When Mac Freaks Congregate

abhikhurana writes "Wired.com has an interesting story about a recent get-together of Mac Freaks in Amsterdam. Apparently to pass the time, they amused themselves by tossing Windows PCs, making Mac porn and holding a look-alike competition to find the best Ellen Feiss look-alike, the teenage star of one of Apple's new 'Switch' commercials. I especially enjoyed Mac porn, but hey, if you are under 18, don't click the above link ;-)."

Comments

From What I Can See

[Hott of the World]

They are throwing PC cases , and I didn't see anything inside. Of course, They could have already thrown them a few times, so maybe there were mobos inside, but the ones I saw were just cases. Old cases are pretty fun to throw around actually, and can make good weapons in a pinch!

So take it from me, use your computer to fight crime in Amsterdam!

Now to hit preview to se

Re:not to be a party pooper

[Tokerat]

1. I doubt they where functional. Who wants to go buy a working computer for any price just to throw it in a parking lot?
2. Your comment does nothing but justify these guys actions. The PC zelot crowd would have no problem playing "iMac Toss" (at least ours comes with handles so you have the option). So who cares if the Mac zelots do the same thing?

Keep in mind these guys are not the norm, they are the exception. I'm a Mac "freak" myself, bigtime, but I don't go looking for Ellen look-alikes (uhh BTW Ellen Fiess is 14) or throwing PCs (although I did help some drunken friends film a monitor dropping off a 5th story roof in downtown southie Boston at 3AM, but that's another story...), or making "computer pr0n" by stacking laptops on one another and pluging them together with FireWire cables (although, I do alot of DV editing :-D ). Frankly it's because I don't care about that crap, I dont' have the free time, and, most importantly, I'm not European ;-)

Seriously though, some Mac zelots are weird. I support Apple as a strong company with good goals, but I dont' have a chunk of carpet in a plastic bag labeled "MacWorld Expo 2001 NYC, stage left (STEVE WAS HERE!!!!!!!)", if you catch my drift...

The Bigger Fool: You

[tres]

You assume that people who can't afford an 8 year old ebay system would actually derive some kind of utility from them.

Bullshit, I says; 3 reasons:

1. People don't need computers. People need food, water, shelter and family.

2. Try to run Mandrake 9 or Red Hat 8 on these systems--it just won't work. Try to run an older distribution on them, people just won't know how to use the computer.

3. You need to organize some way of getting these computers to the people who need them instead of making some grandstand bullshit critique of other people. I'm sure if it came down to donating the computer or using it for a punching-bag, there would be no question where the computer would go. But you aren't organizing, are you?
Ultimately, things like this can raise money for people to use in more meaningful ways, like a fundraiser to buy food for a family. But to say that the computers themselves have an implicit value is complete bullshit.

Average people need solutions to their problems, not more problems to deal with. They don't need to spend months learning how to use their computer before they can use it. They don't need to deal with headache upon headache trying to get their computer to run right.

This "Let them eat computers" pseudo-liberal bullshit doesn't do anyone any good. Unless you're willing to give up a couple of years of your life to teach these people how to run Red Hat 5, OpenBSD, or Debian Linux, these old computers aren't going to do them any good.

I mean, really--do you really expect people to derive some kind of monetary income from having one of these machines? Do you really think that it's going to liberate them, or bring them something they need? If they want to compile any of the major software products for Linux, they'll be waiting days.

I don't mean to flame here, if you're working on a way for these computers to be useful (other than as terminal servers) then great, I'll eat every word here.

Your argument reminds me a lot of my mother telling me, "Eat all the brussel sprouts on your plate, for people in Africa are starving."

To which I says, "well send them to Africa."