GQ thread created:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=145821
To answer yosimetebabe…
head your butt over to xlr8yourmac…
You can check out the drive compatibility section and other reports about updating your Mac (which is here ) and other general how to tips.
Yo Yo Ma is cool.
De La Soul-an R&B/Rap group-although they’re more “soul” than rap. Think of Arrested Development, only more “smooth”.
As for a fraction of the cost-my custom built computer cost me less than a storebought Mac OR a PC. A friend made it for me, and I got a real bargain. That’s what I meant. I think I spent maybe, oh, less than six hundred dollars for it.
I’m just jaggin around, yosemitebabe. I have no problem if you like Macs, I’m just saying that when I’ve tried them, I had no end of grief. Different strokes for different folks, as they say.
HA!! That’s great!!!
hrmmm… so thats what its for… i was wondering why my new comp has one of those… oy… That bitch better not give me trouble, or i will chuck it out the window. For pictures of my new toy: Click um Here
No real useful input to add, I just wanted to show off ^^
The exact same thing can be said about automobiles - but I don’t see many people ordering kit cars so they can build their own, nor do I sense any generalized contempt from the more mechanically-inclined towards folks like me who take their cars into the dealership or a garage for routine service rather than doing it ourselves.
Most people don’t WANT to learn how computers work - they simply want to use the computer as a tool, the same way they drive a car so they can get from point A to point B (rather than for the sheer enjoyment of operating the vehicle itself). I use my computer for word processing, email, and surfing the Web, period. I resent constantly having to upgrade hardware and software simply so that I can continue in the future to do things that I’m already doing perfectly well with my current setup. And if I have to become a ‘truly competent user’, I’ll give the damn thing up - because there are more valuable things for me to be spending my limited amount of free time on.
In my opinion, until the persistent belief that “people need to learn how to use computers” is replaced with the more reasonable idea that “computers should be easy for people to use”, the computer revolution won’t spread any further than it already has. And that will be a pity.
That is true.
While I personally wouldn’t mind being a little more “empowered” when it comes to doing simple repairs and upgrades on my computer (and even wouldn’t mind building one from scratch) I will NEVER be an uber-geek. NEVER.
Why isn’t it enough that I get a lot of work done on my Mac? Web design, artwork, photo retoucing, word processing. It takes time to learn how to use the programs (while I love Photoshop, it is generally regarded as having a “high learning curve”). I am pretty proud of what I have accomplished on my computer, and yet I sometimes get the sneering, jeering, condescending “You are just using a toy” garbage from some PC people. Excuse me? I get serious real-world work done on this “toy”. I resent the implication that I am somehow a “lightweight” because I don’t want to tinker around my computer’s innards as well.
IMHO, I think PC’s are more ‘toys’ than Macs… I mean geez, you can actually play games on em. 
Hey, so long as it gets the job done and it does what you want it to and need it to, whats the beef?
Me and the SO built mine from more or less scratch (ok, it was me handing things over while he popped them in, but I was paying really good attention :D). I can Photochop, WP, chat, render, play, and destroy some bastards when I pick it up by its cute little handle and take it to the LAN game. It does what I need it to do and looks cute → happy glarGH! I like it because it suites my needs and my personality.
Honk!
Um, artemis,look here .
I think you will find that MANY people put cars together from kits, and many are generally contemptuous of those who don’t know an engine from a transmission.
Many is relative, particlewill. What percentage of those who drive cars have built their own?
It’s understandable that those who do so would be a little bit snobby toward those who do not, but I thought what artemis was saying was that on the whole, people aren’t made to feel like a waste if they didn’t build their own car from a kit.
There is a slight bit of difference in putting together a kit car as opposed to a PC, not to mention skills.
I can build a PC from scratch in 2 hours (or less). A kit car truly from scratch will take hundreds or a thousand hours. That alone doesn’t make it a fair comparison. If it would take a skilled PC guru even one week to build a PC you can bet that hardly anyone would.
Well, that’s a fair point, and the materials are a lot easier to find for PCs.
The Software Project Manager who couldn’t use a computer reminded me of the adage, “those who do, do. Those who can’t become Project Managers…”
PC or Mac? Coke or Pepsi…
Actually, Dan, Macs use almost all the same components as PCs. The only real differences are the Apple ROM with OpenFirmware instead of BIOS and the PowerPC processor.
Kirk
I meant that materials for computers in general are easier to come by than those for automobiles, which was the comparison.
I disagree, I had a harder time finding used 32meg sticks of EDO RAM for my old compuq earlier this year than I had finding a replacement washer-fluid reservoir for my '94 Tercel.
Being a happy mac user (disgruntled sys-admin bent me) mainly because it’s not windows, 
This made me much happier aboot my decision to switch.
and while back (Canadian) bacon is the best, regular strip bacon can be quite fantastic when placed on a grill and cooked under the broiler.
You can’t count “replacement washer-fluid reservoir”! That’s like counting the glare protector for the monitor.
My mac doesn’t have monitor glare 
nyah.
Ha! Put it next to a sunny window. Ha! HA!
Sunny window? From like, Natural sunlight? ick.
Everytime someone buys a mac, a pig gets its wings!
Bwa-hahahaha