Just what does this do, anyway?

It does what TI's linking software does, only better. It can send to and recieve from any TI with a linkport with any cable (except maybe the USB one). It has a nicer interface, and it seems to me to be faster.

Third comment!
I love macs

But why would they recreate something that already exsists? (3rd post)

If I'm not mistaken, it was originally written for Linux, which TI doesn't support. OS X would be a fairly logical port.

Why is it that many people that post on this site feel the need to point out what post they got?

Nobody cares. Nobody wants to read it. And you wern't third poster...

Oh lighten up! :) If I'm correct, I think I may have seen you do that before. Besides, it's exciting to be the first (or in my case, the third, or fourth) one to make a post on this site!

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841

>>>If I'm correct, I think I may have seen you do that before.<<<

This is true...

>>>Besides, it's exciting to be the first (or in my case, the third, or fourth) one to make a post on this site! <<<

I see.

<ontopic>I don't have a mac, but it is good to see software being developed for them. w00t.</ontopic>

I hate mac's and I don't care whether software is made for them or not. |: )

I totally agree with this. Macs are annoying little colored pieces of plastic that sit around, make odd noises, and batter you with a terrible user interface. All the computers at my school are Macs, only because they were offered extremely cheap in a large order.

I've already posted this message below, but it needs to be repeated here:

"Don't base your opinions on Macs on your experience with them in a school. Macs in schools are deficient only because 1) schools never upgrade their computers and 2) the computers are inevitably administered by one of the greatest idiots yet known on Earth."

I agree, it is stupid and annoying, and half the time someone says that they are "third", but in an hour his comment is half way down the page.

TiLP is based on the libticables which support any cables. The TI-GRAPH LINK is also supported under all platforms but works better under Mac...

On OS X, the libticables only supports the TIGL USB and the virtual links :)

I'll have a look at the serial link cables, I think the grey one shouldn't be a problem, although I believe I'll have to use the IOKit to rewrite a driver for the black cable.

My week will be busy with university stuffs, unfortunately :-/

I'm likely to be one of the proud, the few, who stands by their macintosh and cheers that they finally are getting what's coming to them.
I _am_ the first person to download this package. Not that it matters, since after reviewing the sourceforge info, the GUI isn't linked to the core program and theredoesn't seem to be support for any of the cables yet.

But I remain vigilant. OSX is the future of desktop computing, and I look forward to more and more open source software. That's not to say that I don't appreciate all the hard work of winpc developers, though. I own a black link cable (because it was cheap) and use pcs for my calc loading. In fact that's the only reason I keep a pc around these days.

I'll post again when I've installed and tried everything, as far as I can do that.

Well that's lovely I suppose if you are a flaming homosexual like Apple Macintosh. What was the name of the mathematician/computer scientist they are named after? Anyways, he was one of the biggest flaming homosexual people that ever lived. And this line of computers named themselves after him??? Not to mention the fact that their main logo is/was a rainbow colored apple. RAINBOW COLORED??? Also, I have a hard time even cosidering a company that prides itself on how a computer looks rather than what is inside of it. I'm guessing that you got your Apple computer to match the motif of your room? A few shades of pink to go with the color of your flowery wallpaper? Heh... Apple is so flaming.

Dude, keep the flaming down a little.
There's nothing wrong with mac's, many people (myself included) just prefer pc's because it is what we know. I'm sure we'd see benefits in mac's if we used them more.

Hello McAdon. This is McElroy. How's college?

Its been loads of fun, 'til now.
Exams really suck

Exams are the tools of the devil.

I actually managed to fail a math test. Ouch. I hate probability... maybe I should have studied. Oh well.

Java commentary:

public class FailedTest {

public static void main(string args[]) {
FailedTest mathtest = new FailedTest("Probability can kiss my buttocks");

public FailedTest(string howDoesItFeelToFail) {
//etc.
}
}

Funny Java program :)

<macssuck>I had to use mac's when I took webdesign in school and they're the worst 'computers' ever created by human beings and ugliest too. Computer must be powerfull and it doesn't matter how it looks cuz it stays under your desk anyway.</macssuck>

Don't base your opinions on Macs on your experience with them in a school. Macs in schools are deficient only because 1) schools never upgrade their computers and 2) the computers are inevitably administered by one of the greatest idiots yet known on Earth.

Someone finally said it...

They aren't old in my school. My school has one lab of iMac's which is for webdesign and digital art. Mac's just suck, that's it.

Your school has a lab of iMacs? That's cool - even though I'm not in web design. I think it would be great if they had Linux workstations instead of Windoze and that stupid Visual Integrated Development compiler in my AP Computer Science Class.

And Macs don't suck. What's wrong with them? In terms of stabilty and speed (GUI, too), their OS is better than Windoze, they're well built, widely used, there's plenty of software for them, and they're fast.

It doesn't matter if they're not old; I guarantee they're inferior to products you'd find outside a school. My high school had a lab of brand new iMacs, but they decided to order the special cheap education version with 32 megabytes of RAM and a 4 gigabyte hard drive. Naturally, no one liked to use them. Then, in order to further compound the problems with them, the idiot in charge of administrating them put FoolProof on them. FoolProof is a program that schools like to use to "prevent computer hacking." Basically, it patches the operating system to disallow things like dragging files, but it does so in incredibly stupid ways -- at my high school, things were set up so that you could save files to the Desktop, but, once they were saved, you couldn't move them and you couldn't delete them, ever. FoolProof also made the computers more unstable than any other software.

Thus, I'll amend my above statement:

Don't base your opinions on Macs on your experience with them in a school. Macs in schools are deficient only because 1) schools never upgrade their computers; 2) the computers are inevitably administered by one of the greatest idiots yet known on Earth; and 3) the greatest idiots yet known on Earth put "security" software on their computers that render them unusable.

You obviously have no idea what you are talking about.

#1 The 'Macintosh' line of computers were named after an apple. Get it? A Macintosh is a kind of Apple?

#2 Macs have top of the line hardware. The latest one runs at 867 MHz and it scores ~50% better on benchmarks than a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4. That processor is the equivalent of a 2.1 GHz Pentium! The G4 processor requires _no_ heat sinks and consumes less power than the equivalent Pentium.

Ever seen Terminator 2? The special effects were _all_ done on Macs. Try that with a windows machine of the day!
Have you seen Duality? If you haven't, go to www.tfnfanfilms.com. It was done entirely by about 3 guys with Macs. I say about because I do not know exactly how many of them worked on the effects.
Ask any magazine publisher what computer (s)he has on his/her desk. I can almost guarantee that it is a Mac.

#3 Macs have better software compatibility. They can run their own software (which tends to be better written than that of windows), most Windows (98, ME, NT, 2000) software, and now most LINUX/UNIX software.

#4 Steve Jobs has a history of making things that do not look the way a computer is expected to look. Take any NeXT computer. It bears a striking resemblance to a certain gaming console I know.

#5 Apple has come up with quite a bit of the hardware and software we use today. They made the mouse, trackball, laptop wrist rest, the GUI (really made by Xerox, but they gave it to Jobs), and many other ubiquitous things.

My rant has now ended.

> Ask any magazine publisher what computer (s)he has on his/her desk. I can almost guarantee that it is a Mac.

What about PC mags like, say, Maximum PC? Oh, wait- even _they_ use Macs!

This is true. Maximum PC Magazine does use Macs.

you obviously know about Apple, however

#5 So the original GUI really isn't by Apple either. I did not know that. And that GUI has remained mostly unchanged for like 15 years. And it really sucks, it limits the amount of desktop space an application can use (only a few pixels on every side, but it really annoys me personally), and multitasking requires more clicking to change windows. You know what, "coming up with" something does not make the current products any better. The mice that were featured in the TV commercials and come with all the Macs I have seen are itty-bitty little round pieces of crap that cramped up my hand after using it for about 5 minutes once. And they are still stuck in the past with only one button, limiting functionality. And really, how innovative is that little bit of unused space by the keyboard on a lappy? Although I admit, trackballs are cool.

#4 Different is not always better, especially when it takes away from functionality. Take the iMac. No upgrading the monitor, and everthing else inside is extremely hard to get at. Not to mention the expense of having someone else upgrade for you. There is also no way to move the computer away from you and leave the monitor, and all CD-ROM drives tend to get loud. And in a professional looking office, any iMac or Power Mac looks very out of place. And if only they would realize that regular keyboards also need be be ergonomic too, not just the ones they put in laptops.

#3 Too bad no one develops for Macs. Oh, that's because there are very few good languages to use. And running software other than that designed for a Mac on a Mac requires expensive software and runs slower because those programs are not designed for Mac hardware. Plus, nothing comes bundled on a Mac. Of course, this is good for third party developers, but then the consumer has to dish out more money.

#2 Except when it comes to Mac hardware, Apple has no where near top of the line hardware. And it costs more:
"Fastest" Power Mac G4:
$2,499.00
867MHz PowerPC G4
256K L2 & 2MB L3 cache
128MB SDRAM memory
60GB Ultra ATA drive
SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
Gigabit Ethernet
56K internal modem

"Ultimate" Power Mac G4:
$3,499.00
Dual 800MHz PowerPC G4
256K L2 & 2MB L3 per processor
256MB SDRAM memory
80GB Ultra ATA drive
SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX w/TwinView
Gigabit Ethernet
56K internal modem

This is copied from apple.com shopping. The sad thing is these are all the specs you will find there, which doesn't tell you that much at all. The Athlon XP 1900+ which is clocked at 1.6 GHz outperforms the P4 1.9 GHz by about 50%. This is much faster than a P4 2.1 GHz. And it also supports a 266 MHz FSB and DDR-RAM. Much faaster than SD-RAM. Who wants a modem and a NIC? And who is going to use a Gigabit NIC anyhow? I can build you a sytem with the specs mentioned above (Athlon XP, DDR-RAM, etc.) with a better video card for about 2/3 the price! (Without a monitor) And my friend just built a dual 1.5 GHz Athlon MP system with a 266 MHz FSB, 1 GB of DDR-RAM, and two 60GB hard-drives for about $2500 (without monitor). Do the Power Mac's come with monitors? Don't know, the shoppiing site doesn't say.
And if so many people use Macs, why has Apple gone bankrupt, only to be fished out by the Government?

#1 Well, Apple is a name that works.

MY rant has now ended.

Holy poop, you guys! Calm down!

In response to #5:

> The mice that were featured in the TV commercials and come with all the Macs I have seen are itty-bitty little round pieces of crap that cramped up my hand after using it for about 5 minutes once.

Apparently you haven't seen a new Mac for about 5 or 6 months- Apple is using 'real mouse'-shaped mice now ;).

> And they are still stuck in the past with only one button, limiting functionality.

The point of a Mac is that while it can (and does) do enough... well, _stuff_ to keep the most advanced power user happy, the interface is simple enough that a newbie only needs one button to make it work. Besides, there are approximately <insert Graham's number here> mice available for Macs that have at least two buttons, if not more [1].

In response to #4:

> There is also no way to move the computer away from you and leave the monitor...

If you want to be able to do that, don't get an iMac; get a desktop G4. It's as simple as that.

In response to #3:

> Too bad no one develops for Macs.

I might be taking you a little too literally here, but your post (and this one) is a reply to a piece of news concerning a new piece of software for the Mac OS.

> ...there are very few good languages to use.

So what are C, C++, Java, AWK, Perl, Pascal, and Objective-C?

[1]: Well, this _is_ a calculator site, after all...

"Apparently you haven't seen a new Mac for about 5 or 6 months-"
Ok, you're right, I haven't, but I have had experience with Macs that span a few years and *all* of them came with that kind of mouse.

"If you want to be able to do that, don't get an iMac; get a desktop G4. It's as simple as that"
I was just trying to illustrate that an original design does not make it a good one. And the G4 is much more expensive - does it sound like a good market strat to make people pay that much more for something that simple? Really, there are very few options, something that anyone, especially power users appreciate.

"'Too bad no one develops for Macs'"
OK you're right, if you take it literally that was a bit foolish. But remember, this program is really a port from something written for Linux, not one developed specifically for the Mac OS.

"So what are C, C++, Java, AWK, Perl, Pascal, and Objective-C?"
I did not say that there were none. And that is an extrememly tiny list.

>> "So what are C, C++, Java, AWK, Perl, Pascal, and Objective-C?"
> I did not say that there were none.

True, true.

> And that is an extrememly tiny list.

Yeah, but what more do you want?

I want choices; I also want something that isn't "multi-purpose" (generally a bit slower and often hard to do specific tasks for science, engineering, etc) - all of those except Pascal (whiched is generally considered oudated) are. I don't know anything about AWK though.

<Scream>Ahhh! Macs are good/bd/good/bad/good/bad<Scream>

Stop b^tching about it and go home to your respective computers.

I once ate a hotdog

I once kissed a cheeseburger

Wow.

I follow computer industry news rather closely, but I don't seem to recall Apple's bankruptcy nor the government's assistance therewith; perhaps you could refresh my memory?

I take some issue with your statement that one processor "outperforms" another by a definite and objective amount. This suggests that in all operations, one particular processor performs equally well, and equally better than another, even though this assertion is demonstrably false. On what do you base this assertion?

For anyone who would like to read a *sane* comparison of the Pentium 4 and PowerPC G4 processors, see the article from ArsTechnica at the URL linked to this message.

From the article you linked to:
"Note that this article is not a performance comparison; performance comparisons are best done in the lab by testing and benchmarking with real-world applications."

That the article isn't a performance comparison is entirely the point. Performance between processor families cannot be compared in very meaningful ways; their architectures, however, can be.

I recently re-read the article I found the compairisons in (and proptly lost it), and it specificly said that the G4 consistantly outperforms the P4 in graphics editing, movie editing, and some other processor-time-intensive tasks.

I'd have to agree on this one. My four-month-old P4 1.5GHz (a Vaio) isn't nearly as fast as the two-year-old G4's they had in my high school's computer lab.

Vaio's have the worst architecture of all PC's. Sony make good monitors, but not computers.

Of course, you *do* have to figure in the amount, speed, and type of RAM the computer has. RAM often changes performance much more than the processor. For example, I used to have a 133MHz Pentium with 8MB RAM. I added 64MB to it and it ran faster than a 450MHz P2.

Well, I don't really know whether or not they actually did go bankrupt. Some sources say they did, others insist they didn't. Anyway, I am pretty sure I remember them quietly filing for Chapter 11 protection a few years ago. About that time the Federal Government stopped using Macs altogether but ended up paying millions of dollars after that for equipment they never got because of some strange contract. The government is sometimes like that. Anyway, if they didn't go bankrupt, it had a great deal to do with that contract, and that is most of the reason they are still around.

I just did some investigation into the issue, and have come to the conclusion that Apple cannot possibly have gone bankrupt. According to various stock market analysts, Apple has 4 billion dollars in cash alone, not considering stocks and bonds.

Bill Gates has $75 billion. Or at least, he did, before the lawsuits. Saying that a company has $4 billion in cash alone is not saying much. Some companies make that much in a year.

It isn't saying very much to say that a company has $4 billion, but it *is* saying a lot to say that a company has $4 billion in CASH. Most company holdings are held in stocks which are highly variable. So much of Bill Gates' money is in stocks that just with daily variations in the stock market, his total worth fluctuates by several billion dollars throughout the day. If he has less money now, it's mostly because the stock market is lower, not because of the lawsuits. Apple's $4 billion is immune to the fluctuations of the stock market, being affected only by inflation.

Comparing a company to Gates does not say much either, as company can be really, really big and still not have as much as MS.

MS made a deal with the devil. You have to sign your soul over when you're hired. At least, that's *my* theory.

Avoid the Gates of hell..Use Linux ;-)

Like I said before, this was a few years ago. Chapter 11 does not in any way mean that they are gone for good or that they can't come back.

Okay. I guess that I've gotten a little sidetracked here. I think you're referring to 7 years ago or so, when Apple was in a lot of financial trouble (losing $700 million a quarter). This was not because they didn't have enough customers but because their business models were bad; so bad, in fact, that they had so much overstocked inventory (due to bad modeling and predictions) that, by the time they introduced new models, they still had too many old models left in the retail chain. When Steve Jobs took over as CEO, he restructured the company, and since then it has turned a profit 7 out of 8 quarters.

Just because a company is in financial trouble doesn't mean they don't have many customers. Excite@Home went bankrupt despite having as customers half of all of the cable modem subscribers in the nation.

The only reason no one develops for mac is because no one has them. The only reason no one has them is because no one develops for them. If for some reason, mac software was suddenly developed on the same level as PC, people would switch to mac, and eventually it would win out.

>> The only reason no one develops for mac is because no one has them.

That has to be the single most ignorant comment I've ever heard on this site. Worse than "What program do I use to unzip Winzip files in Windows?"

sorry - an overgeneralization. If you go around and ask everyone you know what type the main computer they use is, you'll find a lot more PCs. Also, if you look at the general public, not nerds who discuss computers on calculator sites, you'll find even more PCs. Again, some people do develop for mac, but not to nearly the same degree.

I really don't understand the statement that there is no development on Macs. All of the important application categories are well represented, i.e. Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere. About the only category of software for which there is less development on the Macintosh platform is games, which I will grant is due to the smaller market share of Macintosh computers. Games tend to be very expensive to produce, so a large number of units must be sold in order to make up for development costs. This is why there are fewer games on the Mac than on the PC, and is also why there are fewer (commercial) games on the PC than on dedicated gaming consoles.

Try using an old (~1.5 inches thick) laptop without the wrist rest. If you tink iMac mice cramp your hand, that will make you wish your hand had just fallen off.

As for the Gigabit networking, it is insanely useful for making a LAN. With 1 Gigabit of banwidth, you can download another computer's hard drive in no time at all.

Now, on to languages. The NeXT computing employees wrote a _very_ cool SDK for their computers. It uses a very powerfull, but easy to learn language. They recently made it work with OSX.

The iMac has no fans. This is why you can hear the CD-Drive. The power suply on Windows machines droowns out the CD.

Nothing comes bundled on a Mac? That's funny, I thought that the iMacs came with either twice the advertised RAM, or VirtualPC. [Sound of catalog pages fliping] Acording to my most recent Mac Warehouse, they still do.

What do you mean by 'Mac hardware?' It is all the same stuff, Apple just uses SCSI interfaces instead of IDE for its drives, and the card hardware is exatly the same.

I also suggest that you go read that article on ArsTechnica.

>>>The power suply on Windows machines droowns out the CD.<<<

You mean on a PC, right? I have a PC, but no Windows.

I said innovative, not useful - read it.

Having a Gigabit NIC would really only be usefull if you are building a network for it. Cat 5 cable (which is used in most everything) can only support Gigabit for extremely short distances, and putting a Gigabit NIC on a network with *anthing* (hubs, switches, routers, etc.) that is running at 10/100 would be an absolute waste of money. I'm just saying that it could be optional and save a few bucks.

"They recently made it work with OS X" - Key words: *recently* made it work with there *newest OS*. That still leaves anything else unchanged.

And on any computer, PC or anything, the CD-ROM drive is always the loudest part (when it's running). The power supply fan (the actual power supply makes no sound) is always very quiet, and sometimes a CPU fan can be loud, but still nothing touches the sound of a CD at 52x. I'm sitting here listening to headphones (not very loud though), and I can hear the keybard and my CD-ROM, but not the fans nor the heater running behind me. As a matter of fact, my HD is louder than my power supply fan. Fans arent' *that* loud, and a CD-ROM is necessary.

At Mac Warehouse, maybe, but not other places. And I was talking about software - the stuff MS bundles with Windows may not be best, but it is functional and free.

And by "Mac hardware", I mean the way it works, not looks. You can install some versions of Windows on some old Mac clones because they were built that way, but you can't install Mac OS on a PC or Windows on a normal Mac because of hardware.

I did, and like I said before, the P4 is not really that impressive. Intel is obsessed with clock speeds because clock speeds sell. However, that does not make them better (and I did not dispute the fact that they aren't). Read the words.

I ran over a squirrel while riding my bike, once...

One day I was born...

Fool! No you weren't!

Really? Wow! Come to think of it... me too!

Regarding #2

It is true that the G3 and G4 prosessors, having more efficient designs and smaller die sizes than Intel's processors produces much, much less heat and enables some computers, such as the iMac and G4 cube, to run even without a fan. The Nintendo GameCube is as small as it is because it uses a special G3-derived processor which uses very little power and generates very little heat.

HOWEVER, your statement that G4s require no heat sink is absolutely false. Less heat doesn't mean no heat, and there needs to be a way to dissipate the heat that is produced away from the processor. Despite its efficiency, the G4 very much requires a heat sink.

But Game Cude doesn't have as much horse power as PC's and X-Box. So, size does tell you something...

The size of the processor is utterly irrelevant. Using smaller die sizes is an advantage in processor design. The design process used to create the custom PowerPC-derived chip in the GameCube was made to favor small size over performance; however, the design of the PowerPC line of processors is innately smaller than that of current Intel processors; a PowerPC chip designed to run at X MHz will be much smaller and generate *much* less heat than Pentium 4 designed to run at X MHz.

Tell me, how can you know this when none of the speeds of the powerpc or the P4 are the same? The clock speed of the slowest P4 is faster than the fastest powerpc.

Sony Vaios (did I spell that right?) also come in different colors, and I'm willing to bet many PCs will in the next coupla years. They don't pride themselves on how their computer looks, they just thought they would sell more if they were colored. I prefer beige or black, but I can see that others may want something less dull. Until you have something worth saying, be quiet.

Vaios are decent (I have one), but... If Sony isn't priding themselves in the appearance, they have no pride. Their computers could use a lot of work. For example: RDRAM. RDRAM sucks. Sure, it's fast and awesome for digital video/audio, but it's EXPENSIVE and you have to get *EXACTLY* the right kind if you have a Sony. I know someone who bought 800 MHz RDRAM instead of 400 MHz and his computer quite literally shot fire out of every orifice. Maybe it was the motherboard, but I think spontaneous electronic combustion is a ... bad thing.

In summation: Vaios are nice looking, and they run movies well. If you want to play games, don't get one. I have a Vaio w/ 128 MB RDRAM (400 MHz frontside), GeForce 2 MX, and a 1.5 GHz Pentium 4. It can't run Return to Castle Wolfenstein. My friend has a non-Vaio w/ 128 MB PC133 RAM, GeForce 2 TI (or some such thing), and an 800 MHz Pentium 3. The game runs perfectly.

VAIO = Video/Audio Integrated Operation; in other words, If You Aren't Working With Movies Or Sounds, Don't Get Me.

Calm down! Take a deep breath. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale. Now, count to ten slowly, better yet, count as many digits of pi as you can slowly. Okay, ready? Here we go...

Apple changed the multicolored rainbow logo years ago, back with the first iMacs. Since then, they have just had s single-colored logo. The rainbow thing was probably made way back when Apple had first started and hippy stuff was still cool.

Back when Apple first started, their logo was an intricate wood carving of Issac Newton sitting under an apple tree, around which was a flowing banner bearing the world "Apple Computer Company." They changed to the apple because it was too difficult to produce and blurred to incomprehensible levels when reduced to a size suitable for printing on products. The rainbow* colors were chosen primarily because they wanted to show off the color graphics capabilities of the Apple II. The bite was inserted into the image so that the logo would not be mistaken with a tomato.

* They're not really rainbow colors. They're in a different order.

Who wants to help me start a new computer company: Tomato Computers? Anybody? Anybody?

MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! I DO!!!!!!

Somehow I knew you'd respond :-)

"One of the deep mysteries to me is our logo, the symbol of lust and knowledge, bitten into, all crossed with the colors of the rainbow in the wrong order. You couldn't dream of a more appropriate logo: lust, knowledge, hope, and anarchy."

-- Jean-Louis Gassée
former president of Apple Products and Be, Inc.