[thelist] [OT?] Apple Questions

Burhan Khalid thelist at meidomus.com
Wed Apr 28 02:07:50 CDT 2004


Greetings :

   I've been mulling the purchase of an apple laptop for my sister (who 
will be starting college in the fall).  She will be doing some sort of 
art major (I don't know the exact field, but like everyone at that age, 
neither does she).

   I decided that I would get her an apple laptop as her graduation 
present, but since I'm not very knowledgable about apple products, I 
would like some advice.  I went to a local reseller and saw an ibook 
(14") and a powerbook (15", I think).  Both *looked* very nice, but I 
don't know if they have enough muscle for things like photoshop, graphic 
editing, dvd playing, etc.  Also, I would like to get her a tablet, so 
any recommendations along that line would also be graciously recieved.

   I also saw a dual 2 ghz g5 (wow), and the salesperson was trying to 
get me to buy a xserve for as my local server.  After reading the 
brochure on xserve (and seeing as how it comes with Samba, FTP, Apache, 
JSP, et. al.) I'm contemplating adding that to the basket as well. 
Anyone who has experience with xserver servers and would like to chime 
in?  The server will be used mainly as storage, but would also be 
functioning as a test lab for my web development (scripting) projects.

   And now, for a change, a tip instead of IOU.

<tip type="Java IDE" author="Burhan Khalid">
   If you are looking to evaluate Java IDEs, or are wanting
a change from the Eclipse, Netbeans/Sun One Studio line of products,
consider IntelliJ IDEA (from jetbrains.com).

   It comes will very creative options, and a ui designer that actually
outputs reasonable code.  Plus they have very neat layout beans that
are a great help in sorting out your gui elements.  Free 30 day trial is 
available, and the site has some nice animated lessons.
</tip>


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