philodox

Sure, give me the money. Nice, that is a sweet deal. Granted, and the one cable aspect is very cool. The top end iMacs are 24" now. My father owns one of the last generation ones [not silver], and it is a great piece of kit. But at the price he paid it had better be. EDIT: Grawk, where did you spec that [i think I could do a little better]? What display did you choose? Also, I thought we were talking linux computers, not Windows...

Yes, it's a front end, but the fact that it lists all of the software in descriptive groupings along with mini reviews and such makes it a great tool. My Wife's Mac was a breeze to setup, I'll give you that. I think my Linux install took around an hour to get it to the point where everything that I need worked fine. Add another day of tinkering to figure everything out, and it has been pretty much unchanged since. Now, if I had to do it over again, it would likely only take me a little over an hour to get to the same point. I would roughly geusstimate that I could build a computer with the specs of a top end iMac for a little more than half the price, with the only difference being that I would have a box to either stick under the LCD or in my desk somewhere. So, I figure 4 hours max to do the build and get it running perfectly. I would gladly take that $1000 saved as my 4 hour wages. Now the Mac mini is a great deal... I've thought about getting one, but have no need right now. Where is the best place to watch out for refurbs? On the apple website?

Have you tried it? It is seriously cool, basically functions like windows add/remove programs, except that it automatically updates with nearly every software package available. If you choose to install something it just grabs the most recent version and installs it, along with the dependencies. And yes, I know how to use apt-get, but why bother when they lay it out so nicely for me? Grawk - Yes, I'm cheap. This is one of the main reasons I don't own a Mac... though I did buy my Wife one.

Yeah, you're probably right. Reks - Cool, both good things I guess. I've been very impressed with the way Linux gets updates, after being in Microsoft land for so long. I'm also loving the add/remove programs app in ubuntu.

How's that? To be honest I've only played with it a bit, and my negativity towards it is mainly due to all the problems I've heard friends and family having with it. I've also got a rule that I don't touch anything Microsoft until it is service pack 2... at least not on my computer. Grawk - Whats a thrash?

Wait, you're using Vista? I feel for you. Though it can't fix poor coding, with nLite you can choose to REALLY only install the barebones. You can leave out IE for instance, or any services that you please. My install can't actually contact the outside world in any concievable way. It just has the patches I need, my video card drivers and sound card drivers... thats it. Just for games really. That is why it runs so fast. Yeah, compatibility layers was perhaps poor wording. I guess I was just trying to give a nod to the horde of services that are running 'just in case'. If you don't need them, and disable them, XP becomes pretty spry. This is exactly what I was trying to get at with my drivers comment. Thanks for wording it more eloquently Todd. Postjack - OS/2 was great... BeOS was kinda cool too, except that it basically had no driver support.

Just checked, the D-Link router I use is a WBR-2310. Not sure what the current lineup is like, but this one has been a dream after all the problems I had with Linksys.

No dance, unfortnately... He just did the whole creapy Dead Zone act and said, "The Reimyo sucks balls, keep the Eastsound." Then Lawrence Fishbourne came in, they both did a line of coke and left when they spotted that red haired guy from CSI watching them from a parked van.

I've had zero issues with the dlink I got last year. I forget the model number, but can check when I get home... Of course they have probably revised the thing a hundred times by now.

Reks - Harddrive space taken up is hardly what I'm talking about. Its not just the drivers themselves, but compatibility layers, and all the various services that you may or may not need that are loaded by default. When I went over my windows instal with nLite and got rid of all the garbage it made a huge difference. It boots faster than Linux now and the memory usage when idle is excellent. I rarely boot into Windows unless it is to play a game or something like that, and even less now that I got the Wii, but it is nice to have it respond so well when I do use it. Bloat aside, the fact that their hardware selection is so small is likely the main reason you never hear about Mac driver issues, which is the main complaint with Linux and Microsoft operating systems. I'm also not trying to say in any way that XP is superior to OSX, because it is not. Linux is another matter entirely. As long as you have a bit of knowledge and are willing to spend a bit of time getting it working the way you want, I do find Linux superior to OSX. For a turnkey desktop solution, it is hard not to recommend a Mac... If only they weren't so goddamn expensive.

My modded Eastsound is better than the Reimyo... or at least that is what Christopher Walken told me in a dream last night.

They might not have any shitty configurations, but the inability to use what you want is a big handicap for some. The upper strata of technology is always denied to you until they decide you are ready... at which point it is time to buy a whole new damn computer. Same argument as always, and a pointless one. My Wife loves her Mac, and I'll admit that it runs great and is very stylish. If we ever decide to upgrade her computer I will probably just relegate that one to another room as a backup or something. Any Unix based OS can handle any architecture out there as well as nearly any piece of individual hardware. What I was trying to get at with my comment is that Windows is so bloated largely due to its supporting all the hardware out there [eventually anyways, Vista excepted for now]. Even if you count previous generations of apple computers, the amount that they have to support is pretty minimal, which is a huge advantage on their part. Funny thing is, if you completely hack the shit out of XP and remove all the bloat, it actually runs well. Likewise if you get Linux running perfectly on a PC you are most of the way there to OSX, just missing the iLife suit.

It is easy to make a sweet OS when you only have to support two or three hardware configurations.

I'd get Nate to mod a squeezebox for me with a custom PSU.

Not in my experience. I wouldn't buy a dell computer myself since I like to build, but if I was looking for a laptop now I would either go with a Dell or maybe an apple if I could afford it.

Those new Dell Vostro's are cool, cheap, and you can pimp them out for gaming... that is the way I'd go for a laptop right now.

Every time I read that ipod thread on head-fi I get dumber... I've really got to stop.

BOOO! Send your headphones to meee!

Well, you're listening to good music anyways.

Ice caps... political... suuure. Welcome! I always thought it was 'fighter' too, go figure.

Nice, the fact that there wont be mods actually makes the 6G more attractive to me.

Yeah, the voltage swing part right? That's a pretty big part of the equation with the K340's. I'm positive that both amps can drive the K340's, in fact I've heard a balanced M3 and it did a great job, but I don't believe it had a gain of 2. I'd be worried about having to max out the volume and having no breathing room for adjustments. Maybe if Thrice is around he would know what the gain setting was on the balanced M3 that he brought to the first national meet... Speaking of, what is the gain setting on your balanced beast from Toole?

Paralleling the tubes with half the output impedance correct? Should be a positive improvement.

We're talking about a gain of 2... 4 balanced. Why do you think a balanced M3 would have a better go at it than a balanced beta22? Now, I'm not sure if all of these gain ratings are directly comparable, but if they are... The K340's are not going to be happy at the levels I listen, given my experiences with the 10 gain dynahi and assuming that a gain of 4 is 40% relative to a gain of 10 being 100%. Hmmm... I wonder what the gain on my amp is. Any way to measure it?

Must be a bitch with the fingerprints though. Earl seriously needs to replace the dinky knob on his though. I mean, with that much real estate you could go with a 10" diameter knob if you wanted to!