Thursday, March 16, 2006

The Case Against Mac on a PC

Note: Sorry about the delay of this post. It was really ready hours ago, but Blogger was being mean and wouldn't let me put it up.

First of all, I have to note that Physics blows. It's the only subject I have homework in over the break and it's extremely difficult and taking me days to finish. Ok, enough of that little rant, now onto the good stuff (which will be as short as possible so I can get to the movie theater early for V for Vendetta). Ever since Mac announced its Intel switch (I know, it seems like ions ago), there have been Mac fans anxious to try dual booting and Windows purists itching to see if they could try out Mac OS X without having to buy a whole Mac machine. This guy feels that the latter would be a bad idea, and I actually agree with him for the most part. It's not for the same reasons that NeXT and BeOS failed, but I suppose that it's somewhat related. Putting Mac on a Wintel machine is like gutting a dolphin and putting its internal organs into a whale: chances are that that whale isn't going to be doing too well since it's a completely different animal! For example, there's no eject button on a Windows keyboard and no Apple key. For them to include support for all those drivers would take a lot more money than would be worthwhile because people who want to use Mac OS X usually just go out and buy one. People shouldn't make this Intel switch into more than it really is. It doesn't mean that everyone is on the same page now with software and such; it just means that Apple is trying to improve power consumption on its computers and if you're a real nerd you could possible dual boot Windows on them.

In all fairness, the guy who claimed just recently to have booted XP on an iMac was not bluffing as has been confirmed by other geeks like him. I wonder how much time he put into that? Google is planning to expand its exposure in Europe a bit by trying to push Google Base more on retailers to list items on it (probably similar to how Amazon has other businesses list stuff through them). I think that Google is going to really have to overhaul Google Base to make it more appealing abroad (especially that UI). Sony, in an amazingly smart move, has decided that Blu-Ray will not downsample video when its media is played on an analog HD television (i.e. the old school HD technology) but will rather output at full definition. If HD-DVD doesn't do the same then it may hurt them because while there is a risk of piracy, I think they feel that it's less than the expanded consumer base they'll likely get. Intel's Viiv technology is feeling a similar privacy vibe as they've announced that they're not going to be implementing much along the lines of DRM, which basically means that users can do whatever they want with their content! I'm amazed that they'd be so cool about this since DRM has really become a pain in the butt. Lastly, I just have to mention this scrolling LED bra because I think it's ingenious! Ok, maybe it's not that great, but you've got to admit that it's rather amusing. Oh the messages you could put on there.

Click to enlargeThat's the new poster for Cars, and it looks better than the old posters but it's still not getting me too excited about the movie. Lauren Graham has signed on to costar with Steve Carrell in Evan Almighty (aka the reason The Office will have a short season) as his wife, and I see nothing wrong with that because I think she's pretty foxy. John Goodman is also joining the cast, but I can't remember the last good movie he's made. It looks like The Golden Compass production is looking to fill the role of Lyra (who is the second most important character, I'd say) in Britain, and I hope they find someone good because I love that book. Yahoo! Movies has a trailer for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, which I didn't even know was in production. I suppose it's the logical shift because I've known many an Asian boy way too into fast cars, but I think that they're starting to stretch the franchise a little too far. Lastly, IGN has the first few minutes of the upcoming comedy series The Loop, and it looks alright but I was hoping for more funny in it.

Now for some 3x Thursday action:

1. How do you feel about weekends? Do you look forward to them, or do you loath them? Why/why not?
Who would loath the weekends? I pretty much love them and look forward to them because they mean a short break from the normal tedium of my life, and possibly some fun with booze, which will certainly be true this weekend.

2. What do you like to do on the weekends? What don't you like to do?
I like to sleep in, pick up some groceries, cook, and party. I don't like doing chores (including laundry) or doing homework though, but I pretty much have no choice in those matters.

3. Do you ever leave town on the weekends? If so, where do you go? What do you do?
Nope, not usually. I used to head home to Houston on weekends, but this semester has been working my like a dog so I haven't had a chance to until now (Spring Break).

Bonus Question: What do you do when you have the occasional odd-day (3 day weekends, vacation day, etc)off?
I usually play catch-up and also try to hang out with friends I haven't seen in a long while.

Expect a review of V for Vendetta tomorrow evening!

1 comment:

LizzieDaisy said...

Yet another distraction... I was so excited about the whole XP on mac thing, I forgot to comment. Anyway, I was all over the place with links on this one but ended up APPL stock. Seems it's down. Dunno whether to buy or not. Hm. If they actually get out software that would let you run XP on a mac at the same time you have OSX up, I'd think that they'd pick up some business and stock might go up. Just don't know whether it's worth a 4K gamble. :)