I Am Your Customer Not Your Bitch.

The title is one of the comments posted at Giga Om’s post Jobs’ Mea Culpa Is Apple’s Victory.

In the original post Kevin Kelleher muses that the iPhone $100 rebate that Steve J announced was not due to a pricing cock-up or an attempt to revive flagging sales. Rather, it was planned from the start and is a very clever ploy.

As ever, it’s the stupidity of the comments that amuses me. Here’s a couple of my favourites:

From “Bender Robot“

You Wall Street analysts just don’t get it, do you? You don’t know Jack about Apple; just how many of you have predicted Apple’s demise in the last ten years and been absolutely WRONG?

Not a single word on the actual content of the post, just (it rambles bullshit for another three paragraphs) a lame attack on the blogger. Dude. Really. Comment on the content of the post or don’t bother commenting. Oh, and give us a URL where we can see how high and mighty you really aren’t. Oh, what’s that? You don’t want to take your head out of your arse ‘cos you might smell the way the internet really works? Twat.

Or this one from Morfeus:

As an iPhone buyer I feel stupid & ripped off. I feel Apple took me for granted.

here is what folks at Apple need to know - I am your customer not your bitch. I pay you and not the other way round. I need to be shown some respect. Take your 100 and shove it up where the sun dont shine. I aint buying anything Apple in the next 100 years…

So, you bought the iPhone and were probably (there’s nothing in your blog about it) quite happy with it until Stevie J announced the rebate. THEN you feel stupid? Tell you what. If you really don’t want that $100 rebate, send it to me. If everyone that has this attitude sends me their $100 rebate to spend in an apple store then I reckon I would be able to get at least two 24″ iMacs (mmm shiny!) for my desk with the wireless keyboard and mouse and the USB guitar adapter for Garage Band.

Hell, if I get enough of these rebates to buy two 24″ imacs, I’ll create a competition on this very blog and give one away as a prize. Yes, I would. Really.

Yet Another Reason To Avoid Blogger

We all know that Blogger is the root of all blogging evil. It’s been well documented in the past that Blogger has been hacked and malicious scripts, viruses and malware installed on users’ blogs.

BBC News is reporting today that Alex Eckelberry from Sunbelt Software noticed booby-trapped links on 27 August.

From the report:

Now many hundreds of blogs on the site have been updated with a short entry containing the link.

Mr Eckelberry said it was not yet clear how the links were posted to blogs. The bogus entries could have exploited a Blogger feature that lets users e-mail entries to their journal.

You would have thought that after the first three widely publicised takedowns that Google (who own Blogger) would have tightened security on the application. Apparently not.

Among the other recipients of spam e-mails generated by the virus are users’ mail2blogger accounts, which allow them to update their blogs via e-mail,” said the spokesperson.

The email addresses on mail2blogger accounts are stored in Blogger so that the system can associate the account with the email address. A simple (relatively of course) or an insider would be able to get said email addresses and pass/sell to the “gang”. This would mean two things:

1, The “gang” would be able to post the malicious scripts to blogs via cloaked email.
2. The “gang” would be able to email the script to the owner of the email address infecting their computer and causing it to pass on the script in the usual virus like manner.

I don’t know about others but I try my hardest to avoid blogs hosted by or running Blogger type software. Yes, I may be missing out on decent content but I just really can’t stand the interface, the spam advertising, the porn and the black templates of death.

My suggestions:

1. Avoid any blogs on blogger.
2. If you want to blog, use a decent service. Yes, it’s very restricted but so far there have been no reports of hacking into the system.
3. Get a Mac.

The Finch Wants A Mac!

Yes, I admit it. I want to turn to the dark side. Yesterday I got to play with my cousin’s (careful! No gay incest here thanks!) Mac Book. Quite simply, it just worked. It was sleek, slick and something else beginning with S (not slimy!) that I can’t think of right now.

I was talking to two guys at work on Friday night and both of them are Mac converts. They gave me the links to a couple of videos on the Apple website, one of them was Steve J’s August 2007 keynote about iLife and iWork ‘08.

So, in a fit, a frenzy and something else beginning with F (not ….) that I can’t think of, the decision was made to purchase a Mac of some description. The question is, which one?

I love the look of the Mac Mini, I already have USB keyboard and mouse and my Gucci (if a little old at 2 years) Acer 19″ widescreen. Getting the Mac Mini will allow me to use the existing gear with a KVM and run the PC and the Mac.

The iMac looks even better but the Mac Mini just makes more sense. I have three monitors on the desk as it is. Do I want another?

But then I think of the Mac Book’s portability. That’s a huge bonus as I have no decent laptop at all.

But then I think of the Mac Book Pro and it’s extra features like the DVD burner and the extra hard disc space.

Aaarrrgh! See my problem? So, I have two tasks for both my loyal readers to undertake should you desire:

1. Help me choose. Mac Mini or Mac Book? I would like to hear your reasoning for choosing one over the other.

2. I would like to see some sites or objective real time reviews of Macs. I know next to nothing about them at the moment and I get the impression that watching a keynote from Steve Jobs is no different to watching Billy G go on about how great Vista is. And we ALL know the truth about that!

If you really want, then please try putting me off my impending purchase (and doom!), god knows how I’m going to afford it…