Clearly you didn't watch the WWDC keynote address. The workstations and servers are cheaper than comparatively equipped Dells. And if you add the webcam and a few other things the Mac has to a Dell notebook, the price of comparable MacBooks and MacBook Pros is about the same. It's one advantage of using the same underlying Intel hardware...
That's great if I want a workstation that costs thousands of dollars. Or a webcam in my notebook. But if I don't want those things, why should I have to pay for them? Fact is, I can always build the computer I want for much less than what it would cost to get the computer I want from Apple. Or from Dell, for that matter.
But most of these TreNuff ads are just wrong. For instance, the "Upgrading" one - "When I want to run a game faster, I just get a new video card"! Well, what the hell was I doing when I wanted to run games (yes, there actually are some games that run on a Mac) and applications faster on my G5 and I got a new video card? Was that an illusion?
I mean look at the Mac Pro - it has PCIe slots. It has SATA bays (four of them). It has USB and Firewire ports out the wazoo. So what is it I'm missing from upgrading that the PC offers? Heck on the lower end products I can still upgrade the memory, hard drive (much easier on a Macbook than most other laptops) and even swap out the processor!
That's great if you have a Mac Pro. But generally, the Mac Mini and iMac are less upgradable than their Mac counterparts.
So most of them are even more misleading and pointless than the Mac ones, it's just something PC users like to link to for eqivilence - but someone needs to do a better job with the scripts.
I thought they were damn funny myself, though really it seems that they are making fun of Linux more than anything else.
Not it's not. Well, atleast not like Firewire, which is chainable. All those devices that have USB ports on them (mostly keyboards), do it by putting a USB hub in the device, and then hardwiring the device to the USB hub. Of course you can just keep on plugging hubs into hubs, which does give the impression that it is chainable.
GPU - all that is hardware accellerated. Kind of removes your whole point there. If your GPU is otherwise sitting idle why not make use of it?
With systems with shared memory, drawing all that stuff is using up memory bandwidth that could otherwise be used by the rest of the system. There isn't really anyway to utilize the GPU in those systems without slowing other stuff downs.
And don't forget half a hard drive filled with demo apps that will expire in 30 days if you don't buy them. I had to clean off all kinds of worthless crap on my parents' new machine and install their working applications.
Don't forget the Apple nagware, such as "Buy Quicktime Pro!" which constantly pops up.
Though you're right about OEM machines. Pretty much the first thing needed on those a reformat and a reinstallation with a standard Windows XP disk (not a restore disk).
Well, obviously there are subjects where a new addition every year or two is appropiate. That doesn't excuse the textboox publishers from constantly coming out with new additions for subjects that haven't changed in decades, or even centuries.
Sadly, it still seems that a good portion of the time someone asks me to look at some computer, the computer is an old Windows 95 or 98 box that lacks working USB ports. Atleast it's finally gotten to the point where I can pretty much count on the computer having a CD drive (though I do have issues with slow, fussy, dust-clogged 8 year old CD readers having problems reading my burned CDs) I do have USB thumbdrives, but I mostly use those as a big floppy to move data around between computers, rather than semi-permanent storage of Linux distros and windows utilities.
Another advantage to the CD for things like Damn Small Linux is that you're much more likely to come accross a computer that can boot from CD (pretty common on anything 5-6 years old or newer) than a computer that can boot from USB (pretty much only standard new on PCs from the last 1-2 years or so, if that).
No, prices haven't really gone up. It's just that everyone who is building a whitebox computer nowadays wants nothing less than dual core, so that's all that they are paying attention to. Dual core chips are still in the upper midrange of the CPU lineup, and even a low end dual core box is not what I would consider a budget computer. You can still build a reasonable budget box for $500-$600, it'll just be a single core system, that's all.
What do you mean by "tool to keep third parties from selling songs to iPod users?"
Exactly what I mean. Apple takes advantage of the fact that most music cannot be sold without DRM on it, due to the demands of the license holders of the music, by not opening their DRM.
Could you come up with some other reasons for bnetd?
Sure. Blizzard was (probably still is) terrible at policing their own servers. Back when I played Diablo II, cheating in the form of duped/hacked items, as well as cheating by using programs like Maphack were rampant. Blizzard made a token effort to stop it every once and a while, but for the most part they simply didn't care. On the other hand, there were bnetd servers whose admins took a hardline stance against using hacks. Also many of the bnetd admins also would kick griefers that Blizzard would do absolutely nothing about on the battlenet servers.
Another reason for bnetd is that it also allowed users to play online with previous patches of the game. Blizzard made some huge changes to Diablo II over the years, and many liked the previous versions better than the current versions.
So I would want to have a small program that I can run in case of emergencies, which would "touch" typical system files, add typical event logs with appropriate times and dates to go with the time stamps and also touch a list of files which could be considered to be incriminating, but with times well into the future of the current time. This small program should also wipe its own.exe securely before exiting.
Here's a thought - do the police, when they find that the computer they want to take as evidence is up and running, try to power it off nicely - or do they just yank the power plug from the wall? If they do the former, you could rig the normal shutdown process to run your small program, then power off the computer. Of course, you would have to remember to use some alternative shutdown process anytime you wanted to shutdown the computer, or risk messing up your system.
If the police just yank the power cord from the wall, I suppose it could still be done, but it gets trickier. One option would be to install a UPS (possibly inside the computer case itself), and have the computer run the program whenever it senses that it's lost power. By the time that the police have realized that you've modded your case to contain a UPS, it will be too late. Of course, with this method, you'll end up running the program anytime the power goes out.
On the other hand, Apple uses it's DRM as a tool to keep third parties from selling songs to iPod users, as well as keeping people from loading up songs bought on iTunes to something other than an iPod. That's not transparent in my eyes - actually it's pretty restrictive, despite some of the hoops you can jump through to make it "just work". I'm not a fan of Windows media either, but atleast you get a choice of both music stores and players if you go that route.
On the other hand, you CANNOT get rid of Internet Explorer. And that's bad. IE is full of security holes and you can't get rid of it. Safari is far safer, and you can get rid of it.
Deleting Safari on a Mac is about as effective as deleting iexplore.exe on a Windows PC as far as getting rid of the browser is concerned. Sure, you've just nuked the front end, but the backend still exists in the OS and is not easily removed. Have you ever heard of Webkit?
The iPod Nano, which is the most simular iPod to this player, is harder to open and the battery is soldered to the mainboard. I doubt you could replace a nano's battery in five minutes.
The technology exists - just look at CRT computer monitors. My 20" CRT can be run at a higher resolution than my 20" LCD. It's just that no one builds the TV's that can do it. Same with LCDs actually, there are some laptops that have some impressive pixel density (like 1900x1200 15" screens), but those LCDs seem to be completely unavailable outside of laptops.
They're being humane by preventing the guy from working overtime? Gee, thanks.
By not letting the guy work as many hours as he wants, that means the company needs to hire more workers to do the same amount of work, thus more people get atleast something. When you consider China's communist history, it does make sense that a law like that would exist.
I think it's the ease of copying combined with the fact that digital copies are lossless is what is scaring them. Right now, I could take a $100 USB harddrive over to a friends house, and give them a lossless copy of every song and album I have (literally thousands of songs) - all in the same time it would have taken 15 years ago to copy a single cassette. This really scares the RIAA and their ilk, as they see this as really hurting their bottom line, where as casual copying years ago was more limited in scale.
Re:The best way to fix the PC-problem is to get a
on
Computer Voodoo?
·
· Score: 1
Given many of Apple's overly generic error messages, I always kind of thought troubleshooting a misbehaving Mac as kind of voodoo, as you would just try stuff at random until it went away. Though maybe OSX is better at that now, or at the very least you see the error messages a lot less.
I had a laptop that did that. Troubleshooting something else, and I turned down the video acceleration, and I ended up fixing that problem. So I left the video acceleration turned off. I figured the graphics adaptor was flaky, but without being able to swap it out, I had no way to check or fix it.
I do use the pause button occasionally, as on most computers it will pause those BIOS screens that flash up when you turn on the computer which you usually don't have enough time to read.
Slashdot Mirror
Clearly you didn't watch the WWDC keynote address. The workstations and servers are cheaper than comparatively equipped Dells. And if you add the webcam and a few other things the Mac has to a Dell notebook, the price of comparable MacBooks and MacBook Pros is about the same. It's one advantage of using the same underlying Intel hardware...
That's great if I want a workstation that costs thousands of dollars. Or a webcam in my notebook. But if I don't want those things, why should I have to pay for them? Fact is, I can always build the computer I want for much less than what it would cost to get the computer I want from Apple. Or from Dell, for that matter.
But most of these TreNuff ads are just wrong. For instance, the "Upgrading" one - "When I want to run a game faster, I just get a new video card"! Well, what the hell was I doing when I wanted to run games (yes, there actually are some games that run on a Mac) and applications faster on my G5 and I got a new video card? Was that an illusion?
I mean look at the Mac Pro - it has PCIe slots. It has SATA bays (four of them). It has USB and Firewire ports out the wazoo. So what is it I'm missing from upgrading that the PC offers? Heck on the lower end products I can still upgrade the memory, hard drive (much easier on a Macbook than most other laptops) and even swap out the processor!
That's great if you have a Mac Pro. But generally, the Mac Mini and iMac are less upgradable than their Mac counterparts.
So most of them are even more misleading and pointless than the Mac ones, it's just something PC users like to link to for eqivilence - but someone needs to do a better job with the scripts.
I thought they were damn funny myself, though really it seems that they are making fun of Linux more than anything else.
As I mentioned, USB is chainable.
Not it's not. Well, atleast not like Firewire, which is chainable. All those devices that have USB ports on them (mostly keyboards), do it by putting a USB hub in the device, and then hardwiring the device to the USB hub. Of course you can just keep on plugging hubs into hubs, which does give the impression that it is chainable.
GPU - all that is hardware accellerated. Kind of removes your whole point there. If your GPU is otherwise sitting idle why not make use of it?
With systems with shared memory, drawing all that stuff is using up memory bandwidth that could otherwise be used by the rest of the system. There isn't really anyway to utilize the GPU in those systems without slowing other stuff downs.
And don't forget half a hard drive filled with demo apps that will expire in 30 days if you don't buy them. I had to clean off all kinds of worthless crap on my parents' new machine and install their working applications.
Don't forget the Apple nagware, such as "Buy Quicktime Pro!" which constantly pops up.
Though you're right about OEM machines. Pretty much the first thing needed on those a reformat and a reinstallation with a standard Windows XP disk (not a restore disk).
Most lunchrooms I've been in have a vending machine or two. Too cheap to buy a bag of chips or a candybar?
Well, obviously there are subjects where a new addition every year or two is appropiate. That doesn't excuse the textboox publishers from constantly coming out with new additions for subjects that haven't changed in decades, or even centuries.
Sadly, it still seems that a good portion of the time someone asks me to look at some computer, the computer is an old Windows 95 or 98 box that lacks working USB ports. Atleast it's finally gotten to the point where I can pretty much count on the computer having a CD drive (though I do have issues with slow, fussy, dust-clogged 8 year old CD readers having problems reading my burned CDs) I do have USB thumbdrives, but I mostly use those as a big floppy to move data around between computers, rather than semi-permanent storage of Linux distros and windows utilities.
Another advantage to the CD for things like Damn Small Linux is that you're much more likely to come accross a computer that can boot from CD (pretty common on anything 5-6 years old or newer) than a computer that can boot from USB (pretty much only standard new on PCs from the last 1-2 years or so, if that).
No, prices haven't really gone up. It's just that everyone who is building a whitebox computer nowadays wants nothing less than dual core, so that's all that they are paying attention to. Dual core chips are still in the upper midrange of the CPU lineup, and even a low end dual core box is not what I would consider a budget computer. You can still build a reasonable budget box for $500-$600, it'll just be a single core system, that's all.
What do you mean by "tool to keep third parties from selling songs to iPod users?"
Exactly what I mean. Apple takes advantage of the fact that most music cannot be sold without DRM on it, due to the demands of the license holders of the music, by not opening their DRM.
Could you come up with some other reasons for bnetd?
Sure. Blizzard was (probably still is) terrible at policing their own servers. Back when I played Diablo II, cheating in the form of duped/hacked items, as well as cheating by using programs like Maphack were rampant. Blizzard made a token effort to stop it every once and a while, but for the most part they simply didn't care. On the other hand, there were bnetd servers whose admins took a hardline stance against using hacks. Also many of the bnetd admins also would kick griefers that Blizzard would do absolutely nothing about on the battlenet servers.
Another reason for bnetd is that it also allowed users to play online with previous patches of the game. Blizzard made some huge changes to Diablo II over the years, and many liked the previous versions better than the current versions.
Casual players don't spend hours a day complaining on the forums. Many hardcore players do.
I disagree. The real hardcore players are too busy playing to spend hours a day on the forums.
So I would want to have a small program that I can run in case of emergencies, which would "touch" typical system files, add typical event logs with appropriate times and dates to go with the time stamps and also touch a list of files which could be considered to be incriminating, but with times well into the future of the current time. This small program should also wipe its own .exe securely before exiting.
Here's a thought - do the police, when they find that the computer they want to take as evidence is up and running, try to power it off nicely - or do they just yank the power plug from the wall? If they do the former, you could rig the normal shutdown process to run your small program, then power off the computer. Of course, you would have to remember to use some alternative shutdown process anytime you wanted to shutdown the computer, or risk messing up your system.
If the police just yank the power cord from the wall, I suppose it could still be done, but it gets trickier. One option would be to install a UPS (possibly inside the computer case itself), and have the computer run the program whenever it senses that it's lost power. By the time that the police have realized that you've modded your case to contain a UPS, it will be too late. Of course, with this method, you'll end up running the program anytime the power goes out.
I kind of doubt that the record companies care much about Apple's bottom line.
On the other hand, Apple uses it's DRM as a tool to keep third parties from selling songs to iPod users, as well as keeping people from loading up songs bought on iTunes to something other than an iPod. That's not transparent in my eyes - actually it's pretty restrictive, despite some of the hoops you can jump through to make it "just work". I'm not a fan of Windows media either, but atleast you get a choice of both music stores and players if you go that route.
Don't want to use Safari? Make it go poof.
On the other hand, you CANNOT get rid of Internet Explorer. And that's bad. IE is full of security holes and you can't get rid of it. Safari is far safer, and you can get rid of it.
Deleting Safari on a Mac is about as effective as deleting iexplore.exe on a Windows PC as far as getting rid of the browser is concerned. Sure, you've just nuked the front end, but the backend still exists in the OS and is not easily removed. Have you ever heard of Webkit?
no Mac or Linux support
It can be used as a USB mass storage device, which means it should be compatible with Mac and Linux just fine.
The iPod Nano, which is the most simular iPod to this player, is harder to open and the battery is soldered to the mainboard. I doubt you could replace a nano's battery in five minutes.
The technology exists - just look at CRT computer monitors. My 20" CRT can be run at a higher resolution than my 20" LCD. It's just that no one builds the TV's that can do it. Same with LCDs actually, there are some laptops that have some impressive pixel density (like 1900x1200 15" screens), but those LCDs seem to be completely unavailable outside of laptops.
They're being humane by preventing the guy from working overtime? Gee, thanks.
By not letting the guy work as many hours as he wants, that means the company needs to hire more workers to do the same amount of work, thus more people get atleast something. When you consider China's communist history, it does make sense that a law like that would exist.
What has changed?
I think it's the ease of copying combined with the fact that digital copies are lossless is what is scaring them. Right now, I could take a $100 USB harddrive over to a friends house, and give them a lossless copy of every song and album I have (literally thousands of songs) - all in the same time it would have taken 15 years ago to copy a single cassette. This really scares the RIAA and their ilk, as they see this as really hurting their bottom line, where as casual copying years ago was more limited in scale.
Given many of Apple's overly generic error messages, I always kind of thought troubleshooting a misbehaving Mac as kind of voodoo, as you would just try stuff at random until it went away. Though maybe OSX is better at that now, or at the very least you see the error messages a lot less.
I had a laptop that did that. Troubleshooting something else, and I turned down the video acceleration, and I ended up fixing that problem. So I left the video acceleration turned off. I figured the graphics adaptor was flaky, but without being able to swap it out, I had no way to check or fix it.
Record companies pay MTV to play videos.
Well, they must not pay MTV very much, judging by the number of videos MTV plays.
I do use the pause button occasionally, as on most computers it will pause those BIOS screens that flash up when you turn on the computer which you usually don't have enough time to read.