So you favour the Dennis Miller approach to informing the general public about a particular objective?
I don't believe the issues of lossy compression or patent restraints is part of the comparison, rather, the fact that the general public are far more familiar with jpeg and mp3 and many may not even be aware of lossy compression and patent restraints.
Now where do we draw the line on how technically accurate comparisons of this sort have to be?
Having reread my response I am sorry to say that it does indeed come out like I was accussing you of said comments. What I was trying to say is that in such situations such comments are all to frequent. Please accept my apologies. Or is it apology?
"You are posting on an American web site. Slashdot is based in the US. When you use the $ symbol on an American web site, people are bound to assume you are talking about real money, not Canadian dolars."
Ok then. I will never again include the qualified statement, "Here in Canada" again. It just doesn't make any sense does it? I am at a loss however, how to state that the prices I referred to are in Canadian dollars (which is also prefaced by the $ symbol) after having made a statement like "Here in Canada." Having made that statement, Am I to assume then that persons on/. are illiterate and will not understand that a statement like "Here in Canada" previous to quoting a number of prices will not be understood. I'm truly sorry but I give/. readers more credit. It's a problem I have, I know.
What do you suggest? Am I to assume that people will not read my post and respond to it anyway? If so then how do I make it clear that my post and therefore the prices therein refer to Canadian dollars by not saying "Here in Canada"? Why would I even write any dollar amounts in the post if it's going to be responded to without reading it and furthermore, not comprehending it?
In fact, I made the statement "Here in Canada" to make it clear that I was referring to the situation in, guess what, Canada! Am I to assume that even said it will be ignored. Are all those who do not dwell in the States unwelcome here or something? Do people still believe that even though a site is based in the United States persons from other countries might peruse and contribute to it and even have the gaul to qualify their remarks with a statement like "Here in Canada" to make it clear that the situation being referred to is not, as is fairly assumed, in the United States, but in another country? In this case, Canada. Maybe I should have said, here in, ahh, let's see, country that is just north of the United States that uses currency that has is referred to as dollars but is in fact not United States dollars and guess what, is not even of equivalant value. Please, do help.
"At the Apple store, the PowerMac G5 1.6 Ghz starts at "$1799.""
That's excellent. However, I did state that I am in Canada. Why don't you check how much you can pick it at the Apple store in Canada? And you might want to read my little post on currency.
"No, it makes you a moron. Of course, that's what you get for paying $700 over list price on the 1.6 GHz PowerMac."
A moron eh? You must have missed it when I said, "here in Canada". Let me explain something to you. Various countries use different currencies. In this example, Canada uses Canadian currency in which the prices listed at www.apple.ca are in. At www.apple.com the listed prices are in U.S. currency.
Now, let me introduce you to the concept of currency conversion. When comparing one currency to another, often their value differs so that one (or 1 if that works better for you) Canadian dollar is not equivalent in value to one (1) U.S. dollar. In fact, it usually has a lower comparitive value. Thus, when something is listed at say, $1000 USD, the converted price in Canadian dollars might be something like $1351.75. Visit www.xe.com to view a real-time example.
Now if you could help me to be no longer a moron how else would I have qualified the prices without stating "here in Canada"? Please. I really do need your help.
"What really makes more sense is to compare what you're trying to do with the computer, and what will work best for you."
Of course.
"For instance, I find my Powerbook is much easier to write on; for whatever reason, Microsoft Office X for the Mac seems cleaner and less clunky than Office XP on my desktop."
I can't stand either version of Office on either platform so I use InDesign on my PC.
"Mac is generally easier to do my UNIX development on since I have X11 and gcc right there, and it's a BSD system under the hood."
Absolutely. I don't do any Unix development so this would not be a factor for me.
"Similarly, playing with music composition and digital editing seem to be easier on my Mac."
That's great. I find it easier on my PC with the Sonic Foundry now Sony packages. To each his own.
"Sure, I could've gotten a 'faster' Windows laptop than my Powerbook. But a six-pound little slim thing with 1 gig of RAM, built-in wireless and firewire, and suchnot is not to be sneezed at."
No it's not, but in so stating it's not necessary to sneeze back... as in Dull...
"Mac users (me in particular) don't admit we're paying a huge premium for the Mac brand name because, in fact, we're not."
That's great and of course not. The valuation of what one purchases is very much subjective to the party involved. To you, it's not a huge premium, to others it is. There is no right or wrong in this case.
"Anyone who believes a bottom of the line Dull is comparable to a Mac workstation deserves exactly what they get when buying said Dull."
A spectacularly impressive argumentative tactic, taking the name of the particular company being argued against and turning it into name calling. This gives about as much credibility to your presentation as someone referring to Apple as Crapple or the Macintosh as the Crapintosh. Just wonderful.
"You're comparing Apples with oranges (or better yet, Apples with crap)."
I've worked with "crappy" Dells and Apples and great ones. It's true!
"add in a OS to compare with OS/X (oops - there aren't any)"
Wonderful. Continue the absurdity by stating that nothing compares to OS/X. Statements like this make a constructive, sensible debate impossible. You sir, are a wall.
"and the other standard software packages (iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, etc., etc.)."
It is wonderful that you like these and see value in them. That said, others do not. Like me for example. Don't care for any of them, particularly iTunes. But that is just my opinion, and in no way is a statement that you to must see it as I do.
"Why can't PC bigots get over the fact that today's Macs are price competitive with PC's?"
What is a PC bigot exactly? A person who sees things differently is a bigot? Here in Canada, Macs are, in my humble opinion, very much competitive with PCs in the laptop area and yet bigot that I am, I still prefer the PC and one of the factors is price, and the other is features. Having said that, other opinions are welcome and not judged, unless of course they offered in oh you unholy unwashed masses sense. Let's take a look at an example or two shall we?
The 17" Powerbook is $3,699.
The 17" Toshiba Satellite P20 is $3499.
Features vary, such a RAM, Firewire ports, etc. but its all down to which one you like better. What's your name for Toshiba? Toshita?
Now as for desktops, I recently upgraded to a P4 2.8Ghz with a Gig of RAM, 800MHz FSB, 36 GIG SATA, Pioneer 107 DVD-R+R, ATI 9600, 120 GIG ATA second drive, new case, external drive enclosure for the CD-ROM, external drive enclosure for a third Hard-Drive (ATA - 80 gig) for $1800.
I can pick up a PowerMac G5 1.6 Ghz (I know, the speed varies across platforms and OS's) for a mere $2499! I find the PC in this case to be a far better deal in this case. Does this make me a PC bigot? Does recommending the new eMac to a client who personally finds using Macs easier make me a bigot as well? My god, just the other day I was praising InDesign and talking about its advantages over Quark (I didn't say Quirk however). I must be an Adobe bigot! Oh the humanity. When will this rampant platformism ever stop?
Very peculiar. Do people actually see other people as defined by their computer system? Are there millions of PC people out there? What sort of clothes do they where? What strange foods do they eat?
Slashdot Mirror
I thought Flash 8 was supposed to have Cold Fusion built in...
I'm shocked this didn't go off topic into a ColdFusion versus PHP thread...
So you favour the Dennis Miller approach to informing the general public about a particular objective?
I don't believe the issues of lossy compression or patent restraints is part of the comparison, rather, the fact that the general public are far more familiar with jpeg and mp3 and many may not even be aware of lossy compression and patent restraints.
Now where do we draw the line on how technically accurate comparisons of this sort have to be?
"I wasn't the one who made the 'Dull' comments"
Having reread my response I am sorry to say that it does indeed come out like I was accussing you of said comments. What I was trying to say is that in such situations such comments are all to frequent. Please accept my apologies. Or is it apology?
"You are posting on an American web site. Slashdot is based in the US. When you use the $ symbol on an American web site, people are bound to assume you are talking about real money, not Canadian dolars."
/. are illiterate and will not understand that a statement like "Here in Canada" previous to quoting a number of prices will not be understood. I'm truly sorry but I give /. readers more credit. It's a problem I have, I know.
Ok then. I will never again include the qualified statement, "Here in Canada" again. It just doesn't make any sense does it? I am at a loss however, how to state that the prices I referred to are in Canadian dollars (which is also prefaced by the $ symbol) after having made a statement like "Here in Canada." Having made that statement, Am I to assume then that persons on
What do you suggest? Am I to assume that people will not read my post and respond to it anyway? If so then how do I make it clear that my post and therefore the prices therein refer to Canadian dollars by not saying "Here in Canada"? Why would I even write any dollar amounts in the post if it's going to be responded to without reading it and furthermore, not comprehending it?
In fact, I made the statement "Here in Canada" to make it clear that I was referring to the situation in, guess what, Canada! Am I to assume that even said it will be ignored. Are all those who do not dwell in the States unwelcome here or something? Do people still believe that even though a site is based in the United States persons from other countries might peruse and contribute to it and even have the gaul to qualify their remarks with a statement like "Here in Canada" to make it clear that the situation being referred to is not, as is fairly assumed, in the United States, but in another country? In this case, Canada. Maybe I should have said, here in, ahh, let's see, country that is just north of the United States that uses currency that has is referred to as dollars but is in fact not United States dollars and guess what, is not even of equivalant value. Please, do help.
"At the Apple store, the PowerMac G5 1.6 Ghz starts at "$1799.""
That's excellent. However, I did state that I am in Canada. Why don't you check how much you can pick it at the Apple store in Canada? And you might want to read my little post on currency.
"No, it makes you a moron. Of course, that's what you get for paying $700 over list price on the 1.6 GHz PowerMac."
A moron eh? You must have missed it when I said, "here in Canada". Let me explain something to you. Various countries use different currencies. In this example, Canada uses Canadian currency in which the prices listed at www.apple.ca are in. At www.apple.com the listed prices are in U.S. currency.
Now, let me introduce you to the concept of currency conversion. When comparing one currency to another, often their value differs so that one (or 1 if that works better for you) Canadian dollar is not equivalent in value to one (1) U.S. dollar. In fact, it usually has a lower comparitive value. Thus, when something is listed at say, $1000 USD, the converted price in Canadian dollars might be something like $1351.75. Visit www.xe.com to view a real-time example.
Now if you could help me to be no longer a moron how else would I have qualified the prices without stating "here in Canada"? Please. I really do need your help.
"What really makes more sense is to compare what you're trying to do with the computer, and what will work best for you." Of course. "For instance, I find my Powerbook is much easier to write on; for whatever reason, Microsoft Office X for the Mac seems cleaner and less clunky than Office XP on my desktop." I can't stand either version of Office on either platform so I use InDesign on my PC. "Mac is generally easier to do my UNIX development on since I have X11 and gcc right there, and it's a BSD system under the hood." Absolutely. I don't do any Unix development so this would not be a factor for me. "Similarly, playing with music composition and digital editing seem to be easier on my Mac." That's great. I find it easier on my PC with the Sonic Foundry now Sony packages. To each his own. "Sure, I could've gotten a 'faster' Windows laptop than my Powerbook. But a six-pound little slim thing with 1 gig of RAM, built-in wireless and firewire, and suchnot is not to be sneezed at." No it's not, but in so stating it's not necessary to sneeze back... as in Dull...
"Mac users (me in particular) don't admit we're paying a huge premium for the Mac brand name because, in fact, we're not."
That's great and of course not. The valuation of what one purchases is very much subjective to the party involved. To you, it's not a huge premium, to others it is. There is no right or wrong in this case.
"Anyone who believes a bottom of the line Dull is comparable to a Mac workstation deserves exactly what they get when buying said Dull."
A spectacularly impressive argumentative tactic, taking the name of the particular company being argued against and turning it into name calling. This gives about as much credibility to your presentation as someone referring to Apple as Crapple or the Macintosh as the Crapintosh. Just wonderful.
"You're comparing Apples with oranges (or better yet, Apples with crap)."
I've worked with "crappy" Dells and Apples and great ones. It's true!
"add in a OS to compare with OS/X (oops - there aren't any)"
Wonderful. Continue the absurdity by stating that nothing compares to OS/X. Statements like this make a constructive, sensible debate impossible. You sir, are a wall.
"and the other standard software packages (iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, etc., etc.)."
It is wonderful that you like these and see value in them. That said, others do not. Like me for example. Don't care for any of them, particularly iTunes. But that is just my opinion, and in no way is a statement that you to must see it as I do.
"Why can't PC bigots get over the fact that today's Macs are price competitive with PC's?"
What is a PC bigot exactly? A person who sees things differently is a bigot? Here in Canada, Macs are, in my humble opinion, very much competitive with PCs in the laptop area and yet bigot that I am, I still prefer the PC and one of the factors is price, and the other is features. Having said that, other opinions are welcome and not judged, unless of course they offered in oh you unholy unwashed masses sense. Let's take a look at an example or two shall we?
The 17" Powerbook is $3,699.
The 17" Toshiba Satellite P20 is $3499.
Features vary, such a RAM, Firewire ports, etc. but its all down to which one you like better. What's your name for Toshiba? Toshita?
Now as for desktops, I recently upgraded to a P4 2.8Ghz with a Gig of RAM, 800MHz FSB, 36 GIG SATA, Pioneer 107 DVD-R+R, ATI 9600, 120 GIG ATA second drive, new case, external drive enclosure for the CD-ROM, external drive enclosure for a third Hard-Drive (ATA - 80 gig) for $1800.
I can pick up a PowerMac G5 1.6 Ghz (I know, the speed varies across platforms and OS's) for a mere $2499! I find the PC in this case to be a far better deal in this case. Does this make me a PC bigot? Does recommending the new eMac to a client who personally finds using Macs easier make me a bigot as well? My god, just the other day I was praising InDesign and talking about its advantages over Quark (I didn't say Quirk however). I must be an Adobe bigot! Oh the humanity. When will this rampant platformism ever stop?
Very peculiar. Do people actually see other people as defined by their computer system? Are there millions of PC people out there? What sort of clothes do they where? What strange foods do they eat?