Okay. Apple ties itself strongly with a cube form factor in a matter of days. (Yes, NeXT and Cobalt, but their target market audience was/is decidedely smaller than Apples. More general consumers than people looking for high-end workstations or mini-servers.) Sony releases this GScube. Groovy. Let's see...
Why not just take an Apple form factor, add a GS and call it our own product? GScube. Transpose: cubeGS. Rhymes with: IIgs.
And more obvious offense if you're like me and pay a small fee per voice mail message received. (i.e., US$.01 for the initial time you listen to the message; free after that). If ABC or any other company were to leave me a commercial voice mail, it seems to me that I'd be able to sue them under the same law that prevents junk faxes.
Anyway, do what I do when companies ask for a phone number: give them your cell number. Why? It's quite illegal for them to call you for commercial purposes---it's a clear shift of the advertising cost to the target rather than the advertiser. If you need to call them, you can still do so through your land line.
Norwest/Wells Fargo ONLY has my cell number; the few times they've called me about "refinancing your mortgage" (okay, I'm a student and have about $7.56 in my checking account...) I simply interrupt and say, "this is a cell phone". As long as I get that out in the first minute (incoming calls, first minute doesn't count against my air time), it's really no problem and has the effect of cascading through "don't bother calling" lists. And I can get telemarketing calls anywhere... class, the bathroom, in my car, at lunch, at work, etc. Quite fun to answer, "This is a cell phone and this is a really inconvient time--I need one hand to hold my book and the other to wipe, after all.)
Not necessarily... if one presumes that these people are lay-persons, not of the type to know how to flush their cache, cookies, etc., you still might be able to find some "incriminating" evidence on their computers. If Xpics set a members cookie or something, it likely has an expiration date fairly far into the future.
And, of course, Xpics probably logs the IP from where the account was opened. This would choke and die for the AOLs of the world where a single IP is but a drop in a vast DHCP pool, but might be useful for company networks, smaller mom and pop ISPs, static IPs, etc.
The FTC also said the company charged some consumers who never visited Xpics' sites, but it did not explain how that occurred.
Script Kiddies
Wouldn't you just love to see a script kiddy thrown in jail for credit card fraud? Man... that'd be great. "733+ hax0r, meet your new cell mate Bubba."
Carnivore would be like wiretapping an old party line. Yeah, you'd get the suspected communications, but you'd also get a whole bunch of other communication which you have no business looking at. If the FBI wants to ruffle through your mail, would it intercept the friggin mail truck? No.
Hijacking the status bar? On mouseover on links, it shows the URL. mouseoff, it shows a message from the wasp. and this is hijacking the status bar? It's default behavior, but only with a bit of text where there wasn't anything before.
Actually... yes, but only if Apple repositions the desktop G4 into a higher market. If you look at the option configurations in the Apple Store you'll notice that the only single processor tower G4 is a 450MHz, without the option of a single 500 MHz G4. I think Apple is just getting the "creative" (publishing, video, etc.) market primed for a quick jump to MacOS X when it's released. Right now, the dual G4s will buy you some speed in Photoshop and a few other applications. (Premiere and AfterEffects support multiprocessor under MacOS 9 and, iirc, some Illustrator operations will do the multi thing---for those huge ass boolean operations.) Now take carbonized "creative market" apps and throw them onto a dual G4 running MacOS X. Doh! What does one have? Lots of power, lots of speed.
The way I see it, the Cube is meant to fill the niche between first time buyes (iMacinites) and the über power hungry creative set. The tower G4 pricing has changed very little, other than increased bang for the buck over the previous series, but you'll notice the iMac pricing is slipping lower and lower. US$800 for an entry level iMac? Wait till September/October and you'll see that drop to $700, if not $650. Apple's creating a huge gap in their price range between the iMacs and the tower G4s.What fills that huge gap: The Cube.
O' course, I could be wrong... I just want two of the new 17" CRTs on my desktop;-)
The AGP Mac Radeons won't ship until September. (Doubt that? Here ya' go.)The Cube is shipping imediately. How is Apple supposed to include a board which doesn't exist in OEM'able quantities? You can't even buy the damned thing direct from ATi yet. If they'd advertised the Radeon as shipping with the Cubes and tower G4s immediately, we'd see another/. story in six weeks about how Apple has "production difficulties", letting the bigots* rip them again for not being able to ship hardware or, if Apple backtracked to Rage128s, ripping them for switching to a board which they can actually get ahold of. Screwed either way.
The Cube is fanless because Apple's engineers didn't want to have a fan, and engineered everything all nice and purty so the lucite doesn't melt and give you a Dali-Mac. (Okay, I admit: that would be cool.) This is a home computer, one that isn't quartered off into a separate room. It's meant to be out in the public space and be seen--and heard--when in use. It is the Ikea Mac. You need to realize: the masses are not geeks. many people want a machine which is aesthetically pleasing and, while running, doesn't sound like an A320 on engine startup. If one specifically wants a computer that is quiet and has no fans, would one put a video card with a fan in it? No. That would be stupid. It'd be like that hybrid gasolone-electric car using a big honkin V8. It's contrary to what the product is supposed to be.
When the Radeons ship, it's almost certain you'll see them as a bto option and, more likely, as the default video for the tower G4s. This is the market that needs the Radeon and Apple is not likely to piss off one of its major core markets: prepress. (But in ATi's defnese, the Rage128 chipset handles Quark, Photoshop, and Illustrator just fine. 1600x1200 on a 21" display, millions of colors, etc. Wicked fine in Photoshop, Quark, and Illustrator... too fast in Quark, so I leave the "fast scroll" unchecked and the scrolling speed cranked to "slow" in Quark's own preferences.)
Yes, ATI's cards suck, but the Mac video card market isn't exactly diverse. ATI is the best bang for the buck, and that's sad. I want to see nVidia support the Mac, if not just to give ATI some competition.
* Oooh yes, asterisk. We're in a Catch-22 as it seems there are many/.'ers who seem intent on not liking Apple regardless of the real world facts. It's somewhat amusing that most people on/. claim that choice in everything is always the best solution, allowing the best widget to sort itself out from the competition. If one truly belives this, isn't it a bit contradictory to keep pressing Apple's face into the mud, especially when they actually haven't done anything? Christ... yeah, it would be a different situation entirely if the Radeon's had been out for two months and Steve Steved their inclusion. But that's a different situation, not the reality which is at hand.
*sigh* iirc, Motorola controls the patents on the specific G4 that Apple uses, meaning that the problems are Moto's, not Apple. IBM is perfectly capable of fabbing 500MHz + G4s, but can't because Motorola is peeing in the pool. Get it?
I wouldn't drag AppleInsider down for rumors of a 17" G4 iMac. Apple is known for lots of "design masturbation", building several variants of a product in different form factors, different configurations, etc. to determine the most marketable product. There very well could have been a 17" G4 iMac running around Cupertino---just 'cus it didn't (hasn't?) shipped doesn't mean that it mightn't have existed. It's like claiming there are no aliens because we haven't seen any aliens.
The Cube isn't rackable? You must be insane... take a look at the photos here of how one removes the cube from its case. Pulls right out by the looks of it, and the design is such that all the ports stay attached to the core, not the shell. Now I don't know the measurements of the core, but seemingly it would be very easy to adapt these to rack mount by means of some type of bolt-in mounting rails in a grid. I'm not around a server room (ever), so I don't know the size of standard racks, but the general concept seems very sound.
Look at the photos on the displays page. Towards the bottom there are some smallish setup photos of the 15" LCD. Looks as though it comes with a small USB hub, likely meaning you run a USB cable to the monitor and then break out from there. Nice.
As for ethernet---hah! Troglodyte---don'cha know you're supposed to buy an AirPort base station and just connect wirelessly?;-)
(And sweet--the cube is only 14 pounds? Nice. With a 15" LCD and a nice secure carrying case, one would have a very chic luggable.)
(BTW, why the hell is apple still designing 17inch CRTs? they claim to be a graphics professional choice but no real graphics pro would use something that small [except maybe in dualhead])
they actually do have a rather nice 21" crt display... self color calibrating over its lifespan, usb hub, etc.
Regarding the 3/4 view, at least. MacJunkie says the logo looks a little "smushed". Umm no. Look closer. That's a combination of a specular surface, JPEG compression, and small pixel dimensions. If this box is real, my bets are that the corner of the Apple just got a bit blown out by the studio strobes in this particular photo and, with shrunk dimensions and jpeg compression, it makes the corner seem to not be there at all. Course, I could be wrong. But that 17" display? Man that thing is beautiful. (BTW, Apple's monitors have standard vga connectors instead of mac video, meaning you too can own a purty monitor if you like the way it looks. if not... get a radius blue.)
Exactly. One does not need a vehicle derived from military issue equipment to go to the mall. Of course if you live in North Dakota, Minnesota, or pretty much anywhere in Canada except the coasts, and it is a different story.
It's a bit of an equivocation, but isn't making a copy of a CD for, say, your girlfriend the same as listening to the same copy at the same time? Think on it. If we listen to two, separate CDs at the same time, the effect is the same as listening to a single, original copy CD at the same time. Two people are enjoying the music from the same source at the same time.
By the same logic Rosen is using, one couldn't drive around in your car with your girlfriend and a CD playing, because that would violate the concept of "one person, one cd, one set of ears"! I know that it's not fair use to replay a CD as a "performance" (i.e., DJs, radio, etc.) without paying a royalty, but sitting and listening to music with friends? Ach. What a violation of my personal rights under fair use.
Somebody needs to go all Clockwork Orange on her with a musical twist. Get some of those Koss earbuds that extend into the ear canal; crank up the tunes (Napster'd Metallica, of course) and blow her ear drums out:p
Will this take to happen. Seriously. People have been badmittoning ideas for new TLDs around for at least 5 years. I think we really need to see.sex or.xxx before we see.gnu, though I do admit it would be cool for prestige.
'Is it fair use to give the copy to my wife for her car?'' Hatch continued. ''Is it fair use for me to rip a CD?...''
''None of these is fair use,'' Rosen eventually replied.
Ummm... "Holy Shit Batman!" is the appropriate phrase to use here. What Rosen (Heidi Rosen, RIAA head bitch) indicates that one would have to buy two copies of a CD in order to fairly loan one to someone else. Okay. Why isn't that fair use? Earlier in the article, she's quoted as saying that one can make a copy of a CD to keep in your car. That's fair use, but from the article text, it seems as though Hatch had to dig it out of her. I ask you, fair and wise/.'ers, what's to prevent someone else from listening to the original copy while I'm out driving in my car? Isn't what she's saying is that A=B is okay, but B=A is not? This seems more than a bit illogical to me.
Thank you. I recently did some cover art for Phil Pritchett, a musician out of Austin, TX. (check my URL--hit the "Heritage Way" site. It's even Lynx friendly if I'm not mistaken and can code HTML 4.01 loose) The quality of the songwriting and playing speaks for itself, check the MP3s. But the recording, mastering and, not to be too self serving, the packaging is all equivalent too if not superior too a major label release.
Slashdot Mirror
Okay. Apple ties itself strongly with a cube form factor in a matter of days. (Yes, NeXT and Cobalt, but their target market audience was/is decidedely smaller than Apples. More general consumers than people looking for high-end workstations or mini-servers.) Sony releases this GScube. Groovy. Let's see...
Why not just take an Apple form factor, add a GS and call it our own product? GScube. Transpose: cubeGS. Rhymes with: IIgs.
:-)
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And more obvious offense if you're like me and pay a small fee per voice mail message received. (i.e., US$.01 for the initial time you listen to the message; free after that). If ABC or any other company were to leave me a commercial voice mail, it seems to me that I'd be able to sue them under the same law that prevents junk faxes.
Anyway, do what I do when companies ask for a phone number: give them your cell number. Why? It's quite illegal for them to call you for commercial purposes---it's a clear shift of the advertising cost to the target rather than the advertiser. If you need to call them, you can still do so through your land line.
Norwest/Wells Fargo ONLY has my cell number; the few times they've called me about "refinancing your mortgage" (okay, I'm a student and have about $7.56 in my checking account...) I simply interrupt and say, "this is a cell phone". As long as I get that out in the first minute (incoming calls, first minute doesn't count against my air time), it's really no problem and has the effect of cascading through "don't bother calling" lists. And I can get telemarketing calls anywhere... class, the bathroom, in my car, at lunch, at work, etc. Quite fun to answer, "This is a cell phone and this is a really inconvient time--I need one hand to hold my book and the other to wipe, after all.)
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Why not charge per call, then?
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Attack of the overzealous moderators. Can't ya' go wack some trolls instead? Jeez. Look... Timothy even replied to it...
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Not necessarily... if one presumes that these people are lay-persons, not of the type to know how to flush their cache, cookies, etc., you still might be able to find some "incriminating" evidence on their computers. If Xpics set a members cookie or something, it likely has an expiration date fairly far into the future.
And, of course, Xpics probably logs the IP from where the account was opened. This would choke and die for the AOLs of the world where a single IP is but a drop in a vast DHCP pool, but might be useful for company networks, smaller mom and pop ISPs, static IPs, etc.
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The FTC also said the company charged some consumers who never visited Xpics' sites, but it did not explain how that occurred.
Script Kiddies
Wouldn't you just love to see a script kiddy thrown in jail for credit card fraud? Man... that'd be great. "733+ hax0r, meet your new cell mate Bubba."
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Carnivore would be like wiretapping an old party line. Yeah, you'd get the suspected communications, but you'd also get a whole bunch of other communication which you have no business looking at. If the FBI wants to ruffle through your mail, would it intercept the friggin mail truck? No.
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Hijacking the status bar? On mouseover on links, it shows the URL. mouseoff, it shows a message from the wasp. and this is hijacking the status bar? It's default behavior, but only with a bit of text where there wasn't anything before.
----
Actually... yes, but only if Apple repositions the desktop G4 into a higher market. If you look at the option configurations in the Apple Store you'll notice that the only single processor tower G4 is a 450MHz, without the option of a single 500 MHz G4. I think Apple is just getting the "creative" (publishing, video, etc.) market primed for a quick jump to MacOS X when it's released. Right now, the dual G4s will buy you some speed in Photoshop and a few other applications. (Premiere and AfterEffects support multiprocessor under MacOS 9 and, iirc, some Illustrator operations will do the multi thing---for those huge ass boolean operations.) Now take carbonized "creative market" apps and throw them onto a dual G4 running MacOS X. Doh! What does one have? Lots of power, lots of speed.
;-)
The way I see it, the Cube is meant to fill the niche between first time buyes (iMacinites) and the über power hungry creative set. The tower G4 pricing has changed very little, other than increased bang for the buck over the previous series, but you'll notice the iMac pricing is slipping lower and lower. US$800 for an entry level iMac? Wait till September/October and you'll see that drop to $700, if not $650. Apple's creating a huge gap in their price range between the iMacs and the tower G4s.What fills that huge gap: The Cube.
O' course, I could be wrong... I just want two of the new 17" CRTs on my desktop
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Let's look at the facts, shall we:
* Oooh yes, asterisk. We're in a Catch-22 as it seems there are many /.'ers who seem intent on not liking Apple regardless of the real world facts. It's somewhat amusing that most people on /. claim that choice in everything is always the best solution, allowing the best widget to sort itself out from the competition. If one truly belives this, isn't it a bit contradictory to keep pressing Apple's face into the mud, especially when they actually haven't done anything? Christ... yeah, it would be a different situation entirely if the Radeon's had been out for two months and Steve Steved their inclusion. But that's a different situation, not the reality which is at hand.
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*sigh* iirc, Motorola controls the patents on the specific G4 that Apple uses, meaning that the problems are Moto's, not Apple. IBM is perfectly capable of fabbing 500MHz + G4s, but can't because Motorola is peeing in the pool. Get it?
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I wouldn't drag AppleInsider down for rumors of a 17" G4 iMac. Apple is known for lots of "design masturbation", building several variants of a product in different form factors, different configurations, etc. to determine the most marketable product. There very well could have been a 17" G4 iMac running around Cupertino---just 'cus it didn't (hasn't?) shipped doesn't mean that it mightn't have existed. It's like claiming there are no aliens because we haven't seen any aliens.
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Dude -- I envy you ;-)
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The Cube isn't rackable? You must be insane... take a look at the photos here of how one removes the cube from its case. Pulls right out by the looks of it, and the design is such that all the ports stay attached to the core, not the shell. Now I don't know the measurements of the core, but seemingly it would be very easy to adapt these to rack mount by means of some type of bolt-in mounting rails in a grid. I'm not around a server room (ever), so I don't know the size of standard racks, but the general concept seems very sound.
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Look at the photos on the displays page. Towards the bottom there are some smallish setup photos of the 15" LCD. Looks as though it comes with a small USB hub, likely meaning you run a USB cable to the monitor and then break out from there. Nice.
;-)
As for ethernet---hah! Troglodyte---don'cha know you're supposed to buy an AirPort base station and just connect wirelessly?
(And sweet--the cube is only 14 pounds? Nice. With a 15" LCD and a nice secure carrying case, one would have a very chic luggable.)
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(BTW, why the hell is apple still designing 17inch CRTs? they claim to be a graphics professional choice but no real graphics pro would use something that small [except maybe in dualhead])
they actually do have a rather nice 21" crt display... self color calibrating over its lifespan, usb hub, etc.
----
Regarding the 3/4 view, at least. MacJunkie says the logo looks a little "smushed". Umm no. Look closer. That's a combination of a specular surface, JPEG compression, and small pixel dimensions. If this box is real, my bets are that the corner of the Apple just got a bit blown out by the studio strobes in this particular photo and, with shrunk dimensions and jpeg compression, it makes the corner seem to not be there at all. Course, I could be wrong. But that 17" display? Man that thing is beautiful. (BTW, Apple's monitors have standard vga connectors instead of mac video, meaning you too can own a purty monitor if you like the way it looks. if not... get a radius blue.)
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Exactly. One does not need a vehicle derived from military issue equipment to go to the mall. Of course if you live in North Dakota, Minnesota, or pretty much anywhere in Canada except the coasts, and it is a different story.
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Meant to be humorous ;-)
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Don't we all need .sex? Sorry. I couldn't resist.
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And wait a second here --
It's a bit of an equivocation, but isn't making a copy of a CD for, say, your girlfriend the same as listening to the same copy at the same time? Think on it. If we listen to two, separate CDs at the same time, the effect is the same as listening to a single, original copy CD at the same time. Two people are enjoying the music from the same source at the same time.
By the same logic Rosen is using, one couldn't drive around in your car with your girlfriend and a CD playing, because that would violate the concept of "one person, one cd, one set of ears"! I know that it's not fair use to replay a CD as a "performance" (i.e., DJs, radio, etc.) without paying a royalty, but sitting and listening to music with friends? Ach. What a violation of my personal rights under fair use.
Somebody needs to go all Clockwork Orange on her with a musical twist. Get some of those Koss earbuds that extend into the ear canal; crank up the tunes (Napster'd Metallica, of course) and blow her ear drums out :p
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Will this take to happen. Seriously. People have been badmittoning ideas for new TLDs around for at least 5 years. I think we really need to see .sex or .xxx before we see .gnu, though I do admit it would be cool for prestige.
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Ach my bad on the surname! Mea culpa.
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Thank you. I recently did some cover art for Phil Pritchett, a musician out of Austin, TX. (check my URL--hit the "Heritage Way" site. It's even Lynx friendly if I'm not mistaken and can code HTML 4.01 loose) The quality of the songwriting and playing speaks for itself, check the MP3s. But the recording, mastering and, not to be too self serving, the packaging is all equivalent too if not superior too a major label release.
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