For games I have my ps2, and my fastest box is this laptop a P4-2000m so I have been I thinking about what I should do for a workstation.
I do a PS2 + Mac myself. The way I figure it, the overlap on those two particular machines, game-wise, is a fantastic match.
Consider: we have watched the consoles eat a significant portion of the once-dominant PC game market. Consoles are custom game machines, that enjoy even better mass market economics than PCs, that have no compatibility problems or patches to speak of, and are usually the same approximate cost as the video card alone would be for the PC.
Most kinds of games work better on a console, especially with the console controller. There are two exceptions to this: 3rd-person shooters, which anyone half-serious knows you must use a mouse for; and Real Time Strategy games like WarCraft 3, which need the mouse and the keyboard... usually a multibutton mouse too.
The Mac gets almost all the big 3rd-person shooters ported (Quake3, Wolfenstein, Medal of Honor, etc), as well as many of the RTS games (WC3, Age of Whatevers, etc).
So a Mac + PS2 provides a pretty vast array of gaming. Not quite as vast as a PC of course, but if you want OS X the rest of the time...
This is not about you being able to control what happens to your content (as implied in the article by that bleeding heart story about the woman who sent embarassing material to her irresponsible boyfriend). No, this is about Microsoft controlling what you do on your computer with software that you own. It is also about the government being able to monitor your communication.
A round of applause for Mr. Tin Foil Hat, ladies and gentlemen!
Isn't he great? He's here until Thursday.
Agreed... When I add in the cost of my cellphone/pda ($400) with the cost of my SIG 223 9mm auto with hollowpoints and pre-ban 13+1 clip ($750) I shudder at the thought of getting mugged.
Who said anything about getting mugged? I'm worried about just dropping the damn thing(s).
Anyone else starting to get nervous about carting around all this expensive stuff?
On the subway the other day I did a little monetary tally of what I carry around usually.. it adds up quick! Just between my iPod and my phone its almost $1k. I find I have to be extra-careful whenever putting my phone in my pocket, as just dropping the bloody thing would require a 2nd mortgage...
If I add anymore expensive devices, I'm not gonna need a fancy case for the phone, I'm gonna need a fancy case for me.
Does anyone else get the impression that, had Microsoft just kept its (corporate) mouth shut, we'd be debating the relative mertis and drawbacks of iTMS on an even field?...
.. as opposed to, say, noticing that MS is being petulant, thus causing all the geeks to rise up and slap them down, saying how much better iTMS is than anything MS has put their stamp on?
All for using Firebird. News flash: Microsoft browser monopoly too restrictive. Asses.
An excellent point, n0wak.
I questioned Apple's decision to do the 'browser within iTunes' thing, but frankly I see now that this is the only way to do it. No compatibility problems, less easy to hack, and the tunes you buy land where you want them.. in your player.
(Although, raise of hands, all of you who went looking for the 'iTunes web site' like I did when they launched a few months ago...)
Granted, Apple Music downloads are useless to anyone without iTunes (on Windows or Mac) or an iPod. Until I can play them in linux, they're useless to me. And don't tell me to burn everything to a CD and then rip it. Apple Music is also useless if you want to listen on a non-apple portable. Once again, Apple has chosen to support "everyone" by offering a choice of proprietary systems, rather than a single open system. "Windows or Mac" is just as bad as "Mac only" or "Windows only".
You have a good point... but lets not forget that this is a new addition to the musical arena. Nothing has 'gone away'. iTunes is just another option. For a lot of people the service isn't good enough quality (lossy AAC compression at a medium bitrate)... but as Apple seems to have proven, for the vast majority, its a very attractive service.
At the end of the day, if you don't want to use iTMS, or buy an iPod, Apple has still offered something compelling: a free jukebox player that is very powerful... even if you buy no songs or hardware. Rip your own CDs to MP3 or AAC, and burn them all you like, for free. Even WMP won't let you do that for free.
I was a little surprised that they didn't charge a nominal fee for PC iTunes, but now I think that move was very astute.
iTunes may not be everyone's bag but it certainly raises the bar in terms of interface design, and provides a kick in the ass to other developers. To me, that's choice. I have more musical choices under Windows than I did a week ago.
The thing I find interesting is the loss-leader aspect of iTMS. Apple has said they make very little money from the service, What hope can dedicated services like Napster have, if Apple can offer high quality (well, Big 5) content in a premium service, and subsidize that service with iPod sales? Technically the iTMS doesn't even need to be a runaway success for Apple...
MS Chrome is a defunct project that has nothing to do with anything in OS X, as far as I can tell. You can't even Google for 'MS Chrome project' anymore and tell what it used to be. So I'll bite: to what aspects are you referring?
Unless Apple decides to make radical changes to their service model RESISTANCE IS FUTILE, a Windows-based version of iTunes will still remain a closed TO US system, where DAMNABLE iPod owners cannot access content from OUR other FLAGGING services," said Fester. "Additionally, users of THE INTERLOPER iTunes are limited to music from Apple's DAMNABLE Music Store... this is a drawback for Windows PROFITS users, who expect NO choice in music services, choice in devices, and NO choice in music from a MILLIMETER- wide-variety of music services to burn to a CD or put on a portable device AND DEFINITELY NOT ON AN IPOD. Lastly, if you use Apple's DAMNABLE music store along with THE INTERLOPER iTunes, you don't have the ability of PAYING FOR using the over 40 different Windows Media-compatible portable music devices. When I'm paying for music, BY WHICH OF COURSE I MEAN RENTING MY MUSIC IN A KIND OF MUTANT PSEUDO-LICENSE SITUATION, I want to know that I have choices MADE FOR ME today and in the future." END OF TRANSMISSION.
What's more, one thing I strongly believe is that computers destroy what makes kids kids : the ability to imagine and dream. Computers and televisions presents them with pre-chewed images that prevents them from developing their imagination, and pretty much turns a lot of them into passive technology consumers. The last thing we need is that crap to pervade into schools.
I'm sorry; that's horseshit.
While you may decry the state of television programming, or the rampant amount of porn on the net, these arguments do not change the fact that television and the Internet are just containers for content. Any content. That includes all the imagination and dreaming you want.
I mean, what is a book but a petty distraction from the myriad sensory delights available to you in the world, right? Sheesh.
Or do what I do. Just get TweakUI and prevent autorun for CDs to begin with. It is quite useful when you don't want your new game or whatever to autorun its installer when you put the disc in.
That's a great suggestion, but I gotta ask - is there seriously no other way to disable 'autorun' on Windows? (I'm in front of a Mac right now so I can't try it). That's kind of amazing if you really do need a 3rd party thingummy to turn it off.
A side note - I've been working on a CDROM project that called for a cross-platform 'autorunning' disc. As it turns out, on the Mac side, this was only do-able under OS 9, and only then if you hadn't turned the feature off... under OS X there is no autostart function whatsoever. Which is probably a good thing really.
People, this is an absolutely unconvincing, entirely uninsightful article.
Yeah I agree.. the author wasn't particularly interested in scienti -
The G5 may be great, but all this article leads me to believe is that Apple users are about as detached from reality as a PC gam3r d00d pissing on about how Quake 3 runs at 178 instead of 172 FPS on their $2000 penis extension.
.. oh, ok, you're one of those. Of course the author of this crap review speaks for all Mac users everywhere. Of course this proves your point, once and for all. You are a deductive God, sir, and I tip my hat to you, as you'll surely be needing it for your ass.
I've had one for a few days now. Extraordinarily responsive. I used a firewire cable to connect my powerbook to it via "target disk mode." I started a huge copy, like 30 GB or so.
Yeah, but if you tried to specifically copy a 17 MB folder from a server, then you would have been really screwed.
Before we all freak out - once again - about the comparisons of G5 vs. whatever, may I offer a suggestion:
Let's all take a nice deep breath, and remember that this is simply yet another offering, in a huge selection of products; that these products are different in many ways, for many people; that purchasing one or more of these products is not indicative of your mental health, penis size, sexual orientation, or anything else... okey?
G5 fast, mmm, nice G5. Athlon also fast, mmm, nice Athlon. I want both, for different reasons. They are not mutually exclusive.
(As for all the 'so fuckin' what' posts; this is Slashdot. No one made you click More.)
I realise the ad probably has to be designed to it can be shown everywhere from Salt Lake City to Singapore, but, jeez, if you want to make your brand cool try not to associate it with complete dorks...:)
You've hit the nail on the head. MS wants to be every image at some point or another. Big Reliable Bank Partner. No wait... SupaDope Xbox playa. No wait... Your Friendly Neighbourhood PC weenie. No wait....
They can't have it all ways. As someone pointed out above, while Microsoft can rent cool, they can never, ever be cool. Its just not the way it works.
Like trying to pick your own nickname. Apple became cool years ago and that's what they are still. MS, much more powerful financially, cannot claim underdog status, and no one in their right mind can associate themselves with a global behemoth like that.
Looking at the spec of the new Palm machines (and noting that they are finally in Newton territory), a thought struck me: these are the machines we should give to kids in grade school. Forget laptops.
The processor has some oomph, there are multimedia capabilities, there is wireless; you don't need a hard drive. Install a nice object-oriented developer package and let them learn early programming on the Palm. The lack of hard drive makes it tougher, and cheaper to replace all-around. Take assignments on SD cards (or whatever). Imagine kids scribbling their coding assignments into Palms on the bus.
When I think about it, I find it surprising no one has implemented such a program... can't think of any immediate downsides.
Now how am I supposed to reply to something like that? I suppose you think Vi is the ultimate interface? If you don't think the desktop GUI is 'a good thing' for most people in general... well, you just go on thinking that. I'm sure I won't sway you.
And just what's wrong with Garth Brooks? I'm no huge country-pop fan, but that's just elitist snobbery.
You said there was something wrong. I was very careful not to compare the two. Go read my post again. They're just different entities serving different audiences.
Dell isn't in a position to be innovative. Their purpose it to push basically pre-made SKUs out the door after making sure they pass some basic manufacturing tests. They have made their success by being the finest spare parts distributors in the PC wold.
Who put them in that position?
When the last time NAPA was innovative? Pep Boys? Right. Never. Dell holds a similar position in the PC world. There is NOTHING wrong with that.
I know there's nothing wrong with that per se, from a business perspective. I just said that there's better consumer stuff. Here's what I wrote:
Dell doesn't do any meaningful work. They just box 'em up and ship 'em out. That's fine, there's a need for that, and its in a million corporate office farms. For good consumer stuff you can do much better.
I was simply postulating that business 'innovation' is not the same as furthering the state of the art in computing itself.
Anyhow, here's the real spin here: Apple fucked up, and now they're going to pay.
I'd agree with you were it not for the fact that the Apple service is weeks, not months, away... and the timeframe will be so close that it's moot from a marketing perspective. So I don't think they've fucked up quite yet.
You know, if you bought EXXON stock and APPLE stock when apple went public back in 1982, you'd be WAY AHEAD with EXXON!
I don't need to look at your referenced chart. I'm sure that Exxon has some stratospheric numbers, like a lot of oil companies.
What I'm curious about is your idea of 'success'. The idea of 'success' in Dell's culture as well, for that matter.
I hear Michael Dell talk in interviews about the state of the industry and his predictions. What immediately strikes me is the fact that his comments are 100% economic. That is to say, all he talks about is where the money is going, essentially. He never talks about actually doing something good. You know, advancing the state of things? Never. Just money.
So whether you think Apple is successful or not entirely depends on your worldview of success. I would submit that Apple is one of the most successful companies of all time.
I base this not entirely on financial performance, but rather, a combination of fiscal prowess and the quality and impact of the things Apple has brought into the world. At the end of the day, what really matters in this kind of industry is the work you've done, right?
I mean, if you really go back to the list, the list of things they've introduced to the mainstream is just staggering. The first mainstream PC. First mainstream mouse. Laser printer. Desktop GUI. Multimedia, in large part. It goes on. Of course Apple is also the crazy artist of the industry. They produce brilliant things but can be absolutely taciturn and overly sensitive and stubborn and... well you get the point. Apple is to Peter Gabriel what Michael Dell is to Garth Brooks. Or something like that.
Dell doesn't do any meaningful work. They just box 'em up and ship 'em out. That's fine, there's a need for that, and its in a million corporate office farms. For good consumer stuff you can do much better. And when you ask Michael Dell about innovation he thinks that means branching out into areas others have been successful in already. He would, I suspect, look at you blankly if you suggested that he was copying Apple; he'd say it was just 'industry trade winds' he was following.
Success is not just how much money you make - you can't measure it that way. It's a quality thing.
This will probably be one of those 'hey this is my personal favourite app' posts.. ok, it is... but before you scroll away, just take a quick peek at this app: Mellel. (Warning: those of you who hate brushed metal will cringe at first. I humbly submit that this is Metal Done Right(TM).)
It's gorgeous, functional, truly multilingual, and rocks my world. It looks like bloody iTunes, which sounds wacky, but actually works astoundingly well. And its $25.
However, I take my writing apps very seriously. For most of my (Mac) friends, I say use TextEdit. It is truly MacWrite reincarnated. Totally dead simple, but with the features you actually need: spell check, ligatures, smart quotes, a tab ruler, Find + Replace, and not a whole hell of a lot else. Oh, well one other thing: the Panther version reads Word docs.
Slashdot Mirror
I do a PS2 + Mac myself. The way I figure it, the overlap on those two particular machines, game-wise, is a fantastic match.
Consider: we have watched the consoles eat a significant portion of the once-dominant PC game market. Consoles are custom game machines, that enjoy even better mass market economics than PCs, that have no compatibility problems or patches to speak of, and are usually the same approximate cost as the video card alone would be for the PC.
Most kinds of games work better on a console, especially with the console controller. There are two exceptions to this: 3rd-person shooters, which anyone half-serious knows you must use a mouse for; and Real Time Strategy games like WarCraft 3, which need the mouse and the keyboard... usually a multibutton mouse too.
The Mac gets almost all the big 3rd-person shooters ported (Quake3, Wolfenstein, Medal of Honor, etc), as well as many of the RTS games (WC3, Age of Whatevers, etc).
So a Mac + PS2 provides a pretty vast array of gaming. Not quite as vast as a PC of course, but if you want OS X the rest of the time...
A round of applause for Mr. Tin Foil Hat, ladies and gentlemen!
Isn't he great? He's here until Thursday.
(I kid. BTW, he's right, you know.)
Who said anything about getting mugged? I'm worried about just dropping the damn thing(s).
You Finns are slow.. I'm a Canadian with Home Insurance. :)
On the subway the other day I did a little monetary tally of what I carry around usually.. it adds up quick! Just between my iPod and my phone its almost $1k. I find I have to be extra-careful whenever putting my phone in my pocket, as just dropping the bloody thing would require a 2nd mortgage...
If I add anymore expensive devices, I'm not gonna need a fancy case for the phone, I'm gonna need a fancy case for me.
I think MS does understand open formats.. and thus you have answered your own question. :)
An excellent point, n0wak.
I questioned Apple's decision to do the 'browser within iTunes' thing, but frankly I see now that this is the only way to do it. No compatibility problems, less easy to hack, and the tunes you buy land where you want them.. in your player.
(Although, raise of hands, all of you who went looking for the 'iTunes web site' like I did when they launched a few months ago...)
You have a good point... but lets not forget that this is a new addition to the musical arena. Nothing has 'gone away'. iTunes is just another option. For a lot of people the service isn't good enough quality (lossy AAC compression at a medium bitrate)... but as Apple seems to have proven, for the vast majority, its a very attractive service.
At the end of the day, if you don't want to use iTMS, or buy an iPod, Apple has still offered something compelling: a free jukebox player that is very powerful... even if you buy no songs or hardware. Rip your own CDs to MP3 or AAC, and burn them all you like, for free. Even WMP won't let you do that for free.
I was a little surprised that they didn't charge a nominal fee for PC iTunes, but now I think that move was very astute.
iTunes may not be everyone's bag but it certainly raises the bar in terms of interface design, and provides a kick in the ass to other developers. To me, that's choice. I have more musical choices under Windows than I did a week ago.
The thing I find interesting is the loss-leader aspect of iTMS. Apple has said they make very little money from the service, What hope can dedicated services like Napster have, if Apple can offer high quality (well, Big 5) content in a premium service, and subsidize that service with iPod sales? Technically the iTMS doesn't even need to be a runaway success for Apple...
Well...
I don't know about you, but I was kind of hoping Taco would have a sense of humour and post the iTMS/Windows announcement with the addendum:
'No wireless. Less songs than Kazaa. Lame.' :)
MS Chrome is a defunct project that has nothing to do with anything in OS X, as far as I can tell. You can't even Google for 'MS Chrome project' anymore and tell what it used to be. So I'll bite: to what aspects are you referring?
Unless Apple decides to make radical changes to their service model RESISTANCE IS FUTILE, a Windows-based version of iTunes will still remain a closed TO US system, where DAMNABLE iPod owners cannot access content from OUR other FLAGGING services," said Fester. "Additionally, users of THE INTERLOPER iTunes are limited to music from Apple's DAMNABLE Music Store ... this is a drawback for Windows PROFITS users, who expect NO choice in music services, choice in devices, and NO choice in music from a MILLIMETER- wide-variety of music services to burn to a CD or put on a portable device AND DEFINITELY NOT ON AN IPOD. Lastly, if you use Apple's DAMNABLE music store along with THE INTERLOPER iTunes, you don't have the ability of PAYING FOR using the over 40 different Windows Media-compatible portable music devices. When I'm paying for music, BY WHICH OF COURSE I MEAN RENTING MY MUSIC IN A KIND OF MUTANT PSEUDO-LICENSE SITUATION, I want to know that I have choices MADE FOR ME today and in the future." END OF TRANSMISSION.
I'm sorry; that's horseshit.
While you may decry the state of television programming, or the rampant amount of porn on the net, these arguments do not change the fact that television and the Internet are just containers for content. Any content. That includes all the imagination and dreaming you want.
I mean, what is a book but a petty distraction from the myriad sensory delights available to you in the world, right? Sheesh.
Not just disabled by default, under OS X is just plain disabled. (non-enabled? un-abled?) It's not there.
There's an option to start playing web movies before they're done downloading, but that's it.
That's a great suggestion, but I gotta ask - is there seriously no other way to disable 'autorun' on Windows? (I'm in front of a Mac right now so I can't try it). That's kind of amazing if you really do need a 3rd party thingummy to turn it off.
A side note - I've been working on a CDROM project that called for a cross-platform 'autorunning' disc. As it turns out, on the Mac side, this was only do-able under OS 9, and only then if you hadn't turned the feature off... under OS X there is no autostart function whatsoever. Which is probably a good thing really.
Yeah I agree.. the author wasn't particularly interested in scienti -
The G5 may be great, but all this article leads me to believe is that Apple users are about as detached from reality as a PC gam3r d00d pissing on about how Quake 3 runs at 178 instead of 172 FPS on their $2000 penis extension.
Yeah, but if you tried to specifically copy a 17 MB folder from a server, then you would have been really screwed.
Or so I hear.
Let's all take a nice deep breath, and remember that this is simply yet another offering, in a huge selection of products; that these products are different in many ways, for many people; that purchasing one or more of these products is not indicative of your mental health, penis size, sexual orientation, or anything else... okey?
G5 fast, mmm, nice G5. Athlon also fast, mmm, nice Athlon. I want both, for different reasons. They are not mutually exclusive.
(As for all the 'so fuckin' what' posts; this is Slashdot. No one made you click More.)
You've hit the nail on the head. MS wants to be every image at some point or another. Big Reliable Bank Partner. No wait... SupaDope Xbox playa. No wait... Your Friendly Neighbourhood PC weenie. No wait....
They can't have it all ways. As someone pointed out above, while Microsoft can rent cool, they can never, ever be cool. Its just not the way it works.
Like trying to pick your own nickname. Apple became cool years ago and that's what they are still. MS, much more powerful financially, cannot claim underdog status, and no one in their right mind can associate themselves with a global behemoth like that.
The processor has some oomph, there are multimedia capabilities, there is wireless; you don't need a hard drive. Install a nice object-oriented developer package and let them learn early programming on the Palm. The lack of hard drive makes it tougher, and cheaper to replace all-around. Take assignments on SD cards (or whatever). Imagine kids scribbling their coding assignments into Palms on the bus.
When I think about it, I find it surprising no one has implemented such a program... can't think of any immediate downsides.
Now how am I supposed to reply to something like that? I suppose you think Vi is the ultimate interface? If you don't think the desktop GUI is 'a good thing' for most people in general... well, you just go on thinking that. I'm sure I won't sway you.
And just what's wrong with Garth Brooks? I'm no huge country-pop fan, but that's just elitist snobbery.
You said there was something wrong. I was very careful not to compare the two. Go read my post again. They're just different entities serving different audiences.
Who put them in that position?
When the last time NAPA was innovative? Pep Boys? Right. Never. Dell holds a similar position in the PC world. There is NOTHING wrong with that.
I know there's nothing wrong with that per se, from a business perspective. I just said that there's better consumer stuff. Here's what I wrote:
Dell doesn't do any meaningful work. They just box 'em up and ship 'em out. That's fine, there's a need for that, and its in a million corporate office farms. For good consumer stuff you can do much better.
I was simply postulating that business 'innovation' is not the same as furthering the state of the art in computing itself.
I'd agree with you were it not for the fact that the Apple service is weeks, not months, away... and the timeframe will be so close that it's moot from a marketing perspective. So I don't think they've fucked up quite yet.
I don't need to look at your referenced chart. I'm sure that Exxon has some stratospheric numbers, like a lot of oil companies.
What I'm curious about is your idea of 'success'. The idea of 'success' in Dell's culture as well, for that matter.
I hear Michael Dell talk in interviews about the state of the industry and his predictions. What immediately strikes me is the fact that his comments are 100% economic. That is to say, all he talks about is where the money is going, essentially. He never talks about actually doing something good. You know, advancing the state of things? Never. Just money.
So whether you think Apple is successful or not entirely depends on your worldview of success. I would submit that Apple is one of the most successful companies of all time.
I base this not entirely on financial performance, but rather, a combination of fiscal prowess and the quality and impact of the things Apple has brought into the world. At the end of the day, what really matters in this kind of industry is the work you've done, right?
I mean, if you really go back to the list, the list of things they've introduced to the mainstream is just staggering. The first mainstream PC. First mainstream mouse. Laser printer. Desktop GUI. Multimedia, in large part. It goes on. Of course Apple is also the crazy artist of the industry. They produce brilliant things but can be absolutely taciturn and overly sensitive and stubborn and... well you get the point. Apple is to Peter Gabriel what Michael Dell is to Garth Brooks. Or something like that.
Dell doesn't do any meaningful work. They just box 'em up and ship 'em out. That's fine, there's a need for that, and its in a million corporate office farms. For good consumer stuff you can do much better. And when you ask Michael Dell about innovation he thinks that means branching out into areas others have been successful in already. He would, I suspect, look at you blankly if you suggested that he was copying Apple; he'd say it was just 'industry trade winds' he was following.
Success is not just how much money you make - you can't measure it that way. It's a quality thing.
It's gorgeous, functional, truly multilingual, and rocks my world. It looks like bloody iTunes, which sounds wacky, but actually works astoundingly well. And its $25.
However, I take my writing apps very seriously. For most of my (Mac) friends, I say use TextEdit. It is truly MacWrite reincarnated. Totally dead simple, but with the features you actually need: spell check, ligatures, smart quotes, a tab ruler, Find + Replace, and not a whole hell of a lot else. Oh, well one other thing: the Panther version reads Word docs.