One of the biggest reasons that Mac-PC hardware comparisons are doomed to fail is that there is no such thing as "a PC". Most PCs are loud. But there are many PCs that are quieter than desktop Macs. Many PC laptops are heavy, loud, hot and have short battery lives. But there are PC laptops that are lighter, cooler, quieter (fanless 1.1ghz Pentium-M) and have longer battery lives than any Mac 'Book. Mac fans invariably pick the worst PCs to compare with while PC fans pick the best (which are usually more expensive as well). More on topic: I've been running a fanless 1.4ghz Athlon XP-M on my desktop for over a year. I doubt any Mac is more quiet.
I am indeed talking about the same Model M as the rest of the world, assuming they are talking about the keyboards shipped with IBM PS/2 computers starting from 1986 until the early ninties). The figure you refer to comes from United States Patent 4,118,611 granted in 1978. The XT and AT keyboards from 1984-1986 used the capacitance switches shown in the patent. The PS/2 Model Ms replaced those with a membrane under the keys, but still kept the buckling spring that is responsible for most of the noise and the tactile feel. The Japanese link on this page used to show some actual Model M keys sawed in half, where you could see both the buckling spring mechanism, as well as the membrane. Unfortunately the link is down at the moment.
Or you can buy the real thing here. They even have IBM AT keyboards sometimes, although those are REALLY expensive. What few Model M fans know is that the original IBM PC/XT/AT keyboards have even better mechanisms then the Model M (but only the AT keyboards can be converted to work with modern PCs). The Model M used a membrane underneath the key switches, but the older XT and AT keyboards used capacitance switches, which are more expensive.
The solution to all these browser exploits (IE, Firefox, Safari) is simple: create a restricted user to run the browser only. This can easily be done in Windows XP/2K, Linux and OS X. Restricted users cannot affect other users or system files. As long as you don't keep important data in this account, you can just periodically erase this user and create a new one.
> As opposed to what happens if, say, inittab gets toasted, rendering your computer unbootable.
Then I'd boot Knoppix or another linux-on-cdrom and repair inittab. But I don't see why inittab would get toasted in the first place. You might as well ask, what if the kernel gets toasted? What if the bootloader gets toasted? What if your display or input device driver modules get toasted?
"My thoughts are not positive, not positive at all. This is a painful build to have to deal with after a year of waiting, a step back in some ways. I hope Microsoft has surprises up their sleeves. This has the makings of a train wreck. I'll have more on that later."
This sounds pretty honest from an aledged Microsoft-shill.
4.7MB for Firefox is pretty modest. Netscape Navigator 3 (released in 1996) was already over 3MB, Netscape Navigator 4 (1997) was over 9MB for the browser alone!
False: firefox 1.0.3 has gecko 1.7.7, same as the current Seamonkey suite. Only the unreleased 1.8beta suites have newer versions, but there won't be an official 1.8 suite release by the Mozilla foundation. Firefox 1.1 will be the official release of gecko 1.8. There is a group of old Seamonkey developers working on a release of the suite 1.8 (under a different name), but I doubt they'll have something ready before firefox 1.1.
If you want to count beta's, the firefox trunk nightlies have gecko 1.8 as well.
If you decide to go with MS Remote Desktop on XP-Pro you might want to try this patch, it allows multiple concurrent users (like on Win2003/Citrix/Unix). It's replacing some system files by DLLs from a beta XP SP2, so use at your own risk, but for me it has worked flawlessly.
Even worse, the $1999 PM G5 is equiped with 256MB Ram! Granted, Ram is cheap and easy to replace/upgrade, and I suspect nobody runs it with the stock 256MB, but still... It just feels so wrong that the $1999 Apple Pro desktop solution is equiped with the same amount of Ram as a $250 Dell Dimension.
> For the same price as a USB flash drive I can get an iPod shuffle.
I think you should check that again. A typical 512mb flash drive is under $50 now. If you just want a flash drive a Sandisk Cruzer Micro is a lot smaller than an iPod Shuffle.
Re:How portable is portable?
on
PSP Launch Coverage
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· Score: 5, Informative
The P-M is a pretty good chip, a 2.0Ghz Dothan is more than a match against a 2.0Ghz Athlon-64, while using less power. The only problem is that they are still very overpriced.
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> With a PC, just listen for the fan noise.
One of the biggest reasons that Mac-PC hardware comparisons are doomed to fail is that there is no such thing as "a PC". Most PCs are loud. But there are many PCs that are quieter than desktop Macs. Many PC laptops are heavy, loud, hot and have short battery lives. But there are PC laptops that are lighter, cooler, quieter (fanless 1.1ghz Pentium-M) and have longer battery lives than any Mac 'Book. Mac fans invariably pick the worst PCs to compare with while PC fans pick the best (which are usually more expensive as well). More on topic: I've been running a fanless 1.4ghz Athlon XP-M on my desktop for over a year. I doubt any Mac is more quiet.
I am indeed talking about the same Model M as the rest of the world, assuming they are talking about the keyboards shipped with IBM PS/2 computers starting from 1986 until the early ninties). The figure you refer to comes from United States Patent 4,118,611 granted in 1978. The XT and AT keyboards from 1984-1986 used the capacitance switches shown in the patent. The PS/2 Model Ms replaced those with a membrane under the keys, but still kept the buckling spring that is responsible for most of the noise and the tactile feel. The Japanese link on this page used to show some actual Model M keys sawed in half, where you could see both the buckling spring mechanism, as well as the membrane. Unfortunately the link is down at the moment.
Or you can buy the real thing here. They even have IBM AT keyboards sometimes, although those are REALLY expensive. What few Model M fans know is that the original IBM PC/XT/AT keyboards have even better mechanisms then the Model M (but only the AT keyboards can be converted to work with modern PCs). The Model M used a membrane underneath the key switches, but the older XT and AT keyboards used capacitance switches, which are more expensive.
Indeed, stopping one class of exploits does not magically solve all other security problems.
The solution to all these browser exploits (IE, Firefox, Safari) is simple: create a restricted user to run the browser only. This can easily be done in Windows XP/2K, Linux and OS X. Restricted users cannot affect other users or system files. As long as you don't keep important data in this account, you can just periodically erase this user and create a new one.
> You cannot compare a G4 at 1.25GHz to a x86 at 1.25 GHz. It just makes no sense whatsoever.
Very true, different x86 processors vary wildly in performance. A 1.25Ghz Pentium-M beats the crap out of a 1.25Ghz P4 or a 1.25Ghz Via C3.
Believe it or not, MS does have its range of Photoshop-like products. And no, I don't know anyone who uses them either.
> As opposed to what happens if, say, inittab gets toasted, rendering your computer unbootable.
Then I'd boot Knoppix or another linux-on-cdrom and repair inittab. But I don't see why inittab would get toasted in the first place. You might as well ask, what if the kernel gets toasted? What if the bootloader gets toasted? What if your display or input device driver modules get toasted?
"My thoughts are not positive, not positive at all. This is a painful build to have to deal with after a year of waiting, a step back in some ways. I hope Microsoft has surprises up their sleeves. This has the makings of a train wreck. I'll have more on that later."
This sounds pretty honest from an aledged Microsoft-shill.
> And it's not like the Chinese are famous for high quality manufacturing.
But almost every laptop today is manufactured in China, including ThinkPads and Powerbooks.
4.7MB for Firefox is pretty modest. Netscape Navigator 3 (released in 1996) was already over 3MB, Netscape Navigator 4 (1997) was over 9MB for the browser alone!
False: firefox 1.0.3 has gecko 1.7.7, same as the current Seamonkey suite. Only the unreleased 1.8beta suites have newer versions, but there won't be an official 1.8 suite release by the Mozilla foundation. Firefox 1.1 will be the official release of gecko 1.8. There is a group of old Seamonkey developers working on a release of the suite 1.8 (under a different name), but I doubt they'll have something ready before firefox 1.1.
If you want to count beta's, the firefox trunk nightlies have gecko 1.8 as well.
If you decide to go with MS Remote Desktop on XP-Pro you might want to try this patch, it allows multiple concurrent users (like on Win2003/Citrix/Unix). It's replacing some system files by DLLs from a beta XP SP2, so use at your own risk, but for me it has worked flawlessly.
Even worse, the $1999 PM G5 is equiped with 256MB Ram! Granted, Ram is cheap and easy to replace/upgrade, and I suspect nobody runs it with the stock 256MB, but still... It just feels so wrong that the $1999 Apple Pro desktop solution is equiped with the same amount of Ram as a $250 Dell Dimension.
Why? AFAIK, none of the highly praised Apple laptops support hibernation/suspend-to-disk in the even more highly praised MacOS X.
> For the same price as a USB flash drive I can get an iPod shuffle. I think you should check that again. A typical 512mb flash drive is under $50 now. If you just want a flash drive a Sandisk Cruzer Micro is a lot smaller than an iPod Shuffle.
It's not nearly as big as the Lynx. Here are some pictures to put things in perspective.
And today you have to dismantle the entire machine to install a hard disk in an iBook.
The P-M is a pretty good chip, a 2.0Ghz Dothan is more than a match against a 2.0Ghz Athlon-64, while using less power. The only problem is that they are still very overpriced.