The Borders I go to is Des Moines is clean and well stocked, and full of friendly and helpful people. I wonder if it's where you live, as opposed to the company?
I know that when I visited my sister when she was stationed in California, most of the stores we went in there were usually filthy and poorly stocked compared to the same company's stores in Des Moines (not talking Borders here, but stores in general, such as K-Mart, etc.) Perhaps too many people crammed into one area?
> (b) iTMS DRM-encumbered music plays only on the iPod.
Your forgot something: They also play on your PC or your Mac, and on ANY CD PLAYER since you can burn them to CD.
And that pretty much means you can listen to iTMS purchased music in 99% of the places people WANT to listen to that music.
Still, I agree that DRM must go, simply because it's stupid and a waste of EVERYONE'S time and money. It protects nothing and this can be easily proven to anyone willing to listen and (more importantly) THINK. That leaves out the RIAA and MPAA and such, of course.
> I can do all that crap on my Motorola RAZR that fits neatly in my shirt pocket)
Um....no. Last I checked the so called "Address Book" on my RAZR doesn't actually store addreses (well, ok, it does store EMAIL addresses). But not street addresses. Only phone numbers.
And I can install software on my RAZR. I just installed Google Maps the other day. I installed several e-book readers. I know you can get games and other stuff.
So is the RAZR a phone or a smartphone? Hard to say. I'd say no, but it's a pretty gray area anymore.
> Apple has decided that it is more lucrative to sell consumer appliances than computers.
Um....since when aren't personal computers "consumer appliances". Well, Macs are, anyway. Always have been, really. Remember, they are "The computer for the rest of us". (or at least for those of us who want their computer to "just work" without having to tinker with it and scan it for viruses and spyware and fix corrupted registries and.....)
Again....then simply buy the RAM or HD from somewhere else and plug it in. But make sure you get decent RAM or HDs. Otherwise don't complain when your Mac is as unstable as el-cheapo no-name PC often are. Such things on a Mac are OFTEN found to be caused by bad or cheap RAM, for example. Replace the RAM and the problem invariable goes away. I've seen it over and over again. Cheaper isn't always better. Especially for RAM.
I'll bet that EBuyer doesn't INSTALL it for you for that price, either. The Apple Store does. You didn't think to factor that in.
I priced HD and memory upgrades when I bought a MacBook Pro about 4 months ago and found them only a little bit more expensive than the average price at other sources. Factoring in installation by Apple, I found their price quite fair. Sure I could find stuff a LOT cheaper at a few places....and that's a good reason to avoid such places as they are probably selling sub-standard items. Go for the average price, slightly more, and you'll have a lot less problems with your hardware.
And anyway, Apple has no problem with people buying their RAM or HDs or peripherals elsewhere. In fact, they make it easy for you to install them - usually even easier than it is on most of the PC's I've installed RAM and HDs onto (especially the generic no-name PC's). Even on the MacBook - the HD and memory are both easily accessible underneath the battery. And have you seen how easy it is to install a HD on a Mac Pro? I mean, really - a caveman could do it.;-) No cables at all. Plug drive into carrier, plug carrier into computer, done. To paraphrase an old Apple TV ad: "There's no step three".
Then simply buy it "anywhere else" and plug it in. You can do that, you know. Doesn't even void your warranty. Easy to do, even on their laptops (the slots are usually accessible underneath the battery or underneath the keyboard.)
Actually, it does that intentionally so I doubt there will be a way to "get around it". It's not static, it's the entire page going solid black for an instant. This apparently is to prevent "burn in" of the e-ink "pixels" which definitely does happen. I noticd ghost images of large text from a previous page occasionally when I played with the Sony Reader in the local CompUSA.
But at $350-$400, forget it. I'm getting an eBookWise reader at $124. www.ebookwise.com.
It's a more evolved version of the old GemStar/RCA ebook I have. Better screen and other features, but same case.
I noticed the Sony Reader was hard to hold and felt flimsy. The GemStar/eBookWise unit has a nice raised edge on one side where they also store a LARGE (but fairly light) battery and feels really good and solid in your hand.
Certainly there's no longer a modem port on the back of the unit like on my old pre-extremet Airport "Snow".
Surprised me that they'd drop it. They must believe that dial-up and dial-out is no longer worth supporting. Of course, most of the wifi basestations from other vendors out there out there don't support it and never have. Something worth thinking about, I guess. It's not hard to find WiFi access in most cities and towns these days. Hell, most hotels and many restaurants have it. Even Mikey D's.
I was going to buy this unit for the disk and printer sharing capability...but I may pass now. Still...I don't use the dial-up much at all, but it allowed me to let my mother use my broadband connection on the rare occasions she wants to use the internet, etc, and it allowed me to connect to my home network if I was out of town, etc.
Still, I might be able to just leave the old unit hooked up too. I'll have to investigate possible configurations.
So what's your point? I don't see that you have one. You can upgrade Macs in pieces too. In fact, most of the stuff you mention (and a lot you don't) works out of the box with the Mac....WITHOUT having to install ANY drivers. Especially mice, hard drives, dvd writers, printers, scanners, camera....basically most everything. Printer especially, due to Mac OS X shipping with CUPS and it's myriad drivers.
Same sort of card slots in Macs as in Windows PCs. Same sort of connector sockets and network interfaces (USB, Ethernet, WiFi, BlueToth, etc) plus some most PC's don't have out of the box such as Firewire 400 and 800. Even on Mac laptops (well, the Pros) there are industry standard card slots; PC Card/PCMCIA on PowerBooks and ExpressCards on the new MacBook Pros.
This is mostly because an awful lot of peripheral hardware these days is being designed towards industry standards where NO extra driver is needed. Such device work with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and more because the hardware isn't locked to a particular OS. The vendors get to sell to ALL markets.
Oh, and re: Parallels: Windows users can run virtualization software just like Parallels too. From Microsoft. It's called Virtual PC. Virtual PC was initially created for the Mac, by the way. Microsoft bought the company that made it (and Virtual PC for Windows) so they could try to compete with VMWare.
Um....I hate to point this out, but you can't play DRM'd DVDs everywhere. Only the country where you purchased it, or should I say on the DVD-players that were locked to the same region code as the DVD was encoded for. You can't play a Region 2 DVD on a Region 1 player and vice versa. And don't tell me about region-free players....I can't go down to the store and buy one. I think it's even illegal to have them.
So why doesn't the Norwegian's make DVD region coding DRM illegal too?
Fair is Fair if FairPlay is considered Unfair.
Don't get me wrong, I think all DRM should be banned...but so should discriminatory laws or lawsuits and that's what the Norwegians have done with their ruling. Apple will just close the iTMS in Norway and walk away. It's not like it's a very big market compared to the US anyway, and there are plenty of other places clamoring for an iTMS of their own.
Microsoft's PlaysForSure supports WINDOWS (but not Mac OS X), a few barely-selling MP3 players, possibly a few Windows Mobile cell phone, and has now been effectively dropped by Microsoft in favor of their OWN Zune player, thereby competing with and screwing all their Plays For Sure licensees and their customer's customers.
Apple's FairPlay supports Mac OS X, WINDOWS, iPod, iPhone, and Motorola cell phones such as RAZR V3i, ROKR, and several others.
No, the "e" in "eMac" stood for "education", as it was initially sold to schools ONLY until (ahem) everyone else raised a hue and cry about wanting to buy it too.
And eMac being "The Mac for everybody" is funny. The mac has always been "the computer (designed for) for everyone else (except computer geeks)", after all....
They shoulda gone with iPodPhone. (or maybe iPhod or iPhoned?;-)
Lock in? You mean the same connector that's available in THOUSANDS of third-party iPod accessories. Hundreds of automobiles? Even some AIRLINERS soon?
or if he didn't mean the end that hooks to the iPod....then he means USB 2 or Firewire 400. Both industry standard.
Heck, the original ipod had a standard firewire connection, which they never should have gotten away from, IMHO, but at least Apple standardized on ONE connector starting with the 2nd Gen units I think, and have stuck with it from generations 2 thru current (6) unlike Palm who seems to change their connector every major rev or two. I think they're on the third or forth "universal" cable format now... Not to mention all the third-party PalmOS vendors doing their own damn thing too....
To heck with cables.....my RAZR links to my MacBook Pro C2D with BlueTooth. use the BlueTooth File Transfer programs and upload/download images, mp3s, midi files, video, etc with no wires at all. Just drag and drop from the desktop into the BT File Transfer window onto the folder you want. Only thing that'd make me even happier is if I could (a) get access to MORE of the phones innards that way (probably not safe for non-geek users though) and if it'd mount as a drive on the desktop instead of requiring a utility program.
Yep, I posted a number of ring tones. I also thing it's more flexible than the specs you mention, as I've posted numerous random MP3s and they ALL work.
You can also use (some).mid (MIDI) files although THOSE I've had problem with. Possibly missing instruments or channels or something, I don't know much about MIDI files.
Not necessarily. At least one of them makes a program for the Mac that will extract the.cab files out of the.exe installer. Either PocketMac or MissingSync, not sure which.
You mean robots like the Hubble Space Telescope? The two Mars Rovers currently running (Spirit and Opportunity) and the one before it (Sojurner) that really have garnered a lot of public interest (and in the case of Hubble, an outcry to send another service mission even after NASA had decided not to do so because it "wasn't safe" (hah!) for the Shuttle astronauts (as if the astronauts didn't know that the whole Shuttle wasn't safe.....)
Not to mention the current Cassini-Huygens mission and Galileo, Pioneer, Voyager, and Viking before them. All of them have had tremendous public interest.
Pity that you think that. If I had to choose only ONE SF authors books to have on a desert island, they'd be Heinleins. I've read and re-read all of them many times. Plenty of other SF authors I love too, and also read and re-read, but there is a reason Heinlein is called The Master (and no, you Doctor Who fans, you can't chime in here....go 'way.)
If you don't get it...try harder. (Which might sum up Heinlein in a nutshell, come to think of it....)
Not that I've ever had to TRY much to enjoy and (wonderfully) even LEARN from Heinlein's work.
See, I have a problem with your saying that his women are "extremes". What makes you think that? Sounds like you're trying to denigrate the capabilties of your own gender, to me.
Are the women Heinleins writes about EXCEPTIONAL? Maybe. But then so was his wife, by all accounts. I'd argue that many are, but many are not. But then so are most of his men. And hey, who wants to read about unexceptional or uninteresting people? One can get enough of that on the soap operas and in the movies of the week shown on the "WE" channel, frankly. Snooooore.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I have.
The Borders I go to is Des Moines is clean and well stocked, and full of friendly and helpful people. I wonder if it's where you live, as opposed to the company?
I know that when I visited my sister when she was stationed in California, most of the stores we went in there were usually filthy and poorly stocked compared to the same company's stores in Des Moines (not talking Borders here, but stores in general, such as K-Mart, etc.) Perhaps too many people crammed into one area?
Good points.
One error though:
> (b) iTMS DRM-encumbered music plays only on the iPod.
Your forgot something: They also play on your PC or your Mac, and on ANY CD PLAYER since you can burn them to CD.
And that pretty much means you can listen to iTMS purchased music in 99% of the places people WANT to listen to that music.
Still, I agree that DRM must go, simply because it's stupid and a waste of EVERYONE'S time and money. It protects nothing and this can be easily proven to anyone willing to listen and (more importantly) THINK. That leaves out the RIAA and MPAA and such, of course.
> I can do all that crap on my Motorola RAZR that fits neatly in my shirt pocket)
Um....no. Last I checked the so called "Address Book" on my RAZR doesn't actually store addreses (well, ok, it does store EMAIL addresses). But not street addresses. Only phone numbers.
And I can install software on my RAZR. I just installed Google Maps the other day. I installed several e-book readers. I know you can get games and other stuff.
So is the RAZR a phone or a smartphone? Hard to say. I'd say no, but it's a pretty gray area anymore.
> Apple has decided that it is more lucrative to sell consumer appliances than computers.
Um....since when aren't personal computers "consumer appliances". Well, Macs are, anyway. Always have been, really. Remember, they are "The computer for the rest of us". (or at least for those of us who want their computer to "just work" without having to tinker with it and scan it for viruses and spyware and fix corrupted registries and.....)
Except you can CHANGE many/most of Apple's keyboard shortcuts, via the Keyboard control panel.
Can't do that on a PC.
Again....then simply buy the RAM or HD from somewhere else and plug it in. But make sure you get decent RAM or HDs. Otherwise don't complain when your Mac is as unstable as el-cheapo no-name PC often are. Such things on a Mac are OFTEN found to be caused by bad or cheap RAM, for example. Replace the RAM and the problem invariable goes away. I've seen it over and over again. Cheaper isn't always better. Especially for RAM.
;-) No cables at all. Plug drive into carrier, plug carrier into computer, done. To paraphrase an old Apple TV ad: "There's no step three".
I'll bet that EBuyer doesn't INSTALL it for you for that price, either. The Apple Store does. You didn't think to factor that in.
I priced HD and memory upgrades when I bought a MacBook Pro about 4 months ago and found them only a little bit more expensive than the average price at other sources. Factoring in installation by Apple, I found their price quite fair. Sure I could find stuff a LOT cheaper at a few places....and that's a good reason to avoid such places as they are probably selling sub-standard items. Go for the average price, slightly more, and you'll have a lot less problems with your hardware.
And anyway, Apple has no problem with people buying their RAM or HDs or peripherals elsewhere. In fact, they make it easy for you to install them - usually even easier than it is on most of the PC's I've installed RAM and HDs onto (especially the generic no-name PC's). Even on the MacBook - the HD and memory are both easily accessible underneath the battery. And have you seen how easy it is to install a HD on a Mac Pro? I mean, really - a caveman could do it.
Then simply buy it "anywhere else" and plug it in. You can do that, you know. Doesn't even void your warranty. Easy to do, even on their laptops (the slots are usually accessible underneath the battery or underneath the keyboard.)
There another anti-Mac-troll bashed with truth.
Actually, it does that intentionally so I doubt there will be a way to "get around it". It's not static, it's the entire page going solid black for an instant. This apparently is to prevent "burn in" of the e-ink "pixels" which definitely does happen. I noticd ghost images of large text from a previous page occasionally when I played with the Sony Reader in the local CompUSA.
But at $350-$400, forget it. I'm getting an eBookWise reader at $124. www.ebookwise.com.
It's a more evolved version of the old GemStar/RCA ebook I have. Better screen and other features, but same case.
I noticed the Sony Reader was hard to hold and felt flimsy. The GemStar/eBookWise unit has a nice raised edge on one side where they also store a LARGE (but fairly light) battery and feels really good and solid in your hand.
Just one small problem with your logic: Apple does not have TPM chips in current Macs.
Actually, I don't believe the new AirPort Extreme they just released has dial-up (and dial-out) capability.
Picture here: http://www.apple.com/airportextreme/specs.html
Certainly there's no longer a modem port on the back of the unit like on my old pre-extremet Airport "Snow".
Surprised me that they'd drop it. They must believe that dial-up and dial-out is no longer worth supporting. Of course, most of the wifi basestations from other vendors out there out there don't support it and never have. Something worth thinking about, I guess. It's not hard to find WiFi access in most cities and towns these days. Hell, most hotels and many restaurants have it. Even Mikey D's.
I was going to buy this unit for the disk and printer sharing capability...but I may pass now. Still...I don't use the dial-up much at all, but it allowed me to let my mother use my broadband connection on the rare occasions she wants to use the internet, etc, and it allowed me to connect to my home network if I was out of town, etc.
Still, I might be able to just leave the old unit hooked up too. I'll have to investigate possible configurations.
So what's your point? I don't see that you have one. You can upgrade Macs in pieces too. In fact, most of the stuff you mention (and a lot you don't) works out of the box with the Mac....WITHOUT having to install ANY drivers. Especially mice, hard drives, dvd writers, printers, scanners, camera....basically most everything. Printer especially, due to Mac OS X shipping with CUPS and it's myriad drivers.
Same sort of card slots in Macs as in Windows PCs. Same sort of connector sockets and network interfaces (USB, Ethernet, WiFi, BlueToth, etc) plus some most PC's don't have out of the box such as Firewire 400 and 800. Even on Mac laptops (well, the Pros) there are industry standard card slots; PC Card/PCMCIA on PowerBooks and ExpressCards on the new MacBook Pros.
This is mostly because an awful lot of peripheral hardware these days is being designed towards industry standards where NO extra driver is needed. Such device work with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and more because the hardware isn't locked to a particular OS. The vendors get to sell to ALL markets.
Oh, and re: Parallels: Windows users can run virtualization software just like Parallels too. From Microsoft. It's called Virtual PC. Virtual PC was initially created for the Mac, by the way. Microsoft bought the company that made it (and Virtual PC for Windows) so they could try to compete with VMWare.
And Windows can run Parallels too. So can Linux.
Yes, I have. I've been using it on my Mac for the last six years or so... ;-)
Um....I hate to point this out, but you can't play DRM'd DVDs everywhere. Only the country where you purchased it, or should I say on the DVD-players that were locked to the same region code as the DVD was encoded for. You can't play a Region 2 DVD on a Region 1 player and vice versa. And don't tell me about region-free players....I can't go down to the store and buy one. I think it's even illegal to have them.
So why doesn't the Norwegian's make DVD region coding DRM illegal too?
Fair is Fair if FairPlay is considered Unfair.
Don't get me wrong, I think all DRM should be banned...but so should discriminatory laws or lawsuits and that's what the Norwegians have done with their ruling. Apple will just close the iTMS in Norway and walk away. It's not like it's a very big market compared to the US anyway, and there are plenty of other places clamoring for an iTMS of their own.
*Sigh*. Lets get our facts straight, please.
Microsoft's PlaysForSure supports WINDOWS (but not Mac OS X), a few barely-selling MP3 players, possibly a few Windows Mobile cell phone, and has now been effectively dropped by Microsoft in favor of their OWN Zune player, thereby competing with and screwing all their Plays For Sure licensees and their customer's customers.
Apple's FairPlay supports Mac OS X, WINDOWS, iPod, iPhone, and Motorola cell phones such as RAZR V3i, ROKR, and several others.
No, the "e" in "eMac" stood for "education", as it was initially sold to schools ONLY until (ahem) everyone else raised a hue and cry about wanting to buy it too.
;-)
And eMac being "The Mac for everybody" is funny. The mac has always been "the computer (designed for) for everyone else (except computer geeks)", after all....
They shoulda gone with iPodPhone. (or maybe iPhod or iPhoned?
Not a bad idea, actually....Darwin, the core of OS X using in the Mac and the iPhone and the AppleTV, is basd on bsD (I mean "BSD") after all....
Lock in? You mean the same connector that's available in THOUSANDS of third-party iPod accessories. Hundreds of automobiles? Even some AIRLINERS soon?
or if he didn't mean the end that hooks to the iPod....then he means USB 2 or Firewire 400. Both industry standard.
Heck, the original ipod had a standard firewire connection, which they never should have gotten away from, IMHO, but at least Apple standardized on ONE connector starting with the 2nd Gen units I think, and have stuck with it from generations 2 thru current (6) unlike Palm who seems to change their connector every major rev or two. I think they're on the third or forth "universal" cable format now... Not to mention all the third-party PalmOS vendors doing their own damn thing too....
To heck with cables.....my RAZR links to my MacBook Pro C2D with BlueTooth. use the BlueTooth File Transfer programs and upload/download images, mp3s, midi files, video, etc with no wires at all. Just drag and drop from the desktop into the BT File Transfer window onto the folder you want. Only thing that'd make me even happier is if I could (a) get access to MORE of the phones innards that way (probably not safe for non-geek users though) and if it'd mount as a drive on the desktop instead of requiring a utility program.
Yep, I posted a number of ring tones. I also thing it's more flexible than the specs you mention, as I've posted numerous random MP3s and they ALL work.
.mid (MIDI) files although THOSE I've had problem with. Possibly missing instruments or channels or something, I don't know much about MIDI files.
You can also use (some)
Not necessarily. At least one of them makes a program for the Mac that will extract the .cab files out of the .exe installer. Either PocketMac or MissingSync, not sure which.
You mean robots like the Hubble Space Telescope? The two Mars Rovers currently running (Spirit and Opportunity) and the one before it (Sojurner) that really have garnered a lot of public interest (and in the case of Hubble, an outcry to send another service mission even after NASA had decided not to do so because it "wasn't safe" (hah!) for the Shuttle astronauts (as if the astronauts didn't know that the whole Shuttle wasn't safe.....)
Not to mention the current Cassini-Huygens mission and Galileo, Pioneer, Voyager, and Viking before them. All of them have had tremendous public interest.
Really? You're sure about your estimation of Heinlein are you?
/ rahrahrah.html
Or Robinson for that matter?
Read this:
http://www.heinleinsociety.org/rah/works/articles
EXCELLENT reply!
Pity that you think that. If I had to choose only ONE SF authors books to have on a desert island, they'd be Heinleins. I've read and re-read all of them many times. Plenty of other SF authors I love too, and also read and re-read, but there is a reason Heinlein is called The Master (and no, you Doctor Who fans, you can't chime in here....go 'way.)
If you don't get it...try harder. (Which might sum up Heinlein in a nutshell, come to think of it....)
Not that I've ever had to TRY much to enjoy and (wonderfully) even LEARN from Heinlein's work.
See, I have a problem with your saying that his women are "extremes". What makes you think that? Sounds like you're trying to denigrate the capabilties of your own gender, to me.
Are the women Heinleins writes about EXCEPTIONAL? Maybe. But then so was his wife, by all accounts. I'd argue that many are, but many are not. But then so are most of his men. And hey, who wants to read about unexceptional or uninteresting people? One can get enough of that on the soap operas and in the movies of the week shown on the "WE" channel, frankly. Snooooore.
Aspire to a little more, please!