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Enderle's Ferrari Laptop
deminisma writes "Hilarity abounds as 'analyst' Rob Enderle gushes over his new Ferrari/Acer laptop. The laptop apparently even plays the sound of a car revving up while booting, which Enderle seems to think is all the rage at meetings."
This laptop doesn't seem like it is that good aside from the paint job. IMHO, the Ferrari products that carried the Ferrari name, but were manufactured by someone else just seem tacky and sucky. This joins the Ferrari mountain bike in my mind as a sucky marketing ploy. Fortunately, the Article mentions how this is mainly designed to appeal to PHB's who think that because a company is good (or arguably the best) at making cars, the laptop bearing their name is good, or arguably the best.
why the hell are you booting in a meeting? it should already be up and ready to go.
GET YOUR WEAPONS READY! --DR.LIGHT
Am I the only one to ask "What's the point?"? It's very pretty 'n' all, but why bother when you can put your money towards the laptop itself rather than an industrial strength coat of paint. Not to mention the fact that you're paying for the brand too. Maybe it's nice to have it as a status symbol, but that's all it is. And yes, I did RTFA.
Just like John Katz or Al Gore, this Bob Enderle dude seems to erupt with totally unresearched, poorly reported and over-exaggerated stuff that seems todraw everyone's attention.
How does he get to be on eWeek and Slashdot and what not with below average write-ups suitable for personal blog? Is the legend about gay mafia true?
Based on his columns and viewpoints, I've always thought of Enderle as a poser, at best. This just cements that impression.
--rc
If it had 15 transparent Eterms with a naked chick as the background, then, yeah, it's a screenshot. A JPG of a computer case doesn't cut it.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
This notebook is just a POS Acer with Ferrari's name stamped on it. He goes on about it's poor battery life but how you have to comprimise for a high proformance machine. This is nothing spectacluar, this is AMD's mobile chip, which I've heard runs pretty hot and sucks the juice down. This machine looks very thick, and is 7lbs, not very light.
Just because this thing has a car companies logo on it and is painted steal me red, doesn't mean it's a good machine.
-Aaron Mitti
Does this mean that laptops are now becoming fashion accesories more than tools?
Yes, just like cell phones have.
I also wonder if this is a bad thing or a good thing?
IMHO, bad. Phones are now overpriced, unreliable, feature-happy, hard-to-use, and almost useless as phones. They used to just be overpriced.
Yes, the Ferrari name has cachet, but if given the choice, I'll take a quality product from a company that focuses on the market and the users. It doesn't mean cross-branding can't work, but this seems like an odd pairing.
CC
They had a custom AMD processor made and all that stuff
I don't think so. Do you have ANY idea how much it costs to bring a new CPU to market? WAY more than Acer could afford, even with Ferrari as a backer. It's a standard AMD mobile chip (not even 64 bit). Don't get me wrong, it's pretty, but not much else.
Where's my lobbyist? Right here.
I'm not sure how "new" your talking about, but Apple stoped using titanium for their powerbooks because of poor wireless reception issues.
As a (real) Ferrari owner, I can only shake my head in puzzlement when every other red-blooded American male in my office drives to work alone in a 5,000-pound SUV that gets worse gas mileage than my 512TR... and people say I have a small penis.
'Splain?
damn right...Whenever people say "Even Apple users..." they show, by saying so, that they are envious of Apple users. In which case they should get a life and a Mac. For $1899 you can have (almost) a nice 15" Albook which I would - for looks and ease of use- at all times prefer to the Acer.
----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
Laptops seem so sad after only a couple of years. Does Ferrari really want a bunch of embarassingly outmoded laptops laying around with their name all over it?
Exactly. It's not about whether or not Ferrari can build a better lap-top than ACER or Dell or Apple or whoever, but rather cross branding, and individualization. The linux community is a great environment for individualization of technology, so the extension of this concept into hardware seems like an appropriate /. story to me!
I'd love to see one of those Toughbooks with a "Jeep" brand on it. I'd think 2ce about getting one because I drive a jeep.
If it's just about function, then why would people ever buy cheques that have a sailboat on them, or different kind of anything? The choice of having a Ferrari laptop will hopefully only be the beginning. Notice things like mini-iPods being offered in several colours, cell phone covers etc, design is important, and people are buying.
This twat has written so many articles shitting on the Open Source Linux Community it breaks my heart to see his name in lights here on Slashdot.
Just go to www.thescogroup.com and look to the "SCO in The News" section. The 2nd article is from our old buddy and Linux Evangelist....Rob Enderle who proceeds to compare the Linux community as the 9/11 Terrorists.
From his website http://www.enderlegroup.com/profile.htm
"Rob has been ranked #1 since 1995 in press coverage world wide and been captured by the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, CNN, CNBC, the AP, Reuters, Bloomberg, New York Times, LA Times, Mercury News, MSNBC, NPR, and other services and papers world wide."
What else needs to be said about such a visionary. Just ask him he will be the first to tell you.
Blah blah blah. Who cares about the technical details... Maybe a Ferrari has something that none of those other cars have. Maybe some people even think that they are just "fun to drive". Imagine that, something that you can enjoy even though it's not technically the best out there. Yeah I drive a crappy car myself, but I wouldn't trade it for anything because I think its a fun.
Sure you listed one car for each of the ways that a Ferrari can be beat. Hell a Honda gets better gas mileage than all of those cars. Does that make it a better car? To some people yes. Its all about opinion, and lots of people's opinion is that they are simply 'cool' cars. Quit looking at everything from such a statistical perspective and just enjoy things. Simmer down now! Seriously...
So is it such a slow news day that there's literally nothing to post but personal insults? I mean really, that's what this is. There's no "news for nerds" here, no "stuff that matters". Just a story about a guy who's clueless about his personal laptop. Big deal. "Ha ha! Look at this dork with his goofy thing that he has!" Sheesh. Different people like different things, not everybody is an Apple lover, and not everybody has good taste; get over it. This is certainly not front page news.
The laptop (as silly as it is) is not about the cars that Ferrari sells to the public, it is about their race cars! (And their Formula One cars are arguably the best out there) Most slashdotters being American proabbly don't realise that Ferrari is one of the biggest sports franchises on the planet. Manchester United is likely the only bigger name in worldwide sports than Ferrari.
F1 is second only to the World Cup and the Olympics in global TV audience. So the tie in is not snob appeal for the expensive road cars (BTW Ferrari only started making and selling cars to the general public to pay for their racing) This is more like having a New York Yankees or Chicago Bulls branded lap top than having a Nissan branded laptop.
Still a silly idea IMO, but its a different silly idea than the one everyone is poking fun at!
Name one piece of software that isn't available for the Mac that is for the PC. (And that doesn't have a compatible/comparable Mac equivalent, and that people actually use. Your piece of shareware that you wrote that only you use doesn't qualify.)
MS Office? It's better on the Mac. Any Adobe app? Available or better on the Mac. Quicken, available, QuickBooks, available. Games? Mostly available. (Most people who would even consider a Mac aren't ardent gamers; the same way that someone who considers an economy car usually wouldn't even think about buying a sports car.)
Come on, give me a real argument.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
Yes, if you go back and read that line again you'll find that was his point. He was contrasting the laptop against the classic Ferrari.
KFG
There are morons who buy the latest PDA even though they bought one 6 months ago that they only used for bragging to their mates. They pay for the R&D that means I can get the older one cheaper - and there's more second hand ones on Ebay.
Without getting into the eternal battle of Macs vs. PCs, I wonder if the term "paying a premium for style" is really accurate...
Rather, If I enjoy using OS X, and I have no other choice of hardware manufacturer(which I don't decry, mind you), am I paying for 'style' because I buy an Apple laptop, or am I simply buying the 'only' tool for the job, at whatever price it is sold to me?
I know we could argue endlessly what other people thinkI should do with my money, but given that it is no one elses business what I do with my hard-earned cash, am I really buying 'image'?
In order to avoid a 'class-warfare-type statement', I would put it this way... I like a certain green vegetable. Sure there are other green vegetables, but I like this certain green vegitable. You might say, "but you can just eat this other green vegetable..." and I say, "but I like this certain green vegetable." "But that vegetable cost more than this other green vegetable. You must be mad, or overly 'style-conscious' to want that certain green vegetable." "No, I just know what I like and don't like. I've tried that other green vegetable. Don't like it." "What, you think you're better than me, with your fancy green vegetable?" "Whoa, there, friend, I just know what I like..." "Dirty Green Vegetable Zealot!"
And so Slashdot was born...
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
Which person do you think made the better impression?
The best communicator of course!
You're fixating on sugar coating. You can actually use technical OS flaws to build up a presentation long bond with people. You can also portray yourself as a down to earth person that uses any available technology to bring a message.
A techno-fixation is likely to distract you from the topic and from the audience.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)