" The 9600 XT has the same performance for the same price"
You're thinking of the x600, which is a 9600XT derivitive.
The x700 is a nice card, but I'd choose a 6600GT over it any day.
ATI's new lineup looks good, particularly the x800XL, but it's PCIe only. ATI also doesn't seem to bee particularly good in getting parts out the door - the XL still isn't showing up, more than a month after it was "launched".
NVIDIA has announced they won't be shipping a 6800 "refresh" part. The 6800 has a great architecture (a 400MHz 6800 is still competitive with the X850XT-PE at 540MHz). The 6600GT proves that the architecture scales to 500MHz, and I eagerly await a 16-pipe, 256-bit card at that frequency.
"You can do everything on OS X just using the mouse and clicking to get it"
Wow. You can do that in Windows, too. And GNOME, and KDE. No one is forcing Windows users to use that 2nd button. Many Windows users *never* use it. Explorer, for example, has all of the same commands in the "File" menu. It takes two clicks to get there, though, as it does on Mac OS.
"Also another beauty in OS X is that everything can be controlled through the keyboard which some people find very intuitive."
Complete keyboard control has been a Windows feature since it was introduced. You can access the menus with ALT accelerators, and in most applications every menu item is assined a letter on the keyboard. ALT+Space brings up a menu that lets you move/resize/close a window, the Windows Key brings up the Start Menu. There's even a key to access the context menu if you need it.
Here's something that many people ignore: context menus are *useful*. They are close to the cursor, so there's less mouse movement involved, and they combine two steps (selecting the object and opening the menu) into a single action.
Another note - you can save a lot of money by buying from someone OTHER than the wireless provider:
You can get a Nokia N-Gage QD for negative $50 (they give you $50) if you sign up for a year.
You can get a Nokia 6600 for free if you sign up for a year.
All not bad deals.
You don't have to be overcharged in the US - you just have to be smart.
Customers *aren't* demanding a fair market because they contiune to be ripped off by the carriers when there are many other options (eBay, 3rd party stores, etc.).
I bet people actually buy the $499 RAZR V3. Idiots.
"No... the phones don't cost a lot too... Only in north america are the phones price fixed...
They are price fixed in the US by the service providers.. and then that price fix is subsidized by your 1 year contract...
In other words, you are getting overcharged, and then they give you a discount.. There is nothing "expensive" about the process. I really hope more people in north america get enlightened about the state of affairs wrt cellphone contracts. Until customers start demanding a competative market for cellular service (and handset retailing) we won't be seeing anything any time soon.
Let me be clear here. Cheaper phones will not have a price discount passed on to the consumers in north america. They are already damn cheap to manufacture. those screens don't cost anything to make and the circuit boards are a dime a dozen. This isn't new technology. everywhere else in the world phones are actually based on their cost to manufacture rather than their features which are enabled/disabled by the service provider. The only person who will see a benefit for integrated chips on cellphones is the executives of cingular, verison, and sprint.
maybe in the long run you will see more reliable cellphones because of this. But that is all."
Cellphones in the US are only expensive because people don't know where to use. I got a used Nokia 3590 (a fine GSM phone), unlocked, with the battery, charger, and headset - for $19.
Now if you go to Cingular and buy a RAZR V3, then you're really getting ripped off. It's £30 with a year contract in the UK, or $500 with a 2-year contract in the US. What a difference.
If you opt for something like the Nokia 6820, though, you get a better deal. It's $50 with a contract in the US, and £0-£49 in the UK (depending on contract).
The basic phones aren't such a ripoff in the US - it's the expensive, trendy phones where people pay out the ass.
"News flash, Bill, it has to work for people to say they like it."
MCE2005 *does* work. It works damn well. The system wakes up and records at the right time. It's easy to set up. It supports a broad range of hardware. It has a nice interface. The conflict management system is good. The UI is fast. FF/RW and:30 jump /:8 jumpback are instant.
There are plenty of nice touches - it will tell you why a show didn't record (e.g. "Cancelled by ", "System Off", "Conflict", etc.). It will tell you which user deleted a program and when it was deleted. You can see at a glance which programs will not record due to a confict (unlike TiVo's "To Do List").
Media Center 2005 is a stable, fast, usable product. It's a solid PVR foundation with a very nice UI. Get yourself a $70 TV tuner (ATI E-Home Wonder is good) a remote control (Microsoft makes a nice one for $40), and MCE2005 ($135). It's more than a TiVo but it's also a much better product.
No, the critics cry that the Mini video is acceptable, but that the PC equipped with a GeForce 6600GT (which is still less expensive than the Mac) is better.
I never claimed that Intel Integrated Garbage was better than the Radeon in the Mac. It's adequete, though, if you don't want to play 3D games.
I mentioned larger, but it's not louder. The EPIA motherboard I selected does not have a fan.
"nd you can add memory to the MacMini just like you can a PC, so the "+More Memory" is a little misleading."
I was comparing the amount of memory in the priced configuration. Of course you can add more memory to the Mac Mini.
"Who needs a Parallel or Serial port anymore? Who needs PS2 ports?"
Many people. Remember, not everyone has a USB keyboard sitting around.
"But the main thing to consider is that the MacMini comes with OSX (regular version - not stripped down "home" version) and iLife (I use iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD regularly - they are great..)"
Well, iTunes is free, Picasa is an excellent (free) alternative to iPhoto, Windows Movie Maker 2 is free and better than iMovie (see the "X vs XP" review), and iDVD is easily replicated by something like Sonic MyDVD.
And XP Home is perfectly acceptable for home users. Name a feature in XP Pro that a typical home user would need.
"if you took all the time you'd spend gathering parts and assembling them and worked a minimum-wage job at some fast food place instead, you'd earn hundreds of dollars"
BULLSHIT! The numbers DON'T WORK OUT!
Ordering the parts for a system from Newegg takes about 20 minutes. Assembling the system is perhaps 1-2 hours. THAT'S UNDER $15 AT MINIMUM WAGE.
"Hundreds of Dollars" in terms of a minimum-wage job is AT LEAST 40 hours after taxes, and if you're spending 40 hours buying and assembling your PC, you need help.
"People who say "I can build that for less" are either not bothering to account for their time or just flat-out lying"
No, we're not. My time right now is worth $9 an hour. It takes me about three hours to order and build a system.
And did you ever stop to think that perhaps I *enjoy* building PCs? That's why I do it for free for friends.
Now, the real issue you need to be attacking is that a homemade system does not have the kind of support that a commercial system does. Don't expect to have someone to call when your system gets spyware. You do, however, usually have a warranty on the individual components.
Still, let's compare:
HP Pavilion a700y:
- Windows XP Home SP2 - Pentium 4 2.8GHz (~ 1.8GHz G4) - 256M PC2700 DDR - 80GB 7200RPM HDD - 16X DVD-R DL Drive - 2 USB 2.0, 1 FireWire - Intel Integrated GPU - Works 7.0 - 1 Year Warranty - Keyboard / Mouse
Compare to the Apple Mac Mini:
- Mac OS X 10.3 - PowerPC G4 1.4GHz - 256M PC2700 DDR - 80GB 4200RPM HDD - 4X DVD-RW - 2 USB 2.0, 1 FireWire - Radeon 9200 16M - iLife 04 - 1 Year Warranty
Looks pretty similar, right? The Apple has a smaller case and better graphics. The HP has a faster HDD and DVD-RW, plus a keyboard and mouse. I'd say they are decently matched.
Here's the thing: the HP is $489. The Apple is $699. The HP includes shipping, the Apple does not.
For $210 (plus the price of a Keyboard/Mouse), the difference betwen the two units, you could add a GeForce 6600GT to the HP.
And remember, these are current prices from the websites of HP/Apple. I started with the $599 Apple and added the SuperDrive. I started with the HP and configured it to the specs above. Check it out for yourself.
Both are built, supported systems. The Apple is certainly smaller and more stylish.
The HP, however:
- Is $220 cheaper (or has far better graphics) - Has a faster HDD and faster DVD-RW - Is more expandable (PCI slots, room to add more memory, an AGP slot) - Has a faster CPU - Has free shipping
Frankly, the Mac mini leaves me a bit flat. It seems inexpensive at $500, but when you consider that Best Buy sells Computer + Monitor + Printer for $400, you're paying a big premium for that stylish case.
If you buy a Mac, understand what you are doing - you are buying the equivelent of a Lexus. It is a preimum product at a premium price. Don't try to pretend that Macs are Kias. They aren't.
Apple really screws you on DDR pricing, too. HP wanted $35 more for 512M - Apple wanted $75. Not to mention the DVD burner - HP wanted $50, Apple wanted $100.
(Sidenote: Apple's iBook is their most price-competitive product. The lowest-cost Pentium-M PCs are around $900, and the iBook is only $1300 when equipped similarly).
"what PC can I buy instead that will take up as little space and do as much for the same price (or less)?"
Mini-ITX is the way to go. You'll need a motherboard and CPU ($160), a good case and PSU ($70), a laptop HDD ($130 will get you a 60GB Seagate 5200rpm), an optical drive (DVD/CD-RW; $33) and some DDR ($80 for 512M).
Total: $473.
Compared to the Mac Mini:
+ More memory + Larger HDD + Twice as many USB ports + Parallel / Serial Ports + Free PCI Slot + Audio input + PS2 ports + Dual Ethernet
"Doesn't matter how much more bandwidth you're given if you can't use it without fear of getting a letter saying you're over whats considered reasonable bandwith use in your area, which is why I've stuck with 1.5m/384k DSL."
After pulling down at least 200GB of Linux isos last month, Comcast hasn't sent me anything.
Remember, this isn't a "business class" service. You are not paying for a service-level-agreement and the service is highly oversubscribed. You're not paying for a T1 and you shouldn't expect to get one.
I don't know about Europe, but in Denver, there's an easy way to get around the expensive parking.
RTD (the mass transportation group) offers a service called "SkyRide". For about $10, you get round-trip service connecting the airport (DIA) with one of RTD's "Park-N-Ride" stops. The best part is that they let you park for free.
Alternately, you can use the airport's "shuttle" parking. At $5 a day, even a 20 day trip is unlikely to approach the cost of your ticket (unless you have really cheap tickets).
"but at the expense of unreasonable processing power"
Not at all. Avalon makes heavy use of DX9 shaders to offload the work to the GPU.
Unlike Quartz Extreme, which only uses the GPU for compositing, Avalon offloads nearly all GUI operations to the GPU.
"don't forget this is an integral part of the Longhorn kernel"
Nope. It's user-land.
"but Enlightenment 0.17 will (hopefully) do everything Avalon does"
No, it won't. Most Linux apps are QT-based or GTK-based, meaning that Enlightenment is little more than a window manager. Unless we can switch a large number of Linux apps to the e17 foundation libraries (which, if I understand correctly, aren't meant to be a comprehensive toolkit like QT or GTK), e17 won't have the abilities of Avalon.
I am psyched about Avalon. Here's why:
- Pixel independance. Finally, Windows users will be able to choose whatever resolution they want and ajust the text (and icons/controls/other stuff) to a size they are comfortable with.
- 3D acceleration. Avalon enables lots of eye candy, and it does so without taking a whole lot of CPU time. In Microsoft demos, Avalon can animate 100s of translucent videos at full framerate without going above 5% CPU load.
- 3D integrated. Avalon makes 3D an integral part of the GUI. There's no need for complex APIs or dirty hacks to implement 3D functionality. Things like Excel graphs instantly get the benefits of 3D acceleration.
"However, every mac laptop I've had (iBook 12" G3 700Mhz, Lombard 400Mhz, TiBook 15" 1Ghz, Al book 15" 1,25Ghz) rarely turns on its fan. Sometimes after playing a DVD, although the Aluminum PowerBook has yet to use its fan ever."
A friend of mine has a PowerBook G4 12" 867mhz. It turns on its fan all the time.
My Pentium-M based notebook doesn't turn on its fan unless you stress the CPU (gaming). Even under 100% CPU load, the fan remains off most of the time.
Buy a P-M notebook, not a P4-M, and you'll see that PC notebooks can be just as quiet if not quieter than Powerbooks.
"2.) American predominance? Don't look now, but English will be surpassed as the most widely used language on the net in less than two years - or sooner."
By what? According to whose statistics? The #2 language used by Google users is German, and it's not going to be overtaking English anytime soon.
"I lived in Seoul for the last 4 years, and enjoyed it when they upgraded me from ADSL to VDSL, no charge, just to free up space in the lower speed catagories."
You want to know why that doesn't happen in the US?
No one knows what the hell VDSL is. No one knows what bandwidth is. Americans pride themselves in being poorly informed. We spend $50 on T-Shirts. We spend $20,000 on POS GM vehicles and don't demand better quality.
That's the difference. Americans want something that is "good enough". That's why you're never going to see the same kind of high-tech gadgets here that you see in Asia. There's simply no market for them.
The technology is there. DOCSIS 2.0 is 45mbit. We could have that bandwidth *tomorrow* if the cable company would reflash our modems. Why don't we? Because customers don't demand more bandwidth. They don't demand more because 3mbps is fast enough for most activities. Most people aren't downloading ISOs on a regular basis. Most people aren't downloading movies, despite what the MPAA would have you believe.
That's why dial-up is so popular. Millions of people see little reason to switch to broadband. Hell, if we can't get them to switch away from AOL, what makes you think that they would switch to broadband.
Right now, the US is at a critical stage: complacency. We're fat, dumb, and happy. We want to keep it that way, so we don't rock the boat. We resist change.
"AMD chipset, which forces you to use expensive registered memory. Once the nForce4-based dual proc boards are available, you'll be able to use regular memory, yay!"
Not true. The memory controller in Athlon 64 / Operon is on the die of the processor, not a part of the chipset.
Opteron systems will still require registered memory. If a dual-core Athlon 64 is released, it will probably be compatible with NForce3 as well as NForce4.
NForce4 is just NForce3 250GB with a new firewall, SATA with TCQ, and PCI Express.
Go download Netscape 4 and try to browse some real sites. Netscape 4:
- Had virtually useless CSS support - Had a completely broken DOM - Had to reload the page from cache every time you resized the browser - Took *forever* to render tables
Here's a little factoid: more users *downloaded* IE4 than downloaded Netscape 4.
That's right. More people downloaded IE4 than Netscape 4. More people *chose* to use IE4.
You were probably looking at one of the early Longhorn builds, which were remarkably similar to XP. The WinHEC build is much more "out there".
Compared to XP, current Longhorn betas have:
- A considerably updated Explorer UI - An entirely new, GUI-based installer - A new Plug-N-Play system - A new 3D accelerated GDI - A new search system (yes, WinFS is in the betas and it will be in the final Longhorn release - just not the network component) - Better filtering and grouping in the GUI - A new notification system - Contact and hardware viewing in the browser
Slashdot Mirror
"The x700 series, is just garbage."
" The 9600 XT has the same performance for the same price"
You're thinking of the x600, which is a 9600XT derivitive.
The x700 is a nice card, but I'd choose a 6600GT over it any day.
ATI's new lineup looks good, particularly the x800XL, but it's PCIe only. ATI also doesn't seem to bee particularly good in getting parts out the door - the XL still isn't showing up, more than a month after it was "launched".
NVIDIA has announced they won't be shipping a 6800 "refresh" part. The 6800 has a great architecture (a 400MHz 6800 is still competitive with the X850XT-PE at 540MHz). The 6600GT proves that the architecture scales to 500MHz, and I eagerly await a 16-pipe, 256-bit card at that frequency.
"or high end 6800 in stock"
Newegg has plenty of GeForce 6800s, 6800GTs, and 6800 Ultras in stock. They also have plenty of x800XT's in stock.
Doesn't seem to be a problem to me...
"You can do everything on OS X just using the mouse and clicking to get it"
Wow. You can do that in Windows, too. And GNOME, and KDE. No one is forcing Windows users to use that 2nd button. Many Windows users *never* use it. Explorer, for example, has all of the same commands in the "File" menu. It takes two clicks to get there, though, as it does on Mac OS.
"Also another beauty in OS X is that everything can be controlled through the keyboard which some people find very intuitive."
Complete keyboard control has been a Windows feature since it was introduced. You can access the menus with ALT accelerators, and in most applications every menu item is assined a letter on the keyboard. ALT+Space brings up a menu that lets you move/resize/close a window, the Windows Key brings up the Start Menu. There's even a key to access the context menu if you need it.
Here's something that many people ignore: context menus are *useful*. They are close to the cursor, so there's less mouse movement involved, and they combine two steps (selecting the object and opening the menu) into a single action.
"Its just a number identifying you"
No, it's not. It's a one-way hash of your MAC and other hardware information, combined with your product key.
Another note - you can save a lot of money by buying from someone OTHER than the wireless provider:
You can get a Nokia N-Gage QD for negative $50 (they give you $50) if you sign up for a year.
You can get a Nokia 6600 for free if you sign up for a year.
All not bad deals.
You don't have to be overcharged in the US - you just have to be smart.
Customers *aren't* demanding a fair market because they contiune to be ripped off by the carriers when there are many other options (eBay, 3rd party stores, etc.).
I bet people actually buy the $499 RAZR V3. Idiots.
"No... the phones don't cost a lot too... Only in north america are the phones price fixed...
They are price fixed in the US by the service providers.. and then that price fix is subsidized by your 1 year contract...
In other words, you are getting overcharged, and then they give you a discount.. There is nothing "expensive" about the process. I really hope more people in north america get enlightened about the state of affairs wrt cellphone contracts. Until customers start demanding a competative market for cellular service (and handset retailing) we won't be seeing anything any time soon.
Let me be clear here. Cheaper phones will not have a price discount passed on to the consumers in north america. They are already damn cheap to manufacture. those screens don't cost anything to make and the circuit boards are a dime a dozen. This isn't new technology. everywhere else in the world phones are actually based on their cost to manufacture rather than their features which are enabled/disabled by the service provider. The only person who will see a benefit for integrated chips on cellphones is the executives of cingular, verison, and sprint.
maybe in the long run you will see more reliable cellphones because of this. But that is all."
Cellphones in the US are only expensive because people don't know where to use. I got a used Nokia 3590 (a fine GSM phone), unlocked, with the battery, charger, and headset - for $19.
Now if you go to Cingular and buy a RAZR V3, then you're really getting ripped off. It's £30 with a year contract in the UK, or $500 with a 2-year contract in the US. What a difference.
If you opt for something like the Nokia 6820, though, you get a better deal. It's $50 with a contract in the US, and £0-£49 in the UK (depending on contract).
The basic phones aren't such a ripoff in the US - it's the expensive, trendy phones where people pay out the ass.
"News flash, Bill, it has to work for people to say they like it."
:30 jump / :8 jumpback are instant.
MCE2005 *does* work. It works damn well. The system wakes up and records at the right time. It's easy to set up. It supports a broad range of hardware. It has a nice interface. The conflict management system is good. The UI is fast. FF/RW and
There are plenty of nice touches - it will tell you why a show didn't record (e.g. "Cancelled by ", "System Off", "Conflict", etc.). It will tell you which user deleted a program and when it was deleted. You can see at a glance which programs will not record due to a confict (unlike TiVo's "To Do List").
Media Center 2005 is a stable, fast, usable product. It's a solid PVR foundation with a very nice UI. Get yourself a $70 TV tuner (ATI E-Home Wonder is good) a remote control (Microsoft makes a nice one for $40), and MCE2005 ($135). It's more than a TiVo but it's also a much better product.
Some of us *do* like MCE2005.
No, the critics cry that the Mini video is acceptable, but that the PC equipped with a GeForce 6600GT (which is still less expensive than the Mac) is better.
I never claimed that Intel Integrated Garbage was better than the Radeon in the Mac. It's adequete, though, if you don't want to play 3D games.
"- Larger
- Louder"
I mentioned larger, but it's not louder. The EPIA motherboard I selected does not have a fan.
"nd you can add memory to the MacMini just like you can a PC, so the "+More Memory" is a little misleading."
I was comparing the amount of memory in the priced configuration. Of course you can add more memory to the Mac Mini.
"Who needs a Parallel or Serial port anymore? Who needs PS2 ports?"
Many people. Remember, not everyone has a USB keyboard sitting around.
"But the main thing to consider is that the MacMini comes with OSX (regular version - not stripped down "home" version) and iLife (I use iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD regularly - they are great..)"
Well, iTunes is free, Picasa is an excellent (free) alternative to iPhoto, Windows Movie Maker 2 is free and better than iMovie (see the
"X vs XP" review), and iDVD is easily replicated by something like Sonic MyDVD.
And XP Home is perfectly acceptable for home users. Name a feature in XP Pro that a typical home user would need.
"if you took all the time you'd spend gathering parts and assembling them and worked a minimum-wage job at some fast food place instead, you'd earn hundreds of dollars"
BULLSHIT! The numbers DON'T WORK OUT!
Ordering the parts for a system from Newegg takes about 20 minutes. Assembling the system is perhaps 1-2 hours. THAT'S UNDER $15 AT MINIMUM WAGE.
"Hundreds of Dollars" in terms of a minimum-wage job is AT LEAST 40 hours after taxes, and if you're spending 40 hours buying and assembling your PC, you need help.
"People who say "I can build that for less" are either not bothering to account for their time or just flat-out lying"
No, we're not. My time right now is worth $9 an hour. It takes me about three hours to order and build a system.
And did you ever stop to think that perhaps I *enjoy* building PCs? That's why I do it for free for friends.
Now, the real issue you need to be attacking is that a homemade system does not have the kind of support that a commercial system does. Don't expect to have someone to call when your system gets spyware. You do, however, usually have a warranty on the individual components.
Still, let's compare:
HP Pavilion a700y:
- Windows XP Home SP2
- Pentium 4 2.8GHz (~ 1.8GHz G4)
- 256M PC2700 DDR
- 80GB 7200RPM HDD
- 16X DVD-R DL Drive
- 2 USB 2.0, 1 FireWire
- Intel Integrated GPU
- Works 7.0
- 1 Year Warranty
- Keyboard / Mouse
Compare to the Apple Mac Mini:
- Mac OS X 10.3
- PowerPC G4 1.4GHz
- 256M PC2700 DDR
- 80GB 4200RPM HDD
- 4X DVD-RW
- 2 USB 2.0, 1 FireWire
- Radeon 9200 16M
- iLife 04
- 1 Year Warranty
Looks pretty similar, right? The Apple has a smaller case and better graphics. The HP has a faster HDD and DVD-RW, plus a keyboard and mouse. I'd say they are decently matched.
Here's the thing: the HP is $489. The Apple is $699. The HP includes shipping, the Apple does not.
For $210 (plus the price of a Keyboard/Mouse), the difference betwen the two units, you could add a GeForce 6600GT to the HP.
And remember, these are current prices from the websites of HP/Apple. I started with the $599 Apple and added the SuperDrive. I started with the HP and configured it to the specs above. Check it out for yourself.
Both are built, supported systems. The Apple is certainly smaller and more stylish.
The HP, however:
- Is $220 cheaper (or has far better graphics)
- Has a faster HDD and faster DVD-RW
- Is more expandable (PCI slots, room to add more memory, an AGP slot)
- Has a faster CPU
- Has free shipping
Frankly, the Mac mini leaves me a bit flat. It seems inexpensive at $500, but when you consider that Best Buy sells Computer + Monitor + Printer for $400, you're paying a big premium for that stylish case.
If you buy a Mac, understand what you are doing - you are buying the equivelent of a Lexus. It is a preimum product at a premium price. Don't try to pretend that Macs are Kias. They aren't.
Apple really screws you on DDR pricing, too. HP wanted $35 more for 512M - Apple wanted $75. Not to mention the DVD burner - HP wanted $50, Apple wanted $100.
(Sidenote: Apple's iBook is their most price-competitive product. The lowest-cost Pentium-M PCs are around $900, and the iBook is only $1300 when equipped similarly).
"what PC can I buy instead that will take up as little space and do as much for the same price (or less)?"
Mini-ITX is the way to go. You'll need a motherboard and CPU ($160), a good case and PSU ($70), a laptop HDD ($130 will get you a 60GB Seagate 5200rpm), an optical drive (DVD/CD-RW; $33) and some DDR ($80 for 512M).
Total: $473.
Compared to the Mac Mini:
+ More memory
+ Larger HDD
+ Twice as many USB ports
+ Parallel / Serial Ports
+ Free PCI Slot
+ Audio input
+ PS2 ports
+ Dual Ethernet
- Slower CPU
- Slightly Larger
- No FireWire
Add Linux or Windows.
"Doesn't matter how much more bandwidth you're given if you can't use it without fear of getting a letter saying you're over whats considered reasonable bandwith use in your area, which is why I've stuck with 1.5m/384k DSL."
After pulling down at least 200GB of Linux isos last month, Comcast hasn't sent me anything.
Remember, this isn't a "business class" service. You are not paying for a service-level-agreement and the service is highly oversubscribed. You're not paying for a T1 and you shouldn't expect to get one.
I don't know about Europe, but in Denver, there's an easy way to get around the expensive parking.
RTD (the mass transportation group) offers a service called "SkyRide". For about $10, you get round-trip service connecting the airport (DIA) with one of RTD's "Park-N-Ride" stops. The best part is that they let you park for free.
Alternately, you can use the airport's "shuttle" parking. At $5 a day, even a 20 day trip is unlikely to approach the cost of your ticket (unless you have really cheap tickets).
"but at the expense of unreasonable processing power"
Not at all. Avalon makes heavy use of DX9 shaders to offload the work to the GPU.
Unlike Quartz Extreme, which only uses the GPU for compositing, Avalon offloads nearly all GUI operations to the GPU.
"don't forget this is an integral part of the Longhorn kernel"
Nope. It's user-land.
"but Enlightenment 0.17 will (hopefully) do everything Avalon does"
No, it won't. Most Linux apps are QT-based or GTK-based, meaning that Enlightenment is little more than a window manager. Unless we can switch a large number of Linux apps to the e17 foundation libraries (which, if I understand correctly, aren't meant to be a comprehensive toolkit like QT or GTK), e17 won't have the abilities of Avalon.
I am psyched about Avalon. Here's why:
- Pixel independance. Finally, Windows users will be able to choose whatever resolution they want and ajust the text (and icons/controls/other stuff) to a size they are comfortable with.
- 3D acceleration. Avalon enables lots of eye candy, and it does so without taking a whole lot of CPU time. In Microsoft demos, Avalon can animate 100s of translucent videos at full framerate without going above 5% CPU load.
- 3D integrated. Avalon makes 3D an integral part of the GUI. There's no need for complex APIs or dirty hacks to implement 3D functionality. Things like Excel graphs instantly get the benefits of 3D acceleration.
Microsoft.com is the #5 site on the internet. I think that they can handle a slashdotting.
" For $500 and $8.33 a month, you could get a Mac mini and do the same thing, with less viruses and spyware."
Wow. Someone didn't even read the Slashdot story summary.
HINT: It doesn't run Windows.
"When Microsoft lets you upgrade to new versions without paying another license fee, let us know."
When RedHat or Novell lets you do this, let me know.
Remember, in the enterprise, Linux doesn't mean "throwing up a copy of Fedora."
Linux in the enterprise means a stable, supported product like NDL, SLES, or RHEL. And those products aren't free.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc ription=55-102-169&depa=0
OK, so it's $25 more. But it has a screen, an FM tuner, and a voice recorder.
It syncs pretty nicely with Windows Media Player 10.
"However, every mac laptop I've had (iBook 12" G3 700Mhz, Lombard 400Mhz, TiBook 15" 1Ghz, Al book 15" 1,25Ghz) rarely turns on its fan. Sometimes after playing a DVD, although the Aluminum PowerBook has yet to use its fan ever."
A friend of mine has a PowerBook G4 12" 867mhz. It turns on its fan all the time.
My Pentium-M based notebook doesn't turn on its fan unless you stress the CPU (gaming). Even under 100% CPU load, the fan remains off most of the time.
Buy a P-M notebook, not a P4-M, and you'll see that PC notebooks can be just as quiet if not quieter than Powerbooks.
"2.) American predominance? Don't look now, but English will be surpassed as the most widely used language on the net in less than two years - or sooner."
By what? According to whose statistics? The #2 language used by Google users is German, and it's not going to be overtaking English anytime soon.
"I lived in Seoul for the last 4 years, and enjoyed it when they upgraded me from ADSL to VDSL, no charge, just to free up space in the lower speed catagories."
You want to know why that doesn't happen in the US?
No one knows what the hell VDSL is. No one knows what bandwidth is. Americans pride themselves in being poorly informed. We spend $50 on T-Shirts. We spend $20,000 on POS GM vehicles and don't demand better quality.
That's the difference. Americans want something that is "good enough". That's why you're never going to see the same kind of high-tech gadgets here that you see in Asia. There's simply no market for them.
The technology is there. DOCSIS 2.0 is 45mbit. We could have that bandwidth *tomorrow* if the cable company would reflash our modems. Why don't we? Because customers don't demand more bandwidth. They don't demand more because 3mbps is fast enough for most activities. Most people aren't downloading ISOs on a regular basis. Most people aren't downloading movies, despite what the MPAA would have you believe.
That's why dial-up is so popular. Millions of people see little reason to switch to broadband. Hell, if we can't get them to switch away from AOL, what makes you think that they would switch to broadband.
Right now, the US is at a critical stage: complacency. We're fat, dumb, and happy. We want to keep it that way, so we don't rock the boat. We resist change.
Unfortunately, that will be our downfall.
"AMD chipset, which forces you to use expensive registered memory. Once the nForce4-based dual proc boards are available, you'll be able to use regular memory, yay!"
Not true. The memory controller in Athlon 64 / Operon is on the die of the processor, not a part of the chipset.
Opteron systems will still require registered memory. If a dual-core Athlon 64 is released, it will probably be compatible with NForce3 as well as NForce4.
NForce4 is just NForce3 250GB with a new firewall, SATA with TCQ, and PCI Express.
"Netscape was always technically superior to IE."
Holy shit, what are you smoking?
Go download Netscape 4 and try to browse some real sites. Netscape 4:
- Had virtually useless CSS support
- Had a completely broken DOM
- Had to reload the page from cache every time you resized the browser
- Took *forever* to render tables
Here's a little factoid: more users *downloaded* IE4 than downloaded Netscape 4.
That's right. More people downloaded IE4 than Netscape 4. More people *chose* to use IE4.
"Just wait until you get that first STOP error."
99% of Stop Errors are caused by:
- Faulty hardware (usually DRAM or a disk)
- Faulty drivers
Run WHQL drivers, run MemTest86 too see if your DRAM is OK, and see if you still get Stop Errors.
T-Mobile (in the US) will unlock phones after you have had service for 90 days if your account is current.
You were probably looking at one of the early Longhorn builds, which were remarkably similar to XP. The WinHEC build is much more "out there".
Compared to XP, current Longhorn betas have:
- A considerably updated Explorer UI
- An entirely new, GUI-based installer
- A new Plug-N-Play system
- A new 3D accelerated GDI
- A new search system (yes, WinFS is in the betas and it will be in the final Longhorn release - just not the network component)
- Better filtering and grouping in the GUI
- A new notification system
- Contact and hardware viewing in the browser