I use the same scanner, although they call it the CanoScan LiDE 20 now. It works with OS X, so my Powerbook G4 is happy. It scans well, it's portable, and it works with Macs, and it's about the same size as the Powerbook, so you could throw it in your carrying case most likely.
I could easily see someone who wants to run Linux as a desktop and have a snazzy laptop at the same time. Yellowdog is great on an iBook or Powerbook, and I would think that it may serve well on Xserve. Apple's hardware and support is generally very good, so I can imagine those that would demand Apple hardware to run linux. Granted, having OS X around must be tough on Terra Soft. Linux and Unix geeks can accomplish a lot of geekiness within OS X. I admit that I ran Yellow Dog on my Powerbook for a while, but then OS X just became too good, so I had to abandon Linux as a desktop on that thing. I appreciate Terra Soft's effort, as it's a small company that works in kind of a crappy building 20 miles from here. They've done some cool things for Linux. I especially think their BriQ G4 servers are pretty cool.
Oh, come now. The old Sierra-style games weren't all that bad. They were very entertaining, and were often very funny. Leisure Suit Larry anyone? Space Quest? Have you ever played The Longest Journey? It is, of course, an excellent addition to that style of a game, and it works. It is a rare thing to see a game like that these days, however. In order to compete, those games have to step it up with interesting stories and characters, and the graphics have to be good. I always appreciate the efforts in a good adventure game, especially if it provides a good laugh. Not many games make you laugh anymore.
"The reason developers now make games that are all about framerates and pretty textures? It sells. The gamers that open their wallets and fork over the green decide where game development is heading."
While the "pretty," but shallow games often sell well, it's usually the deeper games like The Sims and (dare I say) Warcraft III that continue to sell like crazy years after the initial release. Hell, even the games in the adventure series of Myst are some of the all-time best sellers. I think there is a great market for thoughtful games, and I wish there was more of that kind of creativity in the gaming scene. Creative games could be very lucrative in such a flooded 3D shooter market.
Don't get me wrong. I love to frag zombies and Nazis on occasion, but I think there is room for a little more creativity, although developing a game is always a huge investment, so there's a lot of risk involved. I'm sure companies like id and Raven have asserted that there's a lower financial risk involved if they stick to the 3D shooter formula that they have always used.
Bandwidth costs are getting to be terrible, so I'm not surprised that iTools got canned, but I wish there was a cheaper.Mac option for us. Most of us can't just lay down $99 for this kind of thing. I paid the $49 since I use the email heavily and I was going to buy virus software anyway. The iDisk and other things are just bonuses for me, although I'm not sure if I'll shell out $99 next year for this. A lot can change in a year, so I'll wait it out for a while.
According to news.com [com.com]apple is using the dmca to make sure its itools software does not work with any other dvd player but there own internal ones. Apple does not care about the opensource community and like Enron care about profits above all else.
First of all, iTools has nothing to do with this. iDVD and iTools are not connected in any way other than the naming scheme. iDVD is part of the package you get with a Mac equipped with a DVD-R drive, so it's basically free. However, it is not open source software by any means, and it was never intended for that. To say that Apple does not care about the open source community is completely absurd. Darwin is open source, as well as a legion of apps supporting OS X. Rendevous is pretty incredible technology that will benefit everyone when it becomes open. Among the larger companies out there, Apple leads the pack in advancing open source technology in a lot of ways.
There are lots of little tricks and shortcuts on Mac OS X as well. Just because you're not familiar with them does not mean they don't exist. You can also treat your mac somewhat like a *nix box by running XFree86 if you'd like. OS X is anything but outdated, in my opinion. It is very intuitive, and once you spend some time with it, everything else seems more difficult then it should be. *nix folks can feel somewhat at home in the terminal too. It's a cool little OS, IMO.
Also, any mac user can ditch his or her one-button mouse for something else. I personally wish Apple would rid themselves of those things, but I know some people who like them.
I second the IDL idea. It has always been very effective, and I owe it to my University for requiring me to learn it, at it's an invaluable tool. It is VERY fast, and the graphics are quite nice.
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A trilogy in five parts? That's some crazy sci-fi!
I use the same scanner, although they call it the CanoScan LiDE 20 now. It works with OS X, so my Powerbook G4 is happy. It scans well, it's portable, and it works with Macs, and it's about the same size as the Powerbook, so you could throw it in your carrying case most likely.
I could easily see someone who wants to run Linux as a desktop and have a snazzy laptop at the same time. Yellowdog is great on an iBook or Powerbook, and I would think that it may serve well on Xserve. Apple's hardware and support is generally very good, so I can imagine those that would demand Apple hardware to run linux. Granted, having OS X around must be tough on Terra Soft. Linux and Unix geeks can accomplish a lot of geekiness within OS X. I admit that I ran Yellow Dog on my Powerbook for a while, but then OS X just became too good, so I had to abandon Linux as a desktop on that thing. I appreciate Terra Soft's effort, as it's a small company that works in kind of a crappy building 20 miles from here. They've done some cool things for Linux. I especially think their BriQ G4 servers are pretty cool.
Oh, come now. The old Sierra-style games weren't all that bad. They were very entertaining, and were often very funny. Leisure Suit Larry anyone? Space Quest? Have you ever played The Longest Journey? It is, of course, an excellent addition to that style of a game, and it works. It is a rare thing to see a game like that these days, however. In order to compete, those games have to step it up with interesting stories and characters, and the graphics have to be good. I always appreciate the efforts in a good adventure game, especially if it provides a good laugh. Not many games make you laugh anymore.
While the "pretty," but shallow games often sell well, it's usually the deeper games like The Sims and (dare I say) Warcraft III that continue to sell like crazy years after the initial release. Hell, even the games in the adventure series of Myst are some of the all-time best sellers. I think there is a great market for thoughtful games, and I wish there was more of that kind of creativity in the gaming scene. Creative games could be very lucrative in such a flooded 3D shooter market.
Don't get me wrong. I love to frag zombies and Nazis on occasion, but I think there is room for a little more creativity, although developing a game is always a huge investment, so there's a lot of risk involved. I'm sure companies like id and Raven have asserted that there's a lower financial risk involved if they stick to the 3D shooter formula that they have always used.
Bandwidth costs are getting to be terrible, so I'm not surprised that iTools got canned, but I wish there was a cheaper .Mac option for us. Most of us can't just lay down $99 for this kind of thing. I paid the $49 since I use the email heavily and I was going to buy virus software anyway. The iDisk and other things are just bonuses for me, although I'm not sure if I'll shell out $99 next year for this. A lot can change in a year, so I'll wait it out for a while.
First of all, iTools has nothing to do with this. iDVD and iTools are not connected in any way other than the naming scheme. iDVD is part of the package you get with a Mac equipped with a DVD-R drive, so it's basically free. However, it is not open source software by any means, and it was never intended for that. To say that Apple does not care about the open source community is completely absurd. Darwin is open source, as well as a legion of apps supporting OS X. Rendevous is pretty incredible technology that will benefit everyone when it becomes open. Among the larger companies out there, Apple leads the pack in advancing open source technology in a lot of ways.
There are lots of little tricks and shortcuts on Mac OS X as well. Just because you're not familiar with them does not mean they don't exist. You can also treat your mac somewhat like a *nix box by running XFree86 if you'd like. OS X is anything but outdated, in my opinion. It is very intuitive, and once you spend some time with it, everything else seems more difficult then it should be. *nix folks can feel somewhat at home in the terminal too. It's a cool little OS, IMO. Also, any mac user can ditch his or her one-button mouse for something else. I personally wish Apple would rid themselves of those things, but I know some people who like them.
I second the IDL idea. It has always been very effective, and I owe it to my University for requiring me to learn it, at it's an invaluable tool. It is VERY fast, and the graphics are quite nice.