First, I dislike the very government-like approach that the real estate industry is in. However, there are some positive benefits to using a realtor that go beyond pure technology:
Most Realtors are bound by a code of ethics (and law) to disclose any material facts about the home. If they even suspect something (something that they *should* know) about a house, they have to disclose it to both parties. So, while a seller of a home can conveniently forget something, a realtor must disclose it if he/she has any knowledge of it.
Most people suck as negotiators in the USA. Just because a person sees a "fact" doesn't mean that the other person does. Negotiation is about bringing two parties together and finding that common ground for making a transaction happen. A Seller wants to sell their home. A Buyer wants to buy it. And home buying is rarely that simple. There are issues, in the real world that have to be worked around, including a ridiculous number of government laws and financial tricks to maneuver around. A professional agent can help both the buyer and seller to get through everything smoothly and close a transaction. Yes, you can do it without agents, but unless you are very knowledgeable about the business, one or both of the parties is going to get screwed.
Most people don't really know what a home's value is. They don't know how to get a good value for their home relative to how fast they want to sell/buy. It is the business of a real estate agent to spend every day steeped in the business. Just like it is the job of good developers to be on top of coding, servers, networks, and any new issues that pop up.
By their own rules, they have to be very knowledgeable about many aspects of the law, finance, and market. And they are to use that information to protect their client (whether buyer or seller) and to further their client's best interest.
Kind of combining the last two points: Let me use the same logic for developing web sites. We all know how easy it is to build a pretty complex and powerful system just using the very easy to use (for us developers) and free service from a Google. However, we developers know what the real limitations and challenges are with a system like that. Plus, the free tools will not build you a custom site with custom applications that give a business a technological advantage over their competitors. That is why they will pay (if not happily) $50-$200 per hour for people like the readers of/. to build sites for them. While they theoretically could learn how to build their own site. They don't have the time, inclination, nor talent for building real web sites. The same arguments apply for real estate transactions.
Okay...stopping now...got real work to do. However, I could keep going on this topic.
If you want to have a logical, rational discussion about evolution, quit insulting Christians to start and finish your comments. God may or may not have used evolution to create humans. He doesn't give us a detailed account of what process He used.
Funny how the supposed thinking, scientific community act like the "religious nuts" that they deride. In science, you let the information speak for itself. If there are holes in the data, you admit it! Then leave it alone until you find more information to fill those gaps. What we supposedly *know* in science changes every day as new information comes to light. You defeat your own arguments by acting as if what we know today cannot possibly be changed. Not to mention you shut down the very essence of scientific discovery...skepticism.
If God chose to use evolution...so be it. If he decided to create the world 6,000 years (as we know them today) ago and build it in an instant complete with a history for us to discover...so be it. That is His decision, not mine.
Yes, I am a Christian. So? Do I believe in evolution? Some. Despite the current evidence, I still have not seen enough to say that is how humans were certainly created. However, it is is the process of how we were created, does that shatter my Christian beliefs? No. Why should it? God did not say it was a sin to discover more about the universe He created.
For those of you who do not believe that there is a God and a hereafter, why do you care about evolution? In less than a blink of an cosmic eye, you will be dust and all your works will evaporate any way.
Because someone does not know much about computers, and specifically computer security, does not make them "stupid". It most often means that they have things they they are skilled to deal with. Because you probably cannot perform open heart surgery does not make you stupid either. It means that you probably know about computers and their security. We all have our areas of expertise and interest and they cannot be everything-there is only so much time and mental capacity.
This type of attitude I find prevalent among people who know a bit about computers. This is one of the reasons that Linux has taken so long to be usable for the masses. Most people do not want to build their own computers and most people don't want to have to learn about computer security. They want the people who specialize in it to make it where it works for them.
I recall watching Ballmer making comments about the iPhone, too. Haven't heard anything from him since the iPhone actually released. But given his prediction ability, I would say that this is really a non-event. That is unless you want a record of the statements for future comedy efforts.
Read the reports from IDC and Gartner - not to mention Apple's own earnings calls. The iPod does have a "halo effect". People that are often interested in the iPod but not the Mac. They walk into an Apple Store and are exposed to the Mac. This has an impact on them. While they may not buy one immediately, they are now considering them with a purchase often following (when they need a new computer).
No tweaking required, inside the US. Here Macs are good deals, and on the higher end, when compared to a comparable first tier builder, sometimes even a great deal. But I simply cannot comment on pricing outside the US. And, looking at the Mac mini in the market that it was designed for (people that currently have computers and don't need yet another keyboard/mouse/monitor) is the right way to do it. If you want a Macintosh with a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, then you purchase the iMac. And, no, not everyone wants a new set of I/O devices with every computer purchase.
Sorry to hear about the guys driving up the used Mac prices on you. Supply and demand, I guess. Hard to believe that they are driving used Mac prices beyond brand new retail pricing. Are you sure about that? The credibility of that statement seems a bit shaky.
You commented about "fanboys". The same could be said about people that take the opposite view and hate all things Apple (or any other manufacturer here including Microsoft). I much prefer, as a user of all three operating systems, to look at the merits of each. The same goes for hardware.
As a point of comparison, can you post actual Macintosh prices, for your part of the world, and a comparison with another first tier maker of hardware? I am seriously interested in seeing the difference.
Let me get this straight. You a a/. member and you don't have a monitor/keyboard/mouse to throw on top of a new Mac mini? I am in sales and I bet I have a half dozen of each device sitting around. You have to be kidding me.
Even with that, in the US, we can also get refurbished Intel 17" iMacs (with keyboard and mouse) for only $150 more. That is probably not an option for many outside the US-is it? Is there a robust refurbished market for Macs outside the US? I truly do not know.
The Root My Mac mini event you mention was a fraud and was demonstrated to be so at the time. The hacker was given on account on the machine. While it was pitched and reported as being a "remote exploit" the "hacker" was given SSH access to the machine so that what he really did was have full run of a local machine.
So, come on. While there may be some great examples of OS X vulnerabilities, this is not one.
Communications on the cheap is one of the beautiful things about the internet - today. The people can share information and express viewpoints much more easily and for far less money than was required before the web become so prevalent.
I understand the concern. I would forget the generic statement and watch the specifics on each one that is offered. Mine came with one 512 MB stick already in it - not a pair of 256 MB sticks. And I saw that detail before I placed the order. You can find them with the memory as one stick, too. I seem to even recall one batch that came through the store already configured with 1MB, but I don't recall if it was one stick or two.
You can add memory to your order, but you will probably need to install it. If you don't want to do the install yourself, then take it to just about any local computer shop. It is extremely easy to install the RAM. My MacBook Pro came with 512MB installed and I ordered another 512MB stick. They came in separate packages. After unpacking the laptop and the memory, it took less than 30 seconds to install the extra stick.
Please don't be offended by the basic instructions if you are a normal/. guy that knows all about installing RAM. Good luck with your purchase. I and my company have been very happy with purchasing refurbished Macintosh products from Apple.
I guess you have never taken a look at the Apple refurb store then. I saved $500 on my MacBook Pro and that put it under $1,500. Yes, it is a 15.4" and not a 17". But that is okay because I travel around a lot with mine and the 17" MacBook Pro was just too big.
I also physically compared the Apple 17" to the various Dell 17" offerings (easy to do since I live in Austin, TX). You mention the screen resolution as a distinguishing characteristic between the Dell your wife bought and the Apple 17". Let me mention another difference. I can fit two MacBook Pros in the same physical space of the Dell offerings (yes, there is a bit of exaggeration, but not much!). So, what is the value of a much smaller footprint for what is supposed to be a mobile computer? It's really anyones guess.
Speaking of the past, Steve Jobs killed the clone program because they could not make up the loss of hardware revenue with operating system revenue. Lesson learned - Apple is truly a hardware company that differentiates its products with great software.
You are also talking about a huge amount of room on a very large barge and the lack of dangers like the military vessel would have. Also, if the body of water is in the right place, you are talking about a nice defensive moat to help prevent terrorist attacks that might otherwise target it. With that in mind, I vote we put the reactors in a dome at the bottom of the sea. Really keep the threats away.
Hey, I thought dual core was better than single core. So shouldn't two duals be better than four single cores? - so AMD is shooting its own marketing foot?;-)
I agree that Apple has a nasty habit of prioritizing feature request implementation according to the number of people that request it. Maybe if the/. crowd can be convinced to actually type in a useful form, then you can have the/. effect for a feature request - just overwhelm Apple with so many well thought out feature requests that they just have to act immediately to please the masses - wait a second, I what was I thinking. This is SlashDot.
Seriously, you seem to be on to something. However, Apple is not going to do it without some significant indication that it is a feature that a significant portion of its users or potential users claims to want.
As to bugs in iTunes 7, I have it installed on 25 Macs (a mix of PPC and Intel) and have seen none of the reported bugs. No one in my rather extensive group of known Mac users has reported any bugs either. That doesn't mean they don't exist. Just that I have not personally seen any evidence of them.
You are correct. No one forces anyone to purchase product from WalMart. However, actions like what WalMart is doing to the video suppliers is an attempt to force suppliers to sell to no one but them. If a better model does come up, rather than work out agreements, they throw a temper tantrum to try to force the new model to go away.
Too bad for WalMart, the tactic rarely seems to work.
The best idea is no regulation. Let the market decide. If people start trying to double up on charges or limit my access, then I'll change ISPs. The Feds need to stay out of this.
No one here is specifying whose margins they are talking about. Apple? The Labels? The Artists? Don't have time to find the links to the stories that specify the breakdowns. But the Labels are the ones making the vast majority of the money from the downloads. I seem to recall that Apple gets about 6 cents per song and still has to pay for the infrastructure (storage, promotion, bandwidth, etc.).
The Labels are the ones making any profit off downloads. But they had to risk giving up control to Apple - profit being the only reason they acceded. Now they are worried because they cannot see a good way to get the control back. But they keep cheering for the efforts like Microsoft's Zune and accompanying download service because if they can get one or more to become successful, then they can erode Apple's control.
Apple I think has a back-up plan for what they know will eventually happen - erosion. I think that they are carefully courting the Independent label and artists. If they can build up a strong Independent base, then they will have what the Xbox has - a place where you can only get something that you might want. And here the artist gets more money, which is something most of us want. Perhaps they even get a fair share of the income from their creative efforts.
This is a bit off topic but maybe in line with the current thread. There is a SmallTalk/C derivative (at least heavily influence by SmallTalk and built on top of C). The Cocoa Frameworks using Objective C are gaining a bit of traction, even if it is only used for the niche Apple Macintosh market.
Slashdot Mirror
Try Apple's Mail. It is better than "easy to setup". It is no setup. It is ready to go.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/mail.html
Notes & To Do are integrated into the application.
First, I dislike the very government-like approach that the real estate industry is in. However, there are some positive benefits to using a realtor that go beyond pure technology:
/. to build sites for them. While they theoretically could learn how to build their own site. They don't have the time, inclination, nor talent for building real web sites. The same arguments apply for real estate transactions.
Most Realtors are bound by a code of ethics (and law) to disclose any material facts about the home. If they even suspect something (something that they *should* know) about a house, they have to disclose it to both parties. So, while a seller of a home can conveniently forget something, a realtor must disclose it if he/she has any knowledge of it.
Most people suck as negotiators in the USA. Just because a person sees a "fact" doesn't mean that the other person does. Negotiation is about bringing two parties together and finding that common ground for making a transaction happen. A Seller wants to sell their home. A Buyer wants to buy it. And home buying is rarely that simple. There are issues, in the real world that have to be worked around, including a ridiculous number of government laws and financial tricks to maneuver around. A professional agent can help both the buyer and seller to get through everything smoothly and close a transaction. Yes, you can do it without agents, but unless you are very knowledgeable about the business, one or both of the parties is going to get screwed.
Most people don't really know what a home's value is. They don't know how to get a good value for their home relative to how fast they want to sell/buy. It is the business of a real estate agent to spend every day steeped in the business. Just like it is the job of good developers to be on top of coding, servers, networks, and any new issues that pop up.
By their own rules, they have to be very knowledgeable about many aspects of the law, finance, and market. And they are to use that information to protect their client (whether buyer or seller) and to further their client's best interest.
Kind of combining the last two points: Let me use the same logic for developing web sites. We all know how easy it is to build a pretty complex and powerful system just using the very easy to use (for us developers) and free service from a Google. However, we developers know what the real limitations and challenges are with a system like that. Plus, the free tools will not build you a custom site with custom applications that give a business a technological advantage over their competitors. That is why they will pay (if not happily) $50-$200 per hour for people like the readers of
Okay...stopping now...got real work to do. However, I could keep going on this topic.
If you want to have a logical, rational discussion about evolution, quit insulting Christians to start and finish your comments. God may or may not have used evolution to create humans. He doesn't give us a detailed account of what process He used.
Funny how the supposed thinking, scientific community act like the "religious nuts" that they deride. In science, you let the information speak for itself. If there are holes in the data, you admit it! Then leave it alone until you find more information to fill those gaps. What we supposedly *know* in science changes every day as new information comes to light. You defeat your own arguments by acting as if what we know today cannot possibly be changed. Not to mention you shut down the very essence of scientific discovery...skepticism.
If God chose to use evolution...so be it. If he decided to create the world 6,000 years (as we know them today) ago and build it in an instant complete with a history for us to discover...so be it. That is His decision, not mine.
Yes, I am a Christian. So? Do I believe in evolution? Some. Despite the current evidence, I still have not seen enough to say that is how humans were certainly created. However, it is is the process of how we were created, does that shatter my Christian beliefs? No. Why should it? God did not say it was a sin to discover more about the universe He created.
For those of you who do not believe that there is a God and a hereafter, why do you care about evolution? In less than a blink of an cosmic eye, you will be dust and all your works will evaporate any way.
"stupid people"
Because someone does not know much about computers, and specifically computer security, does not make them "stupid". It most often means that they have things they they are skilled to deal with. Because you probably cannot perform open heart surgery does not make you stupid either. It means that you probably know about computers and their security. We all have our areas of expertise and interest and they cannot be everything-there is only so much time and mental capacity.
This type of attitude I find prevalent among people who know a bit about computers. This is one of the reasons that Linux has taken so long to be usable for the masses. Most people do not want to build their own computers and most people don't want to have to learn about computer security. They want the people who specialize in it to make it where it works for them.
I recall watching Ballmer making comments about the iPhone, too. Haven't heard anything from him since the iPhone actually released. But given his prediction ability, I would say that this is really a non-event. That is unless you want a record of the statements for future comedy efforts.
Read the reports from IDC and Gartner - not to mention Apple's own earnings calls. The iPod does have a "halo effect". People that are often interested in the iPod but not the Mac. They walk into an Apple Store and are exposed to the Mac. This has an impact on them. While they may not buy one immediately, they are now considering them with a purchase often following (when they need a new computer).
No tweaking required, inside the US. Here Macs are good deals, and on the higher end, when compared to a comparable first tier builder, sometimes even a great deal. But I simply cannot comment on pricing outside the US. And, looking at the Mac mini in the market that it was designed for (people that currently have computers and don't need yet another keyboard/mouse/monitor) is the right way to do it. If you want a Macintosh with a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, then you purchase the iMac. And, no, not everyone wants a new set of I/O devices with every computer purchase.
Sorry to hear about the guys driving up the used Mac prices on you. Supply and demand, I guess. Hard to believe that they are driving used Mac prices beyond brand new retail pricing. Are you sure about that? The credibility of that statement seems a bit shaky.
You commented about "fanboys". The same could be said about people that take the opposite view and hate all things Apple (or any other manufacturer here including Microsoft). I much prefer, as a user of all three operating systems, to look at the merits of each. The same goes for hardware.
As a point of comparison, can you post actual Macintosh prices, for your part of the world, and a comparison with another first tier maker of hardware? I am seriously interested in seeing the difference.
Let me get this straight. You a a /. member and you don't have a monitor/keyboard/mouse to throw on top of a new Mac mini? I am in sales and I bet I have a half dozen of each device sitting around. You have to be kidding me.
Even with that, in the US, we can also get refurbished Intel 17" iMacs (with keyboard and mouse) for only $150 more. That is probably not an option for many outside the US-is it? Is there a robust refurbished market for Macs outside the US? I truly do not know.
The Root My Mac mini event you mention was a fraud and was demonstrated to be so at the time. The hacker was given on account on the machine. While it was pitched and reported as being a "remote exploit" the "hacker" was given SSH access to the machine so that what he really did was have full run of a local machine.
So, come on. While there may be some great examples of OS X vulnerabilities, this is not one.
GoDaddy and 1&1 both offer huge amounts of bandwidth for virtually nothing - less than US$4 a month. Luck is not needed, just a little research.
Communications on the cheap is one of the beautiful things about the internet - today. The people can share information and express viewpoints much more easily and for far less money than was required before the web become so prevalent.
You are correct - MacBook Pro.
I understand the concern. I would forget the generic statement and watch the specifics on each one that is offered. Mine came with one 512 MB stick already in it - not a pair of 256 MB sticks. And I saw that detail before I placed the order. You can find them with the memory as one stick, too. I seem to even recall one batch that came through the store already configured with 1MB, but I don't recall if it was one stick or two.
You can add memory to your order, but you will probably need to install it. If you don't want to do the install yourself, then take it to just about any local computer shop. It is extremely easy to install the RAM. My MacBook Pro came with 512MB installed and I ordered another 512MB stick. They came in separate packages. After unpacking the laptop and the memory, it took less than 30 seconds to install the extra stick.
/. guy that knows all about installing RAM. Good luck with your purchase. I and my company have been very happy with purchasing refurbished Macintosh products from Apple.
Please don't be offended by the basic instructions if you are a normal
I guess you have never taken a look at the Apple refurb store then. I saved $500 on my MacBook Pro and that put it under $1,500. Yes, it is a 15.4" and not a 17". But that is okay because I travel around a lot with mine and the 17" MacBook Pro was just too big.
I also physically compared the Apple 17" to the various Dell 17" offerings (easy to do since I live in Austin, TX). You mention the screen resolution as a distinguishing characteristic between the Dell your wife bought and the Apple 17". Let me mention another difference. I can fit two MacBook Pros in the same physical space of the Dell offerings (yes, there is a bit of exaggeration, but not much!). So, what is the value of a much smaller footprint for what is supposed to be a mobile computer? It's really anyones guess.
Many countries want the US to go away...until they want something from the US.
Speaking of the past, Steve Jobs killed the clone program because they could not make up the loss of hardware revenue with operating system revenue. Lesson learned - Apple is truly a hardware company that differentiates its products with great software.
You are also talking about a huge amount of room on a very large barge and the lack of dangers like the military vessel would have. Also, if the body of water is in the right place, you are talking about a nice defensive moat to help prevent terrorist attacks that might otherwise target it. With that in mind, I vote we put the reactors in a dome at the bottom of the sea. Really keep the threats away.
Hey, I thought dual core was better than single core. So shouldn't two duals be better than four single cores? - so AMD is shooting its own marketing foot? ;-)
I agree that Apple has a nasty habit of prioritizing feature request implementation according to the number of people that request it. Maybe if the /. crowd can be convinced to actually type in a useful form, then you can have the /. effect for a feature request - just overwhelm Apple with so many well thought out feature requests that they just have to act immediately to please the masses - wait a second, I what was I thinking. This is SlashDot.
Seriously, you seem to be on to something. However, Apple is not going to do it without some significant indication that it is a feature that a significant portion of its users or potential users claims to want.
As to bugs in iTunes 7, I have it installed on 25 Macs (a mix of PPC and Intel) and have seen none of the reported bugs. No one in my rather extensive group of known Mac users has reported any bugs either. That doesn't mean they don't exist. Just that I have not personally seen any evidence of them.
Excellent. Have you submitted a feature request to Apple?
/. :-)
http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipod.html
Believe it or not, I don't think that the Apple product managers read
You are correct. No one forces anyone to purchase product from WalMart. However, actions like what WalMart is doing to the video suppliers is an attempt to force suppliers to sell to no one but them. If a better model does come up, rather than work out agreements, they throw a temper tantrum to try to force the new model to go away.
Too bad for WalMart, the tactic rarely seems to work.
The best idea is no regulation. Let the market decide. If people start trying to double up on charges or limit my access, then I'll change ISPs. The Feds need to stay out of this.
No one here is specifying whose margins they are talking about. Apple? The Labels? The Artists? Don't have time to find the links to the stories that specify the breakdowns. But the Labels are the ones making the vast majority of the money from the downloads. I seem to recall that Apple gets about 6 cents per song and still has to pay for the infrastructure (storage, promotion, bandwidth, etc.).
The Labels are the ones making any profit off downloads. But they had to risk giving up control to Apple - profit being the only reason they acceded. Now they are worried because they cannot see a good way to get the control back. But they keep cheering for the efforts like Microsoft's Zune and accompanying download service because if they can get one or more to become successful, then they can erode Apple's control.
Apple I think has a back-up plan for what they know will eventually happen - erosion. I think that they are carefully courting the Independent label and artists. If they can build up a strong Independent base, then they will have what the Xbox has - a place where you can only get something that you might want. And here the artist gets more money, which is something most of us want. Perhaps they even get a fair share of the income from their creative efforts.
This is a bit off topic but maybe in line with the current thread. There is a SmallTalk/C derivative (at least heavily influence by SmallTalk and built on top of C). The Cocoa Frameworks using Objective C are gaining a bit of traction, even if it is only used for the niche Apple Macintosh market.