RedK already pointed out that you're not comparing equivalent machines. A Mac mini is more like a Dell Studio Hybrid, not an Inspiron 545s.
As for your chosen upgrades to the Mac mini, this is why I said "pick a reasonable Mac". Maxing out the upgrades will never result in an ideal price for anything (Mac, PC, or whatever).
For example, it costs $150 to go from a 2.26GHz to a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Is the slight speed bump really worth the extra cash for the average user? I don't think so. Upgrading the processor on that machine IMHO falls into the "blindly buying the fastest model available" category.
Another example with the mini, upgrading to a 500GB drive costs $200 from Apple, but a new 500GB laptop drive only costs $79 on Newegg. Grab a screwdriver and do the upgrade yourself. Not only is it cheaper, but it's also more fun;)
WTF? It's like saying somebody should buy an F1 car just because it's fastest
I agree 100%. People should buy a machine to suit their needs. Anyone who blindly buys the fastest model available is just being egotistical and foolish.
which does not cost them their house and children
A new Mac mini goes for $599 and a MacBook is $999. This is hardly "house and children" figures. Pick a reasonable Mac then go to Dell and spec out a similar machine. The PC prices will be in a close neighborhood.
not require special fuel and can run on ordinary road
This article is not about the iPhone. It is about Apple systems running OS X that can utilize Boot Camp.
Hardly any "special fuel" required on OS X systems. Take your pick from any of the great open source apps available for the platform: Firefox, Thunderbird, Inkscape, Gimp, VLC, Eclipse, the list goes on. Wanna write some code? Xcode comes free with OS X. Don't wanna use Xcode, then use another IDE or directly use make, gcc, gdb, and vim.
As for your "ordinary road" comment... I'm writing this on a four year old iMac. Over the years I've upgraded the memory (Crucial has great prices) and hard drive (1TB was only $99 at Fry's). My mouse of choice is a five button Logitech scroll mouse. I hardly feel "locked in" or "abused".
Way to go on a tangent!
Way to spread FUD. How about we just let people use the computer that best suits their needs.
Getting back on topic, I've been running Windows 7 in both Boot Camp and Parallels 5 with no problems. I don't know what the damage is with this "article".
For me, no squeeze buttons was a downer. I live off of Exposé and hate having to use the keyboard to invoke it.
That being said, I'm excited about what can be done with gestures on this mouse. This is why I'm keeping an eye on USB Overdrive. I've been using this driver for a while now so that all five buttons on my Logitech mouse work flawlessly in OS X... where flawlessly means mapped to exactly the actions that I want.
Here is what the developer has to say about the new mouse: "Apple Magic Mouse update: I've been working hard on the device and I now know how it works. I am writing a lot of code to support it properly and I will post a new version as soon as it is ready. Until then, please be aware that without specific support the Magic Mouse is a two buttons mouse with no scroll wheel. The current version of the USB Overdrive handles it as any other mouse so you lose both the scroll wheel and the ability to configure gestures using Apple's own drivers. The good news is that this mouse can do a lot more than basic gestures, and I'll do my best to make it even more magic."
... can't imagine why neither the/. summary or the original "article" included a link to John Lilly's actual blog post. Who the hell is Dee Chisamera and why did/. link to Chisamera'a page full of ads instead of Lilly's actual blog post?
Perhaps the king of all environments (at least in my mind) is Processing. It is a Java based environment created by Ben Fry and Casey Reas. It's open source, has a huge active community, and plenty of 3rd party libraries for exploring things like computer vision, audio, physics, ray tracing, AI, etc.
There are a ton of really talented people doing cool things in Processing. Too many to list here, check out the Exhibition page for things to play around with.
>> How about a personal wiki, such as Didiwiki, that runs locally?
I have been using TiddlyWiki for a while now and absolutely love it. No server or special setup required, just load the single file in my browser and start using it. I have several private wikis that I use regularly to keep track of multiple projects (both personal and for work). Best part is that I can move from working on my Linux box to OS X to (gasp) Windows and always have my information available.
They also don't mention the best part about the design: the fact that it magnetically sticks to the side of an iMac. It's always there when you want it and easily transforms the iMac from a computer to media center.
Actually, Apple does not even publicize this properly. When I was playing with Front Row in the Apple store before I purchased my machine, the sales guy never mentioned it. Hell, in the store they even had the remote attached to the machine with stick on velcro.
The simple fact of the matter is that if the user does not know about a feature then it might as well not even exist.
Thank you Psykechan... I now enjoy having my remote always in reach:-)
Don't get me wrong. I love the Borland of yester-year, but are Borland tools relevant anymore?
With all the free goodies available, development on most platforms can be done without spending a dime.
Just off the top of my head, things like GCC, Xcode, and Eclipse come to mind.
This whole story is more about human nature and less about "big brother". I'm glad that we have "scientists" with the foresight to research such obvious topics;-)
>> I was visiting the US recently (from the UK) and tried to watch TV. >> I just couldn't bear it - the adverts were just so frequent and intrusive
I guess it is just what you are used to... when I was in the UK last year (from the US) I could not believe how many times that damn "Crazy Frog" commercial popped up... about twice each commercial break... after a while you just want to slit your wrists;-)
The first thought I had was how could such a stupid question like this get accepted. What a completely ridiculous idea:-)
The second thought I had was how truly frightening the impact would be. A regionalized internet would be devastating to the evolution of ideas like the social web.
Sites like Flickr would lose their power if users were not allowed to explore outside of their home region. I am constantly amazed by how well people communicate across social and language barriers on sites like these. I can't count the number of times I have toured a distant city through the eyes of the people who live there.
Many more examples were listed in previous posts, so I will not dupe.
Kudos to the editors for letting this one through;-)
... but seriously, didn't one very large successful company just announce defeat in the handheld game market? For those who missed it, I'm not surprised... it was a Quite Death:-)
What makes MS think that they can succeed?
Perhaps the hardware will be a variant of the Dell Axim X51v?
>> I would pay the price of a movie ticket or perhaps $10, whichever is cheaper.
Comparing the download price to that of a movie ticket is not a fair comparison.
When I go to a movie theater...
1) I get to see the movie on a huge screen (compared to the small TV in my home) and the visual experience is way more impressive.
2) I get to hear the movie on a professional surround sound system and the experience is impressive (again compared to the speakers on my TV at home).
Basically when I see a movie in the theater I am also paying a price (included in the cost of the ticket) for using the theater's space and equipment. When I download a movie for home use the cost should be less because I am watching the movie in my own house on my own equipment.
If you want a fair comparison of what the download price should be then try pay-per-view. Typically (on my DirectTV Tivo system) I can get movies for about under $5. So in my mind anything over $5 for the download of a high-quality full-length movie is the entertainment industry being greedy.
As an American who spent the last two months living in the UK I have to second the parent post.
It still surprises how ridiculous the US is with respect to its views on sex vs violence.
The biggest shock was coming back to the US and being "shielded" from sex but having violence pushed in your face.
As an example:
While in the UK normal television shows will have characters that occasionally say things like "fuck". Also, seeing a pair of breasts on television will not send the whole country screaming in pain:-)
Constrast that with the US. On the plane ride back (American Airlines) the movie that we watched was censored to "protect" me. In one scene (in which a group of cops were raiding a building) we were not allowed to hear the main character say "god damn" (it was poorly dubbed with "gosh darn") but we could watch him run thru the building shoot and kill at least six "bad guys" (complete with blood and everything).
It was at that moment when I realized why Europeans thought that we (in the US) were crazy when they saw our reaction to the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction".
Slashdot Mirror
RedK already pointed out that you're not comparing equivalent machines. A Mac mini is more like a Dell Studio Hybrid, not an Inspiron 545s.
As for your chosen upgrades to the Mac mini, this is why I said "pick a reasonable Mac". Maxing out the upgrades will never result in an ideal price for anything (Mac, PC, or whatever).
For example, it costs $150 to go from a 2.26GHz to a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Is the slight speed bump really worth the extra cash for the average user? I don't think so. Upgrading the processor on that machine IMHO falls into the "blindly buying the fastest model available" category.
Another example with the mini, upgrading to a 500GB drive costs $200 from Apple, but a new 500GB laptop drive only costs $79 on Newegg. Grab a screwdriver and do the upgrade yourself. Not only is it cheaper, but it's also more fun ;)
WTF? It's like saying somebody should buy an F1 car just because it's fastest
I agree 100%. People should buy a machine to suit their needs. Anyone who blindly buys the fastest model available is just being egotistical and foolish.
which does not cost them their house and children
A new Mac mini goes for $599 and a MacBook is $999. This is hardly "house and children" figures. Pick a reasonable Mac then go to Dell and spec out a similar machine. The PC prices will be in a close neighborhood.
not require special fuel and can run on ordinary road
This article is not about the iPhone. It is about Apple systems running OS X that can utilize Boot Camp.
Hardly any "special fuel" required on OS X systems. Take your pick from any of the great open source apps available for the platform: Firefox, Thunderbird, Inkscape, Gimp, VLC, Eclipse, the list goes on. Wanna write some code? Xcode comes free with OS X. Don't wanna use Xcode, then use another IDE or directly use make, gcc, gdb, and vim.
As for your "ordinary road" comment ... I'm writing this on a four year old iMac. Over the years I've upgraded the memory (Crucial has great prices) and hard drive (1TB was only $99 at Fry's). My mouse of choice is a five button Logitech scroll mouse. I hardly feel "locked in" or "abused".
Way to go on a tangent!
Way to spread FUD. How about we just let people use the computer that best suits their needs.
Getting back on topic, I've been running Windows 7 in both Boot Camp and Parallels 5 with no problems. I don't know what the damage is with this "article".
For me, no squeeze buttons was a downer. I live off of Exposé and hate having to use the keyboard to invoke it.
... where flawlessly means mapped to exactly the actions that I want.
That being said, I'm excited about what can be done with gestures on this mouse. This is why I'm keeping an eye on USB Overdrive. I've been using this driver for a while now so that all five buttons on my Logitech mouse work flawlessly in OS X
Here is what the developer has to say about the new mouse: "Apple Magic Mouse update: I've been working hard on the device and I now know how it works. I am writing a lot of code to support it properly and I will post a new version as soon as it is ready. Until then, please be aware that without specific support the Magic Mouse is a two buttons mouse with no scroll wheel. The current version of the USB Overdrive handles it as any other mouse so you lose both the scroll wheel and the ability to configure gestures using Apple's own drivers. The good news is that this mouse can do a lot more than basic gestures, and I'll do my best to make it even more magic."
Here is a link to John Lilly's actual blog post ...
... can't imagine why neither the /. summary or the original "article" included a link to John Lilly's actual blog post. Who the hell is Dee Chisamera and why did /. link to Chisamera'a page full of ads instead of Lilly's actual blog post?
http://john.jubjubs.net/2008/03/21/apple-software-update/
>> That country is Finland.
/. last week ...
It was discussed on
Finnish Censorship Expanding
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/19/0252236
This one was a surprise to me. Link provided for those who don't want to hit Google to find WTF.
>> Anyone have any others?
Perhaps the king of all environments (at least in my mind) is Processing. It is a Java based environment created by Ben Fry and Casey Reas. It's open source, has a huge active community, and plenty of 3rd party libraries for exploring things like computer vision, audio, physics, ray tracing, AI, etc.
There are a ton of really talented people doing cool things in Processing. Too many to list here, check out the Exhibition page for things to play around with.
>> Haiku is easy
>> But sometimes they don't make sense
>> Refrigerator
Seen that one before
I bought the shirt on Threadless
Click the URL
http://www.threadless.com/product/623/Haikus_are_easy_but
The flesh-eating zombie attack was back in May ;-)
No, this is in fact due to a real power outage.
>> How about a personal wiki, such as Didiwiki, that runs locally?
I have been using TiddlyWiki for a while now and absolutely love it. No server or special setup required, just load the single file in my browser and start using it. I have several private wikis that I use regularly to keep track of multiple projects (both personal and for work). Best part is that I can move from working on my Linux box to OS X to (gasp) Windows and always have my information available.
But seriously ... the way of thinking out here is so drastically different from the rest of the US that it might as well be it's own country.
They also don't mention the best part about the design: the fact that it magnetically sticks to the side of an iMac. It's always there when you want it and easily transforms the iMac from a computer to media center.
... I now enjoy having my remote always in reach :-)
Actually, Apple does not even publicize this properly. When I was playing with Front Row in the Apple store before I purchased my machine, the sales guy never mentioned it. Hell, in the store they even had the remote attached to the machine with stick on velcro.
The simple fact of the matter is that if the user does not know about a feature then it might as well not even exist.
Thank you Psykechan
Don't get me wrong. I love the Borland of yester-year, but are Borland tools relevant anymore?
With all the free goodies available, development on most platforms can be done without spending a dime.
Just off the top of my head, things like GCC, Xcode, and Eclipse come to mind.
Obviously not ;-)
The whole premise for this story was stated back in 1994 in the movie "Clerks".
;-)
Dante Hicks: Theoretically, people see money on the counter, and no one around, they think they're being watched.
Veronica: Honesty through paranoia.
reference
This whole story is more about human nature and less about "big brother". I'm glad that we have "scientists" with the foresight to research such obvious topics
What do men with beards want? They want GNU!
... laugh ;-)
It's funny
So how is this any better than the Nokia 770?
I mean the 770 already has an active community behind it and an open development environment that you can dig right into.
Yes, the 770 is a bit underpowered but the form factor looks MUCH better than the Pepper Pad. Plus I can go to the store and get one NOW.
>> I was visiting the US recently (from the UK) and tried to watch TV.
... when I was in the UK last year (from the US) I could not believe how many times that damn "Crazy Frog" commercial popped up ... about twice each commercial break ... after a while you just want to slit your wrists ;-)
>> I just couldn't bear it - the adverts were just so frequent and intrusive
I guess it is just what you are used to
The first thought I had was how could such a stupid question like this get accepted. What a completely ridiculous idea :-)
;-)
The second thought I had was how truly frightening the impact would be. A regionalized internet would be devastating to the evolution of ideas like the social web.
Sites like Flickr would lose their power if users were not allowed to explore outside of their home region. I am constantly amazed by how well people communicate across social and language barriers on sites like these. I can't count the number of times I have toured a distant city through the eyes of the people who live there.
Many more examples were listed in previous posts, so I will not dupe.
Kudos to the editors for letting this one through
>> finding a photo by drawing a rough sketch of it.
>> THAT would be really cool
It is really cool, albeit this implementation is not perfect, check out retrievr.
... but seriously, didn't one very large successful company just announce defeat in the handheld game market? For those who missed it, I'm not surprised ... it was a Quite Death :-)
What makes MS think that they can succeed?
Perhaps the hardware will be a variant of the Dell Axim X51v?
While I agree with Nielson overall, never underestimate the porn industry to put a new medium to good use.
... http://www.nakednews.com/ ... into a video blog or video podcast?
:-)
I mean really, how much of a stretch is it to turn something like this
I know I would sign up for Cameron's feed any day
>> I would pay the price of a movie ticket or perhaps $10, whichever is cheaper.
...
Comparing the download price to that of a movie ticket is not a fair comparison.
When I go to a movie theater
1) I get to see the movie on a huge screen (compared to the small TV in my home) and the visual experience is way more impressive.
2) I get to hear the movie on a professional surround sound system and the experience is impressive (again compared to the speakers on my TV at home).
Basically when I see a movie in the theater I am also paying a price (included in the cost of the ticket) for using the theater's space and equipment. When I download a movie for home use the cost should be less because I am watching the movie in my own house on my own equipment.
If you want a fair comparison of what the download price should be then try pay-per-view. Typically (on my DirectTV Tivo system) I can get movies for about under $5. So in my mind anything over $5 for the download of a high-quality full-length movie is the entertainment industry being greedy.
Just my $0.02
As an American who spent the last two months living in the UK I have to second the parent post.
:-)
It still surprises how ridiculous the US is with respect to its views on sex vs violence.
The biggest shock was coming back to the US and being "shielded" from sex but having violence pushed in your face.
As an example:
While in the UK normal television shows will have characters that occasionally say things like "fuck". Also, seeing a pair of breasts on television will not send the whole country screaming in pain
Constrast that with the US. On the plane ride back (American Airlines) the movie that we watched was censored to "protect" me. In one scene (in which a group of cops were raiding a building) we were not allowed to hear the main character say "god damn" (it was poorly dubbed with "gosh darn") but we could watch him run thru the building shoot and kill at least six "bad guys" (complete with blood and everything).
It was at that moment when I realized why Europeans thought that we (in the US) were crazy when they saw our reaction to the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction".
Do you think a console manufacturer is ever going to embrace homwbrew software, or will they always do their best to stop it?
While not really a console, there is the Nokia 770 Linux tablet discussed on Slashdot last week. The SDK is a free download and the device has a well documented developers site. Also, at $350 USD is seems reasonably priced too.
For those of us in the US who have no idea what the frog thing is, look here
The last trip I took to London the advert for this damn thing was on the TV every @#$%ing two minutes.