I have not liked Apple for a long time. This article is to allow me to have a place where I can refer others, so that when people ask me why I’m “still using Windows”, I have a place to direct them and say, it’s not just because I don’t like Apple, they had a chance, and blew it.

I did some iPhone Application development back in university and bought a Mac Mini which I used for a year and a half, so please before you criticise me and think this is just overheard nonsense, and made up, bear this in mind, I did own a mac and I did enjoy it for about a year.

After using this device for that period I came to the following conclusions, but please do be aware that this was a while ago, and some of the problems I had may no longer be an issue:

• Some websites wouldn’t work properly
• Office was not full-featured on the mac – I constantly had to use my PC in order to complete my timesheets for work because the formulas didn’t work.
• Couldn’t play games – I know this is not much of an issue any more, but PC’s do have more games than OS X.
• Had issues with photoshop
• Struggled to use NTFS devices
• A few of the NTFS devices I was actually able to use, were corrupted, and when they were plugged in to a Windows PC were just viewed as a RAW device
• My Logitech Keyboard and Mouse (although the were made for pc), they didn’t work fully, (as in all buttons)
• The Hardware costs roughly double the price, and upgrading yourself voids the warranty, (I am unsure of how true the warranty void is, if you know better than me please comment below)
• Also upgrading yourself was not an easy task
• The user interface relies on keyboard short cuts and delving through menus, and the menus themselves seem almost deliberately different to windows.
• I had to learn to use the command key, which when going to work proved to be annoying as we used PC’s there
• I dislike being forced to use iTunes, and absolutely despise that I can no longer just install iTunes without Quicktime. I don’t use either of those products and having to install them just so I can use my iPod seemed like massive overkill.
• Mac peripherals were all more expensive
• My 64 bit hardware was not supported by the OS until a year after I got it. I then had to pay for the OS upgrade to support the 64 bit chipset, which made next to no performance increase anyway
• My favourite, it never slows down, starts up in a second, all that drivel, my mac slowed down over time and never started in just a second.
• I love checking out forums and finding out how to “fix” things that aren’t meant to break because they’re superior. My mighty mouse scroll ball had started sticking, and I had to go and find out how to clean the damn thing. My mouse I had before I used the mighty mouse, has never been cleaned, never been maintained, I may have wiped it down once or twice, but I have never had to maintain it.
• Apple has started using proprietary connectors on their new hard drives, meaning you’ll have to buy their product no matter what.
• I have never had to use a mac to do something I couldn’t do on a PC, I had to at least once a week (my timesheet for work), use a PC because I couldn’t do it on a mac.

In the end, the only thing I liked about my mac mini was how quiet and cool (temperature)  it was. This was not enough justification for me to buy another Mac product. The device has since been donated to my parents and is running Windows, because the one site that they used used some active-x controller that wasn’t supported on the mac, and wouldn’t play back anyway. So in the end Snow Leopard couldn’t even be used just as a bloody web-browser.

Further to this Apple as a company consistently have shown to be a crooked company. They constantly seem to be ripping people off and people just keep flocking to them. My favourite claim by Apple is that they never get viruses.  Never? Yeah right, just this week there was a new one, Mac Defender, and you can find out about it here, that has now brought malware to the mac. But this is not the first, and in fact Apple had the title of the most security vulnerabilities last year, (I am unsure of at the moment),  here is the evidence, and they were actually able to overtake Oracle who was reigning champ since 2006.

But luckily with all the Apple stores, you can just take it to one of the “geniuses” and get some help, WRONG, Apple in fact has instructed their geniuses NOT to assist customers, but hey, just have a read of the article here.

And finally it is the air of pretension that seems to come with owning  one. I was sick of hearing how great it was. Oh it’s so good it does this, everything just works, this that and the other. I get asked all the time to assist people with their computers, some are macs and you know what, sometimes it doesn’t just work. I was trying to map a drive last week, went and found the guide on the apple website and every time I rebooted the machine it would lose the mapping. So don’t come here and feed me this “it works” crap, it doesn’t, it’s a computer, born with vulnerabilities, bugs and issues.

I will give Apple is that they have the best style. They make beautiful machines, pity they seem to have based their design on Braun, so even that is not unique.

Innovation is probably their best quality. The magnetic power connectors, laptops without vents underneath so you can leave them on your bed is genius. The way they pushed forward the touch-screen phone, the mp3 player, and established the tablet market. These are all things they did, but sadly not enough for me to want to fork out double the price of a PC, just so I don’t use windows most of the time, I could get Linux for free and do that.

This is so true…

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I was at home when I received a message on Skype. I get lots of random people adding me, I block almost all of them. I don’t like unsolicited messages, emails, or anything like that. This style of scam has been going on for years, do not fall for it. There is no money. If they send you money it will bounce when you transfer it, leaving you out of pocket. Do not think this one may be real. It is not, they are all lies. This may also be disguised as a business venture being able to benefit you, or someone who cannot claim their lottery prize as it needs to be deposited in an offshore account. All and any derivative of the above is a scam. I just want you to all be aware.

Here is a copy of the message I received:

Hello My Dear.May God bless you.

I am (Removed as is a real person), (Removed as is a real position of this person), I know it is strange contacting you in the first place since we don’t know each other before, but please do not be offended for the strange contact, I also believe that the net has made it easier for people in distance places to come together through electronic communication.  am about to tell you something very important and I Will like you to treat it very serious, it was because of what I am about to tell you that made me to contact you, now read attentively as I comprehensively explained.

There was a man in my ministry by name Late Mr Charles Catim and the wife Late Mrs Mary Catim, Both of them were active members of our church and was sincere and devoted Christians too.The husband died earlier before his wife joined him, may their soul rest in peace. Before the death of the wife Mrs Catim who died last, she revealed to me something very important and serious because of the trust she had on me as her pastor, according to her, there was a total sum of $10.000.000 million her late husband Mr Charles deposited in a Security Company here which he wanted to use for foreign investments, estate and hotel investments etc,before his sudden death as was caused by Political Crisis.His Wife Mrs Catim revealed this to me in case she did not survive her Deadly cancer sickness. She instructed me to make an arrangement with a Foreigner who will help their children in receiving the money in a safe Account and assist in transferring of this fund for the betterment of her two children, Charles and Abigail.

These two Children are now under my care and are worried to have the funds transferred and leave here as soon as the money is tranferred,the reason why they want the money transferred as you may asked is due to the instability of the country politically and the Children are afraid not to stay any longer here because of their parents greedy and envy Relatives who even want them dead in order to inherit all that their wealthy parents left for them.I hope you now get the picture of the reason why they want their legacy Out here and secured, please if this letter touches you and you are Willing to guide this money for the two orphans with honesty and sincere heart and for the fact that they have decided to leave here to secure their life and future, please respond immediately, the mother before she died said to me that 15% of the total money will be mapped out for anyone Who will assist in this noble safety and if there be any money to be spent During the process of having the money transferred an additional 5% percent Will be added to the initial 15% making it all together 20% for you.

I must be sincere to you that I am not after any percentage, you can take the 20% but all I need is your indication and willingness to be a Good Samaritan to these orphans and help them secure their inheritance.I am now old and will be happy if through me and your effort these children will get their Inheritance safe in your care. I am sending this mail to you with faith that their present condition will touch you, Please Mail me back immediately so as to open a telephone communication to help facilitate the quick transfer of the money.

Please reply me via my email address((real persons name)@live.com).

Thank you and May God bless you.

(real persons name)

Now as you can see this tugs on your heart strings, but it is all crap to screw you out of money. Don’t fall for it. Peace out, if you find any more of these, post them as comments.

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One generally does not realize how much actually goes in to taking a photo. How the elements all work together, continuity, symmetry, balance all play a big role in the overall quality of a photo.

One key point is having access to sites that are all relevant to what you need. I was googling around looking for a good photographer blog.  While there are many out there, it pays to have access to a concise relevant blog with lots of information, as there are heaps of small things that i picked up from there, that I can now use even on a Saturday night at a nightclub or while taking landscape photos on a weekend away.

I do encourage you to start if you have access to a digital camera as it is so easy to share your photos. Don’t forget that if your mobile phone has a camera you can use that too. My n95 outperforms my first digital camera. It’s fast and easy to use, and far more convenient when you need to take a photo then and there.

Thankfully, Chris Hill from Albury has figured out the solution:

Drought Newspaper Article

I haven’t been able to verify this as I don’t have access to the Border Mail, however I really enjoyed reading this. I don’t know whether the funniest thing is that he wrote the article, or whether the newspaper actually printed it is funnier.