I'm on an iMac 500MHz G3, running Panther. Performance is slower than, say, my MacBook, but it's acceptable. 750MB RAM helps, of course. Strangely enough, Photoshop Elements 4 runs faster on the iMac than my MacBook...freaking Rosetta...
For about $100 more you can get one of these puppies with 1GB RAM. However, the catch is you get Windows Hasta La Vista Home Basic on it. Eew.
My first computer ever was an IBM PC 5-slot, aka the Model 5150. One of the first things I did was shove an Everex 1200bps modem in it. They've been around for at least 20 years.
I wonder what kind of RAM it takes? Then again, 512MB RAM is just fine for a NAS running Debian Etch, which is what I am seriously considering purposing this machine for.
Of course, I HATE freaking Sith*Mart. Supposedly this machine is in stock at one which is within easy walking distance of me, though. I think I might pay them a visit.
If you don't want to read TF Blog Entries: I bought a cakebox of DVD+Rs through BestBuy.Com. They sent me a Toshiba laptop instead. I wanted to do the right thing and return it, and Best Buy made it really tough to do it. I should have kept the thing.:P
But that Mac mini has something the Dell doesn't: an easy to use, largely exploit-free operating system. (note I didn't say completely exploit-free: there are holes in the default install of Mac OS X, and there no doubt will still be some in X.5) Compare that to Vista, which although improved is still a security nightmare. Consider also that chances are that Dell will not have enough RAM to run Vista properly, so it will be a usability nightmare.
The Mac mini is capable enough for Granny or Aunt Ethel or Junior and Missy, which is the market that it is largely pitched to. It's intended as a "second computer" for the kids or as a first computer for "seasoned citizens."
As it turns out, the MacBook is the Mac most people are buying. It is a competitive laptop to all but the bargain-basement craptops that Dell, Lenovo and HP sell. Get beyond the loss-leader "hacked by Chinese" craptops and you will find that MacBook is pretty damn competitive with the competition's lappies.
And also, Mac OS X Tiger tends to run better on less RAM than Vista. So people go to, say, Fried Electronics, mess with a midrange lappie or desktop hobbled by Vista, then go check out the MacBook and feel the difference. If the track record is any indication, Leopard will be faster than Tiger on new and 1-2 year old hardware. It might suck on G4s but that's the outside realm of the machines that can run Leopard.
To be fair, Apple has been snakebit a number of times by lappie power supply/battery issues. Let's see, there was the PowerBook 5300 a la flambe incident, the PB G3 power supply that tended to have sparking issues, the full-of-lose "UFO" PB/iBook power supply that tends to die after a while thanks to power cord shorting issues, the expanding LiPoly batteries in the later iBooks, the MacBook and the MacBook Pro, and now the Mag Safe adapter issue.
However, they are not alone. How many lappies were recalled over Sony LiIon/LiPoly cell issues? How many other lappie manufacturers have recalled their power supplies? How about that ThinkPad 600-series charging circuit that kills batteries?
I fully expect to have an in-warranty replacement of the MagSafe power supply. This is the reason why nobody should buy an Apple lappie without AppleCare. I would give the same advice to anyone who buys anyone's lappie. Go for the extended warranty, go for the manufacturer's extended warranty if it is offered but the store's extended warranty if the manufacturer doesn't offer one. This is one time when it's smart to do so.
I also use Linux and OpenOffice. Mac OS X was the least objectionable alternative to having a PC lappie running Windows XP, which is a requirement of the University I'm attending. Macs are considered an acceptable alternative, with the caveat that you are largely on your own with regard to support. A PC lappie running Debian Sarge, (I started there in 2005) on the other hand, is not an acceptable alternative to their IT department, and represents a threat. "Isn't Linux that hacker OS? Are you a hacker or something?" (Actual quote from an IT drone there!) Sigh...
Oh yeah, Office is also a must. Office:Mac v.X and Office:Mac v.2004 are acceptable to the IT department and to professors. OpenOffice, on the other hand, is not.
So basically my dilemma was between purity or finishing my baccalaureate. I chose finishing my baccalaureate. Most University IT departments are like this, by the way. They are very F/OSS unfriendly and very Windows-centric. Microsoft has bought a lot of headspace in American academia.
Bigger chunks of data can be handled at a time with a 64-bit OS. This can be helpful in data-intensive processes like encoding video. Which I am very interested in.
...for someone who opted for AppleCare on their MacBook. Apple will not TOUCH your system if it has a pirated copy of the OS on it.
As it is, the Student Discount is down to $13, compared to the $60 discount students got on systems from Puma to Tiger. So screw it, I'm not going to mess with Apple Store for Education anymore. I worked at Fried a few years ago so I was one of the first to have one of those spiffy transparent green credit cards. Looks like I'll be lining up there a week from Friday. 64-bit goodness is too good to pass up.
Anyone know if Rosetta has been improved and/or made 64-bit aware? Considering some of my apps are still PPC-only (Office 2007, Photoshop Elements v.4 Mac) it's an issue.
This was an artistic decision on the part of Ridley Scott. He felt the line was more in keeping with the religious awe of the scene. Both lines were separate takes shot during the filming. I am still partial to "fucker" (it sounds more like Roy Batty's righteous indignation at being born a slave and deliberately given a four-year lifespan) but it makes sense.
If you have problems with the change, take it up with Ridley Scott. And four out of five versions you get in the super-bitchen set have the original line, so buy the big box and have it your way.
Commentary track on Repo Man DVD is teh awesome. You finally find out what was in the can of "Generic Food."
And I have seen BR:FC (at The Landmark theatre in West LA...4K projection for the win!) and it is unbelievably cool. It is tighter and flows better than the so-called "Director's Cut" which was basically put together based on notes from Ridley Scott, jotted down hastily on the set of Thelma and Louise. This time Scott and his longtime DVD producer Charles de Lauzirika actually were hands-on throughout the entire process, from start to finish. This has been 8 years in the making. They shot new footage of the lovely and talented Joanna Cassidy for face replacement during the death scene, which originally was an obvious stunt double. BTW she looks 99% like she did 25 years ago...I saw her at Comic-Con in person and she's amazing.
Unlike George Lucas' periodic childhood rapings, this is The Final Cut. Accept no substitutes.
For all your BR fannish needs, go to http://www.bladezone.com/. Beats the official website all to heck and back.
Get a REAL Scot to do it. Ewan McGregor for the win. Sure, it would mean paying him silly money for it, but it would mean Ewan would get to leave his mark on not just one, but the EXACTA of geek icon movie series.
Besides, Scotty always seemed older than everyone except Bones McCoy on TOS.
Although one thing...could Ewan still do the thick-as-porridge Scots brogue he did in "Trainspotting" that required anyone not from north of Hadrian's Wall to put the closed-captioning on when watching the movie? One wonders.
...Asajji Ventress. Supposedly the sabre set she was given by Count Dooku had an attachable/detachable cable for hot Nunchaku Sabre action. I seem to remember this showing up in one of the games.
Try power button press to login in 5 seconds. That's how fast my MacBook boots. Freaking amazing. And it will be even faster and badder with Leopard. 64 bit goodness and Intel multicore awareness...mmmmmmmm....
Bryant: Christ, Deckard, you look almost as bad as that skin job you left on the sidewalk.
Deckard: I'm going home.
Bryant: You could learn from this guy Gaff. He's a goddamn one man slaughter house. That's what he is. Four more to go. Come on Gaff, let's go.
Deckard: Three. There's three to go.
Bryant: There's four. That-- That skin job that you V-K'ed at the Tyrell Corporation, Rachael. Disappeared. Vanished. Didn't even know she was a replicant. Something to do with a brain implant says Tyrell. Come on Gaff. Drink some for me, pal.
Slashdot Mirror
I have you beat.
I'm on an iMac 500MHz G3, running Panther. Performance is slower than, say, my MacBook, but it's acceptable. 750MB RAM helps, of course. Strangely enough, Photoshop Elements 4 runs faster on the iMac than my MacBook...freaking Rosetta...
For about $100 more you can get one of these puppies with 1GB RAM. However, the catch is you get Windows Hasta La Vista Home Basic on it. Eew.
My first computer ever was an IBM PC 5-slot, aka the Model 5150. One of the first things I did was shove an Everex 1200bps modem in it. They've been around for at least 20 years.
I wonder what kind of RAM it takes? Then again, 512MB RAM is just fine for a NAS running Debian Etch, which is what I am seriously considering purposing this machine for.
Of course, I HATE freaking Sith*Mart. Supposedly this machine is in stock at one which is within easy walking distance of me, though. I think I might pay them a visit.
This brings to mind something I went through with Beastly Buy this Summer.
:P
The beginning
No good deed goes unpunished
The punch line.
If you don't want to read TF Blog Entries: I bought a cakebox of DVD+Rs through BestBuy.Com. They sent me a Toshiba laptop instead. I wanted to do the right thing and return it, and Best Buy made it really tough to do it. I should have kept the thing.
But that Mac mini has something the Dell doesn't: an easy to use, largely exploit-free operating system. (note I didn't say completely exploit-free: there are holes in the default install of Mac OS X, and there no doubt will still be some in X.5) Compare that to Vista, which although improved is still a security nightmare. Consider also that chances are that Dell will not have enough RAM to run Vista properly, so it will be a usability nightmare.
Seriously. The Dell can't compete with a Mac.
The Mac mini is capable enough for Granny or Aunt Ethel or Junior and Missy, which is the market that it is largely pitched to. It's intended as a "second computer" for the kids or as a first computer for "seasoned citizens."
As it turns out, the MacBook is the Mac most people are buying. It is a competitive laptop to all but the bargain-basement craptops that Dell, Lenovo and HP sell. Get beyond the loss-leader "hacked by Chinese" craptops and you will find that MacBook is pretty damn competitive with the competition's lappies.
And also, Mac OS X Tiger tends to run better on less RAM than Vista. So people go to, say, Fried Electronics, mess with a midrange lappie or desktop hobbled by Vista, then go check out the MacBook and feel the difference. If the track record is any indication, Leopard will be faster than Tiger on new and 1-2 year old hardware. It might suck on G4s but that's the outside realm of the machines that can run Leopard.
To be fair, Apple has been snakebit a number of times by lappie power supply/battery issues. Let's see, there was the PowerBook 5300 a la flambe incident, the PB G3 power supply that tended to have sparking issues, the full-of-lose "UFO" PB/iBook power supply that tends to die after a while thanks to power cord shorting issues, the expanding LiPoly batteries in the later iBooks, the MacBook and the MacBook Pro, and now the Mag Safe adapter issue.
However, they are not alone. How many lappies were recalled over Sony LiIon/LiPoly cell issues? How many other lappie manufacturers have recalled their power supplies? How about that ThinkPad 600-series charging circuit that kills batteries?
I fully expect to have an in-warranty replacement of the MagSafe power supply. This is the reason why nobody should buy an Apple lappie without AppleCare. I would give the same advice to anyone who buys anyone's lappie. Go for the extended warranty, go for the manufacturer's extended warranty if it is offered but the store's extended warranty if the manufacturer doesn't offer one. This is one time when it's smart to do so.
I also use Linux and OpenOffice. Mac OS X was the least objectionable alternative to having a PC lappie running Windows XP, which is a requirement of the University I'm attending. Macs are considered an acceptable alternative, with the caveat that you are largely on your own with regard to support. A PC lappie running Debian Sarge, (I started there in 2005) on the other hand, is not an acceptable alternative to their IT department, and represents a threat. "Isn't Linux that hacker OS? Are you a hacker or something?" (Actual quote from an IT drone there!) Sigh...
Oh yeah, Office is also a must. Office:Mac v.X and Office:Mac v.2004 are acceptable to the IT department and to professors. OpenOffice, on the other hand, is not.
So basically my dilemma was between purity or finishing my baccalaureate. I chose finishing my baccalaureate. Most University IT departments are like this, by the way. They are very F/OSS unfriendly and very Windows-centric. Microsoft has bought a lot of headspace in American academia.
Mod this post up...my Mac thanks you, Athloi.
This is useless to me...it doesn't work in Office:Mac v.X or Office:Mac 2004.
Call me when you consider the Mac users out there, Sun.
Bigger chunks of data can be handled at a time with a 64-bit OS. This can be helpful in data-intensive processes like encoding video. Which I am very interested in.
This wouldn't work for Fan Music Videos. Especially if the song the clips were cut to was released outside the purview of the RIAA.
$116.00 at the custom Apple Store for Education for Woodbury University (Burbank, CA, US) students. :P
...for someone who opted for AppleCare on their MacBook. Apple will not TOUCH your system if it has a pirated copy of the OS on it.
As it is, the Student Discount is down to $13, compared to the $60 discount students got on systems from Puma to Tiger. So screw it, I'm not going to mess with Apple Store for Education anymore. I worked at Fried a few years ago so I was one of the first to have one of those spiffy transparent green credit cards. Looks like I'll be lining up there a week from Friday. 64-bit goodness is too good to pass up.
Anyone know if Rosetta has been improved and/or made 64-bit aware? Considering some of my apps are still PPC-only (Office 2007, Photoshop Elements v.4 Mac) it's an issue.
This was an artistic decision on the part of Ridley Scott. He felt the line was more in keeping with the religious awe of the scene. Both lines were separate takes shot during the filming. I am still partial to "fucker" (it sounds more like Roy Batty's righteous indignation at being born a slave and deliberately given a four-year lifespan) but it makes sense.
If you have problems with the change, take it up with Ridley Scott. And four out of five versions you get in the super-bitchen set have the original line, so buy the big box and have it your way.
Commentary track on Repo Man DVD is teh awesome. You finally find out what was in the can of "Generic Food."
And I have seen BR:FC (at The Landmark theatre in West LA...4K projection for the win!) and it is unbelievably cool. It is tighter and flows better than the so-called "Director's Cut" which was basically put together based on notes from Ridley Scott, jotted down hastily on the set of Thelma and Louise. This time Scott and his longtime DVD producer Charles de Lauzirika actually were hands-on throughout the entire process, from start to finish. This has been 8 years in the making. They shot new footage of the lovely and talented Joanna Cassidy for face replacement during the death scene, which originally was an obvious stunt double. BTW she looks 99% like she did 25 years ago...I saw her at Comic-Con in person and she's amazing.
Unlike George Lucas' periodic childhood rapings, this is The Final Cut. Accept no substitutes.
For all your BR fannish needs, go to http://www.bladezone.com/. Beats the official website all to heck and back.
Dude, as a heterosexual female I do not see this as a drawback. Far from it actually.
Get a REAL Scot to do it. Ewan McGregor for the win. Sure, it would mean paying him silly money for it, but it would mean Ewan would get to leave his mark on not just one, but the EXACTA of geek icon movie series.
Besides, Scotty always seemed older than everyone except Bones McCoy on TOS.
Although one thing...could Ewan still do the thick-as-porridge Scots brogue he did in "Trainspotting" that required anyone not from north of Hadrian's Wall to put the closed-captioning on when watching the movie? One wonders.
Hopefully Zachary isn't 3 feet long with a rather elongated head...
/.
And I hope he didn't sing the Telephone Rag after emerging, either... ^_^
Seriously...happy 10th Anniversary,
Ms. Geek
Of course it doesn't, you insensitive clod!
Solution #1: Linux.
Solution #2: Mac OS X.
Solution #3: No computer for you! Come back, one year!
Porkins: NO, I'm all ri-- AAAARRRGHHHH!!
It's a freaking DECEPTICON!!!
...Asajji Ventress. Supposedly the sabre set she was given by Count Dooku had an attachable/detachable cable for hot Nunchaku Sabre action. I seem to remember this showing up in one of the games.
Try power button press to login in 5 seconds. That's how fast my MacBook boots. Freaking amazing. And it will be even faster and badder with Leopard. 64 bit goodness and Intel multicore awareness...mmmmmmmm....
Bryant: Christ, Deckard, you look almost as bad as that skin job you left on the sidewalk.
Deckard: I'm going home.
Bryant: You could learn from this guy Gaff. He's a goddamn one man slaughter house. That's what he is. Four more to go. Come on Gaff, let's go.
Deckard: Three. There's three to go.
Bryant: There's four. That-- That skin job that you V-K'ed at the Tyrell Corporation, Rachael. Disappeared. Vanished. Didn't even know she was a replicant. Something to do with a brain implant says Tyrell. Come on Gaff. Drink some for me, pal.