'puters - I'm heading over to the dark side at last

[stevewfl]

No, however Bill Gates at least has some charity in him.  Jobs was a selfish miser who did his best to shut out his friends, charities and even the mother of his own daughter.  No doubt he was a genius, and possibly the most influential visionary in the last 100 years.  But as a person, he was dispicable, IMHO.   What amazes me is that he managed to live long enough to die at the hands of a disease. 

Prepare to follow this thread as it moves to the arena very soon.

Thanks for the explanation!  I didn't intend for a computer thread to become "Arena" style, but hey we can continue there too 

[sherob]

No, however Bill Gates at least has some charity in him.  Jobs was a selfish miser who did his best to shut out his friends, charities and even the mother of his own daughter.  No doubt he was a genius, and possibly the most influential visionary in the last 100 years.  But as a person, he was dispicable, IMHO.   What amazes me is that he managed to live long enough to die at the hands of a disease. 

Prepare to follow this thread as it moves to the arena very soon.

Hopefully not to toss to much fuel on the Arena move... but Mr. Gates didn't move into the Nice column until recently.  He as well tried to shut out and cut off some of the people that helped start the MSFT empire.  He was pretty cold and ruthless before he left the company.

[B.D.F.]

Not casting an opinion either way but most highly successful people are egomaniacs if not megalomaniacs. It is not really a bad thing, just a personality trait. Just like most famous generals who served in major fields of combat- read several of their biographies, especially autobiographies and they really all share one personality.

I would agree that Bill (I like to think we are on a first name basis) has done a lot of philanthropic work but one has to wonder what drives it- the betterment of mankind or feeding an enormous ego. Is he really helping or is he just casting the control of a huge amount of wealth in a new and different direction? Perhaps all of the above?

Funny thing but if one is relentless in the pursuit of a disease's cure or a criminal's capture / prosecution then that individual (or group) is praised for having such a great behavioral trait. If an anarchist is relentless in the pursuit of the destruction of order, or the neighborhood 'crazy' cat lady has 47 cats, that individual is criticized for the overzealous pursuit of a single item and obsessive behavior. But really, isn't it the same thing?

Bill and Steve aside, I still think a Mac is a slicker, more user friendly platform. And I still use a PC because I have to, and it serves well enough to do anything I have wanted to do so far.

Now depending on Jim's zealousness, this may end up in the arena. How many more posts the thread gets may depend on the zealousness of the posters there.... 

Brian

No, however Bill Gates at least has some charity in him.  Jobs was a selfish miser who did his best to shut out his friends, charities and even the mother of his own daughter.  No doubt he was a genius, and possibly the most influential visionary in the last 100 years.  But as a person, he was dispicable, IMHO.   What amazes me is that he managed to live long enough to die at the hands of a disease. 

Prepare to follow this thread as it moves to the arena very soon.

[redbarber]

Hopefully not to toss to much fuel on the Arena move... but Mr. Gates didn't move into the Nice column until recently.  He as well tried to shut out and cut off some of the people that helped start the MSFT empire.  He was pretty cold and ruthless before he left the company.

I guess the whole "daughter thing" stuck in my craw.  Here's a guy with plenty of resources to help his child have basic comforts and security, but just to spite his ex-girlfriend, he denied the little girl for years, and fought providing ANY support for her.  I think if he had spent the remainder of his life and fortune helping the poor and needy, I'll never be able to forgive him for that one situation alone.  Doesn't matter, he got his in the end.
I agree that the Mac is a better platform, and most Apple products lead where others try to follow.  Until my employer starts using them, I'm stuck with the MS Windows platform.

[MrPepsi]

Funny thing but if one is relentless in the pursuit of a disease's cure or a criminal's capture / prosecution then that individual (or group) is praised for having such a great behavioral trait. If an anarchist is relentless in the pursuit of the destruction of order, or the neighborhood 'crazy' cat lady has 47 cats, that individual is criticized for the overzealous pursuit of a single item and obsessive behavior. But really, isn't it the same thing?
Brian

For Brian, his goal is for us to like him based on the number of posts he has under his name.

[B.D.F.]

Nah, if I wanted to do that, I would post things like '+ 1' and similar. Besides, I don't think posts in the Open forum or Arena count in the post score. And I do not even read the arena, let alone post there.

The guy who really wants to post a lot is Kirby! That little guy has an opinion on everything, often more than one opinion on the same subject and sometimes even conflicting opinions on the same subject. It is unbelievable. I have to restrict his computer access (both PC and Mac) or he would overrun the place.

Besides all of that, I know that a high post count does not mean that any of the posts themselves are useful. The Internet gives everyone a voice but I am still not convinced that that ever was a good idea. Sort of the way penicillin would seem to be a great idea until it cures pneumonia in someone like Joseph Stalin.... 

Brian

For Brian, his goal is for us to like him based on the number of posts he has under his name.

[MrPepsi]

Nah, if I wanted to do that, I would post things like '+ 1' and similar. Besides, I don't think posts in the Open forum or Arena count in the post score. And I do not even read the arena, let alone post there.

The guy who really wants to post a lot is Kirby! That little guy has an opinion on everything, often more than one opinion on the same subject and sometimes even conflicting opinions on the same subject. It is unbelievable. I have to restrict his computer access (both PC and Mac) or he would overrun the place.

Besides all of that, I know that a high post count does not mean that any of the posts themselves are useful. The Internet gives everyone a voice but I am still not convinced that that ever was a good idea. Sort of the way penicillin would seem to be a great idea until it cures pneumonia in someone like Joseph Stalin.... 

Brian

+1 

[stevewfl]

Nah, if I wanted to do that, I would post things like '+ 1' and similar. Besides, I don't think posts in the Open forum or Arena count in the post score. And I do not even read the arena, let alone post there.

The guy who really wants to post a lot is Kirby! That little guy has an opinion on everything, often more than one opinion on the same subject and sometimes even conflicting opinions on the same subject. It is unbelievable. I have to restrict his computer access (both PC and Mac) or he would overrun the place.

Besides all of that, I know that a high post count does not mean that any of the posts themselves are useful. The Internet gives everyone a voice but I am still not convinced that that ever was a good idea. Sort of the way penicillin would seem to be a great idea until it cures pneumonia in someone like Joseph Stalin.... 

Brian

+1,

Brian and Kirby, posting here doesn't count and total posts win no prizes nor matter

[stevewfl]

I guess the whole "daughter thing" stuck in my craw.  Here's a guy with plenty of resources to help his child have basic comforts and security, but just to spite his ex-girlfriend, he denied the little girl for years, and fought providing ANY support for her.  I think if he had spent the remainder of his life and fortune helping the poor and needy, I'll never be able to forgive him for that one situation alone.  Doesn't matter, he got his in the end.
I agree that the Mac is a better platform, and most Apple products lead where others try to follow.  Until my employer starts using them, I'm stuck with the MS Windows platform.

[CRocker]

Steve,

Okay...


so I've been reading the whole thread...


starting with the title...


and I want to know...






When are you going to put the car tire on your new Mac??? 


It's killing me!!!

[stevewfl]

Steve,

Okay...


so I've been reading the whole thread...


starting with the title...


and I want to know...






When are you going to put the car tire on your new Mac??? 


It's killing me!!!

[B.D.F.]

Now that right there is funny Brent.

 

Brian

+1 

[rcannon409]

I desperately want to hate apple, but they make it impossible to do so.  I took an OLD laptop into the apple store. The "genius" said it had been out of warranty for three years.   He took it to the back room, came out, and claimed the machine "shocked" him. 

He called it a "safety issue" and we had the thing back in four days. Working better than ever.  You do pay a premium price, but I believe their service makes up for it.

[Jeremy Mitchell]

Steve,

Okay...


so I've been reading the whole thread...


starting with the title...


and I want to know...






When are you going to put the car tire on your new Mac??? 


It's killing me!!!

The bigger question is: When is he (or has he already) installed a KiPass fob into the dvd drive so that it never locks up?   

[JetJock]

Hopefully not to toss to much fuel on the Arena move... but Mr. Gates didn't move into the Nice column until recently.  He as well tried to shut out and cut off some of the people that helped start the MSFT empire.  He was pretty cold and ruthless before he left the company.

Define "recently"? His charities have been around for more than a decade. And the amount of $$$ we're talking about is significant.

[sherob]

Define "recently"? His charities have been around for more than a decade. And the amount of $$$ we're talking about is significant.

Yes, their charities (Mr. and Mrs. Gates) has been around since 94.  But he didn't actually start taking a hands on, active role managing the charity till he resigned as CEO of MSFT in 2008. 

The amounts of money grew from $126m in 2000, to ~ $2b in 2006 when he announced his resignation that would take place in 2008.  The big money didn't kick in until Mr. Buffett pledged to give the charity approximately 10m Berkshire Hathaway shares spread over multiple years through annual contributions, worth ~ $30b in 2006.  They will keep receiving the shares and money from BH under specific rules, including Gates being alive... they managing the charity... and giving away specific amounts.

That is what I mean as recently. 

[Shadowofshoe]

    I bought this MAC about 6 years ago as having naive people (computer danger-wise) in my and my wives family w/access to it, always ending badly. The final straw was when I spent a lot of $ on a new windows system and it wouldn't get outta 1st gear in just a few weeks of ownership.

   I went to Best Buy plopped down $1100 for this thing and it still kicks ass-theres something to be said about that.
 I gave the brand new PC to my stepkids good riddance.
    Mike

         

[AZBiker]

I will never run a machine that demands I run a certain OS.  Ever.  An Apple will not boot unless the Apple OS is installed.

Guess who makes the mobos for Apple?  Foxconn--the cheapest of the cheap.  I am a notoriously cheap bastard and I won't even stoop as low as running a Foxconn in anything I build. 

The laptops have some cool features--the power connection being the main one.  The magnetic power connection is genious.  They also feel well put together.

I have GIMP for altering my photos, FireFox for my innernets, Transmission for the torrents (that I NEVER download ), LibreOffice for my officing, ShotWell for managing my photos, and Archive Manager for making zip files.

Unity looks a lot like Mac & Win7, my windows have neat effects, and I never need an AV program. 

It gives me a choice on whether or not I install an update.  The only command-line patch I have ever needed to run was for my Sansa MP3 player, and it was 100% cut-and-paste with step-by-step directions.

I run an addon called flash-aid to run the right version of flash in FireFox also.

Did I mention that I run all these Win7 and Maclike fancy effects on an AMD XP 3200+ Barton chip with 2GB of ram?  I don't think that setup will run Vista, much less Win7.

What won't my box do?  Run ITunes.  Since I don't need to run ITunes it's not a big deal.

[stevewfl]

Guys I'm not abandoning my screaming win7 machine (that Eric and I put together), but I suspect I'll like the loaded iMac more.

Apple says its been built and I can expect delivery between the 6th-8th!  No tracking number yet, but I trust 'em 

[Awaz]

I am not sure about a 'loaded' Mac 

MACs got a slick look and built well, and got the same brand recognition as Harley Davidson

I for one will stick with windows or linux. I hate being wall gardened by an OS or software, if I can help it. And the day a MAC can game in high resolution, I will probably take a second look at it - not the dual boot Windows crap.

My computer at home is a watercooled behemoth with two AMD 6950s (overclocked), an i5-750 (overclocked), and all kinds of other gizmos - all in about $1500. It has been kicking butt since the past one year. Can a MAC do that?