[afa]

I apologize in advance, but I have to say a few things. Last time, I swear!

Originally Posted by readingglasses

Good to see you don't just accept opinion as fact. Though you seem to be looking to do so and just couldn't go that far with my pompous gas baggery.

This part had me confused. What makes you think I was "looking to" accept opinion as fact?

That makes me suspect you are an apple fan

Hardly. I like some of their products (iMac, iPod, iPhone), think some are quite good but nothing particularly special (the MacBook/MacBook Pro), some are rather little more than flash and pzazz (MacBook Air, because I can't imagine personally wanting a device that is more limited yet more expensive than a laptop) and some might be good, but serve absolutely no purpose in my life that would make me buy one (iPad). I'm largely dispassionate towards the rest.

and your defense of apple as a company that makes ugly hardware that is easily upgradeable and great on spec is a little baffling, <snip> Maybe the upgradeability is so easy, that they upgrade to the max for the short life of the computer.

Your post from this point on is amusing. I like how you used a little play on words to pretend that I disagreed with *everything* you said, as opposed to the two or three parts. Good use of tongue-in-cheek (hopefully the correct cheeks...). Alternatively, perhaps you're just crazier than I thought. Either way, I approve.

Originally Posted by readingglasses

I'm not sure where you're coming from, though. What could you possibly care so much if someone is bashing apple products somewhere?

Well, now that I've calmed down - It's mostly that I get irritated because far too many people on these forums make, as I said, "grand, sweeping statements" about companies. It's a pet peeve, I guess. I mean, they're corporations. Non-living, uncaring, amoral entities whose primary focus is to maximise profit and increase value for their shareholders. How can anyone hate (or even love) a corporation to such an extent that they would dismiss their perfectly fine consumers as somehow a lesser people?

Conveniently, it's always large and successful corporations that are the target of such ire, which suggests to me a motive less pure than objective criticism. How come no one is as passionate about being 'against' a small start-up? Am I really supposed to believe that all small companies are somehow 'good'? A lot of people, I think, fancy themselves as some sort of 21st Century Rebel. In the 60s and 70s it was cool to be anti-establishment, and now that has carried over to technology companies as they have grown exponentially and become increasingly consumer-oriented. Strange, that. Somehow I always thought rebels and tech geeks were mutually exclusive, but I guess I was wrong. I suppose it at least tells us the world is advancing.

In any case, it's all good. I must say I liked your reply. I actually regretted writing my initial post (which went against my standard "never post anything when you're pissed" rule of thumb for forumming) as I didn't want to get into a needless flame war. Glad to see you didn't take my (inadvertent) bait. Good on you.

Here's some Karma for that. You've been palindromed!