Thanks! :-D

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox360/factsheet.htm

First, buy a Mac if you want to buy a Mac; the costs are difficult to compare. The Mini has a good initial price point. However: I have no doubt that the CPU is quite capable, but for general daily use my 1.25 GHz, 512 MB Mini is the slowest computer I've used in perhaps five years. It feels way slower than my 2.4 GHz desktop I bought several years ago (for only a couple hundred bucks more...), and slower than my 1.4 GHz (Pentium M) laptop. As an example, with smooth scrolling turned on FireFox can't keep up with normal mouse-wheel scrolling on a lightweight web page such as Google News. (In fact, due to overall slowness of other browsers, I'm relegated to using Safari.) The problem isn't specific to things like scrolling: launching and using regular everyday applications is just slower. Smooth but slow. Regarding software, the bundled software is OK, but you can't compare something like AppleWorks to Office. The iLife stuff is also OK, but you will find Apple focuses very heavily on a few core scenarios and omits everything else; their application software isn't deep. This isn't necessarily bad or good, but different than what you may be used to on Windows. I also have problems with their on-screen font rendering - so much so that I would not want to use OS X as my primary OS. The typography is accurate, but not hinted or optimized for on-screen reading. For example, take the sans-serif letter E. On windows, the middle line will fall on a pixel boundary, even if that means it's not completely centered. OS X will center the middle line even if it means it straddles two vertical pixels, each at 50% intensity. This makes it look blurry. (I use high-DPI LCD displays, so I don't want to turn off anti-aliasing/subpixel rendering either.) That said, I like the Mini. It's fun to play with, and as a UI developer it's interesting to see how they sometimes do things differently. I have it hooked to a second display and use Synergy[^] to drive it using the keyboard and mouse on my PC (like multi-mon).

For those who want the inside scoop, all I can say is that we're hiring.[^] :-D

WordIQ == www.wikipedia.org[^]. Besides the content, this link[^], pretty much gives it away. Hopefully they're using the content with permission.

Pentium M. It's kind of an anomaly in that it's a lower power chip that, at 1.6 GHz, has performance on par with a 2.4 GHz desktop P4. Combined with a good video card you can get a lightweight laptop with great battery life and near-desktop performance. Excellent balance. I have a T40p[^] and I'm continually impressed by how well it performs (all around).

A couple of things... Microsoft will be releasing a free Windows security update CD that will make it easy to update existing Windows boxes (all supported versions) with the latest security patches w/o taking ages to download the updates. Expect this in the next couple months. XP SP2 is coming in 2004 and will be a huge update.

LOL! AFAIK bitches is a real word that predates the internet; go google it or read some of those wicket, leet blogs. :rolleyes:

You're going to get a million recommendations, but I think it's safe to say that there's not a better UML modeling tool within 10x of the price of Enterprise Architect ($150 for the Pro version). Enterprise Architect[^]

Works "well enough?" :omg: I tried almost every UML tool on http://www.objectsbydesign.com/tools/umltools_byCompany.html[^] and not only does EA blow them all away, it's one of the lowest in price! It's a paradox, but one that made me a happy customer. Disclaimer: I have no disclaimer; just a satisfied customer. :cool:

For what it's worth, I heartily recommend Enterprise Architect[^]. The professional version favorably compares with Rational Rose at 1/30th the cost. Visio isn't even playing in the same ballpark (although it's great for other stuff).

What? That's a perfectly cromulent desktop. :rolleyes:

Wow, I'm surprised that Addison-Wesley would blemish their reputation by publishing some diatribe by ESR.

Ooooohh. A BSOD from 1999. How will we cope?

Windows messages. (Message pump, basic Win32, etc.)

J Cardinal wrote: Anyone who says "soda" is a vb-hippie and will never find work in this town again! Aaaaaaahhhhh! Blasphemy! Coffee is nothing - hear me? nuuuuuttthhhhhiiinnnggg. Coke is where it's at.

Colin Davies wrote: * WARNING * This could be addictive The minion's version of "Catch " :omg: :wtf: :eek:

My personal opinion is that it's a combination of factors: * People are mostly happy with IE. * The focus is on .NET and new technologies; those of you who attended the design preview or go to the PDC this fall will see what I mean. * The biggest response I get when I rant about IE falling behind is: "So what?". IMHO it's important because the browser is one of the most used components in an operating system, and IE competitively differentiates Windows from the alternatives. Others don't see it that way because browsers don't directly generate revenue. :shrug: * Having the browser and the DOM stay still for a while gives web developers a chance to catch up and build on an unchanging foundation. Don't get me wrong, and don't quote me... I'm very excited about a lot of the work that's being done, I just wish IE got more attention than it does these days. BTW: This isn't a new developement[^]. Ok, I'll shut up now. :cool:

I don't see how that would do any good... there are endless improvements that I can think of. The problem is that ramping IE back up, including downlevel, will most likely take Jim Allchin mandating it and allocating the necessary resources. I don't see that happening unless a lot of really important people start complaining or they feel there's a significant competative threat. :( The browser just isn't considered important anymore; they're complacent. My opinion on this, even as a developer on Longhorn, pretty much just gets ignored.

Yeah, don't get me started on the idiocy of this. I work closely with the IE team and I rant about this all the time, but nobody is listening... It's even worse than this, but I can't really say any more. My suggestion to everybody reading this: If you have any influence whatsoever you need to send Microsoft a strong message that IE is not done. The UI frame needs more functionality, the core rendering components need work, and at a significant portion of this needs to work downlevel (at least Win2k and XP).