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Posted by EricG on 02-24-2001 04:23 AM:

I'd avoid (the pay per view OS) that is known as WinXP.. go to the Register http://www.theregister.co.uk/index.html and read up on all the licensing that will be embedded in WinXP, you will need to pay to use everything, media files (no you won't be able to play your bootleg mp3's they won't have a valid key in the OS - it's true, go read the Register), applications (.NET), everything will be a pay as you go.. you'll have to have your credit card handy as you will be nickel and dimed to death..

Personally, I am going to stay on Win98se as long as possible, maybe go to Win2k when 99% of the applications out there are working on it.. and of course, Avoid ME like the plague.. I set it up for a few friends who didn't know any better and bought the upgrade.. Yikes what a disaster, it cost one guy $50 for a new driver CD for his (HP) scanner.. They DIDN'T make it available on the web - available only by mail!! Another guy, it gacked his Verizon DSL software..!!!

I am also trying to use Linux more for my day to day OS when possible.. That way when MS comes around looking for cash for their digital licenses, I can give them the boot.

__________________
"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Posted by DBrown on 02-24-2001 05:12 AM:

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

(Oh, I'm sorry. My Mom always taught me not to laugh at odd looking things, because it might hurt feelings.)

It hasn't hurt the phone industry to mainly offer phones in white or black. It hasn't hurt the TV industry to mainly offer TVs in black. It wasn't only offering PCs in beige that hurt the PC industry lately (it was the fact that most of us already OWN a PC with more processing power than we need). Why? We don't need our appliances to be our home accents. We want them to fit perfectly with all the other things we DO have in our homes to make our style statements. We don't want them to distract attention from the things we really care about.

So what does apple do? They make a PC that has to live in a black and white home to be seen (or at least photographed for an ad). In a normal home you'd lose it among the color clutter, or it would clash. Clear was a great idea (goes with everything). Titanium and super thin/light is another one. But Tie Died and Dalmation? Someone check Jobs for needle marks.

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! (sorry, can't help myself)

Dave

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Posted by Fishscaler on 02-24-2001 05:56 AM:

Having upgraded to windowsME, I admit there are a few problems, but avoiding it like the plague? C'mon, it's not MS-DOS 6.1.

And for those of you who didn't click through the AppleStore, they HAVEN'T gotten rid of the other colors. You can still get Graphite and a bunch of others, depending on model.

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Obfuscation is the philosophy of quality politics.

Posted by dick-richardson on 02-24-2001 08:30 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by DBrown
It hasn't hurt the phone industry to mainly offer phones in white or black. It hasn't hurt the TV industry to mainly offer TVs in black.

Great idea! Let's leave the interior decorating for the carpet and the sofa, maybe a plant or two.
quote:
It wasn't only offering PCs in beige that hurt the PC industry lately (it was the fact that most of us already OWN a PC with more processing power than we need).

The fact that damn near every computer is beige sure didn't help any either.
quote:
Why? We don't need our appliances to be our home accents. We want them to fit perfectly with all the other things we DO have in our homes to make our style statements. We don't want them to distract attention from the things we really care about.

There's a big difference between being distracting and fitting in nicely and being pleasant to look at. So the flower power or blue dalmation doesn't fit with your decor (and/or sensibilities), get a different color. I sure don't want everything in my house brown, black, tan, and white to make sure it all matches the one or two trinkets I have to add flavor. My printer and scanner are under my desk because they're ugly beige crap-looking necessities. I'd find them more interesting if I could remove the cases altogether and just see the interior components. Hell I have my iSub on top of my desk because it looks better than them. Apple secured a repeat customer in me if for nothing else than the fact that they make distinctive equipment.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by EricG on 02-25-2001 01:44 AM:

More WindowsXP pay-per-use nonsense,,, JUST SAY NO!

http://music.cnet.com/music/0-16524...ml?tag=nosering

don't be fooled into thinking this only applies to music, as it can be applied to ANY type of computer file, video, still image, text, web pages, etc..


Also, this will ultimately affect Apple as well, (i.e. MS Media Player)

I stand corrected on WinME, it's WinXP you need to avoid like the plague..

It's all such B.S. -- even the "Not so fast.." section..

I hope six months after it "goes live" hackers crack it into tiny bits..


"When record labels release their songs as secure Windows Media Player files, they have a number of choices of how tightly to lock the content down"

Like you would EVER see it not bolted down so tight a nuke couldn't open it.. I'd bet everything would be as tight as it could get..

__________________
"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Posted by dick-richardson on 02-25-2001 04:32 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by EricG
..Also, this will ultimately affect Apple as well, (i.e. MS Media Player)...

To a limited extent, yes. But I really can't see Apple buying in to it too much considering that iTunes and a cd burner are included with every Mac sold now (and there are plenty of alternatives to MS Media Player). That doesn't seem to me to be the actions of a company trying to restrict anything. The only program I use on my computer (that I can think of) that owes its allegiance to MS is Outlook Express and I can replace that without a second thought. The only thing that worries me is the clout that MS may have with their Apple stock. It's too bad, I remember when MS gave everyone free internet access.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by homer on 02-25-2001 06:38 AM:

quote:

The only thing that worries me is the clout that MS may have with their Apple stock.


It was a relatively low amount of stock...and they were all non-voting shares. People bring up this stock thing a lot, but it really is nothing. Remember, MS owns stock in pretty much EVERYTHING. Rumours claimrd that the stock purchase was simply a PR stunt in return for Apple dropping all lawsuits.

The clout that MS does have is that without MS Office, the Mac becomes less of a viable business machine. That said, MS Office is the biggest selling Mac application out there, so I highly doubt that MS is going to stop selling that to us.

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We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
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Posted by dick-richardson on 02-25-2001 04:34 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by homer
It was a relatively low amount of stock...and they were all non-voting shares. People bring up this stock thing a lot, but it really is nothing. Remember, MS owns stock in pretty much EVERYTHING. Rumours claimrd that the stock purchase was simply a PR stunt in return for Apple dropping all lawsuits.

I didn't know the actual figures. I had just heard about MS owning Apple stock and had figured that they owned a large chunk. Now I care even less.
quote:
The clout that MS does have is that without MS Office, the Mac becomes less of a viable business machine. That said, MS Office is the biggest selling Mac application out there, so I highly doubt that MS is going to stop selling that to us.

Personally I much prefer AppleWorks to MS Office, but then again document compatibility across platforms doesn't matter to me. When I feel a desire to abuse myself and use a Windows machine I'm able to save the file in question as RTF and I'm set. The only hitch I've had is WordSmith, but I'm thinking that'll get ironed out in relatively short order (and it sure doesn't justify $460 for MS Office).

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by homer on 02-25-2001 04:41 PM:

I've never been a fan of Office, nor Microsoft, for that matter, but I must say that Office 2001 is actually a significant improvement.

I still can't stand Powerpoint (Mac or PC) and I prefer simpletext to a word processor, but when comparing Office 01 to their past versions, I can't complain nearly as much.

To MS's credit, their Apple products are improving. I think IE5 for the Mac is the best web browser on any platform.

__________________
We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
-David Byrne

Posted by dick-richardson on 02-25-2001 09:07 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by homer
...To MS's credit, their Apple products are improving. I think IE5 for the Mac is the best web browser on any platform.

I really like IE5 on the mac as well, but Netscape is noticeably faster with the cable (especially between 5pm-8pm). I wish Netscape included the ability to directly edit the saved cookies like IE5 does (digging in my hard drive to delete MagicCookie for my once a week hard drive fleecing gets to be a pain). And IE5 allows me to stop those looping gif's. Those friggin' punch the monkey ads chap my ass.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by lennonhead on 02-25-2001 10:48 PM:

Check out the commercials http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads/

They are pretty good, I just hope Apple uses them. I rarely see Apple commercials, at least on the stations I watch. Then again I don't spend a whole lot of time watching TV.

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Posted by EricG on 02-26-2001 06:54 AM:

quote:
Originally posted by dick-richardson

And IE5 allows me to stop those looping gif's. Those friggin' punch the monkey ads chap my ass.


Too bad you are on a Mac because I would suggest running AtGuard, I've been using Atguard (windows program) (now called Norton Internet Security - but butchered in the typical Norton fashion), Atguard filters, cookies, give you total control of which webites can do what, Java, Active X, cookies, which programs are allowed to send/receive network data and where to (firewall), basically total privacy control, and best of all,, NO FREAKING AD BANNERS (or AD's of any kind) FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS.. In fact I often forget that there are such things until I read posts like yours or use a friends computer.. You should really seek out a similar Mac based program..

For the record, I have never seen the "punch the monkey" ad you talk about, I may turn off my filters just to see how annoying this ad is.. hummmmm....

__________________
"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Posted by dick-richardson on 02-26-2001 01:56 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by EricG
...You should really seek out a similar Mac based program...

I usually break down and just use IE5 for a while, then switch over to Netscape, then back to IE5, then back to Netscape... I should keep track of how long I stay with each and just make a permanent decision to stick with it. I can say that I switch to IE5 whenever I come across any ad like that damn punch the monkey. If I want something I'll click on the ad; using a conniption-causing ad isn't going to change my mind.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by homer on 02-26-2001 02:01 PM:

The Punch the Monkey ad is a Java ad. One draw-back us Mac users have is that we have always had a truly awful Java VM. This is supposed to be fixed in OSX. For the time being, I just turn Java off in my browser.

__________________
We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
-David Byrne

Posted by dick-richardson on 02-26-2001 04:15 PM:

quote:
Originally posted by homer
The Punch the Monkey ad is a Java ad. One draw-back us Mac users have is that we have always had a truly awful Java VM. This is supposed to be fixed in OSX. For the time being, I just turn Java off in my browser.

Ha! Done! What exactly is Java Script?

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by EricG on 02-26-2001 04:42 PM:

The beauty of this AtGuard program is, I can specify which websites are allowed to run Java and which are not.. Basically it puts the decision of "opting out" in my hands, not theirs... Also, since this thing works at the OS level, it actively filters ALL programs that use the network, be it Netscape or IE, Opera, shareware, commercial programs etc.. It's like putting a traffic cop & a detective on my network connection. the only down side is when you initially set it up, you have to train it as to which programs can do what, (you get a pop up box every time an unknown program attempts to use the network, at this point you can train it) You can also go back later and tweak the setting on a per website/application basis. It also has this "ad trashcan", if I see an image I never want to see again (i.e. the "happy innogear people" on the innogear web site, I can simply drag them into the Ad trashcan and they will never appear again!) It also comes with a bunch of predefined filter & rules to sniff out common adverting URLS. (this way you don't have to train it from scratch)

__________________
"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Posted by homer on 02-26-2001 05:09 PM:

quote:

Ha! Done! What exactly is Java Script?


Actually, you want to turn off JAVA...NOT Java Script.

Java and Java Script have little to do with each other except for the fact that they share the same name.

Java is a Object Orientated Programming language that, in theory, can be compiled once and then run on any OS as long as that OS has a Java Virtual Machine.

In reality, that really hasn't happened. Today, Java is mainly used for server applications and annoying applets...which are mini-java programs that run in web sites...such as the punching monkey.

Java Script is completely different. It is a scripting language originally designed by Netscape. It allows you to control various aspects of your web browser and the content of a web page. Javascript can be annoying too (such as when it is used for pop-up windows and such) but tends to be much less of a hindrance for us Mac users.

__________________
We're all naked if you turn us inside out.
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Posted by dick-richardson on 02-26-2001 06:23 PM:

You'd think that Apple would have Java figured out by now with all the Java VM updates. I think there's been one every other week since I bought my Mac. BTW, thanks homer and Eric. May I never have to deal with another curs�d monkey again! Now I need to figure out how to get doughnut sprinkles out of my keyboard.

__________________
-Joshua
Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Posted by sowens on 02-26-2001 06:46 PM:

Wow, I found this one late, so I'll just pick out a couple of points.

quote:

foo fighter wrote:
And to top it all off, they raised the price on the low end model by $100.

Yeah, but they just dropped the price of the Cube by another $200! Given that most places are selling these with an extra 128M memory, it's almost too good to pass up (well, for me anyway).
quote:

BudPritchard wrote:
With the PC platform, you plug in a new CPU chip, maybe bump memory up or go to faster memory, voila!; new system a lot cheaper than buying a whole new box.

Yeah, well, umm, yes and no. Yeah you can piece together a decent system for minimal bucks, but in reality it's not that much cheaper than going out and buying a system already put together (given comparable components). You can update it, but then you have a bunch of old parts laying around that were real expensive to buy at the time (so you don't really want to throw them out), but no one typically wants to buy because they're out of date. Add to this the complications of having software-hardware conflicts with the new components, and the endless fiddling that goes on with such systems, and it gets to be a pain really fast.

I know. I've been doing that for 10 years now. Personally, I'm ready for a change. I don't want to have to twiddle with my machine constantly just to get it to do something I want. I simply want to be able to sit down at the computer and do what I set out to do.(NOTE: I'm not necessarily saying this will be better on the Cube. I'm hoping that it will, but the longer I work on computers, the more I hate having to muck around with their internals just to get something done.)

Other factors that have been getting to me of recent are space and noise. PC's, even the smallest mini-towers, take up a considerable amount of real estate in the office. For those with confined spaces, this isn't good. Further, I find PC fans to be horrendously noisy, which I find distracting (let alone annoying when listening to a subtle music passage). In this I know the Cube will be better.

Anyway, just wanted to add my rants and ramblings.

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