Ryanware

A straw man argument is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent’s position. To “set up a straw man,” one describes a position that superficially resembles an opponent’s actual view, yet is easier to refute, then attributes that position to the opponent.
- Straw man argument, Wikipedia

In case that description didn’t make you think of Apple’s “I’m a Mac” ads, read it again. It should now.

In case you haven’t been paying attention, Microsoft has launched a new ad campaign to reclaim Windows’ supposed battered image. The response seems largely in response to Apple’s “I’m a Mac” ads.

The first two ads were really weird, but I have a wacky sense of humor so I quite enjoyed them. The New Family is hilarious. As funny as I might think they are, I still don’t know why on earth they made them. They’re very random and weird.

Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld: Shoe Circus
Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld: New Family

The newest ads, released yesterday, are much better. They make owning a PC look cool again. Not that I needed any more reasons. I’ve been happy running Windows for years. Barraged as I may be by Mac lovers, I really don’t see myself switching. I won’t say I won’t switch, because it’s always possible. It’s just that right now I don’t have any compelling reason to switch. They’re both good operating systems.

I’m a PC 1
I’m a PC 2
I’m a PC 3

Anyway, these ads are cool. I hope this will help people see through Apple’s straw man argument. They aren’t educating people about the truths of the PC. They are creating a misrepresentation of their competition, and then tearing it down. I guess it’s pretty common in advertising, but I’ve never liked it. I believe a company should and can tell people why they’re better than the competition without tearing anyone down.

Tearing someone else down to build yourself up is really just another way to express jealousy. I know all those Mac users out there are extremely jealous of my sweet Dell. Yes, it runs Windows. And I like it.

In my constant struggle to have a balance life, I usually don’t have a balanced life. It usually goes something like this: read the books I want to read, read all the blog feeds I want to read, post on my blog a few times, realize that I haven’t worked in a few weeks days. Work. Repeat. After I’ve repeated that a few times I stop reading just about everything (I can never completely stop) and work a lot. After a few weeks I realize that I’m really far behind on everything I want to read so I catch up and it starts all over. And that’s why I haven’t blogged much recently (and you know I usually blog so much).

I do, for the record (whatever that means… who’s record?), believe I have improved in the whole balanced life thing this year. At least it feels that way (so it’s probably true).

A few other things:

My iPod nano locked up (all I did was push the play button on an audiobook). Wouldn’t respond. Reset procedures did nothing. I took it to the Apple store and they gave me a brand new one. No more little dents in the side!

I went to Sacramento a few weeks ago for the Sacramento lindy exchange. For the past 4 years I’ve said “I’m not driving there again!” and every year I do it again. This time I mean it: I’m not driving there again next year! The dancing was fun though. Also, we went to the Sacramento Temple! That was sweet. The weather was beautiful.

I saw Horton Hears a Who! and liked it (overall).

(I used a lot of parentheses in this post.)

Maybe I’ll post again tomorrow (don’t count on it, but you never really know).

I just had a really weird thought that will probably make everyone’s brains explode. You know how in math (and programming) you’re supposed to calculate the innermost parentheses first? Well, if a sentence were structured that way it’d be really hard to read: (I did, however, buy chips and salsa! (I haven’t bought shoes in a really long time. (except I didn’t really because (and bought some shoes (I went to the store (The other day)))))).

Yeah, I’m going to bed now. Sorry about that.

My birthday was last week. I’m now just a little bit older, though I don’t feel older. The day was a good day. My sister brought me breakfast and balloons, the guys I work with got me a shiny new black 8GB iPod nano, and I had a splendid dinner with my family.

In my classic new gadget fashion, I managed to have it drop out of my shirt pocket and chip it a bit, but no real harm done. Perhaps it’s because I drop small things a lot, or that I’m just not as picky as others, but a chip or two in it doesn’t bother me at all.

I’m feeling a bit too lazy to link to past posts right now, but if you’ve been reading this blog for a while then you know I really love to read. I especially like audiobooks because I spend a lot of time driving. My new favorite thing is audible. Have I mentioned audible before? I’m on their Gold plan at $14.95 a month, which gives me 1 credit per month. Most books are only 1 credit. Anyway, having all my audiobooks on the iPod nano is absolutely fantastic. I used to listen to them on my ancient iPod shuffle, but it didn’t quite work right. When I would pause the book and played it again later I’d have to rewind for a long time to get back to where I was. That was probably because I’d dropped it in water a few times. It was never the same since the first time it got soaked. heh. My goal is to keep the new nano out of water.

I kind of feel like rambling on and on, but since I have nothing more to say it’d be pretty boring. So instead I’m going to bed.

Oh P.S. My parents got me the collected letters of C.S. Lewis books. I’m in heaven! Books books books. Now if I could only be paid to read.