Comments on: The Duke – iPod ‘initiative’

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 15:53:59 +0000

No, r u?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 08:16:10 +0000

hahaha: i’m out there in the workforce using pc’s but i want a german car too. er …… i want a german bike, actually. and you can keep your apples ;-p

(nice that your not slagging anyone off)

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sun, 25 Jul 2004 07:26:23 +0000

> your not by any chance a member of the church of apple, are you? ;-P

Not yet. I’m a grad student and I’m poor. But after I finish my PhD, I hope I will be able to buy a nice house, a German car and an Apple computer (hoping that the “make it all cheap” gang of people won’t bring down German car companies, or Apple Computers…) ;-P

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 24 Jul 2004 20:21:05 +0000

your not by any chance a member of the church of apple, are you? ; – P

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 24 Jul 2004 10:07:51 +0000

Given for free, or sold at a deeply discounted price, I don’t think it matters. The thing is, you can’t blame it on someone who tries to do self-promotion by giving stuff.

Brainwashing children? For years? Please!… Last time I checked, Apple is not by any means the dominant platform, so how come that “brainwashed” people do not use it most often?

I have another question: Do you acknowledge that not all people in this world are geeks? Or, do you imagine a geography teacher typing regular expressions, piping the query result to a filter, and putting everything in backquotes, in order to find a certain town near a certain river in a certain country?

I’m happy for this Apple program in schools. I’m glad that kids learn how a user interface is supposed to be. I think too many people are brainwashed by Windows, which is technically and visually inferior. And Linux still has a long way to go to become the desktop for the simple people, with a straightforward vision of life. Linux is good, but I wouldn’t try to teach my grandmother to use it.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 24 Jul 2004 07:21:27 +0000

For sure, or maybe there were two of them …… hehehe

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 24 Jul 2004 06:44:21 +0000

P2Pnet is usually lucky to get one or two comments on an article – what a change!

I just took a quick look at a few of the tidal wave of comments – all were similarly short and negative. Had this article been “Slashdotted” – linked to from a popular media outlet, I would expect to see at least a few neutral to complimentary comments.

This reminded me of the predictable response to the posting of an ES5-critical article on p2p sites such as Slyck. The forum would then draw a flood of new guest posters “the ES5 trolls” claiming to be satisfied ES5 customers who all doggedly defend the scandal-plagued P2P – often using an obviously similar writing style, if not outright cut-and-paste replies in long-winded polemics.

The forum-spamming got so bad that Slyck was forced to discontinue allowing guest posting entirely.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Sat, 24 Jul 2004 00:46:37 +0000

Er, i just bought an Archos jukebox FM Recorder 20gig for 120 quid….
with open source software – ipod sucks shit.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 22:24:10 +0000

Were these Macs given or sold? Like, all these Mac computers in schools.. were they paid for by the schools or donated free by Apple? Also did Apple give the software or did the schools buy it?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 22:04:47 +0000

> The computer lab at our school is all-Mac

Why didn’t anyone give a bunch of Linux boxes?

> and the kids don’t know there is anything else in the world

How is that the fault of someone who has something to give? Why isn’t it the fault of all the others, who give nothing?

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 21:33:47 +0000

I second that. There’s way too much commercialism in our schools. The computer lab at our school is all-Mac and the kids don’t know there is anything else in the world.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 21:30:28 +0000

I have to give it to Apple – it’s been able to create a virtual religion ; )

One of the posters says my clearly marked ‘opinion’ piece was vitriolic. Maybe. But it’s what I think and as a father, I’m seriously concerned that universities – supposedly institutions of higher learning – and other kinds of schools are being turned into sales units for various entertainment industry products – and with absolutely no reference to students or parents.

Do I hate the Apple Mac? Nope. It’s just a computer. Do I hate iPod? Nope. It’s just an mp3 player. But I DO hate the way this wholly sales and marketing effort is being presented as “an initiative to encourage creative uses of technology in education and campus life”.

What a load of old bollocks.

Cheers!

(PS: A lot of the posts do indeed look like they come from the same person, as someone points out. Now THAT’s vitriol : )

(PPS: But we’re OK for the moment – we home-school our daughter.)

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 21:26:34 +0000

Yeah, this site does suck….and why is it that anyone who wants to post a comment is called an “Anonymous Coward”, just because we don’t want to log in and sign in, so they can make money out of us by sending us spam?

Boy, the lows people stoop to.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 21:24:12 +0000

I agree that this is an awefully written, one sided article. In fact this is an aweful site. These guys are so threatened by LEGITIMATE music downloads that iTunes offers, that they have to really put it down. They just want their advertising to sell too.

Commercial cheapness, this site is. Simple and plain, sensational journalism to get people to come here and they can tell their advertisers “Oooo looky…so many people saw your ads…”

Not kidding.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 21:19:42 +0000

Yeah, but who’s agreeing. Everyone else who posted their comments are just commenting….it says so right at the top, Comment. So its a comment. they don’t have to agree with the opinion. That’s my three cents worth.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 21:16:35 +0000

WORD.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 21:16:17 +0000

You tell me where you can buy a 4 gig microdrive that’s self powered, can play mp3s, recharge over USB and Firewire, store ANY type of data, includes a backlit display, and only cost $250—–THEN I WILL AGREE ITS OVERPRICED (WTF?) AND HAS NO USE FOR AN A LIST UNIVERSITY STUDENT WHO JUST *MIGHT* NEED A PORTABLE STORAGE SOLUTION, AND WOULDN’T MIND AN MP3 MUSIC PLAYER ON CAMPUS!!!! GET REAL!!! THE APPLE IPOD IS AN INEXPENSIVE, INNOVATIVE, STYLISH DEVICE WITH A LOT MORE USES THAN A GLORIFIED MP3 PLAYER. If it is so awful go buy an ugly 128 MB mp3 player that can ONLY play music (a CD or 2) for $50 less. And have fun shelling out $50 a month on batteries for it. Jeees.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 21:01:41 +0000

woohoo : – ) It looks like the same guy posted most of the comments. it says right at the top that this is an opinion. so its an opinion. you don’t have to agree. that’s my two cents.

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 21:01:00 +0000

Hi, I guess that I am an anonymous coward… I am a university professor and I love my ipod. On my campus the most interesting people – and professors – use Apple computers and listen to ipods. Even my windows-based students are moving to ipods in droves.

I guess that p2p’s future is in trouble and hence the vitriol spewed in this site’s op-ed…

But, freedom of speech is of the highest order… keep on postin’…

By: Reader's Write

Reader's Write — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 20:57:33 +0000

Despite the overuse of single quotations and “No kidding”s, what’s wrong with this article? Do you think the soothing voice of Sophia Choi would say it better? “Duke students awoke to a warm welcome today, a welcome warm as Apple pie…” This article may be a bit underdeveloped and a bit… unobjective, but at least its not TV news trash faking objectivity. This article provides a glimpse into the future of unrelenting, inspired journalism.

Just kidding.

It’s crap.