because they decided that open file formats are their top priority. Neither switched for any of the things most users care about. (It's also worth noting that most of the file formats Apple uses are industry-standard, like PNG, vCard, and PDF. It's a handful of things like the iPhoto library database and iCal's weird calendar files that seem to bug these guys.) Yes, the opinions of the techno-elite are important and Apple should take their concerns to heart. But this has nothing to do with Apple's pursuit of the larger computing market. Unless these guys start recommending Ubuntu (or some other Linux) over Apple to non-techies, it doesn't hurt Apple's sales.
Perhaps some part of what you're saying is true, particularly when it comes to interaction with your manager. However, I think it's great that the system specifically subverts the chain of command when it comes to performance appraisals. In a typical company it is very bad manners, and very dangerous to your job, to complain about your boss to his/her boss when it's not a matter of something like sexual harassment. The person two levels above you never really knows how you feel, and your boss can get away with all kinds of stuff. This system makes it possible to get around those issues. Transparency can be a very good thing.
The other side, though, is all the "mechanical" issues that it can resolve. Yes, if something's wrong like a broken chair or lousy cafeteria food, you can always complain to whomever is responsible. But 1) that can take a lot of time, and 2) the person doesn't necessarily have to do anything about it. These are the niggling issues that can grind you down, and making it possible and efficient to get them resolved/improved is a big step forward in a large company.
Mark my words: you won't see a pro intel tower until Adobe (and possibly MS) are Universal Binary.
Um... In the announcement for the Intel iMac and MacBook Pro (Macworld Jan?), Steve said all model lines would go Intel by the end of the year. So no, Creative Suite won't be out until next year, and yes, Intel-based Mac workstations will be out before then.
I knew someone who was from an "Amway family": their business was selling Amway stuff and getting other people to sign up as distributors "below" them in the pyramid. If they needed something and Amway sold it, they bought it. Everything in their house was cheap off-brand crap: weird breakfast cereal, odd-smelling shampoo, etc. It's not like they couldn't have afforded better quality. They just always bought Amway because that's what their business was. The kids hated it. Sounds like the Ballmer household is the same way. Pretty sad, if you ask me.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, and I'd like a full-service gas station at every fracking corner so I'm not required to learn how to pump gas.
Move to New Jersey. Pumping gas yourself is illegal there.
Mitch Hedberg had a bit on one of his comedy CDs about product naming. Paraphrasing: take whatever the product does and add "er."
"What's this thing do?"
"It keeps things fresh."
"Then that's a fresher. I'm goin' on break."
Most of the time, when Apple deprecates a technology it's because there are legitimate arguments that a superior replacement is available. (And of course, they implement the replacement.) That simply hasn't happened here. USB has its advantages for some scenarios, but there are many more where Firewire is better.
Since this is Apple, there's been no statement about long-term plans anyway. There are a variety of reasons Apple may have left it off this model, even if they don't intend to stop using Firewire in general. Maybe they had trouble making another port fit on the side of the case. Maybe the chipset they got from Nvidia for the MacBooks doesn't include an option for Firewire and they didn't want to do the work to add it on their own. Maybe they're just trying to force some customers to buy MacBook Pros.
Look to the next round of new "consumer"-line Macs for guidance: if new iMacs or minis are released without Firewire, that'll be a very strong signal.
Colbert has commented in interviews that it didn't feel like he "bombed" at all. It was a giant room with like 3000 people in it. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, that while all the people up front may not have been laughing, there were 1000 at the back who where. And so with every joke, he got a good response. The problem with the video everyone has seen is that the only microphone is the one Colbert is speaking into. It simply doesn't pick up sounds from the room unless they are overwhelmingly loud.
There's a FREE recording on iTunes of a book reading Colbert did at an Apple store. In the Q & A period at the end, he talks about this. It's about 45 minutes in.
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?i=20072008&id=266215977
At my very large employer, where I've worked for about a year and a half, we receive bonuses at the end of the year. The bonuses are given only to overtime-exempt employees. I think the company's perspective -- which I agree with -- is that if you're eligible for overtime, you were already compensated anytime you went above and beyond a typical day's work.
If IBM is going to continue to expect their employees to work as many hours, it wouldn't surprise me if some of them make more than they did before the change and base pay cut.
Thank you for your kind words.
I'm going to plead the 5th on this particular incident, though....
Who are these "many" Mac users who are supposedly upset about Java 6? There were a couple of very loud-mouthed blog posts at the 10.5 release date, but other than that.... Java developers surely don't make up a group of "many" Mac users.
Check out http://www.randsinrepose.com/
It's a fabulous blog about the process of development and managing developers. He's actually got a book coming out very soon that's an expansion of past blog entries, but the stuff on the site is excellent.
Why is this on Slashdot? I guess it might be of some interest to people who don't manage OS X professionally. But this is a fairly basic overview of features from an OS released over 2 years ago! I cannot imagine why anyone would spend time writing this now. It's not like the information isn't already out there... like in the product documentation. Seriously, why is this on Slashdot? Did the editor think it was about 10.5 or something?
Many HDMI cables will not be routed to a TV. They'll be routed to a receiver, which acts as a convenient switch for multiple video/audio sources. Many people who are buying HD TVs probably have a DVD player, a video game system, a digital cable box, and who knows what else. With audio and video on the same cable, each component needs only a single cable to the receiver.
Ha! That's what I get for browsing Slashdot too early in the morning on April 1st! This is probably one of the best ones we'll see today. :-D
Is this for real? If it is, it makes me a little queasy. Silly hairdos and bizarre obsessions aside, Kim Jong-Il is a tyrant whose power rests on the backs of millions of underfed, opressed people. And while a free bandwidth arrangement is one thing, accepting an offer of citizenship...! Sorry, but copyright infringement is not a noble cause, and the people who run The Pirate Bay are not champions of global freedom. I hope this arrangement brings that home to people.
I'm a former Apple employee, my current job is primarily about supporting Macs, and I do independent Mac-related consulting on the side. And even I think most of the time, for most employees, it's dumb for large companies to shell out $$$ for individual computers. Remote terminals based on something like a Citrix server are so completely the way to go. The vast majority of corporate users do email, web, spreadsheets, and text documents. Most organizations already give users a network home for their documents rather than running backup software on every single desktop computer. It makes no sense to go through the headaches of software management, hardware maintenance, etc on hundreds/thousands of computers when you can do it all with a few servers.
I love it when Apple moves into a new space. But until you can do something like a Citrix session to a Mac OS server, I don't think their stuff has any role as a standard workstation in large businesses.
Oh, you can always tell when the American on the other end of the phone doesn't have a clue. Long silences, lots of "ummmm", etc etc. Or they put you on hold after every question you ask because they have to ask someone else for the answer.
John Gruber's excellent Daring Fireball blog has an excellent opinion on this article.
e s
http://daringfireball.net/2006/10/gartner_jackass
Mac OS X has no startup sound. All Macintosh computers have a startup sound built into their hardware. It plays before the OS ever loads. That's why you'll hear it on an Intel Mac, even if you're using Boot Camp to go directly to Windows.
There are two kinds of people in this world: the kind that thinks the world is divided into two kinds of people, and the kind who don't. :-D
A more appropriate link for Josh Wisenbaker would be to http://www.afp548.com/
Nigel Kersten is on the staff at a university in Australia. I have no idea exactly why he's on the list, but he sends zillions of useful answers to questions on Apple's macos-x-server email list. (http://lists.apple.com/)
My explanation was a bit off, but the logic holds true. The original complainer has it backwards: it's consistent with Mac behavior for all the windows to come forward. The weirdness is that the OS will let you layer windows between applications. I think it's a wise compromise: it makes drag-n-drop actions far easier by making it possible to visually arrange windows as you need them, but keeps the consistency of having a foreground application.
Regardless, I think it's an absurd example of how an OS is going downhill. Sometimes you have to just say "it works this way" in the name of functionality over absolute consistency.
The Finder's well-known to be almost total crap. However, so is your example. It's not even possible! In OS X, you can't manually layer the windows of different applications because bringing any of an application's windows to the foreground will bring the entire application forward. (I think iChat behaves differently under some circumstances, but that appears to be bug.)
The third step of your example is to "put a new finder window over the app's window". In doing that, you've already switched back to the Finder, bringing all of its windows forward. If you close the top-most window, of course the second Finder window will be on top. That's how it works.
I can't imagine where you got the idea that it should work any differently.
Both of these guys switched because they decided that open file formats are their top priority. Neither switched for any of the things most users care about. (It's also worth noting that most of the file formats Apple uses are industry-standard, like PNG, vCard, and PDF. It's a handful of things like the iPhoto library database and iCal's weird calendar files that seem to bug these guys.) Yes, the opinions of the techno-elite are important and Apple should take their concerns to heart. But this has nothing to do with Apple's pursuit of the larger computing market. Unless these guys start recommending Ubuntu (or some other Linux) over Apple to non-techies, it doesn't hurt Apple's sales.
-- A long-time Mac user :-D
Perhaps some part of what you're saying is true, particularly when it comes to interaction with your manager. However, I think it's great that the system specifically subverts the chain of command when it comes to performance appraisals. In a typical company it is very bad manners, and very dangerous to your job, to complain about your boss to his/her boss when it's not a matter of something like sexual harassment. The person two levels above you never really knows how you feel, and your boss can get away with all kinds of stuff. This system makes it possible to get around those issues. Transparency can be a very good thing.
The other side, though, is all the "mechanical" issues that it can resolve. Yes, if something's wrong like a broken chair or lousy cafeteria food, you can always complain to whomever is responsible. But 1) that can take a lot of time, and 2) the person doesn't necessarily have to do anything about it. These are the niggling issues that can grind you down, and making it possible and efficient to get them resolved/improved is a big step forward in a large company.
Um... In the announcement for the Intel iMac and MacBook Pro (Macworld Jan?), Steve said all model lines would go Intel by the end of the year. So no, Creative Suite won't be out until next year, and yes, Intel-based Mac workstations will be out before then.
I knew someone who was from an "Amway family": their business was selling Amway stuff and getting other people to sign up as distributors "below" them in the pyramid. If they needed something and Amway sold it, they bought it. Everything in their house was cheap off-brand crap: weird breakfast cereal, odd-smelling shampoo, etc. It's not like they couldn't have afforded better quality. They just always bought Amway because that's what their business was. The kids hated it. Sounds like the Ballmer household is the same way. Pretty sad, if you ask me.