Depends. If you're running anything in KDE or Gnome, there's quite a few steps that Apple doesn't go into. I was quite perturbed to install KDE, have it start up successful, and get the Quartz WM trying to take it over (imagine KDE dialogs with Quartz close buttons). It took me a long time to figure out exactly what needed to be added to the.rc file to curb this behavior.
"It's nice that they finally admitted it but, in another context, they still have to get rid of DVD Region encoding otherwise it's only rethoric."
Huh? One is an incompatible format that made using Sony players an incredible chore. The other is a universally-accepted format that, while frowned upon, doesn't encrypt content (and it can very easily be avoided by using a multi-region DVD player). The two are apples and oranges.
Yes, pretty much. I was like "look, I'm doing Y, but I'm only being paid for X". I work hard, and they recognized it -- that's how I got the salary adjustment.
I'm also spending some of my own money on education: an MBA (yeah, yeah, I know). They perceive this as an employee worth more, and to be honest I'm learning some "people" skills I don't normally get to exercise working on the servers.
My raises are also contingent on a review, but people very rarely *not* get the raise. The only time they wouldn't is if they have a particularly negative review.
Here's the big difference: we're paying for it this time.
I love Wow. I actually have it alt-tabbed as I type this. I've also been fortunate to be on a server that rarely has any problems. However, I have friends who have experienced these issues, and they royally suck.
Imagine buying a CD, for example, and not being able to play it AT ALL for 2 days. Or having to wait for 500 other people to play the CD before you get to play it. Or, when it does work, having it frequently skip (even though it's new).
This is the only form of entertainment that has people tolerate this kind of thing. If people had to wait 2 days when a movie blockbuster came out, for example, there'd be riots. The only thing that's going to change this is if the companies stop getting paid. If this keeps up, Blizzard is going to be in that position.
Man, I'm getting sick and tired of people thinking "PR" means "fooling the populace". That's not PR.
The goal of a PR person is take a damaging event against a company, BLOWN UP BY THE PRESS and PUBLIC, and explain to the public exactly 1) why the damaging scenario occured and 2) what they're doing to fix it. The goal ISN'T to hide the damaging event or try to make the CEO look like he didn't know what was going on.
PR has had a massive transformation in the past few years. Are their dicks in PR? Sure. There are dicks in every profession (you get bitter when NO ONE believe what you say over time). However, the vast majority of PR people have morals and ethics.
There are various codes of ethics that most PR people follow. They're people like everyone else.
"* Mac OS X looks exactly the same if you don't have a powerful enough graphics card, and screen redrawing is not too slow."
Uh, not quite. Features are definitely turned off -- the whole cube turning is an example of this (it's deactivated). Things don't look "exactly the same".
"* The system degrades gracefully - if you don't have a powerful enough graphics card or run out of video RAM, certain 3D transitions may be skipped. But everything will still function, and everything will look the same."
Uh, again, you're contradicting yourself. How can anything "degrade" while appearing exactly "the same"? Fact is, OS 10.3 isn't very impressive on older hardware. In fact, my family ran into an issue just a month ago, where my mom "thought" she changed users and didn't. Later, she couldn't find her files. Since there's no real visual reference when you change users on an older system (no cube), it's difficult to tell if you've actually done so.
Ever try to remove all the remnants of a Mac app? Or using apt-get to uninstall? There's ALWAYS remnants. The issue is that there's a hell of a lot more software available for Widnows, some of which uses the exact same components, and people are more inclined to install a million pieces on top of each other to experiment. If you ever tried uninstalling AOL IM on Mac and reinstalling iChat, you'll see what I'm talking about.
"Making use of the available graphics power just makes sense, and Apple was smart to be the first to realize this."
The issue is that Apple (more or less) knows exactly what graphics cards go into every machine, so they can plan accordingly. I don't know if you've looked at different hardware, but there are features automatically turned on if you have a Powerbook, for example, over an iBook. Also, if you try to run on an older video card, it's horrendously slow.
Microsoft's got a different problem: how do you make the UI consistent when there's a million and a half different video cards on the market? They need to make sure that whatever they do *doesn't* run horrendously on old hardware. Apple doesn't need to worry about this.
It does NOW. It didn't when Apple shipped the iBook.
Face it: the had a standard image that they didn't want to tinker with. Rather than giving me the *right* image, with software I could actually *use* they included all the other pieces of iLife that just waste space.
Not the machines at my school. Smart kids long ago set that to not start. When new users came in, the teacher had to come around and start the tutorial for them. In a multiuser environment that thing sucked.
Well, yeah. What's the point of including DVD burning software on a laptop with CD-RW, that you can't replace the drive on?
Re:It's ALL about the software, stupid!
on
Apple Releases Mac Mini
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· Score: 1, Interesting
*Scratches head* I wouldn't agree with that at all. In my position "doing stuff" is compiling, email and web. In that case free apps are available on both platforms, and the tools I use (gcc) are also free.
I have an iBook G4, and personally I've never found a need to use the iLife stuff outside iTunes. For example, what's the point of having iMovie on my machine (which they included) when it doesn't have a DVD writer? To make.mov files? Whatever.
*shrug* So often when MS, Apple, etc (insert your favorite commercial developer here) releases a beta, the Slashdot community gets its panties in a bunch when it finds a security flaw.
I remember numerous comments when Windows 98 beta IE flaws were found saying, in effect, "My god... no wonder MS releases such crap products!" Not this gentle "it's only a beta" viewpoint we have towards Google.
For now, given up. Keychain only does half the job (it can store local server passwords but not domain).
I'm not saying the Active Directory thing is all Apple's fault: it's half Microsoft's for making such a closed directory structure. On the other hand, Apple has been trying for several years to show how much more "compatible" with Windows machines OS X is. For the most part, it succeeded (Samba works very well, for example) but there are still some pretty grievous nicks. If they're expecting to sell the new Mac as a PC replacement, it's got to tie into existing PC stuff as much as possible.
"But, if you just like to spend your whole day messing around with your computer instead of getting anything done, by all means, avoid Macs."
Very good point. Let me give you a recent experience with one of our Macs at work. Tried to get the thing to properly sync up with Active Directory so the user wouldn't need to enter his password every time he connected to one of the company servers (one of our few Windows boxes).
Enabled everything, set everything exactly as both MS and Apple recommend. Nothing. In fact, somehow enabling Active Directory support on this Mac (an older G4 with a fresh copy of 10.3.7) disabled Rendezvous, so the user could no longer print either. I had to disable AD support, reenable Rendezvous and manually set up the printer's IP.
My job (and his) is to get work done. How can we "get work done" if, after 8 hours of struggling, we had a Mac mostly dead to the network that couldn't print? I ended up having to restore from an image.
Actually, no geek I know of honestly cares how big his rig is. A few care how they look, but most of the time it's to make them more ostentacious (gaudy).
And it's more than just clock cycles. A lot of my favorite programs are (still) not optimized for the Velocity engine. Meanwhile most of the apps on PC are taking advantage of squeezing out every last cycle with low-level instructions. If the performance is flat-out better on the Dell, for what *I* want to do (compile and gaming) I'll go with the Dell.
"The Windows Server 2003-based MacWorld Expo site folded under all those hits, while Apple's sites, running Mac OS X, were only knocked into sluggishness. (Server load is a complex thing, of course -- more complicated than what OS is on the servers.)"
And that's of course why I mentioned OS first and foremost in my summary...
In other news, people die all the time, but a good number die from being shot by a Colt gun. That's "Colt" spelled "C-o-l-t". Of course, death is a complex thing, much more complicated that what gun is used.
Slashdot Mirror
"Step 2: There is no step 2!"
.rc file to curb this behavior.
Depends. If you're running anything in KDE or Gnome, there's quite a few steps that Apple doesn't go into. I was quite perturbed to install KDE, have it start up successful, and get the Quartz WM trying to take it over (imagine KDE dialogs with Quartz close buttons). It took me a long time to figure out exactly what needed to be added to the
If you install at lunch time it'd be 10-11-12. Wait, no... that's a stretch.
"It's nice that they finally admitted it but, in another context, they still have to get rid of DVD Region encoding otherwise it's only rethoric."
Huh? One is an incompatible format that made using Sony players an incredible chore. The other is a universally-accepted format that, while frowned upon, doesn't encrypt content (and it can very easily be avoided by using a multi-region DVD player). The two are apples and oranges.
Yes, pretty much. I was like "look, I'm doing Y, but I'm only being paid for X". I work hard, and they recognized it -- that's how I got the salary adjustment.
I'm also spending some of my own money on education: an MBA (yeah, yeah, I know). They perceive this as an employee worth more, and to be honest I'm learning some "people" skills I don't normally get to exercise working on the servers.
My raises are also contingent on a review, but people very rarely *not* get the raise. The only time they wouldn't is if they have a particularly negative review.
I work for a company that consistently gives 4% a year. Last year I made considerably more with a salary adjustment. Is this not the norm?
Here's the big difference: we're paying for it this time.
I love Wow. I actually have it alt-tabbed as I type this. I've also been fortunate to be on a server that rarely has any problems. However, I have friends who have experienced these issues, and they royally suck.
Imagine buying a CD, for example, and not being able to play it AT ALL for 2 days. Or having to wait for 500 other people to play the CD before you get to play it. Or, when it does work, having it frequently skip (even though it's new).
This is the only form of entertainment that has people tolerate this kind of thing. If people had to wait 2 days when a movie blockbuster came out, for example, there'd be riots. The only thing that's going to change this is if the companies stop getting paid. If this keeps up, Blizzard is going to be in that position.
Yeah, you know, Slashdot is pretty advanced. I didn't know we can now Slashdot realm servers THAT HAVE NO WEBPAGE WHATSOEVER. *rolls eyes*
It'll also act as a birth control device if you leave it on your lap too long. Some people might be into that.
Man, I'm getting sick and tired of people thinking "PR" means "fooling the populace". That's not PR.
The goal of a PR person is take a damaging event against a company, BLOWN UP BY THE PRESS and PUBLIC, and explain to the public exactly 1) why the damaging scenario occured and 2) what they're doing to fix it. The goal ISN'T to hide the damaging event or try to make the CEO look like he didn't know what was going on.
PR has had a massive transformation in the past few years. Are their dicks in PR? Sure. There are dicks in every profession (you get bitter when NO ONE believe what you say over time). However, the vast majority of PR people have morals and ethics.
There are various codes of ethics that most PR people follow. They're people like everyone else.
"* Mac OS X looks exactly the same if you don't have a powerful enough graphics card, and screen redrawing is not too slow."
Uh, not quite. Features are definitely turned off -- the whole cube turning is an example of this (it's deactivated). Things don't look "exactly the same".
"* The system degrades gracefully - if you don't have a powerful enough graphics card or run out of video RAM, certain 3D transitions may be skipped. But everything will still function, and everything will look the same."
Uh, again, you're contradicting yourself. How can anything "degrade" while appearing exactly "the same"? Fact is, OS 10.3 isn't very impressive on older hardware. In fact, my family ran into an issue just a month ago, where my mom "thought" she changed users and didn't. Later, she couldn't find her files. Since there's no real visual reference when you change users on an older system (no cube), it's difficult to tell if you've actually done so.
Ever try to remove all the remnants of a Mac app? Or using apt-get to uninstall? There's ALWAYS remnants. The issue is that there's a hell of a lot more software available for Widnows, some of which uses the exact same components, and people are more inclined to install a million pieces on top of each other to experiment. If you ever tried uninstalling AOL IM on Mac and reinstalling iChat, you'll see what I'm talking about.
That's what the "level" system is for, son. Read up on it before you make an asinine comment.
"Making use of the available graphics power just makes sense, and Apple was smart to be the first to realize this."
The issue is that Apple (more or less) knows exactly what graphics cards go into every machine, so they can plan accordingly. I don't know if you've looked at different hardware, but there are features automatically turned on if you have a Powerbook, for example, over an iBook. Also, if you try to run on an older video card, it's horrendously slow.
Microsoft's got a different problem: how do you make the UI consistent when there's a million and a half different video cards on the market? They need to make sure that whatever they do *doesn't* run horrendously on old hardware. Apple doesn't need to worry about this.
It does NOW. It didn't when Apple shipped the iBook.
Face it: the had a standard image that they didn't want to tinker with. Rather than giving me the *right* image, with software I could actually *use* they included all the other pieces of iLife that just waste space.
Not the machines at my school. Smart kids long ago set that to not start. When new users came in, the teacher had to come around and start the tutorial for them. In a multiuser environment that thing sucked.
Well, yeah. What's the point of including DVD burning software on a laptop with CD-RW, that you can't replace the drive on?
*Scratches head* I wouldn't agree with that at all. In my position "doing stuff" is compiling, email and web. In that case free apps are available on both platforms, and the tools I use (gcc) are also free.
.mov files? Whatever.
I have an iBook G4, and personally I've never found a need to use the iLife stuff outside iTunes. For example, what's the point of having iMovie on my machine (which they included) when it doesn't have a DVD writer? To make
*shrug* So often when MS, Apple, etc (insert your favorite commercial developer here) releases a beta, the Slashdot community gets its panties in a bunch when it finds a security flaw.
I remember numerous comments when Windows 98 beta IE flaws were found saying, in effect, "My god... no wonder MS releases such crap products!" Not this gentle "it's only a beta" viewpoint we have towards Google.
For now, given up. Keychain only does half the job (it can store local server passwords but not domain).
I'm not saying the Active Directory thing is all Apple's fault: it's half Microsoft's for making such a closed directory structure. On the other hand, Apple has been trying for several years to show how much more "compatible" with Windows machines OS X is. For the most part, it succeeded (Samba works very well, for example) but there are still some pretty grievous nicks. If they're expecting to sell the new Mac as a PC replacement, it's got to tie into existing PC stuff as much as possible.
Hey, early Macs had the same thing. I never figured out how they were supposed to open the damn tutorial without clicking.
Can't be much worse than the "Who's Your Daddy?" reality show on Fox (look it up).
"But, if you just like to spend your whole day messing around with your computer instead of getting anything done, by all means, avoid Macs."
Very good point. Let me give you a recent experience with one of our Macs at work. Tried to get the thing to properly sync up with Active Directory so the user wouldn't need to enter his password every time he connected to one of the company servers (one of our few Windows boxes).
Enabled everything, set everything exactly as both MS and Apple recommend. Nothing. In fact, somehow enabling Active Directory support on this Mac (an older G4 with a fresh copy of 10.3.7) disabled Rendezvous, so the user could no longer print either. I had to disable AD support, reenable Rendezvous and manually set up the printer's IP.
My job (and his) is to get work done. How can we "get work done" if, after 8 hours of struggling, we had a Mac mostly dead to the network that couldn't print? I ended up having to restore from an image.
Actually, no geek I know of honestly cares how big his rig is. A few care how they look, but most of the time it's to make them more ostentacious (gaudy).
And it's more than just clock cycles. A lot of my favorite programs are (still) not optimized for the Velocity engine. Meanwhile most of the apps on PC are taking advantage of squeezing out every last cycle with low-level instructions. If the performance is flat-out better on the Dell, for what *I* want to do (compile and gaming) I'll go with the Dell.
"The Windows Server 2003-based MacWorld Expo site folded under all those hits, while Apple's sites, running Mac OS X, were only knocked into sluggishness. (Server load is a complex thing, of course -- more complicated than what OS is on the servers.)"
And that's of course why I mentioned OS first and foremost in my summary...
In other news, people die all the time, but a good number die from being shot by a Colt gun. That's "Colt" spelled "C-o-l-t". Of course, death is a complex thing, much more complicated that what gun is used.