Theres been a lot of posts recently about the pros- and cons- of the new Macbooks. I've just got hold of a top-spec 11" macbook air (1.6ghz), and I have to admit it is my favorite laptop of all time. I would argue that this is the best laptop ever made.
Much of the complaints about the MBAs center on the low mhz, which are described as 'wimpy', 'pathetic', 'old', 'last generation' etc. The complaints being made are nothing about the macbook air, as such, but are machismo.
With cars we choose our cars not on what is most appropriate, what we need, what we will actually use etc., but on what we think fits us as a person. For many men who struggle with their gender and often feel inadequate, driving a obviously masculine car helps them feel better about themselves. Thus we see the roads full of Mustangs, Trucks, etc. - yet the drivers seldom get to work any faster (all the roads are congested and who can afford a ticket these days) and the back of the trucks are always empty.
So it is with computers. Run activity monitor. If you have a laptop you probably have two cores. Watch to see when your processor load hits 200% - that's when you're using both your processors at full. That's the only time that you're getting the full benefit of the faster speed of your processor. What do you notice? Your machine seldom ever hits 200%. Like once a week. That's because other parts of the machine are slowing it down - memory, but mainly the speed of your disk. Clicking on the dock and the machine freezes for a milisecond? Spotlight freezes when you want to launch a program? More often than not it's the disk that's slowing you down.
For nearly every user of a mac they will rarely ever get the benefit of a faster processor. How often do we encode video? Maybe you do it every day - I do it, say twice a year. How often do you do complex photo editing? Let's be honest, for 90% of the readers of this forum we're wasting our time on Facebook like everyone else, and we hardly do anything else with our computers apart from warcraft and porn.
The need for a faster laptop, processor or whatever isn't about what we use our machines for. Even gamers seldom notice better graphics beyond the first minute of loading a game. We want faster machines because we want to be up-to-date, with it, relevant, successful - yup we want to be Real Men, and none of that pissing around with girly small laptops.
So let's cut the ******** about performance, benchmarks, etc. This isn't about what we actually do with our machines, it's about machismo.
Me? I'm going to keep paying my therapist and enjoying my kawaii laptop.
Much of the complaints about the MBAs center on the low mhz, which are described as 'wimpy', 'pathetic', 'old', 'last generation' etc. The complaints being made are nothing about the macbook air, as such, but are machismo.
With cars we choose our cars not on what is most appropriate, what we need, what we will actually use etc., but on what we think fits us as a person. For many men who struggle with their gender and often feel inadequate, driving a obviously masculine car helps them feel better about themselves. Thus we see the roads full of Mustangs, Trucks, etc. - yet the drivers seldom get to work any faster (all the roads are congested and who can afford a ticket these days) and the back of the trucks are always empty.
So it is with computers. Run activity monitor. If you have a laptop you probably have two cores. Watch to see when your processor load hits 200% - that's when you're using both your processors at full. That's the only time that you're getting the full benefit of the faster speed of your processor. What do you notice? Your machine seldom ever hits 200%. Like once a week. That's because other parts of the machine are slowing it down - memory, but mainly the speed of your disk. Clicking on the dock and the machine freezes for a milisecond? Spotlight freezes when you want to launch a program? More often than not it's the disk that's slowing you down.
For nearly every user of a mac they will rarely ever get the benefit of a faster processor. How often do we encode video? Maybe you do it every day - I do it, say twice a year. How often do you do complex photo editing? Let's be honest, for 90% of the readers of this forum we're wasting our time on Facebook like everyone else, and we hardly do anything else with our computers apart from warcraft and porn.
The need for a faster laptop, processor or whatever isn't about what we use our machines for. Even gamers seldom notice better graphics beyond the first minute of loading a game. We want faster machines because we want to be up-to-date, with it, relevant, successful - yup we want to be Real Men, and none of that pissing around with girly small laptops.
So let's cut the ******** about performance, benchmarks, etc. This isn't about what we actually do with our machines, it's about machismo.
Me? I'm going to keep paying my therapist and enjoying my kawaii laptop.