Another poor soul about to be devoured by the RDF.
Believe it or not, I went to MagnumMac (corner of Broadway and Khyber Pass Road) on Friday when the iPad was released in NZ. I would never have gone there if a lovely female workmate had not asked me to take an extended smoko down the road to buy a new case for her iPod Nano and of course, check out the iPad. Anyway, it was an impressive sight where people of all demographics coming in to buy four or five iPads without even engaging the basic precautions when shopping for gadgets. I have long suspected the Apple fanboyhood as a classic case of collective hysteria, with every product launch reinforcing my prejudices. Take the example of iPhone 4, or the antenna problems it had from its fundamentally flawed design. Apple's handling of the issue is beyond shameless:
-They have secretly applied some coating to new units to prevent the worse attenuation.
-They offered a free case or bumpers for people already have the phone.
-They added a page on their official website dedicated to bash other phones which according to the almighty Steve Jobs suffer from the same problem no less.
-Not to mention some diehard defenders of Apple trying to claim that the iPhone 4 is still the best phone with the problems in mind(and the signal issue was mostly the fault of AT&T). But seriously, iPhone 4 is a mobile PHONE, if you need a pretty gadget that will play MP3 and/or Plants vs. Zombies do yourself a favor and buy an iTouch.
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I have had a few interesting lecturers today. One was fuming why nobody bought him birthday gifts when he made a Cecil announcement that it is his birthday tomorrow(when we don't even have a lecture); another was rather inebriated after lunch and her speech was peppered with broken phrases close to the meaning of "I am sober."; the remaining one came to his students asking for help because the lecture room terminal is PC and he is "a lifetime Mac user."
Wind the clock back by 20 years, Macintosh is the only option for graphic design because IBM compatibles are so heterogeneous and lack any ability to use ICC profiles.Therefore, Apple was the only viable choice for a microcomputer when it comes to reproduce images/videos. Besides, professional software that are less dependent on colour management, i.e. AutoCAD, was never ported to the Mac. Hence the myth of Apple being designer's choice is really not worth believing.
Now we are in 2010 and things have changed a lot. PC has catched up greatly in terms of stability and consistency that to an average user, PC is at least just as good as a Mac. Apple was afraid of losing its core users so much, that they locked the colour management of the latest iMacs into OSX so the pros will not even have a chance to run windows.
What about their other major product? I have listened to most iPods ever made and most of them sound mediocre except the original iPod or iPod Classic, which was a surprisingly phenomenal music player. However my comment does not extend to the pair of white earphones that came free with your i-products: they have more in common with the speakers of a really cheap laptop that makes your favourite song irritating. Every time I see someone wearing Apple's white headsets it makes my heart sink because I know that in the long run, this person is going to give up on music altogether.
Am I getting one for myself or the ones I love? No wai. The controls are awkward and illogical, and iTunes is so badly designed that I had to treat it like a virus. Nevertheless, I have no problem offering Apple products to the misguided, uninformed masses, because they are not very smart.
Sighs, the superficial and rotten Apple today is no longer the innovative maker of classics such as the Mac G4. Their sole strategy is to have a range of highly exclusive hardware inaccessible to users so it will require the least effort to maintain. For example, knowing the iPhone is a power hog, they have refused on every occasion to make the battery interchangeable because they know better than me do and obviously we don't need interchangeable batteries.
Seriously?
To me, the recent success signifies the fundamental problem in modern consumerism. Instead of rewarding independence and ingenuity, companies like Apple are keen to sell a bland but profitable merchandise disguised in a sugar coat of individuality. To be fair, there are many sensible and intelligent Mac users out there. However the majority of Apple users are just posers who think they are better people with a MacBook or iPad. And it is the latter that will soon lose the ability to think as individuals.
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Few other things I also hate:
1. Crocs
2. Korea
Your average Korean compatriot
Most Asian people are nice, conservative and openly xenophobic because they have not been taught of the wonderful lessens of political correctness. Koreans stands out as a particular example. A classical case of nouveau riche mixed with traditional lack of security, Koreans are probably the most narrow minded the arrogant people of the Far East.
My only early impression of Korea is that while the people are kind and polite, their national language is a both vulgar and messy. As I learned more about this country, I could not help to increasingly despise them. Some may claim that there has been an ongoing smear campaign against Korea since 2002 and I doubt it. The turn in public opinion on Korea is entirely due to their own acts of stupidity including but not limited to: their totally mistaken adherence to the Goguryeo succession, lack of integrity, and freakish chauvinistic tendencies.
Let's end this prejudiced section with the stills of a TV show recorded in Japan:
Korean dude: Fundamentally, Japanese people are not popular overseas.
K: I have studied abroad on several occasions.
K: Myself included, Koreans got on really well with the locals.
K: Please excuse my shameless plug.
K: My girlfriend is Taiwanese, I met her in the USA.
Nigerian guy: I have many Korean friends.
N: What really bothers me about them is that they are all such charlatans...
N: ...saying stuff like: We are really popular, we are the coolest in the world, like Mr #74 has been doing...
K: I only said I am popular.
K: I said nothing about Koreans being popular.
N: You just said it!
K: Fine, we will watch the tapes later, sucker!
Enough said.
3. People
L'enfer, c'est les autres
or put it more directly
What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets?!
People are excessively complex for their genetic makeup. They are the only visible aberration to an otherwise perfectly mechanical world. Hence we need all the customs, laws and formalities to make things a little more predictable. I will never understand anarchists, such society would be pure horror show.
I feel for the likes of myself such as John Key, Paula Bennett, Patricia Cornwall and in a fashion, John Tamihere(you may have already forgot about him right?). Internally we might be quite liberal; nevertheless we cannot help to hop into the right wing bandwagon because internally, we all crave for an ideal society where everybody has someone to be obeyed and someone to be commanded.
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In other news, managed to score an EVGA X58 motherboard at very low prices and will probably have to upgrade to Nehalem quite prematurely. Also bought a GTX275 for now and will wait till prices on 40nm cards drop.
