Thanks a lot taikedz for this sharp reading of the original article.
It's not at all "after hour" but only to preserve (remind of) the legal 11h break between workdays that is already in the law to avoid harming the employees health.
The new catch is that it's an obligation for the employer to put some measures in place and define these hours. And you are right, it's not a law but the result of a negotiation (and not a violent one) between employees/employers unions
It leaves 13h a day 5 1/2 days a week for heavy workers to be connected : ~70 hours availability (max) paid 35... let's compare productivity now.
I know some journalists these days like to criticize France (mainly French ones, in France we are the world champ' on criticizing ourselves, look, I did it myself) but work habits, especially in IT, are not cool/lazy at all. French geeks like it long and dense like most geeks... Laws around innovation activities are quite interesting in France (less to no taxes and many public help), IT/science schools/universities are quite good as well, and the work market (the one I know, in IT) is still in favor of employees.
I totally agree, and still don't understand why people would want to give that to any service provider.
For years on Mac I have been using keychain (well more or less the same thing as keepass as I understand its features but provided with Mac OsX). I just keep it safe and synced.
The point is what people ask for : simplicity and security (well even if not asked for, if this one is not there, soon it'll blow in their face), not a single identity.
An amazing thing with passwords is that current OS correctly configured and a password manager are more secure than what a service provider can offer (basically because they concentrate the threat by centralizing, have ops, backup/copy data not always that well...)
Hi, and thx for the link.
It seems to be a great device, these guys at slim-devices are really improving their products years after years.
Sorry for the (too) short description of the DAC2000, it doesn't purely reformats the signal, it contains a processor that resamples the signal to feed the converter stage with a reclocked signal and it can be filtered without bad phase impact.
Perhaps this babelfish translation describes it better.
I evaluated the wifi way, which is really nice, but as I also stream the sound of videos, the time difference is too much of a problem.
It's nice to read from a computer/audio geek, not so common.
to a 3D-Lab DAC-2000 (reformats the signal in 24x192, then converts it in analogue, symmetric dual mono configuration)
then it goes to a integrated amp (Krell KAV300il)
and then to SL3 panels.
The result is quite good (and the computer+3DLab DAC are far better than drive/DAC I tried or had, like VRDS-25, Apogee mini-dac).
This could be improved a bit (theoretically) on the jitter side but it still has to be confirmed (I mean heard) and of course there are some better audio-setup. If anyone has improved that type of setup, I'm really interested.
I own some hundreds of books (paper ones) and I love them, read some of them far more than once. I thought of and tried the electronic way,
as it could be more convenient
Hey wait, not really because there are multiple incompatible models/formats
How could it be? Books are just plain text even if some (10-20%) of them could need some html basic tagging and some others (1-2%) could need a bit more (like pdf).
Oh yes, it's because of point 3
as it could be cheaper
Hey wait, it's not really cheaper. It's sometimes even the opposite.
How could it be? As I pay for the paper, the ink, and the shipping/handling/storing is free, a pocket book could cost around $1-3 instead of $5-10.
Oh yes, it's because of point 3
as it could be easy and simple to share a book I loved with my friends (just 10s seconds transfer), to upgrade my reader when they'll do a better screen, to have a reader for the bus (small, bulletproof, iPod autonomy) and a reader for the house (bigger, less autonomy but better rendering)
Hey wait, it's not what "they" (editors -of books and software-, manufacturers) want. "They" want repetitive costs for me, DRM, new way of "consuming" books.
Here's why I don't think I'll see that working soon.
Point 3 is what I want and what some authors want (they could even get a more direct relationship with the reader and earn a bit more), what the public want.
As for music and cinema and software, digital age is doomed and there are, as for me, only two scenarios:
Consume. eBooks (and eSongs and eMovies and eSoftware) going more and more expensive (remember the price of a vinyl, a VHS/ticket, MsOffice in the early 90's?). Old fashion becoming luxury and less accessible to the public. More and more mainstream content.
Get. eBooks are shared (some initiatives, legal ones especially but also some less legal, are really good) using commonly accessible technology (Palm if it can survive, why not next gen. iPods). more audio-books are made by the public and shared over P2P networks. Isn't it what's happening to eSongs and eMovies and eSoftware?
And I believe it's what will happen until some of "them" understand that "digital age" also means sharing knowledge, software, art (well, some of "them" are on the right way, and iTunes gave a good help for the music/TV "them" as did Sun/IBM/Apple for the software).
By the way, for those who tried the "Bezel" thing, it doesn't seem necessary (and didn't in 10.4.2). The little applescript app was not really necessary too, just press ctrl-esc when Front Row menu is there.
As a remote I use my phone + Romeo (and a simple plugin to start, map keys, quit), the only tricky thing is the fast forward that works with long cursor key down, which is not simple with a phone, could perhaps be done with some applescript.
I still prefer VLC as a player (faster, more formats) but Front Row is just perfect for music, clips, video podcast)
Consider disk space as a lease, not an investment
on
Data Storage For Home?
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· Score: 1
You can think of buying hard drives as an investment, and see it as a never-ending buying process, or think it as a lease:
each year or two, you plan to spend $xxx on your disk space
as the prices are dropping, each year or two, you can buy more than twice the space you already use.
Don't jump on the great new big drive, stick with the better $/G ratio (250G or 320G combinations these days).
I evaluated some RAID, big drive, external multi-drive systems to "definitively solve the problem" and finally sticked with that "see it as a lease" way of thinking.
After some years with that model, I spent around $300/y for as much space as I need (from 100G in 2002/2003 to 1,5T now). The first 100G cost around $300, as the last 500G!
I know it's difficult to shift to such a mind-state as we think of computers as investments, but just think of those fantastic 10GB SCSI drives that were so big, so fast and so expensive at the end of the 90's.
Of course there are differences between good and bad SPDIF outputs (good and bad systems with SPDIF outputs to be precise). The impedance, the connectors, the regularity of the data output, the jitter... suposing the system won't resample the datas.
Concerning your computer, I don't think it would have any problem in forwarding data at the right rate.
Avoid too much cpu-intensive tasks when listening your music.
People talk about jitter and it's interesting because it mainly affects only the end segment, the DAC, because before it you can do all the crap you want.
If you remember to have a good DAC that will just put the data back to normal (I mean jitter-less).
An amazing analysis can be found here (not so far from your setup) Apple AirPort Express Wi-Fi Hub-D/A processor.
This guy uses a "bad" setup ending in 0% (yes, 0) data lost.
And with a reclocking DAC with less jitter than a multi-thousands $ system.
I may recommend you the Mini-Dac if it's in your budget (not so expensive for high-end systems, but expensive compared to $99 stuff).
Concerning the extended desktop on iBooks: http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/supportlist_e. html
will do the trick (easy, safe -list of supported machines, clean).
Concerning the Quicktime full-screen, previous answers are complete (buy it if you also need editing, trick it, or just use VLC as you perhaps already do on Linux).
And yes, there are differences between Linux, Windows and MacOsX and that makes some of the possible annoyance.
If you know Linux well, you'll discover some little changes, like when you switch to FreeBSD or AIX or Solaris. Basically you can (configure; make; make install;) run most of Linux tools. You'll certainly miss the multi-desktop feature (not included but some free/sharewares do the trick) and discover Expose (whaaaou).
If you know Windows well, you'll find the Finder strange at the beginning, you'll perhaps regret the latest games (situation gets better but slowly), and some advanced P2P/Ripping tools (situation gets better really fast), you'll miss the global inconsistence you got accustomed to and perhaps some keyboard tricks (like calling menus with alt-E), you'll discover new Ms Prices (Office is really expensive on Mac and stealing it is easier but still forbidden), you'll miss the graphical admin (get server tools if you like admin with windows or get some of the freewares which do that well or remember it's Unix and you can do what you want with a terminal). And of course you'll discover "major updates" with "real features" (and "price";-( every 18 months.
There are plenty of good sides of course but you seem to have heard enough of them for today...
Just remember the first week is awkward and you have to realize you need to learn new moves. Don't try a small weekend switch and get ready to spend some time at the beginning to make your new/Users (oops, not/home nor/usr) feel good.
And ask some Mac users about your precise needs and habits, they'll certainly tell you how to find a solution.
Well, most of the people says you should "reinstall" and that's right. But you can be prepared. For my own system, I:
separate datas, users accounts, my non Apple applications from system with 2 different partitions
cleanly install the system and updates (stored on a separate drive) with no internet connection
setup a temporary admin account during the install
run a script (niutil, cp...) to recreate my environment (finally it's not that hard, just remember that users and groups are in netinfo and shadow passwords are stored in/var/db/shadow/hash with the generateduids of the users) and drop the temporary account
launch a complete replication of the system disk on an external (Emergency) drive (I currently use Mr. Bombich carbon copy cloner, but there are other solutions) which is useful to redo the first steps really fast (I mean 20 minutes from a drive, 30 minutes from my iPod which is becoming my "Emergency" drive). You can you the "rm local.nidb" trick to cleanly recreate the admin account
go live.
This takes 2-4 hours with install from CDs, 1h from emergency drive.
By the way, I also like to
avoid the uid 501 admin
replace the standard firewall (ipfw configured with ruleset from the SysPrefs) with a ruleset of my own (using the fantastic statefull feature, stealthing if necessary, explicitly closing ports I don't use to and from the computer, avoiding apps like MsOffice or Stuffit to call home) launched as a StartupItem
check the basic security with nmap from the outside
setup OpenFirmwarePassword and FileVault (sorry guys, physical access is not enough)
check passwords are solid, currently with lcrack on shadow passwords
make automatic backups of vital datas (thanks rsync) on external drive (and in my case my laptop which is then "in sync")
Of course, the second part is purely paranoid (except backups) as I'm not at all an interesting target (except if you want to read my code, discover my preferred films;-) but as I also do that for small companies I like (and occasionally work for), I feel a little bit more responsible and try it on my personal computer before deploying it for others.
I also do that to learn a bit more what can be done as I'm not a sysadmin at all and not pretend at all being as pro as most of them.
I'm a bit jealous because it won't be available outside UK (well, I understand the legal mess it would be, but BBC is a real reference outside UK, and I'd be glad to watch legally some of their programs).
The good point is, at last, somebody big understood what P2P could bring technically. As they are close friends with Real and its network, it means a lot for the future if this experiment works fine.
The really bad point is this MsDRM. It means no standard and even no cross-platform; it means no freedom for the player (I don't really appreciate WMPlayer and usually watch wm file using VLC which brings me many more functions I like).
When will big company understand that opening their offer to as many customers/users as possible is a good thing? If you've got a shop, you try to make it accessible to anybody, with or without a car, with or without disabilities; you try to be opened as much as you can!
Why the technical options are not the same (and it's so easier with the Internet and the standards than with real world places)?
Why consider all the Internet users/customers as thiefs? Imagine a shop where you are systematically checked walking out, will you come back?
Why can a UK citizen rip/mix/burn as much BBC programs as he want from his TV plug but not from his IP plug?
I hope they will change their mind with the time (for example after the experiment!) but I know they have also to face the rights owners (producers, agencies) who are certainly a bit less interested in what final users experience
I don't buy it!
How can they move that stuff, not only physically, but also logically? To re-plug the servers, they need:
a suitable network, with configured routers, auth./DNS servers...
logins/passwords for the servers
knowledge, and not only general tech but specific setup of that company servers
I prefer to read (between the lines) that they wanted something to be stopped, and eventually an occasion to get the information on the long term (weeks at least) on who/where it is
The strange part, for a European citizen like me, is that no reason at all is given. Normally (in democratic/free world), an investigation means a judge, some reasons, some rule brake, some arguments on why the police is acting.
I hope that with these new laws in Europe we are not going to become like that too soon;-).
Like other people here, I know windows quite well and can easily "support myself". I can even make Ms products work well together on a complex corporate architecture (I think it's the reason why they interviewed me on their site:-).
When it came to my own personal computer, I bought a Mac, just because I don't want to make support@home! Obviously I use nearly the same tools I could run on a dual boot Windows-Linux PC (DVDPlayer/VideoLan, iTunes, jEdit, MsOffice, JBoss-PHP-Apache, tcsh, Mozilla/kHtml). But it works find, nothing more than drag/drop to install an application, no OS upgrade issue, a perfect statefull firewall included). In two years, I had no system or software issues.
When came the day I wanted a laptop, I took another Mac, because I liked the first one, because it was cheaper than the same class of computer from Dell.
I understand I overvalue my $/hour (I'm a bit more expensive than a 1st level support guy), but what can be compared to nearly $0? I helped some friends with their Macs (switchers, newcomers) and they were amazed how simple it was, how useless I could be for them (I love that because phone support at 10PM isn't my preferred friendliness).
I also worked at my office with Macs (Os9), and of course when a user had a problem, and the support team answered, "oh, it's a Mac", they called me. It's not a statistical study (5 samples), but each problems were solved in 5 minutes and were caused by "not connected" or "not switched on the VLAN", things that can exist on a PC and that really should not happened. The "no-support" reason was always "I don't know macs" which shouldn't happen with MacOsX (open a Terminal, remember your Unix for beginners 1st class, solve the problem). Still the $0 comparison.
With OsX, I believe there is a really good office alternative:
a real user/admin isolation
a realistic user rights limitation (you can install an funny screen saver with no possible impact on other users/ system files). Yes, don't tell me you plan to use the "no rights to the user" policy on windows, it's just not the job of sysadmins to forbid everything.
a good multitask behavior (I'm ripping a DVD right now and don't feel any slowlyness on a 2 years old entry-level computer)
all the classical usefull applications (Mozilla, Office, Mail, Calendar, Images management...) plus all the open-source world apps/tools.
a wide adoption of standards and a real work on Windows connectivity
But a lot of people just don't compare anymore, are just too scary of innovation/new solutions (which is a real problem concerning technology). Too many people a ready to lie by not comparing Windows/Linux/Mac/Other before saying to the boss "here is the way". The scariest thing is the best way is certainly somewhere between those choices.
Isn't it the entire "keep with the standards to keep the choice in your hands" lesson in first year of CS grade?
4'33'', zero Kelvin
on
Friday Apple Fun
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Strangely, I think the article doesn't explain the 4'33'' meaning, which was 273'', as -273 Celsius, aka Absolute Zero (0 Kelvin). Like the deep calm that ends this piece representation.
The conceptual aspect of the performance is still the fundamental of this piece and I don't believe WinAmp (or iTunes or mpg123) can't do the trick as well as a full concert hall. But perhaps the buying act can do a little, but should be organized, theatralized, like a performance.
Are those studies really serious, "using" Internet means so many things, it's like saying "living can kill".
Spending hours in "the outer world" of games or business could lead to social issues (well, like spending 3 nights in a row in casinos or all week-ends at the office). But for really shy people it is also a way to socialize. Or sometimes, it's just fun. Like somebody said, everything can lead to addiction in huge quantities, even CocaCola!
I personally spend a lot of time (in my own time-scale) on Internet, but well, less than the population average 2-3 hours in front of TV, and I don't have TV. I keep in touch with friends, learn far more than the same time stoned in front of a TV, mix professional and personal interests... And I don't spend so much time surfing at the office;-).
Sorry, but officially iBook can't use external monitor on dual screen mode but only on mirror mode.
I discovered this kind guy who developed a small tool to unlock this feature on nearly all the iBooks (and especially the new ones). It includes bigger resolutions as well and optionally let the iBook work once closed.
A friend of mine used it and is now working on a 12''+19'' space which seems to be a real pleasure.
Sometimes, Apple is just not kind, but they always let a small door. Enjoy!
So, less than $4 per on-site employee for that company you help (quite well, reading you)?
Less than $4M per million users.
Isn't there around 1 billion users of personal computers, so "less than $4,000,000,000", shouldn't we think of something better?
For example, let's say:"One went to a MacOsX machine and didn't infected it. One went to a Linux desktop, and did not concern it. None of around 7 internal Linux servers were affected of course.". You do a great job and the company is happy...
I don't mean neither Linux of MacOsX can be hit by a virus (in these systems, an admin can download then open an attached command file), but on those a virus discovers many difficulties to go through and different on each config.
Imagine the future life of a virus when the "Unsecure by Design Os will only be an old nightmare". First you reach the user, then you convince him to click, then you bypass the "no admin" standard stuff, then you bypass the "no root" then you bypass the local firewall, then you try to reach a "no port open" computer. On each step, you have to be standard compliant because this can be an AMD chip but also a Dragonball or a PowerPC or any other one, the only common point is Unix.
Oh my, I don't need this new Intel processor nor this new Windows update pack or this new bio-AI antivir to lead the company IT? What will I do next? Work!
Hi,
when I was using Windows, I was using Cygwin on a PC to do basic scripting stuff between the Mac & the PC but no rsync. Perhaps you can try using rsync with no dates (-I aka --ignore-times, and -t aka --times to avoid checking and updating times).
More generally, I clearly avoided the conflict management between different sources (I just move datas), but carefully checked rsync options. What I did is
defining clear home directories (quite easy as MacOsX defines most of them, but I also added some of my own).
I then duplicated this list of directories in 3 sets: real home (~) for live files, "Shared" for all that stuff I like to have with me but don't really update so often and "Archive" for the cold files I'll certainly use one day.
I linked (ln -s) those places (i.e. xxx/~/Movies/SharedMovies "is" xxx/Shared/SharedMovies and xxx/~/Movies/SharedMovies/ArchiveMovies is xxx/Archive/ArchiveMovies)
I wrote some simple rsync scripts to sync one computer to another and one drive to another (not exactly the same options; not the same paths to sync)
So I can update the laptop from the desktop when I go outside (or just want to work from the couch) and resync the opposite way when I'm back to the desktop. As it's ssh I can do it from one or another computer.
I've decided to keep "~" and "Shared" on the 2 computers, and to keep "Archive" only on the desktop and the external disk (which also keeps some DVD I plan to watch (the disk is far more silent than the combo internal drive). Of course, one can triple the files to be sure, it(s better.
I also do standard backups (cron triggered to launch cleanup and backup scripts every 7 days or the next time I turn the computer on) for critical files and tools, encrypted and saved (I usually keep last week and last 2 months, I don't need to go back in the past more than that and I'd also notice a problem before)
My options (machine to machine) are
-verbose (I filter the unused things but I like to see what happens)
--recursive --links --one-file-system
--partial --compress (seems to be better with low bandwidth link like 802.11b)
--perms --owner --group --times (both unix)
-e ssh
--delete (only one direction!)
--backup (I prefer to clean after but to be able to handle conflicts when I modify something on both places)
--suffix="~" --exclude "*~" --exclude $'Icon\r'
I hope it'll help you on defining a method that fits your needs.
I'm personally really serious about backups (all my important non-legal documents are stored on computers). I've been doing backups on a lot on CDs but realized:
a double backup is necessary if I want "cold" backup
burning CDs takes time (for example, I've got 6GB of apps/OS)
from time to time (2-5 years), a second generation has to be done
external disks are becoming a bit more affordable (around $1.5/GB, which means less than a dollar for a CD space)
disks are really fast (seconds instead of minutes for CDs)
I'm currently leaving CDs for backups and "just" using HD backup (from my laptop to my desktop for online backups and from my desktop to an external HD for cold backups). CDs become moving support to bring files to friends (so no long life implied).
I've made simple rsync scripts (rsync over ssh for laptop to desktop wireless communication, rsync from disk to disk for desktop). This solution implies good data organization (basically live/shared/cold) but is really fast, simple and up to date.
Are there other./ers moving that way?
I'm currently planning a bigger (200-500GB) solution based on Firewire drives (I'm using Macs, but it also works on PCs). Do you have any advices/experiences on using those solutions in simple home network?
I confirm the "multiple" apps solution; it's really the simplest way to launch 3 times the same tool with different jobs to do. That's for the ripping
Concerning the multiple burning, same solution but I would recommend using the Missing Media Burner (I use 0.6.2 and I'm satisfied). It's not the cleanest apps in the Mac world, but it's free and efficient in burn and overburn, which is quite useful when volume is involved.
Toast is certainly good and is quite a clean app, but it's way too expensive for lightly extending OS functions.
By the way, Missing Media Burner also does the VCD/SVCD/raw thing quite well
Of course you can forget to buy it and use a cracked key, but it's not the good way, not good for the karma as Jobs says, especially when their are cool people working on free alternatives.
The "selective breeding" you talk about is not just a bad idea (and not at all because of a "terrible world it would be"). It's as stupid as the "bit of genetic engineering".
Don't you remember the nazis were not only mass killers but also really bad scientists in that field, they just made a big confusion between their obsessions and science, most of their "theories" were pure crap, assembled from one of the worst scientists of the past.
Genetic engineering is based on a bit better scientific thinking but genetic modifications are not at all under control. Even in the most advanced research labs, they don't (can't) imagine the consequences of modifications based on a large scale. We are already taking huge risks with genetically modified animals and plants because we don't (can't) control what happens in less than a century.
If we begin to decide what a good genetic pattern is, we'll be on day 1 of the end of the specie, just because selection is not the solution.
Most of the easy-thinkers just forget the most important point of this darwin selection theory: mulitplicity of combination. The more sub-species and evolution there are, the better it is to create new possibilities for the future.
We still are evolving now, by mixing people from all over the globe and the fact that we can save lifes with medecine is a good thing to make new people appear, able to do new things. The question is to maintain and improve our ability to survive, not to select.
By the way, as we are at the "information age", we also have to evolve in our way of thinking. A first step would be that everybody understand the eugenism is crap. That is evolution!
I've already seen/heard of such system, basically in the Business Intelligence field.
In England, a systems like Autonomy (used by the police at the beginning) can crawl a mass of information with dedicated spiders (not only for the web, but also commercial databases, files...). Then, it structures all the content in thematics with links and proximity.
I personnaly tested it some years ago, feeding it with information websites and asking some articles "close to" another one. The efficiency was amazing because it was able to make the difference between close terms that have really different meaning depending on the context. Usually, search engines are wrong because they can't use the context.
I also set up some "agents" for recurrent searches (an agent is basically a search plus some training, letting Autonomy know what found document are close and not) and it was able to propose everyday a really good press review with nearly no wrong documents.
As a complement to Autonomy, I know a BI team that uses some other tools like Periclesto feed the searches with "relevant" content, basically thematics that are "appearing" in the group of documents and are close to some interests.
Such BI tools can already provide the kind of information cited, like a opinion movement against a company detected in the newsgroup or some websites. And IBM is certainly on the tracks to improve such tools with the techniques of their labs.
I hope these tools won't be limited to PR articles on the web and/or private use by big corporations, because it could only be another Echelon with all its bad consequences:
- bad use of public information
- paranoia feeded with wrong scares
- public/corp. power against the citizens
If tools like echelon could be used by everybody, it would have to let much more privacy to citizens and the public leaders would have to explain the investments.
It's really interesting to read that thread, mainly because I learn a lot on the US (more than on Irak or OSS).
When asked "give me an example of American colonial expansion this century", people tell about many places/times around WW2 (around Japan, but you can easily add Italy -still American soldiers not really to protect anymore-, Germany -there nearly are American cities-) but you just forget one of the closest colony: Cuba.
Remember that the US has a military base there ?
Remember that the whole country has been under blocus for years with no reasonnable arguments since the USSR are over.
Remembrer that in Cuba, in this Guantanamo base, the US keep some illegal prisoners from several countries with no judgement, no international justice involved ?
Basically, the self-knowledge of a country and its history by its citizen is the first sign of freedom/assumed democracy. May we wish that to Irak... and the US.
Seems you encounter some problems with a 6 years old Mac (from one the worst period of Apple, they don't always do the best;-) running on Os9.
May I recommend you to, well, upgrade to a new model (their are some at really reasonable prices on the AppleStore, less than $1000). They run on OsX (which is really fast, stable and improving with Panther)
I you can't/don't want, perhaps you could try some "autumn cleanup" on your machine. After 6 years, perhaps the disks are a bit full of fragmented files, the System Folder full of old unused preferences. There was/are some great tools to do that.
You can also check your system, because the latest version sometimes helps if you forgot to "auto-update".
If what you really need is fast-cheap-stable system comparable to actual PCs, I may recommend you some G5 (top level but not really useful if you don't need that much power), cheaper than equivalent brand-PCs. Or iBook/eMac if you need just that horse-power needed to surf and play music & videos and do some development.
I think a lot of people like me are out there and can help you avoid such strange problems and help you to see a Mac running fast.
I write this note just after reading the article, some posts I completely agree with, and making some google searches:
- the comparison is at least strange because the test is based on Premiere (not so much a success, and especially not now) and MsWord (really not a perf. master on Mac), so IMHO only Photoshop stays as a comparison (why not comparing MP3 encoding or easy to run stuffs like that?). The FPS in Quake is comparable but really not that much interesting as depending on such configuration mainly on the graphic card.
- the PCs used and cited at the beginning (Alienware, Falcon, Voodoo, ABS) are all mono Athlon, most of them $3500, except the ABS at $1900, are all mono Athlon 2.2Ghz, comparable to the Apple 1.8Ghz mono G5, $2400 by Apple (just do the math, Athlon speed per second/2.2*1.8 are really nearly the sames as the G5).
- The "winner PC" is a strange "Polystation Two" which is not really on Polywell catalog, but close to a Polystation 2020 (dual Opteron), priced around $3200 (one Opteron) or $4100 (dual Opteron). Whatching at the results, so close to the dual G5, I really believe a dual 2Ghz has been used for the test (>$4500)
This leads to real doubts on the serious of this comparison, but if we just clear the record and base the comparison on the Photoshop indicators/ the machines/ the prices/ the manufacturers we first obtain an interesting conclusion: "The Athlon 64 (and Opteron) is really close to a 64 bits G5 and the machines based on those processors and adapted architectures are comparable in real-life use."
We also obtain some interesting information in term of PC/Mac comparison as the 3 first (Alienware, Falcon, Voodoo) are quite comparable to Mac mono-G5 1.8Ghz (clean, well built, powerfull), even if they are not made by a "big name" with worldwide distribution. Well, they are also more expensive ($2400 for the G5, $3500 for the Pcs, even the 1.8/2.2Ghz doesn't make the maths). The comparison is different with the Polystation (not nice looking, close to a server, clearly not the engineering of the Mac) for which the price difference is even bigger ($4000-$4500 for the PC, $3000 for the dual G5 2Ghz).
My conclusion for this odd "audience seeker" article would be:
In the top-desktop offer, real bad news for Intel in term of speed, very good news for Apple in term of price.
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Thanks a lot taikedz for this sharp reading of the original article.
It's not at all "after hour" but only to preserve (remind of) the legal 11h break between workdays that is already in the law to avoid harming the employees health. The new catch is that it's an obligation for the employer to put some measures in place and define these hours. And you are right, it's not a law but the result of a negotiation (and not a violent one) between employees/employers unions
It leaves 13h a day 5 1/2 days a week for heavy workers to be connected : ~70 hours availability (max) paid 35... let's compare productivity now.
I know some journalists these days like to criticize France (mainly French ones, in France we are the world champ' on criticizing ourselves, look, I did it myself) but work habits, especially in IT, are not cool/lazy at all. French geeks like it long and dense like most geeks... Laws around innovation activities are quite interesting in France (less to no taxes and many public help), IT/science schools/universities are quite good as well, and the work market (the one I know, in IT) is still in favor of employees.
I totally agree, and still don't understand why people would want to give that to any service provider.
For years on Mac I have been using keychain (well more or less the same thing as keepass as I understand its features but provided with Mac OsX). I just keep it safe and synced.
The point is what people ask for : simplicity and security (well even if not asked for, if this one is not there, soon it'll blow in their face), not a single identity.
An amazing thing with passwords is that current OS correctly configured and a password manager are more secure than what a service provider can offer (basically because they concentrate the threat by centralizing, have ops, backup/copy data not always that well...)
Hi, and thx for the link.
It seems to be a great device, these guys at slim-devices are really improving their products years after years.
Sorry for the (too) short description of the DAC2000, it doesn't purely reformats the signal, it contains a processor that resamples the signal to feed the converter stage with a reclocked signal and it can be filtered without bad phase impact.
Perhaps this babelfish translation describes it better.
I evaluated the wifi way, which is really nice, but as I also stream the sound of videos, the time difference is too much of a problem.
It's nice to read from a computer/audio geek, not so common.
As some here, I use digital out from the computer and keep analogue audio on equipment that are made for that.
If you read a bit of French, here's my actual setup
Basically, music is stored on firewire drives,
The result is quite good (and the computer+3DLab DAC are far better than drive/DAC I tried or had, like VRDS-25, Apogee mini-dac).
This could be improved a bit (theoretically) on the jitter side but it still has to be confirmed (I mean heard) and of course there are some better audio-setup. If anyone has improved that type of setup, I'm really interested.
- as it could be more convenient
- as it could be cheaper
- as it could be easy and simple to share a book I loved with my friends (just 10s seconds transfer), to upgrade my reader when they'll do a better screen, to have a reader for the bus (small, bulletproof, iPod autonomy) and a reader for the house (bigger, less autonomy but better rendering)
Here's why I don't think I'll see that working soon. Point 3 is what I want and what some authors want (they could even get a more direct relationship with the reader and earn a bit more), what the public want. As for music and cinema and software, digital age is doomed and there are, as for me, only two scenarios:Hey wait, not really because there are multiple incompatible models/formats
How could it be? Books are just plain text even if some (10-20%) of them could need some html basic tagging and some others (1-2%) could need a bit more (like pdf).
Oh yes, it's because of point 3
Hey wait, it's not really cheaper. It's sometimes even the opposite. How could it be? As I pay for the paper, the ink, and the shipping/handling/storing is free, a pocket book could cost around $1-3 instead of $5-10.
Oh yes, it's because of point 3
Hey wait, it's not what "they" (editors -of books and software-, manufacturers) want. "They" want repetitive costs for me, DRM, new way of "consuming" books.
- Consume. eBooks (and eSongs and eMovies and eSoftware) going more and more expensive (remember the price of a vinyl, a VHS/ticket, MsOffice in the early 90's?). Old fashion becoming luxury and less accessible to the public. More and more mainstream content.
- Get. eBooks are shared (some initiatives, legal ones especially but also some less legal, are really good) using commonly accessible technology (Palm if it can survive, why not next gen. iPods). more audio-books are made by the public and shared over P2P networks. Isn't it what's happening to eSongs and eMovies and eSoftware?
And I believe it's what will happen until some of "them" understand that "digital age" also means sharing knowledge, software, art (well, some of "them" are on the right way, and iTunes gave a good help for the music/TV "them" as did Sun/IBM/Apple for the software).By the way, for those who tried the "Bezel" thing, it doesn't seem necessary (and didn't in 10.4.2). The little applescript app was not really necessary too, just press ctrl-esc when Front Row menu is there.
As a remote I use my phone + Romeo (and a simple plugin to start, map keys, quit), the only tricky thing is the fast forward that works with long cursor key down, which is not simple with a phone, could perhaps be done with some applescript.
I still prefer VLC as a player (faster, more formats) but Front Row is just perfect for music, clips, video podcast)
You can think of buying hard drives as an investment, and see it as a never-ending buying process, or think it as a lease:
Don't jump on the great new big drive, stick with the better $/G ratio (250G or 320G combinations these days).
I evaluated some RAID, big drive, external multi-drive systems to "definitively solve the problem" and finally sticked with that "see it as a lease" way of thinking.
After some years with that model, I spent around $300/y for as much space as I need (from 100G in 2002/2003 to 1,5T now). The first 100G cost around $300, as the last 500G!
I know it's difficult to shift to such a mind-state as we think of computers as investments, but just think of those fantastic 10GB SCSI drives that were so big, so fast and so expensive at the end of the 90's.
Of course there are differences between good and bad SPDIF outputs (good and bad systems with SPDIF outputs to be precise). The impedance, the connectors, the regularity of the data output, the jitter... suposing the system won't resample the datas.
Concerning your computer, I don't think it would have any problem in forwarding data at the right rate.
Avoid too much cpu-intensive tasks when listening your music.
People talk about jitter and it's interesting because it mainly affects only the end segment, the DAC, because before it you can do all the crap you want.
If you remember to have a good DAC that will just put the data back to normal (I mean jitter-less).
An amazing analysis can be found here (not so far from your setup) Apple AirPort Express Wi-Fi Hub-D/A processor.
This guy uses a "bad" setup ending in 0% (yes, 0) data lost. And with a reclocking DAC with less jitter than a multi-thousands $ system.
I may recommend you the Mini-Dac if it's in your budget (not so expensive for high-end systems, but expensive compared to $99 stuff).
Concerning the extended desktop on iBooks:. html
http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/supportlist_e
will do the trick (easy, safe -list of supported machines, clean). Concerning the Quicktime full-screen, previous answers are complete (buy it if you also need editing, trick it, or just use VLC as you perhaps already do on Linux).
And yes, there are differences between Linux, Windows and MacOsX and that makes some of the possible annoyance.
If you know Linux well, you'll discover some little changes, like when you switch to FreeBSD or AIX or Solaris. Basically you can (configure; make; make install;) run most of Linux tools. You'll certainly miss the multi-desktop feature (not included but some free/sharewares do the trick) and discover Expose (whaaaou).
If you know Windows well, you'll find the Finder strange at the beginning, you'll perhaps regret the latest games (situation gets better but slowly), and some advanced P2P/Ripping tools (situation gets better really fast), you'll miss the global inconsistence you got accustomed to and perhaps some keyboard tricks (like calling menus with alt-E), you'll discover new Ms Prices (Office is really expensive on Mac and stealing it is easier but still forbidden), you'll miss the graphical admin (get server tools if you like admin with windows or get some of the freewares which do that well or remember it's Unix and you can do what you want with a terminal). And of course you'll discover "major updates" with "real features" (and "price";-( every 18 months.
There are plenty of good sides of course but you seem to have heard enough of them for today...
Just remember the first week is awkward and you have to realize you need to learn new moves. Don't try a small weekend switch and get ready to spend some time at the beginning to make your new /Users (oops, not /home nor /usr) feel good.
And ask some Mac users about your precise needs and habits, they'll certainly tell you how to find a solution.
- separate datas, users accounts, my non Apple applications from system with 2 different partitions
- cleanly install the system and updates (stored on a separate drive) with no internet connection
- setup a temporary admin account during the install
- run a script (niutil, cp...) to recreate my environment (finally it's not that hard, just remember that users and groups are in netinfo and shadow passwords are stored in
/var/db/shadow/hash with the generateduids of the users) and drop the temporary account
- launch a complete replication of the system disk on an external (Emergency) drive (I currently use Mr. Bombich carbon copy cloner, but there are other solutions) which is useful to redo the first steps really fast (I mean 20 minutes from a drive, 30 minutes from my iPod which is becoming my "Emergency" drive). You can you the "rm local.nidb" trick to cleanly recreate the admin account
- go live.
This takes 2-4 hours with install from CDs, 1h from emergency drive.By the way, I also like to
- avoid the uid 501 admin
- replace the standard firewall (ipfw configured with ruleset from the SysPrefs) with a ruleset of my own (using the fantastic statefull feature, stealthing if necessary, explicitly closing ports I don't use to and from the computer, avoiding apps like MsOffice or Stuffit to call home) launched as a StartupItem
- check the basic security with nmap from the outside
- setup OpenFirmwarePassword and FileVault (sorry guys, physical access is not enough)
- check passwords are solid, currently with lcrack on shadow passwords
- make automatic backups of vital datas (thanks rsync) on external drive (and in my case my laptop which is then "in sync")
Of course, the second part is purely paranoid (except backups) as I'm not at all an interesting target (except if you want to read my code, discover my preferred films;-) but as I also do that for small companies I like (and occasionally work for), I feel a little bit more responsible and try it on my personal computer before deploying it for others.I also do that to learn a bit more what can be done as I'm not a sysadmin at all and not pretend at all being as pro as most of them.
I'm a bit jealous because it won't be available outside UK (well, I understand the legal mess it would be, but BBC is a real reference outside UK, and I'd be glad to watch legally some of their programs).
The good point is, at last, somebody big understood what P2P could bring technically. As they are close friends with Real and its network, it means a lot for the future if this experiment works fine.
The really bad point is this MsDRM. It means no standard and even no cross-platform; it means no freedom for the player (I don't really appreciate WMPlayer and usually watch wm file using VLC which brings me many more functions I like).
When will big company understand that opening their offer to as many customers/users as possible is a good thing? If you've got a shop, you try to make it accessible to anybody, with or without a car, with or without disabilities; you try to be opened as much as you can!
Why the technical options are not the same (and it's so easier with the Internet and the standards than with real world places)?
Why consider all the Internet users/customers as thiefs? Imagine a shop where you are systematically checked walking out, will you come back?
Why can a UK citizen rip/mix/burn as much BBC programs as he want from his TV plug but not from his IP plug?
I hope they will change their mind with the time (for example after the experiment!) but I know they have also to face the rights owners (producers, agencies) who are certainly a bit less interested in what final users experience
- a suitable network, with configured routers, auth./DNS servers...
- logins/passwords for the servers
- knowledge, and not only general tech but specific setup of that company servers
I prefer to read (between the lines) that they wanted something to be stopped, and eventually an occasion to get the information on the long term (weeks at least) on who/where it isThe strange part, for a European citizen like me, is that no reason at all is given. Normally (in democratic/free world), an investigation means a judge, some reasons, some rule brake, some arguments on why the police is acting.
I hope that with these new laws in Europe we are not going to become like that too soon
When it came to my own personal computer, I bought a Mac, just because I don't want to make support@home! Obviously I use nearly the same tools I could run on a dual boot Windows-Linux PC (DVDPlayer/VideoLan, iTunes, jEdit, MsOffice, JBoss-PHP-Apache, tcsh, Mozilla/kHtml). But it works find, nothing more than drag/drop to install an application, no OS upgrade issue, a perfect statefull firewall included). In two years, I had no system or software issues. When came the day I wanted a laptop, I took another Mac, because I liked the first one, because it was cheaper than the same class of computer from Dell.
I understand I overvalue my $/hour (I'm a bit more expensive than a 1st level support guy), but what can be compared to nearly $0? I helped some friends with their Macs (switchers, newcomers) and they were amazed how simple it was, how useless I could be for them (I love that because phone support at 10PM isn't my preferred friendliness).
I also worked at my office with Macs (Os9), and of course when a user had a problem, and the support team answered, "oh, it's a Mac", they called me. It's not a statistical study (5 samples), but each problems were solved in 5 minutes and were caused by "not connected" or "not switched on the VLAN", things that can exist on a PC and that really should not happened. The "no-support" reason was always "I don't know macs" which shouldn't happen with MacOsX (open a Terminal, remember your Unix for beginners 1st class, solve the problem). Still the $0 comparison.
With OsX, I believe there is a really good office alternative:
- a real user/admin isolation
- a realistic user rights limitation (you can install an funny screen saver with no possible impact on other users/ system files). Yes, don't tell me you plan to use the "no rights to the user" policy on windows, it's just not the job of sysadmins to forbid everything.
- a good multitask behavior (I'm ripping a DVD right now and don't feel any slowlyness on a 2 years old entry-level computer)
- all the classical usefull applications (Mozilla, Office, Mail, Calendar, Images management...) plus all the open-source world apps/tools.
- a wide adoption of standards and a real work on Windows connectivity
But a lot of people just don't compare anymore, are just too scary of innovation/new solutions (which is a real problem concerning technology). Too many people a ready to lie by not comparing Windows/Linux/Mac/Other before saying to the boss "here is the way". The scariest thing is the best way is certainly somewhere between those choices.Isn't it the entire "keep with the standards to keep the choice in your hands" lesson in first year of CS grade?
Strangely, I think the article doesn't explain the 4'33'' meaning, which was 273'', as -273 Celsius, aka Absolute Zero (0 Kelvin). Like the deep calm that ends this piece representation.
The conceptual aspect of the performance is still the fundamental of this piece and I don't believe WinAmp (or iTunes or mpg123) can't do the trick as well as a full concert hall. But perhaps the buying act can do a little, but should be organized, theatralized, like a performance.
Are those studies really serious, "using" Internet means so many things, it's like saying "living can kill".
Spending hours in "the outer world" of games or business could lead to social issues (well, like spending 3 nights in a row in casinos or all week-ends at the office). But for really shy people it is also a way to socialize. Or sometimes, it's just fun. Like somebody said, everything can lead to addiction in huge quantities, even CocaCola!
I personally spend a lot of time (in my own time-scale) on Internet, but well, less than the population average 2-3 hours in front of TV, and I don't have TV. I keep in touch with friends, learn far more than the same time stoned in front of a TV, mix professional and personal interests... And I don't spend so much time surfing at the office;-).
Sorry, but officially iBook can't use external monitor on dual screen mode but only on mirror mode.
I discovered this kind guy who developed a small tool to unlock this feature on nearly all the iBooks (and especially the new ones). It includes bigger resolutions as well and optionally let the iBook work once closed.
A friend of mine used it and is now working on a 12''+19'' space which seems to be a real pleasure.
Sometimes, Apple is just not kind, but they always let a small door. Enjoy!
So, less than $4 per on-site employee for that company you help (quite well, reading you)?
Less than $4M per million users.
Isn't there around 1 billion users of personal computers, so "less than $4,000,000,000", shouldn't we think of something better?
For example, let's say:"One went to a MacOsX machine and didn't infected it. One went to a Linux desktop, and did not concern it. None of around 7 internal Linux servers were affected of course.". You do a great job and the company is happy...
I don't mean neither Linux of MacOsX can be hit by a virus (in these systems, an admin can download then open an attached command file), but on those a virus discovers many difficulties to go through and different on each config.
Imagine the future life of a virus when the "Unsecure by Design Os will only be an old nightmare". First you reach the user, then you convince him to click, then you bypass the "no admin" standard stuff, then you bypass the "no root" then you bypass the local firewall, then you try to reach a "no port open" computer. On each step, you have to be standard compliant because this can be an AMD chip but also a Dragonball or a PowerPC or any other one, the only common point is Unix.
Oh my, I don't need this new Intel processor nor this new Windows update pack or this new bio-AI antivir to lead the company IT? What will I do next? Work!
More generally, I clearly avoided the conflict management between different sources (I just move datas), but carefully checked rsync options. What I did is
- defining clear home directories (quite easy as MacOsX defines most of them, but I also added some of my own).
- I then duplicated this list of directories in 3 sets: real home (~) for live files, "Shared" for all that stuff I like to have with me but don't really update so often and "Archive" for the cold files I'll certainly use one day.
- I linked (ln -s) those places (i.e. xxx/~/Movies/SharedMovies "is" xxx/Shared/SharedMovies and xxx/~/Movies/SharedMovies/ArchiveMovies is xxx/Archive/ArchiveMovies)
- I wrote some simple rsync scripts to sync one computer to another and one drive to another (not exactly the same options; not the same paths to sync)
- So I can update the laptop from the desktop when I go outside (or just want to work from the couch) and resync the opposite way when I'm back to the desktop. As it's ssh I can do it from one or another computer.
- I've decided to keep "~" and "Shared" on the 2 computers, and to keep "Archive" only on the desktop and the external disk (which also keeps some DVD I plan to watch (the disk is far more silent than the combo internal drive). Of course, one can triple the files to be sure, it(s better.
- I also do standard backups (cron triggered to launch cleanup and backup scripts every 7 days or the next time I turn the computer on) for critical files and tools, encrypted and saved (I usually keep last week and last 2 months, I don't need to go back in the past more than that and I'd also notice a problem before)
My options (machine to machine) are- -verbose (I filter the unused things but I like to see what happens)
- --recursive --links --one-file-system
- --partial --compress (seems to be better with low bandwidth link like 802.11b)
- --perms --owner --group --times (both unix)
- -e ssh
- --delete (only one direction!)
- --backup (I prefer to clean after but to be able to handle conflicts when I modify something on both places)
- --suffix="~" --exclude "*~" --exclude $'Icon\r'
I hope it'll help you on defining a method that fits your needs.- a double backup is necessary if I want "cold" backup
- burning CDs takes time (for example, I've got 6GB of apps/OS)
- from time to time (2-5 years), a second generation has to be done
- external disks are becoming a bit more affordable (around $1.5/GB, which means less than a dollar for a CD space)
- disks are really fast (seconds instead of minutes for CDs)
I'm currently leaving CDs for backups and "just" using HD backup (from my laptop to my desktop for online backups and from my desktop to an external HD for cold backups). CDs become moving support to bring files to friends (so no long life implied).I've made simple rsync scripts (rsync over ssh for laptop to desktop wireless communication, rsync from disk to disk for desktop). This solution implies good data organization (basically live/shared/cold) but is really fast, simple and up to date.
Are there other
I'm currently planning a bigger (200-500GB) solution based on Firewire drives (I'm using Macs, but it also works on PCs). Do you have any advices/experiences on using those solutions in simple home network?
I confirm the "multiple" apps solution; it's really the simplest way to launch 3 times the same tool with different jobs to do. That's for the ripping
Concerning the multiple burning, same solution but I would recommend using the Missing Media Burner (I use 0.6.2 and I'm satisfied). It's not the cleanest apps in the Mac world, but it's free and efficient in burn and overburn, which is quite useful when volume is involved.
Toast is certainly good and is quite a clean app, but it's way too expensive for lightly extending OS functions.
By the way, Missing Media Burner also does the VCD/SVCD/raw thing quite well
Of course you can forget to buy it and use a cracked key, but it's not the good way, not good for the karma as Jobs says, especially when their are cool people working on free alternatives.
The "selective breeding" you talk about is not just a bad idea (and not at all because of a "terrible world it would be"). It's as stupid as the "bit of genetic engineering".
Don't you remember the nazis were not only mass killers but also really bad scientists in that field, they just made a big confusion between their obsessions and science, most of their "theories" were pure crap, assembled from one of the worst scientists of the past.
Genetic engineering is based on a bit better scientific thinking but genetic modifications are not at all under control. Even in the most advanced research labs, they don't (can't) imagine the consequences of modifications based on a large scale. We are already taking huge risks with genetically modified animals and plants because we don't (can't) control what happens in less than a century.
If we begin to decide what a good genetic pattern is, we'll be on day 1 of the end of the specie, just because selection is not the solution.
Most of the easy-thinkers just forget the most important point of this darwin selection theory: mulitplicity of combination. The more sub-species and evolution there are, the better it is to create new possibilities for the future.
We still are evolving now, by mixing people from all over the globe and the fact that we can save lifes with medecine is a good thing to make new people appear, able to do new things. The question is to maintain and improve our ability to survive, not to select.
By the way, as we are at the "information age", we also have to evolve in our way of thinking. A first step would be that everybody understand the eugenism is crap. That is evolution!
I've already seen/heard of such system, basically in the Business Intelligence field.
In England, a systems like Autonomy (used by the police at the beginning) can crawl a mass of information with dedicated spiders (not only for the web, but also commercial databases, files...). Then, it structures all the content in thematics with links and proximity.
I personnaly tested it some years ago, feeding it with information websites and asking some articles "close to" another one. The efficiency was amazing because it was able to make the difference between close terms that have really different meaning depending on the context. Usually, search engines are wrong because they can't use the context.
I also set up some "agents" for recurrent searches (an agent is basically a search plus some training, letting Autonomy know what found document are close and not) and it was able to propose everyday a really good press review with nearly no wrong documents.
As a complement to Autonomy, I know a BI team that uses some other tools like Periclesto feed the searches with "relevant" content, basically thematics that are "appearing" in the group of documents and are close to some interests.
Such BI tools can already provide the kind of information cited, like a opinion movement against a company detected in the newsgroup or some websites. And IBM is certainly on the tracks to improve such tools with the techniques of their labs.
I hope these tools won't be limited to PR articles on the web and/or private use by big corporations, because it could only be another Echelon with all its bad consequences:
- bad use of public information
- paranoia feeded with wrong scares
- public/corp. power against the citizens
If tools like echelon could be used by everybody, it would have to let much more privacy to citizens and the public leaders would have to explain the investments.
It's really interesting to read that thread, mainly because I learn a lot on the US (more than on Irak or OSS).
When asked "give me an example of American colonial expansion this century", people tell about many places/times around WW2 (around Japan, but you can easily add Italy -still American soldiers not really to protect anymore-, Germany -there nearly are American cities-) but you just forget one of the closest colony: Cuba.
Remember that the US has a military base there ?
Remember that the whole country has been under blocus for years with no reasonnable arguments since the USSR are over.
Remembrer that in Cuba, in this Guantanamo base, the US keep some illegal prisoners from several countries with no judgement, no international justice involved ?
Basically, the self-knowledge of a country and its history by its citizen is the first sign of freedom/assumed democracy. May we wish that to Irak... and the US.
Seems you encounter some problems with a 6 years old Mac (from one the worst period of Apple, they don't always do the best;-) running on Os9.
May I recommend you to, well, upgrade to a new model (their are some at really reasonable prices on the AppleStore, less than $1000). They run on OsX (which is really fast, stable and improving with Panther)
I you can't/don't want, perhaps you could try some "autumn cleanup" on your machine. After 6 years, perhaps the disks are a bit full of fragmented files, the System Folder full of old unused preferences. There was/are some great tools to do that.
You can also check your system, because the latest version sometimes helps if you forgot to "auto-update".
If what you really need is fast-cheap-stable system comparable to actual PCs, I may recommend you some G5 (top level but not really useful if you don't need that much power), cheaper than equivalent brand-PCs. Or iBook/eMac if you need just that horse-power needed to surf and play music & videos and do some development.
I think a lot of people like me are out there and can help you avoid such strange problems and help you to see a Mac running fast.
I write this note just after reading the article, some posts I completely agree with, and making some google searches:
- the comparison is at least strange because the test is based on Premiere (not so much a success, and especially not now) and MsWord (really not a perf. master on Mac), so IMHO only Photoshop stays as a comparison (why not comparing MP3 encoding or easy to run stuffs like that?). The FPS in Quake is comparable but really not that much interesting as depending on such configuration mainly on the graphic card.
- the PCs used and cited at the beginning (Alienware, Falcon, Voodoo, ABS) are all mono Athlon, most of them $3500, except the ABS at $1900, are all mono Athlon 2.2Ghz, comparable to the Apple 1.8Ghz mono G5, $2400 by Apple (just do the math, Athlon speed per second/2.2*1.8 are really nearly the sames as the G5).
- The "winner PC" is a strange "Polystation Two" which is not really on Polywell catalog, but close to a Polystation 2020 (dual Opteron), priced around $3200 (one Opteron) or $4100 (dual Opteron). Whatching at the results, so close to the dual G5, I really believe a dual 2Ghz has been used for the test (>$4500)
This leads to real doubts on the serious of this comparison, but if we just clear the record and base the comparison on the Photoshop indicators/ the machines/ the prices/ the manufacturers we first obtain an interesting conclusion:
"The Athlon 64 (and Opteron) is really close to a 64 bits G5 and the machines based on those processors and adapted architectures are comparable in real-life use."
We also obtain some interesting information in term of PC/Mac comparison as the 3 first (Alienware, Falcon, Voodoo) are quite comparable to Mac mono-G5 1.8Ghz (clean, well built, powerfull), even if they are not made by a "big name" with worldwide distribution. Well, they are also more expensive ($2400 for the G5, $3500 for the Pcs, even the 1.8/2.2Ghz doesn't make the maths). The comparison is different with the Polystation (not nice looking, close to a server, clearly not the engineering of the Mac) for which the price difference is even bigger ($4000-$4500 for the PC, $3000 for the dual G5 2Ghz).
My conclusion for this odd "audience seeker" article would be:
In the top-desktop offer, real bad news for Intel in term of speed, very good news for Apple in term of price.