An interesting, new article on CNN about how everyone lets Apple get away with murder, including an example of the confused/cultish thought process of the Apple loyalist . . .
“They’re skimping on materials, on testing things to gain market share, but they’re kind of pushing away people who have been with the brand even when [it was] struggling,” he said.
Yet when asked whether he’d abandon Apple, the answer was no.
So, remember when I wrote on the very interesting and ground-breaking news about the newest, coolest search engine ever???? Okay, I have tested the baby out and let me tell you my thoughts. Basically, it doesn’t even begin to live up to the hype and made me really miss Google. I like that Google is not just a web search engine, but also a map, news search, image search, etc.
BUT, if we just compare Cuil to Google as a search engine, Google still is better at reading my mind and finding me pertinent websites. For example, when using Cuil I would do simple searches for recipes and only be presented with one or two links to recipes and then a bunch of non-related links. Also with Cuil, if you make a typo or are unsure of the spelling, the chances of pulling up what you want are slim to none and there are no spelling suggestions like with Google. However, Cuil does suggest what you may be looking for, but it seems that you are almost limited to the offered suggestions. With this seemingly limited number of valid searches, Cuil is closer to an encyclopedia in that you need to know what subject you want to research (eg: tigers) and then look up that subject, not what you specifically want to know about that subject (eg: tigers with Lisa Frank doodles from 1992). Another thing I noticed is that oftentimes with Cuil you can’t type in large strings of information, such as “how to can tomatoes like they did in 1900’s” without being directed to an error message.
Overall, I found Cuil to be pretty incompetent at its job, but it seems eager to improve. I noticed that you can now search for “map.”
So, big news: another search engine site has been unveiled that is attempting to rival Google! It was developed by former Google employees and boasts that it completes more effective searches, has more pages in its index and is just way better than Google. I tried out the search engine, Cuil (pronounced “Cool” and meaning knowledge or hazel in Gaelic), and here are my notes.
1. The presentation of the main page is pleasing enough. There are no ads. It’s black, opposed to Google’s white. It’s easy.
2. The name: I’m okay with the idea of looking up the word of what your product is or does and then choosing the translation in the coolest-sounding, ancient language. It’s probably a huge point of excitement or disappointment when you happen to live in a place that speaks the language. Also, I’m kind of tempted to say “Cool-ey” for no reason, other than it is fun to say and my mind sometimes wants to reverse the “i” and “l.”
3. They are still working out the kinks, for sure. I tried this search site using Mac’s Safari browser and it pretty much didn’t work after entering a term on Cuil’s main page. For example, after going to cuil.com, I typed in “Beati Paoli.” The search results were pretty accurate, showing sites pertaining to both Beati Paoli’s historical meaning and the band. Then I thought to myself that I would research dogs and attempted to type “dogs” in the search bar on the page displaying the Beati Paoli results. BUT, the website would not let me click in the search bar and just kept highlighting the entire page. Uhh…hopefully they get this fixed before you read this post cause not working on Safari is kind of a big deal since I hear Safari is the “world’s best browser.”
4. I tried Cuil using the Firefox browser and everything worked smoothly. I was able to complete subsequent searches and the results came up swimmingly.
5. UNTIL, I tried the simple search “map,” which pulled up this message “Sorry, an error occurred. Please try your search again. If the problem persists, please be assured that our team is working quickly to resolve the issue.” I tried searching for “map” multiple times to see if this was some sort of time-out error on both Safari and Firefox and the same error message appeared. I also tried searching for other terms after searching for maps and they came up fine. So, apparently, people can’t search for the term map right now.
6. The layout is more appealing to me than Google’s. It’s definitely more visual (and busy), with the three columns and thumbnails of a select image, which I’m not sure how it is chosen, from the site. I also enjoy the tabs that sort out popular categories of your search. The Explore By Category looks like it might be useful too.
Conclusion: I will update my homepage to cuil.com and make a real conclusion in a week!
As I am currently in the UK (and currently watching ‘The Shining’ on TV and currently getting creeped out by those goddamn twins, but that’s beside the point), I have been (un)noticeably absent from the blog.
I thought about continuing the Scott/Natalie tradition of posting a daily entry of my British travels, but let’s face it: I’m lazy. So instead I have decided to post the search engine terms that have led people to this site, which I have been collecting for the past month or so. You see, I wasn’t aware that websites were privy to that sort of information until we started up The Noising Machine. It’s kind of strange what sort of words and phrases for which people search the internet. So here are the highlights, or if you prefer, lowlights.
doritos history corn toasted
gross mario
+painted ladies +des moines +80/35 +phot
girls with big butts and naked
zombie clown diary dead
animal and same-sex marriage
obama nude (4 searches)
saul mirsky (6 searches)
classic car mustache man
funky white boys quote
electrocution sounds
ringo starr is an asshole
sickest films amityville ii
ape sex
rainforest babes hot sex
top 10 creepy things about mario
barf sound machine
april ‘o’ neil is fucked by the shredder
scott is not a cunt
machine to make doritos
link and zelda have sex
massive mammaries
mario vs hannah montana
asian guy from karate kid
rag basketball reading rainbow video
my brother love’s myspace youtube
great tit sounds
what happened to tree man on tlc?
I can only hope we haven’t ruined Saul Mirksy’s (Natalie’s father) reputation with this blog.
So, continuing the Mac vs PC debate, or Mac-bashing, I will write about the exploding Dells of 2006. I only vaguely remember this news story and was curious to see what exactly was going on w/ these exploding laptops…two years later.
It looks like the cause of the explosions, which occurred about six times according to an Aug 2006 article, were faulty Sony batteries. The batteries for millions of laptops were recalled, just like hundreds of products that are recalled every year for one potentially hazardous reason or another. The end.
Wow! Apparently, Apple jumped into the “intentionally faulty product” game way back in 1980 with the Apple III, a product I never even heard of before. If you don’t want to read the whole article it’s the familiar story: presentation over function. In order to make the unit as quiet as possible, there was no fan and no vents. A heat absorbing mechanism was included but it was insufficient and testing would have had to have revealed that. So a whole shitload of them failed, naturally. On top of that, Apple III had Apple II compatibility but it was intentionally designed not to run Apple II programs at optimal performance levels.
Their marketing must be absolutely ingenious because what other fucking company can have such a high failure rate and still do so well? ARGH.
I will jump on the Apple discussion bandwagon and detail pros and cons of my Macbook and its Mac OS. I don’t do anything special with my computer, like music or photo editing, so this is from a casual-user standpoint. Before my Macbook, I had a Sony Vaio desktop for 4 years. And previous to that, I used my family’s HP. And previous to that, we had an Apple (some 1997 version).
Specifications (I’m kind of computer illiterate, but this may mean something to you.): Macbook 1,1 (2006); Mac OS X version 10.4.9; 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo; 512 MB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 55.7 GB HD
Pros:
1. Overall Look and Feel: I will admit I am one of those presentation-obsessed types that Matt was talking about previously. Not only do I find my computer pleasing to look at, but I also find the simple design to feel nice in my hands. The smooth design is also functional in that it lacks any latches that might go awry or covers that would eventually get lost.
2. Mousepad: As much as the right click on a PC is nice, I think I prefer the single click mouse, especically on a laptop, with the option of using the “ctr” key, which I rarely need due to quick keys, for all right click functions. I hate when I open a PC laptop and there is some stupid-looking knob erroneously located between the “g” and “h” keys. The feature I love most about the mousepad, which I’m not sure if it has already been implemented in all laptops, is that you can switch to two fingers for easy scrolling–a simple idea that I use constantly.
3. Keypad: The keypad is raised at the appropriate level for practicality and ease of use. I am guilty of eating by my computer and, so far, so clean.
4. Quick Keys: This is a pro on any computer. Toggling with “apple, tab” and clearing the desktop with “F11″ are my favorites.
5. Dashboard: This idea is pretty genius. By pressing “F12,” a ghost-like, second screen appears from no where and applications called widgets appear for your convenience. You can download a widget for pretty much any need or want you could imagine, from football scores to calculators to world maps. I keep it simple with a calculator and dictionary.
6. Dock: Located at the bottom of the screen, hidden or not hidden, is a bar that has shortcuts to any frequently used application. I pretty much only use the dock to access my most used applications.
Cons:
1. Price: Macbooks will cost you an arm and a leg. At a thousand odd dollars, you could buy a much more powerful PC.
2. Settings: This is probably just my computer ineptness, but I feel like I have no control over what the Mac does some times. When I plug in my camera, it automatically opens iPhoto–a program I find to be completely useless and tries to make me put all my pictures into some folder that I have no idea where it is located on my computer. I really dislike using programs that are made to simplify what you are doing and losing control of where things are archived on the HD.
3. Graphic Editing: Basically, I really miss MS Paint. With the Preview program, I can do little more than rotate and crop. I suspect that Apple assumes that everyone who owns a Mac, owns Photoshop.
4. Speed: My computer can’t handle many applications at once and I spend a lot of idle moments, waiting for programs to load.
5. Memory Card Inputs: Pretty much all drives are covered: DVD/CD, USB, internet, headphones, etc. I just wish there was a slot for my camera memory card like my old Vaio had.
Conclusion: I can’t really make a say on if I’ll be a repeat customer since I’m not sure how advanced computers will be in a few years when I will be due for a replacement. I’m sure 2011’s bottom-of-the-line model will be fast and large enough by my standards right now, but maybe I will expect the super, amazing, top-of-the-line computer that I probably won’t be able to afford in the future. If things are as they are now (with PC offering faster speeds and larger HDs for less $$$), I would probably go with a PC. On the other hand, if the gap between cost and product decreases, I would probably go with a Mac.
But, the real question: do I recommend a Macbook to the casual user in 2008? Yes, if you have the extra dough to throw around, then, by all means, purchase a nice, fast model–along with Photoshop. If you don’t have a lot of money, forgo convenience and beauty, and buy a PC that is larger and faster for less money.
The Fujitsu Micro series began in 1981 with YAWN the FM8 and FM7, really boring, expensive business computers. The legacy of business boredom was continued by the 16-bit FM16s in 1983. Fujitsu had the same role in the Japanese market that IBM had here - making really boring, really expensive computers that only businesses would be interested in.
Eventually, businesses decided the cheapo PC8801 from NEC could fulfill their needs and the FM series started to die. After years of low performance, Fujitsu released the FM Towns in 1989. This computer was innovative in that its PRIMARY media source was CD-ROM, YEARS before this became standard in PCs and Macs. FM Towns was also more affordable and less business-focused, finding a place in many homes. In fact, I’m guessing it found a spot in the homes of many perverts, as this little rascal hosted lots of exciting porno games. Hurray for porn! The FM Towns actually ran on Windows but used exclusive parts and programs. Over the next several years, like the NEC computers, it basically transformed into a standard PC and that’s where Fujitsu computers stand today.
Released by Sharp in 1987, the X68000 was another attempt to break into the Japanese home computer scene. It was much more powerful than the established competition presented by the PC88 and MSX series. In fact, its hardware was comparable to the arcade units of the time which had a predictable result - it was the champion of arcade conversions, hosting arcade classics from the kings like Capcom, Konami and Namco. Unfortunately, there weren’t a great deal of original games for it except for an awesome Castlevania installment (released here for PlayStation).
As was often the case in the 1980s, machines with high graphical capabilities were of little use to most business and many homes, meaning the X68K was a popular alternative, but not a big boy. The last model was released in 1993 before the line succumbed to the all-powerful Windows 95 craze.
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