That argument used to be valid in the early days of computing when these things were very expensive. Nowadays, when 4GB of PC6400 DDR2 memory sell for less than $20 and a Seagate 1.5TB SATA HD sells for $129.00 at Tigerdirect.com, that is no longer relevant. Most modern computers come with disk drives of several hundred GB where storing 18 MB file or one of 30 MB makes no practical difference at all.
(...only OS X forces you to keep the original installer around in case you need to uninstall....)
That is certainly not true for the vast majority of programs for OSX that I know about. Many programs do not even have or use a special installer program. Even though these programs may have hundreds of components, they appear to the user and are handled by the system just as any other simple file. Simply dragging the application icon into the trash is all that is necessary to completely get rid of ALL of a program.
In OSX a downloaded DMG file appears in the downloads folder. Also in Safari double-clicking on the filename in the downloads window immediately opens (mounts) it. Dragging the program icon to the applications folder icon installs a program in the one place where all programs a user would generally require are present. There is no harm in keeping the DMG disk image mounted. It will disappear upon logout or restart. There is also no harm at all in keeping the original download file in the downloads folder. Also, not everybody downloads everything from the Internet, especially if they have more than one networked computer whereupon they wish to install a program. We have four OSX computers all networked together. Downloading a program only once takes far less time and bandwidth than what you describe must be done for Linux. Quite a few grandma types are still also on dial up.
The Internet is not the only way to propagate software and other files. I have brought requested program files to a grandma friend on my 2GB keychain USB drive, from which I simply drag the program icon into her applications folder and start the program. Once the program was running, it showed up in the dock, where one mouse click ensures that the icon will remain there from then on. How does one get a program from one Linux computer to another by means of a keychain drive or CD disc? There still are computers that are not connected or cannot be connected to the Internet.
...you will have no choice but to raise the tax...
There is one other choice and that is the one governments have traditionally taken when they went bankrupt, that is they had a crushing burden of debt. All governments nowadays have given themselves the power to create money out of nothing with which they can pay off whatever debt they may have. This of course causes runaway inflation of that particular color of Money, but the debt is paid off with worthless paper. Nowadays of course in a global economy, all the different colors of money bleed into one another and are intertwined. It is clear that such a fiscal collapse will eventually come worldwide because the United States is not the only government head over heels in debt. When, not if, that happens, there will arise from the ruins a world monetary and governmental system that will come to power on the promise to prevent such another such world wide economic meltdown in the future. The new system will include the mandatory issuance some sort of numerical identifier to every person. We have presently the precursor to this sort of thing with our Social Security and other national identification numbers. Cash will no longer be in existence and every transaction will be tracked.
It remains to be seen whether the world is on the brink of such a collapse already today, or whether there will be a period of recovery before such a meltdown finally does happen.
....That's the price you will ultimately have to pay for spending money for decades that you simply do not have....
That is pure and unadulterated BS. We here, as most Americans cannot spend more money than we have or can borrow. Most credit cards have a limit. You also forget, that someone who has the authority to print money, (or program computer bits in a financial system) without going to jail, can never go bankrupt. Throughout most of human history, the medium of exchange we call money has always had some intrinsic value. This has no longer been true for the last 80 or so years, but instead its value is defined arbitrarily by those that have taken the authority upon themselves to create money out of thin air. One day, perhaps soon, this whole system of funny money will collapse under its own weight of worthlessness.
The problem is, that nobody is sure what this collapse will look like. Maybe it will be like it was with my grandmother in Germany. She told me of a man in her town that took a wheelbarrow full of money to a bake shop in order to buy a few loaves of bread. While he was inside inquiring where to bring the money, somebody dumped the money on the sidewalk and made off with a wheelbarrow.
Linux is an operating system made by geeks for geeks. That sentiment has been expressed numerous times in this thread. Linux is not for grandma, unless she has a Linux using grandson/daughter or other relative or friend.
Why should a program need to be installed on a computer? Why not simply copy a desired program from whatever source, online or a piece of plastic, to a well marked, established place in the computer? Nobody talks about installing a picture file, a sound file, text file or video file, do they? Why should a computer program be any different, in need to be "installed" by a special procedure? Of all computer makers, Apple has understood this better than anyone else. Mac programs can be "installed" by simply copying them from a source disk or download to the applications folder. Any initializing and setups are done when the new program is first run. Surely, it must be possible to do that sort of thing in Linux also.
Lawsuits are expensive. It would probably be easier and cheaper for Apple to not allow any future upgrades or updates of their software to install on jail-broken devices. They should also advertise this fact in order to discourage customers from making unauthorized modifications. Those who still insist after all that in modifying their devices in a disallowed manner, should be free to do so.
...Also, aren't you confusing trademark with intellectual property?...
I am no lawyer who knows the ins and outs of all the legal aspects of this thing. I do know however that anyone who enriches himself with somebody else's intellectual property or trademark can, and most likely will, find themselves in court. That is where this is right now and eventually we will see how the court settles this issue. Personally, I do not think that a EULA is enforceable and this thing will be settled on the basis of trademark law or maybe even copyright, since PYSTAR has to modify Apple's installation software somewhere, in order to get OSX to install on their hardware.
If the court should decide against Apple and allow PYSTAR to continue playing their game, Apple can withdraw OSX from the open market, forcing PYSTAR and anyone else to pirate Apple software. Legitimate, registered Macintosh users, would be asked to supply a valid Mac serial number in order to buy an upgrade version of OSX directly from Apple. There is nothing any court could do if Apple did that.
....BTW, how is a psystar machine different from a hackintosh?...
The difference is that if you as a/. techie build one for yourself, Apple may not like it, but will tolerate you doing it. However, once you start making a business of it, advertising that the computers you are selling come with Apple's brand OSX operating system, you are infringing on their trademark and they will come after you with their legal eagles.
...And Apple technically have a monopoly over Apple-branded computers,...
And Hewlett-Packard has a monopoly over Hewlett-Packard branded computers, Honda has a monopoly over Honda brand cars and Coca-Cola has a monopoly on Coca-Cola branded soft drinks. Honda puts Honda engines in their cars, Ford puts Ford engines in and Coca-Cola into those Coca-Cola labeled bottles with guess what? So what then, is so different about Apple putting OS X into their Apple labeled computers? Do you really think that Coca-Cola would be happy if some other company started putting Coca-Cola into their own brand labeled bottles, then selling it cheaply, with an advertisement telling everybody that they have genuine Coca-Cola in their bottles?
I don't think Coca-Cola would object too much if you started pouring Coca-Cola into your empty 7-Up bottles or some other nondescript bottles and storing them in the refrigerator at home. They probably wouldn't care even if you drank their soft drink out of those foreign bottles. So, likewise, Apple probably doesn't give a hoot, if you personally buy a legal copy of OS X and load it into whatever hardware you can get it to run on. So far at least, Apple has not sicced their legal eagles on the Hackintosh community and most probably will not. Do not however start advertising and then selling your Brand X. computers as running Apple's OS X. That is patently illegal. This is what Pystar is doing.
....yes, because something as simple as a faster network card, faster version of USB or a video capture card...
Where can you get an ethernet card that runs faster than the built in 1000Gb/s port? The FireWire 800 connection will allow for the use of large hard drives, as well as high-performance video and audio equipment. This means that even power users don't have to break out the torx wrenches and pry open their iMac.
...The main issue is often the graphics card - what card does your Mac have?...
I don't do much real time display things such as games, so for me, the graphics card is of secondary importance. It is currently an ATI 2600 HD card with 128MB of memory. The video transcoding jobs we used to run on our older G5 2Ghz Dual Macpro took pretty much all night to complete. Its newer replacement, oh well, now already nine months old 8 core Intel takes about a half hour to do such a job. Some video transcoding jobs might benefit from a super hot video card, but as I understood it, it is mostly computational grunt work which needs a powerful processor system with lots of memory.
....Except the Mac mini doesn't have an HDMI port....
Our older G4 Mac mini will drive our 47" LCD through its HDMI input just perfectly. All we did was buy a proper adapter cable. However, since the TV also has a VGA input, it allows us to keep the HDMI connection for use by our DVD player. Of course, a separate cable is still needed for sound in either case.
...A simple tower with two or three expansion slots...
You only find yearnings like that on a techie site like/. but never where ordinary computer users roam. The current iMac does everything most users, even power users could possibly want to do. Anyone who needs the specialized options and power of an expandable tower system, should save their pennies and buy a real professional system, such as the MacPro. Even when running Windows, a high performance piece of hardware such as the MacPro is no more expensive than a similar computer system from some other manufacturer. The fact that a MacPro will also run OSX can be considered a free bonus. It is important not to compare only performance specifications, but also the build quality of such high end systems. For example, how much noise does such a powerhouse system generate? Some high end gaming PCs sound like a 747 about to take off, whereas our 8 core MacPro is essentially silent unless it is working really hard computationally. How easy is it to get at the innards to swap out/add hard drives, video cards and memory? Apple, more than any other manufacturer pays attention to such subtle details which never show up on any performance spec sheet.
....when the iMac is getting old and slow, the 24" screen will still be perfectly fine...
After you bought your shiny new superfast iMac, just sell the old one on eBay and use the money to buy yourself a secondary monitor. Since Macs consistently have a higher resale value than other computers, you may even come out with a small positive balance left over.
.....I think something much better is coming that will be based on true love and respect and appreciation for ourselves and each other, for the simple reason that we've tried almost everything else and everything else doesn't work......
This will always be an elusive dream as long as human nature is what it is. Everything we have tried so far is like trying to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Almost 2000 years ago, the God who made us and everything else, entered our world in the person of Jesus Christ. He was rejected then by the people of that time and is being rejected by most people still today. Oh yes, many people are willing to give him lip service but are not willing to accept him to be Lord of their life. We have a saying that the leopard cannot change his spots. In the same way we humans are powerless to change our own selfish, prideful nature. Those people willing to accept the person of Jesus Christ as supreme Lord over their lives, will experience him begin to change the ugly spots of selfishness and pride from the inside, little by little, in the very depths of the human being. Only such people can be rightfully called Christians. This change is what happened to me and is continuing as I live.
The time you are dreaming about will eventually come to the world as a whole, but it can and must begin with you. If you are really interested in having a life based on love and respect and appreciation, you may read about one man's quest for truth in a book written by Lee Strobel called "The Case For Christ". If you are not much into reading, there is also a DVD by that name. Both are available at Amazon, where you can also get more information about them.
.....Think of most of the popular music that is promoted by the RIAA, how little of it has any lasting or enduring value, how much of it does not require a ton of musical talent to write or to perform, and how the lyrical content is mostly immature prattle with no deep spiritual meanings and no ability to challenge its audience to think in new ways....
What you ascribe to the RIAA is really a part of our modern Western culture, where nothing lasts very long. It really began when the production of material goods went from one or two at a time in a skilled craftsman's shop to large factories cranking out mountains of identical merchandise. The individual craftsmen's touch on a pair of shoes or a piece of furniture was lost. Modern technology has made it possible for anyone to mass produce art and music in a similar way. Copyright laws must exist only if human creativity, especially in music and literature, is perceived as a commercial product to be bought and sold like any other product. Musicians created their music and painters created their paintings long before anyone had ever thought of copyright. They were content and delighted in having their fellow human beings partake in and be included in the joy of creativity of their art. People with means who enjoyed the art who were not so gifted, took care of the physical needs of these highly gifted ones. These creative artists could put all the effort and creative joy into their work without worrying about where their next bowl of soup was coming from.
A number of years ago I visited the walled medieval city of Rothenburg in Germany. The quaint little modern shops, located in the centuries old buildings, sold modern goods. One of these was a pharmacy, which had a sign above the door that it had been such since 1497. I entered, and indeed it had much of the same merchandise at any pharmacy in Germany might have. However, in a section occupying about a quarter of the store, they had made a little museum of what the store was like and what was offered for sale to the inhabitants of the town at that time. All their potions were individually tailored by a weight to each customer.
....Please explain how we can test "climate change"....
That is easy! Climate ALWAYS changes, at least it has historically. Sometimes it gets a little warmer, and sometimes a little cooler, but it is always changing. There are many cycles in nature, climate being just one. There is indeed evidence that long ago the average temperature of the Earth was significantly warmer than it is today. Greenland is called that for a reason. It was within human history once a green land. Ice cores drilled to the bottom of the ice contain molds, pollen and other microscopic evidence of plant life now still in existence on the East Coast of the United States.
The climate of Earth has always changed up and down, warmer and cooler, long before people discovered oil and coal and started burning them. In fact, climate changed before there were people at all and it will continue to change no matter how much we pretend to be able to do something about it one way or the other.
Unfortunately, not all books are cheap, such as textbooks for example. If publishers were to bring these out as electronic versions, I am sure they would lose quite a few sales to cash-strapped college students. Still, putting DRM on the electronic versions is a terrible idea. One way around this would be to require the purchase of a dead tree version, each of which comes with a little insert containing a code number, similar to the way software installations are usually done nowadays. The customer would use this number to download the electronic versions in a one-time registration process. The price of the electronic version would be included in the print version. Now the user would have both versions to use in their respective advantages. The buyer of the textbook could of course still cheat by giving or selling its registration information to another student resulting in a lost sale for the publisher. I think however, that most publishers could live with that.
... I do like the knowledge and the learning as well as the research and problem-solving skills that trying to do it right has sharpened for me....
I do agree with you entirely and understand perfectly what you are saying. However, you and I are/. readers and have an abiding interest in computers and technology. As an electronics engineer I was dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age 25 years ago. I realized early on that computers would allow me to design better measurement and control systems at a time when most of my colleagues were still stuck in the analog world. Early mini computers were basically heavy boxes with lots of switches and blinking lights. I designed and built interfaces needed for process control and measurement and wrote assembly language software and drivers to make it all work.
Nowadays of course, maybe unfortunately, computers are commodity items used by people who don't have the foggiest idea what happens inside. In the early days of automobiles, drivers had to be very knowledgeable about their workings compared to today. As for cars, so also for computers, those days are now history. Automobile makers have managed to make it quite unnecessary for a driver to know what is going on under the hood. Unfortunately, computer manufacturers have not made nearly as much progress in this direction. People who still can and do learn how their automobiles work internally, but do not HAVE to in order to use it safely and effectively.
The computer is the only commodity technological item the average user buys, that is designed by a committee. This committee consists of two sets of people, one working for Microsoft designing the operating system and the other set of people working for Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Toshiba and many others designing and building a hardware. Because communication among humans is far from perfect, the final product will reflect and does reflect the main problem with computers today. For Linux users of course, there is another worldwide committee making a part of a computer and then expecting a disinterested hardware manufacturer or the user to make it all work properly.
Apple's integrated approach, though far from perfect, alleviates much of this communication problem and allows them to test the whole machine and make adjustments as needed to BOTH the hardware and the software. That extra integrated design and testing, plus of course a healthy dose of profit, is why Macintosh computers cost more but are largely free of the viruses and worms so rampant in the Windows world. When Macintosh users have a problem, they only need to call Apple for a possible solution. The blame game between hardware and software does not apply.
People have always wondered where comets come from and still don't really know. This postulated Oort cloud has never been discovered or any evidence of such a thing been found. So this comet like others will disappear into the distant reaches of the solar system or beyond. The truth of the matter is that nobody really knows the source and origin of comets.
....you get objects receding from you at the speed of light.....
From the article:...Astronomers believe most occur when exotic massive stars run out of nuclear fuel....
Who cares what astronomers believe, rather what they know. Many of them also still believe your statement above. They believe this because of an underlying belief that the red shift is caused by movement rather than effects arising in the atoms emitting the observed light. Back in 1929, when Edwin Hubble first observed the red shift he tentatively put forth the Doppler effect as the reason for the red shift. This belief, this interpretation, has become the dogma of the current astronomical community.
Still today, scientists to observe this red shift, but have since discovered that it occurs in little jumps, that is, it is quantized. This falsifies the theory that red shift is caused by motion. Scientists have experimentally determined that all light, including x-rays is emitted by atoms or parts thereof. It is also well established, that atomic and electromagnetic phenomena are subject to the laws of quantum mechanics.
Such a non-Doppler interpretation of the red shift, implies that the universe is not nearly as big and as old as commonly believed today. It would also mean that these energetic objects are very much closer to us and therefore, the energy calculations based on the assumed vast distance is many orders of magnitude smaller.
It is also believed, not known, by astronomers, that the sun and the stars derive their energy from thermonuclear fusion. Before scientists discovered nuclear energy, the sun was believed, not known, to be a huge campfire in the sky. The truth of the matter is that to this day nobody knows for sure where the energy comes from that lights the sun and all the stars.
Much of what appears today in the popular press is based on beliefs, rather than solid scientific evidence.
... and average linux users are unlikely to run/install things they come across on their own...
And that is also the reason why Linux will always be a beloved geek operating system that is too complicated for ordinary users. All programs are harder to install and get working properly, which fortunately also includes viruses and worms.
....to remove the DRM from a PDF on a linux box...
To do this on a Mac, simply "print" for any program including a PDF reader. If the DRM locked PDF file allows printing, then the printed PDF file will no longer be locked. The user may then use it as any unlocked file.
Slashdot Mirror
....I seriously wonder if you could be denied onto a flight because of having uncontrollable flatulence.....
Probably not unless you tell a really stinky lie. This is because lies come out of the mouth, but only true stinks emanate from the other end.
.....wasting disk space, RAM, and bandwidth.....
That argument used to be valid in the early days of computing when these things were very expensive. Nowadays, when 4GB of PC6400 DDR2 memory sell for less than $20 and a Seagate 1.5TB SATA HD sells for $129.00 at Tigerdirect.com, that is no longer relevant. Most modern computers come with disk drives of several hundred GB where storing 18 MB file or one of 30 MB makes no practical difference at all.
(...only OS X forces you to keep the original installer around in case you need to uninstall....)
That is certainly not true for the vast majority of programs for OSX that I know about. Many programs do not even have or use a special installer program. Even though these programs may have hundreds of components, they appear to the user and are handled by the system just as any other simple file. Simply dragging the application icon into the trash is all that is necessary to completely get rid of ALL of a program.
In OSX a downloaded DMG file appears in the downloads folder. Also in Safari double-clicking on the filename in the downloads window immediately opens (mounts) it. Dragging the program icon to the applications folder icon installs a program in the one place where all programs a user would generally require are present. There is no harm in keeping the DMG disk image mounted. It will disappear upon logout or restart. There is also no harm at all in keeping the original download file in the downloads folder. Also, not everybody downloads everything from the Internet, especially if they have more than one networked computer whereupon they wish to install a program. We have four OSX computers all networked together. Downloading a program only once takes far less time and bandwidth than what you describe must be done for Linux. Quite a few grandma types are still also on dial up.
The Internet is not the only way to propagate software and other files. I have brought requested program files to a grandma friend on my 2GB keychain USB drive, from which I simply drag the program icon into her applications folder and start the program. Once the program was running, it showed up in the dock, where one mouse click ensures that the icon will remain there from then on. How does one get a program from one Linux computer to another by means of a keychain drive or CD disc? There still are computers that are not connected or cannot be connected to the Internet.
...you will have no choice but to raise the tax...
There is one other choice and that is the one governments have traditionally taken when they went bankrupt, that is they had a crushing burden of debt. All governments nowadays have given themselves the power to create money out of nothing with which they can pay off whatever debt they may have. This of course causes runaway inflation of that particular color of Money, but the debt is paid off with worthless paper. Nowadays of course in a global economy, all the different colors of money bleed into one another and are intertwined. It is clear that such a fiscal collapse will eventually come worldwide because the United States is not the only government head over heels in debt. When, not if, that happens, there will arise from the ruins a world monetary and governmental system that will come to power on the promise to prevent such another such world wide economic meltdown in the future. The new system will include the mandatory issuance some sort of numerical identifier to every person. We have presently the precursor to this sort of thing with our Social Security and other national identification numbers. Cash will no longer be in existence and every transaction will be tracked.
It remains to be seen whether the world is on the brink of such a collapse already today, or whether there will be a period of recovery before such a meltdown finally does happen.
....That's the price you will ultimately have to pay for spending money for decades that you simply do not have....
That is pure and unadulterated BS. We here, as most Americans cannot spend more money than we have or can borrow. Most credit cards have a limit. You also forget, that someone who has the authority to print money, (or program computer bits in a financial system) without going to jail, can never go bankrupt. Throughout most of human history, the medium of exchange we call money has always had some intrinsic value. This has no longer been true for the last 80 or so years, but instead its value is defined arbitrarily by those that have taken the authority upon themselves to create money out of thin air. One day, perhaps soon, this whole system of funny money will collapse under its own weight of worthlessness.
The problem is, that nobody is sure what this collapse will look like. Maybe it will be like it was with my grandmother in Germany. She told me of a man in her town that took a wheelbarrow full of money to a bake shop in order to buy a few loaves of bread. While he was inside inquiring where to bring the money, somebody dumped the money on the sidewalk and made off with a wheelbarrow.
....but it's not through any fault of Linux....
Linux is an operating system made by geeks for geeks. That sentiment has been expressed numerous times in this thread. Linux is not for grandma, unless she has a Linux using grandson/daughter or other relative or friend.
Why should a program need to be installed on a computer? Why not simply copy a desired program from whatever source, online or a piece of plastic, to a well marked, established place in the computer? Nobody talks about installing a picture file, a sound file, text file or video file, do they? Why should a computer program be any different, in need to be "installed" by a special procedure? Of all computer makers, Apple has understood this better than anyone else. Mac programs can be "installed" by simply copying them from a source disk or download to the applications folder. Any initializing and setups are done when the new program is first run. Surely, it must be possible to do that sort of thing in Linux also.
....but the only people they can sue over it ....
Lawsuits are expensive. It would probably be easier and cheaper for Apple to not allow any future upgrades or updates of their software to install on jail-broken devices. They should also advertise this fact in order to discourage customers from making unauthorized modifications. Those who still insist after all that in modifying their devices in a disallowed manner, should be free to do so.
...Also, aren't you confusing trademark with intellectual property?...
I am no lawyer who knows the ins and outs of all the legal aspects of this thing. I do know however that anyone who enriches himself with somebody else's intellectual property or trademark can, and most likely will, find themselves in court. That is where this is right now and eventually we will see how the court settles this issue. Personally, I do not think that a EULA is enforceable and this thing will be settled on the basis of trademark law or maybe even copyright, since PYSTAR has to modify Apple's installation software somewhere, in order to get OSX to install on their hardware.
If the court should decide against Apple and allow PYSTAR to continue playing their game, Apple can withdraw OSX from the open market, forcing PYSTAR and anyone else to pirate Apple software. Legitimate, registered Macintosh users, would be asked to supply a valid Mac serial number in order to buy an upgrade version of OSX directly from Apple. There is nothing any court could do if Apple did that.
....BTW, how is a psystar machine different from a hackintosh?...
The difference is that if you as a /. techie build one for yourself, Apple may not like it, but will tolerate you doing it. However, once you start making a business of it, advertising that the computers you are selling come with Apple's brand OSX operating system, you are infringing on their trademark and they will come after you with their legal eagles.
...And Apple technically have a monopoly over Apple-branded computers,...
And Hewlett-Packard has a monopoly over Hewlett-Packard branded computers, Honda has a monopoly over Honda brand cars and Coca-Cola has a monopoly on Coca-Cola branded soft drinks. Honda puts Honda engines in their cars, Ford puts Ford engines in and Coca-Cola into those Coca-Cola labeled bottles with guess what? So what then, is so different about Apple putting OS X into their Apple labeled computers? Do you really think that Coca-Cola would be happy if some other company started putting Coca-Cola into their own brand labeled bottles, then selling it cheaply, with an advertisement telling everybody that they have genuine Coca-Cola in their bottles?
I don't think Coca-Cola would object too much if you started pouring Coca-Cola into your empty 7-Up bottles or some other nondescript bottles and storing them in the refrigerator at home. They probably wouldn't care even if you drank their soft drink out of those foreign bottles. So, likewise, Apple probably doesn't give a hoot, if you personally buy a legal copy of OS X and load it into whatever hardware you can get it to run on. So far at least, Apple has not sicced their legal eagles on the Hackintosh community and most probably will not. Do not however start advertising and then selling your Brand X. computers as running Apple's OS X. That is patently illegal. This is what Pystar is doing.
....yes, because something as simple as a faster network card, faster version of USB or a video capture card...
Where can you get an ethernet card that runs faster than the built in 1000Gb/s port? The FireWire 800 connection will allow for the use of large hard drives, as well as high-performance video and audio equipment. This means that even power users don't have to break out the torx wrenches and pry open their iMac.
...The main issue is often the graphics card - what card does your Mac have?...
I don't do much real time display things such as games, so for me, the graphics card is of secondary importance. It is currently an ATI 2600 HD card with 128MB of memory. The video transcoding jobs we used to run on our older G5 2Ghz Dual Macpro took pretty much all night to complete. Its newer replacement, oh well, now already nine months old 8 core Intel takes about a half hour to do such a job. Some video transcoding jobs might benefit from a super hot video card, but as I understood it, it is mostly computational grunt work which needs a powerful processor system with lots of memory.
....Except the Mac mini doesn't have an HDMI port....
Our older G4 Mac mini will drive our 47" LCD through its HDMI input just perfectly. All we did was buy a proper adapter cable. However, since the TV also has a VGA input, it allows us to keep the HDMI connection for use by our DVD player. Of course, a separate cable is still needed for sound in either case.
Buy a used G4 mini on eBay for $300-$400. It works great for us, connected to a 47" LCD TV screen.
...A simple tower with two or three expansion slots...
You only find yearnings like that on a techie site like /. but never where ordinary computer users roam. The current iMac does everything most users, even power users could possibly want to do. Anyone who needs the specialized options and power of an expandable tower system, should save their pennies and buy a real professional system, such as the MacPro. Even when running Windows, a high performance piece of hardware such as the MacPro is no more expensive than a similar computer system from some other manufacturer. The fact that a MacPro will also run OSX can be considered a free bonus. It is important not to compare only performance specifications, but also the build quality of such high end systems. For example, how much noise does such a powerhouse system generate? Some high end gaming PCs sound like a 747 about to take off, whereas our 8 core MacPro is essentially silent unless it is working really hard computationally. How easy is it to get at the innards to swap out/add hard drives, video cards and memory? Apple, more than any other manufacturer pays attention to such subtle details which never show up on any performance spec sheet.
....when the iMac is getting old and slow, the 24" screen will still be perfectly fine...
After you bought your shiny new superfast iMac, just sell the old one on eBay and use the money to buy yourself a secondary monitor. Since Macs consistently have a higher resale value than other computers, you may even come out with a small positive balance left over.
.....I think something much better is coming that will be based on true love and respect and appreciation for ourselves and each other, for the simple reason that we've tried almost everything else and everything else doesn't work......
This will always be an elusive dream as long as human nature is what it is. Everything we have tried so far is like trying to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Almost 2000 years ago, the God who made us and everything else, entered our world in the person of Jesus Christ. He was rejected then by the people of that time and is being rejected by most people still today. Oh yes, many people are willing to give him lip service but are not willing to accept him to be Lord of their life. We have a saying that the leopard cannot change his spots. In the same way we humans are powerless to change our own selfish, prideful nature. Those people willing to accept the person of Jesus Christ as supreme Lord over their lives, will experience him begin to change the ugly spots of selfishness and pride from the inside, little by little, in the very depths of the human being. Only such people can be rightfully called Christians. This change is what happened to me and is continuing as I live.
The time you are dreaming about will eventually come to the world as a whole, but it can and must begin with you. If you are really interested in having a life based on love and respect and appreciation, you may read about one man's quest for truth in a book written by Lee Strobel called "The Case For Christ". If you are not much into reading, there is also a DVD by that name. Both are available at Amazon, where you can also get more information about them.
.....Think of most of the popular music that is promoted by the RIAA, how little of it has any lasting or enduring value, how much of it does not require a ton of musical talent to write or to perform, and how the lyrical content is mostly immature prattle with no deep spiritual meanings and no ability to challenge its audience to think in new ways. ...
What you ascribe to the RIAA is really a part of our modern Western culture, where nothing lasts very long. It really began when the production of material goods went from one or two at a time in a skilled craftsman's shop to large factories cranking out mountains of identical merchandise. The individual craftsmen's touch on a pair of shoes or a piece of furniture was lost. Modern technology has made it possible for anyone to mass produce art and music in a similar way. Copyright laws must exist only if human creativity, especially in music and literature, is perceived as a commercial product to be bought and sold like any other product. Musicians created their music and painters created their paintings long before anyone had ever thought of copyright. They were content and delighted in having their fellow human beings partake in and be included in the joy of creativity of their art. People with means who enjoyed the art who were not so gifted, took care of the physical needs of these highly gifted ones. These creative artists could put all the effort and creative joy into their work without worrying about where their next bowl of soup was coming from.
A number of years ago I visited the walled medieval city of Rothenburg in Germany. The quaint little modern shops, located in the centuries old buildings, sold modern goods. One of these was a pharmacy, which had a sign above the door that it had been such since 1497. I entered, and indeed it had much of the same merchandise at any pharmacy in Germany might have. However, in a section occupying about a quarter of the store, they had made a little museum of what the store was like and what was offered for sale to the inhabitants of the town at that time. All their potions were individually tailored by a weight to each customer.
....Please explain how we can test "climate change"....
That is easy! Climate ALWAYS changes, at least it has historically. Sometimes it gets a little warmer, and sometimes a little cooler, but it is always changing. There are many cycles in nature, climate being just one. There is indeed evidence that long ago the average temperature of the Earth was significantly warmer than it is today. Greenland is called that for a reason. It was within human history once a green land. Ice cores drilled to the bottom of the ice contain molds, pollen and other microscopic evidence of plant life now still in existence on the East Coast of the United States.
The climate of Earth has always changed up and down, warmer and cooler, long before people discovered oil and coal and started burning them. In fact, climate changed before there were people at all and it will continue to change no matter how much we pretend to be able to do something about it one way or the other.
....after all, books are cheap....
Unfortunately, not all books are cheap, such as textbooks for example. If publishers were to bring these out as electronic versions, I am sure they would lose quite a few sales to cash-strapped college students. Still, putting DRM on the electronic versions is a terrible idea. One way around this would be to require the purchase of a dead tree version, each of which comes with a little insert containing a code number, similar to the way software installations are usually done nowadays. The customer would use this number to download the electronic versions in a one-time registration process. The price of the electronic version would be included in the print version. Now the user would have both versions to use in their respective advantages. The buyer of the textbook could of course still cheat by giving or selling its registration information to another student resulting in a lost sale for the publisher. I think however, that most publishers could live with that.
... I do like the knowledge and the learning as well as the research and problem-solving skills that trying to do it right has sharpened for me....
I do agree with you entirely and understand perfectly what you are saying. However, you and I are /. readers and have an abiding interest in computers and technology. As an electronics engineer I was dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age 25 years ago. I realized early on that computers would allow me to design better measurement and control systems at a time when most of my colleagues were still stuck in the analog world. Early mini computers were basically heavy boxes with lots of switches and blinking lights. I designed and built interfaces needed for process control and measurement and wrote assembly language software and drivers to make it all work.
Nowadays of course, maybe unfortunately, computers are commodity items used by people who don't have the foggiest idea what happens inside. In the early days of automobiles, drivers had to be very knowledgeable about their workings compared to today. As for cars, so also for computers, those days are now history. Automobile makers have managed to make it quite unnecessary for a driver to know what is going on under the hood. Unfortunately, computer manufacturers have not made nearly as much progress in this direction. People who still can and do learn how their automobiles work internally, but do not HAVE to in order to use it safely and effectively.
The computer is the only commodity technological item the average user buys, that is designed by a committee. This committee consists of two sets of people, one working for Microsoft designing the operating system and the other set of people working for Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Toshiba and many others designing and building a hardware. Because communication among humans is far from perfect, the final product will reflect and does reflect the main problem with computers today. For Linux users of course, there is another worldwide committee making a part of a computer and then expecting a disinterested hardware manufacturer or the user to make it all work properly.
Apple's integrated approach, though far from perfect, alleviates much of this communication problem and allows them to test the whole machine and make adjustments as needed to BOTH the hardware and the software. That extra integrated design and testing, plus of course a healthy dose of profit, is why Macintosh computers cost more but are largely free of the viruses and worms so rampant in the Windows world. When Macintosh users have a problem, they only need to call Apple for a possible solution. The blame game between hardware and software does not apply.
People have always wondered where comets come from and still don't really know. This postulated Oort cloud has never been discovered or any evidence of such a thing been found. So this comet like others will disappear into the distant reaches of the solar system or beyond. The truth of the matter is that nobody really knows the source and origin of comets.
...You're a moron....
In any discussion on any subject, the party that resorts to personal attack and name calling is automatically admitting defeat.
....you get objects receding from you at the speed of light.....
From the article: ...Astronomers believe most occur when exotic massive stars run out of nuclear fuel....
Who cares what astronomers believe, rather what they know. Many of them also still believe your statement above. They believe this because of an underlying belief that the red shift is caused by movement rather than effects arising in the atoms emitting the observed light. Back in 1929, when Edwin Hubble first observed the red shift he tentatively put forth the Doppler effect as the reason for the red shift. This belief, this interpretation, has become the dogma of the current astronomical community.
Still today, scientists to observe this red shift, but have since discovered that it occurs in little jumps, that is, it is quantized. This falsifies the theory that red shift is caused by motion. Scientists have experimentally determined that all light, including x-rays is emitted by atoms or parts thereof. It is also well established, that atomic and electromagnetic phenomena are subject to the laws of quantum mechanics.
Such a non-Doppler interpretation of the red shift, implies that the universe is not nearly as big and as old as commonly believed today. It would also mean that these energetic objects are very much closer to us and therefore, the energy calculations based on the assumed vast distance is many orders of magnitude smaller.
It is also believed, not known, by astronomers, that the sun and the stars derive their energy from thermonuclear fusion. Before scientists discovered nuclear energy, the sun was believed, not known, to be a huge campfire in the sky. The truth of the matter is that to this day nobody knows for sure where the energy comes from that lights the sun and all the stars.
Much of what appears today in the popular press is based on beliefs, rather than solid scientific evidence.
... and average linux users are unlikely to run/install things they come across on their own...
And that is also the reason why Linux will always be a beloved geek operating system that is too complicated for ordinary users. All programs are harder to install and get working properly, which fortunately also includes viruses and worms.
....to remove the DRM from a PDF on a linux box...
To do this on a Mac, simply "print" for any program including a PDF reader. If the DRM locked PDF file allows printing, then the printed PDF file will no longer be locked. The user may then use it as any unlocked file.