Pressured by financials, U.S. stocks revisit lows not seen since the bear market of 2002.

NFOrce NFOs->XXX
On 2008-11-21 CLIT released Gullible Teens 2
Size: 98x15MB

The box office hit 'Eagle Eye' is headed to high-def, with Paramount setting a late-December Blu-ray bow for the Shia LeBeouf thriller. Grossing nearly $100 million at the domestic box office, 'Eagle Eye'...img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/highdefdigestallnews/~4/459997865" height="1" width="1"/

MAKE publisher and BoingBoing guest blogger Dale Dougherty points out this collection of unhappy hard drive sound clips you may be all too familiar with.

These are the last words of devices which will hopefully find new life as wind chimes clocks and more good stuff. Could be fun to build a percussive sample set out of these! [via BoingBoing]

More:

The Sound of Data

&

a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/11/the_sound_of_dying_drives.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" /Read more/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/11/the_sound_of_dying_drives.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" / Permalink/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/11/the_sound_of_dying_drives.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890#comments" /Comments/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/computers/?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" /Read more articles in Computers/a | a href="http://digg.com/submit?url=blog.makezine.com%2Farchive%2F2008%2F11%2Fthe_sound_of_dying_drives.htmltitle=The%20sound%20of%20dying%20drivesbodytext=%20MAKE%20publisher%20and%20BoingBoing%20guest%20blogger%20Dale%20Dougherty%20points%20out%20this%20collection%20of%20unhappy%20hard%20drive%20sound%20clips%20you%20may%20be%20all%20too%20familiar%20with.%20These%20are%20the%20last%20words%20of%20devices%20which%20will%20hopefully%20find%20new%20life%20as...topic=tech_news" /Digg this!/a

In recent months we've seen Dell's design department running wild with new colors and art for a lot of their models, such as the Studio 15 and 17 laptops, and the announcement that customizable jobs were on the table for 2009. It probably should come as no surprise, then, to see the Inspiron Mini 9 and 12 get some love, too -- this time in five patterns by artist Tristan Eaton. Otherwise the same under the hood, the paint-jobbed Minis will run you an extra $50 over the base price of each respective model -- $349 for the Mini 9 and $549 for the Mini 12. Check out two more shots of the upgrades after the break.

[Via Electronista]

Continue reading Dell's Inspiron Mini 9 and 12 get artist makeovers

Filed under: Laptops

Dell's Inspiron Mini 9 and 12 get artist makeovers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pixel-based typography from 1567 - On the death and 441-year life of the pixel via DF.

The struggle to adequately render letterforms on a pixel grid is a familiar one, and an ancient one as well: this bitmap alphabet is from La Vera Perfettione del Disegno di varie sorte di ricami, an embroidery guide by Giovanni Ostaus published in 1567. Renaissance ‘lace books’ have much to offer the modern digital designer, who also faces the challenge of portraying clear and replicable images in a constrained environment. a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/11/on_the_death_and_441year.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" /Read more/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/11/on_the_death_and_441year.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" / Permalink/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/11/on_the_death_and_441year.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890#comments" /Comments/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/arts/?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" /Read more articles in Arts/a | a href="http://digg.com/submit?url=blog.makezine.com%2Farchive%2F2008%2F11%2Fon_the_death_and_441year.htmltitle=On%20the%20death%20and%20441-year%20life%20of%20the%20pixelbodytext=%20Pixel-based%20typography%20from%201567%20-%20On%20the%20death%20and%20441-year%20life%20of%20the%20pixel%20via%20DF.%20The%20struggle%20to%20adequately%20render%20letterforms%20on%20a%20pixel%20grid%20is%20a%20familiar%20one%2C%20and%20an%20ancient%20one%20as%20well%3A%20this%20bitmap%20alphabet...topic=tech_news" /Digg this!/a

pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/11/14XL1073.jpg" align="left" hspace="4" vspace="2" style="display:block;" /We usually write our own posts around these parts, but sometimes a product's description speaks for itself:br/p blockquoteWith this gauntlet strapped to your arm there is no question you are the man in charge!/blockquote pThat's right, suckers. $40 on my Visa says that I rule this place now. And by this place, I mean the world. [a href="http://budk.com/product.asp?pn=14%20XL1073c2p=hpbhcd2=1227209024"BudK/a via a href="http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/11/20/joels-christmas-list.html"bbGadgets/a]/p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=8c415cad187cea139613b3cbe755ead7p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=8c415cad187cea139613b3cbe755ead7p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=8c415cad187cea139613b3cbe755ead7" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=JjtnzbeY"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=tKATy5l4"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=mFUE9tf6"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=mFUE9tf6" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/gizmodo/full?a=o94tkFzJ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/gizmodo/full?i=o94tkFzJ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~4/ZNZGBlu_22g" height="1" width="1"/

We usually write our own posts around these parts, but sometimes a product's description speaks for itself: With this gauntlet strapped to your arm there is no question you are the man in charge!...

pThe worsening media economy has forced the New York Times Co (a href="http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidcontent?Page=QUOTETicker=NYT" class="ticker" title="NYT"NYSE: NYT/a). to reduce the dividend it pays to shareholders, ending a weeks of speculation about wb/bhen it would do so.nbsp; Board of Directors today declared a quarterly dividend of $.06 per share on the Company's Class A and Class B common stock, down from $.23 per share in the third quarter of 2008. While some of the family members who were a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-earnings-call-nytco-exploring-dividend-cuts-could-affect-payout-to-fami" title="previously getting"previously getting/a $25 million on the $.23 per share dividend will likely complain, many analysts will feel that the cut didn't go far enough. The company had been under increasing pressure to rein in costs. Alluding to a iNew York /imagazine profile of the Sulzberger family last month, a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-nyt-so-far-the-vaccine-against-bancroft-itis-is-working-with-the-sulzbe" title="we noted"we noted/a the dividend—which was raised 31 percent last year—that a cut in the dividend could cause the kind of revolt that spurred the members of the Bancroft family to sell their controlling interest in Dow Jones to News Corp (a href="http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidcontent?Page=QUOTETicker=NWS" class="ticker" title="NWS"NYSE: NWS/a). /p p -- b"Difficult, but necessary"/b: In a a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=105317p=irol-pressArticleID=1228939highlight=" title="statement"statement/a, NYTCo chairman Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., called it a "a difficult but necessary decision." He added: "We expect that this steep cut in the dividend, coupled with our other actions, will help us decrease debt and improve the liquidity of the Company, a prudent measure in this operating environment." /p p -- bOctober revs drop/b: As if the company needed more evidence as to why they had to lower the dividend... Last month, revenues from continuing operations fell 9.4 percent as ad revenues took another battering, dropping 16.2 percent. On the plus side, circ dollars were up a slight 3.9 percent. Online was up 5.3 percent, a far cry from October '07's 19 percent rise. a href="http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=105317p=irol-pressArticleID=1228942highlight=" title="Release"Release/a iMore after the jump/i /pp-- bInternet Businesses/b: Total web revs grew 4.3 percent, while money from internet ad sales rose 4.6 percent in October. The online businesses include NYTimes.com, About.com, Boston.com and other websites. In total, online accounted for 12.1 percent of total revs in October, a slight uptick from the 10.5 percent last year. /p p -- Year-to-date, the company's total online revs rose 9.6 percent, while web-related ad dollars jumped 13.4 percent. In 2008 so far, the NYTCo's internet businesses comprised 11.9 percent of total revenues for year-to-date October 2008 compared with 10.1 percent for the same period in '07. /p p -- bNews Media Group's/b ad revs slid 17.2 percent due to continued weakness in print advertising. Within that division, The New York Times Media Group's ad dollars fell 15.3 percent, dragged down by increased softness classifeds, particularly real estate and jobs.nbsp; /p pstrongRelated/strong/p ul class="related" lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-nyt-so-far-the-vaccine-against-bancroft-itis-is-working-with-the-sulzbe" title="NYT: So Far, The Vaccine Against Bancroft-itis Is Working With The Sulzberger Fifth Gen"NYT: So Far, The Vaccine Against Bancroft-itis Is Working With The Sulzberger Fifth Gen/a/li /ul piOur streamlined mobile application for the BlackBerry and other smart devices brings you the latest headlines quickly on the go. a href="http://m.paid.mwap.at/"Click here to download/a./i /p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=0T7pEq"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=0T7pEq" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=LaL0N"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=LaL0N" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=QIJzN"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=QIJzN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=kkakn"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=kkakn" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=sGGzN"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=sGGzN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=Wz5ZN"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=Wz5ZN" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/460092417" height="1" width="1"/

This compilation was compiled by the Lost Children net label and The Silent Ballet, a webzine that has been in the works for quite some time. The Silent Ballet is a webzine that will focus upon instrumental and postrock artists, as well the artists that catch our attention from other genres. Its main goal is to create a stronger instrumental community across the world and to function as a portal that actively brings musicians and listeners into an open discussion. The Lost Children net label seeks to distribute music created by artists with humble budgets to all corners of the globe. The cost to the audience is, of course, nothing. Lost Children does not believe that in today's technological world an artist should be unable to deliver his music to a willing listener just because he does not have sufficient label representation. Music is a joy in all of our lives and no one should be deprived of it.

a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bosch/delight/delightc.jpg"Come/a a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bosch/delight/delightr.jpg"And/a a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bosch/delight/delightl.jpg"Visit/a a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights"The/a a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy3SmCsAydk"Garden/a a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SRdSmaz3mM"Of/a a href="http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/theater/reviews/20gard.html?8dpc"Earthly/a a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JMyZWldRkI"Delights/a br /

A South African man who thwarted an armed attack on a nuclear facility containing bomb-grade uranium sheds new light on the unsolved crime in an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley. Sunday, Nov. 23, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=kaO9n"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=kaO9n" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=1QIZN"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=1QIZN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=3725n"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=3725n" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=GUkcn"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=GUkcn" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=lIgfN"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=lIgfN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=sfckN"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=sfckN" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsMain/~4/460058121" height="1" width="1"/

pFiled under: a href="http://www.joystiq.com/category/ps3/" rel="tag"Sony PlayStation 3/a/pa href="http://www.videogamer.com/news/20-11-2008-9989.html"img hspace="4" border="1" align="right" vspace="4" class="imagepadding" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.joystiq.com/media/2008/11/atrophy.jpg" alt="" //aYou know the best thing about playing Little League? It wasn't the exercise or the camaraderie, those were hard to come by for a fat little kid in left field, picking dandelions and praying that none of the C.M. Love Hardware Braves would have the brute force to muscle a ball to your corner of the stadium. No, the best part was the guarantee of a trophy, a shining reminder that, for a time at least, you were emsomebody/em, you were eman athlete/em. br /br /After January 2009 arrives, games on the PS3 will have the same allure of Little League, with each required by Sony to offer trophies, according to VideoGamer.com. br /br /As this news didn't take too much space to pass along to you, we'll take this opportunity to apologize for the deeply person turn the first paragraph of this post took. Totally our mistake.p style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/20/sony-to-require-trophies-in-ps3-games-next-year/"Sony to require Trophies in PS3 games next year/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.joystiq.com"Joystiq/a on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./pp style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"nbsp;/ppa href=http://www.videogamer.com/news/20-11-2008-9989.htmlRead/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/20/sony-to-require-trophies-in-ps3-games-next-year/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/forward/1378670/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/20/sony-to-require-trophies-in-ps3-games-next-year/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/YAz81nwnNRqm2VDjwaZ0RlRorE4/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/YAz81nwnNRqm2VDjwaZ0RlRorE4/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=OdWB2D8P"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=OdWB2D8P" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?a=t00o8Lrp"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/joystiq?i=t00o8Lrp" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/joystiq/~4/AgmFGnrGBOw" height="1" width="1"/

pFiled under: a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/news/" rel="tag"News/a, a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/category/windows/" rel="tag"Windows/a/pimg hspace="4" height="269" width="250" vspace="16" border="0" align="right" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.downloadsquad.com/media/2008/11/vista-boot-screen.jpg" alt="Windows Vista boot screen" /There's no question that we all want computers that boot up and shut down more quickly. While a fresh install of Windows XP might boot as quickly as 30 seconds on some computers, the more applications you load onto your computer, the slower it will boot. Things get even worse with Windows Vista which loads about as quickly as paint dries. While Microsoft and other OS makers are working to cut boot times, if you're using a current generation operating system, odds are you spend at least a few minutes every day waiting for your computer to startup and shut down.br /br /Now here's the big question of the day - if this is your work computer we're talking about, a href="http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202426038668"should you be paid for that time/a? Apparently employees at seveal companies including AT7T and Cigna have filed lawsuits alleging that they weren't paid for the time it took to turn their computers on and off each day, a process which they claim takes 15 to 30 minutes.br /br /The employees say they should be paid for their time, because they're doing other work related activities while the computer loads, while employers argue that just as often, they aren't. But you know what? It's not like the employees are lying in bed sleeping at home. It's hardly their fault their bosses installed software that takes for-friggin-ever to boot. Not that I'm taking sides in this dispute.br /br /What do you think? Sound off in the comments.br /br /[via a href="http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2008/11/does-your-boss-have.html"TaxProf Blog/a and a href="http://gizmodo.com/5093547/employees-not-getting-paid-for-boot+up-times-sue-their-employers"Gizmodo/a]p style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/20/should-you-be-paid-for-the-time-it-takes-to-boot-your-computer/"Should you be paid for the time it takes to boot your computer?/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com"Download Squad/a on Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href=http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202426038668Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/20/should-you-be-paid-for-the-time-it-takes-to-boot-your-computer/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/forward/1378649/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/11/20/should-you-be-paid-for-the-time-it-takes-to-boot-your-computer/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/tH4oCvNg_Tdv3It_g8VoYB0ePTw/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/tH4oCvNg_Tdv3It_g8VoYB0ePTw/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/downloadsquad?a=JG9VIXFo"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/downloadsquad?i=JG9VIXFo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/downloadsquad?a=utWOWfM1"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/downloadsquad?i=utWOWfM1" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/downloadsquad/~4/DgQHHMGfHII" height="1" width="1"/

pullia href="http://ask.metafilter.com/107254/Whats-worth-spending-money-on-for-your-wedding"Of the things you spent money on for your wedding, what was most worth it? What was least worth it? /a/lilia href="http://ask.metafilter.com/107313/NonChristmassy-items-for-Christmas-hamper-gifts"Best ideas, recommendations, and recipes I can use to make up homemade holiday baskets as gifts?/a/lilia href="http://ask.metafilter.com/107297/How-can-I-afford-to-build-an-emergency-fund"How does one "put aside" X months of expenses for emergencies?/a/lilia href="http://ask.metafilter.com/106904/Kitchenware-that-no-good-kitchen-would-be-without"What should no good kitchen be without? /a/li/ul/p br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=fb6d6cdf5c47849174b49497eaf5c8d1p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=fb6d6cdf5c47849174b49497eaf5c8d1p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=fb6d6cdf5c47849174b49497eaf5c8d1" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=1WLYIqUU"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=tMCBWmOR"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=IW1MsnDW"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=IW1MsnDW" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=bvw2Y6eV"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=bvw2Y6eV" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~4/f2wG1dbiTfE" height="1" width="1"/

p iCambridge, Mass./i - Amid the rapid deceleration of the economy, Akamai Technologies a href="http://finance.dmwmedia.com/dmwmedia?Page=QUOTEamp;Ticker=AKAM" target="_blank"(NASD: AKAM)/a, a provider of content delivery network services, announced on Thursday that it will cut 7% of its workforce -- or 110 employees -- as part of a restructuring plan.pa href="http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/11/20/content-delivery-network-akamai-cut-7%25-staff"read more/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=snpeN"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=snpeN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=mCqCn"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=mCqCn" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=2JmHn"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=2JmHn" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=QsVoN"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=QsVoN" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?a=JuKdn"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/dmwmedia?i=JuKdn" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/dmwmedia/~4/460088534" height="1" width="1"/

I just saw a story on G4TV and CNN about a young man in Toronto who was a witness to a gang shooting murder. He recorded the shooting with his iPhone 3G using Cycorder(only available on jailbroken phones). Apple refuses to allow this footage to be used as credible evidence. Because of this, a 15 year old boy is dead and there are no suspects:(

So, I'm switching to a Mac, and am willing to spend quite a bit of money to do it. Though, I have quite a few questions before I make the switch; could you guys help?


1. I'm going to buy an iMac. Will I notice any difference between the 2.8GHz and the 3.06GHz model?

2. Will I notice a big difference between the 256mb and the 512mb in the graphics card?

3. What in god's name does a Mac Mini do? Xserve?

4. What's the difference between AirPort Express and AirPort Extreme, besides price? Is Extreme just plain better?

5. What do the ethernet ports do on the AirPort Extreme? Like, is that where you'd plug in your printer to it, and then be able to print to that printer from anywhere in the house? Do I need to plug that into my computer to use it? How good is the range on the Extreme?

6. I'm going to buy either a Macbook, or a Macbook Pro. My only worry with the Macbook (I could care less about the specs, the 2.4GHz model does everything I want x10) but the screen size scares me. I have an HP Compaq laptop right now, at 15" (cost me about $500 for 2GHz and 2GB of RAM, heh) will I notice a big difference between changing to a 13"? I'm sort of doubting I'll care much about the 2" difference, anyone else make the change and have some advice? On the bright side, it would be more portable, right?

7. When buying a Macbook/iMac, does iLife automatically come with it? What about iWork? iWork is a lot better than Microsoft Office, right? Especially Pages.

8. Why should I buy an AppleTV? Can anyone recommend it? The one thing I don't understand about it, is do I buy the movie ON the actual television from iTunes, or do I buy it on iTunes on my computer, and 'send'/stream it to my AppleTV? Is it worth the price, and is there better devices to do this?

9. In regards to the Apple Keyboard. I'm not sure whether or not to buy the wireless, or ... wired ... model. With the wired model, it seems to have a lot more keys (number pad, etc.) is that a handicap, do you wireless users miss it? I know it uses batteries, how often do you have to replace them, I don't want to have to replace the batteries in my keyboard excessively.

10. In regards to the Mighty Mouse. Again, wired or wireless? I'd definitely go with wireless, but the same question I must pose again, does the battery go quite quickly? Like, how many days? What do the buttons on the side of the mouse do - back and forward? Can I right click with it, like I would a normal microsoft mouse?

11. For us old Windows users, does the lack of 'our delete' get annoying? I kinda doubt CTRL+Delete is that annoying, but... yeah.

12. Is there anyway to COMPLETELY maximize the current program running? Like, I know the plus button fits it to the screen, but I'd like it to completely fill the screen like on Windows, can I do this?

13. Would you recommend a Time Capsule? If I buy one of these, do I need an AirPort Extreme?

14. Should I buy refurbished, or from a third-party retailer like MacMall? How do I get the educational discount working on the Canadian site?

15. Do I get a free printer with my iMac purchase?

16. It kicks the crap out of Vista/Windows 7, right? (Mac OS X, that is - especially with Snow Leopard.) It's just a better OS, right? Like, more stable, obviously, almost no viruses (how often does a virus come up?), and a lot more visually pleasing, especially with the dock and the like.

17. For an average Windows user, will I have a lot of compatibility problems switching to a Mac?

18. Do I get a mac e-mail address (@me.com, right?) free? Or do I need MobileMe?

19. What in god's name does Firewire do? Do I really need it? Can I hook up my Macbook( Pro) to a display without it? Will I have compatibility issues hooking it up?

20. What does the Option, Command and Apple key do?

21. Can I open Microsoft Office documents (word, powerpoint, etc.) just for viewing if I don't have Microsoft Office 2008 installed?

22. Is it true that Mac OS X requires 2-4x the RAM of a Vista computer? How much RAM will I need to effectively use a Mac? How much does a gig of RAM cost, I assume I shouldn't buy it from Apple?

23. Convince me why gloss > matte/is suitable. :P

24. Does the iMac/Macbook models get really hot/fans get really loud?

25. What's overclocking mean?

26. Is iPhoto and iMovie as easy to use as they say?

27. How good are the iMac speakers/will I need another kind?

28. Should I get a carrying case, do they scratch easy?

29. How do I turn the iMac on?

30. Big difference between SSD and HDD? DDR2 and DDR3?

THANKS! I may add more after. I know this is a lot of questions but I greatly appreciate it, and it should be fairly easy for a seasoned OS Xer.

I am selling my old 320GB HD on CL. I was wondering if I do a clean OS X install on it, will I be able to just pop it into the buyer's MacBook and have it running straight away? Will there be problems with my copy of OS X?