Autopope! - How I know I spend too much time in my local Mac dealership

(Recent Entries) (Archive) (Friends) (User Info) (My Website)

Mar. 29th, 2006

05:30 pm - How I know I spend too much time in my local Mac dealership

Previous Entry Add to Memories Tell a Friend Next Entry

1. Enter shop.

2. Head for display machines. Drool copiously over the 2GHz MacBook Pro.

3. Overhear salesman telling punter that they're selling like crazy and there might not be any left.

4. Fondle credit card, already smoking, and realize that the new tax year begins next Thursday.

5. Ask salesman, "how much, with maxed out memory?"

6. Salesman confirms that while the list price is the same as the Apple store is advertising, the extra memory is about half the price.

7. "Say, can you order one for me for next Thursday? With the memory? So it's in the next tax year?"

8. What did it was the reply: "certainly Mr Stross, I'll put one aside for you and it'll have the memory installed when you come to pick it up."

At no point did I tell him my name. At no point was I wearing a badge, other than maybe the flashing red sign over my head saying JOBS CULTIST. And I wasn't angling for the valued-customer treatment, either.

I definitely need to spend less time in that shop.

Current Mood: pleased but poorer
Current Music: none
(Leave a comment)

Comments:

[User Picture]
From:[info]horrorofitall
Date:March 29th, 2006 04:39 pm (UTC)
(Link)
I dig where you're coming from. I just picked up two of them. Damn fine machines.

NOw i'm drooling over the new 30 inch display. I might have to get one for me G5.
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]feorag
Date:March 29th, 2006 04:41 pm (UTC)
(Link)
30" display? [info]autopope!
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]autopope
Date:March 29th, 2006 05:04 pm (UTC)
(Link)
You can have a 30" display, or the all-expenses holiday in Australia we were talking about earlier. Your call. Hint: the holiday in Australia is cheaper.

(Note for the peanut gallery: she had a dual 2GHz G5 tower and a 20" display less than a year ago.)
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]horrorofitall
Date:March 29th, 2006 06:18 pm (UTC)
(Link)
I just like big screens. Is that so bad?
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]voidampersand
Date:March 29th, 2006 08:52 pm (UTC)
(Link)
Yes. 30 inches is too big. You can get whiplash trying to follow the mouse across it.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]horrorofitall
Date:March 29th, 2006 09:21 pm (UTC)
(Link)
heh heh. Maybe But I'd like to see if that is the case.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]jazzmasterson
Date:March 29th, 2006 09:32 pm (UTC)
(Link)
You know what's more fun than a 30" display?

Two 20" displays, side by side. :)
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]blackcoat
Date:March 30th, 2006 05:04 am (UTC)
(Link)
You could also be this guy. Which is even more fun. (Whats funny, is that, if I had his setup, I'd wipe it, and install debian on everything. Just because I'm not a fan of OSX from what I've used of it.)
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]robertcr5
Date:March 29th, 2006 11:39 pm (UTC)

Now you tell me..

(Link)
Great. Just Great. Now I have screenis envy.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]ckd
Date:March 29th, 2006 09:10 pm (UTC)
(Link)
My work machine's currently a dual 2GHz G5 and a 23"; I'm angling for a quad-core and a new 30" as part of a reshuffle that'll cost me my exterior window.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]kristine_smith
Date:March 29th, 2006 04:46 pm (UTC)
(Link)
You'll know you've really had it when they start sending machines to your flat to test drive.
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]vicarage
Date:March 29th, 2006 04:47 pm (UTC)
(Link)
Work want to buy me a quad G5 desktop, so I'll finally be dipping my toes in the Mac world.
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]purplecthulhu
Date:March 29th, 2006 04:50 pm (UTC)
(Link)
Grump... My dual 2.5 work machine feels insecure now...
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]purplecthulhu
Date:March 29th, 2006 04:49 pm (UTC)
(Link)
No no no... Its because you're a famous author and the salesman is really a drooling fan...

And with your head thus enlarged, you'll be unable to leave the house and spend more money on computers!
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]cat_herder
Date:March 29th, 2006 06:10 pm (UTC)
(Link)
I agree, especially if there has been a newspaper article or three in the local paper.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]blackbauble
Date:March 29th, 2006 11:34 pm (UTC)
(Link)
i'm with this theory, too... i mean even *I* would recognise you on the street for the number of times your icon/face pops up in my friendslist!
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]chuck_lw
Date:March 29th, 2006 05:06 pm (UTC)
(Link)
>at no point did I tell him my name.

Perhaps -- when you weren't looking -- one of your books started selling in supermarkets.

Your next encounters with the public will involve an endless string of housewives asking you for more scenes with doctors having sex. Or maybe they'll want serial killers. Or serial killing doctors.
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]princejvstin
Date:March 29th, 2006 07:37 pm (UTC)
(Link)
I found Steven Erikson's Deadhouse Gates, of all books, in a local supermarket, so you never know!
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]seawasp
Date:March 29th, 2006 05:29 pm (UTC)

Muaaahahah!

(Link)
But what ELSE could you spend the money on, Mr. Stross? Computers are clearly a necessary part of life. All things Apple should be yours!
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]dd_b
Date:March 29th, 2006 05:50 pm (UTC)
(Link)
Recognizing people is an important part of the "retail" toolset. Good thing I haven't had to work in retail!
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]feorag
Date:March 29th, 2006 06:35 pm (UTC)
(Link)
One thing that really scares me is that the woman at the MAC (make-up, not computers) concession at Dublin airport recognises me -- I only go there about twice a year.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]redbird
Date:March 29th, 2006 06:48 pm (UTC)
(Link)
How many customers do you think she gets with purple dreadlocks?
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]feorag
Date:March 29th, 2006 06:56 pm (UTC)
(Link)
Ah, but the dreads currently reside in a Hello Kitty bag, having been made into falls to attach to my far more boring black and purple bob. Unfortunately, my scalp eventually registered a complaint about the dreads.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]blackcoat
Date:March 30th, 2006 05:10 am (UTC)
(Link)
It's not just recognizing. It's recognizing, remembering names, product purchase details, and even how they like to be spoken to. (I have customers who like me over some of my co-workers because I'm willing to cuss when I talk to them, as long as there are no other customers in earshot.)

This is annoying, however, when you can't go anywhere in a small town without running into someone that won't shut up about the great book you sold them, and not only can you not remember the book in question, but you can't remember the persons name.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]princealbert
Date:March 29th, 2006 06:12 pm (UTC)
(Link)
I am wondering if you're talking to my old friend Gerry. (In his 40's dark curly hair)
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]tanais
Date:March 29th, 2006 06:50 pm (UTC)

Is that a Zit on the back of your neck?

(Link)
Charlie. Quit whining. You have an implant like the rest of us. They did a cross reference and saw you had not recently paid enough tithe to St.Jobs -- and in the 30th year of his cult too! They made your credit card tingle. In fact they probably made you grab hold of the credit card too and then they made it tingle.

You can't escape. Its like Hotel California, except even more repetitive.

PS Feorag. Those 30-inchers pop up from time to time in the UK refurb store and they go darn quickly too!
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]connatic
Date:March 29th, 2006 09:52 pm (UTC)
(Link)
and here I am, waiting for the second generation of the MacBook Pro to come out... I just don't trust a 1st-gen anything.

Mind you, we're a two-person, 4 Mac household (in a Manhattan apartment - you know how spacious they are): Titanium PowerBook to run Linux on, iBook, 15" PowerBook, dual 2.5 Ghz G5 tower.

The tower was originally for my beloved to play Doom III and The Sims II on (hence also the 20 inch screen), but now that's she's in grad school working with actual human body parts and bones games don't cut it any more. But it makes a great BitTorrent system :-)
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]autopope
Date:March 30th, 2006 12:49 am (UTC)
(Link)
This is the Cunning Plan: find a local dealer where I get good service.

The MacBook Pro (I have been lurking on the Apple support forums) has a couple of known problems, the most pernicious being the CPU whining thing. If I buy it direct from Apple, I get to send it back there and wait. If I buy it from Scotsys, I get to schlep it uptown (a 10 minute bus ride away) and then get them to Fix It or replace it from stock.

NB: we're a multi-mac household too. Must dispose of a few -- the old dual-pro G4 cluttering up the mezzanine, maybe the original Tangerine iBook and the Powerbook 145, and my old G4 powerbook 17" -- once the new one arrives. The old family G4 cube is staying, though (once I get it out of my sister's cellar and fix the video/CPU fault).
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]clanwilliam
Date:March 29th, 2006 10:40 pm (UTC)
(Link)
*smiles smugly*

I got home to find an envelope from the same company. With a freebie in it. Software rather than hardware, admittedly, but nonetheless...
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]fractaltime
Date:March 30th, 2006 07:40 am (UTC)
(Link)
He's gonna call you "Charlie" next time, and tell you to "say hello to Feoragh and the cats" or something.
(Reply) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]fractaltime
Date:March 30th, 2006 07:41 am (UTC)
(Link)
BTW: Tried Aquamacs emacs? I downloaded it a few days ago, and it works pretty well, and --unlike other emacses-- allows me to cmd-C for copying!
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]autopope
Date:March 30th, 2006 12:45 pm (UTC)
(Link)
It's emacs -- work of the devil. I'm a vim user ... and yes, gvim on OS/X is pretty neat.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]fractaltime
Date:March 30th, 2006 02:07 pm (UTC)
(Link)
Uhm ... what is vim / gvim? Aside from being a text editor that is not emacs, that is.
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]autopope
Date:March 30th, 2006 11:24 pm (UTC)
(Link)
It's the souped-up turbocharged implementation of the One True Editor:

www.vim.org

NB: it helps to know that as far back as 1991 I was writing a guide to macro programming in vi (which in that instance was SysV vi, not Berkeley vi).
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]darkgeek
Date:March 31st, 2006 08:54 am (UTC)
(Link)
Don't you mean vivivi?

That's right, the text editor of...
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]fractaltime
Date:March 31st, 2006 09:16 am (UTC)
(Link)
How does it work with LaTeX?
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)
[User Picture]
From:[info]autopope
Date:March 31st, 2006 03:41 pm (UTC)
(Link)
Who cares? I don't use LATEX.

(Actually I believe there's a pretty good mode for that formatter, but real vi gearheads use custom troff macros instead ...)
(Reply) (Parent) (Thread)