Powerpoint *is* a Microsoft product, right? Don't you think it should be relatively easy to program in a flag from Powerpoint to the OS? Hell, I'd even be happy if they kept it undocumented just as long as Powerpoint on Windows did not alert in the middle of a presentation.
Somebody else has already said it, but I'll add this addendum. Unless it is critical functionality (like an eminent battery shutdown), there is no warning that should *ever* interrupt a Powerpoint presentation while it is in full screen mode, *ever*.
Oh yeah say apple has great useability, sure they might have a couple things up on MS, but yeah check out their SUPER multi monitor support...
What is wrong with it? I've been running multiple monitors on Macs since 1987 and had as many as three connected at one time. Currently I have a 30in 2560X1600 display and a 23in 1920X1200 display and have never had any problems.
Now, contrast that with Microsoft and you'd find that I was not able to get native support for multiple monitor configurations from Microsoft until W2k and then it was spotty at best and nowhere near plug and play. Even now, the multi-monitor support in XP is quite kludgy compared with OS X. Microsoft still has quite a bit to learn here.
and if Microsoft didn't warn you people would complaine(sic) about that.
Actually, no.... I would not.
How unprofessional is it in the middle of a presentation to have something like that happen? In the movies, they call it interruption of suspension of disbelief. In business and science, it's called absurd.
There is no way to make everyone happy, so you provide the best protection you can and try to make the least number of people pissed. To me, a better question would be "why did you let your antivirus expire?".
That is a cop out that lazy people trot out when they do not want to do the real work required to think about how people actually interact with their computers. Actually, there *is* a better way and Apple computer has showed us.
You may have responded to some rants on how Microsoft products work (or don't), and that is all fine and dandy, as it was appreciated. However, the problems are *still* there. I still get the little hardware wizard that wants to help me when I plug in a new mouse, or Windows will still notify me that there is either a new network found or that my computer is at a security risk because of virus subscription expiration in the middle of a Powerpoint presentation!
It's stuff like that (and much more) that are driving people to alternatives
Perhaps you would like to step into the role of a PhD who *does* perform research and development? I've found that most of the time when people say stuff like this, they have no real idea of what is involved in either obtaining a PhD or working as one.
The PhD not only demonstrates that you are capable of thinking critically, it shows that one is able to communicate, analyze and create new "content" and make advancements. Speaking as a PhD, the job is much harder than I ever thought, though it is fun and I would not do anything differently. Having to write grants, write papers, teach, perform science, deal with administrative duties all at the same time is a much harder job than most folks realize. Of course that is just academia. If you add in work in the private sector on top of that, you have even more responsibilities (though prospects for more money). Some PhDs of course stick to industry and do quite well. That's all fine and dandy, I just like the additional challenge of academics in addition to commercial work.
Of course most folks who are actually working in IT could have told you this. I know a number of folks at companies who experienced several rounds of layoffs. They have survived the layoffs, but they are also currently doing the job of two to three employees now versus prior to the layoffs. Morale is low, pay has not kept up with the cost of living increases, the cost of health care or inflation. Productivity is still there, but burnout is likely in these individuals. Other people I know that did lose their jobs ended up going back to school and getting out of IT entirely which I suspect is not an isolated situation and would lead to skewed unemployment statistics.
The thing that worries me is that this is not an isolated employment sector, and I predict that we are in more trouble than we might know. Historically we have relied on our research and development to keep this country on top technologically, but over the last five years or so, we have been reducing the amount of funding we spend on research and development, particularly in the biosciences. For example, if you were to look at NIH grant paylines, five years ago the payline was around 33%. Next year it is predicted to be anywhere from 10-14% meaning the likelihood that a researcher will obtain funding has been cut by more than half. In fact, research and education spending on the whole is down under the current White House administration. So, if we are supposed to rely on education, technology and research and development to keep our edge as a country, we are already in trouble, especially when one considers that even if we were to turn things around tomorrow, we have likely done enough damage that it will take a decade to recover.
The fundamental problem is that the current White house administration is not remotely curious or interested in looking beyond their narrowly defined agendas. So, any deviation from what they expect is by definition, unexpected or inconvenient. This is a recurring theme again and again with hurricane Katrina, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bin Laden, the economy, energy prices, the whole torture thing and recently with senator Foley, where higher ups *knew* what was going on but they either failed to act or simply did not care as long as they can maintain power. Power for powers sake seems to be the theme here as this administration is always behind the ball. They are constantly reacting to events rather than through analysis and action being proactive and it is costing the country financially and in lives lost as well as our international reputation.
First, while I have been an occasional supporter of Greenpeace, this study is of dubious quality. Specifically, they base their analysis primarily on what they term "the Precautionary Principle" which they define on their website as "In the context of chemicals management, it means that when (on the basis of available evidence) the use of a chemical or groups of chemicals may harm human health or the environment, action to eliminate the use of the chemical(s) should be taken - even if the full extent of harm has not yet been fully established scientifically. It recognises that such proof of harm may never be possible, at least until it is too late to avoid or reverse the damage done. " emphasis mine.
Additionally, they make no evidence or justification on how they establish their weightings of their criteria to determine ranking.
This is not really an indictment against Chris Anderson or his most excellent work on the Long Tail concept so much as it is a demonstration of Amazon's lack of infrastructure (or management) in their Amazon Advantage program.
I've heard from more than one person of their frustrations in dealing with this program which has lead me to delay efforts to publish a couple of items through them...
Don't forget that we did not diverge from modern fish. Fish today are just as modern as us.
Precisely, and this is why I used quotes to refer to lower organisms. So, when mammalians went underground, we lost some functionality that may or may not have already been present. However, this does not mean that we cannot engineer in that functionality once we understand the pathways and expression profiles and timepoints.
You do realize that many protein and metabolic processes work the same in rats and mice as they do in other mammalians, like humans..... right? You do realize that it is possible to precisely emulate a disease process in humans by engineering in the same genetic defect in other organisms that is found in humans, right?
Additionally, it is possible once we understand the biochemical, developmental, metabolic, proteomic processes in "lower" organisms to get a better understanding for how to attack problems in humans. For instance, amphibians and many fish species have much more sophisticated retinas that we mammalians do. Despite this level of sophistication, they are able to fix their retinas when damaged which is something that we humans have either forgotten how to do or lost the machinery required through evolution.
Oh, and about the oranges? Yeah, well metabolic processes in oranges are quite useful to understand for their anti-oxidative properties. Most genetic damage and aging problems are related to oxidative species generation and citrus plants are pretty damned good at generating anti-oxidants. Figuring out how to engineer these pathways could lead to better understanding and more efficient processes for engineering in these pathways into other organisms.
Now the gene mapping is finished, the real work can now begin.... I only half jokingly say this as all of the physiology needs to be performed on a baseline dataset now. It's interesting that a whole host of talents and technologies that were eclipsed by molecular biology and genetic engineering are now coming back into vogue. Technologies like electrophysiology and electron microscopy are now in hot demand.
I doubt that anyone seriously expects the state to win this suit, but they are at the very least drawing attention to the auto manufacturers' continuous efforts to keep any law that might involve reduced emissions or higher fuel economy off the books.
California is the home of marketing, right? Has it not occurred to anyone that legislation like this is bad press? Comeon now, you have some of the best minds in the world working and living in the state of California and this is what they come up with? How about some creative legislation, like providing state incentives rather than disencentives for more fuel efficient cars? Making metropolitan parking spaces smaller and providing drivers of micro cars discounted parking or opening up carpool lanes to micro cars like the Smart ForTwo? How about doing things like allowing drivers of micro cars to register their cars every other year? There are lots of other potential incentives that could be implemented rather than playing a legal one upsmanship that only serves to employ class action lawyers.
Oh, for the love of...... *checks calendar..... nope, not April 1st)*
"(California) just passed a new law to cut global warming emissions by 25 percent and that's a good start and this lawsuit is a good next step," said Dan Becker, director of the Sierra Club's Global Warming Program.
Now, I am pretty much middle of the road politically (Disclaimer: I lean a bit left though), but this is insane. Insane as in insanely bad. Hey, Sierra Club! This statement may have just cost you 2007s contribution from me. The global warming legislation had good components, but if you start allying yourself with lawsuits like this, count me out.
Lockyer told Reuters he would seek "tens or hundreds of millions of dollars" from the automakers in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California.
Uh huh.... and what is your take going to be Lockyer? Oh, just a small percentage you say, but a small percentage of an obscenely large number of dollars is still lots of dollars, right? Will you be buying a new Bentley with your share? Or will it be a party in your Escalade?
While we are talking lawsuit, what's the logical argument/premise going to be for filing the suit? If we hold the automobile manufacturers responsible then what of the users of their products? Are you going to say that the drivers of such automobiles are "addicted", so by their logic are immune to prosecution? Why focus on the automakers? Why not grab every last dollar you can by going after the drivers and the cities and states that build the roads and freeways, because without them, the automakers would not have a market, right? As long as we are suing people because of global warming, why not airlines? Airline manufacturers? Smokers? Dry cleaners? The leather tanners that made your loafers? Hey, how about the computer industry? Or....... I *know*, lets sue all of the electrical generating companies and take us back to the dark ages.
Seriously though, I understand that there are lots of sources of global warming, but Lockyer, this is not the way to solve the problem by making the automotive companies the boogeymen. The real solution from an automotive perspective is to federally mandate gas milage standards that are more stringent than where they are now, provide incentives for more fuel efficient and lower polluting automobiles rather than the current system where there is an incentive for large SUVs, and work from the consumer side *without* filing suits to line your pocketses.
*RANT*Oh and while we are at it, Hey! G.W.B, instead of sucking money out of research, development and education, why don't you do what you said and invest in education and research? We are not going to solve these problems through a narrow focus on religious fundamentalism while we are excluding science education.
Jeez, sometimes I feel like I am getting squeezed on the far left by goofy loonies like Lockyer and pushed out of the picture by power hungry neocon fundies on the extreme right. What happened to the middle ground where people of reason and careful thought worked through compromise to help advance progress?*/RANT*
Well, while I also am not an economist, there are some commonly understood signs of economic slowing. One of the principal leaders or forecasting signs are ad revenues. Others are job postings, initial unemployment indicators, shipping volume through US Postal, and private carriers like Fed Ex, UPS and DHL.
What are the stats? I am not sure, but from my limited reading, it appears that a variety of factors stemming from increased fuel prices and continued international unrest in the middle East appear to be having an effect, resulting in an economic slump.
I want to know why you think you need $3,500 worth of bleeding-edge computer hardware to "write grants and papers"?
Did you happen to read the bit about analyze data? If you bothered to click through and explore before opening your mouth, you might find that I do lots of image analysis work and for that, I need cycles.
Of course the cool thing these days is that I can do it all (data collection, analysis, write up, and image preparation for publication) in one environment. I *used* to have three systems on my desk each with a 21in monitor. An SGI Octane, a Windows system and a Mac. Now its all one MacPro with a couple of big-assed monitors.
Are you sure you are entering the dual core architecture Xeons? Are you sure you are adding the second Xeon dual core chip, because funny enough, but I get this:
Apple
Specifications
Two 3.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4GB (4 x 1GB)
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
Two 16x SuperDrives
Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme
Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Subtotal $4,935.00 Estimated Ship:?3-5 business days Free Shipping
Dell:
Dell Precision Workstation 690 (750W - 32bit) Dual Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5160 3.00GHz, 4MB L2,1333 2nd Processor Dual Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5160 3.00GHz, 4MB L2,1333 Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2 with Media Graphic Cards 512MB PCIe x16 ATI Radeon X1900 512MB, Dual VGA or Dual DVI or DVI + VGA Memory 4GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 667MHz, ECC (4 DIMMS) CD-ROM, DVD, and Read-Write Devices 1 48XCD AND 48X CD-RW/DVD Combo with Cyberlink Power DVD(TM) 2 48XCD AND 48X CD-RW/DVD Combo with Cyberlink Power DVD(TM) Hard Drive Configuration C1 All SATA drives, Non-RAID, 1 or 2 drive total configuration Boot Hard Drive 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache(TM) Hard Drive Internal Controller Option SATA/SAS Integrated Card - For Connecting Internal Hard Drives 2nd Hard Drive 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache(TM) 3rd Hard Drive 4th Hard Drive Wireless Dell Wireless 1450 (802.11 b/g) WLAN USB 2.0 DT Adapter Sound Card Sound Blaster® X-Fi(TM) XtremeMusic (D), w/Dolby® Digital 5.1 Digital Media Creation None Keyboard USB Entry Quietkey, No Hot Keys edit Mouse Dell USB 2-Button Mechanical Mouse with Scroll edit Floppy Drive and Media Card Reader Options No Floppy Drive edit Speakers No Speaker option
You are just posting an anecdotal evidence. An anecdotal evidence is just that, anecdotal, not scientific at all.
I was posting a trend from end user stats of two sites. I also noted that those data appear to back up trends observed in published stats on marketshare. That in of itself does not tell the whole story obviously, but it is one more piece of data.
But why would a nerd buy a Dell or HP when you can build a clone for half the price?
Ummmmm, perhaps because I am not a nerd? Geek perhaps, yes. But not a nerd. Furthermore, it is not my job to build computers. Rather it is my job to do other things like generate and analyze data, teach, write grants and papers. I would much rather spend my time doing these things than building boxes, installing drivers, dealing with conflicts and such. I want my computers to work when I pull them out of the box. I want my computers to simply work when plugging in a peripheral without launching a wizard that says "I see you are trying to add new hardware". I want my computers to not constantly notify me in the middle of a presentation that my anti-virus software is out of date or than the computer suddenly discovered a new wireless network. (I've seen people who, for kicks when someone is making a presentation with a Windows laptop at a big conference, start creating new wireless networks).
When your time reaches a certain value/minute, you start to look for ways to optimize your life and for me at least, the Macintosh allows me to get work done without getting in the way.
Slashdot Mirror
Powerpoint *is* a Microsoft product, right? Don't you think it should be relatively easy to program in a flag from Powerpoint to the OS? Hell, I'd even be happy if they kept it undocumented just as long as Powerpoint on Windows did not alert in the middle of a presentation.
Somebody else has already said it, but I'll add this addendum. Unless it is critical functionality (like an eminent battery shutdown), there is no warning that should *ever* interrupt a Powerpoint presentation while it is in full screen mode, *ever*.
Oh yeah say apple has great useability, sure they might have a couple things up on MS, but yeah check out their SUPER multi monitor support...
What is wrong with it? I've been running multiple monitors on Macs since 1987 and had as many as three connected at one time. Currently I have a 30in 2560X1600 display and a 23in 1920X1200 display and have never had any problems.
Now, contrast that with Microsoft and you'd find that I was not able to get native support for multiple monitor configurations from Microsoft until W2k and then it was spotty at best and nowhere near plug and play. Even now, the multi-monitor support in XP is quite kludgy compared with OS X. Microsoft still has quite a bit to learn here.
and if Microsoft didn't warn you people would complaine(sic) about that.
Actually, no.... I would not.
How unprofessional is it in the middle of a presentation to have something like that happen? In the movies, they call it interruption of suspension of disbelief. In business and science, it's called absurd.
There is no way to make everyone happy, so you provide the best protection you can and try to make the least number of people pissed. To me, a better question would be "why did you let your antivirus expire?".
That is a cop out that lazy people trot out when they do not want to do the real work required to think about how people actually interact with their computers. Actually, there *is* a better way and Apple computer has showed us.
Robert,
You may have responded to some rants on how Microsoft products work (or don't), and that is all fine and dandy, as it was appreciated. However, the problems are *still* there. I still get the little hardware wizard that wants to help me when I plug in a new mouse, or Windows will still notify me that there is either a new network found or that my computer is at a security risk because of virus subscription expiration in the middle of a Powerpoint presentation!
It's stuff like that (and much more) that are driving people to alternatives
I *am* in academia. We are just expanding out into some commercial ventures with our technology.
~BWJones
Well said..... Do you want a job? :-)
Perhaps you would like to step into the role of a PhD who *does* perform research and development? I've found that most of the time when people say stuff like this, they have no real idea of what is involved in either obtaining a PhD or working as one.
The PhD not only demonstrates that you are capable of thinking critically, it shows that one is able to communicate, analyze and create new "content" and make advancements. Speaking as a PhD, the job is much harder than I ever thought, though it is fun and I would not do anything differently. Having to write grants, write papers, teach, perform science, deal with administrative duties all at the same time is a much harder job than most folks realize. Of course that is just academia. If you add in work in the private sector on top of that, you have even more responsibilities (though prospects for more money). Some PhDs of course stick to industry and do quite well. That's all fine and dandy, I just like the additional challenge of academics in addition to commercial work.
Of course most folks who are actually working in IT could have told you this. I know a number of folks at companies who experienced several rounds of layoffs. They have survived the layoffs, but they are also currently doing the job of two to three employees now versus prior to the layoffs. Morale is low, pay has not kept up with the cost of living increases, the cost of health care or inflation. Productivity is still there, but burnout is likely in these individuals. Other people I know that did lose their jobs ended up going back to school and getting out of IT entirely which I suspect is not an isolated situation and would lead to skewed unemployment statistics.
The thing that worries me is that this is not an isolated employment sector, and I predict that we are in more trouble than we might know. Historically we have relied on our research and development to keep this country on top technologically, but over the last five years or so, we have been reducing the amount of funding we spend on research and development, particularly in the biosciences. For example, if you were to look at NIH grant paylines, five years ago the payline was around 33%. Next year it is predicted to be anywhere from 10-14% meaning the likelihood that a researcher will obtain funding has been cut by more than half. In fact, research and education spending on the whole is down under the current White House administration. So, if we are supposed to rely on education, technology and research and development to keep our edge as a country, we are already in trouble, especially when one considers that even if we were to turn things around tomorrow, we have likely done enough damage that it will take a decade to recover.
Mod parent up please. This is all factually correct.
That is nice an American using a soccer expression.
:-)
I played soccer for years.
The fundamental problem is that the current White house administration is not remotely curious or interested in looking beyond their narrowly defined agendas. So, any deviation from what they expect is by definition, unexpected or inconvenient. This is a recurring theme again and again with hurricane Katrina, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bin Laden, the economy, energy prices, the whole torture thing and recently with senator Foley, where higher ups *knew* what was going on but they either failed to act or simply did not care as long as they can maintain power. Power for powers sake seems to be the theme here as this administration is always behind the ball. They are constantly reacting to events rather than through analysis and action being proactive and it is costing the country financially and in lives lost as well as our international reputation.
First, while I have been an occasional supporter of Greenpeace, this study is of dubious quality. Specifically, they base their analysis primarily on what they term "the Precautionary Principle" which they define on their website as "In the context of chemicals management, it means that when (on the basis of available evidence) the use of a chemical or groups of chemicals may harm human health or the environment, action to eliminate the use of the chemical(s) should be taken - even if the full extent of harm has not yet been fully established scientifically. It recognises that such proof of harm may never be possible, at least until it is too late to avoid or reverse the damage done. " emphasis mine.
Additionally, they make no evidence or justification on how they establish their weightings of their criteria to determine ranking.
This is not really an indictment against Chris Anderson or his most excellent work on the Long Tail concept so much as it is a demonstration of Amazon's lack of infrastructure (or management) in their Amazon Advantage program.
I've heard from more than one person of their frustrations in dealing with this program which has lead me to delay efforts to publish a couple of items through them...
Don't forget that we did not diverge from modern fish. Fish today are just as modern as us.
Precisely, and this is why I used quotes to refer to lower organisms. So, when mammalians went underground, we lost some functionality that may or may not have already been present. However, this does not mean that we cannot engineer in that functionality once we understand the pathways and expression profiles and timepoints.
You do realize that many protein and metabolic processes work the same in rats and mice as they do in other mammalians, like humans..... right? You do realize that it is possible to precisely emulate a disease process in humans by engineering in the same genetic defect in other organisms that is found in humans, right?
Additionally, it is possible once we understand the biochemical, developmental, metabolic, proteomic processes in "lower" organisms to get a better understanding for how to attack problems in humans. For instance, amphibians and many fish species have much more sophisticated retinas that we mammalians do. Despite this level of sophistication, they are able to fix their retinas when damaged which is something that we humans have either forgotten how to do or lost the machinery required through evolution.
Oh, and about the oranges? Yeah, well metabolic processes in oranges are quite useful to understand for their anti-oxidative properties. Most genetic damage and aging problems are related to oxidative species generation and citrus plants are pretty damned good at generating anti-oxidants. Figuring out how to engineer these pathways could lead to better understanding and more efficient processes for engineering in these pathways into other organisms.
Now the gene mapping is finished, the real work can now begin.... I only half jokingly say this as all of the physiology needs to be performed on a baseline dataset now. It's interesting that a whole host of talents and technologies that were eclipsed by molecular biology and genetic engineering are now coming back into vogue. Technologies like electrophysiology and electron microscopy are now in hot demand.
I doubt that anyone seriously expects the state to win this suit, but they are at the very least drawing attention to the auto manufacturers' continuous efforts to keep any law that might involve reduced emissions or higher fuel economy off the books.
California is the home of marketing, right? Has it not occurred to anyone that legislation like this is bad press? Comeon now, you have some of the best minds in the world working and living in the state of California and this is what they come up with? How about some creative legislation, like providing state incentives rather than disencentives for more fuel efficient cars? Making metropolitan parking spaces smaller and providing drivers of micro cars discounted parking or opening up carpool lanes to micro cars like the Smart ForTwo? How about doing things like allowing drivers of micro cars to register their cars every other year? There are lots of other potential incentives that could be implemented rather than playing a legal one upsmanship that only serves to employ class action lawyers.
Oh, for the love of...... *checks calendar..... nope, not April 1st)*
"(California) just passed a new law to cut global warming emissions by 25 percent and that's a good start and this lawsuit is a good next step," said Dan Becker, director of the Sierra Club's Global Warming Program.
Now, I am pretty much middle of the road politically (Disclaimer: I lean a bit left though), but this is insane. Insane as in insanely bad. Hey, Sierra Club! This statement may have just cost you 2007s contribution from me. The global warming legislation had good components, but if you start allying yourself with lawsuits like this, count me out.
Lockyer told Reuters he would seek "tens or hundreds of millions of dollars" from the automakers in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California.
Uh huh.... and what is your take going to be Lockyer? Oh, just a small percentage you say, but a small percentage of an obscenely large number of dollars is still lots of dollars, right? Will you be buying a new Bentley with your share? Or will it be a party in your Escalade?
While we are talking lawsuit, what's the logical argument/premise going to be for filing the suit? If we hold the automobile manufacturers responsible then what of the users of their products? Are you going to say that the drivers of such automobiles are "addicted", so by their logic are immune to prosecution? Why focus on the automakers? Why not grab every last dollar you can by going after the drivers and the cities and states that build the roads and freeways, because without them, the automakers would not have a market, right? As long as we are suing people because of global warming, why not airlines? Airline manufacturers? Smokers? Dry cleaners? The leather tanners that made your loafers? Hey, how about the computer industry? Or....... I *know*, lets sue all of the electrical generating companies and take us back to the dark ages.
Seriously though, I understand that there are lots of sources of global warming, but Lockyer, this is not the way to solve the problem by making the automotive companies the boogeymen. The real solution from an automotive perspective is to federally mandate gas milage standards that are more stringent than where they are now, provide incentives for more fuel efficient and lower polluting automobiles rather than the current system where there is an incentive for large SUVs, and work from the consumer side *without* filing suits to line your pocketses.
*RANT*Oh and while we are at it, Hey! G.W.B, instead of sucking money out of research, development and education, why don't you do what you said and invest in education and research? We are not going to solve these problems through a narrow focus on religious fundamentalism while we are excluding science education.
Jeez, sometimes I feel like I am getting squeezed on the far left by goofy loonies like Lockyer and pushed out of the picture by power hungry neocon fundies on the extreme right. What happened to the middle ground where people of reason and careful thought worked through compromise to help advance progress?*/RANT*
Well, while I also am not an economist, there are some commonly understood signs of economic slowing. One of the principal leaders or forecasting signs are ad revenues. Others are job postings, initial unemployment indicators, shipping volume through US Postal, and private carriers like Fed Ex, UPS and DHL.
What are the stats? I am not sure, but from my limited reading, it appears that a variety of factors stemming from increased fuel prices and continued international unrest in the middle East appear to be having an effect, resulting in an economic slump.
Add a second dual core chip, equivalent optical drive and you are exceeding Apple's price. Now as to top of the line, I buy what I need. No less.
I want to know why you think you need $3,500 worth of bleeding-edge computer hardware to "write grants and papers"?
Did you happen to read the bit about analyze data? If you bothered to click through and explore before opening your mouth, you might find that I do lots of image analysis work and for that, I need cycles.
Of course the cool thing these days is that I can do it all (data collection, analysis, write up, and image preparation for publication) in one environment. I *used* to have three systems on my desk each with a 21in monitor. An SGI Octane, a Windows system and a Mac. Now its all one MacPro with a couple of big-assed monitors.
Are you sure you are entering the dual core architecture Xeons? Are you sure you are adding the second Xeon dual core chip, because funny enough, but I get this:
Apple
Specifications
Two 3.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4GB (4 x 1GB)
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
Two 16x SuperDrives
Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme
Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Subtotal
$4,935.00
Estimated Ship:?3-5 business days
Free Shipping
Dell:
Dell Precision Workstation 690 (750W - 32bit)
Dual Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5160 3.00GHz, 4MB L2,1333
2nd Processor
Dual Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5160 3.00GHz, 4MB L2,1333
Operating System
Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2 with Media
Graphic Cards
512MB PCIe x16 ATI Radeon X1900 512MB, Dual VGA or Dual DVI or DVI + VGA
Memory
4GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 667MHz, ECC (4 DIMMS)
CD-ROM, DVD, and Read-Write Devices
1 48XCD AND 48X CD-RW/DVD Combo with Cyberlink Power DVD(TM)
2 48XCD AND 48X CD-RW/DVD Combo with Cyberlink Power DVD(TM)
Hard Drive Configuration
C1 All SATA drives, Non-RAID, 1 or 2 drive total configuration
Boot Hard Drive
500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache(TM)
Hard Drive Internal Controller Option
SATA/SAS Integrated Card - For Connecting Internal Hard Drives
2nd Hard Drive
500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache(TM)
3rd Hard Drive
4th Hard Drive
Wireless
Dell Wireless 1450 (802.11 b/g) WLAN USB 2.0 DT Adapter
Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi(TM) XtremeMusic (D), w/Dolby® Digital 5.1
Digital Media Creation
None
Keyboard
USB Entry Quietkey, No Hot Keys
edit
Mouse
Dell USB 2-Button Mechanical Mouse with Scroll
edit
Floppy Drive and Media Card Reader Options
No Floppy Drive
edit
Speakers
No Speaker option
From $6225
Now from $5,975
You are just posting an anecdotal evidence. An anecdotal evidence is just that, anecdotal, not scientific at all.
I was posting a trend from end user stats of two sites. I also noted that those data appear to back up trends observed in published stats on marketshare. That in of itself does not tell the whole story obviously, but it is one more piece of data.
But why would a nerd buy a Dell or HP when you can build a clone for half the price?
Ummmmm, perhaps because I am not a nerd? Geek perhaps, yes. But not a nerd. Furthermore, it is not my job to build computers. Rather it is my job to do other things like generate and analyze data, teach, write grants and papers. I would much rather spend my time doing these things than building boxes, installing drivers, dealing with conflicts and such. I want my computers to work when I pull them out of the box. I want my computers to simply work when plugging in a peripheral without launching a wizard that says "I see you are trying to add new hardware". I want my computers to not constantly notify me in the middle of a presentation that my anti-virus software is out of date or than the computer suddenly discovered a new wireless network. (I've seen people who, for kicks when someone is making a presentation with a Windows laptop at a big conference, start creating new wireless networks).
When your time reaches a certain value/minute, you start to look for ways to optimize your life and for me at least, the Macintosh allows me to get work done without getting in the way.