WTF? No automated system check to determine if all needed files are present before flying??!

I'm sure that's true wrt writing and compiling....but there's plenty of programs I write that need to run for days to weeks on current i7 processors before producing output...so CPU can still be a bottleneck.

Hahaha...yes...there's that. :)

Although personally, the last desktop I bought/built was in 2001. I've been exclusively on a laptop since 2004.

pretty amazing. the yearly updates make me feel like I'm getting a new device each year.

yeah, the cost is trivial. No one cares. Except perhaps in principle.

You can develop for a Mac in any development environment. It doesn't have to be Xcode. That's just a free IDE from Apple.

You can distribute your software to anyone without paying Apple anything. The Mac is an open platform.

Only for iOS devices, which are closed platforms, and which all software is sold by Apple and not third parties, do you have to pay $100/yr to have Apple sell your software.

World Wide Distributed Cluster

Agreed. $10/month is incredible value for access to the world's music on demand. Still, it's a luxury that not everyone can afford.

I pay $5/month for SiriusXM. I wouldn't pay more, but I think it's good value at that price.

Just call SiriusXM up and tell them you'll subscribe for $5/month but not a penny more. They'll agree after a few minutes of back and forth. Their prices are fluid.

ha, I remember my college computer, a Pentium 200Mhz with 32MB RAM could play MP3s well, but couldn't do much else at the same time.

Notice the interesting trend of people on Slashdot being generally happy/content with machines that are up to 5-6 yrs old?

That's intriguing from a group of technology happy people who mostly earn good money.

I suspect it's the combination of family obligations (time and money), good work machines, and portable devices...that have reduced our desire and allocation of money for frequently updating our machines. And of course the fact that CPU performance has largely been flat lined over the past several years while SSD upgrades have dramatically improved the performance of our older machines.

"I'm sorry I'm not sorry enough for you!"

Clearly he's the rock star scientist.

Your average geek story would go something like this...

"you fall in love with them"
"they reject you and things become awkward"
"you cry when they criticize you"

Clearly...look at all the delusional people who believe in magical wizards in the sky that talk to them although no one else can hear them...I'm talking about God here...yet still produce good science. Granted, many are too delusional to do that, but some can put their delusions aside for the narrow area of science they explore.

And the 2013 Mac Pro is the same as the 2015 Mac Pro. You're still current!

I have a 2010 Macbook Pro 15" w/ 8GB RAM & Dual drives (256GB SSD + 500GB HDD).

BUT IT RARELY GETS USED....due to my newer (Mac) work machines, my iPad, iPhone, AppleTV, FireTV, Xbox360, Nintendo Wii U, and Synology NAS.

Anyone else find they use their primary machine less than a couple of hours a week?