Hardware - - Worshipping False Gods! - Page 2

Axleuk · #16 01-02-2005, 10:01 AM

I reallly couldnt use a MAC, its bad enough having a mouse with only one button, but the amount of time it would take me to get used to a whole new OS and set of instructions would not make it worth my time,

Windows will have to do for now, unless Mr Microsoft and Mr Mac get together and reinvent the computer.

chris h · #17 01-02-2005, 10:32 AM

I've been on the verge of buying a laptop several times M but have never made the jump. I'd probably go Windows if I did although the Mac stuff looks pretty compared to the heavy duty look of the Dell's.

Doug Nelson · #18 01-02-2005, 03:32 PM

I'll probably buy a Mac next upgrade, if for no other reason than I've lost more than enough work by not using Macs to pay for even the priciest system.

That's the dirty little secret no one ever talks about. Specs aside, if the person offering work is a Mac user and you aren't, kiss the job goodbye. I've polished my logical arguments to a sparkling glisten, but it almost never works.

chris h · #19 01-02-2005, 03:38 PM

Product not platform Doug!

Doug Nelson · #20 01-02-2005, 04:00 PM

You'd think that would be the case, but it just ain't so. It took a conference call with a couple of publishing mucky-mucks for it to finally dawn on me. We'd been negotiating for a few weeks via email for me to be involved in a pretty big production, and were finally putting the finishing touches on the deal when it came up tangentally that I was a PC user. Their assumption had been so strong it never occurred to them that they needed to ask. But I might as well have mentioned in passing that I ate puppies and kittens. I didn't get the job, even though it would be done via FTP and email and my responsibilities involved only text, not even image files.

Logic doesn't work because it's not a logical argument (and overly-logical people seem to gravitate towards the PC, which doesn't help matters). I've recently been exchanging emails with a gentleman that supervises 1500 full-time Photoshop users. Logically, they should use PCs since it would probably save $1000 per person per year and they'd have a much larger potential hiring base, and it's such a prestigious position he could order them to work with sticks on sand and they gladly would do it. But over the past decade he's discovered the intangibles were more valuable than the tangibles, so logic loses out to pragmatism.

winwintoo · #21 01-02-2005, 05:24 PM

The line between the merits of the two platforms has blurred to the point that it should have disappeared by now and the only thing dictating which platform to use in a business environment is which platform the software to run your business will run on.

I've always owned Macs so all my software is Mac but I'm just as comfortable in a Windows environment when it comes right down to it and folks are amazed that I can help them solve software "problems" with their Windows machines without actually having a Windows machine in front of me. Moving from Mac to Windows software is almost seamless in most cases but that's my little secret.

This is not starting out to be a good year. I was on my way to my son's house, carrying my backpack with two laptops, other assorted bags with belated Christmas gifts, it's bitterly cold

, there's 11 feet of snow

and I had to park a block away because there was a snow removal crew working in his parking lot.

Well as I was struggling through the drifts, the big grader machine suddenly reversed and headed right for me at highway speed. As I leapt into the air and did a swan dive onto the nearest snowbank, I felt the tendons in my right knee - you know the ones that are attached to your back teeth - rip apart and I was blinded by the pain.

I howled in pain and my granddaughter who was outside enjoying the snow as only a 10 year old tomboy can, came running to have a good laugh at me as I clamored to my feet and clutched a fence post to hold myself upright. The tears froze to my cheeks leaving unsightly rivers of frostbite that will no doubt leave scars for the rest of my life.

Finally my DGD and her friend relieved me of some of my burden and helped me hobble the rest of the way to their condo where I was greeted by the rest of the family - they of more separated shoulders, broken arms, ankles and legs than they can keep track of - where we all had another good laugh.

Anyway, I'm back home and resting. My knee is still sore and I have to be very careful how I move it. Rats.

Margaret

Axleuk · #22 01-02-2005, 05:47 PM

winwintoo,
Sorry to hear about your mishap, i used to live in Medicine Hat, Alberta so can sympathise with the extreme weather conditions experienced by the Canadians, but more to the point, was your equipment ok ? ( only kidding ).

Hope you get better soon.

winwintoo · #23 01-02-2005, 06:16 PM

I guess it's worth the extra expense of a good laptop bag

The equipment all survived and my son who's an expert in sports injuries (having sustained almost every one possible) assures me that my knee will be OK in a couple of days.

I'm not sure my pride will recover as quickly though.....

Margaret

Gary Richardson · #24 01-03-2005, 02:21 AM

Interesting to read Doug's comments. Being an amateur, I've never had to consider the commercial aspects of which platform to use, I've always made that decision on a cost per basis, and PCs win hands down. However, if attitudes are as you say, and, ridiculous as it seems you are turned down on the basis of what platform you use rather than the quality of your work, then I suppose I would reluctantly use Mac as well. But it really does seem like a farce that such decisions are made. What reasons do they give for this stance, or do they think they're so powerful that they don't feel they have to give reasons.

Margaret, sorry to hear of your accident, get well soon. Try moving to the UK, you never have to dodge snow ploughs as we never have any snow. You'll just need an aqualung to cope with all the rain. But just think how useful all that free hydrotherapy would be for your knee.

winwintoo · #25 01-03-2005, 04:45 AM

Gary, I would move to the UK in a heartbeat. I love it over there - my only problem was that I kept tripping over the cobblestones and uneven sidewalks. I kept thinking that at least in Canada they have standards where the roads and sidewalks have to be kept smooth - silly me, I thought it was so clutzes like me wouldn't trip. I just realized it's so the snowplows would have an easier time.

I'm sure my knee will heal - don't know about my bruised ego though.

As far as the Macs/PC debate - many of the people advocating for either side have only ever used one or the other. There are statistics from the early 1990s showing that the cost of ownership over the lifetime of a Mac is less (longer useful life) than it is for a PC, but I don't think that holds any water these days. There are lots of older Macs that are still very useful, but they can't run the latest software or OS just like older PCs can't and Mac users are upgrading as frequently as PC users are.

I think it's a very personal thing. I drive a 10-year old Mitsubishi car. It was totaled off in an accident 5 years ago so I went looking for a new one. I drove lots; none had the same feel so I got mine back from the salvage yard and had the body repaired and kept driving it. This fall, I once again went looking for a new car. I drove a bunch of them - brand new. None had the same solid feel as my car so I did the maintenance stuff that was due and kept driving the old one.

That's how I feel about my Mac computers. To me they just feel more "solid" - they feel "right"

There's no use trying to convince anyone else of that. My friend "loves" her PC that's always in the shop for repairs; so is her Mazda car that she also "loves" - she looks down her nose at my meager possessions. It's all a matter of taste.

Even (especially) those in the corner office can be fooled by the hype - or maybe they have shares in APPL - who knows.

Margaret

Doug Nelson · #26 01-03-2005, 05:58 AM

I look at it like ties. Logically, a piece of cloth tied around your neck should have no bearing on whether you get a job or not. A reasonable case could be made that it might even interfere with job performance. Nowadays, the likelihood that wearing one after you're hired is getting smaller. Yet they still greatly improve chances of getting hired, so I wear them and recommend wearing them.

I once got a job because I grew up in Missouri. And both the job and I were in San Francisco at the time. But the manager thought it might somehow indicate that I was used to working harder. I got another job once because I'm a vegetarian. You can't apply logic in these situations, there are hundreds of qualified applicants and once it gets down to the final few it boils down to who do they feel the most comfortable with.

On a related note, have you ever noticed most PS books use Macs for their screenshots? I've been in the situation of being actually able to talk to the people that write and publish these books. I've even suggested that PC screencaps would appeal to a much larger readership (75+% of PS licenses are for the PC). The response: Mac illustrated books sell better, even to PC users. I write a monthly column for a magazine where they actually reshoot all my screencaps on a Mac before going to press. My guess is that it implies they're more serious and professional. This would not be too difficult to extrapolate over to the workplace.

Gary Richardson · #27 01-03-2005, 08:01 AM

Hi Margaret,

The reason for the uneven pavements (sidewalks) is to keep the insurance businesses and lawyers in jobs. Without them how would they make a killing with all the compensation claims that result. We also use them as an obstacle course to spot foreigners, their slow reflexes and lack of natural gymnastic ability, (which natural born British have honed to a fine art after years of walking on crooked surfaces) mark them out as strangers to be exploited in numerous money relieving scams.

Similar reasons exist for the uneven potholed roads. Also, manufacturers of cars have spent millions of pounds investing in advanced suspension systems for their vehicles, and we as a philanthropic nation feel its only right that they have somewhere to test them, so they don't feel they've been wasting their time and money.

I too have an old car, made prematurely so by the roads (see above). However, the chances of changing it at the moment are not too good. Unlike your well built solid Mazda, mine is a jerry built unsolid Renault (what on earth possessed me to buy a car from the old enemy still eludes me, a sudden rush of blood to the head I think) which I would be happy to get rid of should finances improve.

Glad to hear you knee looks like healing.

Gary.