Daniel Hardy

In the usability world Apple is often brought up as a positive example of what a “perfect” user experience could or should be. This is because they do a wonderful job controlling every aspect of the user experience from marketing and initial purchase all the way through receiving and use of the product. Over the last few weeks I have had the same conversation with several Apple fans that seem to reveal a gap in the experience. These conversations revolved around Apple’s price in relation to its competition. Each and every person complained that the Mac was too expensive and that because of their cost they are not competitive. I decided to look into their cost in relation to equivalent machines from Dell and HP.

For this little experiment I decided to look at the Mac Pro. I choose this over a notebook because notebook’s generally have all kinds of extremely proprietary technology so they can be very tricky to compare. They also limit the configuration options so it can be difficult to find exactly the same specs on multiple machines. This makes the Mac Pro an easier choice. Perhaps in a follow up when HP and Dell start offering LED based screens I will compare them.

The Mac Pro starts at $2499.99 and even at this price it comes well equipped. This includes twin, dual-core Intel Xeon processors running at 2.66GHz each, 250GB SATA drive, and 1GB 667MHz RAM. By any standard this is a powerful machine but it is the lowest power desktop you can get from Apple.

Now that I have my control I set out to find a comparable unit from Dell. To do this you have to look outside the typical Dell retail area and instead move into their small business workstations. I ended up choosing the Dell Precision 490 Desktop with Windows XP and customizing it to get all the correct features. This including changing the processor out to the Apple equivalent of two Xeon 5150s and upgrading the hard drive to 250GBs. Unfortunately Dell does not offer the same graphics card so I decided to leave this option as the factory default. These modifications brought the total to $2773.

Moving on to HP did not help the “expensive mac” argument either. Again, to find anything with comparable power you need to look outside the mainstream HP desktop and move into the workstations . Here I found the HP xw8400 Workstation. I decided to choose the Linux option as it is my operating system of choice and a distant cousing to OSx. It is also a little bit less expensive than Windows. Like the Dell machine the processor had to be upgrade as well as the hard drive. Again like the Dell there was not an exact match for the graphics card Apple uses so I left this section at its default. HP’s price came back to an astonishing $3523. This is more than $1000 over the price of a comparable Mac Pro.

This little experiment demonstrates something extremely important that Apple has missed. Users seem to know that Apple provides a compelling user experience but they seem to not understand that the Apple product line is really competitive in pricing. This is a simple missed opportunity on Apple’s part. Users don’t mind paying for quality and power therefore Apple should do a better job of explaining just how much power their systems have. The should teach customers that a “bottom of the line” Mac is actually much higher in power than that of the competition’s bottom line. I would like to see how much this could improve Apple sales. It certainly makes me want to purchase one… albeit to run Ubuntu instead of OSX

In the usability world Apple is often brought up as a positive example of what a “perfect” user experience could or should be. This is because they do a wonderful job controlling every aspect of the user experience from marketing and initial purchase all the way through receiving and use of the product. Over the last few weeks I have had the same conversation with several Apple fans that seem to reveal a gap in the experience. These conversations revolved around Apple’s price in relation to its competition. Each and every person complained that the Mac was too expensive and that because of their cost they are not competitive. I decided to look into their cost in relation to equivalent machines from Dell and HP.

For this little experiment I decided to look at the Mac Pro. I choose this over a notebook because notebook’s generally have all kinds of extremely proprietary technology so they can be very tricky to compare. They also limit the configuration options so it can be difficult to find exactly the same specs on multiple machines. This makes the Mac Pro an easier choice. Perhaps in a follow up when HP and Dell start offering LED based screens I will compare them.

The Mac Pro starts at $2499.99 and even at this price it comes well equipped. This includes twin, dual-core Intel Xeon processors running at 2.66GHz each, 250GB SATA drive, and 1GB 667MHz RAM. By any standard this is a powerful machine but it is the lowest power desktop you can get from Apple.

Now that I have my control I set out to find a comparable unit from Dell. To do this you have to look outside the typical Dell retail area and instead move into their small business workstations. I ended up choosing the Dell Precision 490 Desktop with Windows XP and customizing it to get all the correct features. This including changing the processor out to the Apple equivalent of two Xeon 5150s and upgrading the hard drive to 250GBs. Unfortunately Dell does not offer the same graphics card so I decided to leave this option as the factory default. These modifications brought the total to $2773.

Moving on to HP did not help the “expensive mac” argument either. Again, to find anything with comparable power you need to look outside the mainstream HP desktop and move into the workstations . Here I found the HP xw8400 Workstation. I decided to choose the Linux option as it is my operating system of choice and a distant cousing to OSx. It is also a little bit less expensive than Windows. Like the Dell machine the processor had to be upgrade as well as the hard drive. Again like the Dell there was not an exact match for the graphics card Apple uses so I left this section at its default. HP’s price came back to an astonishing $3523. This is more than $1000 over the price of a comparable Mac Pro.

This little experiment demonstrates something extremely important that Apple has missed. Users seem to know that Apple provides a compelling user experience but they seem to not understand that the Apple product line is really competitive in pricing. This is a simple missed opportunity on Apple’s part. Users don’t mind paying for quality and power therefore Apple should do a better job of explaining just how much power their systems have. The should teach customers that a “bottom of the line” Mac is actually much higher in power than that of the competition’s bottom line. I would like to see how much this could improve Apple sales. It certainly makes me want to purchase one… albeit to run Ubuntu instead of OSX

In the usability world Apple is often brought up as a positive example of what a “perfect” user experience could or should be. This is because they do a wonderful job controlling every aspect of the user experience from marketing and initial purchase all the way through receiving and use of the product. Over the last few weeks I have had the same conversation with several Apple fans that seem to reveal a gap in the experience. These conversations revolved around Apple’s price in relation to its competition. Each and every person complained that the Mac was too expensive and that because of their cost they are not competitive. I decided to look into their cost in relation to equivalent machines from Dell and HP.

For this little experiment I decided to look at the Mac Pro. I choose this over a notebook because notebook’s generally have all kinds of extremely proprietary technology so they can be very tricky to compare. They also limit the configuration options so it can be difficult to find exactly the same specs on multiple machines. This makes the Mac Pro an easier choice. Perhaps in a follow up when HP and Dell start offering LED based screens I will compare them.

The Mac Pro starts at $2499.99 and even at this price it comes well equipped. This includes twin, dual-core Intel Xeon processors running at 2.66GHz each, 250GB SATA drive, and 1GB 667MHz RAM. By any standard this is a powerful machine but it is the lowest power desktop you can get from Apple.

Now that I have my control I set out to find a comparable unit from Dell. To do this you have to look outside the typical Dell retail area and instead move into their small business workstations. I ended up choosing the Dell Precision 490 Desktop with Windows XP and customizing it to get all the correct features. This including changing the processor out to the Apple equivalent of two Xeon 5150s and upgrading the hard drive to 250GBs. Unfortunately Dell does not offer the same graphics card so I decided to leave this option as the factory default. These modifications brought the total to $2773.

Moving on to HP did not help the “expensive mac” argument either. Again, to find anything with comparable power you need to look outside the mainstream HP desktop and move into the workstations . Here I found the HP xw8400 Workstation. I decided to choose the Linux option as it is my operating system of choice and a distant cousing to OSx. It is also a little bit less expensive than Windows. Like the Dell machine the processor had to be upgrade as well as the hard drive. Again like the Dell there was not an exact match for the graphics card Apple uses so I left this section at its default. HP’s price came back to an astonishing $3523. This is more than $1000 over the price of a comparable Mac Pro.

This little experiment demonstrates something extremely important that Apple has missed. Users seem to know that Apple provides a compelling user experience but they seem to not understand that the Apple product line is really competitive in pricing. This is a simple missed opportunity on Apple’s part. Users don’t mind paying for quality and power therefore Apple should do a better job of explaining just how much power their systems have. The should teach customers that a “bottom of the line” Mac is actually much higher in power than that of the competition’s bottom line. I would like to see how much this could improve Apple sales. It certainly makes me want to purchase one… albeit to run Ubuntu instead of OSX

In the usability world Apple is often brought up as a positive example of what a “perfect” user experience could or should be. This is because they do a wonderful job controlling every aspect of the user experience from marketing and initial purchase all the way through receiving and use of the product. Over the last few weeks I have had the same conversation with several Apple fans that seem to reveal a gap in the experience. These conversations revolved around Apple’s price in relation to its competition. Each and every person complained that the Mac was too expensive and that because of their cost they are not competitive. I decided to look into their cost in relation to equivalent machines from Dell and HP.

For this little experiment I decided to look at the Mac Pro. I choose this over a notebook because notebook’s generally have all kinds of extremely proprietary technology so they can be very tricky to compare. They also limit the configuration options so it can be difficult to find exactly the same specs on multiple machines. This makes the Mac Pro an easier choice. Perhaps in a follow up when HP and Dell start offering LED based screens I will compare them.

The Mac Pro starts at $2499.99 and even at this price it comes well equipped. This includes twin, dual-core Intel Xeon processors running at 2.66GHz each, 250GB SATA drive, and 1GB 667MHz RAM. By any standard this is a powerful machine but it is the lowest power desktop you can get from Apple.

Now that I have my control I set out to find a comparable unit from Dell. To do this you have to look outside the typical Dell retail area and instead move into their small business workstations. I ended up choosing the Dell Precision 490 Desktop with Windows XP and customizing it to get all the correct features. This including changing the processor out to the Apple equivalent of two Xeon 5150s and upgrading the hard drive to 250GBs. Unfortunately Dell does not offer the same graphics card so I decided to leave this option as the factory default. These modifications brought the total to $2773.

Moving on to HP did not help the “expensive mac” argument either. Again, to find anything with comparable power you need to look outside the mainstream HP desktop and move into the workstations . Here I found the HP xw8400 Workstation. I decided to choose the Linux option as it is my operating system of choice and a distant cousing to OSx. It is also a little bit less expensive than Windows. Like the Dell machine the processor had to be upgrade as well as the hard drive. Again like the Dell there was not an exact match for the graphics card Apple uses so I left this section at its default. HP’s price came back to an astonishing $3523. This is more than $1000 over the price of a comparable Mac Pro.

This little experiment demonstrates something extremely important that Apple has missed. Users seem to know that Apple provides a compelling user experience but they seem to not understand that the Apple product line is really competitive in pricing. This is a simple missed opportunity on Apple’s part. Users don’t mind paying for quality and power therefore Apple should do a better job of explaining just how much power their systems have. The should teach customers that a “bottom of the line” Mac is actually much higher in power than that of the competition’s bottom line. I would like to see how much this could improve Apple sales. It certainly makes me want to purchase one… albeit to run Ubuntu instead of OSX

In the usability world Apple is often brought up as a positive example of what a “perfect” user experience could or should be. This is because they do a wonderful job controlling every aspect of the user experience from marketing and initial purchase all the way through receiving and use of the product. Over the last few weeks I have had the same conversation with several Apple fans that seem to reveal a gap in the experience. These conversations revolved around Apple’s price in relation to its competition. Each and every person complained that the Mac was too expensive and that because of their cost they are not competitive. I decided to look into their cost in relation to equivalent machines from Dell and HP.

For this little experiment I decided to look at the Mac Pro. I choose this over a notebook because notebook’s generally have all kinds of extremely proprietary technology so they can be very tricky to compare. They also limit the configuration options so it can be difficult to find exactly the same specs on multiple machines. This makes the Mac Pro an easier choice. Perhaps in a follow up when HP and Dell start offering LED based screens I will compare them.

The Mac Pro starts at $2499.99 and even at this price it comes well equipped. This includes twin, dual-core Intel Xeon processors running at 2.66GHz each, 250GB SATA drive, and 1GB 667MHz RAM. By any standard this is a powerful machine but it is the lowest power desktop you can get from Apple.

Now that I have my control I set out to find a comparable unit from Dell. To do this you have to look outside the typical Dell retail area and instead move into their small business workstations. I ended up choosing the Dell Precision 490 Desktop with Windows XP and customizing it to get all the correct features. This including changing the processor out to the Apple equivalent of two Xeon 5150s and upgrading the hard drive to 250GBs. Unfortunately Dell does not offer the same graphics card so I decided to leave this option as the factory default. These modifications brought the total to $2773.

Moving on to HP did not help the “expensive mac” argument either. Again, to find anything with comparable power you need to look outside the mainstream HP desktop and move into the workstations . Here I found the HP xw8400 Workstation. I decided to choose the Linux option as it is my operating system of choice and a distant cousing to OSx. It is also a little bit less expensive than Windows. Like the Dell machine the processor had to be upgrade as well as the hard drive. Again like the Dell there was not an exact match for the graphics card Apple uses so I left this section at its default. HP’s price came back to an astonishing $3523. This is more than $1000 over the price of a comparable Mac Pro.

This little experiment demonstrates something extremely important that Apple has missed. Users seem to know that Apple provides a compelling user experience but they seem to not understand that the Apple product line is really competitive in pricing. This is a simple missed opportunity on Apple’s part. Users don’t mind paying for quality and power therefore Apple should do a better job of explaining just how much power their systems have. The should teach customers that a “bottom of the line” Mac is actually much higher in power than that of the competition’s bottom line. I would like to see how much this could improve Apple sales. It certainly makes me want to purchase one… albeit to run Ubuntu instead of OSX

Great web app. to test and validate just about every aspect of a web page in one single shot. This includes things like validating HTML/XHTML, CSS, Feeds, etc to testing for accessibility and SEO problems.

Very handy, check it out

read more | digg story

Great web app. to test and validate just about every aspect of a web page in one single shot. This includes things like validating HTML/XHTML, CSS, Feeds, etc to testing for accessibility and SEO problems.

Very handy, check it out

read more | digg story

Let me know what you think of the new site. It still has a ways to go but I think it is certainly more entertaining that previous versions.

For those of you in IE6 or less please use a better browser as it will significantly change the viewing experience.

Ever get tired of typing the same long terminal commands over and over again. This is a short article that does a great job of explaining how to make those nasty terminal commands nice and easy to handle. Every Linux user should check this out as it could save you a lot of time.

via Jon

read more | digg story

First off the thoughts below are constructed around stereotypes.  If you are against stereotypes then there is no need to read on ;)  In my opinion stereotypes can be a useful tool in interacting with people.  The catch is to not let stereotypes impact your ability to give someone a chance.  Now on to the good stuff…
I have met a lot of types of designers in my life.  Many of them have had a common thread even though their fields of expertise have been wildly different. This thread is an air of arrogance.  This is not to say that all or even most of them have this trait, but instead that a large “per capita” ratio does.  I have often ponder why this phenomenon occurs and today I came up with my own hypothesis.   Design is intoxicating, particularly a successful design.

In a broad definition design could be viewed as an outward expression of a solution to any given problem.  The important part of this thought is that it is outward.  This is to say that the audience(customer) can see the design in action, be it an interaction or some graphics that build a “feel” or “attitude”.  This is in contrast to something like development where the user doesn’t see or consider the results of the hard work (unless it is broken).  As a designer when the application is a success it is easy to take it personal.

Think of if in terms of “buzz.”  Most of the time when people talk about how great a product is they say things like “It is so easy to use” or “I love the way it looks.”  Rarely do you hear someone discuss how well it was developed or how there isn’t any bugs in it.

Even when the reverse happens and a product is deemed a failure it is often blamed on the design, not the construction.

The interesting part is that none of it would be possible if someone didn’t have the amazing amounts of knowledge to build it (be it by code or content).  This alone should humble any designer.  But some how this concept continues to be lost on many in the design community.  Perhaps it is because many designers have never taken the time to learn how to develop the rest of the items needed to make a great application.