Comments on: Charlie Brooker on Macs

By: skeptic

skeptic — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 08:09:24 +0000

The word according to tyugg:

Two days ago I was in a lab using someone elses Mac, and they still had one of those awful mouses with no buttons. Firefox did not have any of its normal context-menu shortcuts or keyboard shortcuts. It took forever. Eventually I got so fed up I had to find a PC. It was running a pre-XP operating system, but it was still better than the OSX Mac.

Shorter tyugg: the machine was badly configured, so the operating system must be defective.

By: skeptic

skeptic — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 07:56:41 +0000

Can’t we all just get along, like leftist sociologists and the physical sciences community?

Maybe, if the physical scientists are running virtual LISP machines and the sociologists are using Amigas.

By: Francis

Francis — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 17:55:33 +0000

Most of you need to read the article – or at least the last paragraph and a half.

Besides, that’s what we PC owners are like – unreliable, idiosyncratic and gleefully unfair. And if you’ll excuse me now, I feel an unexpected crash coming.

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.

By: epk

epk — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 23:12:08 +0000

What I particularly liked was that the first comment after the article was Brooker whining that someone had had the gall to edit his masterpiece. Granted, it sounds like an irritating bit of copyediting, but dear sweet jeebus.

Some sort of memo needs to go out to authors (of all sorts) explaining that it’s unprofessional, tactless, and a bit pathetic to whinge about that sort of thing in public. Take it to the editor, people!

By: agm

agm — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 22:20:56 +0000

I saw this the other day, and I'd love to share. There are some quite entertaining parodies available, such as the ones at TrueNuff. The one labeled "Performance" explains eloquently why the two guys in the commercials are white.

By: Randolph Fritz

Randolph Fritz — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 21:52:11 +0000

“All said better first by Neal Stephenson, ‘In the Beginning was the Command Line.’”

But he was wrong. In the beginning was the loom.

By: Tracy W

Tracy W — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 20:14:43 +0000

Wow. That column is the stupidest piece of passion out of all proportion to accuracy or importance I’ve encountered in weeks

That’s why it’s funny.

By: Morat20

Morat20 — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 19:54:26 +0000

It might be a good idea for everyone to actually read the entire column. Especially the last paragraph, where he makes his point:

Ultimately the campaign’s biggest flaw is that it perpetuates the notion that consumers somehow “define themselves” with the technology they choose. If you truly believe you need to pick a mobile phone that “says something” about your personality, don’t bother. You don’t have a personality. A mental illness, maybe – but not a personality. Of course, that hasn’t stopped me slagging off Mac owners, with a series of sweeping generalisations, for the past 900 words, but that is what the ads do to PCs. Besides, that’s what we PC owners are like – unreliable, idiosyncratic and gleefully unfair. And if you’ll excuse me now, I feel an unexpected crash coming.

By: Vanya

Vanya — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:13:30 +0000

“PCs are a bit rubbish yet ultimately lovable, whereas Macs are just smug, preening tossers.” Well the same problem exists with the US campaign – Hodgman (playing the PC) is much more likeable than the poser guy playing the Mac.

By: SG

SG — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 15:03:09 +0000

Hands up who chooses their computer based on the software their workplace has available for … ah.. borrowing…

By: Cian

Cian — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:44:12 +0000

This thread has reminded me of why I dislike Mac zealots so much.

As for the actual computers? Some good things, some bad. They’re still pretty rubbish though.

By: ajay

ajay — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 11:20:55 +0000

All said better first by Neal Stephenson, “In the Beginning was the Command Line.”

By: pum

pum — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 05:36:00 +0000

Fact are facts and wishing they weren’t so doesn’t make them go away.

By: Alan Bostick

Alan Bostick — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 04:13:21 +0000

I love my PowerBook, not the least because, when I open a Terminal window, it speaks the languages I grew up using with computers. (Actually that’s not altogether true; I grew up using a predecessor of System V rather than BSD, so I’ve had to learn to say “ps aux” rather than “ps -ef”, but that’s small potatoes.)

It’s interesting timing for an anti-Mac rant in the Gruaniad, given that Windows Vista is being released right now, and Vista is reported to be the “longest suicide note in history.”

By: Jonathan Goldberg

Jonathan Goldberg — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 00:25:43 +0000

Normally I love CT. This thread, is well below your usual standard. In fact, its a waste of brain bandwidth.

I’ve worked with computers since the IBM 1620, including both Windows boxes and Macs (this is being posted from a Mac). I mildly dislike all of them, and don’t get excited about any.