Letters to the Editor
crunchette
Published Letters: 43 Editor's Choice: 4
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RE: 5 years (quietmind)
[Read the article: Apple reports a Mac sales record]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Macs from five years ago can run OS X 10.4, so there's no reason to think that Macs five years from now won't be able to run whatever is being used at the time.
Of course, it's worth noting that no PC from five years ago can run Vista."
Nice assertion, but totally false. The minimum requirements for Vista Home Basic are:
- 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
- 512 MB of system memory
- 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
- Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory
I had all of that and more 5 years ago. In fact, that pretty much describes my system I owned in 2001 to a 'T'.
Oh, and hey, it's the same processor architecture (x86) as opposed to an entirely different architecture (Power PC) running in emulation mode. Fancy that!
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Awww, man!
[Read the article: Tom the Dancing Bug]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]You ripped that idea off from Jaspar Fforde!
Funny as hell, though.
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Dream ticket?
[Read the article: Barack Obama's breakthrough victory]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'd love to see a team of Obama / Edwards run in the fall. Perhaps with Biden as their future Secretary of State choice...
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Comparison...
[Read the article: Apple's new machines are "fastest ever," obviously ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"The really big thing here for me is the value -- go to the Dell web site and check out how much such a server will cost. A few months ago, I priced servers like this and came up with prices in the 10 to 20 K range, and I don't think they ran at 3 GHz. What the heck, go to the TigerDirect web site and cost out such a server (if you can), I think the prices you mention compare very favorably." -dgholstein
OK. I'm gonna have to nit-pick here.
The base Xserve server is not a 'serious piece of machinery' when compared to enterprise x86 (e.g. HP ProLiant, Dell PowerEdge, IBM X-series) servers. The reason for the price delta is that at the base price, the Xserve is fairly stripped down (e.g. no hardware RAID, no RAM, only one processor, only one PSU, no premium support, etc.). And, of course, you get OS-X Server included with the price.
Comparing Xserve and HP-DL360-G5 servers using the following more-or-less identical specs:
- Two X5450 quad-core Xeon 3.0GHz CPUs
- 2048MB PC5300 Fully Buffered DIMMs (PC6400 in the case of the Xserve)
- Two 72GB 15k RPM SAS HDD
- Hardware RAID (Xserve RAID card versus HP SmartArray P400i)
- Two 700W Power Supplies
- On-site next business day warranty - 3 years
- Operating System (Windows Server 2003 / Mac OS-X)
Xserve: $6,849.00
ProLiant: $7,098.00
The delta is $250.00. Given that the SmartArray is a superior RAID card (adds RAID 0+1 support and optional RAID 6), I'm going to have to call this one a wash.
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Try it for a week first . . .
[Read the article: Trading preschool for passports]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have two children (ages two and four) and a professional job. I struggle with many of the typical working mom issues.
To me, however, the idea of traveling extensively with two small children sounds a bit like torture. Weekends away to Grandma's house are a big enough pain in the ass.
The idea sounds fun and romantic. It would be interesting to see what she would think of the experience if she actually did it.
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Not there yet
[Read the article: The car of the future is here]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Call me when there is a rear-wheel drive hybrid with a manual transmission and good driving characteristics. Until then, I'm pining for a 4-cylinder BMW diesel.
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Gee, are you sure on Gates?
[Read the article: The C.S. Lewis take on Gates and Wal-Mart]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]After all, the guy is quitting Microsoft (or at least cutting way back) to focus on the Gates Foundation, which has been spending money hand-over-fist on all sorts of progressive causes. I can understand the skepticism about Wal-Mart, though. I don't trust them as far as I can throw them.
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What a tool.
[Read the article: U2's crazy manager wants to go after tech firms]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Tech companies are no more responsible for music piracy than the internet is responsible for music piracy. People are responsible for music piracy.
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Keef!
[Read the article: The K Chronicles]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sorry, I find Keef consistantly funny. On the other hand I like 'non-standard' web strips like Sluggy Freelance, Dr. McNinja, Questionable Content and Order of the Stick, so YMMV.
And Pearls Before Swine is pretty much *always* funny. Hello Zeeba Neighbor!
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@ RealityCounts
[Read the article: How will it all end?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sorry - your reality seems to be a bit off. Obama has more experience as an elected official than Clinton. Additionally, being First Lady for eight years does not make you a better foreign policy expert by default.
Is Clinton a brilliant woman? Yes. Is Obama young? Yes. Is Clinton therefore the better candidate? Possibly, but she has a *lot* more baggage than Obama (and is far more likely to mobilize people to support McCain than Obama would - your stated plans to the contrary).
Remember, the whole reason the President of the United States has a cabinet is to have a panel of experts (hopefully) that will provide well reasoned arguments and insight into various aspects of foreign and domestic policy. Heck, even Bill (Clinton) wasn't known for his foreign policy acumen when he was elected, but I think we can agree that he did pretty well in retrospect.
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@ Bill Stearns
[Read the article: How will it all end?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I participated in the Washingon caucuses (oh no, I guess that makes me an 'elite'!) and I have to say I experienced first-hand the righteous indignation of Clinton supporters when our precinct voted 3:2 in favor of Obama. To be fair, I came in as 'undecided' as I was an Edwards supporter, but during the candidate statements prior to the first vote and the subsequent argument/discussion prior to the second (and final), I was swayed to vote for Obama both by the quality of the arguments from the Obama side and my own frustration with the sense of entitlement that I was hearing from some (not all, thankfully) Clinton supporters.
Would I vote for either candidate? Certainly (hell, I voted for Dukakis in '88 and that was about as uninspiring a vote as I've ever made...I take that back - Kerry was pretty uninspiring as well). However, I'm still hoping when this all shakes out the Democratic Presidential Nominee will be Obama.