Jschroeder, i'm calm don't worry. SRU, i work in biotech, formerly for a seed company, finding molecular markers for traits of interest, not just defects like PHA, TH, then on to a biotech co. that was into gene chips and gel, capillary based dna sequencing, got out at the peak of the dot com bubble, could see the writing on the wall with all the fake money and sleaze with married couples working both sides of a stock offering to sift capital from investors, nepotism in the lab and being more worried about what everyone was saying behinds whose back, had a problem with companies trying to patent genes without knowing what they were for (which is why PHA is going to be SOOOOOOO interesting), so i quit and went to work for a university genome center where we sequence all sorts of genomes from bacteria to human, but also have sequenced and put in the public sector, most of those cDNA genes so companies couldn't tie them up. go ahead, ask me about celera, craig venter, the genome project, who faked what and what they were really after (for celera it wasn't to sequence the genome). we use computers to run robots, sequencing machines, and this is where we use pc's. we use macs and linux/type boxes for servers, and macs for desktops and portables. one stat guy thinks he needs a pc even though his software package is on mac as well.
i use a video ipod to back up my hard drive instead of a stick or take it with me on trips and hook up to my relatives computer. that way i can take it anywhere with everything and have it mirrored. i'm not so fanatical about mac's, although i was employee 300 at apple back in the day. it's more that PC's are kinda like an old car with 200 carburetor's constantly needing tweeking, then you get everything set up and they upgrade the system and you start all over. it always amazes me that bill gates' wife came up with bob as an interface. apple has employed human factors people from the beginning, and as far as i can tell, this was microsoft's lone journey into a human factors centric desktop model. everything else is pretty much a mac with a little more cumbersome becuase of all the models they have to support, although they have done a lot better job streamlining that in the last 5 years. some of things are familiarity. and people refuse to listen to human factors proof of how people like to work. but they would rather buy something 10% cheaper, than worry about that. I shared a room with a blind interface design human factors student in grad school who could barely see out of one eye with a 10x 10 inch by 10 inch magnifying glass. now that guy was a stickler for interface design. he worked for a few pc companies till he got fed up and now does industrial design stuff, lots of tactile feedback. i bet he would be great at AI!!!!!!!!
apple has cleverly, like most companies, tiered their pricing for 3 models. the cheapest model usually has a less powerful graphics component. the middle has a decent graphics card, a faster processor. the most expensive has the fastest current processor, better graphics, and some small tweaking usually not apparent to casual user. usually does better at compiling programs, using filters on photo shop, writing movies etc. the thing to get that matters the most is just like pc's, buy 2G of ram, don't worry about the biggest hard drive, get an extra external or ipod. i also usually don't get the latest model, as just like cars and combines, they have hitches, plus i don't have to pay bleeding edge prices. apples biggest problem ever since they kinda got out of the education arena some 15 years ago is availability and service in rural areas.
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