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Mac Users Of Mtc (apple: Go Ahead, Take A Bite!)

marc.alan

By marc.alan
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deepdiverboy
deepdiverboy

Apple products are way overrated. And this is coming from an iMac and iPod owner.

phenom9
phenom9

YUP!!! If you have the funds to buy 1, BUY IT!!! I'm extremely happy with my 15 inch i7 4gb ram. After 3 years, i'll max my ram to 8gb. Awesome product, you won't be disappointed.   ---from a first ti

boomouse Newbie

boomouse

Posted
Posted (edited)

Now Microsoft is into "Envelopmental Journalism"

 

Here in the Philippines, those familiar with the way our mass media works also know what 'envelopmental journalism' is. The first obvious notion that comes to mind is the right one. A take-off from the late-20th century buzzword 'developmental journalism' which denotes journalistic writing that would be in support of helping third world econmies grow industries, public confidence, and generate an overall feeling of satisfaction in the people.

 

Envelopmental journalism is corruption of our mass media and that is a topic for another thread. But David Morgenstern, a popular blogger in ZDnet has reported that he was offered $15k possibly more to write a Vista vs OS X article that favors Vista. John Martellaro of The Mac Observer reports (you can also find the full Morgenstern blog about this here: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=2415):

 

ZDNet: Price to Sell Out Apple is $15,000

 

by John Martellaro, 4:05 PM EDT, October 21st, 2008

 

Microsoft has been working hard lately to counter Apple success. First came the US$300M TV ad campaign. Then Mr. Ballmer's suggestion that Mac users don't get the full MS Office. Then the infamous "Apple Tax" campaign amongst Mac editors. On Monday, David Morgenstern was approached, apparently by a Microsoft client, to write a technical marketing case for Vista over Mac OSX [sic] in the enterprise. The fee to be paid is $15,000.

 

Mr. Morgenstern posted the text of the letter.

One of our customers has asked us write up a technical marketing case for Windows Vista over Mac OSX in the enterprise. I'm contacting you to see if you know anyone who would be interested and capable of writing this based on background materials we have.

 

The candidate should have a good understanding of client systems in the enterprise and the technologies behind issues that are important in the enterprise (deployment, manageability, work group and policy management, security, suitability of developer platforms for line of business applications, tech support, licensing, TCO).

 

We have some background materials that include a 75 page technical document called "Apple in the Enterprise" and other summaries of technical points, but it all needs to be put together to make the case.

The well known Apple blogger cited a potential $15,000 fee for this work, but surmised it could be more depending on the stature of the author.

 

"Can it be that the Mac and the iPhone are gaining enough traction in the enterprise to start ringing alarm bells in Redmond? It appears so," Mr. Morgenstern wrote.

 

Other observers have agreed with Mr. Morgenstern that the percolation of the iPhone into the enterprise and its reverse halo effect, that is the clamor for Macs, along with Windows virtualization, are making headway with IT departments.

 

The recent Apple "Get a Mac" ad, called Bean Counter, highlights Microsoft's approach to selling Vista: throw money at the problem in lots of different ways rather than fixing the OS's problems. The proposal to Mr. Morgenstern and likely other authors punctuates that long standing Microsoft approach.

 

============

Some responses to this at TMO:

But Apple only has 3% market share! Why should Microsoft be scared? I don't care about how many more computers they sell each quarter, they're still stuck at 3%. Always have been, always will be. Nothing to be afraid of.

 

P.S. Steve Ballmer promised me $15,000 for posting this. I'm still waiting, Monkey Boy.

 
Ballmer's distortion field which only works on himself has Macs at 3%.

 

They've just now figured that people are migrating to Macs wholesale. Once on a Mac those users almost never return. That is a very serious kind of loss.

 

Fortunately, Ballmer is a a complete idiot. His bonehead turn at the helm of MS is the best boost Apple could have ever had. Vista, zune, DRM fiascoes to name a few of his special "monkey boy" exploits.

 

Apparently Microsoft and Ballmer don't understand the dynamics of Apple fanboy loyalty, or the strength of the Apple distortion field, or perhaps being caught in a public support of Vista might just feel like a public admission of stupidity and there's no price for that unless you are a politician on the Philippines--none of whom, I think, are Mac users.

Edited by boomouse
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boomouse Newbie

boomouse

Posted
Posted
brand new owner of the NEW MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz right here!!

 

Congratulations! Did you get the one with front slot or side slot? Either way, you got it at the right time.

 

===================

 

Apple patents how powerful GPUs can be used to speed up general computing tasks

 

Apple Patents, Snow Leopard Technologies Solidifying Mac Advantages

 

by John Martellaro, 4:45 PM EDT, October 23rd, 2008

http://www.macobserver.com/article/2008/10/23.10.shtml

 

Apple has said that the next version of its OS, Snow Leopard, will focus on speed and stability, and at last year's WWDC, some of the technologies like Grand Central and OpenCL were publicly revealed. Behind the scenes, however, Apple is actively working on patents that will give Macs a decisive advantage over Windows-based PCs that haven't bothered to exploit such technologies in mainstream products.

 

It's well known that the software industry hasn't caught up to the hardware, especially multi-core CPUs and and the looming possibility of GPUs on the desktop, or even the lap top, with near petaflop speeds. (A trillion floating point operations per second.)

 

Three Apple patents, showcased by InformationWeeksuggest that Apple intends to solidify a technical lead in their Macs -- or at least extract patent license fees if the PC world wants to play along.

 

The first relates to parallel computing on multiple processors in which a software layer makes the GPU appear as a general purpose CPU, available to the application and OS as an additional core.

 

That's because GPUs have traditionally been structured for high throughput, multiple cores, and highly threaded, parallel graphics operations, but haven't been tailored for generalized or even mathematical calculations.

 

IW pointed out that a related patent application has Aaftab Munshi listed, a software architect at Apple who came from ATI. That patent along with an associated one, describes how multiple threads can be more efficiently scheduled amongst all the available cores made available.

 

The implications for Apple are obvious. If Apple were making inexpensive, commodity computers, they couldn't afford to delve into these kinds of technologies. However, with Apple's traditional customers, especially those professionals working in research, science, medicine, and engineering, the speed advantages of Macs, comparable to supercomputers of five years ago, could give the company a decisive market advantage.

 

Recent but unconfirmed reports from NVIDIA suggest that it may be possible, in principle for the new MacBook Pros to access both graphics cores in a computational mode, even though Leopard currently forces the user to log in and out to switch netween them. TMO is looking onto those reports. Snow Leopard could change that from a computational standpoint.

 

In time, PCs, which are already perceived as uncool, could become even more solidified by Apple marketing as the stodgy computer on which one simply reads e-mail and writes memos in MS Word. Apple's "Get A Mac" TV commercials will have plenty of fodder to work with.

 

All that is required is for Apple Mac developers to get on board and use the Apple hardware to differentiate themselves, much as iPhone developers already have to their great advantage.

 

The operations GPU's are inherently "mathematical calculations". They have simply been more specific calculations than are generally useful.

 

GPU's are becoming more powerful, and the operations they can perform are being expanded so that the output of their calculations can be used for things not typically considered as 'graphical'.

 

Apple has been using and enabling developers to use the GPU to perform various operations on images and videos if the GPU supports performing the operation, or performs the same operation using the CPU, only more slowly, if the GPU can't support the operation.

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irvin1130 Newbie

irvin1130

Posted
Posted
Congratulations! Did you get the one with front slot or side slot? Either way, you got it at the right time.

 

===================

 

 

 

Apple Patents, Snow Leopard Technologies Solidifying Mac Advantages

 

by John Martellaro, 4:45 PM EDT, October 23rd, 2008

http://www.macobserver.com/article/2008/10/23.10.shtml

 

Apple has said that the next version of its OS, Snow Leopard, will focus on speed and stability, and at last year's WWDC, some of the technologies like Grand Central and OpenCL were publicly revealed. Behind the scenes, however, Apple is actively working on patents that will give Macs a decisive advantage over Windows-based PCs that haven't bothered to exploit such technologies in mainstream products.

 

It's well known that the software industry hasn't caught up to the hardware, especially multi-core CPUs and and the looming possibility of GPUs on the desktop, or even the lap top, with near petaflop speeds. (A trillion floating point operations per second.)

 

Three Apple patents, showcased by InformationWeeksuggest that Apple intends to solidify a technical lead in their Macs -- or at least extract patent license fees if the PC world wants to play along.

 

The first relates to parallel computing on multiple processors in which a software layer makes the GPU appear as a general purpose CPU, available to the application and OS as an additional core.

 

That's because GPUs have traditionally been structured for high throughput, multiple cores, and highly threaded, parallel graphics operations, but haven't been tailored for generalized or even mathematical calculations.

 

IW pointed out that a related patent application has Aaftab Munshi listed, a software architect at Apple who came from ATI. That patent along with an associated one, describes how multiple threads can be more efficiently scheduled amongst all the available cores made available.

 

The implications for Apple are obvious. If Apple were making inexpensive, commodity computers, they couldn't afford to delve into these kinds of technologies. However, with Apple's traditional customers, especially those professionals working in research, science, medicine, and engineering, the speed advantages of Macs, comparable to supercomputers of five years ago, could give the company a decisive market advantage.

 

Recent but unconfirmed reports from NVIDIA suggest that it may be possible, in principle for the new MacBook Pros to access both graphics cores in a computational mode, even though Leopard currently forces the user to log in and out to switch netween them. TMO is looking onto those reports. Snow Leopard could change that from a computational standpoint.

 

In time, PCs, which are already perceived as uncool, could become even more solidified by Apple marketing as the stodgy computer on which one simply reads e-mail and writes memos in MS Word. Apple's "Get A Mac" TV commercials will have plenty of fodder to work with.

 

All that is required is for Apple Mac developers to get on board and use the Apple hardware to differentiate themselves, much as iPhone developers already have to their great advantage.

 

The operations GPU's are inherently "mathematical calculations". They have simply been more specific calculations than are generally useful.

 

GPU's are becoming more powerful, and the operations they can perform are being expanded so that the output of their calculations can be used for things not typically considered as 'graphical'.

 

Apple has been using and enabling developers to use the GPU to perform various operations on images and videos if the GPU supports performing the operation, or performs the same operation using the CPU, only more slowly, if the GPU can't support the operation.

boom do you think by end of this year or 1st quarter next year the snow leopard will be available for new mac? And will it work for old mbp's?

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boomouse Newbie

boomouse

Posted
Posted
boom do you think by end of this year or 1st quarter next year the snow leopard will be available for new mac? And will it work for old mbp's?

 

The scuttlebutt in the Mac rumour sites is that MacWorld in January may be the launch party possibly along with some new iMacs witht eh LED-backlit displays. Yes, it should work with all Intel Macs. But imagine if it will allow software to take advantage of the graphics processors in addition to the main Intel multicole processors to run an app, that is real supercomputing country there and this is only possible in a development environment where the standards are tightly enforced. Its going to be near impossible to do this in the hodge-podge Windows world.

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irvin1130 Newbie

irvin1130

Posted
Posted
The scuttlebutt in the Mac rumour sites is that MacWorld in January may be the launch party possibly along with some new iMacs witht eh LED-backlit displays. Yes, it should work with all Intel Macs. But imagine if it will allow software to take advantage of the graphics processors in addition to the main Intel multicole processors to run an app, that is real supercomputing country there and this is only possible in a development environment where the standards are tightly enforced. Its going to be near impossible to do this in the hodge-podge Windows world.

wow,should convince my wife to wait a lil more. she's so eager to change her white macbook for the new one. must wait a lil more :)

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baby_lei Newbie

baby_lei

Posted
Posted

i have a question...

 

I recently bought Age of Empires Gold Edition for Mac...and I thought I've downloaded it correctly but it keeps saying that I haven't met all system requirements for it...:( And I checked it was supposed to be OS X 4.something...I forgot what it was but it was definitely a younger version of Mac OSX...does that mean that the game I bought will never EVER able to be played on my mac? :(

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Spurt Newbie

Spurt

Posted
Posted

Hi guys, just a question, I deleted on purpose my Mail account to reconfigure it again, using same email account, as soon as I deleted the account, all the messages are gone, inbox and sent. Then I tried to restore but can't find it, my fear --- are the messages gone forever?

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boomouse Newbie

boomouse

Posted
Posted
Hi guys, just a question, I deleted on purpose my Mail account to reconfigure it again, using same email account, as soon as I deleted the account, all the messages are gone, inbox and sent. Then I tried to restore but can't find it, my fear --- are the messages gone forever?

 

Normally, once your emails have been downloaded by your client app, they stay there until deleted. But a few more details please:

  1. What app are you using? Apple Mail, Entourage, Thunderbird, or anything else?
  2. How did you do the delete of your mail account settings?

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boomouse Newbie

boomouse

Posted
Posted
i have a question...

 

I recently bought Age of Empires Gold Edition for Mac...and I thought I've downloaded it correctly but it keeps saying that I haven't met all system requirements for it... :( And I checked it was supposed to be OS X 4.something...I forgot what it was but it was definitely a younger version of Mac OSX...does that mean that the game I bought will never EVER able to be played on my mac? :(

 

Well, if its a game, it may require a certain class of video card. If you have a MacBook using the Intel graphics with shared memory that is a possibility. Also, if it is not a Unicode version but Intel Only, in which case if you have a PPC Mac like an iBook, Powerbook or G4/G3 iMac, you will also get that message. A game designed for an older version of OS X will usually play on a newer OS X or if it does not there will be an update for it.

 

Get the list of system requirements from the game docs and compare this to "About this Mac" in the Apple menu. Click on 'more info' to get more data about your hardware.

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baby_lei Newbie

baby_lei

Posted
Posted
Well, if its a game, it may require a certain class of video card. If you have a MacBook using the Intel graphics with shared memory that is a possibility. Also, if it is not a Unicode version but Intel Only, in which case if you have a PPC Mac like an iBook, Powerbook or G4/G3 iMac, you will also get that message. A game designed for an older version of OS X will usually play on a newer OS X or if it does not there will be an update for it.

 

Get the list of system requirements from the game docs and compare this to "About this Mac" in the Apple menu. Click on 'more info' to get more data about your hardware.

 

It says it needs DrawSprocket? I recently bought this Macbook...actually only been a little over a month ago...so it's quite new...and it runs on Intel Core Duo...so does that mean i can't play my game until i've got a video card?

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boomouse Newbie

boomouse

Posted
Posted (edited)
It says it needs DrawSprocket? I recently bought this Macbook...actually only been a little over a month ago...so it's quite new...and it runs on Intel Core Duo...so does that mean i can't play my game until i've got a video card?

 

It just means that the game you downloaded was too old for your computer. Check if there is a newer version (Google?) and try to download that.

 

=============

 

A Nice Analysis from The Mac Observer

 

Analysis - It's the Apple Indicators,

Not Market Share that Spooks Microsoft

http://www.macobserver.com/analysis/2008/10/27.1.shtml

 

by John Martellaro, 4:10 PM EDT, October 27th, 2008

 

In market warfare, just as in military warfare, one of the key tools is the analysis of Critical Failure Points. The essential element is that a opponent may have mistaken assumptions about its strengths or strategy or the intentions of the opposition, and those elements constitute a set of critical failure points that can be exploited. Apple appears to be exploiting Microsoft's critical failure points.

 

It all started when Steve Jobs returned to Apple and ruthlessly canned any project that wasn't essential to Apple's survival: Heavy hardware discounts for any developer, the Apple Masters program, the Newton, photography and printing.

 

That management approach was part of a larger philosophy, later implemented, which said that any activity or project that was not making money was to be cancelled. No pet projects were maintained for image or vanity. The net result of such thinking was that Apple started to surge on all fronts in a way that would compound itself in financial growth.

 

The cornerstone of that approach was Mac OS X. A team of very good people who understood Unix, Avadis "Avie" Tevanian, Bertrand Serlet, Jordan Hubbard and others architected a modern approach to Unix that would lead to growth and new technologies while successfully making the painful transition from Mac OS 9 via the Blue Box/Classic.

 

Just like the current economic crisis, when a sequence of objective financial realities starts to domino, there's no stopping the collective action of the whole process.

 

The key critical failure points are now becoming evident.

 

1. Vista would be good enough sway XP users to migrate because of Microsoft's past performance.

2. Because of its accumulated wealth, Microsoft could afford to engage in money losing projects to achieve broader agendas.

3. Apple would forever settle for single digit market share.

 

It has become clear to Microsoft lately that despite an overwhelming worldwide market share compared to Macs, that the real emerging problems is:

 

1. Apple's financial strength.

2. Apple's ability to define the terms of the war with the "Get a Mac" TV ads.

3. Apple's retail presence.

 

A good historical example of how an opponent can misjudge, in military warfare, was the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Israel surmised that Egypt, disgraced after the six-day war in 1967, wouldn't mount another attack until they could achieve air superiority. Instead, Egypt used a combination of Soviet air defenses and Scud missiles to negate the Israel air superiority and provide an umbrella for its advancing tank forces. It was a classic case of critical failure points.

 

Microsoft, by comparison, has trumpeted the fact that its vast market share is an indicator of its product desirability and success instead of a legacy that could be attacked at weak points. For example, Apple is now grabbing one in three laptop dollars in retail stores.

 

Apple rate of growth in Mac sales, compared to the PC industry, has been running at a steady factor of two to three for some time now. Concrete financial factors like that pass fleetingly by, for the moment in news reports, but accumulate into alarming numbers over time. For example, as recently as Apple's Q2, 2006, the company sold 1,112,000 Macs. In the most recent quarter, the number was 2,611,000.

 

Apple's revenue growth now dwarfs Microsoft's, it has more cash on hand, and in the most recent quarter, Apple's non-GAAP profit was $2.44B compared to Microsoft's $4.37B. See chart below.

 

post-188-1225152130.jpg

Source: Seeking Alpha

Other data from Monday shows that Open Office.org has been downloaded at least 3 million times since the launch on October 13. Of that total, there have been, to date, 320,622 Mac OS X downloads and a "staggering" 2.5 million Windows users. (Because OpenOffice can be freely distributed, the numbers from the Mozilla website are a floor.) While many customers use both, if Microsoft had captured all that revenue in equivalent MS Office sales, it would come to just under a billion US dollars, not a small piece of change.

 

post-188-1225152165.jpg

Early OpenOffice 3 Downloads

The net result of these critical failure points in Microsoft's overall strategy is that while Microsoft continues to tout a significant market share, other economic indicators, a gathering of open source clouds, and a hard nosed approach by Apple have forced Microsoft into a defensive position that has required a US$300M ad campaign to counter the damage. When that news was unveiled, Apple, in an almost military-like counter-punch, went for the jugular and teased Microsoft for not spending that money on Vista's problems.

 

Apple is poised to move into double digit market share in the U.S, and from all indicators, Microsoft has few obvious strategies available in its arsenal to extricate itself from a continued defensive position and some key failure points.

Edited by boomouse
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common_tao Newbie

common_tao

Posted
Posted
It says it needs DrawSprocket? I recently bought this Macbook...actually only been a little over a month ago...so it's quite new...and it runs on Intel Core Duo...so does that mean i can't play my game until i've got a video card?

 

 

Try partitioning your HD and get a lower verion of OSX to make it work. It's kinda complicated but if you have a 10.3 version of OSX it will work (i.e. an older mac with you) you can play that game.

 

Also try disc copying/image loading the CD/DVD via roxio toast titanium. this will save on the loading times and you won't trash your optical drive since you won't need the pla disk anymore.

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common_tao Newbie

common_tao

Posted
Posted
Welcome to the technology. It all depends on what you like doing on a computer really. I would suggest you get more familiar with what you already have. The iLife suite for instance iPhoto, and iMovie. The there is iWorks which gives you what I think are better replacements for MS Office. PAGES is a word processor and page layout program. Use it like a word processor when you are writing. Use it like a page layout program when you are designing something. NUMBERS is a spreadsheet that makes it easier to produce nice looking tables than Excel, and KEYNOTE is definitely the Rolls Royce of presentation programs--far better than Powerpoint.

 

If you are into photography, or keep a large number of digital pics (have seen yours in D2B) iPhoto is a simple way to organize them. If you want to get a bit more serious, get Aperture 2 which provides a high level of control over your pictures including HRD compositing (my current kick).

 

Definitely, get a video conversion program. The best in my opinion is VisualHub which can take video from your mobile phone, DVD, or most formats and convert these into other formats including the MP4/M4V which you can upload into an iPod through iTunes.

 

Let us know more about your preferences. I am sure other forum followers will have other ideas.

 

Here my 2 cents...

 

Adium - it manages MSN YM AIM all at the same time with customizable fonts alerts etc. If you chat a lot you definitely need this.

Transmission - well if you want the latest TV episodes of American shows. Heheheh if you're into that sort of thing

Visual Hub - Yes but you have to pay for it. really handy for converting files. if you have a PSP and by that I mean a Playstation Portable and a nice N series phone this will help in converting videos

FireFox and Flock- 2 nice browsing apps. I honsetly feel that it's better than Safari

Handbrake - if you ehem need to copy those clear original DVD's to you Mac's HD

Office for Mac - yes it's an MS product but if you've gotten used to MS office this is a no brainer.

Senuti - spell it backwards. It'll give you an idea what it does. Borrow you're friend's ipod and you'll know why.

VLC - To watch all those nice movies out there regardless of format... almost.

Quicktime Pro - if you can afford it. (Since there are some things Visual Hub cannot do)

iClock - If you want that Widows type floating clock on your desktop.

 

Personally I also downloaded Jubler. If you're into weird foreign films and have no subtitles there are websites that lets you download the subs. This program lets you add the subs and even edit them.

 

Happy hunting and congrats on your new baby.

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