Judging by the prices the cloners were charging, I would say that Apple has a HUGE markup - and also, based on some of the early literature I read about PPC back in 93-94-ish, PPC was supposed to be half the production cost of x86 chips - because of the smaller die size, and less need to keep MHz parity. (which was really a false assumption - if you wanted to gain marketshare, MHz is all most people understand, and if you wanted to win over the techies, BYTEMark was not the way to do it. Spec should have been used instead).
As it stands now, the only REAL advantage PPC has (after the bastardized job they did on the G3, by basing it on the FP-weak 603), is in it's power consumption and heat dissipation: it way, way, way outshines x86 in this area - portables.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months." -jafac's law
um - vapor NetWare PPC was NOT vapor. I was onsite at Novell (um, what was that, 1996?) and NetWare PPC was demonstrated to me, running on a Power Mac. Of course, at the time, they told me that the project was officially dead, but a couple of people were still "messing around" with it.
However, I don't refute your statement about "demand". Microsoft had a great role in this, by semi-supporting NT PPC, then cutting it off. Mega FUD builder. SOMEONE owes Bill Gates a favor for that one. (and no, it wasn't Motorola's fault, Microsoft dicated the terms of that contract, and simply elevated their development fee to a level they knew would be unacceptable).
On the other hand, Motorola does need a severe kick in the butt (for lack of enthusiasm for their own damn product), and IBM is just the cowboy to do it.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months." -jafac's law
This is what I've always said about AGP, a worthless useless waste of time.
Now that Win98 FINALLY caught up with the Mac world, and offers dual monitor support, now the new boxes coming out are blocking this, because now you have an AGP slot, instead of all PCI slots, and being able to install two PCI video cards. Face it, AGP was just another attempt by Intel to try to corner a market (just like Slot1 - now they're back to sockets again: socket370). It did nothing to advance the state of technology or to make computers more affordable.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months." -jafac's law
I don't understand: some of the comparably equipped Power Computing clones were more than a few tens of dollars cheaper than the equivalent Apple counterparts (in some cases, hundreds of dollars cheaper). I don't understand why they couldn't have just bought a shrinkwrapped MacOS and tossed it in the box - unless there were some ROM licensing issues that went along with it.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months." -jafac's law
Does this mean that the PPC specs are also going to be open to Be Inc.? Does this mean that Be can stop whining about Apple not giving them the specs? Or does it simply expose Be as just another Intel suck-up?
This could be the smartest business decision ever made in the history of IBM.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months." -jafac's law
The education issue has been and always will be an issue of who controls the information.
Senators act and vote on information presented to them by the lobbyists. So of course their interests are conflicted, and the result of garbage in is garbage out.
Now, if everybody got to vote on laws, the mass media would control all the information. Sure, maybe the "real" stuff would be on PBS, or CSPAN. But most people are watching CNN and ABC. Now, how do you suppose we got involved in Kosovo over the deaths of a few hundred oppressed ethnic Albanians, when we completely ignored the situation in Rwanda, where over half a million people were murdered by machetes in the space of a few weeks? Could it have been due to CNN coverage?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months." -jafac's law
THere's a lot of distance between the earth and the moon, and the shadow that the moon casts is small by comparison, so if you think of the orbit of the moon as not a two-dimensional ellipse, but as a 3 dimensional ellipse, sometimes wobbling up and down as it goes, you can see that probably even a few hundred feet "northward" or "southward" variation in the orbit could cause the shadow cast by the moon to miss the earth, most of the time. The moon is ALWAYS casting a shadow, and every month, that shadow does cross the earth's path (if you look at it straight-down, from say the north pole), but most of the time, the shadow passes either above, or below the earth - due to these north-south variations in the moon's orbit. (to visualize this, tie a small rock to a 10-ft. string, and spin it around yourself, faster and slower, and as you go faster, the rock will become level with your hand, slow down, and the rock will get closer to the ground. The difference between the rock-string model, and the moon-gravity model is that gravity is somewhat elastic, allowing the moon to vary inwards and outwards, and there is no overall "downwards" gravity force, so the moon's orbit oscillates northward and southward over time. It's not in a perfect two-dimensional plane. capiche?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months." -jafac's law
Slashdot Mirror
That man dissed my favorite car.
http://www.corvair.org/
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
"Yes, perhaps even a re-vitalized NT port?"
No, Motorola's head is way too far up it's ass for that.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
Didn't Intel also send a chunk of investment cash Be's way?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
Judging by the prices the cloners were charging, I would say that Apple has a HUGE markup - and also, based on some of the early literature I read about PPC back in 93-94-ish, PPC was supposed to be half the production cost of x86 chips - because of the smaller die size, and less need to keep MHz parity. (which was really a false assumption - if you wanted to gain marketshare, MHz is all most people understand, and if you wanted to win over the techies, BYTEMark was not the way to do it. Spec should have been used instead).
As it stands now, the only REAL advantage PPC has (after the bastardized job they did on the G3, by basing it on the FP-weak 603), is in it's power consumption and heat dissipation: it way, way, way outshines x86 in this area - portables.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
Intel is already attempting to play catch-up. What do you think Merced is?
(a day late and a dollar short)
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
Unfortunately, even though SGI is ditching NT, they're still going to be an Intel suck-up. PPC-based Linux-running SGI boxen WOULD be kinda cool.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
WOuldn't a Motorola PPC work on it?
I wonder if AltiVec could be shoehorned in. . .
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
um - vapor NetWare PPC was NOT vapor. I was onsite at Novell (um, what was that, 1996?) and NetWare PPC was demonstrated to me, running on a Power Mac. Of course, at the time, they told me that the project was officially dead, but a couple of people were still "messing around" with it.
However, I don't refute your statement about "demand". Microsoft had a great role in this, by semi-supporting NT PPC, then cutting it off. Mega FUD builder. SOMEONE owes Bill Gates a favor for that one. (and no, it wasn't Motorola's fault, Microsoft dicated the terms of that contract, and simply elevated their development fee to a level they knew would be unacceptable).
On the other hand, Motorola does need a severe kick in the butt (for lack of enthusiasm for their own damn product), and IBM is just the cowboy to do it.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
this was FUD.
Intel paid them.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
Does this almost make up for IBM not finishing OS/2 for PPC?
(Dual PPC? www.daystar.com - also look for upcoming G4 machines, with dual core CPUs)
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
This is what I've always said about AGP, a worthless useless waste of time.
Now that Win98 FINALLY caught up with the Mac world, and offers dual monitor support, now the new boxes coming out are blocking this, because now you have an AGP slot, instead of all PCI slots, and being able to install two PCI video cards.
Face it, AGP was just another attempt by Intel to try to corner a market (just like Slot1 - now they're back to sockets again: socket370). It did nothing to advance the state of technology or to make computers more affordable.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
Oh yeah?
And what's the fastest Pentium III laptop you can buy right now?
Powerbooks kick ass on any x86 portable.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
I don't understand: some of the comparably equipped Power Computing clones were more than a few tens of dollars cheaper than the equivalent Apple counterparts (in some cases, hundreds of dollars cheaper). I don't understand why they couldn't have just bought a shrinkwrapped MacOS and tossed it in the box - unless there were some ROM licensing issues that went along with it.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
Does this mean that the PPC specs are also going to be open to Be Inc.? Does this mean that Be can stop whining about Apple not giving them the specs? Or does it simply expose Be as just another Intel suck-up?
This could be the smartest business decision ever made in the history of IBM.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
Maybe asking people to pay exorbitant amounts for brain cancer wasn't such a good business model anyway.
I say they should ditch the satellites one by one over major US cities on New Years Eve for a truly spectacular fireworks display.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
Not if I have to download the latest version of MSIE to do it!
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
The education issue has been and always will be an issue of who controls the information.
Senators act and vote on information presented to them by the lobbyists. So of course their interests are conflicted, and the result of garbage in is garbage out.
Now, if everybody got to vote on laws, the mass media would control all the information. Sure, maybe the "real" stuff would be on PBS, or CSPAN. But most people are watching CNN and ABC. Now, how do you suppose we got involved in Kosovo over the deaths of a few hundred oppressed ethnic Albanians, when we completely ignored the situation in Rwanda, where over half a million people were murdered by machetes in the space of a few weeks? Could it have been due to CNN coverage?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
If we had a direct democracy, Ricky Martin would be elected president.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
I think that muslim control of the USDA would suck.
I don't eat pork often, but I'm sure proud of my right to eat it occasionally.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
If you've never SEEN a black helicopter, then you wouldn't understand.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
THere's a lot of distance between the earth and the moon, and the shadow that the moon casts is small by comparison, so if you think of the orbit of the moon as not a two-dimensional ellipse, but as a 3 dimensional ellipse, sometimes wobbling up and down as it goes, you can see that probably even a few hundred feet "northward" or "southward" variation in the orbit could cause the shadow cast by the moon to miss the earth, most of the time. The moon is ALWAYS casting a shadow, and every month, that shadow does cross the earth's path (if you look at it straight-down, from say the north pole), but most of the time, the shadow passes either above, or below the earth - due to these north-south variations in the moon's orbit.
(to visualize this, tie a small rock to a 10-ft. string, and spin it around yourself, faster and slower, and as you go faster, the rock will become level with your hand, slow down, and the rock will get closer to the ground. The difference between the rock-string model, and the moon-gravity model is that gravity is somewhat elastic, allowing the moon to vary inwards and outwards, and there is no overall "downwards" gravity force, so the moon's orbit oscillates northward and southward over time. It's not in a perfect two-dimensional plane.
capiche?
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
Other more likely candidates:
Newt Gingrich
Patrick Buchanan
Steve Forbes
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
This is probably a stunt for LinuxPPC to show that it's more secure than Linux x86 - for that very reason. Not a bad argument.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
. . . never mind the 600 meg MINIMUM disk space required.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
Andy Grove would kick Bill Gates in the nuts if they did that.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law