You all know I am not a fan of the Mac v. PC flame wars, but I can honestly say I have never been more satisfied with a piece of hardware than I am with this MacBook Pro 17″.
Also, American cars aren’t that bad and have an unfair rep.
Did I miss any of the big ones, Laura?
I’m off to bed. I’ve turned into a 70 year old man- napping 4 times a day since I broke my shoulder. I’m still not as angry as Mean old John McCain Walnuts:
.
Jesse
I’ve had a 17″ Apple laptop for several years now (one was a PowerBook G4, the other a MacBook Pro). I agree — they’re great machines.
Kevin Phillips Bong
Still using my 1.33MHz Powerbook G4 17″ laptop. Only issue so far is I’m running out of space on the 80GB hard drive. Never going back to PC.
Martin
Apparently you’re a loser for drinking the Kool-Aid and spending more than $327 for that laptop. Everyone knows the appropriate thing to do is spend the smallest possible amount of money for whatever piece of shit Costco has. And even those guys are losers for not building their own for $319. An $8 savings and you can pick out the color of the fan that goes inside!
Max
Okay, I’ll play…
– dogs are better than cats
– thin crust pizza is better than thick
– I’d rather be cold than hot
P.S. there is an imposter “max” on this blog. I believe I was here first and he (he’s clearly a dude) should change his moniker.
SGEW
“I was tortured. In a war. So you have to love me! . . . Just kidding. But I was tortured.”
God, I really do kind of miss the 2008 campaign season.
rootless_e
I wish Rahm had let me have a Mac instead of forcing me to use a PC by beaming out his super-X-ray instructions.
South of I-10
Since this is an open thread, I need some help from the world music fans. Festival International de Louisiane just released their schedule for April – who can I not miss? I took your advice on bands last year and was very pleased I did. There are a few bands I know I want to see, but would love to hear other opinions.
Osceola
Macs all around for me going back to the Classic II. This MacBook Air is great. I’ll use the occasional PC at work, just as I drive the occasional American rental car. Most of these cars seem fine, but my Hondas and Toyotas and even one Mazda have run for >185,000 miles without even trying. Sorry, Detroit.
Take of yourself, John.
MikeJ
Mac hardware is nice.
Laura W.
What kind of Coffee and Camera do you like, John?
How’s your Cold?
Cilantro & Condiments. Also.
(BTW, I am using a co-workers MacBook Pro to type this because FYWP on my BB! How nice is it to have the same computer as your co-worker?)
J.W. Hamner
I think we should be proactive and move into the 21st century with an Apple vs. Google flamewar. That’s really the next front in internet fanboi arguments.
Martin
@Osceola:
My Honda was made in Ohio. Love it.
And JW Hamner has a point. iPhone/Android is the place to fight.
Barry
John Cole: “You all know I am not a fan of the Mac v. PC flame wars, but I can honestly say I have never been more satisfied with a piece of hardware than I am with this MacBook Pro 17”.”
If I had the money, that’s what I’d go for.
El Cruzado
Now I hate your guts, John. At least until next week when they release the new models (hopefully they’ll remember to do that between tablets and iPhones and whatnot) and I can finally splurge and go back to glorious 17″-screen-vision.
Had to rush and buy a 15″ laptop last year after my first gen MacBook Pro couldn’t cope anymore with work. Fast enough (could use more RAM though) but the screen kills me. Need more pixels!
Zifnab
@MikeJ: If you don’t like modding, it’s great. But if you ever try to crack open a Mac’s case…
It makes me think of modern cars compared to old fashioned cars. There was a time when you didn’t need a mechanic to change out the engine. You just needed tools and muscle. Now you can’t check the oil without a special tool from the manufacturer.
That’s what the Mac reminds me of.
ruemara
I’ve used Macs since the Mac Classic. Most of the problems I can fix and they’ve been pretty darned reliable. I use a dell for work (for editing? go figure) and I can fix a cup of coffee in the time it takes for it to start, boot and register to the network. And the dll errors it gives never fail to mystify me or the network techs.
I have to cats. I like dogs. but hell, I like rabbits too.
I like my 87 chevy wagon.
and when I had major injuries, I slept all the time, so go take a nap and recover quickly, John.
Duncan Watson
Personally I run Linux. But if you want a contentious topic talk about cyclists. You can get people all fired up about how cyclists are all scofflaws even if you just reference a story where a cyclist was hit from behind by a drunk.. Bonus points for a jurisdictional dispute that lead to a 22 minute response time and may have contributed to the cyclists death.
You get enviro-hate, claims of smugness, bad government/bureaucracy, and claims of how allowing some people to ride bikes means we are trying to force everyone to give up their car. Tons of fun.
BenA
I’ll never buy a non-Apple laptop again… I mean it’s nice that I own a laptop I can actually close while running… and have it come back up again.
Why must Microsoft fail at every attempt at power management.. :-)
I have a desktop PC hooked into the TV for games and whatnot… but I do 95% of my work on a Mac with Parallels running XP.
Martin
@Zifnab:
What are you talking about? The motherboard is unique, but every other thing in there is as standard as a PC. I dropped a new CPU into my Mac Mini a while back. I’ve replaced the DVD with a dual-layer burner, hard drives, and so on.
cdmarine
Get used to the napping. Those percocets knocked me right the hell out after my surgery. It was like I went to sleep one day and woke up weeks later.
mr. whipple
What is Apple going to do when it runs out of cat names, huh?
I’m very, very happy with my Denon 2809CI receiver. Very.
GReynoldsCT00
We haven’t debated the best coffee for a while…
/ducks
Mark S.
This Waterloo bullshit has got to stop.
I’m going to make a bold prediction and say that whatever happens in 2012, it will have jack shit to do with the tragedy in Haiti.
asiangrrlMN
@Max:
Cats over dogs.
Thick over thin (crust).
Definitely cold over hot.
Tina Fey over Sarah Palin.
And, at least the other max doesn’t capitalize. That’s how I tell you two apart.
dmsilev
@Zifnab: It varies. Some models, replacing a hard drive is easy. In others, like my ~2006 MBP, it’s a fairly long (albeit reasonably straightforward) procedure involving roughly two dozen screws.
Same is true for a lot of laptops, independent of manufacturer. Squeezing all of that stuff inside such a small case can make for some fairly convoluted assembly procedures.
-dms
Comrade Darkness
I feel for you, dude. Pain is draining as hell. Nothing compares to it.
Hope you get it resolved before some of the other longer-term side effects show up. Docs never mention them, but short-term memory disfunction and ultra-high pain sensitivity can start to come along for the ride. (I’m talking months of pain here, not weeks.) On the other hand, it may be good to go through it while young enough to recover so you know what it does to you, because there is no explaining it to someone. I’m willing to bet these other side-effects are the reason old people become frail after an accident or fall, so I’m hoping my practice at powering through it will help me out later.
dmsilev
@mr. whipple:
Steve Jobs has a top secret genetic engineering lab working on the problem as we speak.
If the attempt to create new cat species fails, get ready for OS X: LOLCat.
-dms
MikeJ
@Martin:
The only question is who should get to decide what programs you can run on your computer: you or the manufacturer? One of those two major models is open and anyone can run, or write, anything they want for that platform. The other is controlled by big brother who can inspect your data anytime it cares to and get rid of things it doesn’t approve of.
Some people would be very happy swapping places with Winston Smith.
Martin
@Mark S.: I agree the waterloo bullshit needs to stop, but personally, and I realize I’m way out on the fringe on this one, I think we would do well by the world to offer to make Haiti a US protectorate with an election on their sovereignty scheduled in 5 years. Their choice to accept it or not, but we should not stand idly by when a nation so thoroughly fucked will clearly remain fucked until someone steps in and offers to help put the place together. It has monumental consequences to the US, but I’m certain it’s the proper thing for us to do.
slag
@asiangrrlMN: Totally on all counts. Although I think those people who prefer hot over cold are a myth. That’s just crazy talk.
Shinobi
I used to be a bit PS3 > 360 person. But it looks like the latest sony firmware upgrade has bricked our PS3. So Sony can go fuck themselves. (Though I’m still not buy a 360, Microsoft can also go fuck themselves.)
slag
Also, what Duncan Watson said. Also.
donovong
Dammit to hell, the last thing I need to talk about is computers. Of the four that we own, this is the only one still functioning all of a sudden. THREE laptops and one desktop have serious issues that I cannot afford to fix right now. If this desktop dies, I am so seriously fucked that I will have to consider sepukku.
All PC’s, of course. Sigh…..
Oh, and thin crust, dogs and hot. I hate cold. And PC’s also. Too.
GReynoldsCT00
<blockquoteIf the attempt to create new cat species fails, get ready for OS X: LOLCat.
Win!
edmund dantes
Haha Haha Why waste your time?
Gus
@Max: You’re missing the really big one. Baby boomers are a bunch of self-absorbed posers who sold out their principles. Or Gen Xers are a bunch of self-absorbed soulless people too obsessed with material things. or Gen Yer’s are a bunch of self-absorbed punks overly obsessed with technology.
Martin
@MikeJ:
If you want to have any measure of security on your system, you need code signing, and the only way to do code signing is the way Apple is doing it right now. My guess is that it’s just a matter of time before Android looks like Windows.
And you can install your own apps on the iPhone. It just costs you $100 for the software to do it. The option is there, it’s just nobody actually wants to go that route.
GReynoldsCT00
@GReynoldsCT00:
WTF happened to my blockquote?
Comrade Darkness
@Kevin Phillips Bong: Bong dude! Oh, wait, I’m typing this on a 1.5Ghz 17″ powerbook g4. Nevermind. . .
I’m starting to get flack from friends about this 6 year old thing. Hey, it refuses to die. It always works. (well, 1 new battery and 1 new HD helped a bit) Why the heck replace it? I don’t replace cars until they absolutely stop running either.
GReynoldsCT00
@dmsilev:
This is the WIN!
LOLZ
Martin
@donovong:
Make sure you do it with a PC-100 DIMM from one of your dead machines. It would be the proper way.
eastriver
My wife loves her 15″ MacBook Pro she picked up last week.
Mac rules, PC drools. (H/T to my 6-year-old daughter.)
MikeJ
@Martin: The only way to have real safety is to have the TSA administer body cavity searches to everyone before they get on the plane.
If that sounds moronic to you, you’ll understand what handing over complete control to Cupertino sounds like to me.
Comrade Darkness
@Gus: I don’t think it is the technology they are obsessed with, per se, but the ability to communicate and socialize in new ways. I mean, here you are on this blog. Does that make you computer obsessed?
@dmsilev: When they announce the OS Saber-Tooth Fossil, you’ll know it’s the end of the line.
GReynoldsCT00
I love my MacBook except for the fact that I can’t get Cleek’s pie filter to run on it, that gives me a sad, and indigestion at times…
Gus
@Comrade Darkness: I was actually talking about flame war bait. I don’t particularly buy any of those characterizations.
matoko_chan
<3 my lapmac abune a’ thing
In a world without walls or borders…..who needs Windows and Gates?
Martin
@MikeJ:
And yet I hear nobody complaining that they can’t load their own apps on their cable box, DVR, or any other cell phone, and so on. Remember when you could only install carrier approved ringtones? Somehow, once Apple came out with a phone a whole new set of rules got invented on what users should/shouldn’t be allowed to do. Funny how that always happens.
geg6
Nice as those PC wars sound, you have to actually be able to afford a home computer in order to get involved. Since I can’t, I’ll sit that particular war out. Hell, my contract on the Blackberry will be up in June and the way my finances are, it will be back to the whatever-is-free cell phone. Since I just got a letter from the IRS that, somehow, there was a miscalculation on my taxes last year, I now owe the entire $750 I got as a refund back. With interest.
asiangrrlMN
@slag: Are you single and do you live in MN?
While I may get flak for my bold statements, I stand by all three.
And, FYWP.
Martin
@GReynoldsCT00:
http://8-p.info/greasekit/
It’s Greasemonkey for Webkit (Safari). A few more steps to get installed still than Greasemonkey, but it should do the trick. Might even work in Chrome since it’s webkit, but I haven’t tried that.
WaterGirl
Am I the only one who has noticed that Booman has a thread up about John Cole?
Tomlinson
Pretty happy with this MacBook (stupid STUPID lack of home/end/pageup/pagedown/delete keys aside) now that I have linux running on it.
Before that, decidedly meh.
Uriel
I’ve never even understood caring enough about computer brands to start a war in the first place. As long as they run whatever you want to run the way you want to run it, than what business is it of mine?
However I do have to say, this here on the subject is hilarious:
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/324cbe11af/little-asian-pc-girl-vs-mac-parody
GReynoldsCT00
@Martin:
I’ve tried, it’s the ‘few extra steps’ that get me… :/
Karen
I’m in love with my MacBook Pro too!
WaterGirl
@Max: Are you the “I am an O-bot” Max?
Mark S.
@Martin:
That might be necessary, but why not just call it a UN protectorate administered by the US? Actually, I’m not even sure we have to administer it, since we have a pretty bad reputation in the region for such things.
Cackalacka
I’m looking forward to trying out a Mac, but they have to come out with a man’s version first.
Sentient Puddle
Me, I’m the kind of geek who just goes all in. No fanboyism from me, I love it all!
Well, except when it comes to cell phones. But that’s more the nature of the devices…and the fault of the carriers themselves. Love for the iPhone, Droid, Nexus One, and so on and so forth, but fuck AT&T, Verizon, and so on and so forth.
scav
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. raise your games people. the I’m proud to be mono-lingual shit is so old.
Comrade Kevin
@Martin:
And thus validate the stupid conspiracy theory Hugo Chavez has been going on about for the last week.
Comrade Darkness
@Tomlinson: Func up arrow and func down arrow do home and end for me, and command up arrow command down arrow do page up and page down for me. Maybe the powerbook is different from a mac book…
I do salivate a bit over the trackpad gesture stuff on the newer models, I’ll confess.
CaseyL
@WaterGirl: I was just there. It’s about the oddness of Cole, a newly converted DFH, telling the Dems what they’re doing wrong. Here’s a quote of the best comment so far in that thread:
That does seem to be the choice we face: we can be effective, or we can be not-evil, but we can’t be both. Apparently.
Comrade Darkness
@Martin: @Comrade Kevin: Being a u.s. protectorate hasn’t done guam a heck of a lot of good over the years. Compare Guam to Hawaii . . . for example.
Speaking of comparisons, the biggest long-term issue is this: Dominican republic birthrate 22/1000 Haiti: 36/1000.
tamied
@WaterGirl: Link please.
Max
@WaterGirl: Yeppers.
I’m an O-bot who likes thin crust pizza and Project Runway open threads.
;)
ellaesther
I’ll play:
Cake over pie.
Everything else on the Thanksgiving table over turkey.
Beyonce over Etta James (especially on “At Last”).
and LOTR the films over LOTR the books.
Comrade Darkness
@tamied:
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2010/1/19/135014/173
scav
because the real style points necessarily involve how you’re contributing to the thread using two tin cans and a string. Either of which are in binary or hex. serious style points for Guam, Hawaii and pizza though
Martin
@Tomlinson: It used to have them. Not sure why they dumped them in the last revision. I was a big fan of them before. I’m sure someone out there has a keyboard layout that restores them, but I’ve been too lazy to track one down.
@GReynoldsCT00: Yeah, it needs more than a little more spit and polish to be acceptable. Just wanted to make sure people at least knew it was out there.
WaterGirl
@tamied: Here’s the link: http://www.boomantribune.com/
Edit: I see Comrade Darkness beat me to it. Thanks, Comrade
Max
@ellaesther: Cake over pie? Blasphamy!
Pie rules.
I agree on Etta. She really lost me when she went on that anti-Beyonce and Obama rant.
gex
@Max: I just use the shortcut of 1) shit I like rocks, 2) shit you like sucks 3) in the case that you like something I like, I will no longer like it.
Oh wait, that’s not me. That’s hipsters.
Martin
@Mark S.: I’m not tied to who the players are – UN administered by Canada or Brazil would be fine by me as well, but Haiti is going to look a hell of a lot like Somalia over the next decade if someone doesn’t offer to go in, and that will have a big impact on us.
@Comrade Darkness: When was the last time Guam had a coup? How many has Haiti had in our lifetimes? And birthrate is hardly an uncontrollable statistic. Show me a subsistence level nation that doesn’t have a massive birthrate. Get them out of that state and then having kids becomes a lot less important (and controllable). That statistic is only going to get worse, not better, from here on out without intervention.
Martin
@gex: And teenagers. And Republicans to a pretty large extent.
freelancer
Dragon Age vs. Mass Effect 2
The Polish say Space Opera, all the way.
Cannot wait.
ellaesther
@Max: Well, and in all honesty, if you were to magically bring me a slice of my grandmother’s blueberry pie, I might have to reconsider.
But there are times when tough choices must be made! If it’s either/or, I’m Team Cake!
Max
@ellaesther: But where are you on the Beatles or the Rolling Stones?
I’m Stones FTW!
ellaesther
@Martin: I have to say that I agree with both of these comments. The potential for things to get exponentially worse from the awful they are now is just staggering.
tamied
@WaterGirl: Thanks all.
asiangrrlMN
@gex: Snicker. You made me laugh. Thanks for that.
@ellaesther: I refuse to choose in this matter. I will heroically declare, cake AND pie.
@Max: And on this one, I will heroically declare, NEITHER!
flavortext
@CaseyL:
Well, that comment ignores the fact that there is serious infighting going on in the Republican party. The rhetoric that came from FDL and some disgruntled progressives may have approached palm-to-the-forehead status but they’ve got nothing on the teabaggers, who have already staged a protest and ran a third-party party candidate, and are signing up to be local precinct captains in droves. I’d actually rather not be a Republican, even when you set aside all the evil.
slag
@asiangrrlMN: No and no. But I admire your steadfast assertion of your principles. So many people are wishy washy when it comes to pizza crust. Just another sign of the decline of the republic.
ellaesther
@Max: Oh dear. We will never be able to make this work.
Beatles. BeatlesBeatlesBeatlesBeatlesBeatlesBeatles.
The Stones did one thing well for several years, and then they did it again and again for several decades. The Beatles, on the other hand, were endlessly creative and are still deeply embedded in almost everything we see in rock or pop today (and even some hip hop).
/ducks
@asiangrrlMN: Heroism? OR FOLLY?!
GReynoldsCT00
All this talk about food…
Cake! Specially Red Velvet
Thin crust pizza
what else…
oh yeah, Springsteen!
Glocksman
@mr. whipple:
What brands of Windows laptops were you running?
I’ve had 3 Dells over the years and haven’t had any problem out of them other than the screen on my 17′ Inspiron developed a pink line down the center of the screen six months after the warranty expired.
Despite the warranty expiration, Dell gave me a choice of sending the machine to a service center for screen replacement or they’d send me the screen and I could replace it myself.
Due to the fact Dell actually puts the service manuals for their machines online, I chose to replace it myself.
On the other hand, I’ve had customers (I fix PC’s on the side) come to me with Toshibas and Sonys that I wouldn’t fucking touch if the problem was hardware because neither company can be bothered to make it easy to repair by making the service manuals easily available.
I roll my own when it comes to desktops, but Dell laptops are the only ones I’d buy.
scav
forget dessert. I want fried potatoes and bacon.
uhh, thin crust, sage and walnuts. And anything baroque over Chopin.
asiangrrlMN
@ellaesther: Probably the latter, but I am resigned to that.
@slag: I know! They’re all, “Oooh, thin crust.” Then, someone pulls out a thick crust, and they’re all, “Ooooh, thick crust!” Pick a crust and stick with it, damn it!
Andy Prieboy! My song of the day:
Tomorrow Wendy.
Yes, it’s a repeat. I love it, though. Erotic, depressing, and he has a gorgeous voice. And, Jeannette Napolitano is pretty fine, too.
Tomlinson
@Comrade Darkness:
Yeah, but I use those keys all day. Having them shifted is mindless.
Chuck Butcher
I’ve got a 2009 Impala that I’m really quite impressed with. I’m not easily impressed. I have a lot of cars and I’ve built them.
I use PC because that’s what I started with in ’89.
Comrade Kevin
@Tomlinson: It’s pretty obvious the MacBook (and Pro) is like that just by looking at the keyboard, which you could have done before buying it.
Did you actually replace Mac OS X with Linux?
Tsulagi
That’s true. Kinda like the difference between some women. My plain-Jane Jeep may fart (misfire) occasionally, sometimes needs a Depends (transfer case fluid leak), has gotten old and could use a facelift (paint job), but she’s always been faithful and dependable. I love my Jeep.
On the other hand, my young teutonic M5 is high speed, hot, intelligent, and does things to me and for me that give me starbursts. Sorry, Jane.
Roger Moore
@mr. whipple:
The question is not what they’ll do when they run out of cat names. There are a lot of kinds of cat, even when you eliminate all the ones that are called “[something] cat”. The problem they’ll run into much sooner is that they’ll start having to use lame cat names instead of cool ones. Does anyone really want to use something code named “Colocolo” or “Margay”?
Glocksman
@Chuck Butcher:
When it came time for me to buy my first car that was over $5000 and/or less than 7 years old at the time of purchase, I chose a 2008 Kia Spectra EX with 20K on the clock last April for $10,990.
The Kia replaced a 1992 Olds Cutlass Ciera S with only 105k on the clock but had a slipping transmission that had downshifted hard for years and an engine that started to run really rough to the point I suspected the harmonic balancer had somehow gone bad.
Not because I loved the idea of buying a foreign car, but because I wanted some warranty on it without getting raped by one of those aftermarket warranty companies.
At the time of purchase, the Kia still had over 3.5 years/40k miles of factory bumper to bumper warranty left.
The 2008 Chevy Cobalt on the lot not only cost $1000 more, it only had a bit over a year and/or 14k of factory warranty left.
If I have no problems out of the Kia, I’ll probably buy a new Forte a couple of years after I have the Spectra paid off.
Though if GM, Ford, and Chrysler were to start selling vehicles with the same warranties that Kia/Hyundai/Mitsubishi offer, I’d certainly consider a new Chevy or Dodge at my price point.
I’m surprised none of them haven’t already done so, as Chrysler made some customers back in the early 80’s with their 5/50 bumper to bumper warranty.
Kevin Phillips Bong
@Comrade Darkness: I said 1.33MHz but I meant 1.33GHz. My Cherokee just passed 120k miles. I flew a slow and ugly airplane built in the 60s for the Navy, then a slow and ugly airplane built in the 70s for the Air Force. When I finally get something new and shiny to play with it kicks me out of the cockpit entirely. Technology sux.
Emma Anne
@Martin:
Please, please explain. I have followed all the directions. Greasekit is up there in my Safari menus. The script is loaded, with the nym and message number modified. And . . . . nothing. The lamers still go on and on instead of telling me they like pie.
Randy P
I was kind of grumpy about Macbooks (my now 3-year-old 13″ model, not a Pro) for a few months last fall, when I was having a lot of overheating and crashing issues. Especially after paying $500 for the first motherboard replacement (that might have included my investments for more RAM and a new battery, I can’t recall), gambling that I could still get plenty of life out of the old workhorse.
But now motherboard number 4 seems to be working great. So I’m happy again.
My wife has a Pro from work. That is one sweet machine. But I can’t see putting such a lovely box through the abuse my machines get. My next box will probably be a sub-$500 model. I wish Apple would play in that sandbox, I really don’t want to have to go back to Microsoft.
Randy P
How could this thread get this long without a Star Trek vs. Battlestar Galactica flame war?
D-Chance.
More liberal election loss excuses from the Excuse-o-meter:
Wrong candidate (“If only we’d nominated Michael instead of Marcia…”).
Voter intimidation: Evidently, some random chick making a curling iron reference was enough to cause millions of loyal Democrats to cower in fear in the safety of their homes rather than venture out to vote their hearts.
Personality contest (“Marcia is only losing because Scott is a hunk!”). I think this falls under the “Teh voterz iz teh stoopid” category, but it deserves its own corollary at the very least…
Failure to say “please?” (“President Obama would have done more if only Marcia had asked for it earlier.”)
Yet more excuses and finger-pointing to come, I’m sure.
ruemara
@Cackalacka:
Man’s version? Drunk, sloppy, late and unable to function when needed?* It’s called an HP.
I’ve been known to cuddle with my laptops, like when my wow server is down & I need comfort.
*In all due fairness, I love mens and get along with them, except when chores are involved.
Glocksman
@Randy P:
I’d love to bite at that flame bait, but I’ll keep it somewhat on topic and admit that I’ve seriously considered using one of my spare HD’s and making a ‘hackintosh’.
I personally would be willing to pay Apple $130 or so for a copy of their OS that’d run on the i7 860/Radeon 5770/8GB RAM machine I just built.
I’m not willing to pay them the ‘Apple tax’ they’d want for a machine of equivalent power.
batgirl
@Comrade Darkness: After reading the comments, I’ve learned of something else that is Obama’s fault: Haiti only has one runway.
How dare Obama keep planes from landing! Let them all land, I say. Of course, when we have a crash that will be Obama’s fault, too.
Sentient Puddle
@freelancer: Guh…and I told myself that I need to play through Mass Effect again before the sequel drops…think I might have missed my window on that.
Man, and I still haven’t completed Dragon Age yet. I’m a terrible human being.
Glocksman
@Randy P:
Overheating?
My 3 year old Latitude D820 started having heat issues a few months ago.
After stripping it down I saw why.
The cooling fin ends* were totally blocked off by dirt and hair.
After removing the heatsink assembly, blowing it out thoroughly, cleaning the old heat paste off with rubbing alcohol and then reinstalling it with an application of fresh heat paste, it runs like new.
I’m of the opinion that legos are more complicated than building desktop machines or working on laptops.
If you have the service manual for the laptop, that is.
If you don’t, then it can be a fucking nightmare.
*the ends inside the machine that you couldn’t easily reach with a can of air from the outside.
AxelFoley
*kisses his Macbook Pro*
I love you, yes I do. Who’s a good girl? Who–
Urm, nevermind me, folks. Nothing to see here.
batgirl
I’m drooling over the MacBook Pro. Currently have a Powerbook G4 1.67 GHz. Just had to have the logic board replaced. $300. Was very tempted to just put that $300 toward the MacBook Pro but somehow I managed to bring in my computer for repairs and not walk out with a new one. Been patting myself on the back since then.
Origuy
@South of I-10: The only band I recognize in that lineup is Lunasa. They are one of the top traditional Celtic bands around today. I’d recommend them. That’s quite a festival. Maybe it’s time I visit Louisiana.
If you ever get a chance to see Les Yeux Noirs, do it. I saw them at the San Jose Jazz Festival a few years ago.
Glocksman
@AxelFoley:
Heh..if you want to see some computer pr0n, look at this.
Including the OS, it all cost about $1100 shipped.
All of the mandatory overtime was worth it in the end. :)
CalD
@John Cole:
Apple makes a great product. No two ways about it. Sure they’re over-hyped and over-marketed and on the pricey side for what you you actually get. But all that aside they’re still well designed machines with a lot more attention paid to fit and finish than the general run of commodity PCs. It’s actually hard to buy a better product at any price. And that’s particularly true when it comes to laptops, which present a lot more mechanical design challenges than desktop machines.
I’ve also been quite happy with my last two cars, both Fords. I couldn’t tell you much about the current crop of GM or Chrysler products but Ford I think has actually been building about as good a car as anyone for at least ten years now. Just goes to show how long (and how much marketing) it takes to live down a bad reputation.
Blue Raven
I love Macs, please do not get me wrong here. My main computer at home is a Mac. I have a MacBook. But it’s going all but unused since I got a used IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad because it does what I need to do better than the MacBook does due to the fact Apple thinks their laptops don’t need good graphics cards. It’s the Mac-loving gamer’s conundrum.
Tomlinson
@Comrade Kevin:
Nah, you cannot (legally) write an iPhone app in Linux. Since I have to write iPhone apps, that means I have to spend some amount of time on a Mac. That left me with getting a Mac part time and dealing with the shit keyboard learning curve over and over again, or cutting over full time and learning the shit keyboard once and for all. I opted for door number 2.
Dual boot. I run Linux > 99.9% of the time. When I’m done with iPhone apps, MacOS is gone.
Glocksman
@CalD:
Stylish? Certainly.
User friendly as far as OS functionality goes? Agreed.
Well built? Perhaps, but if Randy’s experience (motherboard #4???) is anything to go by they aren’t all that and a bag of chips too.
When it comes to laptop design, there are tradeoffs that have to be made WRT heat dissipation versus machine physical size (heatsinks take up space), power, and ease of repair/upgradability, etc.
Apple’s laptops seem to make the tradeoffs involved at the opposite end from where I’d make them.
IOW, I’d rather own a machine that was bulkier and heavier if the additional weight and bulk helped to insure both user friendly repair/upgradability and reliability.
This isn’t to say that those who value style and/or light weight are wrong.
I’m just saying I’d prefer the extra weight if it was necessary to make the machine more resistant to high temperatures and/or easier for the end user to repair/upgrade.
The Pale Scot
@ Comrade Darkness
Yep, I’m at the P-units with surfing a 12y old 400ghz G4 running tiger I left here; it gets used about five times year and starts up neatly every time. it starts up about 4 times faster than pop’s PC. Old macs don’t die, they get their duties reassigned.
CalD
@Glocksman:
I’ll definitely grant you that Apple has a tendency to take such things as smallness and lightness and quietness to somewhat silly extremes sometimes. In general you could call their products a lot of things but you probably wouldn’t call many of them under-designed.
Even so, their stuff seems to hold up well. They definitely sweat the details when it comes to mechanical design and seem to use pretty good materials. They also support their products pretty well.
I think most everyone making electronics is having some quality issues these days though. I wonder if we may have finally found the limits of Asia’s ability to supply labor suitable for high-tech manufacturing.
AxelFoley
@freelancer:
Mass Effect 2, and it’s not even close. Loved the first Mass Effect, and this one looks even better.
Can’t wait to play this beast. And to make things better, I’m on vacation all next week when it comes out.
mclaren
Macs are sweet. Now that Micro$haft has entered its death spiral with Vista and then Vista Service Pack 3 (AKA Windows 7), the writing’s on the wall.
Glocksman
@CalD:
No, they aren’t underdesigned at all.
It’s just that Apple seems to favor style at the expense of user serviceability in certain instances.
Take the iPhone and its non-user replaceable* battery as an example.
To me a removable battery cover and easily replaced battery on a cellphone is pretty important because I keep a phone for a while.
In fact I’ve already replaced the battery in my Curve once.
That said, there are obviously plenty of people for whom that isn’t an issue at all.
I’m not an Apple hater (the very first computer I ever used was an Apple II+) but I do have reservations about some of the tradeoffs they make when designing their hardware.
Though the programmers at Apple who wrote the Windows version of that Godsdamned Bonjour service should be taken out back and shot.
*Yeah, I and any other gearhead can take it apart and do a swap, but Joe Average can’t.
different church-lady
@Martin:
Oh you…
mclaren
@CalD:
HahahahahaHaahahahahahaAHAHAHAHA!
Ho.
Hee. Ha. Ho. Hahahahaha!
Ahem.
You are aware that Apple uses Foxconn motherboards, universally reviled as the worst, the lowest, the very bottom-of-the-barrel scuzziest crappiest mobo manufacturer on the planet?
Aside from that, Apple’s stuff is pretty darn good. But man, they really cheap out on the crappy low-quality motherboards.
Glocksman
@mclaren:
Doesn’t Foxconn make boards for Intel as well?