Fanboi's lament - falling out of love with the iPad
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From: nospam on 31 May 2010 03:25 In article <michelle-EC91AC.00124431052010(a)news.eternal-september.org>, Michelle Steiner <michelle(a)michelle.org> wrote: > > i remember people asking me how many columns the original mac screen > > had. i said there were no columns, the number of characters per line > > varied because almost all fonts were proportional. it all depends what > > letters and fonts were used, and what sizes. > > Yup, and trying to sell Macs to people who had been told by "experts" that > they shouldn't buy any computer that didn't have at least an 80-column > display was just that more difficult. I literally had to let people count > the characters across the screen. i hope you used a row of just the letter i :) > > if it wasn't 80x24 or 132x24 of a fixed size amber or green letters, it > > was a toy and they weren't interested. > > Oh yeah, they insisted on amber (first choice) or green (reluctant second > choice). depends. some people argued over which one was better on the eyes.
From: Jolly Roger on 31 May 2010 10:17 In article <300520102110460048%nospam(a)nospam.invalid>, nospam <nospam(a)nospam.invalid> wrote: > In article <jollyroger-41B59D.22571930052010(a)news.individual.net>, > Jolly Roger <jollyroger(a)pobox.com> wrote: > > > Actually, the iPhone tether with AT&T, or with any other provider. > > actually, it doesn't. the iphone does not tether with at&t at this time > due to at&t's incompetence. > > that may change in 4.0. Actually I just tethered my iPad to my iPhone yesterday, and I am on AT&T. It absolutely does tether. -- Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts. JR
From: Jolly Roger on 31 May 2010 10:24 In article <HIHMn.56618$HG1.4676(a)newsfe21.iad>, Todd Allcock <elecconnec(a)AnoOspamL.com> wrote: > Every one of my > Windows machines is protected, and I can count on one hand the number of > detected threats I've hit in the last couple of years. Meanwhile, I don't have to count at all with my Mac, because there have been exactly ZERO for the past 12 years. In contrast, I have lost count (it's around 6, 7, 8, 9, was it 10? Hmmm, maybe I need another hand to count!) how many times the corporate Windows network of my employer has been attacked by Windows-only viruses, worms and so on in that same period of time. -- Send responses to the relevant news group rather than email to me. E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my very hungry SPAM filter. Due to Google's refusal to prevent spammers from posting messages through their servers, I often ignore posts from Google Groups. Use a real news client if you want me to see your posts. JR
From: nospam on 31 May 2010 12:35 In article <jollyroger-27DD43.09174831052010(a)news.individual.net>, Jolly Roger <jollyroger(a)pobox.com> wrote: > > > Actually, the iPhone tether with AT&T, or with any other provider. > > > > actually, it doesn't. the iphone does not tether with at&t at this time > > due to at&t's incompetence. > > > > that may change in 4.0. > > Actually I just tethered my iPad to my iPhone yesterday, and I am on > AT&T. It absolutely does tether. then you hacked it and are in violation of at&t's terms of service.
From: Jeff Liebermann on 31 May 2010 13:24
On Mon, 31 May 2010 00:12:44 -0700, Michelle Steiner <michelle(a)michelle.org> wrote: >In article <300520102348468822%nospam(a)nospam.invalid>, > nospam <nospam(a)nospam.invalid> wrote: > >> i remember people asking me how many columns the original mac screen >> had. i said there were no columns, the number of characters per line >> varied because almost all fonts were proportional. it all depends what >> letters and fonts were used, and what sizes. > >Yup, and trying to sell Macs to people who had been told by "experts" that >they shouldn't buy any computer that didn't have at least an 80-column >display was just that more difficult. I literally had to let people count >the characters across the screen. Yep, but that was when PC's had 12" or 14" screens, and the Mac Plus had a 9" screen. It was difficult to see 80 columns on such a small screen. There was also good business reasons for wanting 80x24 (actually 80x25 if you included the status line). Many users were still logging into remote computers, mainframes, and text based data services, all of which operated in text mode. >> if it wasn't 80x24 or 132x24 of a fixed size amber or green letters, it >> was a toy and they weren't interested. Well, it was. There were terminal emulators (Versaterm) that did a good job of dealing with text based terminal emulation, but no matter how hard they tried, rendering of the characters on the Mac Plus/SE/Classic display was ugly. The 3270 and 5250 mainframe emulation was even worse. At the time, if you wanted a "business machine", it had to be character based. Apple also didn't seem to consider this a problem. At the time, they were trying to create some level of product differentiation, which set them apart from the rest of the market. If the Mac could do the same things as a commodity PC, why would anyone want to buy a Mac at twice the price? Apple considered the options and decided to emphasize the graphics capabilities of the Mac, and let the business application kinda flounder. Occasionally, there was a diversion into business apps, such as A/UX and various servers, but basically it was superior graphics that distinguished the Mac from the rest of the horde. >Oh yeah, they insisted on amber (first choice) or green (reluctant second >choice). Yep. Computer users are VERY conservative and difficult to change. At the time, there were 3 basic types of word processors. The mouse driven variety, as exemplified by MacWrite, the function key driven variety, as in WordPerfect, and the control-key flavor, as found in Wordstar. I found that I could move a customer from one word processor to another as long as I stayed within the interface that they were familiar with using. However, moving from a keyboard intensive word processor, to a mouse driven flavor, was almost impossible. Incidentally, I once found a surplus 9" CRT that was the same size as the one in a Mac SE. Since I had a Mac SE with a broken tube (I dropped it with the case off), I decided to try this CRT. When it was finally running, it lit up green. Oops. So, I spent some time twiddling with the CRT alignment magnets, cleaned it up, and presented it to the owner. He liked it because he claimed the green background was less "harsh" than the white background. Speaking of conservative, I still use vi to edit my code. I still can't debug well on the screen. I still print my programs and mark the mistakes with a felt tip pen. I still use a blue background with white letters for terminal emulation (IBM standard). It also took my quite a bit of snarling on my assorted PDA's to stop using a pen, and learn to use the iPod Touch style of finger poking. Old habits die hard. -- Jeff Liebermann jeffl(a)cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |