Of course the hardware is just as susceptible to breaking. I've had bad RAM and a hard drive issue on my eMac. However, I'm guessing if you measured how much time the IT dept in a Windows company spends preventing and dealing with viruses and malware vs the IT dept in a Mac-only company... Even with the odd hardware issue (which certainly won't be *more* than with PCs), you're saving time and money.
So you got the XP licenses and monitors for free, then? And this company can get them for free, too? Because, see, if I'm starting a business, I don't have licenses and monitors sitting around already.
How do you expect to protect those rights if you don't prohibit them from violating each other's rights? Chimpanzees are a pretty violent species - they do kill each other in the wild. And not just in self-defense - chimps have been observed to kill each other for some of the same reasons humans do, such as another male stealing your mate.
When chimp #1 violates chimp #2's right to life, will there be no consequences? If not, how can you say you've granted them that right? It's more like "you've got this right until you don't anymore," which isn't much of a right at all.
Ah, but that's not for EVERYTHING you get with the iMac. I just went to Dell's website, and chose an optiplex 745, and gave it the same specs as a 17" iMac - including their cheapest 17" monitor, the same optical drive (by default there isn't one at all, let alone one that burns DVDs), chose the smallest form factor case, everything just like the iMac.
On sale for $1,171, normally $1,245. The iMac is $1,199. Now, the iMac is 2.0 GHz rather than 2.13 like the Dell, and if you really need the extra.1 GHz it's $100 to upgrade to 2.16. However, the iMac still comes out at only about $100 more than the Dell. And it does have the slight advantage of taking up less space, due to lack of an external case - dunno if they care about that or not.
For me, $100 is more than reasonable for the extra ease of use that comes with OS X.
Oh, wait! I just realized that if they want XP Pro instead of Home, which I'm guessing they would, it's $99 extra. Well, there goes any advantage the Dell had at all.
Re:I don't understand why someone would buy Apple
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Apple Ships 8-Core MacPro
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· Score: 4, Insightful
If you couldn't fix it yourself, you wouldn't be there.
Well, maybe they don't want their employees wasting company time "fixing it themselves" - they'd rather just not have it break in the first place.
Plus, Mac people displace their hatred of Windows onto the hardware.
I don't think that's actually the norm, maybe your girlfriend does it. Many of us (myself included) are 100% all about the superior software. Sure, they manage to make hardware that looks pretty slick and fits in nice small places, which is great and all, but I honestly don't have any clue whether there's similar PC hardware available. And it's not like I've had zero hardware problems on my eMac - it was shipped to me with a stick of faulty RAM (which Apple replaced with no fuss), and last year, about four years after I bought it, the hard drive went nuts. Luckily, DiskWarrior fixed that right up, so it wasn't a major issue. Software issues, though? The only real aggravation I've had is the fact that NeoOffice is ridiculously slow, and that's not Apple's fault.
We mostly just love the OS to bits, and love a lot of the extras that come alongside it. The hardware is nice and all, but I know it's not really superior to PC hardware. It's more the control over how the software and hardware tie together that makes it nice.
Magically? No. But I think it would happen a lot sooner than most people would expect.
I think that you vastly underestimate the power of institutional memory. Why do kids go to school September-May? Why, so they can go out and help with the crops in the summer, of course. Look at the amount of headway year-round schooling (go to school 2 months, off 3 weeks) has made - little to none! Even though many things point to it being superior in various ways. But damn it, kids get the summer off, that's how the world works. The original reasoning behind it has long been abandoned and forgotten.
So you're saying that if we went to full-time non-DST, the "normal working day" would magically shift from 9-5 to 8-4? I doubt it. Working hours for most of the population no longer have anything to do with daylight, only with what's been long established as "the norm" and is unlikely to change soon. Yes, it may have once upon a time been based on daylight, but then it got set in stone somewhere along the line.
Given that my work schedule doesn't change when DST starts, and wouldn't change if DST or standard time were made year-round, yes, it does give me more post-work daylight.
I'm always counting the days til DST comes back. Later daylight makes me happy! Sure, some schoolkids have to wait for the bus in the dark - but I had to do that anyhow when I was younger, even when it wasn't DST! I wish we could have it this way all year long - winter is when we need it *worst*, with the sun setting by 4:30 in many places.
Again, it was on a very low level. This graduate program isn't about game design, or even software design, it's about learning - and so we were focused on how to create a good language-learning environment. We did no programming at all, the most detail we went into was some storyboard-like index cards. Mostly it was reading the second language learning research, a survey of some young adult potential and past travelers to see what they wanted in a product (and a review of current products to see what's missing), and reading stuff on various curriculum frameworks and game-based-learning theories (things like cognitive apprenticeship and goal-based scenarios for the first part, the work of James Gee and David Schaffer for the second part). Then we came up with a set of learning goals that were important to our audience, and worked within what research says works to come up with activities that would meet those goals, while trying to keep it fun and video-game-like. Probably the biggest issue we struggled with was how to provide scaffolding that didn't become a crutch.
The DS was a natural environment for something like this - current products all tout *either* their interactivity *or* their portability, none have both, and the DS can provide both. Apparently some groups are working on PC versions of similar games, but hopefully someone will eventually take this to the DS, which is really where it belongs.
I haven't actually played Bejeweled, but I must say you should give Zookeeper (a bejeweled clone) a chance. Discovering the never-ending bad translations from the Japanese is worth the price (which is now pretty cheap). I still haven't figured out what some of the messages are supposed to mean, and I've been playing it obsessively for four months.
For a class in Design of Learning Environments, my partner and I designed (on a very, very low level, obviously) a DS game that would simulate immersion-based language learning. Basically, you have to survive in and explore a foreign city, gaining the language skills necessary along the way.
I have to say, it rocked, and we and everyone in our class wants one. Unfortunately, voice recognition won't be to the point where this would be feasible for a few more years. I hope that someone does pick up on this type of use eventually though, because done right this would be the ultimate solution for people picking up a second language for travel. The DS provides the possibility of voice input, instant feedback, communication via wifi with native speakers, portability (though you need non-spoken activities for use on public transit), everything you could ask for in a language package in a video game wrapper that could be designed to be quite fun on its own merits.
Actually, a DRM-free, higher bitrate album will be $9.99, just like always. It's only the single songs that will cost extra for the "upgrade." Can you reliably find CDs for less than that?
There is a classic study on this in airplane cockpits. At one point, airplane companies tried to use digital readouts, but the pilots had a much harder time with them because it wasn't the numbers they were focusing on, it was the angle of the hand on the dial, which is easy to see at a glance. They even set minimum speeds while descending by marking the lowest safe speed on the dial and watching the hand to make sure it doesn't get near it.
The problem with analog controls is that you can't add/remove them easily once a device is made.
Why would I want the controls in my car to change?? It's confusing enough when my husband decides to reprogram the radio buttons so that the stations are in numerical order. When I'm driving, I want to be able to control the heat, radio, wipers, etc with no more than a cursory glance downward to be sure I'm aiming in the right general direction, if that. I don't want to push what I think is the A/C button and have my headlights turn off.
This is very true. I learned my lesson last year when I took a year off work before grad school, thinking I'd work on several projects I have in mind (some freelance writing, for example). Ha! With a complete lack of deadlines, I am useless! Self-set deadlines with no external pressure do nothing for me, either. Now that I'm back in school, I'm doing a great job of keeping on top of projects both for my classes and out of class.
I'm sure there are plenty of people with their heads up their asses using Windows and Linux, has it put you off of those platforms too? Because I know I pick my OS based on the fact that no one I dislike uses it.
No kidding. And on such shaky grounds. I mean, how many three-page essays on imagery in Hamlet or the three branches of the US government can possibly go into this database before it starts throwing out a ton of false positives? I guess at least if it gets questioned too many times, teachers will stop using it.
Not kids. Teenagers and young adults. Yes, there are people in their 70s on YouTube, but they are not the driving force. A LOT of the user-made content comes from people under 25, and it's certainly viewers under 25 that made it popular.
I put "cool" in quotes, specifically to highlight the fact that developers DON'T only work on projects they deem cool. They work on what they're hired to work on. Very few slashdot readers have the freedom to 100% choose their own projects based on what they like best - your first post made it sound like Slashdot is full of the people who decide what's cool because they only produce what they believe is cool.
And the rest of your post has nothing to do with the discussion, except to emphasize my point, which is that the readers of Slashdot are not, by and large, the arbiters of cool. Sure,/. readers may agree with the general population on some things - choosing a hip, young company over a giant corporate dinosaur - but often for different reasons.
You seem to have forgotten that we're not arguing over whether the NBC site will do well, but over your assertion that Slashdot is full of Very Powerful People whose opinions will make or break the NBC site.
Slashdot Mirror
Harmonix hasn't confirmed any of the prices posted by EB/Gamestop. Not saying it won't be that expensive, but those prices are "pure speculation".
Of course the hardware is just as susceptible to breaking. I've had bad RAM and a hard drive issue on my eMac. However, I'm guessing if you measured how much time the IT dept in a Windows company spends preventing and dealing with viruses and malware vs the IT dept in a Mac-only company... Even with the odd hardware issue (which certainly won't be *more* than with PCs), you're saving time and money.
So you got the XP licenses and monitors for free, then? And this company can get them for free, too? Because, see, if I'm starting a business, I don't have licenses and monitors sitting around already.
Sorry, DVD-RW. Well, DVD+-RW and all the other characters that go along with it. You get the idea.
So are you claiming that your $645 included the 17" monitor, XP Pro, and a DVD-R drive? Do you have any proof of this claim?
Ok, that just about made me *headdesk*.
Thank you. It keeps me honest. I see too many posts that sound something like "I'm no fanboy but *fanboy-sounding rant*" - I have no excuse.
When chimp #1 violates chimp #2's right to life, will there be no consequences? If not, how can you say you've granted them that right? It's more like "you've got this right until you don't anymore," which isn't much of a right at all.
On sale for $1,171, normally $1,245. The iMac is $1,199. Now, the iMac is 2.0 GHz rather than 2.13 like the Dell, and if you really need the extra .1 GHz it's $100 to upgrade to 2.16. However, the iMac still comes out at only about $100 more than the Dell. And it does have the slight advantage of taking up less space, due to lack of an external case - dunno if they care about that or not.
For me, $100 is more than reasonable for the extra ease of use that comes with OS X.
Oh, wait! I just realized that if they want XP Pro instead of Home, which I'm guessing they would, it's $99 extra. Well, there goes any advantage the Dell had at all.
Well, maybe they don't want their employees wasting company time "fixing it themselves" - they'd rather just not have it break in the first place.
I don't think that's actually the norm, maybe your girlfriend does it. Many of us (myself included) are 100% all about the superior software. Sure, they manage to make hardware that looks pretty slick and fits in nice small places, which is great and all, but I honestly don't have any clue whether there's similar PC hardware available. And it's not like I've had zero hardware problems on my eMac - it was shipped to me with a stick of faulty RAM (which Apple replaced with no fuss), and last year, about four years after I bought it, the hard drive went nuts. Luckily, DiskWarrior fixed that right up, so it wasn't a major issue. Software issues, though? The only real aggravation I've had is the fact that NeoOffice is ridiculously slow, and that's not Apple's fault.
We mostly just love the OS to bits, and love a lot of the extras that come alongside it. The hardware is nice and all, but I know it's not really superior to PC hardware. It's more the control over how the software and hardware tie together that makes it nice.
I think that you vastly underestimate the power of institutional memory. Why do kids go to school September-May? Why, so they can go out and help with the crops in the summer, of course. Look at the amount of headway year-round schooling (go to school 2 months, off 3 weeks) has made - little to none! Even though many things point to it being superior in various ways. But damn it, kids get the summer off, that's how the world works. The original reasoning behind it has long been abandoned and forgotten.
Given that my work schedule doesn't change when DST starts, and wouldn't change if DST or standard time were made year-round, yes, it does give me more post-work daylight.
I'm always counting the days til DST comes back. Later daylight makes me happy! Sure, some schoolkids have to wait for the bus in the dark - but I had to do that anyhow when I was younger, even when it wasn't DST! I wish we could have it this way all year long - winter is when we need it *worst*, with the sun setting by 4:30 in many places.
The DS was a natural environment for something like this - current products all tout *either* their interactivity *or* their portability, none have both, and the DS can provide both. Apparently some groups are working on PC versions of similar games, but hopefully someone will eventually take this to the DS, which is really where it belongs.
I haven't actually played Bejeweled, but I must say you should give Zookeeper (a bejeweled clone) a chance. Discovering the never-ending bad translations from the Japanese is worth the price (which is now pretty cheap). I still haven't figured out what some of the messages are supposed to mean, and I've been playing it obsessively for four months.
I have to say, it rocked, and we and everyone in our class wants one. Unfortunately, voice recognition won't be to the point where this would be feasible for a few more years. I hope that someone does pick up on this type of use eventually though, because done right this would be the ultimate solution for people picking up a second language for travel. The DS provides the possibility of voice input, instant feedback, communication via wifi with native speakers, portability (though you need non-spoken activities for use on public transit), everything you could ask for in a language package in a video game wrapper that could be designed to be quite fun on its own merits.
Actually, a DRM-free, higher bitrate album will be $9.99, just like always. It's only the single songs that will cost extra for the "upgrade." Can you reliably find CDs for less than that?
There is a classic study on this in airplane cockpits. At one point, airplane companies tried to use digital readouts, but the pilots had a much harder time with them because it wasn't the numbers they were focusing on, it was the angle of the hand on the dial, which is easy to see at a glance. They even set minimum speeds while descending by marking the lowest safe speed on the dial and watching the hand to make sure it doesn't get near it.
Why would I want the controls in my car to change?? It's confusing enough when my husband decides to reprogram the radio buttons so that the stations are in numerical order. When I'm driving, I want to be able to control the heat, radio, wipers, etc with no more than a cursory glance downward to be sure I'm aiming in the right general direction, if that. I don't want to push what I think is the A/C button and have my headlights turn off.
This is very true. I learned my lesson last year when I took a year off work before grad school, thinking I'd work on several projects I have in mind (some freelance writing, for example). Ha! With a complete lack of deadlines, I am useless! Self-set deadlines with no external pressure do nothing for me, either. Now that I'm back in school, I'm doing a great job of keeping on top of projects both for my classes and out of class.
I'm sure there are plenty of people with their heads up their asses using Windows and Linux, has it put you off of those platforms too? Because I know I pick my OS based on the fact that no one I dislike uses it.
What?? They separate out "Mac OS" and "MacIntel", and include Wii and PSP as operating systems? I don't understand that graph at all.
No kidding. And on such shaky grounds. I mean, how many three-page essays on imagery in Hamlet or the three branches of the US government can possibly go into this database before it starts throwing out a ton of false positives? I guess at least if it gets questioned too many times, teachers will stop using it.
I put "cool" in quotes, specifically to highlight the fact that developers DON'T only work on projects they deem cool. They work on what they're hired to work on. Very few slashdot readers have the freedom to 100% choose their own projects based on what they like best - your first post made it sound like Slashdot is full of the people who decide what's cool because they only produce what they believe is cool.
And the rest of your post has nothing to do with the discussion, except to emphasize my point, which is that the readers of Slashdot are not, by and large, the arbiters of cool. Sure, /. readers may agree with the general population on some things - choosing a hip, young company over a giant corporate dinosaur - but often for different reasons.
You seem to have forgotten that we're not arguing over whether the NBC site will do well, but over your assertion that Slashdot is full of Very Powerful People whose opinions will make or break the NBC site.