Kris Thom White's Profile

Maybe they'll figure out a way to not have these limitations because graphically speaking the interface is outstanding.

Is it also not possible that Dell is cheaper because they're being subsidized by software companies paying to put add-on software (trial versions) on the desktop? It's probably not much (certainly not $200 per unit, there's no way a company would cover that at the 1 in 300 conversation rate of people buying a full version of an add-on), but it's probably something. Also, despite the fact that all computer parts are commodities at this point, there does appear to be some quality difference between Dell and Mac hardware that has to be accounted for somewhere (higher QC, more rigorous testing on the line, versus Dell shipping every unit and letting the customers discover the lemons).

This is going to sound like I work for an ad agency (and I don't), but as much as we complain about advertisements, we (as a capitalist society) actually want and need ads. What we don't want, as others have pointed out in this board, is ads that are irrelevant to us (although certain kinds of ads... say, for a windshield repair service... are run so that on the day we suddenly get a cracked windsheild, we'll remember that shop's name). But generally people want to see ads that are relative to them. If you suddenly banished all ads, what would happen to your marketplace awareness? Anything new developed (electronics, autos, food, whatever) would be off your radar. And while you may purposely seek out ads and information for major purposes like a car, most people wouldn't seek out new food products or whatever. Would most people know about a new restaurant that opened in their town if they never ran an ad? The other major issue with eliminating commercials in trade for product placements (or other options) is that the argument generally focuses on national brands. It's easy to find a placement for Coke. What is your local taco restaurant supposed to do when they're not a national chain? What happens to their ads and their customers when the ad model only really serves national clients? Half of commercials in any given program are served from the local station. If the local economy suffers because there's no longer a place to advertise, what are all your home town entrepreneurs supposed to do? Turn the situation around. Let's say you open a shop that serves a good size area. You need to get customers as quickly as possible, and TV ads have been a way to do that. No one's looking for you because you haven't existed before. If all your poential clients are blocking your advertisement attempts, what are you supposed to do?

I agree that men like tinkering more than women -- but men like tinkering with things that genuinely interest them and I would say that only a subset of men treat PCs as a "hobby". In comparison, cars are not a hobby for me, just utility. I don't enjoy tinkering with a car and if I had to get under the hood and adjust things just to keep the car running, it wouldn't be too long before I'd just get another car. There are guys who love working on their cars, but not the majority. I think that most guys, your workers and managers who are stressed out and want to get home to their families (or the bar) aren't much interested in tinkering with their computers. They just want the damn things to work so they can get their job done and go home! There are certainly IT departments staffed across the country with people whose PCs are as much a hobby as their job. Those are the ones who love fixing them (and God knows they get lots of practice). But most people in the company are not in IT.

One reason: watching video while commuting or flying. Those 3 hour flights to the West coast are much more tolerable watching TV episodes or movies or whatever I've put on mine. People are quick to point out that you can watch them on your laptop, but unless you're working on your laptop for another reason, the iPod is just easier to deal with in crowded seats. Would you rather hold an iPod that's the width of a deck of cards comfortably, or get your laptop out when you're squeezed in between two people? I love my iBook, but dealing with video on the iPod is just so much easier when you're in a crowd.

Milk then? Lovely. Whole or Skim? Thank you for referencing Berkeley Breathed. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Can an iBook be booked into Target mode and used as an exteral drive via USB2 just like Firewire? As a film student (two huge markets for Apple combined into one), this was a way to move footage around from lab computers to home, plus having it to work with on the laptop... Target mode was a big deal. Also, can someone explain why USB2 is so much inferior to Firewire? (I'm not asking this as a troll question, I'm asking this looking for a technical response.) If they both provide the same power, and USB2 is 480kbps vs Firewire's 400, where do the issues come in? Could not a very simple adapter to convert USB2 to FW400 be made (similar to Microsoft's USB1 to PS/2 adapter that ships with their mice) for backwards compatability if the power and speed are so comparable?

Apple needs to make a Mac OS X version of Visioneer's Paperport. A great management system for PDFs and other documents is what's sorely missing on the Mac. DevonThink is close but misses the boat on several things. We can manage music, movies and photos... but we have nothing to get us closer to a manageable paperless office.