 Inadvertent timeliness. The best we can hope for.
posted by Dante on 10.20.2003 - 9:30 am
Another iPod related strip bracketing the release of the iTunes Music Store on the windows platform? Could this be some bizarre attempt at topicality on our parts? I can assure you that the answer is 'no'. This was simply the luck that is afforded fools. We are just fumbling around in the dark here, with just as much chance of accidentally sticking a fondue fork in our eye as we are of stumbling onto an 'in the now' topic. Perhaps after years of practice, honing our craft - years where we successfully avoid forks in the eyes - we can rise to that level. This is at best only tangentally germane to current events anyway. We're reaching, but we take what we can get when its offered.
Having worked at a CompUSA myself, years ago, in darker times, I can speak from experience that the employee the Wired contributor describes do exist. I knew a little about macs, and was willing to go in. The other employees viewed the Apple "store within a store" with fear and revulsion. They wanted rubber gloves and particle masks. On their way out they were heard to scream, "Unclean," and demand the services of priests.
These were the days when the iMac was new. The mac culture at that time was populated by equal parts newbie and fanatic. If a CompUSA employee accidentally found himself cornered by a mac user, it was a coin toss. Was this a user inspired by a Jeff Goldblum voice over, someone with a 'grape' tinted office looking for the perfect desktop accessory? Or was this a mac die hard, ready to quiz you on the proper internal components for their 6 year old mac.
These were the frightening ones. The seasoned mac users. Like Manchurian candidates, programmed and indoctrinated into the fold. They would play an intricate cat and mouse game. Fawning over the new iMacs, many a hapless sales associate mistook them for a neophyte, "is there anything I can help you with today, sir? A new iMac perhaps?" The prey had been snared, the trap being sprung before the target was even aware. These associates were dead before they hit the floor, many dying without even knowing what had hit them. The barrage of impossibly difficult questions continuing to assail their now lifeless bodies.
It was sad really. These fanatics think they are helping the Apple cause. They go into retail establishments and attempt to thin the weak from the herd, so that the sales people who remain "know their stuff." These aggressive mac users actually do a disservice to Apple. By frightening and intimidating the sales staff, they are doing little to help would-be Apple shoppers. Sales are lost, and market share continues to go down. These fanatics often don't even update their own hardware. Why do they do this? They go to the stores and frighten the sales associates, and don't do any buying. Way to help the cause.
These troglodytes, lacking even the most basic social graces, will sometimes try to help users make an "informed choice". These freaks scared away half the customers to the Apple store as they stood there. They would attempt to drag people from the PC sections of the store, trying to forcibly convert them, more lost sales - but if Apple can't have their dollars, no one will! Sometimes they would succeed in selling a mac, but I lost count of the iMacs that were returned in my tenure. Little old ladies who said they "just wanted to do email", or teenagers looking for social acceptance. They would tell tales of the mysterious stranger who guaranteed that the mac could do everything they yearned for. Not only did your attempt at winning a new user fail, that person is now a windows user for life. You lost them for good by being an idiot.
If you really love macs, do two favors for mac community; 1 - take more baths or showers-with soap, and 2 - don't intimidate sales people and lie to consumers.
The mac product is the right choice for some people, but the sales staff can't be too scared to try selling them, and it has to be the 'right' choice for people or you've still lost.
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 Illustrator Hell part deux
posted by Christopher on 10.20.2003 - 9:31 am
This was the last strip where i did the linework in illustrator. it's also the last strip where i reused artwork (funny how that works). currently, i'm only using illustrator to put together the word bubbles, since it's much easier to edit them there than in photoshop. speaking of word bubbles, i really like the way that the borg's text came out. the idea of different word bubbles isn't something i've revisited again, but i really should. they seem to add something to the feel of the strip, and make it really obvious who is talking. easy enough to do when you have a cyborg talking, but it takes a little more thought when you have two humans chatting. something i'll work on as i get faster drawing the art.
the golf in panel 2 is a remnant from when i was still a volkswagen enthusiast.
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Bubba Ho-Tep
posted by Christopher on 10.22.2003 - 12:29 pm
see this movie. now.
you're still here?
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