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#1 2003-11-19 8:57 am
What to do with the G5's power
OK, I'll be getting a dual 1.8 GHz G5 within a month or so... My question is, what should I do with all that power? Aside from playing games, that is. After spending $2500 on a computer, I feel as if I should be using it for something useful, you know? Perhaps something that would earn some money?
Suggestions are appreciated (and, well, expected too)!
"I'd rather be told, 'Have a nice day.' by someone who doesn't mean it, than 'F*** you!' by someone who does." - Lewis Black
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#2 2003-11-19 9:29 am
- babastus
- Member

- Registered: 2003-02-17
- Posts: 858
Re: What to do with the G5's power
Give it to me, I'll make good use of the power.
In Britain in the last century, it was quite acceptable for a young gentleman to lose his virginity to one of London's many "whoredogs". Dickens and Prince Albert both boasted of their experience."
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#3 2003-11-19 9:59 am
- Marc
- On the run from the MPAA

- Registered: 2003-05-10
- Posts: 13129
Re: What to do with the G5's power
make fake ids with photoshop
You know the hole, the one you put the pie in?
My mean my pie-hole?
Yeah, shut it.
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#4 2003-11-19 10:11 am
- DaBeav
- Member
- From: Stranded at the Drive-In, bran
- Registered: 2000-10-10
- Posts: 5501
Re: What to do with the G5's power
Sell tickets to envious PC users to touch it for five minutes.
Take it to LAN parties and start placing bets...
Get a bunch of your neighbors together to buy one, then link them all together to have the fastest supercomputer in town.
Study graphic design, video editing, web development, programming, become a scientist - or any number of professions that craves the G5's speed.
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#5 2003-11-19 10:17 am
- Marc
- On the run from the MPAA

- Registered: 2003-05-10
- Posts: 13129
Re: What to do with the G5's power
download porn by the GB... make an iDVD of it...
You know the hole, the one you put the pie in?
My mean my pie-hole?
Yeah, shut it.
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#6 2003-11-19 10:20 am
- twest
- Member
- Registered: 2000-04-28
- Posts: 400
Re: What to do with the G5's power
Join team macaddictforlife (folding at home team) http://macaddict4life.mafmods.com/.
The client runs in the background, takes full advantage of altivec, and just might help do something cool like find the cure to a type of cancer or perhaps help develop new drugs. Since you have a dual, you can run two clients at the same time (each is single-threaded).
Plus you get to keep track of all your stats as you pass those of us with G3s or G4s!
Go the the folding@home thread here in these forums http://www.macaddict.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=32, or just go to http://folding.stanford.edu to download the client.
If you join, just type in team 18 for macaddict.
After that, you can keep track of your stats here: http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/ … ?TeamID=18
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#7 2003-11-19 10:31 am
- MacFanatic39
- null

- From: Earth.North America.USA.CA.LA
- Registered: 2002-06-30
- Posts: 1024
- Website
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#8 2003-11-19 10:53 am
- SpacemanSpiff
- Stupendous Man

- From: Transmogrifier
- Registered: 2001-07-31
- Posts: 5536
Re: What to do with the G5's power
ANYTHING you want! Except play games.... (awaits flames....)
"The first time one sees natural beauty which is privately owned; oceans as people's back yards, confounds the senses. I didn't know God had a a toy store for the rich." -- Spanglish
Where forums are fun again: macstack
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#10 2003-11-19 11:18 am
- Gr@sshopper
- Redtailed mountain goat
- From: Claremont CA
- Registered: 2001-05-01
- Posts: 1584
Re: What to do with the G5's power
Model the formation of river terraces in MatLab. (Wait, thats me on my slow ass cube.)
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#11 2003-11-19 11:29 am
Re: What to do with the G5's power
Well, I was already planning on joining the Folding team, so I've got that one covered.
I think someone should develop a program that lets one user working on a large calculation (or set of calculations/simulations) distribute the work to net-connected computers, much like SETI or Folding@home does. The difference would be that connected computers get paid a (minimal) fee for the computer time. That way, anyone with a reasonably-sized pocketbook could have the power of a supercomputer, without actually having to build or rent one. All the calculations would be managed by a central server, and no one user would be able to gain any intellectual property from the packets they receive. And, the faster you wanted results, the more "nodes" you would purchase. It would scale very easily from small to large projects.
And, now that I've thought of it, someone will tell me that distributed computing for rent has been around for years...
"I'd rather be told, 'Have a nice day.' by someone who doesn't mean it, than 'F*** you!' by someone who does." - Lewis Black
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#12 2003-11-19 12:21 pm
Re: What to do with the G5's power
At the risk of coming accross like a flamer, isn't this sort of a bass-ackwards way of doing things? Buy an expensive, powerful computer and then try to figure out what to do with all that power? So why did you buy that G5? Just for bragging rights? Or simply to have the latest and greatest?
A more logical approach would be to list the things you need to do with your computer, then a separate list of the things you want to do, but don't necessarily need to do. Decide how much power, memory, HD space etc. you need for the first list, see how this fits into your budget, then, if finances allow, move up in power some to take care of the second list and future needs, if possible.
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#14 2003-11-19 12:54 pm
- Gilder
- Member
- Registered: 2003-02-28
- Posts: 767
Re: What to do with the G5's power
Use the power of the fans to blow dry your hair.
Use the non-stick surface to make a sammich.
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#15 2003-11-19 1:02 pm
Re: What to do with the G5's power
ANYTHING you want! Except play games.... (awaits flames....)
no one flamed you? that is odd.
i guess people are finally accepting the fact that most mac games are lame.
"the bible is cooler than i thought.... most of the main characters get stoned!!!"
"let's get back to the good ol' days when the "opiate of the masses" was still actually opium." -me
"kids don't beat me. i beat kids." -HJS
the above post is proudly antihammer
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#16 2003-11-19 2:21 pm
- Gilder
- Member
- Registered: 2003-02-28
- Posts: 767
Re: What to do with the G5's power
What Mac games? You mean Chess?
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#17 2003-11-19 2:44 pm
#18 2003-11-19 3:02 pm
- Nefarious
- Tuning Fork
- Moderator

- From: 45°22"N 84°57"W
- Registered: 2002-09-30
- Posts: 7998
Re: What to do with the G5's power
Well, I was already planning on joining the Folding team, so I've got that one covered.
We'll see there 
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#19 2003-11-19 3:17 pm
- flynntastic
- Member
- Registered: 2003-08-25
- Posts: 937
- Website
Re: What to do with the G5's power
ANYTHING you want! Except play games.... (awaits flames....)
no one flamed you? that is odd.
i guess people are finally accepting the fact that most mac games are lame.
*Flynntastic flames SpacemanSpiff*
There, does the universe now seem in balance, Stoned?
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#20 2003-11-19 4:31 pm
- petikas
- Member
- From: Cyprus
- Registered: 2000-11-12
- Posts: 3601
Re: What to do with the G5's power
What Mac games? You mean Chess?
Yes chess and Leather Goddesses of Phobos!
The methods of science are manifestly effective, having made massive humanitarian contributions to society. It is this very effectiveness which the purveyors of mystical philosophies attack, because they recognise in it the chief threat to the belief-based source of their power and financial reward. -Harry Kroto, Nobel Laureate
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#21 2003-11-19 4:33 pm
- dj phat 2000
- Member
- From: New York, USA
- Registered: 2001-06-22
- Posts: 2667
- Website
Re: What to do with the G5's power
At the risk of coming accross like a flamer, isn't this sort of a bass-ackwards way of doing things? Buy an expensive, powerful computer and then try to figure out what to do with all that power? So why did you buy that G5? Just for bragging rights? Or simply to have the latest and greatest?
A more logical approach would be to list the things you need to do with your computer, then a separate list of the things you want to do, but don't necessarily need to do. Decide how much power, memory, HD space etc. you need for the first list, see how this fits into your budget, then, if finances allow, move up in power some to take care of the second list and future needs, if possible.
Nothing wrong with a computer that you can grow into. It really doesn't take much to get your computer working. Just use iPhoto or iTunes and you'll be pushing those CPU's. Maybe in a few months he gets happy and wants to really edit his photo's. Here comes Photoshop and those CPU's will make his computing experience a very nice one. Like I said with iPhoto and iTunes. Both tax the CPU when doing any editing in iPhoto or encoding WAV or AIFF audio into MP3's or AAC files. Not to mention that he can do all that at once very fast.
Just because you can get by with a single 1.6 or even the older G4's. Doesn't meant that you should. Having a faster system will allow you to do more and or more at the same time. And being that OS X is easy to use and just works, you will enjoy that speed even more.
If you get the chance run this Altivec Demo
And post up your score. 
Apple is the only company that makes you want everything they create... MacAddict-4-Life
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#22 2003-11-19 4:51 pm
- Ron Goodman
- Member
- From: Albany, NY
- Registered: 2000-11-02
- Posts: 543
- Website
Re: What to do with the G5's power
Some things you just buy because you can! My G5 was one of them, and I don't even try to pretend otherwise.
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#23 2003-11-19 4:57 pm
- DaBeav
- Member
- From: Stranded at the Drive-In, bran
- Registered: 2000-10-10
- Posts: 5501
Re: What to do with the G5's power
How many people really need a Porsche or Aston Martin or Hummer (the SUV...)? Some folks are willing to pay more for speed or muscle, even if they don't need it.
Some folks just got more money than sense... 
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#24 2003-11-19 5:53 pm
- SpacemanSpiff
- Stupendous Man

- From: Transmogrifier
- Registered: 2001-07-31
- Posts: 5536
Re: What to do with the G5's power
ANYTHING you want! Except play games.... (awaits flames....)
no one flamed you? that is odd.
i guess people are finally accepting the fact that most mac games are lame.*Flynntastic flames SpacemanSpiff*
There, does the universe now seem in balance, Stoned?
Wow. Even I was worried for not more than 2.3 seconds.
Peace. Harmony. Flaming. All is well.
"The first time one sees natural beauty which is privately owned; oceans as people's back yards, confounds the senses. I didn't know God had a a toy store for the rich." -- Spanglish
Where forums are fun again: macstack
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#25 2003-11-19 6:24 pm
- Czachorski
- Member

- Registered: 2002-12-20
- Posts: 5592
Re: What to do with the G5's power
Rip all your CDs, import all your photos and capture all your video. Then start weaving beautiful materpiece home-documentaries from all that great content.
Tracking the Tech
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Get it
Stack it!