Comments on: Someone is mad that paid too much for their MCSE

Someone is mad that paid too much for their MCSE

StormBear — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:30:03 -0800

The clueless reviews the Mac Mini His chief gripes are "The Mini boots up into a stripped-down operating system which Apple calls OS X, similar to the stripped-down WindowsCE OS found on many handhelds." and "No serial ports, no way to connect a printer, no PS/2 ports, no floppy drive, no 5.25" bays." Let the hate mail campaign begin!

By: cmyr

cmyr — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:37:26 -0800

For example, there is no Outlook Express for email, but Apple includes a program called Mail, which is like a stripped-down email client that can't execute scripts or open attachments without user intervention.

I (heart) satire.

By: JeffL

JeffL — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:38:21 -0800

Pretty funny. The first clue that this is a parody is the by-line: by Jorge Lopez, MCSE I mean, at this point does anyone with an MCSE actually brag about it?

By: JeffL

JeffL — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:41:12 -0800

Duh... I just noticed the title is "Someone is mad they paid too much for their MCSE." My lame joke is now even lamer.

By: pompomtom

pompomtom — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:43:22 -0800

Best. Troll. Evar.

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:43:33 -0800

I was browsing around the parent site (www.divisiontwo.com), and I found several of the pieces amusing. Should any of you decide to do the same, however, be warned that there is some seriously NSFW stuff in there. Specifically, the "Kelly's World" section. Surprised me, since everything else I has looked at seemed quite tame.

By: John Kenneth Fisher

John Kenneth Fisher — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:46:22 -0800

That's great. I love the confusion between the Mac mini and the iPod Shuffle. "If you believe Apple's marketing department, the new Mini is 'smaller than most packs of gum' and weighs 'less than four quarters'. Well, we received our test unit from Apple yesterday, and let me say right off the bat that those claims are a wee bit of an exaggeration. "

By: bugmuncher

bugmuncher — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:46:26 -0800

This article was funny, but just like the Onion, people are going to think it is real...

By: drmarcj

drmarcj — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:46:58 -0800

Did we need a clever ploy to make Windows fans look clueless? I thought that was already transparently obvious.

By: Mo Nickels

Mo Nickels — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:55:20 -0800

Look out! Under the bridge!

By: John Kenneth Fisher

John Kenneth Fisher — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:56:27 -0800

What would make this even better is if they posted the hate mail they get

By: justgary

justgary — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:59:15 -0800

with the added benefit of being able to run Windows XP Gave it away.

By: KirkJobSluder

KirkJobSluder — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 19:20:04 -0800

Well, I thought that it was just clueless until:

When I consider that a good deal of my time is spent running applications like Disk Defragmenter, Scandisk, Norton AV, Windows Update and Ad-Aware--none of which are available for the Mac platform...

By: digaman

digaman — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 19:23:54 -0800

He left out the worst feature of these McIntoshes, which is the lack of helpful cartoon characters and expert pop-up windows to ask like, ARE YOU WRITING A LETTER? How am I supposed to know what I'm doing?

By: xammerboy

xammerboy — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 19:35:17 -0800

Also interesting :

By: Scoo

Scoo — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 19:52:07 -0800

Wow, these people are real dummies for not having an ad or two on this page. I hit lots of Mac sites during the day, this kind of Parody/Troll bait is exactly the kind of writing Dvorak employs to drive his hit count through the roof. I ? my Macs, but some of my fellow cult members can be super-embarrasing at times.

By: Scoo

Scoo — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 19:53:41 -0800

Grrr, that heart symbol worked on preview....

By: fenriq

fenriq — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 19:57:16 -0800

This is really, really funny. I'm gonna send it to my Apple buddies.

By: trondant

trondant — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 19:57:44 -0800

The Safari/MSN dig is the icing on the cake.

By: By The Grace of God

By The Grace of God — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 20:00:54 -0800

The original model for this form of troll website is Adequacy, home of the most commented blog article of all time, "Is your son a computer hacker."

By: By The Grace of God

By The Grace of God — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 20:24:34 -0800

Except Adequacy would have never put that limp satire disclaimer at the bottom.

By: randomstriker

randomstriker — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 20:44:37 -0800

Note also the DeVry University (yes, the internet-degree mill) credential.

By: Space Coyote

Space Coyote — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 20:50:24 -0800

Compare. hee.

By: fungible

fungible — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 21:27:52 -0800

This is a really funny web site. I liked the guy building the Linux box for his grandmother, and the SLC straight-edge punk ranting about how he hates racism. Good stuff; much funnier than the Onion.

By: skallas

skallas — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 21:45:48 -0800

Linux for grandma! Sadly, there are people I know who would not at all see this as satire but as an article full of good ideas.

By: Steve_at_Linnwood

Steve_at_Linnwood — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 23:44:17 -0800

Building a Linux System Even Your Grandmother Could Use:

I put Java and Limewire on it so she can start building a music library, and I installed CrossOver so she can run WinMX and Kazaa if she wants to leech some DivX rips. I set up X-Chat to connect her to my favorite IRC network for warez, and as a courtesy I installed WineX so she can run Windows games if she wants.

I know my Grandma is on EFnet all hours of the night downloading warez and leeching DivX rips!

By: salmacis

salmacis — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 02:39:26 -0800

Oh man, those articles were funny. It's so refreshing to see satire that doesn't go waaaay over the top. I could well believe people believing both articles as being genuine.

By: dong_resin

dong_resin — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 04:46:32 -0800

Linux for grandma.

By: Mercaptan

Mercaptan — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 04:51:34 -0800

The horrifying thing is that I could see a CIO holding this up as evidence why Apple hardware wasn't worth spit. Or an analyst quoting this in one of those incisive reports you see getting press time on CNN. But that's probably because I worked as an analyst giving "advice" to CIOs.

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 04:56:33 -0800

I can't wait until this hits the Mac zealot sites. Can you hear the masses bursting into flames? If there's one segment of the population unable to take a joke, it's the serious Mac users out there. Here comes Cap'n Pwn! /long-time Mac user

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 05:04:09 -0800

MetaTalk.

By: IshmaelGraves

IshmaelGraves — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 06:04:24 -0800

Since I wasn't sure if grandma Helen planned on getting under the hood of the boot process at all, I decided to install a boot switcher so she could choose between Lilo or Grub each time. Lovely stuff.

By: effwerd

effwerd — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 06:05:58 -0800

While there is a Mac-style "donnnnggggg" when the Mini is first turned on, during normal operation the unit makes no sound whatsoever. This could make it very difficult for a novice user to know whether or not the computer is on. The whole thing is quite hilarious. Thanks, StormBear.

By: StormBear

StormBear — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 06:16:41 -0800

But if you think that was funny check this this. And no, I am not Chris either! :-)

By: revgeorge

revgeorge — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 06:25:43 -0800

The best use for Technorati to date is watching this troll spread. Sample response from The Emporers [sic] old bias:

First I have to say, how did you find time to come up with all that text that say virtually nothing? And what about fact checking? ... I expect a reply and have posted this on my blog and soon to be osNews.

followed by a CYA comment: "Just to let you guys know... this could be a joke that I missed badly (it happens now and then)."

By: chrisabraham

chrisabraham — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 06:45:24 -0800

"plus shell out for some antivirus software" This makes me so happy because the reason I always recommend the Mac to always-on cable and DSL at-home users is because one need not all of these things. Including the disk-fragmenter, etc... Very very subtle, though. I like it.

By: antifuse

antifuse — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 06:49:43 -0800

As soon as I read "If you believe Apple's marketing department, the new Mini is "smaller than most packs of gum" and weighs "less than four quarters"" I realized that something was amiss. Then I just got bored - this is some pretty weak satire.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 07:39:33 -0800

I disagree, antifuse. I wasn't laughing out loud - or peeing my pants - throughout it, but there's a special roller-coaster sensation of gradually dawning consciousness that well set-up satire can achieve, and I appreciated getting a hit of that from this. I went into it ready to get mad and smug at the reviewer's idiocy, and ratcheted that up (like the roller-coaster car going clackety-clack on the upgrade) on the two captions I read - first the Safari / MSN one, and then the half-price-at-the-gas-station one. When I read the third one (actually the first caption) referring to the lack of a 5.25" bay, I started saying, heyyyyyy, waaaaiitaminnnit... (top of the ramp) that's just ridiculous.... no one's that clueless... and then started reading the text more carefully, at which point the obviousness of the satire came rushing on like the downward swoosh of the roller-coaster car. Unlike a roller-coaster, though, that was about it. Still, that initial moment is great. And StormBear's link is further fun.

By: soyjoy

soyjoy — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 08:17:02 -0800

StormBear's link Meaning, of course, this one. Missed the fact that StormBear posted the FPP till I read the MeTa handwring-a-thon.

By: nequalsone

nequalsone — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 08:37:39 -0800

[quote]For example, there is no Outlook Express for email, but Apple includes a program called Mail, which is like a stripped-down email client that can't execute scripts or open attachments without user intervention. Personally I find it annoying, but if someone doesn't depend on emailing their coworkers vbscripts like I do, they might be able to get by with it. [/quote]

By: hellbient

hellbient — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 10:11:19 -0800

WTF??!! Even most Windows users know at least something about Macs by now - they have been around for 35 years or so. This is the kind of ignorance that keeps Windows users thinking they're superior to Mac users. I've got so many problems with this "article", I don't even know where to start. First of all, who's editing this stuff? A good editor would've never even let this see the light of day. How is this so-called "article" even still up on the Web? Technology Insider my ass...

By: hellbient

hellbient — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 10:15:49 -0800

oh. nevermind. man, that's funny stuff...

By: nearo

nearo — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 13:32:24 -0800

ha.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 13:40:56 -0800

Hellbient: lol.

By: Silky Slim

Silky Slim — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 13:51:39 -0800

i guess they were happy with the volume of mac-fanatic hate mail. check out their latest endeavor: the (first?) dell rumors site! quote from the site: "Why should Nick Ciarelli have all the fun? Check out a new rumor site I set up to give you the inside scoop on the next generation of Dell products. I just hope Dell Legal doesn't hear about this!"

By: raedyn

raedyn — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 14:45:08 -0800

The Dell Rumors site gave me a smile, 'specially while I'm at work using the very Dell that's pictured on the site. Maybe I don't get out enough. Heh.

By: chuq

chuq — Thu, 03 Feb 2005 19:31:56 -0800

Note also the DeVry University (yes, the internet-degree mill) credential. Lobo take classes from DeVry!

By: humannature

humannature — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 13:51:54 -0800

As per my previous post on this subject (dismissed here) the mini was indeed intended to have a built-in iPod dock. The mini is just the latest in a long, rather painful process on the part of many manufacturers (Apple merely being one of the foremost) to turn computers into something more closely resembling a 'mass consumer' product.