Jeez, you'd think if it was posted to/. it would have more meat to the story. I'd like to see an "Ask Slashdot" with this guy, perhaps a more in-depth interview, but this article was really lackluster.
And he doesn't like Napster. Go figure. I guess he prefers Kazaa, where its easier to get apps and movies too.;)
Intel Gets Bitchslapped By Apple
on
Jaguar is Over
·
· Score: 1
All your floating point ops are belong to us.
Faster than a dual 3.08 Xeon.
Able to leapfrog a 533MHz sys bus in a single bound.
Its a tower, its a computer.... its....
THE FASTEST PERSONAL COMPTUER KNOWN TO MAN. And also faster than high end Unix workstations.
I can't help it. I have to say it. U'VE BEEN BTICHSLAPPED YOU INTEL LOVING WEENIES!
I kinda sorta see what you're saying. But I really do have to take issue with some of this prattle.
all it takes is one vibe. Those vibes add up in the forms of choruses, verses, and catchy melodies.
Right away, I have to disagree, not just because Radiohead is up there, but because there are countless artists who don't give a lick for verse-chorus-verse structure with danceable melodies. some have even gotten very famous. Now this does apply Madonna, Linkin Park, and about 90% of the other "musicians" that flood our ears and eyes every goddamned day of our lives, but witness Frank Zappa, Mr. Bungle, Igor Stravinsky, Sun Ra, Milk Cult, and many many others that create music that both challenges and excites for reasons other than making one want to shake one's booty.
It shouldn't matter if the listener hears the song on the radio, or from a passing car, or in some other temporary, incomplete setting. One vibe, one chorus, one chord, one sound should be enough to get the message across.
I pulled this quote out because I think if it stands on its own it reveals its own ridiculousness. If i can tell everything about a song from one vibe, one chord, etc., that's not the kind of song I want to waste precious time of my life listening to, examining, possibly remembering.
I find it hard to believe that any artist would find that it takes an entire album for a listener to derive something positive and beneficial, or just cool and funky, or upbeat and exciting, or slow and introspective. It should only take 5 seconds of music from a passing car to share a good vibe through music.
If that car has a boomin system and you're not already listening to something yourself. Its not about making your audience dance, ok? I mean, sure, maybe you just want people to get up and have a good time, and that's great entertainment, but not all musicians are simply entertainers. a lot of music is meant to recreate moods and feelings, and express in sound emotion and experience in ways unheard of. Example, "Violence ^5" on Mike Patton's "Adult Themes for Voice."
Many times these structured, honed sound waves are parts of a larger composition. Like sections in a Beethoven symphony, each track is a part of a larger whole that is meant to be taken in as that whole. Frank Zappa's Civilization Phase III is a good example of that. Sure, its a "CD" and there are "tracks." But it is an opera, with a storyline and development. It requires the whole album to be taken in the correct context.
Would you like to be able to buy just the action sequences from The Matrix Reloaded and not have to pay for any of the garbage filler that ruined an otherwise great piece of eye candy? I sure as hell would. But we can't. So why should we be allowed to pick apart the aural creation of someone who wishes it to be heard as a whole?
They split albums into tracks to make it easier for us to pick up where we left off, but it should be up to the artist as to how they get distributed. Singles were a different market. That was only one or 2 tracks from an album.
Unless you were Michael Jackson circa "Thriller", then it was your whole album. But that just illustrates another point. Make an album good enough, and EVERY SONG WILL HAVE SINGLE POTENTIAL! You hear that Madonna? No more "Take A Bow."
I would rather have millions and millions of people listen to part of one song than hundreds of thousands of people listen to a whole album. Better yet, there shouldn't be any reason to not have both, unless you are just in it for the money, or the fame, or the luxuries, etc...
Ugh. Would you rather have millions of people only know 5 minutes of any one of Bach's compositions? And being "in it" to have millions of people clutch one song and ignore the entire rest of your catalog, especially if you
I'll say this: no Wal-Mart patrons probably won't know the difference between Lindows and Windows.
But, they do know the difference between store-brand toilet tissue and Charmin. They know the difference in quality between the Charmin and the store brand. Oh, sure the store brand might have a swank version, but its still cheaper and your ass (and your wallet) will notice.
I don't think anyone with the capacity to make it to Wal Mart in the first place to buy a computer will think for a second that the $200 machine they are buying is going to favorably compare to a $600+ machine.
Will they know quite what to expect? No. But they know its something different just because it would have to be to be so inexpensive.
well, to be fair, if it was scrounged from a laptop, and it is a 3GB drive, that means its probably old and spins at around 4500 RPM. That will definitely impact the performance of the machine. Especially if its an ATA-33 drive.
Now, for the price, this kind of performance is fine. But it is viable to say that this hard drive could theoretically be slowing things down. Sounds like the system could be waiting for the drive to feed data if it is as low end as I've postulated.
So far a lot of the comments have been of the following types:
1. Hey, that's a really shitty review.
2. What great/terrible hardware for $199.
3. Lindows is/isn't a good choice for home usage.
I think ya'll are missing the big picture - the fact that a Linux based PC even got reviewed in such a mainstream news source! Its not posted to Slashdot because it is a complete technical review, nor to let all you l33t fuckers know about the crazy good hardware inside to make your little coder jaws go slack in awe. It got posted to slashdot because, holy shit, its a review of a Linux-based PC in a very prominent online news source that the majority of readers who visit have probably never laid eyes on Linux before. Its called EXPOSURE (and not the bad, get registered to a sex offender database type, either.)
Especially in the face of all the FUD surrounding Linux cuz of those SCO bastards, its really nice to see an average Joe type news source with an average Joe type reviewer gving space and consideration to a rather new, highly feared and doubted, but otherwise relatively UNKNOWN (to most people, not geeks) solution to the problem of a new PC costing too much money.
And if mom and dad or grandma and grandpa can send email, surf the web, use their digital camera, and play some Sims, what the hell are they missing? When was the last time your grandma bragged about her frag rate? That doesn't count if your grandma is Italian and runs hits for the mob.
I think a lot of people are missing the really exciting parts about this release - not the "oh, finally" sentiment, but the reasons WHY it took so long.
The huge reason, obviously, is that Quark is a Mach-O application. This is the most "native" an app can get in Mac OS X. Gives it the ability to run at a lower level and access more APIs than any other type of Mac OS X application. Quark 6 ONLY runs on Mac OS X 10.2 or higher. No 9 support at all. This means that Quark had to be overhauled and recoded pretty extensively. This isn't just a quick Carbon hack.
Speaking of quick Carbon hacks, Adobe's InDesign, while I love working with it, suffers from just this problem. Doesn't take advantage of Services, is slow and kludgy to work with, and generally feels like an OS 9 application with an OS X theme. And 2 was not a huge improvement over 1.x speed-wise. Adobe would do well to take a cue from Quark and really optimize their programs for X instead of just getting them running.
Beyond that, it looks as if the UI has undergone significant changes with many new menu options, reorganized menu options, and some very cool portable-content type tools and abilities that will make the entire design process smoother and allow graphic designers to worry less about file management and more about color matching and negative space. this can only mean better designed print material, which makes me happy. I can't stand half-assed media filling up the world's newsstands.
An American response... although I bear no real sentimental attatchment to my country of origin, I still feel the need to retort to your indignation:
1. We call them cell phones, yes. That is because our contracts put us into a state not unlike that of a turkish prison, with our phones being our "cell." Therefore, "Cell Phones".
2. We pay for incoming calls because it is worth it to make it appear as if people want to talk to us. Remember, this is America, where status is much easier to buy.
3. We don't use SMS because it costs a shitload more here than it does there. No joke here, just the fucked up truth.
Once again, as an American, I would be disgusted to look at your awful semi-continent on a map, that is, if I could find it.
but something tells me that Martian microbes just may be a higher form of intelligent life than the earthbound microbes we commonly refer to as homo sapiens....
the way i see it, these corporations saturate our senses with this drivel every day. logos, jingles, neon, billboards, radio, tv, constatntly pushing their product on us through controlled delivery mechanisms in a blanketing and unescapable manner. i wish i could go one day in a normal life without seeing the coca cola logo or go a month without hearing shania twain. but through monopoly and mind control they have infected every single facet of our lives with advertisement, music posing as advertisement, and advertisement posing as music.
and now we can't take what they've force fed us and throw it up in their greedy faces, digested and reformed, sometimes more creative than they would like?
you can't stop a natural reaction to this kind of stimulus, people. eventually some judge somewhere will have owned an early NWA record and smack down this kind of ridiculous, greed-driven nonsense.
just think - all the people involved in the entire process would be so much better off doing something else with their time rather than arguing over such a trivial matter. i mean shit, i'd rather Dre was in the studio sampling the shit out of Funkadelic to release as a not-for-the-public 'bootleg' on an italian label.
G4 500 - $250 DVD-RW - $200 120 GB drive - $111 Radeon 7000 - $100 80 GB drive - $80 768MB RAM - $75 FireWire/USB - $75 2nd Enet Card - $15 MLB and case were free $906 Wow, hey, that's cheaper than the least expensive eMac.
This was spent over a period of 2 years. Obviously the FW/USB card would be cheaper now. Not cheap by any standard, but certainly inexpensive for the capabilities.
Sounds cool, actually. I put a little bit more $ into it for the premium of using Mac hardware, but I really wanted OS X driving my entertainment center. I find it far more functional and flexible than XP Media Edition, and with Konfabulator, anything is possible:)
I haven't tried Tivo personally. With the money I spent I could have, I'm sure, but hey, I'm a project kinda guy.
I think I failed to mention that I painted it gloss black with silver metallic highlights. crappy paint job, but oh well.
That's weird, I thought the "Ask Slashdot" thing sorta implied that they wanted feedback from people who had built home-grown Tivo's. At least that's the impression that I got.
And you know what? I have spent a bunch and put a lot of time and effort into it.
It was fun.
And worth every minute and penny because I like to make things. What I don't like to do, however, is derive self-worth from posting silly oppositional-defiant things on the internet just to facelessly attempt to demean a stranger.
Re:Don't know how many times I'm going to post thi
on
Home-Grown TiVo Stories?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
Not bad video from the EyeTV. its straight to MPEG-1, so you have to edit it in the EyeTV app, and its about 650MB per hour. Equivalent to VHS quality (LP). And the VCDs that you can burn w/ Toast play in almost any recent DVD player and honestly don't look too bad. I put some South Parks on a VCD and took them to my mom's house and her big ass 40" HDTV, and to be honest it didn't look or sound all that bad. I mean, we're not talking DVD by any standard, but definitely worthwhile.
Plus I can put my 4 favorite zombie flix on one data DVD.
Don't know how many times I'm going to post this..
on
Home-Grown TiVo Stories?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
My setup:
G4 500 200 GB internal storage EyeTV TV tuner (1 coax in and 1 RCA video/audio in) RCA video in/out 2 S-video out 1 S-video in 1 RCA audio in 1 RCA audio out 1 1/8" stereo miniplug in 1 1/8" stereo miniplug out SCSI USB FireWire serial x 2 dual ethernet DVD-RW (Pioneer 104) Mac OS X Jaguar Keyspan Remote drives a 14" VGA and 27" TV VCD DivX MPEG-4 etc. support online scheduling w/ TitanTV Full Internet Access screen resolution on the TV up to 1024x768 and much much more
sound yummy? Its killer, and I'm putting together a web page w/ all the pics from the assembly and the final product.
Don't worry slashdotters, you'll get a peek at this beauty soon.
Those prices aren't exactly stellar. That's without any of the fancy user-apps that Apple includes that make life a whole lot easier. That's also without the more durable and attractive construction. Nor does it include a Unix-based operating system that can also run x86 operating systems. Nor does it include FireWire. And the Wi-Fi option would take up the PC Card slot as opposed to being an internal upgrade.
So if you add up all the stuff you'd have to add to the Dell to make it comparable to the Mac, the Mac winds up being a better value, especially over time as Apple's OS updates generally make things FASTER and MORE STABLE as opposed to SLOWER and REPLETE WITH BUGS.
I use a beige mac as the hub of my digital entertainment center. EVERYTHING goes through the mac, from DVD to TV to MP3 and CD to DivX and more. Pumped through a Radeon 7000 into a 27" TV and a second 14" VGA for system and file maintenance. all controlled through a Keyspan remote.
it works fine now, running at G4 466, but yummmmm that 1GHz sounds good. but, yes, way too pricey for what i'd be using it for. the lack of agp graphics makes these macs incompatible with a lot of advanced features and applications, notably Quartz Extreme and DVD Studio Pro to name a couple.
I'd gladly pay $500 for this upgrade, and I'm sure the price will come down.
Oh, and didn't any of you know you can clock the bus speed of your beige up to 83 MHz? it runs very stable and allows you to get a faster L2 cache in the process. check out www.xlr8yourmac.com!!!
Great point. A lot of the best shows in recent years were unceremoniously cancelled. Greg the Bunny comes to mind, as does the Upright Citizens Brigade.
i just posted this on another thread but its relevant to this too:
Built from parts:
G4 450 Desktop-style G3 case painted black w/ silver trim 768 MB RAM 120 + 80 GB drives (coming soon - currently only 80 and 12) 32 MB Radeon Dual-Head Graphics (drives a 27" TV and a 14" VGA 800x600 mirrored or separate display at the 'control center' of the couch) DVD-RW External CD-RW Mac OS X (incl. all the goodness of a full install of X) EyeTV VLC (for VideoCDs, DivX, etc) Remote Control via Keyspan Wacom Tablet
Best freakin' PVR etc in the world. Has 2 stereo audio inputs, 2 S-video out, 2 Composite Video out, 1 VGA, 1 DVI, one Mac DB-15, 2 USB, 3 FireWire, 2x DVD-RW, 16x CD-R, 8x CD-RW, 1 10BaseT Enet, 1 10/100BaseT Enet, SCSI, 2 serial, ADB, and a partridge in a pear tree.
I can burn a VCD while encoding a DVD to DivX while recording live TV to MPEG-1 while acting as a media server to my LAN while... you get the idea. Built on the old and the new and it works flawlessly.
Slashdot Mirror
I mean come on, if someone is smart enough to use a Mac, they're definitely smart enough to not want to be a bullet sponge for big oil.
Jeez, you'd think if it was posted to /. it would have more meat to the story. I'd like to see an "Ask Slashdot" with this guy, perhaps a more in-depth interview, but this article was really lackluster.
;)
And he doesn't like Napster. Go figure. I guess he prefers Kazaa, where its easier to get apps and movies too.
All your floating point ops are belong to us.
.... its....
Faster than a dual 3.08 Xeon.
Able to leapfrog a 533MHz sys bus in a single bound.
Its a tower, its a computer
THE FASTEST PERSONAL COMPTUER KNOWN TO MAN.
And also faster than high end Unix workstations.
I can't help it. I have to say it.
U'VE BEEN BTICHSLAPPED YOU INTEL LOVING WEENIES!
I kinda sorta see what you're saying. But I really do have to take issue with some of this prattle.
Right away, I have to disagree, not just because Radiohead is up there, but because there are countless artists who don't give a lick for verse-chorus-verse structure with danceable melodies. some have even gotten very famous. Now this does apply Madonna, Linkin Park, and about 90% of the other "musicians" that flood our ears and eyes every goddamned day of our lives, but witness Frank Zappa, Mr. Bungle, Igor Stravinsky, Sun Ra, Milk Cult, and many many others that create music that both challenges and excites for reasons other than making one want to shake one's booty.
I pulled this quote out because I think if it stands on its own it reveals its own ridiculousness. If i can tell everything about a song from one vibe, one chord, etc., that's not the kind of song I want to waste precious time of my life listening to, examining, possibly remembering.
If that car has a boomin system and you're not already listening to something yourself. Its not about making your audience dance, ok? I mean, sure, maybe you just want people to get up and have a good time, and that's great entertainment, but not all musicians are simply entertainers. a lot of music is meant to recreate moods and feelings, and express in sound emotion and experience in ways unheard of. Example, "Violence ^5" on Mike Patton's "Adult Themes for Voice."
Many times these structured, honed sound waves are parts of a larger composition. Like sections in a Beethoven symphony, each track is a part of a larger whole that is meant to be taken in as that whole. Frank Zappa's Civilization Phase III is a good example of that. Sure, its a "CD" and there are "tracks." But it is an opera, with a storyline and development. It requires the whole album to be taken in the correct context.
Would you like to be able to buy just the action sequences from The Matrix Reloaded and not have to pay for any of the garbage filler that ruined an otherwise great piece of eye candy? I sure as hell would. But we can't. So why should we be allowed to pick apart the aural creation of someone who wishes it to be heard as a whole?
They split albums into tracks to make it easier for us to pick up where we left off, but it should be up to the artist as to how they get distributed. Singles were a different market. That was only one or 2 tracks from an album.
Unless you were Michael Jackson circa "Thriller", then it was your whole album. But that just illustrates another point. Make an album good enough, and EVERY SONG WILL HAVE SINGLE POTENTIAL! You hear that Madonna? No more "Take A Bow."
Ugh. Would you rather have millions of people only know 5 minutes of any one of Bach's compositions? And being "in it" to have millions of people clutch one song and ignore the entire rest of your catalog, especially if you
and i thought i was cool when i dropped a V8 engine into my Snoopy Sno Cone Maker! back to the drawing board ...
I'll say this: no Wal-Mart patrons probably won't know the difference between Lindows and Windows.
But, they do know the difference between store-brand toilet tissue and Charmin. They know the difference in quality between the Charmin and the store brand. Oh, sure the store brand might have a swank version, but its still cheaper and your ass (and your wallet) will notice.
I don't think anyone with the capacity to make it to Wal Mart in the first place to buy a computer will think for a second that the $200 machine they are buying is going to favorably compare to a $600+ machine.
Will they know quite what to expect? No. But they know its something different just because it would have to be to be so inexpensive.
well, to be fair, if it was scrounged from a laptop, and it is a 3GB drive, that means its probably old and spins at around 4500 RPM. That will definitely impact the performance of the machine. Especially if its an ATA-33 drive.
Now, for the price, this kind of performance is fine. But it is viable to say that this hard drive could theoretically be slowing things down. Sounds like the system could be waiting for the drive to feed data if it is as low end as I've postulated.
So far a lot of the comments have been of the following types:
1. Hey, that's a really shitty review.
2. What great/terrible hardware for $199.
3. Lindows is/isn't a good choice for home usage.
I think ya'll are missing the big picture - the fact that a Linux based PC even got reviewed in such a mainstream news source! Its not posted to Slashdot because it is a complete technical review, nor to let all you l33t fuckers know about the crazy good hardware inside to make your little coder jaws go slack in awe. It got posted to slashdot because, holy shit, its a review of a Linux-based PC in a very prominent online news source that the majority of readers who visit have probably never laid eyes on Linux before. Its called EXPOSURE (and not the bad, get registered to a sex offender database type, either.)
Especially in the face of all the FUD surrounding Linux cuz of those SCO bastards, its really nice to see an average Joe type news source with an average Joe type reviewer gving space and consideration to a rather new, highly feared and doubted, but otherwise relatively UNKNOWN (to most people, not geeks) solution to the problem of a new PC costing too much money.
And if mom and dad or grandma and grandpa can send email, surf the web, use their digital camera, and play some Sims, what the hell are they missing? When was the last time your grandma bragged about her frag rate? That doesn't count if your grandma is Italian and runs hits for the mob.
Anyway, my 2Â.
Don't hold your breath.
Actually, on second thought, do that. Yeah, there ya go. Keep going.
Hold on, I'm going to get some tape.
Keep going!
I think a lot of people are missing the really exciting parts about this release - not the "oh, finally" sentiment, but the reasons WHY it took so long.
The huge reason, obviously, is that Quark is a Mach-O application. This is the most "native" an app can get in Mac OS X. Gives it the ability to run at a lower level and access more APIs than any other type of Mac OS X application. Quark 6 ONLY runs on Mac OS X 10.2 or higher. No 9 support at all. This means that Quark had to be overhauled and recoded pretty extensively. This isn't just a quick Carbon hack.
Speaking of quick Carbon hacks, Adobe's InDesign, while I love working with it, suffers from just this problem. Doesn't take advantage of Services, is slow and kludgy to work with, and generally feels like an OS 9 application with an OS X theme. And 2 was not a huge improvement over 1.x speed-wise. Adobe would do well to take a cue from Quark and really optimize their programs for X instead of just getting them running.
Beyond that, it looks as if the UI has undergone significant changes with many new menu options, reorganized menu options, and some very cool portable-content type tools and abilities that will make the entire design process smoother and allow graphic designers to worry less about file management and more about color matching and negative space. this can only mean better designed print material, which makes me happy. I can't stand half-assed media filling up the world's newsstands.
An American response ... although I bear no real sentimental attatchment to my country of origin, I still feel the need to retort to your indignation:
1. We call them cell phones, yes. That is because our contracts put us into a state not unlike that of a turkish prison, with our phones being our "cell." Therefore, "Cell Phones".
2. We pay for incoming calls because it is worth it to make it appear as if people want to talk to us. Remember, this is America, where status is much easier to buy.
3. We don't use SMS because it costs a shitload more here than it does there. No joke here, just the fucked up truth.
Once again, as an American, I would be disgusted to look at your awful semi-continent on a map, that is, if I could find it.
Payola's owned the industry since the dawn of time, and finally the average joe gets their slice of that neverending pie. Hurrah!
1. Put on some smooth jazz or R&B. Al Green will do nicely.
2. Light some candles and incense. Sandalwood is perfect, especially if you can get some sandalwood massage oil.
3. Compliment the Stem Master Cell heavily, even if you don't believe a word of what you're saying.
4. Offer a deep-fetal-tissue massage.
5. After a nice 20 minute session, rub the Stem Master Cell's buttocks and thighs, hightening their pleasure with small injections of dopamine.
That should do it! Lord knows it works for me.
but something tells me that Martian microbes just may be a higher form of intelligent life than the earthbound microbes we commonly refer to as homo sapiens....
....
at least i can dream, anyway
the way i see it, these corporations saturate our senses with this drivel every day. logos, jingles, neon, billboards, radio, tv, constatntly pushing their product on us through controlled delivery mechanisms in a blanketing and unescapable manner. i wish i could go one day in a normal life without seeing the coca cola logo or go a month without hearing shania twain. but through monopoly and mind control they have infected every single facet of our lives with advertisement, music posing as advertisement, and advertisement posing as music.
and now we can't take what they've force fed us and throw it up in their greedy faces, digested and reformed, sometimes more creative than they would like?
you can't stop a natural reaction to this kind of stimulus, people. eventually some judge somewhere will have owned an early NWA record and smack down this kind of ridiculous, greed-driven nonsense.
just think - all the people involved in the entire process would be so much better off doing something else with their time rather than arguing over such a trivial matter. i mean shit, i'd rather Dre was in the studio sampling the shit out of Funkadelic to release as a not-for-the-public 'bootleg' on an italian label.
just my 2
at first glance i thought they were talking about the slashdotting of .Mac, yahoo, and other small-bandwidth hosted sites...
G4 500 - $250
DVD-RW - $200
120 GB drive - $111
Radeon 7000 - $100
80 GB drive - $80
768MB RAM - $75
FireWire/USB - $75
2nd Enet Card - $15
MLB and case were free
$906
Wow, hey, that's cheaper than the least expensive eMac.
This was spent over a period of 2 years. Obviously the FW/USB card would be cheaper now. Not cheap by any standard, but certainly inexpensive for the capabilities.
Sounds cool, actually. I put a little bit more $ into it for the premium of using Mac hardware, but I really wanted OS X driving my entertainment center. I find it far more functional and flexible than XP Media Edition, and with Konfabulator, anything is possible :)
I haven't tried Tivo personally. With the money I spent I could have, I'm sure, but hey, I'm a project kinda guy.
I think I failed to mention that I painted it gloss black with silver metallic highlights. crappy paint job, but oh well.
That's weird, I thought the "Ask Slashdot" thing sorta implied that they wanted feedback from people who had built home-grown Tivo's. At least that's the impression that I got.
And you know what? I have spent a bunch and put a lot of time and effort into it.
It was fun.
And worth every minute and penny because I like to make things. What I don't like to do, however, is derive self-worth from posting silly oppositional-defiant things on the internet just to facelessly attempt to demean a stranger.
Not bad video from the EyeTV. its straight to MPEG-1, so you have to edit it in the EyeTV app, and its about 650MB per hour. Equivalent to VHS quality (LP). And the VCDs that you can burn w/ Toast play in almost any recent DVD player and honestly don't look too bad. I put some South Parks on a VCD and took them to my mom's house and her big ass 40" HDTV, and to be honest it didn't look or sound all that bad. I mean, we're not talking DVD by any standard, but definitely worthwhile.
Plus I can put my 4 favorite zombie flix on one data DVD.
My setup:
G4 500
200 GB internal storage
EyeTV TV tuner (1 coax in and 1 RCA video/audio in)
RCA video in/out
2 S-video out
1 S-video in
1 RCA audio in
1 RCA audio out
1 1/8" stereo miniplug in
1 1/8" stereo miniplug out
SCSI
USB
FireWire
serial x 2
dual ethernet
DVD-RW (Pioneer 104)
Mac OS X Jaguar
Keyspan Remote
drives a 14" VGA and 27" TV
VCD DivX MPEG-4 etc. support
online scheduling w/ TitanTV
Full Internet Access
screen resolution on the TV up to 1024x768
and much much more
sound yummy? Its killer, and I'm putting together a web page w/ all the pics from the assembly and the final product.
Don't worry slashdotters, you'll get a peek at this beauty soon.
Those prices aren't exactly stellar. That's without any of the fancy user-apps that Apple includes that make life a whole lot easier. That's also without the more durable and attractive construction. Nor does it include a Unix-based operating system that can also run x86 operating systems. Nor does it include FireWire. And the Wi-Fi option would take up the PC Card slot as opposed to being an internal upgrade.
So if you add up all the stuff you'd have to add to the Dell to make it comparable to the Mac, the Mac winds up being a better value, especially over time as Apple's OS updates generally make things FASTER and MORE STABLE as opposed to SLOWER and REPLETE WITH BUGS.
I use a beige mac as the hub of my digital entertainment center. EVERYTHING goes through the mac, from DVD to TV to MP3 and CD to DivX and more. Pumped through a Radeon 7000 into a 27" TV and a second 14" VGA for system and file maintenance. all controlled through a Keyspan remote.
it works fine now, running at G4 466, but yummmmm that 1GHz sounds good. but, yes, way too pricey for what i'd be using it for. the lack of agp graphics makes these macs incompatible with a lot of advanced features and applications, notably Quartz Extreme and DVD Studio Pro to name a couple.
I'd gladly pay $500 for this upgrade, and I'm sure the price will come down.
Oh, and didn't any of you know you can clock the bus speed of your beige up to 83 MHz? it runs very stable and allows you to get a faster L2 cache in the process. check out www.xlr8yourmac.com!!!
The 66->83 thing really helps a bunch.
Great point. A lot of the best shows in recent years were unceremoniously cancelled. Greg the Bunny comes to mind, as does the Upright Citizens Brigade.
i just posted this on another thread but its relevant to this too:
... you get the idea. Built on the old and the new and it works flawlessly.
Built from parts:
G4 450
Desktop-style G3 case painted black w/ silver trim
768 MB RAM
120 + 80 GB drives (coming soon - currently only 80 and 12)
32 MB Radeon Dual-Head Graphics (drives a 27" TV and a 14" VGA 800x600 mirrored or separate display at the 'control center' of the couch)
DVD-RW
External CD-RW
Mac OS X (incl. all the goodness of a full install of X)
EyeTV
VLC (for VideoCDs, DivX, etc)
Remote Control via Keyspan
Wacom Tablet
Best freakin' PVR etc in the world. Has 2 stereo audio inputs, 2 S-video out, 2 Composite Video out, 1 VGA, 1 DVI, one Mac DB-15, 2 USB, 3 FireWire, 2x DVD-RW, 16x CD-R, 8x CD-RW, 1 10BaseT Enet, 1 10/100BaseT Enet, SCSI, 2 serial, ADB, and a partridge in a pear tree.
I can burn a VCD while encoding a DVD to DivX while recording live TV to MPEG-1 while acting as a media server to my LAN while