When a company starts scrambling for other business it's a sign that they are on the way down.
Yeah, kinda like how Apple moved into the music biz with the iPod and ITMS, 'cause they've been dying for, what, 10 years now? And how exactly is Dells' attempts to break into a niche market a sign that their consumer products are going the way of the dinosaurs? Didn't they dominate the market last quarter? Now, to be sure, your comment is true for certain businesses, like Gateway, but I doubt that it applies to Dell. MS is also going after 'other business'. Are they 'on the way down', references to Hell aside?
I agree. I let iTunes organize my music, but I don't download it to the music folder. One way to get around this is to put the song(s) where you want them, then double-click to get them to play. iTunes will then find them. Crappy solution, I know, but there it is. Seems like an AppleScript that checks the date, or maybe checks your iTunes music list against your music directory. Another thing might be a folder action; every time something is added to your music folder, iTunes launches and adds it to its' list.
Actually, I'm not forgetting. I don't own any G4s; both my in-use Macs are G3 (iMac DV 400 and PB Wallstreet 300). But many production suites use it, such as the Adobe and Macromedia apps. And lets not forget the games. They would need some serious recoding as well. Macs aren't about 'faster', per se. They're about 'smarter'. The PPC architecture, what teensy bit I understand about it, isn't about clock speed, but rather ops per clock. And Velocity Engine can provide a major boost in this area. Assembly optimizations would all have to be rewritten. Remember the hoopla surrounding the release of OS X, and how major apps such as Photoshop took a while to be rewritten? And this was with the help of the Carbon API, andf the '90%' compatibility. How much work would it take to rewrite Photoshop to take advantage of a new set of APIs for the x86 architecture? Naw, We'll never see OS X on Intel. I think it far more likely that Apple will begin supporting Linux on x86 and license OS X out for G4 PPC clones, once their product line is solidly G5 and beyond. They're already collaborating with HP in regards to the iPod; how do you think OS X would be perceived by the public should HP start offering low-cost G4 boxes?
and Apple had to settle out of court with MS in exchange for a cash infusion.
Sorry, but you are quite wrong. The $150 mil MS paid had nothing to do with 'bailing' out Apple, but rather was a final step in the on-going GUI lawsuit. The agreement also provided for 5 years of MS Office for Mac dev, which allowed MS to say that they were supporting alternative OSes. Start here, and google for more, if need be.
For $200, Fry's sells 1.8 GHz intel boxes with Linspire. If you have a monitor already, that's a heck of a lot cheaper than $800.
And if you don't have a monitor? Remember, the eMac uses a flat CRT. Also, how much for the software that provides the functionality of iLife? And how about the warranty? Not that Apple doesn't stroke you for the extended warranty, but at least you get a year for free.
It's all of it. It's the battery life, the ease-of-use, the style. I use my iPod just about every day. It's a 3G 20GB, got in last February for my b-day. I get about 7 hours battery life, but I tend hit the HDD a bit. I don't have any playlists, I listen to albums at a time. My cell phone, however, goes dead after about 60 minutes of use. Esto no es bueno. My cell phone also happens to have a pretty good UI. This is not true of my wifes', or my brothers', or most that I've seen. I also looked at an iRiver the other day, and was not at all impressed. Didn't like the buttons, didn't like the UI, didn't like shape or feel of the device. The iPod just looks and feels natural. Can't really explain it any other way. Why would I want my music or data on my cell-phone? My cell comes out a lot more than my iPod, so there is a far greater chance, proven I might add, that I will drop it. And it's about the only stylish thing about me.
70ns is a response time, which is a physical characteristic of the memory. It cannot be altered through software any more than the size die your cpu was punched with.
Um, I believe what the parent meant was that the SIMMs ran at 70ns, which was faster than the on-board RAM. Not that there was some trick to make the RAM access time faster.
What about those kiosk at malls that sell just 'As seen on TV...' stuff.:) I remember having an alkaline battery charger. It gave me about 5 minutes of power back, and a leaking battery about two days later ruining whatever device it was in.
There are 2 types of these outfits - 'As seen on tv' and 'Like seen on tv'. The 'As seen...' should be an item that has actually been advertised on tv, the 'Like seen...' is going to be an imatation of an 'As seen...' product. Regarding the alkaline battery charger, someone correct me, but doesn't an alkaline battery use acid to corrode a piece of metal inside the battery to produce the chemical reaction needed to produce electricity? How can you expect to recharge something that doesn't hold a charge, but rather creates one? That'd be like expecting to be able to fill your gas tank by plugging it in to the wall. Not that you couldn't try, mind you. Knock yourself out.
OS X runs on x86. They arn't selling it, but it exists.
Yeah, I know. And it will almost certainly never be released. As I understand it, the project is/was a fallback position, as it were, should Apple need it. However, with IBM now in the picture, I think that the future is set. Sure, there have been problems with the G5 and moving to 90nm, but from what I've read it seems that these issues are industry-wide. We'll see PPC clones. The software to make them a viable alternative to MS needs to be ready, however. Test it on the faithful for a few years, work the bugs out, before releasing it on the masses. That, my friend, is what's happening during step '???'. Let me tell you a bit more about my dream. How else Apple could distiguish itself. Take the iMac. It's been EOL'd, and a new one is on the horizon. Personally, I hope that the form factor doesn't get changed all that much. What I would like to see is the flat-panel monitor become detachable, slap one or two low-power G4s in it (400 or 500 MHz, no fan), and make the G5 base a, well, digital hub. 82.11g wireless for communications, to be later replaced by wireless FW. The monitor is essentially it's own tablet PC, communicates wirelessly with the hub, it could be easily reattached and used like a regular computer. Make peripheral devices for your t.v. and stereo (hmm... already got AirPort Express...) that could record or play back via wireless stream from the base. Suddenly, Apple has a unique offering for hardware, and cheap PPC clones would be possible. "But Apple licensed it's OS in the 80's and it almost killed them blah blah blah..." And what did they offer back then that set them apart from the clones? Better hardware? No. Killer software? No. Anything at all? No, not really. This time around, it would be different. So long as Apple could profit from software as well as hardware, licensing OS X makes sense.
Jobs is slowly but surely killing the Mac. Oh, yes, Apple is doing fine, and will continue to do so. Selling iPods and other consumer electronics, not computers.
Maybe. But do they need to continiue with the hardware-as-profit model? I think that Steve is positioning the company to license clones once again. Gotta get the Apple line moved to the G5 and beyond, and then they can allow others to make G4 clones and still have the means to distinguish their own computers. They are doing it with the iPod and HP; I wouldn't be surprised to see HP also announce a low-end G4 PPC machine with OS X. "But then Apple would have to support different chipsets, yadda yadda yadda..." No they wouldn't. They could set a spec, and if you wanted to sell OS X machines you had to use certain approved chipsets, grapihics cards, and the like. I would like to see Apple work closer with Linux as well. Some people think that Apple should release OS X for Intel. Why should they? Release Quartz for Linux, and start pushing software. Who else would like to see iLife for Linux? Help make Linux the x86 alternative, while working with vendors to make PPC clones that run OS X. I can dream, can't I?
The Bagdad is great. There is also a small community theater in Forest Grove, can't remember the name of off the top of my head, but I think the MAX line runs close to it. There used to be one on TV Highway at 185th, but I think it's closed now. Not sure, you might want to drive by. For other low-cost family-friendly activities in P-land, might I suggest a family pass to the zoo? They used to have concerts during the week in the outdoor ampitheater (next to the elephant house); when I lived there I used to go catch the blues on Tuesday and folk on Wednesday, usually very good shows. Shows are free with the pass, otherwise they cost. They also used to have free concerts in the Washington Park Rose Garden, don't know if they still do. Tell ya what, next time I pass through I'll buy you and your wife a night out at the movies. Least I can do for a fellow web-foot.
Might I suggest old 'neighborhood' theaters? I just moved (back) to Spokane, WA, and just up the street from me is a cool old theater known as the Garland. All shows $2.50, every show different so there is variety, with one free show every day. The free movie changes every week, and it's always kid-oriented, and one or two of the others change as well. Not sure what other movies are playing, but the last of the day, at 9:30p, is 'Hellboy'. Not a bad alternative to big theater, especially when you consider that its got AC:-)
You're right. Nothing but a press release dated early January, and iTunes as mentioned in said release appearing on HPs' desktops as promised. They said summer, which started 2 weeks ago on the solstice, so maybe we should give 'em a little more time to make good before crying 'foul'.
OS X will never, never, never run on any hardware that Apple has not produced
I disagree. I think that Apple is positioning itself to once again license its' software to other companies, but is waiting for something with which to differentiate its hardware - the G5 and G6. I think we'll eventually see G4s for starters in 'commodity' hardware, maybe lower clock G5s once the G6 appears. Apple will continue to produce higher clock machines in classy-yet-practical cases. Not a chance, you say? Perhaps. But what chance was there that we'd ever see an HP-branded iPod? The times, they are a-changin'.
'Ditto' will also do it, you one feels up to the command line. Ditto is a tool developed by Apple to replace cp, which doesn't know about certain Apple attributes, such as resource forks. It also allows for permissions to be retained.
My convention uses the form that the standard library functions use, or at least thats what I think I'm doing. Take strcpy( char * arg_1, char * arg_2 ); the first argument gets set to the second argument. Visually, one can see this relationship, even though there is no '='. Same for me. Whatever the class attribute is, the corresponding functions are named the same, only capitalized. To access an attribute, you ask for it by name. To set an attribute you again ask for it by name, only you give as it's agument whatever you wish to set it to. Does this make sense? I'm out of coffee, and my caffeine levels are dangerously low this morning.
Contrast this to the PB 667 with 1GB RAM I had less than *2* years ago that was so slow running 10.3 I eventually sold it in disgust.
Let me know next time. I'm looking to replace my circa 1998 PowerBook G3 - 300MHz, 320MB, original 8GB HDD, OS X.3.4 via XPostFacto, loaded to the hilt with Fink, dev tools, Office vX, Virtual PC 6, and more. There is some lag during some tasks, and when I boot into OS 9 I'm reminded how much of a performance hit OS X incurs, but it's gotten faster with each OS upgrade.
Only for an apple product would the fans care more about how pretty it looked, rather than how fast it ran. Not saying it isn't fast, but why all the fuss over pictures?
Right, because I've noticed a serious lag between when I make a keystroke and when it appears onscreen. Computers are no longer a luxury, they are a commodity. And once something becomes a commodity, appearance becomes important. Mankind is vain. Besides, speed is irrelevant. Computational ability is much more important. To use the beaten-to-death car anology, I have a 6-cylinder Explorer, my brother has a 6-cylinder Dodge Cummins diesel. His Dodge runs at almost 1/3 less RPMs, yet has significantly more towing ability. The speed masters themselves at Intel have begun de-stressing MHz with their Pentium M proc. What matters is how well the computer does what you need it to do, not how fast and hot the proc runs, unless thats what you need. Me, I'm typing this on a 6-yr-old powerbook. Do I want the latest and greatest? Hell yes! But in the meantime I'll still get done what I need on this ol' workhorse.
(tig)
Re:Definately a bad choice on the part of the devs
on
A New Look For Firefox
·
· Score: 1
...and a terrible first impression for new users who are coming off of IE.
Somewhere along the South Jersey Shore...
We are preparing for the inevitable; the day when OS X dominates the desktop! Only 97% to go! BWAHAHAHAHA!
Slashdot Mirror
I think it's time to blow this scene
Get everybody and their stuff together
Ok, 3..2..1
Lets jam
(tig)
Yeah, kinda like how Apple moved into the music biz with the iPod and ITMS, 'cause they've been dying for, what, 10 years now?
And how exactly is Dells' attempts to break into a niche market a sign that their consumer products are going the way of the dinosaurs? Didn't they dominate the market last quarter?
Now, to be sure, your comment is true for certain businesses, like Gateway, but I doubt that it applies to Dell. MS is also going after 'other business'. Are they 'on the way down', references to Hell aside?
(tig)
I agree. I let iTunes organize my music, but I don't download it to the music folder. One way to get around this is to put the song(s) where you want them, then double-click to get them to play. iTunes will then find them. Crappy solution, I know, but there it is. Seems like an AppleScript that checks the date, or maybe checks your iTunes music list against your music directory. Another thing might be a folder action; every time something is added to your music folder, iTunes launches and adds it to its' list.
(tig)
Actually, I'm not forgetting. I don't own any G4s; both my in-use Macs are G3 (iMac DV 400 and PB Wallstreet 300). But many production suites use it, such as the Adobe and Macromedia apps. And lets not forget the games. They would need some serious recoding as well.
Macs aren't about 'faster', per se. They're about 'smarter'. The PPC architecture, what teensy bit I understand about it, isn't about clock speed, but rather ops per clock. And Velocity Engine can provide a major boost in this area. Assembly optimizations would all have to be rewritten. Remember the hoopla surrounding the release of OS X, and how major apps such as Photoshop took a while to be rewritten? And this was with the help of the Carbon API, andf the '90%' compatibility. How much work would it take to rewrite Photoshop to take advantage of a new set of APIs for the x86 architecture?
Naw, We'll never see OS X on Intel. I think it far more likely that Apple will begin supporting Linux on x86 and license OS X out for G4 PPC clones, once their product line is solidly G5 and beyond. They're already collaborating with HP in regards to the iPod; how do you think OS X would be perceived by the public should HP start offering low-cost G4 boxes?
(tig)
That, and a little thingy called 'Velocity Engine'. Oh, and that endian stuff. Trivial, I'm sure...
(tig)
Sorry, but you are quite wrong. The $150 mil MS paid had nothing to do with 'bailing' out Apple, but rather was a final step in the on-going GUI lawsuit. The agreement also provided for 5 years of MS Office for Mac dev, which allowed MS to say that they were supporting alternative OSes.
Start here, and google for more, if need be.
(tig)
And if you don't have a monitor? Remember, the eMac uses a flat CRT. Also, how much for the software that provides the functionality of iLife? And how about the warranty? Not that Apple doesn't stroke you for the extended warranty, but at least you get a year for free.
(tig)
It's all of it.
It's the battery life, the ease-of-use, the style.
I use my iPod just about every day. It's a 3G 20GB, got in last February for my b-day. I get about 7 hours battery life, but I tend hit the HDD a bit. I don't have any playlists, I listen to albums at a time. My cell phone, however, goes dead after about 60 minutes of use. Esto no es bueno.
My cell phone also happens to have a pretty good UI. This is not true of my wifes', or my brothers', or most that I've seen. I also looked at an iRiver the other day, and was not at all impressed. Didn't like the buttons, didn't like the UI, didn't like shape or feel of the device. The iPod just looks and feels natural. Can't really explain it any other way.
Why would I want my music or data on my cell-phone? My cell comes out a lot more than my iPod, so there is a far greater chance, proven I might add, that I will drop it.
And it's about the only stylish thing about me.
(tig)
Um, I believe what the parent meant was that the SIMMs ran at 70ns, which was faster than the on-board RAM. Not that there was some trick to make the RAM access time faster.
(tig)
There are 2 types of these outfits - 'As seen on tv' and 'Like seen on tv'. The 'As seen...' should be an item that has actually been advertised on tv, the 'Like seen...' is going to be an imatation of an 'As seen...' product.
Regarding the alkaline battery charger, someone correct me, but doesn't an alkaline battery use acid to corrode a piece of metal inside the battery to produce the chemical reaction needed to produce electricity? How can you expect to recharge something that doesn't hold a charge, but rather creates one? That'd be like expecting to be able to fill your gas tank by plugging it in to the wall. Not that you couldn't try, mind you. Knock yourself out.
(tig)
Yeah, I know. And it will almost certainly never be released. As I understand it, the project is/was a fallback position, as it were, should Apple need it. However, with IBM now in the picture, I think that the future is set. Sure, there have been problems with the G5 and moving to 90nm, but from what I've read it seems that these issues are industry-wide. We'll see PPC clones. The software to make them a viable alternative to MS needs to be ready, however. Test it on the faithful for a few years, work the bugs out, before releasing it on the masses. That, my friend, is what's happening during step '???'.
Let me tell you a bit more about my dream. How else Apple could distiguish itself. Take the iMac. It's been EOL'd, and a new one is on the horizon. Personally, I hope that the form factor doesn't get changed all that much. What I would like to see is the flat-panel monitor become detachable, slap one or two low-power G4s in it (400 or 500 MHz, no fan), and make the G5 base a, well, digital hub. 82.11g wireless for communications, to be later replaced by wireless FW. The monitor is essentially it's own tablet PC, communicates wirelessly with the hub, it could be easily reattached and used like a regular computer. Make peripheral devices for your t.v. and stereo (hmm... already got AirPort Express...) that could record or play back via wireless stream from the base. Suddenly, Apple has a unique offering for hardware, and cheap PPC clones would be possible.
"But Apple licensed it's OS in the 80's and it almost killed them blah blah blah..." And what did they offer back then that set them apart from the clones? Better hardware? No. Killer software? No. Anything at all? No, not really. This time around, it would be different. So long as Apple could profit from software as well as hardware, licensing OS X makes sense.
(tig)
Maybe. But do they need to continiue with the hardware-as-profit model? I think that Steve is positioning the company to license clones once again. Gotta get the Apple line moved to the G5 and beyond, and then they can allow others to make G4 clones and still have the means to distinguish their own computers. They are doing it with the iPod and HP; I wouldn't be surprised to see HP also announce a low-end G4 PPC machine with OS X.
"But then Apple would have to support different chipsets, yadda yadda yadda..." No they wouldn't. They could set a spec, and if you wanted to sell OS X machines you had to use certain approved chipsets, grapihics cards, and the like.
I would like to see Apple work closer with Linux as well. Some people think that Apple should release OS X for Intel. Why should they? Release Quartz for Linux, and start pushing software. Who else would like to see iLife for Linux? Help make Linux the x86 alternative, while working with vendors to make PPC clones that run OS X.
I can dream, can't I?
(tig)
The Bagdad is great. There is also a small community theater in Forest Grove, can't remember the name of off the top of my head, but I think the MAX line runs close to it. There used to be one on TV Highway at 185th, but I think it's closed now. Not sure, you might want to drive by.
For other low-cost family-friendly activities in P-land, might I suggest a family pass to the zoo? They used to have concerts during the week in the outdoor ampitheater (next to the elephant house); when I lived there I used to go catch the blues on Tuesday and folk on Wednesday, usually very good shows. Shows are free with the pass, otherwise they cost. They also used to have free concerts in the Washington Park Rose Garden, don't know if they still do.
Tell ya what, next time I pass through I'll buy you and your wife a night out at the movies. Least I can do for a fellow web-foot.
Might I suggest old 'neighborhood' theaters? I just moved (back) to Spokane, WA, and just up the street from me is a cool old theater known as the Garland. All shows $2.50, every show different so there is variety, with one free show every day. The free movie changes every week, and it's always kid-oriented, and one or two of the others change as well. Not sure what other movies are playing, but the last of the day, at 9:30p, is 'Hellboy'. Not a bad alternative to big theater, especially when you consider that its got AC :-)
(tig)
You're right. Nothing but a press release dated early January, and iTunes as mentioned in said release appearing on HPs' desktops as promised.
They said summer, which started 2 weeks ago on the solstice, so maybe we should give 'em a little more time to make good before crying 'foul'.
(tig)
I disagree. I think that Apple is positioning itself to once again license its' software to other companies, but is waiting for something with which to differentiate its hardware - the G5 and G6. I think we'll eventually see G4s for starters in 'commodity' hardware, maybe lower clock G5s once the G6 appears. Apple will continue to produce higher clock machines in classy-yet-practical cases.
Not a chance, you say? Perhaps. But what chance was there that we'd ever see an HP-branded iPod?
The times, they are a-changin'.
(tig)
...is someone to release a car stereo that takes an iPod like a cassette, and allows access to the music through the stereo interface.
(tig)
Why? There are alternatives, ya know.
Just curious.
(tig)
'Ditto' will also do it, you one feels up to the command line. Ditto is a tool developed by Apple to replace cp, which doesn't know about certain Apple attributes, such as resource forks. It also allows for permissions to be retained.
(tig)
1) I'm a bit of a noob and
2) using 'get...' and 'set...' adds typing. Trivial, yes, but there it is.
To me, it's just as intuitive to useas opposed toMy convention uses the form that the standard library functions use, or at least thats what I think I'm doing. Take strcpy( char * arg_1, char * arg_2 ); the first argument gets set to the second argument. Visually, one can see this relationship, even though there is no '='. Same for me. Whatever the class attribute is, the corresponding functions are named the same, only capitalized. To access an attribute, you ask for it by name. To set an attribute you again ask for it by name, only you give as it's agument whatever you wish to set it to.
Does this make sense? I'm out of coffee, and my caffeine levels are dangerously low this morning.
(tig)
Let me know next time. I'm looking to replace my circa 1998 PowerBook G3 - 300MHz, 320MB, original 8GB HDD, OS X.3.4 via XPostFacto, loaded to the hilt with Fink, dev tools, Office vX, Virtual PC 6, and more.
There is some lag during some tasks, and when I boot into OS 9 I'm reminded how much of a performance hit OS X incurs, but it's gotten faster with each OS upgrade.
(tig)
Nice sig.
(tig)
You sure 'bout that?
(tig)
Right, because I've noticed a serious lag between when I make a keystroke and when it appears onscreen.
Computers are no longer a luxury, they are a commodity. And once something becomes a commodity, appearance becomes important. Mankind is vain.
Besides, speed is irrelevant. Computational ability is much more important. To use the beaten-to-death car anology, I have a 6-cylinder Explorer, my brother has a 6-cylinder Dodge Cummins diesel. His Dodge runs at almost 1/3 less RPMs, yet has significantly more towing ability.
The speed masters themselves at Intel have begun de-stressing MHz with their Pentium M proc.
What matters is how well the computer does what you need it to do, not how fast and hot the proc runs, unless thats what you need.
Me, I'm typing this on a 6-yr-old powerbook. Do I want the latest and greatest? Hell yes! But in the meantime I'll still get done what I need on this ol' workhorse.
(tig)
Somewhere along the South Jersey Shore...
We are preparing for the inevitable; the day when OS X dominates the desktop!
Only 97% to go!
BWAHAHAHAHA!
(tig)