Population is up to just about 4 million now, according to the last census. Which is of course still tiny (small enough that I'm pleasantly surprised that we're talking about Ireland) - but you'd be surprised how much is worth the scammers' time. With about 1 - 1.5 million people on the 'net here (IIRC from an article I read recently), it's still a healthy target market - especially as the vast majority of those are still on dialup since broadband is only now taking off here. Also I wonder just how well policed and updated this white list will be. It's easy to see it being quietly forgotten about. Still, seems to me to be an encouraging move.
Forgot to reply to your other comments - the graphics card is fine, for the market this machine is aimed at. You'd be hard pressed to find a Dell or whatever with a higher-specced graphics card that's aimed at the home user. A Geforce 5200 Ultra can handle just about any game except the very highest demanding (Far Cry, Doom III) - and even these are probably playable on low resolution/settings.
As for the bus speed, it's a huge improvement on the G4 iMac, and is presumably lower than the Pro line for a number of reasons (as mentioned by other posters): the cooling requirements of such a small form factor, differentiating it from the Pro line, cost etc.
All in all I for one am impressed - I can't understand the comments saying "it's a boring design, just like my LCD monitor".. yes but it's got the bloody computer in there as well! And even then it looks better - and in a few cases is somehow thinner - than a lot of LCD monitors out there.
I had a look at the designs you mentioned, and to be honest they don't look as good to me as the actual design. The top model with the adjustable monitor in particular looks quite bulky by comparison - more like what a PC clone manufacturer would attempt. This is all subjective naturally...
But what isn't subjective is the other problem with these models. While it's all well and good to go and mockup your own design, I don't see how you'd actually fit a computer into any of the ones on that website! You need a large thick and level area for the logic board at least, and the designs I saw on that page didn't even come close! Seriously, what's the point in going to all that trouble to make your own designs when they're not even close to being realistic?
Tell me about it. With that game on the Mac, every game I ever play would have been readily available.. instead I need to keep my PC around for games. Most of the good FPS online games are Half-Life mods, in one fell swoop the Mac would have loads of games, I could even bring mine to a LAN party.. I'd be investing in a G5 right now if Half-Life 2 was coming out for the Mac!
It's so frustrating, it surely would have been worth their while to release the Mac port later, when they realised Half-Life wasn't going away thanks to the huge mod community.
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Actually I'm pretty sure captain_craptacular was talking about this quote in particular:
In my experience, minorities are the first hired and last laid off.
when he said
Wouldn't that still be racism?
And he'd be right, IMO.
Population is up to just about 4 million now, according to the last census. Which is of course still tiny (small enough that I'm pleasantly surprised that we're talking about Ireland) - but you'd be surprised how much is worth the scammers' time. With about 1 - 1.5 million people on the 'net here (IIRC from an article I read recently), it's still a healthy target market - especially as the vast majority of those are still on dialup since broadband is only now taking off here. Also I wonder just how well policed and updated this white list will be. It's easy to see it being quietly forgotten about. Still, seems to me to be an encouraging move.
Forgot to reply to your other comments - the graphics card is fine, for the market this machine is aimed at. You'd be hard pressed to find a Dell or whatever with a higher-specced graphics card that's aimed at the home user. A Geforce 5200 Ultra can handle just about any game except the very highest demanding (Far Cry, Doom III) - and even these are probably playable on low resolution/settings. As for the bus speed, it's a huge improvement on the G4 iMac, and is presumably lower than the Pro line for a number of reasons (as mentioned by other posters): the cooling requirements of such a small form factor, differentiating it from the Pro line, cost etc.
All in all I for one am impressed - I can't understand the comments saying "it's a boring design, just like my LCD monitor".. yes but it's got the bloody computer in there as well! And even then it looks better - and in a few cases is somehow thinner - than a lot of LCD monitors out there.
I had a look at the designs you mentioned, and to be honest they don't look as good to me as the actual design. The top model with the adjustable monitor in particular looks quite bulky by comparison - more like what a PC clone manufacturer would attempt. This is all subjective naturally...
But what isn't subjective is the other problem with these models. While it's all well and good to go and mockup your own design, I don't see how you'd actually fit a computer into any of the ones on that website! You need a large thick and level area for the logic board at least, and the designs I saw on that page didn't even come close! Seriously, what's the point in going to all that trouble to make your own designs when they're not even close to being realistic?
Tell me about it. With that game on the Mac, every game I ever play would have been readily available.. instead I need to keep my PC around for games. Most of the good FPS online games are Half-Life mods, in one fell swoop the Mac would have loads of games, I could even bring mine to a LAN party.. I'd be investing in a G5 right now if Half-Life 2 was coming out for the Mac!
It's so frustrating, it surely would have been worth their while to release the Mac port later, when they realised Half-Life wasn't going away thanks to the huge mod community.
Yah tell me about it - that and "Rising Damp" were great shows. Gonna go look for some clips from them to download now...