Here's an admittedly large moon "montage" my dad took with an SAC CCD camera. There are some other pictures he has taken over the years here.
This one is my favorite of the ones up there now but there are others that aren't up there anymore or never were. Including some really nice ones taken with a modified B&W QuickCam probably 4-5 years ago. I'd have to ask him to get the correct dates. He still has the Modified QuickCam but since he got his SAC camera, I don't think he uses it much anymore.
For instance, you don't see commercials where MacDonalds even mentions Burger King or their other competitors
I too have no training in marketing (but I think I have your paltry 10,000 hours beaten soundly;) and, of course, exceptions and rules go hand in hand so this is probably nit-picking, but what about the ones that go something like:
Twice as much beef as the Big Mac!
I can think of MANY ads in MANY market categories where The Competition is quite intentionally mentioned but it's probably not worth the bandwidth or time.
Also, I am an Apple user, and I just think it's funny (and Bullshit).
(Forgive the bad pun.) First of all, I don't claim that this is A Good Thing, but I don't claim it isn't. That said, your examples (Xserver, emacs...) are without merit. Let me explain.
iTunes - Music playing, sorting, ripping application with exceptional searching and playlist functionality etc...
xtunes - Music playing, sorting, ripping application with searching and playlist functionality.
Similar name AND similar functionality(?) of product.
Xserve - A rack-mountable G4 with the intended use of being a server.
Xserver - An open-source window server for *nix(es).
eMac - An iMac-ish computer originally aimed at Educational institutions - hence the 'e' - I think you can figure out where the 'Mac' comes from.
emacs - A text editing program.
See the difference? Similar names, completely different product functionality.
One quick note, as per your response to #3: I don't really know what I was thinking with that 100% thing. I admit that I didn't research it, but I'd still be willing to bet that Apple had more than 2.7-5% market-share in the "Personal Computer" market. But I digress...
Side note: eyepeepackets, thanks right back at you for not flaming my very first post on slashdot!
(Damn, I actually get a 2 [on an Apple-related thread, no less!] on my very first post and what do I follow it up with? A -1 offtopic... Shoot! Oh well, best not to think too hard on it, it'll be another 6 months before there's something else for me to say that hasn't already been said.
First of all, I tend to agree that this is a less-than-good idea (not a bad one mind you) - but I can understand it. My gut-reaction is that Apple is thinking, "If they want a SuperDrive, they're going to get an iMac/G4 Tower. If they want inexpensive, eMac/CRT iMac." It all boils down to Money. Which many will say is bad, but Apple is in it to make money, no matter how cool I think Apple is, they still mainly want some of my money (which I'm happy to give considering what I get). So I can understand it. Here's a grain of salt, though: I have no desire to buy an eMac - SuperDrive or no.
That being said, I'd like to briefly comment on a few of the comments made in this post (the one I'm replying to) and it's parent:
1. Quantax wrote: "...they have not been on really solid ground for a couple years..." Which I don't think is entirely fair. Nor is it entirely accurate. Apple has been doing pretty darn well, as far as I'm concerned, in the past few years. Many consecutive quarters with black ink (even if it could have been blacker), 4-5 billion in cash in the bank, many industry-shaping products introduced (original iMac, PBG4, iBook, iPod and now the flat-panel iMac, OS X) to excellent sales AND reviews and some wickedly awesome applications (iTunes rocks the pants off a horse with the "search field" alone). I wouldn't exactly call that shaky ground. Sure, before a couple years ago things looked bad, and sure, the industry as a whole is slumping, but I think Apple is doing a bang-up job providing a great user experience - not just "bigger, faster, better" hype.
2. eyepeepackets says a. "[Apple is]... slow to adapt to changing markets and technologies... I would humbly state that this may be almost exactly the opposite of truth. They got rid of the insipid floppy (good riddance), made USB what it is today practically single-handedly, FireWire. Not to mention the way the rest of the industry tends to follow Apple's footsteps in many ways: colorful cases (one could argue for or against this, I'll leave that for another discussion), the whole "Desktop Video" thing, I'll not even mention This little thing (oops, I just did). I believe it is misinformed to say that Apple is behind the curve, or that they don't innovate.
3. eyepeepackets also seems to completely ignore the fact that the Mac was the "first" "personal" computer when he/she states: "It's going on twenty years since the first Macs came out and look where they are in the market -- hey, about where they were twenty or so years ago. It's simply irresponsible to even attempt to compare the marketshare they had when the first Macs came out (which, I would imagine, was somewhere around 100% of the 4 people that could afford such a thing back then) and today.
4. eyepeepackets then went on to write:... Oh wait, your second-to-last statement was just flamebait, so I'll pat you on your little, patronizing head and IGNORE IT. (Mostly because of your "cranky" disclaimer!;)
Perhaps I have Apple-tinted glasses on, I'm not trying to attack anybody here, but, please, try to give Apple credit where credit is due. Even if you are wearing penguin-(or more likely, MSFT-)tinted glasses.
Slashdot Mirror
Here's an admittedly large moon "montage" my dad took with an SAC CCD camera. There are some other pictures he has taken over the years here.
This one is my favorite of the ones up there now but there are others that aren't up there anymore or never were. Including some really nice ones taken with a modified B&W QuickCam probably 4-5 years ago. I'd have to ask him to get the correct dates. He still has the Modified QuickCam but since he got his SAC camera, I don't think he uses it much anymore.
For instance, you don't see commercials where MacDonalds even mentions Burger King or their other competitors
;) and, of course, exceptions and rules go hand in hand so this is probably nit-picking, but what about the ones that go something like:
I too have no training in marketing (but I think I have your paltry 10,000 hours beaten soundly
Twice as much beef as the Big Mac!
I can think of MANY ads in MANY market categories where The Competition is quite intentionally mentioned but it's probably not worth the bandwidth or time.
Also, I am an Apple user, and I just think it's funny (and Bullshit).
(Forgive the bad pun.) First of all, I don't claim that this is A Good Thing, but I don't claim it isn't. That said, your examples (Xserver, emacs...) are without merit. Let me explain.
iTunes - Music playing, sorting, ripping application with exceptional searching and playlist functionality etc...
xtunes - Music playing, sorting, ripping application with searching and playlist functionality.
Similar name AND similar functionality(?) of product.
Xserve - A rack-mountable G4 with the intended use of being a server.
Xserver - An open-source window server for *nix(es).
eMac - An iMac-ish computer originally aimed at Educational institutions - hence the 'e' - I think you can figure out where the 'Mac' comes from.
emacs - A text editing program.
See the difference? Similar names, completely different product functionality.
One quick note, as per your response to #3: I don't really know what I was thinking with that 100% thing. I admit that I didn't research it, but I'd still be willing to bet that Apple had more than 2.7-5% market-share in the "Personal Computer" market. But I digress...
Side note: eyepeepackets, thanks right back at you for not flaming my very first post on slashdot!
(Damn, I actually get a 2 [on an Apple-related thread, no less!] on my very first post and what do I follow it up with? A -1 offtopic... Shoot! Oh well, best not to think too hard on it, it'll be another 6 months before there's something else for me to say that hasn't already been said.
First of all, I tend to agree that this is a less-than-good idea (not a bad one mind you) - but I can understand it. My gut-reaction is that Apple is thinking, "If they want a SuperDrive, they're going to get an iMac/G4 Tower. If they want inexpensive, eMac/CRT iMac." It all boils down to Money. Which many will say is bad, but Apple is in it to make money, no matter how cool I think Apple is, they still mainly want some of my money (which I'm happy to give considering what I get). So I can understand it. Here's a grain of salt, though: I have no desire to buy an eMac - SuperDrive or no.
That being said, I'd like to briefly comment on a few of the comments made in this post (the one I'm replying to) and it's parent:
1. Quantax wrote: "...they have not been on really solid ground for a couple years..." Which I don't think is entirely fair. Nor is it entirely accurate. Apple has been doing pretty darn well, as far as I'm concerned, in the past few years. Many consecutive quarters with black ink (even if it could have been blacker), 4-5 billion in cash in the bank, many industry-shaping products introduced (original iMac, PBG4, iBook, iPod and now the flat-panel iMac, OS X) to excellent sales AND reviews and some wickedly awesome applications (iTunes rocks the pants off a horse with the "search field" alone). I wouldn't exactly call that shaky ground. Sure, before a couple years ago things looked bad, and sure, the industry as a whole is slumping, but I think Apple is doing a bang-up job providing a great user experience - not just "bigger, faster, better" hype.
2. eyepeepackets says a. "[Apple is] ... slow to adapt to changing markets and technologies... I would humbly state that this may be almost exactly the opposite of truth. They got rid of the insipid floppy (good riddance), made USB what it is today practically single-handedly, FireWire. Not to mention the way the rest of the industry tends to follow Apple's footsteps in many ways: colorful cases (one could argue for or against this, I'll leave that for another discussion), the whole "Desktop Video" thing, I'll not even mention This little thing (oops, I just did). I believe it is misinformed to say that Apple is behind the curve, or that they don't innovate.
3. eyepeepackets also seems to completely ignore the fact that the Mac was the "first" "personal" computer when he/she states: "It's going on twenty years since the first Macs came out and look where they are in the market -- hey, about where they were twenty or so years ago. It's simply irresponsible to even attempt to compare the marketshare they had when the first Macs came out (which, I would imagine, was somewhere around 100% of the 4 people that could afford such a thing back then) and today.
4. eyepeepackets then went on to write: ... Oh wait, your second-to-last statement was just flamebait, so I'll pat you on your little, patronizing head and IGNORE IT. (Mostly because of your "cranky" disclaimer! ;)
Perhaps I have Apple-tinted glasses on, I'm not trying to attack anybody here, but, please, try to give Apple credit where credit is due. Even if you are wearing penguin-(or more likely, MSFT-)tinted glasses.