g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets
  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
     A stream-of-consciousness Web journal, containing
     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.


On My Blog Menu:

InstaPundit
USS Clueless
James Lileks
Little Green Footballs
As the Apple Turns
Entropicana
Cold Fury
Capitalist Lion
Red Letter Day
Eric S. Raymond
Tal G in Jerusalem
Secular Islam
Aziz Poonawalla
Corsair the Rational Pirate
.clue

« ? Blogging Brians # »





Book Plug:

Buy it and I get
money. I think.
BSD Mall




 10/6/2003 -  10/8/2003
 9/29/2003 -  10/5/2003
 9/22/2003 -  9/28/2003
 9/15/2003 -  9/21/2003
  9/8/2003 -  9/14/2003
  9/1/2003 -   9/7/2003
 8/25/2003 -  8/31/2003
 8/18/2003 -  8/24/2003
 8/11/2003 -  8/17/2003
  8/4/2003 -  8/10/2003
 7/28/2003 -   8/3/2003
 7/21/2003 -  7/27/2003
 7/14/2003 -  7/20/2003
  7/7/2003 -  7/13/2003
 6/30/2003 -   7/6/2003
 6/23/2003 -  6/29/2003
 6/16/2003 -  6/22/2003
  6/9/2003 -  6/15/2003
  6/2/2003 -   6/8/2003
 5/26/2003 -   6/1/2003
 5/19/2003 -  5/25/2003
 5/12/2003 -  5/18/2003
  5/5/2003 -  5/11/2003
 4/28/2003 -   5/4/2003
 4/21/2003 -  4/27/2003
 4/14/2003 -  4/20/2003
  4/7/2003 -  4/13/2003
 3/31/2003 -   4/6/2003
 3/24/2003 -  3/30/2003
 3/17/2003 -  3/23/2003
 3/10/2003 -  3/16/2003
  3/3/2003 -   3/9/2003
 2/24/2003 -   3/2/2003
 2/17/2003 -  2/23/2003
 2/10/2003 -  2/16/2003
  2/3/2003 -   2/9/2003
 1/27/2003 -   2/2/2003
 1/20/2003 -  1/26/2003
 1/13/2003 -  1/19/2003
  1/6/2003 -  1/12/2003
12/30/2002 -   1/5/2003
12/23/2002 - 12/29/2002
12/16/2002 - 12/22/2002
 12/9/2002 - 12/15/2002
 12/2/2002 -  12/8/2002
11/25/2002 -  12/1/2002
11/18/2002 - 11/24/2002
11/11/2002 - 11/17/2002
 11/4/2002 - 11/10/2002
10/28/2002 -  11/3/2002
10/21/2002 - 10/27/2002
10/14/2002 - 10/20/2002
 10/7/2002 - 10/13/2002
 9/30/2002 -  10/6/2002
 9/23/2002 -  9/29/2002
 9/16/2002 -  9/22/2002
  9/9/2002 -  9/15/2002
  9/2/2002 -   9/8/2002
 8/26/2002 -   9/1/2002
 8/19/2002 -  8/25/2002
 8/12/2002 -  8/18/2002
  8/5/2002 -  8/11/2002
 7/29/2002 -   8/4/2002
 7/22/2002 -  7/28/2002
 7/15/2002 -  7/21/2002
  7/8/2002 -  7/14/2002
  7/1/2002 -   7/7/2002
 6/24/2002 -  6/30/2002
 6/17/2002 -  6/23/2002
 6/10/2002 -  6/16/2002
  6/3/2002 -   6/9/2002
 5/27/2002 -   6/2/2002
 5/20/2002 -  5/26/2002
 5/13/2002 -  5/19/2002
  5/6/2002 -  5/12/2002
 4/29/2002 -   5/5/2002
 4/22/2002 -  4/28/2002
 4/15/2002 -  4/21/2002
  4/8/2002 -  4/14/2002
  4/1/2002 -   4/7/2002
 3/25/2002 -  3/31/2002
 3/18/2002 -  3/24/2002
 3/11/2002 -  3/17/2002
  3/4/2002 -  3/10/2002
 2/25/2002 -   3/3/2002
 2/18/2002 -  2/24/2002
 2/11/2002 -  2/17/2002
  2/4/2002 -  2/10/2002
 1/28/2002 -   2/3/2002
 1/21/2002 -  1/27/2002
 1/14/2002 -  1/20/2002
  1/7/2002 -  1/13/2002
12/31/2001 -   1/6/2002
12/24/2001 - 12/30/2001
12/17/2001 - 12/23/2001
Wednesday, September 24, 2003
10:03 - What, no G5-blogging yet?

(top) link
Nope, not yet. I've been a little bit on the squeezed side since getting home yesterday, what with transferring all my old data across the network (12GB of MP3s and AACs, 20GB of DV projects, and assorted gigabytes of other detritus) and burning and installing the new seed build of Panther on the downstairs iMac. I've also not been exactly thrilled about the prospect of typing things using the new machine, because, well...

... Ahem.

Okay, see, one of the main reasons why I wanted to get a new machine was that it would be an excuse to get a new keyboard. Yeah, yeah, I could have just gone and gotten a new keyboard. I know. But it's a psychological thing, y'know? Package unity and all that. Besides, the computer itself was more compelling than the new keyboard; it was just icing to be able to type on a keyboard that's nice and new and has keys whose plastic pegs aren't worn down to sticky nubs like my old keyboard.

(I was also reluctant to get rid of that keyboard, sucky though it had become, because it's one of those old iMac-style keyboards that's about four inches shorter than the regular keyboards, with little chiclet arrow and F-keys-- a separate keypad, but a very small footprint. I liked it because I could slide it under my monitor, which if you know the geometry of the Cinema Displays is a pretty cool thing-- I liked being able to reclaim that desk space to write checks and things. But on my new desk, that isn't an issue, or possible, because a) the keyboard is in a tray, which I find acceptable now for some reason; and b) the monitor is on an adjustable platform, which means it's no longer contiguous with the desk surface. So I can safely get a full-sized keyboard and enjoy it without regret, finally.)

So yesterday I come home, find the Big Black Box (tripping over it with a Short Sharp Shock), drag it upstairs, slice it tremblingly open, lift out the big cardboard Mao-poster beauty-shot cover sheet, reveal the top piece of styrofoam into which all the accessories are nestled--

...And there's no keyboard.

BLAAAAAUUUGHH!

So I'll call Sales Support in a few minutes and make them make it all better. But in the meantime, typing (using the old keyboard) is sort of a bittersweet pleasure: damn, these keys are tiny and sticky. But that text sure does respond fast.

Sigh. Anyway.

Fast? Yes, it's fast, thank you for asking. It makes me gulp. It makes me flutter my eyelids. It makes me roll around on the floor with snakes clutched in my fists. The first time it booted it had to grind the disk a bit, but the second time-- after all the caches had been set up and everything-- it went straight from black-POST-screen to gray-spinner-thing (about five seconds) to BLUEPROGRESSSCREENTOLOGIN. Seriously. It spent all of a third of a second on the progress-bar dialog screen. ZAP! BLUEBAR! GONE! And then the desktop's up. Made my heart leap into my throat, except it got distracted, lost its footing, and impaled itself on my sternum on the way up, and I had to squirm around under my desk for a few minutes listening in the dark to the sound of the computer's fans.

Did I mention that it's really really really quiet?

Seriously. It's frickin' quiet.

There are like nine fans in there, right? I mean, look at the internal architecture-- this thing is mutant. The fans both push and pull, the whole interior is divided into regions specifically optimized for airflow.... and those nine fans put out about as much noise as two iMacs. Which is to say, not bloody much.

I powered the thing on, and the fans went wwhhwwhhooooooOOOOOOOOOO-- (at this point I was thinking, oh great, it's louder than my G4-- then, suddenly, OOOOOoooghglooppphtmmmmmmmm. And it's over. There's so little noise that if I close the door to the compartment under the desk, I can barely tell it's on. It's not a vibratey whooooshing noise, either, like so many PC fans that I've been used to; rather, it's a turbine-like, humming, sideways, musical noise, with harmonics and a gentle texture, like a suspended chord-- it feels like being in that exhaust vent in Galaxy Quest. Like I'm in the middle of a spaceship that's somehow, oddly, alive-- but is making a big show of keeping quiet about it all in case the aliens hear.

Now, what's going to take some getting used to is the way these fans respond to CPU load. The more the computer does, the more the fans spin up. It's like having one of those CPU-load meters on your screen, but instead of visual feedback, it's auditory. I can tell exactly how loaded the thing is just by listening. (How... industrial.) The fans have yet to get to a level that I'd call loud, but the difference is definitely noticeable-- and if effects the changes in speed in a very graduated, analog way. I sync my IMAP mailboxes: mmmmwwwwwwooooowwwmmmmmm. I import a CD in Tunes: mmmmmmmRRRRRWWWWRRRRRRmmmmmmm. I connect to my old machine over the network, mount my scratch disk, and start downloading twelve gigabytes of music files, getting about ten megabytes per second, pegging the hundred-net, and some little fan somewhere in there mysteriously fires up its teeny little spindle so it's making a very high-pitched but very quiet ssssquueeeeeeeel-- you know, the kind of dog-hearing-range thing that you know you can hear, but that you're not sure any service tech would ever believe you about if you tried pointing it out to them. Like a big TV set that you just bought over your wife's objections for thousands of dollars, only to find out that it makes this unbearable eardrum-piercing electronic whine, which you know you'll have to just get used to in order to maintain your pride, or else take it ignominiously to the shop to have them rub their chins, replace a few miscellaneous unrelated parts that they have to back-order for six weeks, charge you five hundred bucks, take it home, and have the same whine appear (though you're sure at least it's a little bit quieter) as soon as you turn it on. But then the transfer completes, and EEEEEeeeeewwwwmmmmmm. All gone.

What, does the Ethernet chipset have its own fan? Or does AppleTalk have its own hardware subsystem? I can't figure that one out.

But anyway: importing that CD? 19x at the top end. Not bad. I was admittedly hoping for something like 25x-- but hell, I'm not complaining. Mail is laser-quick now-- I can just about hold down the "down" button and it'll process the read-status of all my notification messages in real-time, instead of like in the old one, where I had to wait for each one to finish exchanging data before I could scroll to the next one. All better now.

Flurry is a thing of beauty now.

Is it faster than a comparably priced Xeon-based Dell? Who knows? Apple says one thing, "L" says another, and I'm sure nobody knows the real answer, if there is such a thing. But PC Magazine did a head-to-head review and found that the G5 trounced the Dell in real-world applications like converting Word documents and converting images, but lost in most of the Photoshop trials. But it was a pretty close race in most of those numbers. (And the G5 did way better in Final Cut Pro! Nyuk, nyuk.) The upshot is that, well, it's pretty frickin' fast-- and the reviewers were favorable-- heavily-- on every subject except the keyboard and mouse. (Hardly surprising, that.)

When Apple's Steve Jobs introduced the Apple Power Mac G5 this summer as the fastest personal computer any company had built to date, we took it with a grain of salt. After all, Apple had made that boast in the past, and those claims did not tend to hold up when independent third parties (such as ourselves) ran tests on current, real-world applications (not the synthetic benchmark tests Apple cited).

Well, we'll take that salt with a side of fries. After testing a loaded ($4,349 direct, after we opted for more RAM and upgraded graphics) dual 2.0-GHz Power Mac G5 on a range of high-end content creation applications and comparing the results with a similarly configured (and priced) Dell Precision 650 Workstation running dual 3.06-GHz Xeon processors, we see that indeed the G5 is generally as fast as the best Intel-based workstations currently available.

And even better, the comments are full of people-- PC guys-- saying they might just have to give one of these puppies a try. It looks like Apple's done themselves proud.

(Wait. Is this thing still on? I can't hear anything.)

(Oh, wait. Yeah. I forgot already.)

Photos later.

Oh, and one more little bit of annoyance: the G5's slots are all PCI-X. Which is not backward-compatible with 5V PCI cards. Like my SCSI card.

So my scanner, that erstwhile Microtek 6400XL with its long-suffering SCSI cable, is at long last left high and dry.

I think this time I'll finally just take a big ol' swig at the suck pipe and sell it on Ebay, and pick up a 9800XL-- which is essentially the same scanner, except with FireWire. No more SCSI for me, thankyouverymuch. I think I've put in more than enough penance in dealing with that thing, and it's time to end my dependence on Adaptec's corporate mercy.


Back to Top


© Brian Tiemann