Timewaster's Guide Archive

oh no, not even close. I am happiest when they work, because that means I dont have to fix them.

But you know what works really really well. the I-Pod touch. Never had a problem with mine. The zune sucks though. I always give credit where credit is due. If this was 1992, I would be praising Apple up and down and disparging IBM. As a matter of fact, I was very upset with my company at the time when they removed the old apples and Commodores and installed IBMs - took me months of programming to get them right. But slowly and surely, apple dropped itself into a pit of self-riteous indignation and they now make computer which may suit a complete moron just fine, but anyone that has any really working knowledge hates.

Finally back. Super Bowl was pretty awesome, even if I did have to work in the belly of the stadium during it. Really sucked working it though, since it is a TV production, there was a lot of MAC crap that kept breaking down. But the two weeks off after the fact were really nice.

Just finished Dust of Dreams - and frankly, I was not very impressed, it was even more difficult to read than the previous novels. the skirting from charachter to character without warning and the lack of revealing which character he was actually writing about really bothered me. i will get the next one just to get the story finished. But i am done with Erikson after that.

I am now reading 1632 - an enthralling alt-history style tale. I am about 200 pages in and cant wait to read more.

mtlhddoc2 I begin to suspect the reason macs suck in your office is because the guy they hired to support them is you.

Thats funny, except I am not the only one supporting them, I am the first line of defense on the Macs only. I dont install them, just support them when necessary. we have a guy who spent 5 years at Apple installing and supporting them as well. You really think I would be support 7000+ machines on my own? Thats ridiculous. I spent 3 years in the 90s at Microsoft supporting Apple/Windows interoperability.  They didnt mix then, and they dont mix now. and apple doesnt make servers, so Unix and Windows servers are what we have to work with. Macs dont like them. Ever. and that is on purpose.

Mac Mini doesnt count, no. Can you network it? not really. Same with an iMac, not easily networked. Just ask my 100 pissed off videographers when some genius thought they should all get brand new iMacs. And they call me at least once a week because it dropped the network again and i have to reinstall Tiger. And they cant run Leopard, or SnowLeopard. We tried, and failed. so they lobbied for PCs when their upgrade time comes around, and they are going to be getting Lenovo ThinkPads, possibly, Dell Latitude E6400s. With docking stations of course.

If you just need a computer that surfs the web and plays an occassional game, have at it, spend too much for a Mac, or an AlienWare Laptop. more power to ya. But no one should pay over $1000 for a computer for ANY reason at this stage of the game. I paid exactly $548 for my Dell Inspiron 530 21 months ago. It came with a 1TB had drive, 3GB SD-Ram, 1800 DuoCore Processor, 256MB nVidia card, a 21" monitor, Office 2007 Pro, NetGear N Router and some crappy speakers, which I have upgraded. And I am thinking about getting new, but dont really need to. But if i did, it would be a Gateway with a QuadCore 2k processor, 1TB again, upgraded vide card again, all for $400! Why, why why would you pay $1000 because "good enough" isnt "good enough" when in fact "good enough" is BETTER than your $1500 computer?

http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html

Look at teh Specs! My Gateway NETBOOK has better ram, processor and memory than that!

all I do every single day is fix computers. Macs and PCs and syncing the damn Blackberries and such. And I have to say, I have NOTHING but problems with the Macs. I support over 1000 Macs and 6000 PCs and I do 1 for 1 on service calls. The 1 and only thing the Macs do better than a PC is 3D. And even then, if you optimize a PC for CAD, you can achieve nearly the same results. If I had my way, i would take each and every Mac in the company and set it on fire in the parking lot.

I find the "91%" figure to be a little, well, snooty. since for what you spend on the cheapest Mac (about $1500) I can buy 2 PCs which perform twice as good. My Dell Inspiron I bout 2 years ago is as good, maybe even better, than the cheapest Mac on the market right now, and I only paid $500 for it. My Dell Optiplex at work is about 6 months old and is better than any Mac we have on the floor. I run the full CS4 suite and never have a problem, yet my Macs blow up with it regularly.

The iPad is just another example of Steve Jobs and his brilliant marketting. Yes, i said it, the guy is a marketting genius, if nothing else, he sold millions of $20 MP3 players to millions of people for $150 a pop. Genius.

Im with Eeron. I thought Apple was actually going to release an actual tablet computer, not an oversized iPod.

by years end, the knock off MP3 companies will release their own version. For $100 or less.