.. I have no problem with things like the BeBox, the Amega, SGI machines or anything else, and I'd probably enjoy trying them.
Interesting choices, but you're a few years too late.
There's only one way to relieve yourself from this frustration you've been carrying all of these years. Join us. In August, buy yourself a nice G5. Within an hour you'll be saying "Oh, now I understand". In a week, you'll be a certified "MacZealot". I guarantee it.
I seems that some people just like to bitch. I know I do, and that's why I'm writing this.
I can't figure out why so many people post to threads like this and bash Apple, while saying that they would never buy a machine from them anyway. What's the point in that? Would the industry be better off if Apple didn't exist? Would you finally be happy if everyone went out of business except for Dell, only selling boxes pre-loaded with Linux, for $299? If that was true, Lindows should be./'s favorite vendor.
And those that say that they could build a machine themselves for way less than a Mac, if Apple had a build it yourself, parts in a bag option for $500 less, then people would still bitch that for that price, it should come fully assembled.
Although yes, I am a "Mac guy" (but I've got Windows, Linux, Solaris, IRIX, NeXT and a few other boxes on my home network), regardless of my prejudice for the platform, you have to acknowledge what a beautiful $3000 machine the G5 is. Clean inside and out, plenty, plenty fast for the years that you'll have it in service, arguably a better OS than any Linux variant and absolutely better planned out and cleanly feature rich (and economical) than any Windows release. I was doing some admin work on Win 2000 server today, what a disorganized, steaming plie that thing is. Some say it's superior, I think it might be the absolutely worst collection of software ever crammed into one box. Pheeeewwww!
But I digress. I have come here to praise the Power Mac G5....
One of my favorite things about the G5 (and I know that non-Mac users think than Apple just makes pretty boxes), is indeed, the pretty box.
J. Ive did such a restrained design. So clean and minimal. There's a guy with rare discipline and insight.
The new design language, aluminum and circular hole accents, also seen in the iSight and hints of it in the line of new aluminum PowerBooks, in my opinion is the best we've seen in the 2nd Jobs era at Apple.
I liked the clean white, crystal and chrome designs of the G4 iMac and the iPod but this new design language is going to make for some other very exciting products. The new display line will be beautiful, wrapped in a thin sheath of aluminum. Will a future iPod have the look of a large-ish Zippo lighter? What would an all-aluminum G5 iMac look like?
I'm just glad that Apple's still here, still thinking different, and still making insanely great products.
Dell? HPQ? Gateway? Lindows? Sony? (Well, Sony's trying). The parts bin at Frys? That little shop in the strip mall that sells cases and motherboards? For the most part, all of that is commodity crap. Even if you throw on your free homemade Linux on it, it's half-assed at best, even after hours of effort.
Apple is the only computer company left that's doing anything that really matters. Like it or not.
Re:No bitching about the price?
on
Jaguar is Over
·
· Score: 1
Yeah, run Windows. Good for you. Sure wish we could run Windows. Post on Mac threads like this to tell us how nice it is. It's a good thing you posted this or none of us would have ever known the joys of the Windows world. I wish I had mod points because you're so informative
That gray color is just too industrial and utilitarian. It has all of the excitement of a 1950's government office desk.
Yellow and red, and chrome if you wanted it. But not acid green or pink, well maybe in japan. Offering mix and match color parts would also be more fun. For five grand, you should be able to get a unique color scheme.
Brighter colors would also be safer. Non-integrated ighting is also a problem. Those little velcro flashlights they sell on the site as options are a lame hack.
Long term care or wind farms
on
A Mighty Wind
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
The look really cool from far away but when you get get close to them, they're pretty nasty. These are big Mitsubishi units. Granted these mills have not been maintained as well as they could but they're rusty and leaking lots of oil all over. Many are not working, with pieces missing; blades, access panels and such, which looks like they are just scavenging the broken ones for parts. Politics played a large part in getting them built but the farm has changed hands and they are dying from neglect.
They do sound very cool when you're under them, a big stereoscopic whirr.
Whatever. Clueless Windows user. Probably drives a Hyundai and thinks it's nice too.
Re:Sun Doesn't appeal to me
on
Sun's Last Stand
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
...because it is what I know.
You might be doing yourself a disservice, and maybe selling yourself short. File structures may be different, configuring stuff in/etc might be moved around, but the diff between Solaris (or IRIX, or OS X, or AIX) and Linux isn't any wider than variants in Linux distributions. Just running an unfamiliar shell on a Linux box could make it seem like a foreign machine if that's not what you're used to.
What's easiest for you also might be blinding you to choosing the best box for the task at hand. I think Solaris tends to have more "torque" under load than Linux, OS X is better at interoperability with other systems, and IRIX...well, no comment.
There's also the factor of uptime and service contract support. If you spend the bucks, when a Sun box breaks, they'll get things back in order quickly. Sure you could run down to Best Buy and get parts for your Linux box, but some places feel uncomfortable with that, as they should.
Not that I like Sun all that much. They could use some of the modern polish that Apple has put into OS X. Sun maintenance and installation feels very dated to me. But they do run and run and run and most anything Linux can do, in the server world, can be done (often better) with Solaris.
Looking at the school's website (Google it yourself), I think I should withdraw my gripes about athletics at this school. It doesn't seem to be the big thing like it is here in Indiana schools. I just wish that the board would let this one go through. It appears they need all the help they can get.
If they were offered $40k worth of free textbooks, would they request that they were all the same book? It would certainly be easier to track and catalog multiple copies of that one book than to have dozens of new additions to the book tracking system. If one of those multiple books were lost or destroyed, it's replacement overhead would be negligible.
Think of the overhead of having to provide different teachers for the variety of subjects that multiple books would require! Multiple teachers teaching multiple subjects, how inefficient and inflexible. If every class in every grade covered the same subject, thousands would be saved in salaries and scheduling costs.
The cost-efficient school, it's the wave of the future.
Yes, this is an absurd argument, so is denying young minds the opportunity for exposure to more than one way to approach a problem. What makes this whole thing really stupid is that there's not that much difference between a Mac, a Windows box, or a Linux system. If the IT staff can't handle learning something new as part of their job (and this is not that hard), then they should hire people that are more capable. With the current job market being what it is, it shouldn't be that difficult to find people that can handle supporting Macs and Windows and Linux and still be cost effective. If the school superintendent can't figure that out, then it's time to replace them as well.
Maybe they can get some extra funding by eliminating student drug testing and locker searches.
Or, heaven forbid, reducing the budget for sports activities. How many of these kids will be working with computers, directly or indirectly, vs. playing for the NFL or NBA?
I just set my font to "Lucida Handwriting" and it looks great. I don't see what the big deal is.
Next up: Sir John Wixley, former president of the International Association of Master Solar Timepiece Craftsmen, bemoans the shortage of Certified Sundial Readers and Calibrators at this year's IAMSTC conference.
This is a carrot to put in front of broadcasters during the year leading up to the election to make sure they stay on their best behavior, and on message, in exchange for (possible favorable) consideration when the new pie is sliced up after the election. It also makes sure that instead of having the many companies save up cash for spectrum auctions, that they (and the employees that want to keep their jobs) instead make a generous contribution to the party of their choice.
This administration never takes any action on behalf of "The People". Especially in this coming year, the only focus is to stay in power. Anything else is a waste of time for the BuSh administration.
About drive-by scanning: I believe that you need an antenna that's the square of the distance to read a tag. That's why there's a little plate reader or handheld at the checkout and those walkthrus at the door are huge. To read it from 5 feet, you need 25 sq feet of antenna.
The other thing is that the tag itself won't be zapped or deactivated. Each will hold a key that IDs the product (all 10oz cans of peaches from DelMonte will have that same key, like a barcode, probably that same UPC number) and it will also have a key that's unique to the tag itself. It won't be zapped, it will just change the status record of that item from "stocked" to "sold" (or "missing from inventory but not sold"). Shoplift a sweater, and even if you get it out of the store, if you wear it to the store a year later, you could get pinged.
As much as I hate the idea, you can't blame them for implementing it. It opens up a huge world of possibilities and won't cost them that much.
With Wal-Mart's clout, it will be up to the vendor to eat the cost of the tag, WM just has to implement the system and specs the tag. No doubt the tag supplier will be a WM subsidiary.
Don't want to put in the tag in your product Mr. Vendor? Sorry, we'll find someone else that will.
OTA HDTV is nice. It's free, beyond the cost of the set box, and on ebay, it's not much. No static or ghosts and I don't have to pay $50 a month to DirecTV.
Slashdot Mirror
.. I have no problem with things like the BeBox, the Amega, SGI machines or anything else, and I'd probably enjoy trying them.
Interesting choices, but you're a few years too late.
There's only one way to relieve yourself from this frustration you've been
carrying all of these years. Join us. In August, buy yourself a nice G5.
Within an hour you'll be saying "Oh, now I understand". In a week, you'll
be a certified "MacZealot". I guarantee it.
I seems that some people just like to bitch.
./'s favorite vendor.
I know I do, and that's why I'm writing this.
I can't figure out why so many people post to threads like this and
bash Apple, while saying that they would never buy a machine from them
anyway. What's the point in that? Would the industry be better off if Apple
didn't exist? Would you finally be happy if everyone went out of business
except for Dell, only selling boxes pre-loaded with Linux, for $299?
If that was true, Lindows should be
And those that say that they could build a machine themselves for way
less than a Mac, if Apple had a build it yourself, parts in a bag option for
$500 less, then people would still bitch that for that price, it should come
fully assembled.
Although yes, I am a "Mac guy" (but I've got Windows, Linux, Solaris, IRIX,
NeXT and a few other boxes on my home network), regardless of my
prejudice for the platform, you have to acknowledge what a beautiful
$3000 machine the G5 is. Clean inside and out, plenty, plenty fast for
the years that you'll have it in service, arguably a better OS than any
Linux variant and absolutely better planned out and cleanly feature
rich (and economical) than any Windows release. I was doing some
admin work on Win 2000 server today, what a disorganized, steaming
plie that thing is. Some say it's superior, I think it might be the absolutely
worst collection of software ever crammed into one box. Pheeeewwww!
But I digress. I have come here to praise the Power Mac G5....
One of my favorite things about the G5 (and I know that non-Mac users
think than Apple just makes pretty boxes), is indeed, the pretty box.
J. Ive did such a restrained design. So clean and minimal.
There's a guy with rare discipline and insight.
The new design language, aluminum and circular hole accents, also
seen in the iSight and hints of it in the line of new aluminum PowerBooks,
in my opinion is the best we've seen in the 2nd Jobs era at Apple.
I liked the clean white, crystal and chrome designs of the G4 iMac and the
iPod but this new design language is going to make for some other very
exciting products. The new display line will be beautiful, wrapped in a
thin sheath of aluminum. Will a future iPod have the look of a large-ish
Zippo lighter? What would an all-aluminum G5 iMac look like?
I'm just glad that Apple's still here, still thinking different, and still making
insanely great products.
Dell? HPQ? Gateway? Lindows? Sony? (Well, Sony's trying).
The parts bin at Frys? That little shop in the strip mall that sells cases and
motherboards? For the most part, all of that is commodity crap. Even if
you throw on your free homemade Linux on it, it's half-assed at best,
even after hours of effort.
Apple is the only computer company left that's doing anything that really matters.
Like it or not.
You need another hobby.
Yeah, run Windows. Good for you. Sure wish we could run Windows.
Post on Mac threads like this to tell us how nice it is.
It's a good thing you posted this or none of us would
have ever known the joys of the Windows world.
I wish I had mod points because you're so informative
Actually, the proper quote was "It thinks I suck."
..someone, tell me what I can do on a Segway that I cannot do on a bicycle.
Shit your pants.
..if they made them available with bright colors.
That gray color is just too industrial and utilitarian.
It has all of the excitement of a 1950's government office desk.
Yellow and red, and chrome if you wanted it.
But not acid green or pink, well maybe in japan.
Offering mix and match color parts would also be more fun.
For five grand, you should be able to get a unique color scheme.
Brighter colors would also be safer. Non-integrated ighting is also a problem.
Those little velcro flashlights they sell on the site as options are a lame hack.
There's a wind farm at South Point on Hawaii's Big Island.
The look really cool from far away but when you get get close to
them, they're pretty nasty. These are big Mitsubishi units. Granted
these mills have not been maintained as well as they could but they're
rusty and leaking lots of oil all over. Many are not working, with pieces
missing; blades, access panels and such, which looks like they are just
scavenging the broken ones for parts. Politics played a large part in getting
them built but the farm has changed hands and they are dying from neglect.
They do sound very cool when you're under them, a big stereoscopic whirr.
Whatever. Clueless Windows user.
Probably drives a Hyundai and thinks it's nice too.
...because it is what I know.
/etc might be moved around,
You might be doing yourself a disservice, and maybe selling yourself short.
File structures may be different, configuring stuff in
but the diff between Solaris (or IRIX, or OS X, or AIX) and Linux isn't any wider
than variants in Linux distributions. Just running an unfamiliar shell on a Linux
box could make it seem like a foreign machine if that's not what you're used to.
What's easiest for you also might be blinding you to choosing the best box for
the task at hand. I think Solaris tends to have more "torque" under load than
Linux, OS X is better at interoperability with other systems, and IRIX...well, no comment.
There's also the factor of uptime and service contract support. If you spend the bucks,
when a Sun box breaks, they'll get things back in order quickly. Sure you could run
down to Best Buy and get parts for your Linux box, but some places feel uncomfortable
with that, as they should.
Not that I like Sun all that much. They could use some of the modern polish that
Apple has put into OS X. Sun maintenance and installation feels very dated to me.
But they do run and run and run and most anything Linux can do, in the server world,
can be done (often better) with Solaris.
Looking at the school's website (Google it yourself), I think
I should withdraw my gripes about athletics at this school.
It doesn't seem to be the big thing like it is here in Indiana
schools. I just wish that the board would let this one go through.
It appears they need all the help they can get.
If they were offered $40k worth of free textbooks,
would they request that they were all the same book?
It would certainly be easier to track and catalog
multiple copies of that one book than to have dozens of
new additions to the book tracking system. If one of those
multiple books were lost or destroyed, it's replacement
overhead would be negligible.
Think of the overhead of having to provide different
teachers for the variety of subjects that multiple books
would require! Multiple teachers teaching multiple subjects,
how inefficient and inflexible. If every class in every grade
covered the same subject, thousands would be saved in salaries
and scheduling costs.
The cost-efficient school, it's the wave of the future.
Yes, this is an absurd argument, so is denying young minds
the opportunity for exposure to more than one way to approach
a problem. What makes this whole thing really stupid is that
there's not that much difference between a Mac, a Windows
box, or a Linux system. If the IT staff can't handle learning
something new as part of their job (and this is not that hard),
then they should hire people that are more capable. With the current
job market being what it is, it shouldn't be that difficult to
find people that can handle supporting Macs and Windows and Linux
and still be cost effective. If the school superintendent can't
figure that out, then it's time to replace them as well.
Maybe they can get some extra funding by eliminating student
drug testing and locker searches.
Or, heaven forbid, reducing the budget for sports activities.
How many of these kids will be working with computers,
directly or indirectly, vs. playing for the NFL or NBA?
Without getting too deep into the technical details, the problem with using a PC is that Windows sucks.
Hmm. You can't write and you can't write.
I just set my font to "Lucida Handwriting" and it looks great.
I don't see what the big deal is.
Next up:
Sir John Wixley, former president of the International Association of Master Solar Timepiece Craftsmen,
bemoans the shortage of Certified Sundial Readers and Calibrators at this year's IAMSTC conference.
Well Marconi, tell us how it works.
They already have that. It's called Fox News.
This is a carrot to put in front of broadcasters during the year leading
up to the election to make sure they stay on their best behavior, and on
message, in exchange for (possible favorable) consideration when the
new pie is sliced up after the election. It also makes sure that instead of
having the many companies save up cash for spectrum auctions, that
they (and the employees that want to keep their jobs) instead make
a generous contribution to the party of their choice.
This administration never takes any action on behalf of "The People".
Especially in this coming year, the only focus is to stay in power.
Anything else is a waste of time for the BuSh administration.
I suspect that that's a similar, but more expensive version
than the $.10 technology for this application.
By the way, if you ever drive up I65 to I94 near Gary IN,
there's a couple miles that are an absolute sea of those
toll sensors and cameras.
There must be hundreds of 'em. I wonder what they are doing.
I can't imagine Walmart convincing Fruit of the Loom to embed RFIDs in every pair of briefs.
Actually that would be pretty easy.
WM: "Embed a tag to our specs or we'll only buy from Hanes."
FOTL: "Ok. We'll do it."
WM: "Damn straight."
step 4) Prison!!
Two things bugging me about these posts.
About drive-by scanning: I believe that you need an antenna that's the
square of the distance to read a tag. That's why there's a little plate reader
or handheld at the checkout and those walkthrus at the door are huge.
To read it from 5 feet, you need 25 sq feet of antenna.
The other thing is that the tag itself won't be zapped or deactivated.
Each will hold a key that IDs the product (all 10oz cans of peaches from
DelMonte will have that same key, like a barcode, probably that same UPC
number) and it will also have a key that's unique to the tag itself.
It won't be zapped, it will just change the status record of that item from
"stocked" to "sold" (or "missing from inventory but not sold").
Shoplift a sweater, and even if you get it out of the store, if you wear it
to the store a year later, you could get pinged.
As much as I hate the idea, you can't blame them for implementing it.
It opens up a huge world of possibilities and won't cost them that much.
With Wal-Mart's clout, it will be up to the vendor to eat the cost of the tag,
WM just has to implement the system and specs the tag. No doubt the tag
supplier will be a WM subsidiary.
Don't want to put in the tag in your product Mr. Vendor?
Sorry, we'll find someone else that will.
They would need an antenna about 250 feet square to do that.
It doesn't work like you think.
We have that in the US. They call it Fox News.
OTA HDTV is nice. It's free, beyond the cost of the set box,
and on ebay, it's not much. No static or ghosts and I
don't have to pay $50 a month to DirecTV.
It's not a firehose of content, but it's enough.