Exactly. I think that, if anything, Apple's resurgence as a viable brand has been a boon to the independent shops that will more than make up for the competition from Apple Stores. Independents also seem to be more inclined to service businesses and institutions than Apple Stores (which are basically boutiques).
I just get a kick out of it every time people bemoan the loss of "mom & pop" Apple retailers because of "evil competition," like they were the last great thing from some golden era. I have a feeling that if anybody was to actually do some research, they'd find that pruning some weak or dead limbs makes the whole Apple tree healthier, for both the corporate shops and the independents =)
Most strip-mall computer stores (whether the mythical "mom-and-pop" Apple retailer, or "CompuQuick PCs") are--and have been for years--shoestring businesses one step from the grave. Their service was mediocre and their selection of parts was bad. They are the bodegas of the computer world. Apple's retail stores may have hastened the (welcome) end for a few of these.
On the other hand, the strong have not only survived, but have *flourished*. I take all of my Apple problems to MacMedia, a local shop, even though there are two Apple stores in the Phoenix metro region. Why? Because the Apple Store *told* me to!! For out-of-warranty repairs, well-run local shops are a much better bargain _and_ have better service. The Apple Stores feed them that kind of business, and people like me end up sticking with them for purchases and warranty repairs. MacMedia just opened a second office in another part of town: clearly, they aren't suffering.
Makes sense now, doesn't it? It's like having a second house (rental property), seeing a fire start in that house, and your only option to put it out would be to run on to the neighbor's property to use their hose. Then, you'd still have a house with fire damage. Or, you could just throw up your hands and say "there's nothing I could do!" and collect on your insurance.
In fact, since insects had been *The* animal ecosystem on land for millions of years before the first vertebrates skulked out of the ocean, it's pretty plausible that all manner of mites and parasites had existed and passed around proto-diseases--lets not forget that even today, our insects are covered with even tinier insect parasites. Parasites of all sorts also existed in the oceans where the vertebrates were evolving. Parallel evolution makes much, much more sense.
Heh, yeah. I know you were just being sarcastic/funny, but I always get a kick out of thinking about the (North) American regional quirks.
The whole West Coast throws "like" all over their sentences*. I kind of wonder how that started. I even, like, find myself typing it out sometimes, and I have definitely found myself actively suppressing it in some conversations.
Actually, the one that kind of drives me nuts is when people from the Great Lakes region pronounce "Bag" as "Baeg."
*Just to head off the douche who will say he doesn't: lighten up, Francis, nothing is 100%.
Wow are you ever a touchy blowhard. In 'merica, "Wal-mart" has become a generic name for large discount stores... it could just as easily encompass Target, K Mart, or whatever your national flavor is. I'm sure your country, given that it obviously has some degree of internet access, also has discount stores.
It's like him saying "Come off it, everybody drinks Coke," and you respond with "STFU, I drink Pepsi. We don't have Coke here."
I pay $5 a month for Netflix, and often forget I have the movie for a month-and-a-half (would be $20 at blockbuster, at least... and that's the new "cheaper" rate).
Not only that, but the movies I get from Netflix are not even available at Blockbuster, and they aren't at your friendly neighborhood Torrent site, either.
Netflix is great because it's a long-tail model business, just like Amazon. Sure they make money on the best sellers, but they really excel at serving up the rarities, and their customer base is large enough that they can make a great profit on obscure flicks.
Damn my expired mod points! "Hoax"-my-ass; it might have been a minor overstatement, but it's not a hoax by any means.
That wired article basically concludes by saying "Well, sure, Reduced Functionality Mode exists, but you still get to browse for an hour at a time... and your monitor doesn't go COMPLETELY black."
Sure, but not as abysmal as the Safari 2 numbers he gave. I'm just sayin; if you're going to compare nightlies and alphas, do the same for all of them.
I currently teach at a public HS in an affluent Phoenix suburb. Before that, I spent some "hardship post" time out in a notoriously bad district, too. In Arizona, at any rate, it's a mixed bag.
On the one hand, some schools have relaxed the number of math credits required for graduation, from four to three. I've also had experience with a bad counselor counsel students out of my 2nd year Physics class in favor of AP Basketweaving or something because she thought "Yale would much rather see AP 'anything.'" That was, however, a personal problem.
On the other hand, one of the few bright sides of standardized testing is that it's requiring us to bring up math scores across the board--and mostly from the abysmal low-score population. If we counseled out students out of math, we'd do even worse--it'd be like cutting our own throats. That's causing a huge emphasis on math and progression up the math class tree.
High level math classes are also very heavily teacher-driven. In my current school, we offer math courses all the through 2nd year Calculus, and 2nd year Physics. Teachers campaign hard to get students to sign up, because they're a major perk--I'd rather stretch my abilities and teach a 2nd year physics course than suffer teaching a section of Frosh science any day! We do class talks with underclassmen, explain the college/career options, put up flyers, etc. There's definitely more of an atmosphere of encouragement.
Our administrations are also generally supportive, for a variety of reasons. High level math is not just a major bragging point; it can net cooperation from the local community colleges, who cross-list our HS classes and kick back half of the tuition--for some of our schools departments, this can mean a serious boost to the budget. That extra $$ isn't just used for expensive classroom crap; we've often used it to "buy sections" of classes--in other words, to pay a teacher. This lets us lower class sizes, or to offer classes that might not attract enough students to make them viable for regular funding (say, 15 students, instead of the 25 the school might need for state funding).
For reference, I've got a BS in Engineering, so I kind of went to the dark side when I became a teacher. That definitely put HS math and science education in perspective, though, and I'm really glad I didn't go the tradtional route to teaching.
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Exactly. I think that, if anything, Apple's resurgence as a viable brand has been a boon to the independent shops that will more than make up for the competition from Apple Stores. Independents also seem to be more inclined to service businesses and institutions than Apple Stores (which are basically boutiques).
I just get a kick out of it every time people bemoan the loss of "mom & pop" Apple retailers because of "evil competition," like they were the last great thing from some golden era. I have a feeling that if anybody was to actually do some research, they'd find that pruning some weak or dead limbs makes the whole Apple tree healthier, for both the corporate shops and the independents =)
Most strip-mall computer stores (whether the mythical "mom-and-pop" Apple retailer, or "CompuQuick PCs") are--and have been for years--shoestring businesses one step from the grave. Their service was mediocre and their selection of parts was bad. They are the bodegas of the computer world. Apple's retail stores may have hastened the (welcome) end for a few of these.
On the other hand, the strong have not only survived, but have *flourished*. I take all of my Apple problems to MacMedia, a local shop, even though there are two Apple stores in the Phoenix metro region. Why? Because the Apple Store *told* me to!! For out-of-warranty repairs, well-run local shops are a much better bargain _and_ have better service. The Apple Stores feed them that kind of business, and people like me end up sticking with them for purchases and warranty repairs. MacMedia just opened a second office in another part of town: clearly, they aren't suffering.
I thought the G5 Power Mac took liquid cooling mainstream in 2004.
I guess this is one of those phrases, like "the Year of Linux on Desktop," that we'll hear ad infinitum.
"They have an insurance policy on the satellite."
Makes sense now, doesn't it? It's like having a second house (rental property), seeing a fire start in that house, and your only option to put it out would be to run on to the neighbor's property to use their hose. Then, you'd still have a house with fire damage. Or, you could just throw up your hands and say "there's nothing I could do!" and collect on your insurance.
That USED to come included in all their other laptops. I got one free with my G4 iBook, but I believe I had to shell out for one for my MacBook.
Not so much "funny" as "insightful."
In fact, since insects had been *The* animal ecosystem on land for millions of years before the first vertebrates skulked out of the ocean, it's pretty plausible that all manner of mites and parasites had existed and passed around proto-diseases--lets not forget that even today, our insects are covered with even tinier insect parasites. Parasites of all sorts also existed in the oceans where the vertebrates were evolving. Parallel evolution makes much, much more sense.
Or, instead of dreaming up elaborate conspiracy theories just so we can have collective paranoid nerdgasms, we could stick with Occam's Razor?
But of course, that would be too rational. Let's wrap our heads in tinfoil, just in case.
Wait, lol, you don't think that Microsoft employees use Office??!?
What are they using? TeX? Open Office?!?
Hippies delivered: like, Bonnie Raitt for one
People are complaining?
((rereading thread))
Care to point that out? I'd say most people would be happy that they are using their own product in a critical environment.
Or they just type in their super secret NSA password (usr: NSA, pwd: backdoorhaxlol) and your computer just gives 'em up willingly.
Good luck movin' up 'cause I'm movin' out.
Heh, yeah. I know you were just being sarcastic/funny, but I always get a kick out of thinking about the (North) American regional quirks.
The whole West Coast throws "like" all over their sentences*. I kind of wonder how that started. I even, like, find myself typing it out sometimes, and I have definitely found myself actively suppressing it in some conversations.
Actually, the one that kind of drives me nuts is when people from the Great Lakes region pronounce "Bag" as "Baeg."
*Just to head off the douche who will say he doesn't: lighten up, Francis, nothing is 100%.
Well, fortunately they're different in one key aspect:
/yeah yeah koolaid etc.
There's only one version of Leopard and it costs a third of Vista.
Wow are you ever a touchy blowhard. In 'merica, "Wal-mart" has become a generic name for large discount stores... it could just as easily encompass Target, K Mart, or whatever your national flavor is. I'm sure your country, given that it obviously has some degree of internet access, also has discount stores.
It's like him saying "Come off it, everybody drinks Coke," and you respond with "STFU, I drink Pepsi. We don't have Coke here."
I pay $5 a month for Netflix, and often forget I have the movie for a month-and-a-half (would be $20 at blockbuster, at least... and that's the new "cheaper" rate).
Not only that, but the movies I get from Netflix are not even available at Blockbuster, and they aren't at your friendly neighborhood Torrent site, either.
Netflix is great because it's a long-tail model business, just like Amazon. Sure they make money on the best sellers, but they really excel at serving up the rarities, and their customer base is large enough that they can make a great profit on obscure flicks.
And if the GCC deprecates your platform and doesn't have time or inclination to work with all your little patches and nitpicks, what do you do then?
That's all I came here to say. These videos are painfully awful.
Damn my expired mod points! "Hoax"-my-ass; it might have been a minor overstatement, but it's not a hoax by any means.
That wired article basically concludes by saying "Well, sure, Reduced Functionality Mode exists, but you still get to browse for an hour at a time... and your monitor doesn't go COMPLETELY black."
It had a Mac in it, and thus is relevant to my interests!!
Sure, but not as abysmal as the Safari 2 numbers he gave. I'm just sayin; if you're going to compare nightlies and alphas, do the same for all of them.
OK, you're testing the Opera 9.50 alpha AND the Firefox Nightly, but not the Safari 3.etc Beta?
Safari 3 is the one that they claim is fast, not Safari 2.
Damn! I came here to post that.
Huh, because I thought his point was that he wanted to invest in productivity. Well, guess it went over ONE of our heads.
I currently teach at a public HS in an affluent Phoenix suburb. Before that, I spent some "hardship post" time out in a notoriously bad district, too. In Arizona, at any rate, it's a mixed bag.
On the one hand, some schools have relaxed the number of math credits required for graduation, from four to three. I've also had experience with a bad counselor counsel students out of my 2nd year Physics class in favor of AP Basketweaving or something because she thought "Yale would much rather see AP 'anything.'" That was, however, a personal problem.
On the other hand, one of the few bright sides of standardized testing is that it's requiring us to bring up math scores across the board--and mostly from the abysmal low-score population. If we counseled out students out of math, we'd do even worse--it'd be like cutting our own throats. That's causing a huge emphasis on math and progression up the math class tree.
High level math classes are also very heavily teacher-driven. In my current school, we offer math courses all the through 2nd year Calculus, and 2nd year Physics. Teachers campaign hard to get students to sign up, because they're a major perk--I'd rather stretch my abilities and teach a 2nd year physics course than suffer teaching a section of Frosh science any day! We do class talks with underclassmen, explain the college/career options, put up flyers, etc. There's definitely more of an atmosphere of encouragement.
Our administrations are also generally supportive, for a variety of reasons. High level math is not just a major bragging point; it can net cooperation from the local community colleges, who cross-list our HS classes and kick back half of the tuition--for some of our schools departments, this can mean a serious boost to the budget. That extra $$ isn't just used for expensive classroom crap; we've often used it to "buy sections" of classes--in other words, to pay a teacher. This lets us lower class sizes, or to offer classes that might not attract enough students to make them viable for regular funding (say, 15 students, instead of the 25 the school might need for state funding).
For reference, I've got a BS in Engineering, so I kind of went to the dark side when I became a teacher. That definitely put HS math and science education in perspective, though, and I'm really glad I didn't go the tradtional route to teaching.