O.K... Here's the plan. We all take turns following this scumbag around throughout the course of his day. Whenever he's trying to do anything, the person on duty takes a big 36" by 48" sign with an ad for some crap he doesn't want and pop it up right in his face, completely obscuring his view. If the signs happen to be made of 1/2 inch plywood and occasionally smack him squarely in the nose... Ooops. That will be the eqivalent of the popups with sound, or the ones that are bigger than your display that don't seem to respond to keyboard commands... And, whenever he's trying to write something, we crush his hands with the sign to simulate the ones that pop up while you're in the middle of filling out a form... In all seriousness, I hope he gets the patent and people stop using them. A simple banner is all that's needed to make us aware of your company. Banners don't tend to make me swear a blood oath that I would never ever buy your product after annoying the hell out of me... Are you listening X10? A wireless camera might be fun, but your ads piss me off so much, that I would never ever ever buy one from you. I also think that anyone using popups that are meant to look like geniune system error messages should be told that they have SARS by their doctor... Only to be told later that it was just to get their attention and offer them plane tickets or some similar, unrelated item. "Gee, sorry to frighten you unnecessarily...".
I've read a bunch of comments complaining that this service is "Apple-Only". Well, as a Windows user, you are entitled to the entire software aisle at WalMart, where you will find almost no Mac software. You don't hear us Mac users bitching that we can't use PrintMess for Dipshits 3.0... After years of hearing Windows people brag about all of the software available for their platform of choice, I can't help but get off just a little bit watching you turn a little green. Relax, Apple is porting the whole thing to Windows. Having used iTunes since its release, and the store since it launched, I can honestly say it is a great service. As more music is added, particularly more indie releases, it's only going to get better. I think anyone who hasn't used iTunes or an iPod is going to be very pleased when they do. You can argue all day long about Mac hardware, but the software, for the most part, is elegant and very functional. All I can say to anyone who has not used it yet is be objective about it and welcome aboard. In the meantime, everyone should respect Apple for finding a compromise in this whole RIAA nightmare. Sure, it would be great if we could just have it all for free, but let's be real for a minute... If they get no money for a song that you download, they will fight you tooth and nail to stop you from doing it. If they make something on it, maybe they'll shut up. I also think that the stats from which songs/artists/albums are being downloaded can help domonstrate what music should be promoted. IIRC, many album and single charts are, in part, driven and manipulated by units shipped from distributors to stores... Not by how many albums actually make it into the hands of consumers. Not to mention ClearChannel and all of its shenanigans. This would be real empirical data that demonstrates the will of the listener. Granted, that same info can be used for evil marketing purposes... I remain hopelessly optimistic that the labels will have their ears a bit closer to the consumer now and use that info wisely. In the meantime, Windows users, enjoy the wait...
Amen.
It's a fucking MOVIE! What's next? Are we going to debate the impossibilities of Daffy Duck? Don't want to see "ads" for movies on Slashdot? Don't click the fucking link! Don't want to see this movie? I'm sure Pirates of Silicon Valley is on the shelf somewhere at Cockbuster. Oh, that's right... we pasty computer geeks don't like to venture out of the cave for long. Seriously. Lighten up.
For a few years in high school, coincidentally in the 80's, I was pretty sure that was how my life was going to play out. It felt pretty strange to see it on the screen... Let's also not forget:
Sid & Nancy, Straight to Hell, Meet the Feebles, and of course Rubin & Ed.
I think we all agree that many of the benchmarks we've seen, especially those relating to Photoshop, are skewed by their creators to put their platform of choice in the best light. Check out Steve Jobs' keynote address where he used the Inspector Gadget (IIRC) poster as the test image. It was assembled in less than half the time of its Windows competitor. As far as my "slandering" of Adobe, you are mistaken. I make my living with their products. I love their products. Did you miss the bit about them being second only to Apple? Just as I can with Apple, I can admit that their product line is starting to slip. In the case of Adobe, I think it has something to do with Apple competing with them in the arena of video editing. As for being "flamebait"... c'mon. Any time we get into the whole Mac vs. Windows thing, it gets kind of "flamey" around here. My cynical comment was not intended to generate more flames, just to point out that I knew this discussion was likely to head in that direction and not in a particularly useful direction. As an artist, I just want hardware and software that bridges the gap between what my brain sees and what my hands cannot do by themselves. In my opinion, I have found gear that does that. That is all.
As a professional graphic artist who uses Adobe products on both platforms, I'm not quite sure I agree with the findings of the author. I always find benchmark results from either side to be suspect. I judge by user experience. I find that my results are better, and much easier to achieve, on either of my Macs. I have grown to accept Windows as a sometimes necessary evil, and am quite functional with it. However, and maybe some of you out there have noticed this, tools in Photoshop seem to work much more reliably on the Mac. For instance... color correction, minor adjustments to position, hotkeys, and anything done freehand seem to work less consistently in the Windows version. Strange stuttering, having to hit hotkeys twice, taking forever to place items exactly where you want them... these add up in a business where you are constantly playing beat the clock. Now, before you all start flaming me about being a newbie, or checking my manuals, getting a new keyboard... I have been using Photoshop since the beta for version 2, and Premeire since the very first betas. I've been making a living with CGI for over 12 years. Again, this is my experience with these products, YMMV. I suggest that Adobe is promoting stories like this to teach Apple a lesson. Apple has really put the hurt on Adobe with Final Cut Pro, and with their purchase of several other effects software companies, will soon start to hurt sales of After Effects. This is not to say that Adobe's products are inferior... I think they got lazy with their stranglehold on the market, and don't appreciate Apple filling the gap. What they should be doing is making better products for Mac users. We are largely responsible for supporting them up to this point, and would continue to do so if they kept up the good work. Taking so long to get Photoshop for OSX out did not make them any friends, and suggesting that they were going to stop releasing Premeire for the Mac didn't help either. Ask any of the "Mac Faithful"... Adobe runs a close second as a company that we would break a bottle on the edge of the bar and cut you for badmouthing. Bottom line: their Mac products are slipping, but in general still (IMHO) get the job done better. Let the flames begin...
Without resorting to "bashing" anyone... From time to time, running a Windows-Only app is a necessary evil. It's silly to buy another machine if you don't have frequent use for it. I am a Mac advocate because, as a tool, it does everything I need it to. In the rare event that it doesn't, emulation can ease the pain. That's really all there is to the discussion. So, how is it offensive to you that one platform can run both kinds of software, and the other can not? Seems pretty simple to me... Sounds to me like you have a big chip on your shoulder about your choice of platforms. Do you buy the hype that Macs are more "hip"? Are you bummed that Macs have "cooler" cases? Are you steamed because you don't have a positive enough experience with your OS that you would "religiously" defend it? Get over it. If you don't like Macs, nobody really gives a shit... Especially when you post as AC and bring nothing of substance to the discussion.
HAHAHAHAHA....
I actually got about 3/4 of the way down the page (to your post) before it even occured to me that they may have intentionally misspelled Maestro! I hate when people/companies do that. Personally, I thought the name sounded like a supervillain, so what we need is a superhero... Either way, this thing sounds stupid (and I work for the Death Star...er... Slime Warmer Cable... er... I mean, never mind.).
Amen. The last thing we need is to clog the net with even more huge useless files. Personally, I don't think any of us really need to see what any of the rest of us look like... Although, it may cut back on trolls and flames if people know they can be identified and beaten publicly for wasting everyone's time and bandwidth with their crap. The software that the author seemed to be pitching is about on par with the lame printshop stuff you can buy at WalMart... Just because your computer CAN make crappy little videos doesn't mean you SHOULD make crappy little videos. The content should dictate the medium, not the other way around.
I'm looking forward to trying out voice recognition with Photoshop... I can already
feel the key sized dents in my forehead starting
to form after trying to verbally describe an
operation with the lasso tool. After more than
20 years of computer use, I guess it's time I
did something "serious"... I keep forgetting that code monkeys are the only people whose work on computers rises to the level of "serious". That's a bit like suggesting that the only people who can make serious use of a car are mechanics.
Honestly, sometimes I'm ashamed to be a geek.
I think you misunderstood me. I am saying that the Mac users I know have an easier time adapting to a Windows environment than the Windows users I know have had adapting to a Mac. The Windows users always seem suspicious when something that required 23 steps and almost always messed up something else in Windows happens in relatively few steps on the Mac and is generally easier to undo. I think the simplicity makes some users suspicious. I also think the lack of extra buttons on the mouse freaks people out... Again, these are just my own personal observations, not necessarily grand universal truths.
Well, the jocks would be good and fat from no sports programs... that may give us a fighting chance. Of course, with no butt-slapping and towel-snapping, we may have bigger things to worry about.
Allow me to clarify... I think that sports have a place in the system. I just do not think that extracurricular sports should have their budgets increased while academic programs go without. It seems to me that gym class was always mandatory... I also don't think that it's the schools that are feeding the kids mass quantities of fast food. Not all social ills can be cured by handing out laptops. There are areas across the board that need attention. Nutrition and fitness also need to be addressed. The word that needs to enter into the discussion is "balance". With so many agendas from so many sources, the kids' needs often take a back seat to the pet projects of people whose interests are not education. The whole purpose is to guide the development of young people so that they can contribute in a meaningful way to this country of ours, and indeed the world. Somehow, I don't see Shaq curing cancer or settling territorial disputes for the UN... What I DO see, is Shaq peddling incredibly unhealthy food for the very corporations that have contributed the most to our collective obesity. Let's split the difference, and say that the entire system for raising our kids needs a tune up. In that statement, I include parents, teachers, politicians, lobbyists... Literally anyone responsible for the development of the people who will one day run this country. I have to say, Slashdot is the LAST place I expected to see people opposed to putting more computers in the hands of kids...
While the chances of getting a job working on a Mac are slimmer than those of working with Windows, I have noticed something: My experience has been that people who learned on Macs tend to function well on both systems, while the people I know who started in Windows can only work efficiently in Windows. Market share is not the only guage of how useful something is. There was a point in history where the vast majority of humans thought the Earth was flat. Since both OSs have many of the same features, it shouldn't be hard to discuss them simultaneously. Since the GUI desktop metaphor hasn't really changed too much in 20 years, if you teach the metaphor, kids can be functional on any system.How does the saying go? Teach someone how to use taskbar shortcuts and you'll feed them for a day... Teach someone to navigate directories, and you'll feed them for a lifetime.
Here's an idea... Keep the laptop program, as it seems to be improving the system, and start funneling money away from some of the sports programs for a change. Three years' worth of my junior high and high school experience was hobbled by austerity budgets. Art students were forced to buy all of their own materials, books had to be shared, busing was cut back, and the music program was forced to fund itself. In the meantime, the sports programs, who were not exactly cranking out championship teams, flourished. They got new equipment, more trainers, upgraded facilities, and even a new team bus. At some point, we need to get that spending ratio back in balance. Kids are there to learn. Though I think sports are important for a well rounded development, I think the emphasis on and rewards for them are too great. The current state of education marginalizes anyone who doesn't want to be "Like Mike". The laptop program in Maine is an excellent way to level the playing field and raise the bar at the same time, if I may mix my metaphors and sling a few puns... I will now climb down off of my stump and allow the flaming and trolling over the fact that they were Macs to begin... LLLLLLET'S GET READY TO RRRRRRUMBLLLLLLLE!
From the sound coming out of the radio most days, I thought they were already using it... Anyway, as to the idea being backwards, I agree. It's hard to wade through all of the crap that's available to find new music. Trusting bands to describe what they sound like (mp3.com) is dicey at best, so we need an honest alternative. I hate to try to interject a word like "honest" into any discussion about the recording indu$try, but it sure would be nice. It could also be used as sort of a pre-crime device to prevent another Macarena from seeing the light of day.
If legislation like this gets passed, I think we should all get together, buy a lobbyist, and propose a law that says when we think the recording industry is backing a crime against music (which would include the VAST majority of new releases), we should be allowed to attack them... Picture this: We catch wind that Ricky Martin has a new album coming out of the turd factory, we get to go drag some record company executive out of his house and beat him in his front yard. After that we fine him and jail him. I bet after a few "raids" like that, we would never have to listen to Avril Lavigne again... Maybe people would start feeling good about paying too much money for CDs. Hell, maybe the prices would actually come a bit closer to earth. Far be it from me to suggest violence as any kind of cure-all, but don't you think after wasting so much of our time with this crap instead of solving real problems, somebody deserves a savage beating? Make sure everyone eats something tonight and then worry about making sure everyone who hears it has paid for Puffy's remix of someone else's hit song. Maybe if I saw Sally Struthers do an infomercial featuring Celine Dion starving to death with flies crawling on her face... Then I would agree that something must be done. Since I'm sure the goodies in her dressing room at each performance cost about what I make in a year, I have no sympathy for her or anyone like her. How much is enough? Switching to decaf for the rest of the day...
Wow, where to start... First of all, I have two cousins who were at Columbine that awful day... They will never be the same. Second, I was not only a "nerd", but also a punk. Smart guys with blue mohawks were not exactly getting their own reality TV shows in the early 80's. I also happened to be of above-average height and spent several hours each day on a skateboard. The fact that I was naturally built for football or basketball, yet chose not to participate, confused and angered the morons who really had to work at it. I put up with constant taunting and physical abuse for years, culminating in a series of events that brought about the bucketload of tripe known as Satanic Panic by Dr. Jeffery Victor. Anyway... The end result was me schooling myself in revenge through viscious pranks, dirty tricks, and mild violence. So, the internal conflict is that in a way, I understand what drove those idiots at Columbine to do what they did, while being closely related to the horrors that they caused. What it boils down to is teaching children not to be savages while not homogenizing them into some orwellian nightmare. I'd say, for a start, stop babying any idiot in a shirt with numbers on the front, and start rewarding excellence across the board. Otherwise, we will see more "popular" people die. In the meantime, I do enjoy having them serve me appetizers at Applebee's...
As a long time computer user (20+ years), and a Mac user (Since Day 1)... I find your suggestion that you can't do anything meaningful on a Mac to be silly at best. I've made a good living for over 10 years using Macs. I have yet to run into a task that I could not complete on my Mac. If I were a 14 year old looking to play the latest and "greatest" video games, I might be S.O.L., but does that really rise to the level of "meaningful"? I'll spare you the tirades about Winblows, and put it this way.... I love people like you. My "competition" is frequently some moron who dropped $800 on a whizbang kit from Wal Mart intent on making it as a multimedia designer. I love competing for jobs against "visionaries" with 2Ghz Pentiums and a copy of PrintShop Pro, or SuperGeneric Greeting Card Workshop... With all that wonderful software available for Windows, it must be hard to choose... Oh, what's that? Photoshop? Got it. Maya? Got it. Office? Got it? Premiere? I crush it regularly with Final Cut Pro. Granted, we don't get Minesweeper for free, but we have plenty of options for Solitaire. There are about 40 other computers on our network, none of which have the continuous uptime that my Mac has. After seeing the amount of service required to keep Windows machines networking properly, you might want to look into Macs... They network extremely well, even on an all Windows network. My Mac ends up doing plenty of tasks that the Windows machines either can't do, or can't seem to do right. As far as "meaningful" goes, what's more meaningful than earning a living AND picking up the slack for the rest of the machines in the building? Here's something meaningful from my Mac: Bite me.
Amen.
A friend of mine was a flight attendant on the United flight that was crashed into the WTC. How many CDs would you give up to keep me from coming to your house, cutting your mom's throat, and flying your family into a skyscraper? Apples and oranges you say? Absolutely. Let's keep it somewhat realistic and not compare depriving Sony of $17 profit to the death of even one person, let alone 3,000. I would happily give up my illegal copy of "Everybody's Workin' for the Weekend" to undo 911. Hey, I have an idea... How about telling the RIAA and their assorted cronies to shut up, or we'll ship them to Guantanamo Bay. We have real problems to solve... Problems that are unaffected by how much profit the fat prick that owns Avril Lavigne is getting paid for pumping her shrill pretentious wannabe crap over the airwaves at us. The more time our overpaid, underworked lawmakers spend sorting out who's listening to what and how they acquired it, the less time they can spend working on laws that matter. Here's a formula we don't see very often... Less Corporate Corruption=More Secure Jobs=More Disposable Income=More Sales on Recreational Goods (like crappy CDs). Work it out, but work on the right things.
Here in God's Armpit (Western NY)... NO, Not Buffalo... We don't really have actual pawn shops.
We do have a few used merchandise/consignment stores. The policy in these stores for as long as I can remember has been that you must provide ID when selling them something. More than a few arrests have been made, and property recovered after break ins... As such, when selling something, I have never felt violated by that practice. Given the Flavor-of-the-Month tastes of the music listening public these days, they do quite a bit of business with used CDs. Generally their selection ranges from the crappy forgotten hair bands of the 80s to last week's pop "sensations". These stores are good for two reasons:
1. Poor people, myself included, with limited budgets can get their hands on CDs for a few lousy bucks.
2. Poor people, myself included, can unload CDs that we no longer want.
I have made purchases in "normal" record stores based on random unknown CDs that I picked up used on a whim. So, the labels make their money on the first sale of a CD, salaries and sales tax in a local business are generated by the second sale, and market penetration for the label occurs at the secondhand store owner's expense...
Maybe it's time to invite all the lawyers for a little sit down and perhaps a nice steaming cup of STFU. It seems that the end result of their diabolical plan would be to centralize all money made on an "artist". This is bad for consumers. This is bad for taxpayers. This is bad for local businesses. This is bad for everyone but the fat pricks at the top. Business as usual.
Sorry, maybe I oversimplified my "bottom line"... For those who can't seem to connect the dots I will elaborate. You can't get the "latest and greatest" OS, and expect it to be blazing fast on anything but the newest hardware. Therefore, cheap pricks who want to hold on to 233 Mhz iMacs, Pentium IIs, and the like should not expect a real responsive OS. People are pumping out software with more "features", while neglecting to make their code more efficient. So, yes, fast hardware and plenty of RAM are indeed important if you want the newest version of anything to perform well. Is that sufficiently long-winded enough for you?
Before it gets ugly in here...
on
Is Mac OS X Slow?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
As I'm sure many of the people about to post here do, I use several different OSs during the course of my day. Once I leave work, I rely on OSX for me personal machine. Even with 10.1.5, almost everything seems faster than any flavor of Windows that I come into contact with. My home machine is a "lowly" Dual 533 G4 with a Gig of RAM, and it consistently performs better than any of my other machines... ranging from a dual 600 Pentium w/ NT4 to 2GHZ AMD w/ XP. I am running mostly Multimedia creation software, so maybe that's where the results come from... Anyway, OSX is plenty fast... except for some strange spinning beachball zone-outs at weird times. To be honest, even though I am one of those Mac people that will break a bottle on the bar and hold it to your throat for bad-mouthing my system... I am perfectly functional with Windows going all the way back to 3.11. Bottom line: OSX on a sufficiently pumped up G4 will get the job done, and get it done pretty quickly. Now back to the impending flame war...
Slashdot Mirror
O.K... Here's the plan. We all take turns following this scumbag around throughout the course of his day. Whenever he's trying to do anything, the person on duty takes a big 36" by 48" sign with an ad for some crap he doesn't want and pop it up right in his face, completely obscuring his view. If the signs happen to be made of 1/2 inch plywood and occasionally smack him squarely in the nose... Ooops. That will be the eqivalent of the popups with sound, or the ones that are bigger than your display that don't seem to respond to keyboard commands... And, whenever he's trying to write something, we crush his hands with the sign to simulate the ones that pop up while you're in the middle of filling out a form... In all seriousness, I hope he gets the patent and people stop using them. A simple banner is all that's needed to make us aware of your company. Banners don't tend to make me swear a blood oath that I would never ever buy your product after annoying the hell out of me... Are you listening X10? A wireless camera might be fun, but your ads piss me off so much, that I would never ever ever buy one from you. I also think that anyone using popups that are meant to look like geniune system error messages should be told that they have SARS by their doctor... Only to be told later that it was just to get their attention and offer them plane tickets or some similar, unrelated item. "Gee, sorry to frighten you unnecessarily...".
I've read a bunch of comments complaining that this service is "Apple-Only". Well, as a Windows user, you are entitled to the entire software aisle at WalMart, where you will find almost no Mac software. You don't hear us Mac users bitching that we can't use PrintMess for Dipshits 3.0... After years of hearing Windows people brag about all of the software available for their platform of choice, I can't help but get off just a little bit watching you turn a little green. Relax, Apple is porting the whole thing to Windows. Having used iTunes since its release, and the store since it launched, I can honestly say it is a great service. As more music is added, particularly more indie releases, it's only going to get better. I think anyone who hasn't used iTunes or an iPod is going to be very pleased when they do. You can argue all day long about Mac hardware, but the software, for the most part, is elegant and very functional. All I can say to anyone who has not used it yet is be objective about it and welcome aboard. In the meantime, everyone should respect Apple for finding a compromise in this whole RIAA nightmare. Sure, it would be great if we could just have it all for free, but let's be real for a minute... If they get no money for a song that you download, they will fight you tooth and nail to stop you from doing it. If they make something on it, maybe they'll shut up. I also think that the stats from which songs/artists/albums are being downloaded can help domonstrate what music should be promoted. IIRC, many album and single charts are, in part, driven and manipulated by units shipped from distributors to stores... Not by how many albums actually make it into the hands of consumers. Not to mention ClearChannel and all of its shenanigans. This would be real empirical data that demonstrates the will of the listener. Granted, that same info can be used for evil marketing purposes... I remain hopelessly optimistic that the labels will have their ears a bit closer to the consumer now and use that info wisely. In the meantime, Windows users, enjoy the wait...
Amen. It's a fucking MOVIE! What's next? Are we going to debate the impossibilities of Daffy Duck? Don't want to see "ads" for movies on Slashdot? Don't click the fucking link! Don't want to see this movie? I'm sure Pirates of Silicon Valley is on the shelf somewhere at Cockbuster. Oh, that's right... we pasty computer geeks don't like to venture out of the cave for long. Seriously. Lighten up.
For a few years in high school, coincidentally in the 80's, I was pretty sure that was how my life was going to play out. It felt pretty strange to see it on the screen... Let's also not forget: Sid & Nancy, Straight to Hell, Meet the Feebles, and of course Rubin & Ed.
I think we all agree that many of the benchmarks we've seen, especially those relating to Photoshop, are skewed by their creators to put their platform of choice in the best light. Check out Steve Jobs' keynote address where he used the Inspector Gadget (IIRC) poster as the test image. It was assembled in less than half the time of its Windows competitor. As far as my "slandering" of Adobe, you are mistaken. I make my living with their products. I love their products. Did you miss the bit about them being second only to Apple? Just as I can with Apple, I can admit that their product line is starting to slip. In the case of Adobe, I think it has something to do with Apple competing with them in the arena of video editing. As for being "flamebait"... c'mon. Any time we get into the whole Mac vs. Windows thing, it gets kind of "flamey" around here. My cynical comment was not intended to generate more flames, just to point out that I knew this discussion was likely to head in that direction and not in a particularly useful direction. As an artist, I just want hardware and software that bridges the gap between what my brain sees and what my hands cannot do by themselves. In my opinion, I have found gear that does that. That is all.
As a professional graphic artist who uses Adobe products on both platforms, I'm not quite sure I agree with the findings of the author. I always find benchmark results from either side to be suspect. I judge by user experience. I find that my results are better, and much easier to achieve, on either of my Macs. I have grown to accept Windows as a sometimes necessary evil, and am quite functional with it. However, and maybe some of you out there have noticed this, tools in Photoshop seem to work much more reliably on the Mac. For instance... color correction, minor adjustments to position, hotkeys, and anything done freehand seem to work less consistently in the Windows version. Strange stuttering, having to hit hotkeys twice, taking forever to place items exactly where you want them... these add up in a business where you are constantly playing beat the clock. Now, before you all start flaming me about being a newbie, or checking my manuals, getting a new keyboard... I have been using Photoshop since the beta for version 2, and Premeire since the very first betas. I've been making a living with CGI for over 12 years. Again, this is my experience with these products, YMMV. I suggest that Adobe is promoting stories like this to teach Apple a lesson. Apple has really put the hurt on Adobe with Final Cut Pro, and with their purchase of several other effects software companies, will soon start to hurt sales of After Effects. This is not to say that Adobe's products are inferior... I think they got lazy with their stranglehold on the market, and don't appreciate Apple filling the gap. What they should be doing is making better products for Mac users. We are largely responsible for supporting them up to this point, and would continue to do so if they kept up the good work. Taking so long to get Photoshop for OSX out did not make them any friends, and suggesting that they were going to stop releasing Premeire for the Mac didn't help either. Ask any of the "Mac Faithful"... Adobe runs a close second as a company that we would break a bottle on the edge of the bar and cut you for badmouthing. Bottom line: their Mac products are slipping, but in general still (IMHO) get the job done better. Let the flames begin...
Without resorting to "bashing" anyone... From time to time, running a Windows-Only app is a necessary evil. It's silly to buy another machine if you don't have frequent use for it. I am a Mac advocate because, as a tool, it does everything I need it to. In the rare event that it doesn't, emulation can ease the pain. That's really all there is to the discussion. So, how is it offensive to you that one platform can run both kinds of software, and the other can not? Seems pretty simple to me... Sounds to me like you have a big chip on your shoulder about your choice of platforms. Do you buy the hype that Macs are more "hip"? Are you bummed that Macs have "cooler" cases? Are you steamed because you don't have a positive enough experience with your OS that you would "religiously" defend it? Get over it. If you don't like Macs, nobody really gives a shit... Especially when you post as AC and bring nothing of substance to the discussion.
HAHAHAHAHA.... I actually got about 3/4 of the way down the page (to your post) before it even occured to me that they may have intentionally misspelled Maestro! I hate when people/companies do that. Personally, I thought the name sounded like a supervillain, so what we need is a superhero... Either way, this thing sounds stupid (and I work for the Death Star...er... Slime Warmer Cable... er... I mean, never mind.).
Amen. The last thing we need is to clog the net with even more huge useless files. Personally, I don't think any of us really need to see what any of the rest of us look like... Although, it may cut back on trolls and flames if people know they can be identified and beaten publicly for wasting everyone's time and bandwidth with their crap. The software that the author seemed to be pitching is about on par with the lame printshop stuff you can buy at WalMart... Just because your computer CAN make crappy little videos doesn't mean you SHOULD make crappy little videos. The content should dictate the medium, not the other way around.
I'm looking forward to trying out voice recognition with Photoshop... I can already feel the key sized dents in my forehead starting to form after trying to verbally describe an operation with the lasso tool. After more than 20 years of computer use, I guess it's time I did something "serious"... I keep forgetting that code monkeys are the only people whose work on computers rises to the level of "serious". That's a bit like suggesting that the only people who can make serious use of a car are mechanics. Honestly, sometimes I'm ashamed to be a geek.
I think you misunderstood me. I am saying that the Mac users I know have an easier time adapting to a Windows environment than the Windows users I know have had adapting to a Mac. The Windows users always seem suspicious when something that required 23 steps and almost always messed up something else in Windows happens in relatively few steps on the Mac and is generally easier to undo. I think the simplicity makes some users suspicious. I also think the lack of extra buttons on the mouse freaks people out... Again, these are just my own personal observations, not necessarily grand universal truths.
Well, the jocks would be good and fat from no sports programs... that may give us a fighting chance. Of course, with no butt-slapping and towel-snapping, we may have bigger things to worry about.
Allow me to clarify... I think that sports have a place in the system. I just do not think that extracurricular sports should have their budgets increased while academic programs go without. It seems to me that gym class was always mandatory... I also don't think that it's the schools that are feeding the kids mass quantities of fast food. Not all social ills can be cured by handing out laptops. There are areas across the board that need attention. Nutrition and fitness also need to be addressed. The word that needs to enter into the discussion is "balance". With so many agendas from so many sources, the kids' needs often take a back seat to the pet projects of people whose interests are not education. The whole purpose is to guide the development of young people so that they can contribute in a meaningful way to this country of ours, and indeed the world. Somehow, I don't see Shaq curing cancer or settling territorial disputes for the UN... What I DO see, is Shaq peddling incredibly unhealthy food for the very corporations that have contributed the most to our collective obesity. Let's split the difference, and say that the entire system for raising our kids needs a tune up. In that statement, I include parents, teachers, politicians, lobbyists... Literally anyone responsible for the development of the people who will one day run this country. I have to say, Slashdot is the LAST place I expected to see people opposed to putting more computers in the hands of kids...
While the chances of getting a job working on a Mac are slimmer than those of working with Windows, I have noticed something: My experience has been that people who learned on Macs tend to function well on both systems, while the people I know who started in Windows can only work efficiently in Windows. Market share is not the only guage of how useful something is. There was a point in history where the vast majority of humans thought the Earth was flat. Since both OSs have many of the same features, it shouldn't be hard to discuss them simultaneously. Since the GUI desktop metaphor hasn't really changed too much in 20 years, if you teach the metaphor, kids can be functional on any system.How does the saying go? Teach someone how to use taskbar shortcuts and you'll feed them for a day... Teach someone to navigate directories, and you'll feed them for a lifetime.
Here's an idea... Keep the laptop program, as it seems to be improving the system, and start funneling money away from some of the sports programs for a change. Three years' worth of my junior high and high school experience was hobbled by austerity budgets. Art students were forced to buy all of their own materials, books had to be shared, busing was cut back, and the music program was forced to fund itself. In the meantime, the sports programs, who were not exactly cranking out championship teams, flourished. They got new equipment, more trainers, upgraded facilities, and even a new team bus. At some point, we need to get that spending ratio back in balance. Kids are there to learn. Though I think sports are important for a well rounded development, I think the emphasis on and rewards for them are too great. The current state of education marginalizes anyone who doesn't want to be "Like Mike". The laptop program in Maine is an excellent way to level the playing field and raise the bar at the same time, if I may mix my metaphors and sling a few puns... I will now climb down off of my stump and allow the flaming and trolling over the fact that they were Macs to begin... LLLLLLET'S GET READY TO RRRRRRUMBLLLLLLLE!
From the sound coming out of the radio most days, I thought they were already using it... Anyway, as to the idea being backwards, I agree. It's hard to wade through all of the crap that's available to find new music. Trusting bands to describe what they sound like (mp3.com) is dicey at best, so we need an honest alternative. I hate to try to interject a word like "honest" into any discussion about the recording indu$try, but it sure would be nice. It could also be used as sort of a pre-crime device to prevent another Macarena from seeing the light of day.
If legislation like this gets passed, I think we should all get together, buy a lobbyist, and propose a law that says when we think the recording industry is backing a crime against music (which would include the VAST majority of new releases), we should be allowed to attack them... Picture this: We catch wind that Ricky Martin has a new album coming out of the turd factory, we get to go drag some record company executive out of his house and beat him in his front yard. After that we fine him and jail him. I bet after a few "raids" like that, we would never have to listen to Avril Lavigne again... Maybe people would start feeling good about paying too much money for CDs. Hell, maybe the prices would actually come a bit closer to earth. Far be it from me to suggest violence as any kind of cure-all, but don't you think after wasting so much of our time with this crap instead of solving real problems, somebody deserves a savage beating? Make sure everyone eats something tonight and then worry about making sure everyone who hears it has paid for Puffy's remix of someone else's hit song. Maybe if I saw Sally Struthers do an infomercial featuring Celine Dion starving to death with flies crawling on her face... Then I would agree that something must be done. Since I'm sure the goodies in her dressing room at each performance cost about what I make in a year, I have no sympathy for her or anyone like her. How much is enough? Switching to decaf for the rest of the day...
Wow, where to start... First of all, I have two cousins who were at Columbine that awful day... They will never be the same. Second, I was not only a "nerd", but also a punk. Smart guys with blue mohawks were not exactly getting their own reality TV shows in the early 80's. I also happened to be of above-average height and spent several hours each day on a skateboard. The fact that I was naturally built for football or basketball, yet chose not to participate, confused and angered the morons who really had to work at it. I put up with constant taunting and physical abuse for years, culminating in a series of events that brought about the bucketload of tripe known as Satanic Panic by Dr. Jeffery Victor. Anyway... The end result was me schooling myself in revenge through viscious pranks, dirty tricks, and mild violence. So, the internal conflict is that in a way, I understand what drove those idiots at Columbine to do what they did, while being closely related to the horrors that they caused. What it boils down to is teaching children not to be savages while not homogenizing them into some orwellian nightmare. I'd say, for a start, stop babying any idiot in a shirt with numbers on the front, and start rewarding excellence across the board. Otherwise, we will see more "popular" people die. In the meantime, I do enjoy having them serve me appetizers at Applebee's...
Amen Brother.
As a long time computer user (20+ years), and a Mac user (Since Day 1)... I find your suggestion that you can't do anything meaningful on a Mac to be silly at best. I've made a good living for over 10 years using Macs. I have yet to run into a task that I could not complete on my Mac. If I were a 14 year old looking to play the latest and "greatest" video games, I might be S.O.L., but does that really rise to the level of "meaningful"? I'll spare you the tirades about Winblows, and put it this way.... I love people like you. My "competition" is frequently some moron who dropped $800 on a whizbang kit from Wal Mart intent on making it as a multimedia designer. I love competing for jobs against "visionaries" with 2Ghz Pentiums and a copy of PrintShop Pro, or SuperGeneric Greeting Card Workshop... With all that wonderful software available for Windows, it must be hard to choose... Oh, what's that? Photoshop? Got it. Maya? Got it. Office? Got it? Premiere? I crush it regularly with Final Cut Pro. Granted, we don't get Minesweeper for free, but we have plenty of options for Solitaire. There are about 40 other computers on our network, none of which have the continuous uptime that my Mac has. After seeing the amount of service required to keep Windows machines networking properly, you might want to look into Macs... They network extremely well, even on an all Windows network. My Mac ends up doing plenty of tasks that the Windows machines either can't do, or can't seem to do right. As far as "meaningful" goes, what's more meaningful than earning a living AND picking up the slack for the rest of the machines in the building? Here's something meaningful from my Mac: Bite me.
Amen. A friend of mine was a flight attendant on the United flight that was crashed into the WTC. How many CDs would you give up to keep me from coming to your house, cutting your mom's throat, and flying your family into a skyscraper? Apples and oranges you say? Absolutely. Let's keep it somewhat realistic and not compare depriving Sony of $17 profit to the death of even one person, let alone 3,000. I would happily give up my illegal copy of "Everybody's Workin' for the Weekend" to undo 911. Hey, I have an idea... How about telling the RIAA and their assorted cronies to shut up, or we'll ship them to Guantanamo Bay. We have real problems to solve... Problems that are unaffected by how much profit the fat prick that owns Avril Lavigne is getting paid for pumping her shrill pretentious wannabe crap over the airwaves at us. The more time our overpaid, underworked lawmakers spend sorting out who's listening to what and how they acquired it, the less time they can spend working on laws that matter. Here's a formula we don't see very often... Less Corporate Corruption=More Secure Jobs=More Disposable Income=More Sales on Recreational Goods (like crappy CDs). Work it out, but work on the right things.
Here in God's Armpit (Western NY)... NO, Not Buffalo... We don't really have actual pawn shops. We do have a few used merchandise/consignment stores. The policy in these stores for as long as I can remember has been that you must provide ID when selling them something. More than a few arrests have been made, and property recovered after break ins... As such, when selling something, I have never felt violated by that practice. Given the Flavor-of-the-Month tastes of the music listening public these days, they do quite a bit of business with used CDs. Generally their selection ranges from the crappy forgotten hair bands of the 80s to last week's pop "sensations". These stores are good for two reasons: 1. Poor people, myself included, with limited budgets can get their hands on CDs for a few lousy bucks. 2. Poor people, myself included, can unload CDs that we no longer want. I have made purchases in "normal" record stores based on random unknown CDs that I picked up used on a whim. So, the labels make their money on the first sale of a CD, salaries and sales tax in a local business are generated by the second sale, and market penetration for the label occurs at the secondhand store owner's expense... Maybe it's time to invite all the lawyers for a little sit down and perhaps a nice steaming cup of STFU. It seems that the end result of their diabolical plan would be to centralize all money made on an "artist". This is bad for consumers. This is bad for taxpayers. This is bad for local businesses. This is bad for everyone but the fat pricks at the top. Business as usual.
Sorry, maybe I oversimplified my "bottom line"... For those who can't seem to connect the dots I will elaborate. You can't get the "latest and greatest" OS, and expect it to be blazing fast on anything but the newest hardware. Therefore, cheap pricks who want to hold on to 233 Mhz iMacs, Pentium IIs, and the like should not expect a real responsive OS. People are pumping out software with more "features", while neglecting to make their code more efficient. So, yes, fast hardware and plenty of RAM are indeed important if you want the newest version of anything to perform well. Is that sufficiently long-winded enough for you?
As I'm sure many of the people about to post here do, I use several different OSs during the course of my day. Once I leave work, I rely on OSX for me personal machine. Even with 10.1.5, almost everything seems faster than any flavor of Windows that I come into contact with. My home machine is a "lowly" Dual 533 G4 with a Gig of RAM, and it consistently performs better than any of my other machines... ranging from a dual 600 Pentium w/ NT4 to 2GHZ AMD w/ XP. I am running mostly Multimedia creation software, so maybe that's where the results come from... Anyway, OSX is plenty fast... except for some strange spinning beachball zone-outs at weird times. To be honest, even though I am one of those Mac people that will break a bottle on the bar and hold it to your throat for bad-mouthing my system... I am perfectly functional with Windows going all the way back to 3.11. Bottom line: OSX on a sufficiently pumped up G4 will get the job done, and get it done pretty quickly. Now back to the impending flame war...
Did anyone notice on the "login" screen that the duck icon is identical to the Mac OS9 duck icon... coincidentally used for exactly the same purpose?