G'day everyone!
Yes, after four weeks here in the land of the long white cloud,
as the Maori call it (or the Land Bereft of Apple Commercials, as I
call it), I start to speak the local lingo: I encourage my patients
with colloquialisms like "good on ya," "good as gold," or the
unbeatable "good as a box of fluffy kittens."
Yes, New Zealand certainly offers you new experiences for your
money, and I can tell you, it's not only funny shaped boulders,
funny shaped birds, funny shaped fruits, or funny shaped
houses.
As you remember, last weeks
column was all about the lack of Macs in my surroundings.
Naturally I was inundated by people from Auckland and Wellington
(the former the wannabe and the latter the true capital of NZ) who
told me that they were surrounded by Macs, doh, but in general the
mails reaffirmed my opinion that Macs are rather underrepresented
in the country, mostly due to the rather hefty prices and the lack
of retail (here we go again, I know).
I got a couple of very nice mails from the various MUGs on the
islands (thanks guys!) inviting me to rather sinful sounding nights
out, and some bizarre mails asking me for travel tips. It turns out
that the area I live in (Otago) is the New Zealand equivalent of
Bavaria (a small mountainous little state in Germany, full of
people of a resilient little mountain tribe with unpronounceable
accents, rather eccentric habits, and funny hats), but without the
technology centres. Apparently the concentration of Macs is far
higher in the urban areas of NZ, so it's just me who's screwed. Oh
well, looks like it's me who'll have to spread the gospel of Steve.
I always wanted to be an evangelist.
Which brings us to the next issue:
Slashdot, which seems to be an Apple-only site some
days, and the good old
Register picked up a story from the rather less exciting
MacSlash a couple of days ago:
According to a Professor of Theobiology at the Fellowship
University (what?), we are all doomed because we are using
computers devised by godless hippie Darwinists. (Darwinists because
of the name of the OS. Get it? Get it??)
I am sure you have all read the story, so question is: Hoax or
not?
Slashdotters, who by nature are rather cynical about these
things, were deeply divided about the issue, and even yours truly
can't make his mind up about this. I read the texts and the
autobiography of the author and his mates ("He has lead successful
boycotts against Sears and Piggly-Wiggly and has spearheaded the
movement to stop Evolutionism from being forced on the children of
Marian County" or even better: "As an accountant, he has to deal
daily with the soulless secular world and so he takes great
pleasure in putting his knowledge of accountancy to use in the
righteous cause of Our Lord," and the unbelievable "Kyle was a
troubled boy. However, this all changed when he found Jesus. Since
then he has gotten himself cleaned up, has started listening to
Christian rock, and is now a respectable looking young lad." Oh
puleeeeaase!) and just could not decide whether there really are
people out there (even in the US, where so many things are
possible) who are so zealous in their belief that they walk around
and castigate people using elegantly designed computers with stable
OSes. (Would that make Bill Gates more acceptable for them, as he
obviously produces the opposite?)
In the tradition of this column, I will keep this question
unanswered and rather hope for your input to enlighten me. The
solution to the riddle will hopefully be found on this very site
next week.
P.S. The Winner of the T-shirt competition (courtesy of myself)
is Terry McCune with "Down But Not Under." Thanks for the 40 odd
people who wrote me; you were all brilliant!
