They could say no because they don't want to work with MS for ideological reasons, or just plain business reasons - on either side. Who knows. I just thought it was unlikely that in a move where MS is adapting its business to explicitly offer Linux OS options on Azure that their reason for not offering RHEL was "divide and conquer" and the insinuation from the GP that MS is dishonest and evil.
Far more likely that one or other simply didn't want to work together, rather than some highly convoluted scheme whereby MS offers Linux OS choices in a Machiavellian scheme to cripple RHEL by creating more choice in the Linux cloud computing space.
since when has a broken thing been a usable thing...
i know the Apple (the only phone i've ever known to crack) reality distortion field is powerful but really, if it's broken it's no longer functioning.
I use a broken iPod Touch as the music source in my car. No need to use the touch screen since the car's head unit controls it. Bonus, I got it for free since it was smashed.
My dad also used his screen-smashed iPhone for a year or two before getting an upgrade. A wrench dropped on it will do that. Worked just fine, even with the cracks.
I also used a broken iBook G3 600 as a file server for a while. The screen and hinge assembly were totally busted, so it was no good as a laptop without a repair (which was easy enough, but I had already replaced it with a Powerbook at the time), so it served duty as a low-power fanless (it had a fan, but have you ever heard the fan on a white iBook come on? I swear it's not connected), silent fileserver. So, broken but still functioning.
What? Are you of the generation where all consumer goods are disposable?
It's a shame that the Mac Steam client is the way that it is - you'd expect it to perform well, but it's a resource hog (especially CPU) on lower-end systems. The internal html engine is Webkit, yet the steam store inside the client (with the videos, sliding graphics etc) is pretty sluggish, but the same content viewed in Chrome or Safari on the same machine is perfectly fine.
Not sure what it is that Steam is doing wrong there, but it's annoying.
Mac-native games, however, are excellent. I also like that I can have a library of games in there that covers both Mac and Windows, so even the games with no native port are still kept there (with achievements and community participation with my friends etc) - I have to dual boot to play them, of course, but it's a start.
Fix the issues with the performance of the client itself and it would be ideal. I run it in Small Mode when playing games to cut the RAM and CPU use and it works ok, but I'd prefer they fixed the underlying issue.
"Do you want to watch the original where Han shoots first or the ultra hyper mega blu-ray edition with Hayden Christensen CGIed into every second scene?"
This is true, but that's down to the content owners - Apple does not set the price. I'm sure if they could offer them cheaper to aggressively compete with cable TV they would, but the prices have obviously been set by the owners of said competing cable service to ensure they're not.
My two arguments are not mutually exclusive, but it's somewhat flattering that you'd be digging up prior threads on this.
Here it is in bullet point form:
* Apple charges a premium for laptops. * Apple makes quality laptops that are rugged (metal case, decent parts). * Some PC makers also make quality laptops equal to the ones Apple makes but that often cost a little bit less. * Many PC makers make really terrible laptops (reasonable components but terrible cases) - these are often *a lot less* than Apple's offerings, but are often the ones held up to be "equivalent" when price comparisons are made.
If you want a quality laptop, Apple is one option. There are other options (that may or may not be cheaper) on the PC side. There are also some really terrible choices on the PC side.
There is no "reason" that anything would _cost_ more. It is definitely _priced_more. As I have tried to get through to you - The higher margin simply goes into their pocket. A _TINY_ amount of it genuinely is used to deliver a higher quality product, but its a really small amount.
I'm not sure where your reading comprehension is, because that is exactly what I'm saying. I don't agree that the extra cost is quite so heavily skewed between profit and better materials (otherwise, everyone would be making their laptops out of aluminium), but there is also a price premium purely because the market will bear it. This is basic economics.
That's like asking why we didn't go with 13 amp electrical flex for the "standard" tow rope used by roadside assistance. The two are not similar in function.
But the cage and contact pins for the larger SIM also take up room. They redesigned those pieces too. Overall the new design considerably cuts down the space needed. Most importantly it creates more flexibility on internal parts, since the board you mount the contact pins to can be much, much smaller.
You might just be in luck with the 2012 refresh of the Macbook Pro/Macbook Air - all signs are pointing to them switching to resolution independence in OS X on high dpi displays.
DISCLAIMER: yes, yes, Apple are not the first, not revolutionary or innovative, never roller skate in a buffalo herd, never punch a nun after midnight etc etc.
because Android manufacturers consistently mistake "bigger" specs for "better" experience
Yeah, and Apple fagbois mistake "being made by Apple" for "better". (Also, you lose the argument automatically for the marketing shitbag misuse of the word "experience".)
Sorry, but you lose the argument automatically by being 5 years old and it being past your bed time. You also forgot to log in.
The definition includes a qualifier on the sight of the person using it, although it does not mean that everyone will be in that range - people with better vision than the typically 20-20 will likely be able to make out pixels. For you folk, just move it further away:p
Fact [sic] 1. Apple fans such as yourself, claim that Apple margins are higher because you somehow get more than what others are giving at a lower cost for similar products.
Err.... no. I did not claim that - in fact, I claimed the exact opposite. Not sure why you're trying to prove with your "fact" there. I said Apple sets high margins because the market will bear them, not because the product is higher quality. It *is* higher quality than many other laptops, but equivalent quality laptops on the PC side can be purchased for less. This is not in doubt.
Fact [sic] 2. As I mentioned and you are free to look it up, the higher cost is infact just a tax that Apple charges for their brand. It in no way is indicative of the perceived (wrongly or rightly) higher quality since they simply pocket it.
Again, this is not in doubt - Apple charges a premium for its hardware because it can. The fact that it also doesn't compete at the low end just accentuates the price difference. It is possible to have both a superior product (than most machines, but equal to others) and still charge a premium. The two things are not mutually exclusive.
If you are going to continue this, you should log in.
I've actually worked and machined titanium first hand. I am well aware of its properties. I was part of a team prototyping a martian surface rover - while Ti was excellent at shedding weight, it was susceptible to cracking at fold lines where parts were made from sheet Ti. Sure we could machine more pieces, but it is already tough enough to work with (on the tools) without having to chew through milling machine bits to produce pieces that will ultimately have similar properties.
The reason I chose the airliner example is that the aircraft construction industry made a similar cost/benefit analysis - Aluminium alloys are light and strong and relatively cheap compared to other more exotic metal alloys. They strike a balance between performance and cost and a great deal of expertise has been gained in the handling of the material and what its behaviour will be in many circumstances, so it is no surprise that it's used for aircraft, car bodies, etc - and now even laptops - where strength and weight are a factor.
I find it absurd that you are arguing against this point purely because the product in question is made by Apple (or more accurately, by its supplier). The use of aluminium alloys in engineering situations is not controversial.
I never claimed they had "invented new manufacturing processes" or "some new material" - I very specifically pointed out THE EXACT OPPOSITE - that they were using well-understood materials science to make a sturdy laptop. The only reason no one else has made a laptop from aluminium before is that it is expensive (at least, more expensive than making the case out of ABS, and everyone else is in a race to the bottom on laptop price).
If Dell made a laptop out of a piece of machined aluminium then it would also be just as rugged as a Macbook Pro.
That Vaio looks nice, but if your argument is that Apple is "gouging" everyone on price, then it's not really a good example - even if you factor in the "get what you pay for" aspect of the Vaio that makes it expensive (extreme light weight, high spec parts) its closest competitor in terms of specs AND price is the 13" MBA - the other windows laptops are not even close. You'd at least expect the Windows laptops to be a bit closer in price.
The extra money that Apple charges for their products GOES STRAIGHT INTO THEIR POCKET. This is why people think its overpriced. A TINY tiny part of it might be spent on costlier/better materials and such things, but don't fool yourself. Apple pricing is about fucking over the customer in as many was as the market can sustain.
Err... that's capitalism. How else do you think a business makes money? They set their margins based on the price the market will bear, and given that Apple is *absolutely not* in a monopoly position and surrounded by a vast number of alternatives in the laptop and desktop space, then their choice of pricing is understandable. The market is willing to pay that rate since the people buying the hardware perceive value for money. Certainly not everyone will - but that's the beauty of the market; you can choose something else.
No one is entitled to say "Apple should be forced to run at the same margins as all the other PC makers" and that any "extra" money they make over the cost of manufacturing plus a razor thin profit margin is somehow wrong. It's simply how a business that makes desirable products operates; they simply don't want to compete for the "whatever is the absolute cheapest" market segment.
I see you have no clue about the construction of a laptop computer.
The single piece of machined aluminium *is* for ruggedness. It reduces margins and simplifies assembly also, since your CNC machine can make a single case in one go without the need for a second assembly step, but it also creates a rigid frame. The fact that a frame with no connectors being more durable and rigid than one that is connected together by fasteners (typically screws or rivets) is not new engineering - I can't believe you're arguing against that point just because it's Apple.
You also seem to misunderstand the nature of materials. You suggest that if they wanted it to be rugged they'd make it out of titanium. My question is twofold on that front: firstly, why, and secondly do you think that a different metal that has a much better ruggedness than plastic suddenly loses all material properties because an AC on/. says "lolz they should have used Ti"?
They probably (read: definitely) made many prototypes using different alloys to find a good balance between price and performance. There's a reason that many commercial airliners are made from aluminium alloys, and a reason that Apple chose it.
Titanium is very lightweight and pretty strong, but it is also susceptible to cracking and it is an extreme pain in the ass to machine. Aluminium is much easier to work with and is almost as strong - certainly strong enough to be used as the frame of a computer.
In terms of "the entire Mac case" being made from Al, well... it's true. The unibody case is machined from a single piece of aluminium, and all the internal parts are fixed to it. The bottom cover is also a single piece of Al. The display assembly has an aluminium back and a glass front (unless you have the matte screen option on the 15"). If you're going to tell me that things like the screws (sometimes Al, sometimes steel), logic board (plastic and metal), spacers (polycarbonate/ABS), and brackets for things like the fans (ABS) count against the term "all metal case" then I guess I'll have to go back to putting giant disclaimers on my posts addressing obvious common sense issues.
Good for you that your Sony Vaio is "superior in every single respect" to a MBA. I have my doubts, given my past history with Sony laptops, but each to their own. I'm looking for a Vaio under the MBA's weight (2.38 pounds) but so far failing to find it, since you failed to specify which model you had. It would be nice to compare it.
It's not officially supported by Apple (as in, they won't sell you one) but there are myriad online stores that will sell you a replacement battery for a Macbook Pro.
Changing it out requires the removal of about 6 screws on the bottom case (which are designed to be removable since it's the same way you replace RAM) and then the removal of a couple of screws that hold the battery in place. The connector is friction fit. It takes about 5 minutes to do, including fixing yourself a drink.
Ignore that AC, the Peter F Hamilton books alone are outstanding. For those who have not read Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained (they are 1,2 in a saga) they are well worth picking up.
FWIW I paid about £9 for each physical book from a brick and mortar store, so iTunes is cheaper even if it's not as cheap as earlier ebook prices.
No, it costs more than a cheap laptop, but you replace it less frequently and can resell it for more money than a cheap laptop (in other words, it doesn't drop to near zero value after 3 or 4 years). Whether you can afford the up front cost knowing it will be pretty good value in the long run is another matter entirely, but given that we've been given a target budget in the original submission that allows us to look at Apple hardware, I thought I'd throw it out there.
For those on the bread line who simply must have a laptop, there are better ways than buying new.
You can leave the insults out - it doesn't really help your argument, it just makes you look silly.
Does that "same" hardware also include the case and screen? That's one (not the only) reason they cost more.
How much for a Windows laptop with an all-metal case? Or at the very least, one that equally as rugged as the Macbook Pro (although I guess if it's plastic it's going to be bigger and bulkier to get the same ruggedness, but we can let that pass).
I never understood why buying a computer had to be a race for the bottom. Then people end up complaining about how crappy their computer is.
Honestly, for $1500 the Macbook Pro or MBA will suit you very well, even if you don't intend to run OS X. The machines are well built and come with a decent warranty and will last for a long time. They also have pretty high resale value.
If you want to run Windows or Linux then dual booting is a snap (you can blow away the OS X partition completely if you like).
If you do go this route though, I advise that you wait until after Apple's WWDC keynote on June 11th - the strong likelihood is that the 2012 versions of the Macbook Pro and Macbook Air will be announced, so even if you want a current 2011 one, if you wait you can either get a new one for the same price, or a 2011 for a discount.
The Tea Party is wrong on the internet - there's enough material out there to fill several libraries of congress. I've argued with enough Tea Partiers to know how this goes - If I give you links that provide proof of a position that you disagree with, you'll attack the credibility of those links, and thus dismiss the evidence out of hand, then continue to bray about lack of evidence. Of course, any links that validate the Tea Party are taken as gospel truth, and any criticism of the source is "baseless un-american ad hominem".
The Tea Party advocated defaulting on the debt in a game of chicken in order to force their terms on everyone else. This is fact, look it up from any source.
The Tea Party gives us quotes like these (I'll just grab a couple, feel free to determine their veracity - they have been recorded and noted in many places), and yet still want to be taken seriously:
"I hope that's not where we're going, but you know if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out." —Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle, floating the possibility of armed insurrection in a radio interview, Jan. 2010
'We took the Bible and prayer out of public schools, and now we're having weekly shootings practically. We had the 60s sexual revolution, and now people are dying of AIDS." —Christine O'Donnell, during a 1998 appearance on Bill Maher's 'Politically Incorrect'"
"People ask me, 'What are you going to do to develop jobs in your state?' Well, that's not my job as a U.S. senator." —Sharron Angle, May 14, 2010
"I think that two wrongs don't make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade." —Sharron Angle, explaining why she is against abortion even in cases of rape or incest, July 8, 2010
"I don't want to be associated with those people, but I also don't want to limit their speech in any way in the sense that we tolerate boorish and uncivilized behavior because that’s one of the things freedom requires is that we allow people to be boorish and uncivilized, but that doesn't mean we approve of it." —Rand Paul, taking issue with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 while arguing that government should not prevent private businesses from discriminating on the basis of race, interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, May 21, 2010
"We needed to have the press be our friend... We wanted them to ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported." —Sharron Angle, during an interview with Fox News Channel's Carl Cameron, Aug. 2, 2010
So, racist, sexist, theocratic, zero financial sense, and wanting to turn the media into a directed soapbox.
I'll take "things that are batshit crazy" for $200 Alex.
Slashdot Mirror
They could say no because they don't want to work with MS for ideological reasons, or just plain business reasons - on either side. Who knows. I just thought it was unlikely that in a move where MS is adapting its business to explicitly offer Linux OS options on Azure that their reason for not offering RHEL was "divide and conquer" and the insinuation from the GP that MS is dishonest and evil.
Far more likely that one or other simply didn't want to work together, rather than some highly convoluted scheme whereby MS offers Linux OS choices in a Machiavellian scheme to cripple RHEL by creating more choice in the Linux cloud computing space.
Maybe Red Hat declined to participate?
Isn't that the point of CentOS in the first place?
What? Are you of the generation where all consumer goods are disposable?
No, we're of the generation that isn't so careless that we break all our cool electronic devices.
It must be nice being 100% perfect at all times and free from all possible sources of accidents.
since when has a broken thing been a usable thing...
i know the Apple (the only phone i've ever known to crack) reality distortion field is powerful but really, if it's broken it's no longer functioning.
I use a broken iPod Touch as the music source in my car. No need to use the touch screen since the car's head unit controls it. Bonus, I got it for free since it was smashed.
My dad also used his screen-smashed iPhone for a year or two before getting an upgrade. A wrench dropped on it will do that. Worked just fine, even with the cracks.
I also used a broken iBook G3 600 as a file server for a while. The screen and hinge assembly were totally busted, so it was no good as a laptop without a repair (which was easy enough, but I had already replaced it with a Powerbook at the time), so it served duty as a low-power fanless (it had a fan, but have you ever heard the fan on a white iBook come on? I swear it's not connected), silent fileserver. So, broken but still functioning.
What? Are you of the generation where all consumer goods are disposable?
It's a shame that the Mac Steam client is the way that it is - you'd expect it to perform well, but it's a resource hog (especially CPU) on lower-end systems. The internal html engine is Webkit, yet the steam store inside the client (with the videos, sliding graphics etc) is pretty sluggish, but the same content viewed in Chrome or Safari on the same machine is perfectly fine.
Not sure what it is that Steam is doing wrong there, but it's annoying.
Mac-native games, however, are excellent. I also like that I can have a library of games in there that covers both Mac and Windows, so even the games with no native port are still kept there (with achievements and community participation with my friends etc) - I have to dual boot to play them, of course, but it's a start.
Fix the issues with the performance of the client itself and it would be ideal. I run it in Small Mode when playing games to cut the RAM and CPU use and it works ok, but I'd prefer they fixed the underlying issue.
"Play 'Boardwalk Empire'"
"Did you mean "'The Empire Strikes Back'?"
"No!"
"Do you want to watch the original where Han shoots first or the ultra hyper mega blu-ray edition with Hayden Christensen CGIed into every second scene?"
"No!"
"Playing movie"
This is true, but that's down to the content owners - Apple does not set the price. I'm sure if they could offer them cheaper to aggressively compete with cable TV they would, but the prices have obviously been set by the owners of said competing cable service to ensure they're not.
Maybe that will change.
Your mom says your Eggo is ready. It's at the top of the basement stairs.
Such hostility for one so young! Are you going to put on your "I'm angry at my dad" thrash metal CD and pretend to like it now?
My two arguments are not mutually exclusive, but it's somewhat flattering that you'd be digging up prior threads on this.
Here it is in bullet point form:
* Apple charges a premium for laptops.
* Apple makes quality laptops that are rugged (metal case, decent parts).
* Some PC makers also make quality laptops equal to the ones Apple makes but that often cost a little bit less.
* Many PC makers make really terrible laptops (reasonable components but terrible cases) - these are often *a lot less* than Apple's offerings, but are often the ones held up to be "equivalent" when price comparisons are made.
If you want a quality laptop, Apple is one option. There are other options (that may or may not be cheaper) on the PC side. There are also some really terrible choices on the PC side.
There is no "reason" that anything would _cost_ more. It is definitely _priced_more. As I have tried to get through to you - The higher margin simply goes into their pocket. A _TINY_ amount of it genuinely is used to deliver a higher quality product, but its a really small amount.
I'm not sure where your reading comprehension is, because that is exactly what I'm saying. I don't agree that the extra cost is quite so heavily skewed between profit and better materials (otherwise, everyone would be making their laptops out of aluminium), but there is also a price premium purely because the market will bear it. This is basic economics.
That's like asking why we didn't go with 13 amp electrical flex for the "standard" tow rope used by roadside assistance. The two are not similar in function.
But the cage and contact pins for the larger SIM also take up room. They redesigned those pieces too. Overall the new design considerably cuts down the space needed. Most importantly it creates more flexibility on internal parts, since the board you mount the contact pins to can be much, much smaller.
I haven't played Psychnauts yet, so this was the perfect opportunity.
I'll be seeding all of the games and soundtrack torrents from now until at least a week or two after the bundle closes.
You might just be in luck with the 2012 refresh of the Macbook Pro/Macbook Air - all signs are pointing to them switching to resolution independence in OS X on high dpi displays.
DISCLAIMER: yes, yes, Apple are not the first, not revolutionary or innovative, never roller skate in a buffalo herd, never punch a nun after midnight etc etc.
because Android manufacturers consistently mistake "bigger" specs for "better" experience
Yeah, and Apple fagbois mistake "being made by Apple" for "better". (Also, you lose the argument automatically for the marketing shitbag misuse of the word "experience".)
Sorry, but you lose the argument automatically by being 5 years old and it being past your bed time. You also forgot to log in.
The definition includes a qualifier on the sight of the person using it, although it does not mean that everyone will be in that range - people with better vision than the typically 20-20 will likely be able to make out pixels. For you folk, just move it further away :p
Fact [sic] 1. Apple fans such as yourself, claim that Apple margins are higher because you somehow get more than what others are giving at a lower cost for similar products.
Err.... no. I did not claim that - in fact, I claimed the exact opposite. Not sure why you're trying to prove with your "fact" there. I said Apple sets high margins because the market will bear them, not because the product is higher quality. It *is* higher quality than many other laptops, but equivalent quality laptops on the PC side can be purchased for less. This is not in doubt.
Fact [sic] 2. As I mentioned and you are free to look it up, the higher cost is infact just a tax that Apple charges for their brand. It in no way is indicative of the perceived (wrongly or rightly) higher quality since they simply pocket it.
Again, this is not in doubt - Apple charges a premium for its hardware because it can. The fact that it also doesn't compete at the low end just accentuates the price difference. It is possible to have both a superior product (than most machines, but equal to others) and still charge a premium. The two things are not mutually exclusive.
If you are going to continue this, you should log in.
I've actually worked and machined titanium first hand. I am well aware of its properties. I was part of a team prototyping a martian surface rover - while Ti was excellent at shedding weight, it was susceptible to cracking at fold lines where parts were made from sheet Ti. Sure we could machine more pieces, but it is already tough enough to work with (on the tools) without having to chew through milling machine bits to produce pieces that will ultimately have similar properties.
The reason I chose the airliner example is that the aircraft construction industry made a similar cost/benefit analysis - Aluminium alloys are light and strong and relatively cheap compared to other more exotic metal alloys. They strike a balance between performance and cost and a great deal of expertise has been gained in the handling of the material and what its behaviour will be in many circumstances, so it is no surprise that it's used for aircraft, car bodies, etc - and now even laptops - where strength and weight are a factor.
I find it absurd that you are arguing against this point purely because the product in question is made by Apple (or more accurately, by its supplier). The use of aluminium alloys in engineering situations is not controversial.
I never claimed they had "invented new manufacturing processes" or "some new material" - I very specifically pointed out THE EXACT OPPOSITE - that they were using well-understood materials science to make a sturdy laptop. The only reason no one else has made a laptop from aluminium before is that it is expensive (at least, more expensive than making the case out of ABS, and everyone else is in a race to the bottom on laptop price).
If Dell made a laptop out of a piece of machined aluminium then it would also be just as rugged as a Macbook Pro.
That Vaio looks nice, but if your argument is that Apple is "gouging" everyone on price, then it's not really a good example - even if you factor in the "get what you pay for" aspect of the Vaio that makes it expensive (extreme light weight, high spec parts) its closest competitor in terms of specs AND price is the 13" MBA - the other windows laptops are not even close. You'd at least expect the Windows laptops to be a bit closer in price.
The extra money that Apple charges for their products GOES STRAIGHT INTO THEIR POCKET. This is why people think its overpriced. A TINY tiny part of it might be spent on costlier/better materials and such things, but don't fool yourself. Apple pricing is about fucking over the customer in as many was as the market can sustain.
Err... that's capitalism. How else do you think a business makes money? They set their margins based on the price the market will bear, and given that Apple is *absolutely not* in a monopoly position and surrounded by a vast number of alternatives in the laptop and desktop space, then their choice of pricing is understandable. The market is willing to pay that rate since the people buying the hardware perceive value for money. Certainly not everyone will - but that's the beauty of the market; you can choose something else.
No one is entitled to say "Apple should be forced to run at the same margins as all the other PC makers" and that any "extra" money they make over the cost of manufacturing plus a razor thin profit margin is somehow wrong. It's simply how a business that makes desirable products operates; they simply don't want to compete for the "whatever is the absolute cheapest" market segment.
I see you have no clue about the construction of a laptop computer.
The single piece of machined aluminium *is* for ruggedness. It reduces margins and simplifies assembly also, since your CNC machine can make a single case in one go without the need for a second assembly step, but it also creates a rigid frame. The fact that a frame with no connectors being more durable and rigid than one that is connected together by fasteners (typically screws or rivets) is not new engineering - I can't believe you're arguing against that point just because it's Apple.
You also seem to misunderstand the nature of materials. You suggest that if they wanted it to be rugged they'd make it out of titanium. My question is twofold on that front: firstly, why, and secondly do you think that a different metal that has a much better ruggedness than plastic suddenly loses all material properties because an AC on /. says "lolz they should have used Ti"?
They probably (read: definitely) made many prototypes using different alloys to find a good balance between price and performance. There's a reason that many commercial airliners are made from aluminium alloys, and a reason that Apple chose it.
Titanium is very lightweight and pretty strong, but it is also susceptible to cracking and it is an extreme pain in the ass to machine. Aluminium is much easier to work with and is almost as strong - certainly strong enough to be used as the frame of a computer.
In terms of "the entire Mac case" being made from Al, well... it's true. The unibody case is machined from a single piece of aluminium, and all the internal parts are fixed to it. The bottom cover is also a single piece of Al. The display assembly has an aluminium back and a glass front (unless you have the matte screen option on the 15"). If you're going to tell me that things like the screws (sometimes Al, sometimes steel), logic board (plastic and metal), spacers (polycarbonate/ABS), and brackets for things like the fans (ABS) count against the term "all metal case" then I guess I'll have to go back to putting giant disclaimers on my posts addressing obvious common sense issues.
Good for you that your Sony Vaio is "superior in every single respect" to a MBA. I have my doubts, given my past history with Sony laptops, but each to their own. I'm looking for a Vaio under the MBA's weight (2.38 pounds) but so far failing to find it, since you failed to specify which model you had. It would be nice to compare it.
Err, yes they are.
It's not officially supported by Apple (as in, they won't sell you one) but there are myriad online stores that will sell you a replacement battery for a Macbook Pro.
Changing it out requires the removal of about 6 screws on the bottom case (which are designed to be removable since it's the same way you replace RAM) and then the removal of a couple of screws that hold the battery in place. The connector is friction fit. It takes about 5 minutes to do, including fixing yourself a drink.
Ignore that AC, the Peter F Hamilton books alone are outstanding. For those who have not read Pandora's Star and Judas Unchained (they are 1,2 in a saga) they are well worth picking up.
FWIW I paid about £9 for each physical book from a brick and mortar store, so iTunes is cheaper even if it's not as cheap as earlier ebook prices.
Ah, the RIAA method of damage calculation. Well, I guess if it's good for them then why not?!
Who cares about ludicrous overreactions?
Does the MacBook Pro cost "infinite money"?
No, it costs more than a cheap laptop, but you replace it less frequently and can resell it for more money than a cheap laptop (in other words, it doesn't drop to near zero value after 3 or 4 years). Whether you can afford the up front cost knowing it will be pretty good value in the long run is another matter entirely, but given that we've been given a target budget in the original submission that allows us to look at Apple hardware, I thought I'd throw it out there.
For those on the bread line who simply must have a laptop, there are better ways than buying new.
You can leave the insults out - it doesn't really help your argument, it just makes you look silly.
Does that "same" hardware also include the case and screen? That's one (not the only) reason they cost more.
How much for a Windows laptop with an all-metal case? Or at the very least, one that equally as rugged as the Macbook Pro (although I guess if it's plastic it's going to be bigger and bulkier to get the same ruggedness, but we can let that pass).
I never understood why buying a computer had to be a race for the bottom. Then people end up complaining about how crappy their computer is.
Honestly, for $1500 the Macbook Pro or MBA will suit you very well, even if you don't intend to run OS X. The machines are well built and come with a decent warranty and will last for a long time. They also have pretty high resale value.
If you want to run Windows or Linux then dual booting is a snap (you can blow away the OS X partition completely if you like).
If you do go this route though, I advise that you wait until after Apple's WWDC keynote on June 11th - the strong likelihood is that the 2012 versions of the Macbook Pro and Macbook Air will be announced, so even if you want a current 2011 one, if you wait you can either get a new one for the same price, or a 2011 for a discount.
The Tea Party is wrong on the internet - there's enough material out there to fill several libraries of congress. I've argued with enough Tea Partiers to know how this goes - If I give you links that provide proof of a position that you disagree with, you'll attack the credibility of those links, and thus dismiss the evidence out of hand, then continue to bray about lack of evidence. Of course, any links that validate the Tea Party are taken as gospel truth, and any criticism of the source is "baseless un-american ad hominem".
The Tea Party advocated defaulting on the debt in a game of chicken in order to force their terms on everyone else. This is fact, look it up from any source.
The Tea Party gives us quotes like these (I'll just grab a couple, feel free to determine their veracity - they have been recorded and noted in many places), and yet still want to be taken seriously:
"I hope that's not where we're going, but you know if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out." —Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle, floating the possibility of armed insurrection in a radio interview, Jan. 2010
'We took the Bible and prayer out of public schools, and now we're having weekly shootings practically. We had the 60s sexual revolution, and now people are dying of AIDS." —Christine O'Donnell, during a 1998 appearance on Bill Maher's 'Politically Incorrect'"
"People ask me, 'What are you going to do to develop jobs in your state?' Well, that's not my job as a U.S. senator." —Sharron Angle, May 14, 2010
"I think that two wrongs don't make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade." —Sharron Angle, explaining why she is against abortion even in cases of rape or incest, July 8, 2010
"I don't want to be associated with those people, but I also don't want to limit their speech in any way in the sense that we tolerate boorish and uncivilized behavior because that’s one of the things freedom requires is that we allow people to be boorish and uncivilized, but that doesn't mean we approve of it." —Rand Paul, taking issue with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 while arguing that government should not prevent private businesses from discriminating on the basis of race, interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, May 21, 2010
"We needed to have the press be our friend ... We wanted them to ask the questions we want to answer so that they report the news the way we want it to be reported." —Sharron Angle, during an interview with Fox News Channel's Carl Cameron, Aug. 2, 2010
So, racist, sexist, theocratic, zero financial sense, and wanting to turn the media into a directed soapbox.
I'll take "things that are batshit crazy" for $200 Alex.