It also makes me wonder what enthusiasts (like those here on Slashdot) see in Apple [equipment].
It's well designed, stylistically pleasing, functional and high performing.
Sure, OS X is a great OS, but Macs as hardware disempower the hobbyist compared to equivalent devices.
Mainly if you're a hobbyist modder who goes in for xenon lights on their fans. There's nothing wrong with doing so but is everyone meant to hobby around building their computers from parts?
I speak from experience when I say some hobbyists like to (eventually) spend time doing stuff other than bolting together cases, power supplys, and mainboards, and then ducting cables through paths to miss the fans, then spend a few days monitoring temperatures to make sure they've got it right.
I've built a few PCs in my time but am now a bit bored with it all and prefer instead to get quality machines straight from the factory floor instead of the work room, and devote the time saved to actually working on the machine rather than for it.
But anyway there's tons of modding going on in the Mac world - look at the cult of "Cube modding" which has seen 1.x GHz chips put into Cubes that only ever went up 500 MHz when Apple sold them.
Same goes for the iPod, whose HDD is deliberately inconvenient to move files from.
Doesn't make sense - FireWire mode is a breeze. Unless you're talking about ripping out the CF drive to use in a digital camera. Er, so?
While their quality is unquestionable, Apple's products perform functions not only without the user needing to understand how they work but where understanding how they work does not extend the user any extra power.
Yes, it does. I put a 10,000 rpm SATA Raptor drive in a mirrored door PowerMac G4 that was only ever designed for IDE drives, and by doing so cut many intensive disk operations times in half. My understanding of SATA-to-IDE interfacing extended directly to extra power, even on a Mac.
That might be considered very good design, but to geeks, who get a kick out of the power of knowing how things work, you wouldn't think it would be so attractive.
A lot of geeks also appreciate good design, and knowing how difficult it can be to come up with one, appreciate it even more.
Well, I suppose you are even more so after the Democrats imploded themselves.
Pity you're such a bunch of loonies! And what an ironic word "progressive" is for a semi-religious political movement that wants to take us back to the stone age.
But hey, if you help get rid of Howard, Latham is tough enough to keep you under control.
As far as I understand, all transflective screens have backlights.
How else would you see them in the dark?
The difference is that when used outside a transflective screen doesn't compete with the sun and uses natural light to illuminate the display. So the backlight isn't needed in bright light, but is in low light.
4. Gimme this form factor with a 1ghz G3 running OS X and I'm a buyer. Windows does nothing for me
The story goes that the company's founders used to be associated with Apple's laptop department. They came up with the idea of the tiny laptop and offered it to Steve Jobs, who rejected it as being unsuited to Apple's product mix.
(Understandable - at the time Apple would still have been recovering from the fallout of everyone sniping at the Cube. Not much encouragement around to try radical form factors again.)
Often ex-Apple people do come to market with some excellent concepts, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. But think what could have been: the functionality of this OQO combined with the styling and sheer sexiness of the iPod, and the power of a user-friendly Unix.
If Peter Jackson does get the rights/funding to make The Hobbit, then that will in effect be Episode I of the LOTR saga.
I can't wait to see the cynicism from the cognoscenti once they learn there's a prequel in the works: "the actor who plays young Bilbo is terrible and he doesn't even sound like James Earl Jones, why did they have to destroy my childhood?"
I'm not sure which is worse: The Mac fanboys or the self-appointed "adult supervision" telling them to grow up and stop being enthusiastic about things and instead become sad and cynical like them.
(It's even worse when those same cynics start going gaga when such an innovation finally makes it way into the their world.)
Think I prefer the childish enthusiasm of the fanboys. At least their zeal is consistent.
Plug different devices into Windows often enough and you'll see the reference for yourself. However, the BSOD is sort of a well known reference to Bill's OS, so it's a good color scheme for his building too.
Anyway, I thought the jokes about leaving the building via the doors marked Entry, or that the building's offices cost extra, that 640 stairs ought to be enough for anyone, and that the building will look like what Apple had 5 years ago jokes were funnier!
They *are* shipping, but the supplies are extremely constrained and virtually non-existent outside the US.
In the US, the Apple Store gives a lead time of 3-5 weeks for a dual 2.5 G5, and 3-4 weeks for an iMac G5 20". Changing the country increases these times even longer.
And as for existing orders: In all Macs forums there are enormous threads many pages long filled with people with orders for dual 2.5 G5s since July delayed to late September, October.
The ironic thing is, most people call me a Mac Fanboy, and you call me a dolt! At least I'm an informed dolt. Most Apple fans know that IBM have had serious problems supplying PowerPCs.
At the rate IBM is currently (not) making PowerPC 970 processors, Apple may just have to switch to tubes to power their machines.
(Don't think it'll be a good quarter for us shareholders, though the sharemarket yet doesn't seem to have noticed Apple can't supply a G5 Dual 2.5 / iMac / XServe for love or money.)
It seems most posters are of the opinion that Apple Computer is in the wrong and that Apple Corp has the sole right to operate in the context of anything related to music, because some legal documents purportedly say so.
Which I find ironic, because SCO claims to have the right to anything related to UNIX because some legal documents purportedly say so, and I doubt there's a single Slashdot poster in existence who would agree with that!
I doubt DNA would agreed about the Tablet PC, because
The radio scripts mention Arthur punching keypad buttons and twisting dials, more like a cross between a mobile phone and an iPod than a Tablet PC.
In his intro to the Voyager electronic editions of the (now even more inaccurately named) trilogies, he said the closest device that had come to the Guide was a PowerBook,
He hated Microsoft with a vengeance,
In the 'Salmon of Doubt' compilations, there are articles which clearly speak of his impatience with concepts that simply don't work properly.
Nothing important of course, just that you're talking about philosophy of the individual and I really don't feel DNA would have liked to see his name being used to promote yet another of Microsoft's attempts to dominate personal computing instead of allowing new and innovative ideas that do work drive the human race forward.
Weird, you're using the British form of "defence" ("defense" in the US), but the "zee" form of "apologize" ("ise" in British English).
Next you'll be putting punctuation after quotation marks when appropriate. (When people tell me the correct form is "before the quotes", I tell them Webster could never have written a compiler.)
Anyway, it's bad form to pick up on typos in hastily written forums, so I don't care.
Also, a liquid cooler is probably inherent harder for Intel to package with an OEM processor. Affixing a liquid cooler to a processor requires more case aware design than simply clipping a fan to a mainboard socket.
I believe all this talk of "iPod killers" having failed and that Apple cannot be toppled in the market is vastly premature.
Don't forget Microsoft is planning both a music store and a hardware reference platform...
This, combined with Microsoft's marketing muscle (and just imagine what they have at their disposal: an ad in every Hotmail message sent around the world, an icon on the desktop from XP SP2, every CNet headline for 6 months, etc, etc) could blow a hole in Apple's music initiative as large as a dinosaur killing crater.
In case you think I've strapped on the Gates & Ballmer Live Rock Cafe headphones, I've had both a 1st gen iPod and a 3rd gen iPod, and am responsible for encouraging about 12 people to get their own (I take no credit, it was as easy as saying "look at this").
However, I'm also old enough to have seen what Microsoft did to the Macintosh once they set their nuclear powered submarine sights on it. I predict history will repeat: an inferior store and an inferior player will blast iPod into niche status.
Yes it did, that's when the Ars Technica link started talking about 3rd generation graphics.
It was slow then because of lack of optimization (rushed out the door in anticipation of losing mindshare to XP?).
What I'm claiming is that the graphics overhead of the "heavy" window contents are always going to give a speed differential. On fast processors though, I don't think it's a problem.
Slashdot Mirror
It also makes me wonder what enthusiasts (like those here on Slashdot) see in Apple [equipment].
It's well designed, stylistically pleasing, functional and high performing.
Sure, OS X is a great OS, but Macs as hardware disempower the hobbyist compared to equivalent devices.
Mainly if you're a hobbyist modder who goes in for xenon lights on their fans. There's nothing wrong with doing so but is everyone meant to hobby around building their computers from parts?
I speak from experience when I say some hobbyists like to (eventually) spend time doing stuff other than bolting together cases, power supplys, and mainboards, and then ducting cables through paths to miss the fans, then spend a few days monitoring temperatures to make sure they've got it right.
I've built a few PCs in my time but am now a bit bored with it all and prefer instead to get quality machines straight from the factory floor instead of the work room, and devote the time saved to actually working on the machine rather than for it.
But anyway there's tons of modding going on in the Mac world - look at the cult of "Cube modding" which has seen 1.x GHz chips put into Cubes that only ever went up 500 MHz when Apple sold them.
Same goes for the iPod, whose HDD is deliberately inconvenient to move files from.
Doesn't make sense - FireWire mode is a breeze. Unless you're talking about ripping out the CF drive to use in a digital camera. Er, so?
While their quality is unquestionable, Apple's products perform functions not only without the user needing to understand how they work but where understanding how they work does not extend the user any extra power.
Yes, it does. I put a 10,000 rpm SATA Raptor drive in a mirrored door PowerMac G4 that was only ever designed for IDE drives, and by doing so cut many intensive disk operations times in half. My understanding of SATA-to-IDE interfacing extended directly to extra power, even on a Mac.
That might be considered very good design, but to geeks, who get a kick out of the power of knowing how things work, you wouldn't think it would be so attractive.
A lot of geeks also appreciate good design, and knowing how difficult it can be to come up with one, appreciate it even more.
So... the Democrats do deals with right wing nutters (Family First), and the ALP does deals with left wing nutters (The Greens).
Anyone doing deals with parties who aren't nutters?
Australia's main left wing progressive party
Well, I suppose you are even more so after the Democrats imploded themselves.
Pity you're such a bunch of loonies! And what an ironic word "progressive" is for a semi-religious political movement that wants to take us back to the stone age.
But hey, if you help get rid of Howard, Latham is tough enough to keep you under control.
As far as I understand, all transflective screens have backlights.
How else would you see them in the dark?
The difference is that when used outside a transflective screen doesn't compete with the sun and uses natural light to illuminate the display. So the backlight isn't needed in bright light, but is in low light.
4. Gimme this form factor with a 1ghz G3 running OS X and I'm a buyer. Windows does nothing for me
The story goes that the company's founders used to be associated with Apple's laptop department. They came up with the idea of the tiny laptop and offered it to Steve Jobs, who rejected it as being unsuited to Apple's product mix.
(Understandable - at the time Apple would still have been recovering from the fallout of everyone sniping at the Cube. Not much encouragement around to try radical form factors again.)
Often ex-Apple people do come to market with some excellent concepts, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. But think what could have been: the functionality of this OQO combined with the styling and sheer sexiness of the iPod, and the power of a user-friendly Unix.
If Peter Jackson does get the rights/funding to make The Hobbit, then that will in effect be Episode I of the LOTR saga.
I can't wait to see the cynicism from the cognoscenti once they learn there's a prequel in the works: "the actor who plays young Bilbo is terrible and he doesn't even sound like James Earl Jones, why did they have to destroy my childhood?"
I'm not sure which is worse: The Mac fanboys or the self-appointed "adult supervision" telling them to grow up and stop being enthusiastic about things and instead become sad and cynical like them.
(It's even worse when those same cynics start going gaga when such an innovation finally makes it way into the their world.)
Think I prefer the childish enthusiasm of the fanboys. At least their zeal is consistent.
Did you mean to leave out the space? Cool freudian slip!
From the think-about-it-dept.
Plug different devices into Windows often enough and you'll see the reference for yourself. However, the BSOD is sort of a well known reference to Bill's OS, so it's a good color scheme for his building too.
Anyway, I thought the jokes about leaving the building via the doors marked Entry, or that the building's offices cost extra, that 640 stairs ought to be enough for anyone, and that the building will look like what Apple had 5 years ago jokes were funnier!
Using my highly scientific survey accurate to within 3 standard deviations, I monitored TWO sites:
www.iLoveMac.com, and
www.iAmAMacFanboyAndProudOfIt.com, and found:
99% Safari
1% other
I think that's all the proof anyone needs!
Probably slept with the sister of the factory boss.
So do you have any of these on order?
They *are* shipping, but the supplies are extremely constrained and virtually non-existent outside the US.
In the US, the Apple Store gives a lead time of 3-5 weeks for a dual 2.5 G5, and 3-4 weeks for an iMac G5 20". Changing the country increases these times even longer.
And as for existing orders: In all Macs forums there are enormous threads many pages long filled with people with orders for dual 2.5 G5s since July delayed to late September, October.
The ironic thing is, most people call me a Mac Fanboy, and you call me a dolt! At least I'm an informed dolt. Most Apple fans know that IBM have had serious problems supplying PowerPCs.
At the rate IBM is currently (not) making PowerPC 970 processors, Apple may just have to switch to tubes to power their machines.
(Don't think it'll be a good quarter for us shareholders, though the sharemarket yet doesn't seem to have noticed Apple can't supply a G5 Dual 2.5 / iMac / XServe for love or money.)
Maybe I'm drawing a long bow, but...
It seems most posters are of the opinion that Apple Computer is in the wrong and that Apple Corp has the sole right to operate in the context of anything related to music, because some legal documents purportedly say so.
Which I find ironic, because SCO claims to have the right to anything related to UNIX because some legal documents purportedly say so, and I doubt there's a single Slashdot poster in existence who would agree with that!
I'd rather listen to Vogon poetry.
Agree, but Tablet PC as the HHGTTG?
I doubt DNA would agreed about the Tablet PC, because
Nothing important of course, just that you're talking about philosophy of the individual and I really don't feel DNA would have liked to see his name being used to promote yet another of Microsoft's attempts to dominate personal computing instead of allowing new and innovative ideas that do work drive the human race forward.
Weird, you're using the British form of "defence" ("defense" in the US), but the "zee" form of "apologize" ("ise" in British English).
Next you'll be putting punctuation after quotation marks when appropriate. (When people tell me the correct form is "before the quotes", I tell them Webster could never have written a compiler.)
Anyway, it's bad form to pick up on typos in hastily written forums, so I don't care.
I didn't see the obligatory Longhorn comment, so here it is:
Will this be enough bandwidth to apply Longhorn hotfix updates?
...he wouldn't have handed Moses a couple of stone tablets and a chisel.
Oh, come on, what do you expect? Christian... "Science?"
Here I was thinking Slashdot was a nice safe place for atheists to hang out without fear of persecution. Sigh.
...but maybe the cheaper PCs cannot?
Also, a liquid cooler is probably inherent harder for Intel to package with an OEM processor. Affixing a liquid cooler to a processor requires more case aware design than simply clipping a fan to a mainboard socket.
I believe all this talk of "iPod killers" having failed and that Apple cannot be toppled in the market is vastly premature.
Don't forget Microsoft is planning both a music store and a hardware reference platform...
This, combined with Microsoft's marketing muscle (and just imagine what they have at their disposal: an ad in every Hotmail message sent around the world, an icon on the desktop from XP SP2, every CNet headline for 6 months, etc, etc) could blow a hole in Apple's music initiative as large as a dinosaur killing crater.
In case you think I've strapped on the Gates & Ballmer Live Rock Cafe headphones, I've had both a 1st gen iPod and a 3rd gen iPod, and am responsible for encouraging about 12 people to get their own (I take no credit, it was as easy as saying "look at this").
However, I'm also old enough to have seen what Microsoft did to the Macintosh once they set their nuclear powered submarine sights on it. I predict history will repeat: an inferior store and an inferior player will blast iPod into niche status.
The market will not be better for it.
> That's a lot of DNA which will never get passed on.
Posting that comment on Slashdot? Hello pot, kettle on line two!
Yes it did, that's when the Ars Technica link started talking about 3rd generation graphics.
It was slow then because of lack of optimization (rushed out the door in anticipation of losing mindshare to XP?).
What I'm claiming is that the graphics overhead of the "heavy" window contents are always going to give a speed differential. On fast processors though, I don't think it's a problem.
Nice link. Seeing everything in context and demoed is much better than seeing screenshots and reading dry commentaries.
www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc04/
(Tiger presentation starts 40 mins into the video.)
It's also good to hear the audience reaction and gauge what they feel is valuable. For example...
0:41:20 the geeks in the audience go wild when they hear Access Control Lists are in,
0:47:10 Spotlight based smart folders in Address Book are quite well received,
0:59:10 H.264... "Windows Media, bring it!"
1:01:00 RSS browsing... stoney silence, not really interesting to developers
1:11:00 Core Image, real-time graphics effects for all developers is well received,
and by the time we get to:
1:35:00 (pure sex appeal), there isn't a single disbeliever in the room!