Well, I work with computers every day, at school, work and home, and I can say that floppies are one of the worst methods of transferring data between computers next to, say, ripping a hard drive out of one and putting it in another (which isn't that bad, depending on how many screws your computers have, but that's another poll subject from months back...). The thing about floppies and PCs is that, unfortunately, floppies are part of the shoddy foundation of PCs. Under Windows at least, floppies are the only removeable media that will emergency boot your computer. Any Mac with a SCSI port (back to the Pluses) and a CD drive can boot off of a system CD, a Norton DD CD, etc. You can on the PC, but it is extremely hard and you still need a floppy to do it. I don't know about Linux, but I would venture to guess that it is the same deal.
And just so you know, Apple and Co. brought in the 3.5" 400kb floppy drive from I think Sony, replacing the old, slow(er) 100kb or so 5.25" floppies, which were really floppy. I guess it wouldn't do to call the new ones 'hardies', would it now? ")
So down with floppys and viva Orbs! (If you can find one ")
And finally, I'm sorry I couldn't come up with a insulting name for floppies, but a floppy is insulting in itself, eh?
OK, the thing about that 160MB RAM expansion is that the RAM slot is a 1.25" long slot. Who cares? Well, current regular 128MB and 256MB modules are 2 inches long. There are also smaller 1.5" 'low profile' modules that fit in the 1.5" slot on the old PowerBook G3s and iMacs. (They have a 2" slot and a 1.5" inch slot for space reasons.) BUT, those 'low profile' modules are about twice as much as a 2" module, because of the increased density. BTW, I am not trying to be comfusing, it is a confusing subject. SO, the 128MB module needed for 160MB of RAM in an iBook would cost about $400, give or take. Am I confusing enough yet?
I never really liked the AltaVista search engine, because it seemed that whenever I used it, it would find half the porn links in it's database (which wasn't entirely bad ") and the rest of the links would be for something entirely different. I do like the Babelfish translator, bad grammar and all, as it is really handy for those notorious foreign sites. Anyway, just my US$.02...
Well, while I am not sorry for that lack of sleep and caffiene induced rant last night, I could have worded it a bit better if I wasn't so out of my mind at the time from the aforementioned sleep and caffiene issues. What brought it on was that half the posts up there were some version of 'Apple sux!', which does not pertain to the discussion at all. And I do not care what platform you use. That's just as superficial as basing your opinion of someone on what color their skin is or what their religion is. Probably even more superficial.
I deal with Macs every day, and Windows boxes every day (I work at a computer store). That one guy mentioned that both crash with the same frequency, but Macs get up easier, which is pretty much true, but I don't see Macs die as often. I have almost no experiance with Linux, so I can't give my opinion as to it's reliability, but I still think it's cool. It's the rebellious thing against Windows today that the Mac was against IBM way back when. Like I said before, I still want to try Linux PPC, and actually I just ordered version 5 a couple of minutes ago. So there!
For better or for worse, I am starting to feel like Jon Katz... ")
Just a couple of minor corrections/clarifications (sp?). While I'm not sure if Jobs sold all his stock or not (any way to find out, people?), I do know that the only reason he takes any salary at all for his iCEO position (which is the aforementioned $1 a year) is so he can get on the company insurance plan, or something like that. On the M$ investment thing, that $150 million stock, Office 98, and some other things was an out of court settlement for some trial concerning Apple's QuickTime, and how M$ wanted to buy it or whatever. One of the big things mentioned at the time was that the shares were nonvoting shares, which isn't actually an 'investment' per se.
OK, that's it, engage rant mode, offtopic moderations be damned.
Some of you Linux people are starting to piss me off a little bit more than I already was. You are worse than the Windows users. You are worse than us (we?) Mac users (although I still want to try LinuxPPC). Hell, you're worse than OS/2 and Amiga users! Just shut the fluck up! I'm gonna use a Mac, Joe Bob Hillbilly across the street is gonna use Windows, and Ned Pocket Protector next door is gonna use Linux/Amiga/whatever, no matter what your misguided opinion is! Got it? Nobody gives a damn what you think! If I need to use some obscure Windows app, I got VPC, baby! If I need some stinkin' X terminal I can get Linux! I may change my mind if a big bunch of people give me a hell of a lot of good reasons, but not because a handful of stoner nerds says, "Like, bury all those stupid Macs, 'cause, like, they're stupid!" (Just so you know, Steve Jobs and co. has the record for burying the largest number of computers, so hah!)
Generally, if it's a classic, then you keep it anyway. And if you keep it just to look at it, you don't need to rebuild the engine. If you're going to sell it, why not sell it at a lower cost and not do all the rebuilding sh--tuff?
I'm not a car guy, and I usually don't get why all these car guys do these car guy things like car guys. Confused yet? I'm always confused. ")
Origionally (1996/97) it was not called AltiVec, it was TriMedia, or something. Specifically Philips TriMedia processor(s), a set of three parrallel (sp?) processing prossessors (say that more than twice fast ") that were going to be used to boost 'multimedia' speed. It was really cool stuff, but never panned out. Now this looks even better...
From what I remember, MMX/MMX2/SSE was never/will not be supported because it is too hard to code for. You had to use straight assembly code (1010111010011000110001101101) and even then the speed increase was negligable. Even more, the MMX instructions used the same registers as the FPU, and switching modes between MMX and FPU stuff slowed the process way down, and I think thats the way it still is.
On the other hand, you code Altived in C/C++, which is much easier than assembly, to say the least. And the Altivec unit is its own seperate processor, and doesn't share any registers. the Altivec processor is also much beefier, like 128 bit 200Mhz, etc., etc., etc. More info ( 1, 2, and 3) at the greatest of insight sites, MacKiDo.
I don't mean to sound rude at all, but here is Jane's situation: she is a she, she is black, she was poor as a child, and now that she's a 'journalist', she's pissed that she's not making more money, and she feels that it is the fault of 'white America'.
Let me say one more thing, I am in no way a bigot (more on that in a moment), think differentiophobia is stupid and stand up for the opinions of most people, even if I disagree.
BUT, I am vehemanently (sp?) opposed to idiots who are idiots by choice, and the same for assholes. And this lady seems to be both of those, which I am opposed to.
Shut your trap, dorkwad. I seriously doubt that MiniDiscs are proprietary(sp?), as other people such as Kenwood and others make MiniDisc players and recorders.
The origional Mac 128k was the remake of the Lisa. Pretty much the same components (inside), different keyboard and mouse. All the basic technologies were there (QuickDraw, GUI, etc), just in a bigger (and uglier) package.
And do get that AppleDesign book. I liked it because it didn't refer to specs as much (come to think of it, at all) as it did to the design of the computer/mouse/moniter/thingie. I also wish the would have released some of that stuff. The other Sparticus (20th Anniversary Mac) prototypes were pretty sweet.
Slashdot Mirror
Or, it might be that there are a whole buinch of people out there with a little bit of tase.
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
Well, I work with computers every day, at school, work and home, and I can say that floppies are one of the worst methods of transferring data between computers next to, say, ripping a hard drive out of one and putting it in another (which isn't that bad, depending on how many screws your computers have, but that's another poll subject from months back...). The thing about floppies and PCs is that, unfortunately, floppies are part of the shoddy foundation of PCs. Under Windows at least, floppies are the only removeable media that will emergency boot your computer. Any Mac with a SCSI port (back to the Pluses) and a CD drive can boot off of a system CD, a Norton DD CD, etc. You can on the PC, but it is extremely hard and you still need a floppy to do it. I don't know about Linux, but I would venture to guess that it is the same deal.
And just so you know, Apple and Co. brought in the 3.5" 400kb floppy drive from I think Sony, replacing the old, slow(er) 100kb or so 5.25" floppies, which were really floppy. I guess it wouldn't do to call the new ones 'hardies', would it now? ")
So down with floppys and viva Orbs! (If you can find one ")
And finally, I'm sorry I couldn't come up with a insulting name for floppies, but a floppy is insulting in itself, eh?
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
OK, the thing about that 160MB RAM expansion is that the RAM slot is a 1.25" long slot. Who cares? Well, current regular 128MB and 256MB modules are 2 inches long. There are also smaller 1.5" 'low profile' modules that fit in the 1.5" slot on the old PowerBook G3s and iMacs. (They have a 2" slot and a 1.5" inch slot for space reasons.) BUT, those 'low profile' modules are about twice as much as a 2" module, because of the increased density. BTW, I am not trying to be comfusing, it is a confusing subject. SO, the 128MB module needed for 160MB of RAM in an iBook would cost about $400, give or take. Am I confusing enough yet?
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
I never really liked the AltaVista search engine, because it seemed that whenever I used it, it would find half the porn links in it's database (which wasn't entirely bad ") and the rest of the links would be for something entirely different. I do like the Babelfish translator, bad grammar and all, as it is really handy for those notorious foreign sites. Anyway, just my US$.02...
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
Well, while I am not sorry for that lack of sleep and caffiene induced rant last night, I could have worded it a bit better if I wasn't so out of my mind at the time from the aforementioned sleep and caffiene issues. What brought it on was that half the posts up there were some version of 'Apple sux!', which does not pertain to the discussion at all. And I do not care what platform you use. That's just as superficial as basing your opinion of someone on what color their skin is or what their religion is. Probably even more superficial.
I deal with Macs every day, and Windows boxes every day (I work at a computer store). That one guy mentioned that both crash with the same frequency, but Macs get up easier, which is pretty much true, but I don't see Macs die as often. I have almost no experiance with Linux, so I can't give my opinion as to it's reliability, but I still think it's cool. It's the rebellious thing against Windows today that the Mac was against IBM way back when. Like I said before, I still want to try Linux PPC, and actually I just ordered version 5 a couple of minutes ago. So there!
For better or for worse, I am starting to feel like Jon Katz... ")
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
what a humiliation for Linux to be put on Apple ppcs.
And it's better to be on some crappy Intel box? Remember kiddies, 2 x 2 = 3.9999999999999998!
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
Just a couple of minor corrections/clarifications (sp?). While I'm not sure if Jobs sold all his stock or not (any way to find out, people?), I do know that the only reason he takes any salary at all for his iCEO position (which is the aforementioned $1 a year) is so he can get on the company insurance plan, or something like that. On the M$ investment thing, that $150 million stock, Office 98, and some other things was an out of court settlement for some trial concerning Apple's QuickTime, and how M$ wanted to buy it or whatever. One of the big things mentioned at the time was that the shares were nonvoting shares, which isn't actually an 'investment' per se.
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
OK, that's it, engage rant mode, offtopic moderations be damned.
Some of you Linux people are starting to piss me off a little bit more than I already was. You are worse than the Windows users. You are worse than us (we?) Mac users (although I still want to try LinuxPPC). Hell, you're worse than OS/2 and Amiga users! Just shut the fluck up! I'm gonna use a Mac, Joe Bob Hillbilly across the street is gonna use Windows, and Ned Pocket Protector next door is gonna use Linux/Amiga/whatever, no matter what your misguided opinion is! Got it? Nobody gives a damn what you think! If I need to use some obscure Windows app, I got VPC, baby! If I need some stinkin' X terminal I can get Linux! I may change my mind if a big bunch of people give me a hell of a lot of good reasons, but not because a handful of stoner nerds says, "Like, bury all those stupid Macs, 'cause, like, they're stupid!" (Just so you know, Steve Jobs and co. has the record for burying the largest number of computers, so hah!)
Well, I think I'm done now...
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
Generally, if it's a classic, then you keep it anyway. And if you keep it just to look at it, you don't need to rebuild the engine. If you're going to sell it, why not sell it at a lower cost and not do all the rebuilding sh--tuff?
I'm not a car guy, and I usually don't get why all these car guys do these car guy things like car guys. Confused yet? I'm always confused. ")
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
Origionally (1996/97) it was not called AltiVec, it was TriMedia, or something. Specifically Philips TriMedia processor(s), a set of three parrallel (sp?) processing prossessors (say that more than twice fast ") that were going to be used to boost 'multimedia' speed. It was really cool stuff, but never panned out. Now this looks even better...
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
On the other hand, you code Altived in C/C++, which is much easier than assembly, to say the least. And the Altivec unit is its own seperate processor, and doesn't share any registers. the Altivec processor is also much beefier, like 128 bit 200Mhz, etc., etc., etc. More info ( 1, 2, and 3) at the greatest of insight sites, MacKiDo.
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
I don't mean to sound rude at all, but here is Jane's situation: she is a she, she is black, she was poor as a child, and now that she's a 'journalist', she's pissed that she's not making more money, and she feels that it is the fault of 'white America'.
Let me say one more thing, I am in no way a bigot (more on that in a moment), think differentiophobia is stupid and stand up for the opinions of most people, even if I disagree.
BUT, I am vehemanently (sp?) opposed to idiots who are idiots by choice, and the same for assholes. And this lady seems to be both of those, which I am opposed to.
*Rant-O-Matic shutting down*
Happy slashdotting!
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
Shut your trap, dorkwad. I seriously doubt that MiniDiscs are proprietary(sp?), as other people such as Kenwood and others make MiniDisc players and recorders.
OMG, Sony made CDs! They're proprietary!
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack
The origional Mac 128k was the remake of the Lisa. Pretty much the same components (inside), different keyboard and mouse. All the basic technologies were there (QuickDraw, GUI, etc), just in a bigger (and uglier) package.
And do get that AppleDesign book. I liked it because it didn't refer to specs as much (come to think of it, at all) as it did to the design of the computer/mouse/moniter/thingie. I also wish the would have released some of that stuff. The other Sparticus (20th Anniversary Mac) prototypes were pretty sweet.
The one and (thankfully) only,
LafinJack