Replying to delinka here because I can't reply directly:
It's very sad that there should be any kind of pay wall behind tinkering with your mobile phone. I get that if you intend on making an app that's going to earn you millions then buying a Mac is small change. But what if you're just starting out, and are curious about how to go about making iOS apps?
It's a real disappointment that anyone would think attaching a $1,000 price tag to programming is a good thing.
The cost is not relevant to my point. If you want to start a courier service in a fairly large area, motorized vehicles are a bit more expensive than a Mac.
Can't afford the tools? Find another line of work.
In the case of iOS development, alternative tools have their own cost: effort to set up and maintain. Akin to how most operating systems besides Windows take additional effort to set up on that new Dell. If you can afford this extra effort (i.e. have the patience to work through the quirks), then you're welcome to it. Complaining about needing to obtain a Mac to gain the convenience of Apple's development environment is pointless.
It's the artificial limitation that drives everyone crazy.
It's the difference between having to buy a van to start a courier service, and having to buy a BMW because someone says you have to. I understand the necessity of having to own a van to run my business, but why do I have to pay extra for one that has no extra capability?
I did mobile dev for a living. Cross compiling across architectures and OSes is part and parcel to the beast. The fact that Apple won't let you is an artificial restriction.
The price of leasing a Mac Mini from Apple is $25 per month ($34 with more RAM, but that would be silly to pay for). Much cheaper than the model of renting a virtual machine, plus works with your local devices. The only problem is, Apple Business leasing has a minimum order.
Of course, if you can't stand Objective-C and want to stop, the virtual machine gives you a simpler path to quitting.
Given that Gartner estimated OSX as having only about 10% of the desk/laptop market share in 2011, the idea that Dropbox is going to be put out of business by iCloud is laughably ignorant. Unless Apple decides to make iCloud available to Windows users, but IMHO that seems unlikely.
The competition isn't much better on the MS side. Windows has the bulk of the desktop/laptop users, but it's pretty unlikely for them to offer a file sync client that'll work with the iPhone or Android, and Windows Phone 7 is still looking for an audience.
I do agree that Dropbox could do a lot to make their person-to-person sharing more compelling and easy.
Salary information is never really secret, even if the official policy says it's secret. There's always salary information, often inaccurate information, percolating through the grapevine at every large organization.
I've never worked anywhere with an open salary policy, but my guess would be that, while it might be hard for some people to adjust to, in the long run it would remove a large source of internal politics.
Normally I'm not a fan of the over-fetishization of Apple UI and design that tends to happen here on HN, but in this case I have to strongly agree with you that the OSX finder UI (for all it's many quirks and limitations) is vastly better than this new Explorer UI. Hell, the Windows 7 Explorer UI is better.
This new Explorer UI is just waaaay to damned cluttered. Putting the Ribbon UI on Explorer is not necessarily a bad thing, but I really thing they could trim down the number of buttons present by default on the "Home" tab of that ribbon. IMHO, this is gonna be intimidating as hell to most casual/non-savvy users.
> Better abs, travel, less time spend at work - that's what's popular today, but is this the successful recipe for reaching happiness? I strongly doubt that.
I agree better abs probably isn't going to do much for your long term happiness, but better overall health and fitness might help you live longer with more overall energy to pursue enjoyment.
As for travel and less time spent at work: I completely disagree with you there. Those (potentially at least) provide enjoyable experiences/memories and time to spend with friends, family, and loved ones. There is no more likely path to reaching happiness than that.
I certainly hope they succeed. Not only has Alienware's quality reputation been slipping, but they've always been absolutely hideous eyesores. This razer actually looks pretty sexy.
The Razer Blade may be a fairly blatant MBP ripoff, but at least it looks good. Alienware seems to be pursuing the clunky F117-inspired look, complete with superfluous LEDs. This is, unfortunately, not unique to Alienware. Asus teamed up with Lamborghini to offer the VX7: http://rumors.automobilemag.com/files/2011/04/asus-vx7-lambo...
Lamborghini makes beautiful cars, but I'm not keen on plopping one on my desk in the middle of class. The Razer looks like something I'd actually feel good about being seen with.
You seem to be under the mis-impression that there isn't already a market for gaming laptops. There is. Go to almost any laptop makers page and you'll find a whole section devoted to "gaming laptops". Hell, it's part of how Alienware made their name.
Most of them unfortunately have a reputation for being enormously heavy and bulky, and for generating inferno levels of heat. But people do still buy them. If this thing really does have competitive performance to the current top end gaming laptops and is as thin and nice looking as those pictures make it seem, I think they've got a real winner on their hands.
