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  1. same goes for license plates..... on 'Destroyed' Hard Drive Found At Flea Market · · Score: 1

    how could they know to pull and destroy the drive themselves? if they were taking the machine to a Best Buy to get a new HDD, they probably are not comfortable opening the machine themselves.... and maybe did not know how to transfer all their data over. i do feel bad for them. especially considering the employee assured them the store had a drive destruction procedure. i guess some employee was making some easy cash with the old parts.

    my parents learned the same lesson when they traded in a car and were told the dealership had a shredder they fed the old license plates into. about 6 months later my dad was getting parking tickets on his plate for the wrong car in a part of the city he did not go to. even though they had signed and notarized papers, it was a nightmare to straighten out.

  2. what do you consider first generation these days? on Why First Generation Apple Products Suck · · Score: 1

    if i was going to buy a MacBook/MacBook Pro i might wait a little bit, but that's mostly because the real world abuse of a laptop may not be so easy to reproduce in the top secret dev lab.

    that being said i picked up a used 1st version dual USB iBook that i use daily.

    i have a G4 tower that was the first version with AGP, but what does that mean? any revision would have an upgraded motherboard, and that was at least the 3rd tower in that same basic case.

    i have an iPod shuffle i got when they first came out (though they have never really been revised i don't think?), and it works 100%.

    i have an iPod with Video that is technically the first iPod with video, but the HDD, input device etc are all proven designs.

    can the intel iMac be considered first generation when that's the 3rd processor to occupy that design? it obviously has a lot of internal bits changed (look at the pix online). same goes for the MacMini.

    i guess maybe a first version of a portable may eventually have hinge issues, or the slot loading drive may go wacky..... but then again any upgrade to that product could just as easily have problems with an upgraded part.

  3. the promotion idea mentioned above..... on Get Your iPod Fix From a Vending Machine · · Score: 1

    that may be a lot of the point. if i saw an iPod vending machine i would maybe look twice. the iconic packaging would probably draw my eye on some level and if i needed a cable then i would think of that. otherwise i would probably ignore the whole machine as one that sold snacks or nail clippers.

    ever left home without a charging or sync cable? i can't tell you how many times i have been traveling with people that forgot their phone charger. maybe they also sell those adapters to power your gearo from the airplane power port.... or at least your iPod (airplane to USB adapter?).

  4. you can extend warranty later on Get Your iPod Fix From a Vending Machine · · Score: 1

    Apple doesn't make you buy the extended warranty at time of purchase. when you register your iPod with Apple they will offer you an extended warranty. if you use a real email address they will remind you when your initial included warranty is almost up. you can add AppleCare at any time during that period.

    i know some people instead get a warranty through the store they bought the hardware from as opposed to manufacturer. that's why Best Buy/staples/circuit city/etc employees will always promote how much awesomer their warranty is. as to which is really better is up to you. you can hear happy&horror stories about any of them.

    i am sure the machine can print you a thermal receipt, not unlike an ATM. how you would return it may be a little squirrelly though? i am also guessing it uses a credit card for large purchases and not $100 bills, so there is that record of the transaction.

  5. Re:Er, many elevators have issues. This is news? on Jobs' Glass Elevator Locks in Group Customers · · Score: 1

    i don't think the elevator was built specifically just to get press, i think it is part of the overall design of the Apple store. Apple always spends a lot of effort on little details, and that's why industrial designers love their stuff. the spend tons of time on little things the average user will never think about, but would if it was done wrong. Of course this new flagship store will get a ton of coverage, but there are a ton of Apple stores around the country that get no coverage beyond dedicated Apple news sites. they all have a lot of thought and money put into their design. no glass stairs or elevators, but a lot more effort than some discount sneaker outlet.... or even a Microcenter or CompUSA.

    i realize those other stores are set up for maximum amount of products in a given space, where the Apple store is there to promote their products in the best possible setting. Sony has (had?) a store like that just a few blocks from the new Apple store in NYC. from what i recall it was not as design crazy as the Apple store, but it is basically an interactive showcase of everything Sony makes. Sony has a lot more stuff to fit in a store than Apple.

  6. they support screen spanning? YAY! on Apple Unveils New Macbook · · Score: 1

    http://www.apple.com/macbook/design.html

    look at the right side where it says "Dual Purpose" and shows an external display hooked up. the second display lacks a dock, and seems to show the MacBook supports screen spanning.
    the iBooks used to only support the ability to mirror your display (unless you hacked it). that had been a distinction between the iBook and PowerBook lines.

  7. then support independent artists on Apple Sets Tune for Pricing of Song Downloads · · Score: 1

    there is no way a major label will let you give all the money to the artist directly. the label, in theory, spends a ton of money promoting and recording artists and has to make sure all the revenue goes through them. buying a CD in a store, or downloading it from iTunes is not going to matter in the end. the artist will probably get the same amount. major labels do everything to protect their investment. these days most contracts include majority control over the music, a chunk of merchandise and even control of the band's website.

    if you want to support an artist directly, you have to find an artist releasing their music themselves and buying it directly from them (physically, off their website etc), or buy a t-shirt or something.

    as much as it sucks, if artists did not agree to sign those major label contracts, the industry would, in theory, change. i suppose most artists are totally replaceable and know there are a thousand people behind them that would be more than willing to sign anything. it's rare for artists to have much leverage in those situations unless they are super super super huge, and often those artists are locked into super long-term contracts already.

  8. Re:Some things I don't understand. on Apple Pushes to Unmask Product Leaker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    the story on the rumor sites was that Apple ran into some last minute issue with the hardware. who knows if the whole thing was a ruse? like other people mentioned, mAudio is just company that makes gear that works with GarageBand.app. i know Apple sells the mAudio devices in their stores (online and brick+mortar), so it is not like they are hard to find. for Apple to get into that market, they must think they can make a device that has some feature the others are lacking. Apple may make one for the heck of it, but it also may be tied into software features that never came to GarageBand. the device was supposed to be released at MacWorld SanFran and that's when Apple traditionally updates the iLife suite (which includes GarageBand).

    Apple has had products incredibly close to production and scrapped them. Steve Jobs did acknowledge a year or two ago that Apple almost released a pda-like device again but scrapped it along the way. the super secret R+D lab must have tons of devices that have never seen the light of day (at least not yet).

    i do agree that Apple seems REALLY REALLY hellbent on finding this specific leak. nobody but Apple insiders would know why. maybe that pool of people have possible access to other upcoming products that are a lot more important. maybe it was all a ruse to flush out a leak, maybe they are just pushing it on principle. it seems weird though. it will be interesting how it shakes out. i can see how leaking company design secrets is not seen the same as letting a reporter know that Company ABC is dumping toxic waste into a stream or leaking info about Enron's shadiness.

  9. i think you misunderstand the term on Apple And The Boob Tube · · Score: 1

    in the business world when they refer to the "creative people" they do not mean just people who think outside the box, but generally the creative department is the people that do the graphic design work etc. they said "artistic" as well.

    maybe the reason a lot of artistic people use Macs is that they are flat out easier and less maintenance. they use the machine as a tool for their work, instead of spending tons of time learning manuals and procedures and how to keep things secure and bla bla bla. i realize i am yelling an an anonymous brick wall here... but some people (like those at Apple) think the computer should be a tool to enhance your work and life making tasks easier, and for the average user it should not have to be a field of study just to get the OS running.

    nobody is going to argue that hacking linux onto an Xbox and running gimp to produce some graphics for your website is not a creative solution. though following a step by step procedure to do that is not as creative as some people may want to think, it can still be fun and satisfying.

  10. only on /. on MIT Hackers Appropriate Caltech Cannon · · Score: 1

    only on /. would somebody think that sending a lot of new visitors to a website is a prank on the same level as liberating a 110 year old cannon and moving it 3,000 miles.
    even CalTech kids seem to think MIT is ahead..... http://www.caltechvsmit.com/

    the brass rat is a nice touch, iirc there was an old MIT hack where somebody welded one to the hand on the statue of the founder of Harvard? the MIT hacks are well documented online and in a few books.

    disclaimer: i did not attend either school.

  11. Re:FP? and Why? on Apple Officially Releases Beta Dual Boot Loader · · Score: 4, Insightful

    i agree that Apple is probably doing it to make potential switchers feel safer after taking the plunge, or those people that "need" windows for work or school, but want to use a Mac when they can.

    remember the iPod timeline. iTunes for the Mac existed for a while before the iPod was released. i forget how long it was, but for a while Apple did not make software for it to work with MS Windows, they suggested a 3rd party app. they eventually released iTunes for MS Windows, and the public theory was that they thought it would help sell a lot more iPods, and possibly show MS users how nice Apple software can be. anyone running Windows can download and use iTunes for free if they own an iPod or not.

    maybe they learned from the iPod experience that some people are really tied to windows for one reason or another (at least some of the time). there are people out there that would buy a Mac for the hardware, and run MS Windows 99% of the time. not too many i am sure, but there are some. the rumor sites had some mentions of Apple hooking up with some hardware benchmarking people that previously did stuff for windows. maybe Apple wants to try to run MS Windows faster than some Dell or whatever AND be able to boot the Mac OS. it really is the end of the "Apples to oranges" argument of PPC vs x86.

    i also don't see why this boot loader can't support some form of Linux, though i don't see Apple going out on a limb for it. holding down the option (alt) key during startup boot loader has been in the Mac OS for years. it would show you all the partitions with a valid OS install. i used to use it a lot when i had to bounce between OS 9 and OS X. it's easier than opening system prefs, selecting a startup disk just to do something for an hour in OS 9 then reverse the situation to go back to OS X.

  12. Re:Because the 20th Anniversay was such a big succ on Will Apple Disappoint on 30th Anniversary? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    yeah, but that was all done after Steve Jobs was fired and before he returned. he had no hand in that machine.
    as silly as the machine was, it was a neat machine and did end up as a prop in TV/movies long after it was incredibly outdated technology.

    the way i heard the story was that they were initially intended as a special machine for dealers and promotion almost as functional artwork. when they did not sell out they were offered to the general public. i may be wrong, but i think it was intended to be a special edition dealers would have to show off, kind of like how, for example, Harley-Davidson sells their dealers incredibly limited versions of their racing motorcycles. to race the bikes in certain classes, there has to be a certain number produced and sold off. they make the minimum number and sell them as collector pieces. dealers often buy them and put them right on display. maybe some classes of racing cars are the same way? granted HD has to do that, but in the process they create these collectors items. i think it was an idea by management to try to sell the TAM the same way, and it just didn't catch on. i kind of remember somebody like Club Mac selling them eventually (i guess at the $2,000 price?).

  13. forget 20, remember the 25th anniversary? on Will Apple Disappoint on 30th Anniversary? · · Score: 1

    remember there was no big anything for the 25th, maybe not even an acknowledgment? i think that's a more valid reference since Steve Jobs did not even work for Apple when the 20th passed. the fact that they had that little slide of the 30 years of Apple at the end of the MacWorld SF keynote is the only indication they may acknowledge it. i would expect an apple.com home page at least.

    *IF* they are going to do anything crazy, it's possible today or tomorrow they will send out invites to the media for a special event tuesday. maybe email people today or tomorrow for some in-store special deal on saturday. it's Apple, so who knows.

  14. Re:Remember the 20th anniversary? on Will Apple Disappoint on 30th Anniversary? · · Score: 1

    um, but Steve Jobs was not at Apple for the 20th, so you can't put any credit/blame for the TAM on him.

  15. Re:Not surprising on PayPal Goes Mobile · · Score: 2, Interesting

    as much as it was a novelty, it was great. it was incredibly dorky to be at a restaurant and have one person charge the meal on a credit card and everyone else to pull out their palm pilots and beam the card owner for their portion of the bill.

    i thought i heard there was some issue with security, or people not hot syncing enough or something that helped end the Palm based payment fun?

  16. Re:Lame on Apple Embeds Message to OS X Hackers · · Score: 1

    1) i know very well that OS X is written on top of FreeBSD. obviously the part of OS X that these hackers want is not the FreeBSD portions, since they are readily available. when i think of OS X i think of the Apple created interface to FreeBSD. that may totally be my error.

    2) not using capital letters is a bad habit, but i continue to do it. some people smoke, pollute, drive cars, start wars, murder etc etc. this is my crime i guess.

    my point is that as angry as Apple seems to make some people, there are those of us that LIKE what they make.
    you can fiddle with your computer, but if Apple wants to hire a ton of people to make their un-free interface to FreeBSD work on their own hardware, then that seems reasonable to me. nobody is keeping you from having FreeBSD, nobody is keeping you from hacking a Macintosh. if some 16 year old wanna-be hacker can not use P2P to download an OS X install image, and then follow step by step instructions on osx86project.org, i am ok with that.

    i think the hacking of OS X on to non-Apple hardware is a two pronged issue.
    1) is the use of OS X on non-Apple hardware by anyone
    2) the fear (foresight?) that this would lead to massive piracy of OS X over P2P networks (or some other method).

    Apple making "the whole widget" creates a balance between hardware and software. Apple can make "free" applications for OS X because to use them you are going to be buying Apple hardware and Apple's OS X. Apple has often sold a ton of retail boxed copies of OS X (you can see this in their quarterly reports). even if there are cases of people "sharing" OS X DVDs, or flat out P2P distribution, those people are still running it on Apple hardware. sooner or later that Apple hardware will get replaced (hopefully) with new Apple hardware.

    maybe that is why Mac users act like they are part of a club... they kind of are. even if you only use the default installed applications and OS on your Mac... you are contributing to the platform as a whole every time you upgrade. maybe it's hard to grasp for people that are used to MS Windows or Linux? i don't know, i feel like i get it. you can find a ton of people that scream how much OS X sucks, and it is obviously not required to live..... so go open source with DIY hardware and gain a ton of self satisfaction. or buy MS un-free software with DIY hardware. sounds like a middle ground? at the same time, let people that like Apple products keep using them.

  17. whatever on Will MacIntel Kill Apple Open Source Efforts? · · Score: 1

    the point is that the project was started while Steve Jobs had nothing to do with Apple. nobody will deny Apple was in a bad place when Jobs returned. he made a lot of drastic changes at the time so try to save the company. some may have pissed you off, but odds are if Apple did not make these changes then the whole company would have gone belly up and been sold off in pieces. how would that have helped any developers either? you can't really blame him for a project that sounds poorly established after he had been FIRED, and before he returned.

    besides this whole article is nothing but paranoia fed with anti-Apple angst. it was already shown to have been an error on Apple's part and has been resolved. another example of people blaming Apple or Steve Jobs for a non-existant issue. this is even less stupid than Apple being blamed for portable music players being too loud BECAUSE the iPod is the best selling MP3 player (but still outsold by portable CD players something like 10-1).

  18. WRONG on Will MacIntel Kill Apple Open Source Efforts? · · Score: 1

    read above..... it was an error by Apple and has been corrected.
    you'll have to find something else to trash Apple for today.

  19. Re:Lame on Apple Embeds Message to OS X Hackers · · Score: 2, Insightful

    you sound like the whiny baby. it is not like Steve Jobs took food off your plate and kicked your grandmother in the teeth. they created OS X and they have the right to do with it as they please. if you want full control over hardware and software, build a PC and install OSS. done. problem solved.

    some of us like having machines that run really well to use as tools to do work and not spend our days working on them.

  20. Re:huh on Apple Embeds Message to OS X Hackers · · Score: 4, Insightful

    their legal department did tell osx86project.org/ to close their forums and take down info about running OS X on non-Apple hardware and claimed DMCA as their justification. while there is the issue of people stealing OS X to try this, they also don't want it running on non-Apple hardware. there is more info on their now explaining their version of the story.

    as a lot of Mac people have said...... if this is what makes Apple adopt MS-like security measures for the OS i will be unhappy. for those that don't use OS X, you have NEVER had to put in a serial number or do any authorization to install it. compared to some of the chaos MS users have had, i am thankful that Apple never had to worry about this so far. i buy every OS X release, but it's really nice not to have to deal with that. since i won't be trying to install Apple software of non-apple os i can be grumpy and say it would suck if they ruin it for us because they have to prove their extreme hacking skills.

  21. Re:don't blame him, and he has done much more on Segway Inventor Turns To Environment · · Score: 1

    i am 99% sure that the "this device will change the world" and "it will change the way cities are built" statements were NOT from Deka but from the people that got advanced private demonstrations of the device. Deka said nothing about what "it" was, except maybe alluding to being a form of people mover. i am not even sure they actually said that much. there were websites dedicated to speculation. a lot of the assumption circled around sterling engines because Dean Kamen really seems to like those.

    ok, so there was A case of a child being hurt. i am amazed there was not a Ruby's law to stop this from happening again. i think the device is silly, though acknowledge it might be great for some applications (somebody with a wonky foot maybe?). i don't think you can fault the inventor because one user is a jerk and banged up a toddler. cars make the streets of my city dangerous to bikes and pedestrians and nobody cares about that.

  22. working link on Segway Inventor Turns To Environment · · Score: 1

    stupid / at the end messed up the URL i guess....

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen

  23. Re:Err.. on Segway Inventor Turns To Environment · · Score: 3, Insightful

    the places that will be using these probably have little to no environmental rules and where they do generate power it may just as likely be something like unfiltered coal fired plants and other pollutants. i would also bet you that if you deploy a bunch of these, that given country will pollute less than the United States.

    i realize this is far from ideal, but maybe somebody else can come up with a more environmentally friendly fuel pellet than "whatever you got that will ignite". in the meantime disease and death will be reduced because people can find a clean cup of water.

  24. don't blame him, and he has done much more on Segway Inventor Turns To Environment · · Score: 4, Informative

    his company was not responsible for all the hype building up to Segway's release. they have made a ton of incredibly useful inventions and i would think anyone with any interest in technology or engineering would know about his work long before the Segway. inventing a portable insulin pump seems like a pretty valid invention, right? a wheelchair that can climb stairs?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Kamen/
    or
    http://www.dekaresearch.com/

  25. Re:some would say... on OSx86 Cracked Again · · Score: 1

    i said "some would say".... not necessarily myself. i'm sure Steve Jobs is way to busy with biz stuff these days to get into the nitty gritty like he did back in the day. i am guessing as long as they make installing OS X a real hassle, and limited functionality they will be content. they had to know what they were getting themselves into, and Apple legal will keep somebody from selling the hack for installing OS X on a PC. i think the biggest stinker with this will be if Apple has to crack down on piracy. offhand i don't remember an Apple/Mac OS EVERY having a serial number. i know things like FCP have serial numbers, but there was something nice about not dealing with that for the OS.

    actually Apple has been screwing around with x86 for a while it seems. Steve Jobs said every version of OS X was built for Intel processors "just in case". even in the classic days there was something about an x86 version of something. an Apple trivia/history site would have more on that.