DISQUS

Good points, but... the same could be said about a lot of fields... film for instance, or music, or cooking. All these fields have influential "Celebs" and groups or networks that average joe public can't just walk in and join....

People who are good at something will collect followers. They will also be invited to join in with other people who are good at that thing.

Wow!

Looks awesome. Wall-E seriously reminds me of Johnny 5 so that's all good :)

Dan

Nice comparison. You know I think you hit the nail on the head when you said Pownce is too feature heavy and complicated for just quick 10 second microblogging.

Plurk sounds really good and I think I'm gonna give it a go. The one click reply thing is nothing new to Twitter users who use Twhirl/Snitter/Twitteriffic etc but this Karma thing actually sounds pretty cool. Are there any clients for Plurk? I don't want to have to open a new FF tab to post updates...

Dan

Some good comparisons.

Tell you what, if you do decide to go with the MBP we'll have regular conflabs about our user experiences... that could make an interesting article.

Wow... that's a boring desktop...

Don, Interview some people who have pictures of scantily clad ladies as their wallpapers!! that's an order!

@ Dan...

I think you'll find you can run OSX on third party laptops now... and apparently it works very well indeed.

Oh, and I thought I'd add. Dennis, if you do choose the macbook pro, you will be very happy with it. there's no denying that. It's a good spec and a solid, tried and tested machine that a lot of people swear by.

I was simply stressing the point of cost over benefit as they are, near as damn it, the same machine and that seems to be your main concern in this move.

Dan

Lisa... I'm sorry but:

"I disagree that the PC is a better value - it really depends on what you’ll be using it for."

..is nonsense. Look closely at my comparison. In the MBP you get Less HDD, smaller screen and Identical graphics card (Both are GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB of memory). You get 0.3 ghz per core more on the CPU but an identical amount of cache... that's hardly worth mentioning. In that case... the MBP is nearly 3X more money. THREE TIMES! I don't care how you look at it. The PC is better value.

This is especially significant now that PCs and Macs use the same architecture.

Now, a word on Software... for the mac it's more expensive. Fact. From games to Office Applications it's consistently more expensive. So from a Value for money point of view... PC is an obvious winner.

The advantages macs have, however are that they are very simple to use in anger. They are very "point and shoot". Also, there's no denying that they are beautiful objects that make you look pretty cool.,... Although not as cool as the £800 I have left over in my wallet... ;)

Now you see, I don't actually agree with all of them....

I think the key to success as a blogger is to write something that people enjoy reading. That's it. It doesn't matter if you use Windows/Mac/Linux or whatever as long as people enjoy it. Using a mac for the sake of using a mac is the definition of the word "Poser" If you genuinely perfer the interface and like spending a disproportionate amount of money... then fair enough.

Photography thing? I disagree too, you don't need a balls-out SLR to be a successful photoblogger. Up until last week when, incidentally, he bought a Nikon D40, Gav Strange (JamFactory) used a pretty basic compact for his blogs. It's the subject matter that makes photos a success in a blog and in many situations an SLR is too big/bulky/fiddly.

The conventions thing, I kinda see what you're talking about but the web, by it's very definition has made the world a smaller place so you don't necessarily be physically at places to be a valued contributor.

Photoshop skills.... hmm they're handy to have if you're a blogger or not but if you really want to shine them on you should get really really good at using the GIMP. Then you can brag about creating as good a graphics as them without spending a penny.

Well, I wish you the best of luck with your problogging venture Dennis.

Dan

Yeah man I see what you're saying. I'm about to order my Dell Laptop in the next few days.

Dell Vostro 1700:
core 2 duo 2.1ghz with 3MB cache
2GB RAM
250GB HDD
256MB GeForce graphics card
Webcam
17" widescreen
Nice gloss black finish (a'la mackbook)

£474.70
________________________
MacBook Pro:
2.4ghz Core 2 Duo
2GB RAM
200 GB HDD
15.4" Widescreen
256MB GeForce Graphics
Webcam

£1,299
________________________

Speaks for itself really doesn't it?

I have to say, if you're comfortable using a mac then go for the MBP. It's a good machine with lots of nifty features.

I, too have been a loyal windows user for many years but where you and I differ is I have niether the time or the inclination to go about learning a whole new OS and spending a butt load of cash just to do the same job I do now but look more stylish doing it.

The choice is yours mate but think about the cost to benefit ratio... how badly do you want to go apple?

Dan

God damn that girl opens a lot of tabs! :-/

I don't think we'll see an end to web advertising in the forseeable future, if ever. The advent of context specific advertising has been just too profitable for all companies and individuals involved. Advertisers get a premium, people who place ads on their site get a cut and the people who's product/service is being advertised get extra business, a win-win-win situation.

I do however think that facebook and MySpace are performing a dangerous balancing act. Too few adverts threaten their profits, too many threaten their userbase.

Good post, interesting points.

The reason those companies declined was more than likely because they didn't want to be drawn into a public spat with GreenPeace. Greenpeace is the kind of organisation that, if you were found to be less than eco-friendly, would tear you apart in the press and do your company a great deal of harm. Refusing to comment is probably just damage control.

Laws are getting tighter and tighter, though and sooner or later all technology companies are going to be forced to make an active effort to go easy on the environment. This will, of course pass the cost increase down to the customer.

Eco-friendly solutions are already about though. A guy I know offers "Green" hosting when he sells a website. What that means is he sells hosting on server farms that are sustained by wind power only.

Dan