Moonlight
Aug 26, 08:14 PM
I just called Apple support, I was on hold for over 20 minutes, then I was disconnected. No wonder people are unhappy :mad: :( :confused:
MrXiro
Apr 8, 12:20 AM
me too! I wanna learn!
How does withholding stock from the public aid a company? I can imagine holding them till everything is registered in their system and accounted for. But turning people away when they actually do have stock doesn't sound like a good business practice to me
Drives up the "hotness" of the product... I've seen Best Buys force you to buy their "packages" of accessories for whatever hot product and refused to sell to people unless they bought accessories and possibly their service plans.
dora coloring thumbelina
coloring pages for girls 10
coloring pages for girls.
Balloons coloring pages for
Coloring Pages : Dora
coloring pages for girls.
Princesses Coloring book for
find a ton of dora activities
coloring pages for girls.
coloring pages for girls 10
happy easter coloring pages.
and ruby coloring pages
go amp; dora the explorer
coloring pages for girls 10
coloring pages for girls 10
coloring pages for girls to
coloring pages for girls 10
How does withholding stock from the public aid a company? I can imagine holding them till everything is registered in their system and accounted for. But turning people away when they actually do have stock doesn't sound like a good business practice to me
Drives up the "hotness" of the product... I've seen Best Buys force you to buy their "packages" of accessories for whatever hot product and refused to sell to people unless they bought accessories and possibly their service plans.
miketcool
Nov 28, 08:36 PM
Something is fishy, very very fishy.
Anyone remember the MS Zune being compared to a 4G iPod on the Today show? Matt Lauer said NBC and MS were business partners as a kind of disclaimer and Roker praised the iPod.
Watch Conan O'Brien. Chuck Norris lever is the giveaway here! NBC owns Universal, right? NBC-UNIVERSAL
So Microsoft says, hey, well pay you "wink wink" and then Universal pulls the rus out from Apple because Microsoft thinks it is in a position to topple Apple by denying them content. There is much more at stake here and someone is realizing Apple's angle.
Anyone remember the MS Zune being compared to a 4G iPod on the Today show? Matt Lauer said NBC and MS were business partners as a kind of disclaimer and Roker praised the iPod.
Watch Conan O'Brien. Chuck Norris lever is the giveaway here! NBC owns Universal, right? NBC-UNIVERSAL
So Microsoft says, hey, well pay you "wink wink" and then Universal pulls the rus out from Apple because Microsoft thinks it is in a position to topple Apple by denying them content. There is much more at stake here and someone is realizing Apple's angle.
Richardthe4th
Apr 10, 02:28 PM
reading this tread is so much fun. this actually is like film, all about emotions; dripping out of it. the next version of fcp will be a disappointment compared to this. waiting... :D
jp102235
Apr 25, 03:06 PM
I could have sworn that the fed govt is barred from spying on us, but private citizens can do this all day long.
ethana
Mar 22, 12:53 PM
Blackberry playbook = The IPad 2 killer - you heard it here first.
Look at the specs, their greater or equal to the iPad 2 with the exception of battery life.
Uhhh... screen size?
Look at the specs, their greater or equal to the iPad 2 with the exception of battery life.
Uhhh... screen size?
jeanlain
Apr 12, 08:21 AM
I don't use batch monitor so I'm not sure where to look. It doesn't show much more than compressor, merely the name of the job and a progress bar. I see that the little inspector window should show the "segments" (I'm not sure they call it that in Englsh), but I don't see any segments in the test encoding I just did. Plus, disabling task segmentation (fragmentation?) in the encoder settings doesn't change the CPU load. Maybe a source file isn't split when QMaster isn't configured
Anyway, the encoding uses 4 cores since CPU usages exceeds 300%. I'm positive it uses all of my cores. As a comparison, by Mac Pro is more than twice faster than my friend's iMac, which has 2 core but roughly similar CPU speed (GHz).
Anyway, the encoding uses 4 cores since CPU usages exceeds 300%. I'm positive it uses all of my cores. As a comparison, by Mac Pro is more than twice faster than my friend's iMac, which has 2 core but roughly similar CPU speed (GHz).
playaj82
Aug 8, 07:38 AM
I know a lot of people are excited about Time Machine, but I was kind of worried last night when I showed it to one of my friends.
Unlike Expose, Fast User Switching, iTunes, Dashboard, etc... that have immediate impact and understanding as to why the features are so neat, Time Machine is actually rather complicated.
I explained and showed it to my friend, and she said, "so what, when I delete something it stays on the hard drive anyways"
All of us here obviously understand the significance of this program, but does anybody else think this will be difficult to market to the "average" user.
Unlike Expose, Fast User Switching, iTunes, Dashboard, etc... that have immediate impact and understanding as to why the features are so neat, Time Machine is actually rather complicated.
I explained and showed it to my friend, and she said, "so what, when I delete something it stays on the hard drive anyways"
All of us here obviously understand the significance of this program, but does anybody else think this will be difficult to market to the "average" user.
kuebby
Apr 27, 01:18 PM
obamacare in its smallest form is extreme
stimulus bill is extreme (and extrememly $$)
The extreme people he hires, etc.
Don't lose faith in his craziness just because he's postponed driving our country into the ground.
And it's a good thing he showed his birth certificate. How embarrassing would it be for us to look back, and the man who did all the damage wasn't even born here?
If you want america to be like europe. Go to europe and pretend you're in america. Don't jack up America for those of us who love it for what it was founded on.
(insert here where some smart-A responds with "slavery?" or something equally inapplicable)
I see what you did there... but unfortunately slavery IS [one] of the things this country was founded upon. The 3/5ths compromise is in the Constitution.
It's not that people want America to be more like Europe (which in some ways would be nice), it's just that we don't want America to be a third world country (like our education statistics already kind of show, as well as the batshit crazy ideas people believe and politicians they elect).
stimulus bill is extreme (and extrememly $$)
The extreme people he hires, etc.
Don't lose faith in his craziness just because he's postponed driving our country into the ground.
And it's a good thing he showed his birth certificate. How embarrassing would it be for us to look back, and the man who did all the damage wasn't even born here?
If you want america to be like europe. Go to europe and pretend you're in america. Don't jack up America for those of us who love it for what it was founded on.
(insert here where some smart-A responds with "slavery?" or something equally inapplicable)
I see what you did there... but unfortunately slavery IS [one] of the things this country was founded upon. The 3/5ths compromise is in the Constitution.
It's not that people want America to be more like Europe (which in some ways would be nice), it's just that we don't want America to be a third world country (like our education statistics already kind of show, as well as the batshit crazy ideas people believe and politicians they elect).
0815
Mar 31, 06:18 PM
Tightening controls? How about Google having final right of refusal toward any mass production Bill of Materials for any Android phone going into production? That will keep the manufacturing accountants from screwing over the developers taking a $0.76 of parts out to save on a run but generate a million man hours of bug fixing in the third party developer community.
True - but what happend to the 'open is good', 'everyone can customize as they want', 'open is the freedom to do with it what you want'. The one big argument that was always made for Android is gone - it is no longer as open as people think. Anyway, 'open' was in this context anyway a hyped up buzzword ... I understood the 'open' argument since (with exception of the Nexus) everyone got dependent on what the provider chooses to adopt and what not. It is not good if the provider decides what to remove or add on top of the OS.
True - but what happend to the 'open is good', 'everyone can customize as they want', 'open is the freedom to do with it what you want'. The one big argument that was always made for Android is gone - it is no longer as open as people think. Anyway, 'open' was in this context anyway a hyped up buzzword ... I understood the 'open' argument since (with exception of the Nexus) everyone got dependent on what the provider chooses to adopt and what not. It is not good if the provider decides what to remove or add on top of the OS.
BC2009
Apr 7, 11:50 PM
As an example; lets say the local BB store got a 100 iPad 2 64GB 3G's in this morning. That is about $830K in sales. And lets say they average sales without the iPad 2 for the same day LY was $500K. Next year that manager would be looking at needing a $1.3M+ to make his goal.
Good example, bad math. 100 iPad 2 64GB 3G = $830 x 100 = $83,000, not $830K. If Best Buy stores were pulling in $1M+ per day or even $500k+ per day then their stock would go through the roof.
I concur with you on the whole bean counter thing. I work for a large company and its amazing to me how much money bean counters waste in their attempts to save a few pennies. We once spent over $10,000 in time (when computing hourly wage by salary) to purchase a $100 piece of software because the bean counters tried to make us jump through hoops to prove we really really could not do without it. It was sad.
Good example, bad math. 100 iPad 2 64GB 3G = $830 x 100 = $83,000, not $830K. If Best Buy stores were pulling in $1M+ per day or even $500k+ per day then their stock would go through the roof.
I concur with you on the whole bean counter thing. I work for a large company and its amazing to me how much money bean counters waste in their attempts to save a few pennies. We once spent over $10,000 in time (when computing hourly wage by salary) to purchase a $100 piece of software because the bean counters tried to make us jump through hoops to prove we really really could not do without it. It was sad.
Bacong
Apr 6, 11:07 AM
I am shocked that anyone finds this as a positive.
So you all want a drop from 1.86/2.13 to 1.4GHz CPUs in your 13" MBA? That is a 30% drop.
Then you want another drop of approaching 50% in graphics performance? Remember these IGPs clock in much lower than the STD voltage SB used in 13" MBP.
I find this completely backwards from Apple's current position on both CPU and graphics, and I don't think anyone would end up with a faster or better 13" MBA than the current generation. Apple would certainly have to bring back the backlit keyboard and introduce Thunderbolt to sucker anyone into buying such inferior junk! I would recommend people buy the current generation on clearance rather than lose performance everywhere like this. If this is the chip Apple uses in the 13" MBA, prepare for a big drop in capabilities!
I am still in shock anyone finds this a positive? Have you all read the clock speed? The facts about the chip and IGP in ultra low voltage variants?
agreed completely.
So you all want a drop from 1.86/2.13 to 1.4GHz CPUs in your 13" MBA? That is a 30% drop.
Then you want another drop of approaching 50% in graphics performance? Remember these IGPs clock in much lower than the STD voltage SB used in 13" MBP.
I find this completely backwards from Apple's current position on both CPU and graphics, and I don't think anyone would end up with a faster or better 13" MBA than the current generation. Apple would certainly have to bring back the backlit keyboard and introduce Thunderbolt to sucker anyone into buying such inferior junk! I would recommend people buy the current generation on clearance rather than lose performance everywhere like this. If this is the chip Apple uses in the 13" MBA, prepare for a big drop in capabilities!
I am still in shock anyone finds this a positive? Have you all read the clock speed? The facts about the chip and IGP in ultra low voltage variants?
agreed completely.
Dagless
Aug 5, 04:18 AM
i thought this game was vaporware
They finally announced the release date at E3 2010.
I don't think I'll be getting it. I bought GT PSP and its as if the developers actively tried to suck all the enjoyment out of the series.
They finally announced the release date at E3 2010.
I don't think I'll be getting it. I bought GT PSP and its as if the developers actively tried to suck all the enjoyment out of the series.
gauriemma
Jul 27, 01:25 PM
I never thought there'd come a day when I needed to know anything about what kind of chips Intel was coming out with.
JAT
Mar 22, 03:57 PM
The prices are official. Stop this fanboy **** about "it's not released yet".
Xoom has been released and sells well, although not so much as the iPad, but it still grabs some market share.
You people keep trying to find problems where there are no problems.
It's an official announcement, the tablets are officially coming with an official price that makes real front to the iPad, you accepting it or not.
It's like you fanboy people hate the fact that competitors are doing well.
The Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 are thinner than the iPad 2, that must be too much for fanboys hearts.
I don't own any tablet. I've used an iPad, and found little purpose to owning one myself at this time. That said, I am impressed with what it can do, esp as a gaming and business device. The others....meh.
"Fanboy" is much more readily applied to someone fawning over a product that is not yet shipping, and claiming it is superior to one that is shipping. Such assertions are absolutely ridiculous. These products aren't "doing well", they are not yet available.
I find fanboy assertions amusing, hence I post on occasion. :cool:
Xoom has been released and sells well, although not so much as the iPad, but it still grabs some market share.
You people keep trying to find problems where there are no problems.
It's an official announcement, the tablets are officially coming with an official price that makes real front to the iPad, you accepting it or not.
It's like you fanboy people hate the fact that competitors are doing well.
The Galaxy Tab 8.9 and 10.1 are thinner than the iPad 2, that must be too much for fanboys hearts.
I don't own any tablet. I've used an iPad, and found little purpose to owning one myself at this time. That said, I am impressed with what it can do, esp as a gaming and business device. The others....meh.
"Fanboy" is much more readily applied to someone fawning over a product that is not yet shipping, and claiming it is superior to one that is shipping. Such assertions are absolutely ridiculous. These products aren't "doing well", they are not yet available.
I find fanboy assertions amusing, hence I post on occasion. :cool:
Multimedia
Jul 21, 01:39 PM
Hey Multimedia, just curious, I wonder what's your current (something you want to use for the next 1-2 years) idea of the ultimate machine wrt number of Cores, Memory, Storage, etc. And, how much are you willing to pay for it?Under $4k whatever state of the offerings are. I am not writing about wanting to pay for expensive servers etc. I am only referring to Mac Pro top of the lines. So I am looking foward to the 8 core starter kit this Winter. :D
Mine is not RAM intensive work. I have 6GB of ram now and it is more than enough. I also have several Terabytes of HDs already. 400GB HDs are down to $100 now so Storage is pretty cheap with each Terabyte down to $250 or 25� a GB.
Mine is not RAM intensive work. I have 6GB of ram now and it is more than enough. I also have several Terabytes of HDs already. 400GB HDs are down to $100 now so Storage is pretty cheap with each Terabyte down to $250 or 25� a GB.
edenwaith
Jul 14, 04:39 PM
2003: "In 12 months, we'll be at 3GHz".
Mid 2006: "I want to talk about 2.66GHz" although 4 cores running at 2.66GHz (Yum! :D ).
Kind of odd/funny how we seem to be going backwards in processor speeds. Instead of 3.6 GHz Pentiums, we are looking at 2.x GHz Intel Cores. It would be interesting to see how well a single Core processor matches up to PowerPC, or a Pentium, or AMD.
However, I am finding one of my predicitions finally happen...it appears that a ceiling has been currently met on how fast the current line of processors can go, and now we are relying on multiple cores/processors to distribute work, instead of relying on just one fast chip.
So when will we start seeing 8 chips in a computer? Perhaps this will become the new measurement...not processor speeds, but the number of processors (or cores).
Mid 2006: "I want to talk about 2.66GHz" although 4 cores running at 2.66GHz (Yum! :D ).
Kind of odd/funny how we seem to be going backwards in processor speeds. Instead of 3.6 GHz Pentiums, we are looking at 2.x GHz Intel Cores. It would be interesting to see how well a single Core processor matches up to PowerPC, or a Pentium, or AMD.
However, I am finding one of my predicitions finally happen...it appears that a ceiling has been currently met on how fast the current line of processors can go, and now we are relying on multiple cores/processors to distribute work, instead of relying on just one fast chip.
So when will we start seeing 8 chips in a computer? Perhaps this will become the new measurement...not processor speeds, but the number of processors (or cores).
swingerofbirch
Aug 25, 03:12 PM
OK, as long as we are kvetching, I e-mailed dotmac support because some of my e-mails weren't going through..
I sent a test e-mail from dotmac webmail to my gmail account, which didn't go through.
They wrote back with instructions that said:
Thank you for contacting Apple.
Based on the information you provided, we understand that one of two emails you sent to your Gmail email address was not delivered, nor is email present in the Sent Messages folder.
For the purpose of our investigation, please reply and provide the following information:
- What is the subject of the email that failed to deliver?
- Was the email sent using .Mac Mail on the web, or an email client such as Mac OS X Mail?
- Did the email contain an attachment? If so, what is the size of the attachment?
subject of the email that was not delivered. Additionally, please provide a copy of the email header from the email that was successfully delivered.
To view a message's full header text using Gmail:
1. Log in to Gmail, <http://www.gmail.com/>.
2. Open a message sent from the JDate service.
3. Next to message delivery time, click "More options."
4. Click "Show original."
A new browser window will open displaying the message's full text, including the header. Please include a copy of the full text presented in the new browser window.
Sincerely,
Chris
Look at the part I bolded! I DO subscribe to e-mail from J Date that I receive at gmail but I NEVER mentioned ANYTHING about J date to dotmac...it is completely irreleveant to the e-mail I sent them.
I called custmer relations and they said they would get dotmac to contact me in 24 hours to explain the message but THEY HAVE NOT CALLED OR WRITTEN.
Dotmac has been a HEADACHE this last year...they have lost my e-mail and webpages, and now somehow seem to be prying into my personal life!
I sent a test e-mail from dotmac webmail to my gmail account, which didn't go through.
They wrote back with instructions that said:
Thank you for contacting Apple.
Based on the information you provided, we understand that one of two emails you sent to your Gmail email address was not delivered, nor is email present in the Sent Messages folder.
For the purpose of our investigation, please reply and provide the following information:
- What is the subject of the email that failed to deliver?
- Was the email sent using .Mac Mail on the web, or an email client such as Mac OS X Mail?
- Did the email contain an attachment? If so, what is the size of the attachment?
subject of the email that was not delivered. Additionally, please provide a copy of the email header from the email that was successfully delivered.
To view a message's full header text using Gmail:
1. Log in to Gmail, <http://www.gmail.com/>.
2. Open a message sent from the JDate service.
3. Next to message delivery time, click "More options."
4. Click "Show original."
A new browser window will open displaying the message's full text, including the header. Please include a copy of the full text presented in the new browser window.
Sincerely,
Chris
Look at the part I bolded! I DO subscribe to e-mail from J Date that I receive at gmail but I NEVER mentioned ANYTHING about J date to dotmac...it is completely irreleveant to the e-mail I sent them.
I called custmer relations and they said they would get dotmac to contact me in 24 hours to explain the message but THEY HAVE NOT CALLED OR WRITTEN.
Dotmac has been a HEADACHE this last year...they have lost my e-mail and webpages, and now somehow seem to be prying into my personal life!
tdmac
Apr 25, 04:15 PM
I think most people are missing this key bit of info - Location Services was turned off and the database was purged, and it still made a new database with new data...
No one is missing anything here. You as well as the Wall Street Journal are confusing "Location Services" with this database.
Location Services are those that provide data from 3rd party providers based on your location. Your date "IS" passed to them of where you are currently located so that they can provide you results on things in your area. i.e. Movie Schedules, Four Square, etc.
This database "locally" stores your proximity to cell towers and wifi antenna's.
No one is missing anything here. You as well as the Wall Street Journal are confusing "Location Services" with this database.
Location Services are those that provide data from 3rd party providers based on your location. Your date "IS" passed to them of where you are currently located so that they can provide you results on things in your area. i.e. Movie Schedules, Four Square, etc.
This database "locally" stores your proximity to cell towers and wifi antenna's.
BRLawyer
Aug 27, 10:43 AM
Especially the last paragraph of your rebuttal shows that you have not read ALL the threads about MB and MBp problems. I really would like to hear you, when you had your MBP replaced 3 times and still have problems... I have friends who just upgraded to MBPs all have one or more problems, ranging from screen, heat, whine, keyboard, and other problems, some of which they still have to discover. Sorry, buddy, but it truly looks like getting a good MBP is LUCK. I own a couple of laptops, my oldest ones are 9 years old (TOSHIBA), and never ever did I have problems like the ones described on these boards.
Proof my butt.... Wouldn"t it be nice if these threads had only happy APPLE fans? Dream on.
We are consumers, and should not accept getting a refurb lemon... but a new, preferably working product.
Well, it seems like you are the one having hard feelings...so chill out, since we all try to be polite in this forum...otherwise, just go visit some other place where you can vent your anger on people.
As I said above, I am talking about facts and statistics...I am sure there a few cases where guys are just unlucky and receive one lemon after another...but this does NOT represent a trend nor a relevant percentage. You must have this impression because you go to an Apple Support forum and see 100 posts complaining the hell out of it...you just fail, and fail badly, to realize that there are some 1,000,000 users out there with no problems at all.
Anyway, before you start babbling again, check the link below...these are FACTS, not whines.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2006502,00.asp
So please, before you spit out some fire, bring me some real facts, like percentage of failures and so on...the report I've read above shows Apple as having the LOWEST repair rate and HIGHEST trust of all makers. This, for me, is relevant; not random screams in Mac forums.
Proof my butt.... Wouldn"t it be nice if these threads had only happy APPLE fans? Dream on.
We are consumers, and should not accept getting a refurb lemon... but a new, preferably working product.
Well, it seems like you are the one having hard feelings...so chill out, since we all try to be polite in this forum...otherwise, just go visit some other place where you can vent your anger on people.
As I said above, I am talking about facts and statistics...I am sure there a few cases where guys are just unlucky and receive one lemon after another...but this does NOT represent a trend nor a relevant percentage. You must have this impression because you go to an Apple Support forum and see 100 posts complaining the hell out of it...you just fail, and fail badly, to realize that there are some 1,000,000 users out there with no problems at all.
Anyway, before you start babbling again, check the link below...these are FACTS, not whines.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2006502,00.asp
So please, before you spit out some fire, bring me some real facts, like percentage of failures and so on...the report I've read above shows Apple as having the LOWEST repair rate and HIGHEST trust of all makers. This, for me, is relevant; not random screams in Mac forums.
savar
Sep 13, 02:35 PM
NOT TRUE....The Quad core G5 people are in an uproar because Logic Pro only uses 2 cores on the G5....they updated Logic Pro so it uses 4 cores, but the G5 Quad still only uses 2 cores....there are also photoshop actions that are NOT multi core aware so will only run on one core.....Hopefully 10.5 will make all this irrelevant.
You totally missed my point. Even if an application uses only one thread at all times, that application is still a separate process from all of the other processes you have running. At any given time you'll have at least 30 something processes, even when no user-land applications are running. OS X will spread out those processes to try to utilize all the cores as much as possible.
In reality, there are probably not too many non-Apple applications which routinely use 8 threads or more. In the near future I expect all applications to use at least 2-3 threads, even the most simple ones.
You totally missed my point. Even if an application uses only one thread at all times, that application is still a separate process from all of the other processes you have running. At any given time you'll have at least 30 something processes, even when no user-land applications are running. OS X will spread out those processes to try to utilize all the cores as much as possible.
In reality, there are probably not too many non-Apple applications which routinely use 8 threads or more. In the near future I expect all applications to use at least 2-3 threads, even the most simple ones.
snebes
Apr 7, 11:30 PM
Apple products are price-locked. No second hand retailer marks up on them, like Bose. Retailers are told what to sell at and they comply or they lose rights to sell the product. If these are overpriced, it is Apples doing.
You might want to look at Best Buy's pricing again.
All iPads, iPods and Macs are sold $.99 (at minimum) above Apple.
Time Capsule 1TB $334.99 at Best Buy, $299.00 at Apple
2TB $499.99, $499.00 at Apple
Airport Extreme - $189.99 at Best Buy $179.00 at Apple
Express, $109.99 at Best Buy, $99.00 at Apple
The small accessories are just as bad. And Apple isn't the only brand they mark over MSRP too. I wouldn't be surprised is Bose products were too.
You might want to look at Best Buy's pricing again.
All iPads, iPods and Macs are sold $.99 (at minimum) above Apple.
Time Capsule 1TB $334.99 at Best Buy, $299.00 at Apple
2TB $499.99, $499.00 at Apple
Airport Extreme - $189.99 at Best Buy $179.00 at Apple
Express, $109.99 at Best Buy, $99.00 at Apple
The small accessories are just as bad. And Apple isn't the only brand they mark over MSRP too. I wouldn't be surprised is Bose products were too.
Hastings101
Apr 6, 03:18 PM
I'd rather buy like a tablet running a modified version of Windows 7 or something similar. Not an Android tablet. Unfortunately I don't think I've seen anything like that released :(
THX1139
Jul 21, 04:56 PM
I've already got one. A SuperMac C500 to be precise! (Well, actually it's an Apus 2000, but in the US it was the C500).
SuperMac was the brandname UMAX used for thier Mac clones. Check out
http://home.earthlink.net/~supermac_insider/
:)
I'm just curious about your post. Why would anyone in their right mind maintain a website for a product/company that no longer exists? Seems like a big waste of time and resources. I can see doing something similar for archival purposes, but that link leads to a complete website that has the appearance that it is still active.
Some peoples choice of hobby boggles my mind.
SuperMac was the brandname UMAX used for thier Mac clones. Check out
http://home.earthlink.net/~supermac_insider/
:)
I'm just curious about your post. Why would anyone in their right mind maintain a website for a product/company that no longer exists? Seems like a big waste of time and resources. I can see doing something similar for archival purposes, but that link leads to a complete website that has the appearance that it is still active.
Some peoples choice of hobby boggles my mind.