Don't some of these devices offer personal "cloud services". They may need to be subject to a certain level of vulnerability in order to be fully functional.

Nonsense. Adding an ethernet port to a printer has always been about plugging it into something with an ethernet port. This has been a simple matter to deal with for decades now (YES, DECADES). So why anyone insists on making this seem complicated is quite a mystery.

The summary mentions "God" or "Godlike" about three or four times. I think most people have figured out the "twist" in this particular quantum press release -- I mean experiment.

> moving GBs of data all the time

Not that much really. That's what you can have on a thumb drive or on your phone. If your device is not the "fastest and bestest and most expensive", it won't really be that great of a tragedy really.

You're simply not talking about enough stuff for it to really matter.

Unless you're sitting there waiting for the copy to finish and then rushing off with it, the theoretical advantage of firewire (or even eSATA) is dubious.

> Try reading the spec.

That doesn't concern me as an end user. You might as well drone on about how much profit that Apple earns on every device it sells. It's simply not relevant to those of us interested in employing a particular technology for some purpose.

Try an argument that's not irrelevant to the actual consumer.

Ubiquity. Even with a USB3 device, I can be certain that pretty much any modern computer can read that drive. Even Macs that want to actively avoid USB3 in favor of ThunderBolt can read that drive.

If I use eSATA I will be locking myself out of a lot of PCs and ALL Macs. If I use FireWire, I will still be locking myself out of a lot of PCs.

If I want FAST, I am better off using SATA directly with some sort of hot swap chassis.

> Too bad your kids are embarrassed to let their friends know their dad's a skinflint.

Actually, $600 pays for a very respectable desktop if you aren't stuck on overpriced consumer labels.

The Ubuntu install probably didn't save any money because the hardware likely already came with Microsoft bundleware anyways.

Been there. Did that. Quickly got over it...

Don't buy into the propaganda anymore.

> They don't have anything in the cheap $400 range because they don't make cheap.

Sure they do. They just charge more for it.

The fact that PC alternatives are less aesthetically appealing is really not a feature. It's something that most people don't really care about. It's certainly not something they are willing to PAY for.

The vast bulk of the market has already turned it's back on this notion of "design". Once you take that away, Apple is nothing special at all.

A 5 year old craptacular Dell can run circles around a current Mac because it's maintainable and east to tweak without spending a lot of money.

You've never been anywhere near Texas. You're just repeating tired old stereotypes.

The world was better in the 90's. It was better than this. I'm pretty sure it's not just the nostalgia talking anymore. At least then a plane trip was something to look forward to.

Christ even the internet is going backwards nowadays. I'm pretty sure that peaked in 2006/7. After that it's all apps, iDinks, and walled gardens. At least you could set up a secure email service in 2007.

And I'm pretty sure this isn't just me getting old. I'm pretty sure.

> Apple aren't the only ones pushing Thunderbolt as it's an Intel product. Look at any motherboard manufacturer and you'll probably find an expensive motherboard that comes equipped with Thunderbolt.

"find an expensive motherboard" versus "find any cheap motherboard".

Yes. Apple are the only ones "pushing" Thunderbolt.

I don't see what's so horrible about it beyond the fact that it doesn't conform to your particular brand fetish of being associated with Apple.

It's cheap, ubiquitous, convenient, and good enough for all but the corner cases.

Nor merited. The guy made a single video game, that's his life's accomplishment. What else really needs to be said?

What the game was. How he made it. How he sold it. How he continued developing it. How this method brought about a worldwide phenomenon.

Now a book on John Carmack, Warren Spector, Will Wright, Sid Meyer, Peter Molyneux, Cliff Bleszinski or even John Romero might actually be interesting and warranted.

To the niche audience of geeks and gamers who likes that type of game. Persson on the other hand made a game which is played by millions of eight to eighty year olds, and is still a big seller almost four years after its initial release. With Minecraft, we are clearly dealing with a significantly different gaming beast.

You are not going to have much advanced IT business left over there soon if this goes on.

I think we are witnessing the (not very) slow disintegration of the principals and reality of the American Internet. Whether the internet itself will survive this is another matter.