[Leica] Tina's computer concerns

[lrzeitlin at aol.com (lrzeitlin at aol.com)]

Still raining. Flooding expected.

Tina don't be concerned about what you read on the internet about a yet 
to be released computer. It's like the Leica Mini M speculation.

Apple operates under the assumption that its computers are essentially 
closed systems. Each is a complete package containing everything 
necessary for the computing experience. Sure, the computers can be 
modified and upgraded but it is difficult. This has been the case since 
the original 128 Mac in 1984. Good current examples are the Air Macs, 
the iMac, the Mac Mini, all iPods, the iPhones, and the iPads. These 
are basically consumer items. If you want a better, faster, computer, 
just buy a new one. The old ones will keep functioning on legacy 
software for quite a while. I have 30 year old Macs that still work 
fine for e-mail and word processing except that they won't run 
Photoshop or the latest operating system. There are exceptions. Mac 
Pros of recent years have large cases that will accommodate multiple 
drives and replaceable circuit boards. The MacBook Pros internals are 
accessible as well. I have upgraded mine with a one terabyte disc drive 
and 8 gigabytes of memory.

However within a month or so of introduction of each new system after 
market suppliers augment Apple's closed system concept. Indeed, this 
may be part of Apple's plan. While it is hard to get inside an Apple 
computer, connecting external peripherals is very easy. Apple was one 
of the first to offer USB, Firewire, and Thunderbolt ports, several of 
which offered connection at internal bus speeds. Each Apple computer 
comes with built in wi-fi and Bluetooth and is capable of setting up a 
LAN with no additional equipment. The disc drive of any Apple computer 
can be read by another Apple computer. The computers can communicate 
with Time Machine discs wirelessly. I suspect that within a month of 
the release of the new Mac Pro, after market suppliers will provide a 
nicely styled box containing high capacity disc drives and a bay for 
installing additional equipment.

It is nice to be able to unplug and get rid of equipment that you no 
longer use instead of having to rip it out of the main unit. I have a 
junk box full of obsolete gear, 3.5" floppy dirves, CD drives, numeric 
pads, tape drives, and Zip drives (remember those?) that are obsolete. 
I regret the passing of the Super Drive though. I like to watch DVD 
movies on my laptop when I travel.

By the way, I'm not a flack for Apple. I was head of my university's 
computer committee for several years and we critically evaluated all 
the suppliers. We are located in the middle of IBM country. IBM 
provided a subsidy of $1500 for each graduate student to buy a computer 
expecting, of course, that they would buy IBM PCs. Over 70% bought 
Apple laptops. The next year IBM sold their laptop business to Lenovo. 
Incidentally, my next door neighbor;s son, head of the Microsoft 
Windows division for several years, bought his folks a Macintosh. 
Enough said.

Larry Z