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Interview With "Switcher Girl" Ellen Feiss
Ed over in Accounting writes in with a Macinstein interview with Ellen Feiss, an Internet cult figure of a bygone era. Back in 2002, in the heyday of Apple's "Switcher" ads, the 14-year-old Feiss garnered a bit more than 15 minutes of fame. Her Switcher ad became an instant classic — partly because of the widespread belief that she was stoned while filming it, which she says was not the case. In the interview Feiss, who is now a college student with one movie behind her, talks about pseudo Internet fame, drugs, and acting. She says she's still using the same G4 she had when the ad ran. Nostalgia bonus: the ad is embedded at the end of the interview.
Ed over in Accounting writes in with a Macinstein interview with Ellen Feiss, an Internet cult figure of a bygone era.
Well, you know what they say. You should let bygones be bygones.
Push Button, Receive Bacon
Interesting to hear she's still using the same G4. I'm using the same PowerBook G4 I bought in 2003, because it still is a surprisingly competent notebook after 3.5 years, even for my daily graphics work. I hear all these Windows people complaining about how a PC only lasts a couple of years before you have to buy a new one; I hear that and think, well, that just about negates the "PCs are cheaper" argument...
...What do you think it was about your ads that made you a stand out?
Ellen: I don't know? Because people thought I was stoned, because there aren't that many young girls in computer commercials.
Ellen seems to have figured out where fanboys come from.
- - - -
You can't be ahead of the curve if you're stuck in a loop.
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
I saw her Switch ad when it came out. I didn't get the cult fascination then, and I don't get it now either. So fine, whatever. Fast forward 5 years later and I'm wondering what the hell any of us are doing reading an interview with her.
I read part of the interview and have concluded that it's just as interesting as most blogs by strangers I'll never meet. Funny thing is, most people are immediately appreciative of how much most blogs suck, yet an interview with Ellen Feiss is somehow above that.
Please, someone tell me, what the hell am I missing here? Really. I don't get it.
2002 is not a bygone era damn it. We haven't even decided what to call this decade yet.
The internet highlights a rather interesting aspect of human nature - the need to idolise other people.
The rise to fame of actors and actresses is a bit more straightforward, since their performances are laid bare for all to rewind and review. We needed to see something about a person before we decided that they were worth the worship.
Now, as we move forward, it seems the time and effort required for someone to bask in the aura of fame is drastically reducing. What we find more often in public forums are people, represented by no more than the text of their name or a default avatar, enjoying heroic receptions.
I guess anonymity of others allows us to identify one or two things we like, and then our imagination fills in the rest.
I think this will negatively effect self esteem in the long run.
Are you lost? Couldn't find you way to Digg?
The purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity....Calvin
I worry about this too.
I'll be suprised if the new UK ads make an impact. We don't react very well to negative advertising over here and we tend to be more diserning consumers. Most people who are using Windows are using XP. XP, for all of its faults is stable, verstaile and familiar; on modern hardware with oodles of ram its fast and it does work with all of those odd USB gadgets that people buy (my missle launcher doesn't work under OS X).
Its also cheap. You can buy a decent computer from Dell with LCD monitor etc. for under £300.
I'm a devout Mac user and even I don't relate to adverts. Yes, I have made photo albums, they did look fantastic and I could do it with the software that was provided with the machine but it also cost me £30. Yes, I can watch DVDs out of the box, but if I want to watch anything in fullscreen in Quicktime I need to buy a £20 pro update, or import them into iTunes (not iMovie) and watch them in front row.
As for the 'no drivers' being a good thing, I'm not sure what they are smoking. There are laser printers that require you to compile open source drivers to get to work, mobile phones that refuse to connect via bluetooth and perhaps my biggest irritation is cameras whose RAW file format isn't supported. Now these arn't necessarily Apples problem: Fujitsu encrypt their RAW, Minolta only support Macs on their more expensive printers and Motorola are the worst phone manufacturer, but they ALL work on Windows with the drivers in the box.
Telling Brits that they are stupid for buying a PC isn't going to work. Buying a PC is a choice. There is more software (including viruses), they are cheaper and they are as stable. The reason I bought a Mac? UNIX under the hood, a great interface (apart from finder), great hardware and in my experience less goes wrong.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
So Apple better say "Windows" or "Office" in their switcher ads, I guess...
That'd be kinda ironic given in their ads they specifically stress on the fact MS Office is available on Mac and It Is Good.
They need Office on the Mac and they know that.
As for Windows.. they'd piss off someone's lawyers to directly flame the Windows brand. So they use a "PC" as a generic name, but of course talking about Windows (not Linux or BSD or anything).
Which is *again* ironic, and doubly so, as what they sell right now is exactly a PC. No more, no less. The only single difference being the DRM chip they use to lock OSX, and the EFI (versus the classic BIOS). But new PC-s are sold with EFI too, so..
I remember when they were also flaming the Pentium 2/3/4 chips, talking about how terribly slow they are compared to G4 and G5. Which was again a lie, when they switched to Intels they got away from the situation talking how hugely different Core is, a totally, totally different thing, completely different from the Pentiums we flamed just few months ago!
Of course, those better informed, know Core 1 is in fact enhanced Pentium 3 with more SIMD commands and extra power-saving features.
Yeah, I agree, PCs should really stop sucking. However, I wonder why you're telling that to us. Most of us aren't working on Windows.
So you're not working on a PC? What are you working on, Amiga?
Seems to me fanboys are bang outta luck. The fanGIRLS though....
That's really funny, because today's Macs ARE PCs.
Global warming is a cube.
I'm a recent first-time Mac owner (except for a brief stint on 7.6.1 on some Motorola-based Mac in the late nineties; that sucked), and do you know what? Windows machines (not PCs; Linx machines are mostly PCs, too) do suck relative to the competition in most respects.
Honestly, unless you're really into PC games, there aren't many areas where a Mac isn't >= to a Windows machine. Granted, one of those areas is that there is no Exchange client on Mac that is as good as Outlook 2003 or Outlook 2007 on Windows. Microsoft Entourage is adequate, though, and Mail.app can handle the mail part of dealing with an Exchange server just fine (I'd love to see Apple add calendar integration, though; the best thing Apple could do here is put out their own complete Exchange client). Mac Office 2004 is decent, and at my company - which my eyeball estimate says is 1/4 - 1/3 Mac, some Linux and FreeBSD, and majority Windows - the Macs work just fine on the Windows network.
Mac is a no-brainer for ease of use, but what may come as a surprise to many is that among the three platforms, I also consider Linux to beat XP for ease of use in most areas (roaming between wireless networks is not one of them, which is one reason I chose a Mac; I move around the building a lot and don't want to have to mess with wireless problems). The main reason most Windows users today would say Windows is easier to use is because it's what they're used to. If they switched to a Mac, they would also find it "harder" than Windows at first, but once they got used to it over a month or so of use, they'd realize there's no way they'd go back.
I don't see myself going over to Mac as my primary system instead of Linux, I just like Linux to much. But migrating my parents from Linux to Mac? Yeah, I can see myself encouraging them to get a Mac. My dad likes to tinker too much to ever give up Linux, but I think they'd really enjoy a Mac as their "real work" computer.
You touched upon an important point there too, Joe Public usually doesnt think in terms of Windows vs OSX vs GNU/Linux vs AmigaOS4 ... They buy a "computer". That computer will most likely come in the form of a Dell a HP or a Mac and may well be from PC World with a free digital camera, oh and have Intel Inside too, because that's what the TV adverts tell them is good.
While us geeks are sitting around slashdot arguing about Vista's lateness, OSX's niceness and Linux's empire toppling innocence PC World, HP, Dell and Apple are raking in the big bucks and conditioning the public's opinions on what constitutes the latest greatest in computing via advertising.
The simple fact is that until PC World adertises their latest Red Hat or Suse bundle during the Superbowl GNU/Linux will not be joe-public's-desktop-ready no matter what we collectively shout about it here.
Obviously, i sincerely hope to be eventually proven wrong, but i suspect my karma's about to plummet rollercoaster style, in which case: Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
If you don't risk failure you don't risk success.
People are aware that computers are these cool, amazing machines. As is written in the Book of Jobs: "bicycles for the mind The problem is that (Windows) PCs do suck. It's like having to work with a manic depressive coworker who drains your energy by making you deal with his weird issues all the time.
You can't sell a computer that you want people to love without reminding them that (Windows) PCs suck, because over time people begin to accept that suckiness is the way computers are supposed to be. You can't change the world without first upsetting the unconscious accomodations people have made to the status quo. The world if full of unreasonable things people get accustomed to; it's only when they are reminded they have a choice that they remember how ridiculous things are.
The reason people "don't buy" Macs is the same reason people "don't buy" BMW cars. There are cheaper alternatives that fill their needs. Yes, the Mac Mini is pretty cheap, but beige boxes are even cheaper. If they could buy the mini at $299, more people would buy them. But cheapness is a game Apple can't win at, and doesn't want to play. BMW could sell more cars if it had an offering to set against the Ford Focus, but that would turn them from BMW into a smaller, less competitive Ford. BMW sells luxury cars, Apple sells luxury computers. And Apple has the luxury of not needing to advertise much if at all to its existing customers; most of them are not going to switch to a PC unless they are forced to be circumstances that no advertising could alter. What Apple needs is to find the people who are disatisfied with their old PC jaloppy and can be interested in trading up.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I'm -really- tired of people saying how well OpenOffice works when it doesn't. Just because it -is- an alternative doesn't mean it's superior, or even on an even footing with its competition.
"troll" is also a term for a shitcocked nerd who is so bitter and twisted that nobody loves him that he has to anonymously insult random people in an effort to regain his confidence without having any possibility of retribution.
which is totally what she said
Aside from Access, is there something you've done with Microsoft Office that I haven't done--or can't do--with OpenOffice?
Heck, I can even think of a couple things I've done in OpenOffice that can't be done with Microsoft Office. Take superscript, for example. Yes, MS Office supports a superscript flag, but OpenOffice lets me apply varying degrees of superscript. And that's functionality I've needed.
I've also used OpenOffice to repair Microsoft Word documents that crashed Microsoft's product.
I tutor people in working with Microsoft Office every day, and every day I encounter things that lead me to believe that OpenOffice works better.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
I've had the reverse experience. A student's Word document resided on a floppy disk they hadn't been taking care of, and wound up corrupted. The document crashed Word, even after running ScanDisk on the floppy.
I popped the floppy into the one computer in the lab which I had installed OOo on, opened the document, and re-saved it as a Word document. The student lost some of their document, but much of it was still recoverable.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
The truth is, they're roughly equivalent. My shiny new MacBook Pro has crashed as many times in the two months that I've had it as any Windows machine has in a two-month period. Some things are easier on the Mac, but some other things are easier on Windows. On both platforms I've had things "just work", and on both I've had things "just fail for inscrutable reasons".
I have a vague preference for the Mac, but it's just that -- a vague personal preference. It mostly comes from the Unix underpinnings of OSX, which means that an old Unix hack like me can get in under the hood and actually fix some of the things that go wonky. I have found nothing that clearly sets either platform above the other, at least for the things I need a computer for.
Heresy, I know.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
I'm not advocating using coke, but, before you post about it...try to know a little about what the effects of each drug does. People do no 'flip out' on cocaine if it is a 'bad batch'...there is no such thing. This is not like LSD or another hallucinogin where you can lose touch with reality...and 'flip out'.
But, look, all these chemicals have different effects on your body. Alcohol is just as much a drug as pot or coke or anything else, and just as dangerous. No one should be using them when they are working, that is not what you are being paid to do.
Personally, I don't do them, but, I don't see the reasons that some of them are classified illegal and some of them are not...I think in a person's own free time, they should be able to ingest what they wish, I don't think it is the state's place to save someone from their own stupidity if they make bad choices.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Would you hire a roofing contractor who uses a rock to drive nails? Would you hire a roofing contractor and then insist that he use a rock instead of a nail gun? After all rocks are "ugly and ineffective" and only "brilliant and experienced" roofers use them.
You can argue all you want that it's not the same thing, but it is. People accept "ugly and ineffective" with computers and that's a shame. It doesn't have to be that way. If you think people choose Macs because they're "ignorant and inexperienced" then you are misguided. I would definitely recommend a Mac to someone who doesn't know anything about computers true enough. But I also recommend to people who know computers to check out the Mac.
A colleague of mine recently bought a MacBook Pro. The second day he had it I asked him if he'd been playing around with it. Do you know what his response was? "Not really. I've found I don't really need to play around with it to do what I want." Stick with "ugly and ineffective" if that's what you like. While I'm sure some may consider it "brilliant" I for one, do not. Ugly I can and do live with. Ineffective? Not unless I'm being paid very well. Fortunately the Mac is neither ugly, nor ineffective. (My opinion to be sure, but the success of the iPod is driving people Apple's way for a reason.)
Apple is doing what they have to. Reminding people that computers don't have to be "ugly and ineffective." You're absolutely right about one thing, they are not marketing to you. You think "ugly and ineffective" is acceptable and people who deal with it are "brilliant." While there are lots of people who deal with it who are brilliant, "ugly and ineffective" != "brilliant".
"The avalanch has already started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote." -Kosh
Yeah, they should.
Just like if I want to go down to the corner pharmacist and buy a massive overdose of morphine, the size that you have no reason to possess other than to kill someone, I should be allowed to do so, then go home and mainline it all so that I go into respiratory arrest.
Freedom used to mean something.
Edward@Tomato - /home/Edward/ man woman
man: no entry for woman in the manual.
"Qua!?"
If it's a taste you truly want to acquire, use hypnosis. I did. On the site WarpMyMind you can find a file named "PussyLover". It makes you absolutely love eating pussy. I went from not liking doing that to craving it all the time. Hell, I enjoy eating pussy more than getting head or even regular sex.
After using the file for a few months, you get to a point where the taste is just amazing. Better than anything else. The smell becomes incredibly arousing. Seeing her react and orgasm creates a feeling better than an orgasm, in addition to actually getting many orgasms from doing that (without touching yourself).