going from 60hz to 120hz on my crt helped latency considerably. however, I"m one of those old school quake heads who sees stuff like that. today's world of laggy GUIs and clunky virtualized binaries (java/.net et al) drives me insane...especially since the cpus we have today are roughly 10x faster than they were in 1998.
of the striking things about the reaction to the president's calm and — to reasonable minds — entirely persuasive appearance in the White House briefing room
rhetorical nonsense.
yes, it appears obama's citizenry is legitimate.. However, the community here being what it is, it should realize how easily documents can be faked, especially in high level government. No, I'm not saying he isn't legit. I'm saying a paper document proves nothing. The fact this nonsense went on for months should be a red flag at the very least. obama handled this very poorly for someone who had an interest in claiming legitimacy.
People rarely attach themselves to political ideologies (and persons) for rational reasons, so it is no surprise that such an obvious point is ignored by most people. Most of them will divert such questioning with ad hominem directed at those asking like "you must be paranoid" etc. Those running the press are no different.. Even if individuals within the press want to tell the complete story, as long as their career-survival depends on them not stepping on 'too-big-to-fail' political and economic organizations, they most often will not do so. There are exceptions like Assange. Typically, the US government has been trying to sully his reputation with allegations of sexual abuse. Whether that's true or not is irrelevant. at least he and those who are involved with wikileaks are attempting some investigative reporting. no they don't have smooth talking prettypeople with flashy graphics and sound on their own cable channel, but at least they get some of the truth out there so people can make up their own minds. The harder the US government tries to lock it down, the more hypocritical they appear to the public. They are cowards.
Follow the money trail. follow the power trails. Track actions taken. this is how you discern real intent..from anyone. The 'professional' news outlets didn't lose their legitimacy because of selection bias on the part of viewers, they lost it because their whole power base is fallacious. They have momentum, slick headlines, nicely dressed prettypeople, and in the written world, good writers with excellent vocabularies. None of this means they're telling the complete truth. If anything, they are the ones guilty of selection bias at the very least, due to outright greed (selling out) or emotional commitments to ideology. (or fear of reprisal from those above). Ask yourself about the intentions and real desires of those who own the major news outlets. What are their priorities? What are they afraid of?
for now. eventually the powers that be will make it mandatory. it might not be called facebook but the concept remains.
People VOLUNTARILY share this information.
most people are also fools. again a result of group think mentality. what is popular matters more than the truth.
Sure its a society where privacy can be beneficial, but this *society* is actually very social.
ah the newspeak use of the word social. of course this version of social means one must be complete open to everyone. being private is being 'anti-social' right?
People are driven to share their lives with each other, and while many a smirk is made by joking about the uselessness of facebook, the truth is we are drawn towards it like a magnet of interest!
people are drawn to it because they are insecure fools who judge their self-worth by how much they're connected to other people. facebook offers an external record of these links which let individuals track others' behaviors and thoughts. what better way for the insecure to reassure themselves that they are indeed still a part of some social circle? It is truly pathetic.
most people on facebook aren't thinking of themselves as criminals with things to hide.
doesn't matter what people think of themselves. with no privacy, all that matters is what other people think. this is why privacy and individual freedom are linked. the more public your personal bits are, the more likely they'll be judged by groupthink, which as you know is full of fallacies and emotional handwringing.
Once Corporations and Government become the same thing
the barriers that separate them even now are perfunctory at best. a nice side show.
Of course, maybe Macs still have an advantage here, in that the OSX is the pinnacle of design perfection, so no user would ever *want* to download and install a purely cosmetic change.
I"m sure it's not worth the money. I can't speak for their pro stuff, but the consumer stuff is garbage, especially for the money.
The satellites are great at producing high frequency sounds
no.. modern tweeter designs in the last 15 years can handle 20-25khz (even higher on some systems). the current bose designs still use treated paper cones like speakers did in the 1970s. the best paper cone tweeters peak at 16khz or so. the cheap $0.50 drivers in the satellites are hardly the best.
and the sub can generally put out more than enough bass for the system,
no. it's a terrible design. the sub isnt' even really a sub because it can't reproduce subsonic frequencies. it's three 5.25" drivers inside a baffle that emphasizes midbass frequencies at the expense of accuracy.
and it's usually the abundance of warm and smooth bass that gets people hooked on them (along with the marketing)
in other words, it sounds like a boombox with the bass turned up all the way. this is fine for a $100 tabletop radio or $300 home-theater-in-a-box. it is not high fidelity audio worthy of a $3200 price tag.
be careful here. when people say audiophile today they mean the religious zealot variety.. you should have a problem with bose. objectively speaking, their products do not offer good value for the money. either the same sound can be purchased for 1/10th the price (3200$ lifestyle vs $320 hometheater-in-a-box systems from decent brands), or you can do a lot better for the price point asked. 3200$ buys you a very nice system. the fact is that no matter how much one 'engineers' things, it's impossible for smaller speakers to make good sound in a large soundstage compared with larger ones. if size is more important than sound quality, than it is not necessary to spend a lot of money to get the best available. bose isn't any better than anything else in that size category. they use the same sub-par driver and baffling designs as well as the same cheap materials in their cabinets that most vendors use in their $150-300 kits. they just charge 10x the price.
some are referring to the large bose systems like the 901s.. others are referring to the satellite systems.
just because something makes you happy doesn't mean it isn't stupid or better according to objective measurement. if blowing lots of money on mediocre technology in nice shiny plastic boxes turns you on, so be it. it's still a stupid decision.
why? thx cert is hardly worth anything as it is.. the fact that bose equipment can't get the cert is truly pathetic.. especially considering what is charged for it.
how about just using books? they're cheaper..dont break when dropped. don't need expensive software. don't need replacement batteries. don't need expensive infrastructure to support . if the school is poor, it should focus on essentials like retaining good teachers.
got a bunch of shit/broken computers? how about a computer repair class? at least those things will allow the kids to learn about computers via programming. the ipad will not without expensive osx machines.
I mentioned that it might be time to get an iPad, which does everything 90% (I'm expecting someone to jump on me for a "made up number"!) of the worlds computer users could want, slickly, in a beautiful design, for a low, low price. I got this back in response:
no, subjective opinion, subjective opinion, no.
"didnt do everything I wanted", for a non technical user seems to mean "I looked for Windows Solitaire and didnt see it, or the start menu":-) So, he went from Apple, to world leader Acer:
troll much? ad hominems prove nothing.
Who'd you rather be, Steve Jobs, on top of the world, or this "Gianfranco Lanci" character, who just got the boot from Acer?:-)
see this is what apple users do.. they fall for apple's psychological warfare, associating the products being sold as some kind of induction into cool-exclusive-holyland. the life stories of the ceos of apple and acer have nothing to do with the topic.
I wouldnt take away your Eee PC, I agree, I dont think I'd enjoy editing/compiling code on my iPad, for students? I think you'd be nuts to buy something other than an iPad, truly.
at least a netbook would allow students to investigate basic programming concepts if they (or the school) wanted to. forget it on a pad.
HELL, I have an older friend who bought a "netbook" recently, the damn thing lags on FACEBOOK for crying out loud! I saw his status yesterday, "might have to give up Facebook, it takes a few seconds for each word to appear..." while he types his status...let alone video calling, GPS abilities, geocaching....
your entire argument is based on one anecdotal sample point. yeah there are shitty netbooks out there. your friend was stupid to buy it without doing a bit of research.
The iPad is *cheap*, its slim, it has ten hour battery life, people of all ages LOVE them, its hard to break physically (the ones I've seen at schools have cases, a netbook would be just as breakable, perhaps more so due to mass RE dropping), the software is incredible...
i'ts not cheap at all.. it's at least twice the price of a netbook and roughly the cost of a subcompact laptop. once you add all the accessories (like a hardened case), it's even more. as far as dropping goes, all of the options discussed here will die from this. if anything, you're arguing for a return to dead tree textbooks.
We should be giving them tools they can use for creative expression, whatever form that might take.
i'd rather focus on basic pillars of education like mathematics, science, and language skills. creativity is certainly important, but at this age we can't ahve every class be full of hippie flowers and happyfuntime. both ipads and netbooks are of limited utility in math for example. netbooks with real keyboards would be alright for taking notes in literature and history courses as long as the kids understand the concepts of outlining..and can type quickly. as far as art goes, give them real paints and paper. for the cost of an ipad, you can buy a lot of it...or just buy a bunch of real tablets for the computer lab.
to be honest, I'd rather see the money spent on better teachers and classrooms that don't smell like latrines because their AC hasn't worked since the 1970s. air quality counts a lot more towards attentive students than tech gimmickry. perhaps overall, the money should be spent on developing better teaching processes.
The trouble you Apple haters have, and has always have, is distinguishing between adoration and insight.
the trouble with apple lovers is that they have trouble telling the difference between feelings/beliefs, and factual objectivity. this doesn't surprise me since apple's marketing specifically targets those whose brainmatter prioritizes the former over the latter. in contrast, microsoft attempts this and usually fails (the seinfeld ad for ex). the 'to the cloud' ads are almost as annoying and insulting.
People who use apple products and like them are quick to point out flaws.
I'm sure there are some who do. The stereotypes as well as my personal experience suggest the opposite. Apple users fall for the marketed culture/status which prevents them from seeing apple products objectively. No, I'm not suggesting it's all extremes..
People who do not use Apple products and hate them, are quick to say EVERYTHING is a flaw, regardless of how good it really is.
maybe such people are victims of the hype that is created around apple in general. it causes them to expect a lot more than they actually get from apple products. price premium is also a factor. maybe such people aren't as easily manipulated out of seeing what's in front of them. if they are biased, perhaps it's because of the hype itself. overhype is the death of any product, good or bad.
The simple truth is if you think back you'll not find one time in your life when you thought Apple did something right. You should mull over that and the fact that all companies do good and bad things, to find if the discordancy of these two facts can bring you to a new realization about your own mindset.
The issue is judging on like terms. fanbois like to say that their fixation was the first to achieve something, but that is rarely true. this applies to all fanbois, not just apple fanbois. Apple has a reputation for overcharging for their products on the assumption that the intrinsic value they add justifies the price over non-apple branded pc hardware. This, along with the cultish behavior the company breeds in its user base, are the primary sources of derision the company receives. These are valid complaints. Dealing with apple users in enterprise settings can be...difficult.
I know it can be done because once I felt the same way about Microsoft, but I was able to break free and become open minded. With any luck you can do the same in regards to Apple - the danger if you cannot is that you will be unable to predict the path of technology in an world of escalating change.
Being open minded is not the same as removing all skepticism and accepting everything with open arms. Despite popular cultural trends today, judging things/people/behavior/results is perfectly ok and natural. Both apple and ms have done a lot of screwed up things. they still do. occasionally, they release a product that benefits the customer but that seems more accidental these days than anything else. the reality is that apple's primary method of getting and keeping customers is by appealing to their social and intellectual insecurities and building up an image of superiority they have to buy into. microsoft does it with momentum and ubiquity. the fact is that neither company deserves fanboi adoration because neither has done much in the way of innovation over the last 10-15 years. make money? yes, hand over fist. that is not the same thing as innovation.
A) We aren't talking about desktops, but the iPad vs. a netbook. The Netbook does not have a limitless base of software that runs well.
the fact the architecture is open allows the schoolsystem (or whoever) to use whatever capabilities it does have in any way they choose. this is not true of closed systems like ios devices.
B) There is more usable education software for the iPad now than the PC. Really.
I guess it depends on what you mean by 'education software.' I'd say that, today, it's equivalent.
If that made any sense I'd respond.
you implied that using an 'education suite' locks things down, and then talked about all the possible options ios apps give you. if the pad was locked down with said 'suite' then those apps would not be available anyway. regardless who has the installation privileges (the student or the school), app stores are much more limiting than open ended systems. I"m sure that there are suites available for ipad. they are also available for everything else too. x86 netbooks should have no trouble running them, plus they offer real keyboards and real software suites (such as ms and openoffice for ex).
Your error is thinking usability can be had without consideration of aesthetics. In fact usability *is* aesthetics.
no, it's not. aesthetics is a component, yes, but if today's trends are any indication, it's quite possible to make very good looking interfaces that are hell to use because the looks and feel take precedence over efficiency. all the hoopla about local device 'search' is a good example. it's the result of shoddy gui organization.
I'll bet a hundred billion dollars thanks, because I have seen the iPad in the hands of real children.
I'm wondering what school you went to because in public schools, even things like textbooks are manhandled, ripped, scratched and doodled all over. even laptops would have trouble standing up to the abuse. I'd rather replace a few textbooks than a few laptops. a couple of kids in a room playing with ipads != thousands of ipads in an institutional setting in timespans measured in years.
I can draw a lot better on an iPad than any laptop.
maybe.. but the money would be better spent on a lab with tablet enabled desktops...ones that have sufficient ram for real art generation...or how about just a stack of tablets in the artroom that kids can plug into their laptops for the duration?
I can create music easier on an iPad alone than with a laptop.
No. That's all that need be said. No. If this is really true for you, then you're doing it wrong.
I can even creation movies a lot easier on an iPad than any netbook, or almost I daresay a normal laptop.
uhhh... no. unless your definition of 'movie production' is using the built in cam and youtube. I'd say that none of these devices are suited to video production of any kind.
video and art production are ancillary subjects at best. until the primary curriculum (math/science/english) is fixed, money shouldn't be wasted on toys for the kids.
They already learn that when they stand and pledge their lives to a flag each morning, right?
start with a nice red herring.
RE "Vendor lock in", were you really wanting to take each childs tablet down to the local computer store, "yeah, I'd like it to be pimped out please, double the RAM, check the CPU's thermal paste, add a liquid cooling system..." ?:-)
another red herring. the post was not referring to the hw itself nor modifying it, but the software lockin it crfeates.
Ah, you meant software? No more "locked in" than any of the other educational suites used, actually, a much LARGER array of software vendors, feel free to count how many large makers already have iOS software designed for students of all levels, and all designed for the exact resolution and device the students are using, not cobbled together, like the Windows NT and then Windows 2000 computers we had to put up with, where each and every day MORE ten year old machines would crap out, necessitating "computer sharing", one senior student looking over the shoulder of another.
what?! this paragraph doesn't even make sense.
1. desktop os's have a limitless supply of applications compared with consumption devices like the ipad. 2. if an education suite in place means that extra software becomes unavailable, why tell us about all the apparently 'amazing' options ios devices have ? 3. exact resolution? are you even aware how fonts and widget sizing are accomplished? this is a red herring anyway. all modern systems have this down. if anything things like the ipad abuse them by placing asthetics ahead of usability. 4. ALL computers fail under the abuse of children. apples included. how much you want to bet that the costs of repairing cracked screens from dropped/abused pads will kill this thing off?
idiocy.. that's a shitty reason to not upgrade.. blame the studio for going cheap on effects. what you're saying is that you did the technical version of sticking head in sand.. stupid.
convenience? what's the convenience in having to pay a monthly fee to retain access to what you 'bought'? what's the convenience in not having access to what you 'bought' because of a network outage or bw cap?
It's a trade off of conveniences. at least the discs ensure I have access to what I purchased.
drm free? haha you're kidding right? it's amazing that so many people here are ready to embrace streaming while dumping on discs because of re-buy. meanwhile streaming guarantees that you'll be paying repeatedly for the same stream, probably every time you watch it, over and over again. at least with the disc you buy it once and you're done.
Slashdot Mirror
going from 60hz to 120hz on my crt helped latency considerably. however, I"m one of those old school quake heads who sees stuff like that. today's world of laggy GUIs and clunky virtualized binaries (java/.net et al) drives me insane...especially since the cpus we have today are roughly 10x faster than they were in 1998.
professional news organization
argument from authority.
of the striking things about the reaction to the president's calm and — to reasonable minds — entirely persuasive appearance in the White House briefing room
rhetorical nonsense.
yes, it appears obama's citizenry is legitimate.. However, the community here being what it is, it should realize how easily documents can be faked, especially in high level government. No, I'm not saying he isn't legit. I'm saying a paper document proves nothing. The fact this nonsense went on for months should be a red flag at the very least. obama handled this very poorly for someone who had an interest in claiming legitimacy.
People rarely attach themselves to political ideologies (and persons) for rational reasons, so it is no surprise that such an obvious point is ignored by most people. Most of them will divert such questioning with ad hominem directed at those asking like "you must be paranoid" etc. Those running the press are no different.. Even if individuals within the press want to tell the complete story, as long as their career-survival depends on them not stepping on 'too-big-to-fail' political and economic organizations, they most often will not do so. There are exceptions like Assange. Typically, the US government has been trying to sully his reputation with allegations of sexual abuse. Whether that's true or not is irrelevant. at least he and those who are involved with wikileaks are attempting some investigative reporting. no they don't have smooth talking prettypeople with flashy graphics and sound on their own cable channel, but at least they get some of the truth out there so people can make up their own minds. The harder the US government tries to lock it down, the more hypocritical they appear to the public. They are cowards.
Follow the money trail. follow the power trails. Track actions taken. this is how you discern real intent..from anyone. The 'professional' news outlets didn't lose their legitimacy because of selection bias on the part of viewers, they lost it because their whole power base is fallacious. They have momentum, slick headlines, nicely dressed prettypeople, and in the written world, good writers with excellent vocabularies. None of this means they're telling the complete truth. If anything, they are the ones guilty of selection bias at the very least, due to outright greed (selling out) or emotional commitments to ideology. (or fear of reprisal from those above). Ask yourself about the intentions and real desires of those who own the major news outlets. What are their priorities? What are they afraid of?
You're missing the whole point. assange isn't telling you to do anything.
Its voluntary,
for now. eventually the powers that be will make it mandatory. it might not be called facebook but the concept remains.
People VOLUNTARILY share this information.
most people are also fools. again a result of group think mentality. what is popular matters more than the truth.
Sure its a society where privacy can be beneficial, but this *society* is actually very social.
ah the newspeak use of the word social. of course this version of social means one must be complete open to everyone. being private is being 'anti-social' right?
People are driven to share their lives with each other, and while many a smirk is made by joking about the uselessness of facebook, the truth is we are drawn towards it like a magnet of interest!
people are drawn to it because they are insecure fools who judge their self-worth by how much they're connected to other people. facebook offers an external record of these links which let individuals track others' behaviors and thoughts. what better way for the insecure to reassure themselves that they are indeed still a part of some social circle? It is truly pathetic.
most people on facebook aren't thinking of themselves as criminals with things to hide.
doesn't matter what people think of themselves. with no privacy, all that matters is what other people think. this is why privacy and individual freedom are linked. the more public your personal bits are, the more likely they'll be judged by groupthink, which as you know is full of fallacies and emotional handwringing.
Once Corporations and Government become the same thing
the barriers that separate them even now are perfunctory at best. a nice side show.
Of course, maybe Macs still have an advantage here, in that the OSX is the pinnacle of design perfection, so no user would ever *want* to download and install a purely cosmetic change.
wow. fanboi much?
Some of the high-end Bose stuff is quite good.
I"m sure it's not worth the money. I can't speak for their pro stuff, but the consumer stuff is garbage, especially for the money.
The satellites are great at producing high frequency sounds
no.. modern tweeter designs in the last 15 years can handle 20-25khz (even higher on some systems). the current bose designs still use treated paper cones like speakers did in the 1970s. the best paper cone tweeters peak at 16khz or so. the cheap $0.50 drivers in the satellites are hardly the best.
and the sub can generally put out more than enough bass for the system,
no. it's a terrible design. the sub isnt' even really a sub because it can't reproduce subsonic frequencies. it's three 5.25" drivers inside a baffle that emphasizes midbass frequencies at the expense of accuracy.
and it's usually the abundance of warm and smooth bass that gets people hooked on them (along with the marketing)
in other words, it sounds like a boombox with the bass turned up all the way. this is fine for a $100 tabletop radio or $300 home-theater-in-a-box. it is not high fidelity audio worthy of a $3200 price tag.
be careful here. when people say audiophile today they mean the religious zealot variety.. you should have a problem with bose. objectively speaking, their products do not offer good value for the money. either the same sound can be purchased for 1/10th the price (3200$ lifestyle vs $320 hometheater-in-a-box systems from decent brands), or you can do a lot better for the price point asked. 3200$ buys you a very nice system. the fact is that no matter how much one 'engineers' things, it's impossible for smaller speakers to make good sound in a large soundstage compared with larger ones. if size is more important than sound quality, than it is not necessary to spend a lot of money to get the best available. bose isn't any better than anything else in that size category. they use the same sub-par driver and baffling designs as well as the same cheap materials in their cabinets that most vendors use in their $150-300 kits. they just charge 10x the price.
some are referring to the large bose systems like the 901s.. others are referring to the satellite systems.
just because something makes you happy doesn't mean it isn't stupid or better according to objective measurement. if blowing lots of money on mediocre technology in nice shiny plastic boxes turns you on, so be it. it's still a stupid decision.
why? thx cert is hardly worth anything as it is.. the fact that bose equipment can't get the cert is truly pathetic.. especially considering what is charged for it.
bose is moderately priced? no bose is insanely overpriced. they are the apple of the audiophile world.
how about just using books? they're cheaper..dont break when dropped. don't need expensive software. don't need replacement batteries. don't need expensive infrastructure to support . if the school is poor, it should focus on essentials like retaining good teachers.
got a bunch of shit/broken computers? how about a computer repair class? at least those things will allow the kids to learn about computers via programming. the ipad will not without expensive osx machines.
apparently racist browsers are ok too
www.blackbirdhome.com
I mentioned that it might be time to get an iPad, which does everything 90% (I'm expecting someone to jump on me for a "made up number"!) of the worlds computer users could want, slickly, in a beautiful design, for a low, low price. I got this back in response:
no, subjective opinion, subjective opinion, no.
"didnt do everything I wanted", for a non technical user seems to mean "I looked for Windows Solitaire and didnt see it, or the start menu" :-) So, he went from Apple, to world leader Acer:
troll much? ad hominems prove nothing.
Who'd you rather be, Steve Jobs, on top of the world, or this "Gianfranco Lanci" character, who just got the boot from Acer? :-)
see this is what apple users do.. they fall for apple's psychological warfare, associating the products being sold as some kind of induction into cool-exclusive-holyland. the life stories of the ceos of apple and acer have nothing to do with the topic.
I wouldnt take away your Eee PC, I agree, I dont think I'd enjoy editing/compiling code on my iPad, for students? I think you'd be nuts to buy something other than an iPad, truly.
at least a netbook would allow students to investigate basic programming concepts if they (or the school) wanted to. forget it on a pad.
HELL, I have an older friend who bought a "netbook" recently, the damn thing lags on FACEBOOK for crying out loud! I saw his status yesterday, "might have to give up Facebook, it takes a few seconds for each word to appear..." while he types his status...let alone video calling, GPS abilities, geocaching....
your entire argument is based on one anecdotal sample point. yeah there are shitty netbooks out there. your friend was stupid to buy it without doing a bit of research.
The iPad is *cheap*, its slim, it has ten hour battery life, people of all ages LOVE them, its hard to break physically (the ones I've seen at schools have cases, a netbook would be just as breakable, perhaps more so due to mass RE dropping), the software is incredible...
i'ts not cheap at all.. it's at least twice the price of a netbook and roughly the cost of a subcompact laptop. once you add all the accessories (like a hardened case), it's even more. as far as dropping goes, all of the options discussed here will die from this. if anything, you're arguing for a return to dead tree textbooks.
We should be giving them tools they can use for creative expression, whatever form that might take.
i'd rather focus on basic pillars of education like mathematics, science, and language skills. creativity is certainly important, but at this age we can't ahve every class be full of hippie flowers and happyfuntime. both ipads and netbooks are of limited utility in math for example. netbooks with real keyboards would be alright for taking notes in literature and history courses as long as the kids understand the concepts of outlining..and can type quickly. as far as art goes, give them real paints and paper. for the cost of an ipad, you can buy a lot of it...or just buy a bunch of real tablets for the computer lab.
to be honest, I'd rather see the money spent on better teachers and classrooms that don't smell like latrines because their AC hasn't worked since the 1970s. air quality counts a lot more towards attentive students than tech gimmickry. perhaps overall, the money should be spent on developing better teaching processes.
The trouble you Apple haters have, and has always have, is distinguishing between adoration and insight.
the trouble with apple lovers is that they have trouble telling the difference between feelings/beliefs, and factual objectivity. this doesn't surprise me since apple's marketing specifically targets those whose brainmatter prioritizes the former over the latter. in contrast, microsoft attempts this and usually fails (the seinfeld ad for ex). the 'to the cloud' ads are almost as annoying and insulting.
People who use apple products and like them are quick to point out flaws.
I'm sure there are some who do. The stereotypes as well as my personal experience suggest the opposite. Apple users fall for the marketed culture/status which prevents them from seeing apple products objectively. No, I'm not suggesting it's all extremes..
People who do not use Apple products and hate them, are quick to say EVERYTHING is a flaw, regardless of how good it really is.
maybe such people are victims of the hype that is created around apple in general. it causes them to expect a lot more than they actually get from apple products. price premium is also a factor. maybe such people aren't as easily manipulated out of seeing what's in front of them. if they are biased, perhaps it's because of the hype itself. overhype is the death of any product, good or bad.
The simple truth is if you think back you'll not find one time in your life when you thought Apple did something right. You should mull over that and the fact that all companies do good and bad things, to find if the discordancy of these two facts can bring you to a new realization about your own mindset.
The issue is judging on like terms. fanbois like to say that their fixation was the first to achieve something, but that is rarely true. this applies to all fanbois, not just apple fanbois. Apple has a reputation for overcharging for their products on the assumption that the intrinsic value they add justifies the price over non-apple branded pc hardware. This, along with the cultish behavior the company breeds in its user base, are the primary sources of derision the company receives. These are valid complaints. Dealing with apple users in enterprise settings can be...difficult.
I know it can be done because once I felt the same way about Microsoft, but I was able to break free and become open minded. With any luck you can do the same in regards to Apple - the danger if you cannot is that you will be unable to predict the path of technology in an world of escalating change.
Being open minded is not the same as removing all skepticism and accepting everything with open arms. Despite popular cultural trends today, judging things/people/behavior/results is perfectly ok and natural. Both apple and ms have done a lot of screwed up things. they still do. occasionally, they release a product that benefits the customer but that seems more accidental these days than anything else. the reality is that apple's primary method of getting and keeping customers is by appealing to their social and intellectual insecurities and building up an image of superiority they have to buy into. microsoft does it with momentum and ubiquity. the fact is that neither company deserves fanboi adoration because neither has done much in the way of innovation over the last 10-15 years. make money? yes, hand over fist. that is not the same thing as innovation.
A) We aren't talking about desktops, but the iPad vs. a netbook. The Netbook does not have a limitless base of software that runs well.
the fact the architecture is open allows the schoolsystem (or whoever) to use whatever capabilities it does have in any way they choose. this is not true of closed systems like ios devices.
B) There is more usable education software for the iPad now than the PC. Really.
I guess it depends on what you mean by 'education software.' I'd say that, today, it's equivalent.
If that made any sense I'd respond.
you implied that using an 'education suite' locks things down, and then talked about all the possible options ios apps give you. if the pad was locked down with said 'suite' then those apps would not be available anyway. regardless who has the installation privileges (the student or the school), app stores are much more limiting than open ended systems. I"m sure that there are suites available for ipad. they are also available for everything else too. x86 netbooks should have no trouble running them, plus they offer real keyboards and real software suites (such as ms and openoffice for ex).
Your error is thinking usability can be had without consideration of aesthetics. In fact usability *is* aesthetics.
no, it's not. aesthetics is a component, yes, but if today's trends are any indication, it's quite possible to make very good looking interfaces that are hell to use because the looks and feel take precedence over efficiency. all the hoopla about local device 'search' is a good example. it's the result of shoddy gui organization.
I'll bet a hundred billion dollars thanks, because I have seen the iPad in the hands of real children.
I'm wondering what school you went to because in public schools, even things like textbooks are manhandled, ripped, scratched and doodled all over. even laptops would have trouble standing up to the abuse. I'd rather replace a few textbooks than a few laptops. a couple of kids in a room playing with ipads != thousands of ipads in an institutional setting in timespans measured in years.
I can draw a lot better on an iPad than any laptop.
maybe.. but the money would be better spent on a lab with tablet enabled desktops...ones that have sufficient ram for real art generation. ..or how about just a stack of tablets in the artroom that kids can plug into their laptops for the duration?
I can create music easier on an iPad alone than with a laptop.
No. That's all that need be said. No. If this is really true for you, then you're doing it wrong.
I can even creation movies a lot easier on an iPad than any netbook, or almost I daresay a normal laptop.
uhhh... no. unless your definition of 'movie production' is using the built in cam and youtube. I'd say that none of these devices are suited to video production of any kind.
video and art production are ancillary subjects at best. until the primary curriculum (math/science/english) is fixed, money shouldn't be wasted on toys for the kids.
ahh..love the propaganda
They already learn that when they stand and pledge their lives to a flag each morning, right?
start with a nice red herring.
RE "Vendor lock in", were you really wanting to take each childs tablet down to the local computer store, "yeah, I'd like it to be pimped out please, double the RAM, check the CPU's thermal paste, add a liquid cooling system..." ? :-)
another red herring. the post was not referring to the hw itself nor modifying it, but the software lockin it crfeates.
Ah, you meant software? No more "locked in" than any of the other educational suites used, actually, a much LARGER array of software vendors, feel free to count how many large makers already have iOS software designed for students of all levels, and all designed for the exact resolution and device the students are using, not cobbled together, like the Windows NT and then Windows 2000 computers we had to put up with, where each and every day MORE ten year old machines would crap out, necessitating "computer sharing", one senior student looking over the shoulder of another.
what?! this paragraph doesn't even make sense.
1. desktop os's have a limitless supply of applications compared with consumption devices like the ipad.
2. if an education suite in place means that extra software becomes unavailable, why tell us about all the apparently 'amazing' options ios devices have ?
3. exact resolution? are you even aware how fonts and widget sizing are accomplished? this is a red herring anyway. all modern systems have this down. if anything things like the ipad abuse them by placing asthetics ahead of usability.
4. ALL computers fail under the abuse of children. apples included. how much you want to bet that the costs of repairing cracked screens from dropped/abused pads will kill this thing off?
idiocy.. that's a shitty reason to not upgrade.. blame the studio for going cheap on effects. what you're saying is that you did the technical version of sticking head in sand.. stupid.
because they already have that and 'every movie ever made' is NOT available. it's always a pot luck deal..
convenience? what's the convenience in having to pay a monthly fee to retain access to what you 'bought'? what's the convenience in not having access to what you 'bought' because of a network outage or bw cap?
It's a trade off of conveniences. at least the discs ensure I have access to what I purchased.
netflix quality is laughable, only slightly better than youtube "HD" whichi s laughable in itself. it's convenient though.. I'll give you that.
does the bluray player have a spdif/toslink ?
if so, wire that to the receiver...or to your switchbox.
drm free? haha you're kidding right? it's amazing that so many people here are ready to embrace streaming while dumping on discs because of re-buy. meanwhile streaming guarantees that you'll be paying repeatedly for the same stream, probably every time you watch it, over and over again. at least with the disc you buy it once and you're done.