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MacHack Theme Unveiled

Carlos Finque writes "After much consideration, this year's theme of the annual MacHack conference was unveiled today: 'MacHack 18: Unstoppable'. Read the press statement and don't forget to register while you can. Mindful of the inevitability of their own conference and the unstoppability of it all, the committee looked for a suitable symbol for things that keep moving no matter what. It turned out that the committee needed look no further than their own Mac screen. Apple's own busy cursor -- the SPoD or 'Spinning Pizza of Death' -- is the inspiration for this year's MacHack theme element."

16 of 41 comments (clear)

  1. Gee... by wyvern5 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I dunno, I can think of so many better things that keep on going and going and going...

    Journalists will continue to call Apple "beleagured" and proclaim that the death of Apple is assured. "Do you hear that, Mr. Jobs? That is the sound of inevitability."

    Apple will continue to make computers with ridiculously low bus and ram speeds (though we all hope the 970 will fix this :)

    Windows users will continue to blame the occasional failure of interoperability on the stupid Mac users and not the well-known flaws in their OS. Special characters in Word files, anyone?
    I wouldn't say that the SPoD sticks around very long anyway, thanks to the joys of an OS with "kill -9" :)

    --
    -- Apple: Where Microsoft wants to go today.
  2. SPoD multichromatic theme elements? by nycroft · · Score: 4, Funny

    Mindful of the inevitability of their own conference and the unstoppability of it all, the committee looked for a suitable symbol for things that keep moving no matter what. It turned out that the committee needed look no further than their own Mac screen. Apple's own "busy cursor" is the inspiration for this year's MacHack theme element, the SPoD or "Spinning Pizza of Death".

    Like Steve Jobs himself...unstoppable! That kinda sounds like a movie trailer to me: "One man. One way. One...desire. In the Year of the Laptop, he runs a grossly underestimated computer company, and the competition wanted to snuff him out. But he had only one chance, and that was to fight back! Blessed with a weapon with supernatural powers: the Spinning Pizza of Death, he brings down hellfire on his enemies and throws the competition into his own house of pain. This summer, Steve Jobs is...Unstoppable."

    Help Steve fight the good fight. Help him make his computers better. Go to MacHack!

    --
    Mr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time is enemy action.
  3. SPoD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    My vote's for Spinning Beach Ball of Death; it lets you slip into happy thoughts about volleyball with the ladies while you're waiting. Then again, for most hackers, maybe pizza reminds us of the happy faces of our friends.

    1. Re:SPoD by hobbit · · Score: 2, Funny

      Then again, for most hackers, maybe pizza reminds us of the happy faces of our friends.

      What do you mean? That geeks don't have enough exposure to soap and sunlight? Or that the only real people we ever see are pizza delivery guys?!

      --
      "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato
    2. Re:SPoD by numpins · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree with the beach ball title. Where did this spinning pizza come from? They're both circular but the cursor has a three-dimensional look to it. Maybe it's a sphere...
      The busy cursor is also multi-colored (blues, greens, yellows, reds, etc.), not covered with cheese, pepperoni, black olives, mushrooms, sausage, green peppers, onions, anchovies, pineapples, ham, and all the rest.

      The MacHack site does look cool with the beach balls all over it; much better than the standard yellow and green combo. They kind of remind me of the cool abstract desktops.

      Talking about this makes me want to use the Anonymous Coward feature but I won't because the pizza title was something that "bothered" me when I first discovered what the theme was.

  4. There is no Pizza by gobbo · · Score: 5, Funny

    The SPoD doesn't exist. I mean, I've seen something where the cursor pointing thingy all of a sudden tries to hypnotize me, but I've read all about that Borg Marketing Trojan Horsewear that tries to convince you that the colourful XP is stable fast and slickable, by taking over programs and turning the cursor pointing thingy to a hypnotist's wheel. So I immediately hit the Apple-Tab key combo to fight the dark side impulses, and the nausea-inducing spinning assault on my staunch macness just goes away!! After awhile I can switch back to my poor 'beleaguered' program and the Borg attack is gone.

    There is no Pizza. It is your multitasking that must bend.

  5. Worst summary - ever by ArmorFiend · · Score: 5, Funny

    After reading the summary I still have no idea what this article is about. In fact after reading the damn article I still have no idea what this article is about.

  6. As I always say... by jcr · · Score: 5, Funny

    Journalists will continue to call Apple "beleagured" and proclaim that the death of Apple is assured.

    Apple Computer: On the Brink of Oblivion since 1975!

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
  7. Targetting this? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm not sure that the /. targetted advertising works at all. This article came with an advert for the Intel C compiler, with a tagline 'Targetting This?' and images of Intel CPU logos. Reading a Mac article. Targetting Intel CPUs. Hmm.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  8. Best Machack Ever by ihatewinXP · · Score: 4, Funny

    Has to be MacJive. a small control panel for OS9 that turns all text onscreen (including the apple menu, et al) into 'jive.'

    Seeing a message pop up along the lines of:

    "Da Locashun Managa is unable to connect. Sheeit, what it is Mama?"

    it just used to make the day tolerable for me.....

    (and here is the the obligatory link, works in classic enviroment as long as the control panel is enabled).

    http://www.hax.com/MacHack/hacks99.html

    --
    ---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
  9. Of Course There Is No Pizza by ihatewinXP · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The cursor is a Spinning _Beach Ball_ of Death. I mean c'mon, you would have to be tripping your face off to see a pizza in the glob of color that is Apple's busy cursor.

    The system may have been designed with hallucinagens, but your not supposed to actually operate it as such. I guess this is more problems arising from Stev Jobs and the 'lickable' interface, thank god apple toned it down in the latest release.

    --
    ---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
  10. when I hear unstoppable I think of OS 9 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Which I still have to use for a variety of legacy programs. It would be so nice if one of those clever hackers figured out how to put OS 9 back into it's box...(like virtual PC does with windows) so that we could keep 9 totally separate and save OS 9 states and not have to boot every time we want to start it again.

  11. Of course not! by jo_ham · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's quite obviously called The Beachball of Rumination

  12. Crawls on her belly like a reptile! by djupedal · · Score: 2, Funny

    C'mon pudge...get it right, please.

    Spinning Pizza of Death should be Spinnin' Pizza O' DEATH!

  13. Spinning Beach Ball of Doom? by General+Sherman · · Score: 4, Informative

    I could've sworn it was the Spinning Beach Ball of Doom.

    Maybe this year they'll have a little beachball spinning on the entrance, just to make sure you know that you're waiting in line.

    --
    - Sherman
    1. Re:Spinning Beach Ball of Doom? by Gropo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Those kooky cats at Ambrosia Soft coined the acro-name "SPoD" back in the pre-10.0 era, which preceded the 'Beachball' copy-cat nickname. Now you know ;)

      --
      I hate Grammar Nazi's