Spreading the aloha of Macintosh, Hawaiian music and island culture from the sunset side of Haleakala volcano on the wonderful island of Maui

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Thursday, January 27, 2005

Mac Mini Lights up PC Columnist but baffles Geek "Big-name PC makers such as HP have so far had little success with small desktops, but the tiny Apple could well create enough buzz to spark new interest among consumers..." Wandering the blogs this morning I stepped in this link at Slashdot where yet another drone showed how little he knows about both Apple and the real world. The original thoughtful article that poor guy misunderstood is at ZDNet. You'll find a link to that below. The point is that the Mac Mini, like so many things that Apple does, will probably kick the entire industry into a new and better direction. This time towards reasonably sized computers. ZDNet article: Link All to often, I find PCs perched like a phallic totem on some poor drone's desk amid piles of wires, speakers and other black and silver crap. I've given up trying to explain that the reason the damn tower design exists is so the computer can sit on the floor rather than taking up space on your desk. Apparently this isn't a result of rational thought, but a Freudian compensation I don't want to dwell on too much. Perhaps the higher a person's position, or lack of same, the bigger their tools must appear. Of course that's also the reason so many people buy PCs, they're too insecure to step outside of the common crowd and consider anything brave like buying a Macintosh. Which brings me somehow to the statements contained in the Slashdot post that lead me to the ZDNet article. I'll skip right to the part that bothered me and a number of other respondents who also took this turkey to task. Slashdot Link "Apple does have a history of leading the charge in paradigm shifts in certain aspects of consumer products (e.g. GUI's, color changes, the iPod, and the list goes on). It is also important to recognize that they have been wrong at times too (e.g. the Cube, the Newton, and the one button mouse). Time will tell which list the Mini will belong to." Ohh, let me at him! One: the Cube was very right, but the price was wrong. If Apple had shipped that computer for $999, it would have been a screaming success, and I'd have one or two right now. Two: The Newton was far from a failure, it was just too damn early, both as a technology and as a product. If Apple shipped the Newton with today's technology, they would own the PDA market. I still consider my Newton eMate to be the best personal computer ever made, especially for $799! Three: Get over the two button mouse thing ok. Geeks have such a hard time with this. It's like a bunch of truck drivers denigrating automatic transmissions. Most PC users have no idea what that other button is for, that's why Apple put just one button on their mouse and will continue to do so until either Steve Jobs has a cerebral haemorrhage or normal people grow a different nervous system. This wonderful dialog was imagined by one of many SlashDot readers defending Apple's one-button mouse: Me: OK, I need you to click the icon with the right mouse button. Them: I did. The icon got dark. Me: It sounds like you didn't click with the right mouse button. Them: How do I know which one is right? Me: It's the mouse button that is on the right side of the mouse. Them: There are no buttons on the right side of the mouse. ... 9:12:30 AM    comment []