Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-05 Thread Ronn!Blankenship
I doubt I'm the only one here who is old enough to be reminded of 
endless similar discussions re: HP vs. TI scientific calculators . . .




-- Ronn!  :)



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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-05 Thread William T Goodall


On 5 Sep 2006, at 12:56PM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:

I doubt I'm the only one here who is old enough to be reminded of  
endless similar discussions re: HP vs. TI scientific calculators . . .




What discussion? Everyone knows HP are the only scientific  
calculators to get. TI were for losers!


HP-25 from 1975 to 1990
HP-15C from 1990 - current

HP-48 emulator on the iMac

RPN Maru
--
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web  : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/

[Microsoft’s Windows Vista] Beta 2 is a good looking operating  
system with a number of new features, which will be familiar to you  
if you’ve played with recent versions of Apple’s OS X. - Gary  
Krakow, Columnist, MSNBC




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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-05 Thread Ronn!Blankenship

At 12:55 PM Tuesday 9/5/2006, William T Goodall wrote:


On 5 Sep 2006, at 12:56PM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:


I doubt I'm the only one here who is old enough to be reminded of
endless similar discussions re: HP vs. TI scientific calculators . . .


What discussion?




I used that word to be polite (about both discussions).




Everyone knows HP are the only scientific
calculators to get. TI were for losers!

HP-25 from 1975 to 1990
HP-15C from 1990 - current




I still have one of those somewhere.  (Haven't seen or used it in 
awhile.)  I do know where my 16C is, and keep fresh batteries in 
it.  Have a 28 somewhere also.  And a 48GX.





HP-48 emulator on the iMac




Wrote an emulator of (more-or-less) the HP-45 in FORTRAN back in 80 
or 81 because it was easier than getting the company to buy one.




notationfix maru


-- Ronn!  :)



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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-04 Thread Richard Baker

Andrew said:


Here's a hint: A base price of £1000 is more than I spend on an
entire PC which is considerably more powerful than the one you
linked.


This seems somewhat unlikely when 2.66GHz Xeon 5150 processors cost  
around £470 each and the base Mac Pro configuration has two of them,  
as well as a relatively high-end graphics card.


Rich
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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-04 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 4 Sep 2006 at 18:43, Richard Baker wrote:

 Andrew said:

  Here's a hint: A base price of £1000 is more than I spend on an
  entire PC which is considerably more powerful than the one you
  linked.

 This seems somewhat unlikely when 2.66GHz Xeon 5150 processors cost
 around £470 each and the base Mac Pro configuration has two of them,
 as well as a relatively high-end graphics card.

The entire system price for the low-end MacPro is £1700. It comes
with a Nvidia 7300 GT.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/graphics/charts.html?modelx=33model1=51
9model2=547chart=227

The 7300 GT scores 289. The card I would look at, the X9100XT, scores
1657, and is avaliable for well under £200. Draw your own
conclusions.

(Incidentally, the CPU's you are reference are only £320 each inc VAT
from Insight).

Regardless, I do find it a little amusing that the Intel Mac's show
such a radical degree of power increase over their PowerPC
predecessors when said Intel was put down for years by Mac advocates.

AndrewC
Dawn Falcon

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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-04 Thread Richard Baker

Andrew said:


(Incidentally, the CPU's you are reference are only £320 each inc VAT
from Insight).


This Insight

http://uk.insight.com/apps/nbs/index.php?K=xeon+5150lang=en- 
gbM=C=107S=1042


or some other one?

Rich
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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-04 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 4 Sep 2006 at 20:36, Richard Baker wrote:

 Andrew said:

  (Incidentally, the CPU's you are reference are only £320 each inc VAT
  from Insight).

 This Insight

 http://uk.insight.com/apps/nbs/index.php?K=xeon+5150lang=en-
 gbM=C=107S=1042

 or some other one?

Ah, yes, you're quite right. On a quick investigation, for some
reason the external search I used gave me the *upgrade* price for an
existing PC.

(this page:
http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpresentation/index.php?product_id=FJ
SOA03SJRcm_mmc=Froogle-_-OA-_-FJS-_-FJSOA03SJRsrc=FRO1 )

AndrewC
Dawn Falcon

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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-04 Thread Richard Baker

Andrew said:


Ah, yes, you're quite right. On a quick investigation, for some
reason the external search I used gave me the *upgrade* price for an
existing PC.


That one isn't even remotely the same processor. It has a 533MHz  
front-size bus, 512KB of cache, a single core, and is based on the  
obsolete Netburst microarchitecture. The 5150s in the Mac Pro have a  
1333MHz front-size bus, 4MB of cache, two cores and are based on the  
new Core microarchitecture. The Core architecture has much better  
performance per clock cycle than NetBurst does too, so the fact that  
the two have the same clock speed is extremely misleading.


(You may be interested to know - or may already know - that the Core  
microarchitecture was designed by Intel's team in Haifa.)


I was pretty much astonished by the price and performance of the Mac  
Pro, especially as someone who spends quite a bit of money on Xeon  
servers to run Windows applications.


Rich

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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-04 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 4 Sep 2006 at 20:50, Richard Baker wrote:

 Andrew said:
 
  Ah, yes, you're quite right. On a quick investigation, for some
  reason the external search I used gave me the *upgrade* price for an
  existing PC.
 
 That one isn't even remotely the same processor. It has a 533MHz  
 front-size bus, 512KB of cache, a single core, and is based on the  
 obsolete Netburst microarchitecture. The 5150s in the Mac Pro have a  
 1333MHz front-size bus, 4MB of cache, two cores and are based on the  
 new Core microarchitecture. The Core architecture has much better  
 performance per clock cycle than NetBurst does too, so the fact that  
 the two have the same clock speed is extremely misleading.
 
 (You may be interested to know - or may already know - that the Core  
 microarchitecture was designed by Intel's team in Haifa.)

Yes, I did.

 I was pretty much astonished by the price and performance of the Mac  
 Pro, especially as someone who spends quite a bit of money on Xeon  
 servers to run Windows applications.

And I don't know that much about them because for what I do, I'm 
nearly allways GPU-limited or bus-limited, not CPU-limited. So I'm 
looking at high-end graphics cards combined with a (dual core) 4600 
Mhz Athlon X2.

The only people (and of course, the high-performance servers..) who 
have Opteron/Xeon processors at work are the video specalists.

AndrewC
Dawn Falcon

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unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-03 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 3 Sep 2006 at 12:51, Dave Land wrote:

 On Sep 1, 2006, at 9:05 AM, William T Goodall wrote:
 
  And yes, OSX is marvelous. Its merest bootlace, Windows is not  
  worthy to kiss. - David Brin
 
 With all the things that you and I have to disagree about, it is nice  
 that we
 have this in common.

And I'm going to keep on using windows purely because it's what the 
programs I use run on, and the Mac's charge a stiff premium for their 
hardware.

I'm not a technophile, which occasionally is a hinderance in an 
industry of little but technophiles - I use tech-as-a-tool, and my 
purchasing descisions are purely based on the programs I use, many of 
which are DirectX/.NET dependent and have no Linux/Max equivalent. 
(And the pricing issue).

I do dual-boot windows 2k and linux, but I don't feel that Linux is 
ready for most home users, unlike projects like OpenOffice, which 
I've recommended for some years... it's a shame that I can't move 
away entirely because of some of the more arcane Excel spreadsheets 
used by friends of mine don't translate to Calc well.

AndrewC
Dawn Falcon

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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-03 Thread William T Goodall


On 3 Sep 2006, at 10:45PM, Andrew Crystall wrote:


And I'm going to keep on using windows purely because it's what the
programs I use run on, and the Mac's charge a stiff premium for their
hardware.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060823/ap_on_hi_te/tech_test_mac_pro_3

The recently released Mac Pro maintains the Apple shine in design,  
usability and software but also does something unexpected: It turns  
the old Mac versus Windows PC price equation on its head.
A low-end Mac Pro will cost you $2,124 compared with $3,071 for a  
nearly identically configured Dell Precision Workstation 490. The Mac  
is about $947 cheaper — and the gap widens when you start piling on  
options such as more memory, faster processors and bigger hard drives.


Best Value Maru

--
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web  : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/

And yes, OSX is marvelous. Its merest bootlace, Windows is not worthy  
to kiss. - David Brin


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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-03 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 4 Sep 2006 at 1:02, William T Goodall wrote:

 A low-end Mac Pro will cost you $2,124 compared with $3,071 for a

In America. For one specific model. And with a very expensive Windows
PC make for comparison. And without similar options for warranty,
etc.

In the UK, the difference for someone like me who builds my own is in
the region of 60% more expensive for the mac in raw performance
terms, and I cannot get a base spec Mac which suits me as a gamer.

Here's a hint: A base price of £1000 is more than I spend on an
entire PC which is considerably more powerful than the one you
linked.

AndrewC
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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-03 Thread William T Goodall


On 4 Sep 2006, at 1:14AM, Andrew Crystall wrote:


On 4 Sep 2006 at 1:02, William T Goodall wrote:


A low-end Mac Pro will cost you $2,124 compared with $3,071 for a


In America. For one specific model. And with a very expensive Windows
PC make for comparison. And without similar options for warranty,
etc.

In the UK, the difference for someone like me who builds my own is in
the region of 60% more expensive for the mac in raw performance
terms, and I cannot get a base spec Mac which suits me as a gamer.


So by non-technophile you don't mean somebody who doesn't build their  
own PC or run Linux. OK, so what do the technophiles do then?


Blue LEDs in the nose Maru
--
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web  : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/

A bad thing done for a good cause is still a bad thing. It's why so  
few people slap their political opponents. That, and because slapping  
looks so silly. - Randy Cohen.



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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-03 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 4 Sep 2006 at 1:33, William T Goodall wrote:

  In the UK, the difference for someone like me who builds my own is in
  the region of 60% more expensive for the mac in raw performance
  terms, and I cannot get a base spec Mac which suits me as a gamer.
 
 So by non-technophile you don't mean somebody who doesn't build their  
 own PC or run Linux. OK, so what do the technophiles do then?

I build my own PC because when I was first doing it ('92) that was 
the only realistic option. It remains far cheaper and I can ensure 
build quality.

And I have Linux...I just don't use it as my primary OS.

That wasn't what I meant, however. That's just your take on what I 
typed, running a post of multiple parts into one.

And yes, I despite blue LED's. My case sits beside my desk. Its a 
utilitarian grey and pale blue, and its best features are the power 
button is on the top front and it has a carry handle on top.

AndrewC
Dawn Falcon

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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-03 Thread maru dubshinki

On 9/3/06, Andrew Crystall [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

On 4 Sep 2006 at 1:33, William T Goodall wrote:

  In the UK, the difference for someone like me who builds my own is in
  the region of 60% more expensive for the mac in raw performance
  terms, and I cannot get a base spec Mac which suits me as a gamer.

 So by non-technophile you don't mean somebody who doesn't build their
 own PC or run Linux. OK, so what do the technophiles do then?

I build my own PC because when I was first doing it ('92) that was
the only realistic option. It remains far cheaper and I can ensure
build quality.

And I have Linux...I just don't use it as my primary OS.

That wasn't what I meant, however. That's just your take on what I
typed, running a post of multiple parts into one.

And yes, I despite blue LED's. My case sits beside my desk. Its a
utilitarian grey and pale blue, and its best features are the power
button is on the top front and it has a carry handle on top.

AndrewC


Could you elaborate on this? I'm kind of curious since I don't think
computer building has been discussed on list, and I've been
contemplating building a PC for some time now (following the template
of Ars Technica's Hot Rod
(http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/system-guide-200608.ars/3),
although I'd probably wait for a decent AMD replacement for the Core 2
Duo processors they reccomend - I just plain don't like Intel.
Something about them bugs me.)

~maru
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Re: unholy OS wars (was Re: history is evil, why it must be eradicated)

2006-09-03 Thread Andrew Crystall
On 3 Sep 2006 at 23:30, maru dubshinki wrote:

 Could you elaborate on this? I'm kind of curious since I don't think
 computer building has been discussed on list, and I've been
 contemplating building a PC for some time now (following the template

Not really - it's a catch 22, I'm not buying anything for probably a 
year despite the fact my PC is aging because a lot depends on which 
platform the tools I use continue on (DX9 or DX10/Vista) and the 
first generation DX10 cards this Christmas are NOT going to be 
useable for a lot of DX10 functions in actual speed so that's not a 
consideration and it'll be summer at the earliest for the second gen 
ones which will be useful.

In an ideal world the tools I'd use would go to OpenGL2, but they 
won't because of creator preferences and priorities.

AndrewC
Dawn Falcon

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