Monday, April 6th, 2009
One thing I’ve never really understood about Mac users is where this perception of the habitually clean workspace comes from? There is this belief that they are the only ones capable of ordering their lives like so, and that because of such a regiment they conditionally produce more than PC users, have increased workflow and creativity levels, that they aren’t “cluttered” by all the excesses of PC living.
This perception is sometimes very sterile however:
Wow, looks nice. But not really. The clock is nifty but I’d find staring down and beyond the screens into a white void of a wall like that mind-numbing.
Furthermore, it simply isn’t true. Mac users are messy. But this perception that they are ordered is sold to them by the Apple brand via their stores, product ads and overall “lifestyle” package. It’s summed up in a moment in the Onion’s “One Button. Endless Possibilities” parody of the no-keyboard click-wheel laptop when the lady in the store who is not an Apple employee (she’s not wearing the blue-shirt uniform) spends seconds on end compulsively straightening a display box so there’s as little gap and as much grid-order as possible:
But again, it simply isn’t true. We all know it’s not true, Mac users especially. It isn’t about the branding but about the person, it’s all about the user. So check out these Mac users who are not only messy but intriguing because of such a chaotic lifestyle. Personally I like the clutter, the chaos, the choices of inspiration that users post on the walls around them, the detritus they leave on their desk, their personal sense of stability and usability and order.
I love this next photo. It’s not only a remarkable photograph but truly chaotic, and check out the row of pipes on the back wall. How wonderful!
The point is it should be about the user. It’s about what do you want to get out of computing? Why are you using such a device and interface? You want chaos, then make chaos! You want order, then make order! The argument could be made that Apple’s stripped-down design let’s you focus on the things you want to be using a computer for (or at least not distracting their customers), and is therefore in the best-interest of the user, but anybody reading this far knows that’s also untrue. Apple is a very controlling company, which yes does frequently benefit its users; but again these images are concerned with Apple’s almost forceful approach of streamlined lifestyle branding, which any computer is capable of delivering.
Friday, November 30th, 2007
while I have said before that I don’t like to turn my blog into a document of my materialist purchases, every now and then I simply find something that excites me and is after all part of a larger construct, as one finds relations between the hardware one uses and the work they produce.
I’ve never been a Macintosh user and I think it will be a long time before I ever am. I can appreciate what Apple have done in bringing advanced computing and a luscious user experience to such a large market, especially in recent years (I would go so far as to say the last decade). They’ve simplified the knowledge needed to use the computer as a tool, so that people can focus further on the content of their work. They can do this simply because they control the software as well as the hardware tied to their products. But one reason I’ve always been put-off from being a Mac user is the hardware: lack of diversity, of choices, and the absence of an ability to mod together a system that’s tailor-suited to your needs. Also money, but this stems from the lack of hardware choices, not the other way around. As Apple control the hardware used in their systems, they can charger a higher price for the product, a product which I ultimately absolutely cannot afford. I will elaborate:
I have had my current desktop machine since August 2004. I built it myself, as I have built every PC I’ve used for the last decade or so. It’s an Athlon XP 2800+ 2.0Ghz with 1Gig of DDR SDRAM. Those are the crucial stats. At the time this was a beefy machine. Everything else is pretty straightforward: a DVD ReWriter, firewire card, GeForce3 AGP video card with 256Mb of RAM, and lots internal hard drive storage. After 3 years that 1Gig of RAM is starting to be overwhelmed, and the processor just can’t handle the amount of programs I want to throw at it. An upgrade is in order.
I shop almost exclusively at newegg.com, with occasional purchases from tigerdirect. But newegg have great customer reviews, which I’ve always trusted and even contributed to myself. I spent about two hours researching components and reviews and have decided to upgrade the vital organs of my desktop machine: the motherboard, CPU, graphics card, power supply and RAM.
My laptop uses an Intel processor, but I’ve been more-pleased with AMD for my desktop solutions, so I settled on a Athlon 64 X2 5200+ running at 2.66Ghz frequency. This chip is dual-core, so it’s nearly tripling my computing power. The graphics card will be capable of running DirectX 10 should I ever upgrade that, and has 512Mb of Nvidia’s 8500GT chip to handle any games I might throw at it. Power supplies are more-crucial than people think, so to power these chips and the board I’m getting a full-650W PSU that can go up to a max load of over 700W. This should be more than enough energy to last me another 3 years!
All of these components are costing me just over $600, and that’s only because of shipping! After some rebates, the actual cost of the upgrade will float around $604! The comparable machine at the Apple store has two 2.66Ghz Intel Xeons and only supply the Nvidia 7300GT video card with 256Mb of graphics. Granted the processor is arguably better, but the graphics are cheaper and the rest of the hardware – firewire, DVD, wireless, etc. – is pretty standard. And that comparable Macintosh desktop? $2499!
Oh! MEMORY! I forgot about memory! (Or I planned to forget to defend my argument!)
My upgraded machine will include a whopping 8Gigs of DDR2 800 memory. 8 GIGS! 8 Gigs for an Apple Mac? Add $2099 bringing your total costs to $4598!
Fact is that all computing slows down over time, and all hardware becomes obsolete compared to the standards of the future. But if every three years I can save nearly $4000 then I don’t think Apple will make a convert out of me anytime soon. Especially not in a city like NYC where so much of my income already goes to rent and transport just so I can have the luxury of living here in the first place! I have the knowledge and the means to make this work, cheaply, and thus far my experience has been extremely rewarding. So be it!
