Minister switches, regrets it
The complete article is <a href="http://salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/21/switchers/index.html"; target="_blank">here</a>.
An excerpt:
[quote]But then the nightmares came, shattering my nostalgic reverie. Within days, I began to have dreams about hiding my Mac at the office where no one could see that I had been snookered by the Switch campaign. Nightmares of being berated by my parish administrator: "You bought a what?!" "Your PC's on eBay?!" Of being banished to the lonely "Mac user" printer port at Kinko's -- a trip I had to make when my last-minute attempt to print out a sermon failed one Sunday morning: "Printer does not recognize system." (Imagine how much my aged congregation appreciated my glowing iBook perched on our 1804 pulpit next to the 1747 harpsichord.) Of losing all ability to communicate with my Euro-traveling boyfriend and PC user ("Look: It's me or that Mac!"). Of being exiled into the lonely desert of incompatible files, botched PowerPoint presentations, and gobbledy-gook attachments... O, Bill Gates, I bet you and all your millions of followers are at least still sleeping well in your "Windows World!"
And, by the way, Sarah, what's with this "intuitive" malarkey? What's so intuitive about error screens that refer to some obscure code that the Mac techie on the help line can't even decipher? ("Are you sure it says 'error -7531'?" "Yes, I'm sure." "Macs don't do that." "Mine's doing it." "Well, just be glad you're not getting the blue screen of death." Thanks a lot.) Very well, I'll admit that it is slightly better than finding you've unwittingly performed an illegal operation that forces the system to shut down. (By the way, why "illegal"? Why are PCs constantly breaking the law? And who are they afraid of that they have to shut everything down in the middle of my document?)
Moreover, what's so intuitive about these impossible newfangled CD-RWs? I know they're installed on pretty much all new computers, whether they be PCs or Macs, but I'm nostalgic for my dear (not so floppy) floppies, poor things, now rotting in my car or sinking deeper between the cushions of my couch. How I miss that reassuring guttural sound my little floppies used to make when I tossed them into the drive. How I miss their durability -- the gray protective plastic withstanding even the grit at the bottom of my backpack. How I miss the speed of the floppy on my old PC; the entire office is out to lunch and back by the time I've helped my Mac get over being violated by the insertion of an external floppy drive into its USB port. (Why the heck does it take so long to recognize my external floppy drive?!!) And erasing and reburning CDs? Good heavens --another time-consuming ordeal. Suddenly, Disk Utility has become the most important feature on my desktop -- I mean, dock. I'm so sick of clicking on that clever little icon with the stethoscope pressed up against a disk. I need a Disillusioned Mac-User Utility icon (perhaps a little woman with a noose around her neck?), instead. <hr></blockquote>
Some things are beyond hope, like the PC using boyfriend (if he's that hung up about Macs, ditch her, hon). But the rest? Let's see the Mac community at it's best here: What problems does it look like she has, and how would one solve them?
An excerpt:
[quote]But then the nightmares came, shattering my nostalgic reverie. Within days, I began to have dreams about hiding my Mac at the office where no one could see that I had been snookered by the Switch campaign. Nightmares of being berated by my parish administrator: "You bought a what?!" "Your PC's on eBay?!" Of being banished to the lonely "Mac user" printer port at Kinko's -- a trip I had to make when my last-minute attempt to print out a sermon failed one Sunday morning: "Printer does not recognize system." (Imagine how much my aged congregation appreciated my glowing iBook perched on our 1804 pulpit next to the 1747 harpsichord.) Of losing all ability to communicate with my Euro-traveling boyfriend and PC user ("Look: It's me or that Mac!"). Of being exiled into the lonely desert of incompatible files, botched PowerPoint presentations, and gobbledy-gook attachments... O, Bill Gates, I bet you and all your millions of followers are at least still sleeping well in your "Windows World!"
And, by the way, Sarah, what's with this "intuitive" malarkey? What's so intuitive about error screens that refer to some obscure code that the Mac techie on the help line can't even decipher? ("Are you sure it says 'error -7531'?" "Yes, I'm sure." "Macs don't do that." "Mine's doing it." "Well, just be glad you're not getting the blue screen of death." Thanks a lot.) Very well, I'll admit that it is slightly better than finding you've unwittingly performed an illegal operation that forces the system to shut down. (By the way, why "illegal"? Why are PCs constantly breaking the law? And who are they afraid of that they have to shut everything down in the middle of my document?)
Moreover, what's so intuitive about these impossible newfangled CD-RWs? I know they're installed on pretty much all new computers, whether they be PCs or Macs, but I'm nostalgic for my dear (not so floppy) floppies, poor things, now rotting in my car or sinking deeper between the cushions of my couch. How I miss that reassuring guttural sound my little floppies used to make when I tossed them into the drive. How I miss their durability -- the gray protective plastic withstanding even the grit at the bottom of my backpack. How I miss the speed of the floppy on my old PC; the entire office is out to lunch and back by the time I've helped my Mac get over being violated by the insertion of an external floppy drive into its USB port. (Why the heck does it take so long to recognize my external floppy drive?!!) And erasing and reburning CDs? Good heavens --another time-consuming ordeal. Suddenly, Disk Utility has become the most important feature on my desktop -- I mean, dock. I'm so sick of clicking on that clever little icon with the stethoscope pressed up against a disk. I need a Disillusioned Mac-User Utility icon (perhaps a little woman with a noose around her neck?), instead. <hr></blockquote>
Some things are beyond hope, like the PC using boyfriend (if he's that hung up about Macs, ditch her, hon). But the rest? Let's see the Mac community at it's best here: What problems does it look like she has, and how would one solve them?
Comments
I'm by no means a full-tilt geek and hardcore computer guy, but I know enough to keep myself error/trouble free. And when something DOES come up, I'm usually savvy and resourceful enough to tackle it and figure things out. I've never had to call tech support on these sorts of issues.
I figure between the built-in help guides, the Internet, you guys here and methodical, common sense, I can usually fix whatever computer problems come my way (and there aren't ever any to speak of, really).
They fact that she actually longs for floppies and all kinda speaks volumes.
She was, perhaps, a premature switcher? She wasn't as ready for the big change as she'd like to imagine?
Also, for a minister, she's got a bit of a dirty mind, doesn't she? Those first few paragraphs read like a Penthouse Forum letter.
I've NEVER gotten an "Error xxx" code in OS X at all. The only time I ever even have to restart my Mac is when I've updated something from Software Update that requres a restart, or if I install third party software that forces you to restart.
I don't know why she's having these problems, but she seems lost. She seems the kind of person who'd rather try and write a witty, overly detailed "gripe" than sit down and figure things out.
How hard can her problems be? She's writing in AppleWorks, probably e-mails and surfs and listens to music?
She could quit worrying so much about what others think (that's the true sign that you're not fully accepting of being a Mac user).
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
With this superior OS and gorgeous choice of hardware come the vicious taunts and slurs of the unwashed, "don't get it" majority. You have to have faith that you purchased the better computer and stand by your guns.
My guess on the printer front is she has simply tried to keep her old printer from the PC side. I didn't notice any details on it but it is most likely old and just doesn't have any OS X drivers. That's just a part of life if you have an old printer and want to move to OS X.
As for powerpoint presentations I have only ever had 1 problem with switching between PCs and Macs. That came when I included some media in a .mov format and the place I was presenting never installed QT for me. Since then I've seriously been considering a Powerbook.
Can't say I really agree with the whole gobbledy-gook attachments either. That's more likely just a matter of a lack of understanding.
If her boyfriend refuses to speak with her then it is more likely because he just doesn't like her rather than any computer she owns. Most likely he's having a hoot over in Europe and is just looking for a reason to ditch her.
As for an error -xxxx...I would really like to know what she did to get that. OS 9 used to feed those sorts of errors a lot but I have only seen one in my time on OS X.
Her complaints with respect to floppies and CD-RW just suggest previously she was a long way out of date. I know PC builders that don't even bother including floppy drives anymore. I agree deleting and reburning CDs is annoying but that's just the way the technology is.
I just think these are more adjustment issues and endless complaints for the sake of it. Once she actually gets the hang of some new technology she'll be fine. It does raise the point that these sorts of things will crop up though so Apple does need to take a look.
What is a "gobbledy-gook" attachment? I've never had any problems receiving any sort of attachment from PC users (I use Mail.app). If the file was an executable, it obviously wouldn't work.
Which application caused the "-9817" error (or whatever that number was)? Apple can't be held responsible for error messages that third party developers put up. They can only be responsible for what their own apps do, and how the operating system handles misbehaving applications. And in defense of the developers, they can only put up individual error messages for expected problems. If a Carbon call returns an unknown error code, it's better to put up the error code than to just say "an unknown error occurred". At least more experienced users can look up the error in the headers and see what it means. It would be nice if there was an API for converting an error code into a human readable string. Eg: CFStringRef ConvertErrorToStringRep(OSErr inError). That way developers could just feed the generic error code to this function and get back a string to put in alert or whatever. But I digress.
What printer caused her problem, and what was the nature of the problem? Did the Mac simply not recognize the printer? Possibly there weren't any drivers for her printer on the iBook. Perhaps if she had checked the printer vendor's website, she may have found something.
I have never had any problems with using PowerPoint files from Windows.
I use AppleWorks all the time (for maintaining schedules, preparing reports, etc) and am quite sure you're allowed to use more than Helvectica.
The ranting about floppies is just ridiculous IMHO. There are other far more effective ways of transferring information (via the Internet, burning CDs, etc).
Regarding the export options for AppleWorks, I'm in AppleWorks 6 on Mac OS X right now, and I see: AppleWorks 5, ClarisWorks 4, ClarisWorks For Kids, HTML, RTF, Text, Word 6 for Mac, Word 98/2001, Word Windows 6/95, Word Windows 97, 2000, XP, 2002. I don't see what's wrong here, is it Apple's fault that Word has a couple of different file formats?
And she's confused by the "command" key? Perhaps she'd prefer it were called "alt". And if the Dock was replaced by a start menu. And if the Apple installer was replaced with something that puts up a big blue gradient across your screen, etc.
Finally, I realize the "sexy salesman" comment was made in jest; but come on. Letting the attractiveness of a salesperson have any influence when making a $1500 purchase is just silly. I'm quite sure that if I went to a Gateway Country, even Jennifer Love Hewitt's evil twin could not convince me to buy a PC.
[ 08-21-2002: Message edited by: PipelineStall ]</p>
[quote]Maybe you could help me manage that cryptic little Apple key with the funny symbol on it -- the key that can't seem to make up its mind about what it wants to do except cause me grief.<hr></blockquote>
But it's called "adjustment".
And here's the thing: I'd be willing to bet that it's easier for the average, consumer-level PC person to switch to the Mac than the other way around.
Think about that!
And here we are. No real person would write a story like that. It's too full of vindiction, selfpity and spite (aren't those sins or something?)
I created my undergraduate thesis presentation in Powerpoint 97 on a PC, and it worked nicely. The laptop (another PC) I used had Office 2000. Foolishly, I assumed that it would be able to read Office 97 files. While it read the presentation, PPT2K messed it up, splitting paragraphs and shuffling their appearance order.