We are a group of mechanical and electrician engineering students & are
working in a project to design a CNC micro lathe, as small as we could
do it. The first step is to define a growing market to sell micro
machines. Any clue to start the project??

Jaime wrote:
We are a group of mechanical and electrician engineering students & are
working in a project to design a CNC micro lathe, as small as we could
do it. The first step is to define a growing market to sell micro
machines. Any clue to start the project??

Don't re-invent the wheel. Do what industry does. Analyze the competition.

"Jaime" wrote in message
oups.com...
We are a group of mechanical and electrician engineering students & are
working in a project to design a CNC micro lathe, as small as we could
do it. The first step is to define a growing market to sell micro
machines. Any clue to start the project??


Troll?????

If you do not know where to start, I would suggest staying in school.

Jaime wrote:

We are a group of mechanical and electrician engineering students & are
working in a project to design a CNC micro lathe, as small as we could
do it. The first step is to define a growing market to sell micro
machines.

If you're going to build a lathe, build a lathe.

Let the business admin lackies define the market.
Now if you meant *identify* a market, well, that's
another thing.

Any clue to start the project??


Well, I think you're in over your head. Think about
why you'd want to build a micro lathe... More
precision than existing big lathes? Sorry, pick
another door. To have precision, you need rigidity
and to have rigidity (assuming you're looking at
building a traditional lathe) you need mass and
lots of it.

There's lots of guys here that could help if they
thought they weren't doing your homework, so
think about these questions and get back to us:

1. What kind of material do you want to turn?
2. What's the swing?
3. What's the distance between centers?
4. What's the max and min spindle rpm?

Jaime wrote:
We are a group of mechanical and electrician engineering students & are
working in a project to design a CNC micro lathe, as small as we could
do it. The first step is to define a growing market to sell micro
machines. Any clue to start the project??


The jewelry industry. We make small stuff.

Although you are already rather late with this. A colleague of mine has
a 4 axis milling machine, the motor of which is built in a housing the
size of a Foredom hand piece.

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

Jim Stewart wrote:
To have precision, you need rigidity
and to have rigidity (assuming you're looking at
building a traditional lathe) you need mass and
lots of it.

Utter nonsense, you don't know what you are talking about! Have you
ever heard of watchmakers lathes? Yes the ones to make watch parts.
There is practically nothing that is machined anywhere with greater
precision.

Ever heard of Levin lathes? The most precise micro lathes in the world.
They only weigh a few pounds. They cost a fortune.
http://www.levinlathe.com/

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

On 19 Sep 2005 18:04:19 -0700, "Jaime" wrote:

We are a group of mechanical and electrician engineering students & are
working in a project to design a CNC micro lathe, as small as we could
do it. The first step is to define a growing market to sell micro
machines. Any clue to start the project??

"Electrician engineering"?

Jaime wrote:
We are a group of mechanical and electrician engineering students & are
working in a project to design a CNC micro lathe, as small as we could
do it. The first step is to define a growing market to sell micro
machines. Any clue to start the project??

Taig Micro Lathe
http://www.taigtools.com/

Sherline lathe
http://www.sherline.com/

Markets: Watchmakers, modelmakers (model engineers), and hobbyist.

For cnc conversions, you might search for hobbycnc, cnc conversion, and
cnc kits.

http://www.xylotex.com/

http://www.artofcnc.ca/

http://www.campbelldesigns.com/

http://www.maxnc.com/

http://www.stepperworld.com/

http://www.hobbycnc.com/

http://www.homeshopcnc.com/

http://www.camtronics-cnc.com/

http://cnc4pc.com/products.htm

http://www.pmdx.com/index.html

http://www.geckodrive.com/

Taunt wrote:
Jaime wrote:

We are a group of mechanical and electrician engineering students & are
working in a project to design a CNC micro lathe, as small as we could
do it. The first step is to define a growing market to sell micro
machines. Any clue to start the project??

Taig Micro Lathe
http://www.taigtools.com/

Sherline lathe
http://www.sherline.com/

Markets: Watchmakers, modelmakers (model engineers), and hobbyist.

For cnc conversions, you might search for hobbycnc, cnc conversion, and
cnc kits.

http://www.xylotex.com/

http://www.artofcnc.ca/

http://www.campbelldesigns.com/

http://www.maxnc.com/

http://www.stepperworld.com/

http://www.hobbycnc.com/

http://www.homeshopcnc.com/

http://www.camtronics-cnc.com/

http://cnc4pc.com/products.htm

http://www.pmdx.com/index.html

http://www.geckodrive.com/


What school?

nano-machining would be cool - I've seen articulated devices that move
in 2-D with ranges of a few micrometers - if you could build a
monolithic lathe that would operate on submicron features, I think
you'd have something

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 00:04:02 -0500, Taunt
wrote:

Jaime wrote:
We are a group of mechanical and electrician engineering students & are
working in a project to design a CNC micro lathe, as small as we could
do it. The first step is to define a growing market to sell micro
machines. Any clue to start the project??

Taig Micro Lathe
http://www.taigtools.com/

Sherline lathe
http://www.sherline.com/

Markets: Watchmakers, modelmakers (model engineers), and hobbyist.

For cnc conversions, you might search for hobbycnc, cnc conversion, and
cnc kits.

http://www.xylotex.com/

http://www.artofcnc.ca/

http://www.campbelldesigns.com/

http://www.maxnc.com/

http://www.stepperworld.com/

http://www.hobbycnc.com/

http://www.homeshopcnc.com/

http://www.camtronics-cnc.com/

http://cnc4pc.com/products.htm

http://www.pmdx.com/index.html

http://www.geckodrive.com/


Dont forget www.omniturn.com

Gunner, OmniTurn authorized field service tech
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire.
Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us)
off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give
them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the **** out of you
for torturing the cat." Gunner

Jaime wrote:

We are a group of mechanical and electrician engineering students & are
working in a project to design a CNC micro lathe, as small as we could
do it. The first step is to define a growing market to sell micro
machines. Any clue to start the project??



Can you make the lathe small enough to swallow?

I want to turn my stomach.

"Chris" wrote in message
...

"Jaime" wrote in message
oups.com...
We are a group of mechanical and electrician engineering students & are
working in a project to design a CNC micro lathe, as small as we could
do it. The first step is to define a growing market to sell micro
machines. Any clue to start the project??


Troll?????

Perhaps. But the "electrician" makes me suspect that this is a front for
some Chinese company that wants to do some market research on the cheap.
Look for a "Taig-Hung-Lo" "micro lathe" in your future.

Boris

--

-------------------------------------
Boris Beizer Ph.D. Seminars and Consulting
1232 Glenbrook Road on Software Testing and
Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 Quality Assurance

TEL: 215-572-5580
FAX: 215-886-0144
Email bsquare "at" earthlink.net

------------------------------------------

I can't be certain, but I think one of the sites listed below installed a
spyware/anti-virus virus on my IE. It first announced itself as I was
entering campbelldesigns's site. That alone doesn't mean anything; it could
have been any one of the sites I visited earlier, and I didn't hit the links
in order. It could even have been earlier in the day and unrelated to this.
A new add-in installed itself today, moga.dll. I've blown away the dll, and
so its antics on my start page stopped, but the pop-up still comes up
periodically. Be warned. Not about the links below, but about infectious
bull**** in general. I have a few ideas about using center punches as the
drip agent in a varied form of chinese water torture.

"Taunt" wrote in message
news:1LMXe.87226$Zp.21003@lakeread04...
Jaime wrote:
We are a group of mechanical and electrician engineering students & are
working in a project to design a CNC micro lathe, as small as we could
do it. The first step is to define a growing market to sell micro
machines. Any clue to start the project??

Taig Micro Lathe
http://www.taigtools.com/

Sherline lathe
http://www.sherline.com/

Markets: Watchmakers, modelmakers (model engineers), and hobbyist.

For cnc conversions, you might search for hobbycnc, cnc conversion, and
cnc kits.

http://www.xylotex.com/

http://www.artofcnc.ca/

http://www.campbelldesigns.com/

http://www.maxnc.com/

http://www.stepperworld.com/

http://www.hobbycnc.com/

http://www.homeshopcnc.com/

http://www.camtronics-cnc.com/

http://cnc4pc.com/products.htm

http://www.pmdx.com/index.html

http://www.geckodrive.com/

Abrasha wrote:

Ever heard of Levin lathes? The most precise micro lathes in the world.
They only weigh a few pounds. They cost a fortune.
http://www.levinlathe.com/


I was impressed, both by their nice products, and by their early presence on
the Internet. At the bottom of their home page is the copyright notice: "©
Louis Levin & Son, Inc., 1917 - 2005 ." I wonder if they still have a copy
of their 1917 web page. I bet there are no color pictures, though.

Joe

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 15:31:01 GMT, Mike Young wrote:
I can't be certain, but I think one of the sites listed below installed a
spyware/anti-virus virus on my IE. It first announced itself as I was
entering campbelldesigns's site.

Run an AdAware scan (www.lavasoft.de) and see what it finds. They have
a free version.

Dave Hinz

Mike Young wrote:
I can't be certain, but I think one of the sites listed below installed
a spyware/anti-virus virus on my IE. It first announced itself as I was
entering campbelldesigns's site. That alone doesn't mean anything; it
could have been any one of the sites I visited earlier, and I didn't hit
the links in order. It could even have been earlier in the day and
unrelated to this. A new add-in installed itself today, moga.dll. I've
blown away the dll, and so its antics on my start page stopped, but the
pop-up still comes up periodically. Be warned. Not about the links
below, but about infectious bull**** in general. I have a few ideas
about using center punches as the drip agent in a varied form of chinese
water torture.


I copied the links after going to them first and I got no spyware loaded
on my machine.

Mike Young wrote:
I can't be certain, but I think one of the sites listed below installed
a spyware/anti-virus virus on my IE. It first announced itself as I was
entering campbelldesigns's site. That alone doesn't mean anything; it
could have been any one of the sites I visited earlier, and I didn't hit
the links in order. It could even have been earlier in the day and
unrelated to this. A new add-in installed itself today, moga.dll. I've
blown away the dll, and so its antics on my start page stopped, but the
pop-up still comes up periodically. Be warned. Not about the links
below, but about infectious bull**** in general. I have a few ideas
about using center punches as the drip agent in a varied form of chinese
water torture.

Get rid of MS Internet Explorer, and you won't have to worry about
spyware, malware, browser hijacks, etc.

If you don't want to drop IE, at least get Ad-Aware and Spybot, Search &
Destroy.

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

Also known as a troll, student or China doing market research....

On the other hand if you were going to design a small micro
lathe/accessories, what would you like that isn't already available?

TMT

"Abrasha" wrote in message
...

Get rid of MS Internet Explorer, and you won't have to worry about
spyware, malware, browser hijacks, etc.

If you don't want to drop IE, at least get Ad-Aware and Spybot, Search &
Destroy.

Thanks for the thought; I know you mean well. The simple truth is,
anti-virus and anti-this'n'dat caused me more problems and grief than any
other computing mishap, including viruses and ad-ware, in more than 10 years
of cruising the web. Take a cruise over to www.sysinternals.com and build a
real toolkit. I know it's not for everyone, but there are other ways.
Autoruns.exe and procexp.exe identified the culprits in two minutes.
Excising them, alas, still required booting in safe-mode. Spyware stuff
can't do much better.

I recently tried Firefox/Mozilla. It's probably safe from the current
strains of infection, but it's also quite immune to useful, simple things
like wmv. No thanks.

On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 05:58:41 +0000, Mike Young wrote:

"Abrasha" wrote in message
...

Get rid of MS Internet Explorer, and you won't have to worry about
spyware, malware, browser hijacks, etc.

If you don't want to drop IE, at least get Ad-Aware and Spybot, Search &
Destroy.

Thanks for the thought; I know you mean well. The simple truth is,
anti-virus and anti-this'n'dat caused me more problems and grief than any
SNIP

Ad-Aware and Spybot are really good proggies, my girlfriend uses them on
her machine. (She has Windows XP, I run Linux)

I recently tried Firefox/Mozilla. It's probably safe from the current
strains of infection, but it's also quite immune to useful, simple
things like wmv. No thanks.

Interesting, I can view wmv files on my linux box and I use Firefox... so
can my girl who runs firefox on her Windows machine.

Mike
(OB r.c.m. content: Building a foundry at the moment for bronze work,
scored two free bags of kast-o-lite 2600 from a local supplier because
the use by date was past... what the hell? Why a use by date on
refractory? I'm not complaining but...)

On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 10:05:27 -0500, Mike Martin wrote:
On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 05:58:41 +0000, Mike Young wrote:

"Abrasha" wrote in message
...

Get rid of MS Internet Explorer, and you won't have to worry about
spyware, malware, browser hijacks, etc.

If you don't want to drop IE, at least get Ad-Aware and Spybot, Search &
Destroy.

Thanks for the thought; I know you mean well. The simple truth is,
anti-virus and anti-this'n'dat caused me more problems and grief than any
SNIP

Ad-Aware and Spybot are really good proggies, my girlfriend uses them on
her machine. (She has Windows XP, I run Linux)

Yes. And about your experience with antivirus causing problems, Mike?
Let me guess - the name Norton was involved, right?

I recently tried Firefox/Mozilla. It's probably safe from the current
strains of infection, but it's also quite immune to useful, simple
things like wmv. No thanks.

Interesting, I can view wmv files on my linux box and I use Firefox... so
can my girl who runs firefox on her Windows machine.

Works fine in firefox on my linux boxes and mac also. Probably a local
configuration issue.

"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the thought; I know you mean well. The simple truth is,
anti-virus and anti-this'n'dat caused me more problems and grief than
any
SNIP

Ad-Aware and Spybot are really good proggies, my girlfriend uses them on
her machine. (She has Windows XP, I run Linux)

Yes. And about your experience with antivirus causing problems, Mike?
Let me guess - the name Norton was involved, right?

LOL. Why beat around the bush? May he burn in damnation. All else aside,
it's just plain wrong to build a revenue stream on other people's FUD, and
then *uck up while doing it. Symantec isn't much better, although I at one
time thought they had bought out Norton's name and product.


I recently tried Firefox/Mozilla. It's probably safe from the current
strains of infection, but it's also quite immune to useful, simple
things like wmv. No thanks.

Interesting, I can view wmv files on my linux box and I use Firefox...
so
can my girl who runs firefox on her Windows machine.

Works fine in firefox on my linux boxes and mac also. Probably a local
configuration issue.

It was more a curiosity than a desire to switch (IE doesn't run on Linux,
you see), so I didn't commit much effort. It runs well enough on Linux to
pull down patches, etc. but I can't see using it on the desktop. On topic,
then, I could browse the web through X on the Windows machine, and remain
completely safe. That's like using a wetsuit for a condom, though.

[Not completely OT, BTW. The Linux box was an experiment to test EMC, the
RTLinux CNC from the nice folks at NIST. BDI didn't install the kernel
correctly, probably because there was an old Debian install on that system.
It saved the old filesystem, but trashed the old kernel and itself doing so.
It's funny in a way, but I still haven't found the moxy to laugh yet. I keep
thinking I'll try again by booting RT from the second disk, but found
ArtSoft's Mach2 in the meantime and hence no need to mess with EMC. So now
the Linux box has an updated kernel, and sits in a closet whining away and
spinning its disks at full speed 24x7, whether I'm actually using it or not.
About all it does now is serve up 200 GB of otherwise unused disk. ]

On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 17:12:20 GMT, Mike Young wrote:
"Dave Hinz" wrote in message
...

Yes. And about your experience with antivirus causing problems, Mike?
Let me guess - the name Norton was involved, right?

LOL. Why beat around the bush? May he burn in damnation. All else aside,
it's just plain wrong to build a revenue stream on other people's FUD, and
then *uck up while doing it. Symantec isn't much better,

Symantec has bought Norton. The deserve each other.

although I at one
time thought they had bought out Norton's name and product.

Yup. Oh, and viruses are a real problem, not FUD. Grisoft.com has a
great antivirus program which is free to home users, and is as good or
better than the commercial ones. AVG antivirus, from www.grisoft.com

Works fine in firefox on my linux boxes and mac also. Probably a local
configuration issue.

It was more a curiosity than a desire to switch (IE doesn't run on Linux,
you see), so I didn't commit much effort. It runs well enough on Linux to
pull down patches, etc. but I can't see using it on the desktop. On topic,
then, I could browse the web through X on the Windows machine, and remain
completely safe. That's like using a wetsuit for a condom, though.

Well, I suppose. If I was running VirusOS of any variety, I'd certainly
not be running IE and OE on it, because those are the most frequently
targeted apps for malware.

[Not completely OT, BTW. The Linux box was an experiment to test EMC, the
RTLinux CNC from the nice folks at NIST. BDI didn't install the kernel
correctly, probably because there was an old Debian install on that system.
It saved the old filesystem, but trashed the old kernel and itself doing so.

Ouch.

It's funny in a way, but I still haven't found the moxy to laugh yet. I keep
thinking I'll try again by booting RT from the second disk, but found
ArtSoft's Mach2 in the meantime and hence no need to mess with EMC. So now
the Linux box has an updated kernel, and sits in a closet whining away and
spinning its disks at full speed 24x7, whether I'm actually using it or not.
About all it does now is serve up 200 GB of otherwise unused disk. ]

I've been playing with ubuntu as a distro for a while now, it very much
doesn't suck. Based on Debian but with newer packages, and a fantastic
uncomplicated installer.

Mike Young wrote:
"Abrasha" wrote in message
...


Get rid of MS Internet Explorer, and you won't have to worry about
spyware, malware, browser hijacks, etc.

If you don't want to drop IE, at least get Ad-Aware and Spybot, Search
& Destroy.


Thanks for the thought; I know you mean well. The simple truth is,
anti-virus and anti-this'n'dat caused me more problems and grief than
any other computing mishap, including viruses and ad-ware, in more than
10 years of cruising the web.

Too bad. AdAware and Spybot, Search & Destroy are killer apps, that do
not pose any problems for the vast majority of users.

Take a cruise over to www.sysinternals.com
and build a real toolkit. I know it's not for everyone, but there are
other ways. Autoruns.exe and procexp.exe identified the culprits in two
minutes. Excising them, alas, still required booting in safe-mode.
Spyware stuff can't do much better.

I recently tried Firefox/Mozilla. It's probably safe from the current
strains of infection, but it's also quite immune to useful, simple
things like wmv. No thanks.

I have no problem playing WMV files through Firefox at all.

Sounds like you may have a lot of other issues going on besides adware etc.

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

"Abrasha" wrote in message
...
Sounds like you may have a lot of other issues going on besides adware
etc.

Abrasha

That must be it. I have issues.

Mike Young wrote:
"Abrasha" wrote in message
...

Sounds like you may have a lot of other issues going on besides adware
etc.

Abrasha


That must be it. I have issues.


I meant "computer" issues.

--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

"Abrasha" wrote in message
...
Mike Young wrote:
"Abrasha" wrote in message
...

Sounds like you may have a lot of other issues going on besides adware
etc.

Abrasha


That must be it. I have issues.


I meant "computer" issues.

I *do* have computer issues. It just burns me up that so much effort goes
into creating and countering malware.

On Wed, 21 Sep 2005 22:46:09 GMT, the renowned "Mike Young"
wrote:

"Abrasha" wrote in message
...
Mike Young wrote:
"Abrasha" wrote in message
...

Sounds like you may have a lot of other issues going on besides adware
etc.

Abrasha


That must be it. I have issues.


I meant "computer" issues.

I *do* have computer issues. It just burns me up that so much effort goes
into creating and countering malware.

Don't be dissin' Microsoft.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

Mike Young wrote:
"Abrasha" wrote in message
...

Mike Young wrote:

"Abrasha" wrote in message
...

Sounds like you may have a lot of other issues going on besides
adware etc.

Abrasha



That must be it. I have issues.



I meant "computer" issues.


I *do* have computer issues. It just burns me up that so much effort
goes into creating and countering malware.

Send your thank you notes to Bill Gates. If it weren't for the security
holes, and the general crappiness of the OS and it's lame browser, there
wouldn't be such a problem.

I can't wait for the entire Net to come crashing down one of these days.
It will happen sooner or later.

Nobody listened to the warnings about NOLA. I think the same is true
for the Net. Sooner or later it will happen, and not until it does are
people going to get serious about fixing it.

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

Spehro Pefhany wrote:



Don't be dissin' Microsoft.



Why not? They've been making crappy software for as long as they have
been in existence. And getting rich of other people's ideas by using
marketing techniques that are more brilliant then the software they make.

Just an example. I have just spend at least three hours trying to
(unsuccessfully) share a couple of folders in an account on an XP Pro
computer with another computer on my home network. I followed the exact
procedure as I have many times before. It won't work. This won't
happen on any other platform but the crappy **** from Micro$oft.

Microsoft Innovation -- An Oxymoron
http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/i...74;fp;2;fpid;3

Microsoft Innovation: "Copy and Conquer"
http://www.2near.com/edge/editorials/ms.html

MS: Innovator or Integrator?
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,36902,00.html

The Microsoft "Hall of Innovation"
http://www.vcnet.com/bms/departments/innovation.shtml

--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

"Abrasha" wrote in message
...

I *do* have computer issues. It just burns me up that so much effort goes
into creating and countering malware.

Send your thank you notes to Bill Gates. If it weren't for the security
holes, and the general crappiness of the OS and it's lame browser, there
wouldn't be such a problem.

You don't really believe that, do you? Windows isn't alone in having
problems. Linux issues topped the CERT list for three years running, not
just by a little bit, but with more than half the confirmed issues. The
problem isn't one of systems or of software. The real problem is a whole
generation of malcontents, lacking the talent to contribute usefully,
expressing themselves the only way they know how: tearing down what others
build. What message can you possibly get from adware that pops up to sell
you adware blockers? They're a bunch of thugs. Nothing more; probably a
whole lot less.

As for Windows, I'm quite pleased with it. OE works well enough, and IE
plenty better than the alternatives. The open-ness is both a blessing and a
curse, as was lowering the bar for development. If there really were better
alternatives, I'll certainly join the rush to leave. As it stands, though,
there isn't one.

Mike Young wrote:

If there really
were better alternatives, I'll certainly join the rush to leave. As it
stands, though, there isn't one.

Have you ever taken a close look at the Mac's OSX?

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

"Abrasha" wrote in message
...
Mike Young wrote:

If there really were better alternatives, I'll certainly join the rush to
leave. As it stands, though, there isn't one.

Have you ever taken a close look at the Mac's OSX?

I do like the glitz and polish of their offerings, and thought briefly about
six months ago about buying a baby Mac to play with. And then I remembered
regretting every Apple product I ever wasted a dime on, including a Mac II,
Newton, and an early iPod. In any case, I doubt it can be compelling.
Windows is king of the desktop, for better or worse, for one very simple
reason: every best-of-class application runs on Windows, and I own and use
quite a few of them. Very few of them run on the Mac. But, no, I don't know
very much about OSX. What do you find compelling?

Mike Young wrote:
I *do* have computer issues. It just burns me up that so much effort
goes into creating and countering malware.

I don't spend a lot of time on it. I use XP here and 98 at home. No
anti-virus, but both my ISPs catch virtually every one of those. I do
use and online virus scanner from Panda occasionally. I run adaware and
Spybot about once a month. And I use Firefox and Thunderbird. No major
problems, and I'm quite active on the 'net.

Mike Young wrote:
"Abrasha" wrote in message
...

Mike Young wrote:

If there really were better alternatives, I'll certainly join the
rush to leave. As it stands, though, there isn't one.


Have you ever taken a close look at the Mac's OSX?


I do like the glitz and polish of their offerings,

Yeah, quite a bit different from the shoe boxes Windows users are used
to. Their machines are so beautiful.

and thought briefly
about six months ago about buying a baby Mac to play with.

That one really isn't good for much, other than doing very basic stuff.

And then I
remembered regretting every Apple product I ever wasted a dime on,
including a Mac II, Newton, and an early iPod.

I had a Mac SE. Hated it, with that tiny build in monitor. You had to
scroll sideways all the time too, in word processing, to see what you
were doing. AND you had to get a proprietary Apple printer.

In any case, I doubt it
can be compelling. Windows is king of the desktop, for better or worse,
for one very simple reason: every best-of-class application runs on
Windows, and I own and use quite a few of them. Very few of them run on
the Mac. But, no, I don't know very much about OSX. What do you find
compelling?



Frankly, I am in the same boat as you are. Several program I use do not
run on the Mac. In my case that is trueSpace by Caligari, PhotoPaint
and Draw by Corel (I hate Photoshop), and Vegas and DVD Architect by
Sony (formerly by Sonic Foundry)

However, I could switch all of the programs to the Mac, if I were
willing to get new software also and just get through it. That would
mean though, that I would have to dedicate a major amount of time to
learning new software, which I am not willing to do. Until of course, I
get so fed up with Windows, that I throw the whole thing out on the street.

So what do I find compelling. Well, the design of the hardware is a
major attraction for me. And dozens of my friends and colleagues, who
are all in the design community in one way or another, all report, that
they have none of the problems that I have. They claim never to have
had any of the problems, that I commonly complain about.

Networking is a snap on the Mac, always has been. Security is built in
from the start.

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

Rex B wrote:

Mike Young wrote:

I *do* have computer issues. It just burns me up that so much effort
goes into creating and countering malware.


I run adaware and
Spybot about once a month. And I use Firefox and Thunderbird. No major
problems, and I'm quite active on the 'net.

Ditto

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com