RE: [ccp4bb]: RE: OSX: A great Linux alternative. But Stereo?

["DeLano, Warren" <warren@sunesis.com>]

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LOL.  

But enough cynicism!  The contacts I've had with Apple over the past year as I've been trying to develop PyMOL into a mainstream tool have convinced me that (1) it does take the scientific computing market seriously, and (2) it can be swayed by consistent, reasoned pressure.

Structural Biology is not the only market for stereo 3D -- there are all kinds of engineering and CADD applications that require stereo, and according to what a distributor recently told me, the combined stereo market involves 100's of thousands of units.  Right now, that market is splintered across a bunch of high-end Unix providers, some Linux, and Windows, but with a robust desktop-ready Unix OS, Apple would hold all the aces IF it could be persuaded to play a hand...and that's where we come in.  

Yes they're driven by the bottom line, and that's why WE need to specifically communicate to Apple that our buying decisions WILL hinge on whether or not stereo will become a possibility on the platform (CRT/flat panel issues aside).

But in addition, structural biology has the advantage of being a sexy, pro-humanity, live-saving way to use a Mac.  That is the kind of stuff Apple loves to showcase as a part of its overall marketing pitch, as evidenced by all the Genentech coverage.  It isn't too much of a stretch to say that Mac could be the leading "drug-discovery" platform if they made it a priority to address the key needs of structural biologists and computational chemists, who play a pivotal role in translating genomic information into discovery of therapeutics.  

Just imagine it:  You pick up your latest prescription from your doctor what do you see down near the bottom of the label?  

"This Drug Designed on a Mac : )"

Cheers,
Warren

--
mailto:warren@sunesis.com
Warren L. DeLano, Ph.D.
Informatics Manager
Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
341 Oyster Point Blvd.
S. San Francisco, CA 94080
(650)-266-3606  FAX:(650)-266-3501



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gordon Webster [mailto:gordon_webster@hms.harvard.edu]
> Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 1:22 PM
> To: ccp4bb@dl.ac.uk
> Subject: [ccp4bb]: RE: OSX: A great Linux alternative. But Stereo?
> 
> 
> ***  For details on how to be removed from this list visit the  ***
> ***          CCP4 home page http://www.ccp4.ac.uk         ***
> 
> Apple Computer Corp. - Marketing Demographics Presentation (imagined)
> 
> 
> Consumer requirement            Estimated size of
> driving demand                  demographic group        
> ----------------------------------------------------
> 
> Chasing bipedal lizards           1,750,000,000   
> through gloomy tunnels
> with a shotgun
> 
> Depriving Metallica of two          935,000,000
> dollars in royalties by
> burning yourself a bootleg
> CD copy of their latest album
> 
> Using a cut-and-paste image       1,250,000,000
> editor to superimpose a photo
> of your baby's/girlfriend's 
> face on a tropical sunset
> background, tastefully set in
> a red, heart-shaped vignette
> 
> Adding wacky animated titles        785,000,000
> and a Hootie & the Blowfish 
> soundtrack to your boring
> holiday videos
> 
> Using stereo graphics to build           1,327
> the activation loop of your
> new kinase into a 1.5 Angstrom
> resolution electron density map 
> (calculated with SIGMAA 
> coefficients to reduce bias)
> 
> 
> Yep, the burgeoning international community of 
> structural biology geeks certainly presents 
> Apple with a strategic dilemna!
> 
> 
> Gordon
> 
> :
> ::
> :::::
> ::::::::::
> Gordon Webster Ph.D.
> Harvard Institutes of Medicine
> Tel: (617) 667 0566
> Fax: (617) 975 5243
> email: gordon_webster@hms.harvard.edu
> ::::::::::
> :::::
> ::
> :
> 
>