Leave Apple alone

Apple
Did they do something personal to you?

I enjoy and respect your site, But, your attitude with apple is very strange. Why only the bad news. You'd be doing your user base a favor By helping them view Apple as a viable alternative.

Had Microsoft used Apple's approach with software development There wouldn't be a Linux, for example.

Maybe you can put up with the windows bugfest but, I've switched to apple and it runs the way I expect it to run. There are some problems on occasion, but, for an average user there are No problems. That's what I expect from an OS, and the apps that run on top of it. This is especially noticeable when you switch from say Text Edit to Word. - Suddenly copy / paste operations fail with large amounts of data( 5 pages? ). - Does Microsoft have any quality control team? Possibly too expensive for Bill.

I expect the average user, not pushing the design of the software app, to have No Problems. That's what I get with Apple.

I think if you were on this platform you'd get it too.

Respectfully,
Mike Dever

Failure in demand causes LCD sales slump

Hello,

I have been reading your take on iSuppli's report on the market for flat panels and have been laughing the whole while. This is a case were marketing increased desk space isn't selling anymore. What exactly would I like to hide behind my monitor anyway? More dust?

Here at the office I see bitty 15 inch screens on desks with people squinting up real close to get the puny details. There's 5 inches from their nose tips to the flat screen glass. I guess it looks like 17 inches that close. Besides….15 inches!?! That is so 1989. This is progress?

I've been making animations, video, and graphics for quite a few years now and I would be hard pressed to part with my 20 inch CRT's to squint and press my nose against a15 inch flat screens for the sake of desk space. For $450 or I can get a 21 inch CRT that supports a multitude of resolutions.

My CRT may be thicker, but I didn't lose my shirt in the process.

Regards,
Richard

Building a PC

dear inquirer writer,

id like some help with building a new pc for myself. im a speed demon on a budget and i need to know, what exactly is the difference between a 3.0ghz HT and 3.2ghz HT EXtreme Edition?

other than the 200 mhz and the 2 mb of l3 cache, are there any distinguishing differences? how does L3 cache affect gaming? does it affect games like doom III? the price difference here is like 5000 rupees which is like 90$, and im looking to save whereever i can.

also, how much of a difference does your sound card make to the overall audio? i know sound can make or break a game, but do you really need an audigy 2 zs to get the proper 7.1 surround? will a cheap creative vibra 128 do the trick?

I know its always best to buy graphics cards that are in the mid range section, but this time around the new wave of graphics card at the high end level are not just marginally better than the old generation: they blow the old generation away. or so i've read. is this true? is it worth dishing out 500$ for an Ultra 6800 or an x800 XT PE? and if yes, does ultra 6800 really perform better in doom III? because thats a game id really like to play but ive read that the x800 XT PE is a much better card on almost every other game.

i guess im basically asking that is all the hype true about the latest and greatest hardware? or is it still better to buy a notch below the best, does it still compare? i dont change PC's much, but when i do, i want them to be powerful enough to last a good long time before becoming obsolete. thanks a lot i really respect your opinion, id appreciate if you could help,

amin.

RFID Cards are used

Not at micky-d, but you can still use the card to get pop from 7-11, or popcicle from circle-k, grocery from supermarkets, newspaper from the tube. all it takes is a beep.

by the way, this is not a trial. we have been using this card since... let me think, 1997. here is a list of places you can use the card. transportation, retail shops, self-serve kiosk, recreational facilities, schools, etc. Here.

one unplanned benefit of the RFID card... the cops are using it to catch thieves. Yessireee, you are right. We have caught quite a few uninformed thieves because of the card.

case #1.
a bad guy robbed a kid of his RDIF card. He proceeds to go shopping with it. The police tracked down the serial number of the card, followed the spending trail (in real time) to the shopping mall's security camera... and caught the thief.

case #2
two smart robbers got on a bus at midnight (with their own unregistered RFID card)... when the bus arrived at a quiet spot, the robbers stopped the driver and cleaned out the passenger's pockets, then ran away.

the police took all the RFID record from the bus. sift through the list and zeroed in to the robber's cards (deductive logistic wasn't the thieves' strong forte)... and promptly sat down at the computer terminal with their feet up. why? all the police have to do is to wait for the robbers to use one of the cards, and the terminal at the computer center would light up like a christmas tree. isn't that neat? They caught the thieves alright, 6 months later. The thieves left the country with the loot, and return when they thought everything is cool (including their pocket). Lo and behold, the computer was waiting for them when they hear their first beep.

isn't technology wonderful?

Reader from Hong Kong

Apple Again
Obviously you can't stand the competition then, fore I can't see any inherent dislike of using such childish behaviour yourself. For the life of me I find it odd how someone whose own intellectual commentary makes kindergarten antics look like a university debating society can have the audacity to call Apple users childish names like 'zombies'. Real cutting edge journalism there then. Or are you just opposed to people having the choice to actually disagree with Real's interpretation of that term? Actually apart from this pathetic name calling you do, as much as you try to hide it amongst your name calling, indicate the very strong and powerful reasoning behind these so called 'zombies' attack upon Real's desperate game of hypocrisy. Unfortunately it only shows only too clearly for your own good and as has already been discovered by Real, that the average consumer, Apple or otherwise, isn't quite as stupid as you/ they would wish and can perfectly well see through your subjective and puerile remarks to the real truth of the matter. If Apple or iPod supporters are hot wired to the former's PR department I can only presume that you and your bigoted ilk are hot wired directly to Uncle Bills latrine. Feeling at home there too I suspect. No wonder journalists fall below even estate agents in the public's esteem.

Stuart Willard

Climb every Mountain

Hi Nick,

Perhaps it was the name of the Project that put people off. "Project Everest"... Sounds insurmountable! Perhaps "Project Kerb" or "Project Molehill" would have been more encouraging to the folks working on it - but that may have trivialised the task at hand.

My own modest suggestion might have been something like "Project Hellfire Club" - I climbed up here a few times myself - a bit struggle for one of average fitness, with the incentive of a few beers at the top. Clean up after yourself, please - Keep Wicklow Tidy! :)

Good luck,

John

The world is not all X86 and Winders

Hi INQers,

There seems to be a tendency to increasingly view the world through "PC/x86/Windows" eyes at the INQ recently. It is somewhat diturbing. While whateverybody else does/makes/uses is just that, it is not always the best. I read the INQ because of it's objective/moral outlook on the IT business. Recent articles, including this one, leads me to believe you are losing that.

In this article you state "While supported by a dedicated bunch of Alpha worshippers, the chip failed to make much of an impact. It cost heaps and finding applications that could run on it was as easy as finding the Holy Grail."

You actually managed to make three mistakes on one sentence!

The Alpha was not supported only by a dedicated bunch of Alpha worshippers. The Alpha was generally viewed and recognised by the industry as the best chip available. If normal development had been allowed to continue, it still would be. Since development was killed by a political decision more than two years ago, features of the Alpha are starting to show up in Intel and AMD chips. Not surprisingly, since that is where the Alpha developers went to after stopping with Alpha.

Also, the chip did have a huge impact on the industry, and the world in general. The Alpha was not intended as a PC chip, it was designed for workstations, mini's and mainframes, specifically supporting large scale SMP configurations. What do you think most of the world's serious business runs on? PC's? Windows? Linux? No, much of the world's business critical applications run on Alpha's (and IBM' legacy zSeries machines) and will continue to do so for years to come. Banking, defence, medical, communications etc., are typical Alpha strongholds. If all the Alpha's were turned off today, western civilisation would grind to a halt.

The Alpha did not cost heaps. "new' management at Digital/Compaq/HP simply thinks that money is better spent on other things than making your own chips. They were wrong. The Alpha was what gave Digital and Compaq it's competitive edge. Even as recently as two years ago, the Alpha :"Marvel" servers beat anything else out there in real-world performance, but specs were supressed because Compaq/HP had chosen to go for itanium. If Digital/Compaq/HP had continued to agressively develop and market Alpha and AlphaServers they would have been making money and leading the industry. Alpha was canned in order to minimise R&D costs in the mistaken belief that the world was moving to Itanium and other "standards" such as Windows and Unix.

Lastly, there was plenty of software available for the Alpha, both on True64 Unix and on OpenVMS. Granted, no Microsoft Office or any other popular applications, but most business software such as Oracle, BEA, SAP, SAS, CA, BMC and about 9.000 others. The Alpha OS'ses have excellent development environments. Any software product can fairly easily be created or ported to Alpha OS'ses. Currently, there is probably more software available for Alpha than there is for Itanium, or AMD's 64 bit offerings. Just not software journalists work with on a daily basis.

So, instead of following the mass hysteria into x86/Lunux, please look at the IT world more objectively. Don't follow the mass movement, which is usually driven by short-term interests such as "shareholder value" and price. Shareholders have no stake in a company except that of a gambler in his bid, and price does not equal cost.

Cheers,
Maarten

Yes, the Everywhere Girl won't go away
Hi

I just found Everywhere Girl here in Canada applying for a GST (VAT) credit.

No doubt someone has already provided you this link:

Here.

Yours truly
Bill Hickey

Hi

Just thought u might like to know that the "dell girl" (the girl with the purple hat) has appeared again.

She has now hit TV! She appears in the United Kingdom TV advert for ICS learning company.

She appears on their website under A-levels. Heres the link.

Cheers
Seb. Wilkes

To: Adamson Rust

Now she's stumping for Samsung cameras!!

Here.

Ad on the bottom third of the screen.......

Shawn Kennedy

And here.

Watch the scrolling images on this site . If that's her then she's on a free image download site. In which case she's not getting paid for tons of advertising photoshoots. But what are all the big boys doing downloading freebie stock photos instead of paying a media company millions of bucks to come up with original ones? :)

Clinton

Nigeria

Hi Mike,

Today, I was doing a little quick and dirty research with Google. I was trying to get some basic information about the prestigious national University of Nigeria at Nsukka. It hasn't got much in the way of web presence: mainly there's this link (http://institutions.africadatabase.org/data/i15023.html) which leads to information about the institution's faculty. On the one hand, the school possesses a list of pretty impressive African writers and scholars. On the other hand, its website seems meagre. If this site's explanation (http://www.saao.ac.za/~wgssa/as4/pokeke.html) of the difficulties that affect the University's ongoing astronomical research is any indication, the biggest problems at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka stem from its dearth of finances. ,

On the other hand, Google lead me to www.universityofnigeria.com, which turns out to be a parody -- even a piss-take -- on the whole Nigerian banking scam phenomenon, at the expense of the University of Nigeria. Www.universityofnigeria.com has many yucks on offer of a characteristically American flavour, but what struck me most forcefully -- beyond the site's fulsome elaboratation of its theme -- was how much more stylishly designed, more elegantly displayed, and more rich the gag-site is than the authentic site. Sure, it's meant to be a joke, but it seems to say volumes about real disparities between the media resources of a nation like Nigeria and those available to web-entities in the West. ,

Now, what would folks say if someone were to buy the domain "www.universityoftexas.com" and use it solely to lambast the world-league scammers and ambitious jackasses who come out of Texas? If somebody didn't know Texas or the University of Texas system well, they might get the idea that Texas only produces malevolent eejits and not brilliant folks like Terry Allen, Kinky Friedman, Lyle Lovett, Nancy Griffth, The Bad Livers and the thousands of other cool folks I can't name (heck, I think Ornette Coleman came from Texas -- imagine that). ,

Moreover, if, as per one of The Inquirer's most recent articles, it turned out that most of that Nigerian banking-scam spam actually originated in America and didn't come out of Africa, I believe I'd be mortally offended -- if, that is, I were a student of English literature at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. ,

Bestest wishes, Manny Blacksher,

Yes, that Girl Again
Mr. Rust,

At the US Network for Education Information ( here) you will find her smiling presence front and center on the banner. The odd thing is, I have a print out here dated 03/06/2002 from that site, and the banner hasn't changed in these past 2 years. I guess she's been a teen phenom before The Inq spotted her. Or perhaps it's something more sinister.

Funny how you wouldn't notice these things until someone points it out, then you see it everywhere.

Thanks for the fun times.

Eric Olson

The Glories of Intel
Dear Mike,

This Ralph Bell, Intel marketing manager, is telling us the glories of a portable computer - powered of course by a P4 and having 802.11g wireless - replacing ALL the media boxes that one normally has to haul off to college. Imagine a laptop replacing the tv set, stereo radio, cd player, dvd player, and maybe supporting rock band music synthesis - all running Windows Media Center!

Who would have thought it could come true? It is so nice of Intel to deliver 'educational talks' about today's current technologies on major AM radio stations in prime markets - and even in backwater Hartford. No more desktop systems. Get a nice laptop instead. turn this $2000 plus laptop into a dvd player costing $50 at Walmart and forget that $200 tv set with full remote control. discard your MP3 player and separate cd player and expensive stereo system. Get everything in just one compact laptop computer.

When did Intel relocate to Wonderland?

nils

The Gal
The Everywhere Girl also serves as a missionary: Go to here and look under the Featured heading for the Go Manual. See her bright and smiling face.

Gregory Houfek

PS: If it's not too much to ask, please don't make fun of YWAM. It's a good organization serving a valuable mission.

The Lass
Frankly I am disturbed that all these colleges are getting pictures of a model for their website instead of taking pictures of their students and asking permission to use it for promotional material. The community college one in particular looks totally out of place with the guy standing beside a truck. (http://www.rcc.nsw.edu.au/) If I were thinking about attending these institutions I would rather much like to see some actual students in a classroom or on campus, not some model picked from a catalogue.

Name supplied