On 7 Sep 2006 at 20:04, Gibson Jonathan wrote:
> As an artist hovering around the computer industry since High School I
> find it amazing that AndrewC initially claims to be a non-expert, yet
> sells computers he regularly builds. Andrew, you undercut yourself on
Go back and actually read it. What I said is I'm not a technophile. I
don't get caught up in the wow factor, the tech for the sake of
itself. What the tech does, the end result, is all I'm interested in.
That I'm fully conversant with how to handle the tech relates to the
fact that it's a useful skill which I've maintained because it's seen
of value - I frequently do simple stuff like driver changes at work
for the less technically inclined when the IT department as too busy.
It's years since I was a professional coomputer tech. I design games
these days.
> how else does one troubleshoot? I do not understand what is gained
> from such a pre-loaded frame on the conversation. That you bluster
> with rudeness and intended insults reveals an arrogance I find
> irresistible - where's my pile of throwing rocks and favorite sling?
As you couldn't even be bothered to properly read what I wrote, and
have put your own ignorant misunderstandings forwards purely so that
you could bash me, bluntly I'd of prefered it if you'rd of stayed
"busy". And personally I prefer an axe.
> My initial emotions fade into bemused humor and assume you simply had
> too much caffeine - or too many pints - at the time this was written
> since your tone has moderated over time. Others have rebutted this
> enough in detail, so I'll try keeping mine somewhere around the 50,000
> ft altitude.
You are so far the ONLY other person to support the comparison of
hardware lifetime vs time connected to the internet before you catch
nastyware.
It is evident to even my technophobic mother that these are not the
same thing.
> know & appreciate the differences. Been there, done both. For reasons
> of aesthetics {from OS architecture to casing product design} I've been
> much more interested in the Apple-thang than anything else I've come
> across from the very beginning. The Mac literally drew me away from a
And I couldn't care less about the aesthetics of the case, for
example. My current PC's best features are not that it's blue and
grey, but that the power button is on the top front and that it has a
carry handle on top.
> that irked so many, myself included. For instance, do you really care
> if your iPod Nano isn't expandable {yet}? Damn things even look a tad
I don't have a MP3 player. There's nothing wrong with my minidisk
recorder (which I was given ages back for recording lectures in
University, since I'm dyslexic) for listening to music on the go.
> Ask your
> mother writing letters, sister ripping CD's, or cousin working at the
> car repair what machine perks their interest and more often than not
> they point at a Mac
The asethetics have zero to do with function. Sure, most PC cases are
ugly. It's a case. I really could't care less on the topic.
> In reality you, Andrew, are heir to the mainframe and mini support
> class of technicians who migrated out of the air conditioned
I'm a games designer. To quote an overused phrase, "The medium is not
the message".
You're heir to the entire technophile snob legacy, the entire "It
looks good so it must be superior" class who are either gamers who go
for the PC with the blue LED's or the non-gamers who go for Mac's.
> employed and users grateful to get them running, again. Macs simply
> didn't require such overhead, and still don't - relatively speaking.
'Course not, you can support more 'NIX-based computers than you can
Windows with the same staff. Been known for ages. There's nothing
magical about Apple in that respect.
> Even under the old Mac OS it was rare I had to do a fresh install {even
> as a developer} and since the advent of OS X it's even better as I've
> only installed from discs when Apple issues a major upgrade - about
> once a year.
So more frequently than I'm forced to reach for the Windows disks
then (24-30 months).
> I am writing on a G4/500 mHz machine that certainly feels
> it's age when I look at minimal reqs for current games, but I bought
> this and the original Cinema Display in 2000 and expect to hand both
> down to my son soon for yet more life. Similarly I have almost all my
I have a Fujitsu Stylistic 1200, a P120. Oh sure, it's a pad-style PC
which I used to take notes in university in electronic form using a
scratchpad-app, but still.
My parents use my last PC, and will get the guts of this time the
next time I upgrade.
> original machines and they still run fine - I keep them around to run
> projects that I worked on that couldn't migrate to modern systems since
> I have a resume/portfolio to protect - but they all are useful even if
> they use more wattage {especially screens} than current gear.
Shrug, anything old I can generally boot to Linux and run, if it
won't work under windows. Don't need to keep old hardware running
personally.
> productivity rating! With the newest machines the canard of Windows=
> cheap / Mac=expensive is finally ground into the dust of history books
Absolute rubbish. Again, Mac's are still far more expensive here (UK)
like-for-like. Good build quality and using deacent components will
let any PC run for as long as a Mac - it's the same hardware base.
The generic crap you get in many pre-builds won't last, no, but
that's just a reason to get one custom built by a local shop who
actually know what they're doing (or for people like my who can do
it, build your own).
> slogans in Dr Dobbs? As we see with the explosion of malicious digital
> flora and fauna infecting the monoculture biz-tech plantation system
> that is Windows there really is a high cost {to us} at the back-end of
> how they organized themselves and you. Linux is interesting, but
Router with comprehensive firewall (on a linux core), check. Free
antivirus, check. Free anti-spyware, check. There we go! (Oh, there's
spam, but I haven't used Outlook in a decade at home)
> In the end your only limiting yourself by denying the value others
> readily find with this branch of the technical tree - there may be more
> opportunity for you than you realize if you can tear your ego away from
> the PC trunk w/o too much pain.
Right, so you're going to offer to re-write the DirectX/.NET apps
which I use on a daily basis? The professional games development
industry is tied very strongly to the Windows platform.
> BTW - when and what are you going to do with that uplift site?
> Something cool, I hope?
Don't have the time, basically. Keep meaning to put a weblog on there
so I can put some thoughts about some current (windows) games up.
Because, y'know, I make games and all.
In the end, afaik, Mac's a resimply not worth my time because they
lose in price/performance for what I do with a PC (games) - the lower
end with the deacent ATI graphics card (ironically the same one I'd
want on a PC) and wifi comes in at slightly over £2000, which is
twice what I'd pay for a reasonable spec gamer PC. (Which doesn't
NEED dual-processors, for starters, and you can get a far better
price/performance out of the Athlon X2 than the Xeon).
For general working? Uh... Open Office is the same app on Windows,
Linux and Mac y'know. Zero advantage..
Tech-is-a-tool, not an end in itself. Evangelism of any particular
platform for anything but price/performance and functionality makes
me roll my eyes.
AndrewC
Dawn Falcon
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
