* I didn't say Apple invented USB. But USB didn't take off until Apple adopted it for iMac in 1997. USB 2.0 was mounted by Intel as an answer to FireWire (competition driving innovation resulting in better products).
* FireWire -- your characterization of it as "...used mostly for digital cameras to take pics of the grandchildren" is just contentious and ignorant. Apple didn't win a technical Emmy for inventing a mere snapshot vehicle.
* Dell has just made the floppy optional almost six years after Apple took the lead. You may not call it innovation, but the handwriting has been on the wall for a long time and Apple put it there.
* Hardware Design: companies are copying innovations Apple has made in tower and laptop styling. PC laptops are consistently six-to-nine months behind Apple designs. That's something you can look up yourself. Besides, name one other hardware company that's doing as much vis-a-vis design. Apple innovated inclusion of 802.11b in every machine long before PC manufacturers did it. And it's STILL easier to configure.
* What proof do I have of their ability to weather this economic crisis? As I said, the company has no fat on it. It's not wasting ANY money and has been in this lean mode for over a year. But it still employs some of the most talented people in the industry and spends money to support technologies it deems important. It has consistently high margins. It is one of the few companies in position to take advantage of the business climate now that Microsoft has lost its antitrust suit. Its stores are making money and they're still on track to open more. Besides, what proof do you have for YOUR prognostication? Apple was founded in 1975 and I've been an active participant in the community for the past fifteen years. More authoritative sources than you have been saying that Apple wouldn't survive in all that time and they've been wrong. Apple has been "dying" for almost thirty years now. The burden of proof is on you.
* Price -- You keep saying that Apple is "charging more $$ for a box that does no more tha(n) a PC or does it any better." That is your opinion. Not fact. An old-style iMac is a good value at $799. Show me a PC-based laptop that's a better buy than a $999 iBook. New and old Macs consistently hold their resale value at a MUCH higher rate than PC's. And they run Mac OS X. There's a myriad of issues I don't have to worry about because I use Macintosh (viruses, registry corruption, "trusted computing," spyware, parasites, etc.). That's worth something to me, even if it means nothing to you.
Finally, if you're going to discuss the issue, discuss it. The condescending tone ("...you may wanna do a little homework...) is particularly unseemly in the face of your own shoddy tactics. You paraphrased NASDAQ's information about the stock. You left out the optimistic analysis at the end of it. And you betray an ingrained ignorance about the platform that makes an informative discussion difficult. If you can't do better, don't bother. You have no idea who you're talking to...
Apple's finances are held together with spit, string, and bubble gum. The phrase "smoke and mirrors" comes to mind.
Apple has around four billion dollars cash in the bank; that's a lot of spit, string and bubble gum. If they began losing a quarter of a billion bucks a quarter right now, they'd be dead in...what...four years?
Apple's finances were "smoke and mirrors" under the regime of Gil Amelio, but CFO Fred Andersen has done an exemplary job since he was put in charge. The company is lean--extremely lean. The new operating system allows them to make a variety of decisions about platform (I believe that they'll directly challenge Microsoft in the x86 space as well as offer the new Power5 chip from IBM--nothing says that it HAS to be either or, and Microsoft seems to be doing well selling software). The antitrust climate ties Microsoft's hands vis-a-vis competition with Apple.
Finally, Apple's innovations in technology and design have driven the industry since its inception and continues to do so to this day (FireWire, no floppy, Rendevous, hardware appearance, USB, etc.).
They're in an excellent position to weather this tough economy and to expand market share if and when things look up...in much better shape than Gateway and the other box-builders trying to get by in the commoditized climate created by Dell.
As was mentioned elsewhere (and on Slashdot late last month), the "software audit threat" is a sales tool. It isn't clear from the article whether Microsoft was going to conduct this audit itself or have the BSA do it, but the threat caused Houston to embrace SimDesk:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technol og y/2003-01-21-simdesk-cover_x.htm
Aren't those USB drives expensive? The thing about floppy's is that they're cheap and if you just wanted to move a paper you types for english from your computer to a school computer, it's effiecient.
We've been dealing with this issue on the Mac side since iMac; the answer is an external floppy drive, now that USB has become "universal." These also cut down on expenses like the ones incurred when internal floppy drives fail. My customers just pay for the replacement hardware and plug it in themselves rather than having a bill for major surgery.
> Actually it was Scully and then Amelio who nearly killed the company. Jobs brought the company back to profitability within a year of retaking the reins.
Amen! Amelio couldn't market his way out of a paper bag and didn't know anything about the personal computer business. And you didn't mention--mercifully--the short, disastrous reign of "The Diesel": Michael Spindler (shudder).
I'd much rather vote for Steve than the psychotic tinhorn we've got in the chair now.
Too expensive, nonstandard hardware, too many apps don't run on it, why in the world would someone "switch"? The only reason Macs suck less now than they used to is the hardware is becoming more PC-like!
I don't expect that the fact that you've contradicted yourself in the course of two sentences will mean anything to you, so I'll let it pass.
However...
I support PCs and Macs. I can buy the following and install them into a Mac tower with no problem: PC100 and/or PC 133 memory; IDE drives; SCSI drives; USB 2.0 (via PCI card); nVidia and ATI video cards; aftermarket fans; internal ZIP drives--they're IDE but what the hell--floppy drives (via USB); VGA monitors (CRT and LCD) and CPU upgrades.
Two other points: (1) I can run most Windows applications just fine with Virtual PC; (2) Check out the Mac OS X pane of www.versiontracker.com sometime. You'd just about be ready to graduate high school by the time you'd tried all the freeware, let alone the commercial and shareware apps.
> I'm off to play Battlefield 1942, hahaha!
Judging from your apparent level of maturity, I'll bet you're going off to play with something else... if you can find it.
Ars Technica has a review of MovieLink on its front page today. Looks like a big HO-HUM for Mac users if the disadvantages to its PC customers are accurately portrayed.
It turns out that you're correct: Jaguar only browses the local subnet. A search of Apple's Knowledge Base on "SMB" acknowledges this and suggests--as you've found--that there other ways to reach entities beyond your own subnet. Apologies.
You can browse any properly-configured Windows network with Jaguar. Apple's SMB implementation was designed to allow you to drop a server into an existing network and have it "play well" with everyone else. Check out Apple's tech note #24448 (it deals with AppleShare IP--Apple's Mac OS 9 server software), but the issues discussed apply to the SMB implementation in Jaguar as well.
If you've provided a domain controller/WINS server or a readily-available LMHOSTS config, you shouldn't have the trouble you're having.
Windows software runs in emulation under MacOS X (and MacOS 9). Connectix, the maker of the most popular emulator, "Virtual PC" (VPC), has to do a better job on performance--especially with graphic-intensive applications--but I buy and install any Windows software package I need and run it on my Macintosh G4.
I have Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 (sp6) installed on one VPC setup and I plan to put XP on another. I'm a computing consultant and I regularly invite my clients to forward suspicious software to me. I run it on a clean, isolated VPC machine and, if it turns out to be a virus, I inform the customer, drag the test machine into the trash and I'm on my merry way. And it's more stable and easier to maintain than an actual PC.
As I said before, if they could get performance out of the doldrums, Apple would have another great "switch" story to tell.
The most galling thing about Microsoft is that their dominance could be understood if they were THE BEST at something other than the raw business-end of computing. They've out-maneuvered Apple, DEC, IBM, DrDOS, Netscape, Sun--you all know the list--and they've become the richest, most powerful company in computing.
But they're RUINING the Internet experience for anyone other than those on the platforms they favor. They've "embraced and extended" critical standards for their own advantage (i.e. screwed them up beyond all recognition). As anyone who has worked with SMB will attest, they leave out important technological facts in the specifications that make the term "Common Internet Filing System" (CIFS) a bitter joke. They've coerced the world's computer makers into including their software on most of the new machines sold. They're thriving on technology that they've "adopted." Their security? Laughable, if it weren't so serious. To adapt a line from Peter Bogdanovich's "Paper Moon": "If they've got something cool, you can bet it belonged to somebody else." The majority of their products reek of "The Microsoft Touch" Their products are like a sexually attractive person with a bad dose of the clap.
Again, if they were the best at ANYTHING technological--besides Exploder and their mice, I guess--it would be different. But their work is consistently bloated, shoddy and oversold. They have no problem polishing a turd to make a buck. They just seem to don't know a turd when they see one.
"...No taste," as someone said.
They deserve to be slapped by the federal antitrust court and slapped HARD. They are a drag on the industry as far as innovation is concerned and now they're applying the Microsoft Touch to "The Big Lie." What's next?
Bravo to Slashdot for catching them. Shows the power of thinking for yourself.
If one lousy key is enough to keep you from buying a Macintosh, then I'm glad you feel it's that important. And Apple isn't "ignoring the Unix market;" it's ignoring YOU...
>...Apple will tell you they have appletalk why do we care what anyone else does...
This is a bald-faced lie. I'd say you were ignorant if you had a clue about anything Apple has been doing regarding networks, but you pulled the above quote out of your ass. I was working there when they KILLED the use of AppleTalk on the campus network in favor of TCP/IP and that was YEARS ago.
Oh... and have a nice day! Apple may have its head up its ass in a lot of ways, but imposing AppleTalk on anyone who doesn't want to use it is NOT its current mode of operation and hasn't been for a long time. And I have NEVER had the trouble with Macintosh networking that I have had with getting Novell and Windows networking to operate properly either separately or in concert. Write back when you stop composing your "contributions" with excrement from your diaper.
Bill Catambay provides this indispendable website for experienced and beginning Pascal programmers. There's plenty of code samples, tools and projects for Macintosh and Windows.
I updated to IE 5.2.1 and it promptly changed my homepage to MSN! However, they've improved text presentation so dramatically that I'm having to resist the instinct that it's the upshot of some M$ dirty trick.
It protects the client's right against self-incrimination. Without privilege, the government could simply obtain evidence it wanted from the attorney (steal it... physically threaten or jail the attorney... bribery...) and convict the person.
And I think OJ's lawyers simply asked him what happened the night his wife and Ron Goldman were killed. They took what he told them and fashioned their defense to fit it. It worked.
In other words: the US government is prohibited from making any laws that establish a state-endorsed religion, or provide for favorable treatment of one religious group over another; and also from making any laws that keep someone from practicing their religion. The ACLU position clearly violates both provisions of the constitution - they think Congress has the right and responsibility to pass laws regarding religion, and prohibiting the excercise of religious freedom, in order to keep religion from "contaminating" the government.
This is flat-out wrong! There is absolutely NO prohibition against the private exercise of religion in schools as long as it doesn't conflict with the establishment clause. If you think there IS a prohibition, you don't understand the amendment. The ACLU is trying to stop religious advocates from doing damage to the letter and spirit of this amendment. Any conduct that allows taxpayer funds to be turned to religious uses (including paying teachers to initiate or participate in religious observances during class time) is illegal,
If you want to live in a country where a teacher could demand that your child bow to Mecca, say Kaddish, or recite the Lord's prayer before class (these things are equivalent), then leave the United States because it ain't gonna happen here!
The high-tech industry is made up of human beings. Human beings have prejudices. They tend to prefer people who look, act and think like themselves. For instance, one of the managers in the company I work for decided to publish a pictorial version of his org chart a few years ago--a rundown of all his direct reports. Out of thirty-five positions, EVERY ONE was filled by a white male between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-five. No matter how you slice it, there is something wrong with that.
No one ascribed this to overt racism. I daresay that no one was more surprised at this than the manager himself.
Another incident: I'm African-American. I was working as a project lead under a manager. I was fortunate enough to have a very sharp white guy working for me. Whenever I would approach my manager with an idea, he'd never accept it directly from me. He'd run it past my subordinate or one of his other white direct reports before saying yea or nay. Nothing malicious about it; he just wasn't used to good ideas coming from someone who looked like me. Could have been worse, though. He didn't listen to women at all.
People have to be educated about this issue. Good work, good ideas and innovation don't come only from white male minds. Affirmative action, at its best, makes organizations mindful of this fact and sees that it is put into practice.
Slashdot Mirror
If you've got a bootable Windows 98 or 2000 disk, try booting from that. Perform a full format and see if that doesn't allow you to re-install XP.
HTH
(And I won't say "get a Mac!")
Brett720? Is dat you, baby?
* I didn't say Apple invented USB. But USB didn't take off until Apple adopted it for iMac in 1997. USB 2.0 was mounted by Intel as an answer to FireWire (competition driving innovation resulting in better products).
* FireWire -- your characterization of it as "...used mostly for digital cameras to take pics of the grandchildren" is just contentious and ignorant. Apple didn't win a technical Emmy for inventing a mere snapshot vehicle.
* Dell has just made the floppy optional almost six years after Apple took the lead. You may not call it innovation, but the handwriting has been on the wall for a long time and Apple put it there.
* Hardware Design: companies are copying innovations Apple has made in tower and laptop styling. PC laptops are consistently six-to-nine months behind Apple designs. That's something you can look up yourself. Besides, name one other hardware company that's doing as much vis-a-vis design. Apple innovated inclusion of 802.11b in every machine long before PC manufacturers did it. And it's STILL easier to configure.
* What proof do I have of their ability to weather this economic crisis? As I said, the company has no fat on it. It's not wasting ANY money and has been in this lean mode for over a year. But it still employs some of the most talented people in the industry and spends money to support technologies it deems important. It has consistently high margins. It is one of the few companies in position to take advantage of the business climate now that Microsoft has lost its antitrust suit. Its stores are making money and they're still on track to open more. Besides, what proof do you have for YOUR prognostication? Apple was founded in 1975 and I've been an active participant in the community for the past fifteen years. More authoritative sources than you have been saying that Apple wouldn't survive in all that time and they've been wrong. Apple has been "dying" for almost thirty years now. The burden of proof is on you.
* Price -- You keep saying that Apple is "charging more $$ for a box that does no more tha(n) a PC or does it any better." That is your opinion. Not fact. An old-style iMac is a good value at $799. Show me a PC-based laptop that's a better buy than a $999 iBook. New and old Macs consistently hold their resale value at a MUCH higher rate than PC's. And they run Mac OS X. There's a myriad of issues I don't have to worry about because I use Macintosh (viruses, registry corruption, "trusted computing," spyware, parasites, etc.). That's worth something to me, even if it means nothing to you.
Finally, if you're going to discuss the issue, discuss it. The condescending tone ("...you may wanna do a little homework...) is particularly unseemly in the face of your own shoddy tactics. You paraphrased NASDAQ's information about the stock. You left out the optimistic analysis at the end of it. And you betray an ingrained ignorance about the platform that makes an informative discussion difficult. If you can't do better, don't bother. You have no idea who you're talking to...
Apple has around four billion dollars cash in the bank; that's a lot of spit, string and bubble gum. If they began losing a quarter of a billion bucks a quarter right now, they'd be dead in...what...four years?
Apple's finances were "smoke and mirrors" under the regime of Gil Amelio, but CFO Fred Andersen has done an exemplary job since he was put in charge. The company is lean--extremely lean. The new operating system allows them to make a variety of decisions about platform (I believe that they'll directly challenge Microsoft in the x86 space as well as offer the new Power5 chip from IBM--nothing says that it HAS to be either or, and Microsoft seems to be doing well selling software). The antitrust climate ties Microsoft's hands vis-a-vis competition with Apple.
Finally, Apple's innovations in technology and design have driven the industry since its inception and continues to do so to this day (FireWire, no floppy, Rendevous, hardware appearance, USB, etc.).
They're in an excellent position to weather this tough economy and to expand market share if and when things look up...in much better shape than Gateway and the other box-builders trying to get by in the commoditized climate created by Dell.
And that's the fact, Jack!
As was mentioned elsewhere (and on Slashdot late last month), the "software audit threat" is a sales tool. It isn't clear from the article whether Microsoft was going to conduct this audit itself or have the BSA do it, but the threat caused Houston to embrace SimDesk:
l og y/2003-01-21-simdesk-cover_x.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/techno
"Lemming! Lemming! lemming of the BSA!
Lemming! Lemming!
Lemming of the BS..Lemming of the BS..
Lemming of the BSA-aa-aaa!!!"
We've been dealing with this issue on the Mac side since iMac; the answer is an external floppy drive, now that USB has become "universal." These also cut down on expenses like the ones incurred when internal floppy drives fail. My customers just pay for the replacement hardware and plug it in themselves rather than having a bill for major surgery.
> Actually it was Scully and then Amelio who nearly killed the company. Jobs brought the company back to profitability within a year of retaking the reins.
Amen! Amelio couldn't market his way out of a paper bag and didn't know anything about the personal computer business. And you didn't mention--mercifully--the short, disastrous reign of "The Diesel": Michael Spindler (shudder).
I'd much rather vote for Steve than the psychotic tinhorn we've got in the chair now.
I don't expect that the fact that you've contradicted yourself in the course of two sentences will mean anything to you, so I'll let it pass.
However...
I support PCs and Macs. I can buy the following and install them into a Mac tower with no problem: PC100 and/or PC 133 memory; IDE drives; SCSI drives; USB 2.0 (via PCI card); nVidia and ATI video cards; aftermarket fans; internal ZIP drives--they're IDE but what the hell--floppy drives (via USB); VGA monitors (CRT and LCD) and CPU upgrades.
Two other points: (1) I can run most Windows applications just fine with Virtual PC; (2) Check out the Mac OS X pane of www.versiontracker.com sometime. You'd just about be ready to graduate high school by the time you'd tried all the freeware, let alone the commercial and shareware apps.
> I'm off to play Battlefield 1942, hahaha!
Judging from your apparent level of maturity, I'll bet you're going off to play with something else... if you can find it.
> Why, I bet it does! Of course, since the iPod can only play mp3 files you're shit out of luck now aren't you? You might as well upload jpegs.
It also accomodates WAV and AIFF files...
Ars Technica has a review of MovieLink on its front page today. Looks like a big HO-HUM for Mac users if the disadvantages to its PC customers are accurately portrayed.
It turns out that you're correct: Jaguar only browses the local subnet. A search of Apple's Knowledge Base on "SMB" acknowledges this and suggests--as you've found--that there other ways to reach entities beyond your own subnet. Apologies.
You can browse any properly-configured Windows network with Jaguar. Apple's SMB implementation was designed to allow you to drop a server into an existing network and have it "play well" with everyone else. Check out Apple's tech note #24448 (it deals with AppleShare IP--Apple's Mac OS 9 server software), but the issues discussed apply to the SMB implementation in Jaguar as well.
If you've provided a domain controller/WINS server or a readily-available LMHOSTS config, you shouldn't have the trouble you're having.
Windows software runs in emulation under MacOS X (and MacOS 9). Connectix, the maker of the most popular emulator, "Virtual PC" (VPC), has to do a better job on performance--especially with graphic-intensive applications--but I buy and install any Windows software package I need and run it on my Macintosh G4.
I have Windows 98 and Windows NT 4.0 (sp6) installed on one VPC setup and I plan to put XP on another. I'm a computing consultant and I regularly invite my clients to forward suspicious software to me. I run it on a clean, isolated VPC machine and, if it turns out to be a virus, I inform the customer, drag the test machine into the trash and I'm on my merry way. And it's more stable and easier to maintain than an actual PC.
As I said before, if they could get performance out of the doldrums, Apple would have another great "switch" story to tell.
First! Second! Neutral! Park!
Hie thee hence, thou leafy narc!
The most galling thing about Microsoft is that their dominance could be understood if they were THE BEST at something other than the raw business-end of computing. They've out-maneuvered Apple, DEC, IBM, DrDOS, Netscape, Sun--you all know the list--and they've become the richest, most powerful company in computing.
But they're RUINING the Internet experience for anyone other than those on the platforms they favor. They've "embraced and extended" critical standards for their own advantage (i.e. screwed them up beyond all recognition). As anyone who has worked with SMB will attest, they leave out important technological facts in the specifications that make the term "Common Internet Filing System" (CIFS) a bitter joke. They've coerced the world's computer makers into including their software on most of the new machines sold. They're thriving on technology that they've "adopted." Their security? Laughable, if it weren't so serious. To adapt a line from Peter Bogdanovich's "Paper Moon": "If they've got something cool, you can bet it belonged to somebody else." The majority of their products reek of "The Microsoft Touch" Their products are like a sexually attractive person with a bad dose of the clap.
Again, if they were the best at ANYTHING technological--besides Exploder and their mice, I guess--it would be different. But their work is consistently bloated, shoddy and oversold. They have no problem polishing a turd to make a buck. They just seem to don't know a turd when they see one.
"...No taste," as someone said.
They deserve to be slapped by the federal antitrust court and slapped HARD. They are a drag on the industry as far as innovation is concerned and now they're applying the Microsoft Touch to "The Big Lie." What's next?
Bravo to Slashdot for catching them. Shows the power of thinking for yourself.
If one lousy key is enough to keep you from buying a Macintosh, then I'm glad you feel it's that important. And Apple isn't "ignoring the Unix market;" it's ignoring YOU...
As well it should...
> ...Apple will tell you they have appletalk why do we care what anyone else does...
This is a bald-faced lie. I'd say you were ignorant if you had a clue about anything Apple has been doing regarding networks, but you pulled the above quote out of your ass. I was working there when they KILLED the use of AppleTalk on the campus network in favor of TCP/IP and that was YEARS ago.
Oh... and have a nice day!
Apple may have its head up its ass in a lot of ways, but imposing AppleTalk on anyone who doesn't want to use it is NOT its current mode of operation and hasn't been for a long time. And I have NEVER had the trouble with Macintosh networking that I have had with getting Novell and Windows networking to operate properly either separately or in concert. Write back when you stop composing your "contributions" with excrement from your diaper.
Bill Catambay provides this indispendable website for experienced and beginning Pascal programmers. There's plenty of code samples, tools and projects for Macintosh and Windows.
I updated to IE 5.2.1 and it promptly changed my homepage to MSN! However, they've improved text presentation so dramatically that I'm having to resist the instinct that it's the upshot of some M$ dirty trick.
That won't be hard; I've never frothed before...
(Gleefully stolen from "Granny Growler" of the old "Tom Slick" cartoons).
There's another longstanding instance of this: has anyone managed to download Netscape Navigator using a Microsoft browser?
It protects the client's right against self-incrimination. Without privilege, the government could simply obtain evidence it wanted from the attorney (steal it... physically threaten or jail the attorney... bribery...) and convict the person.
And I think OJ's lawyers simply asked him what happened the night his wife and Ron Goldman were killed. They took what he told them and fashioned their defense to fit it. It worked.
In other words: the US government is prohibited from making any laws that establish a state-endorsed religion, or provide for favorable treatment of one religious group over another; and also from making any laws that keep someone from practicing their religion. The ACLU position clearly violates both provisions of the constitution - they think Congress has the right and responsibility to pass laws regarding religion, and prohibiting the excercise of religious freedom, in order to keep religion from "contaminating" the government.
This is flat-out wrong! There is absolutely NO prohibition against the private exercise of religion in schools as long as it doesn't conflict with the establishment clause. If you think there IS a prohibition, you don't understand the amendment. The ACLU is trying to stop religious advocates from doing damage to the letter and spirit of this amendment. Any conduct that allows taxpayer funds to be turned to religious uses (including paying teachers to initiate or participate in religious observances during class time) is illegal,
If you want to live in a country where a teacher could demand that your child bow to Mecca, say Kaddish, or recite the Lord's prayer before class (these things are equivalent), then leave the United States because it ain't gonna happen here!
The high-tech industry is made up of human beings. Human beings have prejudices. They tend to prefer people who look, act and think like themselves. For instance, one of the managers in the company I work for decided to publish a pictorial version of his org chart a few years ago--a rundown of all his direct reports. Out of thirty-five positions, EVERY ONE was filled by a white male between the ages of twenty-five and fifty-five. No matter how you slice it, there is something wrong with that.
No one ascribed this to overt racism. I daresay that no one was more surprised at this than the manager himself.
Another incident: I'm African-American. I was working as a project lead under a manager. I was fortunate enough to have a very sharp white guy working for me. Whenever I would approach my manager with an idea, he'd never accept it directly from me. He'd run it past my subordinate or one of his other white direct reports before saying yea or nay. Nothing malicious about it; he just wasn't used to good ideas coming from someone who looked like me. Could have been worse, though. He didn't listen to women at all.
People have to be educated about this issue. Good work, good ideas and innovation don't come only from white male minds. Affirmative action, at its best, makes organizations mindful of this fact and sees that it is put into practice.