mac whoredom

Catching up is hard to do

by aristan on Jan.27, 2009, under Life, Nerdcore, home, mac whoredom, pop culture & TV

Current iPhone Wallpaper:

My Current iPhone Wallpaper features LaLa from TikiBarTV, one of my favorite podcasts, that gets updated about once ever 6 to 10 years.

RENT:

Finally got to talk to John again about seeing RENT on Friday. I’m kinda excited, a bunch of us are going, including MJ & Jason. Should be fun, though… it’s weird because I’m sure everyone else has seen it live, but me… nope. Despite the ‘pop culture’ category on here, I rarely watch TV, go see movies, and plays… hah. Now, ask me what piece of software is in the works at Apple or the real occupation of the creator of Wonder Woman (and what he’s even more famous for) and I’m your man.

Work:

Dear god… I put stuff on eBay and Amazon for a living. It’s both the coolest and saddest thing in the world all at once. But at least I never have to hear about people’s bowel movements. Now when people over-share, it’s about the cruise they’re about to go on. So much more fun this way.

Facebook:

I just joined the Nerdist group (which is the fan group for Chris Hardwick’s blog) over on Facebook. Combine that with the fact that I have willingly listed myself as a ‘Star Trek’ fan over there… and well, you can see why I go on so few dates.

2 Comments more...

Seeing (Red)

by aristan on Oct.14, 2006, under mac whoredom

So, Apple has decided to join with (Product)Red and create a killer candy apple (fittingly) red iPod nano. The iPod Nano (Product)^Red retails at the same price as the regular Nano, $199US.

Many people online are dismayed that Apple is only donating $10, or 5%, of their total sales of the new iPod. Apple happens to be the most forthcoming, stating a specific amount. Other companies involved either state percentages of sales, profits, or even wholesale prices to figure their donations.

The one of the moregenerous companies, according to sources, appears to be Gap which is has a huge line of 40 (Product)^Red items. Gap is also donating 50% of profits of these items. Motorola will donate $17US(£10) to (Product)^Red.

To figure out how much companies are actually donating, let’s set the playing field level. We know that the iPod is $200 so we’ll use $200 as our guideline. Some companies donate based on profits or wholesale, we’ll set the estimated profit margin to 50%. That means that if a product costs a dollar to make, it’d be sold for $1.50. A $200 product with a markup of 50% would have a wholesale cost of $133.34 and profits of $66.66.

Please note that a 50% markup is an estimate based on years retail experience. Very, very few products are ‘keystoned’ (set to a 100% profit) anymore. IE, $2 product cost $1 to make.

So how much are other companies donating in comparison?

Company	Product (Cost)	Donation Amount	Donation at $200	Notes
Apple	iPod Nano (Product)Red	$10	$10	Baseline. $10 is donated regardless of actual profit or price. A education store user who gets 10% off will still have $10 donated.
Gap	Various	50% of Profits	$33.33	Profit margin figured at 50% with a total profit on $200 of $66.66. This is probably a very generous esimate for Gap.
American Express	American Express Red Card	1% of Total Spent on Card	$2	1% of each purchase is donated to The Global Fund.
Converse	Various	5%-15% of Wholesale Cost of Product.	$6.66-19.99	With an estimated $200 item and 50% markup, we belive the wholesale would be $133.33. Converse has a large line of (Product)Red items, but donate betwen 5 and 15%, depending on the item.
Motorola	Razr	$17	$11.22	SPRINT(!!) is retailing the red RAZR for around $300. This is the direct conversion of their £10 donation from (Product)Red UK
Motorola	BlueTooth Headset	$5	$14	Retail for Headset is $79 from MotoStore, donation is roughly 7%

Obviously, Apple’s donation is fairly middle of the road. American Express’ donation is nearly pathetic, donating just $2 out of the baseline $200.

On an interesting note, Apple UK only claims a ‘Portion’ of the price. I believe we can assume that Apple is probably donating the same amount in the US and in the UK. If you convert $10US to British Pounds, Apple is donating £5.37, which pales compared to Motorola’s donation.

Many people have also stated that Apple has broken (Product)^Red tradition by calling it the iPod Nano Product Red. It appears that this is the standard for some in the US version, as Converse and Gap are also marketing their products by the item name followed by (Product)^Red. Motorola’s efforts are all over the place using both conventions. American Express calls their card American Express Red, which creates a separate convention all their own.

Leave a Comment more...

Malbela.Com Presents MacWorld Theatre

by aristan on Jan.14, 2006, under mac whoredom

Leave a Comment more...

Powerbook + AirClick + Front Row? That Equals Love.

by aristan on Jan.10, 2006, under mac whoredom

Sure, the MacBook came out today. Sure the announcement should have be sent to current iMac & Powerbook owners with an video attachment of Jobs mooning us. But I’m still happy with my Powerbook.

Especially now that Front Row runs on it with my AirClick.

Video will return when it’s not ass.

iTunes Is Trying To Kill Me softly with it’s song.

by aristan on Sep.18, 2004, under mac whoredom

iTunes is trying to kill me. So far tonight has been a big emo meltdown bonanza. Death Cab, Dashboard, The Cure and just a little Weezer & Wilco thrown in.

I feel sad.

Therefore I feel good.

2 Comments more...

Ipod Whoredom Part Deux: Return of the Ipod Contests!

by aristan on Aug.11, 2004, under mac whoredom

Ok… here’s something that hopefully won’t start a flame war in the comments! A bunch of contests to win Ipods! Everyone wants an iPod… unless they’re a commie! or a hippie. Or a Commie Hippie!

I’ve personally entered almost all of these contests. Almost all because I haven’t entered the ones intended for Canadian Residents for obvious reasons. Lauren has already won a FlipStand, an iTrip, and a glow-in-the-dark iSkin Mini! Congrats Lauren! Now if I could just win something.

Here’s a list of iPod contests, grouped by the number of times you can enter. If you win something, leave a comment and let us know!

Single Entry:

I Love Country: 20GB iPod Sweeps
Andrew Carlton: iPod Mini
Trio TV ‘Sounds Like Texas’: 40GB or Mini
Counting Crows: 15GB iPod
Christine Evans: one of 3 Minis – Will automatically add you to mailing list with no optout/in
Victory Records/Taking Back Sunday: Mini preloaded with new TBS album

Daily Entry:

(edit aug 12: the hives answer is apparently ‘E’)

Unlimited Entry:

Hot Topic/Paris,Texas: iPod Mini or $500 Gift Card – Requires setting up free account with Hot Topic to log in.

Other:

Buzztone/Warped Tour/Vans/Moments In Grace: G4 Laptop or one of 3 Minis – Limited to 500 Entries, but each entry requires an email address referral!

Also: I’m considering starting a site that will be a clearing house for iPod contests… what do you guys think?

1 Comment more...

The money comes flooding Trickling in…

by aristan on Jul.22, 2004, under mac whoredom

Thanks Marcio for my first ~~dollar~~ 67 cents! And screw you, Paypal!

Of course, you can still help.

Leave a Comment more...

I’ve finally gone an done it…

by aristan on Jul.21, 2004, under mac whoredom

I’ve finally gone and done it.
I’m panhandling online.
But it’s for an iBook.
Help Me Get an Apple iBook!

Leave a Comment more...

Mac Whoredom Example #88912

by aristan on Jul.10, 2004, under mac whoredom

This afternoon I was cleaning the kitchen and watching the Powerpuff Girls as I did. It happened to be an episode I hadn’t see before. This episode guest starred Phyllis Diller as Mask Scara, the Make Up Tychoon turned Evil Genius.

So… here’s the mac whoredom:

As The Professor is in his lab using his supercomputer to come up with his plan, you know the one that involves creating a computer virus to access the communications network and embed itself in humans, causing them to cluck like a chicken and have an itchy rash (with or without excessive hair growth.)… you know… that one?

Well I noticed that The Professor was using OSX! I was like pointing it out to everyone in the house. Of course they don’t know what OSX looks like. I’d really like to know what icons The Professor has on his Dock. I’m sure someone can get screenshots next time it’s played and we can find out ^^

Yours,
the mac whore

5 Comments more...

OSXP (Or how a Windows User became a Mac Evangelist)

by aristan on May.17, 2004, under mac whoredom

further proof of my whoredom.

So… it was bound to happen. I must officially out myself as a wannabe mac user.

Really, it was bound to happen one day.

It all started that day I walked into the office at the paper and there was that larger blue thing sitting on the desk. Much like the apes in 2001, I felt the need to throw things at this bizarre strangely colored object sitting in my way.

Little did I know what would happen.

The Apple IIe. Big. Beige. Able to pick up WBTV if you had rabbit ears.

The last time I’d used an Apple product, it’d been an Apple IIe. Strangely enough, the thing I used the IIe for was to play games made by Microsoft. Does anyone else remember them? They had a huge collections of what amounted to a Game magazine. Plastic cases with a couple of 5 inch discs of games with glorious 4 color graphics (Heavy on Magenta & Cyan of course). It would have helped of course if we’d had more monitors that weren’t monochromatic.

The game strangely fails to mention underage transexual hookers in the Bangkok portion of the game.

The IIe (not the IIe Platinum in the grey case mind you, the BEIGE case) took me through my Elementary & Junior High years. Number Munchers, Carmen Sandiego, and Oregon Trail. These were all we needed. Who cared about actually using a computer to do anything. Databases? Word Processing? No.

It was all about the games.

Wow… not much has changed since then.

During High School I started to learn the other uses for computers, but this was strangely when the Apples started to disappear. Relegated to the Typing class, no one ever saw them anymore, though the Windows revolution hadn’t quite started yet. There was a single Mac though.

A little monochrome, one piece thing that sat on the desk in the office of the classroom my journalism class was in. Computers were the wave of the future and we were supposed to be learning to use them. We propped books against it and kept right on putting the paper together with exacto-knifes & lots of glue.

Between then and last fall, I’d had little exposure to Macs. Sure Annie uses a mac, but so does Xplo. I thought I’d never find a reason to love a Mac. Now I do.

I love it so much that my PC looks like a Mac now.

I’ve got Y’z Dock, StyleXP, Rainlendar to make XP more like X. Hell, I’ve even got a program that emulates Stickies! I spent a half hour recreating the Firefox & Thunderbird icons so that I could use them on the dock and they not look crappy. Add iTunes on top of all that and my PC is just like a mac.

In looks at least.

Leave a Comment more...

« PREVIOUS ENTRIES