If you define "we" to include more than "Texas" (hard to do, I know, just take a deep breath and face the fact that Yessirreebob, there's folks livin' beyond them thar hills), then yes, "we" did have record highs last year. In N-W Europe, 2004 was one of the warmest years in a century. Not only that, in 1994-2004 8 out of 10 years were warmer than usual. And the earth may have a climatic cycle of its own, but this time we're helping it along. You can debate the extent of our influence, but just assuming that extent is 0% and adopting an "Après moi la déluge" attitude is Just Plain Dumb.
You do realize that OS X Server includes "Server Admin: Remote Server Admin tools let you configure and monitor all key services of Mac OS X Server from near or far." [quote from Apple's site], right? this is a GUI tool. I do think people are buying them so they can have a GUI.
You're missing the point. This is supposed to be a bare-bones machine. Include both adapters and you'd have a $530 base configuration instead of $499, adding expense for items not everyone will need. You don't want to know how many unnecessary adapters, cords, etc. I've gotten over the years. All wasted money. I'd rather have the adapters separate.
Right. Who could possibly want a server they can administer using their existing skill set, instead of having to spend time learning arcana. People who choose a Mac as a server typically do this because it's easy to use.
Minis are 2" high, so in 8U=14" you can stack 7. You can fit 2 side by side, or 3 if you get rack shelves that will accomodate 19,5" wide equipment. And you may be able to stack 'em 2 or 3 rows deep if your rack is deep enough. So at least 14 will fit, up to 63 if you really cram 'em together. You'd probably have to add some cooling fans, though. OTOH the Xserve uses faster harddisks (3-4 internal ATA and/or a Fibrechannel RAID instead of one laptop drive), and it has gigabit Ethernet instead of 10/100. These can be major bottlenecks in a cluster.
If you want to do this, FireWire may be a better bet than USB2. I've got some external drives that have both FW400 and USB2, and they're about 30% faster when connected via FireWire. Also, IIRC FW handles multiple disks on one bus better than USB.
just add some harddisks and a RAID controller to one of your existing computers? Saves adding YA device, and you probably already have a machine that's on 24/7 anyway.
"finally"? The biggest problem I have with inkjets is that unless I use the printer at least once every week, the head will clog. I'm currently trying to revive an Epson that's less than 2 years old. Thanks to their non-replaceable print head, I'm SOL.
If it works like Epson's printers, you do have a big problem when the print head clogs, though. At least with an HP, you swap out the print head with the cartridge.
You're missing the point of the Mac mini. It's a bare-bones system. Not everyone will want to use his mini as an HTPC, so for them the AV in/out hardware would be wasted. If you want to use it as an HTPC, there are FireWire-based solutions that will turn your mini into a killer system. Meanwhile, the rest of us save the $100, plus N cubic inches this would have added to the cost of the base system.
With only 10/100 Ethernet and no way to add Gigabit or something like that, the Mac mini isn't ideal. Quite a few 'clusterable problems' require fast networks.
No, the argument is based on the theory that every hour you spend building a computer is an hour you could have spent doing something else, whatever that is. It's all a matter of preference. Do I want to spend the night up to my elbows in computer parts, or do I want to go visit some friends instead? Whether you want to put a price to it or not, spare time is a scarce resource. For me, it's easily worth the extra money not to have to build my computer.
Having not bought a boxed PC since 92, at this point the do-it-yourself build curve is strictly behind me. Do you remember how much time you spent before you got that far? IMO that's a significant investment the 'build-your-own' crowd usually forgets to take into account.
Stuff breaking in a computer? Either it breaks within 6 months, or not at all/after 10 years. The only parts even remotely likely to need replacement are the harddisk and the optical drive, and whaddayaknow, they are standard parts.
USB2 and FireWire provide for enough expandability for a large percentage of users.
Out of date PCs useful? Historically, Macs have held their value for far longer than PCs. I still use a beige G3 (a 1997 design) as my main computer, and I'm only now starting to think about buying a new one.
You want anything more, then you gotta pay more. Well, duh. That's the whole point of the mini: provide only the basics.
Most of the problem is knowing which components to get. Will motherboard XYZ work with processor ABC? How big a PSU do I need? And it goes on and on. Most./-ers will consider this trivial, since they spend the whole day absorbing this kind of information anyway. But Joe Public without a CS/EE background will have to spend weeks before he's confident he's picked the right components.
Once you have all this knowledge, putting the system together isn't that difficult, though the first time is rather daunting: after all, one mistake and hundreds of dollars go up in smoke.
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The TAM was created to celebrate Apple's 20th birthday, not the 20th birthday of the Macintosh.
If you define "we" to include more than "Texas" (hard to do, I know, just take a deep breath and face the fact that Yessirreebob, there's folks livin' beyond them thar hills), then yes, "we" did have record highs last year. In N-W Europe, 2004 was one of the warmest years in a century. Not only that, in 1994-2004 8 out of 10 years were warmer than usual.
And the earth may have a climatic cycle of its own, but this time we're helping it along. You can debate the extent of our influence, but just assuming that extent is 0% and adopting an "Après moi la déluge" attitude is Just Plain Dumb.
So that's where all my code monkeys went. Microsoft hired them.
You do realize that OS X Server includes "Server Admin: Remote Server Admin tools let you configure and monitor all key services of Mac OS X Server from near or far." [quote from Apple's site], right? this is a GUI tool. I do think people are buying them so they can have a GUI.
Right. And how many FireWire devices are there that can saturate a 400 Mbit/s link?
You're missing the point. This is supposed to be a bare-bones machine. Include both adapters and you'd have a $530 base configuration instead of $499, adding expense for items not everyone will need. You don't want to know how many unnecessary adapters, cords, etc. I've gotten over the years. All wasted money.
I'd rather have the adapters separate.
Right. Who could possibly want a server they can administer using their existing skill set, instead of having to spend time learning arcana.
People who choose a Mac as a server typically do this because it's easy to use.
Minis are 2" high, so in 8U=14" you can stack 7.
You can fit 2 side by side, or 3 if you get rack shelves that will accomodate 19,5" wide equipment. And you may be able to stack 'em 2 or 3 rows deep if your rack is deep enough.
So at least 14 will fit, up to 63 if you really cram 'em together. You'd probably have to add some cooling fans, though.
OTOH the Xserve uses faster harddisks (3-4 internal ATA and/or a Fibrechannel RAID instead of one laptop drive), and it has gigabit Ethernet instead of 10/100. These can be major bottlenecks in a cluster.
Whoops. Hit 'submit' too soon.
Anyway, we can recover every project we ever did, and yes, sometimes we do need those old projects.
We do. In fact, we've got backups all the way back to when we first started using DDS3.
He says he already has "several computers", I suspect not all of them are used as workstations.
If you want to do this, FireWire may be a better bet than USB2. I've got some external drives that have both FW400 and USB2, and they're about 30% faster when connected via FireWire. Also, IIRC FW handles multiple disks on one bus better than USB.
just add some harddisks and a RAID controller to one of your existing computers? Saves adding YA device, and you probably already have a machine that's on 24/7 anyway.
A PPC G3/300 works perfectly well without a fan.
Duh, that's what Photoshop is for. A digital camera isn't the place to do dark room-type manipulations.
"finally"? The biggest problem I have with inkjets is that unless I use the printer at least once every week, the head will clog. I'm currently trying to revive an Epson that's less than 2 years old. Thanks to their non-replaceable print head, I'm SOL.
If it works like Epson's printers, you do have a big problem when the print head clogs, though. At least with an HP, you swap out the print head with the cartridge.
You're missing the point of the Mac mini. It's a bare-bones system. Not everyone will want to use his mini as an HTPC, so for them the AV in/out hardware would be wasted.
If you want to use it as an HTPC, there are FireWire-based solutions that will turn your mini into a killer system. Meanwhile, the rest of us save the $100, plus N cubic inches this would have added to the cost of the base system.
With only 10/100 Ethernet and no way to add Gigabit or something like that, the Mac mini isn't ideal. Quite a few 'clusterable problems' require fast networks.
No, the argument is based on the theory that every hour you spend building a computer is an hour you could have spent doing something else, whatever that is.
It's all a matter of preference. Do I want to spend the night up to my elbows in computer parts, or do I want to go visit some friends instead?
Whether you want to put a price to it or not, spare time is a scarce resource. For me, it's easily worth the extra money not to have to build my computer.
Having not bought a boxed PC since 92, at this point the do-it-yourself build curve is strictly behind me.
Do you remember how much time you spent before you got that far? IMO that's a significant investment the 'build-your-own' crowd usually forgets to take into account.
Stuff breaking in a computer? Either it breaks within 6 months, or not at all/after 10 years. The only parts even remotely likely to need replacement are the harddisk and the optical drive, and whaddayaknow, they are standard parts.
USB2 and FireWire provide for enough expandability for a large percentage of users.
Out of date PCs useful? Historically, Macs have held their value for far longer than PCs. I still use a beige G3 (a 1997 design) as my main computer, and I'm only now starting to think about buying a new one.
You want anything more, then you gotta pay more.
Well, duh. That's the whole point of the mini: provide only the basics.
Most of the problem is knowing which components to get. Will motherboard XYZ work with processor ABC? How big a PSU do I need? And it goes on and on. ./-ers will consider this trivial, since they spend the whole day absorbing this kind of information anyway. But Joe Public without a CS/EE background will have to spend weeks before he's confident he's picked the right components.
Most
Once you have all this knowledge, putting the system together isn't that difficult, though the first time is rather daunting: after all, one mistake and hundreds of dollars go up in smoke.
And how many developers would a. work on surveillance tools in their spare time, b. admit to doing a.?
You're ignoring that Intel sells these CPUs by the bazillion. 130 W times the annual PC production adds up to a whole lot of waste.