Apple finally announced that they are moving to Intel chips. I have read about the possibility since OS X was released. Unfortunately, Steve Jobs has already said that the consumer will not be able to get OS X without buying Mac hardware. I would happily plunk down the $129 for OS X to run on my current box.
The one thing that I'm hoping for with the switch to Intel is a cheaper Mac. Since OS X came out I have been yearning for a Mac. When I was having computer troubles I priced out a Mac Mini, but the cost was still more than what I wanted to spend. I'm hoping that an Intel Mac will be competitively priced against a Dell with a similar configuration.
All I want is a useful Mac Mini under $500. The base Mini needs a couple upgrades to make is useful to me. The Mini needs to have a minimum of 512 RAM and Wi-Fi. If you price these options out on a Mini you are in the $630 range. My current computer system (computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse) cost around that. I've always been a value shopper and the Apple premium is too much.
Apple is missing a huge segment of consumer because of their premium. They are missing people like me, the value consumer. They already have a better operating system. If they came in with a value computer that could compete with Windows machine they could grab market share. I think many people are interested in the Mac OS but the start up cost is prohibitive.
The minute I can buy the Mac I want for under $500, I'll be the first to place that order. Better yet, let me buy OS X and dual boot my current machine.
June 2005 Archives
It's official, I've become a married man who is dressed by his wife. I'm not saying that she lays out what I wear every morning, but she buys me clothes.
I have never been someone that people like shopping with. I am very picky about what I wear. I remember my parents getting upset with me when we would go shoe/school clothes/short shopping. I never liked any clothes with logos and the shoes had to have the right look. These things haven't changed throughout the years. I still refuse to wear any t-shirt with big logos unless it's something I like. As a result a majority of the t-shirts I wear have UW-Madison on them.
Back to my story of fashion. My job switched to a more business friendly dress code last fall. This can be read as shirt and tie required, but a suit coat is optional. I had a few button-up shirts and ties from my interviewing days so I was wearing those. Michelle would pick up ties and shirts when her work had a good sale. So over the past 4 or 5 months I have a pretty good collection of ties and shirts. It's odd because the only ties that I get compliments on are those that my wife has picked out. I don't get any comments on the ties that we picked out together, only those that I wasn't involved in.
This same thing has happened with shirts. Luckily my workplace still observes casual Fridays. Jeans and a nice shirt are all I need. Michelle picked up a couple shirts last week on clearance. I was a little leery of them but I figured that they can't be ugly if she picked them out. I like the shirts but I never would have picked them out myself. I wore one of those shirts to work today and I got a few comments. I never get comments, unless I'm wearing a tie that my wife picked out. "Very GQ" was one comment that I got and I didn't know how to take it. I think it was a compliment.
I'll continue to take the fashion guidance of my wife since a clothes designer at work said that for men a good fashion day was when no one mentioned their clothes. I guess it all boils down to; I'm capable of dressing myself so I don't look like a fool, but only my wife can make me look good.
Another Friday night of catching up with things that I keep thinking about but never sit down to do. I've noticed that its obvious when my wife is working. Most of those nights I'll get on and post something. Tonight is no different. But I do have a couple posts to get caught up on.
The thing that had me all giddy this week was I found the podcast This Week in Tech. Check it out and skip the next paragraph if you aren't interested in any back story.
I'll start from the beginning. Back in college, the cable company carried TechTV on basic cable. TechTV had a show called The Screen Savers that was on 4 or 5 days and was an hour and a half long. They would talk about computers and technology for the whole time. They would also take any computer related phone call; tech support, hardware recommendations, etc. The show could go from extremely technical to very basic in a matter of seconds. That was the appeal of the show. Everyone could watch it; it wasn't technical for the entire hour, but it wasn't elementary either. Unfortunately, I graduated and moved back to Minnesota where the local cable company, Comcast, did not carry TechTV on basic cable. During this time Comcast bought TechTV. The idea that Comcast had was to merge G4 (television network for gamers) and TechTV into one channel, G4TechTV (Real original, huh?). The result of the merge was a consolidating of the shows and personalities. Unfortunately, the two main hosts were let go and replaced. They were replaced by new people or someone who did small segments on the old Screensavers. I found various sources and was able to see a couple of the new Screensavers. It seemed that the direction of the show became more gamer oriented. No more technical computer info. On various message boards you could see that many Screensavers fans disliked the new show. Needless to say G4TechTV has dropped "Tech" from their name after sometime. The show was renamed Attack of the Show. A couple sites have said that the show is good given that you don't expect any in depth computer coverage. I may check it out just to see. Fast forward to present time.
I knew one of the old hosts of Screensavers has a show on Canadian TechTV (see previous paragraph regarding US TechTV), so I went to his site. I saw that he has started doing podcasts of a couple radio shows. But what caught my eye was "my newest podcast, this WEEK in Tech, with Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, and other former TechTV hosts". These were the people I like so much on the Screensavers. Kevin Rose was a host of the Screensavers during the G4TechTV reign, but he wasn't able to get technical due to the new focus of the show. I browsed through This Week In Tech and found that there were 8 shows available to download. [There are 9 now due to a special midweek show] The group of Leo, Patrick, and Kevin have been doing weekly shows for awhile. I downloaded the first two shows and listened to them to see if the show was good. The next day at work I listened to the remaining shows. The shows are exactly what the Screensavers was when it was at its best.
Michelle was not as excited as me. She's just happy that she doesn't have to sit through them. During college I would sit and watch the Screensavers at 6 pm and watch it again when they re-aired it later that night.
