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Apr 10, 09 - 03:20 pm Comment from: Cubert

But will health insurance companies cover it?

Apr 10, 09 - 03:26 pm Comment from: Cubert

This guy's blog isn't as good as George Clinton's - Bopgun.

Apr 10, 09 - 03:53 pm Comment from: Harvey

Someone said it, and it is true: For Microsoft and the PC manufacturers, the relationship with the customer ends at the cash register. For Apple, that's where it begins.

Those Microsoft commercials are fictional, of course, but if they were real, wouldn't it be fun to interview the people a month later about their choice?

Apr 10, 09 - 03:56 pm Comment from: Harvey

Hey, I just thought of it: Why couldn't Apple start a series of commercials with the theme of buyer's remorse? The person brags about their PC and what a bargain it is, then complains about the cost of security software, something falls off, it won't boot, they call someone in India, they spend all night trying to fix it, they call Microsoft who refers them to the OEM or charges them... it would be fun.

Apr 10, 09 - 03:59 pm Comment from: ron

Harvey, "Those Microsoft commercials are fictional, of course, but if they were real, wouldn't it be fun to interview the people a month later about their choice?"


They got a piece of crap PC on which the screen had awful resolution. They REALLY wanted a Mac. Actually - with the money they received for acting in the ad, they bought a Macbook. Really!

I know just how he feels, I switched to an iMac 20" July 2006 (Intel Core Duo) and love it. (34 months)

I am a little pissed, I have had my eyes on the new MacBook with the 24" MDP monitor, with the idea of upgrading when Snow Leopard is released.

My iMac bit the dust (froze up) last week :(, took her in to the Apple store, they are replacing the logic board, and they also told me I had some flecks on the screen (I never noticed that) and they are replacing that as well under the 3 year warranty.

Now that I am receiving a basically new computer, how do I justify buying a new one?

any selling points I could use with the wife??

But a Mac, the life you save may be your own

Ah yes Cubert. Parliament Funkadelic - One Nation Under a Groove.

Apr 10, 09 - 04:41 pm Comment from: Cubert

Gil,
I saw them in Cincinnati back in 1996 (I believe - or sometime around then). Me and my friend were the only 2 white people there - which wasn't pretty, but we had a good time anyway.

Apr 10, 09 - 04:48 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

• Oh dear! What happened?

— Ugghhh! I bought this thing a month ago and it's shit!

• Uh, what kind of computer did you say it was?

— Its a Walmart, dammit! What else is there?!

MDN didn't quote the part where he talked about still being happy with his 28-month old MacBook Pro. This underlines how Macs generally have a much longer useful lifespan than PCs do.

Case in point, three members of my family are still happily using late 2004 iBooks, after installing the maximum RAM and upgrading to Leopard (and, in one case, replacing the hard drive). They're all very happy with how well their machines run. How many late-2004 PC laptops are still, not just usable, but *enjoyable* to use, today?

MW: again

Apr 10, 09 - 05:09 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

I'm a switcher too!

My friend bragged for a year about how Crysis was going to change the gaming world. He was in the process of building a "special" computer just to play this game!

I bit.

I installed XP and Crysis and finished the game before he did. In fact, I gave him my Crysis and as far as I know, he never played it. I asked him about the ending months later and he just mumbled about drivers.

I deleted the partition and recovered eighty gigs.

I gave it a second thought, then hit Return. No remorse whatsoever. It really is easy to leave Windows if you have alternatives.

Apr 10, 09 - 05:19 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

@Gabriel

My kid was absolutely delighted to get my five-year-old G4 dualie, which as you can imagine was max'd out in every way, including the 9800 Pro graphics card.

That was the first Mac I ever bought with cash and its still in immaculate condition. Of course she also got the crappy Sony CRT that I bought with it.

The beauty is though, as you've so eloquently stated, is that buyers/users of previously owned Macs can make a modest investment that yields a machine they couldn't buy new for the same money.

You won't find many Macs in the Want-ads.

First, a disclaimer: I have used Apple products since 1982. I am guilty as charged of being a Mac fanboy. That out of the way, I will also admit to being guilty of using Windows. Not because I want to, but because I have to. I'm trying to correctly configure Apple Mail so that I won't have to use Outlook to tie into my company's Exchange Server (good luck getting non-Microsoft support for that). And because Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, has made it difficult for certain Excel, Word and especially PowerPoint documents that I must work with correctly paginate and format in the Mac versions (and I have tried Pages and Keynote as well with some, but not complete success in matching formats), I have to work with Windows.

For several years, I had to put up with a Dell and a separate Mac. Recently, I was able to get a new MacBook Pro and install VMware Fusion. I put in 4 gigs of RAM to accommodate Windows, but my old copy of Windows was hammered. After installing a new copy and migrating Windows, Windows apps and all my data to the Mac, the fun began. It took a week to get past the Windows and Office activation bullcrap, thanks to Windows Genuine frickin' Advantage. It was a clusterfXXX. And try to get to a human at Microsoft for any kind of support. And because of that, I could not install the drivers needed by VMware to correctly run Windows, causing my CPU to run at 100% nonstop, overheating my Mac.

That wasn't the only thing that was overheated. I was livid with frustration.

Thanks to the helpful people at VMware, they gave me a workaround that would let me install the drivers on a USB key fob and install them that way. That got VMware back under control. And after hours of plumbing around the Microsoft Web site, I found an obscure document that gave me instructions on how to dump some .dat files that were corrupting the Windows and Office activation process. Some 108 numbers entered and two hours of phone time later, I FINALLY got Windows and Office activated, and was FINALLY up and running with Windows.

Even with a much faster processor on the Mac, Windows XP is still a dog compared to OS-X 10.5.6. I can boot or shut down the Mac in seconds. But Windows takes about 10 minutes to fully launch or fully shut down, and I can go and make coffee while Outlook launches and downloads email from the Exchange server. Ridiculous.

I know we're all fanboys here. Let's admit our prejudice. But after years of having to fight Windows instead of being able to work all day in just the Mac OS, I am completely frustrated. Windows is stupid. It's a mess. And I shake my head at the idiots of have Stockholm Syndrome, and keep saying it's great. It's not.

We live in an absurd world.

There's a sad parallel here. I live in Orange County, in southern California. I am a Los Angeles Angels fan. (Okay, hate me.) I am still numb from the terrible loss of Angels rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart, who, after pitching six shutout innings, went out with friends following the game. His car was hit by a drunken gang banger who ran a red light and hit Nick's car at high speed. The gang banger was driving on a suspended license from prior DUIs, had no insurance and a lengthy record of prior arrests for drugs, burglery etc. It's tragic and sad that someone so talented with such a bright future had all this snuffed out by such a scumwad.

That's how I feel when I run Windows.

Nick, may you sleep with Angels. And may all of us who steadfastly follow the Mac enjoy the same peace.

Happy Easter, everyone. Please be safe. It's a nasty world out there.

@Cubert

High school for me in the 70's.

I could not install the drivers needed by VMware to correctly run Windows, causing my CPU to run at 100% nonstop, overheating my Mac.

Hmmm I haven't had a peep of trouble running XP, Vista and even Linux at the same time under Fusion.

Then again I didn't transfer anything over from a infected PC either, nor do I allow those other OS's (except Linux occasionally) to connect to the internet except for updates/malware definitions.

Apr 10, 09 - 06:11 pm Comment from: MacSmiley

@Here's one more

So much for "Jackson" getting quickly on and off his new PC and out the door to play baseball.

Apr 10, 09 - 07:54 pm Comment from: Olmecmystic

@Cubert:

A fellow Funkateer; how cool! Parliament-Funkadelic was high school for me, too. Don't feel bad about being white and digging the funk. Parliament was introduced to me by a "white boy", one of the hippest white cats in the school. If you can believe it, he used to go down the halls singing "Mothership Connection" out loud and didn't give a damn who heard him.

That was on the East Coast back in the day. I moved here to Columbus, Ohio in '86. Went to a Prince concert in Cincinnati in '89 with a partner of mine and went to a club afterward. Who walks in but Bootsy Collins! Dressed in full regalia, black leather from head to toe, star shades, the works! Met him, got his autograph, and the most surprising thing about our conversation was that he spoke totally normally! I expected him to sound like he does on my records from back in the '70s, but he's a highly intelligent brother. That whole vocal thing on his songs is a total act.

One Nation Under A Groove; my theme song from election night '08 (that and Chocolate City!).

Peace.
Olmecmystic

P.S. Oh, and Funky President by James Brown, too!

Apr 10, 09 - 09:07 pm Comment from: Cubert

Olmecmystic,
If you have read my posts in the past, you know that I am originally from Cincinnati. I have met Bootsy MANY times there in Clifton (around U. of Cincinnati's campus) at several bars. Two things - he is very cool and down to earth for a famous dude and he is TALL! Apparently, he has lived in the same small unassuming house for decades.

And, I don't feel bad about being white and liking Parliament, I just didn't like how the other patrons treated me and my friend that night.

It was a show at Music Hall, in case you are interested.

Now, I'm going to go put on some Flashlight followed by Maggot Brain.

Apr 10, 09 - 09:47 pm Comment from: silverhawk

@Here's one more
I feel your pain.

Wonder when some one will do an ad like..

Lets check on our happy $1000 dollar window laptop buyer...

ANNOUNCER: Well how do you like your PC?

YOUNG LADY: ( As the lady rungs out here door! ) YOU!!! { Angry voice! } Oh its a bad time.. The tech support just tole me to run the reinstall disk since I got the BBomb Viris. I just lost three months of my data due to not backing up. I found out the Anit viris was only good for 30 days. The office sweet just lock out my data yesterday because it was a trial copy and now Microsoft want $150 dollars to release my files! My computer been slowing down I guess due to loading and unloading programs. Its starting to creak and groan when I open and close it. Some of my software wont run under vista!

ANNOUNCER: Wow sorry about that...

YOUNG LADY: Just used a friend Mac to help sell this PC pile of junk on ebay and just running out to buy a Mac! I know now... You get what you pay for... And a PC is no bargain

OR....

Shot of an emergency room...

DR: What wrong with the patient?
NURSE: Its another case of CPCISC!
DR: Not another Cheep PC Induces Stress Case! When will people learn... This person looks to be 90 years old but was stressed so much she does not look her real age of 24! They need to put a warning on the box of these WIndows based PC!

SHOT OF BOX: WARNING: Contense may lead to stroke, stress, prematurely fast aging, hair and data loss, deafness listing to on hold music and other dangerous health problems!

As my screen name suggests I am indeed a Switcher.

I switched by accident! I never intended to use OS X at all when I bought my first gen MBP 17". I bought is to learn Shake and Shake only but as I explored OS X I realised that I had overlooked what had become an amazing OS and a pleasure to use.

I never installed Windows on my MBP instead I switched all my software over to OS X versions and have never looked back.

I suspect my blood pressure has also dropped as I no longer spend time assing about problem solving Windows rather I spend all my time concentrating on creative work. Fact.

I've also switched my partner, my Brother and my Mother and they all say they'd never go back.

4 Switchers in my family.

Apr 11, 09 - 06:12 am Comment from: Roger Knights

OK folks, here's Apple's counter-punch print-ad:

Headline: "The Apple Tax: $1 per day:"

Second line (somewhat smaller type):
"The Apple Pax: Priceless"

(Pax = peace of mind regarding security and lack of stress (peaceful feeling) regarding interaction with the OS. The meaning of "pax" shouldn't be spelled out--leaving it unexplained flatters the target audience that they're hip enough to get it. Those unaware that "pax" = "peace" will easily suss out its meaning from the ad's body text.)

I'm not sure about the second line, but the first line is a must, IMO. It takes the MSFT’s bullsh!t about an Apple Tax by the horns and flips it so that it becomes an advantage. This, in marketing terms, is the equivalent of a bases-loaded home run.

In the ad's "body-text," follow-one testimonials could elucidate things. For instance:

"I don’t want to be a minimum-wage worker for my PC,"
"I paid extra for my car's automatic transmission, power brakes, power steering, and air bags. That’s no tax—or if it is, it’s worth it. The peace they've brought me justifies the price I've paid."

(I like that last analogy. Apple could consider many variations. For instance, "Would you buy a car without automatic transmission, power brakes, power steering, and air bags, even if it cost you hundreds less? If not, then why buy a bare-bones computer?"

Optional epigraph (italicized, in the upper left corner, in relatively small type):

"Taxes are the price we pay for civilization."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

Apr 11, 09 - 06:29 am Comment from: Roger Knights

PS: Here’s a slick TV-ad riposte to MSFT’s “Get a Laptop” ad-series:

Mac Guy: Whatcha got there, PC?

PC Guy: It’s my new car. Want to go for a spin?

Mac Guy: You’re on.

(They enter the car. PC Guy then uses four or five back-and-forths to get his car out of its tightly packed parking space, wrestling his steering wheel and heel-and-toeing with his clutch. Finally, they’re out.)

Mac Guy: No automatic? No power steering?

PC Guy: Why pay a tax?

Mac Guy: (Rolls his eyes and smiles knowingly. Fade out.)

Apr 11, 09 - 09:23 am Comment from: zanus

What is wrong with paying a premium for a product that delivers consumers the value. People buy a Lexus when a Daewoo can get your there too.

Just got my new MacBook Pro, 15. inch 2.66. Gawd, I am so much cooler than Lauren.

@flackman

I'm have a first gen 20" G5 Imac, and even I'M cooler that Lauren.

New Mac tagline -- "Use OS X and live longer."

Apr 11, 09 - 02:47 pm Comment from: Roger Knights

Here are a couple of tweaks (for the sake of alliteration) to my two ad-suggestion four posts above:

PC Guy: Why pay a transmission tax?

"The Apple Tax: A dollar a day:"

Apr 11, 09 - 02:56 pm Comment from: Roger Knights

PPS:
PC Guy: "Why pay a transmission tax and a power premium?"

Apr 12, 09 - 11:03 am Comment from: Wha

@ Dick Nixon

How about

" Use OS X and live longer than Lauren. "