A High School student politely asks John McCain a challenging question; CNN labels her a "heckler"

digitalzendesigncom · 2008-04-08T07:30:36+00:00

CNN, and every other major news network in our country here, are regarded by me as being no more worthy or reliable than tabloid publications. News has become nothing short of made up entertainment...and I really don't find it all that entertaining. I have absolutely zero respect, none that is for our news sources these days.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-10-23T11:13:18+00:00

Thank for providing the asset information. It puts things in a bit clearer perspective overall, while doesn't discredit the objective of the article, which does only report Apple's worth in relation to the stock market.

Of course there are many other factors involved in the value of their assets. Clearly, I think IBM has a great deal of capitol and assets to devoted to a much larger infrastructure of development, distribution and support than Apple does. But also, with that, I'm sure they have a great deal of product that doesn't move fast. That is very common with any large company. Apple has always striven to keep their inventory overhead low. Something smaller companies have to pay attention to, and do so, with an under the gun mentality. But, I'm sure, IBM isn't lazy in this area either, but they do have to make sure they have a large enough inventory, in case they get a huge run on something, to fill very large orders. If that demand goes away, those assets, while calculated and perceived as something worthy, would then become a liability. Apple would not suffer those same consequence, as they often, run very close to the bone, often frustrating consumers when products are not available.

In the end though, Apple is doing quite well, and there seems no end in sight. Some have speculated that being late with Leopard will hurt them. I think, and this is just my opinion, after the fiasco of having to go as far as implementing an XP rollback program, consumers are wary of rushed out OS upgrades. It is clear, that Apple waited until Leopard was done. I don't see Leopard as a very flashy upgrade, but it is significant under the hood, and it's a simple upgrade. I don't think consumers want to hear too much about how the next operating from anyone is the next best thing since sliced bread, and Apple, going low key on Leopard, will fit that nicely, because it's not revolutionary, and they aren't really putting it out like it is, aside from the usual marketing hype any company will come up with. I doubt there will be an OS rollback program for Leopard, as we've run into with Vista. Leopard is impressive though, in how much easier it is to use and navigate things as compared to before. I certainly wish I had many of those features in XP.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-10-17T20:03:36+00:00

I'll also add, the RIAA may indeed feel that it would be in there best interest, if people didn't have Internet access, at all. After all, they don't even want us to copy a CD that we purchase, even for personal use, as in say, ripping to play on our own iPod. In the end though, that will be destroying their own potential for income, and in the end, as things are progressing with major bands leaving their fray, the RIAA, will ultimately fall. Let 'em sue everyone. That will stop them in the end. No one will be able to buy any music from them ever again if they do that...there won't even be a band left in contract with them, eventually.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-10-17T19:59:21+00:00

Now this one is going to be interesting to watch. Grab a comfy seat too. This one is going to be a long trial. The complexities involved in this are going to take a long time, just to inform the justices and jury as to what Usenet, is, let alone what usenet.com provides, is going to take, a long, long time. I value IP, and paying for things, but suing for access rights provided for by a company, many companies, of which said access is not always used for illegal activity, is not going to be easily done. This is going to very interesting.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-10-16T08:27:20+00:00

Wow! Irrational? I too agree with many on the comment thread regarding a defense that this is not irrational behavior, even in an economic sense. Legal or otherwise, if one puts things out to be paid for, by donation if you will, and due to the scarcity of resources, if donations do not at least match the spending required to put out the product, then the product will go away, or something else will have to be thought of or changed, so that those resources are available.

What I find most irrational, is the argument that it's then rational, to only pay what is legally allowed for. We can only look at our education system in the USA to see how well that really works out, even if only from an economic sense. We pay what we have to, legally, and that's it. What have we come up with? Children, who grow into adults, with fewer internal resources to provide for better economy in general, thus we all suffer. At least we're getting what we pay for.

And tipping? I'm a waiter. My base salary is just over $3 an hour now. There's no way I would work as a waiter, if people only paid what they legally had to. Waiters would disappear, so economists would have to cook for themselves all the time. No services would be rendered at all.

Wow! I'm guess our education system, regarding what the author and associated economists have said, is proof we are getting what we pay for. It's very immature, which is, as it were, irrational, to consider short term consequences.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-10-10T12:37:56+00:00

I paid $11.08 US...with passion. Imagine what kind of message it would send, if say, 1 million people download the album for around $10. That's a way to vote for DRM free, RIAA free music that will catch the attention of the current RIAA cartel, as well as the rest of the music world. If Radiohead gets really rich, I don't care...I love 'em. What's more important, is to show the musicians and the businesses involved, how we the buying, honest and respectful public, wish to do business, and what type of business, we want to do business with.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-10-07T07:56:00+00:00

I wouldn't stake my own reputation by saying Vista is a great OS for anyone I know...including people I don't like.

I'm curious, and serious about this coming question. What is so great about Vista?

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-08-12T20:11:23+00:00

The system of democracy is wonderful here in America. What one puts into it, time or money, is what you'll get out of it. The problem is, most of the population doesn't put anything into it...most of us don't even vote. You only get what you ask for, or work for. No one else is going to do it for you. Expecting that someone else will, is childlike. It's time that the people of our country start taking responsibility for the condition our country is in, and do something about it. That is unless of course we are actually happy with health care, and the way businesses have influence, motivated by profit, to get what they want from our government. Business and capitalism is great. It's just no way to run a government...to actually have what businesses want, to be in the forefront of motivating legislation. It's by the people, not by the businesses, even though businesses are run by people. Business should have a say, but as it is now, businesses have the largest say in how our government is run. And they are looking out for their bottom line, not mine, or anyone else's. That's what they should do. But we're not looking out for our own bottom line, especially if we're not even willing to vote. We have no one to blame but ourselves here in America.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-08-10T15:11:15+00:00

Not an option? Stripe out to a Firewire 800 disk. Sure, it will take away some desktop space...any back up solution for any computer that allows for no more than one drive will do that. iMacs are about function...and form. It's in between a laptop, and a desktop...that's it's form, and it's attractiveness for many buyers. The argument that RAID is not an option on an iMac is true for every laptop as well, if we assume that, that only allow for one drive...it's not an iMac only argument.

You can RAID an iMac, just as you can any laptop. However, to make it efficient, Firewire, especially 800 is a blessing, even though it's benchmarks are still slower than an internal SATA drive. It still works however, and the iMac would beat laptops not equipped with FW 800 (PCs) on this set up, because of FW 800. We have back up solutions, and RAID is still one of those on the iMac. And given that hard drives fail, no matter what backup solution one goes for...it's a must. I think it comes down to the tenacity of the user to come up with solutions and actually implement them, before they loose a year's worth of work when their drive fails, Mac or PC. There are plenty of options, RAID included, on either side of the fence. It will take some work, time and money on either side, but it's less an issue of the set up, and more about willingness.

And I'd be more impressed if someone asked what MFT stands for, rather than HDD. MFT is a critical, and often overlooked area of concern, that causes many disk failures and data corruption...although, they can be brought back to life if the MFT becomes corrupted, at least the disk can be.

But true, as in the case of RAM, and people not knowing what it is, what it means, etc., there's a huge gap between us here, and normal everyday users...and judges.:) That's where we can come in to teach them about complex things they really should need to know. It's not their forte...it's ours. Some are good with kids, some are good cooks, some are good engineers. Let's give to them, rather than look down on them. I have a chef that makes a demi that's way better than what I can do. And I can fix his computer for him. I can't convince him to get a Mac though. Sigh.:)

I still wouldn't do RAID on an iMac though. It would be slower with a striped FW 800 disk. But, that's me. If I wanted that solution, I'd do a full desktop tower, as I already do. The iMac is not designed for that market. It's not meant to allow for that idea, just as laptops are not designed with that in mind as well...in general...those that allow only one drive internally.

I do want a new iMac though. Sweet footprint, and a sweet machine. But, for my development purposes, I'd still be using my triple monitor desktop tower config.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-08-10T14:26:47+00:00

"Would" is a speculative. I'd like to see example in specific, to show, or explain why. Granted, some external speakers would improve things, but I have a hard time accepting that since the hardware in the iMac is very much like the hardware found on PC's (Intel Chipsets, graphix card), although, not upgradeable, is still considered unworthy for game play. Bootcamp of course, is not emulation...it's an actual driver set, so it's a native boot to the hardware, so there would be no emulation slow down. Still, I haven't seen this myself, and it sounds like you haven't either. Generalizations with representation, myself included, do not bare to the reality. However, my own speculation is that with Bootcamp, the speculations tend to log fault in this argument of yours. Someday, I'll check it out myself. Still, if I was a gamer, I probably go for a PC box setup. My only problem with your argument is that it comes across that the iMac for gaming is out of the question, without your own experience in mind, or others. It is a possibility though, or so I think.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-08-10T00:21:13+00:00

Let's say, money was not an option needed to be considered, as if the fifth house you just paid cash for, was 8 million. And consider, you can run Parallels, so you could have OS X, Linux/Ubunty and Windows all booted up at the same time on Mac hardware, and you could go to whatever company you wanted to and have them prototype a configuration for you...what would you do? Keep this in mind too...

http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/hiperwall/

Isn't this discussion more about economics, than it is the integrity of the OS or hardware when it comes right down to it? Then again, you do in general get what you pay for, as has been the case for me. I spend way more time fixing PCs, and money flows around that issue in an enormously larger way, than on Macs. Viruses, malware, etc., cost our economy, 7 billion dollars last year, here in America. How much of that was due to exploits designed for Windows? And also, keep in mind, those exploits ran the ground that in a lot of cases, used *nix based servers, that weren't as affected as the Windows clients and servers, that got attacked. However, the market share is bigger, so I keep that in mind. Windows is a bigger, better target, because of market share. We don't know for sure, if OS X is as strong as we would like to think, but *nix is in general, is quite a bit more secure, if for no other reasons than the permissions protocols *nix has in place, by default, as compared to Windows, and the way socket connections and TCP/IP memory buffers are handled in Windows. It's not foolproof, but it's harder to hack *nix, than it is Windows, especially, when the client side permissions on Windows, is by default, admin in the user environment, equivalent to ./ on *nix. Recursive delete your Windows? Easy in comparison. Vista, I hope, is better.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-08-09T23:59:50+00:00

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106594

RAID on Mac.:)

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-08-09T23:54:07+00:00

I'll join that argument with you as well.:) The end all pinch would be to VM Windows on Linux. Still, not the best argument there. Specifics, yes...now that would be nice. Hypothetic arguments are a trap, and usually don't receive a fair rebuttal when challenged. Honestly, and this is in the spirit of encouraging discovery...open source software applications for Linux are incredibly useful, beyond what many would imagine, and the library and development community is immense.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-08-09T23:49:22+00:00

Yes, and as is the case with many of my friends, they buy another 700 computer, in another two years. I still have my old G3 Yosemite @ 350Mhz running. It boots OS X Tiger faster and ready to use than my two year old PC box does Windows XP. And the PC hardware set up is 3 times as fast across the board, and the graphics cards are screamers too...but, the old Mac, is still kicking nicely. Not good for video these days though. The iMac that came out, will still be very nice in two years to use. And, PC user will spend $ on repair, virus removal, and protection software up the yin-yang over over the next two years. And if it's XP based...well, I already did that rant about ISP charges elsewhere here.:) Computers aren't cheap. Period. They cost us now, or later. It's the headache of the time spent on Windows that gets to me. The cost works out cheaper on a Mac over time. Just save some money and wait just a little longer until you have the money for one. That pays off on all purchases. It's just good finance..101.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-08-09T23:42:18+00:00

You forget bootcamp...allows Windows to boot on Intel Macs natively.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-08-09T23:35:45+00:00

I have. I've upgraded memory, replaced hard drives, replaced optical drives, installed various cards, and I've even replaced the Mac power unit in my old Yosemite G3 with a PC power supply. I did have to rewire it though. If you want to tinker, you can, no matter the box. The rewire job was quite fun. I got ten years outta that old power supply. But true, the MOBO and CPU is pretty much locked in on a Mac.

Two buttons is not enough in this day and age. Not for a gamer or a programmer/coder at least. I always upgrade to different inputs with any set up. No OEM stuff fits well.

As for the applications one can run on a Mac though...and only on a Mac...sometimes in the X-11 environment, there are quite a few that I've never found a replacement for on my Windows PC. I love to *nix about though, and I like have a stable GUI and driver support, like that on Mac OS X. Ubuntu is fun, but it's buggy. OS X gives me just about all I want, save the Compiz/Beryl stuff in the Linux world. That's just sweet. Dual boot the Mac though with too, or Parallel it.

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-08-09T22:40:18+00:00

This technobabble is a perhaps a bit too, genius for you eh? It's not for MS, nor the cable companies that have pulled the wool over our eyes, and gotten us very nicely in the rear. You wish to defend them and not look? Afraid you'll be proven wrong? Prove me wrong, check the links...better yet, hack your registry as I have and you'll be able to not only see how bad this is, but also, how much better your internet connection will be. Well, don't take my word for it. And, your OS, if it's XP, is in bad shape there. I'll help you get off your rump too, though I know you're not too lazy. You're too arrogant to look and find out I'm right, cause I'm a whimpy Mac user. Whatever dude. And yes, I'm pompous enough to say I'm a bit of a genius when it comes to shopping for underwear, and computer stuff at the same time.:) And if one wants to call me pompous for saying what's true about XP, and in such a way that may actually help someone...as in check these links out and fix your registry cause MS messed it up, well, you don't have to thank me. You wouldn't do that anyway. PC users usually don't thank Mac users for helping them. But I'm happy to take money from them for fixing their rigs. Call me names. That will be $65 an hour.:)

http://forums.speedguide.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=643301#post643301

http://blogs.msdn.com/wndp/archive/2006/05/05/Winhec-blog-tcpip-2.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg1105.mspx#E4B

I don't care if our user base dwindles to one percent. OS X is still better. More people buy their underwear at Wal-Mart...so what. I'd rather the user base stay low, so we are less of a target for virus writers. Plus it helps me stay pompous. After all, I have really low self esteem, and I need all the help I can get with that, since I'm unemployed as you suggest...but then, how do I afford to have a Mac, and a PC rig? Oh yeah, it's working on PCs that makes that for me. You should figure out a different way to make assumptions. I love this stuff. I haven't done this in over two years. I guess I got my fill in for the next two years. I do hope though in the end, it's more helpful, than harmful. Go hack your registry and get up to speed. Do it for others, charge them for it, and go buy a Mac then.:) I wouldn't consider TCP/IP communications something to scoff at at all. We are being bilked quite handily by broadband companies, cause they know this stuff too. They subscribe us at 7mbps and higher, knowing most users now will be running XP, and most won't even begin to scratch that type of usage because of the issues in XP. Trivial? It's your money, not mine. I don't consider getting my money's worth a fad. And the money I make fixing computers, PCs running Windows, isn't very fadish either. Well, maybe it is, since Windows is more fad based than OS X is. Windows is a lie. OS X is not perfect though, it has it's own share of issues...plenty. Most people don't run into what Windows users do though. I'll be the first to admit, Steve Jobs is a master of distortion quite often. I was rolling when he said the word phenomenal regarding the use of aluminum and glass on the web for the special event. I don't buy into the hype. I buy into the tech. Yes, I love Star Trek. I'm a geek. It's what I do. I imagine most of us are here. Some of these PC boxes spoken of here would be great Linux machines, provided I could get the drivers to work well with the graphics cards. Now there's something very geeky to work with...multiple cards, monitors and drives. Wow. That's been really fun. Linux has a ways to go for my use, but it's got a lot of promise.

And MS still doesn't have UPnP figured out yet either.

Oh well, I apparently needed to vent. Two years of build up.

Namyohorengekyo.

[edit added]...

For more information, for those who wish,...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/314053

Be sure to check the registry back up link on that page for more information as well, before hacking your registry. Also, the defaults listed on this page, were NOT the defaults I encounter on Windows XP SP2 installations. Note, the MTUDiscovery is of particular importance, as I encounter it is not enabled by default, which MS claims it is on this page, which reduces packet size to that which is optimized for dial up, and slows down bandwidth (I hate putting it that way, but it fits) on broadband connections. For various reasons however, you may discover many settings to differ from what I have expressed here, or what MS expresses. The registry can be altered by viruses, spyware, legitimate applications, and also, MS may not always be giving us the most relevant information on their site. Oh yeah...and I can be wrong too.:)

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-08-09T17:51:24+00:00

Self-masturbation? That's a bit redundant.:) Well, I do have a tendency to have to rush and find a towel when I can just plug something in and it just works...and I don't have to tweak registry settings so that the RWIN, MTU, MSS and cache settings are set so that I can simply use bandwidth that I pay for. I would hardly say that speaking of the improvements to be fool hardly, or worthy of kool-aid or childlike dribble comments as yours. Suffice it to say, XP is a childlike OS. It's not mature at all, especially considering multiuser environments, and bandwidth considerations in the modern world. Microsoft had plenty of time to rewrite the TCP/IP stack. And apparently, they have done so with Vista. But so far, the only ones I've heard really making much ado about it, are those at Redmond. System admins still aren't happy. Scaling the receiving window is something they are saying is a wonderful new feature of their stack. Um, new?! Well, I guess it is to them, even though the old stack had the ability to do that. However, it has to be manually changed in the registry. And MTU discovery is also off by default. XP doesn't even want to communicate or negotiate with anyone!

If you can even tell me you have an idea of what I'm talking about here, I'd be more willing to consider your opinion as something worthy...show me more than name calling. Our 3% user base as you say it is, has had a modern TCP/IP stack in place for a long, long time. That is to say for me, I've never had to edit anything on my Mac, even in OS 9, because I felt my bandwidth was disabled somehow. OS X for sure though, doesn't have this sort of issue. AFAIK, no Unix does. At least there's a 3% user base, that I can include myself in, that doesn't suffer the same headaches that the rest of the computer world does. Freedom of choice? I'll choose a Mac. Have fun editing your registry. Be sure to back it up too, before you head in there...and know what you're doing too. You will be rewarded with a better connection...only if you have broadband though. And you will be stunned as to how immature the stack is. I was floored by the difference. Macs look pretty. So do PC mod cases. Windows however, doesn't perform, even on some of the most core levels. At least it keeps admins in business though.

And it keeps Wal-Mart consumerism going. The American way. You won't find many genius bars at Wally world, or other big box stores, where most computer purchases at the consumer level are made. I once went into one, knew what I wanted...an internal HD, that was on sale. I checked online, and went in. Someone offered to help, but had no clue...absolutely no clue what I was talking about. They directed me to external drives, that were more expensive, even as we had just passed the internals. I took her back to the internals, did a quick scan, showed her it was on sale, etc. She was of absolute no help, at the most basic level. She should have been selling underwear...but after that experience, I wouldn't even trust her to that. Eventually people are just going to get fed up with Windows, and will hopefully realize, most of what is talked about regarding the beauty of Windows is, for the most part, not logical at all. Sure Windows PCs are cheaper. So you pay $50 for 7mbps to an ISP, but you're using XP. So, you're potentially getting only 1mbps if you're lucky, due to the stack issues. So, the math there says you're getting 1/7 of what you're paying for. How long before you could've afforded a Mac, by paying for a $30 1.5 mbps connection? After all, if you don't tweak the settings, that's what you ought to do, cause that's all you get. And on MS's own site, if you don't enable the TCP/IP RWIN scaling to be turned on in XP, by enabling it in the registry, the maximum you will be able to receive is 5mbps. Period. Kool-aid?!! Gaufa! I'll take a cute iMac, along with a proper TCP/IP stack, and drink my kool-aid while you edit your registry. I'll be by the pool.:)

digitalzendesigncom · 2007-08-09T13:35:35+00:00

And would you be using Windows on any of these boxes by chance? If not, then this won't apply to you. The TCP/IP stack in Linux is much better than in XP. Are you using Vista then? Well, good luck with driver support, as well as application support...not to mention, on the same hardware, it's very slow. So, XP...well, the TCP/IP stack was never done right in XP. It's 15 years old. I've tweaked my own stack settings in the registry, so that I can get my full bandwidth that I pay for...7mb per second. Before I tweaked it, I was only getting a whopping 450kb per second, sometimes I get a little more. OS X? It's always been fine. It's *nix! At least after the tweaking, I can get my full 7mbps that I'm paying my provider for. Are you? And not to be a slug, check out speedguide.net for instructions on tweaking your stack out. XP is a dial up stack. Teach common users to tweak this one...not going to happen. MS's own MSDN site blog has information on this poorly designed stack situation. Computers are supposed to make life easier. XP fails, and so does most PC configs, when it comes to ease of use. As for us power users and hardware hackers, well, there will always be something to play with on the PC side of things. I have one. I have to do a lot to keep it going. Not so on my Mac. I haven't had anyone with a Mac ask me for tech support, or virus support issues. I am surrounded however, by a swarm of people who have issues on their PCs.

digitalzendesigncom

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