Disillusioned with Macs

Anyone want to get me a job that doesn't zap me of all energy by 6pm?

In other news, I've been thinking about my laptop a lot recently.  It's a Mac, which I do like and have been using since college.  It was very convenient in college to have because of the fact there was a mac store on campus and if anything got messed up, you could just take it there.  Expensive?  Of course.  But it was a Mac campus practically.  Not to say you were totally out of the loop with a PC laptop, but the probability of having a Mac was way higher than normal.

When I went into the real world I stuck with Macs, getting a Macbook almost 2 years ago.  I thought it would be something that would serve me well.

I'm not here to complain about proprietary software or hardware.  I can live with that as someone who doesn't feel the need to upgrade or adjust everything on a computer to my will.   To be honest, only recently did I not fall into the "OMG it's pretty" trap when it comes to what I care about for my programs.

I'm not here to complain about how it's now popular and there's now nothing unique about Macs.  Who cares.  Apple is a business, they want to get popular and it's not my problem.

I'm complaining about every since case I have that's been easily broken.  These things are not durable!  First it was before they had the magnetic power cord, the ac adapter's connection to the wall was SO sturdy that if a trip incident happened, the whole thing was taken out.  Ugh.  And that is how my first Powerbook's screen got totally ruined. Ivy was then replaced by the recent intel Ivy II, a Macbook which had everything I needed.  Except a flimsy DVD drive that almost stopped working because the opening was soft enough that holding your computer by the DVD drive it would squish.  Who leaves something that malleable in a laptop unprotected?  Anyway, then there was the time I spilt juice on that one and the key didn't work.  Yeah, that one is my fault, so I had no problem replacing it with another Macbook.

But with this one, I can't replace the battery on my own anymore.  Excuse me?

Also, when I got it I realized that the bottom of it was soft thick latex that was screwed into the bottom.  I can dig it.  That is, I can dig it until the heat of the laptop itself starts WARPING THE LATEX CASING.  Now it's practically falling off.  Are you kidding me?  What kind of design flaw is this?

Also, the joint where the screen is has two cracks already.  I haven't dropped this, I've always carried this in a laptop safe case, and other than the occasional bump I've been much better to this laptop than to any other one I've ever used in college.  WHAT THE HELL, APPLE?!?!  Why are you making laptops that obviously should not be transported?  This thing is falling apart and I treated it right!

I really wish I could keep the OS and just ditch the case, but Apple doesn't work like that and I'm not going to become a 1337 haxorz to try it.  I just want a laptop that I can have for more than two years at a time without it BREAKING ITSELF.

If any of you know of any good netbooks I should consider in the future, please let me know.  Because the plan now is the save up to get one, and then have Mystic to put Linux on it.

Because Windows can still suck it.

Stop making Mac owners look delusional: A break down of a crappy article

First of all, electricity is back.  I've survived the apocalypse!  Woot!

Second, via The Boyfriend's perusing of the Neogaf forums brought my attention to this thread about a Macworld article about E3.  I got pretty angry at it.  When stupidity's afoot, I get easily irritated.  I think I gave that article the finger for a full minute while The Boyfriend read it, just to have him turn around and laugh.

To do things a little differently, I'm going to highlight the part of the article I find particularly ignorant or stunningly idiotic before I give it a full assessment.  You can find the whole article here, but do you really want to read it without my witty critiques?

Alright, let's start out with something ridiculously nit-picky I noticed in the second paragraph.

"I walked the floor of E3 until my flip-flops broke in protest at the mediocrity. When your footwear is sounding off about the originality of your industry, you know you're in a tough place."

Uh, who wears flip-flops to an event where you're walking that way?  Shoes that are meant for casual use and not miles of walking for hours at a time?  An idiot, that's who. That was my impression of the author, Chris Holt, when I first read the article.

His impressions of Microsoft are pretty fair, though harsh, and then he moves on to Nintendo.

"If you want to buy Zelda's Wind Waker crossed with Twilight Princess, Nintendo would like to sell you that game. Nintendo is so willing to sell it, in fact, that its willing to put adult men in front of thousands of people and have them swat pretend swords for your amusement."

1) Did the guy ever play those other Zelda games? I don't think that combo is correct, especially if you know the series. Sure there is some rehashing, but windwaker? 2) God forbid there are people who use there IMAGINATION to pretend to be a badass fighter by using a game controller. Not like that hasn't happened in the history of gaming, ever. (P.S., it's almost the entire history of gaming)

"The saddest bunny that Nintendo pulled out of its hat was the trailer for a new Goldeneye 007 game. The reveal was met not by wowed enthusiasm, but instead with the sound of thousands of hands slapping a thousand foreheads."

As much as there was some hesitance to this game, I watched the Nintendo conference live and there were some genuinely excited people. Was he really there? Was he only surrounded by his "jaded" friends?

"On the show floor, I later played the new Goldeneye 007, and I can confirm that you still can't play first person shooters on the Wii..."

It was clarified that you could only play the new Goldeneye with the Classic Controller on showroom floor. I assume this guy isn't used to buttons and joysticks and basically all he wants to do is tilt his screen to be able to snipe people. Doesn't work that way.

"Sure, the 3DS has 3D graphics without glasses--but also without a sense of perspective. That is to say, Apple is eating their market and Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime is sitting in the white Buick with the devil as they go over the cliff, laughing, a la Thelma and Louise."

And this is where it's obvious this guy isn't aware of the real gaming industry. How is Apple steal from a market that it's not even competing in? More on that later, couple more quotes on this article and how it's written by an unobservant man.

"Sony at least knows that the casual gaming market is gone to them. Apple's SDK can't be beaten by conventional platforms or conventional weapons..."

Am I missing something? Was Apple presenting at E3? Did they unveil their second Pippin? The Pippin 2? Does it also have motion controls like everyone else?

"The three big console developers, previously unchallenged in their supremacy, have become complacent swine, out of touch with the modern gamer. They keep making games that they already made because they know they will sell, not because they will be challenging, creative, or fun."

Any corporation in a capitalist society is driven by the prospect of profit. To get mad at a company for chasing dollar signs is to be mad at a mud for being dirty: it's in their nature. Sure, over time you want a market to evolve, but if the consumers are eating up a classic formula, a company has no incentive to change. And might I add, the "newest" thing that Apple has recently come out with is a bigger iPod touch.

To give the guy credit, the gaming industry will not survive on rehashes, but at the same time Apple is nowhere near competing in the gaming world. I'm not even talking about it from a hardcore perspective, if you look at the casual games Apple's market is EXACTLY the same as the PCs. Even the phone games can be found on different phones. Also, no one is going to buy an iPhone for the games. Sure, there are fun games on it, but I can play most of those on other popular smart phones. Hell, most games I can play on ANY computer if we're talking Zuma/Dinner Dash/Any facebook game application.

The kind of casual gamers E3 was talking to are the ones who take time out of their day to relax with video games. This isn't something to play on the plane/train/carpool, this isn't something to do when your boss isn't watching. This is something fun you want to do after a long day, or during the weekend, with your friends over on a random hangout night, with your family when it's rainy, or even if you want to shed a couple pounds on your off time. It's an actual investment, it's not an afterthought.

I'm not saying Apple is wrong to invest in games as an afterthought. It works for their platforms. But there aren't a lot of Mac gamers for a reason: Apple doesn't make it easy to be a gamer. You can't upgrade your system, there aren't a lot of games you can play, except for some casual games that will take up your coffee break. You don't have an accessible network or community (until recently with Steam on Mac), you don't have an interface that promotes games that are slightly more complicated, you don't even have them really trying. It feels like their entrance into gaming was more accidental or peripheral than in the forefront of Apple's mind. And that's fine.

Lastly, I'm tired of my fellow Mac users acting as if Apple is perfect and does everything right. I'm sorry, but no.  This company, at least to what I see as a consumer, seems to be also running out of ideas.  I'm so afraid of what happens after Steve Jobs kicks the bucket with that company. The iPad wasn't revolutionary, the stuff they make isn't perfect, and for the love of God they weren't at E3 so they can't win E3 without being there. Sorry, Holt, you're overreaching.

GAH! Computers are on the rise!

My old laptop had finally gotten to difficult to keep around, so with the help of the Boyfriend and my mother convincing me I wasn't wasting money, I have a new laptop.

I feel kind of stupid doing it, because I was hoping to wait until spring.  I did buy another mac, and I wanted to wait so I could pay it off faster.  But alas, when the period key on your laptop stops working and you're a writer, you can't just continue on.  And now I am transferring data between the two as I speak.  8 hours to go!  WOOT!

I am hoping this means that I can use my new computer to post more on this blog.  At this point I am waiting for the 5 jobs that I have to be condensed down to 1, or possibly even two.  I don't think that will happen over night, but sooner rather than later.

In other nerd news, I am going down to visit friends in Central IL again, and I am super excited to be nerding out two weekends in a row.  I've recently been able to make time to go back to my larp where my body didn't suddenly decide to get all sick or my schedule all crazy.  It's good to be back.  I missed those friends and I missed the characters.  As time goes on I expect to have more of my saturdays back, so I hope I can do more gaming in person rather than just over my super awesome gaming computer Adonis. 

That's right, I named my computer Adonis.  And?

These are the steps toward finally getting back to blogging regularly.  I miss the small community of readers I had here, and I hope to gain it back.  I also miss the 20 sided women project.  There is so much more I need to do.

But now I just got all serious on you guys!  There's no need for that.  Uh...



There we go, not serious at all.

The iPad: An experiment in super-sizing

Proptart and I just looked at this article about the iPad, and I do mean JUST looked at.  We had heard the rumors about an Apple tablet coming out.  We were a little excited about it.

Not so much anymore.

Well, first of all, take a look at it:

Does it look familiar?  Well it should, because it's essentially the bigger cousin of this:

That's right, the new iPad is a larger iPhone.  It comes with all the apps and interface of an iPhone or iPod touch, except it's BIGGER.

Okay, I'll give credit when credit is due, it also does some iWork stuff that is really useful... if you're in an office that uses iWork.  Which, I'm not.

Maybe it's just me, but when I heard rumor of a tablet, I thought of someting that would be more suseful for graphic design, which is something that Proptart would find very useful.  Being able to have a touch interface with Photoshop or possibly just being able to write down notes in class would be ridiculously useful for the average mac user.

This... is just a PDA that I can't fit in my pocket.

I know some of you that keep up with me know that a mac user without being a rabid Mac fan.  Anyone who follows a company blindly is waiting for disappointment in my opinion.  And this is one of those times.  This isn't revolutionary, this isn't an improvement on something that has a lot of potential, this isn't even that "fun" looking.  It's just a huge touch screen wannabe laptop.  It's not even a wannabe laptop. 

I can see this being useful in some settings where touch screens need to be accessible to the public, or firms where certain apps could be used internally.  But I think that use is kind of limited.  Me personally?  I'm sticking to the standard issue laptop.

Mac vs. PC: A Compromise

This is something I've wanted to write for a while.  Partly because I feel I lose some nerd points because I'm personally a Mac user.  It limits you in the culture to an extent.  You're less likely to be into computer software and hardware, less likely into programming, and less likely to be into computer gaming if you are a Mac User.  That's a lot of points to lose, especially as a gamer.  But I am still confident about my choice to stick to Mac, and not because it's all together better. (Note how I said in my title "a compromise", not "an ultimatum") 

I first got into Macs right before college.  My school, for practical purposes, is a Mac school.  The computer store here is a Mac store, which means if something breaks down on my Mac I can just hop across campus and get it fixed relatively quickly.  Seemed economical, despite the higher price tag.  I personally prefer walking or driving to a store, knowing what is going to happen to my computer before I sign it off to the company, and then pick it up a week later, rather than having to ship it off to the middle of nowhere and hope that not only the company but the postal service will do their job.  I picked up a powerbook (I now have a macbook instead because I messed up the screen of the first laptop) and proceeded to love the operating system as well as the machine.

I think I officially switched my loyalty when I came back home for winter break and I tried to play the Sims 2 on my computer and home, and it was glitchy.  My brother had proceeded over the course of 4 and a half months, install 6 viruses, a couple worms and tons of spyware while I had been at college.  Even uninstalling and reinstalling didn't make anything better.  In fact, I couldn't reinstall at all, everything had messed up.  You could imagine my frustration.

Frustrated just like that.

On top of the ease that most viruses have with the Windows OS, it was really difficult for me to just try and fix everything with my ignorance.  My mother was nice enough to help me get Sims 2 for the Mac (Aspyr is good at keeping the series somewhat current for OS X) and I never dealt with a home PC unless I had to from then on.  

Does this mean the PC was horrible and how could anyone deal with it?  Not at all.  If The Boyfriend had the same problem I did, the thing would've been solved within a 24 hour period.  Why?  Because he knows the innards of computer better than I do.  But I don't.  Nor do I want to take the time to learn something that I'm honestly not that interested in.  I don't want to invest the time to know what's going on in the background of my computer as I work on word documents and play silly casual games online.  I just want to be able to do those things without hassle.  And that is why a Mac is good for me.

Macs are meant for people who don't care about their computers that much.  The computer is merely a tool to use for web browsing, music collecting, communicating... etc.  When it breaks, you take it to a specialist who tells you what he or she is going to do and then just does it.  You don't worry about upgrades, you don't worry about  replacing parts, you just take the computer as it is and use it.  I am this kind of person.  I am not ignorant about computers, but my care about a video card or the RAM is limited to "Will this work?  No?  Then give it to someone who can fix it!"

PCs are a step up.  If you do care about your computer, maintaining it and updating it, personalizing it, you get a PC.  Partly because there's a lot more variety.  Partly because the OS is easier to manipulate.  Completely because you can change a PC to be specifically yours.  Need it to be the fastest stock reader and meeting center for video conferences?  Easy to do.  Mega gaming machine?  Even easier.  Just to use WordPerfect and solitaire?  Well, don't know why you want to use WordPerfect but sure, super easy to set up.  You just have to do the research to set it up correctly.  If you are willing to put in the time, get a PC.

"But d20 Sapphire, how can you cal yourself a gamer?"  Well the only computer games I play are the sims, so that's not a big deal.  For me it's not about how fast it will process, just the funny stories and the genetics.  The rest of the games I like to play are on consoles, so I don't need a computer to play them.  Well, except for Starcraft but that game is so old it can run on practically everything.  I don't need a gaming PC, so I'm sticking to my Mac.  

Let's not say one is better than the other overall.  Mac's are favored in their simplicity, PCs for their versatility.  Let's say that to each his own when it comes to this debate.