Seriously they are even more proprietary and evil than Microsoft
More evil? On what do you base that one? Of course, how could one prove or refute such a subjective claim?
But more proprietary is a bit easier to approach. If you mean more proprietary from a developer's point of view, I disagree but am not knowledgeable enough to argue amongst actual programmers. From the user's perspective, that one's easy to shoot down. I encounter very little of the roach-motel syndrome where my data checks in and doesn't check out. Most of that is through the use of either open or non-obfuscated file formats. Compare Mail.app to Outlook.exe, or.plist config files to the Registry, etc. You can also look at it from the perspective of migrating from one Mac box to another versus a similar Windows-Windows transition. I can move software installations and crucial directory structures reliably and without arcane knowledge or tools.
and cost more
Well that one's pretty tough to do a direct comparison of, since while there is considerable overlap, they really do operate in two different market spaces. But the whole "Macs cost more than Wintel" canard is just that. Once you start comparing comprable machines, and not putting a dual G5 workstation up against one of those loss leader Dells with an underclocked Celeron, shared RAM and a motherboard made from recycled Mountain Dew bottle caps, the Mac comes out within a few percentage points either way, and that's before you factor in the longer service life or higher resale value.
even worse UI
Heh. Yeah, well. Most experts disagree, and most laypersons disagree, but once you eliminate those two groups, yeah, I suppose it's a tossup.
better customer lock-in
See roach motel above.
evil bad-quality expensive proprietary hardware
Umm, which manufacturer has better quality hardware than Apple? They've had some notoriously bad machines, mostly from the Gil Amelio era (affectionately known as Road Apples) such as the 6200, the PowerBook 5300 with the Thermonuclear Batteries, and a few others that I'm undoubtedly forgetting, but generally speaking Macs have a service life of ten years or more.
Yeah, IHBT, and I will now proceed to HAND. Serves me right for using that damned "see context" link to make sure you really deserved that -1, Flamebait mod. You may now resume trolling the Mac zealots.
As an OS X user, I couldn't agree more. I'm reading this thread to find out things I didn't already know about the future of X11, not for yet another debate on whether accelerated PDF makes all your external genitalia larger or just your dick. I may disagree with you on platform choice, but you're right on the money about certain Mac users not being able to shut the fuck up and listen once in a while.
Yes, I know it's poor form to bitch about moderation. So? How the hell is that a troll post? All I can figure is that some Mac zealot thought I was uttering the one-button-blasphemy. I obviously failed to make my credentials clear before uttering such a thing. Counting my box and the ones I'm working on for some friends, I've got two G4 towers, a first generation iMac and a dual processor S-900 all within farting distance (not counting the pair of Centris 650s that I stripped for parts the other day). I've made posts asking fellow slashdot users for a source for one button PS/2 mice for the Winders machines I administer, and other posts complaining that for my uses, six mouse buttons just ain't enough. So to the ignorant monkeyjuggler who thought I was dissing the Mac, bite it.
But surely one could argue that the thinning of those students unable (or unwilling) to spot irregularities in the normally immaculate campus lawns are simply a wasteful drain on the financial aid systems?
I mean really, is there a better educational tool than high explosives?
I read it that way, too. The summary was starting to seem like researchers had found that college students had some mystical power to avoid landmines in their dorms, even when concealed beneath crusty laundry and slithering pizza.
But don't the ThinkPad and Latitude lines comprise many physical housings for which replacement trackpads would vary? We've only got one ThinkPad here, but a bunch of Dell laptops of varying vintage, and they seem like they're all fairly different, which was how I meant my claim.
I may be a gibbering Mac fanatic, but even *I* don't think that Apple sells more laptops than IBM or Dell.
I'm about to buy my first Apple portable (looking around for a lightly used 14" G4 iBook), and am wondering why nobody has brought a replacement two (or more!) button trackpad to market. I mean, it isn't like there's not a huge installed base of machines that would use an identical part. I figure the latest incarnation of the iBook (what do you call the non-clamshell version?) is the single most common laptop in the world at this point. I've not yet torn apart an iBook myself, is the trackbad something that wouldn't be feasible to sell as an end user replacement part? I know I'd gladly shell out ~$70 for an extra button or three.
Last I looked, Montreal and Toronto, and even small parts of Vancouver, are still in Canada.
Oops, oversight on our part, thanks for the reminder. I think we've got some Boy Scout troops sitting around in the woods whittling birhouses and buggering each other. Consider it taken care of.
Oh, and uh, got any oil wells up there?
How about coal mines?
Violent coups don't just grow on trees, ya know. Freedom(TM) takes a whole damn lot of natural resources, eh?
Huh, you've still got trees? *HOW* many acres of old hardwoods? Hmm. We'll be right up.
I had to do four reboots on each of thirteen XP machines last week. Of course, they hadn't been updated since they were set up a little over a year ago, so hopefully your mileage has varied greatly. It was some HTTP transport (forget exactly what) patch for the new WindersUpdate, then a clump of nearly a dozen miscellaneous patches, then SP2, then another pair. Hmm, considering the two admin machines I was dealing with, that mean I rebooted XP over sixty times that day. Wow. Just, wow.
I mean, if we can find something a squillion miles away that is by its very nature hard to spot...
I'm almost done with it
on
Blink
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I'm on the road mangling the network at one of our satellite locations, and went out seeking coffee Tuesday night. I went to a local book store, grabbed a book that looked interesting and sat down to read while I slurped. Sitting on the table was a copy of Blink that another customer had left there. I picked that up and was immediately engrossed. I've already decided (no two second jokes here, it took a few dozen pages) to start handing it to various friends and coworkers.
I highly recommend this one, and am glad I stumbled across it. As soon as I get home I'm gonna find a copy of Tipping Point.
All my sensitive stuff is on encrypted disk images. My root password is well constructed and more than a dozen characters. My screen saver requires said password, and kicks in fairly quickly. Anybody who uses my computer gets their own separate account. Nobody, not even girlfriends, gets to use my account. I run LittleSnitch to control access on a per-app basis. I have not yet, but will soon set up a dedicated firewall box in the living room closet.
I've been considering a motion-activated web cam set to upload to an Undisclosed Location, but I really don't want the Vice President staring at my coffee table all day.
Other than that, I rely on the fact that Winders users present a nearly infinite number of much softer targets. Well, that and the fact that any cracker out probably already has a better line of credit than I do.
It wouldn't take any miraculous self-awareness or any other such nonsense...
Just think of this as the ultimate honeypot. What enemy wouldn't want to root these things, seeing as how they're already behind the opponent's lines and very well armed?
I'm told there's a large, affluent first world country where this is the norm. Every citizen is issued a nine digit identifier, which is then used for the rest of their life as both username and password for various reasons, both important and trivial.
Slashdot Mirror
http://slashdot.org/metamod.pl
But more proprietary is a bit easier to approach. If you mean more proprietary from a developer's point of view, I disagree but am not knowledgeable enough to argue amongst actual programmers. From the user's perspective, that one's easy to shoot down. I encounter very little of the roach-motel syndrome where my data checks in and doesn't check out. Most of that is through the use of either open or non-obfuscated file formats. Compare Mail.app to Outlook.exe, or
Well that one's pretty tough to do a direct comparison of, since while there is considerable overlap, they really do operate in two different market spaces. But the whole "Macs cost more than Wintel" canard is just that. Once you start comparing comprable machines, and not putting a dual G5 workstation up against one of those loss leader Dells with an underclocked Celeron, shared RAM and a motherboard made from recycled Mountain Dew bottle caps, the Mac comes out within a few percentage points either way, and that's before you factor in the longer service life or higher resale value.
Heh. Yeah, well. Most experts disagree, and most laypersons disagree, but once you eliminate those two groups, yeah, I suppose it's a tossup.
See roach motel above.
Umm, which manufacturer has better quality hardware than Apple? They've had some notoriously bad machines, mostly from the Gil Amelio era (affectionately known as Road Apples) such as the 6200, the PowerBook 5300 with the Thermonuclear Batteries, and a few others that I'm undoubtedly forgetting, but generally speaking Macs have a service life of ten years or more.
Yeah, IHBT, and I will now proceed to HAND. Serves me right for using that damned "see context" link to make sure you really deserved that -1, Flamebait mod. You may now resume trolling the Mac zealots.
As an OS X user, I couldn't agree more. I'm reading this thread to find out things I didn't already know about the future of X11, not for yet another debate on whether accelerated PDF makes all your external genitalia larger or just your dick. I may disagree with you on platform choice, but you're right on the money about certain Mac users not being able to shut the fuck up and listen once in a while.
It's called Beck's Beer. I think Grolsch(sp?) too, but it's been a while.
Yes, I know it's poor form to bitch about moderation. So? How the hell is that a troll post? All I can figure is that some Mac zealot thought I was uttering the one-button-blasphemy. I obviously failed to make my credentials clear before uttering such a thing. Counting my box and the ones I'm working on for some friends, I've got two G4 towers, a first generation iMac and a dual processor S-900 all within farting distance (not counting the pair of Centris 650s that I stripped for parts the other day). I've made posts asking fellow slashdot users for a source for one button PS/2 mice for the Winders machines I administer, and other posts complaining that for my uses, six mouse buttons just ain't enough. So to the ignorant monkeyjuggler who thought I was dissing the Mac, bite it.
But surely one could argue that the thinning of those students unable (or unwilling) to spot irregularities in the normally immaculate campus lawns are simply a wasteful drain on the financial aid systems?
I mean really, is there a better educational tool than high explosives?
Wait, hold on, I thought it said they were as likely to have a landmine as they were to *be* a typewriter?
Or was it the Gentle Reader who is presumed to will have been a typewriter if the student had a landmine?
If the student turns away from the landmine, does that mean the rest of the students will face six more weeks of Intro to Accounting?
I read it that way, too. The summary was starting to seem like researchers had found that college students had some mystical power to avoid landmines in their dorms, even when concealed beneath crusty laundry and slithering pizza.
n/t
Well hell. I guess that explains it. Guess I really will have to get used to one button. Damn you, Steve Jobs!!!1!!eleven!!!1!!
But don't the ThinkPad and Latitude lines comprise many physical housings for which replacement trackpads would vary? We've only got one ThinkPad here, but a bunch of Dell laptops of varying vintage, and they seem like they're all fairly different, which was how I meant my claim.
I may be a gibbering Mac fanatic, but even *I* don't think that Apple sells more laptops than IBM or Dell.
Ahh, thanks. Didn't know that was such a general name, thought it only referred to that year's models.
I'm about to buy my first Apple portable (looking around for a lightly used 14" G4 iBook), and am wondering why nobody has brought a replacement two (or more!) button trackpad to market. I mean, it isn't like there's not a huge installed base of machines that would use an identical part. I figure the latest incarnation of the iBook (what do you call the non-clamshell version?) is the single most common laptop in the world at this point. I've not yet torn apart an iBook myself, is the trackbad something that wouldn't be feasible to sell as an end user replacement part? I know I'd gladly shell out ~$70 for an extra button or three.
Me too.
*shows musselm*
Knew about SUS, but didn't know it was free. Thanks for the info, but you can keep the condescension, punk.
Last I looked, Montreal and Toronto, and even small parts of Vancouver, are still in Canada.
Oops, oversight on our part, thanks for the reminder. I think we've got some Boy Scout troops sitting around in the woods whittling birhouses and buggering each other. Consider it taken care of.
Oh, and uh, got any oil wells up there?
How about coal mines?
Violent coups don't just grow on trees, ya know. Freedom(TM) takes a whole damn lot of natural resources, eh?
Huh, you've still got trees? *HOW* many acres of old hardwoods? Hmm. We'll be right up.
I had to do four reboots on each of thirteen XP machines last week. Of course, they hadn't been updated since they were set up a little over a year ago, so hopefully your mileage has varied greatly. It was some HTTP transport (forget exactly what) patch for the new WindersUpdate, then a clump of nearly a dozen miscellaneous patches, then SP2, then another pair. Hmm, considering the two admin machines I was dealing with, that mean I rebooted XP over sixty times that day. Wow. Just, wow.
I mean, if we can find something a squillion miles away that is by its very nature hard to spot...
I'm on the road mangling the network at one of our satellite locations, and went out seeking coffee Tuesday night. I went to a local book store, grabbed a book that looked interesting and sat down to read while I slurped. Sitting on the table was a copy of Blink that another customer had left there. I picked that up and was immediately engrossed. I've already decided (no two second jokes here, it took a few dozen pages) to start handing it to various friends and coworkers.
I highly recommend this one, and am glad I stumbled across it. As soon as I get home I'm gonna find a copy of Tipping Point.
It seems to manifest only on machines that can render fast enough; on a slower box the timing doesn't work out, so everything works out fine.
All my sensitive stuff is on encrypted disk images. My root password is well constructed and more than a dozen characters. My screen saver requires said password, and kicks in fairly quickly. Anybody who uses my computer gets their own separate account. Nobody, not even girlfriends, gets to use my account. I run LittleSnitch to control access on a per-app basis. I have not yet, but will soon set up a dedicated firewall box in the living room closet.
I've been considering a motion-activated web cam set to upload to an Undisclosed Location, but I really don't want the Vice President staring at my coffee table all day.
Other than that, I rely on the fact that Winders users present a nearly infinite number of much softer targets. Well, that and the fact that any cracker out probably already has a better line of credit than I do.
An attractive female and a fifth of bourbon is easier (and legal!) in most cases.
I have, and he's right.
It wouldn't take any miraculous self-awareness or any other such nonsense...
Just think of this as the ultimate honeypot. What enemy wouldn't want to root these things, seeing as how they're already behind the opponent's lines and very well armed?
use non-private ID numbers as passwords
I'm told there's a large, affluent first world country where this is the norm. Every citizen is issued a nine digit identifier, which is then used for the rest of their life as both username and password for various reasons, both important and trivial.
But that's probably just an urban legend.