One explanation is that more and more people who used to be exclusively Windows users are now buying Macs in order to get the best of both worlds. Thus, the number of "Mac users who use Windows" increased. Seem valid to you kind/. folks?
Well, I've read through all the comments on this so far and have a couple thoughts of my own.
My first laptop experiences were on Apple books with (obviously) one button, and trust me I am a Mac Addict. But my college requires all students to purchase a specific laptop, which has never been an Apple model (its an engineering institute, so it makes sense). My Dell Precision M70 (click to view it on Dell.com) has a trackpad with two buttons beneath it in addition to a trackpoint "blue dot" in the middle of the keyboard with two buttons beneath the spacebar.
Last month my dad got a new MacBook Pro. And after using my Dell with its multiple mousing options, going back to only having a trackpad and only one mouse button was almost painful. Granted, the Control+Click helps a bit, but it just is not as convenient as having a dedicated button.
From what I read in the comments, generally speaking, the "power users" were more appreciative of the extra button. And those who preferred to do without were the users who use less than the computer's full potential. I've even seen this evidenced by observing many users around me, here at school and among family and friends at home.
Power users generally use the keyboard more than a mouse. This means that having the trackpoint is convenient because it doesn't require much displacement (or none at all) from the keyboard should the need to mouse around come up. So the two buttons beneath the spacebar are VERY convenient because clicking is little different from entering a space or choosing an option. (You are aware that hitting the space bar can function the same as the Enter key or a mouse click in many situations, aren't you?)
For the days when a power user feels lazy, or for the average user, the trackpad with its own two buttons are more appropriate. But to have just one button which requires a key-combo to call up the contextual menu just doesn't fit the bill in terms of convenience. And to say that- well, here let me quote it:
chording keys to get to the second button is much, much better because you get the second button exactly when you want it.
That is just bogus! You get the right-click exactly when you want it if you have a dedicated second button, and you get it with a whole lot less trouble than having to use a key combination in addition to clicking.
So, final conclusion? Well, I think I've made my point.
I am a freshman at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. It has been rated THE #1 engineering college in America for 7 straight years (among schools that offer no higher degrees than a master's).
Here, all freshmen are required to purchase a laptop through the school, who arranges for discounts, software and installation, and full maintenance. Every student, regardless of his major, gets programs including AutoCAD, Working Model, Solid Edge, MatLAB, Maple, LoggerPro, Microsoft's full Office Suite, and many more. This year, we got Dell Precisions with Pentium M processors, graphics card upgrades, memory upgrades, and bigger hard drives. It costs a hefty $3,062, but with all the software we get, it is quite a deal. (Loan plans are available for the financially challenged.) These laptops are handed out during Orientation Week, after they have all the registration completed and our user accounts have been set up for us. We also get free maintenance from the Tech Department. Need a new keyboard? Got it. Screen dies? New one. Personally, I needed a new DVD burner. Walked in, showed them the problem, and 20 mins later I walked out with a new drive.
The benefit of having the school require all students to purchase specific laptops, and making us order through the school as opposed to on our own, is that the Tech Dept can easyily fix any problem for everybody. If the problem is so bad that they need to have your laptop over night, they pop out your hard drive and stick it into a "loaner" model that they keep on hand and you use that until yours is fixed. Now, not every student has the same laptop from year to year. They update the models every other year to keep up to date with the latest in technological advances. Students are also free to have other personal computers if they so desire. I have my own iMac in my room that I use for personal things, and I do my homework on my Dell.
This has been Rose-Hulman's practice for over 10 years now, and it works very well. In the main buildings, there is a wireless network available to those with a Rose-Hulman username and password, but in the residence halls, they prefer to let the students set up their own wireless networks. This system works very well. There are no actual computer labs, although there are some rooms in the Computer Science department that do have several desktops. As has been mentioned before, this cuts some precious costs.
Also, on the topic of safety: This school has an open-door policy. We are so much a family that people leave their computers, iPods, game systems, and other valuables in their empty room, unlocked and unguarded. I recognize that this is a benefit of being such a high-caliber school with a small population of students who are all very proud our school, and that not every school can be like this. One thing to consider, however, is that as long as every student has the same computer, the urge to steal one becomes much smaller.
All things considered, moving a school away from desktops and computer labs in favor of mandated laptops is a great idea.
I'm curious...
Which browser was truly the first to implement Tabbed Browsing? I only know that the first I personally ever heard of it was when it was included in Safari, but I have no idea if that was really the first browser to have it.
From the article: "Microsoft, Yahoo!, AOL and EarthLink have worked with law enforcement agencies and filed a series of suits against spammers under state laws and the federal anti-spam act. The U.S. law doesn't prohibit unsolicited commercial e-mail entirely but rather outlaws deceptive tactics by spammers. Microsoft, which gathers evidence by collecting spam in special "trap" e-mail accounts, has filed more than 100 lawsuits against alleged spammers and reached settlements worth about $10 million."
Why are the spammers making settlements? (Are they effectively released to spam more people until they get caught again?) And why in the world is Microsoft getting the profit from it?! WE are the ones who stare in disgust at our email accounts full of junk from Who The Crap Knows and yet MICROSOFT benefits from the settlement?
Now, I can understand that Microsoft puts in some manpower (occasionally) towards "solving" the spam problem. In that sense, they *might* deserve a little bit of money for their efforts. But $10 Million?! No.
Like we've seen time and time again, Bill Gates is an excellent businessman. Not everybody can promise everything, give nothing, and still stand to profit from it. (Except politicians - they're pretty crafty, too.)
Re:Mystery of the computer industry
on
Longhorn Preview
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· Score: 1
Umm.. Apple seems to have found interesting ways. Remember the iMac G4 with the dome and the silver arm and the cool floating LCD screen? And now they make the iMac G5 that literally has the whole computer built into the back of the screen?... Ingenious. And Beautiful-- regardless of what one might think of the OS, one must admit that the design of the hardware itself is stunning.
Hey y'all, --- I didn't notice any other mention of this in here, but I also submit that I didn't read every comment... --- The easiest way to utilize the RSS capabilities of websites is to use the new browser Safari RSS from Apple. It shows right in the address bar whether or not the site supports RSS feeds, and with one click a user can switch to viewing the site in RSS format. --- Also, thanks to Apple's new search technology called Spotlight, a user can instantaneously search every article on the site and view the results in the RSS reader. --- If you haven't already experienced Sarafi RSS, you should try to find a way to test it out. I think you will be surprised with the convenience Apple provides, in addition to the elegant design that we all have come to expect from Apple. (Note: Safari RSS is the same as Safari 2.0)
Slashdot Mirror
"Windows Use Increasing Among Mac Users"
/. folks?
One explanation is that more and more people who used to be exclusively Windows users are now buying Macs in order to get the best of both worlds. Thus, the number of "Mac users who use Windows" increased. Seem valid to you kind
My first laptop experiences were on Apple books with (obviously) one button, and trust me I am a Mac Addict. But my college requires all students to purchase a specific laptop, which has never been an Apple model (its an engineering institute, so it makes sense). My Dell Precision M70 (click to view it on Dell.com) has a trackpad with two buttons beneath it in addition to a trackpoint "blue dot" in the middle of the keyboard with two buttons beneath the spacebar.
Last month my dad got a new MacBook Pro. And after using my Dell with its multiple mousing options, going back to only having a trackpad and only one mouse button was almost painful. Granted, the Control+Click helps a bit, but it just is not as convenient as having a dedicated button.
From what I read in the comments, generally speaking, the "power users" were more appreciative of the extra button. And those who preferred to do without were the users who use less than the computer's full potential. I've even seen this evidenced by observing many users around me, here at school and among family and friends at home.
Power users generally use the keyboard more than a mouse. This means that having the trackpoint is convenient because it doesn't require much displacement (or none at all) from the keyboard should the need to mouse around come up. So the two buttons beneath the spacebar are VERY convenient because clicking is little different from entering a space or choosing an option. (You are aware that hitting the space bar can function the same as the Enter key or a mouse click in many situations, aren't you?)
For the days when a power user feels lazy, or for the average user, the trackpad with its own two buttons are more appropriate. But to have just one button which requires a key-combo to call up the contextual menu just doesn't fit the bill in terms of convenience. And to say that- well, here let me quote it:
That is just bogus! You get the right-click exactly when you want it if you have a dedicated second button, and you get it with a whole lot less trouble than having to use a key combination in addition to clicking.
So, final conclusion?
Well, I think I've made my point.
I am a freshman at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. It has been rated THE #1 engineering college in America for 7 straight years (among schools that offer no higher degrees than a master's).
Here, all freshmen are required to purchase a laptop through the school, who arranges for discounts, software and installation, and full maintenance. Every student, regardless of his major, gets programs including AutoCAD, Working Model, Solid Edge, MatLAB, Maple, LoggerPro, Microsoft's full Office Suite, and many more.
This year, we got Dell Precisions with Pentium M processors, graphics card upgrades, memory upgrades, and bigger hard drives. It costs a hefty $3,062, but with all the software we get, it is quite a deal. (Loan plans are available for the financially challenged.)
These laptops are handed out during Orientation Week, after they have all the registration completed and our user accounts have been set up for us. We also get free maintenance from the Tech Department. Need a new keyboard? Got it. Screen dies? New one. Personally, I needed a new DVD burner. Walked in, showed them the problem, and 20 mins later I walked out with a new drive.
The benefit of having the school require all students to purchase specific laptops, and making us order through the school as opposed to on our own, is that the Tech Dept can easyily fix any problem for everybody. If the problem is so bad that they need to have your laptop over night, they pop out your hard drive and stick it into a "loaner" model that they keep on hand and you use that until yours is fixed.
Now, not every student has the same laptop from year to year. They update the models every other year to keep up to date with the latest in technological advances. Students are also free to have other personal computers if they so desire. I have my own iMac in my room that I use for personal things, and I do my homework on my Dell.
This has been Rose-Hulman's practice for over 10 years now, and it works very well. In the main buildings, there is a wireless network available to those with a Rose-Hulman username and password, but in the residence halls, they prefer to let the students set up their own wireless networks. This system works very well. There are no actual computer labs, although there are some rooms in the Computer Science department that do have several desktops. As has been mentioned before, this cuts some precious costs.
Also, on the topic of safety: This school has an open-door policy. We are so much a family that people leave their computers, iPods, game systems, and other valuables in their empty room, unlocked and unguarded. I recognize that this is a benefit of being such a high-caliber school with a small population of students who are all very proud our school, and that not every school can be like this. One thing to consider, however, is that as long as every student has the same computer, the urge to steal one becomes much smaller.
All things considered, moving a school away from desktops and computer labs in favor of mandated laptops is a great idea.
I'm curious... Which browser was truly the first to implement Tabbed Browsing? I only know that the first I personally ever heard of it was when it was included in Safari, but I have no idea if that was really the first browser to have it.
From the article:
"Microsoft, Yahoo!, AOL and EarthLink have worked with law enforcement agencies and filed a series of suits against spammers under state laws and the federal anti-spam act. The U.S. law doesn't prohibit unsolicited commercial e-mail entirely but rather outlaws deceptive tactics by spammers. Microsoft, which gathers evidence by collecting spam in special "trap" e-mail accounts, has filed more than 100 lawsuits against alleged spammers and reached settlements worth about $10 million."
Why are the spammers making settlements? (Are they effectively released to spam more people until they get caught again?) And why in the world is Microsoft getting the profit from it?! WE are the ones who stare in disgust at our email accounts full of junk from Who The Crap Knows and yet MICROSOFT benefits from the settlement?
Now, I can understand that Microsoft puts in some manpower (occasionally) towards "solving" the spam problem. In that sense, they *might* deserve a little bit of money for their efforts. But $10 Million?! No.
Like we've seen time and time again, Bill Gates is an excellent businessman. Not everybody can promise everything, give nothing, and still stand to profit from it. (Except politicians - they're pretty crafty, too.)
Umm.. Apple seems to have found interesting ways. Remember the iMac G4 with the dome and the silver arm and the cool floating LCD screen? And now they make the iMac G5 that literally has the whole computer built into the back of the screen? ... Ingenious. And Beautiful-- regardless of what one might think of the OS, one must admit that the design of the hardware itself is stunning.
Hey y'all, --- I didn't notice any other mention of this in here, but I also submit that I didn't read every comment... --- The easiest way to utilize the RSS capabilities of websites is to use the new browser Safari RSS from Apple. It shows right in the address bar whether or not the site supports RSS feeds, and with one click a user can switch to viewing the site in RSS format. --- Also, thanks to Apple's new search technology called Spotlight, a user can instantaneously search every article on the site and view the results in the RSS reader. --- If you haven't already experienced Sarafi RSS, you should try to find a way to test it out. I think you will be surprised with the convenience Apple provides, in addition to the elegant design that we all have come to expect from Apple. (Note: Safari RSS is the same as Safari 2.0)