I know fanboy-ism is kind of annoying, but at least Apple don′t treat their customers like idiots, and don′t pretend to know anything about their lives. Unlike Microsoft, Nokia, Sony et al who are always trying to tell you just how cool you are, and offer to facilitate your total coolness by selling you wank-tastic iPhone knockoffs (that I′m supposed to take with me on my extreme mountain-biking trips so I can be the antisocial prick tweeting everything in real time instead of enjoying my awesome activity).

Typical of this cluelessness is Micrsoft’s response to Apple’s Mac vs PC campaign, in the form of the I′m a PC! campaign– What Microsoft don’t get is that the guy in the Mac ads doesn′t represent you; he represents the computer.

When you buy the Mac you are buying a smart, easy-going computer. Apple’s ads don′t reach out and say “dude you′re awesome, and you’re totally into rock climbing or something probably!”… and even though they could show us hip coffee houses full of beautiful students sporting aluminium laptops and white earbuds– and it wouldn’t even be a lie– instead their advertising focuses entirely on the character of the products themselves. Meantime Microsoft tries to pretend that a guy climbing a glacier should give a flying fuck about which computer he’s going to buy.

Apple’s pitch: “Buy our products– they’re cool!”

Microsoft’s pitch: “Hey buddy, you’re so amazing and authentic– so go buy a fugly PC with our poorly received operating system installed on it! And why not grab a freaking Zune while you’re at it, because it’ll make you really social or something and it’s almost as good as an iPod.”

This is what happens when hysterical morons get 300,000 people to sign a petition over a non-issue: a $9 million referendum with a question so loaded that any response is meaningless.

Democracy at its finest.

I can’t wait to get my ballot in the mail so I can post it back with a caricature of the idiots who initiated this colossal waste of time and money.

More info here.

PS: I was not disciplined with violence as a kid and I turned out just fine– I offer this as a counterpoint to one of the stupidest and most prevalent arguments for beating one’s children.

From the very composite 36 (2x2x3x3) to the oh-so prime 37… It has been a rather short year. Apologies once again to regular visitors for the sparsity of my posts… For those still not using a feed reader it may be the time to start; subscribing to feeds is ideal for sporadic content sources like this blog of late.

King Arthur: Old woman!
Dennis: Man.
King Arthur: Man, sorry. What knight lives in that castle over there?
Dennis: I’m 37.
King Arthur: What?
Dennis: I’m 37. I’m not old.
King Arthur: Well I can’t just call you “man”.
Dennis: Well you could say “Dennis”.
King Arthur: I didn’t know you were called Dennis.
Dennis: Well you didn’t bother to find out did you?
King Arthur: I did say sorry about the “old woman”, but from behind you looked…
Dennis: What I object to is you automatically treat me like an inferior.
King Arthur: Well I am king.
Dennis: Oh, king eh? Very nice. And how’d you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers. By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society.