Re:Great computers, but too expensive...
on
Return of the Mac
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· Score: 2, Informative
there's no way I would plop down $1500 for a powermac when I could get an equivilant PC for 2/3 of the price
You can get a Mac for 2/3 the price, and while it's maybe half again as expensive as a comparable PC running Windows it's all made of good solid stuff. You're paying a bit of a premium for OS X, but it's not an insane one any more.
Mac portable hardware is no longer cutting edge by any regard
When was it? Apple's schtick isn't having cutting-edge hardware, it's having software that just works. They screwed that up a bit in the '90s by holding on to cooperative scheduling and the great multitasking charade far longer than was sensible or even sane. Oh, the GUI and applications running on that creaky platform were first-rate, but that wasn't enough any more. With OS X, though, they have solid software again.
Apple spent 20 years trying to tell people how great the Mac OS was. It's old hat. No one needs to be told anymore what Macs are like.
As of Mac OS X, Mac OS is a whole different animal... and a whole lot of people still think Mac OS is the old Mac OS 9 joke. So, yeh, they do need to tell people how great it is, as well as all the great applications there are for it.
Re:OT: Loving vs. loathing as the only choices
on
What's Next At Apple
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· Score: 1
I get my Unix needs met by FreeBSD
So do I, on my Mac mini.
for GUI use I get my needs met by XP Pro
I so want to make a joke about therapy here, but I'm afraid you'd take it the right way.
. Disk I/O is especially painful.
I don't know what you have at work but if that's a Beige G3 at home the 66 MHz system bus and anemic IDE controller and PCI bridge don't help disk I/O at all. The B&W is a bit better, but still... that's like 7 year old hardware! I'll bet you're not running XP on a Pentium II...
It shows exponential growth for the iPod, but it's showing a downturn in the Mac sales curve for 2006. What's up with that?
Re:Why has corporate America avoided Macs?
on
Hacking Mac OS X
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· Score: 1
Totally unsupported claims were made regarding 1)The preponderance of Macs in academia vs. the business world. 2)The greater computing needs in academia vs. the business world.
In general, I don't see any reason to quibble with those claims. My users, even the developers, run one or two specific applications all the time. They don't use the vast range of software available for the PC, they use the PC as a dedicated machine that does a couple of things over and over again. Whether that thing is email or Visual Studio is quibbling.
Unless your talking about a home machine used for work, desktop boxes in the university are chosen by and paid for by the university and are usually Windows or Nix machines.
Macs are "Nix machines".
Re:Finder Extentions - mixed feelings
on
Hacking Mac OS X
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· Score: 1
What are NeXT-style services? Are they the functions in the servics menu
Yes.
the services menu seems pretty integrated to me
OS X has two separate mechanisms for prividing context-sensitive extensions to applications... the services menu, and contextual menu plugins. These two mechanisms serve the same purtpose and are only distinct because one comes from the Mac OS 9 world, and one comes from the NeXT world. These two functions should be integrated with each other so that appropriate services appear in the contextual menu, and contextual menu plugins appear in the services menu.
Why would this be a good thing? Because you can get to the services menu by keyboard shortcuts when it's inconvenient to use the mouse, but when you ARE using the mouse contextual menus are more convenient... and because there's a duplication of functionality and a confusion as to whether some capability is in one or the other location.
Re:Why has corporate America avoided Macs?
on
Hacking Mac OS X
·
· Score: 1
So basically you're saying [...]
Basically I'm saying is that your claim that business users are heavier users than academics is not supported by the facts, and that your claim that my users are corporate HQ drones who just use email is not supported by facts, and your implication that business needs more of some vaguely suggested "power" than Macs can provide is also unsupported.
Basically, you are extrapolating from your users, who are (as you say) at the extreme high end of the curve... your experience is not applicable to more than the tiniest fraction of users.
Business users do not generally get to choose their machines, they have Windows chosen for them (either directly, by their IT departments, or by a requirement that they use some Windows-only application). Academics are much more likely to be able to be able to choose their own systems, so you get a much more even mix.
PS: "...and their boxes don't crash." I effing wish.
The spacial mode was added in 10.3 to appease people complaining about the lack of a proper spacial mode
The spacial mode was there in 10.2, and it worked the same way. They just hadn't turned the browser mode all the way into a bad iTunes clone.
The right solution would have been to carbonise Finder and Cocoaify the NeXT browser and keep them separate applications.
Re:Why has corporate America avoided Macs?
on
Hacking Mac OS X
·
· Score: 1
I would say 10% would not qualify as "enormous" to any normal sized person.
I din't say "10%" I said "anywhere from 10-90%, depending on department". The point is precisely that, it varies, some places are almost all Windows, some places are heavily Mac... it's NOT a matter of blindly following a herd as you originally implied.
I work at an investment bank building and maintaining applications used by traders, which run on the Windows desktop. If there are more powerful "power users" than these guys, I don't want to meet them.
Then don't try and generalise your extreme power users requirements to typical business Windows users. My users are largely software developers, they're all primarily using computers to get their work done, and while a few are Windows power users the majority... even the ones who are developing on Windows rather than just using their Windows boxes as terminals to the UNIX servers they do their real work on... do not do anything to stress their systems at all.
Everything on its own line is OK, but unless you also put the brace on a new line procedures just have too much "everything" to be visually distinct and well terminated...
1. Discover the original function's address. 2. Test the waters. 3. Make the original function writable. 4. Allocate the escape branch island. 5. Target the escape island and make it executable. 6. Build the branch instruction. 7. Optionally allocate and engage the reentry island. 8. Atomically: a. Insert the original first instruction into the reentry island. b. Target the reentry island and make it executable. c. Swap the original function's first instruction with our custom-built branch instruction.
Before the Mini, yes, Macs cost too darn much. Now the problem is that you can't find one.
In a few months, once the mini madness has settled down and supplies are in, let's see what happens to the business market share.
Re:Slashdot users use mostly Windows
on
Hacking Mac OS X
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· Score: 3, Interesting
So a better question than "Why doesn't Corporate America use Macs" might be "Why don't we?"
I use Wintel because my corporate overlords use Wintel and have really annoying applications that are harder to use than a good browser interface that I need to use to get my official email and do my timecard and the like.
These applications provide zero value. Nobody likes them, even the MCSE guys who are total Wintel zombies, but they keep you chained to the Wintel desktop.
But I have enough of a rep and enough goodwill at this place that they let me use my Mac next to my PC, and so I spend most of my time on my Mac. I use Wintel, like I use toilet paper or dishwasher detergent, when I need it. I work on a Mac. But for most people at big businesses, well, that's not an option. Hell, we get slammed enough for using non-approved browsers like Firefox...
Re:If it's not backed up it doesn't exist...
on
Hacking Mac OS X
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· Score: 3, Funny
I can generate 60 GB of data in 4 hours.
Most places block those kind of websites at the firewall.
If it's not backed up it doesn't exist...
on
Hacking Mac OS X
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
how many of us have the facilities to back up 60GB?
If you need 60G worth of data, you need facilities to back up 60G worth of data. Data that isn't backed up doesn't exist, it's vapor, patterns in the clouds, sandcastles before a storm.
Hie thee down to CompUSA and get a $100 USB or Firewire external drive at the very LEAST. If you're a business, DLT tape drives give you reliable and ROBUST backups.
Sheesh.
Re:Why has corporate America avoided Macs?
on
Hacking Mac OS X
·
· Score: 1
How is it that when business users all use the same machine, it's becuase of herd mentality, but when academics do, it's an example of sound judgement.
"Mac use is enormous" is not "academics all use the same machine". "Mac use is enormous" means "anything from 10 to 90 percent of the users prefer Macs, depending on the department".
Business users have much higher demands than the average academic user
I support business users, and I call bullshit. I'd go into details, but I'd still be here typing 'em up when quitting time came.
Re:Finder Extentions - mixed feelings
on
Hacking Mac OS X
·
· Score: 1
I've got mixed feelings about looking to Windows Explorer for plugins. First, of course, Windows Explorer uses the HTML control and thus opens up a whole security can of worms. Second, too many people used the easy Explorer plugins rather than writing proper drivers for their devices. Cameras manufacturers are big-time sinners here, but even Microsoft went that way... so while your Pocket PC shows up on the desktop you can't get a UNC path pointing to the files...
And you can do an amazing lot with contextual menu plugins. All the Windows "Send To" capability becomes easy thanks to the CM Workshop. Apple needs to buy those guys a round of beer at least. GOOD beer too, mind!
But, Godohgodohgod... yes. They should never have tried to integrate the Mac OS 9 and NeXTSTeP applications. They should have left them as separate programs, and let people use the one they wanted... and left the NeXT shelf in place.
Oh, and contextual menus and the NeXT-style services really need some serious integration.
Oh, when I said gimp.org might be compromised, I should have made it clear that I was talking about a key compromise.
Anyone can have a key compromise, or keys issued without their knowledge. Microsoft's had that happen to them, even. That's why you DON'T want to trust any key without human intervention. Keys make things harder, but humans in the loop are the final barricade.
Slashdot Mirror
there's no way I would plop down $1500 for a powermac when I could get an equivilant PC for 2/3 of the price
You can get a Mac for 2/3 the price, and while it's maybe half again as expensive as a comparable PC running Windows it's all made of good solid stuff. You're paying a bit of a premium for OS X, but it's not an insane one any more.
Mac portable hardware is no longer cutting edge by any regard
When was it? Apple's schtick isn't having cutting-edge hardware, it's having software that just works. They screwed that up a bit in the '90s by holding on to cooperative scheduling and the great multitasking charade far longer than was sensible or even sane. Oh, the GUI and applications running on that creaky platform were first-rate, but that wasn't enough any more. With OS X, though, they have solid software again.
They might see great sales if they converted 10% of their iPod advertising into Mac Mini advertising.
Tried to buy a Mac mini lately? They're shipping them as fast as they can make them as it is.
Apple spent 20 years trying to tell people how great the Mac OS was. It's old hat. No one needs to be told anymore what Macs are like.
As of Mac OS X, Mac OS is a whole different animal... and a whole lot of people still think Mac OS is the old Mac OS 9 joke. So, yeh, they do need to tell people how great it is, as well as all the great applications there are for it.
I get my Unix needs met by FreeBSD
So do I, on my Mac mini.
for GUI use I get my needs met by XP Pro
I so want to make a joke about therapy here, but I'm afraid you'd take it the right way.
. Disk I/O is especially painful.
I don't know what you have at work but if that's a Beige G3 at home the 66 MHz system bus and anemic IDE controller and PCI bridge don't help disk I/O at all. The B&W is a bit better, but still... that's like 7 year old hardware! I'll bet you're not running XP on a Pentium II...
It shows exponential growth for the iPod, but it's showing a downturn in the Mac sales curve for 2006. What's up with that?
Totally unsupported claims were made regarding
1)The preponderance of Macs in academia vs. the business world.
2)The greater computing needs in academia vs. the business world.
In general, I don't see any reason to quibble with those claims. My users, even the developers, run one or two specific applications all the time. They don't use the vast range of software available for the PC, they use the PC as a dedicated machine that does a couple of things over and over again. Whether that thing is email or Visual Studio is quibbling.
Unless your talking about a home machine used for work, desktop boxes in the university are chosen by and paid for by the university and are usually Windows or Nix machines.
Macs are "Nix machines".
What are NeXT-style services? Are they the functions in the servics menu
Yes.
the services menu seems pretty integrated to me
OS X has two separate mechanisms for prividing context-sensitive extensions to applications... the services menu, and contextual menu plugins. These two mechanisms serve the same purtpose and are only distinct because one comes from the Mac OS 9 world, and one comes from the NeXT world. These two functions should be integrated with each other so that appropriate services appear in the contextual menu, and contextual menu plugins appear in the services menu.
Why would this be a good thing? Because you can get to the services menu by keyboard shortcuts when it's inconvenient to use the mouse, but when you ARE using the mouse contextual menus are more convenient... and because there's a duplication of functionality and a confusion as to whether some capability is in one or the other location.
So basically you're saying [...]
Basically I'm saying is that your claim that business users are heavier users than academics is not supported by the facts, and that your claim that my users are corporate HQ drones who just use email is not supported by facts, and your implication that business needs more of some vaguely suggested "power" than Macs can provide is also unsupported.
Basically, you are extrapolating from your users, who are (as you say) at the extreme high end of the curve... your experience is not applicable to more than the tiniest fraction of users.
Business users do not generally get to choose their machines, they have Windows chosen for them (either directly, by their IT departments, or by a requirement that they use some Windows-only application). Academics are much more likely to be able to be able to choose their own systems, so you get a much more even mix.
PS: "...and their boxes don't crash." I effing wish.
If you use a computer that's less than 600mhz, you're probally going to use Blackbox, Openbox, Fluxbox, etc.
Windowmaker here.
The spacial mode was added in 10.3 to appease people complaining about the lack of a proper spacial mode
The spacial mode was there in 10.2, and it worked the same way. They just hadn't turned the browser mode all the way into a bad iTunes clone.
The right solution would have been to carbonise Finder and Cocoaify the NeXT browser and keep them separate applications.
I would say 10% would not qualify as "enormous" to any normal sized person.
I din't say "10%" I said "anywhere from 10-90%, depending on department". The point is precisely that, it varies, some places are almost all Windows, some places are heavily Mac... it's NOT a matter of blindly following a herd as you originally implied.
I work at an investment bank building and maintaining applications used by traders, which run on the Windows desktop. If there are more powerful "power users" than these guys, I don't want to meet them.
Then don't try and generalise your extreme power users requirements to typical business Windows users. My users are largely software developers, they're all primarily using computers to get their work done, and while a few are Windows power users the majority... even the ones who are developing on Windows rather than just using their Windows boxes as terminals to the UNIX servers they do their real work on... do not do anything to stress their systems at all.
Everything on its own line is OK, but unless you also put the brace on a new line procedures just have too much "everything" to be visually distinct and well terminated...
In his original paper there's a missing step:
1. Discover the original function's address.
2. Test the waters.
3. Make the original function writable.
4. Allocate the escape branch island.
5. Target the escape island and make it executable.
6. Build the branch instruction.
7. Optionally allocate and engage the reentry island.
8. Atomically:
a. Insert the original first instruction into the reentry island.
b. Target the reentry island and make it executable.
c. Swap the original function's first instruction with our custom-built branch instruction.
Missing step?
9. Make the original function non-writable.
Oh man, the format of his procedure definitions and declarations makes my head hurt.
The rest of his style is great, and I'm real comfortable with brace-at-the-end everywhere else, but it just doesn't work there.
Before the Mini, yes, Macs cost too darn much. Now the problem is that you can't find one.
In a few months, once the mini madness has settled down and supplies are in, let's see what happens to the business market share.
So a better question than "Why doesn't Corporate America use Macs" might be "Why don't we?"
I use Wintel because my corporate overlords use Wintel and have really annoying applications that are harder to use than a good browser interface that I need to use to get my official email and do my timecard and the like.
These applications provide zero value. Nobody likes them, even the MCSE guys who are total Wintel zombies, but they keep you chained to the Wintel desktop.
But I have enough of a rep and enough goodwill at this place that they let me use my Mac next to my PC, and so I spend most of my time on my Mac. I use Wintel, like I use toilet paper or dishwasher detergent, when I need it. I work on a Mac. But for most people at big businesses, well, that's not an option. Hell, we get slammed enough for using non-approved browsers like Firefox...
I can generate 60 GB of data in 4 hours.
Most places block those kind of websites at the firewall.
how many of us have the facilities to back up 60GB?
If you need 60G worth of data, you need facilities to back up 60G worth of data. Data that isn't backed up doesn't exist, it's vapor, patterns in the clouds, sandcastles before a storm.
Hie thee down to CompUSA and get a $100 USB or Firewire external drive at the very LEAST. If you're a business, DLT tape drives give you reliable and ROBUST backups.
Sheesh.
How is it that when business users all use the same machine, it's becuase of herd mentality, but when academics do, it's an example of sound judgement.
"Mac use is enormous" is not "academics all use the same machine". "Mac use is enormous" means "anything from 10 to 90 percent of the users prefer Macs, depending on the department".
Business users have much higher demands than the average academic user
I support business users, and I call bullshit. I'd go into details, but I'd still be here typing 'em up when quitting time came.
I've got mixed feelings about looking to Windows Explorer for plugins. First, of course, Windows Explorer uses the HTML control and thus opens up a whole security can of worms. Second, too many people used the easy Explorer plugins rather than writing proper drivers for their devices. Cameras manufacturers are big-time sinners here, but even Microsoft went that way... so while your Pocket PC shows up on the desktop you can't get a UNC path pointing to the files...
And you can do an amazing lot with contextual menu plugins. All the Windows "Send To" capability becomes easy thanks to the CM Workshop. Apple needs to buy those guys a round of beer at least. GOOD beer too, mind!
But, Godohgodohgod... yes. They should never have tried to integrate the Mac OS 9 and NeXTSTeP applications. They should have left them as separate programs, and let people use the one they wanted... and left the NeXT shelf in place.
Oh, and contextual menus and the NeXT-style services really need some serious integration.
Somehow Windows 32 just remonds me of James Herriot's rural vetinarian stories, so these kinds of analogies just come naturally to mind.
OK, it sounds like it's not as bad as I thought.
It still gives me the collywobbles.
Oh, when I said gimp.org might be compromised, I should have made it clear that I was talking about a key compromise.
Anyone can have a key compromise, or keys issued without their knowledge. Microsoft's had that happen to them, even. That's why you DON'T want to trust any key without human intervention. Keys make things harder, but humans in the loop are the final barricade.
JATO is an acronym for Jet Assisted Take Off and should be capitalized.
My abject apologies.
Interix's PR problem
ITYM Microsoft's PR problem. Interix would be part of the solution, not part of the precipitate.