> Someone recently posted a link to the webcomic at XKCD.com, 
> which is really cool, and I happened upon this link while 
> browsing there earlier today:
> http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=500
> 
> It's an archive of a macrumor forum which was being live 
> updated during Jobs' keynote speech in 2001, when he was 
> announcing the first generation 5GB iPod.
> 
> It's amazing what the percentage of people crowing and 
> whining and predicting doom and lambasting Apple (this from 
> Mac afficianados) for coming out with such a 
> crappy/stupid/harebrained/etc. product.
> 
> With just over 6 years of hindsight, it's a pretty sobering 
> view of being too self-righteous when making a prediction of 
> future success or failure.
> 
> Mike H.


Don't get nerds to do your marketing.

Reminds me of the Slashdot review of the iPod - "Lame. No wireless. Less
space than a Creative".  By the guy who started Slashdot, no less.  I guess
he wanted a Zune.

This is why when people ask me for my advice on stuff (ie what's a good
$item), I tell them to ignore the nerds.  Want a decent $item?  Ask your
great-grandfather.  If he can figure it out, so can you.  Now that would be
a great review site.

Nerds often think they can speak for the other other 99.9999% of the planet.
Shame they're often wrong.  Take the much-reviled Clippy.  And in the
background I heard the Piclist saying "Please!".  (How old is that joke?)

I was on the 'Clippy Sucks!' bandwagon until one day I actually decided to
try it.  Y'know what, it's a neat bit of programming.  

Try it in Excel.  Change the assistant to the cat though, it's far cooler.
Tick all of the 'show tips' options bar 'high priority only', and hit 'Reset
tips' as well.  

Do things like adjusting column widths manually.  After a while the cat will
point out a better way.  Leave it on for a while, you might learn something.
(Ha, I just did.  Ctrl-Space selects an entire column)

The only downside seems to be it only shows the tips once (you need
reminders), and gets 'stuck' eventually.

Yep, MS screwed up by making v1 too annoying, but thanks to the nerds, it
won't get improved on.  This is despite everyone wanting the 'computer
agent' for years.  They got it, and then decided they didn't want a cartoon
paperclip being smarter than them.  

Tony


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