[Sca-cooks] OT OT OT Apple Computers, was: [SCA-Cooks} recognition

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Sue Clemenger wrote:

> Uhm, well, my first experience with them was oooh, maybe 15 years ago,
> when I was forced to take an "Intro to Computers" class as part of my
> teacher training.  Since most of the school districts at the time were
> using Apples, that's what we had to learn.  Ugh.  I found them so overly
> user-friendly as to be _stupid_.


Yeah, a finder instead of directory navigation will do that. Of course,
for those that prefer to do it the slow way, Apple users have always had
that option.


> My work with computers has pretty much been with non-Apple computers,
> especially in my current job, where I use WindowsNT, and all sorts of
> windows-related programs.  So I'm sure a lot of my comfort level with
> Windows applications is because I'm familiar with them.  Also, while I
> understand that Apple computers are great for different kinds of
> graphics things, those aren't things I need to deal with at work. I'm
> primarily involved [at the moment] with converting clients' data sets
> from numerous old systems such as VAX, AIX, SCO-UNIX, HP-UNIX, and DOS
> to our current release.  To say I loathe having to work with vi editing
> is an understatement......
> Different people have different uses for computers, Master A.  I, for
> one, have absolutely no use for some nasty-colored one-piece jobbie


Note that you're condemning an entire platform based on one line of
machines that is intended for a specific portion of Apple's market, and
as for the color, that could be considered an especially cheap shot
considering that most of Apple's competitors are doing the same, and
have been for years. Me, I use an old beige-grey Mac (not even a
one-piece "toaster", let alone an iMac) and pay no attention to that stuff.

 that
> doesn't even have a disk drive for me to copy data onto, either at home
> or at work....


Different media does not equal lack of a disk drive. Most Macs now offer
either a CD burner or some kind of Iomega Zip or Jazz drive, and
frequently, both, because file sizes for many kinds of data are just too
large for floppies. And external floppy drives (as well as internal
ones, in fact) are still available for use with Apples. It also should
be noted that sales of PC-formatted floppies are down, just as much as
Mac-formatted ones. Besides, which is it? D'ya hate one-piece machines
or multi-piece ones? I think you're just in the habit of disliking Apples.

> I've got some very specific skills with our company's
> software, and have never had the time or interest to become some sort of
> hardware or programming fanatic (although I'm working on learning some
> basic programming stuff, just for the mental heck of it).  A computer
> snob I am not--I use what works for me.  I'm sure that's true of a lot
> of us, whether or not we understand that "GUI" means "graphic-user
> interface" or not.
> --Maire

So, it _sounds_ like you're saying you don't have a whole lot of recent
experience with Apple computers, that your job doesn't require you to
use them, and that you don't have time to pursue any familiarity with
them in your non-work hours. All perfectly valid points, but none of
them are about Apple; they're all about you. All these points also apply
to me, and, say, Albanians, but if I were to publicly "Blecch!" them, on
the grounds that I don't know any Albanians and I'm too busy to
participate in the festivites for Get To Know An Albanian Week, it would
be considered less than optimal behavior, wouldn't it?

As for being a computer snob, nor am I one. People and skills are a
source of pride, much more so than the tools they use. I just get tired
of doing things that PC's frequently cannot do, at least not without
great difficulty, and hearing my chosen tools dissed on a routine basis,
almost always without real foundation.

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98