Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

November 1

Another month closer to oblivion, and it's not just for Apple USA baby! Now the Japanese users are avoiding Apple to such an extant that LINUX is ahead of them in the OS race. I mean come-on folks! Linux? Now before I allienate just about most of the people who read this site - lemmie disclaim up front - that Linux is not only the best technological and social experiment of the late 20th century - but is a hell of a paradigmn earthquake this side of Xerox Parc. But - for now - it's not an end-user client. It's a developer OS. It's not even an enterprise OS because enterprise computing is based on blame and service contracts. With no one to blame - and no one supporting and marketing it like any run of the mill titan (Microsoft, Oracle, IBM), it's penetration is going to limited to those who can accept blame themselves within their IT scenario rather than the vendor. That doesn't mean it's not a hoot - or that GIMP isn't the best damn thing I've seen in PDware - it's just not an OS for the masses - YET. The irony at stake is the idea that in Japan - where pragmatism runs the mill (with the possible exception of pokeman), Apple's own OS offerings don't even measure up to an OS that is lacking in end-user support. This is because in the eyes of pragmatism and IT, anything that can run a server and provide a linch-pin to the internet is de-regeur because the internet is the new, here, and now. Suffice it to say, Apple no longer represents this with outdated OS solutions - non existant server tools - less than ideal internet clients - and superfouis directions. The bottem line? Apple has ceased to represent forward-thinking or tools for the future, and Linux does. In fact, everything BUT Apple tech is relevant in Japan's larder. At least that's the message from Pacific HiTech's TurboLinux which is outselling anything from Cuppertino.

November 2
At 70 bucks a game, I give credence to IGN's websites to determine way in advance if a potential video-game purchase is going to stink or not. One of the better sites - IGN64.com - has already provided notice that Apple's MacOS isn't exactly the favorite computer in the office. So when one of their letters columns was headlined "I blame Steve Jobs", I wasn't exactly shocked. The reason for this was that the lone Mac in the office that he was regulated to - after loosing a game of musical workstations - ate his afternoon's work. It's scenarios like these that not only commit the Mac to the booby prize in status - but is also why it's lost favor across America's offices. If it crashes too much - it's a loss-leader in productivity no matter what the Jihad might think otherwise. The Jihad for years have been making the case that Windows costs more to administrate on a desktop per desktop basis. That is - until recently. Because with Apple pusing upgrades and updates - the dollar quotient has skyrocketed. That still misses the most relevant argument poised by IGN64.com, which is the damn things crash and cost too much in lost work and unreliability. Windows does crash - but it doesn't loose data in a work session with a catastrophic seizure by in large. With the Mac OS - the opposite holds true. So whether people still wish to believe Apple's split-hair FAQ guides, the vast majority of the public have been seeing the Apple advantage with their own eyes daily. Naturally, this also explains Apple's business margins being in the toilet - and why it's pretty much game over.

November 3

The MacMarines must be dying for attention. Short on the heels of the Red-Herring article touting "who cares" about Apple - the MacJihad have been running in high gear over the last week to help the author "see the light". You seriously have to wonder why in the world would an audience think that they could "convert" someone who has already professed that he doesn't give a fuck? Talk about missing the point! The bigger question that needs to be asked - how sane are those that do? I only thank god that it never takes more than a couple hours a week over drinks to thumb through missives like these because brother - this isn't work. It's closer to something like eyeballing a 2 pound trout with a double gauge shotgun - all within the confines of a nearby rain-barrel.

November 4

IBM introduces some new low-end computers that are as fully loaded as anything they have offered in the past, for 500 dollars sans monitor. Given that you can get a 15 inch for 200 bucks that makes for a sweet package for the Xmas season at half the price of an iMac that is more versitile to boot. Now the MacJihad goes apeshit when hearing stuff like this, and will split hairs to doomsday to prove their case about ease of use and every other pompous argument we've heard before, and why the iMac is the only salvation. Well, here's some Roganie for the fire. Presenting (drum roll) Some fun stuff every Mac person only admits when confronted with them. Extension conflicts. Those are big-time fun! No symptoms, just freezes. You get to plough through the myrard of pieces to determine what's bringing it down. On Wintel, I've had none of these concerns - or done any of the "set the autobatch.exe and config.bat files for or tweak a registry " like every Mac user is convinced we do. In 2 years of Thinkpad usage, I've not had to do half the plumbing and screwing about with the system to prevent freezes or crashes on a daily basis that I did with the Mac. And I was using System 7.01 which was the most stable of the bunch before Apple got flakey around system 7.5. Of course I had an 040 unit at the time which was also a less crash prone system than any of the Power Macs I've seen in the 4 years since I got - and sold off - the Quadra 800. More fun - some functions have to be disabled - continuously - to get work done. Often, networking and sharing would have to be disabled to get work done. That's fun! Networking rates. Apple has got the worst networking of all time. Pushing I/O though a system that isn't geared for true multitasking - or a kernal to isoloate flakey ops brings down the band. I still don't see much "background printing", "or virtual memory" turned on much when I see Mac users's machines because they cause more problems than they solve. I've got numerous VM spooling networking and I/O funtions going all the time - no crashes, blue screens - IE dick! I also like the fact that unlike the non-isntalled PPP ware, I was able to get hooked up to MY isp in less than 15 minutes since all I had to do was call up the networking module I needed, and put in the numbers. Why Apple users who have to GET their software - and insert the same numbers think it takes longer for anyone with a modicum of brains to get a Wintel to do this is beyond me. Even utter newbies who got Wintels around me for their homes in the last year haven't had any problems getting their Wintel online. The software is all there and there's perhaps 6 steps to do from a sheet provded from the ISP - a REAL ISP - DNS and all - not AOL or whatever Apple is foisting on for an "online service". The real difference is the myrard of ways that the Mac OS environment is different from Windows - and the idea of change, or "learning something" scares the crap out of MacPundits. The fact that even my own (newbie-ish) folks have had less problems and questions since they switched bears out my own experience. The difference isn't that big - and not everyone has to do massive config mucking with their PC's unless they bought a crappy brand. My IBM is fine. My friends' Gateways are fine. My folks HP is fine. If I actually had to do anything that the MacJihad describes - or anyone else around me - then perhaps I'd give those arguments the time of day. The fact is, I don't - my fiends' don't and my folks' dont. Perhaps there's just more users to have problems out there than actual problems in general. But then perhaps that's also why there's more Wintels being sold. They do - in fact - work. And I've been more productive since "I" switched as a power user who started doing more internet and design work than ever before. And why I like pointing that out from time to time. Becuase the rest of us Wintel-ers just don't understand why we're not having the problems we're "supposed" to have. Certainly they won't prevent IBM's new users from working trouble-free, in spite of what the MacJihad will tell them the instant they get online.

November 5

Syquest is dead - long live Syquest in hell. I had to use Syquest painfully for much the same reason I had to endure Macs for so long - as well as their attrocious user-base. Goddamn graphic employers that wouldn't know a better removable if it bit them on the ass. Those overpriced, slow, prone to fail drives were supported by equally expensive and prone to fail removable disks. Then when things were "stable" they introduced higher end machines that couldn't even talk with older carts for up to a year causeing no end of frustration for users and offices alike - who ended up either paying for new 8-track players - or sending the disks back where they came from. When Zip came along - it was like the day Newt Gingrich resigned - fucking amen! Cheap - speedy - versitile - and practical. Of course at the end - Syquest briefly tried to reverse itself and compete with cheaper media and units - but it was too little, too late. Kind of sounds like a prologue for another computer company and their product line that's emblazoned with fruit doesn't it?

November 6

Mac the Knife get's clarifiers - most of them rude and tennacious - from the Amiga user camp in regards to news about their favorite love-toys. It's supposed to be Amiga OS 5.0 - not 4.0. The chipset will be MMC chips - which means absolutely dick since even they don't know where it's manufacturered or what the hell an MMC chip IS. The intel configs are supposed to be developer workstations - and of course - all of the above is supposed to run much faster than origonally reported. So either this is a confirmation of something interresting coming from Gateway Amiga based - or confirmation that a rabid fanbase can only muddle a picture when it comes to product releases. Whether this thing ever gets out of the factory or measures up to half of the things it's supposed to do - is right now locked in the same specutation column the iMac held one year before it's release. Everything else is a re-run from here on out so I'm going to bid this story adeu.

November 7

Tidbits reports that the offical scrapping of Apple's Hypercard is underway. Another technological well-spring from Apple runs dry. The team has already been moved to the Quicktime group - and just perhaps - Quicktime will actually run correctly on Windows soon. Lord knows, the developement team already needs all the help they can get. This didn't stop the MacMarines from going weepy nostalgic and ballistic in another soppy affiar of misplaced activism to save dying tech. Not that we haven't been watching this behavior for years already. In other news, ZDmarket reports that out of 300 thousand iMac's shipped in the 1st 6 weeks, only 76 thousand actually made it into the hands of paying customers. The rest of the units are still sitting on the shelves or in warehouses. Course Apple isn't saying anything because all of this is beyond embarrasing and - after all - they don't have to disclose anything more than units shipped to retailers to the SEC. TRST and other analysts have more to say on the matter, since they help retailers prevent inventory bloat that would otherwise kill off whatever meager profits can be gained from the end of the supply chain. None of this is new for Apple since they've been guilty of channel loading for the last 8 years plus worth of Xmases. I've already mentioned Steve Jobs' and his BusinessLand debacle where units shipped ended up languishing in truck-trailers to avoid being chalked up to buy column for the retailers of NeXT. Well, what's old is new again - and is more than dangerous for Apple because it's this sales behavior that cost them 1 billion dollars in the red during Gil's tenure in a single quarter. Think Steve Jobs will be able to avoid over extending the retailers, while misjudging customer demand? Think again - since we're only 2 months into the iMac's sales curve. Check in with me in February when the figures could resemble a spooky derilict from October 31st.