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Amiga computer related discussion => Amiga Marketplace => Topic started by: amigadave on December 22, 2011, 08:22:54 AM

Title: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: amigadave on December 22, 2011, 08:22:54 AM
As the title says, there is an auction on eBay for 8 more of these.  Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300590868848&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:1123

I just bought two of them to give away to developers that want to write software for MorphOS.  If anyone wants to help with that effort by chipping in some money to me to help pay for the systems I am buying to give away, contact me via email.  I am saving for my X1000 system, but thought the price and availability of these better G4 MacMini's with the 64mb VRAM was too good to pass up.  Specially when I have two developers waiting for systems and these are easy to ship cheaply.

Good luck and look quick, as the remaining 8 MacMini's will probably be bought quickly at that price.  They usually sell for almost double that price.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: drHirudo on December 22, 2011, 11:38:05 AM
Shipping only to USA :(
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: takemehomegrandma on December 22, 2011, 02:05:05 PM
Quote from: amigadave;672345
As the title says, there is an auction on eBay for 8 more of these.  Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300590868848&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:1123

I just bought two of them to give away to developers that want to write software for MorphOS.  If anyone wants to help with that effort by chipping in some money to me to help pay for the systems I am buying to give away, contact me via email.  I am saving for my X1000 system, but thought the price and availability of these better G4 MacMini's with the 64mb VRAM was too good to pass up.  Specially when I have two developers waiting for systems and these are easy to ship cheaply.

Good luck and look quick, as the remaining 8 MacMini's will probably be bought quickly at that price.  They usually sell for almost double that price.


The machine is close to twice as fast as a Pegasos 2, it decodes and plays x264 720p streams (on MorphOS) with no problem, it's very silent, very small and good looking. At this price it's a great opportunity! It's a *great* MorphOS computer, with MacOS as a bonus! :)
 
And this is not "the current bid" or anything like that, it's the *buy now* price! :D
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: takemehomegrandma on December 22, 2011, 02:07:26 PM
Quote from: amigadave;672345
As the title says, there is an auction on eBay for 8 more of these.


7 left now...
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: adolescent on December 22, 2011, 03:53:01 PM
6 left.  Very tempting.  Has MorphOS developer stopped illegally charging taxes to non-EU buyers?  I'd hate to buy one and be stuck with OS 10.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: Kronos on December 22, 2011, 04:08:40 PM
Quote from: adolescent;672394
6 left.  Very tempting.  Has MorphOS developer stopped illegally charging taxes to non-EU buyers?  I'd hate to buy one and be stuck with OS 10.


There is nothing illegal about it .....
The price is set by the MorphOS-team and wether the take the effort to reclaim unneeded VAT from the tax-collector or not is none of your buisness.

I would think the whole Ralph Schmidt Softwareentwicklung is setup as a small buisness where you only fill out a simplified tax sheet (and pay lower overall tax) but therefore can't reclaim some expenses or allready paid VAT.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: hishamk on December 22, 2011, 05:42:21 PM
Quote from: Kronos;672395
There is nothing illegal about it .....
The price is set by the MorphOS-team and wether the take the effort to reclaim unneeded VAT from the tax-collector or not is none of your buisness.


I guess this is quite different from the UK, where the seller needs to only show proof that he has shipped it outside of the UK and therefore doesn't add the 20% VAT when buyers outside the UK purchase.

AmigaKit does this and it works quite nicely. It's just good business practice and global customer friendly.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: adolescent on December 22, 2011, 05:45:57 PM
Quote from: Kronos;672395
There is nothing illegal about it .....
The price is set by the MorphOS-team and wether the take the effort to reclaim unneeded VAT from the tax-collector or not is none of your buisness.

As a potential customer I believe it is my business.  If they continue to penalize foriegn buyers then they won't get my sale.  Odd that every other small Amiga business I have dealt with in the UK or EU doesn't have the same problem filling out their tax forms.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: takemehomegrandma on December 22, 2011, 08:23:28 PM
@ adolescent

It costs EUR €111, everyone pays the same price. You want it? Pay up. Otherwise don't. Simple.

Good news for those with little money to spare on hobbies, is that with the MorphOS 3.0 release, the license cost may drop for some machines.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: adolescent on December 22, 2011, 11:15:29 PM
Quote from: takemehomegrandma;672422
@ adolescent

It costs EUR €111, everyone pays the same price. You want it? Pay up. Otherwise don't. Simple.

Until they stop illegally charging 19% VAT to non-EU buyers then I won't.  Simple.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: TheMagicM on December 22, 2011, 11:38:43 PM
or buy my 1.4ghz with MorphOS 2.7 registered, 160gb HD for $250 shipped in the USA.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: Piru on December 23, 2011, 01:03:07 AM
Quote from: adolescent;672454
illegally charging
Can you please cite the law that makes this illegal? I really hate it when someone cries foul without backing it up. It may not be good business, but that is slightly different from being "illegal".
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: TheMagicM on December 23, 2011, 03:19:05 AM
I paid $150 for MorphOS because its worth it...some people are just cheapskates.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: amigadave on December 23, 2011, 04:44:22 AM
Quote from: TheMagicM;672491
I paid $150 for MorphOS because its worth it...some people are just cheapskates.

I paid 150 euros for my first MorphOS license keyfile and 111.11 euros each for the second and third (IIRC).  No complaints about the price, or for paying for VAT, even though I live in the USA.

As far as I can tell, you get good value for your money spent, but everyone values their purchases differently.  There are few registered MorphOS2.x users that I have ever seen complain about the money they have spent in obtaining their registration keys.  MorphOS2.7 is an excellent OS.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: Matt_H on December 23, 2011, 04:46:57 AM
Quote from: amigadave;672503
I paid 150 euros for my first MorphOS license keyfile and 111.11 euros each for the second and third (IIRC).  No complaints about the price, or for paying for VAT, even though I live in the USA.

As far as I can tell, you get good value for your money spent, but everyone values their purchases differently.  There are few registered MorphOS2.x users that I have ever seen complain about the money they have spent in obtaining their registration keys.  MorphOS2.7 is an excellent OS.


Worth every penny!
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: takemehomegrandma on December 23, 2011, 09:00:39 AM
Quote from: adolescent;672454
Until they stop illegally charging 19% VAT to non-EU buyers then I won't.  Simple.


Again - it's *not* illegal. You may not *like* paying €111 (and then you shouldn't), but that's a different matter. From my personal perspective it's worth even the €150 that was the previous price, and it will be worth it even more if they drop prices even further after the MorphOS 3.0 release...
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: yakumo9275 on December 23, 2011, 12:53:33 PM
patching the slowdown and telling others how to do it isnt illegal either. you may not like it but thats a different matter.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: Piru on December 23, 2011, 01:36:22 PM
Quote from: yakumo9275;672555
patching the slowdown and telling others how to do it isnt illegal either.

In most legislations circumventing a protection like that is illegal. At least it is in EU, USA and Australia.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32009L0024:EN:NOT
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1201.html
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/num_act/caa2006213/
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: yakumo9275 on December 23, 2011, 02:36:31 PM
except the slowdown is not a copyright mechanism as it does not restrict the number of times I can make a copy of the iso image I downloaded. at best, its an annoyance. The copyright mechanism of morphos is tieing the key to the hardware.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: Piru on December 23, 2011, 03:37:17 PM
Quote from: yakumo9275;672572
except the slowdown is not a copyright mechanism as it does not restrict the number of times I can make a copy of the iso image I downloaded. at best, its an annoyance. The copyright mechanism of morphos is tieing the key to the hardware.
Except that since the slowdown is the only difference between locked and unlocked system (the effective result of the protection), removing the timeout is thus circumventing the protection.

This is quite academic though, since on-one will bother enough to crack MorphOS anyway (they're invited to try though, it's not as trivial as you might think).
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: psxphill on December 23, 2011, 04:19:36 PM
Quote from: Piru;672583
Except that since the slowdown is the only difference between locked and unlocked system (the effective result of the protection), removing the timeout is thus circumventing the protection.

DMCA doesn't cover hardware dongles, so it's unlikely to cover software equivalents (license key etc).
 
If your license is well written then you should be able to go after someone on a license violation. copyright maybe, depending on whether any of morphos is distributed.
 
I can't see that it's is likely to be pirated though. Even if it was trivially easy to crack.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: Piru on December 23, 2011, 08:40:42 PM
Quote from: psxphill;672593
DMCA doesn't cover hardware dongles, so it's unlikely to cover software equivalents

It does.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: zylesea on December 23, 2011, 09:25:18 PM
Quote from: Kronos;672395
There is nothing illegal about it .....
The price is set by the MorphOS-team and wether the take the effort to reclaim unneeded VAT from the tax-collector or not is none of your buisness.

I would think the whole Ralph Schmidt Softwareentwicklung is setup as a small buisness where you only fill out a simplified tax sheet (and pay lower overall tax) but therefore can't reclaim some expenses or allready paid VAT.


Ralph Schmidt Softwareentwicklung is not a small business by the definition of "Kleingewerbetreibender". If so he wouldn't be allowed to issue VAT on the invoice. If you use the small business rule you cannot get VAT refunded but must not charge VAT on your offerings.
Charging the VAT is rather the only option to avoid serious trouble with the authorities.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: huronking on December 24, 2011, 03:52:28 AM
So, anyway... that's a decent deal on a Mini?
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: takemehomegrandma on December 26, 2011, 09:18:37 AM
Quote from: huronking;672689
So, anyway... that's a decent deal on a Mini?


It's a *great* deal on a Mini! :-D

Only 2 left now...
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: takemehomegrandma on December 26, 2011, 03:58:24 PM
Quote from: takemehomegrandma;672921
It's a *great* deal on a Mini! :-D

Only 2 left now...


One left...
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: bbond007 on December 26, 2011, 05:48:39 PM
Quote from: huronking;672689
So, anyway... that's a decent deal on a Mini?


Yes. the 1.5 is a silent upgrade with an additional double the VRAM. They were not produced for very long before Apple switched to Intel.

If I remember right the 1.4 I have has 32MB and the 1.5 is 64MB. (or is it 64 and 128?)

I would get one for that price but its not a substantial upgrade to my 1.4 and I got a Powerbook5,8 with 2GB ram and 128MB VRAM just waiting for Morphos 3.0...
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: takemehomegrandma on December 26, 2011, 10:16:51 PM
Quote from: takemehomegrandma;672947
One left...


All gone!

(Keep Looking though! :))
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: huronking on December 27, 2011, 12:06:39 AM
Quote from: takemehomegrandma;673009
All gone!

(Keep Looking though! :))


I got one of them. Sometimes eBay gets the best of me.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: amigadave on December 27, 2011, 07:23:02 AM
Quote from: huronking;673029
I got one of them. Sometimes eBay gets the best of me.

Install MorphOS2.7 on it and you won't regret your purchase.

Congrats on buying one at that price.  I paid almost double for mine and it only had 512mb RAM, not 1gb when I got it.
Title: Re: 1.5GHz G4 MacMini's on eBay $175.99
Post by: Amigamia on December 27, 2011, 01:28:53 PM
I found one on eBay for $60!! The Seller claimed that it wouldn't boot. I took a chance and bought it and surprise, surprise, it booted up when I received it. It come with a 80GB HDD, BlueTooth, Airpot Wireless card, and OS X 10.4.

I am going to set up a dual boot with MorphOS but not sure how much is really recommended for MorphOS. Is 20GB OK?