The Mac Pro (not to be confused with the similarly-named "Macbook Pro") is probably the one Apple product that you haven't heard of, as they haven't released a commercial overhyping it in about four years.
Like the Macbook Pro is supposedly just a Macbook with better specs, the Mac Pro is supposed to be an Apple desktop with better upgradability and specs than the Mac Mini or iMac. In those respects, the Mac Pro is still better. However, Apple has been steadily reducing the frequency at which it updates the Mac Pro, which has lead the products current irrelevance.
Unfortunately, even as the Mac Pros on the shelves age, their price tag does not. The current configuration is over 450 days old and has the same price tag as the day it was released onto the market (which was still hefty even then).
It's my contention that the reason Apple is having a hard time keeping the Mac Pro a decent product is because they've made it something that it shouldn't be: A custom form-factor albatross that nobody buys. This is not a Mac Mini, or an iMac. Nor is it a f**king cube. It's a bulky PC workstation that's supposed to have excellent price/performance in exchange for desk real estate. Instead, Apple's insistance of form over function has resulted in neglect of the line and has made it into a sleek-looking overpriced dinosaur.
The Mac Pro started out as a computer that was CHEAPER than a homebuilt alternative with the same specs. That's why I bought one. Todays Mac Pro is an overpriced over-customized rip-off that even Dell and HP can trounce on price/performance.
The following is something I trolled on a mac fanboy forum... for some reason they agreed:
Once you realize--I mean really realize--that a computer is just a bunch of parts, most of which are not special in any way (and are usually similar in quality), you really get annoyed with brand loyalty.
The difference between the Mac Pro and all other Macs is JUST that it's the only Mac that ignores (or should ignore) form factor.
You pay extra for the portability of the Laptops and the desk-space economization of the Mac Mini or the iMac. However, for the Mac Pro, the only distinguishing characteristic should be PRICE.
Mac Pros use (or should use) STANDARD FORM FACTOR parts, and therefore should be the LOWEST PRICE/PERFORMANCE ratio of the macs, not the highest. They are easy to assemble and use STANDARD parts.
The iMac/Mac Mini have an excuse for being expensive (even though they're not): they use extremely customized parts to fit into their small form factor. The Mac Pro does not. Economics of scale dictate the Mac Pro should be updated more frequently and should be of a higher value (ignoring aesthetics).
IMO, the fact that the Mac Pro isn't being updated and is still using old parts (and thus a worse value) is due to Apples over-customization of the motherboard and case components.
The "New" Mac Pro should have as few custom parts as possible. They should use inexpensive, mass-produced yet high quality components that are already on the market (or at least as much of them as possible). No more gigantic grey case fans, just use a standard 120MM. No more stupid aluminum cages that make it a bitch to swap out the CPU, just an empty box with the mobo screwed to the side-wall and case fans in the back. No more ridiculous [UNRELIABLE] PSU with no label on it, just cut a deal with Thermaltake for an all black 1.5KWatt monster.
Take a standard high-end Intel motherboard, tack on some EFI and design the case around it. Duct tape the thing together and sell it at a reasonable price. You could even stuff it inside a brushed aluminum case with an apple sticker on the side and call it good.
The hilarious part that fanboys don't get is: Apple's parts are lower quality than the consumer computer component market (like stuff out of newegg) that sells for a fraction of the cost. Apple uses SH*T hard drives (Maxtor/hitachi) and SH*T RAM. They use THE WORST DVD burners (Sony). Their video cards are buggy/crappy (Radeon 2600) and outdated. Even their "custom" looking components have mass failure like their PSUs. And by the way, they charge more for it.
It's not entirely their fault. Apple's painted themselves into a corner by making these "sleek" formfactors that require custom parts. The more customized the parts, the smaller the scale of fabrication, and therefore the higher the price to produce and to develop (per unit). It also costs more to engineer (or re-engineer, as they often do), on top of re-certifying everything at every step through the FCC. Their custom cases and PSUs have to be run through the regulators with practically each new revision. I'm suggesting they abandon that model for the Mac Pro and just make an "unsexy" 'PC-style' high-quality, high-value box. It's what pro-sumers really want (high-power/quality, low price), abandons the "Sleekness" that is really extraneous to professionals, and has very little cost to create new revisions. (48,888)
So I installed VirtualBox a few days ago and loved it so much I wanted to put it on my Macbook (and since it's FREE, you can do it without licensing issues unlike some other pieces of software..... f$#@ you Macworld). However, I have no desire to reinstall/reconfigure Windows. Therefore I decided to just transfer VirtualBox' configuration from one Mac to another as closely as possible. This method takes about 1 minute (plus however long it takes to transfer your hard drive image).
I tried transferring the "~/Library/VirtualBox" folder over directly, and that didn't work (seems to be hardware-specific), so I tried creating a new machine and importing the hard drive image, that works fine. By the way, if you have Windows installed on this image, the following is probably illegal (unless you're licensed properly):
1) Go into ~/Library/VirtualBox/ on the computer with the existing installation 2) Transfer the "HardDisks" folder to the new mac in the same relative location (~/Library/VirtualBox), leaving out everything else in the VirtualBox folder 3) [this step could have been done already, doesn't matter] Install VirtualBox on the destination machine 4) Create a new virtual machine 5) Go through the dialogs selecting RAM allocation, et al, (it doesn't matter what you select as far as RAM or even machine name) and when it comes to "Virtual Hard Disk," Select "Use existing hard disk" 5) Select the .vdi file you transfered from your previous mac (~/Library/VirtualBox/HardDisks/*****.vdi) by hitting the little FOLDER BUTTON (it will NOT show up under that drop-down menu automatically).
Other websites were talking about using some sort of "clone machine" command, but this seems to work fine (and yes, you can just duplicate the "vdi" to clone a virtual machine on the same computer). The other machine related files do not seem to be transferable, so transferring snapshots and other settings would seem impossible (at least via this method). (26,758)
This guy is Dr. Ken Lunde. He's the author of two groundbreaking books on the handling of ideographic languages (e.g., Japanese and Korean) in information processing, "Understanding Japanese Information Processing" (1993) and "CJKV Information Processing" (1999 and 2008 editions). [CJKV, by the way, stands for "Chinese Japanese Korean Vietnamese"] He works for Adobe and is kind of a big deal in the global infotech scene.
In addition to his landscape-altering work in that field, he's a notable collector and photographer of fine weapons. His photographic wallpaper of pistols is extremely popular, and his extensive collection of firearms and knives is the subject of endless slavering by gun buffs.
Dr. Lunde kindly granted us this one-of-a-kind email interview where we ask about everything from firearms to "Terminator : Salvation." This is an amazing window into one of the most intense minds on the planet -- check out Dr Lunde's Web site at http://LundeStudio.com for great photos and more info, and follow him on Twitter @Ken_Lunde . So read this interview and learn how to be far more awesome than you are now.
Here's the interview, presented in its entirety :
LW) For the benefit of our readers, what is CJKV information processing?
KL) In a nutshell, it is everything about how the languages that include ideographs (aka, Chinese characters) as part of their writing system are processed on computers or by digital means. Character sets and encodings are the fundamentals, because everything else depends on those two aspects.
LW) You're known as the authority on CJKV type and computer science. What first interested you in working on CJKV information processing?
KL) My interest began in the summer 1985, when I was deciding which non Indo-Eurpean language to study as part of the graduation requirements for a degree in linguistics. My choices boiled down to Japanese and Arabic. I spent time with both languages, and chose Japanese because I found it to be more challenging. Given the events that took place in subsequent years, combined with the fact that I was in the military at the time, I am glad that I chose Japanese over Arabic. Otherwise, I might still be taking sand out of my boots.
LW) Have you lived in East Asia for an extended period of time? If so, tell us about it.
KL) I have been in East Asia only for business trips, and only once or twice for a vacation. I have not lived there for any extended period. I have been to China once, South Korea twice, and Japan several times.
LW) This kind of work seems dauntingly difficult. Did you have to attain fluency in all four languages before starting this work?
KL) Of the languages in question, I have moderate fluency only in Japanese. I studied the simplified forms as used in China, and thus have rudimentary Chinese reading ability, but I cannot understand it when spoken, and cannot pronounce its words.
LW) What are the most significant challenges you face in your CJKV work?
KL) The most difficult challenge is keeping track of changes. Then again, if things stayed the same, that would be boring and stale. How we deal with challenges define us as a person. I see challenges as opportunities.
LW) Our rough understanding is that Chinese has thousands of characters. How is this handled with respect to input devices?
KL) Fundamentally, languages are spoken. The written form is simply a way to record spoken language. For this reason, the most intuitive way to input the thousands (actually, tens of thousands) of ideographs is by reading. Of course, many ideographs share the same reading, meaning that the user must often choose among several candidates. The longer the input string, meaning words that are composed of two or more ideographs, the lower the number of candidates. Modern input methods, such as those bundled with the OSes, handle this quite well.
LW) Is your work the first of its kind?
KL) Apparently it is. My first book, "Understanding Japanese Information Processing," was published in 1993. I have been told by many people that it changed the landscape, and enabled many companies to develop software for the East Asian markets. My next two books are best thought of as expanded and revised versions of that first work.
LW) On a scale of "pretty awesome" to "inexpressibly awesome," how would you rate your job at Adobe?
KL) I don't believe in such scales, but on a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being the highest, I would rate my job as a solid 9, and possibly a 10.
- on photography :
^^ One of Lunde's beautiful photos -- this of a customized Colt Delta Elite in 10mm
LW) Your photography is remarkable for its inviting atmosphere and warm light. How do you achieve these effects?
KL) Practice. I found that I am my best critic. I discovered several years ago that photography is all about capturing or recording light, and the better one controls the lighting, the better the results. All other factors are not nearly as critical.
LW) Were you formally trained as a photographer?
KL) No. I leaned through trial and error, and my earlier days had lots of the latter.
LW) What equipment do you use to get your results?
KL) I use a Lowel three-light set for lighting. My camera for the past 1.5 years has been a Nikon D300. My preferred lens is the Nikkor 60mm Micro lens, which I have had for over seven years, and which has transcended four digital SLR bodies. For post-processing the photos, I have been using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (aka, Adobe Lightroom) for about three years. I used Adobe Photoshop before that.
LW) What subjects apart from weapons do you most enjoy photographing?
KL) Nature, family, and friends.
[-on firearms, etc:]
LW) Your firearms collection is very well-curated. How did you first become interested in firearms?
KL) I was raised by my father to have a strong appreciate of and respect for firearms and other weapons. I see them as specialized tools, and nothing more. I appreciate the craftsmanship that is required to make functional weapons.
LW) Does living in California present special challenges for the firearms enthusiast?
KL) Definitely.
LW) You note on your site that 10mm is one of your favorite cartridges - it's one of ours as well. Why do you favor this cartridge, and what is your preferred loading?
KL) I favor the cartridge partly due to the Glock 20 being an excellent platform for this powerful cartridge. The Glock 20 is my hunting sidearm. I do not handload 10mm, but I do handload for all of the rifle cartridges that I use. There are plenty of quality 10mm loads available today.
LW) You have some wonderful Colt Delta Elites. Have you had any reliability or durability problems with that model?
KL) I have only one Colt Delta Elite, which has been highly customized. I have not had any issue with it. Although it is significantly heavier than the Glock 20, it has more felt recoil. As much as I appreciate the Colt Delta Elite, I prefer to use the Glock 20.
LW) Which weapon in your collection would be your preferred daily carry, and why?
KL) When I am out of state, generally for hunting, I tend to carry a Glock 20. I cannot carry in California. If I could carry in California, my EDC would be a Glock 33.
LW) What are some problems you see in firearms design and how would you improve them?
KL) I am a firm believer that there is no perfect firearm. But, there is an ideal firearm, and which one it is depends on the person who needs it. To be honest, I don't see any problems in firearm design, and most of the problems that arise tend to be the result of the nonsensical firearm laws that we have, either at the State or Federal level. The ten-round magazine capacity limit is a perfect example of this.
LW) Have you trained formally with firearms? If so, where?
KL) I have had very little training with firearms, and most of it has been while in the military. Starting at an early age, like studying a foreign language, has benefits in that you develop life-long skills. And, like any sport, it is all about practice, which includes mental preparation. Some people can mentally prepare themselves on their own, and some require formal training. Still, I would like to take more formal training, when I have more free time.
LW) Some of our readers find the trigger on the original Walther P99 to be impossible to get used to, that the pull is too long and insufficiently crisp. As someone who shoots both P99s and 1911s, how do you recommend that shooters new to the P99 get acclimated to that trigger?
KL) My best advice is to dry-fire the trigger to get accustomed to it. The AS (Anti-Stress) part of the trigger is what confuses most people. Becoming accustomed to the AS trigger overcomes this issue.
LW) What are some firearms you'd like to try or acquire in the coming year?
KL) At this point, I really have nothing on the immediate radar. The Kahr P380 intrigues me, as does the new Beretta Px4 Storm Compact. (The Beretta Px4 Storm Subcompact did nothing for me, and I never developed an interest in acquiring one.)
LW) What do you look for in a handgun? In a rifle?
KL) For a handgun, I look for quality and durability. For a rifle, I look for quality and accuracy. I didn't mention accuracy for a handgun, because most have comparable accuracy, and how it fits one's hand and how well one can control the trigger are greater influences in practical accuracy.
LW) Many people ask about firearms for home defense. Some experts say that a shotgun is the most appropriate home defense weapon, while others advocate for the handgun. What in your estimation is the most suitable firearm for home defense?
KL) A typical shotgun is a bit too large (long) for home defense. If you live in an NFA-friendly state, a shotgun-based AOW would be ideal for home defense. In the end, simply having an accessible weapon is half the battle in one's ability to defend their home from intruders.
LW) Some of your firearms have beautiful aftermarket finishes. Which among these finshes do you like best?
KL) Hard chrome. In fact, that's the only aftermarket finish on any of my firearms. Everything else is factory-applied.
LW) What is it about Del Fatti holsters that you like so well?
KL) The workmanship and attention to detail. I specifically like his ISP-SS holster with the Slotted Pad belt attachment. The holster is no bigger than it needs to be, and the Slotted Pad belt attachment protrudes very little.
LW) You also have many Busse knives. What attracts you to those items?
KL) I am attracted to Busse Combat knives due to their hard-use nature, and the fact that they hold an edge for a long time. Busse Combat also stands behind their knives. I also like other brands, such as Randall Made, Scott Cook, Chris Reeve, and others.
[- on hunting]
LW) What game do you enjoy hunting?
KL) I hunt prairie dogs with my dad, who is 74, in Spring or Summer, sometimes both. I hunt pronghorn antelope in Fall. I am interested in both because the shooting distances are generally long, usually 250 yards are further. Pronghorn antelope are also North America's fastest land mammal, so there is inherent challenge in hunting them.
LW) Where are some of your favorite locations to hunt?
KL) Wyoming and South Dakota.
LW) What arms and cartridges do you prefer to use while hunting?
KL) I favor .204 Ruger for prairie dogs, and have been using 6.5x55 SE for pronghorn antelope for the past four years. The rifles that I use are made by Cooper Arms, which is located in Montana.
[- on the arts]
LW) What music (genres / artists) do you like to listen to? What exactly is it about that music that resonates with you?
KL) I would have to say that my favorite artists are Tangerine Dream, Rush, and TCM.
LW) What visual art do you like?
KL) Photography.
LW) What are some of your favorite movies?
KL) I very much enjoyed "Avatar" and the new "Star Trek." Both resonated with me extraordinarily well.
LW) What foods do you enjoy? Do you prefer to cook at home or eat at restaurants?
KL) I like pastas, pizza, anything on the grill, and salads. We eat out very little, and do most of our cooking at home.
LW) What was the last book you read? Did you like it?
KL) I don't read much in terms of books or novels. Most of what I read tends to be reference manuals, where I read specific pages or chapters. I would say that I do more writing than reading. (In retrospect, I probably should have learned how to type.)
LW) Did you see "Terminator : Salvation?" Did you think it rocked?
KL) I enjoyed that movie, and while I thought it added to the "Terminator" story line, I felt that "Avatar" rocked much more.
[- Other topics :]
LW) What's your favorite comic strip?
KL) I really don't have any.
LW) What fiscal and monetary policies do you favor with regard to the USA?
KL) No comment.
LW) Do you believe that computer programming is an essential skill for all knowledge workers?
KL) Computer programming is skill for those who develop software. Most people wouldn't benefit from this, unless they need this skill, and can practice it. The ability to use a simpler scripting language can benefit a broader range of people.
LW) Do you have a garden /.grow your own food?
KL) Yes.
LW) What is the matter with kids these days?
KL) Of course, it depends on the kids. For those with issues, I am sure it is related to how their parents raised them. Instilling respect would go a long way to raising kids better.
LW) How should the balance between freedom and security be handled with respect to US domestic policy?
KL) No comment.
LW) What's the most effective pickup line?
KL) No comment.
LW) What do you think about the recent move to deep-six the NASA moon mission and greatly scale back public space exploration?
KL) Say, maybe it is NASA's way to acknowledge that we have been contacted by extraterrestrial life.
LW) In your opinion, does time exist as a fundamental feature of our universe, or is its apparently unstoppable arrow merely an artifact of consciousness? What is the nature of time?
KL) Time is clearly a constant and does not stop, but the nature of our existence makes its flow seem relative. And, our ability to preserve memories allows us to transcend the flow of time, relative to events that have already taken place.
LW) Do you believe reality is fundamentally deterministic or indeterminate / stochastic?
KL) Our reality is based on our perception of the universe, which is based on principles and rules. So, I would vote for the former.
LW) Do you play any musical instruments?
KL) I played percussion in high school. That's about it. I prefer to appreciate music, not create it.
LW) Do you think that the present educational system in the US is adequate?
KL) No educational system is adequate.
LW) Can folks contact you on Twitter? If so, what's your Twitter name?
KL) Of course. My Twitter name is ken_lunde. I am also on Facebook.
LW) Do you believe that humans will continue to exist after the Earth and our Sun are gone in a few billion years?
KL) Given our tendency toward self-destruction, probably not. Interestingly, I believe that humans and other life on this planet were engineered. In other words, something created us.
LW) Thanks very much for taking the time to answer some of our questions.
With Snow Leopard, I've actually enjoyed starting up and shutting down the computer, as well as logging in and out. -MacfixitThrough a series of brain farts, 10.6 managed to be downloaded and installed onto my Mac this week. With other fanboys writing articles that include inane quips like the one to on the left, I thought I'd post my impressions.
First off: What the hell is the point of this? There is almost no difference between this and the previous OS. I know, all the fanboys are ranting about how it's got more 64bit code. Most of them don't realize that for most programs, 64bit does nothing to enhance performance. There's no reason for iCal, Addressbook, Mail, etc. to have 64 bit support. By the way, fanboys: the 64 bit kernel is turned off by default (apart from in OS X 10.6 server). I'm trying to see the advantage here.
Sure, it's got the ability to offload tasks to the GPU (a feature called OpenCL). Which tasks are we talking about? They didn't upgrade any of the video, audio, or photo software to use this feature, so where's the fuckin beef, man? Do I really give a shit that my file manager (Finder) can list the contents of a directory 5% faster from an already incomprehensibly quick display time?
Well Hell, why don't we just go through the top features from the Snow Leopard Site. Keep in mind, this was created by Apple to spin Snow Leopard into something people want to buy:
Apple Claim:
Translation:
"We ran out of ideas, so we decided to fix our code"
After years of piling on the bloat, Apple decides to actually make the existing programs work the way they're supposed to.
"We realize that the OS X Finder should've been written in cocoa in the first place, but carbon was so retro and cool at the time we just couldn't help ourselves. Better late than never, right? Think different."
64bit: Was already halfway implemented in the previous version. They're just rubbing in the fact that they didn't deliver last time around Central Dispatch: Makes it easier to write multithreaded code… but wait, haven't they had multi-core processors in almost every product over the last 3 years? Shouldn't they sweep under the rug the fact that they'd been ignoring this feature? "Snappier": Are you fucking serious? Fuck. You.
"We changed one line of one piece of code and are overly pumped about it."
All they did was make time machine a higher system priority. Since it backs up every few minutes, having your computer not slow to a crawl due to lack of available hard drive throughput was actually a good thing. Apparently Apple forgot why they'd set it up like that, changed it to a system-halting annoyance, and now I can't seem to open any programs while a time machine backup is going on.
"When we cleaned up our shit that shouldn't have been there in the first place, your computer sped up slightly. Who wants to blow me?"
This is probably the biggest "feature" of Snow Leopard: a slight reduction in boot time. This may save the average user a whopping 10 seconds per day! Forgive me if I'm not super impressed.
"We don't install shit you don't need, therefore it installs faster. It's like fuckin magic n'shit."
Roughly half of the previous OS X installation was literally legacy code for PPC computers. Since Apple switched to Intel in 2006 (yes, 3 years ago), they've had no use for this code, but have included it anyway just so they could someday take it out and pat themselves on the back for removing it.
"Uhhh.. running out of features here, better list this one twice"
Like I said, they took out a bunch of legacy code, therefore the footprint is reduced too. Alakazam!
"We could've just released a free patch for this--our free, cross-platform browser--but we decided to force people to pay for an upgrade."
"We don't include 'Eject' buttons on our computers, so fixing this bug required an entire OS upgrade."
Wait, shouldn't this have been free? I mean seriously.
And while we're talking "Features", let me just introduce this little comparison chart of my own:
Vista SP1 Vs. OS X 10.6
Vista SP1:
Snow Leopard:
Faster?
Bug Fixes?
Free Upgrade?
Total:
WIN!
FAIL!
Normally, when Apple releases a new OS, it's good to wait a couple weeks for all the bugs to float out into the open and maybe even a patch to come out.
I figured that this rule didn't apply to 10.6 because… well it's basically a bunch of bug fixes anyway, why do I need to wait for the first patch full of bug fixes?. . . Famous last words. . .
Here's a list of fun problems I've encountered so far:
LOGOUT FREEZE
The first minute I had it installed and booted, I decided to create a new user account and log out. It froze, with the little progress meter thing hovering over a blank background. This required a hard restart.
TIME MACHINE
Since I did a fresh install, I was wondering about how Time Machine would react. Apparently, not well. At first, it had a permissions problem reading the previous backup. I fixed the permissions, hit "backup now" and IT DELETED THE WHOLE PREVIOUS 700GB BACKUP!!
Okay so that's a pain--maybe I should've seen that coming, right? But wait, there's more. A couple days after it finished backing up again, it came up with this message:
That meant it again refused to read the old backup--which it had created itself--and couldn't create a new one because the old one (still present, of course) was taking up too much space. I tried every fix I could find through google, and again it resulted in it deleting my entire backup AGAIN.
I ended up getting so pissed I just formatted my Time Machine drive. So now, as I write this, it is again backing up. If it fucks itself again, I'm going to resort to some sort of cron job.
SAFARI "SNAPPINESS"
A few minutes ago, I hit Command+T to open a new tab in Safari. The program froze for 2 whole minutes (as seen above).
SPOTLIGHT
Need I say more?
UPDATE 9/18:
I've had no kernel panics in a while, and for the most part, the problems have been resolved (some due to the 10.6.1 upgrade) including Time Machine's screw-ups... Though every few days, TM says it 'cannot create backup folder' and I have to restart, it's no longer deleting 700GB of its own data. It still freezes on logout roughly one out of every 10 times, but I'm usually restarting anyway when it occurs.
On the other hand, some of my longstanding issues with 10.5 have been resolved with 10.6. Plus, since I've been constantly rebooting these days to get in and out of Bootcamp (Windows XP), the quickened boot time is actually kind of useful... though I can't say, as MacFixit did, that 10.6 has in some way made rebooting 'enjoyable'. (58,975)
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Once you realize--I mean 
I tried transferring the "~/Library/VirtualBox" folder over directly, and that didn't work (seems to be hardware-specific), so I tried creating a new machine and importing the hard drive image, that works fine. By the way, if you have Windows installed on this image, the following is probably illegal (unless you're licensed properly):
(it will NOT show up under that drop-down menu automatically).
That meant it again refused to read the old backup--which it had created itself--and couldn't create a new one because the old one (still present, of course) was taking up too much space. I tried every fix I could find through google, and again it resulted in it deleting my entire backup AGAIN.
