MajesticTreeFrog

Maybe they are curved lines, but they are still lines. If I took a triangle and rounded the edges a bit, would it suddenly be a member of the class opposite the class of its former self? My point is this: your definitions of what constitutes a 'pole' for dualism is arbitrary and without consistency. As such, it ends up being a fancy form of 'I think (xxx) just because'.

Front page doesn't come with windows. Nor does anything really, except IE(which shouldn't count). If you want free bundled software go with linux or mac.

For those upset about the price, go check out the costs for portable USB + Firewire hard drives. Now, make em 1/3 the physical size, notice the price increase. Add a screen and controls. Finally allow it to play music(with good fidelity no less). $300 might be a lot of money, but its not unreasonable, provided that you want ALL of these functions and specifications in one product. If you are just looking for a portable drive, then yeah, its not for you, but since when did any of the marketing materials say it was?

Well, microsoft writes for mac, as do Adobe and macromedia and many other higher end content production companies. There are a couple of linux variants for the mac, the best known being yellow dog(which is rpm based like red hat). You can also use debian. And of course the 'compile your own' varients work just dandy.

Where did you get that background image? My background: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

And how is that different from any product by any company, ever?

Maybe because most people don't wanna mess with replacing/messing with/dealing with any of this. They can buy this one product, and get a DVD player, computer, TiVo(with mythTV), and even stereo hook up for all your music. On top of that, as a computer, it doesn't get the endless viruses and spyware/adware and all that. And before anyone goes and says 'oh but all they have to do is run spybot + adaware + microsoft anti-spyware + blah blah and it will be fine', please remember that people hate having to deal with all that BS. So, the reason people will buy it is because they get an attractive, multi-purpose, computer that doesn't have all the *BLEEP* that comes with windows. And let me tell you, there is a lot of BS that comes with windows. I am a switcher, and I now notice all the annoying things that I had slowly become numb to while using windows(programs crashing, extreme slowdowns, programs that can't play nice together, etc). As for the dell's and such being better for the price, they aren't really. The appearance and the size and weight and the *silence* of the mini's operation are worth more to many(most?) people than 'it theoretically goes faster', especially if that 'faster' is quickly eaten by spyware and adware and other such crap. The people who buy low end computers don't use them for gaming, they use them for productivity, for which this is more than adequate. If you aren't gaming and you need power, then you most likely are doing some form of content creation, for which the macs are better anyway AND come with the software. If that is what you are doing any price difference between the dell and the mini-mac is gone from the differences in software costs. Finally, if the mini-mac is anything like my ibook it comes loaded with software not even advertised, such as quicken, which is of tremendous use to most people. An intel/amd based computer will run anything compiled for x86(and the OS you are running which is also compiled for x86). A mac will run anything compiled for PPC, and thier chips are made by IBM and Motorola. So, an intel/amd will run linux/windows/*BSD. A mac(ppc) will run macOS/linux/*bsd. Macs now also generally take 'standard' parts, just like PCs. However, the whole point of the mac is to have it be NOT NECESSARY to upgrade. The 'life cycle' of a windows PC is about 3 years. Macs I hear get between 5 and 8. I suspect its closer to five, but I can say that all the people I know with macs do indeed upgrade very infrequently(and not for lack of money). And for those of you who love firefox(such as myself) there is a fully functional mac port. It works, thats what I am using right now. In terms of windows being needed for the office, Macs have microsoft office as well. They have idenical functionality(for good or for ill). Big database apps, as was mentioned, are usually cross platform because of unix running servers. Mac OSX runs on unix, which means those products work as well.

yeah, I think your view has some issues. Why do triangles exist? what is their opposite and why? You say black is opposite of white, but what is the opposite of grey?

I don't think that new tech coming out has much to do with a search for the meaning of life, frankly.

In some ways yes, in other ways no. The way linux is currently setup it is hard to make applications what I like to call 'rich'. For instance, with cocoa on OSX, any cocoa application can access services easily and cross communicate and share data more or less effortlessly, allowing things to work not only side by side, but in harmony. The plethora of different toolkits, gui thingies, and so on with linux make this much harder.

even IF firefox has as many holes as IE, you better believe that the OSS community will me more anal about fixing the holes than microsoft has been about fixing IE

yeah, but you would get half or one fourth the space. I also feel that I would just save and get a full ipod. But then again, I have never really been in the market for a flash player, so I am not the shuffle's target customer.

Well, Macs use different processors than PCs, so spyware written for windows would not work yor that reason alone, but there are other reasons. The main one is the security setup. Macs are built on top of FreeBSD, a unix OS. Unix has a very mature security architexture and the mac in OSX inherited it. It runs in what is called 'rootless mode' which means that even if spyware tries to run through, say, a security hole in your browser, it cant install system wide without your express permission(which takes more than just hitting 'ok' on a dialog). Finally, IE for mac has a different code base than IE for PC, so flaws that affect the PC version do not necessarily affect the OSX version. Finally, IE isn't tied into the OS in the mac, so even flaws that may exist have a harder time messing things up. Lastly, why run IE on a mac? Almost every other browser that exists on the platform is better than IE. As for speed, that is no longer true. The new G5 based computers can keep up with intel and AMD(though it depends on the benchmark, and my experience on both platforms has led me to believe that the way most benchmarks are run is biased against the mac, ask me how if you care). The older G4 based macs are indeed somewhat on the slow side, but plenty fast for everything 'most' people do on their computers, such as email, webbrowsing, chat, movie watching, office stuff, programming, artwork, etc. Also, you would be surprised how much of the speed difference goes away(or even reverses) when you take into account dealing with spyware and adware that infests (and slows) almost every PC. Finally, for video editing, all macs come with imovie, which is a simple non-linear video editor that will be just fine for 'lite' needs. For heavier needs, you can spend $100 and get final cut express(which is all you will need, only really hardcore pros need FCP, and I work as a video editor at work. *WE* use final cut express. FCP is overkill for almost everything(though it is still awesome)). Price is also no longer such an issue. A mac mini will do just fine editing video. They are faster than the powerbooks we have at work, and those are plenty fast. At the high end, PCs get equally expensive, and are more money to maintain/repair/deal with(also from my experience at work. We have to keep any PCs off the external net if we wanna make sure they won't go down at the wrong moment or get other problems). The real issue with macs is the mid end people who want to do gaming. That is a legit complaint. But then again, I stopped gaming because I decided that it was a waste of my time on this planet, so I am not convinced that is really a loss. But you be the judge. What I can tell you, is that as a PC user my entire life until this last december, I have NEVER loved using a computer like I have loved my ibook. I went from being indifferent or sometimes annoyed by my computer to feeling like it was my helpfull friend. It is something you would have te experience to really get, so I hope you try one(and really try, by which I mean for an extended period). And yes, two button(or more) mice work fine. Just plug one in and it will work exactly as you expect it to.

Your schoolbook writers need to be beaten with a stick. (I hope you get the joke). Zen is an easy mistake, in its doctrinal differences from other mahayana sects(such as pure land, and the lotus schools) it moves towards theravada/hinayana philosophy. Who wrote your book? I want to know so I can try and have that fixed. That level of incorrect should be illegal. If you like, I can write you out a breif tretise on buddism so that you will be more or less correctly 'edumacated'.

Me, I use an AMD, mainly because of cost reasons. Not just the chip, but also the motherboards. If I hadn't recently decided that I hated windows, I would be considering an upgrade to a AMD 64 of some type, but instead I am gonna just wait for either linux to stop being *bottom* as a desktop OS(for my purposes, this includes easy driver setup as well as good third party application support) or until I can afford a nice G5 system from apple. I will probably be waiting a while.

first, define meaning of life. What counts as a meaning? Second, explain why life must or even should have this form of 'meaning'. If life had no intrinsic 'meaning' then would that be a bad thing? Or would our reaction to that possibility simply show a psychological distrust and dislike of the concept of 'meaningless'?I think it is the later.

Frankly, the info you just gave is...well... horribly innaccurate, to say the least 1. Mahayana does mean big vehicle, but there are no gods. Bodhisatvas are more correctly understood as saints. This form of buddism has many sects, such as pure land, nicheren, and Zen. Tibetan buddism is considered a subset of this, though others place it in its own realm, and it is refered to as Vajrayana(diamond vehicle). I will go into the differences later. 2. Hinayana does mean small vehicle, but that is not the usual term used anymore. The correct term is Theravada, which means way of the elders(it is sorta like the difference between protestant and catholic christianity). Theravada is the older school of buddism, and it DOES NOT come from tibet. It comes from india and dates from the time of the buddha. Its practicioners are in Southeast Asia(cambodia, laos, thailand, sri lanka, burma, and some area of vietnam I believe). These are two seperate traditions, views, etc. NEITHER demand that you 'give up everything you own'. The only people who do that are the monks. They live by a code of rules known as the vinaya. Anyone may become a monk, and you may leave the monkhood freely. hmm, I have to run to work, I will finish this later.

So, what do people here think of the mini mac. Having taken the plunge and purchased an ibook a while back(and loved it dearly ever since), I hope these things are successful. That being said, what do you think? Something you want to get?

Indeed, seagate is known for making good drives. I understand they are somewhat more pricey though.

Well, for those running linux, try ubuntu. They are dedicated to an easy to use linux desktop.

I appreciate your attempt to communicate. However, I cannot understand that last passage.

The new ipod is out, and its 100$. So, for all the people who thought it cost too much, there ya go!The other option is to click the link in my sig.

I can tell you like music because it is obvious that you were stoned or something when you wrote this.

don't be so sure. Adobe is an old and good hand at the whole 'image editing' game. Corel isn't bad, but it would take a LOT of work to get to the level of photoshop CS. That being said, most people don't need photoshop. They don't need anything close to photoshop. Which is why Adobe makes elements. PSP is really competing against elements, but even there I think they will have a hard time.

Ya know, it sounds strange when you say this cause it is like you are trying to convince readers or are unsure of how good these things are yourself. Not sure if any of this is true, but it sounds strange to me.