Birds, snakes and Aeroplanes. Monday June 6, 2005, 5 comments
Apple and Intel? The world must surely be ending, and R.E.M. forgot to include it in the lyrics.
Who cares.
Does it really, cosmically speaking, matter if Apple changes to Intel processors? The world will still continue to spin, the sun will continue to rise, and set. Corporations will continue to buy our soul one fad at a time, and we’ll all smile and take it like good little consumers.
What needs to happen is that people need to turn off their televisions, turn off their computers, and go outside. That big burning thing in the sky is called the sun, and it’s the source of all life on this planet.
That green stuff under your feet is called grass, and it smells amazing when it’s been freshly cut. Those tall things? Trees. We make paper out of them. We make houses out of them too. But the best thing to make out of them is an afternoon of fun. Go climb up into one. Hey, I can see your house from up here!
Those colored things? The ones in a million different varieties? We call those flowers, and while you’ve all been sitting inside at your computers, electronically debating how the the end is nigh, they’ve been sitting right there waiting for you. Waiting for you to come and smell them.
I’ll be waiting outside for you. It’s hot, and sunny. I’ve got a beer with your name on it, and there’s two chairs out on the back deck. Maybe afterward we can climb that tree, and see if we can drop water balloons on people as they rush home to their televisions, their little prisons, and their eventual deaths.
We’ll still be giggling long after that Seinfeld episode is over.
Considering I entered into an agreement with my employer for working (apparently inside) for 8-hours a day (give or take a couple hours), 5-days a week (depending upon holidays), I guess I might as well be on the computer (while finishing projects) talking about, what a few of us consider, a major change.
After the work day is done, I’ll leave here, go home and do some yard-work (yeah, I do have green grass), go to a birthing class for two-and-a-half-hours, and return home and read before going to bed. So, the remainder of my day will be away from news, computers, and discussions with others who do care to reflect on the news of the day. While I agree getting away from the TV is very beneficial, can people having a discussion on events concerning Apple and Intel be so horrendous or boring?
It’s neither horrendous or boring. Allow me to provide a glimpse into the motivation for today’s post.
During the keynote, I actually had 18 iChat windows pop up from various Chicken Littles running about screaming about the end of the world. The tone was more or less negative from every single one of them, and all of them got upset that I didn’t seem that concerned.
Today’s Rain was a kneejerk reaction to all that pandemonium, but it’s still how I feel about the whole situation. Many people seemed to think that the couple of years I spent as a vocal and public Mac evangelist meant that I should somehow care more about the end of the PowerPC era.
Do you really think you’d be able to tell a Powerbook running an Intel chip apart from one running an IBM chip? The software is what makes our Macintosh computers into Macintoshes.
It’s a major change, but it has to be kept in perspective. In the end it’s just a computer, and life goes on.
Considering Apple made such a campaign against Intel for years – aka the MHz Myth – makes the news all the more amazing (good and/or bad). I have no doubt the computing experience will neither drastically change nor affect my love for Apple. However, much like seeing Bill Gates behind Steve Jobs at a Keynote, seeing an Intel Processor running a Mac is something you just don’t see every day.
I feel sorry for Chicken Little’s of the Apple world, but there will always be those who don’t react calmly, and rationally, towards news of the day – whether Apple to Intel or some other news event. Yet, I hope you enjoyed the day outside and kept the beer cold. I know, after mowing the lawn, I could have used one. ;)
By the way, I’m taking your advice about doing more away from the computer… Next Wednesday, my wife and I are taking the day off
You’re a good man Tommy.
That beer’s here whenever you need it.
That great burning orb can give you skin cancer, and that grass is responsible for allergic reactions including sneezing and running nose.
Those trees you seem so found of are home to disease carrying birds, rabid squirrels and stinging bees. You can be seriously hurt if you fall from a tree, not to mention a falling tree can pretty much smush you to jelly.
And the flowers
Do you know that pretty much every bit of the oleander is terribly poisonous? As a matter of fact, many domestic flowering plants can be very harmful if ingested or inhailed or rubbed. And then there are those nasty bees again.
Do they still allow the use of cyanide in pressure treating the lumber for decks? Beer
BEER
The world is dangerous enough and now you want to offer me a (possibly) addictive mind altering substance which would dull my senses and reaction time? You’d like that, wouldn’t you? Get me all drunk on beer, then have that tree over there fall on me. I would probably have survived if it hadn’t been for the bees.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I agree that there are a world of better things to worry about besides which chip goes where. For example, why is Adrian trying to kill me?
Commenting has ended for this post, but I'd still love to hear from you.
After the work day is done, I’ll leave here, go home and do some yard-work (yeah, I do have green grass), go to a birthing class for two-and-a-half-hours, and return home and read before going to bed. So, the remainder of my day will be away from news, computers, and discussions with others who do care to reflect on the news of the day. While I agree getting away from the TV is very beneficial, can people having a discussion on events concerning Apple and Intel be so horrendous or boring?