Brilliant game that never took off because of problems that are solvable now.

Just because it's the cheapest mac doesn't mean it's economical. You can get a better PC for the same money. And before the fanbois go on about the wondrous virtues of OS X or what not, keep in mind that OS X can be a negative; I do all my development in Windows and I like its UI better, so I don't want to have to pay extra for worse hardware and an OS I won't use --and then have to pay for the OS I will use, on top of it.

I hope you're joking about the people from the southwest being self-centered thing, cause otherwise, wow, you need to fucking get out and meet people more.

I would love to buy a 17" mac, but every time I look at the price it insults me.

I find it really difficult to make the case that macs are not significantly overpriced, especially for people who use macs primarily as a windows machine. The paper points out the obvious: spec-for-spec, PCs destroy macs in terms of value.

The only way I can see anyone justifying paying this premium is if they're dead-set on use OS X. Otherwise, it's a waste of money.

Note that I'm not saying that macs are bad --they're fantastic. But Mercedes are also fantastic, but are overpriced compared to similarly equipped cars.

And as for market share, Apple doesn't *want* a large market share. If they did, they would lower their prices. They have a strategy that gives them insane margins, and it works. In would be crazy for them to wade into the low-margin ring that Dell, HP, et al fight in.

...who thought that with a few word changes that would make a great Scientology ad?

While it's great that their development process has changed, it's going to be all for not until marketing learns from its mistakes.

Let's see...

People hated too many Vista versions... Screw 'em, we'll give 'em even more this time!

Let's disable our most compelling business features in anything below the Enterprise edition --including the Business edition!

Want BitLocker at home? Screw you! It's not like it costs us anything to give you, but that'd generate positive feelings, which we cannot allow.

Let's keep the Ultimate Gouge edition!

Researchers find security holes in UAC? Let's reply in a haughty tone that everything's working as intended, so it's not a problem. So there.

etc.

MS had so much goodwill built up from the 7 beta until their marketing department got involved.

Maybe they should be called counter-marketing, since their goal seems to be to discourage purchases.

I've been wanting someone to do Forever War, well, forever. I'd rather someone *else* do it, but hey, I'll take it.

To realize how irresponsible, desperate, and cynical this pick was, all you have to do is imagine the reaction if the roles were reversed, and it was the Democrat ticket that did this. Their campaign would be over instantly, as it would be correctly viewed as absurdly bad judgment unworthy of a Presidential candidate.

And to put into perspective how outrageously irresponsible McCain is being with the welfare of our country and its citizens, these are the qualifications of the person he is putting a 72 year-old heartbeat from the presidency:

- Her "mayor" credentials were for a town of about 6000 people. That is smaller than the town where I went to high school (which had about 350 students), and we were viewed as the hicks-in-the-sticks school.

- Her only meaningful government experience is less than two years of being governor of a state of 650,000 people (about 1/5 of the *city* I live in), which has never had any real economic challenges.

She has zero foreign policy experience. Zero experience outside Alaska, which is a state that practically runs itself, since 80% of its revenue comes from a single industry. Her social views are at the extreme end of the right (she even opposes abortion in cases of rape and incest).

And perhaps nothing demonstrates how unqualified and inexperienced she is --and how cynical and desperate the pick was --than the fact that McCain had never bothered to meet this person he claims is ready to be president until a few hours before the announcement was made.

However, because conservatives are willfully blind to the Republicans party's glaring dishonesty, incompetence, and corruption, they almost universally view this horribly irresponsible Hail Mary as a wonderful development.

Until the Republican party is brutally punished at the polls, they will never change, and the country will continue to suffer.