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For Goodness Sake (12/28/99)
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While "The Holidays" overall aren't exactly over yet, the gift-giving portion is. The boxes have all been opened, the pretty paper's all been torn to shreds bound for the landfill, and the phrase "it's just what I wanted" has been uttered gazillions of times, with varying degrees of truthfulness. But you can bet that all the lucky folks who found a Mac under the tree were dancing happy little jigs-- and here's hoping that Apple and its resellers had a nice, green Christmas too. If Cyberian Outpost (uh, we mean Outpost.com) is any yardstick, the Mac holiday sales numbers may be very merry indeed.
According to MacCentral, Outpost's revenue tripled this holiday season over last year's sales, and the iBook and iMac were "at the top of Outpost.com's hardware sales listing." Cool! Whether or not Macs topped other resellers' sales charts remains to be seen, but by the sheer number of iMacs we saw being wheeled out of our local Micro Center and CompUSA stores the week before Christmas, we're guessing Santa came through for Apple this year. Hopefully that'll translate into lots of happy new Mac users joining the community.
As for other computers sold this holiday season, well, the recipients of non-Macs may not be quite so joyous. At least, that's what we gather from what The Register says about the best-selling Compaq Presario 5800 series. Compaq frequently tops the sales charts with a market share somewhere in the 30% range, we think, so we bet Santa delivered a lot of these things to good little girls and boys. Or maybe to the not-so-good children, since Compaq is being "bombarded" with "complaints of persistent system freezes" by unhappy users. We warn you-- if you're squeamish about graphic descriptions of nasty Wintel troubleshooting, don't read the article. It abounds with frightening tales; one user was directed to use the Presario "Quick Restore" CD and then reinstall his other software, which all took "5 or 6 hours" each of the "few times" he tried it, to no avail. Eeeeek! Looks like the Presario 5800 might win this year's "Lump of Coal" award...
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SceneLink (2001)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 12/28/99 episode: December 28, 1999: Rumors of a Y2K terrorist anti-Mac assault are iffy, sure, but the Mac's vulnerability to a new denial of service attack is no laughing matter. Meanwhile, Graphite's the color to watch, as it bleeds its way into Apple's portable lines, and plenty of happy people got Macs for the holidays, but those who received a Compaq instead may have to resolve to get on Santa's "nice" list next year...
Other scenes from that episode: 1999: No Shirt, No Shoes... (12/28/99) Okay, face it: you're all just a little disappointed in the way Y2K's shaping up to be a big non-event. Sure, as caring, compassionate social creatures we all thrive on the continued comfort and well-being of our fellow humans yadda yadda yadda, but come on-- here we are, scant days away from the calendar rollover, and there's nary a panic attack in sight... 2000: Haute Couture (12/28/99) Outbreak! It's spreading like wildfire, with no slowdown in sight! Wait, hold on, don't call the Centers for Disease Control just yet-- we're not talking about some kind of icky infectious flesh-eating bacterium, or even the Windows virus du jour...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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