The Cube was an attempt to build a small, silent system, and in that regard it worked well. It was just too expensive.
I know several Cube owners who are very happy with them, and wouldn't give them up for love nor money.
And you can use 3rd party software to assign any number of custom keyboard shortcuts that will do pretty much anything you want. This is especially powerful when combined with Applescripts.
Apple hardware might not be cheap, but it is certainly upgradable and available.
I'm sure if OS X was available on x86 you'd give it a go, but I fear it would go the way of BeOS.
Apple couldn't survive in the x86 OS market, even with an immeasurabley superior OS than the current dug-in tick, sucking life and innovation out of the industry like the current status quo.
OS X wouls achieve greater market share, but I fear it would be unsustainable.
I think as Apple develops further and keeps working on their current model (like it or not, their method works for them) then Apple hardware will become cheaper.
There's never been a better value for money range of Apple computers as there is today - from the budget laptop to the SUV 17" model that most don't need, but is there for the small niche.
Their range of desktops is starting to look like something worth considering - from eMacs and iMacs, through MDD G4s (they do still sell them) and the mighty G5.
I can pick up a pretty good compact laptop - the iBook for just under $1100 that is pretty perfectly specced for the market. Good battery life, reasonable power, great OS, CD burner/DVD etc. I'd certainly go with that over the same laptop I could get in the x86 world for $1100, but it's just my choice at the end of the day.
I'd love to see Linux marketshare growing - and it is (although I've always been partial to FreeBSD myself). I hope that Apple and Linux can co-exist happily in the marketplace.
You could go up against godlike railers without dying - assuming you were on the server end of the link.
Plus, you could play Quake III on an 8086 system - the connection would just about keep pace with the slideshow frame rate. you'd just have to be patient!
These cards (like all flash memory at the moment) is limted to a certain number of write cycles, which you will go through very quickly if you use it as a boot drive for any OS.
Maybe if you were to have a small HD for the OS with one of these cards alongside for user data you could keep the power down - you could spin down the HD unless it was needed and still read and write from the CF card.
Nothing soothes me more than the boot chime of an Apple computer.
It seems to convey so many things in just one sound. It's beautiful.
It sounds stunning from the small, tinny inbuilt speaker on a 9600 and lusterous from the large floorstanders I have connected to the G5 via a Yamaha amp.
I hardly ever reboot my iBook though, so I forget what the sound is like on the small speakers, but I'm sure it's just as good as the other two machines.
Microsoft has released two new Microsoft Standards(tm) called MSRDF and MSOWL.
Speculation that these two new standards are broken versions of w3c's recent RDF and OWL releases was further confirmed when leaked documents with "w3c" blacked out in pen, the Microsoft logo added to the top with crayon and a few numbers blocked out with white out written back in with biro, came to light.
Criticism of Microsoft's horrifically buggy and insecure browser Internet Exploder(tm) was shot down by Steve "Developers(tm)" Ballmer who said that features were much more important than security. "People want to browse the web with help from our new Browser Assistant(tm) to assist them. We think an animated cartoon image of an owl will reassure our customers."
When another reporter pointed out that OWL had little or nothing to do with ornithology, cartoon, animated or otherwise, Steve looked a little uncomfortable and declined to answer any more questions.
Shouting "Developers Developers Developers!" loudly, and squirting sweat everywhere in what can only be assumed is a defence mechanism similar to an octopus ot squid, he beat a hasty retreat into a waiting helicopter.
The helicopter is later reported to have crashed. It was rebooted and a patch applied. The patch restored flying ability, but the doors no longer work. A patch is promised for the doors tomorrow.
(-1 offtopic) (+1 recovering from car crash, cut me some slack)
The ability to rail on the move gets you called a cheat a lot.
Most people can't beleive you can aim and fire that accurately while flying off a bounce pad through the air, especially if theyare used to some lag. I can't say my connection hurts my aim fortunately.
Let me guess? Guilty Spark 343 or whatever that FUCKING ANNOYING floating head thing is.
I wasted about 60 shotgun shells trying to kill that thing, even though I knew it was integral to the plot and hence invulnerable.
That level sucked - it was the same room over and over. It was slightly interesting in regard that you were deluged with enemies and had to watch your ammo if you played it on Legendary, but other than that it was just dull.
The reactor level (where you walk into the three reactor things to disrupt them) was a bit repetetive - those circular rooms with the corridors circling them were very similar, and difficult to orientate after a fight. I had to circle round a couple of times to find the exits, and even then the exit looked exactly like the entrance so I didn't know if I was going the right way until I reached something I'd not seen before.
The arrows on the floor often helped, but one level which uses the same map as an earlier mission, has you going in the opposite direction to the arrows.
Oh, and how did I guess that I would be instantly attcked by monsters when the AI said "you can walk into the reactor beam to disrupt it, but it will also affect your shields temporarily" - if you don't check your weapons are fully loaded after you hear that then you're silly.
The major missing feature from Halo: bots!
What use is multiplayer, even on a LAN, without bots. I have a few friends interested in multiplayer FPS games, but not enough to make a really engaging LAN match, especially since I could drive the Scorpion tank and get all my FPS buddies sitting on the sides...
Plus, sometimes I just like to nail a few bots of an evening without having to go online and deal with lag and half empty maps.
Halo chokes a little on a Dual 2.0Ghz G5 when there's a lot going on, but I ramped up all the settings to maximum.
Otherwise it plays fine.
I couldn't determine whether the slight lag on the assault rifle's tracking was a feature of the game or performance issue. It could just be because it's a crap weapon at range compared to the plasma rifle.
Quake III plays very well on the G5 though, which is to be expected, as does Elite Force II. I've been looking for Elite Force 1, but haven't been able ti find it in any bargain bins. I think Amazon has a copy, but last time I looked it was just a second hand copy, which I was reluctant to purchase at the time.
Apple has indeed included much of Roxio's features into the OS, but that still didn't stop me shelling out for Toast 5 and Toast 6.
There is no better way to burn CDs and DVDs on a Mac, even if it does cost almost as much as buying the OS! Although Roxio did throw in 5 CD-Rs along with Toast for my 70 quid.
Maybe I'm the exception, rather than the rule, but I don't think Apple's bundling of burning features is going to threaten Roxio for a while yet.
Although if you're pro or semi-pro in the video production arena, Apple is almost too easy a choice.
I've not edited on anything in the PC arena that touches the Mac - I've tried Avid, Premiere and a few "prosumer" packages.
On the Mac side, Final Cut Pro is godlike - if only for the way it integrates so well into a whole workflow.
Media 100i also demolished Avid in my opinion (although that was a closer call), although the latest offering from the Media 100 group runs on x86 (starting at $50,000 though, or something silly like that).
I can get an Apple box up and running with FCP4 and associated apps for a fraction of that price, and still be cheaper than pretty much any serious PC contender.
Mate, I was doing pro video production on a 9600/300 last year.
That's a pre-G3 box, producing material you'd buy on DVD or see on Network TV (although generally we produced for people like Sainsbury's, Wal-Mart etc).
Old time Macs are worth their weight in gold.
That's not to say I'd rather work on that old 9600 than the Dual G5 we just bought...
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Indeed, it's an awesome feature. I use it all the time.
shhh! Don't give them any ideas!
Quartz is what lets you print to PDF. Quartz Extreme is the hardware accelerated part of the graphics system.
My iBook doesn't support Quartz Extreme, but I still have the print to PDF ability.
I know it's just a small niggle, but i thought I'd point it out.
It varies a lot,but yes, I can buy apple stuff cheaper in the US (and I do, when I visit my US friends).
It's even more favourable for me right now since Bush fucked the American economy up.
1.9 dollars to the pound - it's not been that high for ages, so I can get a 15" powerbook for about 1000 UK pounds.
Indeed, but then isn't that the case with all businesses?
As apple's share goes up, they can drop the prices of their hardware and keep the shareholders happy with increasing profits.
Or something.
illegally though, some might say.
The Cube was an attempt to build a small, silent system, and in that regard it worked well. It was just too expensive.
I know several Cube owners who are very happy with them, and wouldn't give them up for love nor money.
And you can use 3rd party software to assign any number of custom keyboard shortcuts that will do pretty much anything you want. This is especially powerful when combined with Applescripts.
Apple hardware might not be cheap, but it is certainly upgradable and available.
I'm sure if OS X was available on x86 you'd give it a go, but I fear it would go the way of BeOS.
Apple couldn't survive in the x86 OS market, even with an immeasurabley superior OS than the current dug-in tick, sucking life and innovation out of the industry like the current status quo.
OS X wouls achieve greater market share, but I fear it would be unsustainable.
I think as Apple develops further and keeps working on their current model (like it or not, their method works for them) then Apple hardware will become cheaper.
There's never been a better value for money range of Apple computers as there is today - from the budget laptop to the SUV 17" model that most don't need, but is there for the small niche.
Their range of desktops is starting to look like something worth considering - from eMacs and iMacs, through MDD G4s (they do still sell them) and the mighty G5.
I can pick up a pretty good compact laptop - the iBook for just under $1100 that is pretty perfectly specced for the market. Good battery life, reasonable power, great OS, CD burner/DVD etc. I'd certainly go with that over the same laptop I could get in the x86 world for $1100, but it's just my choice at the end of the day.
I'd love to see Linux marketshare growing - and it is (although I've always been partial to FreeBSD myself). I hope that Apple and Linux can co-exist happily in the marketplace.
Oh, I don't know.
You could go up against godlike railers without dying - assuming you were on the server end of the link.
Plus, you could play Quake III on an 8086 system - the connection would just about keep pace with the slideshow frame rate. you'd just have to be patient!
It was the fuel injection manifold.
It would have taken a month to rebuild it, but Doc was getting shot on Monday.
Ever notice how the Dosc always seems to get shot?
These cards (like all flash memory at the moment) is limted to a certain number of write cycles, which you will go through very quickly if you use it as a boot drive for any OS.
Maybe if you were to have a small HD for the OS with one of these cards alongside for user data you could keep the power down - you could spin down the HD unless it was needed and still read and write from the CF card.
...I have a Ferarri station wagon.
Nothing soothes me more than the boot chime of an Apple computer.
It seems to convey so many things in just one sound. It's beautiful.
It sounds stunning from the small, tinny inbuilt speaker on a 9600 and lusterous from the large floorstanders I have connected to the G5 via a Yamaha amp.
I hardly ever reboot my iBook though, so I forget what the sound is like on the small speakers, but I'm sure it's just as good as the other two machines.
Microsoft has released two new Microsoft Standards(tm) called MSRDF and MSOWL.
Speculation that these two new standards are broken versions of w3c's recent RDF and OWL releases was further confirmed when leaked documents with "w3c" blacked out in pen, the Microsoft logo added to the top with crayon and a few numbers blocked out with white out written back in with biro, came to light.
Criticism of Microsoft's horrifically buggy and insecure browser Internet Exploder(tm) was shot down by Steve "Developers(tm)" Ballmer who said that features were much more important than security. "People want to browse the web with help from our new Browser Assistant(tm) to assist them. We think an animated cartoon image of an owl will reassure our customers."
When another reporter pointed out that OWL had little or nothing to do with ornithology, cartoon, animated or otherwise, Steve looked a little uncomfortable and declined to answer any more questions.
Shouting "Developers Developers Developers!" loudly, and squirting sweat everywhere in what can only be assumed is a defence mechanism similar to an octopus ot squid, he beat a hasty retreat into a waiting helicopter.
The helicopter is later reported to have crashed. It was rebooted and a patch applied. The patch restored flying ability, but the doors no longer work. A patch is promised for the doors tomorrow.
(-1 offtopic) (+1 recovering from car crash, cut me some slack)
The ability to rail on the move gets you called a cheat a lot.
Most people can't beleive you can aim and fire that accurately while flying off a bounce pad through the air, especially if theyare used to some lag. I can't say my connection hurts my aim fortunately.
Repetetive maps:
Let me guess? Guilty Spark 343 or whatever that FUCKING ANNOYING floating head thing is.
I wasted about 60 shotgun shells trying to kill that thing, even though I knew it was integral to the plot and hence invulnerable.
That level sucked - it was the same room over and over. It was slightly interesting in regard that you were deluged with enemies and had to watch your ammo if you played it on Legendary, but other than that it was just dull.
The reactor level (where you walk into the three reactor things to disrupt them) was a bit repetetive - those circular rooms with the corridors circling them were very similar, and difficult to orientate after a fight. I had to circle round a couple of times to find the exits, and even then the exit looked exactly like the entrance so I didn't know if I was going the right way until I reached something I'd not seen before.
The arrows on the floor often helped, but one level which uses the same map as an earlier mission, has you going in the opposite direction to the arrows.
Oh, and how did I guess that I would be instantly attcked by monsters when the AI said "you can walk into the reactor beam to disrupt it, but it will also affect your shields temporarily" - if you don't check your weapons are fully loaded after you hear that then you're silly.
The major missing feature from Halo: bots!
What use is multiplayer, even on a LAN, without bots. I have a few friends interested in multiplayer FPS games, but not enough to make a really engaging LAN match, especially since I could drive the Scorpion tank and get all my FPS buddies sitting on the sides...
Plus, sometimes I just like to nail a few bots of an evening without having to go online and deal with lag and half empty maps.
Halo chokes a little on a Dual 2.0Ghz G5 when there's a lot going on, but I ramped up all the settings to maximum.
Otherwise it plays fine.
I couldn't determine whether the slight lag on the assault rifle's tracking was a feature of the game or performance issue. It could just be because it's a crap weapon at range compared to the plasma rifle.
Quake III plays very well on the G5 though, which is to be expected, as does Elite Force II. I've been looking for Elite Force 1, but haven't been able ti find it in any bargain bins. I think Amazon has a copy, but last time I looked it was just a second hand copy, which I was reluctant to purchase at the time.
Elite Force II is the same - uses the Quake III engine, but modified slightly.
The specs are higher, but it's playable on older systems.
A swiss army knife from the pound shop vs a genuine one - there really is a difference.
Maglite instead of some other brand of torch.
A Canon or Sony video camera instead of a budget junk. Ideally Canon lens on Sony body, but few people have the money for that.
Yamaha 5.1 home cinema amp instead of the regular consumer stuff.
B&W speakers to go with the amp.
DeWalt instead of Black and Decker
Proper tempered screwdrivers rather than cheap ones from the hardware store that twist at the first sign of a stiff screw.
I thought the newest form of WMA was a bastardised form of mpeg4?
Apple has indeed included much of Roxio's features into the OS, but that still didn't stop me shelling out for Toast 5 and Toast 6.
There is no better way to burn CDs and DVDs on a Mac, even if it does cost almost as much as buying the OS! Although Roxio did throw in 5 CD-Rs along with Toast for my 70 quid.
Maybe I'm the exception, rather than the rule, but I don't think Apple's bundling of burning features is going to threaten Roxio for a while yet.
Like the webserver arena.
Let's face it, Apache on Linux is dying out there!
Although if you're pro or semi-pro in the video production arena, Apple is almost too easy a choice.
I've not edited on anything in the PC arena that touches the Mac - I've tried Avid, Premiere and a few "prosumer" packages.
On the Mac side, Final Cut Pro is godlike - if only for the way it integrates so well into a whole workflow.
Media 100i also demolished Avid in my opinion (although that was a closer call), although the latest offering from the Media 100 group runs on x86 (starting at $50,000 though, or something silly like that).
I can get an Apple box up and running with FCP4 and associated apps for a fraction of that price, and still be cheaper than pretty much any serious PC contender.
Mate, I was doing pro video production on a 9600/300 last year.
That's a pre-G3 box, producing material you'd buy on DVD or see on Network TV (although generally we produced for people like Sainsbury's, Wal-Mart etc).
Old time Macs are worth their weight in gold.
That's not to say I'd rather work on that old 9600 than the Dual G5 we just bought...
I have the image of a cartoon bomb imprinted on the back of my retinas like screen burn.
OS 9 went down like a cheap whore with a dodgy back.