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Monday, November 19. 2012

Chart above is via Too much education makes people economically dumb because each of those blue states is in serious economic trouble

Video: Extraordinary white humpback whale off Norway

Barefoot running

This Survey Is Devastating For Microsoft: 42% Of Windows Users Plan To Switch To Apple

Meet the Man Responsible for the Death of Canada's Gun Registry (h/t SDA

Leading psychiatrists question psychiatry's diagnostic manual

8 Reasons Homeschooling Is Superior to Public Education - Almost all of our Founding Fathers, the most brilliant authors and orators of all time, were home-schooled.

Fight Over Nativity Scene In Santa Monica Heads To Court

How Thomas Jefferson Pioneered the Tomato, Championed Urban Farming, and Taught Americans to Make Coffee

Something to be thankful for: real cost of a Thanksgiving dinner for ten this year is 1.4% cheaper than last year

Is Giant Reed a 'Miracle Plant' or the Next Kudzu?

Eliminate the death tax

Skilled women needed for real jobs

Claim: EPA Head Used Secret Email to Hide Documents

Why Paris Hilton Makes a Poor Poster Child for the Death Tax

Obama’s “tax negotiations” are no such thing

Campus bans Ann Coulter, invites professor who calls sex with animals potentially ‘satisfying’

Pelosi Unsure on 11th & 14th Amendments: ‘Whatever It Is, I’m with the Constitution’

In 37 Chicago Precincts, Romney Received No Votes

For all the gnashing of teeth about the inequities of American health care, for now, at least, Americans have the best access to timely health care.

The EPA hearts Big Ethanol

Betting with Trillions - Prison of Debt Paralyzes West

Kissinger: Iran must be President Obama’s immediate priority

The Kid Killed By Hamas

UPDATE: BBC and CNN React to Pallywood Video Footage

Gaza Mess is Obama’s Fault Too

Hamas’s Miscalculation

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 06:17 | Comments (10) | Trackbacks (0)

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"Overall, 16% of those surveyed said they planned to buy a new computer.

"Of these folks, a staggering 42% said they plan to buy an Apple product."

So, 42% of 16%, or roughly 6.5%.

Title of the article?

42% Of Windows Users Plan To Switch To Apple!

As they say: other than that, the article was accurate.

And what was missing? How about the number of Apple owners considering giving up on a cult computer and buying a mainstream PC? Would anyone hazard a guess that it's more than 6.5%?

#1 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2012-11-19 08:50 (Reply)

It is sometimes hard to seperate the hype from the truth. Most Apple users "HATE" microsoft and spend their waking hours telling and making up horror stories about Microsoft. Most of the hype, no doubt including this story, are generated by these disgruntled Apple users. Most users of Microsoft powered computers "don't care". They simply want to use the computer, for facebook, email, playing games, whatever. They never think about Apple and are unconvinced that paying five times what they paid for their own computer is a good idea. I'm not saying Microsoft software is excellent or that everyone is happy with it, but for the most part it works fine and those who use it "don't care" about either the criticisms of it or the praise of alternatives. I can buy (and probably will in the next few weeks) a perfectly satisfactory Windows 8 laptop computer for $288 at Walmart. That's where I got this Vista powered laptop a few weeks after Vista was released. It does everything I want or need and it has never failed in the slightest way even though I average about 8 hours a day on it. Why would I instead take $1900 (or however much an Apple laptop costs) and plunk it down for an Apple??? I have no problem with Apple or even their choice to screw their customers with outrageous prices. I simply want a laptop that is easy to use, cheap and dependable.

#1.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2012-11-19 10:27 (Reply)

I hate MicroSoft, starting when they began to require "Activation" of their software. I bought a MS program for my mother, she worked at an Council on Aging and put out their newsletter. I forget the name of the program but it was supposed to make the process of creating items like newsletters much easier and be simple to use. However Mom didn't have the internet, she didn't surf and she didn't have (or want) email. I discovered that without a internet connection I couldn't finish the installation.
I called MS and their "CS Agent" had me print out a page of hexadecimal, a full page, and told me I had to email it to Microsoft, then I would receive a email back with the unlock codes. Since I had to type the entire page of codes into the email manually (after I got home to my pc) I'd have to call back. I got rude at that point, profane really. Since the seal on the software had been opened I couldn't return the package. That software program was never installed or used to this day.

Flash forward some years, after a house fire, I was starting from scratch computer-wise. I was also looking at a impending layoff (turned out that dragged on for another 6 years) so I bought a Dell laptop with XP installed. I had a new house to build, everything else to replace and when I went shopping the price difference between Apple and MS based boxes was ridiculous. Time-wise I had to much too do to start the learning curve on a new OS. Later, after we re-built, the new house PC was another Dell Tower with Win7. I still hate the way that MS treats it's customers, which is that we are all thieves, but moneys tight.
Maybe someday I'll replace MS with Linux and dump the bloat.

#1.1.1 John the River (Link) on 2012-11-19 11:22 (Reply)

I have worked on both Apple and PC machines over the years. Maybe my reasons for liking Apple computers is not 'tech' enough for many on here, but it came down to ease of use for me.

Open the iMac box, turn it on, everything works. I like the file structure. I like the look of everything. I like the quality of the hardware. I like the lack of problems I have had with every iMac I've ever owned...no virus issues, no blue screens of death, etc.

Maybe those aren't reasons that make sense to the techie out there. Simplicity is probably the biggest selling point for me.

#1.1.2 KJB on 2012-11-19 12:10 (Reply)

I think you are proving my point, that basically it is only the Apple people who hate microsoft while the microsoft people are blssfully unaware of Apple or even how much the computers cost. I will say that I have worked on varios apples including the first apple machine and the original Mac. I don't find them easy to use but in general their graphical interface was good. I have owned perhaps 20 computers with Microsoft operating systems and I am always stumped by the statement "the Apple works right out of the box". As far as I know I have never done anything to my microsoft based computers except turn them on. What are you doing??? You turn on power and selct a program to run. What else is there? I admit ignorance but I suspect most people who make this statement have been the victim of the anti-microsoft propaganda. I have seen the blue screen of death though. If memory serves me right it was around 2003. I shut the machine off and powered up again and haven't seen the blue screen since. And as I said I spend about 8 hours a day on my laptop and before that on the desktop model.

I think this boils down to the old Chevy vs Ford arguement.

#1.1.2.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2012-11-19 16:53 (Reply)

More on my Apple-like. I have had PCs at work that I had to use. Hated them. Because they are just clunkier to use. Who decided on the hideous file system? Burying files where I don't want them? Putting them into this weird hierarchy structure that I did not create?

The Start menu on a PC is ghastly. Programs I use most often get buried in the Start Menu. It is also a pain to uninstall something. And I have had two tech-savvy children who have gotten rid of Microsoft operating systems and installed Linux b/c Microsoft OS's were slowing down their computers with useless extra processes, etc.

Apple does work right out of the box, with maybe 3 steps. That's it. Adding a printer to a PC is a pain in the butt. Breeze with my Mac. Etc. & Etc.

Maybe tech people can argue with me that a PC is equal or does the same stuff, but I, as a non-tech person, can tell you Apple is just way simpler to understand and operate when all you want to do is work, read email, surf the web.

#1.1.2.1.1 KJB on 2012-11-19 18:05 (Reply)

I have to admit I don't understand the problem with the file structure on a PC. I'm guessing that Apple has somehow taught their computer to read your mind and put the files in a structure you wanted. But in reality what is going on is the classic bias problem. You like what you are used to or what you learned first and feel the need to magnify any difference and make it a problem to support your bias. Don't feel bad even the techies at the highest level do this and arguing over which programming language and even which implementation of a language is better is the norm.
I do things the old fashioned way (I'm 69 and worked in the computer field my entire life so I have my biases too.) and I determine where files go and what things are stored together. The computer system does have defaults of course, how could it not, but you can bypass them. Most people don't want to "manage" their file system so they don't and some of these people may indeed dislike the defaults. I can only say if you are unwilling or unable to learn how to use the system then what can you expect.

The thing is I don't "love" Microsoft any more then I love my hammer or saw. It is just a tool and a shiny new tool is still just a tool. If your focus is on the name plate on your computer or on who created the operating system then you are not using the computer as a tool you are using it as a fetish.

#1.1.2.1.1.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2012-11-20 10:29 (Reply)

KJB:
Adding a printer to a PC is a pain in the butt.
Perhaps for you, but I have never had a problem with adding a printer to a PC.
Apple does work right out of the box, with maybe 3 steps. That's it.
I recently bought a new Dell, which is a lot quieter than my old Dell. It came with an incomplete version of Office 2010, made all the more annoying by having popup ads. It didn't take long to decide to not use Office 2010. I am not going to pay money when I have CDs for Office 2007 and Office 2003.

As I had a CD of Office Pro 2007, I installed it as my default software on my new Dell. My old Dell used Office Pro 2003. But as my work is with databases, and I do not like Access 2007, I installed Access 2003 instead of Access 2007.
Pain in the neck, but wacha gonna do?

I used Apples at a university computer center in the 90's. I stopped using Apples and switched to PCs because the Apples kept crashing. Most likely that is no longer the case, but it was the case back then.

I used PCs at work, and have bought PCs for home use- and for work,as I work out of my home. Perhaps Apples are better, but PCs are a lot cheaper and my work uses MS database software.

If someone wants to buy an Apple, go right ahead, but PCs and MS are good enough for me. As I paid $25 for MS Office 2007, and a similar price for Office 2003, I am not going to spend time complaining about the MS monopoly.

#1.1.2.1.2 Gringo on 2012-11-19 20:03 (Reply)

The Gaza Mess is Obama's Fault Too:

I agree 90% with what the author is saying. Where I disagree is when the author states that Obama has given Israel a "blank check" to handle Hamas. Obama, while claiming Israel has a right to self-defense, has also publically stated that Israel should use restraint and avoid a ground war - such a statement is not a "blank check."

Further, publically reminding Israel that its soldiers will die in a ground war is NOT "exemplary" diplomacy. It takes a narcissistic personality to state such an obvious fact, as if the rest of us "just don't understand like he does." You know, 'cause, we all just aren't as smart as he is.

Such a statement can (and in Hamas's case will) encourage the terrorists. ("Hey, look even the US president says that we will kill some of those evil Zionists! He must be on our side. Allah Akbar!")

Perhaps, given Obama's past anti-Israeli sentiment, the author (like so many others, including myself) is surprised and delightfully so, that Obama has not out-right taken the Hamas viewpoint in everything Israel does is wrong. So, any show of support from Obama for Israel is seen as "exemplary" and a "blank check." While I am surprised at Obama's support for Israel I just don't agree that his support is "exemplary." It is not.

Obama has not learned in four years that the world isn't some sort of "academic discussion." Actions and words have real-life consequences. Obama (as with so many other liberal academic types) doesn't understand how his words can have a huge impact on lives on the ground.

I do agree with the author in that, although Hamas is ultimately responsible for the bloodshed, Obama still has some blood on his hands.

#2 Charles on 2012-11-19 09:05 (Reply)

I'm using XP. It works for me. Apple doesn't impress me.

Paris Hilton: Oh, noooooo, leftists have lied to me!

#3 Sam L. on 2012-11-19 10:45 (Reply)

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Monday, November 19. 2012

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