Wednesday, April 14, 2010

PC vs MAC...My $0.02

Today's Corn and Cheese: "Just like my profile pic, I'm back!"

Good news/Bad news:

Good: I got a new laptop after a long and extensive search!!!
Bad: I've upgraded to Windows 7 from XP.

Dont get me wrong, 7 is awesome, for new users, but I feel like it forgets us fossils who have been using windows for 20 yrs. This is only bad bc I feel like a digital encino man, emerging from some comatose hibernation. I successfully avoided windows vista like the plague, and after years of usage and comparative analysis, I can't convince myself to shell out MAC money. I'm sorry, but I refuse to pay Vacay money on hardware for sex appeal. To me, more than half the joy in anything I own is the crackhead price I more than likely paid for it (ask me how much it costs or is worth, not how much I paid for it). I've used both platforms at the highest level of performance (video capture and editing, sound editing, audio production, CAD, 3D modelling and rendering, downloading and viewing porn, web surfing, digital photography, graphic design and video gaming to name a few) and despite what the quirky nerdy, yet lovably cool guy in the commercials would have you believe, MACs have just as much problems as pc's and will crap out on you just the same at the least opportune time. In fact, it may prove even more problematic bc when your mac does have problems, you have fewer ppl around with the knowledge and tools to fix them (sorry, my pc geek squad is to vast n deep - thats what she said). I have a friend who was without his macbook for over 2 weeks for some simple problem that I could have walked down the block and fixed on a pc.

Since I already discpelled the performance objections, here are the major selling points I keep hearing for macs:

"Macs dont get virus' and spyware" FALSE! Technically, the real answer is "yes and no." If you listen carefully, they tend to say macs are safe from "PC viruses".....which is true. They do in fact get virus' malware and trojans. Although it is rarer to non existent compared to pc's, it does happen and when, or if it does, it can be terminal or infinitely more difficult to fix bc the lack of an antivirus program to differentiate good or bad. Kind of like those cities that shut down for half an inch of snow. However, with the increase in mac users of late, there has been an increase, hence the development of mac antivirus and malware programs like Snow Leapord.
REF: (Since Nicole said I dont do any "blasted research")

http://www.switched.com/2009/09/01/apple-quietly-admits-macs-get-viruses/

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Do_macs_get_viruses

http://www.betanews.com/article/Macs-dont-get-viruses-myth-dissolves-before-publics-eyes/1251493625

Sidenote: She's absolutely right, I dont do research. Ppl get paid to do that, this is fun. My research is life, and occasionally I find and provide supplimentary documentation....for what I already know.

"You can run a virtual PC/windows emulator on a mac" Stupid question, if you want to run a PC so bad, why not get a flippin PC? SURPRISE BISCUITS! PC's can run mac OS too! (The industry or trade lingo for it is "HACKintosh." I think its kinda cute. Dont endorse hacking so you'll have to look that up on your own).

"Its so much simpler" Remember this, "user friendly" = dumbed down. Yeah, and so is a car, but if you give one to a teenager who can barely drive, doesn't know how to handle the transmission, check the fluids and maintenance the car, keep the payments up, obey traffic laws, park properly and stores a bunch of crap in it, can we agree that the problem MAY....just MAY not lie in the car? We should have defensive PC courses.

Folks, I'm not anti-mac, but heres a selling point a MAC user can never use: PRICE. I know ppl with $2000 table settings/paperweights that will never even use $1000 worth of its capabilities.....but sure looks cool. If you browse the internet, email, use office software, listen to music and store photos, you really shouldn't pay more than $500-700 on a desktop or laptop, AND it'll handle ample porn. MAC's are amazing machines for certain applications, but I'm sorry, I can't justify spending 2k on a low end or base model MAC, when 2k in PC boards, and hardware could build a beast of a computer. If you absolutely have to have the MAC platform, be my guest. To each his own, just buy it for the right reasons and not for fad or this false smear campaign going. Reminds me of the cola wars of the 80's.

Sidenote: I'm not a pervert, I'm a realist. Any straight man who has a computer, on the internet, has porn on his computer. If he denies, he's lying or has some serious social, interpersonal issues. He may not feel comfortable sharing bc society demonizes porn, but I have 3 easy steps to expose anyones pc, even the most horndog MIT summa cum laude. Either that or he's telling the truth bc he streams it straight from the net or keeps it in some hidden external drive.

But now back to this windows 7? It's like walking into your room and somebody cleaned and moved all your stuff and nothing is where you put it or know it to be. Can I get some one on one consultation? Apparently the strategy here was to make it more "user friendly" which is simply industry term for "we dumbed it down for dummies...ya big dummy!"....which is why macs only have one button on the mouse, and come in single units at times, bc God forbid you should be burdened with connecting clearly labeled and color coded cables together (they even have little pictures to show you what plugs into what).

Will you be my windows 7 sponsor, hold my hand and walk me through this? Do I need to get a windows 7 for dummies or a Win7 Rosetta Stone to get up to par? They don't even come with books anymore. Off to the internet I go (GO GREEN!). Has it really been 6 yrs since my last pc? I'm getting through, but it seems like everything takes at least 30% more time to do. Saying all this to say, I've been on some real brain flatulence the last few days while I migrate all my files. When that's done and squared away, I'll resume some of the wholesome blog goodness, gems, thingies that I've had in the cue for a while.

My initial reaction:



Sidenote: Ooooh! Now that I have a laptop, can I be one of those pretentious bloggers who sit in coffeeshops, sip drinks with mocha and appachino in it, and blog in public all day long? Bc there is no better productive environment more conducive to creativity than a loud, public, high traffic public area with hundreds of side conversations and distractions.

Sidernote: GRRRRR!!! WHy is a simple copy and paste so difficult!!

Sidestnote: MMMMMM! I looooooove mocha and appachinooooo aaaarrrgghhghgh!!!





2 comments:

Charneta said...

Making technology user friendly is not dumbing things down...I take that as an insult as a human factors engineer. (Watch your back!) Technology should not be so complex that you have to study or pass a test in order to use it...ahem Windows 7 which is so counter intuitive to past versions it is NOT user friendly at all.

But I hear you on the ... See Moreprice of Macs...it took a whole lot of soul searching and debating before I got mine but the thing that ultimately sold me on buying a Mac...I wanted it and its PRETTY. LOL

R said...

HAAHAHAAHAHAHAHAA!

I forgot to add that as probably Mac's biggest selling point........."I wanted it and its PRETTY."