In the article the author says that transmeta means "Above The Beyond". The prefix -trans- means "across". "meta" Has several possible meaning. That would make the translation vary from "Across The Beyond" to "Across the Goal" and everything in between and beyond.
You missed my point. The point is not whether Apple has good technology or not.
I too was once a die hard Evangelista. Times have changed for me. I hate windows, I like the MacOS, but the executivs of the company are assholes. I'm now a linux man. I use my Windoze box If Linus were to become an overnight asshole, I'd move on to something else.
>Do you know that the iMAC (the stupid "girly" computer introduced over a year ago) was the only computer with 10/100base-T ethernet built-in? It has a DVD-CD-ROM.
The iMac is two steps above garbage. I work with them every day. The iMac uses technology from last year's laptops. 66mhz system bus, flimsy CD drive. FYI, that's not a DVD in the iMac. It's a 24x CD. Roll on down to your local Blockbuster and rent a DVD disc and try to watch it in an iMac.
The iMac is not some great technological feat, it's just a rare example of Apple doing some good advertising.
We need computer operator's licenses. (I'm semi-joking, and semi-serious)
Something similar in difficulty to the A+ certification. People need to have a basic understand of computers before they begin to get in too deep.
I've seen people who know ZILCH about computers who drop 3-4 thousand dollars on a machine that they don't understand.
I'm not saying that everyone has to be an electrical engineer, but come on, you should ad least know that...
1. The mouse is for your hand. 2. The mouse is NOT a foot pedal. 3. Everything must be properly plugged in and turned ON to work. 4. It's not the salesman's/store's/manufacturer's if you don't understand something. 5. You WILL need to spend money again on your computer, no matter how much you paid for it.
There needs to be a minimum level of understanding of the way the machines and the business work. Manuals, tests, online documentation, I don't care how people get it, as long as they get it.
>>The only reason the PC is threatened by NCs is because we let Microsoft scare the hell out of new users. It is really our own fault.
The NC is just Larry Ellison's pipe dream for the forseeable future. Until we all have broadband internet access the NC will only have a place in corporate environments, and then it'll just be for the bean counters and pencil pushers.
The NC is not a viable solution for anyone who is in any way a part of a creative process. If they tried to force artists and programmers to use NCs production, effeciceicy, and therefore profits would go down.
The NC is for Joe Schmuckateli who just needs to be able to get e-mail from his boss and maybe have a look at a networked database.
As for whos fault it is, I say that it lies with business. M$ doesn't make 34 million dollars per day because of what we as consumers buy. The biggest cash cow of the M$ empire is and has always been the corporate market. When XYZ consulting needs new computers in the Miami branch and then get 400 new Win9X boxen M$ maks about 400x$70. Then they need 400 new copies of Office 2k. Then they need 400 Client licenses for Win NT Server.
Since I don't have access to the priveleged knowledge of how much M$ makes on each copy of office I'm going to make a few assumptions.
Let's just say that they make $100 in profit for each copy of Office. $70 for each copy of Win9x. Finally $40 for each WinNT client license.
That's $40,000 in profit for Office alone. That's $28,000 for Win 9x That's $16,000 for Client licenses
$84,000 in profit for M$ on one sale. Support is another revenue engine that I won't deal with now...
They'd have to move 1200 "Presarios" out of Best Buy for them to get that kind of return.
In the late 80s and early 90s the consumer market was crap. You didn't have the "Computer Superstores" on every block moving 2 dozen computer per hour. The money that put M$ on top came from the business community. It really is NOT our own fault.
>>I wonder how many women this question might alienate. Can we keep discussion a little more civil?
This is not a concern to me. After becoming familiar with Nitrozak's work I believe that she has a very "guy-like" sense of humor and I think that this question will be taken in the appropriate context.
BTW, have you forgotten where we are? On/. most of us are pretty thick skinned.
This kind of makes a paradox because the fools are trying to protect the children now. The V-Chip will do nothing except force TV prices up.
The kind of morons who use the TV as a babysitter are the ones who will "need" the V-Chip, once you block out programming with sexual or violent content it will cease to keep childrens' interest and then these assholes will have to find another babysitting appliance to bitch about.
How long before M$ takes a hint on this and incorporates violence and sex filtering into Direct X?
Ratings are a bullshit way to inpose censorship.
Movies that get an NC-17 rating are destined to bring in no money because most theaters won't carry them. Just as the X rating was the kiss of death for movies in the 1980's.
I remember seeing the original robocop when the ED-209 fired for what seemed like 5 minutes into some guys chest, then two weeks later I saw it again and it went down to like 2 seconds. Why was the change made? Because the MPAA had threatened to slap the movie with an X rating if they didn't shorten the scene.
HBO, while they'll show damned near anything in their original productsion also will not carry X rated movies.
I'm sick of these fscking egg heads trying to protect us from ourselves. I want to eat a big bloods rare steak. I want to eat REAL butter, not that partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil bullshit!. Sometimes I want a cigar, or a cigarette. I KNOW that they're bad for me, but I WANT to do it anyway. I don't need you to protect me from myself.
Maybe I'll die at 75 instead of 77 because I had one too many bacon cheeseburgers. Or maybe I'll die tomorrow in a car accident.
God protect us when the fools want to protect our children.
I, being a neo-pagan, have a slightly diferent perspective that the Christians and agnostics and athiests.
The journey is just as important as the destination. Many charitible organizations are driven by religion. Yet at the same time the KKK is a protestant Christian organization.
>If scientists can't work in good conditions because of some bible-driven morons, they should move their facilities to countries where intelligence has more power than god-botherers
Are you aware that the two groups of people who are most likely to believe in a "God" are
1. The undereducated. 2. The highly educated.
PHDs are statisticly more likely to believe in "God" than are college drop-outs.
The more you understand about the complexity of the world, the more likely you are to believe that there was a Creator or a higher power.
Science and Religion are NOT mutually exclusive concepts.
We can not allow Science to do to religion what religion did to science 500 years ago.
We can't begin to shun people because they believe that there is a higher power than mankind. We can't marginalize people because they believe that when they die, something more than a "lights out" will occur.
By doing this you become as bad as the zealots who threatened Galileo to recant under the threat of death.
>But to think that only "humans" have "souls" is so utterly arrogant.
It's a common belif that only humand have "souls" other animals are though to have spirits, but only humans have "souls", what other animal is capable of contemplating concepts such as "right" and "wrong"? We're the only ones who can decide to perform acts of good or acts of evil, therefore we're the only ones who have souls ar risk.
Arrogant, maybe but it makes sense if you understand what a souls is and what purpose it serves in a theological sense.
>>The practice of bundling appropriations is simply a convenient way to make compromises and create consensus. Plus, by combining appropriations bills it makes it a lot easier to focus debates on the more contentious appropriations rather than debating every single one - otherwise the Congress would never get through the budget.
If they had to spend more time talking about and working on each spending measure, they would have less time to spend our money. With that reduced amount if time they'd have to concentrate only on what is important.
"Whoops, we didn't have time this year to pass the funding measure for the Hatian clog dancing lesbian thesbian educational fund, well maybe next year."
Why is the Space Station tied to veterans benefits and environmental programs?
If we're going to open the wallet for the space station, let's just do that. I support environmental protection and veterans benefits, but they should be handled on seperate bills and not riders on the space station's funding bills.
It's exactly this practice that gives people like this asshole Roemer the ammunition to attack the funding bill.
"My district isn't getting enough out of this, so I'm going to kill it." Screw that and screw him.
With HD prices coming dow like they are (I just got a 10gb Maxtor for $149+tax) All I'd need is a Single Board Computer (SBC) with audio out and I'd be in business.
I could run a small quick Linux distro like Trinux, and all would be good.
The 12Vold DC power from a car battery would be readily adaptable to use by such a device, and you ould get an enclosure from Radio Crap.
The return of Jobs may have lead to more financial gains for apple, but it's also lead to some technological backstepping.
The elimination of SCSI, Serial Ports, and ADB has alienated many of their formerly loyal customers. I'm one of those people. I got my first Mac when I was 15, it was a Mac Plus. Then when I was 18 I got a Performa 550. Then when I was 21 I got a Performa 6400.
I don't plan on buying another new Apple system again. I've got several hundred dollars invested in my peripherals. I'm not going to trash perfectly good equipment just to use the new equipment. I began the transition from the MacOS to Linux, I have a new alternate OS of choice.
Apple has fucked me over for the last time. When a company tinkers with their computers' firmware to preventprocessor upgrades, radically changes system board design and refuses to work with other companies to help them develop alternate OSes, kills off cloning, leaves customers stranded with peripherals that won't work with their new machines and claims it was all done to ensure the company's survival, well if things are so bad that THIS is what you need to do to survive, then count me OUT. I don't want to be a part of that club anymore.
I'll buy a 7300 and put a G3/4 upgrade in it before I'll plunk down cash for a new machine.
Steve Jobs has convinced people that he's fucking them over for their own good. -Paraphase "We need to do these things to keep Apple healthy, we need to build incompatibility into out machines so you have to buy new ones instead of upgrading. If you just upgraded your machine instead of buying a new one, that costs Apple money."
What's worse is that people actually BELIVE THIS CRAP! There are idiots out there who'd line up to get kicked in the balls if Jobs said it would help Apple.
Only president Clinton is better at warping people's perception of reality than this guy is.
>>What's wrong with programming at the CIA? Or what about information warfare with the Army?
It's unethical to be a part of oppressing other people.
>>You might think these situations are unethical because of their military involvement, but most level-headed individuals realize such positions are needed in this day and age.
You don't understand my position, yet you criticize it. I fully support the military and intelligence community as long as they're used to protect freedom and not to oppress the weak.
n. "Katz-O-fEl-E-a" One who rambles on without end, in the grand tradition of JonKatz.
Seriously, I think that a part of the programmers code of ethics should be.
We will not code or assist in the coding of any program which can be used to surveill anyone.
We will not code or assist in the coding of any program that can be used to gather personal information about anyone without their consent.
We will not code or assist in the coding of any program that forces a user to surrender privacy rights as a condition of it's use.
We will not code or assist in the coding of any program that allows a computer to be remotely controlled or monitored without it's owner and user's consent.
We will not code or assist in the coding of any program that forces a user to surrender control of the computer as a condition of it's use.
We will make our best reasonable efforts to insure that our programs ship bug free.
We will fix any and all bugs as timely as possible after a program is released and the bug is discovered.
Ethics are important, coders are not robots, they have the ability to think for themselves and they SHOULD DO SO!
>>uh huh... so lack of adb and scsi prevents you from upgrading to a new G3/G4.
Yes. Apple has just lost another customer. I'll buy an old PowerMac with a G3/G4 upgrade, but I'm not buying a blue and white. Or I'll get one of those generic PPC MBs and get a CPU to run Mac OS 8.0, I think I still have a copy around here somewhere that was designed for CHRP machines.
>>According to the Apple store, you can add scsi for 50 bucks. If it's that important to you, there is a nice option.
Great, a way for Apple to milk more money out of their loyal supporters.
>>And how many ADB devices do you have? I can count 3 that I have, keyboard, mouse, and joystick. But I'll gladly take USB over ADB any day of the week.
Unimportant. Some dongled software products need an ADB dongle to run, not everyone wants to run out and pay $1000 for the new version of the software when the old version still gets the job done. USB doesn't have the kind of integration that ADB had. It was a hardware reset to three finger salute a mac with an ADB keyboard. A tight lockup on a USB keyboard equipped mac means that you have to reach down and hit the interrupt button.
On an Imac it's easier to unplug it than to hit that button.
So we've got Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Dongle, Wacom Tablets, Bar Code readers, and even though I don't remember the name there is a home automoation device that used ADB.
>>By the way, this sort of nit-picking is bordering on insane.
Insanity is believe that Apple can do no wrong. That every boneheaded decision that the Apple executives make is insanely great.
>>Were you one of those who complained that there wasn't a 680x0 chip in your new fang-dangled PPC Mac?
No, I was just pissed off that the Machine that Apple told me was PowerPC upgradeable really wasn't. Yes, I was an original Performa 550 owner, I got rid of the thing before the FTC and apple settled on a remedy.
>>It's progress. Thank god we don't have to keep every obsolete piece of technology ever pursued at Apple. We'd probally still be on 680x0 machines with NuBus and the old style keyboard connector from the original Mac.
The 68060 was supposedly a pretty sweet chip. If 680x0 technology had been persued there'd have been advances in that platform. I don't fault Apple for taking the PPC path, because they included an '0x0 emulator.
There was and is nothing wrong with the nubus architecture. A G3 equipped 8100 can (under certain circumstances) outperform a factory configured beige G3.
>>Apple has done a wonderful job in moving the platform forward. You can't satisfy everyone with every decision, but Apple has tried to make the best of it anyway.
Even though I understand that one man can't make adifference in this case, I'm done buying Apple hardware. (you're talking to someone who has been a part of a one man boycott of nintendo since 1994)
If stock perfomance is all your concerned with, think about buying into Micro$oft. If ethics don't matter to you Apple isn't the only company that does well.
While I'm at it, Hitler did a wonderful job of building the German economy, many people loved him too. As long as you don't mind sacrificing a few Jews along the way, I suppose that you can side with anyone to make a buck.
>>(who whether they were good or not, sapped apple's money, especially since how is apple supposed to compete with companies that apple is paying for the R&D budget of, leaving the other companies with little to spend money on besides advertising and tweaking?)
Increase the licensing fee to the cloners. Problem solved. The ones who can pay it will, the ones who can't pay it won't. I'm not concerned with what's good for "Apple" I'm conscerned with what's good for the platform. Steve Jobs is definately not that.
Getting rid of the floppy doesn't bother me, it's obsolete anyway, but eliminating ADB and SCSI are the two things that have caused me to decide not to buy a new mac system. I'll buy my old mac from work and put a G3/4 card into it before I buy one of the new Blue and White or Charcoal and Graphite macs.
Ok, now more than three words. I was remarking to my fiance' last season how cool it would be if Fox did a Lone Gunmen series.
I'd never miss an episode as long as they did it right. Then they could use Skully as an occasional character who shows up whenever the boys need a little FBI help.
POssible story line for an episode (or a few if they throw in enough good filler).
'Hickey develops a lightning fast and extremely secure encryption algorithm. After a group meeting with TLG (The Lone Gunmen) he decided that he should open source it, and let the world benefit from increased privacy and keep the "shadow government" at bay. They enlist the help of an Old Skool Berkley hacker type who is more adept at internet anonymity, packet hijacking, IP spoofing and the like. Instead of actually helping them he turns a copy of the info over to AD Kirch who is being blackmailed by the Cancer man because of his mysterious past.
Kirch is instructed to put an end to this Crypto nonesense immediately. He sneaks into the TLG hideout with an emp grenade (sorry for the blatent TF rip-off) and 5 gallons of napalm, as he's about to deploy them AD Skinner, agent Skully, and TLG step out with guns and video cameras drawn. Kirch reaches and pulls out an HK SOCOM.45, Skully and Skinner open fire after they've both empied their magazines Kirch finally slumps to the floor and an effervescent green liquid pours out of all of the bullet holes in Kirch's body. 'Hickey stuffs a Jaz cart into his backpack and the joint goes up on flames.
Fade out....
Fade Back in, TLG are huddled around a computer monitor and Langley exclaims "We did it, the information is out there." Frohike asks "Who's Kung Fu is the best?" They all laugh and we get a glimpse of the screen.
It's SLASHDOT--NEWS FOR NERDS. STUFF THAT MATTERS. With a headline...
Über Crypto algorithm source sent to EFF, FSF, and our own CmdrTaco by anonymous contributor.
Screen goes black with the words emplazened across the middle "The source is out there".
OK, the last line I was joking, but I think that the rest could be shaped into a good run of episodes and possibly even a series.
I don't watch X-Files for Mulder anyway, I want to see Frohike lay Skully.
Jobs is and was always a snake oil salesman. He doesn't care about the technology or it's future, he cares with keeping himself in a position of power. Woz was the creative genius behind the Apple that we know today.
Since Jobs' return Apple had reversed their OS strategy (arguably for the better) and alienated their customer base. If you had peripherals for a Machine that you bought last december, they are useless for the new G4 machines.
Steve Jobs is an arrogant knob. Bill Gates should be paying him commission, it was his arrogance and stupidity that gave rise to the M$ empire.
Slashdot Mirror
In the article the author says that transmeta means "Above The Beyond". The prefix -trans- means "across". "meta" Has several possible meaning. That would make the translation vary from "Across The Beyond" to "Across the Goal" and everything in between and beyond.
Just an observation.
LK
You missed my point. The point is not whether Apple has good technology or not.
I too was once a die hard Evangelista. Times have changed for me. I hate windows, I like the MacOS, but the executivs of the company are assholes. I'm now a linux man. I use my Windoze box If Linus were to become an overnight asshole, I'd move on to something else.
>Do you know that the iMAC (the stupid "girly" computer introduced over a year ago) was the only computer with 10/100base-T ethernet built-in? It has a DVD-CD-ROM.
The iMac is two steps above garbage. I work with them every day. The iMac uses technology from last year's laptops. 66mhz system bus, flimsy CD drive. FYI, that's not a DVD in the iMac. It's a 24x CD. Roll on down to your local Blockbuster and rent a DVD disc and try to watch it in an iMac.
The iMac is not some great technological feat, it's just a rare example of Apple doing some good advertising.
LK
>>I still think we need a computer manual.
We need computer operator's licenses. (I'm semi-joking, and semi-serious)
Something similar in difficulty to the A+ certification. People need to have a basic understand of computers before they begin to get in too deep.
I've seen people who know ZILCH about computers who drop 3-4 thousand dollars on a machine that they don't understand.
I'm not saying that everyone has to be an electrical engineer, but come on, you should ad least know that...
1. The mouse is for your hand.
2. The mouse is NOT a foot pedal.
3. Everything must be properly plugged in and turned ON to work.
4. It's not the salesman's/store's/manufacturer's if you don't understand something.
5. You WILL need to spend money again on your computer, no matter how much you paid for it.
There needs to be a minimum level of understanding of the way the machines and the business work. Manuals, tests, online documentation, I don't care how people get it, as long as they get it.
LK
>>The only reason the PC is threatened by NCs is because we let Microsoft scare the hell out of new users. It is really our own fault.
The NC is just Larry Ellison's pipe dream for the forseeable future. Until we all have broadband internet access the NC will only have a place in corporate environments, and then it'll just be for the bean counters and pencil pushers.
The NC is not a viable solution for anyone who is in any way a part of a creative process. If they tried to force artists and programmers to use NCs production, effeciceicy, and therefore profits would go down.
The NC is for Joe Schmuckateli who just needs to be able to get e-mail from his boss and maybe have a look at a networked database.
As for whos fault it is, I say that it lies with business. M$ doesn't make 34 million dollars per day because of what we as consumers buy. The biggest cash cow of the M$ empire is and has always been the corporate market. When XYZ consulting needs new computers in the Miami branch and then get 400 new Win9X boxen M$ maks about 400x$70. Then they need 400 new copies of Office 2k. Then they need 400 Client licenses for Win NT Server.
Since I don't have access to the priveleged knowledge of how much M$ makes on each copy of office I'm going to make a few assumptions.
Let's just say that they make $100 in profit for each copy of Office. $70 for each copy of Win9x. Finally $40 for each WinNT client license.
That's $40,000 in profit for Office alone.
That's $28,000 for Win 9x
That's $16,000 for Client licenses
$84,000 in profit for M$ on one sale. Support is another revenue engine that I won't deal with now...
They'd have to move 1200 "Presarios" out of Best Buy for them to get that kind of return.
In the late 80s and early 90s the consumer market was crap. You didn't have the "Computer Superstores" on every block moving 2 dozen computer per hour. The money that put M$ on top came from the business community. It really is NOT our own fault.
LK
>>I wonder how many women this question might alienate. Can we keep discussion a little more civil?
/. most of us are pretty thick skinned.
This is not a concern to me. After becoming familiar with Nitrozak's work I believe that she has a very "guy-like" sense of humor and I think that this question will be taken in the appropriate context.
BTW, have you forgotten where we are? On
LK
>>How much have TV prices gone up since July, when they started putting the things in?
Ask me in July of next year, after all 13" and larger TV's are required to have them and the extra cash from non-V-cip TVs dries up.
LK
When I was a kid the "old folks" had a saying.
God protects children and fools.
This kind of makes a paradox because the fools are trying to protect the children now. The V-Chip will do nothing except force TV prices up.
The kind of morons who use the TV as a babysitter are the ones who will "need" the V-Chip, once you block out programming with sexual or violent content it will cease to keep childrens' interest and then these assholes will have to find another babysitting appliance to bitch about.
How long before M$ takes a hint on this and incorporates violence and sex filtering into Direct X?
Ratings are a bullshit way to inpose censorship.
Movies that get an NC-17 rating are destined to bring in no money because most theaters won't carry them. Just as the X rating was the kiss of death for movies in the 1980's.
I remember seeing the original robocop when the ED-209 fired for what seemed like 5 minutes into some guys chest, then two weeks later I saw it again and it went down to like 2 seconds. Why was the change made? Because the MPAA had threatened to slap the movie with an X rating if they didn't shorten the scene.
HBO, while they'll show damned near anything in their original productsion also will not carry X rated movies.
I'm sick of these fscking egg heads trying to protect us from ourselves. I want to eat a big bloods rare steak. I want to eat REAL butter, not that partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil bullshit!. Sometimes I want a cigar, or a cigarette. I KNOW that they're bad for me, but I WANT to do it anyway. I don't need you to protect me from myself.
Maybe I'll die at 75 instead of 77 because I had one too many bacon cheeseburgers. Or maybe I'll die tomorrow in a car accident.
God protect us when the fools want to protect our children.
LK
Nitrozak, you being a woman and of the 90's and a geek we know that we can trust you to answer truthfully.
So please tell us, once and for all, does size matter?
LK
It is my understanding that this animal is very much like a marsupial dog.
It's been a while, so I admit I could be wrong.
LK
Religion can in many ways be a good thing.
I, being a neo-pagan, have a slightly diferent perspective that the Christians and agnostics and athiests.
The journey is just as important as the destination. Many charitible organizations are driven by religion. Yet at the same time the KKK is a protestant Christian organization.
>If scientists can't work in good conditions because of some bible-driven morons, they should move their facilities to countries where intelligence has more power than god-botherers
Are you aware that the two groups of people who are most likely to believe in a "God" are
1. The undereducated.
2. The highly educated.
PHDs are statisticly more likely to believe in "God" than are college drop-outs.
The more you understand about the complexity of the world, the more likely you are to believe that there was a Creator or a higher power.
Science and Religion are NOT mutually exclusive concepts.
We can not allow Science to do to religion what religion did to science 500 years ago.
We can't begin to shun people because they believe that there is a higher power than mankind. We can't marginalize people because they believe that when they die, something more than a "lights out" will occur.
By doing this you become as bad as the zealots who threatened Galileo to recant under the threat of death.
LK
>But to think that only "humans" have "souls" is so utterly arrogant.
It's a common belif that only humand have "souls" other animals are though to have spirits, but only humans have "souls", what other animal is capable of contemplating concepts such as "right" and "wrong"? We're the only ones who can decide to perform acts of good or acts of evil, therefore we're the only ones who have souls ar risk.
Arrogant, maybe but it makes sense if you understand what a souls is and what purpose it serves in a theological sense.
LK
>>The practice of bundling appropriations is simply a convenient way to make compromises and create consensus. Plus, by combining appropriations bills it makes it a lot easier to focus debates on the more contentious appropriations rather than debating every single one - otherwise the Congress would never get through the budget.
If they had to spend more time talking about and working on each spending measure, they would have less time to spend our money. With that reduced amount if time they'd have to concentrate only on what is important.
"Whoops, we didn't have time this year to pass the funding measure for the Hatian clog dancing lesbian thesbian educational fund, well maybe next year."
LK
>>You mean, like, reinventing empeg ?
Yes, but for about half the price of empeg.
LK
Why is the Space Station tied to veterans benefits and environmental programs?
If we're going to open the wallet for the space station, let's just do that. I support environmental protection and veterans benefits, but they should be handled on seperate bills and not riders on the space station's funding bills.
It's exactly this practice that gives people like this asshole Roemer the ammunition to attack the funding bill.
"My district isn't getting enough out of this, so I'm going to kill it." Screw that and screw him.
LK
With HD prices coming dow like they are (I just got a 10gb Maxtor for $149+tax) All I'd need is a Single Board Computer (SBC) with audio out and I'd be in business.
I could run a small quick Linux distro like Trinux, and all would be good.
The 12Vold DC power from a car battery would be readily adaptable to use by such a device, and you ould get an enclosure from Radio Crap.
LK
I got my first Mac in 1990. I got my last mac in 1997.
LK
>>Buy a SCSI card. get a serial port card for $50.
I'd buy an older mac instead.
LK
The return of Jobs may have lead to more financial gains for apple, but it's also lead to some technological backstepping.
The elimination of SCSI, Serial Ports, and ADB has alienated many of their formerly loyal customers. I'm one of those people. I got my first Mac when I was 15, it was a Mac Plus. Then when I was 18 I got a Performa 550. Then when I was 21 I got a Performa 6400.
I don't plan on buying another new Apple system again. I've got several hundred dollars invested in my peripherals. I'm not going to trash perfectly good equipment just to use the new equipment. I began the transition from the MacOS to Linux, I have a new alternate OS of choice.
Apple has fucked me over for the last time. When a company tinkers with their computers' firmware to preventprocessor upgrades, radically changes system board design and refuses to work with other companies to help them develop alternate OSes, kills off cloning, leaves customers stranded with peripherals that won't work with their new machines and claims it was all done to ensure the company's survival, well if things are so bad that THIS is what you need to do to survive, then count me OUT. I don't want to be a part of that club anymore.
I'll buy a 7300 and put a G3/4 upgrade in it before I'll plunk down cash for a new machine.
Steve Jobs has convinced people that he's fucking them over for their own good. -Paraphase "We need to do these things to keep Apple healthy, we need to build incompatibility into out machines so you have to buy new ones instead of upgrading. If you just upgraded your machine instead of buying a new one, that costs Apple money."
What's worse is that people actually BELIVE THIS CRAP! There are idiots out there who'd line up to get kicked in the balls if Jobs said it would help Apple.
Only president Clinton is better at warping people's perception of reality than this guy is.
LK
>>What's wrong with programming at the CIA? Or what about information warfare with the Army?
It's unethical to be a part of oppressing other people.
>>You might think these situations are unethical because of their military involvement, but most level-headed individuals realize such positions are needed in this day and age.
You don't understand my position, yet you criticize it. I fully support the military and intelligence community as long as they're used to protect freedom and not to oppress the weak.
LK
n. "Katz-O-fEl-E-a"
One who rambles on without end, in the grand tradition of JonKatz.
Seriously, I think that a part of the programmers code of ethics should be.
We will not code or assist in the coding of any program which can be used to surveill anyone.
We will not code or assist in the coding of any program that can be used to gather personal information about anyone without their consent.
We will not code or assist in the coding of any program that forces a user to surrender privacy rights as a condition of it's use.
We will not code or assist in the coding of any program that allows a computer to be remotely controlled or monitored without it's owner and user's consent.
We will not code or assist in the coding of any program that forces a user to surrender control of the computer as a condition of it's use.
We will make our best reasonable efforts to insure that our programs ship bug free.
We will fix any and all bugs as timely as possible after a program is released and the bug is discovered.
Ethics are important, coders are not robots, they have the ability to think for themselves and they SHOULD DO SO!
LK
>>uh huh... so lack of adb and scsi prevents you from upgrading to a new G3/G4.
Yes. Apple has just lost another customer. I'll buy an old PowerMac with a G3/G4 upgrade, but I'm not buying a blue and white. Or I'll get one of those generic PPC MBs and get a CPU to run Mac OS 8.0, I think I still have a copy around here somewhere that was designed for CHRP machines.
>>According to the Apple store, you can add scsi for 50 bucks. If it's that important to you, there is a nice option.
Great, a way for Apple to milk more money out of their loyal supporters.
>>And how many ADB devices do you have? I can count 3 that I have, keyboard, mouse, and joystick. But I'll gladly take USB over ADB any day of the week.
Unimportant. Some dongled software products need an ADB dongle to run, not everyone wants to run out and pay $1000 for the new version of the software when the old version still gets the job done. USB doesn't have the kind of integration that ADB had. It was a hardware reset to three finger salute a mac with an ADB keyboard. A tight lockup on a USB keyboard equipped mac means that you have to reach down and hit the interrupt button.
On an Imac it's easier to unplug it than to hit that button.
So we've got Keyboard, Mouse, Joystick, Dongle, Wacom Tablets, Bar Code readers, and even though I don't remember the name there is a home automoation device that used ADB.
>>By the way, this sort of nit-picking is bordering on insane.
Insanity is believe that Apple can do no wrong. That every boneheaded decision that the Apple executives make is insanely great.
>>Were you one of those who complained that there wasn't a 680x0 chip in your new fang-dangled PPC Mac?
No, I was just pissed off that the Machine that Apple told me was PowerPC upgradeable really wasn't. Yes, I was an original Performa 550 owner, I got rid of the thing before the FTC and apple settled on a remedy.
>>It's progress. Thank god we don't have to keep every obsolete piece of technology ever pursued at Apple. We'd probally still be on 680x0 machines with NuBus and the old style keyboard connector from the original Mac.
The 68060 was supposedly a pretty sweet chip. If 680x0 technology had been persued there'd have been advances in that platform. I don't fault Apple for taking the PPC path, because they included an '0x0 emulator.
There was and is nothing wrong with the nubus architecture. A G3 equipped 8100 can (under certain circumstances) outperform a factory configured beige G3.
>>Apple has done a wonderful job in moving the platform forward. You can't satisfy everyone with every decision, but Apple has tried to make the best of it anyway.
Even though I understand that one man can't make adifference in this case, I'm done buying Apple hardware. (you're talking to someone who has been a part of a one man boycott of nintendo since 1994)
When Steve Jobs is ousted, maybe I'll reconsider.
LK
If stock perfomance is all your concerned with, think about buying into Micro$oft. If ethics don't matter to you Apple isn't the only company that does well.
While I'm at it, Hitler did a wonderful job of building the German economy, many people loved him too. As long as you don't mind sacrificing a few Jews along the way, I suppose that you can side with anyone to make a buck.
LK
>>(who whether they were good or not, sapped apple's money, especially since how is apple supposed to compete with companies that apple is paying for the R&D budget of, leaving the other companies with little to spend money on besides advertising and tweaking?)
Increase the licensing fee to the cloners. Problem solved. The ones who can pay it will, the ones who can't pay it won't. I'm not concerned with what's good for "Apple" I'm conscerned with what's good for the platform. Steve Jobs is definately not that.
Getting rid of the floppy doesn't bother me, it's obsolete anyway, but eliminating ADB and SCSI are the two things that have caused me to decide not to buy a new mac system. I'll buy my old mac from work and put a G3/4 card into it before I buy one of the new Blue and White or Charcoal and Graphite macs.
LK
The Lone Gunmen!
.45, Skully and Skinner open fire after they've both empied their magazines Kirch finally slumps to the floor and an effervescent green liquid pours out of all of the bullet holes in Kirch's body. 'Hickey stuffs a Jaz cart into his backpack and the joint goes up on flames.
Ok, now more than three words. I was remarking to my fiance' last season how cool it would be if Fox did a Lone Gunmen series.
I'd never miss an episode as long as they did it right. Then they could use Skully as an occasional character who shows up whenever the boys need a little FBI help.
POssible story line for an episode (or a few if they throw in enough good filler).
'Hickey develops a lightning fast and extremely secure encryption algorithm. After a group meeting with TLG (The Lone Gunmen) he decided that he should open source it, and let the world benefit from increased privacy and keep the "shadow government" at bay. They enlist the help of an Old Skool Berkley hacker type who is more adept at internet anonymity, packet hijacking, IP spoofing and the like. Instead of actually helping them he turns a copy of the info over to AD Kirch who is being blackmailed by the Cancer man because of his mysterious past.
Kirch is instructed to put an end to this Crypto nonesense immediately. He sneaks into the TLG hideout with an emp grenade (sorry for the blatent TF rip-off) and 5 gallons of napalm, as he's about to deploy them AD Skinner, agent Skully, and TLG step out with guns and video cameras drawn. Kirch reaches and pulls out an HK SOCOM
Fade out....
Fade Back in, TLG are huddled around a computer monitor and Langley exclaims "We did it, the information is out there." Frohike asks "Who's Kung Fu is the best?" They all laugh and we get a glimpse of the screen.
It's SLASHDOT--NEWS FOR NERDS. STUFF THAT MATTERS. With a headline...
Über Crypto algorithm source sent to EFF, FSF, and our own CmdrTaco by anonymous contributor.
Screen goes black with the words emplazened across the middle "The source is out there".
OK, the last line I was joking, but I think that the rest could be shaped into a good run of episodes and possibly even a series.
I don't watch X-Files for Mulder anyway, I want to see Frohike lay Skully.
LK
Jobs is and was always a snake oil salesman. He doesn't care about the technology or it's future, he cares with keeping himself in a position of power. Woz was the creative genius behind the Apple that we know today.
Since Jobs' return Apple had reversed their OS strategy (arguably for the better) and alienated their customer base. If you had peripherals for a Machine that you bought last december, they are useless for the new G4 machines.
Steve Jobs is an arrogant knob. Bill Gates should be paying him commission, it was his arrogance and stupidity that gave rise to the M$ empire.
LK