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Zeusthecat

I Had A Random Thought...

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He has a Lamborghini, so he must be the most important.

 

I watched the first 20 or so seconds of that ad a couple times because I was always convinced that it was going to be a "FAIL" video where the bookshelves fall onto the Lamborghini and destroy it, and then it's an ad for insurance or something. This was the first time I stuck around long enough to realize he's selling a get rich quick thing.

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I wonder if anyone has considered using flaming hot Cheetos powder as breading for fried food. Or if the powder isn't quite the right consistency to make for a good breading, I guess they could just crush a bunch of flaming hot Cheetos and use that to get a better crunch out of the finished product.

 

Some obvious possibilities:

Flaming Hot Mozzarella Sticks

Flaming Hot Fried Zucchini

Flaming Hot Fried Pickles

Flaming Hot Fried Chicken

Flaming Hot Corn Dog

Flaming Hot Jalapeno Poppers

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One of the most disappointing things about 90's music is that the Cranberries only ever had one singer, so there are no live performances of "Dreams" that have the harmony done properly. Even in live performances where they have a back-up singer, they're always away in the shadows with their volume way way down.

 

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I don't think I will ever understand what the appeal is for Apple laptops and desktop computers. Seriously, $1300 for a laptop with only a single USB type C port that doubles as the charging port and specs that are just kind of okay? I have a co-worker who eats this shit up and the best reason I've heard for why he prefers to spend 3-4x as much to get their products is just because "It's Apple". I had a terrible experience with the one Apple laptop I owned. The software sucked, half of the programs I wanted to run weren't compatible, and it was woefully inadequate if I wanted to play any kind of semi-new game on it.

 

Someone please tell me what I'm missing. I badly need a scenario where a human being would be better off purchasing and using an Apple laptop over a non-Apple one.

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Good battery life, good keyboard, good screen. Most Windows laptops I've used don't even have one of these things, let alone all three. You could take or leave the software, most people just need a browser and office applications anyways.

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But but but. $1300? I mean, there has to be some Windows laptops out there that are decent in all of those areas and cost far less, and with probably better specs right?

 

I'm obviously being hyperbolic, I mean, this is the type of topic where I feel hyperbole is expected and required.

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But but but. $1300? I mean, there has to be some Windows laptops out there that are decent in all of those areas and cost far less, and with probably better specs right?

Yes, there absolutely are. Well there are every time I go laptop hunting. I've no interest in a laptop right now, so maybe all Windows laptops today suck.

 

Apple products are overpriced because they're a status symbol, and nothing more. I mean they're fine products and high quality, but they shouldn't be as expensive as they are in most cases.

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Take this Dell laptop at the same price for instance: link

 

The gulf is freaking huge. The Mac battery life, screen, and keyboard must be freaking out of this world (and tbh, the keyboard on the new model looks incredibly uncomfortable) for a person to want to cripple themselves like that.

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Oh, I also failed to mention the touchpad. Windows touchpads are awful by comparison.

 

Did you actually read the reviews of the Inspiron 17 7000 touch? There were TONS of people who had hardware issues, bad software stuff, etc. I think that people buy Apple because their products are a safe bet. Build quality is good, failure rates are low and predictable, support is easy with tons of physical Apple locations for service, and the popularity and limited number of hardware SKUs means that economies of scale ensure better consistency and component sourcing than almost any other laptops. Also, Windows is just behind on stuff like resolution scaling for high DPI screens.

 

I myself bought a Chromebook instead of a Windows laptop because there basically aren't any budget Windows laptops with high-quality screens and I just use my laptop for lightweight stuff while traveling and web browsing at home.

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Oh man, good point with the resolution scaling with high dpi screens. That is actually something I have an issue with on my work laptop.

 

You make a decent point. I guess I can understand the type of user that would benefit from this. But still, generally speaking, I think the cost to benefit ratio just isn't there. If people that buy Mac laptops really only tend to use them for lightweight stuff and web browsing, then just buy like 5 cheap shitty laptops for the same price. Yeah you won't get that Apple quality and support but I think your 5 laptops will get you further than the one Mac.

 

And I know my Mac experience isn't typical but we had the battery completely die on ours and the case cracked multiple times and we had to take it in to get it repaired. But this was in 2006 so maybe their build quality isn't as shit now.

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I can say that back when the Xbox 360 launched, I bought it because I wanted to play Oblivion and I knew that if I got a console it would just work, rather than having to mess around with technical specs and such. There is definitely a draw to having an all in one package, software and hardware the same company, and the exclusive software that comes along with it.

 

On the direct comparison line, that laptop you linked has a crappy 5400 rpm drive that will perform significantly worse than the Macbook and drain more power to boot. It also weighs three times as much and a worse resolution screen. I can say from working with a lot of business users that weight and start-up time mean a lot to folks. I've been known to carry around a 15lb laptop walking to and from class in my college years, but lots of users will complain about having to carry an extra couple of pounds to and from the car.

 

I should note that I hate apple products (comes from growing up near Redmond) but I do understand the allure. 

 

Edit: This ultrabook might be a more apt comparison: http://store.acer.com/store/aceramer/en_US/pd/productID.305568800

It's got a more powerful processor than the MacBook, but weighs more and less battery life (if you can trust the battery life estimates at all)

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I thought of another reason - ecosystem. Why wouldn't you buy a MacBook if you were an iPhone and iPad owner who uses iCloud to backup your photos, iTunes to buy music, FaceTime to video chat, etc? There's a lot of incentive to stay in one ecosystem, which is why after being a long-time user of Google phones and Chrome I feel like there's little chance that I'd switch to iPhone even if I acknowledge that it's probably a better device than the next phone I'll buy.

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All this talk is reminding me i wanted to get a Surface Pro 2 before they disappear completely.

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I thought of another reason - ecosystem. Why wouldn't you buy a MacBook if you were an iPhone and iPad owner who uses iCloud to backup your photos, iTunes to buy music, FaceTime to video chat, etc? There's a lot of incentive to stay in one ecosystem, which is why after being a long-time user of Google phones and Chrome I feel like there's little chance that I'd switch to iPhone even if I acknowledge that it's probably a better device than the next phone I'll buy.

 

Honestly, I think this is the one reason that actually makes sense to me. The whole ecosystem angle is definitely an important factor for me so I could understand purchasing one for that reason if that is the ecosystem you've bought into.

 

I guess I haven't met any of these people that care about how much a thing like that weighs so it just seems weird to me. The Windows laptop I have for work is super thin and light and I can't imagine needing something even thinner and lighter. And I really think the latest Macbook is taking it a little to the extreme with this. It's just diminishing returns at this point and now it looks like the keyboard is suffering as a result.

 

And yeah, the one I linked has a shitty hard drive. But there are plenty out there that are solid state.

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I had a MacBook a few years and I really do miss it. It sands off a lot of the corners that Windows just leaves to jab into you all the time. It's a much nicer experience to use, and really does good details. Because really, Windows doesn't give a shit about making the experience really good, they focus largely on function and leave it that.

Things like having the default image program able to perform some basic image editing is phenomenally useful.

Macs can have a problem with being too smooth to the point of obfuscating functions that you want, but when everything else works so well then you just accept those pitfalls.

Tons of people do use them in graphics industries, I'm guessing because of the nice interface and the reliable powerful machines that really do get used by their work.

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I have only used a Mac once in my life. It was pretty nice but it was at teh time when a lot of software was hard to come by (also I was young and stupid so couldn't figure it out).

My windows laptop died recently after 3 years of heavy use. I really need a new computer so I don't have to keep going into work to do...work (outside of usual hours), but I'm leaving this job soon, and I'm sure I can get a laptop from a new employer.

Just seriously sucks to be without a home computer. Trying to use a tablet for stuff isn't as good. I can write on it pretty effectively, but trying to use the PowerPoint thing is real shitty. Oh an you can forget anything to do with spreadsheets or making graph figures.

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The cosystem lock-in is actually the reason I'd never even consider buying a mac, I find it stifling. I had an iphone once and never again.

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Yeah, contradictory to above the closed nature of iDevices is extremely off putting to me and means I'll likely never bother getting one unless that changes or working compels me (like working on a iThing app/game). The computers themselves have an element of that but it's easy enough to circumvent to never bother me.

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There's a strange issue with my mom's macbook. Typically the shortcut for highlighting the url field in a browser is cmd+L, but at the moment that's not working in Firefox. Instead it's been changed to cmd+I. Now, what I think is strange about it is that there's no built in option to rebind those shortcuts, and cmd+I is still "Page Info". If you hit cmd+I the "Tools" menu at the top flashes, as if you selected a command from there, although it doesn't show page info. However, if I click the menu so the drop down appears, then do cmd+I it does show page info. I can use a plugin to manually rebind the shortcuts, but it still bugs me.

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Tons of people do use them in graphics industries, I'm guessing because of the nice interface and the reliable powerful machines that really do get used by their work.

 

I'd wager that, first an foremost, it's because Adobe's creative software (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc) used to be Mac-exclusive an older artists just kept telling younger ones to go Mac even after they went multiplatform.

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But this was in 2006 so maybe their build quality isn't as shit now.

 

That's when the first iPhone came out - far as I'm aware, their build quality has been improving as they've been able to tighten the supply chain.

 

This is particularly difficult because I think the new MacBook is a major misstep for them - it is underpowered and the USB/power solution is lousy. I quite like my MacBook Air (it's pretty damn great having a *nix based operating system that's polished and easy to use) but I wouldn't buy one of these new MacBooks.

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I'd wager that, first an foremost, it's because Adobe's creative software (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc) used to be Mac-exclusive an older artists just kept telling younger ones to go Mac even after they went multiplatform.

Oh wow, really? I've never heard that, that's crazy to think but would certainly trickle down through the industry.

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Oh wow, really? I've never heard that, that's crazy to think but would certainly trickle down through the industry.

 

It's actually very common in the IT industry, I think. Everyone has some path that they broke into the industry on, and you tend to hold a lot of loyalty to products that literally enable you to pay the bills.

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