It's true to say that OS X has gottten a lot faster since it first came out... But it's still not as snappy as XP. I own Macs and PCs and you notice the difference the second you jump off your mac after working on it for a while and get on your XP box...
Two points:
Your Mac box probably isn't CPU/drive/RAM comparable to the XP box.
When XP has every pixel on the screen double-buffered, alpha-channeled, and mapped into memory, and every character is dynamically rendered, THEN make the fair comparison!
That said, if Panther was any snappier on my G5, it'd take my hand off...
A sunflower inspired Jonathan Ive's iMac 2 design:
on
Apple Delays New iMac
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· Score: 5, Funny
...which may explain why Jon was last seen wandering around Steve Jobs' vegetable patch muttering "I know we've got to ship, but all I can come up with is these damn broccoli sticks."
Re:The Platform is not the Technology
on
Apple Delays New iMac
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Precisely. And anyway, if you do want to give the kids exposure to what Windows will be like in 5 years, showing them Mac OS now is an excellent way to do it.
Yeah, but I'd still toss it, Maya uses 3 buttons
on
Apple Delays New iMac
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· Score: 2, Insightful
And even if it did have three buttons, many people including me still wouldn't want to use an Apple bundled mouse. They're never going to equal a good quality Logitech - the margins couldn't handle the manufacturing overhead.
With a bit of logic, a one-button really is the best one-size-fits-all for Apple:
Many long time Mac owners do actually like one button mice, and/or not having to right-click the interface.
Those that want the extra buttons / scrollwheel / finger massager can and will buy their own.
Bundled mice are always cheap to manufacture, discerning buyers will want better than Apple needs to spend to keep the price where it is.
A lowest common denominator of one button encourages developers not to rely on right-clicking to drive their software.
Right-clicking should not be an essential means of driving an interface. It is under Windows, it is not under Mac OS.
One button mice help keep it that way.
Conclusion: the one button Mac mouse is here to stay, and it is better that way, even though many of us throw it away.
Sample Code is released to show how to use APIs. It is open source in the sense that you download and modify the source code, but the build isn't useful for distributing in its own right, unlike a TRUE Open Source project.
True Open Source projects tend to be portable between platforms. Many projects on SourceForge can be built on Win32, Linux and Mac OS X.
But what can Windows Template Library (WTL) and Windows Installer XML (WiX) be built on?
My perception is that Microsoft's open source initiatives are simply a means of encouraging use of the Windows platform. They're making available source code to show how certain things can be done, thus giving developers an example of how routines should be written, but also meaning that these "open source" offerings are little more than extended sample code that you expect to get with a Visual Studio install.
I'm in Sydney, Australia and I just saw a butterfly flapping its wings. Someone on the other side of the world is about to get a tornado on their doorstep.
At the London inquest into the world's first automobile fatality in 1896 the coroner said: "This must never happen again." Since then, 25 million people have died on the roads, says the World Health Organization.
1.2 million deaths per year and increasing. Estimates of 50 million injuries. The rates are highest in the third world, but in the US there are over 14 deaths per 100,000.
Personally, I find it slightly ironic that in deaths from human action, the war industry kills 3%, the automobile industry 23%...
So, a new slogan for the peace hippies: Make Segways, Not Cars.
Pah! 60 GB? That's nothing. MS xPod will top it!
on
60GB iPod Coming?
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· Score: 5, Funny
Microsoft's xPod will have 600 GB! It will go for 8 months on a single charge, and cost less than $50.
Hell, we may even give them away in cereal packets!
Please wait for it and don't go buying one of those silly white iPods. Our xPod will be black. Black is cool! It will run super-DRM, hyper-product activated music in the form of the industry standard (it's a STANDARD okay... or else) WMA, which is what everyone wants, in the sense of "here's where you're going today" kind of wants.
And no, there is no truth that WMA stands for "We May Ask for your first child." Who do you think we are, bloodsucking vampires or something. (Looks like we'll have to start using smaller print on the EULAs.)
Oh please please please wait for the Microsoft xPod. I wanna be just like you Steve. I've even started to wear turtlenecks and say "phenomenal" all the time... We wants it, the precious.
I understand 2 GB is the limit for Pocket PCs. That is, even if you put one of those Hitachi 4 GB microdrives in an iPAQ, you'll only get 2 GB out of it.
If the next Palm OS (Cobalt?) can access more than this amount, then maybe licensees really could put 20+ GB drives in a PDA.
I don't remember Tolkien writing about elves (the Jedi of Middle Earth) surfing down the sides of oliphants, but Peter Jackson seemed to make the scene work.
They give us plans to build a mysterious worm hole transportation device, some zealous religious nut destroys it, but Jodie Foster gets into another one made in Japan, trips out on a few psychedelic visions, meets her father who looks slightly like Douglas Adams, comes back and says it's all about being happy with your life.
Meanwhile, Steve Jobs' pagan cult goes unchallenged.
I disagree with software patents as much as the next code geek, but consider the position where Apple's coming from:
Dating from the late 1970s - the era of cheaper Taiwanese clones of the Apple II, and proceeding through the mid 1980s - the era of windows-based GUI computing, which computing company has been ripped off more than Apple?
That was all a Steve Jobs snafu - he wanted the Macs to be silent so they were. They were so silent they overheated. After his departure from Apple the fan was added in.
The Mac Plus came out in 1986 and was still fanless. Steve Jobs had already left by this time.
The first fanned Macs - the Macintosh SE and Macintosh II - came out in 1987, a long time after he'd left. They were also the first Macs to include internal hard drives, a much more likely reason for the fan to be included.
The G4 Cube does not have overheating problems, that was a myth which went with its "cracks" (in reality, scratches in the mould). Its efficient chimney design transfers heat very effectively from the unit. I still use mine to drive a "photo wall" that is on 8+ hours a day without issue.
The Cube was designed with a place for a fan, It was there if it was needed, should it survive in the market long enough for hotter 1+ GHz PowerPC chips to require one. But at 450/500 MHz it simply didn't.
The Cube flopped, not because of overheating, but because it presented confused expectations of how a computer should look, and because of poor access to its ports and limited expandability. It was still a brilliant design.
So it's a Dutch auction for the IPO, and an eBay auction for the emails.
Maybe they should just start "Gbay."
This is why it's on Slashdot:
on
Robosaurus
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· Score: 5, Funny
See the last line - no Linux... yet.
Obviously, there is demand for Linux drivers for the Robosaurus, and the hope is that some large scale hardware hacker will rise to the challenge.
Imagine the result: Tyranosaurus Tux.
Then there would finally be a Linux cheerleader with the stage presence of the monkeyman. Send it to Redmond. T. Tux roars: "Ballmer, your ass is mine!"
Slashdot Mirror
It's true to say that OS X has gottten a lot faster since it first came out... But it's still not as snappy as XP. I own Macs and PCs and you notice the difference the second you jump off your mac after working on it for a while and get on your XP box...
Two points:
Your Mac box probably isn't CPU/drive/RAM comparable to the XP box.
When XP has every pixel on the screen double-buffered, alpha-channeled, and mapped into memory, and every character is dynamically rendered, THEN make the fair comparison!
There's a price to pay for third generation graphics.
That said, if Panther was any snappier on my G5, it'd take my hand off...
...which may explain why Jon was last seen wandering around Steve Jobs' vegetable patch muttering "I know we've got to ship, but all I can come up with is these damn broccoli sticks."
Precisely. And anyway, if you do want to give the kids exposure to what Windows will be like in 5 years, showing them Mac OS now is an excellent way to do it.
And even if it did have three buttons, many people including me still wouldn't want to use an Apple bundled mouse. They're never going to equal a good quality Logitech - the margins couldn't handle the manufacturing overhead.
With a bit of logic, a one-button really is the best one-size-fits-all for Apple:
Many long time Mac owners do actually like one button mice, and/or not having to right-click the interface.
Those that want the extra buttons / scrollwheel / finger massager can and will buy their own.
Bundled mice are always cheap to manufacture, discerning buyers will want better than Apple needs to spend to keep the price where it is.
A lowest common denominator of one button encourages developers not to rely on right-clicking to drive their software.
Right-clicking should not be an essential means of driving an interface. It is under Windows, it is not under Mac OS.
One button mice help keep it that way.
Conclusion: the one button Mac mouse is here to stay, and it is better that way, even though many of us throw it away.
That's what it's meant to cost, isn't it?!
By the way, for the funky Apple capitalization impaired, it's:
iPod, iTunes, and iMac.
Not iPOD, Ipod, or IPod.
Sample Code is released to show how to use APIs. It is open source in the sense that you download and modify the source code, but the build isn't useful for distributing in its own right, unlike a TRUE Open Source project.
True Open Source projects tend to be portable between platforms. Many projects on SourceForge can be built on Win32, Linux and Mac OS X.
But what can Windows Template Library (WTL) and Windows Installer XML (WiX) be built on?
My perception is that Microsoft's open source initiatives are simply a means of encouraging use of the Windows platform. They're making available source code to show how certain things can be done, thus giving developers an example of how routines should be written, but also meaning that these "open source" offerings are little more than extended sample code that you expect to get with a Visual Studio install.
public void fetch(Object what)
{
if (what == newspaper)
newspaper.ripToShreds();
else
what.drenchWithDrool();
}
public void annoyNeighbour(int nightsPerWeek)
{
if ( nightsPerWeek < 7 )
nightsPerWeek = 7;
self.bark();
self.scratchFence();
self.rattleGate();
self.bark();
}
public void walkOnFootpath(Boolean leashed)
{
if ( ! leashed)
self.chaseChildren();
self.crap();
}
(In case you hadn't noticed, I don't like dogs much! Fido can take his 200 word vocabulary and go play in the traffic.)
I'm in Sydney, Australia and I just saw a butterfly flapping its wings. Someone on the other side of the world is about to get a tornado on their doorstep.
At the London inquest into the world's first automobile fatality in 1896 the coroner said: "This must never happen again." Since then, 25 million people have died on the roads, says the World Health Organization.
1.2 million deaths per year and increasing. Estimates of 50 million injuries. The rates are highest in the third world, but in the US there are over 14 deaths per 100,000.
British Medical Journal reportPersonally, I find it slightly ironic that in deaths from human action, the war industry kills 3%, the automobile industry 23%...
So, a new slogan for the peace hippies: Make Segways, Not Cars.
Microsoft's xPod will have 600 GB! It will go for 8 months on a single charge, and cost less than $50.
Hell, we may even give them away in cereal packets!
Please wait for it and don't go buying one of those silly white iPods. Our xPod will be black. Black is cool! It will run super-DRM, hyper-product activated music in the form of the industry standard (it's a STANDARD okay... or else) WMA, which is what everyone wants, in the sense of "here's where you're going today" kind of wants.
And no, there is no truth that WMA stands for "We May Ask for your first child." Who do you think we are, bloodsucking vampires or something. (Looks like we'll have to start using smaller print on the EULAs.)
Oh please please please wait for the Microsoft xPod. I wanna be just like you Steve. I've even started to wear turtlenecks and say "phenomenal" all the time... We wants it, the precious.
Current Pocket PCs are limited to addressing 2 GB, even if a 4 GB Hitachi microdrive is used.
I understand 2 GB is the limit for Pocket PCs. That is, even if you put one of those Hitachi 4 GB microdrives in an iPAQ, you'll only get 2 GB out of it.
If the next Palm OS (Cobalt?) can access more than this amount, then maybe licensees really could put 20+ GB drives in a PDA.
I'd buy one.
Okay, the heat death of the universe might occur before it loaded, but seeing the Mac OS X desktop appear on a palmtop would be way cool.
1. Avoid robots
2. Eat apples
3. PROFIT!
I don't remember Tolkien writing about elves (the Jedi of Middle Earth) surfing down the sides of oliphants, but Peter Jackson seemed to make the scene work.
You mean these "Vectors" (sounds foreign) are watching everything in my email?!!
Well, if that isn't a gross invasion of privacy then my name's not Liz Figueroa.
I'm drafting a letter to the Senate immediately... on a typewriter.
They give us plans to build a mysterious worm hole transportation device, some zealous religious nut destroys it, but Jodie Foster gets into another one made in Japan, trips out on a few psychedelic visions, meets her father who looks slightly like Douglas Adams, comes back and says it's all about being happy with your life.
Meanwhile, Steve Jobs' pagan cult goes unchallenged.
I disagree with software patents as much as the next code geek, but consider the position where Apple's coming from:
Dating from the late 1970s - the era of cheaper Taiwanese clones of the Apple II, and proceeding through the mid 1980s - the era of windows-based GUI computing, which computing company has been ripped off more than Apple?
Motorola embedded PowerPCs power those German luxury cars don't they?
Just a tad ironic.
Gmail sounds pretty neutral. But I'm just waiting for @chainmail.com to start, so I can email my D&D buddies...
That was all a Steve Jobs snafu - he wanted the Macs to be silent so they were. They were so silent they overheated. After his departure from Apple the fan was added in.
The Mac Plus came out in 1986 and was still fanless. Steve Jobs had already left by this time.
The first fanned Macs - the Macintosh SE and Macintosh II - came out in 1987, a long time after he'd left. They were also the first Macs to include internal hard drives, a much more likely reason for the fan to be included.
The G4 Cube does not have overheating problems, that was a myth which went with its "cracks" (in reality, scratches in the mould). Its efficient chimney design transfers heat very effectively from the unit. I still use mine to drive a "photo wall" that is on 8+ hours a day without issue.
The Cube was designed with a place for a fan, It was there if it was needed, should it survive in the market long enough for hotter 1+ GHz PowerPC chips to require one. But at 450/500 MHz it simply didn't.
The Cube flopped, not because of overheating, but because it presented confused expectations of how a computer should look, and because of poor access to its ports and limited expandability. It was still a brilliant design.
Imagine the product: Microsoft Apple 2004
Looks shiny, everyone's eating them, so you take a bite then notice it's full of worms and you have a pain for the next few hours.
So it's a Dutch auction for the IPO, and an eBay auction for the emails.
Maybe they should just start "Gbay."
See the last line - no Linux... yet.
Obviously, there is demand for Linux drivers for the Robosaurus, and the hope is that some large scale hardware hacker will rise to the challenge.
Imagine the result: Tyranosaurus Tux.
Then there would finally be a Linux cheerleader with the stage presence of the monkeyman. Send it to Redmond. T. Tux roars: "Ballmer, your ass is mine!"
So I guess it's a case of "$6.40 ought to be enough for anyone." Doesn't matter, Linux will still undercut them on price.