Alberich
I bought a computer yesterday, one of these, and so far I'm absolutely delighted with it.
The fun starts even before you get it home: the packaging is great. Computers used to be delivered in huge, awkwardly bulky boxes; the Mac Mini comes in a box that is less than half the size of that Corn Flakes package in your kitchen.
Unpack it and the fun continues: the operating system and a huge variety of bundled software are already installed, all you need to do is to tell the computer your name and e-mail address. Open the box, plug it in, switch it on, start typing.
Why would anyone but a masochist buy anything else?
But that's not all: you might not even need to tell it your name and e-mail address. When the Mac starts for the first time, it asks "Do you already own a Mac? if so, connect me to it and go away for an hour," during which time it copies your settings and all your files from the old computer. The only thing I had to change was the computer's name: say hello to "Alberich."
It's faster than my G3 laptop (well, obviously), software updates take about a fifth of the time to execute. I tested its speed under real-life conditions by compiling my database on both machines, the results were closer than I'd expected.
Burton Alberich
Syntax check 11 10 seconds
Compile 48 50
Generate application 115 46
Total 174 106 seconds
(I bought the "smaller" version of the Mac Mini, with the Intel Core Solo processor and an extra gigabyte of RAM. The Core Duo processor runs native applications considerably faster, but since even the coming version of the database software I use runs under Rosetta, I felt I couldn't justify the price difference. By the time the database software is optimised for Mac-Intel, Alberich will be ready to retire.)
The very best thing about the Mac Mini dawned on me slowly after I'd been using it for a day: it is absolutely silent, you don't even hear the hard disk turning. I cannot express how delightful this is, you'd have to (not) hear it for yourself to appreciate it. Again, why would anyone buy anything else?
I'm very pleased. Thank you, Steve.
posted by Udge @ 13:04
6 Comments:
your computer's name is Alberich? That's cool. Did you got that name from Tatort?
Very nice it works so well. Can't you just call the Apple people and tell them to make them cheaper so that one can be less masochistical....the price however is the last masochistical element in them...
The name has two sources: first from Wagner's "Ring Cycle," Alberich is the chief villain - although he is not the cause of the gods' downfall.
Second, it's a numerical/linguistic joke of the kind that programmers find exquisitely funny. This is my eleventh computer, eleven in German is "elf" (as you know but other readers might not). Alberich the character is by species an Alb, a malevolent dwarf; the same species is also known as an Elf.
Expensive? I'm not so sure. Yes, you can buy a Windows PC for a hundred dollars, but it's an under-equipped piece of crap. A Windows PC with the same equipment and features as a Mac, costs just as much as a Mac.
Try this little experiment: Go to your local computer shop and ask them to show you a machine which has Windows, MS Office and five gigabytes of other software preloaded (nothing to install!), ethernet and wireless LAN and Bluetooth, a DVD player/CD burner, 60Gb hard disk, 512Mb memory, a 64Mb graphic card, CD-quality sound card with headphone and microphone-input jacks, and a remote control for DVD and music playback; all built in and ready to use. (We won't mention that it should be tiny, pretty and absolutely silent: no Windows PC that I've seen has any of those attributes.) How much less than 629 Euros (including tax) does that machine cost?
In the interests of clarity: the Mac Mini package does not include the software known as "Microsoft Office." It does include Apple's own integrated-office-application suite "AppleWorks" which features a text editor, a spreadsheet, two picture editors (bitmapped and vector graphics), presentation software, an HTML editor and a quick'n'dirty database. Sound familiar?
The point I wanted to make is this: both companies offer such a package, Apple includes theirs free of charge - pre-installed and ready to use.
oh ok, I just thought you have the name from this Tatort from Muenster where there is this one very small women, a pathologist, called Alberich.
You're right, it doesn't look that expensive, yet in general they are a bit expensier I would assume or at least earlier had been or is this a prejudice? My computer however is an Asus one and I had also all the stuff built it - similar abilities 512 Mb memory, wireless, etc. like you describe, it also can burn DVD, dont really have a clue what other things it can do since I am not so much into computers, but am pretty satisfied with it, it was ready to use when I got it like you describe with yours and had nothing to install myself, but that was probably because I bought it from the university - now that I look at the price you are right, they have probably a similar price when similar equipment....
New notebooks, ah, wonnderful. I do wish I had waited for the day I could go to a story that actually sold Macs when I bought my new system.
I adore the fact you name your computers. That is awesome. Now I must be creative and find a good name for my little laptop.
I want a new computer. I want a laptop. Sigh. Not to happen any time soon.
Love the name Alberich.
Post a Comment
<< Home