Enhancement requests - Page 3

feldon34 · 01-11-2005, 10:02 AM

I just want one thing for belated Christmas. Reflection-mapped Goldfish. Then we'd have an actual real GOLDfish with reflective gold scales.

kona001 · 01-11-2005, 10:50 AM

I know I am a PC user, but I've been inside the Apple store quite a few times. I love the Mac Studio Displays

and I like the look of the OS X. Maybe one day I buy a Mac when I have more money to spend.

I agree with Morgan, the scales having some type of reflective coating would be better to work on than shadows if you had to choose. Moving pebbles and such with the Goldfish randomly picking up and spitting them out would probably require using the "half Life 2" engine for the Goldfish tank.

JimO'Connor · 01-11-2005, 04:09 PM

Thanks. Keep it coming.

AKcrab · 01-11-2005, 06:25 PM

Originally posted by kona001
I know I am a PC user, but I've been inside the Apple store quite a few times. I love the Mac Studio Displays and I like the look of the OS X. Maybe one day I buy a Mac when I have more money to spend.

Did you see the announcements today?
Mac Mini Starting at $499.

drfish · 01-11-2005, 06:29 PM

Well, we already knew the rumors were true... Wow, I think I want one... :heart:

johnblommers · 01-11-2005, 06:31 PM

Originally posted by AKcrab
Did you see the announcements today?
Mac Mini Starting at $499.

I feel like a teenager again:heart:

Tiny Turtle · 01-12-2005, 03:02 AM

I feel a bit like betting on the wrong horse with my Cube... Still there are advantages of mine as well.

Upgradeability seems like next to none on the McMini (ie Happy Meal?) and 256 MB doesn't really make Max OS X happy, neh?

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/iProduct.gif

drfish · 01-12-2005, 07:41 AM

Don't feel bad about it Tiny, you have a Cube, a freakin' Cube! Besides, you didn't pay $500 for it...

I am seriously tempted by a $575 (upgraded to 512MB) Mac though (that's less than I mentioned I would pay before)... It's even got a Radeon 9200 built in, so it'll run the aquariums just fine...

And I've always wanted to know how well Macs fold... Though, I don't fold on laptops because of heat issues, I'd probably skip folding on this new toy as well...

Edit: Make that $610... OMG! Someone stop me, I'm starting to plan!

feldon34 · 01-12-2005, 07:54 AM

They want $425 to put 1GB of RAM in there and state on the website that you have to have an Apple dealer put in the RAM. I don't get it. It's a PC333 SDRAM DIMM (according to their specs). A 1GB stick can be had for $220 and I can't imagine it's that hard to install.

Tiny Turtle · 01-12-2005, 10:42 AM

Morg,
Me neither – but the warranty is busted if they have some sort of seal on it...

Doc,
I paid more than $500 (dollar is dropping compared to the Krona plus our market is smaller than yours).

drfish · 01-12-2005, 01:36 PM

Really? I couold have sworn you said how much somewhere and that it was less... Maybe after your upgrades? At any rate, it's still a freakin Cube...

johnblommers · 01-12-2005, 03:02 PM

Originally posted by drfish
Really?... At any rate, it's still a freakin Cube...

Steve Jobs company Next Step sold a cube computer - a black one, but the company stopped producing the hardware and wisely focused on highly innovative software instead. Ultimately Apple purchased Next Step and used Next OS as its next generation Mac OS and dubbed it Mac OS X. Steve came along with the sale of Next to Apple, and next thing you know he's in charge again. And shortly after that Apple introduced the G4 Cube. My wife still has hers and it folds for SereneScreen as we speak. The G4 cube was not sold for long - overpriced and not cool enough to carry it along. Fast forward to 2005 and ?eheeee? Now we have a 1/3 cube! Steve Jobs just won't let it go!

Personally I think I'll get one and put it upstairs next to the TV , DVD player, and 5.1 speakers and work out a way to use it for a personal media center. Bring my EyeTV and USB infrared remote control and I should be able to get some things to work. The Mac mini is a nice enough looking box so it will fit into the decor upstairs.

Next ... a 23-40-inch DVI screen, HDTV set top box from Comcast (which has a DVI and a firewire interface), maybe shell out for a Delgato EyeTV500 (which supports HDTV) and I think I'll have spent myself into the ground but I'll have an open solution I can live with.

AKcrab · 01-12-2005, 03:54 PM

Originally posted by feldon28
They want $425 to put 1GB of RAM in there and state on the website that you have to have an Apple dealer put in the RAM. I don't get it. It's a PC333 SDRAM DIMM (according to their specs). A 1GB stick can be had for $220 and I can't imagine it's that hard to install.

My understanding is that there are small plastic "clips" that hold the shell on, and they are hard to remove without special tools...

I'm guessing someone out there will sell a Mini Mac RAM upgrade "kit" for those willing to void their waranty.. Like the company that offers an iPod battery upgrade, complete with a custom tool to crack open the case.

AKcrab · 01-12-2005, 03:54 PM

Hmm... This thread has been hijacked.. Sorry bout that.

JimO'Connor · 01-12-2005, 06:07 PM

Originally posted by feldon28
They want $425 to put 1GB of RAM in there and state on the website that you have to have an Apple dealer put in the RAM. I don't get it. It's a PC333 SDRAM DIMM (according to their specs). A 1GB stick can be had for $220 and I can't imagine it's that hard to install.

Apple ALWAYS charges a high fee for their memory, and it always annoys me (don't sell a machine with less than 512MB of RAM!!!). However, RAM prices are relatively volatile, and Apple doesn't update its prices every other day like the RAM only stores do. Places like MacWareHouse are always much higher than "spot" RAM, too.

Apple is USUALLY pretty reasonable about the warranty. It is a large company run by an EGO which has consumed whole planets, though, so your mileage may vary.

johnblommers · 01-12-2005, 07:02 PM

Originally posted by JimO'Connor
Apple ALWAYS charges a high fee for their memory, and it always annoys me (don't sell a machine with less than 512MB of RAM!!!). However, RAM prices are relatively volatile, and Apple doesn't update its prices every other day like the RAM only stores do. Places like MacWareHouse are always much higher than "spot" RAM, too.

Apple is USUALLY pretty reasonable about the warranty. It is a large company run by an EGO which has consumed whole planets, though, so your mileage may vary.

Hey Jim, I don't know how big or bad a guy you are

but do you really want to tell it to this tough guy's face ??

JimO'Connor · 01-12-2005, 07:24 PM

Sure, why not. I could probably lift that box too.

feldon34 · 01-12-2005, 08:04 PM

Originally posted by johnblommers
Steve Jobs company Next Step sold a cube computer - a black one, but the company stopped producing the hardware and wisely focused on highly innovative software instead. Ultimately Apple purchased Next Step and used Next OS as its next generation Mac OS and dubbed it Mac OS X.

(Ben from Short Circuit faux Indian voice) You are not knowing your Mac history...

Apple decided NOT to acquire NextStep or the UNIX variant they developed and instead based OS X on FreeBSD.

AKcrab · 01-12-2005, 08:29 PM

Originally posted by feldon28
(Ben from Short Circuit faux Indian voice) You are not knowing your Mac history...

Apple decided NOT to acquire NextStep or the UNIX variant they developed and instead based OS X on FreeBSD.

Hmmm...

Apple then considered Windows NT, Solaris and even Pink OS. Then, Steve Jobs called Amelio, and advised him that Be was not a good fit for Apple's OS roadmap. NeXT contacted Apple to discuss possibilities of licensing OPENSTEP, which, unlike BeOS, had at least been proven in the market. Jobs pitched NeXT technology very strongly to Apple, and asserted that OPENSTEP was many years ahead of its time. All this worked out, and Apple acquired NeXT in February, 1997, for $427 million. Amelio later quipped that "We choose Plan A instead of Plan Be."

Apple named its upcoming NeXT-based system Rhapsody, while it continued to improve the existing Mac OS, often with technology that was supposed to go into Copland. Rhapsody saw two developer releases, in September, 1997, and May, 1998.

Jobs became the interim CEO of Apple on September 16, 1997.

Mac OS X was first mentioned in Apple's OS strategy announcement at the 1998 WWDC. Jobs said that OS X would ship in the fall of 1999, and would inherit from both Mac OS and Rhapsody. Moreover, backward compatibility would be maintained to ease customers into the transition.

Mac OS X did come out in 1999, as Mac OS X Server 1.0 (March 16, 1999), a developer preview of the desktop version, and as Darwin 0.1. Mac OS X beta was released on September 13, 2000.

At the time of this writing, Mac OS X has seen four major releases: 10.0 ("Cheetah", March 24, 2001), 10.1 ("Puma", September 29, 2001), 10.2 ("Jaguar", August 13, 2002), and 10.3 ("Panther", October 24, 2003).

It would be an understatement to say that OS X is derived from NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP. In many respects, it's not just similar, it's the same. One can think of it as OpenStep 5 or 6, say. This is not a bad thing at all - rather than create an operating system from scratch, Apple tried to do the smart thing, and used what they already had to a great extent. However, the similarities should not mislead you: Mac OS X is evolved enough that what you can do with it is far above and beyond NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP.

http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/osx/history.html

feldon34 · 01-12-2005, 08:51 PM

Mkay. So where does FreeBSD come in?

01-11-2005, 10:02 AM	#41
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	I just want one thing for belated Christmas. Reflection-mapped Goldfish. Then we'd have an actual real GOLDfish with reflective gold scales. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

01-11-2005, 04:09 PM	#43
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	Thanks. Keep it coming. Jim O'Connor Order N Development

01-11-2005, 06:29 PM	#45
drfish the Doc Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Zeeland, MI Posts: 5,357	Well, we already knew the rumors were true... Wow, I think I want one... :heart: I don't watch commercials.

01-11-2005, 06:31 PM	#46
johnblommers The Architect Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Seattle Posts: 756	Oooooooowee! Originally posted by AKcrab Did you see the announcements today? Mac Mini Starting at $499. I feel like a teenager again:heart: Reasons people don't watch Star Trek: 60% - It’s for nerds. 39% - The show’s stupid. 01% - My parents were killed by Klingons and it's still too painful.

01-12-2005, 03:02 AM	#47
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	I feel a bit like betting on the wrong horse with my Cube... Still there are advantages of mine as well. Upgradeability seems like next to none on the McMini (ie Happy Meal?) and 256 MB doesn't really make Max OS X happy, neh? http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/images/iProduct.gif Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think. "We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another." /Robert Oppenheimer on witnessing the first thermonuclear detonation in history.

01-11-2005, 10:50 AM	#42
kona001 New Husband and new Aquarium Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Miami, Florida Posts: 318	I know I am a PC user, but I've been inside the Apple store quite a few times. I love the Mac Studio Displays and I like the look of the OS X. Maybe one day I buy a Mac when I have more money to spend. I agree with Morgan, the scales having some type of reflective coating would be better to work on than shadows if you had to choose. Moving pebbles and such with the Goldfish randomly picking up and spitting them out would probably require using the "half Life 2" engine for the Goldfish tank.

01-11-2005, 06:25 PM	#44
AKcrab Registered Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 233	Originally posted by kona001 I know I am a PC user, but I've been inside the Apple store quite a few times. I love the Mac Studio Displays and I like the look of the OS X. Maybe one day I buy a Mac when I have more money to spend. Did you see the announcements today? Mac Mini Starting at $499.

01-12-2005, 07:41 AM	#48
drfish the Doc Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Zeeland, MI Posts: 5,357	Don't feel bad about it Tiny, you have a Cube, a freakin' Cube! Besides, you didn't pay $500 for it... I am seriously tempted by a $575 (upgraded to 512MB) Mac though (that's less than I mentioned I would pay before)... It's even got a Radeon 9200 built in, so it'll run the aquariums just fine... And I've always wanted to know how well Macs fold... Though, I don't fold on laptops because of heat issues, I'd probably skip folding on this new toy as well... Edit: Make that $610... OMG! Someone stop me, I'm starting to plan! I don't watch commercials.

01-12-2005, 07:54 AM	#49
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	They want $425 to put 1GB of RAM in there and state on the website that you have to have an Apple dealer put in the RAM. I don't get it. It's a PC333 SDRAM DIMM (according to their specs). A 1GB stick can be had for $220 and I can't imagine it's that hard to install. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

01-12-2005, 10:42 AM	#50
Tiny Turtle is pleased Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 7,365	Morg, Me neither – but the warranty is busted if they have some sort of seal on it... Doc, I paid more than $500 (dollar is dropping compared to the Krona plus our market is smaller than yours). Thanks to Morgan, Tiny Snapshots is up and running again with "Tiny Järvafält" as the latest addition – Go have a look and tell me what you think. "We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another." /Robert Oppenheimer on witnessing the first thermonuclear detonation in history.

01-12-2005, 01:36 PM	#51
drfish the Doc Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Zeeland, MI Posts: 5,357	Really? I couold have sworn you said how much somewhere and that it was less... Maybe after your upgrades? At any rate, it's still a freakin Cube... I don't watch commercials.

01-12-2005, 03:02 PM	#52
johnblommers The Architect Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Seattle Posts: 756	You know Steve ... Originally posted by drfish *Really?... At any rate, it's still a freakin Cube...* Steve Jobs company Next Step sold a cube computer - a black one, but the company stopped producing the hardware and wisely focused on highly innovative software instead. Ultimately Apple purchased Next Step and used Next OS as its next generation Mac OS and dubbed it Mac OS X. Steve came along with the sale of Next to Apple, and next thing you know he's in charge again. And shortly after that Apple introduced the G4 Cube. My wife still has hers and it folds for SereneScreen as we speak. The G4 cube was not sold for long - overpriced and not cool enough to carry it along. Fast forward to 2005 and ?eheeee? Now we have a 1/3 cube! Steve Jobs just won't let it go! Personally I think I'll get one and put it upstairs next to the TV , DVD player, and 5.1 speakers and work out a way to use it for a personal media center. Bring my EyeTV and USB infrared remote control and I should be able to get some things to work. The Mac mini is a nice enough looking box so it will fit into the decor upstairs. Next ... a 23-40-inch DVI screen, HDTV set top box from Comcast (which has a DVI and a firewire interface), maybe shell out for a Delgato EyeTV500 (which supports HDTV) and I think I'll have spent myself into the ground but I'll have an open solution I can live with. Reasons people don't watch Star Trek: 60% - It’s for nerds. 39% - The show’s stupid. 01% - My parents were killed by Klingons and it's still too painful.

01-12-2005, 03:54 PM	#53
AKcrab Registered Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 233	Originally posted by feldon28 They want $425 to put 1GB of RAM in there and state on the website that you have to have an Apple dealer put in the RAM. I don't get it. It's a PC333 SDRAM DIMM (according to their specs). A 1GB stick can be had for $220 and I can't imagine it's that hard to install. My understanding is that there are small plastic "clips" that hold the shell on, and they are hard to remove without special tools... I'm guessing someone out there will sell a Mini Mac RAM upgrade "kit" for those willing to void their waranty.. Like the company that offers an iPod battery upgrade, complete with a custom tool to crack open the case.

01-12-2005, 06:07 PM	#55
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	Originally posted by feldon28 They want $425 to put 1GB of RAM in there and state on the website that you have to have an Apple dealer put in the RAM. I don't get it. It's a PC333 SDRAM DIMM (according to their specs). A 1GB stick can be had for $220 and I can't imagine it's that hard to install. Apple ALWAYS charges a high fee for their memory, and it always annoys me (don't sell a machine with less than 512MB of RAM!!!). However, RAM prices are relatively volatile, and Apple doesn't update its prices every other day like the RAM only stores do. Places like MacWareHouse are always much higher than "spot" RAM, too. Apple is USUALLY pretty reasonable about the warranty. It is a large company run by an EGO which has consumed whole planets, though, so your mileage may vary. Jim O'Connor Order N Development

01-12-2005, 07:24 PM	#57
JimO'Connor Mac Development Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Kenai, Alaska Posts: 678	Sure, why not. I could probably lift that box too. Jim O'Connor Order N Development

01-12-2005, 08:04 PM	#58
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	Re: You know Steve ... Originally posted by johnblommers Steve Jobs company Next Step sold a cube computer - a black one, but the company stopped producing the hardware and wisely focused on highly innovative software instead. Ultimately Apple purchased Next Step and used Next OS as its next generation Mac OS and dubbed it Mac OS X. (Ben from Short Circuit faux Indian voice) You are not knowing your Mac history... Apple decided NOT to acquire NextStep or the UNIX variant they developed and instead based OS X on FreeBSD. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

01-12-2005, 08:29 PM	#59
AKcrab Registered Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 233	Re: Re: You know Steve ... Originally posted by feldon28 (Ben from Short Circuit faux Indian voice) You are not knowing your Mac history... Apple decided NOT to acquire NextStep or the UNIX variant they developed and instead based OS X on FreeBSD. Hmmm... Apple then considered Windows NT, Solaris and even Pink OS. Then, Steve Jobs called Amelio, and advised him that Be was not a good fit for Apple's OS roadmap. NeXT contacted Apple to discuss possibilities of licensing OPENSTEP, which, unlike BeOS, had at least been proven in the market. Jobs pitched NeXT technology very strongly to Apple, and asserted that OPENSTEP was many years ahead of its time. All this worked out, and Apple acquired NeXT in February, 1997, for $427 million. Amelio later quipped that "We choose Plan A instead of Plan Be." Apple named its upcoming NeXT-based system Rhapsody, while it continued to improve the existing Mac OS, often with technology that was supposed to go into Copland. Rhapsody saw two developer releases, in September, 1997, and May, 1998. Jobs became the interim CEO of Apple on September 16, 1997. Mac OS X was first mentioned in Apple's OS strategy announcement at the 1998 WWDC. Jobs said that OS X would ship in the fall of 1999, and would inherit from both Mac OS and Rhapsody. Moreover, backward compatibility would be maintained to ease customers into the transition. Mac OS X did come out in 1999, as Mac OS X Server 1.0 (March 16, 1999), a developer preview of the desktop version, and as Darwin 0.1. Mac OS X beta was released on September 13, 2000. At the time of this writing, Mac OS X has seen four major releases: 10.0 ("Cheetah", March 24, 2001), 10.1 ("Puma", September 29, 2001), 10.2 ("Jaguar", August 13, 2002), and 10.3 ("Panther", October 24, 2003). It would be an understatement to say that OS X is derived from NEXTSTEP and OPENSTEP. In many respects, it's not just similar, it's the same. One can think of it as OpenStep 5 or 6, say. This is not a bad thing at all - rather than create an operating system from scratch, Apple tried to do the smart thing, and used what they already had to a great extent. However, the similarities should not mislead you: Mac OS X is evolved enough that what you can do with it is far above and beyond NEXTSTEP/OPENSTEP. http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/osx/history.html

01-12-2005, 08:51 PM	#60
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	Mkay. So where does FreeBSD come in? "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman