₦airaland Forum

its a push service similar to eneterprise blackerry, using micrsosoft Exchange to sync your mail with your device.

texazzpete:
Not sure what i can do from here, but it's worth a shot to upgrade to 2.1 and quickpwn, just in case it's a software issue.

Ex Inferis may be able to give better advice. . .

since when did you start calling me Ex Inferis? im Neoteny to you, Neo for short.

im not entirely clear what Redneck, er Recknass, means "safe mode". is it recovery mode? in any case ive had my phone pack up a dozen times mostly hanging at the boot logo and once dropping down to Marvell and staying stuck at shell. in all cases a restore resurrected the phone but you have to manually go into Recovery mode (theres something called Partial Recovery Mode which often generates Error 13).

if you do get into recovery mode just restore to 2.1. if it wont (popping errors) then try going down to 2.0, then up to 2.1.

ive observed that most restore issues are easily solved by going down to a previous firmware and then moving up.

ps: dont pwn your phone with Quickpwn: sometimes it causes iboot to give issues. use winwn 2.0.3 instead, it does a better job.

i should know, ive had hangups as often as twice a week.


hope this helps you.

Gamine:
My sisters are flying into rages

They tried installing apps and their fones shut down

talk about killer apps eh!

What could the frovlem be?

soemtimes Elves just arent the brightest bulbs around. who ever heard of someone killing a phone installing apps?

so hows the love?  

samir101ng:
Sho, Gamine are you making fun of me and Ex roots ? Wallahi, zere is going su be babban case to answer ?

P.S. You guys still havent finished convincing me to get the iphone 3G. Wont it be better to get the 32GB ipod touch and then get an Nseries Nokia phone ?

do you really need to be convinced?

anyway, iphone makes more effizy than the ipod touch. you have countless reasons to whip out your phone and reduce the onlookers to pathetic babbling bags of envy than you have flashing the ipod.

was in the bus the other day, this chick by my side kept fiddling with her N82, i whipped out my iphone samurai-style, made as if i was typing a text and she was slobbering all over me. the thing was awash with apps and bedecked in winterboard themes.

besides you save money buying only one device that does so much rather than shelling for both Nseries and ipod touch.

saw iphone 3G in kaduna with the Sim Freer dongle, price 127,000 naira.

@logica

i checked the site, saw that they require pay pal. my master card is out, how did you get your sim adapter?

@sojioguns

before MAcbook Air there was this sexy Toshiba Portege (can't remember the model number) which has a slot-loading combo drive inbuilt. its almost as thin as the Air but sadly being a Tosh, no one paid it much notice.

if i had enough money i'D vary the naija laptop market by importing exotic, sexy, smarter and cheaper machines few naijans have heard of (but which blew me away in interactive sessions). because I'm really into gaming (moving up to pc gaming) and since to me the future is High Def, I'm thinking for shelling out for an Alienware Machine, a Falcon or a Dell XPS. ive seen some of these machines in action churning out unbeleiveable highdef framerates without battling an eyelid and I'm sold. my mate in the US has an AlienWare desktop box that has two Nvidia SLI cards working in sync to put out 1080p graphics.

the monster cost about $5000 (five hundred and eighty five thousand naira) and has 5 cooling fans and a looping liquid cooling system.  forget the noise it makes (worse than xbox 360) but those grafix! it even runs on special RAM designed for gaming running at 800mhz with ultralow latency.

to die for.

mostly i laze around in KD, its a town in slow motion, cheap, and cool.

good news, though, Apple is finally embracing gaming, and the likes of EA and id are swinging to the platform. by the time snow leopard debuts and the new line of radical MacBooks (they are hinted to be full of surprises, expected to innovate how we use computers) hit the shelves, Macs will be formidable gaming devices and probably finally close the gap with windows.

@bigbrovar

good idea, except if we have a sizeable bunch of nairalanders willing to partake. don't want to dedicate time to a thread that will last only a few pages on interest.

will you be getting a netbook?

@everyone

in the first page of this thread i remarked that most laptop/pc makers do not build the machines; contract manufactureres do. well, just now i was trawling online looking for great gaming laptops and came across this snippet to bolster my assertion:

", most laptops are
made by the same two or three companies in Taiwan! The same components
and mainframes are assembled under different brand names and marketed
to the public. Not to get too cynical, but sometimes it's the laptop with
the better paint job or the better advertising that will
win your purchasing dollar."

http://www.bizwaremagic.com/buy-notebook/top_gaming_laptops.htm

@chat2chuma

its kind of hard laying your hands on a leopard install DVD, its good for only 5 installations so most peole don't want to share. mine is exhausted and i couldnt make a copy because the DVD wont allow me to. the best option is to purchase a copy. i think it goes for around $129 (last time i checked in MacMall) which is around N15,093 current exchange rate. when you get it you can install Vista on BootCamp and dualboot leopard and vista, or hoist it on parallels as a virtual machine.



@Djcn

I'm very impressed by your statements above, and i believe it has served as closure for our derailing of the primary topic. in the end, you have made my point that:

1. Apple does not target the PC market as a way of asserting dominance (else OS X will run on windows).

2. Apple makes great hardware and software

shikenna!

@Gamine

he had cancer around 2004, now he is on a strict vegan diet consisting of tofu and broccoli, so he loses weight.

big deal. Tim Cook is capable of running Apple without Jobs, and the venerable Johnny Ive is still on board as Head of Industrial design.

Apple will outlive jobs.

@Bigbrovar
you are rigt, but the problem is that most people, especially naijans, wont understand and appreciate the benefits and need for cloud computing. these dumbed down netbooks will just be anoter Acer to them. in the near future when WiMax is spread all over naija peole might embrace simplified core computing without the headache of being tethered to wires and complex OS. incidentally the ASUS N10 Netbook is great for gaming, see pic below (running Call of Duty 4!!).

@sojioguns

hey up to you, fellow club member. you have just joined the league of extraordinary gentlemen (and elves). Go Apple!

@Djcn
no offense but cool as Macbook Air is, i don't realy fancy it. the lack of an optical drive is a deal killer, especially in naija where we install stuff via CD/DVD and play platter-based movies. believe it or not people still buy audio CDs.

i must admit, MA is one sexy machine, but give me a Macbook Pro any time of day.

@USPRY1

its actually STEVE Jobs and they are still friends. Bill Gates has investment in Apple, and Microsoft still makes software for Apple computers.

maybe they are sitting cozy together somewhere sipping fine wine and laughing at this thread.

iphone software 2.2 beta seeded. codename Timberline.

i dont really feel comfortable when you accuse me of displaying passion and saying it beclouds my argument when anyne can detect an undercurrent of anger in your posts. remember im doing this willingly, not compelled to do it.

now lets keep this strictly academic.

ok, if i remember correctly, i said ione was the first commeccial introduction of multitouch and not that Apple invented the technology. in any case there are various implementations of touch-based interactivity from capacitative to thermal, pressure, sonics, optics etc. what is unique about the iphone is that its the first time multitouch was introduced on a portable device.

why didnt microsoft release surface (which uses a different touch technology) or something similar first? because it is following its tradition of playing second fiddle.

Apple acquired fingerworks and that makes them patent holders to the multitouch type of technology used in iphone and since it is their intellectual property, it is due to give tem credit. no one thought of revolutionizing the phone and let me tell you that innovation does not mean inventing; it means thinking outside of the box and being first to implement existing technolog in radical new ways.

a feat seemingly beyond microsoft.

es Apple did not invent the mouse or the GUI, but they popularised it them by taking them outside labs and concept devices into the public consciousness; they changed mainstream computing and that is innovative.

later microsoft took the core ideas of Apple applied approach to lab technology and created windows and then certain people are brainwashed into thinking Bill gaes invented computers and computing.

he most certainly did not.

he did not invent the personal computer

he did not invent software ( remember before windows, he was writing programs for Apple machines)

he did not invent the internet

he did not invent the GUI or the mouse and was not first to introduce them into mass market consumer computers (Apple did)

he did not invent the concept of Operating systems.

all he did was write BASIC (which was invented by john George Kemeny and Tom Kurtz) for the Altair 8800.

now this Altair 8800 was considered the father of the modern personal computer. Steve Wozniak and steve jobs were inspired by its unique design and went on to produce the Apple 1 in the 70's. it was handbuilt by steve wozniak, co founder of Apple and went on to become what is generally considered as the machine that revolutionized computing.

then the Apple II came along with the first color graphics but poor sales.

And the GUI from Xerox Alto was based on agreement and acquisition because Jobs foresaw the future of computing as based on a friendly GUI.

in 1983 the Apple Lisa was the first system sold with a GUI (graphics, icons, etc and requiring a pointing device-the mouse).

in 1983.

windows 1.0 was released in 1985, and was not really an operating system. it was a shell placed over DOS. the first proper Windows OS, Windows 3.0, was released in 1990.

so what is my point?

simply this: while Bill gates was writing BASIC codes for the Altair 8800, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the founders of Apple, were busy building and innovating the personal computer. so in truth, among the godfathers of modern day computing stand the founders of Apple.

now, you say Apple introduces third party inventions as its own. interesting. so how come they are not getting sued?

Apple INNOVATES lab inventions and brings them to you and i, Dj, and that is what matters. what did Microsoft ever invent, or innovate?

you can denounce Apple all you want but the rest of the world, the segment that really matters, know better. no one denies Windows dominates the world, but that is the core feature of a monopoly, and one who makes software cannot be technologically on par with one who makes both SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE. (sure, microsoft has the XboX, but the original was essentially a Dirext X PC, Xbox means Direct X box; and they have the Zune, which is still grappling with a measly 2% market share).

and yes you are right, Leopard is less successful than tiger, but that doesnt mean it isnt superior to windows. it only means leopard's direct competitor is tiger, not Vista.

im not intimidated by the magazines you subscribe to, or te size of your DVD library; im rather inclined to be cowered by genuine experience in using both Operating Systems but obviously you feel more comfortable basing your arguments on magazine reviews and DVDs.

I grew up on Apple OS, and Windows played a role in my formative years, so my points of view mostly stem from that fact. google, Wikipedia, etc only serve to refresh my memory, point me in other directions or enforce my opinions.

this is my last ost onthis matter since it has taken a viral "infinite loop".

PS: Infinite Loop is the street where Apple's Cupertino headquarters are sited.

cheers.

@Samir

i had an Asus in 2002, i cant remeber the exact model (a hand-me-down) but it was bland in design. however that Packard Bell GX i posted earlier is making my dreams troublesome.


me want it.

ya shirin Sallah?

@Djcn

its a little difficult wading through your posts to pinpoint your point, but i will try.

im having trouble figuring out what this means: " Apple claimed to have incorporated most of vista's features when the OS was released? JOHN RIZZO was very good at his analysis and critisisms. But then he was short-sighted maybe because he's not a programmer. How could it have been possible to start developing codes for some features in an OS almost at completion stage if they were not in the original masterplan, Programmers would understand what that involved."

um, Apple's OS existed way longer before windows was a gleam in bill gates eyes, and NextStep, a product of NExt founded by steve jobs after he left Apple, made OS 9 and OS X the most sophisticated OS in the world. the innovations of Nextstep eventually were copied and implemented in windows (like i said, Apple was first to market with GUI and a mouse). after the release of windows jobs sued microsoft for copyright violation.

to this day touted windows features appear first in Apple OS before Windows implement their version.

and like i also said elsewhere, windows did not achieve dominance because it was innovative; it got there because it was a monopoly. buy a new pC and you get windows intalled. what would history had been like were HP,Dell, IBM, Acer, etc each boxing their machines with proprietary OS? chaos, sure,but competition and choice nonetheless which may force microsoft into genuinely innovating rather than introducing superficial features after 6 years of research and development.

strip vista of the fancy visual effects and essentially its windows 2K underneath.

now on to enterprises and vista.

as an "IT Guy"im sure you are aware that most corporatins do not use software security programs like firewalls, antiviral apps, anti spyware etc.

most enterprises,the type that ensure vista's success or otherwise, rely on hardware security tools like those offered by network associates and symantec. that makes moot the security innovations of vista.

then you lit vista's features as :

Super fetch, Ready boost
Sleep features
Aero glass
Flip 3D
Konnfabulator
Speech recognition
Snipping Tool
Quick Launch ToolBar
Photo Slideshows
Windows Media Encoder
Resizing Icons
Windows Side by Side and others and each of these features has many in-built features

ok,let e go through them one by one.

1. Super fetch, Ready boost

these are attempts to speed up a notoriously slow sytem and since microsoft concedes vista development took a modular approach,it can be safely assumed these services were tacked on later. afterall they were not in Beta 2.

2. Sleep features

what,the sleep feature notoriously unreliable on XP (driver conflicts)? all they did was rectify their earlier blunder. this is hardly an innovation, dude.

3. Aero glass

translucency effects, first seen on Apple's Quartz/Aqua interface. its hardly a necessary innovation worthy of an upgrade.its called eye candy and its made a nonsense of by Beryl/compiz in Linux. really,you can do better than this.

4. Flip 3D

a nifty DWM effect that stacks windows in a semi-3D view to give you an overview of all open windows and rapid access to them.
well, Apple Expose does that much better,and that was in Tiger. there are programs on windows XP that give the same effect; for example Switcher, winflip (pix below), Top Desk (see pix attached)

5. Konnfabulator

you must mean Sidebar's widget engine. Konfabulator is a different engine which powers Yahoo Widgets. Yahoo widgets work on Xp. windows vista sidebar was copied from OS X's Dashboard, which existed first.

6.Speech recognition

how many people will use this feature,i cant imagine. still not compelling enough to warrant an upgrade. Speech Manager was first introduced in Apple OS in 1993, it wound upin jaguar and panther, and the Spoken Interface was evolved for OS X into the best implementation in any OS. because speech is integrated into OS X, you dont need anything else to use it,and any application can utilize it as long as the application developer wrote support for it.


7. Snipping Tool

now that is hillarious!. you actually consider this a compelling feature? an innovation? XP has Alt PrintScreen, OS X has Command 3shortcut to capture the entire screen or Command Shift 4 and drag the cursor to the region to capture, release to take the snapshot. besides, there are lots of free screen capture tools for xp.


8. Quick Launch ToolBar

XP already has it,OS X has Dock which is better and interactive.


9. Photo Slideshows

which Xp has, as well as OS X.

10. Windows Media Encoder

haha,this also works on Xp, just as windows media player 11 on vista also runs on XP. you want to try Apple's QuickTime pro for great media encoding?


11. Resizing Icons

a feature? XP too resizes icons (right click desktop, select Appearance,select effects,select icon size). besides the fact that windows stole the concept of icons,scalable icons have always featured in Apple OS. still not compelling.


12. Windows Side by Side and others and each of these features has many in-built features

i dont know what you mean by this,i can only assume you are referring to windows SideShow. now this is almost compelling, except for the fact that only very few devices support it. so far ive only seen one lenovo laptop having a sideshow display built in.

no one can seem to find a use for it.


the rest of the stuff you mention, including UAC which had always been in OS X before windows implemented a copy in vista, do not suffice.

Bitlocker Drive Encryption (BDE):

difficult to use, available only on vista ultimate, and third party tools offer the same function for xp.

Windows Firewall
already in xp. Macs too have firewalls.
Windows Defender
very poor anti spyware.also available for xp.

Windows Parental controls
makes sense only in media center,third party programs offer same fdeature for xp.

Encrypting File System (EFS)
again,third party tools have this. Acer's Empowermenet Emanagement extension has this,TuneUp Utilities for XP and Vista also has similar feature.

Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR)
linux supports it, openBSD supports it, Appleimplemented a version in leopard, to be upgraded and improved in snowleopard.

Data Execution Prevention (DEP)
already in service pack two on XP.

Digital Rights Management (DRM)
is that a required feature? on the contrary this has always been Apple'sdomai (remember Fairplay in itunes, which you yourself said was already cracked)) and one of the things that give Bigbrovar and other freedomites the need toembrace opensource and free software.DRM is not always a goo thing and almost everyone is ditching it.

Application isolation
avoiding DLL conflicts, abi? well, seeing as how microsoft windows is the only OS that uses the dreaded DLL system,attempts to avoid problems with it are hardly feaures.they created the problem themselves in the first place.

Windows Service Hardening (WSH)
an outcome of trsutworthy Computing initiative (which i referred to as Palladium in the other thread).this was occasioned by the need to majke windowsmore secure out of the box because of the tide of viruses attacking windows. Like i said,OS X is more seure than windows,just as all unix and unix based OSs are.

Authentication and logon, (GINA), (BD), (PIN), (SC), (SSO), (SSPI), (CredSSP), (FUS)
which O X implements more effectively.check slogin etc.

TCP/IP stack security features, IPv6
IP6 is yet to fully take off.the world still communicates on IP4 protocol.


Cryptography
not sure what this means. is it any different from Encrypting file system and Bitlocker?


Network Access Protection
no clue here either. essentially firewall. but i must say IPFW on OS X.trounces windows firewalling rules and filtering.

x86-64 -specific features
32bit and 64bit.in vista you need a special copy of vista 64bit to run 64bit apps.

on OS X there exists native support for both 32bit and 64bit computing in the single OS.besides, unlike vista with its segmented approach (basic, premium,busines, enterprise, starter, ultimate),OS X comes with all features in one OS pack.

you said: " he OS brings about many new features that have never been experienced in computing."

i just proved above that claim is erroneous.

you said: " Space will fail me to speak on the VISTA CORE, Shells, APIs, WDDM and others."

i say: there are improvements in the vista core (or kernel) as per processes,priorities and threading. but that is still superficial. SHELLS? vista has only one shell and its STILL windows Explorer (and a virtual DOS, Command line). both are carry overs from windows 95, very dated. WDDM powers DWM and window compositing. big deal, even emerald or beryl on linux composite windows using less resources, and they use openGL or AIGLX, not WDDM.

you said: "Vienna prototype and features were recently demonstrated, i hope Apple ll not come telling us that it was stolen from their Programming Labs"

actually the number one compelling feature in Vienna is touch screen display interactivity and multitouch, like in Microsoft surface.

well, speaking of "Apple telling us it was stolen fromtheir labs", ever heard of the iphone?

that was the first commercial introduction of multitouch computing.

i need say no more.

it is, afterall, the best M:I.

Blood Omen and Legacy of Kain series.

@Djcn

sorry for not responding in time, had to work for a while.

much as I'm reluctant to partake in derailing this thread, I'm tempted to say a few things.

first, I'm not "an IT guy" because ive not studied IT in any formal institution, i do not earn my living from IT, and i don't intend to. I'm a financial analyst, best believe it, but i daresay i can give a lot of IT professionals a run for their money (i do some pro bono consulting every once in a once).

thats that cleared You. now on to Vista. on the shortcomings of Vista I'm sure ive said all i can here https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-136195.64.html

however allow me to say this:

Vista has failed.

it has failed to unseat XP as the current dominant Windows OS, it has failed to induce enterprises to move up to vista, it has failed to encourage OEMs to stop offering XP to some customers, it has failed to stem the tide of petitions going around demanding microsoft continue supporting XP, and it has failed to outdo its competition.

any claim to the contrary is simply buying into Microsoft's public relations mop up in the wake of this disastrous failure. and i think you've bought into the PR whitewash going by your belief in the mantra that Vista is a stop-gap measure.

Vista was released last year to mainstream consumers and unless a segment of the public has memory loss it will be recalled that much fanfare trailed the marketing of Vista as a major windows release, often compared to the launch of Win 95 in same magnitude.

so where did the notion that vista is a stop gap minor release come from?

why from microsoft, from none other than its bellicose CEO Steve PAlmer himself. in the link above i gave the reference to his statement in an interview in which he confessed that Vista is a "work-in-progress".

which means its unfinished, then.

six years and lots of billions for a minor release? please!

its interesting the euphemistic terms you use, such as vista development was "reset", and that WinFS and such were "not ready".

the proper babrebones terms should have been longhorn was "discarded and restarted from the ground up because it wasnt working", and Windows future Storage was "not ready because its demands go beyond the hardware existing in circa 2004". the file system WinFS requires would have been incompatible with existing XP and Win2K software.

and DWM wanted intense graphics (yes i saw the developmental roadmap) beyond existing graphics cards' abililities, and Direct X 10 cards werent quite ready then and woulndt be for another two years (they started coming out last year).

Jim Allchin himself, Vice President of Software Platform, personally told Bill gates that Lonhorn was coming apart at the seams around 2003/2004, and that they needed to start all over and drop features until such a time when other factors  come into focus. (by the way Jim Allchin once said that he'D buy a Mac if he wasnt working at microsoft. see Macworld 2007).

by the time Microsoft restarted work on longhorn/vista, they decided to rethink their search module and settled on an indexing search service hugely lifted from Tiger's SpotLight. they watered down DWM to composite pseudo-3D windows and translucency (Flip3D and Aero) even though OS X with its Aqua interface was there first with false 3D windowing (eg Expose) and Translucency.

these are the key features of vista largely touted, and they failed to supplant windows XP. vista's featurs list is scanty, and does not justify all the work and billions spent. if its an attemt to replace XP, it aint working because XP aint broke; why fix it?

what compelling feature or benefit does vista offer to justify an upgrade from XP? give a credible answer and you've won me over.

meanwhile Mac OS X leopard offers over 300 features to justify upgrading from Tiger!

PS: a side note, Google's new browser, chrome, was built using Apple's Webkit IDE. same as Safari.



@Vesc

sadly i don't celebrate Sallah in kaduna. family roots ting and such.

@Djcn

absolutely correct on all points.

however i do have misgivings.

1. NASA, NSA, Pentagon etc have all had their systems hacked. its a fact of life, such is the nature of computing. Even Linux boxes are not safe because security is relative.

2. Mac is closed, agreed. but the core users hardly complain. devs have all the tools the need from basic toolchains, webkits, Rosetta, XCode etc. it is easier to make Applications for Mac than it is with windows especially after the advent of Interface Builder.

OS X is not an attempt to add to the OpenSource movement, OS X is a commercial product embodying decades of Apple innovations. The Mach BSD kernel OS X was derived from is open source, however the additions and extensions to that kernel are patented by Apple. Opening up OS X will expose those very APIs and patented technology that make OS X what it is.

is windows any more open? fact is, no commercial OS should be open as long as it is intended to make money for the developer.

Free software should be open, but not commercialware. my gripe about Mac openness has nothing to do with core components or source code; its the lack of trust Apple has for its users. with a windows installation CD you can make as many copies as you wish, not so Mac. And the sort of litigation and class action lawsuits that forced Microsoft to offer an option for disabling explorer and media player as default apps dont seem to be in the law courts against Apple.

however tying in their apps to their products (itunes to ipod/iphone Apple TV) is supposedly to make them more secure, and personally since the conjugal union works i see no reason to want to use someting else to sync my devices.

3. Microsoft did not give computer literacy; Unix did. all Micrsoft did was popularise the concept of mass computing by taking it to the masses outside of University and business halls. and the actual mainstream computing revolution (GUI, mouse etc) was started by Apple way back.

actually in terms of mainstream computing, we owe a lot to "Big Blue", IBM.

copying contacts is an absolute doodle on iphone. nothing is simpler than syncing.

as for sim contacts, iphone fimware 2.x has an option in Settings>General>mail, contacts>Import SIM Contacts.

Asus eee PC, also a netbook running Win XP. great for typing docs, emailing and other core computing stuff.

not so for gaming or Auto Cad'ing or 3D design or video edits. attribute that to the 900mhz intel celeron.

its mantra on its website is "easy to learn, easy to work, easy to play".

so power users are left out, and further lending weight to my belief that next gen comuting is geared towards making computers easier to use and less complicated to configure.

like Mac.

@gamine

hmm, "anything"? really? will hold you up on that.



love and kisses hugs and misses, eh?

@bigbrovar

netbooks? reduced function subnotebooks running intel Atom? well, hardly will make an impact in naija in the near future, whatwith lack of internet wireless blankets even in major cities, and "cloud computing" is still feckle. citation: Apple's MobileMe is still giving headache.

netbooks are core computing devices, and naijans crave power power power (which they subsequently proceed to abuse). i don't think netbooks suffice as the sort of linux takeover i have in mind. ive been following the Ee PC growth on Engadget so for some time and I'm not particularly blown out of the water by what i see.

in any case the OS is overly simplified with advanced features locked out (especially Linpus Linux in the Acer below). this negates your proclivity for wanting freedom to tinker as you wish. it is said that to even enable "right click" in Linpus Linux one had to tinker beneath the GUI.

see the Acer Aspire one running on Intel Atom below.

@Djcn

your mention of 386 nearly brought tears in my eyes. ours was a 286 (believe it) witha dot matrix printer running DOS. later we got a 386 with OS/2 and when we got windows 3.0 i was dying for a 486 witha a Cyrix processor. then i was reading lots on MMX tecnology and looking at Presentation Manager wit suspicion.

those were the days of Lotus, Borland, etc.

@Djcn

well said.

ive said a number of times that OS is mostly (or should be) a matter of personal preference, however it shouldnt be assumed that a monopoly or a volume seller is the best vendor offereing the best wares out there.

Mac is obscure, to use your term, only in the bigger picture of computing in a population that buys heavily into wiondows machines. but the truth is MAc is most often a niche machine because besides SGI machines, the design and entertainment industry uses Macs predominantly more than PCs. in the US where most of Apple's profit (a substantial profit, beating HPs and Dells of tis world) come, businesses buy PCs more while home users prefer Apple. that is probably because businesses have the advantage of an IT department to attend to the problems of windows while home users do not have such luxury.

Apple does not rely on security by obscurity; Mac OS is secure because like Linux it requires admin privileges WITH A PASSWORD to make changes or install applications. you are always logged in as a standard user and that is a concept windows borrowed in Vista. Unix is inherently secure because of the way it treats accounts and admin privileges, and Darwin is very secure.

Apple is so sure of its security that firewalls come off by default.

now i know that vista has failed (because it has not hit the intended installation base, hence the rush to release windows 7 by 2010), just like windows ME failed. but i cannot see how MAc OS X can be said to fail since steve jobs isnt trying to create a monopoly. the smaller segment of Mac owners he has targeted pay a premium over pc users and this premium secures Apple's high profits againts windows OEMs.

think about it: if steve jobs wanted to conquer the world with Mac OS X, he will make it run on Windows Machines. not even virtual machines like parallels and VMWare are allowed to run OS X in a PC environment. to run OS X on PC one needs to go through a complicated hack job and still suffer incompatibility issues.

as for security none beats BSD. its so secure its alsmost a paranoid machine.

and yes Macs work almost the same as windows because they both use certain preset computing standards and conventions, but the consistent point is its easier on Mac.

i daresay Apple is happy with its consumer base. after all the ipod and iphone are locked devices and yet they are selling like hot cakes.

here's a quote from PC WORLD of July 2007, page 95, item 9 in its list of top ten products of 2007 (mind you, its a PC magazine!):

" quick:name a good vista feature that goes beyond what's in Tiger. Yeah, we can't either."

and that comparison is with Tiger, not Leopard.

@bigbrovar

you don't need to open a port. you only do that if ipfw was manually enabled and firewall rules are applied. however if port 22 is closed why not try 23? just telnet the ip of the fileserver to confirm the port is open (it will ask for your password if it is, but of course you knew that), or try slogin.

anyway just check your firewall rules, go to Terminal and type sudo ipfw list, if port 22 is closed then you will probaly see " deny ip from any to any" in the ipsw list. modify the rules to "allow ip from any to any"


remember i do use Linux and i like it a lot more than i do windows, and it has its strenght over OS X, but the problem with Linux is too many distros. i wish they could just get togeter and make an Uber Linux to end all OS.

afterall, the potential is there.

@samir101ng

yah, I'm fulani from Bauchi, so consider me a neighbor. actually we gave you Gombe denizens your freedom.

you owe me, dude.

well, my brother-from-another-mother ( i was once asked to translate it into Hausa by our complementary street jester, so i tried "dan uwana daga wata uwa").

have to go break my fast, check in laters.

asha ruwa lafiya.

@samir101ng

hmm, the way yo carry on about girls, methink you are deprived.

anyway:

yah Acer figures massively in major product review magazines because they pay for advert space and because they are a major pc maker. its only in naija that this knowledge is thin. and the good thing is their product line is varied unlike HP which designs everything either as a pavilion or LIKE a pavilion.

Acer was there first with the metallic-looking lid and the swinging tablet lid, and swivelling 240 degree webcams, and their computers come with useful Acer eMAnagement software extensions that truly work; unlike HP which stuffs up its boxes with AOL trialware and HP Games (most of which you can find on Yahoo Games begging to be downloaded) and HP Advisory etc.

bloatware that serve no purpose esides clogging up your very finite hard drive.

ASUS, which makes lots of motherboards as well as full-fledged machines, also suffers the same fate as Acer.

part of the problem lies with initial importers; they are not as discerning as some of us so they buy the rage and force it down a number of gullible throats.

samir101ng:
Yes O !!! Now we are on the same page. Here's this for a good analogy. Most naija babes are pc's, the good one's are apple macs. hehe lol  How come you are not on YIM ? let's talk.

you mean, the good ones are expensive, performing, in short supply, secure and easy to get along with but totally closed up?

i agree wit you, sounds like the ideal sophisticated lady

as against generic blah mass produced, cheap and underperforming, fickle and fussy, fat, prone-to-every-virus-known-to-man demography, abi?

ps: i dont do IMs.

@samir101ng

i rethunk my comment re: " falling for style over substance" and i realized that we do it all the time-


-when we meet a new girl   


with the exception of Gamine and some remarkable ladies here in Nairaland, most of the babes out there are windows machines: all specs in fancy colors but slow in gratifying your needs.

smart women are naturally attracted to Apple: remember the biblical Eve ( though Adam took too much a bite and earned Divine wrath for the rest of us).

that same Apple Adam bit is the logo on our Apple machines, it says becareful how you use.

and whats with saying "froblem" in your post? are you making fun of my fulani roots? because if you are i'll come after you all the way to Gombe with an ice Pick with First degree Murder in mind.

@samir101ng

HA! falling for style over substance? guilty!!!

actually those systems have something under the hood beyond looks, some of the sexiest systems on the planet. and now with Hackintosh we can install OS X on windows machines, so one can still get any of these car-themed monsters and still hold their heads up.

meanwhile its not a contest between me and bigbrovar. he likes Linux, i like Linux and OS X. he has a great argument for open source and is one of the most respected members of Nairaland.  im not worthy of flaming his point of view.

i tried once and was hopelessly beaten.

@gamine

hallo, darlin', seems we share lots in common beyond a healthy contempt for humanity.

your rep has gone up a notch in my Book of Wonderful People, seeing your die-hard love for Apple.

go Elf!



(at the risk of turning this blessed forum into a bordello).

spikyn:
Hi, Ex sadly I didn't invent the term or the concept of 'reboot'-ing a franchise so I did not make it up, I googled it to be sure 

Tim Burton's Batman had his trademark gothic-style over it which is not consistent with the mainstream Batman comic. Spider-Man for instance, has his webbing come from inside him; in the comics prior to the movie he makes the webs artificially. Another example would be the current 'One More Day' run in the comics; Spider Man is no longer married to MJ and has reverted to his fresh-out of-college persona; DC Comics '52' and 'Countdown' line-up or even the Ultimate Marvel Universe where Nick Fury is black and looks like Samuel L. Jackson. Perhaps I didn't express clearly enough so I felt the need to add this long-winded bit.

I'm not really a Jolie fan but I liked Wanted, it was unpretentious and she played it with a semi-permanent smirk on her face throughout the movie. If you think the movie's convoluted, get the comics and you'll trip.

30 Rock really is clever! Damages was not an easy sell though Glen Close earned that gong. I'm glad House won something jo!

im not remotely implying you invented the term "rebooting"; i was referring to your usage of it in the context you did.

on the contrary, Burton's Batman IS closer to the comic roots. a bat is a nocturnal creature so most of Batman's adventures occur at night. Burton took the gothic bent because gotham City was deliciously Gothic (hence, GOTHam), what with spires and gargoyles on gothic buildings and archways and so forth. can it be more gothic?

Nolan, however, went post-modernist with glass and steel.

so who is more original?

and if you want to talk about sticking close to the root source, how about the Batman costume? in the comics the original costume is never black, being blue fabric pyjamas underneath balck cape, undies and a soft fabric hood.

everyone then took liberty at every reincarnation with more radical designs and odd materials from lycra to spandex.

agree with you on 30 rock, though.

and the Dell XPS M1710

or even a Hummer H3 laptop?

since you like Acer ferraris, how about an ASUS lamborghini?

or this ferrari?

@vesc

you mean this Acer ferrari?

while i was typing 5 ew posts came up. im still on with bigbrovar.

you missed the point: Apple is not just about hardware, afterall they use intel boards same as everbody else.

its the software, thats the key. at the end of the day, your user experience is made or marred by the interaction between you and the software layer. that is why i earlier raised the point that beyond visual aesthetics, most windows machines on similar or same specs are not much different. its the operating system you interact with, and if that OS is poorly designed (as arguably Vista is) then your experience may be marred regardless of your base specs.

not so with Apple. Mac OS X goes beyond Core 2 Duos and copious amounts of RAM. its the way the OS was designed to use the resources effectively and efficiently.

no one can argue that OS X is superior to windows (execept in Media Center hub mode and gaming). 

therefore, Dell XPS may or may not have better specs than Mac, but that doesnt mean the user experience will be better. windows is windows and we know its antics.

the OS on MAc gives a different and unique experience, so that makes mac exclusive. by the way ive used XPS briefly and i respect it as an affordable gaming monster.

bigrovar:
Acer make decent laptops ,  and i would pick them over HP because for some times now HP hardware has been suspect,   Apple ? No way ,  Agreed they make the coolest Hardware ,  but for me Computer is not just about cool ,  i also need freedom,control and full ownership ,  IMHO ,  apple thrives on hype and perception ,  and we have 5 MAC mini here at work , and as the sysadmin i kept them where there are really needed ,  the store room. Ok to be fair i tried using one ,  i really tried ,  but after a failed attempt at installing ssh ,  and getting scp to work ,  i lost hope and gave up ,  yeah it feels cool when u move the mouse to the bottom and some little icons get bigger ,  but the one click mouse and the whole enviroment just ,  pisses me ,  really is apple has easy as claimed?,  because as a power user i felt very much in a cage ,  and all that for what a mac book of 120gb 1gb ram for 250k ,  its insane ,  please give me a dell xps m1330 , yeah and make it the ubuntu preinstalled ,   ,  320gb(7200rpm free sensor),4gb ram,core 2duo 2.2,fingerprint  reader,2.0 webcam how much does it cost 135k,  i had an ipod touch once ,  but after getting tired of playing hide and seek with jobs over i device i own , but which he controls ,  i promptly sold it and got a nokia n810 ,  never felt happier ,  apple makes great hardware and awesome software ,  but please give me freedom

im in concord with your assessment regarding Acer (though "decent" was a little harsh).

yes Apple makes the coolest hardware but it goes beyonnd being simply cool. they make advanced hardware with innovations that genuinely make the experience easier.

for instance in Macbooks you have multitouch control which let you use the trackpad in ways never done on conventional pcs(pinching to zoom and enlarge fonts, two finger down downflick to scroll, three finger swipe to move web pages etc).

also, as i mentioned earlier, Apple machines run OS X, windows, Linux and BSD so you have the best of other breeds. as well, the software fully utilizes the hardware because they were tailor-made to fit each other like a glove.

Mac machines hardly lag or lockup.

i agree with you on the freedom bit, but i can understand Apple working hard to safeguard their patents since it is their innovations that give them leverage and secure Apple's market share. if Macs became PCs, who'D pay extra for them?

And midn you Apple doesnt create the hype; its fans do. All steve jobs had to do was announce a new product ("one more thing" and you can bet your salary the world will stand up and listen. i mean, Nokia makes new phones every quarter, creative Labs and the rest make new MP3 players all the time but they hardly get a remark on CNN and the rest.

Apple ANNOUNCES iphone in january 2007 and the world stood up.

Apple launched a new ipod last few weeks and everyone listened. online blogs like Gizmodo, Engadget, TUAW and Arstechnica caught the furor.


that says something. even Android is getting less coverage than iphone/ipod.


you said you tried installing SSH and failed? why would you want to do that? Mac OS X already comes with SSH and SFTP built. perhaps you tried installing a GUI frontend, but why would a power user do that?

the less-technically savvy can install Fugu or JellyfiSSH GUIs to make life easier, but a power user doesnt need those. besides, Terminal gives you a tremendous amount of control beyond the User Interface options. since you know your way around Unix im surprised at your predicament. perhaps you really werent into the whole Mac Thing, given your Open Source credentials. i relate to that.

And yes Apple is as easy as claimed.

in fact, its supereasy. most people are not power users, im sure you know, and a lot of peole get dumbfounded by the intricacies of modern day computing (even though its being watered down as against what obtained in the oldies). just check out this forum and notice the astounding pleas for help for the most mundane computer issues.

about 80% of the computing public DO NOT want to go down to the command line or source code or kernel; they just want to type that document or touch up that pic or watch a movie or surf the net or play some cool music.

and Apple makes it a whole lot easier to do that (imovie, itunes, iphoto, iworks etc). most peope don't care about the closed standards Appe uses as long as they can tye that darn documenmt in record time without too much hassle.

i really respect your opinions and your standings on opensource inspire me, but on tis issue i think you've taken a very biased stance; you don't like Apple not because the machines are subpar, but because it is closed to your opensource philosophy.

as you said in your closure; "Apple makes great hardware and awesome software , but please give me freedom".

that says it all.

apologies to the mods.

people, back to topic.

which laptop maker do you prefer, and why?

PS:

a lot people "misconstrue" my name as "ex inferins".

people, its EX INFERIS, it means FROM HELL.

however call me Neoteny if you still cant spell inferis.

thank you.

@Vesc

how's the jaw?