You won't compare an all-in-one like the iMac yet you will compare Apple's "entry level" (your description) Mac Mini with a Midi Tower.
Right. Legit.
The Mac Mini is not sold as an entry level machine designed to compare to small towers, it's designed to be an extremely small HTPC-type computer. You're not comparing like with like at all. Now, if you *do* compare the Mac Mini you'll find it is still more expensive than other machines in the same form factor, but that is mainly down to component choice (eg, the i5 vs Atom or Core 2 Duo) etc.
Who says the $100 price difference is solely down to the extra cost of the higher density NAND? They cost more because a) that's what the market will bear and b) making different models of a similar device on a mass scale does not always enable the economics of said devices to merely come down to the raw delta in the cost of the pieces.
It really depends - the consumer ones are pretty competitive for what you get. They're a little underpowered right now, but that's because Apple doesn't incrementally update them, so they're better value when they've just been refreshed.
They can't compete with el cheapo plastic boxes or whitebox self assembled machines, but they are not meant to.
Where they really fall down is the Mac Pro, which is simply woefully overpriced for what it is, since it hasn't been updated for 2 years and still costs the same, and even back then it was more expensive then equivalent competitors.
Glow plugs are only useful for heating the engine block prior to starting if the engine and surrounding air temperature is too cold. Once the engine is running, diesel engines are entirely self sustaining. So much so that they need a governor to prevent them from running away if over fuelled.
Diesel hybrids were limited because diesel engines have a minimum size before they start to really show their benefits over a gasoline engine. They're also heavier. Since most hybrids just have a small gasoline engine, it's not really an area where you'd see large benefits from diesel.
Hydroelectric is used very effectively for exactly that - responding to sudden load increases. We have one in Wales (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_power_station) that can supply about 1800 MW to the grid in about 2 minutes, with enough running capacity for 6 hours before they need to reverse the flow and pump the water back up.
It's obviously very dependent on local geography - Dinorwig is built inside a mountain on the site of a former slate quarry, but where it can be used, it is very effective. It saves the UK a large amount in CO2 emissions yearly since fewer gas power stations are needed for quick response on the grid.
Ah, indeed. I use Virgin and their fibre service has been outstanding - high speed, reliable, painless. I just wish they weren't blocking TPB, not because I use it (I've never even been to the URL) but for the terrible precedent it sets.
Yes it can, although when you talk about electricity what we're really interested in is energy. You can store it chemically via batteries, or as potential energy by pumping water uphill and storing it, or kinetically by spinning up flywheels kept in vacuum chambers.
Any overcapacity in your power infrastructure can be put towards energy storage so that you can call on it when your network faces a sudden high demand.
I used to shoot and edit on those bad boys, using car batteries to run both the recorder and the camera since you could run for much longer without having to swap out PAG batteries all the damn time, assuming you didn't need to be *too* portable - recorder on one shoulder, camera on the other then some chump to carry the battery.
By the end of their life, our linear edit decks were really showing their age, and could be +/- 3 or 4 frames around your actual edit point, but we skipped right over Betacam and went right into NLE with Media 100. It was never quite the same after that, with the edit suite being much quieter with just the sound of computer fans rather than the clanking, clunking and whirring of those old dinosaur decks, and the distorted audio during jog/shuttle. Editing is just too sterile now!
Actually, I know at least two people in my personal circle of friends in the US who wanted tiered plans. They couldn't justify the original plan on AT&T until they introduced the new tiered structure with the cheaper basic plan.
Not everyone has a need to be able to torrent Linux ISOs from their phone 24/7 and can get by just fine with less than unlimited data, as long as it's affordable.
They're simply not keeping the grandfathered in plans around once the initial contract periods have expired when they're moved over to the LTE network.
No one is talking about them breaking the terms of the contract - they didn't do that and instead kept them around as grandfathered in plans until such time that the contract expired, while new customers could only get the newer tiered plans.
I don't seed Linux ISOs, but I do seed Humble Bundle games I have purchased. It's an ideal distribution method that keeps the weight off the servers - I always go for the torrent links rather than the direct http downloads.
And to make it "reeeeeeeal" simple for you, Verizon is within its rights to stop selling an unlimited data plan at any time, beyond the terms it initially signed you up for. I am willing to bet that there are terms in the contract that state that they can do this.
Perhaps they wanted to have unlimited data plans initially, and now that time has moved on a little, they want to offer something else. Saying that they should never have offered it to you in the first place if they were ever planning on changing their services in the future is a little silly, especially if you're calling out the GP as an "egocentric fuck". Look who's talking - you want Verizon to offer you an unlimited data plan for the rest of time, presumably until you die or get bored of them, regardless of what Verizon does in the future (again, without looking at the terms of your contact and just seeing "lolz unlimited that means forever, no backsies, at *my* discretion and not theirs".
Everyone is quick to demonise them, but they are making changes that people have asked for - for example, shared data plans across multiple devices and shared data among households.
I suppose that depends what you consider the opening salvo to be? Nokia vs Apple? Samsung vs Apple? HTC vs Apple? Microsoft vs Google? Motorola vs Apple?
That's what it used to do - there were a number of joke responses coded in, including some if you asked about Android, or if you tell it you need to dispose of a body etc.
Well, I guess it's the Apple Zealots turn, after all the Android Zealots were cheering after Apple's handsets were held back from sale in Germany. It's not really a case of "other companies allowing" Apple to get away with things - that would be the legal system.
Personally I think it's all just getting stupid - most of these patent suits are bullshit, on both sides.
So you demand continous free software upgrades from every hardware vendor you buy stuff from?
HTC provides rooting methods for all their phones since the last 2 years. Do your ICS upgrade yourself and stop making off-topic posts
Well, there's the rub. Android is meant to be a decent competitor to iOS (and it is) but the sort of crap foisted on the user base by handset makers who simply abandon the old models without providing an upgrade path to the newer versions of Android only takes away from that.
It's likely the main reason that such a tiny percentage of Android handsets are running ICS (compared to a large proportion of iOS devices being at the most current main release [iOS 5] of that operating system, even if they're not all on the same point release). ICS is touted as being the serious competitor to everything iOS has to offer, and I don't doubt it, but it's hardly making Apple shake when it's just not really seen in the wild in large numbers.
It's not "off topic" to discuss a potential criticism of the Android ecosystem, unless you're simply unable to bear that anyone give it anything other than glowing praise. The abandoning of older handsets to outdated versions of Android (some of them more than 2 major revisions back) is one of the things that Android needs to address. It's not inflammatory (or demanding) to point that out.
Ah, only on slashdot can someone with a dissenting opinion, laid out in similar style to the post its replying to be classified as a paid astroturf.
I assume you're not going to accuse the GGP post of being an anti-Apple shill?
Didn't think so.
Either way, the assertion that the iPhone only sold to "absurdly loyal fans" is disproved by simple numbers - it has sold in far greater numbers than the total number of Apple Mac computers that exist, and continues to do so. Far more than could be attributed to the "absurdly loyal fans" buying multiple phones.
The iPhone has been a successful product for a number of reasons, which include it *actually being a good smartphone*. Dismissing anyone who dares to point that out as a paid astroturfer is just childish and smacks of the fingers-in-ears "la la la I'm not listening" argument.
The GP post misused the term for a product that acts as a positive experience of a brand that then results in further purchases - I would more accurately describe it as a gateway product. However, dismissively directing him to the definitions of a verb (and fucking something as simple as making a link) really doesn't do your argument any good. I can see why you forgot to log in.
I know you're trolling, but actually, Apple's lawsuit against HTC is over certain software patents related to URL handling and so on, not what the phone looks like. It's even thinner ice than a design patent suit.
Either way, it's amusing to see the "zomg Apple is evil!" comments on this story contrasted with the "haha good on Samsung, totally legit!" when the reverse was the case in Germany and Apple had to pull products.
In my opinion it's all just getting ridiculous, with some of these suits hinging on the most trivial nonsense. No one except the lawyers are benefiting from this.
That's true, but you couldn't legally, since it was sold as an upgrade. For convenience though, all OS X installers are full and complete, although there are some that are tailored to a specific hardware setup - those are the grey DVDs that come with new Macs that generally have specific hardware drivers on them for particular Macs.
The PowerPC transition wasn't done when Steve Jobs was around (so they did do some things right then) but yeah they did manage to make CPU emulation work to keep the older apps back then.
So you don't remember Steve Jobs inviting the CEO of Intel up onto the stage during the Macworld keynote with the Intel logo as the backdrop to officially announce the worst kept secret in the tech industry at the time?
Perhaps some fact checking first before you throw a casual insult at the man.
Or are you talking about the 68k transition? Either way, both CPU architecture changes were handled in the same way - with extensive support for legacy code, so they handled it exactly the same as the PPC>x86 switch, dropping 68k emulation in 1998 after about 4 years. Rosetta hung around from 2006>2011 when it was finally dropped in Lion.
Adobe had no excuse other than laziness for not moving their code to Cocoa (assuming they wanted to stay on the Mac platform with the release of OS X of course). Relying on the legacy support system for almost 10 years that they knew was being removed and then crying that Apple was being unfair to them is simply not the way to run a business.
The Classic instance was a pseudo-VM - you essentially had a fully fledged copy of OS 9 running alongside. It worked ok, but it was hardly perfect. It did not run in a separate screen (although apps had their own windows). It ran much as Windows does right now if you use a VM that supports "side by side" mode like Fusion.
The installer is full and complete so that you don't have to go through that sort of nonsense, but the licence assumes you bought it as an upgrade for a prior version of OS X.
It also doesn't have any serial numbers, online activation, encryption or other checks to enforce this, it just assumes you are abiding by the terms of the licence.
Slashdot Mirror
You won't compare an all-in-one like the iMac yet you will compare Apple's "entry level" (your description) Mac Mini with a Midi Tower.
Right. Legit.
The Mac Mini is not sold as an entry level machine designed to compare to small towers, it's designed to be an extremely small HTPC-type computer. You're not comparing like with like at all. Now, if you *do* compare the Mac Mini you'll find it is still more expensive than other machines in the same form factor, but that is mainly down to component choice (eg, the i5 vs Atom or Core 2 Duo) etc.
Who says the $100 price difference is solely down to the extra cost of the higher density NAND? They cost more because a) that's what the market will bear and b) making different models of a similar device on a mass scale does not always enable the economics of said devices to merely come down to the raw delta in the cost of the pieces.
It really depends - the consumer ones are pretty competitive for what you get. They're a little underpowered right now, but that's because Apple doesn't incrementally update them, so they're better value when they've just been refreshed.
They can't compete with el cheapo plastic boxes or whitebox self assembled machines, but they are not meant to.
Where they really fall down is the Mac Pro, which is simply woefully overpriced for what it is, since it hasn't been updated for 2 years and still costs the same, and even back then it was more expensive then equivalent competitors.
Glow plugs are only useful for heating the engine block prior to starting if the engine and surrounding air temperature is too cold. Once the engine is running, diesel engines are entirely self sustaining. So much so that they need a governor to prevent them from running away if over fuelled.
Diesel hybrids were limited because diesel engines have a minimum size before they start to really show their benefits over a gasoline engine. They're also heavier. Since most hybrids just have a small gasoline engine, it's not really an area where you'd see large benefits from diesel.
Hydroelectric is used very effectively for exactly that - responding to sudden load increases. We have one in Wales (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinorwig_power_station) that can supply about 1800 MW to the grid in about 2 minutes, with enough running capacity for 6 hours before they need to reverse the flow and pump the water back up.
It's obviously very dependent on local geography - Dinorwig is built inside a mountain on the site of a former slate quarry, but where it can be used, it is very effective. It saves the UK a large amount in CO2 emissions yearly since fewer gas power stations are needed for quick response on the grid.
Ah, indeed. I use Virgin and their fibre service has been outstanding - high speed, reliable, painless. I just wish they weren't blocking TPB, not because I use it (I've never even been to the URL) but for the terrible precedent it sets.
Power can not be saved.
Yes it can, although when you talk about electricity what we're really interested in is energy. You can store it chemically via batteries, or as potential energy by pumping water uphill and storing it, or kinetically by spinning up flywheels kept in vacuum chambers.
Any overcapacity in your power infrastructure can be put towards energy storage so that you can call on it when your network faces a sudden high demand.
Ah, Umatic tapes, those were the days.
I used to shoot and edit on those bad boys, using car batteries to run both the recorder and the camera since you could run for much longer without having to swap out PAG batteries all the damn time, assuming you didn't need to be *too* portable - recorder on one shoulder, camera on the other then some chump to carry the battery.
By the end of their life, our linear edit decks were really showing their age, and could be +/- 3 or 4 frames around your actual edit point, but we skipped right over Betacam and went right into NLE with Media 100. It was never quite the same after that, with the edit suite being much quieter with just the sound of computer fans rather than the clanking, clunking and whirring of those old dinosaur decks, and the distorted audio during jog/shuttle. Editing is just too sterile now!
Actually, I know at least two people in my personal circle of friends in the US who wanted tiered plans. They couldn't justify the original plan on AT&T until they introduced the new tiered structure with the cheaper basic plan.
Not everyone has a need to be able to torrent Linux ISOs from their phone 24/7 and can get by just fine with less than unlimited data, as long as it's affordable.
That's not what they're doing though, is it?
They're simply not keeping the grandfathered in plans around once the initial contract periods have expired when they're moved over to the LTE network.
No one is talking about them breaking the terms of the contract - they didn't do that and instead kept them around as grandfathered in plans until such time that the contract expired, while new customers could only get the newer tiered plans.
I don't seed Linux ISOs, but I do seed Humble Bundle games I have purchased. It's an ideal distribution method that keeps the weight off the servers - I always go for the torrent links rather than the direct http downloads.
Why, are parents obligated to include her in the plan if they decide to pool just mom and dad, but keep her separate?
And to make it "reeeeeeeal" simple for you, Verizon is within its rights to stop selling an unlimited data plan at any time, beyond the terms it initially signed you up for. I am willing to bet that there are terms in the contract that state that they can do this.
Perhaps they wanted to have unlimited data plans initially, and now that time has moved on a little, they want to offer something else. Saying that they should never have offered it to you in the first place if they were ever planning on changing their services in the future is a little silly, especially if you're calling out the GP as an "egocentric fuck". Look who's talking - you want Verizon to offer you an unlimited data plan for the rest of time, presumably until you die or get bored of them, regardless of what Verizon does in the future (again, without looking at the terms of your contact and just seeing "lolz unlimited that means forever, no backsies, at *my* discretion and not theirs".
Everyone is quick to demonise them, but they are making changes that people have asked for - for example, shared data plans across multiple devices and shared data among households.
I suppose that depends what you consider the opening salvo to be? Nokia vs Apple? Samsung vs Apple? HTC vs Apple? Microsoft vs Google? Motorola vs Apple?
That's what it used to do - there were a number of joke responses coded in, including some if you asked about Android, or if you tell it you need to dispose of a body etc.
Well, I guess it's the Apple Zealots turn, after all the Android Zealots were cheering after Apple's handsets were held back from sale in Germany. It's not really a case of "other companies allowing" Apple to get away with things - that would be the legal system.
Personally I think it's all just getting stupid - most of these patent suits are bullshit, on both sides.
So you demand continous free software upgrades from every hardware vendor you buy stuff from?
HTC provides rooting methods for all their phones since the last 2 years. Do your ICS upgrade yourself and stop making off-topic posts
Well, there's the rub. Android is meant to be a decent competitor to iOS (and it is) but the sort of crap foisted on the user base by handset makers who simply abandon the old models without providing an upgrade path to the newer versions of Android only takes away from that.
It's likely the main reason that such a tiny percentage of Android handsets are running ICS (compared to a large proportion of iOS devices being at the most current main release [iOS 5] of that operating system, even if they're not all on the same point release). ICS is touted as being the serious competitor to everything iOS has to offer, and I don't doubt it, but it's hardly making Apple shake when it's just not really seen in the wild in large numbers.
It's not "off topic" to discuss a potential criticism of the Android ecosystem, unless you're simply unable to bear that anyone give it anything other than glowing praise. The abandoning of older handsets to outdated versions of Android (some of them more than 2 major revisions back) is one of the things that Android needs to address. It's not inflammatory (or demanding) to point that out.
Ah, only on slashdot can someone with a dissenting opinion, laid out in similar style to the post its replying to be classified as a paid astroturf.
I assume you're not going to accuse the GGP post of being an anti-Apple shill?
Didn't think so.
Either way, the assertion that the iPhone only sold to "absurdly loyal fans" is disproved by simple numbers - it has sold in far greater numbers than the total number of Apple Mac computers that exist, and continues to do so. Far more than could be attributed to the "absurdly loyal fans" buying multiple phones.
The iPhone has been a successful product for a number of reasons, which include it *actually being a good smartphone*. Dismissing anyone who dares to point that out as a paid astroturfer is just childish and smacks of the fingers-in-ears "la la la I'm not listening" argument.
The GP post misused the term for a product that acts as a positive experience of a brand that then results in further purchases - I would more accurately describe it as a gateway product. However, dismissively directing him to the definitions of a verb (and fucking something as simple as making a link) really doesn't do your argument any good. I can see why you forgot to log in.
I know you're trolling, but actually, Apple's lawsuit against HTC is over certain software patents related to URL handling and so on, not what the phone looks like. It's even thinner ice than a design patent suit.
Either way, it's amusing to see the "zomg Apple is evil!" comments on this story contrasted with the "haha good on Samsung, totally legit!" when the reverse was the case in Germany and Apple had to pull products.
In my opinion it's all just getting ridiculous, with some of these suits hinging on the most trivial nonsense. No one except the lawyers are benefiting from this.
That's true, but you couldn't legally, since it was sold as an upgrade. For convenience though, all OS X installers are full and complete, although there are some that are tailored to a specific hardware setup - those are the grey DVDs that come with new Macs that generally have specific hardware drivers on them for particular Macs.
Well, the FSF says it is, but then, I sort of stopped listening to them - they tend to get a bit zealot-y for some people. ;)
The PowerPC transition wasn't done when Steve Jobs was around (so they did do some things right then) but yeah they did manage to make CPU emulation work to keep the older apps back then.
So you don't remember Steve Jobs inviting the CEO of Intel up onto the stage during the Macworld keynote with the Intel logo as the backdrop to officially announce the worst kept secret in the tech industry at the time?
Perhaps some fact checking first before you throw a casual insult at the man.
Or are you talking about the 68k transition? Either way, both CPU architecture changes were handled in the same way - with extensive support for legacy code, so they handled it exactly the same as the PPC>x86 switch, dropping 68k emulation in 1998 after about 4 years. Rosetta hung around from 2006>2011 when it was finally dropped in Lion.
Adobe had no excuse other than laziness for not moving their code to Cocoa (assuming they wanted to stay on the Mac platform with the release of OS X of course). Relying on the legacy support system for almost 10 years that they knew was being removed and then crying that Apple was being unfair to them is simply not the way to run a business.
The Classic instance was a pseudo-VM - you essentially had a fully fledged copy of OS 9 running alongside. It worked ok, but it was hardly perfect. It did not run in a separate screen (although apps had their own windows). It ran much as Windows does right now if you use a VM that supports "side by side" mode like Fusion.
Yes, you could.
All OS X installers were full installers, even those sold as upgrades.
No, you just install 10.7.
The installer is full and complete so that you don't have to go through that sort of nonsense, but the licence assumes you bought it as an upgrade for a prior version of OS X.
It also doesn't have any serial numbers, online activation, encryption or other checks to enforce this, it just assumes you are abiding by the terms of the licence.