Nobody has to buy an Apple Cinema Display for a Mac mini. Apple offers it as an option on their mini page because those are the only monitors they make. A $600 monitor is overkill for a $600 computer, especially considering they sell a better equipped iMac for that price. The mini is squarely aimed at PC converters. Like the damned Mac mini page itself says, "BYODKM".
You also missed an extremely obvious item in your comparisons.. The Mac mini is TINY! The Dells are big, loud, f'ing BOXES! Did you look for more than five minutes at the Apple store before pulling this lame Dell comparison? Here, how about you try actually reading the details. Yup, wireless G, bluetooth, gig ethernet, firewire, DVI, infrared remote. Build a Dell with those parts, for $600, PLEASE! The Inspirons have some pro's too, like cheap monitor, K&M thrown in, larger HD capacities, big box (depending how you look at it), etc. PLEASE consider all features though when doing these price/value comparisons between Apple and Dell hardware though.
the mac mini is $1300 Click "compare specs" on the mini page. Yup, there's a $1200 iMac next to two Mac minis, for geniuses like you.;) Again, BYOKDM for the mini, if price is the most important factor.
Now that you understand a bit more about Mac hardware, go look again at the Dells. They might have some really decent machines in the gap between Apple's mini and iMac... I've got nothing against Dell, I just hate these horrible comparisons with Apple.
What I object to is people who believing in aliens they can't see saying that believing in a supernatural power you can't see is stupid. Are we talking about two different things here? We don't KNOW that there is alien life out there. We're looking for signs of it. I don't have to believe in your religion to attempt to look for a God either. I've spent a lot of time, using what little verifiable information exists, to look for a God and I haven't found one. Right around seventh grade or so, I started to learn of OTHER religions. It was then I realized that looking for God is about as easy as looking for Xenu, or Zeus. It was just faith, no real "looking" to be done.
The huge, gigantic, monumental difference between "looking" for religion and looking for ETI there is that there IS intelligent life on THIS planet, so we know it's possible. We DON'T know the chances of finding alien life, and they're nowhere near done looking yet.
I am NOT saying the existence of God is (or can be) scientifically proven, merely that Christianity is at least as plausible as aliens. The whole of Christianity is not rooted in faith. There are zillions of good ideas to be found in the Bible, that don't require faith. I LIKE christian values. For some strange reason, most/all world religions are built on 90% common sense, and 10% bizarre, unverifiable, unnecessary JUNK. My beef is with the 10%, not Christianity in particular.
but we are talking about using resources for this project that could be put to more practical use. ... are you saying we should stop looking completely? Why? Give me a good reason ETI can't exist. I've already given you a good reason why it might exist, and if you don't see how worthwhile it would be to find it, I can't help you.
So the idea that SETI is a waste really isn't absurd at all. Yes it is. You can call it a waste when it is determined that ETI can't exist, or we're looking for it in too inefficienty. I haven't heard that argument yet.
If you think they should only receive less funding, then let's go into that in more detail.
BTW, what you described is not hypocrisy. If it were, than every single believer in every religion in the world would be a hypocrite for believing in their particular conflicting set of unprovable beliefs. Faith conflicts with reasoning, and that's why I strongly dislike it.
because there's no extraterrestrial life to find Care to explain how you reached that conclusion?
It always amazes me when the same people who make fun of Christians for believing in a God we can't see put just as much faith in their belief that extraterrestrial life must exist out there somewhere. At least we have the Bible; what the hell is your belief based on? UFO sightings? The historic account of Eric Cartman's anal probe as revealed in cartoon form? Look, I poke fun at Christians because of stuff like this... No joke. Didn't your high school have some mandatory scienceclasses? BTW, I'm not quite sure which is more credible, the Bible or any given UFO reporting.
Faith is not a requirement to look for answers, and it doesn't obviate the need to either.
I'm with you as far as little sympathy for the greedy getting burned. I'm just not too sure the subprime mess can be attributed to greedy borrowers. In part, I guess though.
I've done some quick research and can't find any statistics on how people wind up with credit problems. I come across stories such as this one..
Two years ago, Luis Mapula was living in a converted garage with his wife and two daughters and earning $54,000 a year as a fence company construction worker. Then, almost like magic, he became the owner of a $543,000 home with no down payment. You might say the borrower was being greedy, but what motivated the lender to take on such an obvious risk? If there's greed involved, then I don't see how it could possible weigh more on the borrower's side. Is it the lender's fault for taking on too high a risk, or the borrower's fault for being too high a risk?
while the PS3's only selling point is being the cheapest Blu-ray player I beg your pardon... you obviously have no idea what games/features are available for the PS3 right now. Seriously, stop the "not enough games" BS, ok? We've already crossed the threshold into "have more great games available than time to play them", the more, the merrier.
They might start licensing the platform to third party manufacturers Isn't this what the GP said??
The future is not in PCs. True or not... Until Microsoft makes as much money as OS platform and office software sales from departments (when me shit turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbet), they will do everything in their power to make you wrong. Expect to see more "box running Windows" from Microsoft in the years to come.
The expansion pak was one of a few possible variations between N64 systems. Others include memory and rumble paks. How many of those variations made it to the GC? Aaaaand, how many then continued to the Wii?
would a direction like that be possible & adviseable for HD gameplay? I'm not sure that answers your question or not, but Nintendo's direction is very clear.
I think console add-ons should generally be kept to a minimum and restricted to specific domains of games. Some add-ons have good reasons for being optional right from the beginning, extra controllers and headsets (too many trash talking tweens) for example. When too many add-ons affect the full gamut of games though, I'd rather just have a new console, and I'd be pretty pissed if the current one wasn't out very long yet... Who's with me?
This subprime crap and scams like this are almost exclusively greed driven on the part of the victim. Just checking, by greed and victim, you're referring to the lenders, not people who want to own homes with less than ideal credit, right? It'd be very harsh to say all people with low credit scores who want loans are just greedy. Maybe you should read up on the issue.
I think the Airport Extreme and Apple TV (and similar devices) already obsoleted the type of "home server" Microsoft wants to push. If one wanted more than what those two devices provide (MythTV perhaps?) they'd probably prefer building it themselves, and probably already did.
I wouldn't be too surprised if by the same time next year, we'll have forgotten all about Windows Home Server.
Wireless K&M are not included, but the iMacs do all have Bluetooth standard.
The Dell has the card reader & tuner & more memory standard, and blu-ray in the high end. It costs more in the low end, and the same in high end as iMacs. Across the board, the iMacs have DL-DVD burners, Bluetooth, better CPU/graphics, less memory, and lower price. The high end iMac has a bigger, 24" screen , same memory, better CPU & graphics, and same price.
He wasn't talking about all that when he said the design was slightly better. He meant the physical design, including stuff like card reader slots, and hideous speakers.
Intel's desktop processor page The Dells have either a E4500 or E6550 2.2 GHz clock / 2 MB cache / 800 MHz FSB 2.33 GHz / 4 MB / 1333 MHz All ship with only 667 MHz DIMMs
Intel's mobile processor page The iMacs have either a T7300, T7700, or X7900. 2.0 GHz / 4 MB / 800 MHz 2.4 GHz / 4 MB / 800 MHz 2.8 GHz / 4 MB / 800 MHz All ship with only 667MHz SO-DIMMS
BTW, if a 128MB 2400XT is a joke, then WTF do you call integrated video? The highest specced XPS ONEs have Mobility Radeon HD 2400's, memory is unlisted while BASE iMacs have Mobility? Radeon HD 2400 XT's with 128MB GDDR3 The highest end iMacs have Mobility? Radeon HD 2600 PROs with 256MB GDDR3.
The iMac has better specs, flat out. It most likely uses a lot less power and weighs less also. The XPS ONE is a very well integrated _PC_ for sure, and has other nice features the iMac doesn't. I think Dell did a great job with the hardware integration and bundled features, and it is somewhat on par with the iMacs, IF you leave Leopard and iLife out of the picture anyway.
I'm kind of glad there isn't five or six ugly looking slots on my iMac, and I'm fine using a tiny USB card reader with the little extension dongle it came with, I just can't figure out why the extra USB ports on the keyboard don't have enough juice to run the card reader.
So why did he highlight the warranty section of his agreement? I assume he read it to highlight it, and it's quite clear that it applies to repairs done under warranty. Maybe he really dropped it, but didn't have the balls to admit to the whole internet. He also picks on the pricing but doesn't understand notebook drives cost more, and doesn't mention whether that price included the diagnostic or installation services. If out of warranty, those are surely not free.
Parts of his story smell fishy, but I've read elsewhere that it is Apple's policy to keep drives replaced out of warranty for a number of good (mostly for Apple) reasons. The best recommendation I found was to tell them it contains medical data, and they'd be violating HIPAA regulations.
How does homeschooling balance the quality of education in poor families? Mind you, the peasants were homeschooled... I think a purely private education system will lead to a greater education/class divide. "Private" is just a nice way of saying "money is everything". I do believe in capitalism, but I don't believe it applies to education, health, human rights, physical security, and a long list of other things that benefit the whole of humanity.
I agree with you there, mobile browsing has a whole slew of uses, killing time like you suggested, comparing competitor prices inside a retail store, 100X better than 411, etc, and about none of that overlaps with how we already browse the internet.
It's usually part of the warranty agreement. Even EMC will do the same thing with disks. The customer has the option to pay extra (not cheap) to keep failed drives though.
I don't understand why this guy didn't ask up front if he can keep his old drive, especially if he knew the repairs were under warranty.
Sorry, I understand you didn't mean to single out Apple for the secrecy about security issue, but I got caught up in the moment. Yes, just because all the other boys do it, doesn't mean they should.;)
I'd still question whether other methods of handling vulnerabilities would be all that much better (for all involved) than the industry standard methods of secrecy and public disclosure AFTER a fix is available.
I see where you are coming from now, but I don't understand how you are relating Apple's vertical integration to the problems associated with a Microsoft monoculture (a horizontal issue). Where Apple has extremely good integration, there isn't exactly firewalls in the alternatives (verticals). After all, malicious software can just as easily propagate from a web server, steal pictures from your iPAQ backup, and email/IM them to all your contacts.
Integration is most useful (and secure) for individuals when done in a vertical manner. A security vulnerability exposed horizontally across a large monoculture is still a primary concern, a vertical monoculture is secondary. That being said, OS X isn't devoid of any internal security devices. The keychain and strong Unix foundation are excellent examples of defense from vertical attacks.
So, what's your solution for secure vertical integration then? I hope you don't think antivirus software is it.
Also.. if you don't see the connection between a policy of secrecy and disinformation on even the most pointless of issues (related to security or not) and overall security Sorry, I don't see the connection between "a policy of secrecy and disinformation on even the most pointless of issues, not related to security" and overall security. Are you referring to their upcoming products or features? As far as secrecy regarding security, how is Apple different from anyone else? Can you find a vendor that does encourage discussion of either previously unknown or undocumented security vulnerabilities in their own public forums?
I can like Apple and be disappointed by them at turns as well, thank you very much. No need to get defensive, I hear you there. I'm just unsure how you think things should be different, or how Microsoft's lack of vertical integration somehow improves their security situation. Honestly, I only understand your complaints from a theoretical point of view. Sure, I can think of better security measures for all concerned, but I don't see any real cause for concern for Apple software users at the moment.
That is a great explanation for the relatively high 2003 percentage at that site. I couldn't believe that only twice as many people would be using Macs or linux than slugging through that locked down mess:P
What do you mean "10GbE is lower latency than 4Gb FC"? That's a bit apples-to-oranges, isn't it? You do realize that 10Gb FC is also available, and netapp has a conflict of interest? FCoE isn't going to do jack for netapp's NAS equipment.
I imagine if the processing overhead isn't too high or offload cards become available then this would be significantly faster than 4Gb FC It won't have FC's other performance characteristics, and that's a lot of expensive ifs before even getting close.
if you can stand the latency of packing two or more FC frames into an ethernet jumbo frames. If you could stand the latency, then why on Earth would you be using FC to begin with?
FCoE isn't going to replace FC where FC is needed. It will only make connecting (ethernet) things to a FC SAN easier. This is actually about bringing ethernet INTO a fibre channel fabric. It also requires new FC (FCoE capable) switches, and will eventually mean that new FCoE aware ethernet switches are made. Go to www.t11.org and look up the specs yourself. You're looking at a possible future of (FC)Storage -> (FC/FCoE)Fabric -> (FC/FCoE)Clients, not Ether, Ether, Ether.
That, in case you were wondering, is why FCoE has such broad vendor support even from companies that rely on FC.
Slashdot Mirror
I do Java development just fine on a Mac, what problems am I supposed to have?
You also missed an extremely obvious item in your comparisons..
The Mac mini is TINY! The Dells are big, loud, f'ing BOXES! Did you look for more than five minutes at the Apple store before pulling this lame Dell comparison?
Here, how about you try actually reading the details.
Yup, wireless G, bluetooth, gig ethernet, firewire, DVI, infrared remote. Build a Dell with those parts, for $600, PLEASE!
The Inspirons have some pro's too, like cheap monitor, K&M thrown in, larger HD capacities, big box (depending how you look at it), etc. PLEASE consider all features though when doing these price/value comparisons between Apple and Dell hardware though. the mac mini is $1300 Click "compare specs" on the mini page. Yup, there's a $1200 iMac next to two Mac minis, for geniuses like you.
Now that you understand a bit more about Mac hardware, go look again at the Dells. They might have some really decent machines in the gap between Apple's mini and iMac...
I've got nothing against Dell, I just hate these horrible comparisons with Apple.
The huge, gigantic, monumental difference between "looking" for religion and looking for ETI there is that there IS intelligent life on THIS planet, so we know it's possible. We DON'T know the chances of finding alien life, and they're nowhere near done looking yet. I am NOT saying the existence of God is (or can be) scientifically proven, merely that Christianity is at least as plausible as aliens. The whole of Christianity is not rooted in faith. There are zillions of good ideas to be found in the Bible, that don't require faith. I LIKE christian values.
For some strange reason, most/all world religions are built on 90% common sense, and 10% bizarre, unverifiable, unnecessary JUNK. My beef is with the 10%, not Christianity in particular. but we are talking about using resources for this project that could be put to more practical use. ... are you saying we should stop looking completely? Why? Give me a good reason ETI can't exist. I've already given you a good reason why it might exist, and if you don't see how worthwhile it would be to find it, I can't help you. So the idea that SETI is a waste really isn't absurd at all. Yes it is. You can call it a waste when it is determined that ETI can't exist, or we're looking for it in too inefficienty. I haven't heard that argument yet.
If you think they should only receive less funding, then let's go into that in more detail.
BTW, what you described is not hypocrisy. If it were, than every single believer in every religion in the world would be a hypocrite for believing in their particular conflicting set of unprovable beliefs. Faith conflicts with reasoning, and that's why I strongly dislike it.
Faith is not a requirement to look for answers, and it doesn't obviate the need to either.
If the 3DO strategy worked, I might not have to look it up then, huh? Moron.
I've done some quick research and can't find any statistics on how people wind up with credit problems. I come across stories such as this one.. Two years ago, Luis Mapula was living in a converted garage with his wife and two daughters and earning $54,000 a year as a fence company construction worker. Then, almost like magic, he became the owner of a $543,000 home with no down payment. You might say the borrower was being greedy, but what motivated the lender to take on such an obvious risk? If there's greed involved, then I don't see how it could possible weigh more on the borrower's side. Is it the lender's fault for taking on too high a risk, or the borrower's fault for being too high a risk?
Seriously, stop the "not enough games" BS, ok? We've already crossed the threshold into "have more great games available than time to play them", the more, the merrier. They might start licensing the platform to third party manufacturers Isn't this what the GP said?? The future is not in PCs. True or not...
Until Microsoft makes as much money as OS platform and office software sales from departments (when me shit turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbet), they will do everything in their power to make you wrong. Expect to see more "box running Windows" from Microsoft in the years to come.
What in the hell are 3DO, CDi, and LaserActive?
I think console add-ons should generally be kept to a minimum and restricted to specific domains of games. Some add-ons have good reasons for being optional right from the beginning, extra controllers and headsets (too many trash talking tweens) for example. When too many add-ons affect the full gamut of games though, I'd rather just have a new console, and I'd be pretty pissed if the current one wasn't out very long yet... Who's with me?
Elements vs. iLife is a pretty silly argument to make dude, have you ever used either one?
I think the Airport Extreme and Apple TV (and similar devices) already obsoleted the type of "home server" Microsoft wants to push. If one wanted more than what those two devices provide (MythTV perhaps?) they'd probably prefer building it themselves, and probably already did.
I wouldn't be too surprised if by the same time next year, we'll have forgotten all about Windows Home Server.
Wireless K&M are not included, but the iMacs do all have Bluetooth standard.
The Dell has the card reader & tuner & more memory standard, and blu-ray in the high end. It costs more in the low end, and the same in high end as iMacs.
Across the board, the iMacs have DL-DVD burners, Bluetooth, better CPU/graphics, less memory, and lower price. The high end iMac has a bigger, 24" screen , same memory, better CPU & graphics, and same price.
He wasn't talking about all that when he said the design was slightly better. He meant the physical design, including stuff like card reader slots, and hideous speakers.
Intel's desktop processor page
The Dells have either a E4500 or E6550
2.2 GHz clock / 2 MB cache / 800 MHz FSB
2.33 GHz / 4 MB / 1333 MHz
All ship with only 667 MHz DIMMs
Intel's mobile processor page
The iMacs have either a T7300, T7700, or X7900.
2.0 GHz / 4 MB / 800 MHz
2.4 GHz / 4 MB / 800 MHz
2.8 GHz / 4 MB / 800 MHz
All ship with only 667MHz SO-DIMMS
BTW, if a 128MB 2400XT is a joke, then WTF do you call integrated video?
The highest specced XPS ONEs have Mobility Radeon HD 2400's, memory is unlisted
while BASE iMacs have Mobility? Radeon HD 2400 XT's with 128MB GDDR3
The highest end iMacs have Mobility? Radeon HD 2600 PROs with 256MB GDDR3.
The iMac has better specs, flat out. It most likely uses a lot less power and weighs less also. The XPS ONE is a very well integrated _PC_ for sure, and has other nice features the iMac doesn't. I think Dell did a great job with the hardware integration and bundled features, and it is somewhat on par with the iMacs, IF you leave Leopard and iLife out of the picture anyway.
Personally, those speakers have got to go!
I'm kind of glad there isn't five or six ugly looking slots on my iMac, and I'm fine using a tiny USB card reader with the little extension dongle it came with, I just can't figure out why the extra USB ports on the keyboard don't have enough juice to run the card reader.
So why did he highlight the warranty section of his agreement? I assume he read it to highlight it, and it's quite clear that it applies to repairs done under warranty. Maybe he really dropped it, but didn't have the balls to admit to the whole internet. He also picks on the pricing but doesn't understand notebook drives cost more, and doesn't mention whether that price included the diagnostic or installation services. If out of warranty, those are surely not free.
Parts of his story smell fishy, but I've read elsewhere that it is Apple's policy to keep drives replaced out of warranty for a number of good (mostly for Apple) reasons. The best recommendation I found was to tell them it contains medical data, and they'd be violating HIPAA regulations.
Will that joke ever die? ;)
How does homeschooling balance the quality of education in poor families? Mind you, the peasants were homeschooled... I think a purely private education system will lead to a greater education/class divide. "Private" is just a nice way of saying "money is everything". I do believe in capitalism, but I don't believe it applies to education, health, human rights, physical security, and a long list of other things that benefit the whole of humanity.
I agree with you there, mobile browsing has a whole slew of uses, killing time like you suggested, comparing competitor prices inside a retail store, 100X better than 411, etc, and about none of that overlaps with how we already browse the internet.
It's usually part of the warranty agreement.
Even EMC will do the same thing with disks. The customer has the option to pay extra (not cheap) to keep failed drives though.
I don't understand why this guy didn't ask up front if he can keep his old drive, especially if he knew the repairs were under warranty.
That's true, hadn't considered the plugin.
Sorry, I understand you didn't mean to single out Apple for the secrecy about security issue, but I got caught up in the moment. Yes, just because all the other boys do it, doesn't mean they should. ;)
I'd still question whether other methods of handling vulnerabilities would be all that much better (for all involved) than the industry standard methods of secrecy and public disclosure AFTER a fix is available.
Integration is most useful (and secure) for individuals when done in a vertical manner. A security vulnerability exposed horizontally across a large monoculture is still a primary concern, a vertical monoculture is secondary. That being said, OS X isn't devoid of any internal security devices. The keychain and strong Unix foundation are excellent examples of defense from vertical attacks.
So, what's your solution for secure vertical integration then? I hope you don't think antivirus software is it. Also.. if you don't see the connection between a policy of secrecy and disinformation on even the most pointless of issues (related to security or not) and overall security Sorry, I don't see the connection between "a policy of secrecy and disinformation on even the most pointless of issues, not related to security" and overall security. Are you referring to their upcoming products or features?
As far as secrecy regarding security, how is Apple different from anyone else? Can you find a vendor that does encourage discussion of either previously unknown or undocumented security vulnerabilities in their own public forums? I can like Apple and be disappointed by them at turns as well, thank you very much. No need to get defensive, I hear you there. I'm just unsure how you think things should be different, or how Microsoft's lack of vertical integration somehow improves their security situation. Honestly, I only understand your complaints from a theoretical point of view. Sure, I can think of better security measures for all concerned, but I don't see any real cause for concern for Apple software users at the moment.
That is a great explanation for the relatively high 2003 percentage at that site. I couldn't believe that only twice as many people would be using Macs or linux than slugging through that locked down mess :P
You do realize that 10Gb FC is also available, and netapp has a conflict of interest? FCoE isn't going to do jack for netapp's NAS equipment. I imagine if the processing overhead isn't too high or offload cards become available then this would be significantly faster than 4Gb FC It won't have FC's other performance characteristics, and that's a lot of expensive ifs before even getting close. if you can stand the latency of packing two or more FC frames into an ethernet jumbo frames. If you could stand the latency, then why on Earth would you be using FC to begin with?
FCoE isn't going to replace FC where FC is needed. It will only make connecting (ethernet) things to a FC SAN easier. This is actually about bringing ethernet INTO a fibre channel fabric.
It also requires new FC (FCoE capable) switches, and will eventually mean that new FCoE aware ethernet switches are made. Go to www.t11.org and look up the specs yourself. You're looking at a possible future of (FC)Storage -> (FC/FCoE)Fabric -> (FC/FCoE)Clients, not Ether, Ether, Ether.
That, in case you were wondering, is why FCoE has such broad vendor support even from companies that rely on FC.
It takes faith to believe the Bible is entirely, or even partly factual.