Considering that you can just adjust or replace the human lens itself these days, glasses seem kind of dated. Granted it's still expensive, but like any good technology, adoption will bring down the price.
For the young there is always Lasik and whatnot. For the older crowd, you can get Crystalens which allows focusing at any distance just like your eye's natural lens.
I finally took the leap with wavefront Lasik and I see 20/15. When I get old enough to suffer from presbyopia, I'll probably just get new lenses or whatever iteration of these Cyrstalens exists at that time.
"College student is accused of modifying consoles for personal financial gain"
"The Cal State Fullerton student was arrested Monday on federal charges that he illegally modified Xbox, Playstation, Wii and other video game consoles to enable the machines to play pirated video games.
Crippen, 27, of Anaheim, was taken into custody Monday morning by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The arrest follows his indictment by a federal grand jury on two counts of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
"The charges against Crippen stem from an ICE investigation initiated late last year after the agency received a tip from the Entertainment Software Association.
"Last May, ICE agents executed a federal search warrant at Crippen's home, where they seized more than a dozen Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony video game consoles."
Just because he is cracking DRM doesn't make him a saint although I'll probably get modded down for that. It's more likely he's just a petty criminal given the fact that they found over a dozen different consoles in his place of residence.
If he was just Joe Schmoe cracking his games for personal gratification in his own home and going no further than that, its unlikely he would have come to attention of the Entertainment Software Association who turned him in.
The program isn't defined to allow everyone in the country to get a bump on a new car. It's designed to get inefficient cars off the road and to stimulate the auto industry and all of the companies in that employment chain. They have to draw the line somewhere, and it happened to be at 18 MPG and less than 25 years old. It can also get a 'dirty' car in regards to emissions of the road for a newer car, even if the newer car doesn't get good performance on miles per gallon.
That said, I do wish they had made the new car purchase MPG a bit higher in order to receive full credit.
I don't understand this reasoning. The source is freely available. If you don't like it, compile it for whatever platform you like. If there is effort involved, perhaps you won't feel the need to give it away free, perhaps you will, but anyone else can also do the same. There is no issue if the source is available (it is). Just because they ported it through their own work to iPhone doesn't make it any less free, it just means that someone was nice enough to take the time to port it.
The spirit of GPL is not to prevent someone for profiting for their time. As someone already pointed out, there are many distributions of Linux where they charge for the media, support, etc. This is no different as these guys will most certainly have support issues, as well as costs to get it into the app store, and personal time spent porting it. If you don't like the price or the platform, then download the source and compile it for something else.
But that cuts both ways. They are using the grid at some point unless they have a huge solar installation including battery backup. Most get by very cheaply on their electric but almost all end up paying at some point in the year. Very few installations would actually cover all of their electric user 24 hours a day 365 days of the year. Even those with a battery will still dip into the grid from time to time. It should all balance out since after the hookup, the only cost is maintenance which is going to be much cheaper than the initial installation.
You should get out to the Apple site more often. 3 clicks would show you that ALL of their offerings can be had for less than $1500 with the exception of the top end Quad Core Mac Pro desktop and that one weighs in at $2400. All the rest are either $999 or $1200 for the base models.
$999 Macbook
2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB DDR2 Memory
160GB hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
Did you even look at your linked hardware?
$1379 (sale price) HP EliteBook 6930 (regular price $1652)
2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 800 MHz DDR2
160GB hard drive
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 (256MB)
$1699 15" Macbook Pro
2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB Memory
250GB hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
You're clearly not 'stomping' anything. Your linked HP is right in the middle of these two and so is it's sale price. Regular price for the HP is the same as the 15" Macbook pro which has a faster processor, a larger hard drive, DDR3 @1066MHz instead of DDR2 @800MHz), and a larger display (probably why the HP 6930 is currently on sale).
As to what is overkill, that is totally what an end user finds valuable and where the tech market is going. You could have made this argument about XP and then two weeks later tried Vista and realized you'd made a mistake. You should always overbuy a bit on a PC's horsepower. It makes sense and typically insures that the PC will handle any OS updates over the next 4-8 years since a home user will probably keep a PC 2-4 times longer than a typical IT shop. What is 'more than enough' today will not be that way 4 years from now unless they do no upgrades the entire life of the PC. Possible on a business PC, but much more unlikely on a home PC. With a little extra, they can keep their hardware as long as possible. Please stop implying that they are twice the price of a comparable piece of hardware, when clearly they are about the same price as your own links have shown. HP won't offer Tiger's reseller prices, and neither will Dell, Sony, Lenovo, or Apple for that matter. Don't hold Apple to some imaginary standard for a resellers prices or homebuilt prices when they are not a reseller.
Agreed. At some point, the republican party lost it's 'small government' brand and switched it's base to far right conservatives, so they are in essence, one in the same. They realized how easy it is to mobilize that right, especially with fear tactics and a wee bit of stretching the truth. Make them afraid and they will come. This is the root of all their identity issues. It's a total love-hate relationship. Here they have a fanatical loyal base that is hard to give up for the vastness that are moderates, but now they have ejected all of the 'moderate' republicans, and the only ones left that will have them are the conservatives. A rock and a hard place.
When the percent of folks who identify as Republican drops to the same percent who are far right in ideology, you know you've pretty much burned every bridge you own.
Considering they can't even jam them for prisons, I doubt they'll have much luck doing the same at a school. Take these recent shootings for example when the school failed to notify everyone in time. Parents will demand that they allow them, the cell providers will demand that they allow them as well, indicating they will interfere with surrounding neighborhoods, and if the result is the same as the prisons.
Personally I don't have an issue with them. Students can't talk on them during class and if they text and get caught, then they lose them. No different than passing notes in the 20th century albeit more efficient.
It's not just about making DVD's. Windows don't even include an MPEG-2 codec, meaning you can't even play them in other words. Windows 7 is rumored to include them in the Ultimate release versions but not the basic versions. As to the XCode value, you're forgetting is also allows joe user to compile simple code, which is always useful. Even a non-technical user can download a source and compile it if the instructions are clear. A few other not so useful pieces includes an icon editor, and a rather useless text HTML editor with basic syntax highlighting.
I was referring to Windows when I suggested you get what you pay for. Virus Scan on a Mac isn't necessary at this point. They only scan for Windows viruses, they suck up resources, and are generally a headache when someone makes a mistake with DAT's.
Nice try. I see nothing in your link but base model prices with inferior hardware. Bump them up to be comparable to a Mac, and the prices are the same or even more than an Apple.
Starting at: $ 1,249.00* - The first two for instance has a slower base processor, 800 Mhz DDR2 memory not 1066 Mhz DDR 3, no Wireless N, and shared memory for graphics for the first two cheapest ones ($1249 and $1479). Did you even browse the hardware for the link you posted?
These are the pre-configured models that are at least a bit closer to Apples hardware. Note that the second one (a 15" model) is comparable to an Apple Macbook Pro (15"), although it has less ram (2GB of DDR2 instead of 4 GB of DDR3 that comes on a Mac). It's $2,149 which is actually more than a comparable Apple. This is directly from the link you posted. The sub $1000 notebooks listed are barely above a netbooks with 12" displays, cheap integrated sub-par graphics, and DDR2 again.
I will ask again. Can you point me to an actual PC Manufacturer like HP, Dell, Sony, Lenovo, not a reseller, that sells a PC for that price? You can point all day if you like, but the simple fact is that Apple is a vendor, just like Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony, etc. You will not find anything that cheap for comparable hardware on any of their sites. I challenge you to find a quad-core desktop on any of their sites for $600 dollars.
Your implying a Compaq is throwaway? Compaq IS HP, and they are definitely not Tiger Direct or Frys quality. They were one of the most expensive PC brands on the market before being absorbed into HP.
You keep implying how cheap the hardware is and that you can get this here and that there, but not one of you can provide a link for substantially cheaper hardware from a VENDOR. Your holding Apple to a home made PC cost, while ignoring the fact that every other Vendor has similarly priced comparable equipment for about the same price as Apple.
Whether they use it is irrelevant. It's included in the OS for free meaning it also adds value. The pay products are also arguably much better than the freeware versions out there. Have you ever used iDVD? You can create excellent quality animated DVD menus with a few drag and drop operations. I'm not talking about simple animated thumbnails for chapters either, but full screen animation with integrated sound, cutscenes morphed into nice presentation. I have seen nothing on the freeware side to compare.
Need I also remind you of the recent slew of freeware Virus Scanners fiasco's where the scanners ended up purging things like the iTunes db, or critical Windows system files? You have to be aware of these if your a regular/. reader as they crop up every month or two and are far too common. You get what you pay for when it comes to security...
All your paying for on your 'deal' is the processor. I've bought these before for family as well as for myself from my local Frys. The power supply fails after a year. The motherboard warps, or simply stops working if you ever unfasten it from the case (assuming your lucky enough to have a working motherboard that doesn't fail for some other reason before you decide to swap it out for a decent one), and the memory is bargain bin that performs at the low end. It also uses 'integrated' graphics, meaning shared memory for a no-name or trash graphics card which no one but your dad would use and even he will complain that his desktop crawls. There's a reason these are so cheap. Because they are throwaway hardware. You'll still be adding in all of those software costs and replacing your hardware and hte new graphics card, which will still throw your 'deal' over a thousand bucks again.
I've played this game too. Anyone can go and find some basement price on the net for throwaway hardware. I get adds for these every week from Frys. You buy them, yank the processor and maybe keep the case, and toss the rest in your closet for spare parts. There's a reason no vendor like Dell, Sony, or HP will sell their hardware this cheap. They would be buried in warranty claims and returns.
Show me a price direct from a vendor (not a resaler, but a vendor like HP, Dell, Lenovo, Sony, etc) that is this cheap for comparable hardware (and I'm not talking about only the processor as your example had a integrated 128 MB no-name graphics card as well which would need to be replaced).
Simply because neither are included in the base OS, and it's the closest comparable product lineup to iLife although arguably, Paint isn't quite on par with iPhoto, it is at least included in all flavors of Windows. I agree if you decided to opt for Visual Studio, you could leave out CoffeeCup for $50.
I still don't understand why they don't regulate SMTP servers on the net just like other business areas. These have a real financial impact on other's operating costs. If they required all SMTP servers on the net to be closed and regulated, I think it would be a good start.
I'm talking fines and the ability to cut off any rogue SMTP servers. They also need a better method to validate connecting servers and it needs to be an industry wide adopted standard, whether that is done via certificate authority or some other 'secure IP' method.
Antivirus/Dat ($50) + VisualStudio ($199) + WinDVD ($79) + CoffeeCup ($50) + $50 VScan renewal yearly for say 4 years = $578. $70 more bucks to get DVD Playback for WinDVD since anything up to Vista doesn't include MPEG-2 and neither will the basic versions of Windows 7
That's what you need to buy to get something comparable to the OS and bundled software included with a new Mac (although the Mac doesn't need the VScan software, the Windows PC will in the real world).
You also get no additional shovelware loaded onto your desktop. None...I've bought a lot of hardware over the years from the big vendors and they all load your PC with boatloads of crap that often make it more viable to just do a wipe when you get it (HP, Sony, Dell, etc..they are all guilty of it) assuming they even give you a 'clean' installer disk. Most don't. They just give you an imaging CD that puts the same shovelware back on.
You don't have to deal with any of that with an Apple.
Now tack those additional software costs, and the hidden costs in time for a $1000 Dell laptop for example. You end up with about $1500 bucks for the software + hardware not including the cleanup costs and time for shovelware and malware post purchase.
A similar Macbook Pro for $1700 doesn't look so bad to me considering the lack of hassle you get out of it for that extra $200. I was a die-hard Windows fan. I was one of those freaks that went to the movie theater for the launch of Windows 95's beta and I was in line at the store at 12AM to buy it on release night. I bought every OS they've released since then including 98, ME, 2000, XP, and Vista (Vista) which will be my last MS purchase. I used to scoff at Apple. Not any more. Unlike some here who throw out opinion without ever having actually bought one, I actually did. I now understand why the folks who use them are such a loyal group. You actually get to enjoy your computer, rather than struggle with it.
How many people are still using an OS that's 9 years old? Most folks would have upgraded to a newer version at some point or if they were too cheap to spread for the OS they would also probably be too cheap to upgrade their software and hardware, meaning everything still works anyway. Windows 2000 has about a 1% market share. Why would any developer go out of their way to ensure compatibility for it? I wouldn't. Hell, I'm in IT and I don't even know anyone that still uses W2K.
OS X was released 11 months after Windows 2000. It's doubtful you would find apps in today's software stores touting compatibility with Windows 98 or Windows ME as that is a closer comparison to Mac OS 9. If your apps and hardware are older than that, it's unlikely you would be upgrading to OS X to begin with. If you upgraded your hardware, you already have OS X. Even most home users upgrade every 4-5 years. They would be forced to due to hardware failure at some point.
When it comes to cost, there really isn't much of a comparison. OS X comes with a full suite of applications from iLife including iPhoto (photo editing), iWeb (web site design), iDVD, as well as support for MPEG-2, H.264, and AAC out of the box. There is no 'basic' version of OS X. You get everything in a single package. It also includes a full development suite for OS X (XCode).
Windows 7 comes with Paint, but no MPEG-2, H.264, or AAC in the basic editions and no MPEG-2/H.264/AAC support at all in previous versions.
If you want to develop for Windows it will cost you another $299 for the MS offering (Visual Studio).
The full Monty for a Windows (Ultimate Edition) costs $100 more than the 'regular' release of OS X. On top of that, if you use a pay antivirus like McAfee (the free flavors seem just as dangerous as a virus these days), you're also paying yearly subscriptions for updated DATs every year.
Lets do the math:
Windows 7 Ultimate: $219
McAfee (single pc): $50 (1 year subscription for dats)
Web Design: $50 (for a cheap one like CoffeeCup..MS's own offering is $300)
DVD Software: $80
Visual Studio: $199
Total: $598
OS X with iLife includes all of the above.
Cost for OS X/iLife $169
Now if you had to buy Windows for your home, which arguably will have more than 1 PC, you can do so for the Mac for $229 (5 license).
Windows will cost you 5 times the base cost just for the OS alone if you have a multi-pc home, which is becoming the norm.
A 5 license package from MS for the OS costs alone: ($229 x 5 = $1145).
I personally would rather they err on the side of caution. If it's do-able and industry can cope with the costs, then why not? Free market tends to find new ways to profit from things like this.
Don't evolutionary traits evolve as mutation/aberration? Wouldn't these trees essentially have to spawn a non-barbed version that proliferated in order for this barbed adaption to begin reverting in the wild?
I'm not an evolutionary biologist, but some of the responses here seem to indicate that evolution is some sort of act of will or a direct response to environmental pressure. Although environment is a contributing factor to success, it is not the root cause, mutation is. It was my understanding that they are basically 'fortunate accidents' combined with environment. In other words, unless the barbs cause this tree to be less competitive (they obviously served a purpose before and they don't appear to be a detriment now), then I would think they will stay around until either:
A) Mutated strain of the tree grows without these barbs and thrives (as there are no more Moa).
- This seems likely to happen if mutations sometimes have regressive traits that pop up much like humans have regressive genes (Does this happen in plant life? Is there a biologist in the house?)
B) Some environmental change take places in which the barbs become a detriment to the tree making it less competetive.
- Would the result of removing barbs reduce the energy needs of a tree enough to make a non-barbed variety more likely to thrive than it's barbed counterparts? It obviously does well enough even with the barbs?
They didn't grow barbs as a result of the Moa, but rather a mutated barbed strain grew that happened to be resistant to Moa giving it an effective advantage over the non-barbed variety.
IMO, this is more about Jupiter tossing regular visitors to the inner planets out of the system rather than randomly snagging non regular objects, since they tend to have eliptical orbits that often take them out past the outer planets and then back around the sun. Although it's unlikely it would hit a planet, it is likely that over thousands of passes, the gravity well from the large bodies will end up ejecting the object in a close pass due to a slingshot.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering that you can just adjust or replace the human lens itself these days, glasses seem kind of dated. Granted it's still expensive, but like any good technology, adoption will bring down the price. For the young there is always Lasik and whatnot. For the older crowd, you can get Crystalens which allows focusing at any distance just like your eye's natural lens.
I finally took the leap with wavefront Lasik and I see 20/15. When I get old enough to suffer from presbyopia, I'll probably just get new lenses or whatever iteration of these Cyrstalens exists at that time.
Actually, yes, they are. From TFA:
"College student is accused of modifying consoles for personal financial gain"
"The Cal State Fullerton student was arrested Monday on federal charges that he illegally modified Xbox, Playstation, Wii and other video game consoles to enable the machines to play pirated video games.
Crippen, 27, of Anaheim, was taken into custody Monday morning by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The arrest follows his indictment by a federal grand jury on two counts of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."
"The charges against Crippen stem from an ICE investigation initiated late last year after the agency received a tip from the Entertainment Software Association.
"Last May, ICE agents executed a federal search warrant at Crippen's home, where they seized more than a dozen Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony video game consoles."
Just because he is cracking DRM doesn't make him a saint although I'll probably get modded down for that. It's more likely he's just a petty criminal given the fact that they found over a dozen different consoles in his place of residence.
If he was just Joe Schmoe cracking his games for personal gratification in his own home and going no further than that, its unlikely he would have come to attention of the Entertainment Software Association who turned him in.
Actually there was talk of him resigning from the board long before the Google Voice app was rejected.
Even more chatter prior to that due to conflict of interest on various topics dating back to Feb of this year
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/06/03/justice_department_investigating_hiring_practices_of_apple_others.html
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/05/04/ftc_investigating_antitrust_ties_between_apple_google.html
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/02/10/multi_touch_omitted_from_android_at_apples_request_report.html
Actually I was referring to powering heavy draws like the AC unit itself, not moving the vehicle.
I wonder why more of these electric cars are not also offering solar like the Prius to help with the heavier power draws like the AC units.
The program isn't defined to allow everyone in the country to get a bump on a new car. It's designed to get inefficient cars off the road and to stimulate the auto industry and all of the companies in that employment chain. They have to draw the line somewhere, and it happened to be at 18 MPG and less than 25 years old. It can also get a 'dirty' car in regards to emissions of the road for a newer car, even if the newer car doesn't get good performance on miles per gallon.
That said, I do wish they had made the new car purchase MPG a bit higher in order to receive full credit.
I don't understand this reasoning. The source is freely available. If you don't like it, compile it for whatever platform you like. If there is effort involved, perhaps you won't feel the need to give it away free, perhaps you will, but anyone else can also do the same. There is no issue if the source is available (it is). Just because they ported it through their own work to iPhone doesn't make it any less free, it just means that someone was nice enough to take the time to port it.
The spirit of GPL is not to prevent someone for profiting for their time. As someone already pointed out, there are many distributions of Linux where they charge for the media, support, etc. This is no different as these guys will most certainly have support issues, as well as costs to get it into the app store, and personal time spent porting it. If you don't like the price or the platform, then download the source and compile it for something else.
Where's the beef?
But that cuts both ways. They are using the grid at some point unless they have a huge solar installation including battery backup. Most get by very cheaply on their electric but almost all end up paying at some point in the year. Very few installations would actually cover all of their electric user 24 hours a day 365 days of the year. Even those with a battery will still dip into the grid from time to time. It should all balance out since after the hookup, the only cost is maintenance which is going to be much cheaper than the initial installation.
You should get out to the Apple site more often. 3 clicks would show you that ALL of their offerings can be had for less than $1500 with the exception of the top end Quad Core Mac Pro desktop and that one weighs in at $2400. All the rest are either $999 or $1200 for the base models.
$999 Macbook
2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB DDR2 Memory
160GB hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
Did you even look at your linked hardware?
$1379 (sale price) HP EliteBook 6930 (regular price $1652)
2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 800 MHz DDR2 160GB hard drive
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3450 (256MB)
$1699 15" Macbook Pro
2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB Memory
250GB hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
You're clearly not 'stomping' anything. Your linked HP is right in the middle of these two and so is it's sale price. Regular price for the HP is the same as the 15" Macbook pro which has a faster processor, a larger hard drive, DDR3 @1066MHz instead of DDR2 @800MHz), and a larger display (probably why the HP 6930 is currently on sale).
As to what is overkill, that is totally what an end user finds valuable and where the tech market is going. You could have made this argument about XP and then two weeks later tried Vista and realized you'd made a mistake. You should always overbuy a bit on a PC's horsepower. It makes sense and typically insures that the PC will handle any OS updates over the next 4-8 years since a home user will probably keep a PC 2-4 times longer than a typical IT shop. What is 'more than enough' today will not be that way 4 years from now unless they do no upgrades the entire life of the PC. Possible on a business PC, but much more unlikely on a home PC. With a little extra, they can keep their hardware as long as possible. Please stop implying that they are twice the price of a comparable piece of hardware, when clearly they are about the same price as your own links have shown. HP won't offer Tiger's reseller prices, and neither will Dell, Sony, Lenovo, or Apple for that matter. Don't hold Apple to some imaginary standard for a resellers prices or homebuilt prices when they are not a reseller.
Agreed. At some point, the republican party lost it's 'small government' brand and switched it's base to far right conservatives, so they are in essence, one in the same. They realized how easy it is to mobilize that right, especially with fear tactics and a wee bit of stretching the truth. Make them afraid and they will come. This is the root of all their identity issues. It's a total love-hate relationship. Here they have a fanatical loyal base that is hard to give up for the vastness that are moderates, but now they have ejected all of the 'moderate' republicans, and the only ones left that will have them are the conservatives. A rock and a hard place.
When the percent of folks who identify as Republican drops to the same percent who are far right in ideology, you know you've pretty much burned every bridge you own.
Considering they can't even jam them for prisons, I doubt they'll have much luck doing the same at a school. Take these recent shootings for example when the school failed to notify everyone in time. Parents will demand that they allow them, the cell providers will demand that they allow them as well, indicating they will interfere with surrounding neighborhoods, and if the result is the same as the prisons.
Personally I don't have an issue with them. Students can't talk on them during class and if they text and get caught, then they lose them. No different than passing notes in the 20th century albeit more efficient.
It's not just about making DVD's. Windows don't even include an MPEG-2 codec, meaning you can't even play them in other words. Windows 7 is rumored to include them in the Ultimate release versions but not the basic versions. As to the XCode value, you're forgetting is also allows joe user to compile simple code, which is always useful. Even a non-technical user can download a source and compile it if the instructions are clear. A few other not so useful pieces includes an icon editor, and a rather useless text HTML editor with basic syntax highlighting.
I was referring to Windows when I suggested you get what you pay for. Virus Scan on a Mac isn't necessary at this point. They only scan for Windows viruses, they suck up resources, and are generally a headache when someone makes a mistake with DAT's.
Nice try. I see nothing in your link but base model prices with inferior hardware. Bump them up to be comparable to a Mac, and the prices are the same or even more than an Apple.
Starting at: $ 1,249.00* - The first two for instance has a slower base processor, 800 Mhz DDR2 memory not 1066 Mhz DDR 3, no Wireless N, and shared memory for graphics for the first two cheapest ones ($1249 and $1479). Did you even browse the hardware for the link you posted?
These are the pre-configured models that are at least a bit closer to Apples hardware. Note that the second one (a 15" model) is comparable to an Apple Macbook Pro (15"), although it has less ram (2GB of DDR2 instead of 4 GB of DDR3 that comes on a Mac). It's $2,149 which is actually more than a comparable Apple. This is directly from the link you posted. The sub $1000 notebooks listed are barely above a netbooks with 12" displays, cheap integrated sub-par graphics, and DDR2 again.
I will ask again. Can you point me to an actual PC Manufacturer like HP, Dell, Sony, Lenovo, not a reseller, that sells a PC for that price? You can point all day if you like, but the simple fact is that Apple is a vendor, just like Dell, HP, Lenovo, Sony, etc. You will not find anything that cheap for comparable hardware on any of their sites. I challenge you to find a quad-core desktop on any of their sites for $600 dollars.
Your implying a Compaq is throwaway? Compaq IS HP, and they are definitely not Tiger Direct or Frys quality. They were one of the most expensive PC brands on the market before being absorbed into HP.
You keep implying how cheap the hardware is and that you can get this here and that there, but not one of you can provide a link for substantially cheaper hardware from a VENDOR. Your holding Apple to a home made PC cost, while ignoring the fact that every other Vendor has similarly priced comparable equipment for about the same price as Apple.
Whether they use it is irrelevant. It's included in the OS for free meaning it also adds value. The pay products are also arguably much better than the freeware versions out there. Have you ever used iDVD? You can create excellent quality animated DVD menus with a few drag and drop operations. I'm not talking about simple animated thumbnails for chapters either, but full screen animation with integrated sound, cutscenes morphed into nice presentation. I have seen nothing on the freeware side to compare.
/. reader as they crop up every month or two and are far too common. You get what you pay for when it comes to security...
Need I also remind you of the recent slew of freeware Virus Scanners fiasco's where the scanners ended up purging things like the iTunes db, or critical Windows system files? You have to be aware of these if your a regular
All your paying for on your 'deal' is the processor. I've bought these before for family as well as for myself from my local Frys. The power supply fails after a year. The motherboard warps, or simply stops working if you ever unfasten it from the case (assuming your lucky enough to have a working motherboard that doesn't fail for some other reason before you decide to swap it out for a decent one), and the memory is bargain bin that performs at the low end. It also uses 'integrated' graphics, meaning shared memory for a no-name or trash graphics card which no one but your dad would use and even he will complain that his desktop crawls. There's a reason these are so cheap. Because they are throwaway hardware. You'll still be adding in all of those software costs and replacing your hardware and hte new graphics card, which will still throw your 'deal' over a thousand bucks again.
I've played this game too. Anyone can go and find some basement price on the net for throwaway hardware. I get adds for these every week from Frys. You buy them, yank the processor and maybe keep the case, and toss the rest in your closet for spare parts. There's a reason no vendor like Dell, Sony, or HP will sell their hardware this cheap. They would be buried in warranty claims and returns.
Show me a price direct from a vendor (not a resaler, but a vendor like HP, Dell, Lenovo, Sony, etc) that is this cheap for comparable hardware (and I'm not talking about only the processor as your example had a integrated 128 MB no-name graphics card as well which would need to be replaced).
Simply because neither are included in the base OS, and it's the closest comparable product lineup to iLife although arguably, Paint isn't quite on par with iPhoto, it is at least included in all flavors of Windows. I agree if you decided to opt for Visual Studio, you could leave out CoffeeCup for $50.
Considering the variation seen in Vista/XP benchmarks, it's a valid concern and of interest to both home users and corporate shops.
I still don't understand why they don't regulate SMTP servers on the net just like other business areas. These have a real financial impact on other's operating costs. If they required all SMTP servers on the net to be closed and regulated, I think it would be a good start.
I'm talking fines and the ability to cut off any rogue SMTP servers. They also need a better method to validate connecting servers and it needs to be an industry wide adopted standard, whether that is done via certificate authority or some other 'secure IP' method.
Antivirus/Dat ($50) + VisualStudio ($199) + WinDVD ($79) + CoffeeCup ($50) + $50 VScan renewal yearly for say 4 years = $578. $70 more bucks to get DVD Playback for WinDVD since anything up to Vista doesn't include MPEG-2 and neither will the basic versions of Windows 7
That's what you need to buy to get something comparable to the OS and bundled software included with a new Mac (although the Mac doesn't need the VScan software, the Windows PC will in the real world).
You also get no additional shovelware loaded onto your desktop. None...I've bought a lot of hardware over the years from the big vendors and they all load your PC with boatloads of crap that often make it more viable to just do a wipe when you get it (HP, Sony, Dell, etc..they are all guilty of it) assuming they even give you a 'clean' installer disk. Most don't. They just give you an imaging CD that puts the same shovelware back on.
You don't have to deal with any of that with an Apple.
Now tack those additional software costs, and the hidden costs in time for a $1000 Dell laptop for example. You end up with about $1500 bucks for the software + hardware not including the cleanup costs and time for shovelware and malware post purchase.
A similar Macbook Pro for $1700 doesn't look so bad to me considering the lack of hassle you get out of it for that extra $200. I was a die-hard Windows fan. I was one of those freaks that went to the movie theater for the launch of Windows 95's beta and I was in line at the store at 12AM to buy it on release night. I bought every OS they've released since then including 98, ME, 2000, XP, and Vista (Vista) which will be my last MS purchase. I used to scoff at Apple. Not any more. Unlike some here who throw out opinion without ever having actually bought one, I actually did. I now understand why the folks who use them are such a loyal group. You actually get to enjoy your computer, rather than struggle with it.
How many people are still using an OS that's 9 years old? Most folks would have upgraded to a newer version at some point or if they were too cheap to spread for the OS they would also probably be too cheap to upgrade their software and hardware, meaning everything still works anyway. Windows 2000 has about a 1% market share. Why would any developer go out of their way to ensure compatibility for it? I wouldn't. Hell, I'm in IT and I don't even know anyone that still uses W2K.
OS X was released 11 months after Windows 2000. It's doubtful you would find apps in today's software stores touting compatibility with Windows 98 or Windows ME as that is a closer comparison to Mac OS 9. If your apps and hardware are older than that, it's unlikely you would be upgrading to OS X to begin with. If you upgraded your hardware, you already have OS X. Even most home users upgrade every 4-5 years. They would be forced to due to hardware failure at some point.
When it comes to cost, there really isn't much of a comparison. OS X comes with a full suite of applications from iLife including iPhoto (photo editing), iWeb (web site design), iDVD, as well as support for MPEG-2, H.264, and AAC out of the box. There is no 'basic' version of OS X. You get everything in a single package. It also includes a full development suite for OS X (XCode).
Windows 7 comes with Paint, but no MPEG-2, H.264, or AAC in the basic editions and no MPEG-2/H.264/AAC support at all in previous versions.
If you want to develop for Windows it will cost you another $299 for the MS offering (Visual Studio).
The full Monty for a Windows (Ultimate Edition) costs $100 more than the 'regular' release of OS X. On top of that, if you use a pay antivirus like McAfee (the free flavors seem just as dangerous as a virus these days), you're also paying yearly subscriptions for updated DATs every year.
Lets do the math:
Windows 7 Ultimate: $219
McAfee (single pc): $50 (1 year subscription for dats)
Web Design: $50 (for a cheap one like CoffeeCup..MS's own offering is $300)
DVD Software: $80
Visual Studio: $199
Total: $598
OS X with iLife includes all of the above.
Cost for OS X/iLife $169
Now if you had to buy Windows for your home, which arguably will have more than 1 PC, you can do so for the Mac for $229 (5 license).
Windows will cost you 5 times the base cost just for the OS alone if you have a multi-pc home, which is becoming the norm.
A 5 license package from MS for the OS costs alone: ($229 x 5 = $1145).
I personally would rather they err on the side of caution. If it's do-able and industry can cope with the costs, then why not? Free market tends to find new ways to profit from things like this.
Don't evolutionary traits evolve as mutation/aberration? Wouldn't these trees essentially have to spawn a non-barbed version that proliferated in order for this barbed adaption to begin reverting in the wild?
I'm not an evolutionary biologist, but some of the responses here seem to indicate that evolution is some sort of act of will or a direct response to environmental pressure. Although environment is a contributing factor to success, it is not the root cause, mutation is. It was my understanding that they are basically 'fortunate accidents' combined with environment. In other words, unless the barbs cause this tree to be less competitive (they obviously served a purpose before and they don't appear to be a detriment now), then I would think they will stay around until either:
A) Mutated strain of the tree grows without these barbs and thrives (as there are no more Moa).
- This seems likely to happen if mutations sometimes have regressive traits that pop up much like humans have regressive genes (Does this happen in plant life? Is there a biologist in the house?)
B) Some environmental change take places in which the barbs become a detriment to the tree making it less competetive.
- Would the result of removing barbs reduce the energy needs of a tree enough to make a non-barbed variety more likely to thrive than it's barbed counterparts? It obviously does well enough even with the barbs?
They didn't grow barbs as a result of the Moa, but rather a mutated barbed strain grew that happened to be resistant to Moa giving it an effective advantage over the non-barbed variety.
IMO, this is more about Jupiter tossing regular visitors to the inner planets out of the system rather than randomly snagging non regular objects, since they tend to have eliptical orbits that often take them out past the outer planets and then back around the sun. Although it's unlikely it would hit a planet, it is likely that over thousands of passes, the gravity well from the large bodies will end up ejecting the object in a close pass due to a slingshot.
I for one welcome our Anonymous Cowardon Overloards...