Let me start by saying that I own a 360. And that GP was probably trolling. But he does have some points:
Halo 3, especially in single-player mode, does not look as good as other current FPS
The 360 is, no doubt, way too loud, especially with a DVD in the drive. The sound level of that thing is ridiculous
Many games on the 360 really make little sense without online play, so most players would be stupid not to pay for Gold, which kind of does mean that you need Gold if you want to really use your 360
The 360 does mainly sell in the US. It's doing okay in Europe (although worse than it should be doing), but it's basically dead in Japan
The way I remember it, the buzz really started a couple months after the console actually went on the market
Which is when normal people started to realize that this Wii thing their son or nephew bought was a lot more fun than they expected it to be.
The Wii isn't a success due to marketing, or due to shortages, or even due to the press it's getting. It's a success because it's viral. It's interesting to see people playing Wii Bowling, and it's easy to get into Wii Tennis. The thing is inviting and addicting.
Nintendo mentioned at one point that they had issues getting enough of the DVD drives. These are custom-made slot-loading DVD drives which can also read the smaller Gamecube discs. Other possible suspects are the IR cam and the two motion sensors in the controllers.
In a way, you're right. Clearly, the AC developers failed to encourage the proper style of playing the game. Even so, GP is correct. AC can be played in a boring way (power through the game as quickly as possible) or in a fun way (take your time, evaluate what you can do, don't do the same thing in each mission). If you're playing it with the first style, you're only cheating yourself. Yes, it's the developer's fault. It's still a good idea to play the game "properly."
To turn it on in Terminal, type the following into the Terminal: defaults write com.apple.Terminal FocusFollowsMouse -string YES
For X11: defaults write com.apple.x11 wm_ffm true
I'm guessing this is where most people want FFM (any maybe for text editors).
I'm not sure there's a free app which provides focus follows mouse (I think one exists, but as I don't use it myself, I can't remember where I saw it). Another non-free tool which supports focus follows mouse is CodeTek VirtualDesktop: http://www.codetek.com/ctvd/
Earlier versions of Mac OS X supported the behaviour out of the box, but Apple removed the option, unfortunately.
The easiest solution would be to just buy MondoMouse.
Awesome book. My mom got it for me because it's a computer book, after all, and she knew I somewhat disliked Gates. I love the part where he invents the Mac. Great stuff.
Yeah, the magnetic power connector is very useful. I lost a bunch of adapters to people stumbling over cables before Apple figured out how to avoid this. The funny part is that Apple replaced all those broken adapters free of charge, so they probably made the magnetic connector to cut down on support cost:-)
I'm not actually going to do any comparisons. It's always the same story: You can find configurations where the Mac comes out ahead, and configurations where Windows PCs come out ahead. Macs aren't more expensive than comparable PCs per se.
defaults is not a third-party tool. In this particular case, having ffm in all apps requires a third-party tool. In many other cases where people complain about configuring OS X, this is not the case.
Writing my doctoral dissertation in Word back in 2003 was a repeated lesson in pain
Wow, I feel your pain. After Word couldn't reliably handle a small 100-page thesis I wrote, I switched to Mellel for the rest of my time as a student. Highly recommended. Does everthing a dissertation needs, is easy to use, looks nice, and is fast.
Safari is the name of the default browser. Ironically, Mac OS 8 came with Web and Mail icons on the desktop, which would launch your default browser and mail client. I guess Apple just assumes that people now know which browser they use. Although I agree that the current situation with the Safari browser most certainly isn't perfect.
in my country the most expensive HP system is $8000 (USD 2600) and the most expensive mac is $17000 (USD 5500!!)
Well, that settles it, then! The most expensive Mac is more expensive than the most expensive HP, so logically, Macs must be more expensive than HP systems! Definite proof!
In a properly working Mac application, clicking "zoom to fit" zooms the window size to fit its content, while clicking it while holding down option (actually labelled "alt" on newer Macs:-) should maximize the window.
Although I can hardly see many reasons for maximizing a window, except for stuff like IntelliJ.
For example: I am currently making my living as a Ruby on Rails programmer. I love RoR. But the "IDE" (it isn't really) of choice on the Mac is Textmate. Textmate does a lot of things really well, and very simply. But much of that is done via plugins, and it does not do some other things well or at all. In contrast, RadRails (now Aptana) is not as snappy, but does a better job as an IDE. And Aptana is "free" open-source. Textmate is not.
I don't get it. Aptana runs on Macs. So... You're complaining about the fact that some Mac programmers prefer Textmate to Aptana? You want an OS where Textmate is not available so everyone would have to use Aptana?
I'm not sure I understand your argument.
Also, for the disk activity light, try this or this.
Personally, I find it amusing that people often thing that Mac OS X is not configurable. It is, it's just that not every option is exposed in the UI. Which is a good thing, by the way. Insteade of offering thousands of options, the OS should provide sane defaults, and only expose things in the UI which most people actually need to configure.
It's like complaining that Ubuntu is not configurable because the UI doesn't expose ever option Gnome provides.
It's not the OS which is at fault here. You're just inexperienced and possibly unwilling to learn.
Apple might be good for a grandma or for a graphic designer, but for a programmer it's an annoyance.
Why? As a programmer, the only thing that annoys me somewhat is the fact that the Mac version of Java lags behind other platforms. Other than that, there's nothing to complain. You've got Fink and MacPorts, OS X comes with a free, awesome IDE, it does X11 out of the box, I can run all these dumb apps in whose formats people send me files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop), it integrates well into Windows networks, Windows virtualization is seamless (using Parallels, IE6 runs on my Mac as if it were a Mac app), Mac OS X has integrated backup and virtual desktops, it supports all kinds of scripting languags out of the box (from AppleScript to Ruby), and I have access to a lot of great, polished Mac apps (iPhoto, Keynote, Adium, Quicksilver, Interarchy, BBEdit, Pixelmator and so on).
Not to mention that I can also boot my Mac into Windows or Ubuntu if I want to.
As of now, Macs simply provide the best of all worlds.
No, by "works pretty well" I meant (obviously, I think) that hardly anyone bothers to break it using cracks or the like. And you agree with that in your post, saying yourself that people burn CDs to get music out of fair play, which is an officially supported part of fair play and actually shows that it works. And frankly, I don't even know anyone who bothers to burn CDs. People just put up with the fair play DRM because it never gets in their way. It works, because it doesn't actually do very much.
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Let me start by saying that I own a 360. And that GP was probably trolling. But he does have some points:
Which is when normal people started to realize that this Wii thing their son or nephew bought was a lot more fun than they expected it to be.
The Wii isn't a success due to marketing, or due to shortages, or even due to the press it's getting. It's a success because it's viral. It's interesting to see people playing Wii Bowling, and it's easy to get into Wii Tennis. The thing is inviting and addicting.
Nintendo mentioned at one point that they had issues getting enough of the DVD drives. These are custom-made slot-loading DVD drives which can also read the smaller Gamecube discs. Other possible suspects are the IR cam and the two motion sensors in the controllers.
In a way, you're right. Clearly, the AC developers failed to encourage the proper style of playing the game. Even so, GP is correct. AC can be played in a boring way (power through the game as quickly as possible) or in a fun way (take your time, evaluate what you can do, don't do the same thing in each mission). If you're playing it with the first style, you're only cheating yourself. Yes, it's the developer's fault. It's still a good idea to play the game "properly."
People use TextMate because it feels like a Mac app. It supports all the Mac stuff consistently with other Mac apps.
:-)
And personally, I find all the blinking LEDs on my Dell notebook highly annoying
For Terminal and X11, you don't even need a tool.
To turn it on in Terminal, type the following into the Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.Terminal FocusFollowsMouse -string YES
For X11:
defaults write com.apple.x11 wm_ffm true
I'm guessing this is where most people want FFM (any maybe for text editors).
I'm not sure there's a free app which provides focus follows mouse (I think one exists, but as I don't use it myself, I can't remember where I saw it). Another non-free tool which supports focus follows mouse is CodeTek VirtualDesktop:
http://www.codetek.com/ctvd/
Earlier versions of Mac OS X supported the behaviour out of the box, but Apple removed the option, unfortunately.
The easiest solution would be to just buy MondoMouse.
Awesome book. My mom got it for me because it's a computer book, after all, and she knew I somewhat disliked Gates. I love the part where he invents the Mac. Great stuff.
Yeah, the magnetic power connector is very useful. I lost a bunch of adapters to people stumbling over cables before Apple figured out how to avoid this. The funny part is that Apple replaced all those broken adapters free of charge, so they probably made the magnetic connector to cut down on support cost :-)
I'm not actually going to do any comparisons. It's always the same story: You can find configurations where the Mac comes out ahead, and configurations where Windows PCs come out ahead. Macs aren't more expensive than comparable PCs per se.
defaults is not a third-party tool. In this particular case, having ffm in all apps requires a third-party tool. In many other cases where people complain about configuring OS X, this is not the case.
Are you just baiting Mac fanboys, or do you seriously think that simply comparing the top and bottom model is a valid comparison of price?
NeoOffice uses its own PDF renderer, I think.
I give you 40 more pages until you regret your choice of application.
Wow, I feel your pain. After Word couldn't reliably handle a small 100-page thesis I wrote, I switched to Mellel for the rest of my time as a student. Highly recommended. Does everthing a dissertation needs, is easy to use, looks nice, and is fast.
XMLMind + DocBook might also be a good option.
But please, whatever you do, avoid Word at all cost. It's just not suitable for this kind of writing.
Hey, that sounds like an iPhone! Apple wins yet again! :-)
Safari is the name of the default browser. Ironically, Mac OS 8 came with Web and Mail icons on the desktop, which would launch your default browser and mail client. I guess Apple just assumes that people now know which browser they use. Although I agree that the current situation with the Safari browser most certainly isn't perfect.
Well, that settles it, then! The most expensive Mac is more expensive than the most expensive HP, so logically, Macs must be more expensive than HP systems! Definite proof!
In a properly working Mac application, clicking "zoom to fit" zooms the window size to fit its content, while clicking it while holding down option (actually labelled "alt" on newer Macs :-) should maximize the window.
Although I can hardly see many reasons for maximizing a window, except for stuff like IntelliJ.
I don't get it. Aptana runs on Macs. So... You're complaining about the fact that some Mac programmers prefer Textmate to Aptana? You want an OS where Textmate is not available so everyone would have to use Aptana?
I'm not sure I understand your argument.
Also, for the disk activity light, try this or this.
Check out http://www.atomicbird.com/mondomouse/ for both of your issues.
For Terminal:
defaults write com.apple.Terminal FocusFollowsMouse -string YES
For every other app:
http://www.atomicbird.com/mondomouse/
There are other, free apps which provide the same option.
Personally, I find it amusing that people often thing that Mac OS X is not configurable. It is, it's just that not every option is exposed in the UI. Which is a good thing, by the way. Insteade of offering thousands of options, the OS should provide sane defaults, and only expose things in the UI which most people actually need to configure.
It's like complaining that Ubuntu is not configurable because the UI doesn't expose ever option Gnome provides.
It's not the OS which is at fault here. You're just inexperienced and possibly unwilling to learn.
Why? As a programmer, the only thing that annoys me somewhat is the fact that the Mac version of Java lags behind other platforms. Other than that, there's nothing to complain. You've got Fink and MacPorts, OS X comes with a free, awesome IDE, it does X11 out of the box, I can run all these dumb apps in whose formats people send me files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop), it integrates well into Windows networks, Windows virtualization is seamless (using Parallels, IE6 runs on my Mac as if it were a Mac app), Mac OS X has integrated backup and virtual desktops, it supports all kinds of scripting languags out of the box (from AppleScript to Ruby), and I have access to a lot of great, polished Mac apps (iPhoto, Keynote, Adium, Quicksilver, Interarchy, BBEdit, Pixelmator and so on).
Not to mention that I can also boot my Mac into Windows or Ubuntu if I want to.
As of now, Macs simply provide the best of all worlds.
MP3 players which organized their own database were the reason why the iPod was such a success in the first place.
You mean like the Amazon MP3 store, which, you know... exists?
The DVD drive is just too loud to watch DVDs on the thing. As long as there is no DVD in the drive, the sound level of the 360 is (barely) tolerable.
No, by "works pretty well" I meant (obviously, I think) that hardly anyone bothers to break it using cracks or the like. And you agree with that in your post, saying yourself that people burn CDs to get music out of fair play, which is an officially supported part of fair play and actually shows that it works. And frankly, I don't even know anyone who bothers to burn CDs. People just put up with the fair play DRM because it never gets in their way. It works, because it doesn't actually do very much.