“The Overclockers.com website published a barely believable hoax last week detailing the gutting of a brand new and very expensive Power Mac G5. This brought on an unbelievable reaction from the Mac community,” Leander Kahney reports for Wired News. “The hoaxer, identified only as ‘Andy,’ claimed he received a dual-processor G5 for Christmas. But preferring a Windows PC, he swapped out the insides of the $3,000 machine for the guts of a cheapo PC. The post included several digital photographs to prove the outrageous claim.”
“The stunt quickly became meme of the week. As news of it spread around the world, it generated the best traffic ever for the long-running Overclockers site, which claimed more than 300,000 visitors a day,” Kahney reports. “Reaction from the Mac community was swift and brutal. Andy said his e-mail inbox quickly filled to capacity, with more than 1,300 messages, and an unknown number bounced. The mail he did receive was full of nice, kind thoughts like death threats, insults and all kinds of colorful invective.”
“‘I hope your PC blows up and leaves your miserable face disfigured forever,’ read one. ‘You will surely burn in hell for an eternity for this one.’ Another said Andy should be hung by his testicles and set on fire,” Kahney reports.
“‘I posted it and the world turned upside down,’ said Joe Citarella, who runs the Overclockers site. ‘It was absolutely incredible…. I’ve never seen a reaction as intense and emotional as this. The reaction has been nothing short of an avalanche. Some people took it really, really hard,’ he continued. ‘I guess it shows Mac users relate to their machines differently…. We’ve gutted Dells and we never got a ‘My God you desecrated a Dell!’ reaction,'” Kahney reports.
“Andy, a PC technician in his 20s who lives on the East Coast, said he was given an empty G5 case by a buddy (he declined to explain further) and filled it with PC components to fool another friend. For further kicks, he invented the Christmas story and submitted it to Overclockers. He said he had no idea it would cause such a fuss,” Kahney reports. “Andy said he was critiqued by PC users as well as Mac fans, but the truly unbalanced stuff came from the Mac camp. ‘Mac users are nuttier than a fruitcake,’ Andy said. ‘For some, their reaction was akin to me butchering their parents or a beloved pet.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The guy who posted this hoax said, “We’ve gutted Dells and we never got a ‘My God you desecrated a Dell!’ reaction.” That
I am so glad that this was a hoax. I really got upset at this man, not because he had done this to a Mac, but because it looked as if he had so little regard both for his parents and the money they had spent on the machine. In a way it just shows me up in how bigoted I am about Windows users that I fell for this one. Maybe they do have a sense of humour after all.
“Mac users are nuttier than a fruitcake”
I wonder what kind of reaction a site would get if a Harley Davidson Motorcycle had the engine removed and a lawn mower engine put in its place. Or maybe having someone taking a Rolls Royce engine out and puttiing in a Hyundai.
I am sure I could post an hoax article explaining how I did this and I would get plenty of irate responses not all of which would be entirely rational. But then pretending to do something like this is not entirely rational either is it?
This is sure to be one the funniest things of 2004.
MDN’s take is right on. There is no such thing as “desecrating” a Dell. That’s like saying you can desecrate a lump of poo. It’s just not possible.
Why is this news, even on a mac-centric site? As a died-in-the-wool Machead, I exhort the Mac community to take a deep breath on this one and let it go.
“We’ve gutted Dells and we never got a ‘My God you desecrated a Dell!’ reaction,'” Kahney reports.”
Of course not… THAT’S a mercy killing!!!
Old news….I even made a post that it was a fake after he announced it and laughed at the good prank in one of MDN’s earlier postings about this when it was first announced.
I want to know where he got an empty G5 case? I don’t think they sell them at your local Fry’s.
“‘It was absolutely incredible…. I’ve never seen a reaction as intense and emotional as this. The reaction has been nothing short of an avalanche. Some people took it really, really hard,’ he continued. ‘I guess it shows Mac users relate to their machines differently…. We’ve gutted Dells and we never got a ‘My God you desecrated a Dell!’ reaction,'” Kahney reports.”
Maybe these guys should try to figure out why Mac users are so emotional about our computers. If they really gave it a try they’d realize that Macs, unlike other PCs, are more than just boxes of metal, & plastic. Somehow Apple has found a way to infuse the OS with, for lack of a better word, a soul (sorry, I’m really NOT New-Age-y or anything but that’s the only way to describe it). This has always been what Windows lacked. They can build any feature they want into Windows but that’s the biggest thing that separates Macs and Windows boxes, and it always will.
I have to agree. I wasn’t so upset about the fact that this guy claimed to have utterly destroyed a G5, but rather, the fact that the story made him look like a fiscal moron who had no care or concern for the gift and the expense. That’s what outraged me.
I love macs, I hate mac users. If the kid wants to mess up his own computer, that’s his business. Why do we care? Quit the hate mail spam to people that badmouth Macs in any way. We’re a community of enlightened individuals, not a cult.
I hate hoaxes like this. It isn’t fair to toy with people’s emotions like that, and is a cheap laugh. When Tom Green, the idiot “comic” who does this stuff for a living, got testicular cancer, I found it karmically perfect.
You know, I usually try to be nice, but come on MDN… This posting of weeks old news after everyone else has is getting rather old.
Melangell,
MDN is reporting on a Wired News article dated Feb. 04, 2004. Please explain in detail exactly how you decided to term this story (which is about the hoax, not the original report of the G5 desecration) “posting of weeks old news?’
Thank you in advance for your response.
It wasn’t a hoax.
MacZealots are pathetic low-life morons, whining about a joke… The cult of overpriced crap.
No Jobzzz… as usual Wintel users are clueless: the overpriced crap would have been Microsoft new product “iLoo” or “iLulu” – depending on which Micros**t marketing dept you talk to.
Stuff like that could only come from Redmont (as usual).
i love macs and I am on my 6th mac patiently waiting for G5 powerbook . However I thought the guy’s hoax was hilarious. Macheads should lighten up a bit. The overreactions make us mac users look like a bunch of fucked up psychos in need of major therapy or personality reconstruction. I also think that even if he did gut a G% so what. . it was his stuff and no one should tell someone else what to do with their belongings. .mac or otherwise.
Why is MDN posting this as news? Flamebait!
What do you care, if someone is stupid enough to buy a top-of-the-line BMW, and replace its working parts with those from a Yugo.
We’ve gutted Dells and we never got a ‘My God you desecrated a Dell!’ reaction,'” Kahney reports.
I’m probably not the first to say this but… you could gut Mike Dell himself and no one would give a shit…
…well the shareholders would shed a tear…
Just a minute… where do you get a spare G5 enclosure? I’ve tried and failed except by tracking a damaged machine on ebay. Hoax? I wouldn’t be in too much of a hurry to accept the hurried retraction and explanation. Burn in hell?… no matter, he’s got enough trouble as it is.
>> Why is MDN posting this as news? Flamebait!
Are you kidding? MDN enjoys whipping the zealots up into a creamy froth. Most of the articles and “takes” are chosen to call all Mac citizens to arms. Cupertino is under seige! Everyone, grab a sword and start posting!
Incidentally, what one person decides to do to his property is clearly not a story. The real story here is the indignant “better than thou” response of the Mac community
It’s not ‘what one person decides to do to his property’. It’s what one ingrate decides to do with a valuable gift he has been given. The crap components ‘Andy’ put in the G5 case probably cost $300, tops. If I gave someone a $3000 present & they turned it into a $300 piece of junk, that’s absolutely the last present they’d ever get from me. In fact, it would take a pretty powerful reason to make me speak to them again.
It wasn’t the mod, it was the story.
Now, finding that it was a hoax doesn’t improve my opinion of Andy. I agree 100% with Mark Twain on the subject:
‘When a person of mature age perpetrates a practical joke it is fair evidence, I think, that he is weak in the head and hasn’t enough heart to signify.’
Come on, Jay. Give us a break and stop making thinly-veiled excuses.
1. Since when do you care if a stranger decides to waste a few thousand dollars? Have you participated in other online forums to critique how strangers spend their money?
2. This is a Mac site, not a site dedicated to “examples of consumer waste”. Why you do think the posts here and those on overclockers.com are so emotional? Because the kid wasted money? It’s pretty clear to me that the strength of the reacion is due to the trashing of a dear, dear Mac product.
Jay, stop frothing. (Thanks, griffingirl!) It looks like the Mac community has a little egg on its face from their reaction to this.