Mac mini, very slow indeed. I sold mine and went back to a cheaper and faster X86 so now I can get some work done instead of waiting for something to happen every time I click the mouse, or start typing and find my fingers three letters ahead of the display, etc... OS X is awesome, but if the only way I can get decent speed is to spend over $2,000 I'll pass.
And before one of you zealots labels this as "flamebait" please recognize that just because I disagree with you does not mean I am trying to start a war, I just think don't agree with all this Apple advocacy.
Re:I would buy a Mac...
on
Return of the Mac
·
· Score: -1, Flamebait
Because/. moderators have no idea what their responsibility is, they cannot respect a difference of opinion so they label any dissenters as "flamebait" or "troll".
That isn't it, the "Press Thumbs Up to Record" has been around for a while, what people are talking about today is a pop up ad that covers about 2/3rds of the screen.
I let 24 buffer for about 25 minutes so I could fast forward through commercials. Every commercial break an ad (covering about 2/3rds of the screen) for an upcoming Sean Penn (pompous windbag) film (The Interpretor (sp?) I think) sat dead center of the screen. While I don't begrudge Tivo the avenue for making some extra cash, it is a little cumbersome as you are skipping through commercials it is now a little harder to see when your show has resumed and I end up skipping back a couple seconds.
Does this make me want to dump my Tivo? No, but we had been discussing buying a second Tivo for the bedroom (for multi-room viewing and solving the occaisional scheudle overlap) but after this change we decided against it. Now in a few months when my wife's PC is due for a major upgrade her current small form factor box just got promoted to a MythTV box.
The Tivo menu screen has been cluttered with quite a few ads for the last few months and I have been able to ignore it, but this is a bit more intrusive and annoying. Unless Tivo can adjust it so the ad disappears at a more opportune time, this just became a major drawback. My first Tivo lasted for almost 4 years of heavy use and we replaced it with a newer model over the holidays. Between MythTV and my cable company pushing a DVR it might not be too long before I try other options, at the latest when this current Tivo needs replacing/upgrading.
Re:Top 5 : What's Next At Apple
on
What's Next At Apple
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· Score: -1, Flamebait
woohoo, modded down by an Apple zealot, didn't see that one coming!!!
Re:Top 5 : What's Next At Apple
on
What's Next At Apple
·
· Score: -1, Flamebait
Don't forget....
10. People finally start to admit the Mac mini is over-rated and slow.
9. Tiny blips in marketshare are heralded as a return of Apple dominance
8. Jobs to throw cheap shots at movie studios.
7. More excuses why our hardware is still slower than the cheapest eMachine.
6. Speed bumps and color changes counted as innovation
how there are still a good variety of media players to choose from on the Windows platform, yet only one real choice left on the Mac? Will the EU be forcing Apple to ship new Macs without iLife, specifically iTunes and QuickTime? Apple shipping iTunes with every Mac has pretty much killed the 3rd party audio player on Macs, is this not the same thing? And yes, I grasp that the whole "monopoly thing" gets slashdotters all wet, but the truth is that WMP is almost a necessity today, so all this law does in inconvenience end users.
Let me see if I get the party line...
1. MS is always bad, convicted monopolist and all that...
2. Apple is always good because they got screwed, so we can even overlook it when they screw end uers or promote limitations of fair use...
3. Linux is always good unless it is Red Hat, the Microsoft of the Linux world...
So if somehow the world shifted and MS was either eliminated, forced to open source or was just so massively reduced in influence what would happen? I'm willing to bet that most of/. would turn it's attention to Apple and they would be the new evil empire. Who comes after that, Red Hat or IBM? Sometimes the zealots around here strike me as being no different than the religious right creeps who flood the FCC with indecency complaints; never happy until everyone agrees with them.
It gets worse than that, I heard the other day that corporations are mostly managed by greedy bastards who are more concerned with profit than running an ethical business. This is all very discouraging...
I doubt MS will set themselves up for that kind of bad press, while it will be far from perfect I suspect Longhorn will be signifigantly more secure than XP was on release.
I sent him an email once asking why he keeps trying seeing that he has never once been right about anything that wasn't patently obvious. Still waiting for that reply....
I would have to agree, I used to spend a lot of effort researching each of my purchases. I would spend days scouring the Internet for reviews from every viewpoint, make multiple trips to stores to "touch and feel" every aspect, post numerous questions on message boards, etc.. But no more, these days I just wait to see if Rob Enderle or John Dvorak like it, and if they do I avoid it like the plague. I have a lot more free time to waste around here and don't make post as many auctions. Whew, thanks Rob Enderle, that PSP looked tempting but knowing you are ALWAYS wrong is better than a 30 day return policy.
Yea but this wasn't a study of home users, it was for server OSs, so that really isn't relevant. Equally, if your kid is smart enough to handle Linux on some level he is probably at least a little more security concious as is his desktop OS by default. Even if you don't like MS you have to admit they have been pro-active and have really managed to improve security from previous versions (or course that was somewhat easy), but serious outbreaks post SP2 are far fewer than before (by several orders of magnitude).
This is exactly what I am talking about, even if you are furnished proof from an independent third party you say you are ready to cry foul because of support issues with home uers? I have never had a Windows Server or Server 2003 box I administer compromised, and any admin who isn't asleep at the keyboard can probably say the same. I have seen unpatched Linux boxes compromised, but of course not as many times as I have seen MS boxes compromised based on sheer usage. Any box with any OS left unprotected will be exploited, but at what point does it become the responsibility of the user to apply the tools that the vendor provides? If a home user is over-run with spyware and viri but has never run Windows Update is that really MS fault? And would that user really be any better off with a Linux box, which (and be honest) usually has to be patched more often? Is it any wonder MS is willing to fund someone who finds them in a more favorable light?
Microsoft how do you get someone to say anything good about your security these days? If the study and the methodology are acceptable (and I am not saying that this study or methodology is) and the results are legit, how do you get them out there? You can't say anything positive about MS around here, or many other web sites for that matter. Do any truly "independent" testing bodies for this type of thing still exist? If a supposedly "independent" test came out and MS was still considered superior would anyone around here take it seriously or would they find another reason to cry foul?
where I think MS makes some good points. I like iTMS and the iPod, but it is a lock in no matter how you spin it. Yes, right this minute iTMS is a "better" store, but up until just recently the iPod was the "better" player. Recent players by Creative and iRiver as at least as good, and some models better, than the iPod. Zealots will deny this (of course) but the Zen Micro is equal too or better than the iPod mini on several levels, the larger iRivers best the current iPods, etc... And with other players I can choose from a half dozen stores, with Apple I get one. The iPod is in jeopardy of being bested by another product now that it finally has competition, and the same thing will happen to iTMS.
I own an iPod mini (that my wife absorbed as an appendage) and I returned my iPod Shuffle because I found it disappointing. I own tons of tracks from the iTMS, and while I think the store interface for iTunes is currenlty the best, eventually one of the other stores will rise to the challenge. For a long time you could argue that iTMS had the better selection, but the combined selection of the other stores is just as good (if not better) and I can use any player I like. I have my eye on a non-Apple player now and the current task of freeing my iTMS purchases of their digital shackles is a pain. Yes, there will be digital shackles on my other online purchases as well, but will it be as painful since they are in a format that every other player on the market uses? I'll probably still find a way to unlock those new tracks if for no other reason than to "stick it to the man (TM)", but it probably won't be with any sense of urgency.
I know Apple runs the iTMS purely to sell iPods, but currently it is that business model that has me looking at alternatives.
Real whispering things to the EU and they are following up on it? Did the rest of the planet get non-buggy/non-spyware laced versions of RealPlayer for the past 9 years? Why does anyone take Rob seriously any longer? I could easily do without MS embedding so many apps in the OS, but at this point they have been doing it so long and so many apps they build (and many other developers as well, be honest) count on some of that functionality being there this is hardly shocking. Honestly, if they reomved WMP and everything just worked I would have been shocked.
I dislike many things MS has done over the years but at this point, forcing them to remove a media player when the desktop is so focussed on digital media seems unrealisitic and even unfair. I know "blah, blah, blah MS is evil" but from a consumer standpoint the only one who will suffer for this is people who buy a Windows PC and have to...
1. Endure crappy co-branded media players that OEMs will install on their PC (I can only imagine what bloat an AOL/HP Media Jukebox would carry)?
2. Be forced to scurry about the web downloading media players when they get (or buid) a new PC?
3. Get frustrated and install the WMP suggestion off of Windows Update and go on there way?
Some of what MS does is out of line, providing customer convenience should not necessarliy fall in to this category.
Shut up toolbox, I have played games on both the VB and DS, while both were cool they were also driven by gimmicks. Fucking Nintendo fanboys are only overshadowed by Mac zealots.
more fanboiz chiming in on how Nintendo is the only innovater in video games these days. Yawn, the PSP looks good (but a little pricey) where as the DS smacks of Virtual Boy. Time will tell, but the PSP looks like a contender.
Re:My head hurts from the market speak.
on
The PC Is Not Dead
·
· Score: 1
Of course, part of that responsibility and "safety" should fall on the user as well. XP can be run with little to no issue if you take some basic precautions, if this it too much for mom and pop to handle then maybe we need more web appliances? And overall XP is just as usable, if not more usable than OS X and is still years in front of desktop Linux.
Sure, you can also order some desktops in the U.S., but (and of course I could be wrong) you can't buy one at retail. Without a retail presence it is wasted effort.
I get what it's for genius, I own one. But that doesn't mean most people won't come to the mini expecting a more complete computing experience, and they are going to ask why some of these things aren't available or work poorly. And for the record, the Mac mini is sloooowwww...
they discover the lack of games, the large amount of MS software you will continue to use and the overall high price for outdated hardware? These questions come from a mini owner, but I think Forbes and the crowd here is over simplifying things a bit.
Mandrake and they are nice, but I think Mandrake is quite foolish to place so much emphasis on the desktop unless they have a major deal with HP or Gateway and something to guaruntee them retails shelf space.
spyware outbreak to show up so that...
1. Windows users can say "told ya' so"
2. Mac users will be, albeit breifly, completely silenced
3. People can start submitting new "Apple Death Knell" articles.
Slashdot Mirror
And before one of you zealots labels this as "flamebait" please recognize that just because I disagree with you does not mean I am trying to start a war, I just think don't agree with all this Apple advocacy.
That isn't it, the "Press Thumbs Up to Record" has been around for a while, what people are talking about today is a pop up ad that covers about 2/3rds of the screen.
Does this make me want to dump my Tivo? No, but we had been discussing buying a second Tivo for the bedroom (for multi-room viewing and solving the occaisional scheudle overlap) but after this change we decided against it. Now in a few months when my wife's PC is due for a major upgrade her current small form factor box just got promoted to a MythTV box.
The Tivo menu screen has been cluttered with quite a few ads for the last few months and I have been able to ignore it, but this is a bit more intrusive and annoying. Unless Tivo can adjust it so the ad disappears at a more opportune time, this just became a major drawback. My first Tivo lasted for almost 4 years of heavy use and we replaced it with a newer model over the holidays. Between MythTV and my cable company pushing a DVR it might not be too long before I try other options, at the latest when this current Tivo needs replacing/upgrading.
woohoo, modded down by an Apple zealot, didn't see that one coming!!!
10. People finally start to admit the Mac mini is over-rated and slow.
9. Tiny blips in marketshare are heralded as a return of Apple dominance
8. Jobs to throw cheap shots at movie studios.
7. More excuses why our hardware is still slower than the cheapest eMachine.
6. Speed bumps and color changes counted as innovation
Let me see if I get the party line...
1. MS is always bad, convicted monopolist and all that...
2. Apple is always good because they got screwed, so we can even overlook it when they screw end uers or promote limitations of fair use...
3. Linux is always good unless it is Red Hat, the Microsoft of the Linux world...
So if somehow the world shifted and MS was either eliminated, forced to open source or was just so massively reduced in influence what would happen? I'm willing to bet that most of /. would turn it's attention to Apple and they would be the new evil empire. Who comes after that, Red Hat or IBM? Sometimes the zealots around here strike me as being no different than the religious right creeps who flood the FCC with indecency complaints; never happy until everyone agrees with them.
It gets worse than that, I heard the other day that corporations are mostly managed by greedy bastards who are more concerned with profit than running an ethical business. This is all very discouraging...
I doubt MS will set themselves up for that kind of bad press, while it will be far from perfect I suspect Longhorn will be signifigantly more secure than XP was on release.
I sent him an email once asking why he keeps trying seeing that he has never once been right about anything that wasn't patently obvious. Still waiting for that reply....
I would have to agree, I used to spend a lot of effort researching each of my purchases. I would spend days scouring the Internet for reviews from every viewpoint, make multiple trips to stores to "touch and feel" every aspect, post numerous questions on message boards, etc.. But no more, these days I just wait to see if Rob Enderle or John Dvorak like it, and if they do I avoid it like the plague. I have a lot more free time to waste around here and don't make post as many auctions. Whew, thanks Rob Enderle, that PSP looked tempting but knowing you are ALWAYS wrong is better than a 30 day return policy.
for days when someone suceeds at this. Never dare someone to do stuff like this, it is just too tempting of a target.
This is exactly what I am talking about, even if you are furnished proof from an independent third party you say you are ready to cry foul because of support issues with home uers? I have never had a Windows Server or Server 2003 box I administer compromised, and any admin who isn't asleep at the keyboard can probably say the same. I have seen unpatched Linux boxes compromised, but of course not as many times as I have seen MS boxes compromised based on sheer usage. Any box with any OS left unprotected will be exploited, but at what point does it become the responsibility of the user to apply the tools that the vendor provides? If a home user is over-run with spyware and viri but has never run Windows Update is that really MS fault? And would that user really be any better off with a Linux box, which (and be honest) usually has to be patched more often? Is it any wonder MS is willing to fund someone who finds them in a more favorable light?
Microsoft how do you get someone to say anything good about your security these days? If the study and the methodology are acceptable (and I am not saying that this study or methodology is) and the results are legit, how do you get them out there? You can't say anything positive about MS around here, or many other web sites for that matter. Do any truly "independent" testing bodies for this type of thing still exist? If a supposedly "independent" test came out and MS was still considered superior would anyone around here take it seriously or would they find another reason to cry foul?
I own an iPod mini (that my wife absorbed as an appendage) and I returned my iPod Shuffle because I found it disappointing. I own tons of tracks from the iTMS, and while I think the store interface for iTunes is currenlty the best, eventually one of the other stores will rise to the challenge. For a long time you could argue that iTMS had the better selection, but the combined selection of the other stores is just as good (if not better) and I can use any player I like. I have my eye on a non-Apple player now and the current task of freeing my iTMS purchases of their digital shackles is a pain. Yes, there will be digital shackles on my other online purchases as well, but will it be as painful since they are in a format that every other player on the market uses? I'll probably still find a way to unlock those new tracks if for no other reason than to "stick it to the man (TM)", but it probably won't be with any sense of urgency.
I know Apple runs the iTMS purely to sell iPods, but currently it is that business model that has me looking at alternatives.
I dislike many things MS has done over the years but at this point, forcing them to remove a media player when the desktop is so focussed on digital media seems unrealisitic and even unfair. I know "blah, blah, blah MS is evil" but from a consumer standpoint the only one who will suffer for this is people who buy a Windows PC and have to...
1. Endure crappy co-branded media players that OEMs will install on their PC (I can only imagine what bloat an AOL/HP Media Jukebox would carry)?
2. Be forced to scurry about the web downloading media players when they get (or buid) a new PC?
3. Get frustrated and install the WMP suggestion off of Windows Update and go on there way?
Some of what MS does is out of line, providing customer convenience should not necessarliy fall in to this category.
Shut up toolbox, I have played games on both the VB and DS, while both were cool they were also driven by gimmicks. Fucking Nintendo fanboys are only overshadowed by Mac zealots.
more fanboiz chiming in on how Nintendo is the only innovater in video games these days. Yawn, the PSP looks good (but a little pricey) where as the DS smacks of Virtual Boy. Time will tell, but the PSP looks like a contender.
Of course, part of that responsibility and "safety" should fall on the user as well. XP can be run with little to no issue if you take some basic precautions, if this it too much for mom and pop to handle then maybe we need more web appliances? And overall XP is just as usable, if not more usable than OS X and is still years in front of desktop Linux.
Sure, you can also order some desktops in the U.S., but (and of course I could be wrong) you can't buy one at retail. Without a retail presence it is wasted effort.
I get what it's for genius, I own one. But that doesn't mean most people won't come to the mini expecting a more complete computing experience, and they are going to ask why some of these things aren't available or work poorly. And for the record, the Mac mini is sloooowwww...
they discover the lack of games, the large amount of MS software you will continue to use and the overall high price for outdated hardware? These questions come from a mini owner, but I think Forbes and the crowd here is over simplifying things a bit.
Mandrake and they are nice, but I think Mandrake is quite foolish to place so much emphasis on the desktop unless they have a major deal with HP or Gateway and something to guaruntee them retails shelf space.
spyware outbreak to show up so that...
1. Windows users can say "told ya' so"
2. Mac users will be, albeit breifly, completely silenced
3. People can start submitting new "Apple Death Knell" articles.
Why would you buy what you already own?