Good black coffee. Good black/green/white/red tea.
Good coffee without sugar is the best (even better tasting than good tea*). But the black, ultra-bitter stuff that most people drink is hideous without a lot of sugar.
Tea is more forgiving in that sense. That is, second rate tea without sugar isn't much more hideous than the same tea with sugar. On the other hand, why even drink bad tea (or coffee)?
* OK, in my opinion good coffee is better than good tea, although I love tea and drink more of the stuff than coffee. Others may think otherwise.
Re:Enough w/ the creepy stalker stuff, and "on" LE
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Apple's All-Seeing Screen
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· Score: 2, Informative
I agree that the iMacs that didn't have an integrated camera had no LED either. And as far as I know, the audio in the new ones may still be recording without an evident sign.
BUT
The iMacs with iSights (G5 and Intel) DO have a LED. You can see it here.
two words: automatically illuminating backlit keyboards
Dude, your counting skills suck...;-)
Re:Apple is going to make a killing...
on
Going To Boot Camp
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· Score: 1
You have NO IDEA what you're even trying to discuss in here. Case in point: Your ignorance on USB - Type B is the SOCKET that is STANDARD on just about every PC I've ever seen. Incidentally, the reason most thumb drives are Type A, is because type A is the only connector that fits into the STANDARD socket which is Type B.
So, if I make a small technical mistake all my argument is automatically invalid?
The funny part is that you are actually much more ignorant about USB than I am. As you can see here Type A and Type B connectors are actually completely different. Type B is NOT the female counterpart of Type A. Your explanation makes absolutely no sense.
My mistake here is that the ports on the Dell are actually Type A. That's the standard on PCs. I misinterpreted the photographs.
Why do people feel it necessary to comment so decisively on topics they clearly can't understand.
I dunno, you tell me, you're the expert.
Actually, I do know. This is a public forum, not a professional one. Zathrus and I were having a relatively amicable discussion on what we thought were the merits of two comparable personal computers. We are not required or expected to be experts to do so here, and as such we are allowed to make mistakes. When someone realizes that those mistakes were made, they're allowed (and even expected) to point them out. That way everyone learns something.
What really spoils these forums are not people who think they are right when they are wrong, because they will be corrected. Instead is people with rotten attitudes who can't criticize without insulting their counterparts. And it's particularly sad when these horribly-mannered people turn out to be even more wrong.
Re:Apple is going to make a killing...
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Going To Boot Camp
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· Score: 1
No. I said it wasn't a full list.
The difference is in what you consider the important points and what others (e.g., I) do.
Gigabit ethernet? Uh, you realize that neither system has enough bus bandwidth (not to mention hard drive speed) to even come close to handling that data rate, right? Optical in-out, sure, but I don't consider that a huge thing. Yes, the Dell has built in speakers and microphone -- were you serious? Ambient light sensor is only relevant for the backlit keyboard, which I mentioned. (...) the Apple doesn't have a VGA port.
Two PowerBooks can transfer at over 200 Mbps when connected directly. I bet MacBooks can reach 300 Mbps (OK, maybe the disks won't allow it). Granted, much less than Gigabit, but far more than what you can theoretically get with 100 BaseT. Optical in/out: extremely important for media professionals, it used to be a deal breaker when the PowerBooks didn't offer it. Built in speakers/mike: sorry, I couldn't find that info in the Dell page, and I have seen recent laptops without internal microphones (not Dell). Ambient light: also controls screen brightness, if you want it to; i would. Apple includes the DVI/VGA adapter.
Type B? Who cares? That's standard USB port. It has a 5-in-1 memory reader, not a "flash memory slot" -- and I should've listed that as a big feature because, IMO, it is. Saves me a USB port and a dongle for reading various camera card formats. S-Video is "eh" to me, just as digital audio out is.
I use USB for only three things: thumb drives, iPod, printer. The thumb drives are always Type A, the iPod doesn't come with Type B cable, nor did my printer. I would need adaptors or new cables, and that would suck, specially for the thumb drives, so I care a lot. Thanks for the info on the memory reader, but Dell calls it flash memory slot (or maybe they are different things?). S-Video: essential to watch DVDs on TVs that don't have DVI ports. PowerBooks had it, MacBooks don't. I would miss that (actually, I'd get the adaptor).
Exactly what features do you need in Pro that aren't in MCE? There's exactly one difference you know.
You're right! I was under the false impression that MCE was a souped up version of Home and not of Pro. While Home is just unacceptable for me, it's good to know that I could save a lot of money getting MCE instead of Pro.
but the gap in features between XP Pro and OS X is much larger
Huh? If you are saying that it makes more sense to compare OS X to MCE instead of XP because MCE has more features than Pro (except joining a domain), I agree. If you are saying that it makes more sense because the bigger gap favors XP over MCE, I would say you are contradicting yourself.
Re:Apple is going to make a killing...
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Going To Boot Camp
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· Score: 1
Now the Dell is not a 100% replica of the Apple, but neither is the Apple completely superior to the Dell. This isn't a full list of differences, but it hits the high points:
It seems to me that you are still missing some important points:
On the Mac side, you didn't include MagSafe, Gigabit Ethernet, optical audio in/out (and I'm not sure if the Dell has built in speakers and microphone), ambient light sensors, and DVI port. The MacBook Pro is also smaller (1.0" x 14.1" x 9.6" vs 1.44" x 14" x 10.45") and lighter (5.6 vs 6.18 lbs). Also, for many people like me, Win XP MCE is not a good alternative for XP Pro, reducing the price gap.
On the Dell side, it has two more USB connectors (but they are Type B !!), a flash memory slot (not sure what it's used for), S-Video port (additional $20 adaptor for the Mac), and integrated modem (ditto).
Agreed, the MacBook is still quite more expensive and the E1505 is a great deal (specially after rebates/coupons), but some of these differences make the price gap less daunting.
Do you want to marry some idiot who only cares about how rich you are?
Who said he wanted to marry? Maybe he'd just like to pork her for a while.
Let's see, the girl is hoping to marry this guy. Of course, she has a reprovable monetary motivation, but nonetheless, she is looking for a husband.
If the guy just wants to "pork" her for a while, then, by mere coincidence justice was made, as she actually dismissed a guy who was anyway a bad candidate for marriage.
How the heck are you supposed to eat those fibrous ones anyway?
Arm yourself with a small, preferably sharp knife, and use it to get slices of the fruit. In particular, you want to separate the flesh from the seed.
As I hinted before, the fibers are tightly connected to the seed. They get stuck between your teeth when you try to strip the flesh with your front teeth. If you sever the fibers, almost none will get stuck, if any at all.
Of course you can simply pay more and get one of the varieties that are not fibrous...
But seriously... what else are you eating that causes hairs to get stuck in your teeth?
Well, mangos, you pervert!
Seriously, some varieties of mango have in their flesh lots of annoying fibrous hairs connected to the seed. If you try to eat the fruit directly, those hairs get stuck in your teeth. Did I mention those mango varieties are absurdly cheap?
In some tropical countries there's a sex position called "the mango": just like the 69, but with hairs between the teeth. Really!
Pair it with SideTrack where I can use ctrl-click in the place of a normal right click button and I love it.
If I'm typing and I want to click on something, I just have one of my hands drop down to the touchpad. For right click my left hand can hit Ctrl without moving.
Hummm... Great, but using ctr-click to get the functionality of the right click doesn't require SideTrack or iScroll. It's part of the default operation of the PB/iBook trackpads.
Thanks for you insightful reply. I agree with almost everything you say, and I see that I had misinterpreted the intention of your original message. I also agree that we are not going to change each other's mind, and I apologize if you perceived me as an irrational Mac apologist that wants to push MacOS X down every one else's throat.
So allow me to make to make a few clarifications:
Some times people dismiss MacOS X (or Linux or any other platform, even some times Windows) based on false or dated information. It is true that lots of people wouldn't be able to do their work in an OS different from Windows, as you said. But in some cases, the people just don't know about the alternatives. For example, I have found several people who are surprised to know that there is Microsoft Office for the Mac, or Matlab, or Adobe's products.
Another example: All the mayor commercial medical image software packages run on Win 2000 or XP, and the most sofisticated ones cost $30,000 to $80,000 per station, so hospitals rarely have more than two of those. But it so happens that the best program in the sub $10,000 range is the one that I linked to before, a free, open source program that is Mac only, and that rivals even the high end ones in many tasks. Radiologists are going nuts over it because that gives them the possibility of having a DICOM workstation on every desktop (especially if you pair it with equivalent hardware, which costs around $6,000 to $8,000).
A final, more generic example: I frequently find people stubbornly using old, expensive proprietary software for which there are free alternatives that do a better job on Windows. They continue to use their old software because it's what they are used to and they just don't know there are better alternatives out there. That is precisely the problem in my workplace: we use Windows because before I came no one ever though that they had an option. We don't use any software for which there are no good Mac equivalents. Of course, I acknowledge that that's not the case everywhere.
I won't change your mid, I know, but if your Mac experience was pre-Panther, let me tell you that things have changed a lot in the last three years. And also remember that the new Intel Macs will run Vista, so finally we will have a machine that can run MacOS X, Linux and Windows at native speeds. Regarding the cost, yes, Macs are more expensive, but not as much as you think if you make a careful comparison.
And finally, I think you don't know about installing and uninstalling most programs in MacOS X: The program come in disk images (something like virtual thumb drives). The programs appear to be a single file. (They are actually a directory, but most users are oblivious to that fact). You can put that "package" anywhere, or even leave it in the image. To uninstall, you drag that package to the trash. You don't have to run an installer or an uninstaller. The program may create a preference file for each user and maybe cache files in perfectly specified places, but you don't have to erase them because they don't interfere with the rest of the system. The most important part is: they don't install anything like DLL files outside the package, and there will be no conflict with other versions of such a DLL file; also, they don't alter a systemwide database such as the registry, because such thing doesn't exist. Programs like this range from little utilities to full blown packages.
i bought a 3.2ghz, 1gig RAM laptop from hp around a year ago for less than these "cutting edge" 2.16ghz mac's
I was referring to the gap between "a G4 and a modern Athlon" being reduced by becoming the gap between a modern Intel and a modern Athlon. By reversed, I meant that according to some sites the Core Duos are faster than the mobile Athlons for many things.
Anyway, your case doesn't apply here because as far as I know AMD doesn't have 3.2 GHz processors, so I assume that you have a P4. Well, I'm amazed that even now you don't know that clockspeed is meaningless. That's why in general Athlon 64s cream P4s even though the Athlons run at lower clockspeeds. And the Pentium M and Core Duos, which aren't descendants of the P4, run as fast as P4s of much higher clock speeds. So you got a 3.2 GHz P4 laptop? Great, it may be a little faster than the Core Duos, but that doesn't justify the extra cooling needed (and thus the weight), nor the reduced battery life.
Oh, and regarding multiple cores and multiple processors, for some of us they do make a huge difference, even for single (well optimized) tasks.
so I still know what it feels to be a Windows user
and what does that feel like exactly?
Slightly frustrating. As compared to working on my Mac, I feel that I need to invest more time in coaxing the (Windows) PC into helping me to do my work.
On the Mac things are easy to install and they tend to be very consistent (for example, setting up a program usually does not require me to look all over the menus trying to guess what was the author thinking when he wrote the program). Things just work. Programs are also trivial to uninstall, so I'm never afraid to mess up my system by trying new software (e.g., corrupting the registry). It's really another world.
Spoken like a true Mac user. Sorry, but what you call a "windows machine" is usually an x86 processor - you know, like the one Apple just switched to. So, you will, in fact, be buying many, many more "Windows machines". You just won't be running Windows on them.
You are absolutely right. Point taken.
Let me rephrase that: I don't think I will ever buy a machine to run Windows mainly. I will only buy a machine that will allow me to use an OS with a much superior user experience, and at this time that means a machine that will run MacOS X. Therefore, I will not buy a machine that would only run MacOS X after applying nasty (and illegal) hacks. That apparently means that I will only buy Macs and not non-Apple PCs (the ones that almost always have Windows).
I switched. So did my wife and kid. Then we all switched back to Windows. It had everything to do with subpar performance of the G4 vs. a modern Athlon processor...
Well, the switch to Intel closes that gap significantly. In the notebook area, (and I guess you are talking about notebooks because the desktop G5's were introduced years ago), the gap may even be reversed now.
...as well as Apple's complete lack of customer support for anyone with even a month-old product that doesn't buy their $300+ AppleCare extortion^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hwarranty.
Apple's standard warranty is one year, not one month. This makes me believe that you're trolling.
(By the way I did switch from Windows to Mac two years ago. My experience has been so positive that four other people have switched after me, and all of them are quite happy. I'm still immersed in an almost 100% Windows environment and have to use Windows frequently, so I still know what it feels to be a Windows user... and I don't think I will ever buy a Windows machine again.)
No, you are making the same mistake this guy made. You are severely underestimating what the MacBook Pro includes. You will find a more equilibrated comparison here, although admittedly that guy is comparing to an Inspiron 9400.
So, to return to your chosen model, you will need to add: WinXP Pro (come one, don't tell me Media Center edition actually is good enough for you!) ($149), the a/b/g wireless card ($25), Bluetooth ($49).
That brings the price (after rebates) to roughly $1600, but you still are missing a load of things that aren't an option on the Dell's website: an integrated webcam that's actually very good, faster Ethernet, better audio options (digital in/out, and I don't see any info about microphone or integrated speakers in the Dell), light sensors and illuminated keyboard (that's actually useful), remote control (you need to downgrade to Media Center edition to get the honor of configuring one), Magsafe, and a truckload of software that doesn't suck. Oh, and the Mac will run Vista, but the Dell will require nasty hacks to run Leopard.
In the end you are right, the Dell is still cheaper. But not nearly as by much as you think.
If I wanted to hear about Macs I would read any of the half dozen Apple related articles that get posted to the front page on any given day.
Since you actually DID read one of the "half dozen Apple related articles that get posted to the front page", should we deduce that in spite of your rant YOU, dear AC, actually care?
Are you seriously suggesting that we take his words as nothing but the truth and leave it at that?
I think you missed the point of the parent's post. In my opinion, he was just being sarcastic to make us realize that those very clear words that Bush said in April, 2004, directly contradict what he has been saying lately.
In other words, months before being re-elected, he proclaimed himself as a champion of constitutional rights. Less than two years later, he is claiming that those rights should have exceptions. And he wasn't supposed to be the flip-flopper...
Like i said i am not blameing them for not supporting it, i am blaming them for telling people they did go out of their way to prevent running windows
The 64-bit version of Win XP and Win 2003 support EFI (but Core Duos are 32 bit). Vista is expected to support EFI too. There is no technical reason that prevents Microsoft from modifying the normal XP to support it too. It just doesn't make sense for them to invest in that (relatively very small) effort since Vista is right around the corner (so to speak).
Apple said that they wouldn't do anything to impede Windows (or any other OS for that matter) from running on Intel Macs. They also said that they weren't going to support them officially anyway, and thus they didn't commit to include obsolete technology to make things easier for them.
I can guarantee you that Linux will boot on these Macs in a matter of weeks (well, some developers may be waiting for their MacBooks, so it may be a couple of weeks on top of that). NetBSD will be running soon after, and maybe FreeBSD also. And Windows in a virtualized machine will be running at almost-native speeds before July (but of course that doesn't count as booting the OS).
Yup, and to the list of 68k based computers you can add the NeXT machines, an Atari computer (Atari ST, I think?), and the original Sun workstations (Sun-1, Sun-2 and Sun-3). All originally designed to run their own OS.
On the PowerPC side, the BeBox used PPC 603 processors. Again, designed to run a proprietary OS.
Actually, I think iTunes or QTPro will convert any Quicktime movie to iPod format semi-automatically. Unfortunately, I currently use Beyond TV for my TV tuner and it won't save as Quicktime (just WMV and mpeg2).
AFAIK, QT Pro will allow you to export any format that the QuickTime Player will read into an iPod-friendly format. This includes any format that can be opened using a 3rd party extension, like DivX, 3ivX, some AVI, and (drums rolling...) WMV and MPEG-2.
Unfortunately, i believe the free version of Flip4Mac doesn't allow you to save the audio track, so you may have to pay for the $29 version which may spoil the fun for you. On the MPEG-2 side of things, Apple charges for the MPEG-2 extensions for QT, but I'm not sure about the price.
Even though I'm a MacOS X addict, a definitely agree with your feelings about irrational moderators. I feel that Apple fan-boyism is not only annoying but in the end it also hurts the interests of those who, like me, honestly feel that the options we chose (OS, software, etc) are worth considering by others (if only to prevent those options from going the way of the dodo as has happened in the past) but who respect those who dissent.
So allow me to apologize to you in the name of the numerous (but evidently not as vocal) Apple users who abhor irrational fan-boys.
On the other hand, I would anyway like to decide on my own if you are really a victim or of the negative mods were deserved. I see that in your recent history all comments that are rated under 2 are unrelated to Apple, so I guess that you are referring to older comments. (I'm not a subscriber because I'm poor, so I can't look at your full history). Can you please point me (us) to one or two comments that you consider were unfairly modded negatively by Apple fanatics?
Anyway, I feel that we should start to meta-moderate more. That's supposed to be the mechanism that should prevent zealots from getting too many moderator points.
Huh. Well, I'll buy your argument if you'll tell me how you get to the top of the screen in an instant. I can't, as far as I know -- it's further to roll the mouse to the top than it is to the top of a window, barring the single exception where the window is at the top anyway (in which case it takes just as long.) [. ..] So -- how do you get right to the top of the display with less moves than it takes to get to the top of a window that is, for instance, showing its title bar at the bottom third of the display?
Allow me to chime in and rehash a post that I made a few weeks ago:
Hmmm.... you need to increase the acceleration of your mouse. Whenever I've used a Mac with a mouse, I have only needed to jerk the mouse quite less than three inches to go from one corner of the screen to the other on 30" monitors at 2560x1600 (and much less in smaller monitors). Right now I can't make that test because I only have a Powerbook and a Windows PC with a PS/2 mouse in front of me. But, for what it's worth:
On the Powerbook, I can go from one corner to the other (1280x854) with only one swipe through the trackpad. The speed is set one tick faster than the middle setting. There are four more ticks to the right, and if I set it at the maximum, I can cover the diagonal by swiping over half the trackpad. But that's way too fast for me. (Note that there is no acceleration control for the trackpad).
On the Windows PC (an old Dell P4), at 1600x1200, I can travel the diagonal by jerking the mouse once around two inches. I have never touched the mouse settings so far: the speed is in the middle tick, the acceleration is in... surprise: low.
Let me set it to High (there are None, Low, Medium, and High settings). Ok, now I can cover the 1600x1200 diagonal with a 1 inch jerk (again, way to fast for me).
I never change the mouse settings for computers that aren't mine, but my experiences have been consistent with the above data, both with Macs and PCs. My guess is that you simply move the mouse too slowly. There is no shame on that, simply adjust the settings so that they better suit you.
Now, returning to your point, fyngyrz, since you appear to in the graphics industry maybe increasing the speed or acceleration of the mouse is not a good option (I guess). (On the other hand, I'm quite sure that if you use the computer to draw you are much better off with a digitizing tablet). But for the vast majority of users, crossing through the screen could be a swift wrist twist away.
(By the way, thanks to you and to JonathanBoyd for having a civil and interesting discussion, although at the end it seems that you (or we) only agreed to disagree.)
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funny
2. Strangely or suspiciously odd; curious.
3. Tricky or deceitful.
May I add something to your comment:
Good black coffee.
Good black/green/white/red tea.
Good coffee without sugar is the best (even better tasting than good tea*). But the black, ultra-bitter stuff that most people drink is hideous without a lot of sugar.
Tea is more forgiving in that sense. That is, second rate tea without sugar isn't much more hideous than the same tea with sugar. On the other hand, why even drink bad tea (or coffee)?
* OK, in my opinion good coffee is better than good tea, although I love tea and drink more of the stuff than coffee. Others may think otherwise.
Not really. Haven't you heard of paper cuts?
I agree that the iMacs that didn't have an integrated camera had no LED either. And as far as I know, the audio in the new ones may still be recording without an evident sign.
BUT
The iMacs with iSights (G5 and Intel) DO have a LED. You can see it here.
Dude, your counting skills suck...
So, if I make a small technical mistake all my argument is automatically invalid?
The funny part is that you are actually much more ignorant about USB than I am. As you can see here Type A and Type B connectors are actually completely different. Type B is NOT the female counterpart of Type A. Your explanation makes absolutely no sense.
My mistake here is that the ports on the Dell are actually Type A. That's the standard on PCs. I misinterpreted the photographs.
I dunno, you tell me, you're the expert.
Actually, I do know. This is a public forum, not a professional one. Zathrus and I were having a relatively amicable discussion on what we thought were the merits of two comparable personal computers. We are not required or expected to be experts to do so here, and as such we are allowed to make mistakes. When someone realizes that those mistakes were made, they're allowed (and even expected) to point them out. That way everyone learns something.
What really spoils these forums are not people who think they are right when they are wrong, because they will be corrected. Instead is people with rotten attitudes who can't criticize without insulting their counterparts. And it's particularly sad when these horribly-mannered people turn out to be even more wrong.
Two PowerBooks can transfer at over 200 Mbps when connected directly. I bet MacBooks can reach 300 Mbps (OK, maybe the disks won't allow it). Granted, much less than Gigabit, but far more than what you can theoretically get with 100 BaseT. Optical in/out: extremely important for media professionals, it used to be a deal breaker when the PowerBooks didn't offer it. Built in speakers/mike: sorry, I couldn't find that info in the Dell page, and I have seen recent laptops without internal microphones (not Dell). Ambient light: also controls screen brightness, if you want it to; i would. Apple includes the DVI/VGA adapter.
I use USB for only three things: thumb drives, iPod, printer. The thumb drives are always Type A, the iPod doesn't come with Type B cable, nor did my printer. I would need adaptors or new cables, and that would suck, specially for the thumb drives, so I care a lot. Thanks for the info on the memory reader, but Dell calls it flash memory slot (or maybe they are different things?). S-Video: essential to watch DVDs on TVs that don't have DVI ports. PowerBooks had it, MacBooks don't. I would miss that (actually, I'd get the adaptor).
You're right! I was under the false impression that MCE was a souped up version of Home and not of Pro. While Home is just unacceptable for me, it's good to know that I could save a lot of money getting MCE instead of Pro.
Huh? If you are saying that it makes more sense to compare OS X to MCE instead of XP because MCE has more features than Pro (except joining a domain), I agree. If you are saying that it makes more sense because the bigger gap favors XP over MCE, I would say you are contradicting yourself.
It seems to me that you are still missing some important points:
On the Mac side, you didn't include MagSafe, Gigabit Ethernet, optical audio in/out (and I'm not sure if the Dell has built in speakers and microphone), ambient light sensors, and DVI port. The MacBook Pro is also smaller (1.0" x 14.1" x 9.6" vs 1.44" x 14" x 10.45") and lighter (5.6 vs 6.18 lbs). Also, for many people like me, Win XP MCE is not a good alternative for XP Pro, reducing the price gap.
On the Dell side, it has two more USB connectors (but they are Type B !!), a flash memory slot (not sure what it's used for), S-Video port (additional $20 adaptor for the Mac), and integrated modem (ditto).
Agreed, the MacBook is still quite more expensive and the E1505 is a great deal (specially after rebates/coupons), but some of these differences make the price gap less daunting.
Let's see, the girl is hoping to marry this guy. Of course, she has a reprovable monetary motivation, but nonetheless, she is looking for a husband.
If the guy just wants to "pork" her for a while, then, by mere coincidence justice was made, as she actually dismissed a guy who was anyway a bad candidate for marriage.
Arm yourself with a small, preferably sharp knife, and use it to get slices of the fruit. In particular, you want to separate the flesh from the seed.
As I hinted before, the fibers are tightly connected to the seed. They get stuck between your teeth when you try to strip the flesh with your front teeth. If you sever the fibers, almost none will get stuck, if any at all.
Of course you can simply pay more and get one of the varieties that are not fibrous...
Well, mangos, you pervert!
Seriously, some varieties of mango have in their flesh lots of annoying fibrous hairs connected to the seed. If you try to eat the fruit directly, those hairs get stuck in your teeth. Did I mention those mango varieties are absurdly cheap?
In some tropical countries there's a sex position called "the mango": just like the 69, but with hairs between the teeth. Really!
Hummm... Great, but using ctr-click to get the functionality of the right click doesn't require SideTrack or iScroll. It's part of the default operation of the PB/iBook trackpads.
So allow me to make to make a few clarifications:
I was referring to the gap between "a G4 and a modern Athlon" being reduced by becoming the gap between a modern Intel and a modern Athlon. By reversed, I meant that according to some sites the Core Duos are faster than the mobile Athlons for many things.
Anyway, your case doesn't apply here because as far as I know AMD doesn't have 3.2 GHz processors, so I assume that you have a P4. Well, I'm amazed that even now you don't know that clockspeed is meaningless. That's why in general Athlon 64s cream P4s even though the Athlons run at lower clockspeeds. And the Pentium M and Core Duos, which aren't descendants of the P4, run as fast as P4s of much higher clock speeds. So you got a 3.2 GHz P4 laptop? Great, it may be a little faster than the Core Duos, but that doesn't justify the extra cooling needed (and thus the weight), nor the reduced battery life.
Oh, and regarding multiple cores and multiple processors, for some of us they do make a huge difference, even for single (well optimized) tasks.
Slightly frustrating. As compared to working on my Mac, I feel that I need to invest more time in coaxing the (Windows) PC into helping me to do my work.
On the Mac things are easy to install and they tend to be very consistent (for example, setting up a program usually does not require me to look all over the menus trying to guess what was the author thinking when he wrote the program). Things just work. Programs are also trivial to uninstall, so I'm never afraid to mess up my system by trying new software (e.g., corrupting the registry). It's really another world.
You are absolutely right. Point taken.
Let me rephrase that: I don't think I will ever buy a machine to run Windows mainly. I will only buy a machine that will allow me to use an OS with a much superior user experience, and at this time that means a machine that will run MacOS X. Therefore, I will not buy a machine that would only run MacOS X after applying nasty (and illegal) hacks. That apparently means that I will only buy Macs and not non-Apple PCs (the ones that almost always have Windows).
Well, the switch to Intel closes that gap significantly. In the notebook area, (and I guess you are talking about notebooks because the desktop G5's were introduced years ago), the gap may even be reversed now.
Apple's standard warranty is one year, not one month. This makes me believe that you're trolling.
(By the way I did switch from Windows to Mac two years ago. My experience has been so positive that four other people have switched after me, and all of them are quite happy. I'm still immersed in an almost 100% Windows environment and have to use Windows frequently, so I still know what it feels to be a Windows user... and I don't think I will ever buy a Windows machine again.)
No, you are making the same mistake this guy made. You are severely underestimating what the MacBook Pro includes. You will find a more equilibrated comparison here, although admittedly that guy is comparing to an Inspiron 9400.
So, to return to your chosen model, you will need to add: WinXP Pro (come one, don't tell me Media Center edition actually is good enough for you!) ($149), the a/b/g wireless card ($25), Bluetooth ($49).
That brings the price (after rebates) to roughly $1600, but you still are missing a load of things that aren't an option on the Dell's website: an integrated webcam that's actually very good, faster Ethernet, better audio options (digital in/out, and I don't see any info about microphone or integrated speakers in the Dell), light sensors and illuminated keyboard (that's actually useful), remote control (you need to downgrade to Media Center edition to get the honor of configuring one), Magsafe, and a truckload of software that doesn't suck. Oh, and the Mac will run Vista, but the Dell will require nasty hacks to run Leopard.
In the end you are right, the Dell is still cheaper. But not nearly as by much as you think.
Since you actually DID read one of the "half dozen Apple related articles that get posted to the front page", should we deduce that in spite of your rant YOU, dear AC, actually care?
I think you missed the point of the parent's post. In my opinion, he was just being sarcastic to make us realize that those very clear words that Bush said in April, 2004, directly contradict what he has been saying lately.
In other words, months before being re-elected, he proclaimed himself as a champion of constitutional rights. Less than two years later, he is claiming that those rights should have exceptions. And he wasn't supposed to be the flip-flopper...
The 64-bit version of Win XP and Win 2003 support EFI (but Core Duos are 32 bit). Vista is expected to support EFI too. There is no technical reason that prevents Microsoft from modifying the normal XP to support it too. It just doesn't make sense for them to invest in that (relatively very small) effort since Vista is right around the corner (so to speak).
Apple said that they wouldn't do anything to impede Windows (or any other OS for that matter) from running on Intel Macs. They also said that they weren't going to support them officially anyway, and thus they didn't commit to include obsolete technology to make things easier for them.
I can guarantee you that Linux will boot on these Macs in a matter of weeks (well, some developers may be waiting for their MacBooks, so it may be a couple of weeks on top of that). NetBSD will be running soon after, and maybe FreeBSD also. And Windows in a virtualized machine will be running at almost-native speeds before July (but of course that doesn't count as booting the OS).
Yup, and to the list of 68k based computers you can add the NeXT machines, an Atari computer (Atari ST, I think?), and the original Sun workstations (Sun-1, Sun-2 and Sun-3). All originally designed to run their own OS.
On the PowerPC side, the BeBox used PPC 603 processors. Again, designed to run a proprietary OS.
AFAIK, QT Pro will allow you to export any format that the QuickTime Player will read into an iPod-friendly format. This includes any format that can be opened using a 3rd party extension, like DivX, 3ivX, some AVI, and (drums rolling...) WMV and MPEG-2.
Unfortunately, i believe the free version of Flip4Mac doesn't allow you to save the audio track, so you may have to pay for the $29 version which may spoil the fun for you. On the MPEG-2 side of things, Apple charges for the MPEG-2 extensions for QT, but I'm not sure about the price.
Even though I'm a MacOS X addict, a definitely agree with your feelings about irrational moderators. I feel that Apple fan-boyism is not only annoying but in the end it also hurts the interests of those who, like me, honestly feel that the options we chose (OS, software, etc) are worth considering by others (if only to prevent those options from going the way of the dodo as has happened in the past) but who respect those who dissent.
So allow me to apologize to you in the name of the numerous (but evidently not as vocal) Apple users who abhor irrational fan-boys.
On the other hand, I would anyway like to decide on my own if you are really a victim or of the negative mods were deserved. I see that in your recent history all comments that are rated under 2 are unrelated to Apple, so I guess that you are referring to older comments. (I'm not a subscriber because I'm poor, so I can't look at your full history). Can you please point me (us) to one or two comments that you consider were unfairly modded negatively by Apple fanatics?
Anyway, I feel that we should start to meta-moderate more. That's supposed to be the mechanism that should prevent zealots from getting too many moderator points.
It seems you are confusing Dashboard with Exposé.
Allow me to chime in and rehash a post that I made a few weeks ago:
Hmmm.... you need to increase the acceleration of your mouse. Whenever I've used a Mac with a mouse, I have only needed to jerk the mouse quite less than three inches to go from one corner of the screen to the other on 30" monitors at 2560x1600 (and much less in smaller monitors). Right now I can't make that test because I only have a Powerbook and a Windows PC with a PS/2 mouse in front of me. But, for what it's worth:
On the Powerbook, I can go from one corner to the other (1280x854) with only one swipe through the trackpad. The speed is set one tick faster than the middle setting. There are four more ticks to the right, and if I set it at the maximum, I can cover the diagonal by swiping over half the trackpad. But that's way too fast for me. (Note that there is no acceleration control for the trackpad).
On the Windows PC (an old Dell P4), at 1600x1200, I can travel the diagonal by jerking the mouse once around two inches. I have never touched the mouse settings so far: the speed is in the middle tick, the acceleration is in... surprise: low.
Let me set it to High (there are None, Low, Medium, and High settings). Ok, now I can cover the 1600x1200 diagonal with a 1 inch jerk (again, way to fast for me).
I never change the mouse settings for computers that aren't mine, but my experiences have been consistent with the above data, both with Macs and PCs. My guess is that you simply move the mouse too slowly. There is no shame on that, simply adjust the settings so that they better suit you.
Now, returning to your point, fyngyrz, since you appear to in the graphics industry maybe increasing the speed or acceleration of the mouse is not a good option (I guess). (On the other hand, I'm quite sure that if you use the computer to draw you are much better off with a digitizing tablet). But for the vast majority of users, crossing through the screen could be a swift wrist twist away.
(By the way, thanks to you and to JonathanBoyd for having a civil and interesting discussion, although at the end it seems that you (or we) only agreed to disagree.)