Buying Apple Products Is an Exercise in Narcissism

[tailfins]

Dare I say Mac user is synonymous with "perception manager"?


In the Mac narrative, differences in operating systems represent differences in cognition styles. Associating with a particular brand, then, is more than an affiliation to a name or corporate philosophy; it’s an affiliation to a way of thinking. The operating system is a metaphor for the mind.
The Apple ads, therefore, not only speak to the way in which technology has been personified (and extended as mirrors for the self), but also to the ways in which humans have been technologized. As Marshall McLuhan put it, “We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.”

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/08/buying-apple-products-is-a-form-of-narcissism/

[Noir]

Buying Microsoft products is an exercise in Masochism.

[tailfins]

Buying Microsoft products is an exercise in Masochism.

One of the article's commenters nailed it


I hate everything Mac myself. I spend more time at work managing the handful of needy employees who have Macs then the dozens who have PCs because they assumed since it was easy to use at home when they were just opening emails and browsing the web that it would be idiot proof and would work in any situation at work where much more is demanded of it without them putting any effort into learning how to use the damn things correctly. Shockingly that didnt pan out and if they would have just put some effort into learning how to use a computer in the first place the work PC would perform just fine for them without me having to jump through hoops every day to make our systems work with macs not designed for a work environment.

[Noir]

One of the article's commenters nailed it



...if its that big of a problem they should just get their Mac using employees to partition their HDD, reserving part of it to store and operate a Windows OS and associated work programs. No fuss.

[revelarts]

I had the lone mac on our org's systems network of over 1000 computers.
Our IT dept for the longest time REFUSED to add it to the network. not becuase i would have a problem but they just didn't want to bother.

They final put it on some kind of an island hub of the network so i'd have some access but not full.
They had me sign a "contract" that i would NEVER ask them to support it. Except on network issues.
I had it on apple care and only had 1 issue that i had to resolve with them off site in 5 years.

And every time i call our orgs IT it was over a network issue -as per contract-- but before i could even ask a question they'd say " oh it's you ... WE DON'T SUPPORT MACS YOU KNOW.".
Me:"Yes... i know... can you just give the long network address of the xyz server so i can log in please, sheesh".

I don't know if All IT depts are like ours but it seems to me they are paranoid, dysfunctional, control freaks ... at least on the issues of computers and software.

I do graphics and some multimedia work and when i 1st started working there i made some software request but some of the guys in the IT dept told me I could REALLY do all my work with Microsoft Word, Publisher and Powerpoint. I didn't REALLY need any Abobe, Quark or any other products.
what the heck?!
I just don't get the mind set. I'd never think of telling them what they really need to do their jobs but somehow they honestly feel qualified to tell me AND others in the organization what software and hardware they really need to do their jobs.

I've found little to say in IT's defense over the years. their main concern is "protecting the network", then keeping as many PC's up and the Microsoft products buzzing and supported. Any additional products are a MAJOR hassle.
I can understand that goal and don't minimize their workload. But it always seemed to me they, instead of thinking they are there to make sure others can get their work done. They seem to think they are there to tell others what they can and cannot use on the "their system". Getting the orgs work done is not the primary concern. Or a significant concern. that's the impression i've gotten over the years anyway.

But Hey, don't get me started. i've had to do battle with the IT dept over mac's and Pc's they've literally put physical pad locks on the computer of our webmaster and a few others. and blocked ability to at even a typeface to the the system. it's seems insane to me.

but anyway,
Macs are cool, if people don't like em don't buy um. I could never figure out why PC heads have so much to say and hate a product so much that they don't even use. But see others love.

What's the psychological term for that? Envy?

[tailfins]

I had the lone mac on our org's systems network of over 1000 computers.
Our IT dept for the longest time REFUSED to add it to the network. not becuase i would have a problem but they just didn't want to bother.

They final put it on some kind of an island hub of the network so i'd have some access but not full.
They had me sign a "contract" that i would NEVER ask them to support it. Except on network issues.
I had it on apple care and only had 1 issue that i had to resolve with them off site in 5 years.

And every time i call our orgs IT it was over a network issue -as per contract-- but before i could even ask a question they'd say " oh it's you ... WE DON'T SUPPORT MACS YOU KNOW.".
Me:"Yes... i know... can you just give the long network address of the xyz server so i can log in please, sheesh".

I don't know if All IT depts are like ours but it seems to me they are paranoid, dysfunctional, control freaks ... at least on the issues of computers and software.

I do graphics and some multimedia work and when i 1st started working there i made some software request but some of the guys in the IT dept told me I could REALLY do all my work with Microsoft Word, Publisher and Powerpoint. I didn't REALLY need any Abobe, Quark or any other products.
what the heck?!
I just don't get the mind set. I'd never think of telling them what they really need to do their jobs but somehow they honestly feel qualified to tell me AND others in the organization what software and hardware they really need to do their jobs.

I've found little to say in IT's defense over the years. their main concern is "protecting the network", then keeping as many PC's up and the Microsoft products buzzing and supported. Any additional products are a MAJOR hassle.
I can understand that goal and don't minimize their workload. But it always seemed to me they, instead of thinking they are there to make sure others can get their work done. They seem to think they are there to tell others what they can and cannot use on the "their system". Getting the orgs work done is not the primary concern. Or a significant concern. that's the impression i've gotten over the years anyway.

But Hey, don't get me started. i've had to do battle with the IT dept over mac's and Pc's they've literally put physical pad locks on the computer of our webmaster and a few others. and blocked ability to at even a typeface to the the system. it's seems insane to me.

but anyway,
Macs are cool, if people don't like em don't buy um. I could never figure out why PC heads have so much to say and hate a product so much that they don't even use. But see others love.

What's the psychological term for that? Envy?

It's called consuming resources. It short circuits a standardized approach to fixing things. It also stems from an aversion to being overcharged.

[revelarts]

as I said Tailfins.
that's my impression. as a "customer" of our orgs IT services.
So why can they answer the phone 'Hi, this is IT', instead of 'Oh it's you, we don't support macs.'? Is that being overcharged?
I know you can't speak for them but stuff like that makes them appear more than unreasonable to me.

But In general I can understand the concept of Making the work flow streamlined and keeping the major software and hardware items uniformed. I get that. not being an IT person what i don't get is the idea that EVERYONE should be forced into those boxes or they get hassled about it.

i could be wrong but in my mind the IT dept are analogue to car mechanics. If we are the mechanics for a City gov't sure. we might want everyone in the city to drive Ford Taurus's of a certain year. the recreation Dept, the tax assessor And the police. But wait the police want something EXTRA. they want the engines tweaked a bit, and they want Cages in the inside and computers and radios and some want hardened glass and gun racks. do the mechanics comply or tell the cops that 'they REALLY DON"T NEED all that. '
or
'it's consuming resources. It short circuits a standardized approach to fixing things. we don't want to be overcharged.'

But wait after that the Fire dept comes over and says the fire marshal and the chief are fine with the Taurus's but we also need some fire Trucks and Paramedical vans.
does IT say, sorry
'it's consuming resources. It short circuits a standardized approach to fixing things. we don't want to be overcharged.'
then Here comes the lowly Sanitation Department the say they can't load the trashwith these Ford Tauruses. They need...
does IT say
SORRY, it's consuming resources. It short circuits a standardized approach to fixing things. we don't want to be overcharged.

I just don't understand why .. at least our IT dept. doesn't hire or train people to Specialize In various areas so the jobs the IT customers need to get done and their equipment can be maintained. If a Ford Taurus fits the Job Great , no need to get a Honda. But if the Taurus is NOT the right, the best vehicle or can't be tweaked to work. Is it the the mechanics job to force the Sanitation guys to use it? Or gripe that they aren't trained to fix trucks.

One IT head mentioned to me that part of the problem is Job security and personality. People spend a lot of time getting trained/certified to deal with certain types of software hardware and if equipment and software begins to come in different than that. they feel a bit insecure about their positions. One older IT guy in the 90's told me he had trained and retrained on so many different systems that he wasn't going to do it again, he was retiring. He'd seen the change from mainframes to desktops and had worked on various task specific and proprietary computer systems. seems to me he had a right to his mild beef.
But at this point the main operating systems in businesses boil down to what, 2 or 3.
Deep knowledge in all is difficult but having a few people on staff who ARE knowledgeable about each 1 of the 3, working together would seem to make sense to me. But i'm an outsider. maybe it is just TO HARD. Even though many places do have Macs and PCs on the same networks and run a lot of different software. for some Orgs it's just more hassle than it's worth I guess.
I've been told by some IT folks that it's NOT. But those in my Org say it is.
I'm not in the field so i can't say for sure either way.
But I tend to believe that it's not a completely unreasonably and burdensome project.

[jimnyc]

I'm a MUCH bigger fan of PC than a Mac, but that's just my personal choice. I did have to learn a fair amount about Apple products, as the places I've worked were responsible for maintaining them. Especially when I worked for Cadbury, as all of the media was done on Macs, and we had to ensure they could freely get around servers on the network as well as be able to print. I don't claim to be a master of Macs, but enough to support most IT functions from a hardware/server environment.

A lot of people prefer a Mac, especially those involved in working with media, as it's simply superior to most PC's in that department at this time. Plus, some people just plain old prefer it. Some places don't even have Macs in the building where other places have entire departments using them.

Then sometimes you have a managing partner of a law firm walk into the office with his airbook, and wants to be able to browse the company network. Telling him it's not possible, or against policy, simply wouldn't have cut it.

[Abbey Marie]

Rev, my husband who works in networking for a large corp (about 8,000 users on the networks), says that now that Apples use IPs, it's much easier to support them network-wise. They have some Apple users (Macs around 300, iPads on wireless, around 100), and they are not considered a big issue. As for not wanting to cover/support a lone MAC user, I suspect that your IT department, like many others, is under a lot of stress to fix problems much of the time, and it's human nature to want to make things a bit easier if possible. I see the night phone calls, on-calls, and weekend change windows, etc., that the average user does not see.

[Thunderknuckles]

...if its that big of a problem they should just get their Mac using employees to partition their HDD, reserving part of it to store and operate a Windows OS and associated work programs. No fuss.

"needy employees who have Macs then the dozens who have PCs because they assumed since it was easy to use at home when they were just opening emails and browsing the web that it would be idiot proof and would work in any situation at work where much more is demanded of it without them putting any effort into learning how to use the damn things correctly."

I don't know if you intended that funny remark or not but I started laughing once you suggested that ignorant Mac users just partition their hard drive and intsall a new OS with no fuss :laugh:

[revelarts]

Rev, my husband who works in networking for a large corp (about 8,000 users on the networks), says that now that Apples use IPs, it's much easier to support them network-wise. They have some Apple users (Macs around 300, iPads on wireless, around 100), and they are not considered a big issue. As for not wanting to cover/support a lone MAC user, I suspect that your IT department, like many others, is under a lot of stress to fix problems much of the time, and it's human nature to want to make things a bit easier if possible. I see the night phone calls, on-calls, and weekend change windows, etc., that the average user does not see.

I guess they are under a lot of stress, they're running PCs:poke:.
sorry couldn't pass that up.

seriously i get that. And Macs have had IPs for awhile now. But it's the knee jerk reactions and heaping on of negative BS that has bothered me the most where i work now. Like i said don't get me started. When they 1st hooked the Mac to the network I got blamed and 1st look anytime a virus hit the network. It was crazy, really not rational.

When i worked at the Newspaper the IT guys there where great. They seemed to have the general attitude. "things are always changing we better stay on top of it." They went from Linotype machines and the like to desktops computers -PCs and Macs- and software for Ad reps, accounting, reporters, editors, photographers, news librarians, Ad designers, and creating a newspaper website and helping train people how to add content. Some of them seemed to almost enjoy the transitions and variety. Completely different IT culture. They were literally working with you to get the work done. More like great pit crew rather than a company motor pool run like a fiefdom.

[tailfins]

I guess they are under a lot of stress, they're running PCs:poke:.
sorry couldn't pass that up.

seriously i get that. And Macs have had IPs for awhile now. But it's the knee jerk reactions and heaping on of negative BS that has bothered me the most where i work now. Like i said don't get me started. When they 1st hooked the Mac to the network I got blamed and 1st look anytime a virus hit the network. It was crazy, really not rational.

When i worked at the Newspaper the IT guys there where great. They seemed to have the general attitude. "things are always changing we better stay on top of it." They went from Linotype machines and the like to desktops computers -PCs and Macs- and software for Ad reps, accounting, reporters, editors, photographers, news librarians, Ad designers, and creating a newspaper website and helping train people how to add content. Some of them seemed to almost enjoy the transitions and variety. Completely different IT culture. They were literally working with you to get the work done. More like great pit crew rather than a company motor pool run like a fiefdom.

Let me see if I can give you a well thought out answer. Apple likes to lock things away and force you to do things their way. They try to make you buy THEIR overpriced stuff and fix it so you have no alternative. I was once on a team of developers that used Macs with Eclipse for writing their code. One would think someone building something with an open source technology stack would use Linux. Microsoft on the other hand WANTS you to build things from scratch. If you deploy it they want paid, but knowledge isn't locked away and can be had for FREE. I just LOVE the NERD (New England Research and Development) center in Cambridge, MA. If you watch their calendar, there is a workshop on nearly every Microsoft advanced tool and activity. I won't buy an Apple anything.

[jafar00]

I had a Mac on my desk but it got hacked after 2 weeks.

My preference is for Linux. I'm productive with the OS.

[Gaffer]

This is so typical rev. He works in an org that only has pc's, so he has a mac.

[revelarts]

Let me see if I can give you a well thought out answer. Apple likes to lock things away and force you to do things their way. They try to make you buy THEIR overpriced stuff and fix it so you have no alternative. I was once on a team of developers that used Macs with Eclipse for writing their code. One would think someone building something with an open source technology stack would use Linux. Microsoft on the other hand WANTS you to build things from scratch. If you deploy it they want paid, but knowledge isn't locked away and can be had for FREE. I just LOVE the NERD (New England Research and Development) center in Cambridge, MA. If you watch their calendar, there is a workshop on nearly every Microsoft advanced tool and activity. I won't buy an Apple anything.

Ok so your saying it's easier to develop programs or tweaks for the Microsoft operation sys and programs. because MICROSOFT is ALMOST open source. and they have more info available. As an example from the NERD workshop they show you all of the advances... to MICROSOFT products.

As long as all you want to use are Microsoft products that's great right.

And OK can anyone on the networks where you've work ADD any of those great advances to the computers on their desktops or do they have to get permission from the IT dept before they add it... or anything to their desktops?
If most people can't add even Microsoft advances without permission what difference does it make how open it is to the IT people. From a lowly end users POV. I don't get the advantage. But OK If your able to tweak and Hack you computer and Operating system and software on your own at home sure. I guess being able to really get at the code is a HUGE advantage if your into that.
And, I suppose, if your at an enterprise level trying to set up systems of some kind , I'll take your word for it, that's above my pay grade. But Most people aren't there. They just want to write letters, send e-mail, chat, save their work, do the accounting, post or produce their products, pictures, art, music, movies, research, homework, listen to music, read an article, surf the net, etc. A lot of that is just easier and more fun on a mac.
But PC's are far better/versitile at internet gaming, there's no doubt about that. it has the market locked.

I won't argue with on the price of Mac, they are to high. I even looked into creating a HACKntosh but when the guy describing what needed to be done started talking about checking bios or whatever and that you'd have work out any bugs yourself like he couldn't print until he fixed the xyz code by replacing the abc board, I said NOPE. I'll just spend the money and have the Apple Care Service Warranty
Which has gone down from the good old days as well. You have to jump through a few more hoops to get your machine fixed today, but they still take care of you. But about 8 years ago I had a mac tower at home, under warranty. It was doing something weird -I can't remember what- I called Apple and they sent a tech to MY HOUSE. He checked it out. Said he'd be back, came back an hour or so later remove the whole logic board and replaced it. Shock my hand and left. I've never had another real issue with that machine. As a matter of fact I'm putting a new HD in myself and i'm going to be using it as a back up machine with linux partition.

[Noir]

"needy employees who have Macs then the dozens who have PCs because they assumed since it was easy to use at home when they were just opening emails and browsing the web that it would be idiot proof and would work in any situation at work where much more is demanded of it without them putting any effort into learning how to use the damn things correctly."

I don't know if you intended that funny remark or not but I started laughing once you suggested that ignorant Mac users just partition their hard drive and intsall a new OS with no fuss :laugh:

The main apple website has a written manual and video tutorial on setting up bootcamp. Not to mention all of the unofficial guides/videos that the ignorant employee can find if they know how to google/youtube search.

But here is the total process -
Open utilities -> Open Bootcamp assistant -> Chose HDD size (it will have preselected suggested amount) -> click partition.

5 clicks of a mouse. If an employee can't do that, i'd love to know what exactly their job requires in terms of computer use.

Though i can't deny installing a new OS can be tricky, i mean it does involve putting a CD into the CD drive....

[tailfins]

Ok so your saying it's easier to develop programs or tweaks for the Microsoft operation sys and programs. because MICROSOFT is ALMOST open source. and they have more info available. As an example from the NERD workshop they show you all of the advances... to MICROSOFT products.

As long as all you want to use are Microsoft products that's great right.

And OK can anyone on the networks where you've work ADD any of those great advances to the computers on their desktops or do they have to get permission from the IT dept before they add it... or anything to their desktops?
If most people can't add even Microsoft advances without permission what difference does it make how open it is to the IT people. From a lowly end users POV. I don't get the advantage. But OK If your able to tweak and Hack you computer and Operating system and software on your own at home sure. I guess being able to really get at the code is a HUGE advantage if your into that.
And, I suppose, if your at an enterprise level trying to set up systems of some kind , I'll take your word for it, that's above my pay grade. But Most people aren't there. They just want to write letters, send e-mail, chat, save their work, do the accounting, post or produce their products, pictures, art, music, movies, research, homework, listen to music, read an article, surf the net, etc. A lot of that is just easier and more fun on a mac.
But PC's are far better/versitile at internet gaming, there's no doubt about that. it has the market locked.

I won't argue with on the price of Mac, they are to high. I even looked into creating a HACKntosh but when the guy describing what needed to be done started talking about checking bios or whatever and that you'd have work out any bugs yourself like he couldn't print until he fixed the xyz code by replacing the abc board, I said NOPE. I'll just spend the money and have the Apple Care Service Warranty
Which has gone down from the good old days as well. You have to jump through a few more hoops to get your machine fixed today, but they still take care of you. But about 8 years ago I had a mac tower at home, under warranty. It was doing something weird -I can't remember what- I called Apple and they sent a tech to MY HOUSE. He checked it out. Said he'd be back, came back an hour or so later remove the whole logic board and replaced it. Shock my hand and left. I've never had another real issue with that machine. As a matter of fact I'm putting a new HD in myself and i'm going to be using it as a back up machine with linux partition.


Something like that might make me try a HACKntosh. That sounds interesting. Any organization that expects your skills to be dulled because they don't want you to play with their toys should be kicked to the curb. I cover that in the interview process. I make the available software a condition of accepting an offer. I'm glad you mentioned that, because it's important not to be blindsided by a stingy company.