The Thrill, The Excitment, The Speculation, The Fun/Boredom

Whatever happened to those silly adverts about "I'm a Mac, I'm Fun", "I'm a PC, I'm Boring"?

From what Hippie could make out of those ads, both products were computers, and both could be programmed to do as the user desired: be boring; have ugly user-interfaces; compute & present in fancy pictures your grocery spreadsheets; play music or videos; or just look posh or dull on your lap or desk.

But which one did which, or more importantly, which didn't do either?

It's taken a while, but I recall discussing the merits of two operating systems once (with a fan of a white computer over any other). Now we can really compare the two systems against each other, and check what is really fun!

A bit of background first (dull BBC links used, just to balance the boring/fun issues):

three months ago, people were getting warnings about a virus yet to activate its payload (the suspense starts);

rewards offered by a software company (Hollywood scriptwriters employed yet?);

an eye kept on developments (but those out of the loop kept happy with the issue being downplayed);

a schedule available for those that like formality (is that for the fun, or the boring?);

another .com bubble bursts (nothing to see here... move on please);

and then, out of the shadows, the evil perpetrator's hand sneaks back into the scene (could even Hitchcock write such a script, let alone William Dozier narrate so many cliff-hangers?).

Now, honestly, who could find this drawn-out episode dull or boring? Whoever is behind this conficker/downadup/Microsoft Knowledge Base 123456789, they have generated some interest in computer security, and kept those of us comfortable in our security entertained.

While Hippie cannot condone the inappropriate access of naive computer-users systems, if we did all keep our systems maintained (and could trust our operating system not to have any vulnerabilities - what a nirvana), where would the fun be? These hackers are clever: they've kept security experts on their toes; generated large rewards; and now their program is updating with clever, encrypted software - of the kind we're all told we need to use to keep our information safe, that the security people now hope to crack (hopefully not possible, as some people bank - literally - on this security)!

So, where would the fun in computers be if we all just turned them on, played a game of Spacewar!, and then turned off the computer so we could use it for another purpose?

Hippie is all for fun, not boring computers, and Hippie knows just which side of the fence to find that on....