Apple's mystery blogger

October 10, 2006 1:38 PM

Apple has its own mystery blogger. Not to be outdone by Microsoft's secretive Mini Microsoft, Apple now has its own anonymous blogger (except with a less attractive blog and more spelling mistakes). There's not too much there at the moment, but how long can they last before being shut down? via Scoble
posted by TheDonF (24 comments total)

I wonder how much he can really let us know -- what does Apple UK know about anything? Very little, in my experience of them.
posted by bonaldi at 2:07 PM on October 10, 2006

Good lord, this guy spends $10k on food a year?
posted by Mach5 at 2:16 PM on October 10, 2006

There's not too much there at the moment

Is there an understatement tag in html?
posted by snofoam at 2:24 PM on October 10, 2006

$10k on food is, very roughly, £5k, so that's about £96 a week. According to the BBC news I watched tonight, the UK is now the fattest nation in Europe, having overtaken Germany. Maybe he/she's a bit of a porker?!

But, yes, not sure how someone working for Apple in the UK can tell us much, unless they're one of these people that live over here but spend large amounts of time abroad which is entirely possible.
posted by TheDonF at 2:30 PM on October 10, 2006

I liked the disgruntled support guy from Apple Austin who had a blog a few years ago.
posted by birdherder at 2:34 PM on October 10, 2006

Is there an understatement tag in html?
<blink you="will miss it">?
posted by TheDonF at 2:41 PM on October 10, 2006

I don't think you get to call someone Apple's anonymous blogger when there's absolutely nothing about to the blog (and I could probably just stop there, no?) that has to do with working at Apple.
posted by phearlez at 2:44 PM on October 10, 2006

I also work at Apple. I shop at Stop & Shop though.

(Do you believe me?)
posted by smackfu at 2:48 PM on October 10, 2006

Apple UK does pretty much nothing other than run TV ads and answer phones (and distribute computers, I suppose). I don't know what inside dirt this guy could possibly have wokring there (if indeed he does).

(also, you simply can't spend £96/week at Sainsbury's unless you're buying for several other people and/or lots of alcohol or cosmetics or something)
posted by cillit bang at 2:54 PM on October 10, 2006

but how long can they last before being shut down?

Or how long can they last before, a la Jessica Cutler, they sign a five figure book deal.
posted by juliarothbort at 3:21 PM on October 10, 2006

$10K a year is a ton, but he/she didn't say it was all for him/herself. They might be supporting a large family.

Anywho, so far there's not a whole lot TO this blog. Maybe there will be more sssssecret details in the future.
posted by katillathehun at 3:28 PM on October 10, 2006

$10K a year is a ton, but he/she didn't say it was all for him/herself.

What? You guys are crazy. $10K is not very much at all. That boils down to $9 per meal (3x per day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year). Especially in the UK - good produce is expensive there.

I lived in the UK for over 5 years and go back twice per year. I'd love to know where you can eat good food and healthily for under $9 per meal and have it not be beans, rice or lentils. C'mon.

Between my wife and I here in the US, and we are careful preparing food in advance and get FREE organic produce and FREE wine (trade-out), We average about 16-22K a year on food. Including some eating out and traveling. Not including the restaurant trade-out we get (that wold easily add another $10,000).

Between $7 and $9 each per meal. That's nothing.

Though, we are not TRYING to be frugal at all. I have got food costs down to as little $1-$2 per mean easily... it's not something I LIKE.

In fact I feel food is where one should not skimp if possible.
posted by tkchrist at 4:34 PM on October 10, 2006

I think a blog from a Sainsbury's store manager bitchin' about his MacBook would be more fun...
posted by runkelfinker at 4:45 PM on October 10, 2006

does apple have a no blog policy? I don't understand why this is even remotely interesting.
posted by delmoi at 5:40 PM on October 10, 2006

tkchrist writes "We average about 16-22K a year on food. Including some eating out and traveling. Not including the restaurant trade-out we get (that wold easily add another $10,000)."

You have got to be joking. That's $310-$405 (approx) per week. And that's without fresh produce! That is an insane amount of money. My boyfriend and I, if we do a lot of what we would consider extravagant shopping (getting extras), spend maybe 500/month on groceries. Factoer in eating out, and these days that's maybe $700. A month. Canadian.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 6:01 PM on October 10, 2006

There are three entries, one of which is a "test ... test asdfsdsfsds" entry. This is stupid.
posted by mph at 6:03 PM on October 10, 2006

I average $40/week on groceries, maybe $20/week at restaurants. I work at a big company with very cheap (but good) cafeteria food, which helps.
posted by aerotive at 6:36 PM on October 10, 2006

lots of alcohol

He doesn't say he spends $10K on food. He says he spends it at Sainsbury's. A couple of 10 quid bottles of wine a week would inflate your grocery bill more than somewhat. Not to mention that UK supermarkets are branching out into non-food items like cheap appliances etc.

In any case, is this really an important detail? He's a mole at Apple! And you give a shit what his grocery bill is.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 6:53 PM on October 10, 2006

Heh, I totally derailed this thread. Apologies, but that blog was a lot less salacious than I hoped.
posted by Mach5 at 6:59 PM on October 10, 2006

He's a mole at Apple! And you give a shit what his grocery bill is.

You're so right! Let's talk about all the juicy Apply gossip he's posted... oh, wait...
posted by smackfu at 7:06 PM on October 10, 2006

He's a mole at Apple! And you give a shit what his grocery bill is.

The MeFi Police must leave no stone unturned.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:19 PM on October 10, 2006

That is an insane amount of money...Factor in eating out, and these days that's maybe $700. A month. Canadian.

It averages about $7 to $9 per meal per year (like I said including traveling which ups the average several grand). I have lots of seafood and high quality poultry in my diet. We eat out at least five-six times per week. And. Restaurants are part of our profession. We have to dine out to schmooze.

Regardless the trade out balances much of that out. We spend far less than most of our peers in this town. FAR less.

$300 per week? For two people? That is nothing in an expensive city! Go live in Manhattan or San Francisco. It's all relative. We spent a week in SF last month and meals were atronomical. Over $1000 for two of us for the week.

Soup, sandwitch and drink here in Seattle—eating out for lunch—are about $8 to $10 (with tax) and THAT is cheap. You can find the occasional $6 dollar special, but it's usually shit food. I won't eat unhealthily. Ever.

Eating in London, as recent as 2005, it wasn't unusual to spend $15-$20 per meal. And that was TRYING to be somewhat frugal. Though exchange rate was high.

I don't know where you live but it must be frigg'n cheap. You need to travel more, bub. Go to Switzerland and your talking $20-$30 per meal easy.

Like I said I have lived on $15 dollars of groceries per week on the oatmeal, beans and rice diet as part of an self imposed austerity program. But that isn't the point now.
posted by tkchrist at 9:55 PM on October 10, 2006

Wake me up when he starts talking about work.
posted by bshort at 6:55 AM on October 11, 2006

dirtynumbangelboy : "My boyfriend and I, if we do a lot of what we would consider extravagant shopping (getting extras), spend maybe 500/month on groceries. Factoer in eating out, and these days that's maybe $700. A month. Canadian."

And there's your answer: you live in Canada. Not exactly the most expensive country in the world.

I don't spend as much as tkchrist spends, but I figure that my wife and I in Tokyo spend at the very least $250 a week in groceries. That may be conservative. I based that on:

Breakfast, average of $1.50 US (converted from Yen, so the actual number is a little off). That would give you milk and some cereal.

Lunch, average of $6.00 (figuring that some days you eat out at the dirt-cheap Yoshinoya, for about $3, and some days you eat out at a regular lunch place, so about $9.00).

Dinner, average of about $6.50, assuming you're cooking for yourself. No fancy ingredients or steak or anything. The cheapest meal I could make would be maybe rice and beans, with beans costing $1.00 for a can, and rice costing about $1.00 for a serving. But having a regular meal, like fried rice, or a curry, or a vegetable stir-fry, or the like, would average around $6.50ish.

Snacks/drinks, average of $2.00 a day (remember that a coke, or any other canned beverage, costs $1.00, so if you have a can of coffee and a rice ball at work, that's $2.00 right there).

Friday and Saturday, perhaps eat out. That's $12.50ish.

Add that up, and you've got about $250 in a week. Keep in mind that I'm talking about living very non-extravagantly, cooking your own dinners, etc. Unlike tkchrist, I have absolutely no problem putting cheap unhealthy food into my body, but even going to McDonald's for lunch would cost about $5.00, only $1 cheaper than the average I used.

If you decide to have a beer with your meal in a restaurant ($5), or a little Haagen Daz minicup ($2), or a Starbuck's mocha ($2.50), then you're going to find that number climbing. $300 US per week doesn't sound remotely extravagant. (Which, converted into Canadian dollars and from weeks to months, would be about $1,500 Canadian per month).

And when I visited London, my impression was "Gosh, everything here costs way more than it does in Tokyo".

But, yeah, life is extraordinarily cheap in the US and Canada.
posted by Bugbread at 7:40 AM on October 11, 2006