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moving to windows is for suckers and tools

May 10, 2007 ananzi link
OK we all know the old argument from the time immemorial. "i can get a faster computer for less money if i buy wintel".

Thats true. but its false. Its the logic of greed. The logic of people who think PC Computing and PC Magazine are full of hard hitting investigative journalism.

If you really, really, want to maximize your 'bang for the buck', you buy a used computer. Duh. It's obvious. As soon as you buy a new computer, it will lose a great deal of value just from depreciation, like automobiles.

And like auto buyers, People who claim to be concerned 'about money' when buying a new car, are, in fact, tools and suckers. They are not concerned 'about money' or they would be buying a used car.

What are they getting out of a brand new product? Nothing. Ineffable, vague, untouchable things like 'new car smell', or 10% faster whatsit-whosit. In the land of computers these percentages are more, but they are still only a few months worth of 'best' ness. At best.

And so, when these suposedly 'efficient consumers' plop down hundreds of dollars more than a used item so that they can have some kind of intangible 'newness' to a product, that will last a few short months, they are making a mockery of thrift and insulting frugality.

Only the most obsessive of the obsessive cares about the 15% performance boost between, say, a brand spanking new computer and a computer from a few months ago. It will make little difference except in the twisted, addled mind of the obsessive compulsive as they check their framerates for the millionth time to prove that they, are, in fact, some kind of 'intelligent person' because they were able to measure little numbers on a screen.

And in the end it is a question of how one values ones time, which is a silly proposition.... If one thinks about it there are volumes to be written about this weird idea in and of itself. And when one thinks about it, the type of computer that eventually becomes 'most efficient' depends entirely upon your hourly salary, which can widely vary based on silly things like racial or class or gender prejudice, luck, dumb luck, inheritance, and so forth and so on ad infinitum. Ending, finally, in the conclusion, that it is all a thin veneer of logic pasted loosely on top of the underlying emotional satisfaction people get from tweaking their wintel box over and over....

In fact, we do not want a 'stable computer', like our relationships, we seek chaos, as it is familiar to us, and as in our childhood, the chaos of our 50% divorce rates, skyrocketing emotional and physical abuse rates, and etc, is what attracts us as we get older. We long for the turmoil and anguish and endless confrontation that is the running of a windows box, just as much as we long to paste over it with a simple and comforting explanation, "its for the money", just as our parents explained away the ridiculous circumstances of their jobs or marriages.

In the end, windows is a symptom of our sickness, and we will seek to explain our need for it in a thousand ways, avoiding the truth until the end of our civilization. Which is about 20 years off.
May 10, 2007 mgl_mouser link
Hey! Cool it! He may be a sucker or a tool, but Leeb's a good friend of mine so lay off!
May 10, 2007 vIsitor link
Yeah, knock it off ananzi. It's not that I don't agree with your point, after I cut through your heavily biased opinion, but frankly you've just being annoying.

Besides, sooner or later Leber's comp will go blue-screen on him, and he'll see the error of his ways. Until then, you've just blowing hot air.
May 10, 2007 moldyman link
I get a red screen of death every time I boot up or log off. Or a blue screen after ten minutes idle ;)
May 10, 2007 Whistler link
I haven't seen a blue screen in several years, but then I know what I'm doing.

Troll feeding is really what's for suckers and tools.
May 11, 2007 Professor Chaos link
Macs don't tend to depreciate as fast as PCs, as far as I can tell. Used Macs are good, but I don't buy a computer with the intention of reselling. I buy a computer intending to use it up; another good reason to go with Apple.
May 11, 2007 toshiro link
Hear hear, PC.
May 11, 2007 LeberMac link
I got faster hardware when I bought components from newegg, assembled them, and installed WinXP. Yes. It is actually 3 to 4 times faster at most tasks than my 1.8 GHz iMac G5, running real-world stuff like Photoshop filters.

I was going to buy a used G5 Mac tower, but there was essentially no upgrade path. And even used Intel MacPro towers still go for like $2,000. Which seems crazy.

Haha, 'nanzi you talk about the "the underlying emotional satisfaction people get from tweaking their wintel box over and over...." Yep. hit it on the head, I'm tired of tweaking my iMac with silly bourgeoisie add-ons. Now I'm gonna do it with the PC because I seek chaos and turmoil, because without my meager triumphs over the inanimate box sitting in my basement, my life would be empty of meaning; without victory or success. I'll move from fixing the BIOS to perhaps editing some CONFIG.SYS settings, and when I feel depressed, I'll install some freeware on the computer, knowing deep down that it will eventually break something. And when it does crash in the middle of something important, I'll have the emotional release and satisfaction of screaming at the little black box in my basement, and blaming it for all my ills in the same way that Marxists blame Stalin for everything. Or Democrats blame Bush for everything. Or something.

(I really did buy it to replace the iMac, which was overheating doing silly things like filtering photos or loading iMovie.)

Troll fed. So either way I'm a sucker and a tool! Enjoy!
May 12, 2007 SCAR Bank link
Real men build their own computers. And then they run *nix, thus eliminating micro$haft from the loop.
May 12, 2007 upper case link
the rest of us just gets work done.
May 13, 2007 who? me? link
yes
a computer is a toy to a geek, and a tool to the rest of us.

those who play use windows or linux/unix/bsd/whatever
those who do work use macs
May 13, 2007 jexkerome link
I must say that after a long hiatus, ananzi is back in top trolling form.

And who? me? is still a wannabe.
May 14, 2007 toshiro link
Yes, his trolling is a refreshing change from the constant low blows from other individuals. I am looking forward to other posts of ananzi's.
May 14, 2007 LeberMac link
Ananzi: The Thinking Man's Troll™

Hahahaha.
May 18, 2007 ananzi link
you call me a troll, but you lie awake at night thinking 'maybe he is right'. your fingers type, while you watch, unable to control them, 'store.apple.com'. you look down the page, clicking on 'powermac', glancing over every inch of the specifications, wiping involuntary drool from your lips with embarassement. then you click 'x', ashamed of yourself and reminding yourself, like a self hating kid, 'you cant do it'. stick to the safe road. stick to what you know. stick to what everyone else is doing. after all, it really is faster. and faster is better, right? sure it is. eveyrone knows that.

but back in the real world, where i live, photoshop filters work faster on windows because microsoft is paying 'hush money' to adobe to keep them from publishing optimized mac versions. and deep inside intel, microsoft double agents are busy undermining everyone involved with the apple deal. bill gates, when he feels down, reminds himself of his ingenious plan to crush these happy fools and their stupid attempts to break away from a decades old computer business model - screw your customers. finally, he will get back at those scumbags for what they did to him in high school. finally, he will have power over the earth and live out his vision, a computer on every desk, so that finally, everyone will have to pay attention to him. for once, they will have to listen to his ideas, ask for his help, praise his knowledge and ability, and deal with his needs.

on the linux front, microsoft slowly builds a patent library, hundreds of freshly minted ivy leaguers making $100,000 salaries, combing through kernel mailing lists and source code, making notes, gathering evidence, and talking to their moles in the patent office. on a chart on the wall marks the countdown, in days, to 'zer0 hour' - the day when they will unleash ten thousand lawsuits at once upon all the major kernel developers, and against every company with more than 50 employees that has ever even downloaded linux. everyone who has posted to lkml, everyone who has downloaded from sunsite or a linux mirror, the Patriot Act will enable microsoft to use its private army, the justice department, to raid houses, trash offices, file charges, and destroy the free software movement in one fell swoop, driving it underground for the next 20 years.

lebermac will kick himself for not getting any money out of it.

troll! troll indeed. laugh away, while the world burns down around you! laugh as the flames of microsoft's black army lick at your feet, as the internet slides backwards into a miasma of myspace clones and sponsored 'news' stories, bringing us back to the good old days of Prodigy and Compuserve. laugh even as your beloved vendetta is sued into a heaping pile of ashes - it uses Linux too! or did you forget? as the "Office of User Empowerment" agents show up at Guild's office, demanding $10,000 for a Novell license, the sound of your whimpering will be a whisper in the wind.

As we invade Iran, with Microsoft (tm) missiles leading the assault, and not to stop terrorism, but to stop copyright and patent theft, the Atomic Clock will count down to midnight, and we will raise one last glass to the old days, our dead civilization, receding in the distance, as we ride in a hearse on our way to glory.

well, it was good while it lasted. dont worry, trolling will survive, even the apocalypse, and the universe will end in a laugh.
May 20, 2007 moldyman link
Awww, you forgot to mention Bush :( You should be barred of your troll license.
May 20, 2007 SuperMegaMynt link
LeberMac's PC,
doing what Windows does best;
Control+alt+delete.
May 21, 2007 LeberMac link
I thought the universe ended with a whimper?

/me wipes saliva off of his chin after shamefully closing the store.apple.com page for like the 50th time since buying the PC.