End of an era...No I am NOT talking about Bush

Closed Thread
Page 5 of 6 FirstFirst ... 2 3 4 5 6 LastLast
  1. #41

    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Ideally, Tokyo.
    Posts
    236
    Quote Originally Posted by imparanoic:
    minidisc didn't not really compete with mp3, actuallly MD was a replacement for the humble casette as it allows the factility of recording on to a physcial media...
    MP3 rivals AAC, FLAC, WMA, etc as it's a compression technique for audio files and not really a physical format. (though you can compare mp3 to MD's atrac compression method)

    Sorry, should have made it clearer:

    Minidisc small, lightweight, portable music player sold in retail shops and aimed at ordinary, every-day punters

    vs.

    mp3 small, lightweight, portable music player sold in retail shops and aimed at ordinary, every-day punters.
    Last edited by gazmario; 06-11-2008 at 01:07 PM.

  2. #42

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Sai Kung
    Posts
    5,854
    Quote Originally Posted by gilleshk:
    Interesting you say that because in the public education system in both the US and Canada, Mac has had a significant market share for a long time. Why is that do you think? Because school boards are richer than individuals and they have loads of money to throw down the drain?
    I can't comment on how much money the school boards have in usa or canada.

  3. #43

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    4,905
    Quote Originally Posted by gunsnroses:
    I can't comment on how much money the school boards have in usa or canada.
    Well, I can tell you the answer why... While it is more expensive to buy a Mac, it is much cheaper to operate them particularly with older simpler machines. When you multiply the support necessary for Windows based machine by a thousand computer, you actually save money with Mac. The technician to machine ratio was often about 1 to 400 in those days and on Windows, the average would have been and still is around 1 to 60. So instead of having a tech guy in each school, many boards only had one had the main office. That's a pretty significant saving...

    Mind you value for money, you can't beat Linux since it's free

    Just like the Lada will cost you less but you'll be in the shop more often than with the Mercedes...

  4. #44

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Sarcasm - because beating the crap out of people is illegal
    Posts
    14,622

    In the 80s and 90s Apple gave educational discounts to schools that, together with a lack of competition (we talked pre Dell, Gateway, etc.), is why so many had Macs.


  5. #45

    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Posts
    4,905

    Europe 2006 Mac surpasses Dell as number one supplier of schools

    UPDATE: Apple takes top spot in European education - Mac - Macworld UK


  6. #46

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    11,884
    Quote Originally Posted by gazmario:
    Sorry, should have made it clearer:

    Minidisc small, lightweight, portable music player sold in retail shops and aimed at ordinary, every-day punters

    vs.

    mp3 small, lightweight, portable music player sold in retail shops and aimed at ordinary, every-daIt was more like.
    It was more like

    Walkman CD vs Minidisc

    (MD was a pretty nifty idea, and made even more so by the Japanese with their 45 hour record times)y punters.

  7. #47

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Sai Kung
    Posts
    5,854
    Quote Originally Posted by gilleshk:
    Well, I can tell you the answer why... While it is more expensive to buy a Mac, it is much cheaper to operate them particularly with older simpler machines. When you multiply the support necessary for Windows based machine by a thousand computer, you actually save money with Mac. The technician to machine ratio was often about 1 to 400 in those days and on Windows, the average would have been and still is around 1 to 60. So instead of having a tech guy in each school, many boards only had one had the main office. That's a pretty significant saving...

    Mind you value for money, you can't beat Linux since it's free

    Just like the Lada will cost you less but you'll be in the shop more often than with the Mercedes...
    Agreed! But, that's only happened in the developed countries, you need to look at the developing nations, where most of the schools didn't have any computer lab and kids will go to computer classes like Aptech etc to learn programming and stuff, where they mostly had windows, and this was only in India which has lot better facilities/infrastructure than some of its neighbouring nations.
    And frankly computers were and still to some extent are out of reach of a normal middle class family, even today...
    So even if I agree that merc is 100 times better than lada in principle, I can't buy merc, I can buy lada or toyota, because even if they are not as classy as merc they are still good enough cars.
    Last edited by gunsnroses; 06-11-2008 at 05:51 PM.

  8. #48

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    11,884
    Quote Originally Posted by dot.zen:
    vi vs emacs

    dot.zen
    Real programmers use butterflies

  9. #49

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
    Location
    Lantau
    Posts
    224
    Quote Originally Posted by jgl:
    You trying to out-geek me, son?
    I'll LART you into submission, unless the velociraptors get you first.

    dot.zen

  10. #50

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    11,884
    Quote Originally Posted by dot.zen:
    You trying to out-geek me, son?
    I'll LART you into submission, unless the velociraptors get you first.
    Hardly... I'm just a nostalgic ex-techie with an appreciation for the genius that is xkcd.
    Last edited by jgl; 07-11-2008 at 12:04 AM.

Closed Thread
Page 5 of 6 FirstFirst ... 2 3 4 5 6 LastLast