Yeh, the hardware is nice. Who can deny that? Usability isn't quite what I want, but it's adequate compared to most alternatives, and it's almost unfair to compare it to XP, it squashes it so bad.
I'm not a fanboy, but I recognize quality when I see it.
That might make some sense if you weren't talking to someone that just bought an industrial picmg computer with 17 pci slot backplane, and that chose his Toshiba laptop because the silver/black coloring scheme reminded him of his TRS-80...
Scarily, 17 PCI slots are filling up much more rapidly than even I had imagined. Wonder if a Magma PCI expansion chassis would cause timing issues...
Windows is complex (and Mac is as simple as my old TI-99 4/A?)
Let's use XP as the example here. I do phone support for DSL, and I have to help new users set up a static IP address. On OSX, it's "click on the apple at the top left, go to system preferences, a window will open. click on the network icon in that".
On XP, do I bother to ask them if they see a "My Network Places" icon on the desktop? It's often (but not always) hidden. If it's not there, do I ask them to go to the control panel, which may or may not be listed under Settings? Which may or may not be in classic view? Which if it isn't is one more nested icon, if they don't get confused and think I'm talking about the same thing? Do I say fuck it, tell them to click start, go to run (can this be hidden, some have a hard time finding it?) and type in "ncpa.cpl" ? You have no idea how difficult it is to spell for them over the phone. "What do you mean november, do i spell that out, or abbreviate it n-o-v?".
Once there though, I have to have them right click on "local area connection" (what, there's more than one?) select properties, that is if they're not too clumsy and they don't accidentally drag it a bit, bringing up the "create shortcut/copy/move" menu. Then a second window pops up. The item they need has a checkmark by it, ever try to talk one out of thinking they don't need to check/uncheck something? Sometimes if the resolution is wrong, they'd have to scroll to see it. Sometimes, only IPv6 is installed, on factory new machines. So, now they have to open it up, either by highlighting "internet protocol" and clicking on the properties button (do i have to right click?). But try to explain to them to click on the words, not the checkbox. Or maybe they can just double-click on the words "internet protocol" maybe not, depending on settings.
Then, A third window pops up. And they have to select static or dynamic. But hey! Even though they've selected static, they still have to choose whether to use static DNS, or dhcp (wtf?!?!!?). And do they have to type in the dots, (cause they are already there!). And it always auto-fills the subnet for them with 255.0.0.0 even when it's not a class A address (even if it were, how often do they think that that subnet is actually used?!?!).
And then, they have to click OK, and then on the previous window, either OK or close. It could be either one, I'm thinking a SP changes this button label.
And if the magic dll faeries are in a good mood, it just might work.
So tell me, which is more complex than the other again?
But how do you know they won't happen under Mac OSX, Linux etc... is it because they are not as popular ?
While it remains to be proven beyond doubt, the examples we have in the real world tend to demolish this argument. Apache has comparable marketshare to IIS, and yet suffers from only the tiniest fraction of remote exploits.
Or is it harder to write spyware/viruses for these systems ?
Nothing says it is impossible. However, on linux and bsd the user is assumed to be sophisticated enough to not fall for the bottomfeeder viruses, the "right click my attachment and run this shell script for fun!" crap. Mac users are protected in different ways, notably security updates that you don't have to worry will make the machine non-functional.
We'd certainly see a measurable rise in viruses/spyware when either of these become more popular, but it will be manageable, and there will be real fixes.
In my own experience repairing iBooks, it almost always turns out to be bad hardware. Every machine where we figured we'd get away with a netrestore ended up returning 3 weeks later needing a hard drive. I always figured that I'd be able to tell a bad hard drive by listening for the abnormal noises, but these ones fooled me. Don't know if my total experience is less or more than your own (only repaired them, didn't use them personally), but I'd be incredibly shocked to ever hear credible proof that they do crash (software) more often than the 18 months you state.
I thought I was allowed to reply to what the parent post said (Jobs a hero). But thank you Officer McRelevancy, I won't do it again. Please don't haul me off to slashdotjail.
I actually hate Macs. I love the 64bit PPC, and even some of the other hardware. But they're fashion computers. I would never buy a Mac(exceptions: an Xserve if I win the lottery, and vintage macs... love old computers).
I don't like the look of OSX.
But by god, this guy is right, and people need to listen to him. I'm an "anything but windows" person, and ugly as OSX is to me, I bet it's pretty tolerable to most people out there and it definitely qualifies on the "anything but windows"
No they don't. It took too long to find citable links last night, don't feel like it today. Apparently the state of Washington feels blessed by their presence so much, that they basically get a free ticket.
and state property taxes.
Yeh, that's real significant.
Microsoft sells a lot of products in 50 states. Those states will get the sales tax from the purchases.
Oh, so now other people unaffiliated with Microsoft except for their bad taste in software, actually count? Those people would be spending their cash on something else, to be sure, if not for Microsoft and its monopolistic tendencies. We'd get sales tax on whatever else they bought too.
The government also gets to charge Microsoft's stockholders for dividend payouts
Yeh. They're whole single dividend in the history of the corporation.
Yeh. But I don't see that happening. I'm sure it's a cheap way to air condition, in tropical climates it may even be a clever way to make potable water. But I don't see how this can ever make enough steam to really make energy with.
No, they pay little in the way of state taxes. Often, the threat of moving HQ to another state is enough to get all sorts of special tax breaks. Even without that, theirs is pretty sweet.
Their employees are seperate legal entities. But even if they weren't, guess what, Washington state doesn't have personal income tax. Haha.
No, they don't. The tech industry uses stock options to avoid taxes.
Hollywood uses creative accounting (but not just for taxes, Winston Groom didn't earn any royalties on Forrest Gump, how much did it gross again?) to avoid them.
There are big companies that pay taxes, but you'll find out that they have little in the way of marketable intellectual property.
It is not because whoever's running Disney this week has naked photos of President Bush (at least, not that I know of) but because Disney profits help keep the government running.
You mean, they keep election campaigns running. That cash never touches the treasury. Can you really be this dense?
is when they state that this is a justification for violating others' rights.
Like my rights to not have to tolerate eternal copyright? I'll gladly trade files of steamboat willy all day, it's in the public domain, corrupt congressional acts notwithstanding.
Early home computer software becomes public domain in the next 2 years (and I make copies of it now, because it may not survive much longer if I don't). Want to sic the FBI on me?
Can't even say this about the Xbox, while there are many that love it, they actually only love the exclusive games for it. Those games, well, they're exclusive because of Microsoft's esteemed business practices...
Started reading the book when I was 12, got bored and didn't finish more than 20 pages. Just the flashbacks part. It was some pulp horror/mystery novel.
Starts with jews in a concentration camp in Poland, the soldiers ride up to it, only to find that the jews had freed themselves days before. The few bodies of the SS they find, all are battered to death, with gray clay all over them. Fast forward to New York present day, where some gangbangers who had killed some jewish child but gotten away with it. The father has a rock-solid alibi, and again, the gangbangers have gray clay all over them.
Two years later, I finally learned enough to recognize the mythology behind it, but even before that it stuck out in my mind as something I might have preferred to finish.
Now, a basic keyword search, even if I could remember specific phrases wouldn't be enough for this one. But knowing Google, the search engine will be pretty clever, and I might have a chance of pulling this one out in the first dozen results pages or so.
And to think (while my example is pretty dumb), that the power of such searches would be restricted by shortsighted whining like this is a farce. Hell, I don't have to read that book online, just being able to retrieve it's title and author would be a boon.
Yeh, not to mention that QE has promising anonymity aspects. With wormholes, you might be forced to know the location you want to send the information.
Even so, every time I mention QE here, someone pipes in and tells me I'm an ass, that it can never be used to transmit information. I don't know if I believe that or not.
Slashdot Mirror
Live in girlfriend. I win on both counts.
It's too pretty for me. I want a few rough edges.
Yeh, the hardware is nice. Who can deny that? Usability isn't quite what I want, but it's adequate compared to most alternatives, and it's almost unfair to compare it to XP, it squashes it so bad.
I'm not a fanboy, but I recognize quality when I see it.
How is it inconsistent to dislike things that try to be pretty for prettiness's sake?
That might make some sense if you weren't talking to someone that just bought an industrial picmg computer with 17 pci slot backplane, and that chose his Toshiba laptop because the silver/black coloring scheme reminded him of his TRS-80...
Scarily, 17 PCI slots are filling up much more rapidly than even I had imagined. Wonder if a Magma PCI expansion chassis would cause timing issues...
Windows is complex (and Mac is as simple as my old TI-99 4/A?)
Let's use XP as the example here. I do phone support for DSL, and I have to help new users set up a static IP address. On OSX, it's "click on the apple at the top left, go to system preferences, a window will open. click on the network icon in that".
On XP, do I bother to ask them if they see a "My Network Places" icon on the desktop? It's often (but not always) hidden. If it's not there, do I ask them to go to the control panel, which may or may not be listed under Settings? Which may or may not be in classic view? Which if it isn't is one more nested icon, if they don't get confused and think I'm talking about the same thing? Do I say fuck it, tell them to click start, go to run (can this be hidden, some have a hard time finding it?) and type in "ncpa.cpl" ? You have no idea how difficult it is to spell for them over the phone. "What do you mean november, do i spell that out, or abbreviate it n-o-v?".
Once there though, I have to have them right click on "local area connection" (what, there's more than one?) select properties, that is if they're not too clumsy and they don't accidentally drag it a bit, bringing up the "create shortcut/copy/move" menu. Then a second window pops up. The item they need has a checkmark by it, ever try to talk one out of thinking they don't need to check/uncheck something? Sometimes if the resolution is wrong, they'd have to scroll to see it. Sometimes, only IPv6 is installed, on factory new machines. So, now they have to open it up, either by highlighting "internet protocol" and clicking on the properties button (do i have to right click?). But try to explain to them to click on the words, not the checkbox. Or maybe they can just double-click on the words "internet protocol" maybe not, depending on settings.
Then, A third window pops up. And they have to select static or dynamic. But hey! Even though they've selected static, they still have to choose whether to use static DNS, or dhcp (wtf?!?!!?). And do they have to type in the dots, (cause they are already there!). And it always auto-fills the subnet for them with 255.0.0.0 even when it's not a class A address (even if it were, how often do they think that that subnet is actually used?!?!).
And then, they have to click OK, and then on the previous window, either OK or close. It could be either one, I'm thinking a SP changes this button label.
And if the magic dll faeries are in a good mood, it just might work.
So tell me, which is more complex than the other again?
But how do you know they won't happen under Mac OSX, Linux etc... is it because they are not as popular ?
While it remains to be proven beyond doubt, the examples we have in the real world tend to demolish this argument. Apache has comparable marketshare to IIS, and yet suffers from only the tiniest fraction of remote exploits.
Or is it harder to write spyware/viruses for these systems ?
Nothing says it is impossible. However, on linux and bsd the user is assumed to be sophisticated enough to not fall for the bottomfeeder viruses, the "right click my attachment and run this shell script for fun!" crap. Mac users are protected in different ways, notably security updates that you don't have to worry will make the machine non-functional.
We'd certainly see a measurable rise in viruses/spyware when either of these become more popular, but it will be manageable, and there will be real fixes.
In my own experience repairing iBooks, it almost always turns out to be bad hardware. Every machine where we figured we'd get away with a netrestore ended up returning 3 weeks later needing a hard drive. I always figured that I'd be able to tell a bad hard drive by listening for the abnormal noises, but these ones fooled me. Don't know if my total experience is less or more than your own (only repaired them, didn't use them personally), but I'd be incredibly shocked to ever hear credible proof that they do crash (software) more often than the 18 months you state.
I thought I was allowed to reply to what the parent post said (Jobs a hero). But thank you Officer McRelevancy, I won't do it again. Please don't haul me off to slashdotjail.
I actually hate Macs. I love the 64bit PPC, and even some of the other hardware. But they're fashion computers. I would never buy a Mac(exceptions: an Xserve if I win the lottery, and vintage macs... love old computers).
I don't like the look of OSX.
But by god, this guy is right, and people need to listen to him. I'm an "anything but windows" person, and ugly as OSX is to me, I bet it's pretty tolerable to most people out there and it definitely qualifies on the "anything but windows"
$500. You can't even claim they cost too much.
PS Woz was the hero.
We're all waiting on Longhorn SP1...
Microsoft pays state taxes, both income
No they don't. It took too long to find citable links last night, don't feel like it today. Apparently the state of Washington feels blessed by their presence so much, that they basically get a free ticket.
and state property taxes.
Yeh, that's real significant.
Microsoft sells a lot of products in 50 states. Those states will get the sales tax from the purchases.
Oh, so now other people unaffiliated with Microsoft except for their bad taste in software, actually count? Those people would be spending their cash on something else, to be sure, if not for Microsoft and its monopolistic tendencies. We'd get sales tax on whatever else they bought too.
The government also gets to charge Microsoft's stockholders for dividend payouts
Yeh. They're whole single dividend in the history of the corporation.
Yeh. But I don't see that happening. I'm sure it's a cheap way to air condition, in tropical climates it may even be a clever way to make potable water. But I don't see how this can ever make enough steam to really make energy with.
If this technology is going to be so successful why isn't being tried all over the place?
Because there are only a few islands throughout the world where it's practical. If you have a continental shelf, it ain't gonna work.
No, they pay little in the way of state taxes. Often, the threat of moving HQ to another state is enough to get all sorts of special tax breaks. Even without that, theirs is pretty sweet.
Their employees are seperate legal entities. But even if they weren't, guess what, Washington state doesn't have personal income tax. Haha.
When you're wrong, you're *WRONG*.
No, they don't. The tech industry uses stock options to avoid taxes.
Hollywood uses creative accounting (but not just for taxes, Winston Groom didn't earn any royalties on Forrest Gump, how much did it gross again?) to avoid them.
There are big companies that pay taxes, but you'll find out that they have little in the way of marketable intellectual property.
It is not because whoever's running Disney this week has naked photos of President Bush (at least, not that I know of) but because Disney profits help keep the government running.
You mean, they keep election campaigns running. That cash never touches the treasury. Can you really be this dense?
is when they state that this is a justification for violating others' rights.
Like my rights to not have to tolerate eternal copyright? I'll gladly trade files of steamboat willy all day, it's in the public domain, corrupt congressional acts notwithstanding.
Early home computer software becomes public domain in the next 2 years (and I make copies of it now, because it may not survive much longer if I don't). Want to sic the FBI on me?
Like in this article?
But please go on. I could read your bullshit all night and into the morning, and never grow tired of it.
This sir, is why we need to coronate you as King Vegeta SSJ4.
There's a droid named OS2V4 also. But I think he was cut from the film, primarily because the voice acting was done by Wil Wheaton...
Can't even say this about the Xbox, while there are many that love it, they actually only love the exclusive games for it. Those games, well, they're exclusive because of Microsoft's esteemed business practices...
You have the names mixed up. It's Emperor Bilgatine and Darth Mcbride.
RMS is the wookie (mostly because he won't need a costume).
Heh. Me too.
Started reading the book when I was 12, got bored and didn't finish more than 20 pages. Just the flashbacks part. It was some pulp horror/mystery novel.
Starts with jews in a concentration camp in Poland, the soldiers ride up to it, only to find that the jews had freed themselves days before. The few bodies of the SS they find, all are battered to death, with gray clay all over them. Fast forward to New York present day, where some gangbangers who had killed some jewish child but gotten away with it. The father has a rock-solid alibi, and again, the gangbangers have gray clay all over them.
Two years later, I finally learned enough to recognize the mythology behind it, but even before that it stuck out in my mind as something I might have preferred to finish.
Now, a basic keyword search, even if I could remember specific phrases wouldn't be enough for this one. But knowing Google, the search engine will be pretty clever, and I might have a chance of pulling this one out in the first dozen results pages or so.
And to think (while my example is pretty dumb), that the power of such searches would be restricted by shortsighted whining like this is a farce. Hell, I don't have to read that book online, just being able to retrieve it's title and author would be a boon.
If it's already working on firefox, why bother with IE? Just make sure it's working for safari and opera and be done with it.
Yeh, not to mention that QE has promising anonymity aspects. With wormholes, you might be forced to know the location you want to send the information.
Even so, every time I mention QE here, someone pipes in and tells me I'm an ass, that it can never be used to transmit information. I don't know if I believe that or not.
So we only send tiny things through it, say xrays at the speed of light. Still seems like a nifty way to communicate FTL.