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Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

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Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#291

Post by cageface »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #278
cageface wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With audio, it is seriously child's play. Compression is about as CPU intensive as you can get with audio outside of voice recognition, and it just isn't there. Not true. Try running a really complicated Logic set with a lot of virtual instruments on a low-end machine and watch it grind to a halt. In the last year we've seen new virtual instruments that bring analog emulation to a new level but they can eat as much a…

This is true, there is still a gulf in performance requirements between something that needs to run a browser and angry birds and something that will be used for high end gaming (or game dev) and stuff like Music, CAD , Video creation. Assuming that we can keep cranking the moore's law handle in one way or another people will always find a way to use that extra power even if the rate of return is somewhat logarithmic…

If the math for the virtual instruments in this example could be run inside a data centre and then streamed to the computer , perhaps some of the need for high end local hardware is alleviated.

Music is a particularly difficult case because latency is an absolute killer. If your response time is over about 10-20 milliseconds people will start to complain. You could farm out offline rendering I suppose but so far it's a lot easier to build a big beefy workstation and freeze tracks to audio if necessary on the local disk.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#292

Post by zachinglis »

Apple don't update their line, obviously dead. Hmm? Weird conclusion. Tim Cook has come out and said there'll be an update next year: http://www.macrumors.com/2012/06/11/david-pogue-new-imacs-an...

But the truth is, this is really self-entitled. There's huge iPhone updates on the go (iOS6 and hopefully iPhone 5 later this year), big MacBook Pro updates but that wasn't good enough. Nope, because they didn't cover Marco's chosen line of computers… they're playing a half-assed game.

Buying a computer is a 1:1 deal. You give money, they give computer (and support for a year.) That's it. That's the deal. There is no "we'll forever be in your debt" by Apple. Just because you want something, and you kick and stomp doesn't mean they should do it.

We also don't know why. There could have been a hardware issue holding them up, or a software. We've got no idea on this.

Apple are doing a pretty good job at the moment if you ask me.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#293

Post by Terretta »

xiaoma wrote: post #185
vacri wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense. Comparing a Lenovo X220 with equivalent specs, it comes out slightly cheaper on the Lenovo side. There are minor differences on both sides (eg thunderbolt versus replaceable battery) but going for SSD, same RAM, same CPU, similar screen size, the Lenovo comes out at $1216 and the Mac Air at $1349 (in Australia).

I don't think they're really equivalent specs, though. Notably, the 11" Levovo X220 weighs 2.9 lbs vs 2.38 lbs for the MacBook Air. That's more than a 20% difference on the defining characteristic of the MBAir line. Edit: Is this data wrong? Is it an inappropriate comment? I've been on HN for nearly 5 years and it seems like there's more downvoting by the month.

You're exactly right, bu those downvoting you don't want to admit it. It's why I was careful to specify all specs, no compromises. The other corners typically cut are screen quality, battery life (without hauling around still more weight as extras), and backlit keyboard.

I agree with you the 20% weight difference without the other compromises is remarkable.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#294

Post by rurounijones »

itsboring wrote: post #287
rurounijones wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're breaking "the law" in that you are (in the US at least) violating the DMCA (Possibly, like I said, grey area). Having said that, I am not interested in arguing pedantic semantics about about what constitutes "the law" and what "breaking" it entails.

Whether something is a federal crime (you know, with warrants and handcuffs and all that) or not hardly seems pedantic. You're the one making the assertion here, so do you have any legal sources to cite or are you sticking with the "pedantic semantics" argument when someone challenges your point?

Ok, then for me breaking "The law" covers Civil Law and Criminal law. I never made any mention of Federal or not and don't see how that matters.

I thought it was well known on HN that Apple used the DMCA ( Digital Millennium Copyright Act, aka, part of "the law" in the US) against the Hackintosh company Psystar, I guess I was wrong. A quick google will bring up the specifics if you want it. (e.g. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/02/apple_psystar_dmca/)

The reason I said it was a grey area was that the DMCA supposedly has provisions for compatibilty and personal use. So it could be argued that installing it yourself on your own hackingtosh (not commercially like Psystar did) does not violate the DMCA, but since this has not yet been tested in court (as far as I know) do this at your own risk.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#295

Post by mitchty »

miahi wrote: post #233
mitchty wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So 3g radios magically work through sim cards now? I actually think not including CDMA/GSM protocol of the year antennaes is a better future proofing move.

Future proofing a box with a non-user replaceable battery? They don't want future proof, they just have other gadgets to sell to the people that want mobile connectivity.

A battery isn't a 3g radio, and what happens if you put in hsdpa and all of the sudden the lte bands being used are different?

The battery analogy is flawed.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#296

Post by rurounijones »

jiggy2011 wrote: post #286
rurounijones wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're breaking "the law" in that you are (in the US at least) violating the DMCA (Possibly, like I said, grey area). Having said that, I am not interested in arguing pedantic semantics about about what constitutes "the law" and what "breaking" it entails.

Would it be a DMCA violation? I'm not really sure of the specifics here. You wouldn't be breaking copyright , since you're not making a copy (assuming you bought a legit copy of the OS). You also aren't circumventing any of the copy protection afaik since OSX doesn't really have any.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9121798/Apple_adds_DM...

Basically Apple says there is code in there to lock their OS to their hardware, it doesn't have to be particularly good, as long as it is there and has to be circumvented for a hackintosh (you cannot just pop a DVD in and install, unless things have changed since I last had a look).

The Apple statement is in that article if you want their legal definition.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#297

Post by betterth »

w1ntermute wrote: post #180
betterth wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a strangely pertinent anecdote: I've been a Windows "poweruser" for a long time, and have never used much of Linux. I never had a real need for it. But I've been doing rails development lately and Windows kept getting in the way, and so many people are using OSX and I can't afford a Mac... so I tried Ubuntu. I'm using 12.04, and it's the first significant amount of time I've used spent with Ubuntu. I can say that…

> I really like gedit more than Notepad++ gedit is available on Windows too. If you really want to harness the power of Linux, run Vim. You'll see at least an order of magnitude in productiviy improvement.

I've heard this a lot -- in fact in a recent Stack Overflow "best rails IDE's" thread, Vim was near the top of recommended answers. I've been using gedit with a few add-ons installed to make working with rails a little easier.

I also grabbed RubyMine but I haven't spent any significant time there yet as I already have the terminal->gedit workflow down and fighting through RubyMine modal menus to setup BitBucket git pushing started to get old quickly. Terminal is easy. I just push.

What does Vim offer that gedit doesn't? I guess I don't understand the main difference.

I would really like to get some code suggestions/completion features, certainly not a need but I think it would help cut down on my occasional stupid mistake.

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#298

Post by [deleted] »

rurounijones wrote: post #294
itsboring wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether something is a federal crime (you know, with warrants and handcuffs and all that) or not hardly seems pedantic. You're the one making the assertion here, so do you have any legal sources to cite or are you sticking with the "pedantic semantics" argument when someone challenges your point?

Ok, then for me breaking "The law" covers Civil Law and Criminal law. I never made any mention of Federal or not and don't see how that matters. I thought it was well known on HN that Apple used the DMCA ( Digital Millennium Copyright Act, aka, part of "the law" in the US) against the Hackintosh company Psystar, I guess I was wrong. A quick google will bring up the specifics if you want it. (e.g. http://www.theregist…

[deleted]

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#299

Post by [deleted] »

rurounijones wrote: post #294
itsboring wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether something is a federal crime (you know, with warrants and handcuffs and all that) or not hardly seems pedantic. You're the one making the assertion here, so do you have any legal sources to cite or are you sticking with the "pedantic semantics" argument when someone challenges your point?

Ok, then for me breaking "The law" covers Civil Law and Criminal law. I never made any mention of Federal or not and don't see how that matters. I thought it was well known on HN that Apple used the DMCA ( Digital Millennium Copyright Act, aka, part of "the law" in the US) against the Hackintosh company Psystar, I guess I was wrong. A quick google will bring up the specifics if you want it. (e.g. http://www.theregist…

[deleted]

Re: Mac Pro gets half-assed “update”

#300

Post by jiggy2011 »

rurounijones wrote: post #294
itsboring wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether something is a federal crime (you know, with warrants and handcuffs and all that) or not hardly seems pedantic. You're the one making the assertion here, so do you have any legal sources to cite or are you sticking with the "pedantic semantics" argument when someone challenges your point?

Ok, then for me breaking "The law" covers Civil Law and Criminal law. I never made any mention of Federal or not and don't see how that matters. I thought it was well known on HN that Apple used the DMCA ( Digital Millennium Copyright Act, aka, part of "the law" in the US) against the Hackintosh company Psystar, I guess I was wrong. A quick google will bring up the specifics if you want it. (e.g. http://www.theregist…

I think the reason we ended up down this road was that your original comment accused somebody of "illegal" use of OSX.

Firstly this makes the assumption that the person fell under US jurisdiction at the time of their use of the system.

It would also assume that the DMCA would apply to this specific person in this case. I don't know of any instance of a successful crimimal conviction against somebody for using their own legit software on a system they own themselves and we will not unless this is tested in court.

"Unlawful" would probably be a better term in this context. You could argue that this is pedantry but I think that throwing terms like "illegal" around in this way could cause undue anxiety to people who do not understand the specifics.

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