Apple have found a niche for themselves as a combined OS + Hardware vendor where they control the entire environment. They will never make an expandable, cheapo minitower, they aren't the cheapest, and they will never dominate the industry AND THEY DON'T CARE! For one simple reason: enough people like what they produce to generate a very healthy, very profitable business. That, at the end of the day is all they want and they're succeeding at it.
Never going to happen. Period. Apple would never sell any product that would either enter them into the race to the bottom market that Dell, HP, et. al., compete in, or lower the high profit margins that they currently enjoy. It's just not going to happen because 1-2 thousand hobbyists are clammering for it.
Steve Squyres of the Mars Rover mission won't be in on this one, but about ten years ago on BBC's The Planets series, he discussed designing a lander/sub mission to Europa. The lander would melt through the ice, turn into a sub, and start exploring the ocean beneath.
While I'm optimistic that this will happen someday, I'm sad that I won't see it in my lifetime.
Yeah I'll give you guys that. Apple's software for Windows SUCKS, and always has. The same problems don't occur in Mac OS X. Why they write shitware versions of their Mac apps and spread forceware to Windows machines is fucking stupid. No excuse, Apple, and I'm what the juvenile labelers of the world would probably call a "fanboy."
Or if you wanted to be truly pedantic, all bodies orbiting other bodies are satellites. You make a good point about the media giving it the name of our satellite, Moon, and attaching "second" to it:)
I replied to your post on the blog and also referenced that reply here on Slashdot when someone else brought up the same point. I've posted the links for the sake of not repeating if you're interested.
BTW, there is reason to believe that even this "asteroid" may be man-made, and merely something that achieved Earth escape velocity and is now merely orbiting the Sun instead, like the Apollo 12 3rd stage engine of the Saturn V. Not all of the objects that went into solar orbit have been tracked, so perhaps this is one coming back home?
Someone had made this same point at Universe Today. I think it would be extremely fascinating to study a returning deep space probe that's in heliocentric orbit, such as the first Luna, Rangers 3 and 5, or one of the Mariner flyby probes. I would be very interested to see what effect 50 years of solar orbit has done to the structure, electronics, etc.
Not being cynical, but I don't think the funds would ever be available for such a mission. But one can dream...
Everyone seems to be forgetting that Mars is bombarded by constant radiation from the Sun. It's entirely possible that there's a wee little bit more processing to do:)
I say "possible" due to the fact that I haven't researched the solubility of radioactive materials in water.
Post some cites of your dogmatic propaganda. Until then, I call bullshit.
Of course, if you weren't such a pussy and actually believed the garbage you've spewed, you wouldn't have posted as AC. I can regurgitate vomitous crap that talk radio has fed me as well.
Anyway, it is certainly quite annoying that they basically tell people like you, "F you, we don't even want your money." And even more annoyingly, it looks like they really don't need money from people like you.
Funny, but it seems that 26 billion bucks in the bank says that they a lot of money from a lot of people.
Look, I live a very simple live. I work in the restaurant business where I make jack SHIT for cash. My choice. But it's something I'm good at, and I'm never without a job. I rent an apartment, drive a used car, not dumb enough to use credit cards or father money-sucking children, blah blah blah. You get the idea; your typical high school graduate- only loser.
But you know what?
I bought a Macbook Pro, brand new, BY SAVING MY MONEY. And Apple took that money.
It's simple. People want cheap ass Macs. And they aren't going to get them. And somehow, that's Apple's fault.
It's a pathetic entitlement attitude that cheapos have adopted, because they can buy a piece of crap running Windows for $500.
That's not for sale except as part of the Wii. But I can buy a copy of OSX in a box at bestbuy for under $200.
For installation on your Apple-branded computer, i.e. a Macintosh. Read the license.
It's simple. Rather than let themselves be nearly destroyed again by clone makers, they'll simply pull the retail version of the OS X upgrade from the market. Bye bye clone market. But this won't affect the already-pirating OSX86 cloners.
Apple wants to be a "boutique" computer maker, where they control the entire widget. They own all of the rights, the code, the hardware, and put all of the R&D into the product. They can sell it however they want to; people who want cheapass Macs be damned.
I still don't get where this entitlement attitude comes from. Apple isn't Microsoft; their OS isn't designed, or licensed, to run on anything but Apple-branded hardware, regardless of the processor it runs. Don't like it? Don't like the price of Mac? Then don't buy one. But don't think that you have some special right to break license agreements.
"I had an Apple Performa 6360 and I don't know if a clone company could have made anything worse that that piece of crap."
You never had a 52xx/62xx series Performa. There was absolutely nothing Apple ever made that was worse than these pieces of shit. Mine literally ended up as a basement doorstop. Luckily for me, it was given to me to tinker with when the original owner couldn't keep it running.
"It is probable that NASA would decide to deorbit the spacecraft at the end of mission by sending it in to Jupiter's atmosphere, rather than just let the orbit degrade. This was done to Galileo to prevent any contamination of Jupiter's moons, particularly Europa."
And Io. And this deorbit was particularly interesting considering that one cancelled mission plan would have maneuvered Galileo through a volcanic plume on Io.
"Apple sells good hardware; they also sell a good OS.
It really is a shame that those two products can't be treated separately and mixed with other products on the market."
Not going to happen. There's no good reason why Apple would do this. It would upset their current business model, which has been incredibly successful. Their profit is made in hardware, not software.
Because Microsoft sells the OS and not the box, I think there's a tendency for people (read: geeks) to look at Apple in the same light, when they use a completely different business model.
Of course, nothing is stopping anyone from building and running a Hackintosh. Just don't try to sell it. Apple is protecting their IP from a company that is trying to profit from it. What Psystar tried to do is wrong and the court agreed.
I think this entire argument boils down to one fact- people want cheap shitbox Macs. And it's never going to happen.
"I'm not sure how happy I am that Obama did [win the election]."
Me neither. Time will tell, however. But I sure will be glad to see the Bush regime hit the road. I just hope they'll do it without damaging anything on their way out.
The black and white, broad-brush, "it's values or NOTHING" nature of ultra-conservatives will never cease to provide me with entertainment.
Well, you see where so-called "values" got us over the past eight years.
Preaching values and using specific issues (so-called "wedge" issues) as a means to pull the wool over the eyes of the electorate is a political tactic as old as the hills. Yet people keep falling for it.
Until last night, that is.
Right now, we've got more important things to worry about than the pseudo-values of an obviously minority electorate, as proven by last night's victory of Obama.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly.
Let's not forget that due to those high margins, they have almost 30 billion bucks in the bank with NO debt.
Apple just does NOT care about market share. They make money with what they do. Why should they change for a few thousand hobbyists?
Apple have found a niche for themselves as a combined OS + Hardware vendor where they control the entire environment. They will never make an expandable, cheapo minitower, they aren't the cheapest, and they will never dominate the industry AND THEY DON'T CARE! For one simple reason: enough people like what they produce to generate a very healthy, very profitable business. That, at the end of the day is all they want and they're succeeding at it.
For now anyway.
Never going to happen. Period. Apple would never sell any product that would either enter them into the race to the bottom market that Dell, HP, et. al., compete in, or lower the high profit margins that they currently enjoy. It's just not going to happen because 1-2 thousand hobbyists are clammering for it.
You should be an analyst. Your predictions are just as accurate as theirs are in forecasting Apple's future.
Steve Squyres of the Mars Rover mission won't be in on this one, but about ten years ago on BBC's The Planets series, he discussed designing a lander/sub mission to Europa. The lander would melt through the ice, turn into a sub, and start exploring the ocean beneath.
While I'm optimistic that this will happen someday, I'm sad that I won't see it in my lifetime.
Yeah I'll give you guys that. Apple's software for Windows SUCKS, and always has. The same problems don't occur in Mac OS X. Why they write shitware versions of their Mac apps and spread forceware to Windows machines is fucking stupid. No excuse, Apple, and I'm what the juvenile labelers of the world would probably call a "fanboy."
Or if you wanted to be truly pedantic, all bodies orbiting other bodies are satellites. You make a good point about the media giving it the name of our satellite, Moon, and attaching "second" to it :)
I replied to your post on the blog and also referenced that reply here on Slashdot when someone else brought up the same point. I've posted the links for the sake of not repeating if you're interested.
BTW, there is reason to believe that even this "asteroid" may be man-made, and merely something that achieved Earth escape velocity and is now merely orbiting the Sun instead, like the Apollo 12 3rd stage engine of the Saturn V. Not all of the objects that went into solar orbit have been tracked, so perhaps this is one coming back home?
Someone had made this same point at Universe Today. I think it would be extremely fascinating to study a returning deep space probe that's in heliocentric orbit, such as the first Luna, Rangers 3 and 5, or one of the Mariner flyby probes. I would be very interested to see what effect 50 years of solar orbit has done to the structure, electronics, etc.
Not being cynical, but I don't think the funds would ever be available for such a mission. But one can dream...
Nathan Explosion would be proud.
Everyone seems to be forgetting that Mars is bombarded by constant radiation from the Sun. It's entirely possible that there's a wee little bit more processing to do :)
I say "possible" due to the fact that I haven't researched the solubility of radioactive materials in water.
Put up or shut up.
Post some cites of your dogmatic propaganda. Until then, I call bullshit.
Of course, if you weren't such a pussy and actually believed the garbage you've spewed, you wouldn't have posted as AC. I can regurgitate vomitous crap that talk radio has fed me as well.
... thy name is hit whore.
Anyway, it is certainly quite annoying that they basically tell people like you, "F you, we don't even want your money." And even more annoyingly, it looks like they really don't need money from people like you.
Funny, but it seems that 26 billion bucks in the bank says that they a lot of money from a lot of people.
Look, I live a very simple live. I work in the restaurant business where I make jack SHIT for cash. My choice. But it's something I'm good at, and I'm never without a job. I rent an apartment, drive a used car, not dumb enough to use credit cards or father money-sucking children, blah blah blah. You get the idea; your typical high school graduate- only loser.
But you know what?
I bought a Macbook Pro, brand new, BY SAVING MY MONEY. And Apple took that money.
It's simple. People want cheap ass Macs. And they aren't going to get them. And somehow, that's Apple's fault.
It's a pathetic entitlement attitude that cheapos have adopted, because they can buy a piece of crap running Windows for $500.
Too bad. Save your money. I did.
That's not for sale except as part of the Wii. But I can buy a copy of OSX in a box at bestbuy for under $200.
For installation on your Apple-branded computer, i.e. a Macintosh. Read the license.
It's simple. Rather than let themselves be nearly destroyed again by clone makers, they'll simply pull the retail version of the OS X upgrade from the market. Bye bye clone market. But this won't affect the already-pirating OSX86 cloners.
Apple wants to be a "boutique" computer maker, where they control the entire widget. They own all of the rights, the code, the hardware, and put all of the R&D into the product. They can sell it however they want to; people who want cheapass Macs be damned.
I still don't get where this entitlement attitude comes from. Apple isn't Microsoft; their OS isn't designed, or licensed, to run on anything but Apple-branded hardware, regardless of the processor it runs. Don't like it? Don't like the price of Mac? Then don't buy one. But don't think that you have some special right to break license agreements.
Lack of argument, thy name is strawman...
"I had an Apple Performa 6360 and I don't know if a clone company could have made anything worse that that piece of crap."
:)
You never had a 52xx/62xx series Performa. There was absolutely nothing Apple ever made that was worse than these pieces of shit. Mine literally ended up as a basement doorstop. Luckily for me, it was given to me to tinker with when the original owner couldn't keep it running.
Consider yourself lucky
"...but now Apple don't have any products in the market segment that contains me."
:)
And so you probably bought a PC (read: something else) instead of whining that you're entitled to a cheap Mac. Which is how it should be.
There ARE still some sane people around without an entitlement complex
It's a shame they stopped using the "Ready for Microsoft Windows" stickers. They were much better.
Hahhaha! I've got one of those on MY trash can!
Thought I had a picture of it... guess not...
"It is probable that NASA would decide to deorbit the spacecraft at the end of mission by sending it in to Jupiter's atmosphere, rather than just let the orbit degrade. This was done to Galileo to prevent any contamination of Jupiter's moons, particularly Europa."
And Io. And this deorbit was particularly interesting considering that one cancelled mission plan would have maneuvered Galileo through a volcanic plume on Io.
The 90s. It's all Kurt Cobain's fault.
(Yes, I'm joking)
"Apple sells good hardware; they also sell a good OS. It really is a shame that those two products can't be treated separately and mixed with other products on the market."
Not going to happen. There's no good reason why Apple would do this. It would upset their current business model, which has been incredibly successful. Their profit is made in hardware, not software.
Because Microsoft sells the OS and not the box, I think there's a tendency for people (read: geeks) to look at Apple in the same light, when they use a completely different business model.
Of course, nothing is stopping anyone from building and running a Hackintosh. Just don't try to sell it. Apple is protecting their IP from a company that is trying to profit from it. What Psystar tried to do is wrong and the court agreed.
I think this entire argument boils down to one fact- people want cheap shitbox Macs. And it's never going to happen.
"I'm not sure how happy I am that Obama did [win the election]."
Me neither. Time will tell, however. But I sure will be glad to see the Bush regime hit the road. I just hope they'll do it without damaging anything on their way out.
"Sometimes that action is one that reflects libertarianism, sometimes conservatism, sometimes socialism, sometimes environmentalism, sometimes etc."
Remember the type of people you're talking to. The all-or-nothing, fear and loathing conservatives.
Their rhetoric no longer works in this day and age, but yet they keep trying.
Last night's victory of Obama is all the proof you need of that.
Rush? Is that you?
The black and white, broad-brush, "it's values or NOTHING" nature of ultra-conservatives will never cease to provide me with entertainment.
Well, you see where so-called "values" got us over the past eight years.
Preaching values and using specific issues (so-called "wedge" issues) as a means to pull the wool over the eyes of the electorate is a political tactic as old as the hills. Yet people keep falling for it.
Until last night, that is.
Right now, we've got more important things to worry about than the pseudo-values of an obviously minority electorate, as proven by last night's victory of Obama.