Anyone know where I should get started making youtube videos? I'm a 100% noob to it, never done it before. What's good (preferably free) software I can use?

I think the poker video guys use camtasia

yeah, it's fairly big and bloated but it was the best option for Windows as of a couple of years ago. Not free, but I think a one month free trial.

I think you're proving a different point. I'm not saying the Air is the best option, I'm just saying it's not overpriced. Pointing out a more powerful and much bigger laptop (size is a valid feature just like any other) for $25 more isn't really disproving that.

Really? I don't believe I can find a $600 laptop with the Air's specs (even ignoring size/weight). Can you?

Legit brag, currently #9 on HackerNews front page: http://news.ycombinator.com/ It's bringing in a ton of traffic I hope it holds for most of the day.

Awesome! Congrats.

Horses for courses. I wouldn't want to do a lot of dev work on my MBA but I'd rather be walking it around Melbourne than the 15" MBP I have for work.

Don't forget to add battery life to the list of specs, anything with spinning metal isn't going to come close. In Boulder I loved to play "whose got more battery left" at the end of meetings to piss of the people who had to plug their laptops in.

I'm really hoping the next 15" MBP ditches the optical drive and about half the thickness and becomes more Air like.

Nice Gullanian!

On another random note, can anyone explain to me why big sites like ycombinator and even reddit have these super crappy looking (to me, anyway) news lists straight of the late 90s? I get the page needs to be light, but couldn't it look a lot better and less cluttered? Am I missing something?

i believe this is the plan. aren't all the macbooks going ssd? and since apple no longer sells software on dvd anymore, killing the optical drive seems reasonable.

i remember when apple killed the floppy drive. it seemed so scary at the time, but it all worked out in the end -- when's the last time you used a floppy for something?

Thanks! Seems to be holding well, I ideally want it up all day so US audiences get to see it this evening.

Yeah it's quite bizarre. I think most aesthetic improvements are a trade off between beauty and usability. These sites seem to function best purely as highly usable and accessible sites, they are not primarily attempting to sell anything through image.

There really is a lot to be said for ultra minimalist design like HN, it works well for the format imo.

i think this is where the hip kids blame slashdot.

Personally, I'm done with optical drives. I'd be happy to see them not exist at all anymore.

If you really need to configure an off-line machine, thumb drives should be good enough.

Yabbut literally it could be just minimalist, just as light, just as usable, and still look a lot better. Like just through CSS. And it's not like it would be a hard thing to do. Pretty much any decent designer could improve it imo....

if you need full length, there is the free CamStudio, but its a pain dealing with codecs and compressing the video to a manageable filesize

but ive used these free java web based ones to make a vid demo for my app, and both work great (the second one puts a watermark)

www.screenr.com (5 min max)
www.screencast-o-matic.com (15 mins max)

I never once said Air was overpriced.

Someone said "The air is good because it is light" someone else stated "the air is good based on its specs alone. Hard to find a laptop with those specs for under $1000".

I am parapharsing both.

The first statement is correct. MBA is an amazing product. Its value goes beyond just mere hardware specs. I don't think MBA is overpriced however the later statement is incorrect. It isn't that powerful compared to equivalent priced laptops. Actually it is near the back of the pack. Building a laptop with similar specs is trivially easy.

So IF one wants an Air for the intangibles (build quality, ability to run OS X, Apple legendary customer support, "coolness" factor, insane weight and size, etc) then it likely is a good value.

Well I was off by ~$50.
this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834215115

plus this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820211479

meets or exceeds the macbook air in specs (except size & weight).

That doesn't mean buy this over the MBA just pointing out 1.6Ghz cpu, 2GB of ram, 64GB of flash, and bottom of the line Intel graphics aren't "that" expensive. BTW I am an Apple shareholder and I like Apple products but that doesn't require me to ignore inaccurate information.

Good answers ITT, D&T

I said:

and
When I wrote this I was thinking basically around the $800 or less mark. You found one that was comparable for $675. Definitely lower than I thought for a computer with those specs. I concede my original post was an exaggeration.

I don't think the bolded are intangibles ('coolness' I agree we can ignore). I though the first version of your post also included things like the backlit keyboard, mag-safe connector, and battery life. Those are all valid specs that are independent of the size. For example, in the links you posted it's another $65 to get the one year extended warranties. So I still don't agree with the following statement when you compare everything (but still ignoring size like I had originally stated).

Also, lol at rounding $75 to ~$50.

macbook airs sure are cheap in the US, we're looking at £849 for the lowest model lol. It's certainly an overpriced, underpowered ripoff over here.

Isn't that Apple's slogan?

:P

Paging rebutter of inaccurate information....

Is that pre or post VAT? There is a big bitch fest going on in Australia about the price difference between the states and most of it turns out to be because prices here include tax and in the states they don't. That and reasonable currency exchange padding explain most of the hardware cost differences. Album costs is something else all together though.

post VAT, but it's way more than a reasonable padding for exchange rates, and completely out of line with the likes of Acer, ASUS, Sony etc. which while are more expensive than what $usd prices we see on newegg it always is.

at a lowball of current exchange rate, 1.6usd = 1gbp, then adding +20% for VAT - a $799 macbook air should cost almost exactly £599. the other way round, we pay ~$1132 pre-tax / $1358 in VAT

What does "improve" mean? Make it prettier?

Who cares if those sites are "pretty"? They are information sources for nerds, who just want their information. They don't want glossy buttons and slick interfaces.

They have near (NEAR) perfect UIs for the function they serve, and a user base that would very vocal about any change to the design - which wouldn't improve usability anyway. It's a high cost (designers are expensive), medium risk (you will likely lose readers, at least temporarily), low reward decision.

Yeah, just look at how 2+2 users react over every single change to this forum.

prettier, yes. it matters.

EDIT: also your change objection doesnt explain why it was that way to begin with.