"The PowerPC G4 Velocity Engine processes information in 128-bit chunks, compared to the 32 — or 64-bit chunks in traditional chips." (apple.com)
You know you want one. Survival of the fittest indeed.
Posted on 04/23/2002 7:45:18 PM PDT by ppaul
"The PowerPC G4 Velocity Engine processes information in 128-bit chunks, compared to the 32 — or 64-bit chunks in traditional chips." (apple.com)
You know you want one. Survival of the fittest indeed.
For the real story about Apple Computers...
I sort of thought everybody knew the story about Apple. Starting from about 1978 Intel came out with the first 16-bit microprocessor and it was so pathetic that the entire American OEM microcomputer world took one look at it and at the specs for the 68000 and told Intel "Thanks but no thanks, we'd rather wait the extra year and a half or so". By rights, Intel should have died a natural death right there but IBM stepped in and reversed the entire direction of the market with the PC, largely because Apple had its hands too much into the production runs for the 68000 and IBM could not be assured of having enough of them.
The one company in a position to challenge IBM by producing any kind of a mass-market machine using 68000 chips was Apple, and what did they do? Basically, they built two computers which were so pitiful (Lisa and toaster mac) that they convinced most of the world that the 68000 itself was a bad idea.
And then when Atari came out in 85 with a machine (520 ST) which was everything the PC should have been from day 1, Apple, knowing it would be two years before they'd have anything competitive, forced Atari to make a list of crippling changes to the OS and graphical interface to the ST under threat of tying the thing up in courts for ten years.
This is the so-called counter-culture computer company. Far as I'm concerned, they're a bunch of losers and yuppy nerds who got lucky once and that's every bit of it. I'd sell used cars for a living before I'd have anything to do with an Apple computer.
Trivial information alert. For those curious about "chmod 666", the Unix command "chmod" stands for "change mode" which changes the way a file can be read. Each file has 4 octal (base 8) number associated with it. Each octal number represents 3 binary bits such that 000 is 0, 001 is 1, 010 is 2, 011 is 3, 100 is 4, 101 is 5, 110 is 6, and 111 is 7. The first of the three bits is for "read", the second bit is for "write", and the third bit is for "execute" meaning that it is a program that can be run. If the bit is on or "1", then you can do the thing that it represents. There are 3 octal numbers representing the rights that the owner of the file has, the rights that the files group has, and the rights that everyone else has. A 4th octal number can specify some other information about the file that is much more complicated but most people just deal with the 3 octal numbers. Got it? So if you want to set a file so that the owner, the group, and others can read or write the file, you use the octal number for 110 which is 6 three times. You see the number isn't six hundred and sixty six but (6 * 64) + (6 * 8) + 6 = 438, hardly a demonic number.
Funny, that's just how I feel aout PCs... Just too weird, awkward and time consuming even for routine file management activities. PCs are just do not handle tasks straightforwardly like a Mac does.
But have you noticed they have 99.9% of the market in movie "computer cameos"? Even with Hollywood pitching their products in film after film, poor things still can't muster above a 3.5?
Mac has long claimed to run Photoshop "faster" than the PC. Whether or not this adds up to any kind of real world advantage in the graphics world is debatable ('cause the fastest PC is no slouch with Photoshop!).
There is definitely a squatters mentality in the graphics world. You will hear the same old tired defenses of the Mac vs. the PC even though the times have changed and ANYTHING one could even wish to design can be done on the PC now. The old service bureau shut-outs are over. Adobe has obliterated any differences between the Mac and PC versions of their industry-standard design programs. Open type will further knock down barriers created by incompatible fonts between platforms. Etc., etc...
Since Mac has traditionally dominated the graphic design market, I would be very worried if I were them. Eventually, the fear of change they so heavily rely on will evaporate.
Still wonder, though, why the ads don't produce a larger share of the market for them considering the massive audience for film. I have yet to see one of those attractive black Dell notebooks or desktops in a movie, but I hear the company is doing pretty well these days...
I'll say this real quiet, so as not to start a flame war, but Apple is wrong (or, if you're cynical, lying) about the speed of the G4. By almost any benchmark you like, the fastest PCs are between 25 and 50% faster than the fastest Macs. Including Photoshop benchmarks - if you look at an objective benchmark like PSBench, and ignore Apple's very carefully hand-picked filter "benchmark". Got it? ;)
Actually, the Macintosh has changed enormously since MacOS X, with a lot of Unix-loving geeks and nerds (including myself) considering it the ideal blend of commercial software availability, Unix power and slick user interface cool.
That being said, a computer is more than a box filled with performance numbers. People in the graphic arts field tend to appreciate appealing aesthetic design, something Microsoft has yet to master. And I join them in this; the Mac really has a stunningly beautiful interface, and when you look at something for as many hours a day as I do, it really helps a lot.
Visit an Apple store and take a look; you might find that Macs have an enormous appeal that really has to be seen to be appreciated. Apple users love their computers; if you just think your computer is a boring old tool, well, we pity you.
D
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