Don't mistake heavy for safe. Your beloved SUVs and pickups are an inherently bad design for road use - tall, with a relatively short, narrow wheelbase, suspension geometry set up for long travel rather than cornering ability, and of course, enormous weight, which is lovely and safe right up until you hit something, whereupon it becomes something of a disadvantage.
Even so, with ABS, traction control, improved crumple zones, air bags, 3 point safety belts, safety glass, and a number of other features, a 2006 model SUV is a far more safer vehicle than the vehicles of yesteryear. Though you're right, contemporay trucks and SUVs are less safe than contemporary cars for the reasons you state.
Almost nobody who was waiting in lines outside of the store was waiting to get a PS3 that they were actually going to play - most of the people waiting were hoping to resale them for a profit. I seriously doubt that all the gamers that wanted one right away decided to stay home and get gouged on eBay. I'm guessing the price on eBay reflects a combination of shill bidders, and other people hoping to get one for "cheap" and flip it for a profit more than actual gamers bidding these things up.
I guess that means no other store locks you in either - no matter how draconian the DRM is, as you can always run a cable from the line out on your computer to the line in and re-record the file.
However, as far as I'm concerned, Apple is locking you in, with DRM that only allows you to play the files on a limited number of machines that must run iTunes and Quicktime, and DRM that keeps you from playing the files on any non-Apple branded music player. I'm not too interested in inconvienent workarounds that degrade the quality even more.
Standard cameras will "just work" with Windows too. It took Windows XP about 5 seconds to recognize my camera, and it's even a Sony. Autoplay If someone has some non-standard camera that needs special drivers on Windows XP, chances are it'll not work with the Mac.
Re:"Macs aren't more expensive..[shipped] with an
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Leopard Vs. Vista
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· Score: 3, Funny
It's a common misconception that Apple computers are more expensive than similarly priced computers from other Windows VAR's (Dell, HP, IBM, ect)
Normal users already apply the security updates because they show up in Software Update, which is checked weekly by default. No services are open to the outside world by default. We're smug because there are no avenues for attack on the vast majority of machines (and that doesn't get into the inherent added security of not running as administrator/root). Name an attack vector and get back to us.
You seem entirely focused on worms. The days of worms owning Windows boxes on a regular basis are over for people running current versions of Windows. How about exploits in their IM/email/web browsers? A lot of people have been burned by this on Windows, but the problem isn't just for IE. Safari and Firefox have exploits too. You also have far too much faith in "normal people" updating their box on any kind of regular basis.
Trojans executed by stupid people? Sorry, not much you can do beyond what's already in place. If the user gives up their root password or administrator access too easily, no amount of security will do anything (I'm looking at you, over-used desensitizing UAC in Vista).
And this is another big vector. A lot of people aren't infected by worms in Windows anymore, especially for all the infected XPSP2 boxes. They get nailed with trojans. Of course, the smart and paranoid Windows users can keep their machines clean easily just by using common sense. However, smug users who somehow think they are invincible will likely get burned at some point. Just watch.
In my case, replacing them preemptively is just a side effect of being on the upgrade treadmill. Of course, the replaced drives aren't really replaced, just repurposed.
If you're going to do that, you may as well do RAID 5, which has the smae level of redundancy, but mpre available space.
A Raid 5 set up with 4 drives will only be able to handle 1 drive failure. Lose a 2nd drive before the first is replaced, and lose everything. With Raid 0+1, there is only a 33% chance losing the second drive will mean losing all the data (in other words, of the three drives that are left, two of them are still redundent and you can lose one of these two with no data loss).
I have one of those old calculators. Not the same as yours, as I don't have a memory key. It is a C8, and it still works, though I just powered it for the first time in a couple of years, and sadly it seems the '3' key is non-operational (probably a simple, easy to fix dirty contact, I would hope). Best part about this one is that it does no sanity checks - divide by zero or multiply two large numbers zero and the display throw up gibberish until you clear the calculator.
I also have a C128D, a C64, and a bunch of accessories I don't know what to do with.
And, of course, many people concerned with typing efficiency are clerical workers that actually have to sometimes work with typewriters still, which, well, aren't quite as easy to change.
As someone who uses Dvorak at home, and Qwerty, well... everywhere else - it's not that tough. It's no harder than being able to speak two languages fluently.
The presence of a standard connector doesn't mean a whole lot. The iPod uses a drive with a standard connector, but it's not as easy as just swapping the drives out (atleast that's my understanding for the older iPods).
Re:Top Ten Things to do with an unwanted ZUNE
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The Zune Cometh
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· Score: 1
Or you could just use it for a MP3 player. Unlike some people *cough*fanboys*cough*, I'm not scared to be caught using a product that's considered not trendy.
On the other hand, the HDD based iPods are the market that Apple dominates with the iPod video. The Nano does alright in the midrange market, but in the low end falsh market people seem to prefer the cheaper and better players from makers like Sandisk, Sansumg, iRiver, etc.
If you want Apple to replace the battery, you still have to send it back. Otherwise, you can replace it yourself, or send it off to someone else to replace the battery.
Also, the Nano features a battery that's soldered directly to the main board. Sure, still replacable, but Apple's hoping that you'll just toss it and buy another one once the battery is toast.
The PS2 happened to catch the wave where DVD players were still expensive, but people wanted them. Everyone I knew that bought a PS2 early on knew it was also a DVD player, and considered it a good deal based upon the price of just a standalone DVD player. However, once the technology caught on, the price of a DVD player plummetted, not to mention by the time that the Xbox launched most people who wanted a DVD player that could also afford the Xbox already had one (or a PS2). Also, don't forget that the PS2 could play DVDs out of the box (granted, you had no remote), but you had to buy an add on for the Xbox to do the same thing.
I installed Windows 2000 on a Socket 5 Pentium 120 with 128MB of ram (I managed to dumpster dive what would have been a small fortune in 32MB FPM simms in 1995 a couple of years ago). It went on with no problems, once I figured out how to get around the fact the computer had no idea how to boot from CD. It ran fine, though it was obviously a bit sluggish. Still, once it booted up I could surf the web fine in Firefox 1.0.
I'm really curious to see what kind of ancient hardware that these guys are going to get Vista to boot on.
2 - They require more land than the typical suburbian/urban lot offers.
That's not really true. The reason most of these new "McMansions" are so costly to heat/cool is precisely because they are so large. Especially with their huge plated windows, tall ceilings, and giant lots with no trees. A lot of people could save a considerable amount of energy just by building a smaller house, even using the same shoddy construction techniques.
Wrong, you could be voting "I hate all those who are running", in which case you still have every right to bitch.
In which case, you should show up at the polls, and write something in. Few people would argue that nothing is wrong if Mickey Mouse starts pulling in 5% of the vote. If you simply don't vote, people can write you off as simply lazy or stupid, instead of fed up with the system.
Actually, I find the Windows Explorer interface to be pretty fast. It may take a couple of seconds to show a large directory (I have one with 3,647 objects at 188GB, which opens in maybe 2 seconds, and it has a custom background to boot), but once it's there, Windows is done fussing with it, provided you don't have thumbnails enabled or something like that. You're not fighting with the system as it slows down trying to read metadata or whatever from the files. Once it's open, you can scroll quickly to what you want, or just the keyboard to jump to the file you want. Mac isn't too terrible about that (unless you're opening something over the network, then it's simply horrible), but my experience is that KDE and Gnome absolutely choke on large directories. Quite often the "do everything then show the results" approach is faster than show stuff as you update it, due to having to constantly redraw the UI and refresh the list.
And I agree about Windows doing crap for the sake of doing crap. That pretty much sums up the new Windows XP theme, not to mention Vista. I would like to find the person who thought that personalized menus was a good idea, and smack them, along with the person who thought up Luna.
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Don't mistake heavy for safe. Your beloved SUVs and pickups are an inherently bad design for road use - tall, with a relatively short, narrow wheelbase, suspension geometry set up for long travel rather than cornering ability, and of course, enormous weight, which is lovely and safe right up until you hit something, whereupon it becomes something of a disadvantage.
Even so, with ABS, traction control, improved crumple zones, air bags, 3 point safety belts, safety glass, and a number of other features, a 2006 model SUV is a far more safer vehicle than the vehicles of yesteryear. Though you're right, contemporay trucks and SUVs are less safe than contemporary cars for the reasons you state.
And unlike Apple, Microsoft cannot negotiate from a position of strength; they will do what they're told, or they won't have a music store.
I don't see why not. It's not like Apple had a terribly strong position when they opened up the iTMS.
Almost nobody who was waiting in lines outside of the store was waiting to get a PS3 that they were actually going to play - most of the people waiting were hoping to resale them for a profit. I seriously doubt that all the gamers that wanted one right away decided to stay home and get gouged on eBay. I'm guessing the price on eBay reflects a combination of shill bidders, and other people hoping to get one for "cheap" and flip it for a profit more than actual gamers bidding these things up.
I guess that means no other store locks you in either - no matter how draconian the DRM is, as you can always run a cable from the line out on your computer to the line in and re-record the file.
However, as far as I'm concerned, Apple is locking you in, with DRM that only allows you to play the files on a limited number of machines that must run iTunes and Quicktime, and DRM that keeps you from playing the files on any non-Apple branded music player. I'm not too interested in inconvienent workarounds that degrade the quality even more.
Standard cameras will "just work" with Windows too. It took Windows XP about 5 seconds to recognize my camera, and it's even a Sony. Autoplay If someone has some non-standard camera that needs special drivers on Windows XP, chances are it'll not work with the Mac.
It's a common misconception that Apple computers are more expensive than similarly priced computers from other Windows VAR's (Dell, HP, IBM, ect)
Naw, really?
Normal users already apply the security updates because they show up in Software Update, which is checked weekly by default. No services are open to the outside world by default. We're smug because there are no avenues for attack on the vast majority of machines (and that doesn't get into the inherent added security of not running as administrator/root). Name an attack vector and get back to us.
You seem entirely focused on worms. The days of worms owning Windows boxes on a regular basis are over for people running current versions of Windows. How about exploits in their IM/email/web browsers? A lot of people have been burned by this on Windows, but the problem isn't just for IE. Safari and Firefox have exploits too. You also have far too much faith in "normal people" updating their box on any kind of regular basis.
Trojans executed by stupid people? Sorry, not much you can do beyond what's already in place. If the user gives up their root password or administrator access too easily, no amount of security will do anything (I'm looking at you, over-used desensitizing UAC in Vista).
And this is another big vector. A lot of people aren't infected by worms in Windows anymore, especially for all the infected XPSP2 boxes. They get nailed with trojans. Of course, the smart and paranoid Windows users can keep their machines clean easily just by using common sense. However, smug users who somehow think they are invincible will likely get burned at some point. Just watch.
Blue-ray movies? Who cares. As for PS2 games, I could just buy a PS2.
In my case, replacing them preemptively is just a side effect of being on the upgrade treadmill. Of course, the replaced drives aren't really replaced, just repurposed.
If you're going to do that, you may as well do RAID 5, which has the smae level of redundancy, but mpre available space.
A Raid 5 set up with 4 drives will only be able to handle 1 drive failure. Lose a 2nd drive before the first is replaced, and lose everything. With Raid 0+1, there is only a 33% chance losing the second drive will mean losing all the data (in other words, of the three drives that are left, two of them are still redundent and you can lose one of these two with no data loss).
I have one of those old calculators. Not the same as yours, as I don't have a memory key. It is a C8, and it still works, though I just powered it for the first time in a couple of years, and sadly it seems the '3' key is non-operational (probably a simple, easy to fix dirty contact, I would hope). Best part about this one is that it does no sanity checks - divide by zero or multiply two large numbers zero and the display throw up gibberish until you clear the calculator.
I also have a C128D, a C64, and a bunch of accessories I don't know what to do with.
Yeah, but how are you going to see the screen, with your thumb in the way?
And, of course, many people concerned with typing efficiency are clerical workers that actually have to sometimes work with typewriters still, which, well, aren't quite as easy to change.
As someone who uses Dvorak at home, and Qwerty, well... everywhere else - it's not that tough. It's no harder than being able to speak two languages fluently.
The presence of a standard connector doesn't mean a whole lot. The iPod uses a drive with a standard connector, but it's not as easy as just swapping the drives out (atleast that's my understanding for the older iPods).
Or you could just use it for a MP3 player. Unlike some people *cough*fanboys*cough*, I'm not scared to be caught using a product that's considered not trendy.
On the other hand, the HDD based iPods are the market that Apple dominates with the iPod video. The Nano does alright in the midrange market, but in the low end falsh market people seem to prefer the cheaper and better players from makers like Sandisk, Sansumg, iRiver, etc.
If you want Apple to replace the battery, you still have to send it back. Otherwise, you can replace it yourself, or send it off to someone else to replace the battery.
Also, the Nano features a battery that's soldered directly to the main board. Sure, still replacable, but Apple's hoping that you'll just toss it and buy another one once the battery is toast.
The PS2 happened to catch the wave where DVD players were still expensive, but people wanted them. Everyone I knew that bought a PS2 early on knew it was also a DVD player, and considered it a good deal based upon the price of just a standalone DVD player. However, once the technology caught on, the price of a DVD player plummetted, not to mention by the time that the Xbox launched most people who wanted a DVD player that could also afford the Xbox already had one (or a PS2). Also, don't forget that the PS2 could play DVDs out of the box (granted, you had no remote), but you had to buy an add on for the Xbox to do the same thing.
Which is a rather strange attitude, because from a technical perspective, Vista is probably the biggest Windows update ever released...
Well, with about 8GB of drive space used for just the install, and with a memory footprint of over 512MB, I can't argue with that.
I installed Windows 2000 on a Socket 5 Pentium 120 with 128MB of ram (I managed to dumpster dive what would have been a small fortune in 32MB FPM simms in 1995 a couple of years ago). It went on with no problems, once I figured out how to get around the fact the computer had no idea how to boot from CD. It ran fine, though it was obviously a bit sluggish. Still, once it booted up I could surf the web fine in Firefox 1.0.
I'm really curious to see what kind of ancient hardware that these guys are going to get Vista to boot on.
2 - They require more land than the typical suburbian/urban lot offers.
That's not really true. The reason most of these new "McMansions" are so costly to heat/cool is precisely because they are so large. Especially with their huge plated windows, tall ceilings, and giant lots with no trees. A lot of people could save a considerable amount of energy just by building a smaller house, even using the same shoddy construction techniques.
So in other words, Congress tried to pass laws giving themselves more power and Bush maintained the status quo.
The president already has a tool for stuff he doesn't like from Congress: it's called the veto. All this signing statement stuff is bullshit.
Wrong, you could be voting "I hate all those who are running", in which case you still have every right to bitch.
In which case, you should show up at the polls, and write something in. Few people would argue that nothing is wrong if Mickey Mouse starts pulling in 5% of the vote. If you simply don't vote, people can write you off as simply lazy or stupid, instead of fed up with the system.
Actually, I find the Windows Explorer interface to be pretty fast. It may take a couple of seconds to show a large directory (I have one with 3,647 objects at 188GB, which opens in maybe 2 seconds, and it has a custom background to boot), but once it's there, Windows is done fussing with it, provided you don't have thumbnails enabled or something like that. You're not fighting with the system as it slows down trying to read metadata or whatever from the files. Once it's open, you can scroll quickly to what you want, or just the keyboard to jump to the file you want. Mac isn't too terrible about that (unless you're opening something over the network, then it's simply horrible), but my experience is that KDE and Gnome absolutely choke on large directories. Quite often the "do everything then show the results" approach is faster than show stuff as you update it, due to having to constantly redraw the UI and refresh the list.
And I agree about Windows doing crap for the sake of doing crap. That pretty much sums up the new Windows XP theme, not to mention Vista. I would like to find the person who thought that personalized menus was a good idea, and smack them, along with the person who thought up Luna.
Not worst president ever (I think Warren Harding might be that one) but worst president in recent times.
On the other hand, America survived Warren Harding. We still have 2 more years of Bush.