Re:Man, you're buying the wrong motherboards...
on
Mac mini Dissection
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· Score: 1
Well, if you really want to compare total costs you will need to add:
- a copy of Windows [XP] (and you do buy yours legally, don't you;)) - if you're going for XP, add a copy of some AV software (though you can get some for free) - a worthy video editing and DVD authoring software (a.k.a. iMovie and iDVD on the Mac) - a music editing software (Garage Band on the Mac)
If you add all of these, you're easily above the mini's price. Unless you opt for OSS alternatives, but these won't Just Work out of the box and will need some fiddling. Plus you won't get a $625CDN PC which comes even near the mini in terms of style, size and ease of use.
But in the end it all comes down to preferences. The mini's not what you're looking for? Don't buy it. If I'd need a new desktop, I'd get one. But I just bought the 20'' iMac...
I recently installed a Win XP with SP2 slipstreamed, and the first thing I saw after the unit booted the first time was a warning "Your computer might be at risk, no AV protection installed". Asking XP for recommendations comes up with "Download and install (and cough up extra money for) an AV protection!".
I don't know about you, but I think that's kinda sick.
And yes, on my Mac I can start doing productive things right away without holding Mac OS' hand.
True. 'I', or 'you', or the guy sitting next to me, might not be completely random. Though I'd like to think that pretty much everything in this universe started out random, and just developed it's own complex mechanisms later on.
[please don't take any of the following literally as I am no scientist, just try to get the general idea]
Planets for example are said to be born by matter clumping together because of it's own gravity. Before, this matter was only more or less randomly drifting particles.
Why shouldn't life have been born the same way, by matter clumping together, by chance forming cells which had the tendency to clump together with other cells, which had the tendency to form first simple, later more complex life forms. In the end, a human is nothing more than a bunch of matter working together according to specific laws (depending on how far you break an organism down that might be physical laws, quantum mechanics or whatever).
And while were at it, try to define consciousness on a physical level. After all the brain is just a bunch of 'electrical cables', making your flesh move in a more or less organized way to help it continue living (avoiding dangers, make it eat regularly etc).
I guess you could still break down a bacteria into even smaller parts. And eventually we will be able to break these smaller parts down into even smaller parts.
If you think about it that way we are no more than a bunch of randomly accumulated atoms, electrons, or whatever even smaller stuff there is, that has been set free back in the days of the big bang.
I don't know, and I doubt it. But the point is that it does Just Work(tm) on the up-to-date version of OSX. It does not Just Work on the up-to-date version of Windows. It pays off that Apple releases a new version of its OS every year or so and significant updates for free every few month, while MS takes 2-3+ years for each new OS release.
Same when I plugged a Sony BA1 USB Bluetooth dongle into my iBook...
On Windows you need to start an install CD which copies half a dozen drivers (BT interface, several VCOM ports and lots of crap), 2 Windows hotfixes and a BT front-end application. Of course you also need to restart your PC. Overall, installing this thing on Windows takes about 10 minutes.
On OSX, the dongle is recognized instantly. No questions asked. Plug it in, it works. Fire up the Bluetooth Assistant, pair devices, that's it.:)
In my previous job I've been working in Ireland for some time. The job was so dissatisfying though that I spent almost all day surfing around monster.com to find another job. I finally came across a nice offer located in the Netherlands. I tossed some emails back and forth with the job agency, had a telephone interview or two and eventually got an invitation for a live interview. So I went to my supervisor, asking for two days off (to fly over to the Netherlands, which of course I didn't tell him). He didn't give me any time off, as we were a little short on people. I went anyway, planning to call in sick, which I forgot in the process though.
I got the job in the Netherlands, went to my old job the next day as every morning, typed away a nice resignation letter, had a 10 minute talk with my boss where I told him how his company stinks (politely though) and left.
I think I'll gonna treat myself to a new G5 iMac later this month. The only thing I am having problems with is finding a Bluetooth mouse with more than one button that still matches the iMacs design, i.e. is white.
I'd also settle for a radio-wireless mouse, if it'd come with a small USB dongle that easily hides on the back of the iMac.
Any good suggestions there?
And to stay on-topic: I've switched to an iBook about 9 month ago. The biggest problem really was to accept that everything just works. I really needed to get rid of the Windows thinking "But, there must be more it. Does it really work already...?" Like deleting an application: dragging it to the trash. That's it.
Well honestly, if I could choose between Tekken 4 and DOA3, I'd rather go for DOA. Also, there's no other game like DOA Xtreme Volleyball for the PS2, is there?:,-(
So true. I've been using my 14'' iBook on a train journey to watch 4 or 5 episodes of '24' (copied to HDD before) and still had some juice left. I usually get about 3.5 to 4 hours of battery life when programming, which means medium to high CPU usage, usually WLAN activated and full LCD brightness. Just having a look at it now, it's on 63% battery level and estimates a time of 3:12 hours left.
I've never seen a better battery life in any other notebook with the standard battery.
Actually, the newer SonicStage versions are quite OK user friendly-wise and act fairly fast to transcode music. The real problem is a) you will need to maintain two copies of your music library (unless you switch to SS as the primary media player) and b) it only runs on Windows.
So what you're saying is, that even if a specification is approved and it does not have a big fat 'COMPANY XYZ OWNZ THIS TECHNOLOGY, YOU WILL NEED TO PAY IF YOU USE THIS STANDARD!' on it, you'd still need to parse all the difference aspects of the specification and compare them with all filed patents at the USPO? Or the EPO? Or any county's patent office for that matter?
Why is it possible to sue a company which makes use of an official standardised specification like 802.11g? If something is an open standard, everybody is free to use it, unless some royalty conditions are specifically included, right? If any company has a patent on any part of a technology, it is usually a proprietary solution and not an official specification, right? So, wouldn't you need to sue the committee that approved this specific technology as standard, rather than the individuals using the standard?
I was just trying out MandrakeMove on an older Dell laptop recently, which doesn't have an ethernet port. Under Windows I either use a 1394 connection to a nearby PC or a WLAN connection if not near the PC, both via PCMCIA adapters. Both of them where impossible to get to work under MandrakeMove. The GUI of course didn't do any good and crashed right away in an error loop. But even after extensive googling and command line bashing I was not able to connect this laptop to the outside world, mainly due to a lack of hardware support.
Just my 0.02 EUR regarding Linux and network hardware support...
Imagine there'd be a geek with money. I know, that's very rare, but still... Wouldn't that said geek with money be interested to know there's another geek w/o money but with a ton of geek stuff waiting to be sold? There's your/. story.
Thank you/. for helping keeping the money in the family.
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Well, if you really want to compare total costs you will need to add:
;))
- a copy of Windows [XP] (and you do buy yours legally, don't you
- if you're going for XP, add a copy of some AV software (though you can get some for free)
- a worthy video editing and DVD authoring software (a.k.a. iMovie and iDVD on the Mac)
- a music editing software (Garage Band on the Mac)
If you add all of these, you're easily above the mini's price. Unless you opt for OSS alternatives, but these won't Just Work out of the box and will need some fiddling. Plus you won't get a $625CDN PC which comes even near the mini in terms of style, size and ease of use.
But in the end it all comes down to preferences. The mini's not what you're looking for? Don't buy it. If I'd need a new desktop, I'd get one. But I just bought the 20'' iMac...
So... If a Volvo driver is involved in a car crash, it's much more likely that he "meant it"? :o)
I recently installed a Win XP with SP2 slipstreamed, and the first thing I saw after the unit booted the first time was a warning "Your computer might be at risk, no AV protection installed". Asking XP for recommendations comes up with "Download and install (and cough up extra money for) an AV protection!".
I don't know about you, but I think that's kinda sick.
And yes, on my Mac I can start doing productive things right away without holding Mac OS' hand.
...Segway
But, does it play OGG?!
True. 'I', or 'you', or the guy sitting next to me, might not be completely random. Though I'd like to think that pretty much everything in this universe started out random, and just developed it's own complex mechanisms later on.
[please don't take any of the following literally as I am no scientist, just try to get the general idea]
Planets for example are said to be born by matter clumping together because of it's own gravity. Before, this matter was only more or less randomly drifting particles.
Why shouldn't life have been born the same way, by matter clumping together, by chance forming cells which had the tendency to clump together with other cells, which had the tendency to form first simple, later more complex life forms. In the end, a human is nothing more than a bunch of matter working together according to specific laws (depending on how far you break an organism down that might be physical laws, quantum mechanics or whatever).
And while were at it, try to define consciousness on a physical level. After all the brain is just a bunch of 'electrical cables', making your flesh move in a more or less organized way to help it continue living (avoiding dangers, make it eat regularly etc).
I guess you could still break down a bacteria into even smaller parts. And eventually we will be able to break these smaller parts down into even smaller parts.
If you think about it that way we are no more than a bunch of randomly accumulated atoms, electrons, or whatever even smaller stuff there is, that has been set free back in the days of the big bang.
I don't know, and I doubt it. But the point is that it does Just Work(tm) on the up-to-date version of OSX. It does not Just Work on the up-to-date version of Windows. It pays off that Apple releases a new version of its OS every year or so and significant updates for free every few month, while MS takes 2-3+ years for each new OS release.
Same when I plugged a Sony BA1 USB Bluetooth dongle into my iBook...
:)
On Windows you need to start an install CD which copies half a dozen drivers (BT interface, several VCOM ports and lots of crap), 2 Windows hotfixes and a BT front-end application. Of course you also need to restart your PC. Overall, installing this thing on Windows takes about 10 minutes.
On OSX, the dongle is recognized instantly. No questions asked. Plug it in, it works. Fire up the Bluetooth Assistant, pair devices, that's it.
In my previous job I've been working in Ireland for some time. The job was so dissatisfying though that I spent almost all day surfing around monster.com to find another job. I finally came across a nice offer located in the Netherlands. I tossed some emails back and forth with the job agency, had a telephone interview or two and eventually got an invitation for a live interview. So I went to my supervisor, asking for two days off (to fly over to the Netherlands, which of course I didn't tell him). He didn't give me any time off, as we were a little short on people. I went anyway, planning to call in sick, which I forgot in the process though.
;o)
I got the job in the Netherlands, went to my old job the next day as every morning, typed away a nice resignation letter, had a 10 minute talk with my boss where I told him how his company stinks (politely though) and left.
Those where pretty fun days back then.
I think I'll gonna treat myself to a new G5 iMac later this month. The only thing I am having problems with is finding a Bluetooth mouse with more than one button that still matches the iMacs design, i.e. is white.
I'd also settle for a radio-wireless mouse, if it'd come with a small USB dongle that easily hides on the back of the iMac.
Any good suggestions there?
And to stay on-topic: I've switched to an iBook about 9 month ago. The biggest problem really was to accept that everything just works. I really needed to get rid of the Windows thinking "But, there must be more it. Does it really work already...?"
Like deleting an application: dragging it to the trash. That's it.
Well honestly, if I could choose between Tekken 4 and DOA3, I'd rather go for DOA. Also, there's no other game like DOA Xtreme Volleyball for the PS2, is there? :,-(
If only these games would be available on the PS2... Why has the series been discontinued for PS2 after DOA2? (yes I known, Microsoft)
Must... resist... XBox. Must... not be... drawn in... by... the evil...
So true. I've been using my 14'' iBook on a train journey to watch 4 or 5 episodes of '24' (copied to HDD before) and still had some juice left. I usually get about 3.5 to 4 hours of battery life when programming, which means medium to high CPU usage, usually WLAN activated and full LCD brightness. Just having a look at it now, it's on 63% battery level and estimates a time of 3:12 hours left.
I've never seen a better battery life in any other notebook with the standard battery.
Now you're a geek. ;)
And the scary thing is, I even know what you're taking about...
Well great, the whole Spamalot song just popped up in my head again and will be stuck there all day. CURSE YOU, /.!
BTW: Aii have tooo pushh the pram-a-looot!
I think that would only create more problems...
"I took the disk home and my data didn't show up there! It's gone!"
No, no good idea.
Actually, the newer SonicStage versions are quite OK user friendly-wise and act fairly fast to transcode music. The real problem is a) you will need to maintain two copies of your music library (unless you switch to SS as the primary media player) and b) it only runs on Windows.
Therefore Sony lost me as a customer.
So what you're saying is, that even if a specification is approved and it does not have a big fat 'COMPANY XYZ OWNZ THIS TECHNOLOGY, YOU WILL NEED TO PAY IF YOU USE THIS STANDARD!' on it, you'd still need to parse all the difference aspects of the specification and compare them with all filed patents at the USPO? Or the EPO? Or any county's patent office for that matter?
OMFG!
I'd first want to make sure though you didn't patent the house's layout and materials...
Why is it possible to sue a company which makes use of an official standardised specification like 802.11g? If something is an open standard, everybody is free to use it, unless some royalty conditions are specifically included, right? If any company has a patent on any part of a technology, it is usually a proprietary solution and not an official specification, right? So, wouldn't you need to sue the committee that approved this specific technology as standard, rather than the individuals using the standard?
Obligatory Simpsons quote:
I for one welcome our new M&M overlords!
I was just trying out MandrakeMove on an older Dell laptop recently, which doesn't have an ethernet port. Under Windows I either use a 1394 connection to a nearby PC or a WLAN connection if not near the PC, both via PCMCIA adapters. Both of them where impossible to get to work under MandrakeMove. The GUI of course didn't do any good and crashed right away in an error loop. But even after extensive googling and command line bashing I was not able to connect this laptop to the outside world, mainly due to a lack of hardware support.
Just my 0.02 EUR regarding Linux and network hardware support...
Woah, 3 devils on the main page (for me at least), all posted within a few minutes. Is BSD dying faster today or are they simply on Speed?
Imagine there'd be a geek with money. I know, that's very rare, but still... Wouldn't that said geek with money be interested to know there's another geek w/o money but with a ton of geek stuff waiting to be sold? There's your /. story.
/. for helping keeping the money in the family.
Thank you
An average ping time of 3ms to Mars? As an engineer I'd sure be happy to see that, oh boy!