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Duff-e

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  4. Valve Teases Upcoming Half-Life Release for Mac

    in Off-Topic

    Posted

    Great article on a blog I saw the other day. Why apple succeeded with the iPhone and such. It does a few things very well, and fuck all to the rest. So phones that did everything just ended up being too complicated, even though they could do much more.

    I have owned the Blackberry 7280, Palm Treo 300 and the original iPhone. I consider myself a power user, I had every application and mod available for my Blackberry and Palm but the iPhone blew them both away. Why? Forget the novelty of the touchscreen. Ignore the appstore, because when I owned the iPhone it didn't exist. Three things that instantly come into my head are 1. The browser was usable - After using smart phones for 6 years with crippled browsers, this was huge. 2. Visual Voicemail - Something everyone thought of at least once was integrated into the OS perfectly. 3. I could play music on it and the interface wasn't a joke.

    At the time the iPhone was more a toy but then again all phones except for Blackberries and the Treo were toys then. At my last job I had to get a Blackberry Bold (which I still use today) because the company had unlimited minutes on Verizon and I needed to be able to connect to enterprise email on Exchange. In the past couple years a lot has changed and being in IT I've seen first hand the iPhone become a valid corporate phone. I love the new HTC phones and android. I jailbroke my iPhone, something I probably wouldn't do with the appstore today, so I understand the opensource sentiment. If I had a reason to spend $500 on a new phone I would probably buy one of these. Unfortunately this doesn't change the fact that apple put their dick out on the line and made the form factor associated with smart phones today the standard.

    The same principle applies to a Mac, they can't do as much as a PC (this isn't debatable, right?), but they simplify things and make certain that the few things they do do, they do well (wonderful English there, my teachers would be so proud) (alternatively: *huh huh, he said doodoo*).

    To keep it short, yes, that absolutely is debatable. I've worked with fashion design and video/audio firms and they exclusively use Apple hardware and software. Final Cut Pro? Industry standard and mac only. At 7/9 sound studios ProTools was on OSX. Keep in mind that Apple also makes http://www.apple.com/xserve/. I've worked on many of them and they're really fantastic, especially in tandem with Mac client computers. Also, in NYC, as with other major US cities, you can walk about 15 blocks in any direction and take care of Mac issues instead of having to wait 2 weeks turn around for your HP or Alienware.

    If you want to use a Mac then go crazy, I have often thought about getting one myself but I can't really see the point, I'd rather get a laptop running windows (so all my stuff was compatible) or wait for the Google netbook.

    You can install Windows on any Intel mac.

    I wonder though, does the simple matter of owning a Mac somehow bestow upon you a sense of superiority, or is it an attitude of persecution when all you see is flame-wars? Macs and iPhones have become fashion symbols whether you like it or not, did you really buy one because you wanted something simple, or did you buy it because of the social connotations?

    For some Mac/iPhone is undoubtedly a fashion statement but do you know who those people are? Those are the people who start pointless flame wars with PC users about what's better. They're as right in their opinions as the people who discredit the significant influence of Apple in the computer world. I'm not going to make fun of someone with an HP or MacBook because I realize that it's just a computer and a computer is a tool. Looking at someones computer can you really stereotype their reason for owning it? What about the guy using a Mac because he works in publishing and needs to be able to use Quark, which his company has been using for the past 8 years and is the format all their files are in? How about the kid with a EEEPC who needed a cheap solution to take notes in his college class? They're just devices for accomplishing necessary tasks. Discriminating against, of all things, a brand is just what advertisers want you to do. They want you to associate their product with Right and Wrong. It says more about you than it does about the people you're insulting.

    Do I think it's silly that there are 15 year olds who use a $3000 Macbook Pro for browsing Facebook? Of course. Is it equally silly to have a $5000 gaming laptop so you can play Crysis on max settings 3 times a year when you're on vacation. Yup. Conclusion? There are a lot of stupid/silly people in the world who spend their money in very inefficient ways, creating jobs for people like us who use more scrutiny in our purchases.

  5. Valve Teases Upcoming Half-Life Release for Mac

    in Off-Topic

    Posted

    A lot of the random Mac shit talking is antagonistic for no reason. If you don't care then don't care but why shit on a thread on a small forum between people who are interested in the topic? Especially when you're dropping gems like "fuck macs" and then calling out people for their choices.

    What excites me most about Steam on Mac is that young kids who live in Mac households now have a whole new platform open to them. Fuck both sides of stupid Mac/PC bullshit.

  18. Illegal downloading and mapcore

    in Off-Topic

    Posted

    Just curious. Also, almost everything you could pirate offers some kind of demo so I didn't make "Yes but I'll eventually support what I pirate if I use it." If you pirate you pirate, no points for promising to make it up one day :D

    Sometimes:

    Convenience

    I think the price is unfair

    Only small or obscure things

    Only games, Only movies, Only screeners, Only albums, Only songs, Only magazines, Only ebooks, etc etc

    _______________

    I'm really more interested in the people who no longer do it. How long has this been your opinion? Did you start to find it unethical? Did working in the game industry change your opinion? Is the hassle just not worth it when you? Is it for the media/box? Was your ISP threatening to cut off service? How strong is your conviction? What else?

  19. Life after armageddon

    in Off-Topic

    Posted

    Not to thread hijack but does anyone else lament the decline of the history channel? Everything now is either about nazis or stupid shit like STALIN VS THE ANCIENT GREEKS.

    A couple years ago I downloaded all the episodes of How It's Made and never looked back.

  20. Deadly Premonition

    in Off-Topic

    Posted

    After reading that review I'm wondering....were there any other games that pulled off the "so bad it's good" thing? I've found redeeming qualities in shitty games but I'd never say the game itself was good. It's like how I enjoy watching youtube videos of Big Rigs but I would never play it myself.

    277192-bigrigs_winner_super.jpg

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