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Witch Hunt
Lyrics by Neil Peart

The night is black
Without a moon
The air is thick and still
The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torch lit hill

Features distorted in the flickering light
The faces are twisted and grotesque
Silent and stern in the sweltering night
The mob moves like demons possessed
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right
Confident their ways are best

The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill

They say there are strangers who threaten us
In our immigrants and infidels
They say there is strangeness too dangerous
In our theaters and bookstore shelves
That those who know what’s best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves

Quick to judge
Quick to anger
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand…

See what I mean?  For a song written in the 80’s, it’s pretty amazing at how relevant it is even today. Gotta love Rush!

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I don’t know about you but that’s some funny shit! LOL!

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“Now because they think Washington knows best, they are singling Texas out and are threatening to withhold $800 million in our federal tax dollars unless I violate the Texas Constitution and commit Texas to funding obligations without the consent of future legislatures”

Now this one:

“Consider recent events. Because they think Washington knows best, the EPA unilaterally declared more than 120 state air permits void at Texas plants, despite the fact the program has existed under both a Democrat and Republican President, and most importantly, has contributed to a decrease in air emissions.”

The writer claims they are from a public letter written by Rick Perry. Oddly enough, these quotes are not on one single webpage. Google has absolutely zero results for these quotes. So, my question is this: If it’s a public letter, why isn’t any of these quotes listed on a single website? Where the hell did these quotes come from?

Which brings me to a broader point: What the hell is going on?

I was talking with some friends this weekend and, during our discussion, we talked a bit about how there is so much misinformation being thrown around these days. While both sides of the fence are guilty (both liberal/progressives and conservatives) the majority of it seems to come from conservatives, or what many of us call neo-conservatives. It’s as if people have become completely ignorant of the facts, that it’s completely ok to express your opinion without having any real facts to back it up, and that it’s somehow ok to believe in stuff that is basically made up.

What’s dangerous about this is that it means that there are people who believe in what a particular person says simply because they think they can trust their word. All one has to do is write a blog post or a mass email that includes certain key words and mention a particularly famous person as the source for the content and you’ve got something that a good mass of people can believe it. It’s how so many have managed to make others believe that Obama is a Muslim and that he wasn’t born in this country.

It doesn’t stop there either. We’ve got plenty of folks in the media that are doing the exact same thing. This usually comes from personalities who are not news reporters and rarely if ever research the facts before opening their mouth. You know who I’m talking about!  Need I say more?

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Sad part is that I’m not sure exactly how successful Windows Phone 7 will actually be. The only way Microsoft will be successful is if the enterprise market really embraces it…which I honestly don’t see happening. If you watch a demo of Windows Phone 7 you’ll see that, compared to the iPhone and Android, the interface is a bit abstract. I’m not sure if enterprise customers are gonna go for something like this. It just seems so disconnected from everything else that Microsoft is doing with Windows.  Guess we’ll know after a few months once some phones hit the market.  :)

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Before I go into a blow by blow review of their site, let me just add that I’m not your run of the mill Apple fanboy. Yes, I do love Apple’s products but I was a Microsoft fanboy long before I took any of Apple’s products seriously. In fact, I learned everything I could know about every Microsoft OS since Windows 95 came out. I lived and breathed Microsoft and swore by their products…that is, until Vista came out. Since then, I quit my job as an IT Supervisor, bought my first Mac, became a web developer, and haven’t looked back since. With that in mind, let’s move onto talking about Microsoft’s ‘PC vs. Mac’ site…

Having Fun

Apparently, Macs just aren’t fun. You can’t play Blu-ray movies. You can’t watch or record TV content like a DVR. And there just aren’t really any games available for the Mac…well, none that are popular! That’s what Microsoft wants you believe…which is far from the truth.

Ok, ok, I’ll admit…they did get one thing right. Yes, it’s true, you can’t play Blu-ray movies on your Mac. Question is though: how many people really need this? If you’re someone who’s always on the go and likes to play movies on their laptop, that I can sort of understand. If that’s the case then one workaround would be to purchase an external Blu-ray drive and rip your movies to your hard drive. That way you don’t have to carry around a bunch of Blu-ray discs with you. Other than that, I just don’t see the point.

As for not being able to hook a Mac to a TV, that’s false. The new Mac mini has a built-in HDMI port, making it easy as hell to hook it up to a TV with a HDMI input.

Granted, there isn’t any built-in support for DVR capabilities in Macs but there are plenty of solutions out there for that. Besides, most people already use the DVR’s provided by their cable providers, which makes having DVR capabilities on your PC a moot point.

Gaming on the Mac has started booming just in the last year. Valve has rolled out support for Steam on the Mac with an impressive list of games available including Half-Life 2, Eve Online, Portal, and more. Also, one of the most popular MMOG’s is available for the Mac: World of Warcraft. Take a look at Apple’s Games site and you’ll see there’s plenty of other popular games to choose from. So to say there are no popular games available is ridiculous. Granted, none of the DirectX only games are available but, then again, if you really wanted to play a DirectX game then all you would need to do is install a copy of Windows via BootCamp and you’re good to go.

Simplicity

According to Microsoft, Macs take time to learn and, as they put it, “the computer that’s easiest to use is typically the one you already know how to use“. In other words, continue to use the same ole’ thing you’ve been using and don’t try anything new. Basically, Microsoft is using a typical FUD tactic of scaring customers into believing that switching to a Mac is difficult and that learning how to use Macs is as equally difficult. They’re not.

Sure, there are a few things here and there that work differently on a Mac than they do on a PC but not so crazily different that you can’t figure it out. If there’s one thing Apple is known for it’s for designing well thought-out, user friendly interfaces.

No, the mouse doesn’t work differently on a Mac. It works exactly the same as it does on a PC. However, newer Apple mouses like the Magic Mouse can do more, like gestures and multi-touch scrolling. Can your PC mouse do that?

Shortcuts don’t work the same on a Mac because, um, there’s no such thing as “shortcuts” on a Mac. No need for them really when you have the flexibility and functionality that’s provided by the Dock.

Microsoft claims that Windows 7 has features that Macs don’t have. Well, the same could be said about Windows 7. For instance, Windows 7 doesn’t have Stacks, which gives you direct access to files and folders in a variety of ways. Nor does Windows 7 have a highly user-friendly backup program that’s the equivalent to Time Machine.

As for the lack of a feature like Snap, there are plenty of solutions available for the Mac that not only provide the same features as Snap but provide even more functionality. A program called Cinch comes to mind but I prefer to use it’s bigger brother, SizeUp. Both provide features that are very, very similar to Snap but give you much, much more control over how it works.

Microsoft also claims that, unlike the Mac OS, Windows 7 supports Touch and thus allows you to browse online newspapers, flick through photo albums, and shuffle files and folders—using nothing but your fingers. Great, but where are these Touch-compatible PC’s? Last I heard, the HP Slate was one of the few being developed but HP decided to pull the plug and not release it with Windows 7. It’s great that Windows 7 supports this kind of functionality but, really, how can Microsoft tout a feature that hasn’t even been proven yet? Makes no sense.

Working Hard

Considering the sheer high number of college freshmen entering school with Macs, I find it amusing that Microsoft can make the claim that Macs don’t work as well at work or at school. Just because Windows is still the majority doesn’t mean that Mac’s can’t play nice with them. It’s a ridiculous notion.

While its true that if you use Apple’s iWork suite you may have issues opening certain Word or Excel documents, there are always workarounds. I rarely have issues opening up most Word and Excel documents with Pages and Numbers respectively. The only times I run into trouble is if the original document uses some sort of funky formatting, uses fonts I don’t have, or Excel macros that don’t exist in Numbers. But here’s the funny thing…if it’s really that important to you, you can always get Microsoft Office for the Mac. Seriously.

Yes, it’s true, with all new MacBooks you have to buy a separate hardware dongle to hook it up to a standard VGA projector. This is nothing new and isn’t a big deal at all. One of the primary reasons Apple choose not to include a VGA output is because VGA is an outdated standard. Consider the fact that most monitors support DVI and you’ll quickly realize that the omission of a VGA port is a bogus thing to complain about. Apple’s Mini DisplayPort technology allows for easy conversion to DVI, VGA, and even HDMI with just a simple dongle. Why is this such a big deal?  It’s not.

As for encrypting an entire hard drive, what’s the point in that? Exactly why would you want to encrypt not only your personal files but the whole operating system as well? That makes absolutely no sense. One of the reasons why I think Apple chose to allow encryption of just the home folder is for performance reasons. Can you imagine what kind of performance hit your system will take if it constantly has to decrypt anything and everything on your hard drive? Drive encryption is a rather dangerous thing to play with as it is. Why run the risk of really screwing something up by encrypting everything? Best to keep it focused on just the stuff that matters.

Sharing

When I read the phrase “Macs don’t like to share” I laughed almost immediately. No, it’s not hard to share your files, photos, music, movies, and printers on a Mac. In fact, I would almost bet that it’s easier on a Mac. No, there’s isn’t some sort of automated “wizard” with a funny name that does it for you but it’s incredibly easy to do regardless. With just a quick visit to my System Preferences I can share out a folder, a printer, a CD or DVD, my screen, and more. Beyond that, iTunes gives you even more capabilities of sharing your media (music, movies, photos, etc.) using its Home Sharing feature. So to say that sharing stuff between other Mac and Windows users is more difficult on a Mac than Windows is complete bullshit. Different, sure, but difficult? I think not.

Compatibility

Oh noes! Macs might not like your PC stuff!

Ok, so PCs still outnumber Macs.  So what? Still doesn’t change the fact that most file types that people use on a daily basis are ubiquitous on just about all computer operating systems. So unless you’re using programs that are only available to Windows and use a highly proprietary file type, chances are that just about every file you have can be opened on a Mac with little or no issues.

Like I mentioned above, in most cases you can open a Microsoft Office document in iWork. Yes, there are some compatibility cases but if that’s a major concern for you then you can always purchase a copy of Microsoft Office for the Mac (something that Microsoft failed to mention).

As for repurchasing and relearning Mac versions of a certain program, that’s just a sheer fact of switching to any platform. Most of the programs you already know are available for the Mac. If not, more often than not you’ll find a similar program that’s just as easy if not easier to use than the PC equivalent.

Yes, you will have to sit down and learn what’s different on a Mac and how each program works different. But, let’s be honest, the same applies to different programs on Windows up to and including Windows itself. Folks who are just now switching from Windows XP to Windows 7 will have to spend time learning what’s new and how to use it. Folks switching from Office 2003 to Office 2007 or 2010 will have to learn how to use the new Office ribbon interface. These examples aren’t all that different from the experience of switching from Windows to Mac.

Choice

I’m kind of on the fence about this. To say that Macs don’t let you choose is a bit of a loaded statement. On one hand, yes, it’s true that you don’t really have much choice in terms of what color your Mac is or whether it has a Blu-ray drive, TV tuner, Memory Stick reader, or 3G wireless built-in. But on the other hand, why would you want a bunch of stuff on your Mac that you likely won’t even use? Why would you want the added expense of features that don’t accurately reflect how you will be using your Mac?

Apple chooses to take a minimalist approach and embrace certain standards by including only features they believe that most users will use. The end result allows them to concentrate on hardware that is of the highest quality and allows for the highest degree of system stability. Why include a TV tuner and run the risk of affecting system stability if not many users will use it?

In my experience, one of the downsides of the PC market is that manufacturers have a tendency to concentrate more on features than on the integrity of the hardware. End result is that its hard to find a PC with a minimal number of features these days. Just about every PC is loaded with a glutenous amount of hardware features many of which will never be used. By comparison, virtually ever feature on a Mac is used and no real estate is wasted for the hardware.

Just about every missing feature you might want is available at an affordable price for the Mac: Blu-ray drives, TV tuners, Memory Stick readers, 3G wireless, multi-format card readers, touch interfaces, mobile broadband. They’re all available. More often than not, you’ll find that there is more than one solution thus giving you more options to choose the one that fits your needs the best. To me, that’s a whole lot better than getting something “built-in” that may or may not suit your needs.

As for being able to play your videos and music stored on your home computer, I’m not exactly sure what the hell Microsoft is talking about here. If Microsoft is referring to MobileMe then, yes, it does cost $99 a year. But what Microsoft doesn’t tell you is that MobileMe does a lot more than just giving you the ability to play videos and music stored on your computer. MobileMe allows you to keep your mail, calendar, and contacts synced online and between MobileMe compatible devices like the iPhone and iPad. It also allows you to share multiple photo galleries as well as synchronize files with iDisk. But if you don’t want to spend $99 to do all of this, there are plenty of other solutions, a lot of which don’t cost a dime.

Over the course of the past few years, it seems that Microsoft is on a crash course towards losing a good chunk of their market share to Apple. As such, it seems that Microsoft is content to spend more money on bad PR rather than spending it on the thing that matters most: creating great software. I believe that much of Microsoft’s problems started when Microsoft was developing Windows Vista. They took their eye off the ball and spent way too much time developing an operating system that caused a huge PR problem for them. As far as competition is concerned, I feel like they’re a good two or three years behind where they need to be. Apple is not only dominating the desktop but is eating Microsoft for lunch when it comes to portable audio/video players, smart phones, and tablet computing devices, all devices that require tight integration with desktop/laptop computers.

It’s one thing to claim that your products are so much more superior to your competition, it’s another to actually develop it and make them reality. Right now, Microsoft is in la-la land. Windows 7 may be their best operating system to date, but in a world where so many people want smart phones and tablet devices, it’s hard to see exactly where Microsoft and Windows 7 fits in with all that. As such, this whole PC versus Mac debate Microsoft is having with themselves is bullshit.

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