By the way guys, I found the coverage at ArsTechnica by Jade
on the Mac mini and on the
keynote quite entertaining. As the disclaimer at the top of the first link notes: "If you are... resistant to Space Balls you may want to skip this article." I couldn't say it better myself.
Resistant to Space Balls? I was rolled with a critical weakness, so forgive me for praising these sarcasm-soaked, pr0n-reference-riddled pieces of plucky prose... (You don't have to forgive me for that sentence
I know alliteration is to literary style what sarcasm is to humour, but I just couldn't stop myself.)
Personally, I think the tone of the "Hardware Preview" emphasizes the most important thing to understand about the Mac mini, that the hardware is rather inconsequential. The 'Performance Comparison' really puts into stark relief the absurdity of performance measuring in what is in my opinion an excellent piece of satire. The not-so-subtle approach of including a sexual performance reference combined with a harsh mortality reference might be a little over the top, but it really illustrates the ridiculousness of most hardware reviews' obsession with performance (are you making up for some insecurity with that 4Ghz P4/is it going to make the brevity of your life that much more meaningful?). The meaningless XBench numbers seal the deal.
By the way, is there actually a Mac benchmark called
XBench. Oh the irony. What a subtle expression of the Mac philosophy. In general, I think the pieces, together, might constitute one of the best, most thorough examples of general geek satire I've read. There are so many carefully crafted, biting references it's great. Of course, I've been really bored all day
.
The keynote editorial alternately captures the perspective of a Mac fanatic, and inserts good old fashioned self-depecrating humour. It's good stuff, and not as flamboyant as the Mac mini hardware preview, so, if your sense of humour is a little less tolerant, you may want to start with that. As a sympathetic derider of PC vomit-boxes myself I'm pretty predisposed to Jade's point of view anyway. (Despite having never touched a Mac --I just wouldn't touch a Comcrap either.)
Favourite quotes:
"Maybe Apple should have just included a piece of brown cardboard cut out in the shape of a video card instead."
"Even an overclocked iBook G3 (1GHz/256MB RAM/32MB VRAM) might suffer from the missing Altivec instruction set used in the G4 to make up for the pathetic 133MHz Front Side Bus Apple was stuck at for, like, a million years, until the G5 showed up."
"For people in the real world, the Mac mini, with the included software, does everything people need, while not doing things they don't need, like becoming infected with malware."
There's too much. Jade really captures the love-hate (really love) relationship I've personally seen in several of the Mac faithful I know. Read the articles if it sounds like something that runs along an idea of humour you can tolerate. And try not to lose too much respect for me, at least not permanently.
