The Cray was designed in a circular shape to keep the interconnecting wires as short as possible. Light travels 11.8 inches (~29.979 cm) in 1 nanosecond, electricity through wire take somewhat longer.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2303402/apple-users-take-to-support-forums-to-slate-macbook-pro-issues

NOTHING is perfect....

Cray Supercomputer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray-2 - never seen it either...

Notice iFixit self-repairability for MBP2013: 1/10! Every part is just different, including screws.
Don't think about customizations..., and I guess this will be applying soon to MacPro2013 too...

Don't upgrade MBP or MP or Maverick OS early..., even Philip Bloom (loyal Apple user since his first time) had to roll back due to so many incompatibilities:
*[I]My joy of 4k monitoring with seiki tv and @Blackmagic_News ultrastudio 4k was short lived. Update to Mavericks killed it. BMD said supported
https://www.facebook.com/philipbloomfilms/posts/10151646520830426
*Am sure I am not the only person having to go back to this...For now. Too much incompatibility http://t.co/pvWUQNMEOp
https://www.facebook.com/philipbloomfilms/posts/10151648289360426
*What a day. Stood on my tablet and cracked it. iMac won't restore after going back to mountain lion and MBP won't even boot. Grrrr
https://www.facebook.com/philipbloomfilms/posts/10151649567960426[/i]

Regarding Apple's Bootcamp drivers, I owned a Macbook Pro mid 2009 model. At that time Windows Vista was out and Apple's drivers were pretty good, but a little bit rougher than the same OSX drivers. I assumed it was intentional to make OSX feel better. Things like the auto dimming screen brightness were not available, the trackpad didn't work quite a smoothly, plus there were bugs like the optical audio jack glowing all the time, etc.

When Windows 7 was released, and Apple finally released a compatible Bootcamp version, they fixed most of the bugs but still didn't match them feature by feature to the OSX versions.

Because of that I decided not to get a new MacBook Pro this time around.

> Posted by: GeeBax "So you are not old enough to remember the Cray?"

Hmmm... the Cray was arranged in a circle so I guess that counts. The problem with that design is it's easy to let a few bugs get in:



lol

~jr

The computers of today offer all of us "Pros" the ability to custom fit a machine that matches our own skill levels .. Mac or PC, apples and oranges..
I never understood why one has to be better than the other.
If the shoe fits well and you get the results you want then thats what counts.
Hollywood has the bar set so high that it makes a lot of people think that you have to spend a fortune on your equipment and disregard the raw artistic element of any piece of great work.
I'm just babbling.

Anyone asks me "what system should I get, Mac or PC" (and they do ask) I always tell them Mac. Apple marketing is so much better and if the potential buyers had to ask they wouldn't appreciate the difference. I did get some flak over the past couple of years from people who took my advice then looked over my shoulder and said like, "did you just drop that .mxf (or AVCHD) onto the timeline?", but if they hung around a few minutes until Vegas crashed they went away satisfied.

>>>but if they hung around a few minutes until Vegas crashed they went away satisfied<<<<

Around my PC they'd be hanging around forever waiting for that.

"but if they hung around a few minutes until Vegas crashed they went away satisfied."


And you were speaking on such a logical level... until this line. Mac/pc is a line of machines while Vegas is a program, but more to the point, are you suggesting FCP doesn't crash? Because I can tell you otherwise.

The fact is that Apple marketing is miles better which is why Apple is where it is today. It has little to do with the machines being so much more spectacular because frankly there is a heck of a lot more flexibility (power) on the PC side. I see them as simply different and that really has nothing to do with the machine itself but rather in the way Apple operates. Some of their ideas are outstanding but then some are just outright strange. Their 1/2 baked support for avhcd is a perfect example, I just don't get that. It's not like they're dumb and can't figure out how to fix it so it simply drops in. It's more like they're trying to support it the best they can without officially supporting it.

What it comes down to (for me anyway) is that the mac is a simple machine which is quite comparable to any pc of its class. They may operate slightly differently but both are just as stable/unstable as the next. The difference is the rather closed atmosphere in which Apple chooses to stick you in as a customer. Now some say that a much narrower choice in hardware and operating software leads to a more stable foundation, and while in theory that may be true, in the decades of practice I have yet to see a shred of proof. But in any event, if you can live in that closed atmosphere then you'll probably be a happy camper. Me? I like opened doors and lots of options. That in my opinion is what a computer is all about.

I work on both PC & Mac daily. I Mostly use Adobe CC because It's hard to get a professional job as a Vegas editor.

Both systems have their positives but one of the major things that makes me like the Mac more is how efficiently it runs Windows as well as its native OS X. If I need to run a Windows program while on my Mac, I can. But if I need to run an OS X program while on my PC, No-Go. I still use my PC Laptop because it's portable but my PC Desktop sits in the corner gathering dust)

I don't like the Mac "hype", but that's just good marketing and 'out of the box' design. I think the Mac price is comparable when comparing proper specs of PC -vs- Mac.

They are smart with their release date. I bet many Dad's Christmas lists are full of Mac Pro requests.

My new upgraded desktop PC system in process of being built for use in early 2014:

But first I read that this new Mac has no mouse or keyboard so please add that to the 3K in costs also.
PARTS REUSED:
Antec full sized tower with a 850 watt PSU
A Creative Sound Blaster Platinum sound card with external I/O unit
1394 Firewire port, USB 2.0 ports, a 500 GB Accomdata Hard Drive
Software on hand: Vegas Pro 12 and dozens of paid or free editing programs.
NEW PURCHASES WITH PRICES - MOST TAX FREE OVER THE INTERNET:
INTEL 3770K CHIP - 256.00
WD EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE 500GB - 89.00
ASRock Z77 Extreme 4 1155 Intel Z77 83.00 MOBO
GRAPHICS CARD EVGA 770 GTX 420.00
CYBERPOWER UPS 1400 WATT - 140.00
G.SKILLS F3 - 2400 C 10 D 240 PIN RAM - 16GB - 175.00
SAMSUNG EXTERNAL BLU RAY/DVD BURNER - 130.00



SPENT TO DATE - OCTOBER 2013 - $ 1,293.00

YET TO BUY:

2 TB WD "BLACK" 7200 SPEED HARD DRIVE - 150.00
CORSAIR H 100 WATER COOLER FOR GRAPHICS CHIP 110.00
HAUPPENGE TVR CARD 125.00
USB ADD ON CARD 3.0 - 23.00
WINDOWS 8.1 64 BIT - 130.00
INTERNAL MEDIA PORTS ADD IN CARD - 25.00
SSD DRIVE 128 GB -120.00

ABOVE COSTS : $683.00 + $1,293.00 = $1,976.00 Plus $200.00 LABOR EQUALS A GRAND TOTAL OF $2,176.00

I made mention of the awful Apple software earlier, so let me elaborate. I bought an iPad this time last year because my wife, who is seriously into still photography, wanted a portable medium to show off her photos. We had both seen people using an iPad for this purpose and it looked good.

On her PC she has around 14,000 photos, all beautifully organised into named folders and sub-folders and even sub-folders to sub-folders. Every folder describes the contents, and every file name describes the photo.

My first surprise was that to get the photos onto the iPad, we had to install iTunes on the PC, and perform a 'sync' process. I later found out that the Apple 'sync' process is definitely not that, as it only works in one direction. The next surprise was that ITunes is such an invasive program that wants to take over file association for just about every file type on your PC, and really just wants to sell you music and other stuff we were not interested in.

Next, it took several hours to 'sync' the photos, and when they arrived, we were puzzled to find that only the top level folder names were preserved. EVERY folder and EVERY photo beneath that level were just lumped into the top level folder and we had lost all the careful cataloguing work that had been done. Next we found that that the filename descriptions, so painstakingly annotated, were not used either. So there was no description for each photo.

Finally, I found that iTunes had created a massive 11.5GB cache on the PC of duplicates of the photos sent to the iPad. Presumably it does this because it does not send the actual JPEG file on the PC, but one modified to suit the iPad. Not at any time did it ever ask my permission or advise me that it was taking an 11.5 GB chunk out of my storage.

By this time we were mightily unimpressed with the whole situation, but I elected to contact Apple support and ask about these things. After listening to a honey-voiced Apple rep go on for several minutes of 'how awful', 'ooh, I know', 'so sorry' and such, he then told me that the reason the names and folders had not been preserved was because the Apple iTune software running on the PC had to be written in the PC's language, this was immensely difficult, and there because of the 'primitive' PC language, it was not possible to preserve the folders and file names.

At this point I lost patience with this fool and hung up.

Geoff

My Android tablet mounts as an external USB hard drive and lets me drag folders across using plain old Windows Explorer. I can put them in the folders i choose to use. Everything is preserved including the folder structure, the files are transferred as-is without modification, and there's no caching. The only thing that had to be installed was the tiny remote storage device driver, which is similar to the one automatically installed for every USB memory stick you've ever used. Interesting that Google/Samsung were able to accomplish this feat when connecting to the PC's "primitive language". The transfer even works both ways.

I've also found a nifty little app, ES File Explorer, which connects the tablet to my PCs over any available network and lets them browse each other's file systems just like any two PCs can. This means that i can transfer files back and forth to my PC from my tablet as well as from my PC, without even plugging it in! You might want to see if this App exists for iStuff too.

I will admit to a heavy degree of mindbogglery when i look at Apple and Sony's file transfer systems and wonder just why the heck they thought such incredible layers of complication and lack of functionality were a good thing.

Geoff 'Geebax',

I use 3rd app 'Dukto' instead of iTunes to copy my files from PC side.
Dukto is messenger and file transfer app for cross-platform inside LAN: pc-mac-linux, and iOS.
[Link=http://www.msec.it/blog/?page_id=11]
All free except to iOS: limited free function.
For iPad, all received files will be stored inside the app's cache storage, just browse inside iPad Dukto to find your file, and you can move it to your 'Photo - Camera shots' folder.

"My first surprise was that to get the photos onto the iPad, we had to install iTunes on the PC, and perform a 'sync' process. I later found out that the Apple 'sync' process is definitely not that, as it only works in one direction. The next surprise was that ITunes is such an invasive program that wants to take over file association for just about every file type on your PC, and really just wants to sell you music and other stuff we were not interested in"

I sympathize. You have to install itunes for just about anything. My wife has an iphone and we got stuck installing ITUNES FOR PC on our machine as well. What useless program, I'm not really impressed with the iphone and its rather antique-ish and highly restrictive software either... but then that's another story.

as i've written elsewhere before - my wife's experience with apple's picture sorting, etc., was a nightmare compared to windows. she wanted her 1000's of reference pics in a certain structure which was impossible to create on any apple product...

To 'set', thank you, I will explore that.

Geoff

I built a pc with for $2000. 6 core intel chip. 32 gigs of ram. a total of 8 TB internal and 4 TB external( Hard drives i already had from a previous build.) a Nvidia 660TI 3 gigs of ram. I run Adobe software and it runs great. Just for the record Thundebolt 2 is Notfaster than pcie16. so i don't understand how you could keep up with a video card like the Nvida Titan.

> Posted by: GeeBax "My first surprise was that to get the photos onto the iPad, we had to install iTunes on the PC, and perform a 'sync' process. I later found out that the Apple 'sync' process is definitely not that, as it only works in one direction. The next surprise was that ITunes is such an invasive program that wants to take over file association for just about every file type on your PC, and really just wants to sell you music and other stuff we were not interested in."

Geoff, My wife has trouble with this too. She has a Mac but she refuses to use iPhoto and she struggles to manage her photos on the file system like she did in Windows. I use iPhoto and I have no problems getting my photo collection on my iPhone and iPad to look exactly like my photo collection on my Mac. They use the same folders, names, everything. At first I was really nervous thinking, "where is this software storing my photos?" because my Windows PC had taught me that I must micro-manage everything. Once I got over that, I started to enjoy the fact that the software just works and I don't have to know why or how it works... I should just enjoy THAT it just works. ;-) You really have to de-program yourself when moving from a PC to a Mac. They don't work the same and if you want them to work the same you will be disappointed.

I think that's the problem with iTunes on a PC. It makes perfect sense when you're on a Mac but it's kind of out of place on a PC. I use my Mac software the way Apple intended it and I have no problems. When I'm in FCP X and I want to add images, it shows me my iPhoto collection automatically and everything is where I expect it. When I go to use music in FCP X, it shows my iTunes collection and again and everything is exactly where I expect it. I don't spend hours navigating the file system looking for content like I do on my PC. If you use all of the Apple software, you will have a seamless experience. If you don't, you won't. Using an iPhone with a PC is NOT the same experience as using an iPhone with a Mac. All of the Apple software is very well integrated but you need to be on a Mac to really appreciate the seamless integration that they provide right out-of-the-box.

So I have to agree with you. Using Apple products with as PC leaves a lot to be desired (which is why I don't). lol :-D

~jr

It took my husband and me almost two hours to figure out how to sync books from his PC laptop to an his iPad (a gift) using iTunes. I have an Android and I just plug it in and drag stuff over. They say iStuff is so easy, but it feels like you need to be Copernicus just to comprehend the tiniest little thing. Not at all intuitive for me.

I had a similar experience about 15 years ago when I had a Saab as a rental car. It was early morning so somewhat dark. I sat in the car for not less than 20 minutes looking for the ignition. I was about to give up and go back into the rental car office when I finally found it. That's how I feel with iStuff.

@ jr - I use iPhoto and I have no problems getting my photo collection on my iPhone and iPad to look exactly like my photo collection on my Mac.

how do you arrange your photos in the first place?

my wife has about 20 primary folders, each primary can have up to another 10 sub folders, and those sub folders even more sub folders - all of which have unique (given) names, etc., and in windows viewing them at any level with even the built in viewer (all win versions) is / was a no-brainer.

mac was impossible to work with in this scenario...

> Posted by: ushere "my wife has about 20 primary folders, each primary can have up to another 10 sub folders, and those sub folders even more sub folders - all of which have unique (given) names, etc., and in windows viewing them at any level with even the built in viewer (all win versions) is / was a no-brainer."

Wow, mine are no where near as complex. On Windows I had a top folder for each year and then one level of folders with the date and event name like "2013-11-31_Halloween" so they sorted in chronological order. When I moved them to my Mac I lost the years but kept all of the subfolders which was fine since they all started with a sortable date. So in iPhoto I just have a folder for each event. When you import new images from your camera into iPhoto, it gives you the option of importing by date or event. I import by event and give each event a name and I'm pretty much the same as I had on Windows. It all shows up on my iPhone and iPad the same way. My wife still makes her own folders on her Mac but I just let iPhoto do it all for me. Bottom line... there was an event (e.g., 2012 Vacation in Cape Cod)... i took some photos... i'm happy to see my photos under that event. ;-)

iPhoto also has the notion of an Album and you can drop any photos you want into an album and the originals stay with the event folder that they were in. So you can make up an Album from pictures from multiple events and not have any duplicate images on your hard drive. The Album is just a collection of pointers to the actual pictures. There is no notion of an event within and event or an album within an album which is why the sub-folders concept doesn't carry through to iPhoto. It deals with photo albums and stacks of photos the same way as in the real world. Hope that helps.

~jr