Then click on the iMac picture. The 1.8 GHz model is $1499.
As for the rest of it, what the hell specs did you read? There's nothing about a portable music system, and Office is, quote, "Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition Trial."
If this is "what the next PC should be," then Microsoft had better pull hip-e's Windows licence RFN, because these guys have essentially conceded the home PC market to Apple. This system is worse than the $799 Dell POS boxen at more than twice the price.
First: I think I'm scarred for life after looking at the photo of this abomination. Warn people next time, please!
Second: Am I the only one who read the article as
the hip-e, a new Windows-based PC... specifically designed to
crater
Because "crater" is exactly what it's going to do in the market at this price. For $1700, you could buy a 1.8-GHz iMac -- unquestionably faster, even without considering the benefits of the G5 CPU -- and have $200 in change left over to spend on goodies.
...we send you over to the west country on Dorset.
Commentator: Hello, and welcome to Dorchester, where a very good crowd has turned out to watch local boy Thomas Hardy write his new novel "The Return Of The Native", on this very pleasant July morning. This will be his eleventh novel and the fifth of the very popular Wessex novels, and here he comes! Here comes Hardy, walking out towards his desk. He looks confident, he looks relaxed, very much the man in form, as he acknowledges this very good natured bank holliday crowd. And the crowd goes quiet now, as Hardy settles himself down at the desk, body straight, shoulders relaxed, pen held lightly but firmly in the right hand. He dips the pen...in the ink, and he's off! It's the first word, but it's not a word - oh, no! - it's a doodle. Way up on the top of the lefthand margin is a piece of meaningless scribble - and he's signed his name underneath it! Oh dear, what a disapointing start. But his off again - and here he goes - the first word of Thomas Hardy's new novel, at ten thirtyfive on this very lovely morning, it's three letters, it's the definite article, and it's "The!"
Axio and Boblbee are the two that come to mind. I have a Boblbee Metropolis and I *love* it, although it does get a lot of "what the hell is that thing?" comments. The Axio packs are rather less weird-looking, but still obviously aren't normal backpacks.
I got my Metropolis on closeout at an outdoor outfitter store (think local mom-n-pop version of REI) for about $120. Retail on that pack is somewhere around $200, I think, but IMO it's still worth it. My biggest complaint is that the pack is fairly small, so you can carry a laptop, your power adapter, an Ethernet cable, and a notebook or two, but not much else. I wouldn't want to have it as my *only* backpack, but it works fairly well as my only computer case.
So only an "incredibly tiny minority of users" buy software?
No, an incredibly tiny minority of users can't afford the extra $3-500 it would typically cost to cross-grade the few Windows applications they absolutely need.
Think about this for a second. Most users only buy OS upgrades and games. Those who work for themselves probably buy Office, perhaps Photoshop or Illustrator, or maybe Final Cut Pro/Logic/etc., depending on the field they're in. Those who work for a company get their software bought for them, so it's a non-issue. The number of people who work for themselves and also have tens of thousands of dollars' worth of legitimately-purchased software on their Windows boxen are an incredibly tiny minority, and Apple won't care one bit if the four of you in the world don't switch.
I don't know what your day job is, but from other comments I've seen on/., I'd hazard a guess that you're into software development. Sure, Photoshop, 3D Studio, Autocad, etc. are nice toys, but they're hardly essential tools for a software developer. If you wanted to switch your software development over to a Mac, Xcode is *free*. As in, it costs zero dollars.
If you expect us to believe the $100,000-worth-of-software figure, you'd better start coming up with some specifics. I don't buy it for a second.
Will someone explain to me the point of building a $3500 Windows-based gaming system when you can buy a console for 10% of the price and have better graphics, a far bigger screen, a better selection of games, and none of the problems associated with, well, Windows? I mean, when's the last time a PlayStation 2 caught a virus, or needed to have its OS reinstalled?"
I've never understood this mentality *at all*. I really wish someone could explain it to me, because if someone can explain it to me, maybe they can explain it to Apple.
Fine. Don't switch. Stick with Windows and suffer the nightmares of spyware, viruses, trojans, and security holes big enough to fly a 747 through.
Apple isn't losing any sleep over the incredibly tiny minority of users who are in your shoes and who can't afford to switch. Not that I believe your $100,000 figure in the first place. How many one-man freelance operations out there need Maya/[insert other über-expensive software here]? (Then again, why should I believe a guy who thinks assembling an iMac from Apple-branded parts constitutes "building" a Macintosh?)
For the rest of us, our employers will provide the software necessary to get Real Work(tm) done, and the software besides that *isn't* that expensive. Even if you had to re-purchase every single game you own for the Mac platform (and you typically don't, since a lot of games can be had in cross-platform CD versions now, with both Mac and PC versions in the same box), that would still be well under $10K, and if you're *that* into PC gaming, why the hell are you buying a Mac in the first place?
If a pilot can see the ground, presumably the ground can see the pilot.
What I'm getting at here is that it doesn't matter how the windows in the cockpit are angled. If the pilot has line-of-sight with a point on the ground, it follows that a person standing at that point on the ground has line-of-sight back to the pilot, and therefore could have shined this laser into his eye.
A competent reporter would have double-checked this story against the Airport/Facility Directory, which contains warnings of areas where laser light shows may be present. I don't have a copy of the relevant A/FD, but that's the *first* place I'd look for an explanation. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to find that the pilots simply didn't know of a temporary (or permanent) laser light show in the area.
How about getting rid of plane food, since in the slight chance you get a bad batch, the entire crew can get diarrhea and not be able to land the plane.
I know you were semi-joking here, but this is exactly why many airlines require their first officers and captains to have different meals. It makes it that much harder for terrorists to take over a plane after slipping roofies into the food supply, because they would have to poison all the food, not just one particular dish.
Freedom to vote for whom I wish, even freedom to choose not to vote if that's what I want.
The fundamental basis of the American mindset is the "nobody tells me what I can and can't do" attitude, and that's precisely why Americans get up in arms when the rest of the world tries to tell us what we should and shouldn't be doing. That's why this country was founded -- because the Puritans, then the colonists 150 years later, were tired of being pushed around by the British.
Now, don't get me wrong. I agree with very little of what the current administration is doing. Nobody had better tell me what to do, but I'm willing to reciprocate that to the rest of the world: I don't feel as though I have the right to tell them what to do, either. That's why I have such a problem with the whole "war for democracy" idea. Who made us the world's police? The Republicans can argue about the moral relativism of the French and Germans until they're blue in the face, but I still don't think war against Saddam Hussein had anything to do with protecting American citizens, connections to Al Qaeda, or some perverted sense of altruism toward the people of Iraq.
BTW: Castro *is* a dictator. He may be less heinous than Pol Pot or Stalin, but if he is such a great leader running such a wonderful country, why are people always trying to escape from Cuba?
Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton were both minority presidents (did not carry majority of popular vote). George Washington was elected unopposed.
That might be true in the case of Lincoln, but you've got your terminology mixed up in Clinton's case. He won a plurality of popular votes; i.e., he had the most votes, but fewer than the 50%-plus-one required for a true "majority."
If it's a choice between complying with existing censorship rules and not doing business in China *at all*, which do you think a publicly-traded company is going to pick? They're required to serve the interests of their shareholders, and that means maximising profits where possible. The Chinese market, with 1.6 billion people, is a bit too big to ignore.
Is the unity of the Chinese nation as it's currently drawn on geopolitical maps worth the price the Chinese citizens are paying?
Put another way, why is it so important that China not "fall apart" when the government is clearly NOT one "of the people?" I don't think you or I can say what's best for the Chinese, but I do think maybe they should be given the freedom to choose what means of government they prefer.
This isn't the beginning of the end of Google's dominance any more than the limited reverse-engineering of PageRank was the beginning of the end. Google-bombing has been going on for at least a few years now, and if anything, Google has become more popular with the unwashed masses.
What will be the eventual downfall of Google is the perception of the public that the search results are no longer the best that "science" -- and I use the term very loosely -- can provide. Until it is widely perceived that another search engine provides "better" results, Google will remain king. When we start seeing mainstream news articles that say "SearchEngineX has solved the problems with Google PageRank and provides better results," then we can start talking about the beginning of the end for Google. (Of course, that assumes that Google doesn't do anything to improve PageRank from its current form. Which I find to be a rather unlikely proposition.)
So in other words, it isn't exactly censorship. It's "you're-not-going-to-be-able-to-view-this-site-any way, so-we're-going-to-save-you-the-trouble-and-not-lis t-it"-ship.
There's nothing I hate more than doing a search for something and getting a bunch of (useful-looking) results that then turn out to be 404 or inaccessible for some other reason. It gives my mind a case of intellectual blue balls.
Breaking out the "C" word on Google here doesn't seem exactly fair. Fix the broken communist Chinese dictatorship and Google won't be forced into silly positions like this.
Slashdot Mirror
$1499. Go here:
Apple Store Online
Then click on the iMac picture. The 1.8 GHz model is $1499.
As for the rest of it, what the hell specs did you read? There's nothing about a portable music system, and Office is, quote, "Microsoft Office Student and Teacher Edition Trial."
If this is "what the next PC should be," then Microsoft had better pull hip-e's Windows licence RFN, because these guys have essentially conceded the home PC market to Apple. This system is worse than the $799 Dell POS boxen at more than twice the price.
p
Second: Am I the only one who read the article as
Because "crater" is exactly what it's going to do in the market at this price. For $1700, you could buy a 1.8-GHz iMac -- unquestionably faster, even without considering the benefits of the G5 CPU -- and have $200 in change left over to spend on goodies.
p
...we send you over to the west country on Dorset.
Commentator: Hello, and welcome to Dorchester, where a very good crowd has turned out to watch local boy Thomas Hardy write his new novel "The Return Of The Native", on this very pleasant July morning. This will be his eleventh novel and the fifth of the very popular Wessex novels, and here he comes! Here comes Hardy, walking out towards his desk. He looks confident, he looks relaxed, very much the man in form, as he acknowledges this very good natured bank holliday crowd. And the crowd goes quiet now, as Hardy settles himself down at the desk, body straight, shoulders relaxed, pen held lightly but firmly in the right hand. He dips the pen...in the ink, and he's off! It's the first word, but it's not a word - oh, no! - it's a doodle. Way up on the top of the lefthand margin is a piece of meaningless scribble - and he's signed his name underneath it! Oh dear, what a disapointing start. But his off again - and here he goes - the first word of Thomas Hardy's new novel, at ten thirtyfive on this very lovely morning, it's three letters, it's the definite article, and it's "The!"
(continues)
p
In Soviet Russia, Yoda says:
Award shall win You!
p
Just to be helpful -- since I didn't have your e-mail address -- you might be interested in what I wrote here.
I've been working on getting a review model of the Axio Swift for months, but nothing doing yet.
p
Axio and Boblbee are the two that come to mind. I have a Boblbee Metropolis and I *love* it, although it does get a lot of "what the hell is that thing?" comments. The Axio packs are rather less weird-looking, but still obviously aren't normal backpacks.
I got my Metropolis on closeout at an outdoor outfitter store (think local mom-n-pop version of REI) for about $120. Retail on that pack is somewhere around $200, I think, but IMO it's still worth it. My biggest complaint is that the pack is fairly small, so you can carry a laptop, your power adapter, an Ethernet cable, and a notebook or two, but not much else. I wouldn't want to have it as my *only* backpack, but it works fairly well as my only computer case.
p
As a previous poster commented, NPR has several very good programs. I suggest you check them out:
NPR Web Site
As far as music, hell no. I'd never use this for music. But I'd *definitely* use it to TiVo programs like "Car Talk" and "Prairie Home Companion."
p
I know I'm feeding a troll here, but...
/., I'd hazard a guess that you're into software development. Sure, Photoshop, 3D Studio, Autocad, etc. are nice toys, but they're hardly essential tools for a software developer. If you wanted to switch your software development over to a Mac, Xcode is *free*. As in, it costs zero dollars.
So only an "incredibly tiny minority of users" buy software?
No, an incredibly tiny minority of users can't afford the extra $3-500 it would typically cost to cross-grade the few Windows applications they absolutely need.
Think about this for a second. Most users only buy OS upgrades and games. Those who work for themselves probably buy Office, perhaps Photoshop or Illustrator, or maybe Final Cut Pro/Logic/etc., depending on the field they're in. Those who work for a company get their software bought for them, so it's a non-issue. The number of people who work for themselves and also have tens of thousands of dollars' worth of legitimately-purchased software on their Windows boxen are an incredibly tiny minority, and Apple won't care one bit if the four of you in the world don't switch.
I don't know what your day job is, but from other comments I've seen on
If you expect us to believe the $100,000-worth-of-software figure, you'd better start coming up with some specifics. I don't buy it for a second.
p
Will someone explain to me the point of building a $3500 Windows-based gaming system when you can buy a console for 10% of the price and have better graphics, a far bigger screen, a better selection of games, and none of the problems associated with, well, Windows? I mean, when's the last time a PlayStation 2 caught a virus, or needed to have its OS reinstalled?"
I've never understood this mentality *at all*. I really wish someone could explain it to me, because if someone can explain it to me, maybe they can explain it to Apple.
p
I like macs, but once I spec out a mac with an adequate amount of RAM in it, it always jumps up to about 3 grand.
Are you insane? Do you buy RAM from Dell? Or from IBM? Of course not. So why should you buy it from Apple?
Here's a hint:
http://froogle.google.com/
Here's another:
http://ramseeker.com/
And one more just for good measure:
http://dealram.com/
If you can't find more RAM than you could ever use for less than $(3000 - costOfNewMac), I'll eat my socks.
p
Fine. Don't switch. Stick with Windows and suffer the nightmares of spyware, viruses, trojans, and security holes big enough to fly a 747 through.
Apple isn't losing any sleep over the incredibly tiny minority of users who are in your shoes and who can't afford to switch. Not that I believe your $100,000 figure in the first place. How many one-man freelance operations out there need Maya/[insert other über-expensive software here]? (Then again, why should I believe a guy who thinks assembling an iMac from Apple-branded parts constitutes "building" a Macintosh?)
For the rest of us, our employers will provide the software necessary to get Real Work(tm) done, and the software besides that *isn't* that expensive. Even if you had to re-purchase every single game you own for the Mac platform (and you typically don't, since a lot of games can be had in cross-platform CD versions now, with both Mac and PC versions in the same box), that would still be well under $10K, and if you're *that* into PC gaming, why the hell are you buying a Mac in the first place?
p
You mean like Booble?
(It was a lot funnier when their front page looked *exactly* like Google's, but with boobs, though.)
p
The biggest threat to MS...is Steve Ballmer. Seriously. They put a marketeer in charge...
"Marketeer?" I think you misspelled "monkey."
p
Hertz (Hz) is defined as cycles per second. There might be a unit defined as cycles per minute, but Hz isn't it.
:)
The human pulse, at rest, is on the order of 1 Hz, not 1/60 Hz.
That's probably what you meant, but just in case...
p
Hey, the current topic is terrorism, so I figure I'll apply the rule to the topic.
Yes, it was originally designed to combat the possible effects of food poisoning, but it works nicely against a potential terrorist attack, too.
p
If a pilot can see the ground, presumably the ground can see the pilot.
What I'm getting at here is that it doesn't matter how the windows in the cockpit are angled. If the pilot has line-of-sight with a point on the ground, it follows that a person standing at that point on the ground has line-of-sight back to the pilot, and therefore could have shined this laser into his eye.
A competent reporter would have double-checked this story against the Airport/Facility Directory, which contains warnings of areas where laser light shows may be present. I don't have a copy of the relevant A/FD, but that's the *first* place I'd look for an explanation. It wouldn't surprise me in the least to find that the pilots simply didn't know of a temporary (or permanent) laser light show in the area.
p
How about getting rid of plane food, since in the slight chance you get a bad batch, the entire crew can get diarrhea and not be able to land the plane.
I know you were semi-joking here, but this is exactly why many airlines require their first officers and captains to have different meals. It makes it that much harder for terrorists to take over a plane after slipping roofies into the food supply, because they would have to poison all the food, not just one particular dish.
p
Insightful??? Are you kidding me?
;)
Obviously this guy is joking. And if he's not, he's a troll. But I tend to think he's joking
p
You know, you're right.
The US has never been about democracy.
The US has always been about freedom.
Freedom to vote for whom I wish, even freedom to choose not to vote if that's what I want.
The fundamental basis of the American mindset is the "nobody tells me what I can and can't do" attitude, and that's precisely why Americans get up in arms when the rest of the world tries to tell us what we should and shouldn't be doing. That's why this country was founded -- because the Puritans, then the colonists 150 years later, were tired of being pushed around by the British.
Now, don't get me wrong. I agree with very little of what the current administration is doing. Nobody had better tell me what to do, but I'm willing to reciprocate that to the rest of the world: I don't feel as though I have the right to tell them what to do, either. That's why I have such a problem with the whole "war for democracy" idea. Who made us the world's police? The Republicans can argue about the moral relativism of the French and Germans until they're blue in the face, but I still don't think war against Saddam Hussein had anything to do with protecting American citizens, connections to Al Qaeda, or some perverted sense of altruism toward the people of Iraq.
BTW: Castro *is* a dictator. He may be less heinous than Pol Pot or Stalin, but if he is such a great leader running such a wonderful country, why are people always trying to escape from Cuba?
p
Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton were both minority presidents (did not carry majority of popular vote). George Washington was elected unopposed.
That might be true in the case of Lincoln, but you've got your terminology mixed up in Clinton's case. He won a plurality of popular votes; i.e., he had the most votes, but fewer than the 50%-plus-one required for a true "majority."
p
Your sarcasm is unnecessary.
If it's a choice between complying with existing censorship rules and not doing business in China *at all*, which do you think a publicly-traded company is going to pick? They're required to serve the interests of their shareholders, and that means maximising profits where possible. The Chinese market, with 1.6 billion people, is a bit too big to ignore.
p
There's a fix for the timeout problem out:
Safari No Timeout
I grabbed it about two weeks back and haven't had any issues, though I don't use Safari all that much.
p
Is the unity of the Chinese nation as it's currently drawn on geopolitical maps worth the price the Chinese citizens are paying?
Put another way, why is it so important that China not "fall apart" when the government is clearly NOT one "of the people?" I don't think you or I can say what's best for the Chinese, but I do think maybe they should be given the freedom to choose what means of government they prefer.
p
You're wrong. ;)
This isn't the beginning of the end of Google's dominance any more than the limited reverse-engineering of PageRank was the beginning of the end. Google-bombing has been going on for at least a few years now, and if anything, Google has become more popular with the unwashed masses.
What will be the eventual downfall of Google is the perception of the public that the search results are no longer the best that "science" -- and I use the term very loosely -- can provide. Until it is widely perceived that another search engine provides "better" results, Google will remain king. When we start seeing mainstream news articles that say "SearchEngineX has solved the problems with Google PageRank and provides better results," then we can start talking about the beginning of the end for Google. (Of course, that assumes that Google doesn't do anything to improve PageRank from its current form. Which I find to be a rather unlikely proposition.)
p
So in other words, it isn't exactly censorship. It's "you're-not-going-to-be-able-to-view-this-site-any way, so-we're-going-to-save-you-the-trouble-and-not-lis t-it"-ship.
There's nothing I hate more than doing a search for something and getting a bunch of (useful-looking) results that then turn out to be 404 or inaccessible for some other reason. It gives my mind a case of intellectual blue balls.
Breaking out the "C" word on Google here doesn't seem exactly fair. Fix the broken communist Chinese dictatorship and Google won't be forced into silly positions like this.
p