Unfortunately, I haven't kept in touch with the only blind web addict I know, but I know she had a small box about the size of a portable that was basically a keyboard, a speaker, and a modem.
She was using it more for mudding, so it may just be a terminal, and not so great for web page reading.
Anyway, I'd suggest looking for web pages / usenet / etc for blind resources, and see what you can find. Might also want to check if there are any seeing eye dog training facilities in your area, and give them a call.
Anyway, you might want to check out "Designing More Usable Web Sites" from the University of Wisconson:
If that's the corner that the battery's on, I'd recommend checking if it's what's heating up. A warm battery, although it gets less power loss, is a sign of a dying battery.
I don't think the Tibooks suffer from memory effects, but this might be one of those times to call the Apple Store. [they've got some little desk there, with a hotline to engineers to ask questions]
Heat can also be generated from other malfunctioning parts, such as a power supply, etc. Basically, if you think something's wrong with it, get it checked out while it's still under warrenty. [I did the same with a car, and even though they weren't able to figure out just why it was flaky, they were able to recreate the problem, and record that it was happening while I was still within my warrenty period, and would continue to look into the problem without charge after the warrenty had expired.]
A friend who had a sporatic issue with a old 1x0 [150?] series Powerbook finally had it looked at so many times that they sent him a 520, as his machine wasn't made any more, but it was still under warrenty. I know it was a few years ago, but it's possible that something similar could happen today, as you could be bad for PR.
I doubt Red Dwarf was the first show to use it, but they were much funnier about it....
They come upon a door.
KRYTEN: Uh-oh, a door. We'd better use an air vent.
LISTER: No need.
KRYTEN: Sir?
LISTER: Look, I'm gonna do something now, Kryten, that's totally, totally
gross. I don't want you to look. Turn around.
KRYTEN: What?
LISTER: Trust me, you don't wanna know!
KRYTEN reluctantly turns around. LISTER pulls the object he picked up
earlier out of his jacket: it's a hand. He presses the severed hand to
the palm-print device, and the door opens. He puts the hand back in his
jacket and turns around. KRYTEN has a sick look of realization on his
face.
KRYTEN: Logically, sir, there is only one way you could have possibly
have opened that door. I feel quite nauseous. Where is it?
LISTER: Where's what?
KRYTEN: Oh, sir!! You've got it in your jacket!!
LISTER: I got us out of the hold, didn't I?
KRYTEN: Sir, you are sick! You are a sick, sick person! How can you
possibly even conceive of such an idea?
LISTER: Cheer up! Or I'll beat you to death with the wet end!
KRYTEN: Sir, if mechanoids could barf, I'd be onto my fifth bag by now.
You're a sick person! Sick! Sick!
There were two major problems with the Apple v. Microsoft lawsuit.
1. Microsoft managed to worm around with a previous contract
2. Apple screwed up in a big way.
I did a report on it about 6+ years for a contracts class [no, I'm not a lawyer, civil engineering majors have to take a class on contracts]. From the summaries that I read, Microsoft had liscensed some bits from Apple for a previous version of Windows [2.0 ? Might have been 1.0], and when the next version came out, Apple sued them, as they didn't sign a new contract, so Apple would keep getting residuals.
Microsoft claimed [and primarily won], on their claim that the new version of windows was based on the old version of windows, which they had a contract from Apple for.
There were a few other points with specific issues, but Apple made the mistake of claiming that certain 'look and feel' elements were rip-offs of certain applications, and Microsoft pointed out that those items were a function of the Apple Finder, not the individual application, and so, the points didn't hold weight.
There were a few other items, such as Microsoft stating that an outline of an icon is fundamentally different from a shaded icon, window zooming animation was different, etc.
Basically, what this boils down to, to differentiate it from the MS case -- the designs are based on Aqua. They're based directly from Aqua, and at no time was there a contract giving permission for it.
I appologize for skimming the article so quickly.
After your pointing out that it writes DVD-R [I must've assumed DVD-RW (F, not D) or something], I'm really surprised that they mentioned DVD-RAM so many times, and DVD-R only once in the official press release, as for years, DVD-R writers were priced well over US$10k.
[For those confused on the topic -- DVD-RW isn't 100% compatible with run-of-the-mill off-the-shelf appliance style DVD players. DVD-R is, however]
For those who need stuff like 'bold' and 'font sizes', I'd stick with WordPerfect 3.5 for Mac over Word. [But you're right... Word5.1Mac was the last good version...by 6.0 it was half bloat]
I'd rather load SimpleText than Word6.0Mac.
[Hell...I'd even be willing to go back to AppleWorks or ClarisWorks or whatever they're calling it these days]
As someone who's been stuck on a wyse term trying to rebuild files in single user mode, I had the unfortunate discovery that 'ed' in Solaris is not the same as 'ed' in MudOS.
From a few times of trying to push vi past its limits, I've found that 'ex' is much closer to the 'ed' in MudOS, and with the number of similarities, I'd assume may have even been the basis for MudOS's 'ed'.
[Now, if I could just get the functionality of MudOS 'sprintf' in perl, I'd be damned happy, as I hate doing columns/tables/etc.]
(the $2000 model is 320hrs...they don't mention a drive size, so I'm going to assume it'll record about 200hrs of decent quality stuff, based on the way TiVo numbers their stuff...there's also a $700 model, with only '40 hours' [ie, 25hrs-ish] record time)
And before you complain that 'but then the folks you send it to will have to have the same brand machine', you didn't think that even though thesre new boxes mentions write to DVD-RAM, that they'd be encoded in a way to read from a normal DVD player, did you? That encoding would take too long for 'em to be able to do in real time without it costing some serious cash.
It least they comments haven't degenerated to 'yeah, but could it take Biohazard or Vlad the Impaller?'
[Yes, yes, I know, Vlad lost early on this season, but it's still a well known 'bot. And I still think Biohazard should have won the decision].
I'm also surprised that no one compared the robots to the search dogs they have working. [Can work longer hours, with just a battery change out, can be built faster than it takes to train a dog, can be sent into more dangerous areas without fear of killing it [as it was never alive], etc].
Flame me later for the MSNBC link, but they had a good article on the use of dogs earlier this week:
Back in 1994, I had a class which was held in a computer lab. We weren't even allowed to touch the computers in class. The only reason we were in the lab was for the tests, and even then, there weren't enough computers to go around. [We did all of the computer work during the lab sessions, for which we were broken into two groups].
Typically, I sat there, logged into a mud, and did a little chatting [damned old IBM keyboards suck for being quiet in class]. When I took 'C as a second language' in 1996, I admit I switched over to mudding as soon as I finished the assignments, and the fact that I was typing my notes in class masked the fact that I was mudding in the background.
When I took a graphics art class (same semester), hoping to learn a few interesting tricks with photoshop, it turned out to be the 'we're going to make webpages class', and at the time, I was sitting in as the 'webmaster' for the university, so I blew off most of that.
However, I always did my best to multitask during these incidents -- I may have had a second window open, and half payed attention to it, but I also paid attention to the teacher. [When the teacher left us on our own, that's a whole 'nother story].
Last year, I took a class [C++], which turned out to be an intro to programming class, but I stayed in the class [I'm not paying cash for it, just my time, as I work for a university], and even though 60-70% of the class was review for me, I paid attention to it, and most of the class, if they showed up, still paid attention to the teacher. [Might have been because most of 'em were freshmen or sophomores].
This semester, however, I'm taking a series of certificate courses [Oracle DBA], and the students in the class are some of the most obnoxious bastards I've seen in my life. These dumbasses installed AIM on their machines to cheat on an open book test. [And it wasn't all multiple choice...the teacher grew suspicious when all of their queries were the same, and their numbers in the tuning class has NO variance between 'em]
I admit, I still do the two brained thing, and listen to the teacher in one ear while reading up on the news, and sometimes nudge a friend stilling next to me with interesting articles I find on obscurestore.com. I've learned, through the years, to be subtle about it. I type softly, and use tab to move about. If I need the mouse, I click slowly, so it's muffled.
There are a few folks, whoever, who seem to never pay attention to class. They bitched when the network went down [that segment was infected with CodeRed, and was shutdown at the router], as they couldn't sit there and AIM/read e-mail/post on Diablo2 webboards/etc. It's gotten to the point where I've debated unpugging their keyboards before they come in [always late, always noisily], and smacking one of 'em who has taken no less than 15 cell phone calls since I've been there.
Not only are people wasting their own time by using the Internet in class, but it's disrespectful to the teacher, and it's distracting to the other students. I'd be more than happy for us to have no outside connections, as you do when taking class at the Oracle training centers. [Hell, when the teacher's up there presenting, they even take over your computer, so you can't do shit]
It also gave me a nice little way out when my boss decided to call me to tell me there was a problem, and I could reply 'well, I have no connection, you're either on your own, or you have to reschedule me for this class and shell out another $2k'.
Teachers need to be able to control their classes, and just like they can decide if they're going to allow food and drink [hell, I even had one prick of a teacher who wouldn't let you take notes in his class], teachers should be able to restrict people from using the computers when they're not supposed to.
Please take an economics class before you try to run a business.
There is MUCH more to cost than simply the cost of the parts and labor which go into it. Most companies also have to take into account advertising, shipping, storage [VERY frequently forgotten], support services, real estate, etc.
Apple tends to price education very close to its developer pricing, as it tends to be a form of advertising. I don't know how they handle their books, but it's reasonable to say that they most likely don't take a loss on them, and if they did, they cook their books to show it as an advertising expenditure, rather than as a sales loss.
Now, let's completely forget about Apple, and look at some company 'Z'. Company Z has an operating cost of $2000/day. In one day, they can produce 400 units. It costs them $5 in parts to produce a unit. So, therefore, the 'break even' point would be $2000/400 + 5 = $10 per unit, right?
Well, unless this is some miracle item, odds are, it took them some time to get the unit ready for production. If it took them 4 weeks [4x5x2000], they already have $40,000 tied into the products before they've even begun production. So, they have to determine how quickly they need to reclaim their sunk cost. They might decide that $15 is a good price, so that they'll reclaim their expenditures after they've sold 8000 units.
They've then got to hedge their bets, and assume that there's a chance that the item's not even going to sell 8000 units. They might start off the pricing at $20, and slide it back to $15 once they know how well they're selling, as odds are, most distributors are going to want them to show that they have some sort of production capacity before they'll go with them. [Think of the Sony PS2 shortages last year].
Now, most companies DON'T sell directly to customers...they sell to distributors, and then give an MSRP. Now, they could very easily undersell the distributor, so they normally have to enter into agreements with them that they won't do so. They might have a rider in the contract which allows them to make specialized acceptions [sales to employees, etc], but if they were to undersell the distributors, then they'd most likely be sued by 'em. [Hell, who's going to buy a $30 from the distributor when they could get 'em straight from the company for $15?]
Basically, this all boils down to -- grow the fuck up. This isn't about you being a cheap ass. It's about a company making a profit. If you want everything to be priced as it cost, go move to a communist country. I've wasted more than enough time trying to explain basic economic principles to you, and you're too ignorant to get a clue.
If you think they're too expensive, then go buy something else. There are stores out there where you can make offers to people, and they'll either agree to it, try to haggle, or just laugh their ass off at you. You'd be more productive in trying to find some such place as that [although, odds are, they'll just laugh at you for offering 'em 70% of MSRP], as whining that the whole world's being unfair to you.
Personally, I have better time than to listen to your childish, assinine crap.
No, no...take a cooking class or something to learn. You can also work for a university (which I do), to make use of the discounts.
Burning liquid capital to make a few consumers happy now is not the way to have longevity in the long run. Someone makes that sort of call, and you'd have the stock holders kicking the person out. Companies like Apple are looking at the long term, not the short term.
Yes, they might get a few more users now by lowering their prices, but would it make up for not having enough capital to soak up losses from a failed product down the road?
What you're suggesting is roughly equivalent to suggesting that gas stations sell gas for less than it costs them, because 'well, they made money before, so they can afford to lose some now'.
There's lots of cool classes offered at community colleges, and you get the side perk that you can get a discount on a computer. Once I'm out of the batch of classes that I'm taking through my work, I was thinking about taking a typing class at the local community college, to increase my productivity at work. [well, so I can get my stuff done faster, so when someone breaks something at 4:30pm on a Friday, I'm not stuck here 'till midnight].
You could also diversify yourself. I was thinking about taking an residential electrical class, so I know the correct procedures when running network cable next time, and so I can change out my fusebox for circuit breakers. Cooking classes never hurt in the long run.
For a couple of hundred bucks, you can learn something interesting, and you'll reclaim some of the money spent in savings on a computer.
If you're not going to buy a computer, don't whine about it, as it's just not productive. There are solutions out there, like when stores have sales on returned items [how my brother got his TiBook], price drops when new models come out, or there's always buying used computers.
Well, they have community colleges on the list, and it doesn't mention that you have to be a full time student, so you could take a day class at the community college, learn something interesting, and get a computer from Apple without lying.
I still don't see what the 'big deal' with WAP is. I mean, hell, go back a decade, and we had this great little thing called 'gopher'.
Plain and simple thing is, it worked. Then people put out clients like 'TurboGopher' which would launch external apps, so you could view pictures. Then someone came up with this 'HTML' concept, where we could make whole pages of pictures.
Shortly after, we end up with 'NCSA Mosiac', and then that parasite 'Mozilla', hogging 4 simultaneous connections for each page request. Shortly after, some prick comes up with the 'let's sell the crap I make in my garage' concept, and we end up with folks buying up every '.com' address (back in the days when it was $100 for 2 years), and businesses suing them to get the domains with their name in 'em, so that they can try to sell more crap that we don't want.
All the while, people give up on usenet, and move towards 'message boards' like this thing I'm posting on right now, and they trade in IRC for ICQ and AIM, and their muds for MMRPGs [which well, compared to some of the decade old muds out there, was a massive step backwards].
So...in the end, you have to ask yourself... is WAP solving a problem that anyone actually had? For the most part, nope, it's just that people have forgotten about that great thing called gopher, which well....worked.
WAP will probably come and force all new kinds of traffic on the internet, so that the folks still trying to post on message board web pages that WAP, IM and MMRPGs are sucking down all of the bandwidth, so they're lagging while trying to post. {Just like I did, when I'd bitch about damned web surfers wasting bandwidth while I'm trying to mud)
um....for those who can't tell -- I'm mostly joking...the real reason that WAP sucks is the same reason that HTTP sucked in the early days, and why people kept using gopher -- gopher was better organized. It took folks like Yahoo [which now sucks ass] and Digital [altavista] to come up with some good ways of finding information.
It's going to take some better marketing, and some user interface testing for folks to realize that we don't want to take 10 min and click through 20 some pages to get someone's phone number, when we can just call information, and even if we might have been able to do it faster, we don't have the time to dedicate to learn some new system of menus and crap like that. [Hell, I'm getting pretty good at getting through all of the menus to get to my voicemail at work, but it took me a couple of weeks to not use the patterns that I use for my cell phone voicemail]
Well, I have Covad (through CAIS, as I wanted to make sure to get a business class line, and be allowed servers and a block of IPs), and at this point, I'm just hoping Covad stays up.
I've had enough problems with GTE in the past, and even though I'm in what was a Bell Atlantic area, from what I've heard about Verizon, it's sounding more like GTE with their customer service.
So well, depending on how things go, you might get your Covad line out there just in time for them to fold...and watch your service get bought by Verizon.
I'm hoping that with the reported increase in teleconferencing due to the events of last week, that we'll also have more folks telcomuting, and helping to bring Covad out of the red, so this doesn't happen.
The cheapest G4 tower you can get these days is only to the education market -- $1150 for a G4 533Mhz, while they use up the old style cases. [Which I think look better]
There may be other vendors looking to unload older machines, however.
Well, as they're not on the list, I guess it's okay to request 'Speak English or Die' or 'Fuck the Middle East'. (Both of which came out during Dessert Storm)
S.O.D. just isn't getting any respect for their work. Not even managing to get on the banned list with 'Kill Yourself' (yeah, it was anti-suicide, I know), 'We all Bleed Red', or even 'Kill the Assholes'
It's just a shame that no one listens to speed metal anymore.
[For those not familiar with S.O.D, it's Scott Ian and Charlie Benante from Anthrax, with Billy Milano from Method of Destruction, and Dan Lilker from Nuclear Assault.... mostly satirical/cynical lyrics with hardcore/thrash/speed metal style music]
Now, the original poster, I'd say qualified as insightful, or interesting, as he went and explained in some details what he found objectionable about Kevin Smith's work in Dogma. [I'll admit, however, that some people might find it off topic, as the article was Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, not directly Kevin Smith, but I'll accept it, as it's an intelligent, well thought out message.]
The one which I'm replying to right now, however, I would qualify as a troll in the blink of an eye. Dogma does make a few good points about the concept of dogmatic teachings, and Rufus [Chris Rock] explains the critical difference between beliefs and ideas. To some, the movie may provide insight, and make you think [much like the lasagne line from Clerks], however, I will agree that there was a significant waste of talent in the movie.
Cameos for the sake of cameos can ruin any movie with a real message in it. Luckily, Jay Silent Bob Strike Back had no set message to it (unless you qualify 'fast food can give you gas' or 'beware of what you way on the internet').
The only justification for the cameos in Dogma would be that the provided additional comic relief, to help to lighten up what has always been a touchy subject. Unfortunately, you run into problems if people don't understand what's going on, and see comedy, and just assume that it's satire.
Even Shakespeare, when directing other people's works that he ripped off [yeah, okay, it's still up for debate...I couldn't care less, probably just because I know I wasn't the one who wrote 'em], left in the comedy parts, so as not to overwhelm the stories in one direction or the other. You can look it as a sort of 'yin-yang' approach to story telling -- much like in asian food, you don't try to completely overwhem with one flavor, one texture, one color, one shape -- hot is contrasted with sour, soft chicken with crunchy cashews, orange carrot flowers with a brown garlic chicken, round sushi served on square plates.
Is Kevin Smith doing it subconciously, and I'm just reading too much into it, or did he really intend to do it? Only he knows. [As well, I don't believe in Alanis Morisette]. Did he pull it off? Well, it depends on what exactly he was trying for. In this case, you have to balance getting the point across, with making people like the story, identify with the characters, and not decide that the story's so powerful that they're going to go and kill themself. However, the director as to decide which things are more important to them.
If you don't like something, saying 'it sucks' is one of the greatest disservices that you can do. Explain why you think it sucks, at the very least. If you can't take the time put some thought and effort into your criticism, you're wasting everyone's time who reads your post.
As someone who's been on BBSes, usenet, muds, and these damned 'internet messge boards', I can say that the anonymity created can be a very bad thing, as people don't have to be held accountable for their messages. With BBSes, you could get your access revoked, with usenet, you'd get your mailbox flooded, with muds, you could get your character removed, but with a message board of this size, there's no repercussions -- you just get another throwaway e-mail address, and start over again.
Although yes, the comic may cater to mass consumption as Frank Cho likes drawing women... and he draws them very, very well. [He draws everything well, but his human figures could walk right off the page... probably has something to do with going to college to be a nurse].
His illustrations are amazing, and from the archive of censored strips [and his earlier work during college, 'University **2' [that's 'squared' for you non-fortran programmers]], he does try to push the limit of what's allowed in comics. Mostly through his frat-boy like characters.
The main thing that stands out is his drawing, as it's simply breathtaking. I don't know how well it stands up to standard newsprint, but they also release a comic book sized issue every few weeks with about 6 weeks of collected work.
The story lines, although sometimes go off on a complete tangent [There's a definate influence of British Comedy in there...I think there may have even been a few direct references], but I've yet to see one that wasn't funny.
Marathon also brought in the concept of more than one firing mode (rather wierd, when you consider it was for a one button mouse system, originally), and I believe they were the first that I know of to handle 8 player games. And yes, the sound support was amazing, but much of that could be attributed to the Mac more than the game, although the voice communication stuff was a nice concept that didn't take off in other games 'till years later.
I'm also suprised that Duke 3d was left out. Although it was released just before Quake (but after the Quake demo), it had two features that weren't in the other games of the time -- single player plot (Quake was okay once through, but then only useful if you were on a LAN). The other feature was toys. Duke had 'em. Most other games, you had ammo, weapons, armour, keys and health. Duke let you collect up things to play with. [Like the HoloDuke distraction sitting in the field of pipe bombs]. Other side benefits were 8 player support, and people could drop out [but not enter] as needed.
There's no mention of id's earlier work with Wolf3D, which of course, paved the way for Doom and Doom II. [Most people you'll find are thinking about Doom II when they mention Doom].
He also doesn't go into the failings of Quake -- QuakeWorld was spawned because they realized that it was simply too bandwidth intensive, and you needed better connectivity than a modem, as it was so latency dependant. [Yes, it didn't mess up everyone else, but you got screwed]. It did, however, support 16 players concurrently [although most people were running alternate IP stacks in the good ol' DOS days, and so, Springfield at Nite [Clan No Homers], would only accept 8 connections via IP, and the remaining 8 would have to be through IPX. [Which was nice, as it'd mean an assured 8 slots of those of us local people].
blah...I'm going off on a tangent....
Well, you get the idea...it's a nice starting point for a history, but he left off way too much.
[I know I'm leaving off a few things, as there were games I never played, but was just told about... um...the first game that left bullet scars in the world [ie, walls poxed, etc.], and otherwise let you interact with objects....wish I could remember what it was called].
I highly suggest getting there as early as you can on Saturday, and if you find a deal, go for it, as it might not still be there by the time you go around the entire place (it's a massive computer show).
I'd have to argue on your definition of 'web development'. Personally, as someone whom uses no flash or other animation type stuff on my web sites, I prefer to stick with either using BBEdit for the Mac, or as the need arises, vi.
For graphics, I stick with Photoshop, again, on the Mac side.
That's not to say, however, that I don't check all of my sites in Netscape & IE for both Mac & Windows.
I have no idea what macromedia did wrong [it may be writing non-thread-happy code, as they're handled a little differently between macos and windows, which was why so many java programs ran like shit on a mac]. However, to say that all web development on a wintel box is better than a Mac is a great disservice to those of us whom don't use point-and-click interfaces for web page creation.
Apple doesn't let people inside their boxes
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Mac Rants
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· Score: 2
Take it as you will, but although this is a problem for some, it's a blessing for others.
Yes, as there aren't as many people developing hardware for the Mac, there's a less competition, and there were higher prices. But they're not using NuBus and ADB anymore, so you can make use of PCI, USB and FireWire/iLink devices, if you so choose.
Hard drives have come down significantly as they've switched to UDMA, which many of the mac purists are still pissed off at, as they don't do tagged queuing, so there's inheriently more contention for disk I/O when doing multiple tasks. But you still can't get a machine with no hard drive, and put in one of your own.
Is this a bad thing? Well, for the sake of people who want to put in some drive that apple doesn't sell, yes. For those people who already have a nice drive that they want to move into the new machine, yes. However, in exchange, you get a hard drive with the software preloaded [okay, not a big deal], but more importantly, it's been tested. You're not going to get a DOA HD.
Memory's a similar issue. Yes, Apple charges too much for memory, but it's pre-tested, so you don't have that 'My machine came in, but I have to wait 3 more days for my new memory to come in' problems.
With the restrictions on hardware, there's better testing for interoperability. Personally, I wish I never had to learn what an IRQ was. For those who've always been Mac users, and never strayed, they've never had to worry about 'em. In all my years as a mac user, I've only had one piece of mac hardware that I ever had problems with. [NuBus video card for a Radius Color Pivot...had to get a new ROM when I went to MacOS7] I've lost count of wierd wintel interactions I've had. [eg, modem cards that just 'don't support' IRQ 4 when used in combination with a certain kind of video card, and other crap like that].
With every new piece of Mac hardware I've bought, I've plugged it in, and it's worked out of the box. And the simple reason is, that Apple's not as open with their hardware development.
I'd also argue your comment on 'It took them ages to finally put several expansion slots in their boxes', as anything since the MacII line [1987], other than the 'all in one' style boxes had expansion slots. Many of the 'all in one' boxes had expansion slots, but they couldn't be accessed easily, however, those boxes were intended for a drastically different market.
Not every item in the world, even computers, were designed for you. If that were the case, we'd all be driving the same sort of car to our same sized house, so we could watch the same TV while sitting on the same style couch. What's a problem to you may be a benfit to others, and visa-versa. [And yes, it still pisses me off when I'd let someone drive my car, and they'd completely deflate the lumbar support]
[And for those wondering what I use at home... a wintel box... because I play games, and try as much as possible not to do work from home these days. I do have 5 pre-1995 macs that make decent terminals, but they were taken down to make space for game machines]
Although there were some very good episodes in season 5 [most importantly, Back to Reality (He committed suicide; he committed suicide; he committed suicide, and the _fish_ committed suicide. There's some kind of link here I can't quite make out), one of the greatest episodes, right up there with White Hole (Would you like some toast?), Timeslides (Unpack Rachel and get out the puncture repair kit!), Stasis Leak (Nevermind. It's the personality that counts), and Polymorph (I think we're all beginning to lose sight of the real issue here, which is: what are we going to call ourselves?)], and Holoship (You make love like a Japanese meal: small portions, but _so_ many courses.)
Season 6 just didn't stand up to the others. Psirens (You heard 'em -- they want seed-spreaders. I'm going to apply. You guys deal with this Psiren thing. I'll deal with this.) was decent, but then you have stuff like Emohawk which was just a lame reason to bring back Ace Rimmer and Dwane Dibley. It was funnier the first time in Polymorph.
Seasons 5 and 6 also marked the move from pure sit com to a little more action oriented, which helps to keep the show from getting stale, but I loved the slapstick stuff. The shows don't seem to flow quite as well anymore, as for a point, they were getting to be a reason to string together a bunch of one liners. However, even a bad episode of Red Dwarf is better than most of the 'good' shows on american TV these days.
Which, for those of us on the mailing list know, isn't presently in production for series 8. They are, however, in production for a movie.
However, anyone can tell you -- Red Dwarf is not considered SciFi as much as a sitcom set in space.
I do, however, have every episode on VHS, including the two bloopers tapes, and am hoping that they released the original versions on DVD, and not the 'remastered' ones where they took out the model shots and replaced them with CG. [There's just something classic about the models slamming into everything]
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She was using it more for mudding, so it may just be a terminal, and not so great for web page reading.
Anyway, I'd suggest looking for web pages / usenet / etc for blind resources, and see what you can find. Might also want to check if there are any seeing eye dog training facilities in your area, and give them a call.
Anyway, you might want to check out "Designing More Usable Web Sites" from the University of Wisconson:
If that's the corner that the battery's on, I'd recommend checking if it's what's heating up. A warm battery, although it gets less power loss, is a sign of a dying battery.
I don't think the Tibooks suffer from memory effects, but this might be one of those times to call the Apple Store. [they've got some little desk there, with a hotline to engineers to ask questions]
Heat can also be generated from other malfunctioning parts, such as a power supply, etc. Basically, if you think something's wrong with it, get it checked out while it's still under warrenty. [I did the same with a car, and even though they weren't able to figure out just why it was flaky, they were able to recreate the problem, and record that it was happening while I was still within my warrenty period, and would continue to look into the problem without charge after the warrenty had expired.]
A friend who had a sporatic issue with a old 1x0 [150?] series Powerbook finally had it looked at so many times that they sent him a 520, as his machine wasn't made any more, but it was still under warrenty. I know it was a few years ago, but it's possible that something similar could happen today, as you could be bad for PR.
I doubt Red Dwarf was the first show to use it, but they were much funnier about it....
They come upon a door.
KRYTEN: Uh-oh, a door. We'd better use an air vent.
LISTER: No need.
KRYTEN: Sir?
LISTER: Look, I'm gonna do something now, Kryten, that's totally, totally
gross. I don't want you to look. Turn around.
KRYTEN: What?
LISTER: Trust me, you don't wanna know!
KRYTEN reluctantly turns around. LISTER pulls the object he picked up
earlier out of his jacket: it's a hand. He presses the severed hand to
the palm-print device, and the door opens. He puts the hand back in his
jacket and turns around. KRYTEN has a sick look of realization on his
face.
KRYTEN: Logically, sir, there is only one way you could have possibly
have opened that door. I feel quite nauseous. Where is it?
LISTER: Where's what?
KRYTEN: Oh, sir!! You've got it in your jacket!!
LISTER: I got us out of the hold, didn't I?
KRYTEN: Sir, you are sick! You are a sick, sick person! How can you
possibly even conceive of such an idea?
LISTER: Cheer up! Or I'll beat you to death with the wet end!
KRYTEN: Sir, if mechanoids could barf, I'd be onto my fifth bag by now.
You're a sick person! Sick! Sick!
There were two major problems with the Apple v. Microsoft lawsuit.
1. Microsoft managed to worm around with a previous contract
2. Apple screwed up in a big way.
I did a report on it about 6+ years for a contracts class [no, I'm not a lawyer, civil engineering majors have to take a class on contracts]. From the summaries that I read, Microsoft had liscensed some bits from Apple for a previous version of Windows [2.0 ? Might have been 1.0], and when the next version came out, Apple sued them, as they didn't sign a new contract, so Apple would keep getting residuals.
Microsoft claimed [and primarily won], on their claim that the new version of windows was based on the old version of windows, which they had a contract from Apple for.
There were a few other points with specific issues, but Apple made the mistake of claiming that certain 'look and feel' elements were rip-offs of certain applications, and Microsoft pointed out that those items were a function of the Apple Finder, not the individual application, and so, the points didn't hold weight.
There were a few other items, such as Microsoft stating that an outline of an icon is fundamentally different from a shaded icon, window zooming animation was different, etc.
Basically, what this boils down to, to differentiate it from the MS case -- the designs are based on Aqua. They're based directly from Aqua, and at no time was there a contract giving permission for it.
I appologize for skimming the article so quickly.
After your pointing out that it writes DVD-R [I must've assumed DVD-RW (F, not D) or something], I'm really surprised that they mentioned DVD-RAM so many times, and DVD-R only once in the official press release, as for years, DVD-R writers were priced well over US$10k.
[For those confused on the topic -- DVD-RW isn't 100% compatible with run-of-the-mill off-the-shelf appliance style DVD players. DVD-R is, however]
BBEdit definately rules the Mac landscape.
For those who need stuff like 'bold' and 'font sizes', I'd stick with WordPerfect 3.5 for Mac over Word. [But you're right... Word5.1Mac was the last good version...by 6.0 it was half bloat]
I'd rather load SimpleText than Word6.0Mac.
[Hell...I'd even be willing to go back to AppleWorks or ClarisWorks or whatever they're calling it these days]
As someone who's been stuck on a wyse term trying to rebuild files in single user mode, I had the unfortunate discovery that 'ed' in Solaris is not the same as 'ed' in MudOS.
From a few times of trying to push vi past its limits, I've found that 'ex' is much closer to the 'ed' in MudOS, and with the number of similarities, I'd assume may have even been the basis for MudOS's 'ed'.
[Now, if I could just get the functionality of MudOS 'sprintf' in perl, I'd be damned happy, as I hate doing columns/tables/etc.]
$2000, and it's got an ethernet port, so you can just hook it to the internet and share it with others:
(the $2000 model is 320hrs...they don't mention a drive size, so I'm going to assume it'll record about 200hrs of decent quality stuff, based on the way TiVo numbers their stuff...there's also a $700 model, with only '40 hours' [ie, 25hrs-ish] record time)
And before you complain that 'but then the folks you send it to will have to have the same brand machine', you didn't think that even though thesre new boxes mentions write to DVD-RAM, that they'd be encoded in a way to read from a normal DVD player, did you? That encoding would take too long for 'em to be able to do in real time without it costing some serious cash.
[Yes, yes, I know, Vlad lost early on this season, but it's still a well known 'bot. And I still think Biohazard should have won the decision].
I'm also surprised that no one compared the robots to the search dogs they have working. [Can work longer hours, with just a battery change out, can be built faster than it takes to train a dog, can be sent into more dangerous areas without fear of killing it [as it was never alive], etc].
Flame me later for the MSNBC link, but they had a good article on the use of dogs earlier this week:
Back in 1994, I had a class which was held in a computer lab. We weren't even allowed to touch the computers in class. The only reason we were in the lab was for the tests, and even then, there weren't enough computers to go around. [We did all of the computer work during the lab sessions, for which we were broken into two groups].
Typically, I sat there, logged into a mud, and did a little chatting [damned old IBM keyboards suck for being quiet in class]. When I took 'C as a second language' in 1996, I admit I switched over to mudding as soon as I finished the assignments, and the fact that I was typing my notes in class masked the fact that I was mudding in the background.
When I took a graphics art class (same semester), hoping to learn a few interesting tricks with photoshop, it turned out to be the 'we're going to make webpages class', and at the time, I was sitting in as the 'webmaster' for the university, so I blew off most of that.
However, I always did my best to multitask during these incidents -- I may have had a second window open, and half payed attention to it, but I also paid attention to the teacher. [When the teacher left us on our own, that's a whole 'nother story].
Last year, I took a class [C++], which turned out to be an intro to programming class, but I stayed in the class [I'm not paying cash for it, just my time, as I work for a university], and even though 60-70% of the class was review for me, I paid attention to it, and most of the class, if they showed up, still paid attention to the teacher. [Might have been because most of 'em were freshmen or sophomores].
This semester, however, I'm taking a series of certificate courses [Oracle DBA], and the students in the class are some of the most obnoxious bastards I've seen in my life. These dumbasses installed AIM on their machines to cheat on an open book test. [And it wasn't all multiple choice...the teacher grew suspicious when all of their queries were the same, and their numbers in the tuning class has NO variance between 'em]
I admit, I still do the two brained thing, and listen to the teacher in one ear while reading up on the news, and sometimes nudge a friend stilling next to me with interesting articles I find on obscurestore.com. I've learned, through the years, to be subtle about it. I type softly, and use tab to move about. If I need the mouse, I click slowly, so it's muffled.
There are a few folks, whoever, who seem to never pay attention to class. They bitched when the network went down [that segment was infected with CodeRed, and was shutdown at the router], as they couldn't sit there and AIM/read e-mail/post on Diablo2 webboards/etc. It's gotten to the point where I've debated unpugging their keyboards before they come in [always late, always noisily], and smacking one of 'em who has taken no less than 15 cell phone calls since I've been there.
Not only are people wasting their own time by using the Internet in class, but it's disrespectful to the teacher, and it's distracting to the other students. I'd be more than happy for us to have no outside connections, as you do when taking class at the Oracle training centers. [Hell, when the teacher's up there presenting, they even take over your computer, so you can't do shit]
It also gave me a nice little way out when my boss decided to call me to tell me there was a problem, and I could reply 'well, I have no connection, you're either on your own, or you have to reschedule me for this class and shell out another $2k'.
Teachers need to be able to control their classes, and just like they can decide if they're going to allow food and drink [hell, I even had one prick of a teacher who wouldn't let you take notes in his class], teachers should be able to restrict people from using the computers when they're not supposed to.
Please take an economics class before you try to run a business.
There is MUCH more to cost than simply the cost of the parts and labor which go into it. Most companies also have to take into account advertising, shipping, storage [VERY frequently forgotten], support services, real estate, etc.
Apple tends to price education very close to its developer pricing, as it tends to be a form of advertising. I don't know how they handle their books, but it's reasonable to say that they most likely don't take a loss on them, and if they did, they cook their books to show it as an advertising expenditure, rather than as a sales loss.
Now, let's completely forget about Apple, and look at some company 'Z'. Company Z has an operating cost of $2000/day. In one day, they can produce 400 units. It costs them $5 in parts to produce a unit. So, therefore, the 'break even' point would be $2000/400 + 5 = $10 per unit, right?
Well, unless this is some miracle item, odds are, it took them some time to get the unit ready for production. If it took them 4 weeks [4x5x2000], they already have $40,000 tied into the products before they've even begun production. So, they have to determine how quickly they need to reclaim their sunk cost. They might decide that $15 is a good price, so that they'll reclaim their expenditures after they've sold 8000 units.
They've then got to hedge their bets, and assume that there's a chance that the item's not even going to sell 8000 units. They might start off the pricing at $20, and slide it back to $15 once they know how well they're selling, as odds are, most distributors are going to want them to show that they have some sort of production capacity before they'll go with them. [Think of the Sony PS2 shortages last year].
Now, most companies DON'T sell directly to customers...they sell to distributors, and then give an MSRP. Now, they could very easily undersell the distributor, so they normally have to enter into agreements with them that they won't do so. They might have a rider in the contract which allows them to make specialized acceptions [sales to employees, etc], but if they were to undersell the distributors, then they'd most likely be sued by 'em. [Hell, who's going to buy a $30 from the distributor when they could get 'em straight from the company for $15?]
Basically, this all boils down to -- grow the fuck up. This isn't about you being a cheap ass. It's about a company making a profit. If you want everything to be priced as it cost, go move to a communist country. I've wasted more than enough time trying to explain basic economic principles to you, and you're too ignorant to get a clue.
If you think they're too expensive, then go buy something else. There are stores out there where you can make offers to people, and they'll either agree to it, try to haggle, or just laugh their ass off at you. You'd be more productive in trying to find some such place as that [although, odds are, they'll just laugh at you for offering 'em 70% of MSRP], as whining that the whole world's being unfair to you.
Personally, I have better time than to listen to your childish, assinine crap.
No, no...take a cooking class or something to learn. You can also work for a university (which I do), to make use of the discounts.
Burning liquid capital to make a few consumers happy now is not the way to have longevity in the long run. Someone makes that sort of call, and you'd have the stock holders kicking the person out. Companies like Apple are looking at the long term, not the short term.
Yes, they might get a few more users now by lowering their prices, but would it make up for not having enough capital to soak up losses from a failed product down the road?
What you're suggesting is roughly equivalent to suggesting that gas stations sell gas for less than it costs them, because 'well, they made money before, so they can afford to lose some now'.
There's lots of cool classes offered at community colleges, and you get the side perk that you can get a discount on a computer. Once I'm out of the batch of classes that I'm taking through my work, I was thinking about taking a typing class at the local community college, to increase my productivity at work. [well, so I can get my stuff done faster, so when someone breaks something at 4:30pm on a Friday, I'm not stuck here 'till midnight].
You could also diversify yourself. I was thinking about taking an residential electrical class, so I know the correct procedures when running network cable next time, and so I can change out my fusebox for circuit breakers. Cooking classes never hurt in the long run.
For a couple of hundred bucks, you can learn something interesting, and you'll reclaim some of the money spent in savings on a computer.
If you're not going to buy a computer, don't whine about it, as it's just not productive. There are solutions out there, like when stores have sales on returned items [how my brother got his TiBook], price drops when new models come out, or there's always buying used computers.
Well, they have community colleges on the list, and it doesn't mention that you have to be a full time student, so you could take a day class at the community college, learn something interesting, and get a computer from Apple without lying.
I still don't see what the 'big deal' with WAP is. I mean, hell, go back a decade, and we had this great little thing called 'gopher'.
Plain and simple thing is, it worked. Then people put out clients like 'TurboGopher' which would launch external apps, so you could view pictures. Then someone came up with this 'HTML' concept, where we could make whole pages of pictures.
Shortly after, we end up with 'NCSA Mosiac', and then that parasite 'Mozilla', hogging 4 simultaneous connections for each page request. Shortly after, some prick comes up with the 'let's sell the crap I make in my garage' concept, and we end up with folks buying up every '.com' address (back in the days when it was $100 for 2 years), and businesses suing them to get the domains with their name in 'em, so that they can try to sell more crap that we don't want.
All the while, people give up on usenet, and move towards 'message boards' like this thing I'm posting on right now, and they trade in IRC for ICQ and AIM, and their muds for MMRPGs [which well, compared to some of the decade old muds out there, was a massive step backwards].
So...in the end, you have to ask yourself... is WAP solving a problem that anyone actually had? For the most part, nope, it's just that people have forgotten about that great thing called gopher, which well....worked.
WAP will probably come and force all new kinds of traffic on the internet, so that the folks still trying to post on message board web pages that WAP, IM and MMRPGs are sucking down all of the bandwidth, so they're lagging while trying to post. {Just like I did, when I'd bitch about damned web surfers wasting bandwidth while I'm trying to mud)
um....for those who can't tell -- I'm mostly joking...the real reason that WAP sucks is the same reason that HTTP sucked in the early days, and why people kept using gopher -- gopher was better organized. It took folks like Yahoo [which now sucks ass] and Digital [altavista] to come up with some good ways of finding information.
It's going to take some better marketing, and some user interface testing for folks to realize that we don't want to take 10 min and click through 20 some pages to get someone's phone number, when we can just call information, and even if we might have been able to do it faster, we don't have the time to dedicate to learn some new system of menus and crap like that. [Hell, I'm getting pretty good at getting through all of the menus to get to my voicemail at work, but it took me a couple of weeks to not use the patterns that I use for my cell phone voicemail]
Well, I have Covad (through CAIS, as I wanted to make sure to get a business class line, and be allowed servers and a block of IPs), and at this point, I'm just hoping Covad stays up.
I've had enough problems with GTE in the past, and even though I'm in what was a Bell Atlantic area, from what I've heard about Verizon, it's sounding more like GTE with their customer service.
So well, depending on how things go, you might get your Covad line out there just in time for them to fold...and watch your service get bought by Verizon.
I'm hoping that with the reported increase in teleconferencing due to the events of last week, that we'll also have more folks telcomuting, and helping to bring Covad out of the red, so this doesn't happen.
The cheapest G4 tower you can get these days is only to the education market -- $1150 for a G4 533Mhz, while they use up the old style cases. [Which I think look better]
There may be other vendors looking to unload older machines, however.
Well, as they're not on the list, I guess it's okay to request 'Speak English or Die' or 'Fuck the Middle East'. (Both of which came out during Dessert Storm)
S.O.D. just isn't getting any respect for their work. Not even managing to get on the banned list with 'Kill Yourself' (yeah, it was anti-suicide, I know), 'We all Bleed Red', or even 'Kill the Assholes'
It's just a shame that no one listens to speed metal anymore.
[For those not familiar with S.O.D, it's Scott Ian and Charlie Benante from Anthrax, with Billy Milano from Method of Destruction, and Dan Lilker from Nuclear Assault.... mostly satirical/cynical lyrics with hardcore/thrash/speed metal style music]
Now, the original poster, I'd say qualified as insightful, or interesting, as he went and explained in some details what he found objectionable about Kevin Smith's work in Dogma. [I'll admit, however, that some people might find it off topic, as the article was Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, not directly Kevin Smith, but I'll accept it, as it's an intelligent, well thought out message.]
The one which I'm replying to right now, however, I would qualify as a troll in the blink of an eye. Dogma does make a few good points about the concept of dogmatic teachings, and Rufus [Chris Rock] explains the critical difference between beliefs and ideas. To some, the movie may provide insight, and make you think [much like the lasagne line from Clerks], however, I will agree that there was a significant waste of talent in the movie.
Cameos for the sake of cameos can ruin any movie with a real message in it. Luckily, Jay Silent Bob Strike Back had no set message to it (unless you qualify 'fast food can give you gas' or 'beware of what you way on the internet').
The only justification for the cameos in Dogma would be that the provided additional comic relief, to help to lighten up what has always been a touchy subject. Unfortunately, you run into problems if people don't understand what's going on, and see comedy, and just assume that it's satire.
Even Shakespeare, when directing other people's works that he ripped off [yeah, okay, it's still up for debate...I couldn't care less, probably just because I know I wasn't the one who wrote 'em], left in the comedy parts, so as not to overwhelm the stories in one direction or the other. You can look it as a sort of 'yin-yang' approach to story telling -- much like in asian food, you don't try to completely overwhem with one flavor, one texture, one color, one shape -- hot is contrasted with sour, soft chicken with crunchy cashews, orange carrot flowers with a brown garlic chicken, round sushi served on square plates.
Is Kevin Smith doing it subconciously, and I'm just reading too much into it, or did he really intend to do it? Only he knows. [As well, I don't believe in Alanis Morisette]. Did he pull it off? Well, it depends on what exactly he was trying for. In this case, you have to balance getting the point across, with making people like the story, identify with the characters, and not decide that the story's so powerful that they're going to go and kill themself. However, the director as to decide which things are more important to them.
If you don't like something, saying 'it sucks' is one of the greatest disservices that you can do. Explain why you think it sucks, at the very least. If you can't take the time put some thought and effort into your criticism, you're wasting everyone's time who reads your post.
As someone who's been on BBSes, usenet, muds, and these damned 'internet messge boards', I can say that the anonymity created can be a very bad thing, as people don't have to be held accountable for their messages. With BBSes, you could get your access revoked, with usenet, you'd get your mailbox flooded, with muds, you could get your character removed, but with a message board of this size, there's no repercussions -- you just get another throwaway e-mail address, and start over again.
His illustrations are amazing, and from the archive of censored strips [and his earlier work during college, 'University **2' [that's 'squared' for you non-fortran programmers]], he does try to push the limit of what's allowed in comics. Mostly through his frat-boy like characters.
The main thing that stands out is his drawing, as it's simply breathtaking. I don't know how well it stands up to standard newsprint, but they also release a comic book sized issue every few weeks with about 6 weeks of collected work.
The story lines, although sometimes go off on a complete tangent [There's a definate influence of British Comedy in there...I think there may have even been a few direct references], but I've yet to see one that wasn't funny.
For samples, check out their web page:And don't forget to check out the Uncensored section.
Marathon also brought in the concept of more than one firing mode (rather wierd, when you consider it was for a one button mouse system, originally), and I believe they were the first that I know of to handle 8 player games. And yes, the sound support was amazing, but much of that could be attributed to the Mac more than the game, although the voice communication stuff was a nice concept that didn't take off in other games 'till years later.
I'm also suprised that Duke 3d was left out. Although it was released just before Quake (but after the Quake demo), it had two features that weren't in the other games of the time -- single player plot (Quake was okay once through, but then only useful if you were on a LAN). The other feature was toys. Duke had 'em. Most other games, you had ammo, weapons, armour, keys and health. Duke let you collect up things to play with. [Like the HoloDuke distraction sitting in the field of pipe bombs]. Other side benefits were 8 player support, and people could drop out [but not enter] as needed.
There's no mention of id's earlier work with Wolf3D, which of course, paved the way for Doom and Doom II. [Most people you'll find are thinking about Doom II when they mention Doom].
He also doesn't go into the failings of Quake -- QuakeWorld was spawned because they realized that it was simply too bandwidth intensive, and you needed better connectivity than a modem, as it was so latency dependant. [Yes, it didn't mess up everyone else, but you got screwed]. It did, however, support 16 players concurrently [although most people were running alternate IP stacks in the good ol' DOS days, and so, Springfield at Nite [Clan No Homers], would only accept 8 connections via IP, and the remaining 8 would have to be through IPX. [Which was nice, as it'd mean an assured 8 slots of those of us local people].
blah...I'm going off on a tangent....
Well, you get the idea...it's a nice starting point for a history, but he left off way too much.
[I know I'm leaving off a few things, as there were games I never played, but was just told about... um...the first game that left bullet scars in the world [ie, walls poxed, etc.], and otherwise let you interact with objects....wish I could remember what it was called].
[managed to get a refurbed 21" trinitron for $300 a couple of years back, some APC 2200s for $600 each, etc.]
For more info, see:(As it's coming up at the end of the month)
I highly suggest getting there as early as you can on Saturday, and if you find a deal, go for it, as it might not still be there by the time you go around the entire place (it's a massive computer show).
I'd have to argue on your definition of 'web development'. Personally, as someone whom uses no flash or other animation type stuff on my web sites, I prefer to stick with either using BBEdit for the Mac, or as the need arises, vi.
For graphics, I stick with Photoshop, again, on the Mac side.
That's not to say, however, that I don't check all of my sites in Netscape & IE for both Mac & Windows.
I have no idea what macromedia did wrong [it may be writing non-thread-happy code, as they're handled a little differently between macos and windows, which was why so many java programs ran like shit on a mac]. However, to say that all web development on a wintel box is better than a Mac is a great disservice to those of us whom don't use point-and-click interfaces for web page creation.
Take it as you will, but although this is a problem for some, it's a blessing for others.
Yes, as there aren't as many people developing hardware for the Mac, there's a less competition, and there were higher prices. But they're not using NuBus and ADB anymore, so you can make use of PCI, USB and FireWire/iLink devices, if you so choose.
Hard drives have come down significantly as they've switched to UDMA, which many of the mac purists are still pissed off at, as they don't do tagged queuing, so there's inheriently more contention for disk I/O when doing multiple tasks. But you still can't get a machine with no hard drive, and put in one of your own.
Is this a bad thing? Well, for the sake of people who want to put in some drive that apple doesn't sell, yes. For those people who already have a nice drive that they want to move into the new machine, yes. However, in exchange, you get a hard drive with the software preloaded [okay, not a big deal], but more importantly, it's been tested. You're not going to get a DOA HD.
Memory's a similar issue. Yes, Apple charges too much for memory, but it's pre-tested, so you don't have that 'My machine came in, but I have to wait 3 more days for my new memory to come in' problems.
With the restrictions on hardware, there's better testing for interoperability. Personally, I wish I never had to learn what an IRQ was. For those who've always been Mac users, and never strayed, they've never had to worry about 'em. In all my years as a mac user, I've only had one piece of mac hardware that I ever had problems with. [NuBus video card for a Radius Color Pivot...had to get a new ROM when I went to MacOS7] I've lost count of wierd wintel interactions I've had. [eg, modem cards that just 'don't support' IRQ 4 when used in combination with a certain kind of video card, and other crap like that].
With every new piece of Mac hardware I've bought, I've plugged it in, and it's worked out of the box. And the simple reason is, that Apple's not as open with their hardware development.
I'd also argue your comment on 'It took them ages to finally put several expansion slots in their boxes', as anything since the MacII line [1987], other than the 'all in one' style boxes had expansion slots. Many of the 'all in one' boxes had expansion slots, but they couldn't be accessed easily, however, those boxes were intended for a drastically different market.
Not every item in the world, even computers, were designed for you. If that were the case, we'd all be driving the same sort of car to our same sized house, so we could watch the same TV while sitting on the same style couch. What's a problem to you may be a benfit to others, and visa-versa. [And yes, it still pisses me off when I'd let someone drive my car, and they'd completely deflate the lumbar support]
[And for those wondering what I use at home... a wintel box... because I play games, and try as much as possible not to do work from home these days. I do have 5 pre-1995 macs that make decent terminals, but they were taken down to make space for game machines]
Although there were some very good episodes in season 5 [most importantly, Back to Reality (He committed suicide; he committed suicide; he committed suicide, and the _fish_ committed suicide. There's some kind of link here I can't quite make out), one of the greatest episodes, right up there with White Hole (Would you like some toast?), Timeslides (Unpack Rachel and get out the puncture repair kit!), Stasis Leak (Nevermind. It's the personality that counts), and Polymorph (I think we're all beginning to lose sight of the real issue here, which is: what are we going to call ourselves?)], and Holoship (You make love like a Japanese meal: small portions, but _so_ many courses.)
Season 6 just didn't stand up to the others. Psirens (You heard 'em -- they want seed-spreaders. I'm going to apply. You guys deal with this Psiren thing. I'll deal with this.) was decent, but then you have stuff like Emohawk which was just a lame reason to bring back Ace Rimmer and Dwane Dibley. It was funnier the first time in Polymorph.
Seasons 5 and 6 also marked the move from pure sit com to a little more action oriented, which helps to keep the show from getting stale, but I loved the slapstick stuff. The shows don't seem to flow quite as well anymore, as for a point, they were getting to be a reason to string together a bunch of one liners. However, even a bad episode of Red Dwarf is better than most of the 'good' shows on american TV these days.
However, anyone can tell you -- Red Dwarf is not considered SciFi as much as a sitcom set in space.
I do, however, have every episode on VHS, including the two bloopers tapes, and am hoping that they released the original versions on DVD, and not the 'remastered' ones where they took out the model shots and replaced them with CG. [There's just something classic about the models slamming into everything]