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Who cares. Apple will never be the main computer of the Federal government because of Microsoft's strangle hold. Maybe in a Socialist government.

Did you expect anything different? The times they are a changin.

Feb 04, 10 - 12:45 pm Comment from: ron

"Maybe in a Socialist government."

Isn't that what we're on the road to?

Feb 04, 10 - 12:48 pm Comment from: ron

Broadband speeds in Europe pale in comparison to averages clocked in Asia. South Korea leads the pack by quite some distance with average speeds of 14.6 Mbps, followed by Japan with 7.6 Mbps.

How slow are we in the USA?

"Isn't that what we're on the road to?"

no, are you on crazy pills?

Feb 04, 10 - 12:51 pm Comment from: ron

Tom. No. Obama is.

No Tom... you're in denial.... Obama is nothing but a socialist piece of crap. Stop collecting your welfare check, go work for a living, and maybe you'll figure it out.

Why wouldn't they? It's the most versatile computer in the world. They could be running any number of operating systems and programs on there. The Mac is an embodiment of productivity.

Feb 04, 10 - 12:54 pm Comment from: rwahrens

@hmm....

I work for the Feds, and we are seeing more and more Macs as time goes on. The old guard that hates Apple is retiring more very day, leaving room for folks with a more open mind set.

Political parties don't have squat to do with it - Rush Limbaugh is a BIG mac fan, and he's no socialist!

R2,

You left off parts of your sentence:

Ironically, "the Mac is an embodiment of productivity" in one of the most unproductive administrations in US history.

Feb 04, 10 - 12:56 pm Comment from: deepdish

They all look so young.

Only people with their own will can use Apple's computers, the rest of the people are forced to use what Wall street orders them to use (wall street controls USA government)

Feb 04, 10 - 12:58 pm Comment from: Superior Being

Young, naive, mousy, long-haired girls.

Now we know how Obama got elected.

No offense, Acorn.

Feb 04, 10 - 12:58 pm Comment from: almux

Don't speak about "socialism" or "communism" when you're completely ignorant of what it is! There are enough of these retrograd Mac Carthist around anyway to pray for a ggod thick pollution and a presbiterian lifestyle!

Feb 04, 10 - 12:59 pm Comment from: Islandgirl

Obama campaign leaders were noted for using MacBooks. Nice to see the trend has carried over to the administrative staff.

That's the one thing they have got right!

Feb 04, 10 - 01:00 pm Comment from: rwahrens

Bob,

You don't know what you're talking about. Obama is a Democrat, and they are NOT socialists.

The Soviet Union was socialist. Look, it was right there in their name: "Union of SOCIALIST Soviet Republics".

Ask anybody in Europe, where they have REAL socialist parties, and they'll tell you that our Democrats are really right wingers in disguise.

Obama isn't even close to socialist. Even our most rabid left wingers are almost right wing style for Europe!

But thanks for playing.

Perhaps instead of consulting the PC vendor's and Microsoft to fix our goverment computers, they look at those little apple logos staring them down. Sometime a solution is closer than you think.

Feb 04, 10 - 01:06 pm Comment from: TowerTone

I was just going to say 'Good' but I would like to tell @hmm & ron that the New Deal has also been credited with extending The Great Depression.

Not even Macs could save this administration!

Feb 04, 10 - 01:17 pm Comment from: Scot Murphy

@TowerTone:

What extended the Great Depression was FDR's relaxing of governmental assistance in 1937 in the face of significant Republican opposition. Unemployment had been falling until a strong Republican faction forced him to back off some of his spending. Then unemployment went back up again, and FDR was able to get things back on track again.

Just correcting the record. We now return you to MacDailyHitWhoring.

OK, take away the word Socialism...it's really future utter dependency upon a constantly growing government instead of standing accountable, getting busy, and innovating your own life. Let the government do your own elbow grease.
Everybody is equal, but everybody is not equal in how hard they work and how much they invest in their own life goals. Fact is, the scale goes from those who built companies from the ground up down to the leaf blowers...it all truly trickles down and there is no real argument against that.
Sure, there is alot of greed at the top and people who really need and deserve help at the bottom,
but government dictation and control of those issues is not the solution to that. Obama gave a fabulous speech the other night, yet it was only talk. Talk is cheap and the whole of people are much less stupid than Obama realizes, so, come election time,
many Dems are getting the boot. Problem is, the Repubs. aren't in
very good position to much either. Our kids are going to see the effect of both parties lack of a moral idealology and greed and staying in power. It's really a bunch of competitive agenda school kids up there in Washington.

@rwahrens-

He's far more left leaning and supportive of Socialist ideas then I like. Regardless of the Party he claims to be part of.

Feb 04, 10 - 01:22 pm Comment from: jtc

Maybe Obama really won that nobel prize for bringing apple computers into the whitehouse...

TowerTone writes, "I was just going to say 'Good' but I would like to tell @hmm & ron that the New Deal has also been credited with extending The Great Depression."

I'd replace "has also been credited" with "should be blamed". Unemployment even a year after the Crash was still well under 10%. It was only after the government "did something" - Smoot-Hawley, attempts to keep wages and prices steady rather than allowing them to fall, etc. - that unemployment shot up and remained over 20% until the war.

As to those Macs, are we sure those weren't personally owned? I find it hard to believe they could have been procured and in use just 11 days after the inauguration. (I used to work for the Feds.) And, as I've said in the past, it'll be hard to push Apple large scale into the federal government as long as their stuff is marked "Made in China".

Feb 04, 10 - 01:26 pm Comment from: hagar57

Here's the best:
"Photo by Samantha Appleton" :o)

Feb 04, 10 - 01:28 pm Comment from: TowerTone

Scott
Four years of a program (1933-37) that did not end the Depression might have been good cause to try something else.

F.
Your analogy would be more precise if you said the lifeguards swam around without a clue where the victim was, only to go back ashore and find out a passing ship that was WWll had picked him up.

Nice try.

Feb 04, 10 - 01:29 pm Comment from: Islandgirl

Young, naive, mousy, long-haired girls.
Now we know how Obama got elected.

All 67+ million of them, I guess.

Feb 04, 10 - 01:29 pm Comment from: Superior Being

Here's the problem, a fundamental flaw, if you will:

Everyone is not equal. Not even close. Some people provide more value to a society than others.

Sorry, if that harsh fact offends your sense of political correctness, but that much is evident just from reading the feedback to this article.

Feb 04, 10 - 01:32 pm Comment from: HueyLong

It was like bait a story like this... and right on cue, out come the right-wing crazies with their talk of socialism. Jesus, don't you schoolchildren ever give it a rest?

You can tell they're all American because they know nothing of what they speak. Broadband speeds in this country [I live in NYC] are fscking shit because you're friendly local cable company are subject to little in the way of regulation.

You're always talking on here about how crappy your service is from Comcast/Time-Warner/Optimum/addyourown, that I think you lose sight of how good regulation and government involvement can be.

1. South Korea
2. Japan
3. Hong Kong
4. Sweden
5. Switzerland
6. Netherlands
7. Singapore
8. Luxembourg
9. Denmark
10. Norway

Those are the top ten countries in Broadband speed... oh that's right there's no United States. Welcome to free, unregulated enterprise.... schmucks.

Loud Noises!

That is why the deficit grew to 1.3 trillion dollars. They should buy 200$ netbooks and replace them every three months.

Feb 04, 10 - 01:37 pm Comment from: HueyLong

btw, after the expected S. Korea, Japan and Hong Kong, note all those nasty socialist countries from Europe in that top ten... you know the ones, they all have higher standards of living too.

These are actually YouTube staff, not White House staff. That is, they work for Google, not the Federal government. Google springs for nice machines -- Macs -- for their folks. Not sure about the feds. Fortune got it wrong. (I personally know one of them, who has confirmed that they're all YouTubers.)

Feb 04, 10 - 01:37 pm Comment from: TowerTone

Huey
Look at the size of those 'nations' and their population density.
Makes a difference.

Then why the hell is Obama talking with Ballmer about how to streamline government? That story, in and of itself, is so telling about the dear leader.

Nice. No really. Good for them and good for Apple. Macs in government are always the sort of change I'd welcome.

Yay for more socialism!

Ever notice how people spout "socialism" like an epithet, but cannot even define the meaning of the word? Stupid, ignorant sheep love getting teabagged repeatedly.

Are they paid for? Or, do we owe the Chinese for them?

This guy is a total, clueless idiot.

They’re playing Quake Live! On MY TAXPAYER DIME! Unbelievable.

P.S. Speaking of plasma cannons.... Obama was AWESOME shooting down the Repubs when they invited him for a “grilling.” His facts and reasoning shut down their lies and politics like a steel gate. Where was that Obama all year? Welcome back! We need leaders who put America first, not radio sound bites and fear of progress.

P.P.S. Kudos to MDN for slipping in some progressive individuals. They’re all good if they’ve got a Mac in hand

Are all right-wingers paranoid, or is it just the one's who make comments on blogs?

@ Pixelmutt

Paranoia of government is an American tradition. In fact, it is our birthright because it is our government and if you reading the Founding literature you will understand that the US government was meant to be limited as possible to ensure our LIBERTY.

Ah, hell, who am I kidding? Liberty is dead.

Feb 04, 10 - 02:37 pm Comment from: Superior Being

F. Maxwell,

Is this "majority of economists" anything like your "majority of climatologists?"

Just wondering, you insipid, vapid, know-nothing, little twit.

Any one actually compare the size of the countries with the fastest speeds? I think you will notice on a map when compared to the USA.

THEY ARE SMALL! Do you think that has any thing to do with it? Maybe much less is the government. Try to get The same service to cover the US. I think you will find the cost more than what the gross GDP is for some of their countries.

How many companies has that much money?

Stop giving credit to governments and look at the cost to build out a geographical area with the lastest and greatest. Then plan to overhaul that same area later and later and later- ummm!

That looks more like the press than a White House staff

Feb 04, 10 - 03:22 pm Comment from: KingMel

The last time that I looked, there were only small differences in the contract prices between Macs and PCs in my fed agency. The contract price covers the leased hardware (3 year refresh interval), standard software load, email, and IT support. I recently heard that an iPhone costs about $10 more per month than a standard BBerry.

So lower hardware costs do not necessarily translate to significantly lower overall costs (especially if the IT support were prorated to reflect the actual use of that resource by Mac users).

Feb 04, 10 - 03:30 pm Comment from: KingMel

This is not a political comment - I pledged to avoid those. But I do not personally believe that "more regulation" is the answer in this particular case. Besides, it would not actually be regulation in the strict sense.

I believe that market forces, aided in large part by Apple's entry into the mobile space with the iPhone and, soon, the iPad, will continue to drive the improvement of the U.S. wireless network.

The government could certainly mandate (and fund) the deployment of a more capable network. And there might even be some advantages to such a system (e.g., broader coverage and convergence on a single type of next generation wireless standard). But the cost would be significant. Pay as you go is my general rule...

Raymond In DC has a point.
Well said, sir!

The older you get, the younger everyone else appears.

From what I've read, it's first noticed — usually — when you're pulled over by a cop who looks to be 12.

Feb 04, 10 - 04:01 pm Comment from: TowerTone

"When there is one broadband provider in a community, just what incentive, outside of government regulation, do they have to provide higher speed?"

Most places I have lived, visited, or talked to people that live there have cable, DSL, and satellite. Some offer Wi-Fi and FIOS.

The incentive is low-price, fast and reliable service, or the customer can go elsewhere.

Your 'speed' reference is ridiculous. It goes by frequencies, which is limited by the cable plant build-out, which is a reflection of the population density.