One manufacturer is quoting peak thermal output and the other is quoting the average. I'm also fairly sure that the G5 needed a fairly insane northbridge that also put out a considerable amount of heat.
"Leapord needed to be set aside and the Demo is of a beta version that is not to be released for almost a year, they say it is Top Secrete, but in truth it is probably not at Keynote Presentation level yet."
An interesting theory, but one shot down by the fact that developers at WWDC are receiving their Leopard betas this week. Kinda hard to do unless it was fairly feature-complete and stable, I'd imagine.
"Haha what? Didn't realize iChat was so far behind."
He/she isn't talking about sending a picture as a file (which obviously iChat has been able to do from day one). They're talking about linking images into a slideshow to be viewed over a live video stream. I haven't seen that in other video chat applications, although it may exist and I'm just unaware of it.
Having the song play in my browser is a bad default? I dunno, I prefer it. I don't necessarily want a song I found on the net being added automatically to my song library.
For a printer connected to a computer that is sharing it on the LAN, I would agree with you, but Windows does NOT handle zeroconf by default in my experience. Windows couldn't find my laser printer (with its own network card installed) automatically. The Macs in the house found it immediately, but I needed to determine the printer's IP and add it manually to my XP box.
Actually there is, although it's not 'real' resolution. A 480i image is only showing your 240 lines of information on every video field (not frame), whereas a 480p image shows a full 480. The player has to take a guess at what the field would look like if it wasn't interlaced, and depending on the quality of the algorithms can show a visible improvement.
I sure have had problems with Mac laptop screens in the last five years. I got the screen replaced twice, then a replacement PowerBook (one month after my warranty expired). All free.
This is in Australia, which is supposed to have much worse Apple support than the US. I can only imagine that your democratic skills leave a little to be desired if Apple won't help you out.
The late-2005 PowerBooks (and many of the older laptops with a simple hack) will automatically hibernate if their battery gets too low to maintain them in sleep mode.
The hack for the older laptops is here. I have no idea if the MacBook Pro will do the same.
* An application (for example, MPlayer OSX) can render the sound system completely unusable (to OpenGL/SDL games and applications, but not system sounds) such that not even a reboot helps. Only playing a regular 16-bit, 44.1kHz sound file in MPlayer solves the problem, or editing a setting in the obscure Utilities\Audio MIDI Setup.
That's MPlayer's problem, not OS X's - send the dev team a bug report or check for a newer version. MPlayer should be (preferably) converting the bitrate to the OS's current settings or (at least) changing the settings back to how they were before it launched when it quits.
* My machine never crashes nor is ever powered down without a proper shutdown, and yet I have had several cases of files being corrupted, lost completely or simply set to "Zero KB", for no apparent reason. I have lost photos, audio files and others.
Never seen it here. You might want to check in Disk Utility to be sure the drive is passing its S.M.A.R.T test.
* Network operations are unbelievably slow when talking to the other machines in the house. This is a 100Mbit wired LAN, but the speeds I'm actually getting are more like 10 Mbit/s for data flowing from the Mac to a PC and 200kbit/s in the opposite direction. Affects any kind of network operation (SMB, FTP, etc). I've tried various fixes suggested on various forums, no improvement.
I've heard of this happening to others but don't know what the cause is. I get maximum data transfer from my Macs to both Windows and Linux machines.
I agree with several of your other points and suggest you file bug reports with Apple at http://bugreport.apple.com/ (you'll need to register as a developer, which is free).
Running emulators natively on Amiga's onboard hardware absolutely was slower than using an add-on graphics card. Here's the reason, shamelessly stolen from http://www.faqs.org/faqs/amiga/introduction/part1/ :
Simply put, the terms `chunky' and `planar' (short for `bitplanar')
refer to different ways of storing graphics information in a computer's
memory. They are rather easy to understand, as far as things go, but
incredibly difficult to explain:
Computer images are arranged as a grid of pixels, each of which can
be thought of as a number representing the color number of the pixel,
sort of like a paint-by-numbers scheme. For example, here's a
simplified example image, in four colors:
00302132
The Amiga stores this image in a `bitplane' mode. That is, it is
represented by several planes of bits (binary digits, 1s or 0s). This
is a four-color image, so each color number could be represented by two
bits. Therefore there are two bitplanes:
00100110 Here's bitplane 0
00101011 And here's bitplane 1
-------- Now, let's add them up, binary style:
00302132
Which is the final image. If the image was in two dimensions, it
would truly be composed of bit planes. However, I'd need three
dimensions to show multiple bitplanes overlayed, and therefore for
simplicity we're working in one dimension (which is all we need).
Now, there's another way of storing this image. How about if we
localize the bit data in little chunks?
00 00 11 00 01 10 11 01 = 00302132
This is the principle of the `chunky' pixel mode.
Both methods of image storage are perfectly logical, and no one can
say that one is better than the other. However, there are certain
technical aspects which cause certain advantages and disadvantages.
First, if you've seen colored text scroll on your Amiga, you know
there is a bit of "flicker" that arises. Specifically, what happens is
that while the text is scrolling, its color temporarily changes to
something completely different. What's happening is that the computer's
moving several bitplanes of data while the raster (monitor electron
gun) is sweeping across the screen. What that means is that, if the
raster catches the data while it's being moved, you can end up with some
bitplanes being moved and some not. What if we filled bitplane 1 in the
example above with 0s? Instantly all the 3s become 1s, and the 2s
become 0s! This is what causes "flicker" when certain colors are
scrolled. By contrast, if a chunky pixel display is caught while
scrolling, all we see is a partially-scrolled image; the colors are
preserved (since their units are the small ones).
That's a disadvantage to planar pixels, but what about chunky pixels?
Also, more channels wouldn't give a reciever any more reason to clip. Each channel is a seperate amp. What matters in regards to clipping is the amount of power going in to a single channel. If it's more than the channel can handle, you clip, if not, you don't. What's happening on the other channels isn't relivant.
It totally matters if you're using a cheap amp that uses a single power supply for all channels. Your typical cheap amp will claim 100W per channel but the supply can't actually deliver enough juice if all channels are being driven simultaneously. Unscrupulous manufacturers cheat by not telling you they're only driving 1 speaker to get their measurement.
I have an old 5.1 amp (a Yamaha DSP-A1) which weighs about 54 pounds, much of which is taken up by the (relatively) large transformer. It's never clipped and I think I'd blow my eardrums before it came close.
A square-shaped room is generally one of the worst-sounding shapes for music and home theatre actually (a square reinforces standing waves, which makes bass sound overblown in one location, and nonexistant in another). Assuming your room is wide enough it should do very well.
You want hard proof that you're wrong? Here we go:
Here are three files (from Swervedriver's second album, 'Mezcal Head'). 'Dueltest.mp3' is the original 128kbps MP3 file. I then converted this file to AIFF and back to MP3 6 times using iTunes. 'Dueltest3.mp3' is the third conversion back to MP3, 'Dueltest6.mp3' is the sixth. I stopped converting at this point - if you couldn't hear the difference even at the third conversion you shouldn't be discussing audio quality in the first place.
Note to the RIAA: I believe 30 second excerpts come under the banner of fair use, and if you don't agree, too fucking bad.
1. Swervedriver were raped and dropped by three RIAA members one after another, and most of their catalogue (which is superb) isn't available anymore.
2. I used the same 30 seconds of the song that you'll get for free by previewing the song on the iTunes store.
They're just files, you don't *need* to burn them to a CD. I have my few protected AAC files backed up to a Linux server along with the rest of my home directory every couple of days.
Yes, there are no 64-bit CPUs suitable for use in laptops - they all run too hot and use too much power for Apple to consider them. This will likely change within the next year.
The other factor is the lack of 64-bit software for the Mac OS - it's been 64-bit capable, but the Cocoa and Carbon GUI frameworks are still 32-bit, as are virtually all 3rd-party apps (Mathematica is the only 64-bit app I can think of at present). More info here.
An important thing to realise is that the G5 doesn't get faster when running 64-bit code, as it was never starved for registers like an x86 processor in 32-bit mode. For your typical application, there was never a performance benefit for writing specifically for a 64-bit CPU (implicitly eliminating owners of G3/G4 Macs from your target audience).
Limited warranty and service Your iPod comes with single incident telephone support for the first 90 days and a one-year limited warranty. Purchase the AppleCare Protection Plan for iPod to extend your service and support to two full years. Only the AppleCare Protection Plan provides you with direct telephone support from Apple technical experts and the assurance that repairs will be handled by Apple-certified technicians using genuine Apple parts. For more information, visit Apple support or call 800-823-2775.
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Damn, I bet Microsoft just hates losing you as a customer... oh, wait.
It's reasonable if the next computer runs Linux or OS X, I guess.
You really know nothing about data forensics, then?
One manufacturer is quoting peak thermal output and the other is quoting the average. I'm also fairly sure that the G5 needed a fairly insane northbridge that also put out a considerable amount of heat.
"Leapord needed to be set aside and the Demo is of a beta version that is not to be released for almost a year, they say it is Top Secrete, but in truth it is probably not at Keynote Presentation level yet."
An interesting theory, but one shot down by the fact that developers at WWDC are receiving their Leopard betas this week. Kinda hard to do unless it was fairly feature-complete and stable, I'd imagine.
"Haha what? Didn't realize iChat was so far behind."
He/she isn't talking about sending a picture as a file (which obviously iChat has been able to do from day one). They're talking about linking images into a slideshow to be viewed over a live video stream. I haven't seen that in other video chat applications, although it may exist and I'm just unaware of it.
Having the song play in my browser is a bad default? I dunno, I prefer it. I don't necessarily want a song I found on the net being added automatically to my song library.
For a printer connected to a computer that is sharing it on the LAN, I would agree with you, but Windows does NOT handle zeroconf by default in my experience. Windows couldn't find my laser printer (with its own network card installed) automatically. The Macs in the house found it immediately, but I needed to determine the printer's IP and add it manually to my XP box.
Actually there is, although it's not 'real' resolution. A 480i image is only showing your 240 lines of information on every video field (not frame), whereas a 480p image shows a full 480. The player has to take a guess at what the field would look like if it wasn't interlaced, and depending on the quality of the algorithms can show a visible improvement.
I sure have had problems with Mac laptop screens in the last five years. I got the screen replaced twice, then a replacement PowerBook (one month after my warranty expired). All free.
This is in Australia, which is supposed to have much worse Apple support than the US. I can only imagine that your democratic skills leave a little to be desired if Apple won't help you out.
The late-2005 PowerBooks (and many of the older laptops with a simple hack) will automatically hibernate if their battery gets too low to maintain them in sleep mode.
The hack for the older laptops is here. I have no idea if the MacBook Pro will do the same.
Nope, OS 9 used cooperative multitasking, not pre-emptive.
* An application (for example, MPlayer OSX) can render the sound system completely unusable (to OpenGL/SDL games and applications, but not system sounds) such that not even a reboot helps. Only playing a regular 16-bit, 44.1kHz sound file in MPlayer solves the problem, or editing a setting in the obscure Utilities\Audio MIDI Setup.
That's MPlayer's problem, not OS X's - send the dev team a bug report or check for a newer version. MPlayer should be (preferably) converting the bitrate to the OS's current settings or (at least) changing the settings back to how they were before it launched when it quits.
* My machine never crashes nor is ever powered down without a proper shutdown, and yet I have had several cases of files being corrupted, lost completely or simply set to "Zero KB", for no apparent reason. I have lost photos, audio files and others.
Never seen it here. You might want to check in Disk Utility to be sure the drive is passing its S.M.A.R.T test.
* Network operations are unbelievably slow when talking to the other machines in the house. This is a 100Mbit wired LAN, but the speeds I'm actually getting are more like 10 Mbit/s for data flowing from the Mac to a PC and 200kbit/s in the opposite direction. Affects any kind of network operation (SMB, FTP, etc). I've tried various fixes suggested on various forums, no improvement.
I've heard of this happening to others but don't know what the cause is. I get maximum data transfer from my Macs to both Windows and Linux machines.
I agree with several of your other points and suggest you file bug reports with Apple at http://bugreport.apple.com/ (you'll need to register as a developer, which is free).
I'd highly doubt it - RSS is designed to accommodate what Apple is doing.
Running emulators natively on Amiga's onboard hardware absolutely was slower than using an add-on graphics card. Here's the reason, shamelessly stolen from http://www.faqs.org/faqs/amiga/introduction/part1/ :
Simply put, the terms `chunky' and `planar' (short for `bitplanar')
refer to different ways of storing graphics information in a computer's
memory. They are rather easy to understand, as far as things go, but
incredibly difficult to explain:
Computer images are arranged as a grid of pixels, each of which can
be thought of as a number representing the color number of the pixel,
sort of like a paint-by-numbers scheme. For example, here's a
simplified example image, in four colors:
00302132
The Amiga stores this image in a `bitplane' mode. That is, it is
represented by several planes of bits (binary digits, 1s or 0s). This
is a four-color image, so each color number could be represented by two
bits. Therefore there are two bitplanes:
00100110 Here's bitplane 0
00101011 And here's bitplane 1
-------- Now, let's add them up, binary style:
00302132
Which is the final image. If the image was in two dimensions, it
would truly be composed of bit planes. However, I'd need three
dimensions to show multiple bitplanes overlayed, and therefore for
simplicity we're working in one dimension (which is all we need).
Now, there's another way of storing this image. How about if we
localize the bit data in little chunks?
00 00 11 00 01 10 11 01 = 00302132
This is the principle of the `chunky' pixel mode.
Both methods of image storage are perfectly logical, and no one can
say that one is better than the other. However, there are certain
technical aspects which cause certain advantages and disadvantages.
First, if you've seen colored text scroll on your Amiga, you know
there is a bit of "flicker" that arises. Specifically, what happens is
that while the text is scrolling, its color temporarily changes to
something completely different. What's happening is that the computer's
moving several bitplanes of data while the raster (monitor electron
gun) is sweeping across the screen. What that means is that, if the
raster catches the data while it's being moved, you can end up with some
bitplanes being moved and some not. What if we filled bitplane 1 in the
example above with 0s? Instantly all the 3s become 1s, and the 2s
become 0s! This is what causes "flicker" when certain colors are
scrolled. By contrast, if a chunky pixel display is caught while
scrolling, all we see is a partially-scrolled image; the colors are
preserved (since their units are the small ones).
That's a disadvantage to planar pixels, but what about chunky pixels?
Also, more channels wouldn't give a reciever any more reason to clip. Each channel is a seperate amp. What matters in regards to clipping is the amount of power going in to a single channel. If it's more than the channel can handle, you clip, if not, you don't. What's happening on the other channels isn't relivant.
It totally matters if you're using a cheap amp that uses a single power supply for all channels. Your typical cheap amp will claim 100W per channel but the supply can't actually deliver enough juice if all channels are being driven simultaneously. Unscrupulous manufacturers cheat by not telling you they're only driving 1 speaker to get their measurement.
I have an old 5.1 amp (a Yamaha DSP-A1) which weighs about 54 pounds, much of which is taken up by the (relatively) large transformer. It's never clipped and I think I'd blow my eardrums before it came close.
A square-shaped room is generally one of the worst-sounding shapes for music and home theatre actually (a square reinforces standing waves, which makes bass sound overblown in one location, and nonexistant in another). Assuming your room is wide enough it should do very well.
Up to five these days.
You want hard proof that you're wrong? Here we go:
Here are three files (from Swervedriver's second album, 'Mezcal Head'). 'Dueltest.mp3' is the original 128kbps MP3 file. I then converted this file to AIFF and back to MP3 6 times using iTunes. 'Dueltest3.mp3' is the third conversion back to MP3, 'Dueltest6.mp3' is the sixth. I stopped converting at this point - if you couldn't hear the difference even at the third conversion you shouldn't be discussing audio quality in the first place.
Note to the RIAA: I believe 30 second excerpts come under the banner of fair use, and if you don't agree, too fucking bad.
1. Swervedriver were raped and dropped by three RIAA members one after another, and most of their catalogue (which is superb) isn't available anymore.
2. I used the same 30 seconds of the song that you'll get for free by previewing the song on the iTunes store.
They're just files, you don't *need* to burn them to a CD. I have my few protected AAC files backed up to a Linux server along with the rest of my home directory every couple of days.
Actually, the OS X boxes on the shelves are PowerPC only, they won't work on Intel. Until 10.5 comes out, you're stuck with ripping Apple off.
OS X supports right-clicking, troll.
Yes, there are no 64-bit CPUs suitable for use in laptops - they all run too hot and use too much power for Apple to consider them. This will likely change within the next year.
The other factor is the lack of 64-bit software for the Mac OS - it's been 64-bit capable, but the Cocoa and Carbon GUI frameworks are still 32-bit, as are virtually all 3rd-party apps (Mathematica is the only 64-bit app I can think of at present). More info here.
An important thing to realise is that the G5 doesn't get faster when running 64-bit code, as it was never starved for registers like an x86 processor in 32-bit mode. For your typical application, there was never a performance benefit for writing specifically for a 64-bit CPU (implicitly eliminating owners of G3/G4 Macs from your target audience).
What the hell are you talking about?
http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html
Limited warranty and service Your iPod comes with single incident telephone support for the first 90 days and a one-year limited warranty. Purchase the AppleCare Protection Plan for iPod to extend your service and support to two full years. Only the AppleCare Protection Plan provides you with direct telephone support from Apple technical experts and the assurance that repairs will be handled by Apple-certified technicians using genuine Apple parts. For more information, visit Apple support or call 800-823-2775.
Sounds like you need to investigate smart playlists.