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I hate Macs
The Guardian ^ | 2/5/07 | Charlie Brooker

Posted on 02/05/2007 2:17:25 PM PST by Vermonter

I hate Macs

Charlie Brooker Monday February 5, 2007 The Guardian

Unless you have been walking around with your eyes closed, and your head encased in a block of concrete, with a blindfold tied round it, in the dark - unless you have been doing that, you surely can't have failed to notice the current Apple Macintosh campaign starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, which has taken over magazines, newspapers and the internet in a series of brutal coordinated attacks aimed at causing massive loss of resistance. While I don't have anything against shameless promotion per se (after all, within these very brackets I'm promoting my own BBC4 show, which starts tonight at 10pm), there is something infuriating about this particular blitz. In the ads, Webb plays a Mac while Mitchell adopts the mantle of a PC. We know this because they say so right at the start of the ad.

"Hello, I'm a Mac," says Webb. "And I'm a PC," adds Mitchell.

They then perform a small comic vignette aimed at highlighting the differences between the two computers. So in one, the PC has a "nasty virus" that makes him sneeze like a plague victim; in another, he keeps freezing up and having to reboot. This is a subtle way of saying PCs are unreliable. Mitchell, incidentally, is wearing a nerdy, conservative suit throughout, while Webb is dressed in laid-back contemporary casual wear. This is a subtle way of saying Macs are cool.

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Humor; Miscellaneous; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: agism; apple; ihavenolife; mac; macintoshcult; pc; pcbashing; smug
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To: highball

I don't even USE a mouse on my PC - I've been using a touchpad for years. However, my Mac has a 5-button wireless mouse and I LOVE it.


41 posted on 02/06/2007 8:09:06 AM PST by Bookwoman
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To: L98Fiero
Look at the number of PC/MS bashing articles posted here and then tell me about venom.

I have never seen one. Honest! I am on Swordmaker's ping list and I see respones to Mac bashers but I have never seen a PC/MS bashing stand-alone article.

42 posted on 02/06/2007 9:10:34 AM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done, needs to be done by the government.)
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To: big'ol_freeper
Anyone who can't sit down and compare these machines side-by-side and come to that conclusion is just a kool-aid drinker in the personal computer wars, or just plain..

It has long been my opinion that Windows users resent the fact that non-geeks can do cool stuff on a computer even though we can't program a lick!

43 posted on 02/06/2007 9:20:02 AM PST by Mind-numbed Robot (Not all that needs to be done, needs to be done by the government.)
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To: smith288
Yea, Apparently im a liberal victim because I use a PC?

Not necessarily a liberal. You could be a conservative 'victim' of Gatesware.

If you knew what you were talking about you would know the poll was a viewer group who were polled not phone calls.

Had you elaborated instead of 'generalizing', that point would have been clear.

.I just think generalizing users of certain pcs is indicative of your personality.

You're a poor victim of 'Gatesial Profiling'. How horrible that must be for you!

FWIW, I don't even want to speculate about your personality.

I sense an emotional tirade! Cancel or Allow?

44 posted on 02/06/2007 9:31:38 AM PST by cowboyway (My heroes have always been Cowboys)
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To: cowboyway

"Who responds to polls? Liberals.

And what do liberals like? Victims.

Which is exactly what PC users are."

LOL! Victims of what? Convienience? Availability? Value? An absoloute domination of the market? Freakin' Mac's got to re-do a Walkman and sell 'em to conformist pre-teens to make ends meet. They sell toys for a living and pretentious computers on the side. Their business model sucked, sucks and looks like it will still suck. All the placement Macs get in TV and movies, all the free press everytime they paint one of their "teen-age girls room" designed boxes to a new fruit color.

And they still only get 5% of the market. Deal with it and stop attacking other people because you have a boner for a box of finger-painted electronics.

Way to defend your God-machine. Insult those that aren't in the cult. Typical.


45 posted on 02/06/2007 9:35:20 AM PST by L98Fiero (A fool who'll waste his life, God rest his guts.)
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To: peteram

"Oh, most definately sure. I have a background in marketing (work in the broadcasting field) and it is certainly plain to see by these commercials that they believe that the younger crowd would be more apt to buy a Mac than the older crowd (present company excluded, of course ;-)

I'm sure they have marketing guru's much more plugged in than myself, but it seems to me that they are making a mistake by almost alienating a large block of potential customers. The Baby-Boomers (of which I am one) are still the largest block of consumers out there - even as we grow more....refined. :-)

As a matter of fact, I have a 58 year old friend who just got tired of the spyware and virus problems with his old notebook PC so he intentionally crashed the hard drive, threw the system out and bought an Ibook. He loves it!"


I've always thought that Macs should be marketed to older people who didn't grow up with computers. They are admittedly easier to use and give you less options to deal with. However, as someone whose been computer literate since the age of 6 and has used both Macs and PC's extensively, I hate HATE Macs. The only thing I've ever found them to be better at than PC's is in graphic design, and even then it was entirely attributable to hardware and not the OS or other software.

I liken Macs automatic transmission in cars. Yes it's nice and just does it for you, but you just don't have the same ammount of control over what your car does as stick shift. When I need to get the most out of my car or truck, I want stick.

Macs seemed to be designed to be smart person proof, and this is what bothers me about them. It seems that Apple has built their company around the moto "People are idiots and can't be trusted to work a computer." Whether this is true or not I'll leave open.

Finally food for thought for you Mac proselytizing apostles: the only reason you don't get spyware and viruses is because no one makes spy ware and viruses for Macs. If more people use Macs, this will no longer be true.


46 posted on 02/06/2007 10:05:44 AM PST by Stag_Man (NEVER let the people draw their own conclusions. - DUmmie poster.)
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To: L98Fiero
Victims of what?

Gatesware.

Freakin' Mac's got to re-do a Walkman and sell 'em to conformist pre-teens to make ends meet.

That Zune thing not working out for you guys, huh. (BTW, you PC guys should be the last people to disparage conformity. Jeez!)

Their business model sucked, sucks and looks like it will still suck.

Apple Computer posted revenue of $4.84 billion for the forth quarter of 2006.

Microsoft Corp. posted a fourth quarter revenue of $11.80 billion for the same period.

You're still going to stand by your business model statement?

All the placement Macs get in TV and movies, all the free press everytime they paint one of their "teen-age girls room" designed boxes to a new fruit color.

Obviously, staring at beige creates rage.

47 posted on 02/06/2007 10:09:08 AM PST by cowboyway (My heroes have always been Cowboys)
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To: Stag_Man

One last thing: this article is dead right about Macs and fun. Myst is profoundly boring and Macs have few options in games. PC's have every game under the sun.


48 posted on 02/06/2007 10:18:41 AM PST by Stag_Man (NEVER let the people draw their own conclusions. - DUmmie poster.)
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To: Vermonter

LOL - This is hilarious :~D


49 posted on 02/06/2007 10:50:24 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
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To: HairOfTheDog; Ramius; RosieCotton

ROFL! Hilarious.


50 posted on 02/06/2007 11:01:55 AM PST by ecurbh (Giuliani 2008 - http://www.rudygforamerica.com/)
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To: Vermonter
This week: Charlie watched some episodes of Larry Sanders (on his PC). He played the customised Fawlty Towers map for Counterstrike (on his PC). He listened to the Windows startup jingle every 10 minutes as his PC repeatedly rebooted itself.

Buhahahahaha......now that is a riot...

51 posted on 02/06/2007 2:01:31 PM PST by TheBattman (I've got TWO QUESTIONS for you....)
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To: Stag_Man

"Finally food for thought for you Mac proselytizing apostles: the only reason you don't get spyware and viruses is because no one makes spy ware and viruses for Macs. If more people use Macs, this will no longer be true."

I suspect that this is definitely the case. Whoever "those" people are who have nothing better to do with their lives than sit at home creating new ways to mess with MS/PC owners obviously feel that their "valuable" time shouldn't be wasted on Macs. They know that most American offices are equipped with PC-based computers. Bigger bang when the virus is released.

Macs? well apparently not enough market share to make it a good news story.


52 posted on 02/06/2007 6:58:34 PM PST by peteram
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