You should not assume that just because someone has bad handwriting they are necessarily lazy. I used to have beautiful handwriting until a Motorcycle accident in my teenage years damaged the tendons in my right hand. While I still have full use of the hand (and very little scaring 20 years later), my handwriting is almost completely illegible.
Also, depending on your career choice, you may not need to write as much as you seem to think in this modern age. For everyone that I work with, typing is faster and superior to hand writing.
Not to say that handwriting is not important. I watch over my son very carefully to insure that he keeps his hand writing skills up to par as he will need them while in College.
As for the primary point of this discussion, my son is just entering his second year of high school. We purchased his first laptop for him while he was in his second year of middle school. Being able to work on his homework at the dinner table while meals are being prepared, in his room late at night or in the living room has been a great asset. He is comfortable working on his laptop and uses it constantly. If he was forced to use a desktop, I do not think the result would have been the same and he would have resisted doing his homework more.
WoW is playable with a single button mouse. I use my Apple Bluetooth mouse to play it all the time. Depending on your keyboard proficiency you can play it with just the trackpad in a Powerbook if so inclined.
Blizzard actually did a decent job of handling Apple's one button design.
The length of the cord on Mac mice wraps perfectly around the back of the iBook and leaves plenty of room to move the mouse around on the right side. It even wraps around the back of my 15" Powerbook with cord to spare. The cord is definitely not too short.
When I used to use a corded logitech mouse on my Powerbook I had to wrap up most of the cord since the thing seemed to be 10 feet long.
Up to four programmable buttons: full-body button with touch-sensitive technology beneath for left-, right- and Scroll Ball clicking. Force-sensing side buttons.
It has plenty of tactile feedback. The full mouse is a single physical button just like their other current mice. The difference on this one is that it can tell where on the body of the mouse you are clicking and respond appropriately. Speaking as an owner of several of Apple's single button "pro" mice (both corded and bluetooth), the tactile feedback is excellent.
Does anyone really believe that they would put a speaker in the mouse? I have heard plenty of crap on/. in my day but come on...
Up to four programmable buttons: full-body button with touch-sensitive technology beneath for left-, right- and Scroll Ball clicking. Force-sensing side buttons.
No speaker. It is a single full body mouse button that can tell where you are clicking.
Although I am also hoping that they create a bluetooth version of this very soon.
Not sure where everyone is getting this "no feedback" from. According to Apple's website:
Touch-sensitive technology under Mighty Mouse's seamless top shell detect where you're clicking
This means that it has the same click that the one button Apple mice have but it can tell where on the mouse you are pressing and react accordingly. Although no one has used one of these yet I am willing to bet that it will click exactly the same as my one button Apple bluetooth mouse.
I have compared them and Eclipse is still unfortunately behind IDEA. The templates, import management and code completion are the biggest areas. While Eclipse has these features they just do not run as smoothly as they do in IDEA.
As the parent poster said, it is all about the little things. There are so many little things that add up to make IDEA a great IDE. My only complaint with it is its speed on slower machines. I wish they would spend some more energy on performance over features.
I would disagree strongly. What you are seeing on/. is a vocal minority that wants to purchase/pirate OSX and run it on their machine that they built themselves.
There is, in my opinion, a silent majority that are happily using their Apple machines just the way they are. I count myself in this majority. I do all of my development on my Powerbook and I purchased it for both the hardware and the software. I know of a lot of other developers in my field who have done the same. In addition I routinely see articles discussing the same.
This is a case of a sweaky wheel that should be ignored. Apple is clearly not interested in selling to people who want to run thier software on cheap hardware. They are clearly not interested in competing at Dells level and I, for one, am thankful of that. I am full up on dealing with cheap inconsistent hardware.
I have the exact opposite experience. Recently work has forced me to start using the Windows machine they gave me instead of my Powerbook and I have had a very hard time adjusting to the fonts. The font smoothing, especially on monospaced fonts, in windows is horrible and painful to stare at all day. While the font smoothing on my Powerbook is a joy to look at.
Comparing the two side by side, Windows XP font smoothing looks like somethinig from Linux 5 years ago. It is really that bad.
Expose does not require clicking in an infinite corner just putting the mouse deep into that corner. I have all four corners of my Powerbook connected to either expose or dashboard and I very rarely hit them accidently.
To each their own. It is simply one solution that is out there. Some people like connecting it to their mouse or their keyboard. Connecting expose to screen corners works for me.
Bind your expose to you your window corners. Drag the offending file to the corner which invokes expose, drag it back to your target window and release.
With decent mouse acceleration this is fast with a very small amount of movement, just a quick flick of the wrist to an infinite corner and Bob's your uncle.
Fortunately this is not an obscure registry hack in Tiger. It is part of the keyboard preferences.
Making it configurable seems to be the best of both worlds. It defaults to the way most the keyboards work and for those who desire a different functionality it is a couple of mouse clicks away.
Same goes with Apple's decision for a one button mouse. Works fine but if you desire increased functionality it is a short trip to the store.
Slashdot Mirror
You should not assume that just because someone has bad handwriting they are necessarily lazy. I used to have beautiful handwriting until a Motorcycle accident in my teenage years damaged the tendons in my right hand. While I still have full use of the hand (and very little scaring 20 years later), my handwriting is almost completely illegible.
Also, depending on your career choice, you may not need to write as much as you seem to think in this modern age. For everyone that I work with, typing is faster and superior to hand writing.
Not to say that handwriting is not important. I watch over my son very carefully to insure that he keeps his hand writing skills up to par as he will need them while in College.
As for the primary point of this discussion, my son is just entering his second year of high school. We purchased his first laptop for him while he was in his second year of middle school. Being able to work on his homework at the dinner table while meals are being prepared, in his room late at night or in the living room has been a great asset. He is comfortable working on his laptop and uses it constantly. If he was forced to use a desktop, I do not think the result would have been the same and he would have resisted doing his homework more.
Thanks for that link, it just went into my morning reading list!
WoW is playable with a single button mouse. I use my Apple Bluetooth mouse to play it all the time. Depending on your keyboard proficiency you can play it with just the trackpad in a Powerbook if so inclined.
Blizzard actually did a decent job of handling Apple's one button design.
It is possible for a device to create sound without a speaker. Hopefully someone will take one of these mice apart soon so that mystery can be solved.
The length of the cord on Mac mice wraps perfectly around the back of the iBook and leaves plenty of room to move the mouse around on the right side. It even wraps around the back of my 15" Powerbook with cord to spare. The cord is definitely not too short.
When I used to use a corded logitech mouse on my Powerbook I had to wrap up most of the cord since the thing seemed to be 10 feet long.
Do you own a Mac or are you just spewing?
Yes, I saw that afterwards, however my comments regarding the full body button and tactile feedback stand.
Does anyone really believe that they would put a speaker in the mouse? I have heard plenty of crap on /. in my day but come on...
Although I am also hoping that they create a bluetooth version of this very soon.
If only I had not used up my mod points yesterday...
Hopefully someone else will see this post and mod it up appropriately.
I have compared them and Eclipse is still unfortunately behind IDEA. The templates, import management and code completion are the biggest areas. While Eclipse has these features they just do not run as smoothly as they do in IDEA.
As the parent poster said, it is all about the little things. There are so many little things that add up to make IDEA a great IDE. My only complaint with it is its speed on slower machines. I wish they would spend some more energy on performance over features.
I would disagree strongly. What you are seeing on /. is a vocal minority that wants to purchase/pirate OSX and run it on their machine that they built themselves.
There is, in my opinion, a silent majority that are happily using their Apple machines just the way they are. I count myself in this majority. I do all of my development on my Powerbook and I purchased it for both the hardware and the software. I know of a lot of other developers in my field who have done the same. In addition I routinely see articles discussing the same.
This is a case of a sweaky wheel that should be ignored. Apple is clearly not interested in selling to people who want to run thier software on cheap hardware. They are clearly not interested in competing at Dells level and I, for one, am thankful of that. I am full up on dealing with cheap inconsistent hardware.
the iSync API is published. Has been for quite a while now.
I have the exact opposite experience. Recently work has forced me to start using the Windows machine they gave me instead of my Powerbook and I have had a very hard time adjusting to the fonts. The font smoothing, especially on monospaced fonts, in windows is horrible and painful to stare at all day. While the font smoothing on my Powerbook is a joy to look at.
Comparing the two side by side, Windows XP font smoothing looks like somethinig from Linux 5 years ago. It is really that bad.
Give Chicken of the VNC a try. I use it as my VNC client and have found it to be the best of those available for OS X.
or....
:)
I could just use Control-F and Control-B and avoid remapping.
Nah, the more complicated and inconsistent way is better right?
Expose does not require clicking in an infinite corner just putting the mouse deep into that corner. I have all four corners of my Powerbook connected to either expose or dashboard and I very rarely hit them accidently.
To each their own. It is simply one solution that is out there. Some people like connecting it to their mouse or their keyboard. Connecting expose to screen corners works for me.
Control-F and Control-B. Enough said.
Sidetrack gives you 5 buttons and two scroll wheels all on your trackpad.
Bind your expose to you your window corners. Drag the offending file to the corner which invokes expose, drag it back to your target window and release.
With decent mouse acceleration this is fast with a very small amount of movement, just a quick flick of the wrist to an infinite corner and Bob's your uncle.
Fortunately this is not an obscure registry hack in Tiger. It is part of the keyboard preferences.
Making it configurable seems to be the best of both worlds. It defaults to the way most the keyboards work and for those who desire a different functionality it is a couple of mouse clicks away.
Same goes with Apple's decision for a one button mouse. Works fine but if you desire increased functionality it is a short trip to the store.
It was added to the OS in Tiger but there are several third party apps for pre-Tiger versions.
Buy an aftermarket mouse and plug it in. Instant scroll wheel.
Use your thumb for the Command key instead of your pinky. Makes a big difference.
Apple has a clue also. You can remap the caps lock to anything you want. I remapped it to control like any sane vi'er would :)