“The iPod is a great product, and I am delighted that it has kept Apple from the morgue slab. I have no wish to get into one of those holy wars about which type of computer is better; if you like your PC, good for you. On the other hand: If your machine is useless because you somehow contracted malware / spyware / adware, and every time you try to use the Internet your machine sends you to sites that would make the Marquis De Sade think well, that’s different, you might want to look at a Mac. It’s not like changing religions or political parties, after all. More like changing both at once, and buying all new clothes, now that I think about it. But it’s still worth it,” James Lileks writes for The Minneapolis Star Tribune.
“[The problem of iPod haters] will only get worse as the new iPod sells a billion units. It’s not the iPod they hate as much as the cachet, the hype, the sheer joy some people get from carrying around a nifty little piece of ingenious engineering,” Lileks writes. “The conversations usually go like this: That thing sucks, dude! You have to manually edit the ID3 tags! So? It looks cool. Yes, but you’re locked into Apple’s proprietary format for downloaded songs! No support for other obscure formats whose very existence validates the rebel worldview of geeks like me! True, but who cares? The iPod looks so cool. And did you know I can tell where you scratch yourself because there’s orange Cheetoes-dust smears. But this Sanyo FG4983 MP3 player has a Marine Band tuner and a GPS module that lets you listen in to Pacific Ocean shipping chatter, and you can overclock it so it runs Warcraft in emulation mode! Sorry, I didn’t hear you, I was listening to a song a FEMALE gave me. Oh, did I use a cruel word? FEMALE? Yes, I know several. You’d meet some, too, if you came to the secret iPod parties. Directions are included with every model.”
Full article, highly recommended, here.
that’s a great little article LOL
Great article.
Definitely check out the link. (The quotes make more sense when they’re properly italicized.)
Thie full story left me with tears of laughter. Ths is brilliant.
Now, how much would you shell out for the iShell?
Brought to you by the magic word “report” as in I’ll report you if you don’t toe the party line and join the cult of mac….
(Yes, and I do have a cery milky complexion and a glassy-eyed stare)
HA HA … So True.
very. very milky complexion.
James Lileks is one of my favorite writers! You can read his daily ‘bleats’ on his website, Lileks.com, he’s worth checking out.
DakRoland-
you beat me to it, I was just going to post his blog address, too.
So I will anyway– http://lileks.com/
T
iPod shell for $15. Look it plays all different bodies of water. ROFL. That article rocked.
That was fun reading.
Link doesn’t work from here.
I cleaned off my Cheetos dust smears after reading this article.
I read the article before coming here to tell everyone about it and wouldn’t you know? It’s already here!
Magic word: couple. As in, now that I got a Mac mini, I have a “couple” of Macs.
HAHA YOU’RE NOCTURNAL
Now that was funnier than hell. Lileks beautifully pokes fun at the general impression that others have of Mac users by going in the other direction and playing on it unabashedly. But of course we’re elitist; we are elite. Very, very well done.
Oh God, that was funny. You owe it to yourself to read the whole linked article people!
—
This post brought to you by the word “arms”, yeah, I got 2 of ’em.
That guy is FUNNY. AND a Machead. A winning combination if I ever saw one.
Im no WinDoze expert … so maybe one of you could confirm my suspicions …
My question…. did it shut down because … it thought WinDoze was …. uhhh malware ??
TIA
(magic word = perhaps …. a little MDN clairvoyance ?)
ROFLMAO That is hilarious mac dood.
This is one of the worst articles I’ve ever read; talk about childish – what does the writer want to do with his article exactly? Turn off people who are thinking of switching to a Mac or who are considering of buying an Ipod – widen the “PC vs Mac” gap just that extra bit further?
He starts with a unbiased view and then turns the article into a name calling exercise, nice work!
Gav C, go down to your local Apple Store and get a sense of humor, will ya ??!
MDN, you missed some delicious excerpts from this article:
“You really want to know what I’m listening to? Come closer; I’ll tell you. Nothing. Total silence. Because they don’t make music hip enough for my iPod shuffle. Someday, perhaps. Not yet. I download silence in six-minute chunks from the Apple Itunes store (99 cents per, copy restricted), and hit “shuffle” so the various segments of dead air are played in unusual and unexpected order.
When I go home, I will plug the iPod shuffle into my new Mac. The Mac Mini. Have you seen it? It’s the newest thing. Smallest computer ever. Fits on the end of a tongue stud, if you’re into that sort of thing. The moment it was released, Bill Gates screamed like the wicked witch doused with water, and there was nothing left but a smoke and a sweater vest.
I am inordinately vulnerable to Apple products, and the new iPod shuffle made me realize how deeply I have drunk of the Apple Kool-Aid. My mini iPod has a screen, and holds about two days’ worth of music. The shuffle has no screen, and has one-eighth the space. Naturally I wanted one immediately, because it was new and it was white. Gimme gimme! I went right to the Apple Store, where they had none. Yet. Cruel swine, manufacturing pent-up demand like that; what do they think they are? CAPITALISTS? If they’d offered me the new iPod iShell — hold it up to your ear, hear the ocean! Never needs batteries! — I would have slammed down the plastic and walked out with one hanging around my neck on a rope. Look, it has settings for all the different bodies of water. Try the Mediterranean Sea’s playlist on shuffle play. It totally rocks.”
And the last 2 paragraphs I’ll leave to explore for those to you with an inner Borg or an inner proctologist. My favorite line is the idea of Bill Gates as the wicked witch doused with water! ;-D
This post brought to you by the word few, as in, “The few will soon become the many, but for our sakes, not necessarily the monopolistic most.”