Slashdot Mirror
The Beatles, Apple, and iTunes
novus ordo writes "Apple is being sued in London by Apple Corps, owned by the former Beatles and their heirs. This is a third battle over the name 'Apple' in Britain. Apple Corps has previously been awarded $26M by Apple Computer for the use of the name."
-I dunno, but only people who are over the age of 50 would even be old enough to remember the Beatles and specifically the name "Apple" being associated with them.
.. But sometimes they're not.
--I, for one, am not over 50 but certainly associate The Beatles and "Apple" so perhaps you should reconsider making blanket statements.
Holy shit, case closed Jobs! We're back in third grade when we totally blow out of context a blanket statement. I used to make these cool statements (I'm only 16 but I've been listening to since I was barely able to walk, am I cool yet?) when I was 16 and boasting about how I listened to 'gnarly' music. Everyone was impressed.
I'm not over 50, but I certainly don't associate The Beatles and the Apple name together. I'm sure some people under 50 do. I'm sure some people over 50 do. AND, I'm even sure some people over 50 DON'T. There are probably even camps on both sides who do a bit of both. A blanket statement is useful 'cuz it's just an exaggerated statement that almost by necessity isn't true, but serves to illustrate a point. I think in this case the point is that since the Beatles' Apple hasn't released anything new in many years or done anything besides possibly turning out balls-to-the-wall loud remastered versions of some greatest hits crap, their name would be almost unknown except to those people who were around when the Beats started Apple.
Now, this blanket statement is false. Anyone who can read a Caillou or a Spot book can tell you that. But I would perhaps wager $1 to say that the meat of his statement is more or less true, meaning that people of a certain age are more likely to know blah blah blah about Apple (Beat edition). And if it's pretty much totally false, well then the original poster was a dumbass. Maybe he is anyway.
Sure, he could have avoided making a blanket statement. No one would get away with (hopefully) making one in a courtroom, but on Slashdot they fit right in with all the idiocy and somewhat insightful/interesting/troll/funny/etc posts.
Now, some blanket statements are just stupid. Often they involve race, sex, etc.
Age is probably a common one where it's not completely stupid. "Man, only people under 30 listen to that rap stuff."
Social status - "Only geeks care about license X when writing a program."
Occupation - "There isn't a trucker alive who hasn't used a CB."
Social class - "Those damn bankers only care about making and taking money."
Viewing habits - "What, you've never seen Star Wars? EVERYONE has seen Star Wars."
Etc... - "All this abstract algerbra stuff is impossible!"
Is there anything more I should add? I'm expecting an offended response.