July 05 Let start this week off with a bang - cause god knows regardless of the fact that fireworks are illegal (at least the fun kind) in Colorado, I can thank the fact that the police in downtown Denver have better things to do than chase 14 year old kids while ignoring the people breaking into rich sod's cars during the All-Star Game nonsense this week. At least that would explain all the explosions that were in a mere 2 block distance from the federal courthouse where they tried the person responsible for the biggest domestic M-80 this decade. But local news aside, something interresting struck me this week that I may have overlooked in previous weeks, but have been noticing on Quark's BBS as well as my own. This observation is of the veign of "PC users are more creative since they have to troubleshoot more often blah blah blah". Well, try this one for size. Mac users are lowlife. Now before you go on and groan this away - let's take a look at what Macs are used for and what PC users are doing. The largest segment of Mac users today professionally are graphic designers (which haven't migrated yet), and people in the production side of art. Well if you don't already know - people who do art for a living suck the left nut of the common paycheck. It's no surprise. Hell the only people in Graphic Design and Advertising that make any load of money - ever - are the people who own the agency that carries a decent profit margin. They don't generally count however, because after 8 years of looking at things from the inside I've concluded that these people never give their computers a second look - after all, that's why they have production people and secretaries. The rest is all done by pencil or the usual pass-fail of what is placed in front of them. But the people who actually produce anything with a Mac signature are making dick in the long scheme of things. That's why I ditched traditional design businesses for a real salary and one that isn't tainted by the Mac set. The internet. Sure there's still some boob around that use the Mac to create some spotty graphics for the net - but they also make dick. The people who really make money on the internet are those that program and do database work. And to date - in any office I've seen - none of these high-paid rascals are doing it on a Mac. With the rare exception of those who are cursed to cross-develop programs and applications on the Macintosh, no programmer worth his salt - or his paycheck spends his time on Apple hardware. No serious consultant or salesperson who spends times with computers uses a Mac by and large. No stock trader uses a Mac. No real-estate people use Mac's. In fact since 95% of the general public doesn't use a Mac, that's basically either the struggling artist set, or the people who don't collect paychecks who DO use them. And this is according to Apple's own statistics as well as the IDC. So, if the majority of people out there who are cleaning up developing and using Wintels by the droves represent the majority of the people pulling down healthy professional paychecks - who are these uncouth people using Mac's that seem to easily cast-off convention and loose all sense of purpose and politeness to whine, bitch and moan about the Mac while the rest of the public doesn't give a damn? Basically, underpaid struggling lowlifes. I don't really see any difference between an obnoxious low-rent income Mac user and the obnoxious low paid scum who don't use computers. You can try to use niche examples to prove me wrong, but take a look around you and your salaries. See anyone making a decent paycheck doing dick on a Mac? I certainly see plenty of people making what most people make the first year out of college using Macs every day and read their stories on the various chat-groups out there every week. What do I see? People who were passed over for life's general income level, and people who grouse at the drop of the hat. Perhaps that's why most of us can't figure out what the MacJihad are all about - because after all - we don't spend time with lowlifes enough to even begin to relate to their rants and bizzare afflicitons of interrest. Particularly when they seem over and above concerned about Apple Computers, and not what everyone else uses, and then turns off at the end of a "normal" working day and go home to a succesful status mark of what they've achieved. I'd certainly like to know how many low-rent apartments seem to house Mac's as opposed to the many homes - real homes - that have Wintels. I think we already know the answer to that one.

July 06 Well reports of the MacMarines death are more than a little unfounded, in fact they're living better than ever. Which is a good thing, since those bozos have been sabotaging sites more than ever. This site was taken down either by the marines or by someone trying to pretend to be one. The ironic justice in this case against the MacJihad is the fact that they claimed the site made Mac users look bad - thus they had to shut it down. Now really, what makes the MacJihad look worse - a few tender observations showing them for the wackos they are - or them actually acting like wackos? You tell me! Well it strikes me that calling them wackos - instead of fuckwits or something really deserving of thier conduct - is really just my way of being polite since after all, they've shot themselves in the foot now 3 times in one month that they would be getting dishonerable discharges for those whistling though their shoes left and right. But what do you expect when a userbase devolves from respectibility into abject desperation. It probably stems from the same sillyness that makes them wonder if the Wintel crowd - IE: 90% of the computing public - actually gives a rats ass about what Apple is doing as if we cared. Well, we care more about moronic behavior and in your face sillyness than anything Apple would do - but of course it's all good PR for the people in Cupertino so what the hell do I care.