March 27th, 2007

We’re supposed to do responses to other columnists, right?

By R. Kreiter

I mean, I don’t know anything about technology. I exist in this bizarre state where I am semi-competent with some aspects of modern life (some HTML, know how to operate Windows without crying and sending Steve Jobs $$$ to bail me out of my uninformed woe) but sadly unable to understand many, many concepts. Like how do you force quit on a Mac? Someone please tell me this, because we have these awful Apples at the WSN office and I wish I knew how to force-quit them.

Anyway, I’m here to talk about this week’s Hardwired. Functionally Obsolete. Buchanathon. Whatever you want to call it. Because as of right now it’s got seven whole comments so it probably deserves a little attention.

Click for more Apple-bashing:

Matt says:

Apple TV … has fizzled out after only a two-day frenzy.

Man, block quoting is sweet. Yeah. Um, has it really? Maybe it’s just that I watched this ridiculous video of the damn thing being set up, but I don’t feel like Apple TV is no longer captivating the public’s imagination or whatever Apple products (which I hate) tend to do. For one thing, I’m here writing this awful post about it, and I don’t really even give a shit. For another thing, seven people commented on the column. That’s seven more commenters than usual for Matt, and sometimes if he gets one it’s either someone’s mother defending her newswriting offspring, or some old person (Dick Blood and his ilk) telling him to watch his tone. Actually, there’s one of those this week:

Don’t like your tone so much but at least it appears you actually have had hands-on time with the machine itself.

What I want to know is, what’s wrong with the tone? Is it that he uses the word “crappy”? I’ll bet it’s the word “crappy.” Or the fact that it’s just a very sarcastic-sounding negative review of a product that many consumers are apparently supposed to be amazed by simply because of the company that produced it.

Sorry, old people and humorless tech nerds, but the tone is what makes this column so good. And fun to read. See, this is being published in a newspaper, and the bulk of WSN readers — and staffers — don’t give a crap about Apple TV. I don’t. As I understand it, if one wanted to watch iTunes content on his television, he could hook up his computer to his television and be spared this extra $300 step. Right? I’ve got friends who have done this, in fact. I’ve seen it. This is perhaps misinformed, but if you can set up an Apple TV, you might as well just hook up your computer.

Anyway, I’d better wrap this up. I really liked this column. Really, really. Probably because I dislike Apple, but also because it’s really well-written and has a clear and useful point. Which is more than I can say for my work, or really even Gary Miller’s ode to buying a 40 with his debit card. Which, while funny, fails to make him Jesus in my eyes, because Jesus would have turned a pile of melting snow into beer. Or something.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 27th, 2007 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Opinion, Words are Cheap. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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