Well, it's aimed at people who already have a USB keyboard, a USB mouse and a USB microphone.
It shows in the picture and lists in the specs 'Audio line in minijack'. It also supports Bluetooth. So what you meant to say was it's aimed at people who already have a USB or Bluetooth mouse and keyboard. And a mic, I guess (why not mention speakers). Anyway that is pretty normal for users of Apple products. They haven't exactly been rolling out PS2 components... Either way, not really very informative.
You certainly have a whitewashed view of history... Windows 98 had full USB support for any device built out of the box. First usb header (not even a port) I ever saw was on an ASUS motherboard in the mid 90's long before apple was using them.
Most PC companies are about gradual change - have both options on a board, then one option after the parts arrive - which is what Apple did until the iMac g3. One could easily argue what they did was a bit premature.
Interesting you mention floppies - I recall a lot of mac users being rather upset (this is long before CD-RW, or usb thumb drives were all that common). Many 3rd party companies made a lot of money selling after market USB floppy drives.
Apple did force the issue, but like I said - iMac came out in 1998 (there first all usb machine - no ADB) - by then Windows 98 had full USB support built into the OS. Microsoft's famous bluescreen error while plugging in a USB scanner was demoing Windows 98, and yes that feature worked when it shipped. 95 OS-R2 had the same USB support via a patch, and no it wasn't just keyboard/mice.
In other words - by 1998 - USB was here probably because both Microsoft and Apple promoted it actively, but you have to remember Apple derided USB (even when 2.0 came out) as being too primative for anything hdd/camera/scanner related (yes there were firewire scanners made for the Mac).
Windows 98 did not have "full USB support for any device". It had dreadful support for some things and would explode with others. Hence Windows 98 SE and the Gold Patch. And thank you for reminding me of the awfulness that was trying to fix someone's hosed gold patch attempt
It'd be interesting to make a bot like this that plays MMOs or something equally repetitive -- is that against terms of service? How would they know?
I remember making a "robot" to beat Ruby Weapon in FF7, which consisted of a coffee cup pressing the X button -- the fight took 2 hours thanks to summon animations.
Wouldn't that just attack? No summons no inv and you would get owned? Plus I mean if you wanted to cheese an optional boss that was just there for you to have fun with there are many ways to end the fight quickly. Lucky 7s, Vincent bug, etc.
Function reject.
