Hypereality

True, I was there.  I was astonished as each phase of outrageous Microsoft behaviour proceeded.  I wasn't a Mac user at the time, they seemed only used by artists home users at that point. 

I was working at one of the big workstation vendors in 1984. At one point I had a Xerox 1108 on my desk that I think was specced around $100k.  The Mac was very impressive but underpowered compared to our Unix workstations running X windows, but we were impressed that Apple could produce something that seemed to share the DNA of the Xerox machines for such a low price and in such a desirable designed package. 

I remember the first time I saw Windows 1.0, it seemed a bit of a  joke, one of the other guys had the job of investigating it and building the first apps for it.  He had a merry time, he showed me six or seven pages of C code he'd written that opened a window!  At the time I was writing fully windowing X-windows code with all the bells and whistles, and opening a window took only about 10 lines of C :-)    It turned out not to be a joke by the time Windows 3.1 shipped in I think 1991,  that was the important one. With 3.1 it was a usable OS on PC hardware. I can't remember what was specifically lacking in 3.0, but suffice to say, it wasn't super usable. It was with 3.1 that our office PC's switched over from  DOS to Windows. 

As the years went by there were several more egregious examples, the way Microsoft essentially ripped off Java from Sun when creating C#, I couldn't believe how all the support API's were almost identical given just a bit of respellings,  and then there was the whole Android rip off.  

Anyhow, Gates is a very smart guy but read Gladwells "Outliers" and Cringely's "Accidental Empires" and you'll see he had a very privileged leg up, and then started a career of sharp elbowed deal making.  Realistically Microsoft did create the industry as we see it today, and its nice to see what Apple became despite Microsoft, Google and how they benefitted from their sharp practices.  One of the most important developments of my career was the absorption of Nextstep and Unix into the Mac platform, I have a lot to thank Jobs and Ive for. 

Clarke’s third law.

”Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

I left an iPad Pro (512Gb) 12.9" in the sun. It was my mistake. The screen was permanently discoloured, but it still worked perfectly well.  
Apple 'repaired' it for a payment of around £40. 
The repair consisted of giving me a brand new £1200 iPad Pro.  
This repair was in the first 12 months and did not require purchasing AppleCare+

Note that Apple replaced the iPad Pro because it was unrepairable, the old iPad will be recycled.  So they essentially absorbed the whole manufacturing cost because I made a silly mistake. 

The problem with the government set on interfering in Apple's business is that they might just ruin this brilliant deal for the rest of us. 
 

I guess App Store reviews will remain, one rule for Apple, another for third party software developers. 

My app has 4 stars so I'm happy enough, but I do hate the many reviews that complain about the price of my app being as much as a sandwich and a soda, as though I somehow write and maintain the code in my sleep rather than sweating blood over it. 

onepotato said:

lkrupp said:

(u) Crap. I found it on Amazon but it's in German. Never mind.

Get the Kindle edition, then use Kindle translate.

Doesn't the Kindle just translate single words, and only one at a time? 

I just checked my slightly old Kindle Fire and it does not even do that, it only provides dictionary definitions. 

I feel my love affair with Apple is ending. I love the fact I can boot from a super fast SSD, it made it easy to cross grade from my MacBook to an M1 Mac mini as I can still boot the laptop drive from an older iMac I’ve kept. The loss of target display mode on that iMac was significant too. There is a progressive loss of convenience happening here. 

Apple support staff suggests iMac Pro users wipe and reinstall MacOS, disable FileVault, and disable Power Nap. For those not willing to perform those, other forum posts suggested crashes could be reduced by not daisy-chaining devices, not using a Thunderbolt 3-to-Thunderbolt 2 adapter, disable Secure Boot, turn off power management options, remove third-party kernel extensions, avoid leaving it to idle overnight, and to not unlock it with an Apple Watch

Or in other words avoid using functions of the T2 chip as much as possible? 

Sounds to me like Apple have got the supply chain about right at the moment. 

Newer iMacs such as my 5K 2017 model lack target display mode which is a pity as they would make great external monitors.