Today in Apple News… 8
I wanted to cover two stories today, and they both invovle Apple, so let’s have at it.
Rumors about a switch from IBM to Intel have been running amuck for a couple of weeks or so, now. Yesterday, C|Net’s News.com ran a story confirming the validity of the rumors by saying Apple will be making the switch from IBM’s PowerPC series of processors to Intel’s x86 processors, and Apple will announce this at this year’s WWDC so developers have time to make the transition. However, if you look at the story, it’s filled with lines such as “sources familiar with the situation said.” That sounds like more rumors to me, and I find it hard to believe Apple and Jobs would make a move like this considering the current success of Mac OS X. That’s just my view on the matter, though. We’ll see at WWDC what happens here.
Apple recently set-up another deal in Cobb County, Georgia, to provide students there with iBooks, the largest such initiative in terms of the number of iBooks. However, they have hit a legal brick wall, as, so the person filing suit claims, the citizens weren’t informed that a 1% tax hike was put in place for the purpose of buying the iBook. I feel sorry for the students in Cobb County. The iBook initiative here has been nothing but wonderful for me. I hope it works out for them.
Apple announced that they are, indeed, switching to Intel.
Microsoft’s New Problem 8
The problem: trying to catch up with everyone else. They’re still trying to stick to the “release when we feel like it” method, while most everyone else, such as Firefox and Apple, is following the open-source favored method of “release early, release often.” As we’ve seen with both Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Mac OS X, “release early, release often” is very profitable, and very powerful. It keeps the project active, and brings the users back for the new features.
And while these projects are competing against MS products, MS tries to catch up by mimicking the features of these new products. Take IE7, for example. The IE team recently released two blog entries (one general entry and one more complex entry) stating they were implementing tabs. They only do this to catch up to others, after the roaring success of tabs in browsers such as Opera and Firefox. Another example is Longhorn, Microsoft’s famed OS in-developement. Press release after press release shows Longhorn trying to keep up with OS X in features and usability, but with Longhorn being slated for release late this year, if that, will it even compare to whatever version of OS X Apple has out by then, or a version they can put out prior to the release of Longhorn?
This is the problem MS faces, and they’re either ignoring it because they can soak up the losses, or are just trying to remain blissfully ignorant. Either way, they need to embrace the future, and begin applying the principle of releasing early and releasing often, or else in the long run, they will sink (though that may be a very long run).
Rant VI - HCPS from Apple to Dell 23
On April 28, 2005, Henrico County Public Schools decided to switch from a lease with Apple that ends this year, to a lease with Dell.
This is possibly the stupidest decision Henrico County has made in my 12 years of being in their school system, and that’s outweighing some pretty stupid decisions.
Not only are we switching from a superior system to an inferior system, but now we have to retrain the TSTs, retrain the Help Desks, retrain the entire school system, reconfigure every single file server to work through FTP instead of AFP, and undo all the hard work myself and the Info-Freeman team were doing on that informational site for the students because now we don’t use Apple.
Now, to better understand the stupidity a little more, let’s pick apart the article:
“Input was received from hundreds of teachers, students, staff, parents and community members about the challenges with the current laptop program.”
Yeah… that’s nice… but what do they know about computers?!
“A nine-member evaluation committee made up of teachers, principals and administrators studied the three RFPs and unanimously voted to recommend Dell’s proposal.”
Again, this tells me that the people that were voting know nothing about computers. I’m somewhat sad to say that my own school’s principal, Dr. Pruden, was on that evaluation committee.
“Making sure every high school student may utilize a laptop every day was one of the priorities for this new contract, Morton said. At any given time, he said 10 to 15 percent of the students in each classroom do not have an iBook due to maintenance issues. ‘That presents a huge problem with instruction,’ Morton said.”
Teach people not to smash their computers on walls, run over them, and slam them down when they’re in backpacks, and that wouldn’t be the problem. You’re not going to see any change come next September when we move to Dells, buddy.
“As for software, Morton said everyone he talked to at every level wanted Microsoft Office. The iBooks utilize AppleWorks. ‘Office will be on every machine,’ Morton said.”
Oh, really? Because I work in the Freeman High School Help Desk, Mr. Morton, and I didn’t see you coming to talk to me, or any of my colleagues, or hear about you visiting any of my colleagues at any other schools. Seems you missed a level there.
“Lloyd Brown, director of technology for Henrico schools, explained the features of the new Dell Inspiron 600M laptop. The screen is 14 inches compared to the iBook’s 12-inch screen. It has two USB ports and a track pad for moving the mouse. The Dells will utilize a Windows XP operating system.”
So… the only advantage is screen size? Because I looked at the specs, and they’re horrible compared to the iBook, not to mention it lacks a Firewire port.
“Brown also addressed the question of security —? how to prevent students from accessing inappropriate web sites. First of all, he said, ‘The type of laptop does not have anything to do with security — it’s your filters. Therefore, security will be a challenge with any product.’”
He got one thing right, the laptop is a case and some hardware parts. However, the brand behind it and the Operating System it utilizes and the users that use it have everything to do with it. Dell is no where near Apple when it comes to Customer Service or Support. Also, Windows is no where near Mac OS X in security prevention, hence why we see security bullentins every month from Microsoft. And it may be the responsibility of the student to maintain the security of the laptop once they get home, but you know better than that, Mr. Brown. Who’s going to have to deal with the viruses? The Department of Technology and the Help Desks. Who’s going to have to deal with the viruses that leak into the network and spread to every laptop in the system? The Department of Technology and the Help Desks. Who’s going to have to deal with the people who will still download and view porn at home? The Department of Technology and the Help Desks.
But wait, there seems to be one advantage to come out of all of this:
“Other than price, loaners and software, fees were another issue for the new contract. The $50 teacher fee and $100 student deductible for damage were eliminated, although the $50 student fee will remain.”
That’s good that you guys got rid of the $100 deductible. I’m sure the other Help Desk students will join me in smashing the Dell Inspiron 600M’s on the wall upon arrival without having to pay anything when we say, “Oops, I dropped it.”
And on a furthur, more personal, note, I’d like to say I own a Dell Inspiron (Thanks, Reid). Though I love it to death and I use it for all it’s worth, it’s a piece.
So, here’s to you, HCPS— enjoy your mistake.
Rant IV - Mac Elitism 36
Idiots. That is possibly the only word to describe Mac fanboys. Those elitist idiots.
Yes; Apple is an awesome company. Yes; Mac OS X is an awesome platform, and is far superior to Windows XP. Yes; I have a profound respect for all Steve Jobs has done for the technology industry (whether it be from Apple, NeXT, or Pixar). But seriously, shut up. I swear to bloody Goodness. With your banishment of Windows users, you effectively shut off a source of new users to the brand that may have possibly switched to Mac. Idiots.
I’ve even had one guy (not named to protect the “innocent”), that found out I was using iTunes for Windows, start insulting me for using it on Windows, when in that particular conversation, I was talking about running iTunes… on my iBook G4. Idiots.
Another example happened not so long ago. A friend (again, to protect the “innocent”) had written an article on Longhorn that another friend commented on on their site. It was a short post… but it was extremely biased and said something along the lines that Apple should be filing a suit (that they would be laughed out of court for) against Microsoft. I commented, telling him he was wrong, but more subtly. He apparently couldn’t handle the criticism since he deleted the comment. Idiots.
So to sum up, since I need to be going, stop. Stop being elitist. It’s stupid. It’s moronic. It’s driving people away from the brand, which, to put it frankly, you really don’t need.
Idiots.
An Interesting Situation (Pick an OS) 6
So me and the fellow at Milk Basilica.com were having a chat, and stumbled upon the discussion of OSes. So, me being me and both of us being geeks, presented the following: if a gun was poinited to your head and you were told to choose an OS, what would it be? Now my reply was “mac, maybe,” however, his was for Windows. So, that being said, I ‘fessed up and told him the reason behind my maybe was due to Windows.
Now let’s review: two geeks said if they had a gun pointed to their head and they were told to choose an OS, they would possibly choose Windows. Not Linux, as most would expect, and not a resounding vote for Mac either.
Hm.
So this puts me in a ponderous state. I’m not too sure why either of us picked Windows. For me, it might be because I grew up on it. However, I also grew up on Mac, probably moreso than Windows, and I’m not necessarily more comfortable with Windows than with Mac, and he said he was more comfortable with Linux than with Windows (Gentoo being his primary OS). So… this is odd. I’m off to ponder this and talk more…
