Where to Get the Worst Deal on a Professional-level Mac
Once again, I'm in the market for a new laptop. It's been almost two years since I got my current 2.16GHz MacBook Pro, and the state of the art has advanced enough that a new machine may be worth it to me. The machine I'm pricing now:
15" MacBook Pro
- 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 6MB shared L2 cache
- 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
- 320GB Serial ATA hard drive; 5400 rpm
- NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics processor w/512MB GDDR3 memory
- SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
A little bit of shopping around, and I discover that most of the sources to get it have nearly-identical prices, with one exception:
| Vendor | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Apple retail | $2799 | $216.92 CA sales tax, free shipping |
| SmallDog | $2799 | No tax, free shipping |
| MacMall | $2794 | +CA sales tax, +$17 shipping |
| B&H | $2799 | No tax, free shipping |
| Apple* | $2738 | $212.20 CA sales tax, free shipping |
Wondering now where that last price came from? That's how much it costs, combined, when you buy the MacBook Pro and an Apple Developer Select membership. And any operating systems Apple ships in the next twelve months are automatically included.
So, my question is:
Why does anyone—developer or not—ever buy a professional-level Mac (i.e., Mac Pro and MacBook Pro machines selling for $2500 and up) from Apple retail?
[Of course, if you want to spend a whole lot less and get an almost-as-good Mac, the place to buy is Apple's Refurb and Closeout store.]
Good to know
What's the statute of limitations on dumb comments?
There's speculation that Obama might nominate Lawrence Summers as his Treasury Secretary. This is a source of consternation among feminists, because Summers said some dumb things about women's intrinsic abilities when he was president of Harvard back in January of 2005, for which he immediately apologized and led to him leaving Harvard. Hit the link above if you want to see what he said, though it's not really relevant.
Summers is very well qualified for the job of Treasury Secretary, not the least because he has already done the job under Clinton, and by all accounts well. He has also been a member of the Council of Economic Advisers and Chief Economist for the World Bank. In a worldwide financial crisis, he may not be the only guy who could do the job, but it is clear that he would be one of the best choices.
So it makes no sense to me to keep him out of a job where he could arguably benefit not just America, but the world (given our pivotal role in the world economy), because he made some offensive comments almost four years ago. Shouldn't there be an expiration date for the stigma of this sort of thing? And isn't it about time that we got beyond political correctness and petty identity politics, and just picked the best people for jobs?
Wanted: Birthday Present
Nine years ago (time flies, doesn't it?) Tom and I wrote the first posts on this blog. Length of time until our first political post: approximately 4.5 hours.
Given that it's our blog's ninth birthday, we're asking you, our readers, for a gift: the United States of America.
Not just for us, but for all of us. If you're an American citizen, please vote.
We'll be getting together tonight with some friends to watch the election results, and hopefully, open a very nice bottle of champagne. From us here to you, our best wishes for a very happy next four years.
Just wondering
After this day and this election is over, will Obama transform his campaign organization, with those millions of volunteers, into a grassroots organization that will help him govern and put pressure on lawmakers to pass his initiatives? Given his deep belief in community organizing, it wouldn't surprise me one bit.
He beat me to it: Barack Obama for President
I was going to spend part of this day writing a post detailing the reasons why I will be voting for Obama on Tuesday. I've been writing it in my head for the past few days. Then I read John Scalzi's blog today, and find that he's already said everything I was going to say, and probably did a better job of it. I hope that he doesn't mind me quoting him at length:
I’m going to vote for him because I believe he is what I think a president should be: Smart, informed, engaged, practical in ideas and in the execution of those ideas, deliberative and as we have seen in this campaign, someone who keeps his head while all those around him are losing theirs. [...]
I’m voting for Obama, but I’m also voting against both the Republican Party and John McCain, and voting against both for the same reason: Outside of a drive to win and be in power, there’s just nothing there. [...]
I was never going to vote for John McCain, but of all the GOP primary candidates this year, he was the one I would have had the least problem with eventually becoming president. But he lost me with his campaign, which was substanceless, stunt-driven and more focused on trying to scare voters from Obama than on making the case for McCain. [...]
It’s appalling that the GOP base holds up Palin as the sort of person it wants as president of the country, and it points to the sort of intellectual and moral vacuousness that party has that the rest of us simply can’t afford anymore.
There's much more to read and enjoy. I strongly urge you to go read it all.
If you're an American citizen, on Tuesday, make sure that you vote (if you haven't already). We'll be voting for Obama, and against the hateful Proposition 8 here in California.
This is an election that will really make a difference, in the strict sense of the word. By voting, we create the possibility of a huge break from the nightmare of the Bush years. We have the ability to choose a leader who will move us away from the know-nothingism, unchecked greed, and cynical corruption of the last eight years.
Come on. Let's go change the world.
A Good Bear Day to you all
I wanted to wish you all a "Good Bear Day," and while finding a link for that, I found that today is also:
- American Beer Day
- Big Bang Day
- Crack-nut Night (aka Nut-Crack Night)
- Cranky Co-Worker’s Day
- Day of Peace
- Feast of the Lord of Misrule
- National Potato Day
- Navy Day
- Swamp Buggy Race Day
- Tunch Paddling Festival
- St. Vincent Independence Day
- St. Frumentius' Day
But most importantly for us around here, I want to wish Tom a very happy birthday.
My Electoral Prediction (4 November 2008, 9 pm EST)
I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict what the news will be saying a few minutes after 9 pm EST on Tuesday, 4 November:
Color code:
- Blue: states for Obama (275 electoral votes)
- Red: states for McCain (150 electoral votes)
- Tan: states that don't matter (113 electoral votes)
If you live in one of the tan states, my prediction is that your vote is irrelevant to the electoral total. The only ones that will count are those that close by 9 pm EST (6 pm PST).
I had difficulty finding out what time each state closed their polls, so I made my own chart. You can find it at this Google spreadsheet or at this web page.
All entries © 1999-2008 Tom Negrino and Dori Smith