Those iMac and iBook designs are practically made for people to whom style is everything ans substance nothing.
Style: toilet seat shape Substance: the shape of the case is such that if you drop it, the shock is spread out over the rest of the polycarbonate shell, instead of being concentrated on a corner and shattering it.
Style: integral handle Substance: keeps you from dropping it. The handle looks very flimsy - it's not. try it out sometime; it will easily support a few times the iBook's weight.
Style: colored case Substance: indifferent. for one thing, I'm not so insecure as to be embarrassed to be carrying a candy toilet seat. what do I have to prove? besides, it's not like they had to neuter the processor to make it candy-colored. There's still a dope machine inside.
I'm to lazy to elaborate on the six-hour battery life (from my experience, not a sales brochure), integrated Airport antenna, the finest trackpad I've used, integrated modem/Ethernet, fast battery charger, and any of the other things that you won't understand unless you use the machine before you mock it. Imagine that.
By God, you're right! Anyone who's seen the Evil Dead trilogy knows that BC is the man when it comes to whipping out pop-culture wisdom. And he's definitely got the chin for it...
The next logical question... who's gonna play Arthur? And would Dustin Hoffman play Sewer Urchin?
I don't know if it's the memory "padding" done by MacOS 9 or if the apps I run (including some of my own) are more polite, but the only time I've fully locked up my G3 is running the Netscape Client Customization Kit. That an app can crash the entire OS is unacceptable... but if I had the equivalent of "uptime" on my Mac, I'd have gone about 10 days of Netscape, Unreal, Q3 Demo, BBEdit, NiftyTelnet, et cetera since last I booted, which was, IIRC, to add a second video card and display. Interpret that as you will, but uptime on my Macs and my BSD and Linux boxen (which, granted, serve a few more SSI pages and CGI's than the Macs;) is about equal.
There are funny mistakes, and there are truly idiotic lapses in common sense. Example: it's nauseatingly common for users to say to me "It says 'to set up your internet connection, click next. To leave this setup wizard, click cancel'. What should I do?". If you don't see the innate stupidity in that, read it again.
Is this a case of lack of technological experience? Absolutely not! It is inability to follow simple instructions, and I need to restrain myself every time, to say, "click next" instead of "Just learned to walk erect, eh? Click cancel, and we're going to do this again and again until you learn simple binary do or do-not logic, and then we can move on to more advanced skills like the difference between right and left."
To me, jokes about this kind of thing are funny, and if they weren't, I'd have done something irrational long ago.
You've got to look at their target demographic. Should you be trusted to edit a modem script? I don't know personally, but I trust you are. And you can. I've opened scripts in BBEdit (the most elegant graphical text editor ever written), and no complaints from the OS. But if there were, you can just open the script in ResEdit, clear the System flag, and open it in anything. But why should you have to go through that?
Because for every annoyance and workaround that you and I, the technical users, must go through to have full control over our systems, that's one less chance that the vast majority of Mac users (ordinary people) have to louse things up. windows will let you write all over any file, Unix will let you write all over any file (assuming you have permissions, of course), but at least in Unix, one assumes that you know what you're doing to have gotten that far. The MacOS impedes our tinkering, and forces us to workarounds, so that one less end-user has to reinstall the system. I think that's worth it: if a computer's not working for its target user, then its developers have missed the point.
I heard about the MacOS X Server/Apache issue too. And if I recall, attempts were made to replicate the problem by numerous third parties, with no results. While I do not deny that an HTTP server locking up an operating system is inexcusable, the fact that few people seem to be able to replicate the issue makes it seem rather less virulent than ApacheBench crashing any MacOS X server it on which it was run.
Let me go out on a limb here and assume that you're not flamebaiting, but honestly belive that MPS is somehow flawed. I don't think you truly realize the networking architecture that you're slamming here. Allow me to quote from Mentat's homepage:
MPS is the native STREAMS on Apple Mac OS, Novell NetWare, Wind River VxWorks,Hewlett-Packard HP-UX, IBM AIX, Digital UNIX, and other many leading computer and embedded operating systems.
And as for your conviction of the opinion (masquerading as "fact") that an intuitive, ergonomic, logically structured operating system is somehow flawed (as a client of course... Classic MacOS is a poor server), well... I sure wish you had some sort of coherent argument to back up your assertions, but hey, that's cool.
We really ought to take this to email, to spare the rest of/., but since you're posting anonymously, I can't do that.
You realize that by saying that the MacOS can't saturate a 100Mbps network (though I'm not sure where your citation is), you're saying that Mentat Portable Streams can't saturate a 100Mbps network, right?
If you think gaming is in a rut, it's because you're looking in the wrong place. id has been making obscene amounts of money from their Quake series, so other game companies look to id as the example of how games should be made. But they haven't done anything new recenly, have they? In fact, when was the last time they've done anything besides a FPS?
If you're looking for innovation in gaming, you might try Bungie. They're the guys who wrote Myth and Myth II, which basically did something nobody's done before. Ditto for their upcoming projects, Oni and Halo. Cool things there, you might want to check them out and see if they fit your profile of a "new" game.
BTW, I insulted a Jewish girl in my school by saying merry christmas to her, so now I just say "Have a good thing"
She was insulted? That's too bad for her, I guess. It never even crossed my mind to be uncomfortable in the slightest when someone wishes me a merry Christmas; I appreciate it. It's not the words that matter, it's the wish.
Anyone know what the best figures so far for the ratio of energy in:energy out in fusion are as of now? Last I heard, they hadn't even reached 1:1, though if I read this article correctly that should be a largely irrelevant figure shortly...
Do note that the opinions of MacWeek and Macworld do not necessarily represent the opinions of most, or even all Mac users. Take a second to check out the URL... http://macweek.zdnet.com I stopped subscribing to Macworld as they've become increasingly out-of-touch with most Mac users. For a while, they ran articles on how to set up windows NT, until the deluge of letters reminding them just what exactly they were supposed to be writing about...
Nearly all of my home network has mythological names, too... Cerberus LRP-powered router. The origin of the name should be obvious. Durandal internal HTTP/FTP/DNS server, named after the sword of Roland and an AI from the old Bungie game Marathon. Aegis My G3, where most of my work/play gets done. Phoenix, my PowerComputing Mac clone that was stolen and then found (It was named Speak, after The Tick's capybara, before being stolen, renamed Phoenix after recovery)... again, the origin is an exercise left to the reader Axis, my desktop at work. Not a mythological name, but sounds cool. Halo my 2.2.5-15 powered Dell laptop. Again, not a mythological name, but sounds keen. My win98 box is used exclusively for games and win-only apps, and has no name. I usually refer to it as just "my DOS box".
"It's no secret we really have some serious concerns about some of the Department of Justice's conduct during the course of this litigation," said Jack Krumholtz, director of federal government affairs for Microsoft.
Is it common for a company to have on their payroll a "Director of Federal Government Affairs"? I've never heard of this, but that doesn't mean that it's not normal... anyone know?
I really don't know what to think on this issue. My gf's younger brother is microcephalic, ergo, he's ~sixteen but will likely never advance beyond 6 years relative maturity. on one hand: My gf loves him completely and without pretense. She loves him by the most sincere definition of the word. His parents, though I'm sure they love him too, are feeling the effects cashwise of supporting him. Can their needs be ignored, can their burden be written off? If so, will those who choose to fight selective euthanasia be held monetarily accountable for his support?
Damn, I don't know. This is definitely the wrong topic to show up on/. six beers into the night.
no doubt! I try so hard to make all of my pages "acceptable" to any browser... but IE makes all of my +1 and H2 text look like ass... making me look like an ass. I do so wish they'd quit doing that; does anyone know why IE blows up font sizes beyond all recognition? (for an example, go to my old homepage in Netscape, then in IE if you've got it. why, God, why?
IIRC, the reason the lens is in the tray is because the CDROM drive itself (along with the SODIMM RAM form factor, and much of the motherboard) in the original and current iMacs is basically the same as that of the PowerBook G3 series as a cost-saving measure. Of course, that still doesn't make an exposed-lens CDROM a good idea...
What, do you want a medal or something? Do you think you're some sort of tragic hero or something, championing the revolution against the iMac mouse? Dig: nobody (almost nobody) likes the mouse. I personally can't stand it, though I don't feel personally offended that it has one button; I long ago mastered the difference between click and double-click: practice, man. It'll come. I like even less the keyboard they ship with. Every paragraph or so, my right palm hits the left-cursor key, and I end up typing behind what I had been typing. Do you expect me to be some kind of Apple apologist? I know they're not perfect, and they have done some stupid and in some cases (G4 ROM fiasco) subtly evil things. I can't speak to the legality of clearing the retail channel before moving out a new line, but I think you're supposed to realize that most companies release new computers at times, and they usually have better specifications than the old ones they replace. Where was I going with this? I can't remember... Oh, well, the original post was so incoherent that I suppose we haven't lost anything. Next!
I only wish I could speak of them in the past tense already. I work tech support for a large Midwest-US ISP, and I can tell you, I nearly get physically sick when I hear the customer has an eMachine (one of my co-workers compared it to Alex from A Clockwork Orange...). The HSP Micromodem they come with are vile... who let this thing out of development? A softmodem that consumes 30% of processor time is inexcusable, but you'd think that they'd at least make sure it could connect to other modems! Was that just not in the spec or something?!
I'm not at all sure that the eMachines people created the HSP, but the only computers I've seen them on are eMachines... and some of the only computers we have problems getting connected. You paid $300 for a computer... don't act like it's my fault that the modem won't connect past v34!
Look at the thing! This goes a lot farther than just colored plastic; walking down the aisle of a local store I saw no less than three translucent-blue irons, coffeemakers, and such. The color is only one part of the issue. There's also the fact that the thing looks enough like an iMac to confuse the target market for both machines, which is arguably what it's intended to do.
I doubt the specifications of the lawsuit include blue plastic, most likely having more to do with the shameless and intentional copying of Apple's design. Yes, there have been all-in-one computers long before the iMac. But honestly, have you ever seen anything exactly like it... at least, before the eThing?
Slashdot Mirror
Substance: the shape of the case is such that if you drop it, the shock is spread out over the rest of the polycarbonate shell, instead of being concentrated on a corner and shattering it.
Style: integral handle
Substance: keeps you from dropping it. The handle looks very flimsy - it's not. try it out sometime; it will easily support a few times the iBook's weight.
Style: colored case
Substance: indifferent. for one thing, I'm not so insecure as to be embarrassed to be carrying a candy toilet seat. what do I have to prove? besides, it's not like they had to neuter the processor to make it candy-colored. There's still a dope machine inside.
I'm to lazy to elaborate on the six-hour battery life (from my experience, not a sales brochure), integrated Airport antenna, the finest trackpad I've used, integrated modem/Ethernet, fast battery charger, and any of the other things that you won't understand unless you use the machine before you mock it. Imagine that.
Silly troll.
FYI: You can cycle through Netscape browser windows (on the Mac) with command-1.
I'd imagine the interface is lighter on the system than you'd think just by looking at it, thanks to Quartz.
The next logical question... who's gonna play Arthur? And would Dustin Hoffman play Sewer Urchin?
I don't know if it's the memory "padding" done by MacOS 9 or if the apps I run (including some of my own) are more polite, but the only time I've fully locked up my G3 is running the Netscape Client Customization Kit. That an app can crash the entire OS is unacceptable... but if I had the equivalent of "uptime" on my Mac, I'd have gone about 10 days of Netscape, Unreal, Q3 Demo, BBEdit, NiftyTelnet, et cetera since last I booted, which was, IIRC, to add a second video card and display. Interpret that as you will, but uptime on my Macs and my BSD and Linux boxen (which, granted, serve a few more SSI pages and CGI's than the Macs ;) is about equal.
Is this a case of lack of technological experience? Absolutely not! It is inability to follow simple instructions, and I need to restrain myself every time, to say, "click next" instead of "Just learned to walk erect, eh? Click cancel, and we're going to do this again and again until you learn simple binary do or do-not logic, and then we can move on to more advanced skills like the difference between right and left."
To me, jokes about this kind of thing are funny, and if they weren't, I'd have done something irrational long ago.
Because for every annoyance and workaround that you and I, the technical users, must go through to have full control over our systems, that's one less chance that the vast majority of Mac users (ordinary people) have to louse things up. windows will let you write all over any file, Unix will let you write all over any file (assuming you have permissions, of course), but at least in Unix, one assumes that you know what you're doing to have gotten that far. The MacOS impedes our tinkering, and forces us to workarounds, so that one less end-user has to reinstall the system. I think that's worth it: if a computer's not working for its target user, then its developers have missed the point.
I heard about the MacOS X Server/Apache issue too. And if I recall, attempts were made to replicate the problem by numerous third parties, with no results. While I do not deny that an HTTP server locking up an operating system is inexcusable, the fact that few people seem to be able to replicate the issue makes it seem rather less virulent than ApacheBench crashing any MacOS X server it on which it was run.
And as for your conviction of the opinion (masquerading as "fact") that an intuitive, ergonomic, logically structured operating system is somehow flawed (as a client of course... Classic MacOS is a poor server), well... I sure wish you had some sort of coherent argument to back up your assertions, but hey, that's cool.
We really ought to take this to email, to spare the rest of /., but since you're posting anonymously, I can't do that.
You realize that by saying that the MacOS can't saturate a 100Mbps network (though I'm not sure where your citation is), you're saying that Mentat Portable Streams can't saturate a 100Mbps network, right?
If you're looking for innovation in gaming, you might try Bungie. They're the guys who wrote Myth and Myth II, which basically did something nobody's done before. Ditto for their upcoming projects, Oni and Halo. Cool things there, you might want to check them out and see if they fit your profile of a "new" game.
With that, merry Christmas to y'all!
\Ben
Anyone know what the best figures so far for the ratio of energy in:energy out in fusion are as of now? Last I heard, they hadn't even reached 1:1, though if I read this article correctly that should be a largely irrelevant figure shortly...
Do note that the opinions of MacWeek and Macworld do not necessarily represent the opinions of most, or even all Mac users. Take a second to check out the URL...
http://macweek.zdnet.com
I stopped subscribing to Macworld as they've become increasingly out-of-touch with most Mac users. For a while, they ran articles on how to set up windows NT, until the deluge of letters reminding them just what exactly they were supposed to be writing about...
Nearly all of my home network has mythological names, too...
Cerberus LRP-powered router. The origin of the name should be obvious.
Durandal internal HTTP/FTP/DNS server, named after the sword of Roland and an AI from the old Bungie game Marathon.
Aegis My G3, where most of my work/play gets done.
Phoenix, my PowerComputing Mac clone that was stolen and then found (It was named Speak, after The Tick's capybara, before being stolen, renamed Phoenix after recovery)... again, the origin is an exercise left to the reader
Axis, my desktop at work. Not a mythological name, but sounds cool.
Halo my 2.2.5-15 powered Dell laptop. Again, not a mythological name, but sounds keen.
My win98 box is used exclusively for games and win-only apps, and has no name. I usually refer to it as just "my DOS box".
While not technically a FPS game, Oni seems quite promising...
Might have to make up a new genre for this one... third-person neck-snapper?
My gf loves him completely and without pretense. She loves him by the most sincere definition of the word.
His parents, though I'm sure they love him too, are feeling the effects cashwise of supporting him. Can their needs be ignored, can their burden be written off? If so, will those who choose to fight selective euthanasia be held monetarily accountable for his support?
Damn, I don't know. This is definitely the wrong topic to show up on /. six beers into the night.
not sure where he stands,
\Ben
no doubt! I try so hard to make all of my pages "acceptable" to any browser... but IE makes all of my +1 and H2 text look like ass... making me look like an ass. I do so wish they'd quit doing that; does anyone know why IE blows up font sizes beyond all recognition? (for an example, go to my old homepage in Netscape, then in IE if you've got it. why, God, why?
Not that you care, but Apple didn't really design the speakers. That was done by a little group called Harman-Kardon. Maybe you've heard of them?
IIRC, the reason the lens is in the tray is because the CDROM drive itself (along with the SODIMM RAM form factor, and much of the motherboard) in the original and current iMacs is basically the same as that of the PowerBook G3 series as a cost-saving measure. Of course, that still doesn't make an exposed-lens CDROM a good idea...
What, do you want a medal or something? Do you think you're some sort of tragic hero or something, championing the revolution against the iMac mouse? Dig: nobody (almost nobody) likes the mouse. I personally can't stand it, though I don't feel personally offended that it has one button; I long ago mastered the difference between click and double-click: practice, man. It'll come.
I like even less the keyboard they ship with. Every paragraph or so, my right palm hits the left-cursor key, and I end up typing behind what I had been typing. Do you expect me to be some kind of Apple apologist? I know they're not perfect, and they have done some stupid and in some cases (G4 ROM fiasco) subtly evil things. I can't speak to the legality of clearing the retail channel before moving out a new line, but I think you're supposed to realize that most companies release new computers at times, and they usually have better specifications than the old ones they replace.
Where was I going with this? I can't remember... Oh, well, the original post was so incoherent that I suppose we haven't lost anything. Next!
I'm not at all sure that the eMachines people created the HSP, but the only computers I've seen them on are eMachines... and some of the only computers we have problems getting connected. You paid $300 for a computer... don't act like it's my fault that the modem won't connect past v34!
I doubt the specifications of the lawsuit include blue plastic, most likely having more to do with the shameless and intentional copying of Apple's design. Yes, there have been all-in-one computers long before the iMac. But honestly, have you ever seen anything exactly like it... at least, before the eThing?