If Apple offered a choice of a two button (+scroll wheel) and
a three button mouse, we can put to rest one of the biggest misperceptions of Macs. This one button only philosophy from Apple has hurt its image among potential switchers for a long time. Its been with Apple's image so long that it has left an indelible impression of being not a serious computer by many who are unexposed or uninformed about other platforms. Imagine if Sony came out with the Playstation 3 with a joystick that had a single fire button like the Atari 2600. With a cursory glance kids would dismiss it as lame game console and make fun of those who owned one, even though it is using a revolutionary processor like Cell.
I've only recently started to endorse the use of Macs in my department in the last two years when Mac OS X looked promising and ready in Jaguar ver 10.2 . One of the obstacles I faced was the myth of the one button mouse and I wish I didn't have to go through that argument every single time, because it gives me less time to show other really powerful and cool features of Mac OS X. Imagine how this must waste the time of every single Apple sales rep or individual that is trying to introduce a Mac to a potential switcher.
If Apple still wants to offer a one button mouse and make it the default choice thats fine. What irritated me was the lack of choice from the Apple Store. A person can change the memory, CD/DVD drive, harddisk, remove the internal modem on PowerMacs but you where always stuck with the same old one button mouse.
What happens in my department is that the one button mice don't get used much and I have to spend extra money on getting a multi-button optical mouse. I'm sure everyone has their anecdotal story of how a user with a multi-button mouse didn't understand how to use left or right mouse click. I have my own where a 86+ year old professor had a hard time with the multi-button mouse I switched him to because his hands are quite shaky. For the rest of my department 99% of them seem to be able to handle a multi-button mouse just fine.
If you have Apple Shake or Alias Maya you MUST have a three button mouse. This is Apple's own software that requires it, so why has it taken so long for Apple to offer a real "choice" for its consumers is beyond me, because this policy in my opinion has done harm to sales and put plenty of potential Mac buyers off. Sometimes there seems to be a culture of stubbornness
with in different divisions at Apple. Like they know what is best for you. Take for example the infamous puck mouse which by ergonomic standards failed the test. It was released for 3 product cycles before Apple finally changed it to its current form. The overwhelming feedback it got and reviews of the mouse should have made Apple change it after its initial release, but in the face of plenty of criticism they bore it. I bought a cheap plastic device called iCatch for those puck mice back then to solve the problem. When Apple bought NeXTStep they brought in many new ideas, but the one thing that they kept was the one mouse button ONLY policy from the old Mac days. I'd rather see Windowshade, Tabbed Folders or NeXT shelf, customizable Apple Menu come back and see the one button mouse leave as the ONLY choice. For user base who love their one button mouse Apple should keep offering this mouse. These are the legacy users and its important to support them. Many Apple migrants come from Windows, Unix, Linux and other platforms and its about time we see this change.
Many scientists, researchers and scientists use X11 on Mac OS X and its essential to have a three button or two button (+ scroll wheel) mouse. I use a five button Kensington Optical Elite and programmed buttons 4 and 5 to use Expose functions. It makes my desktop experience my easier with these powerful features.
I can only hope that news is true and it would only help Mac sales, but they would need to market multi button mouse for a few months to undo all those years of misperception.
I would like to see Microsoft's Mac Business Unit (BU) work
on the following issues
1. Fix Entrourage to work seamlessly with Exchange server using their proprietary mail protocol.
2. Virtual PC to use the local sound card and ATI/Nvidia chips without emulation and freeing the CPU to emulate just x86 and the BIOS
3. Port applications like Access, Visio, Project, allow Mac Office users to fill out forms in Infopath
4. Get Groove to be cross platform compatible
Will it happen? I don't know...then again I never thought Apple
would make iPods compatible with Windows or iTunes (iTMS) work with Windows either. (1) and (2) are important for everyone, (3) and (4) less so to most users and is only more needed in corporate environments
Proof reading one's posting is a real bitch when you don't take the time.
Perhaps I ought to buy GrammarianProX, which has over 150 built-in spelling and grammar writing rules compared to MS Office's 26 error corrections:)
A few years ago I dabbled with OS X beta and the two workstations in my office I used all the time where a SGI O2 and a dual-CPU SGI 320 NT (running Win2000). I didn't take the plunge until 10.2 Jaguar came and today both desktop workstations are turned off a majority of the time and do all my primary work on a Powerbook G4. I still have to administrate all the Windows, Macs, Linux, Irix, Solaris, HP-UX and QNX machines from a single laptop thanks to Apple Remote Desktop, Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection and X11. I have all my Microsoft Office + Adobe apps, and many other commercial tools plus a majority of the open source tools using Fink. It beautifully integrated with my Handspring Treo 180 with iSync (+ Palm conduit) and miss only a few features from the many other OSes I've used in the past. With the imminent release of Tiger live searching the filesystem is back from the BeOS days and finally a built in dictionary/thesaurus is back from the old NeXT days. Basically I have 90% of what I need from the Windows world and 90% of what I want from the Unix/Linux world.
Right now its probably right the best marriage of the two worlds and it helps that Apples iLife suite make using my music, digital photos and movies enjoyable to use (although an elegant its missing a Tivo PVR solution). The other factor I enjoy about Mac OS X is its ease of software installations, simple security updates and very little maintenance. I don't have to struggle to find drivers for my hardware and I can plug and play without wrestle the operating system to cajole it to work. Apple's
elegant aesthetics and well thought out operating system (but not perfect) pretty much was the deal closer for me.
P.S.
Little things like the pervasive spell checker where I don't have to use another application to check spelling of my Slashdot posts are some of the niceties that help me be more productive. Also not having to dual boot Windows/Linux also helps when both applications from different worlds can coexist on one operating system.
For Mac OS X fans out there. I stumbled across this gem of a plug in the other day.
GMAP plug in for
Addressbook.app to invoke Google Maps and automatically get directions from your home. The script can be modified to work with Firefox (which it originally did). Very Cool!
Perhaps for yourself. For myself I'm growing more concerned
at the amount of personal memories that are being recorded digitally. Without an easy way to back it all up. A centralized home media device with software RAID would be something I'd be in the market for. That could store images in JPEG and RAW, Video MPEG-4 and MPEG-2, Quicktime, Real and WMA files, Audio in AAC and MP3 plus my favorite TV shows and clips archived and served throughout the home using LAN or WLAN
would be a new market opportunity for Apple.
Take four Hitachi 250 GB Hard Drive at the market price of
$150 x 4 = $600. Apple could buy in volume and sell an iPod RAID for $999, depending how much of a profit margin they are seeking.
As for a PDA/SmartPhone they ought to partner with Motorola on this one. I think the Palm Treo, Blackberries , HP iPAQ h6315 and other European phones based on Symbian will make it hard to enter this market thats already extremely competitive. Apple would do better to make its Quicktime player more ubiquitous like Real's player that can play on a larger variety of devices. Apple does have one advantage in the cell phone industry in that Quicktime MPEG-4/AVC adoption is fairly high because on the backend the phone companies are using Quicktime broadcast servers. I'd like to see Quicktime versions for Pocket PC, Palm, Linux and Symbian. This could also tie in to their iTMS strategy and 3GPP/3GPP2.
My 2 cents.
If Apple could modify the Mac Mini into a PVR (ATI 9200 All-In-Wonder TV) and to have a docking station for an iPod Video-to-Go using MPEG-4/AVC device they could rename it iPod Media Center or iPod Digital Lifestyle or iPod Home Entertainment. Couple that with an optional iPod RAID, a cheap 4 disk software RAID system with 4x250GB or 4x400GB drive. This could compete with Sony's Vaio Type X. The lack of PVR/DVR functionality is one gaping hole in Apple's digital hub strategy. I can imagine an iPod video device would be useful once people can record the shows they want using Quicktime 7 and watch it on their iPod video. The technology is all there its just up to Apple to tie it all together in an elegant easy to use solution. Which we all know Apple has a panache for.
Technically your reply is beneath my threshold and doesn't dignify a response.
Against my better judgment I'll try to point out where you're way off base.
> >Let me guess...you've never visited nor lived in India
> 3 month there so far.
I guess living there for 3 months makes you an authority on India right?
I've lived in Chile for 3 months, so that must make me an expert on the region and pass sweeping judgment of where I lived. I know people living in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) for the past three years. The one thing they do miss is broccoli. Broccoli isn't contraband in India, it's just in low market demand for it and it's just that its difficult to find and you have to
know where to get it. Apply, that to your porn and other magazines. Adult or X rated videos are sold at small video stores in big cities. As for sex toys, well...very low market demand
for vibrators and a. beads is not unusual when the large portion of the country is poor and can't afford to spend
it on frivolous items like that. Most people in western countries don't walk into a shop to buy items from a sex store,
they order it from a catalog, and have it mailed to them in a discreet parcel. The problem is that most mail is misplaced or stolen in India's postal service. Just because you can't find the items you're looking for in the first 3 months of living in a new country, doesn't mean you have the right to write it off with your cursory evaluation of it.
I migrated to OS X two years ago and I'm still finding out those little gems or ways of doing
things that where equivalent to the ways I used to do tasks in the past with other systems.
> Nonsense. I'm Spanish.
Well, mucho gusto to you too.
> > What percent of the population are you stating is forced into arranged > > marriage and what percentage of the population is gay? > >Gay activist usually claim that up to 10% of the population is gay. More
> > conservative assumptions are around 5%. 100/50 million figures is only for gays, add arranged marriages.
You're siting me numbers from gay activists. Great, give me real numbers from a
credible source (e.g. WHO, UN) , otherwise you won't have much to flout with me.
You know there are rather vocal and dogmatic Mac acolytes who'd like to think that they have 10% of the US market. They'll skew their numbers like counting old 8 year old Macs as part of their stats, even though those machines aren't seeing any use. I've also seen Linux fans who claim 5% of the global market. Vocal and over enthusiastic members in
minorities tend to have the habit of exaggerating their numbers.
> >Honestly, what deep dark crevice in your rectum did you pull that number out of?
> Well, that was homophobic. Let me guess, you are Indian. Or American.
Funny, you've never heard of the expression "where did you pull that out of your ass". So, all of a sudden
I'm homophobic? You must play that homophobia card all the time. The danger of over using it in unnecessary scenarios is that if becomes less effective you use it poorly. If you're going to jump to conclusions to allow me to call you myopic, unexposed, judgmental, racist against Indians. Then again you might not be an anti-Indian bigot or hope that you are not.
> >You're a troll. "China actually respect sexual minorites". Good Lord, what kind of crack are you on?
> Homophobic, rabidly anti-American, and not very knowledgeable. Que te jodan, capullin.
Of course I MUST be homophobic and anti-American, and uninformed according to you.
Funny, you should say that about some one who was trying to educate Michigan voters last year on how
amendments to the state constitution was preventing the rights of same sexed couples to health care
benefits and other legal ramifications of those laws. I must be SO anti-american when I spend
my time (vacation days), money and energies last year participating in the democratic system in
the land of the free (that's the ol' U.S of A).
By the way I
India is an ultra-conservative society where people are routinely coerced into arranged marriage, and gays are persecuted. Homosexuality is illegal, a crime punishable with live in prison.
Let me guess...you've never visited nor lived in India. What percent of the population are you stating is forced into arranged marriage and what percentage of the population is gay? Got any real numbers to back that up. Perhaps one should take that high powered critical eye and focus it in the mirror. Or perhaps you forgot that there are eleven states in the U.S. that have changed their state laws to ban gay marriage? In fact in the state of Michigan there are lawsuits against several state funded institutions challenging domestic partner benefits and denying medical health care insurance to gay partners.
That's between 100 and 50 million oppressed gays, more repressed people than any other country in the word , other than China Interesting...where did you pull this amazing number of 10% - 5% of the population of India to be homosexual? Honestly, what deep dark crevice in your rectum did you pull that number out of?
the intellectual vanguards can not flourish without sexual liberation
Got one word for you. Kamasutra. If someone such as youself who claims to be sexually liberated has ever read it. It talks about same sex situations and many other unconventional encounters. Oh by the way, did you know India has a very open eunuch population? Did you have any information of these folks getting arrested? I DON"T THINK SO. Eunuchs during the days India had monarchies where used as high level spies and held highly respected posts in the kingdom. They are no longer used in convert or clandestine activities but Indian society leaves them alone. I'd also like to add that the Great Britain seemed to do fine after Oscar Wilde was imprisoned. Don't get me wrong I'm a Oscar Wilde fan, but you statement does fall short of the facts.
As for intellectuals the list is long and distinguished. Tagore (literature), Raman (physics), Chandrasekhar
(phyics), Ramanujan(math), J.C. Bose (physics)... need I go on?
India HIV numbers are going up, fast and steady. Keep in mind that this is a society where you can't talk freely about a condom, let alone buy one on your local village store. Answering straightforward questions about your sex live to an AIDS prevention outfit or seeking help for AIDS may translate on ostracism, being cut off from your family, physical attacks, and/or live in prison, without access to medicines
India has a growing AIDS issue and they'll need to tackle that issue, that I'll agree. Now the fact that you state that "a society where you can't talk freely about a condom, let alone buy one on your local village store. Funny, that the Govt. of India actually makes a condom subsidised for the lower income classes. In contrast the current United States administration is pushing for "abstinence" from the faith based programs and trying to reverse Roe vs Wade by changing the bench for the supreme and appellate courts. The administration also is cutting funding of programs that dispense condomss. I could argue that India has more freedoms for sexual choices because we don't picket in front of abortion clinics and deny people the right to choose.
Other countries on the region (China, Thailand) actually respect sexual minorities
You're a troll. "China actually respect sexual minorites". Good Lord, what kind of crack are you on?
Actually, in a Frontline documentary Cyber War (I recommend watching the steamed video) which directly relates to the original posting, Richard Clarke singles out Microsoft for being negligent for their lax security. I would have to agree. For the past few years its been either viruses, annoying Windows Messenger pop ups, worms and finally spyware that has plagued the Windows users. The last problem highlights just how negligent Microsoft has been when they could have implemented pop-up blockers and by default have restrictions on Active X downloads, when all other web browsers had pop up blocking two years before Microsoft finally implemented it in XP SP2. Every week I have several people come into my office because of spyware issues. Which I'm starting to believe really does afflict 90% of Windows PC users now. On the weekends when people find out I'm a systems administrator or run into friends they're always asking me how to disinfect their machines from spyware, viruses and other issues. I feel I should reprint my business cards with the URLs of Spybot, Adaware, Mcafee Virusscan, Firefox...and other tools on the back of the card. I'm honestly fed up of saying the same old thing every weekend when I'm not at work. At work its part of my job, but its irritating and annoying that so many people are afflicted with security issues that Microsoft neglected for so long because they had to try to cram as many features as possible into their bloatware.
During the show Frontline show you'll see Clarke using his a slick Powerbook G4. Its nice to know I'm in good company, using a platform that represents a small yet prominent minority. These days unless my users have a specific application(s) that only runs on Windowson, my usual recommendation because of all my frustration with Windows is for them to get a Mac. If they can't afford to upgrade their hardware to Apple yet, I point them to the most popular Linux distro sites (except Red Hat) or BSD flavors, but I do warn them that there is a little of bit of work involved to get their environment set up right. For those people who like to argue that Windows has more security issues because its more popular, I say that's baloney. Five to six years ago it was my SGI Irix machines that kept getting hacked into once or twice a year. SGIs representing the smallest Unix flavor we had at the time and significantly smaller than the Mac population. Over the past 3 years the number of Windows security issues has exploded exponentially where I can't in good conscience recommend it to most folks.
If I ever rob someone at an ATM I'll sue NBC because I saw someone on Law & Order do it once.
The irony about what you said, is Law & Order had an episode last week ( I don't know if it was a rerun) where kids watching a video game got the same idea of running over a girl and then robbing her of her money. Life imitates art and vice versa all the time....
Are gun manufacturers liable for shooting deaths? No, I don't feel thats the case, only in cases where they didn't check who they where supplying could a gun manufacturer share partial liability. The majority of the blame going to the person who pulled the trigger and partial blame if the gun store did not follow procedure to do a background check before selling the firearm.
In the case of the video game, did it come with appropriate
"M" for Mature sticker title. Was the store that sold it check for
age or did the parent buy the game for their child. Its all so convenient to blame someone else in one's grief, when one needs to take a look at ones own responsibilities. A growing number of Americans feel that we can defer the blame to someone else. Most of us probably don't feel that way. Of the number of lawsuits you hear, there could technically could be more. The only reason most people don't sue more is because a majority of people don't feel its right or feel that they share partial responsibility or don't want to go through the trouble for petty lawsuits.
Apple should be wary of the Microsoft Nokia deal. Especially when you consider Nokia's market share and Microsoft DRM
which offers either al-a-carte or subscription model.
Mobile phone shipments and market shares for 2004
Rank Vendor 2004 Shipments 2004 Market Share
1 Nokia 207,600,000 31.2% 2 Motorola 104,500,000 15.7% 3 Samsung 86,500,000 13.0% 4 Siemens 49,400,000 7.4% 5 LG Electronic 44,400,000 6.7% Other 172,000,000 25.9% Total 664,500,000 100.0%
Now if Apple managed to get iTunes licensed for the top five
leaders then it would be in good shape.
Re:Not that I should respond to my own post but...
on
MythTV 0.17 Released
·
· Score: 1
Hopefully there will be change of mind regarding this.
People should have the right to change their position on
what they said a long time back, especially regarding technology.
Gates on DOS memory allocation "640KB should be plenty"
Jobs at NeXTStep on ethernet "Why does a computer need
an umbilical cord".
When you log onto a WIndows XP computer it will do one or all of the following things.
1. Window tip of the day appears. (You can choose not to be bothered again).
2. These icons aren't being used. Would you like to clean
up the tray icons?
3. Wireless service is available. Several dialog boxes pop up and then one big window pops out
to help you select which network you want.
4. There are new updates for your computer.
5. If you have an OEM installed machine it comes with
DirectCD or Sony Updates....
6. Inserting a USB thumbdrive requires three different
dialog boxes.
On a Mac OSX system. You application icon can leaps up and
down in the dock if it needs attention (reasonable). I switch of animate opening applications. It does annoy you
about joining some wireless network if you are in some coffee shop (although it does require as many distracting and redundant message as windows).
On other Unix (Irix, HP-UX, Solaris) systems nothing bothers you.
Then again, I would argue that the pop up windows from the
OS and wizards are trying to be helpful. Personally I find it annoying because I know how to use my computers. Well, I get paid to administer computers, so I better know. I find Mac OSX the most useable, yet helpful and gets out of my way to let me do my work.
Perhaps one should ask Pakistan's military or ISI (Intra Service Intelligence) of how the hell N. Korea, Libya and Iran all got their nuclear weapons. You do know Pakistan has nuclear weapons right? Then traded their nuclear know how for N. Korea's medium range missiles or have you not been following the news. The best part of all this is that A.Q. Khan the father of the Pakistan atomic bomb, is consider to be a "hero" in his home country and is shielded from the IAEA or any branch of US intelligence from questioning Khan's activities and motivations.
Musharraf has also pardoned Khan for selling nukes to all those countries. It really makes me laugh when the administration calls Pakistan an "ally on the war on terror". Seriously, with allies like Pakistan who needs enemies or terrorists?
I admin Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Mac OS 9 & X , Linux, Solaris, HP-UX and Irix. I'm planning to phase out HP-UX, Irix and Mac OS 9 and encourage more Mac OSX instead of more Windows for my users. Windows will
probably still be the majority in my department for sometime
now. Hiring more Windows admins is simply going to increase your long term over all costs. If your admins are
familiar with supporting a mixed environment then Mac OSX
is the way to go. I found that for the occasional Windows application my Mac users need the, RDC client connected to
a Windows 2003 server with Terminal Services solves many
problems. You can also use the Citrix client for
Mac OSX.
I'm glad they finally updated their 'Superdrive'. It was getting embarrassingly outdated, when competitors from the PC laptop realm had DVD±RW with DVD-RAM drive drives. I have a Powerbook 15" with the
old DVD-R Superdrive and had to admit I was a bit envious that
a professor who's new Toshiba laptop had
DVD±RW and DVD-RAM drive capabilities. Although, I still feel my Powerbook is better form factor, thinner and enjoy running OS X better
than running a Toshiba with XP. I can't figure out why Apple
can't offer a DVD-RAM solution as well, like the Toshiba or MCE., being a member of the DVD consortium. I'd
be willing to pay an extra $80-$50 to get DVD-RAM capabilities in my next machine. Better than paying MCE $249 for their
replacement drive.
MCE new drive doesn't have DVD-RAM support but
offers DVD-R double layer instead, which makes it a little better than Apple's new Superdrive offering.
Hope this extends the Halo effect for Apple.
The price is certainly right at $499 for the Mac Mini and $99 for the iPod Shuffle. Good going Apple!
From a design standpoint, I think the G5 PowerMac are great and
the iMac G5 are pretty good too. I do have one suggestion for Apple when creating avant garde designs is not to forget the very basics of ergonomics and usabilty. The power button on the Mac Mini,
eMac, iMac G5 are all placed on the back. If you ever walk into a
computer lab where the computer isn't switched on, you'll see people confused and scratching their heads on how to switch on an eMac, iMacG4 and will probably occur with the iMac G5and the Mac Mini.
Most slashdotters are aware of the one button mouse is not the only supported mouse for Mac OSX. However, when a visitor to any urban Apple Store curious about Macs try the computers out. They 'might' leave with the impression of Macs as a toy like device because the mouse. In fact this indelible impression of Macs is reinforced when Apple doesn't offer an alternative, unless its an after market add on. Many Mac users I know buy the Microsoft Optical Intellimouse and they make a pretty damn good mouse (give credit where its due folks i.e. Starck mouse).
If the Playstation 3 came out tomorrow with a joystick from the
Atari 2600 with its single fire button, no kid would want to use one. Even if the game play rocks, the graphics better than reality, and the features mind blowing. The preceived wimpy single fire button game console could hurt sales and this is sort of what does happen with Macs when people see this impressive water cooled G5 PowerMac coming with this single button mouse. This image of Apple is so ingrained that even former Mac OS9 users, some now using Windows or Solaris are amazed that Mac OSX has mutli button and scroll wheel support.
This is a mouse I can recommend. I use the extra buttons for Expose and can't live with it. Mouse in a Box Optical Elite
The last point of immortality is of concern. Why would one want to be
immortal and still have the ability to reproduce? All living things
need to die to make way for the offsprings, otherwise one has to compete for the same limited resources in any ecosystem.
Don't they say in that movie "Death becomes her" that at the
very end of the movie at Dr. Ernest Menville's death, the narrator that he lives on through his progeny?
Organs, cells, DNA like computer code or operating systems can be patched and replaced a limited number of times, before a fresh reformat and new evolutionary operating system replaces the old, while inheriting the most desirable traits.
Anyone who has ever used an SGI prbably has come
across the classic buttonfly demo. Its was neat back in
'95 when I used it. Then there was the
'Stargate' like Portalis demo found on the Onyx w/ Infinite Reality 2+ systems. Flying through 3D portals was disorienting, fun and at the end of the day impratical for regular use. It made for a technology demo though.
Clusters are proven to be cost effective, but
they do require more labor to optimize code to
get it to work in that environment. Its easier
to have the system and the complier do the
work for you in a single image system. This article
address those issues and concerns.
single image shared vs distributed memory in large Linux systems
Yes, the current generation finally does do away with
ADC *Thank God*. I like the idea of a single cable but it did hurt
Apple in terms of gfx card selection. If manfacturers could pop
the same hardware in with just a software driver update for OS X, we would have seen more players in the Apple market today.
ADC, much like DB-15 Mac connectors, NuBus, GeoPort, QuickDraw 3D make it
difficult to port software or modify hardware for the Macs.
I believe Apple is starting to be a company that is embracing industry standards and is learning its a better way to grow the use base. It currently walks a fine line between open and proprietary, and is doing a good job at it.
I'd like to add some clarification. Doing away with ADC helps
lessen the power supply management burden on PCI or AGP gfx cards. I assume when you say CPU, you're refering to the computer
as a whole not the microprocessor itself.
This is very true. Macs are very good for many tasks, but they are weak when it comes to advanced 3D visualization because of lack of high end gfx cards from vendors (I speculate no thanks to the ADC connector which added futher complexity for manufacturing for the small Apple market), which results in lack of 3D visualization software in this field. A month ago I recommended several platforms to an assoc. professor at IIT India looking to set up a virtual reality lab. My suggestions
were SGI, Windows, Linux (Macs where not an option). The fact is that Apple doesn't have any of the top end gfx cards from Nvidia, ATI nor 3DLabs with genlock/framelock capabilities causes ISV not to develop for the OS X platform. I haven't found any V.R. software for the Mac OSX like VR Juggler, EON Reality... etc yet. I did email Steve Cox at 3D Labs for the possiblity of having a Wildcat Realizm card for the Apple platform and been asking TGS about
their OpenInventor and Amira 3D software for OS X.
Heck, I use a Powerbook G4 for most of my tasks these days and my SGI O2 and SGI 320 NT box in my office are used little these days, but the Macs do lack some advanced hardware features that are only available on Infinite Reality gfx boards and Tezro v12. See Discreet's website and you'll notice that Flame, Inferno and Fire still run on
ONLY SGI hardware.
SGI InfiniteReality boards are used as image generators for flight military flight simulators
and also to drive the Inferno compositing and film mastering, using up to 32 film resolution layers
and 10-bit anti-aliased graphics
Sure, Nvidia and ATI cards go have an
polygon count advantage and they do have features like
pixel and vertex shaders, but overall for high fidelity graphics
one still goes back to SGIs. If one looks at what is capable
in Final Cut Pro HD, it still falls in terms of output quality
compared to what an SGI can handle. For video DMediaPro options with support for two streams of high-definition 10-bit 4:4:4:4 RGBA video.
Or if one needed to generate your own video signal. Programmable FPGA video card or drive a C.A.V.E. or Powerwall SGI Mutichannel Option cards are capable of doing this. I
have yet to see PC based Image Generator be as successful at doing this without a lot of hacking, blood, sweat and tears. SGI's
handle the tough visualization tasks do out of the box.
SGI's gfx API are second to none
OpenGL Inventor
OpenGL Multipipe (+ SDK)
OpenGL Optimizer
OpenGL Performer
OpenGL Shader
OpenGL Vizserver
OpenGL Volumizer
ImageVision and Image Format Library (IFL)
SGI was a great company, although it was badly mismanaged.
I'd love to see it merged with Apple and all the SGI gfx API's
integrated into OS X. Plus other tecnologies like
ccNUMA, XFS, CXFS, NUMAlink4 (6.4GBs), NUMAflex
combined with Hypertransport and Infiniband (when customers need cheaper solution than NUMAlink)
I'm sure there are plenty in the/. group that will be loving this,
but I was looking forward to a BeOS based handheld device with maybe a BFS based filesystem. I've been bugging PalmOne to integrate PalmOS 6.1 into the latest or future release of the Treo.
This new deal just means that PalmOne will be using Garnet a little longer. Honestly, what was wrong with Be's BEIA? I know going to have to wait a lot longer now before the dust settles
and PalmOne figures out which way to go. Hope my Treo 180 will make it for at least another year. I recently had to solder the data/power connecter back when it came off completely.
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If Apple offered a choice of a two button (+scroll wheel) and a three button mouse, we can put to rest one of the biggest misperceptions of Macs. This one button only philosophy from Apple has hurt its image among potential switchers for a long time. Its been with Apple's image so long that it has left an indelible impression of being not a serious computer by many who are unexposed or uninformed about other platforms. Imagine if Sony came out with the Playstation 3 with a joystick that had a single fire button like the Atari 2600. With a cursory glance kids would dismiss it as lame game console and make fun of those who owned one, even though it is using a revolutionary processor like Cell.
I've only recently started to endorse the use of Macs in my department in the last two years when Mac OS X looked promising and ready in Jaguar ver 10.2 . One of the obstacles I faced was the myth of the one button mouse and I wish I didn't have to go through that argument every single time, because it gives me less time to show other really powerful and cool features of Mac OS X. Imagine how this must waste the time of every single Apple sales rep or individual that is trying to introduce a Mac to a potential switcher. If Apple still wants to offer a one button mouse and make it the default choice thats fine. What irritated me was the lack of choice from the Apple Store. A person can change the memory, CD/DVD drive, harddisk, remove the internal modem on PowerMacs but you where always stuck with the same old one button mouse.
What happens in my department is that the one button mice don't get used much and I have to spend extra money on getting a multi-button optical mouse. I'm sure everyone has their anecdotal story of how a user with a multi-button mouse didn't understand how to use left or right mouse click. I have my own where a 86+ year old professor had a hard time with the multi-button mouse I switched him to because his hands are quite shaky. For the rest of my department 99% of them seem to be able to handle a multi-button mouse just fine.
If you have Apple Shake or Alias Maya you MUST have a three button mouse. This is Apple's own software that requires it, so why has it taken so long for Apple to offer a real "choice" for its consumers is beyond me, because this policy in my opinion has done harm to sales and put plenty of potential Mac buyers off. Sometimes there seems to be a culture of stubbornness with in different divisions at Apple. Like they know what is best for you. Take for example the infamous puck mouse which by ergonomic standards failed the test. It was released for 3 product cycles before Apple finally changed it to its current form. The overwhelming feedback it got and reviews of the mouse should have made Apple change it after its initial release, but in the face of plenty of criticism they bore it. I bought a cheap plastic device called iCatch for those puck mice back then to solve the problem. When Apple bought NeXTStep they brought in many new ideas, but the one thing that they kept was the one mouse button ONLY policy from the old Mac days. I'd rather see Windowshade, Tabbed Folders or NeXT shelf, customizable Apple Menu come back and see the one button mouse leave as the ONLY choice. For user base who love their one button mouse Apple should keep offering this mouse. These are the legacy users and its important to support them. Many Apple migrants come from Windows, Unix, Linux and other platforms and its about time we see this change.
Many scientists, researchers and scientists use X11 on Mac OS X and its essential to have a three button or two button (+ scroll wheel) mouse. I use a five button Kensington Optical Elite and programmed buttons 4 and 5 to use Expose functions. It makes my desktop experience my easier with these powerful features.
I can only hope that news is true and it would only help Mac sales, but they would need to market multi button mouse for a few months to undo all those years of misperception.
1. Fix Entrourage to work seamlessly with Exchange server using their proprietary mail protocol.
2. Virtual PC to use the local sound card and ATI/Nvidia chips without emulation and freeing the CPU to emulate just x86 and the BIOS
3. Port applications like Access, Visio, Project, allow Mac Office users to fill out forms in Infopath
4. Get Groove to be cross platform compatible
Will it happen? I don't know...then again I never thought Apple would make iPods compatible with Windows or iTunes (iTMS) work with Windows either. (1) and (2) are important for everyone, (3) and (4) less so to most users and is only more needed in corporate environments
Proof reading one's posting is a real bitch when you don't take the time. Perhaps I ought to buy GrammarianProX, which has over 150 built-in spelling and grammar writing rules compared to MS Office's 26 error corrections :)
Right now its probably right the best marriage of the two worlds and it helps that Apples iLife suite make using my music, digital photos and movies enjoyable to use (although an elegant its missing a Tivo PVR solution). The other factor I enjoy about Mac OS X is its ease of software installations, simple security updates and very little maintenance. I don't have to struggle to find drivers for my hardware and I can plug and play without wrestle the operating system to cajole it to work. Apple's elegant aesthetics and well thought out operating system (but not perfect) pretty much was the deal closer for me.
P.S.
Little things like the pervasive spell checker where I don't have to use another application to check spelling of my Slashdot posts are some of the niceties that help me be more productive. Also not having to dual boot Windows/Linux also helps when both applications from different worlds can coexist on one operating system.
For Mac OS X fans out there. I stumbled across this gem of a plug in the other day. GMAP plug in for Addressbook.app to invoke Google Maps and automatically get directions from your home. The script can be modified to work with Firefox (which it originally did). Very Cool!
Perhaps for yourself. For myself I'm growing more concerned at the amount of personal memories that are being recorded digitally. Without an easy way to back it all up. A centralized home media device with software RAID would be something I'd be in the market for. That could store images in JPEG and RAW, Video MPEG-4 and MPEG-2, Quicktime, Real and WMA files, Audio in AAC and MP3 plus my favorite TV shows and clips archived and served throughout the home using LAN or WLAN would be a new market opportunity for Apple.
Take four Hitachi 250 GB Hard Drive at the market price of $150 x 4 = $600. Apple could buy in volume and sell an iPod RAID for $999, depending how much of a profit margin they are seeking.
As for a PDA/SmartPhone they ought to partner with Motorola on this one. I think the Palm Treo, Blackberries , HP iPAQ h6315 and other European phones based on Symbian will make it hard to enter this market thats already extremely competitive. Apple would do better to make its Quicktime player more ubiquitous like Real's player that can play on a larger variety of devices. Apple does have one advantage in the cell phone industry in that Quicktime MPEG-4/AVC adoption is fairly high because on the backend the phone companies are using Quicktime broadcast servers. I'd like to see Quicktime versions for Pocket PC, Palm, Linux and Symbian. This could also tie in to their iTMS strategy and 3GPP/3GPP2.
My 2 cents.
If Apple could modify the Mac Mini into a PVR (ATI 9200 All-In-Wonder TV) and to have a docking station for an iPod Video-to-Go using MPEG-4/AVC device they could rename it iPod Media Center or iPod Digital Lifestyle or iPod Home Entertainment. Couple that with an optional iPod RAID, a cheap 4 disk software RAID system with 4x250GB or 4x400GB drive. This could compete with Sony's Vaio Type X. The lack of PVR/DVR functionality is one gaping hole in Apple's digital hub strategy. I can imagine an iPod video device would be useful once people can record the shows they want using Quicktime 7 and watch it on their iPod video. The technology is all there its just up to Apple to tie it all together in an elegant easy to use solution. Which we all know Apple has a panache for.
> >Let me guess...you've never visited nor lived in India
> 3 month there so far.
I guess living there for 3 months makes you an authority on India right? I've lived in Chile for 3 months, so that must make me an expert on the region and pass sweeping judgment of where I lived. I know people living in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) for the past three years. The one thing they do miss is broccoli. Broccoli isn't contraband in India, it's just in low market demand for it and it's just that its difficult to find and you have to know where to get it. Apply, that to your porn and other magazines. Adult or X rated videos are sold at small video stores in big cities. As for sex toys, well...very low market demand for vibrators and a. beads is not unusual when the large portion of the country is poor and can't afford to spend it on frivolous items like that. Most people in western countries don't walk into a shop to buy items from a sex store, they order it from a catalog, and have it mailed to them in a discreet parcel. The problem is that most mail is misplaced or stolen in India's postal service. Just because you can't find the items you're looking for in the first 3 months of living in a new country, doesn't mean you have the right to write it off with your cursory evaluation of it. I migrated to OS X two years ago and I'm still finding out those little gems or ways of doing things that where equivalent to the ways I used to do tasks in the past with other systems.
> Nonsense. I'm Spanish.
Well, mucho gusto to you too.
> > What percent of the population are you stating is forced into arranged
> > marriage and what percentage of the population is gay?
> >Gay activist usually claim that up to 10% of the population is gay. More
> > conservative assumptions are around 5%. 100/50 million figures is only for gays, add arranged marriages.
You're siting me numbers from gay activists. Great, give me real numbers from a credible source (e.g. WHO, UN) , otherwise you won't have much to flout with me. You know there are rather vocal and dogmatic Mac acolytes who'd like to think that they have 10% of the US market. They'll skew their numbers like counting old 8 year old Macs as part of their stats, even though those machines aren't seeing any use. I've also seen Linux fans who claim 5% of the global market. Vocal and over enthusiastic members in minorities tend to have the habit of exaggerating their numbers.
> >Honestly, what deep dark crevice in your rectum did you pull that number out of?
> Well, that was homophobic. Let me guess, you are Indian. Or American.
Funny, you've never heard of the expression "where did you pull that out of your ass". So, all of a sudden I'm homophobic? You must play that homophobia card all the time. The danger of over using it in unnecessary scenarios is that if becomes less effective you use it poorly. If you're going to jump to conclusions to allow me to call you myopic, unexposed, judgmental, racist against Indians. Then again you might not be an anti-Indian bigot or hope that you are not.
> >You're a troll. "China actually respect sexual minorites". Good Lord, what kind of crack are you on?
> Homophobic, rabidly anti-American, and not very knowledgeable. Que te jodan, capullin.
Of course I MUST be homophobic and anti-American, and uninformed according to you. Funny, you should say that about some one who was trying to educate Michigan voters last year on how amendments to the state constitution was preventing the rights of same sexed couples to health care benefits and other legal ramifications of those laws. I must be SO anti-american when I spend my time (vacation days), money and energies last year participating in the democratic system in the land of the free (that's the ol' U.S of A). By the way I
Let me guess...you've never visited nor lived in India. What percent of the population are you stating is forced into arranged marriage and what percentage of the population is gay? Got any real numbers to back that up. Perhaps one should take that high powered critical eye and focus it in the mirror. Or perhaps you forgot that there are eleven states in the U.S. that have changed their state laws to ban gay marriage? In fact in the state of Michigan there are lawsuits against several state funded institutions challenging domestic partner benefits and denying medical health care insurance to gay partners.
That's between 100 and 50 million oppressed gays, more repressed people than any other country in the word , other than China
Interesting...where did you pull this amazing number of 10% - 5% of the population of India to be homosexual? Honestly, what deep dark crevice in your rectum did you pull that number out of?
the intellectual vanguards can not flourish without sexual liberation ... need I go on?
Got one word for you. Kamasutra. If someone such as youself who claims to be sexually liberated has ever read it. It talks about same sex situations and many other unconventional encounters. Oh by the way, did you know India has a very open eunuch population? Did you have any information of these folks getting arrested? I DON"T THINK SO. Eunuchs during the days India had monarchies where used as high level spies and held highly respected posts in the kingdom. They are no longer used in convert or clandestine activities but Indian society leaves them alone. I'd also like to add that the Great Britain seemed to do fine after Oscar Wilde was imprisoned. Don't get me wrong I'm a Oscar Wilde fan, but you statement does fall short of the facts. As for intellectuals the list is long and distinguished. Tagore (literature), Raman (physics), Chandrasekhar (phyics), Ramanujan(math), J.C. Bose (physics)
India HIV numbers are going up, fast and steady. Keep in mind that this is a society where you can't talk freely about a condom, let alone buy one on your local village store. Answering straightforward questions about your sex live to an AIDS prevention outfit or seeking help for AIDS may translate on ostracism, being cut off from your family, physical attacks, and/or live in prison, without access to medicines India has a growing AIDS issue and they'll need to tackle that issue, that I'll agree. Now the fact that you state that "a society where you can't talk freely about a condom, let alone buy one on your local village store. Funny, that the Govt. of India actually makes a condom subsidised for the lower income classes. In contrast the current United States administration is pushing for "abstinence" from the faith based programs and trying to reverse Roe vs Wade by changing the bench for the supreme and appellate courts. The administration also is cutting funding of programs that dispense condomss. I could argue that India has more freedoms for sexual choices because we don't picket in front of abortion clinics and deny people the right to choose.
Other countries on the region (China, Thailand) actually respect sexual minorities
You're a troll. "China actually respect sexual minorites". Good Lord, what kind of crack are you on?
During the show Frontline show you'll see Clarke using his a slick Powerbook G4. Its nice to know I'm in good company, using a platform that represents a small yet prominent minority. These days unless my users have a specific application(s) that only runs on Windowson, my usual recommendation because of all my frustration with Windows is for them to get a Mac. If they can't afford to upgrade their hardware to Apple yet, I point them to the most popular Linux distro sites (except Red Hat) or BSD flavors, but I do warn them that there is a little of bit of work involved to get their environment set up right. For those people who like to argue that Windows has more security issues because its more popular, I say that's baloney. Five to six years ago it was my SGI Irix machines that kept getting hacked into once or twice a year. SGIs representing the smallest Unix flavor we had at the time and significantly smaller than the Mac population. Over the past 3 years the number of Windows security issues has exploded exponentially where I can't in good conscience recommend it to most folks.
A Visit from the FBI Seems like FBI prefers Mac OSX as well.
The irony about what you said, is Law & Order had an episode last week ( I don't know if it was a rerun) where kids watching a video game got the same idea of running over a girl and then robbing her of her money. Life imitates art and vice versa all the time....
Are gun manufacturers liable for shooting deaths? No, I don't feel thats the case, only in cases where they didn't check who they where supplying could a gun manufacturer share partial liability. The majority of the blame going to the person who pulled the trigger and partial blame if the gun store did not follow procedure to do a background check before selling the firearm.
In the case of the video game, did it come with appropriate "M" for Mature sticker title. Was the store that sold it check for age or did the parent buy the game for their child. Its all so convenient to blame someone else in one's grief, when one needs to take a look at ones own responsibilities. A growing number of Americans feel that we can defer the blame to someone else. Most of us probably don't feel that way. Of the number of lawsuits you hear, there could technically could be more. The only reason most people don't sue more is because a majority of people don't feel its right or feel that they share partial responsibility or don't want to go through the trouble for petty lawsuits.
Mobile phone shipments and market shares for 2004
Now if Apple managed to get iTunes licensed for the top five leaders then it would be in good shape.Gates on DOS memory allocation "640KB should be plenty"
Jobs at NeXTStep on ethernet "Why does a computer need an umbilical cord".
(although it doesn't require as many distracting and redundant message as windows).
1. Window tip of the day appears. (You can choose not to be bothered again).
2. These icons aren't being used. Would you like to clean up the tray icons?
3. Wireless service is available. Several dialog boxes pop up and then one big window pops out to help you select which network you want.
4. There are new updates for your computer.
5. If you have an OEM installed machine it comes with DirectCD or Sony Updates....
6. Inserting a USB thumbdrive requires three different dialog boxes.
On a Mac OSX system. You application icon can leaps up and down in the dock if it needs attention (reasonable). I switch of animate opening applications. It does annoy you about joining some wireless network if you are in some coffee shop (although it does require as many distracting and redundant message as windows).
On other Unix (Irix, HP-UX, Solaris) systems nothing bothers you. Then again, I would argue that the pop up windows from the OS and wizards are trying to be helpful. Personally I find it annoying because I know how to use my computers. Well, I get paid to administer computers, so I better know. I find Mac OSX the most useable, yet helpful and gets out of my way to let me do my work.
Pakistan Ended Aid to Taliban Only Hesitantly December 8, 2001
Pakistan spy service 'aiding Bin Laden' 30 December, 2001
Musharraf: Bin Laden may be dead 23 December, 2001
Pakistan's leader thinks bin Laden dead January 18, 2002
Bin Laden trail is cold, Musharraf admits December 6, 2004
A Hostile Land Foils the Quest for bin Laden December 13, 2004
Protest at Musharraf's army role 19 December, 2004 So much for us supporting democracy and "freedom"
Musharraf Scorns Nuclear Probe
I admin Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Mac OS 9 & X , Linux, Solaris, HP-UX and Irix. I'm planning to phase out HP-UX, Irix and Mac OS 9 and encourage more Mac OSX instead of more Windows for my users. Windows will probably still be the majority in my department for sometime now. Hiring more Windows admins is simply going to increase your long term over all costs. If your admins are familiar with supporting a mixed environment then Mac OSX is the way to go. I found that for the occasional Windows application my Mac users need the, RDC client connected to a Windows 2003 server with Terminal Services solves many problems. You can also use the Citrix client for Mac OSX.
I'm glad they finally updated their 'Superdrive'. It was getting embarrassingly outdated, when competitors from the PC laptop realm had DVD±RW with DVD-RAM drive drives. I have a Powerbook 15" with the old DVD-R Superdrive and had to admit I was a bit envious that a professor who's new Toshiba laptop had DVD±RW and DVD-RAM drive capabilities. Although, I still feel my Powerbook is better form factor, thinner and enjoy running OS X better than running a Toshiba with XP. I can't figure out why Apple can't offer a DVD-RAM solution as well, like the Toshiba or MCE., being a member of the DVD consortium. I'd be willing to pay an extra $80-$50 to get DVD-RAM capabilities in my next machine. Better than paying MCE $249 for their replacement drive. MCE new drive doesn't have DVD-RAM support but offers DVD-R double layer instead, which makes it a little better than Apple's new Superdrive offering.
I use the extra buttons for Expose and can't live without it
From a design standpoint, I think the G5 PowerMac are great and the iMac G5 are pretty good too. I do have one suggestion for Apple when creating avant garde designs is not to forget the very basics of ergonomics and usabilty. The power button on the Mac Mini, eMac, iMac G5 are all placed on the back. If you ever walk into a computer lab where the computer isn't switched on, you'll see people confused and scratching their heads on how to switch on an eMac, iMacG4 and will probably occur with the iMac G5and the Mac Mini.
Most slashdotters are aware of the one button mouse is not the only supported mouse for Mac OSX. However, when a visitor to any urban Apple Store curious about Macs try the computers out. They 'might' leave with the impression of Macs as a toy like device because the mouse. In fact this indelible impression of Macs is reinforced when Apple doesn't offer an alternative, unless its an after market add on. Many Mac users I know buy the Microsoft Optical Intellimouse and they make a pretty damn good mouse (give credit where its due folks i.e. Starck mouse). If the Playstation 3 came out tomorrow with a joystick from the Atari 2600 with its single fire button, no kid would want to use one. Even if the game play rocks, the graphics better than reality, and the features mind blowing. The preceived wimpy single fire button game console could hurt sales and this is sort of what does happen with Macs when people see this impressive water cooled G5 PowerMac coming with this single button mouse. This image of Apple is so ingrained that even former Mac OS9 users, some now using Windows or Solaris are amazed that Mac OSX has mutli button and scroll wheel support. This is a mouse I can recommend. I use the extra buttons for Expose and can't live with it. Mouse in a Box Optical Elite
Don't they say in that movie "Death becomes her" that at the very end of the movie at Dr. Ernest Menville's death, the narrator that he lives on through his progeny?
Organs, cells, DNA like computer code or operating systems can be patched and replaced a limited number of times, before a fresh reformat and new evolutionary operating system replaces the old, while inheriting the most desirable traits.
Anyone who has ever used an SGI prbably has come across the classic buttonfly demo. Its was neat back in '95 when I used it. Then there was the 'Stargate' like Portalis demo found on the Onyx w/ Infinite Reality 2+ systems. Flying through 3D portals was disorienting, fun and at the end of the day impratical for regular use. It made for a technology demo though.
Clusters are proven to be cost effective, but they do require more labor to optimize code to get it to work in that environment. Its easier to have the system and the complier do the work for you in a single image system. This article address those issues and concerns. single image shared vs distributed memory in large Linux systems
I'd like to add some clarification. Doing away with ADC helps lessen the power supply management burden on PCI or AGP gfx cards. I assume when you say CPU, you're refering to the computer as a whole not the microprocessor itself.
Heck, I use a Powerbook G4 for most of my tasks these days and my SGI O2 and SGI 320 NT box in my office are used little these days, but the Macs do lack some advanced hardware features that are only available on Infinite Reality gfx boards and Tezro v12. See Discreet's website and you'll notice that Flame, Inferno and Fire still run on ONLY SGI hardware. SGI InfiniteReality boards are used as image generators for flight military flight simulators and also to drive the Inferno compositing and film mastering, using up to 32 film resolution layers and 10-bit anti-aliased graphics
Sure, Nvidia and ATI cards go have an polygon count advantage and they do have features like pixel and vertex shaders, but overall for high fidelity graphics one still goes back to SGIs. If one looks at what is capable in Final Cut Pro HD, it still falls in terms of output quality compared to what an SGI can handle. For video DMediaPro options with support for two streams of high-definition 10-bit 4:4:4:4 RGBA video. Or if one needed to generate your own video signal. Programmable FPGA video card or drive a C.A.V.E. or Powerwall SGI Mutichannel Option cards are capable of doing this. I have yet to see PC based Image Generator be as successful at doing this without a lot of hacking, blood, sweat and tears. SGI's handle the tough visualization tasks do out of the box. SGI's gfx API are second to none
OpenGL Inventor
OpenGL Multipipe (+ SDK)
OpenGL Optimizer
OpenGL Performer
OpenGL Shader
OpenGL Vizserver
OpenGL Volumizer
ImageVision and Image Format Library (IFL)
SGI was a great company, although it was badly mismanaged. I'd love to see it merged with Apple and all the SGI gfx API's integrated into OS X. Plus other tecnologies like ccNUMA, XFS, CXFS, NUMAlink4 (6.4GBs), NUMAflex combined with Hypertransport and Infiniband (when customers need cheaper solution than NUMAlink)
I'm sure there are plenty in the /. group that will be loving this,
but I was looking forward to a BeOS based handheld device with maybe a BFS based filesystem. I've been bugging PalmOne to integrate PalmOS 6.1 into the latest or future release of the Treo.
This new deal just means that PalmOne will be using Garnet a little longer. Honestly, what was wrong with Be's BEIA? I know going to have to wait a lot longer now before the dust settles
and PalmOne figures out which way to go. Hope my Treo 180 will make it for at least another year. I recently had to solder the data/power connecter back when it came off completely.