Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Yep – saw that in the ol’ email tonight too. Didn’t help the decision process either (Macbook pro or Macbookair). As the distaff side observed this weekend, “its a good thing the firearms are locked up when you are working on fixing that thing” – that thing being a Vista laptop with a growing host of problems (disappearing drivers being one).
-SJS
Well, if you want a real charge, take the time to watch Steve Jobs give the demo of the new iPhone software upgrade (for FREE!) features, features, iTV 2.0, the iPod, movie rentals via iTunes all here. You’ll be blown away, even if you have to sit for over an hour to see the whole thing…
Oh, yeah, in the first 1/4, the iPhone has 19.something market share for smart phones….
And: Word to the not completely wealthy: Don’t let the kids/spouse see the show, or you’ll need to increase the home equity line of credit…
i joined the cult of the mac last year when i bought the MacBook Pro w/ 17in HD display.
say what you will about the OS, but right now apple builds the *best* laptops right now. heck, the laptop that runs vista the best is a MacBook Pro.
Finally, I can replace my PowerBook Duo 230.
Cheers
As much as I love the idea of a Mac, I don’t have the pennies to shell out on one at this point. I’ll stick with my Dell. She’s been good to me.
I think the air would make a great2nd/travel computer, but the screen is too small (1200×800) for me to use it as an everyday machine the wayI use my 15″ MBP.
I think the Apple TV announcement will end up being the long-run big deal from this Macworld. It’s a game changer for NetFlix and Blockbuster – and not in a good way.
I assume you know that you can walk into the UTC or Fashion Valley apple stores, flash your CAC and get a federal employee discount. It’s enough to offset the sales tax. While you’re at it, check the .edu discounts, one of your kids has to qualify for them. Don’t pay list!
Kevin;
The Air has a flip out side panel that includes a video out connector that can do any format: VGA, DVI, HDMI, S-Video, NSTC.
Make use of a second monitor while at “home plate.” The port is described in the MacWorld 2008 Keynote speech.
More Air Pr0n…
I do tech support for a living, including working on customer machines to clean and configure them.
I’ve got a Windows box back there now going through the anti-spyware routine. It’s the latest of, well, a lot.
I’ve never had a Mac in for more than just configuration issues when the owner couldn’t figure it out.
Personally… I run Linux. Mac hardware it too expensive.
I’m even thinking about switching to the dark side, it’s a pretty smooth looking piece of gear and my old lap is about to kick the bucket. Milblogging isn’t nice to electronics!
ps, see ya on the flip side
xformed: Don’t let the kids/spouse see the show, or you’ll need to increase the home equity line of credit…
…or not. I’ve already told my 14 yr old that I’m not replacing her Win laptop and Nano with the Mac laptop and iPod Touch she wants so badly. We don’t replace gadgets just ’cause a newer, cooler gadget comes along. She’ll get a new computer when she goes to college; as for music, she’s on her own, same for cell phones. To her credit, she’s been saving for 6 months and just about has enough for the smaller iPod Touch.
Not saying that our way is better, it’s just how I was brought up and now I’m passing it on.
/BeachBum
We run Linux here too on our main laptop. I’ve not yet installed it on my machine mainly because MacGyver is still learning it’s ins and outs. Once he does, we’ll put it on the majority of our machines.
SSG Jeff;
That is one issue, of course, but the extra cost has always been funneled (at least a descent amount) into R&D projects that then become the most copied methods. Windows is the biggest. USB came from the ADB and firewire.
Apple was way out front in speech recognition back in the mid-80s…saw it myself and used it on an Apple ][e.
Sorta like paying a lot for popcorn at the movies, as the first two weeks of profits go to the movie makers, not the local theaters. The hope is a movie will be good enough to run more than two weeks so the locals can get some money, too.
Subsidizing your Windows habits since 1981…going where PC users couldn’t.
Beachbum; Yes, old fashioned “you want it your earn it” discipline. Could use lots more of that, especially around the DC offices…
From Apple’s website regarding the desktop size:
“Extended desktop and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 1920 by 1200 pixels on an external display, both at millions of colors.”
Extended desktop means that you can hook up another monitor to it and combine them into one big desktop. Mirroring means that you can hook up another (usually larger) monitor to it and duplicate what you are seeing on the ‘Book’s screen . This is the mode used in presentations, generally with some sort of projection system.
Think of the possibilities…
I only got one question: will it run Warcraft
Ditched my Dell for an iMac.
I run both windows *and* OSX at the same time!
MS Office is on one monitor whilst I work on graphics on the Mac screen. Incredible.
I doubt I’ll ever buy another wintel machine.
Apple Shills!
Seriously, though. Yes, yes, Macs are stylish. Yes, MacOS is pretty cool looking as well. But come on, the price ain’t worth it.
You wanna talk about spyware and other stuff like that? I’m the heaviest user of unsafe proggies around. eMule, Shareaza, Azureus, so on and so forth. I even surf unsafe sites too (Think AstalaVista, a bad bad baad site if ever there was one).
On Vista, the DOG of the OS world. Without even the Windows Firewall running. And no antivirus. Did I mention no anti-spyware either?
Nary a single peep. My network has even stabilised thanks to MS patches. Or not; I’m not sure. Previously, wireless on Vista was a major PITA.
Allow me to make the point that it is your habits that get you in trouble. Yes, the OS plays a part – but put a router between you and the intarwebs and you’re pretty much armoured.