M0r0n - BIG time.

[Marshmallowman]

Genuine 13373 lobotomy candidate.

[Liquid Snake]

I hope it was just a joke.

[Maggi]

Ed NOTE: I just received this email from Andy:

"I have been feeling a little guilty about causing so many people out there to have nightmares, depression and sickness from my little joke. The reaction of people word wide has blown me away. I never intended for such a thing to happen.

My in box went from 1% to 100% in 2 days (1300 messages). So many people were pointing out what a stupid thing to do, so many people were telling me of feeling sick, some even said they cried. I felt bad for those people. It was amusing to read things like "I should be hung by my testicles and lit on fire" or the constant reference to "Taking a Porsche and replacing the engine with a KIAs". Most people cried out in horror and carefully pointed out the error of doing such a silly thing.

I am sure you are wondering why this all took place.

Are the pictures real? Yes.
Is it my own G5 case that has been cut and hacked? Yes.
Did I give away two G5 2GHz processors (IBM PC 970)? No!
So what happened?

I got a free G5 shell from a buddy of mine and pulled a prank on a Mac loving friend. He got so upset. I wrote up a little story, my imagination and warped sense of humor kicked in. I sent it to OC.com just to see the reaction. I honestly didn't think it was going to be posted. I cannot believe how fast or how far it has spread on the internet. There are an amazing number of people who are emotionally attached to inanimate objects such as computers. Mac fans seem to be much worse that I ever expected. The G5 is amazing, I would never dream of really doing that

Andy - G5 Killer"

ED NOTE: I posted this because I thought this was about the craziest thing I had ever seen; well, it turns out it was a little too crazy.

What fascinates me is the overwhelming reaction among the Apple community. I have read about the zeal among Mac users, but the reaction to this story is a real eye-opener. I hope Andy's confession soothes those who felt so strongly about gutting a perfectly good G5.

[The PIT]

Well all I can say is we fell for it big style.

Still I bet my friend feels like doing it after blowing away his OS9 and OS X by running Nortons on it.

[KvHagedorn]

I don't get the joke. Not really funny.. I suppose it is funny in the way dead bodies are funny. Make everyone think you're an idiot and completely feckless.. yeah, that's a funny joke!

[DukeP]

Lol.

Im actually relived.

Lower score for stupidity up 10%.
Yeay!



~~DukeP~~

[The PIT]

Now lets start a company thats buys Apple cases and puts AMD 64's into them.

[UtwigMU]

Well, dual Bartons at 2.26GHz will smoke dual G5's @2GHz in Cinebench and come close in Photoshop and cost about half to build.

TOTL dual Xeons or Opterons will own Dual G5's in most benchmarks (except in Photoshop).

[schmosef]

I was a Mac person way before I was into PCs. I grew up with Macs in school. My first home computer was a Mac Classic.

I have very fond memories of setting up a Mac IIsi for my school's computer department. I was so impressed by the whole setup/up-and-run process. Apple was years ahead of Microsoft on that front. (They had a Mac IIcx there too. It was faster than the IIsi but there was something about the si that I really liked.)

The math department had an SE/30. I couldn't believe how fast it ran my Hypercard stacks!

I used to dream that I'd struck it rich and could afford a Mac IIfx with dual floppy drives! Man was that opulent.

It wasn't until late in High School that a friend who was into PCs taught me a thing or two about the "dark side". Now, he and I own a small computer consulting company. We're 100% PC. (On the plus side, we've sold quite a few Matrox products over the years!)

Every now and then I get nostalgic and think about buying a Mac for use at home (email, web surfing, etc.). But it's cost prohibitive. And it doesn't seem like there's much stability in the Mac environment. What I mean is, they're hard to upgrade/maintain. And from what I'm gathering as an outsider looking in, every version of the OS after system 7 has been somehow "transitional" (not fully PowerPC optimized, quasi ported to the Next kernel, etc.). I guess I just don't have a justifiable need for one right now.

I still have a Mac on my desk at the office, I bought it here: MacAquariam.com

I guess you could say that for me, Apple sleeps with the fishes (at least for now).

As much as I was revolted by the article that started this thread, I owe the author some gratitude for reminding me of my simpler, friendlier days as a Mac geek. I think I might even send him a thank you email... probably not.