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About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Saturday, June 28, 2003Apple benchmark liesThe Apple fanatics just can't stand it, but those G5 benchmarks are as bogus as a three dollar bill. As always, CNET's Michael Kanellos does get it, noting in a recent article the ways in which Apple's supposed "fastest personal computer in the world" is anything but. First, the scores Apple posted for the Intel competition are bogus. According to the Apple-sponsored tests, Dell Computer's Dimension 8300 with a single 3 GHz Pentium 4 scored 693 in the SPEC floating point test, below Apple's score of 840 (for a dual processor G5). However, previous (non-Apple) tests show the Intel 3 GHz Pentium 4 scoring 1213 on the floating-point test, while the 3.2GHz version hit 1252; both of these scores are roughly 50 percent faster than Apple's best dual processor score, and the Intel systems are both using a single processor, no less. Furthermore, floating point is supposedly the area in which PowerPC processors outdo the Intel competition. Heh. On the integer tests, the figures are even further off. Apple's tests show the dual-processor G5 machine scoring 800, while Dell's scored only "slightly higher" with 889; too bad Intel actually racked up scores of 1164 and 1221, respectively, for the 3 GHz and 3.2 GHz systems. Game over. Second, Apple did things to illegally tilt the test in the G5's favor. For example, the G5 was outfitted with faster Serial ATA technology, compared to the standard ATA hard drives used on the Dell. And then there's the infamous choice of a GCC compiler that Apple uses to develop Mac OS X; meanwhile, no one actually uses this compiler outside of Linux on PCs. Third, there is Apple's legacy: The company has been lying to its customers ever since Jobs took the company back. A few of the more infamous examples: The (400 MHz) G4 Cube was a "supercomputer" (it wasn't), the G4 was faster than any PC (remember the "Pentium toasting" commercials?), and virtually ever single promise about release dates ever uttered from Jobs' mouth proved to be false (the PowerBook 17 was coming in February 2003, remember? It was available in limited quantities in March, but in volume in April, in one recent example). In fact, Apple's bogus claims are so bald-faced, the company's been sued several times by shareholders. The stupid part of all this is that the G5 is cool. It really is. Hell, I want one. But Apple gets more bad publicity from the BS than the good feelings from the already converted can possibly overcome. Will the company ever learn? [ Posted at 10:33 PM | Permalink ]
Friday, June 27, 2003iSight arrivesAfter a miserable two straight weeks on the road, I arrived home tonight and found my iSight waiting for me. It looks pretty slick and, as expected, works quite well with the iChat AV beta. However, Apple gets points off for complexity: The box includes three different mounts, one for iMacs and flat-panel displays, one for PowerBooks and iBooks, and one for the eMac, a tube for traveling with the iSight, two weird little clips through which you must wind the (admittedly ultra-thin) FireWire cable before it will attach to a mount, and the camera and the cable. That's a lot of crap to manage, especially if you want to move the camera between two or more Macs. More egregiously, the iMac mount actually has a sticky surface, and sticks right to the back of the screen, instead of clipping to the top as I'd imagined (and as it works with notebooks, using a different clip). Yuck. If you do choose to move the camera between two or more machines, you need to detach the camera, detatch the cable from the mount, detach the cable from the weird little cable adapter, snake the Firewire cable out of the mount, put all the stuff in some sort of bag, and so on. Then reverse the process on the other end. It's just not elegant. I will grab another one for the iBook, however, and test full-screen video chat over broadband the next time I'm on the road: This should be a cool way to say Hi to the wife and kids when I'm traveling. Given all the extraneous doo-dads you need to manage, and the complexity of moving this thing around, I have to slightly adjust my grade, to B+/A-. The video and audio quality appears to be superb but, again, I need to test it more with other people before I can say for sure. [ Posted at 10:43 PM | Permalink ]
Wednesday, June 25, 2003WWDC reaction: Steve Jobs's keynoteNo one can work a friendly crowd like Jobs, but he took his frothing fans to new lows this time, with bogus claims about G5 performance marring an otherwise excellent speech. One good moment: When he announced that Panther would cost $129 (just a year after the controversial $129 fee for Jaguar), no one clapped. No one. Grade: B. [ Posted at 8:17 PM | Permalink ] WWDC reaction: Mac OS X adoption rate In January, Steve Jobs said there were 5 million Mac OS X users, and he hoped to see 9-10 million by the end of 2003. Now, in late June, the company is claiming 7 million active users. This seems to be right on track. However, Linux is catching up, and may already have more than 7 million active users. Grade: B. [ Posted at 8:15 PM | Permalink ] WWDC reaction: Safari 1.0 Safari is my favorite browser on any platform, and I wish Apple would make a version for Windows users. Highly recommended. Grade: A+. [ Posted at 8:13 PM | Permalink ]
 WWDC reaction: iSight
How much do I like this? I ordered one. More info when I get my hands on it, but it gets a preliminary rating of ... Grade: A. [ Posted at 8:13 PM | Permalink ] WWDC reaction: iChat AV Apple's new iChat version, iChat AV ("audio/video") is currently available in a free beta version and lets users willing to pony up $30 for the final version perform audio and video chats over the Internet. It looks awesome, though I can't really fully test it until my iSight camera arrives. Grade: A. [ Posted at 8:11 PM | Permalink ] WWDC reaction: Mac OS X "Panther" The next version of Mac OS X, "Panther" (version 10.3) will ship late this year and offer a number of nice new features. But is it a MAJOR update, as Jobs claimed? No. Sadly, the company will charge its hapless users $130 for it nonetheless. That said, I can't wait to try it. Some of the more interesting new features include an improved Finder with colored labels, better Windows network browsing, Exposé window organization, iChat AV, FileVault file encryption, an improved Mail.app with new thread views, Fast User Switching (stolen from XP, but nicer looking of course), better integration with iDisk, and a significantly faster Preview application (the current version is a dog). Grade: A. [ Posted at 8:09 PM | Permalink ] WWDC reaction: PowerMac G5 This machine rocks. Too bad Apple had to f#$% it up by making it sound faster than it is. Let's be serious for a moment: Apple has caught up to the PC, finally. That's a good thing. Grade: A+. [ Posted at 8:05 PM | Permalink ] Star Wars Episode III title rumors Heck, we only have two years to go. How could it hurt? My vote is for Revenge of the Sith, though I suspect all of these names are false. [ Posted at 8:00 PM | Permalink ] Mozilla 1.4 RC3 released The latest Mozilla 1.4 release candidate is out, featuring NTLM authentication support, an overhauled Bookmarks feature, new Composer enhancements, smooth scrolling, junk mail blocking improvements, and other new stuff. [ Posted at 7:03 PM | Permalink ]
Tuesday, June 24, 2003G5 liesWell, well, well. What a surprise. "The fastest PC in the world," as Apple describes its new PowerMac G5, is, in fact ... a bit of an exaggeration. Who would have thunk it? [ Posted at 10:06 PM | Permalink ]
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