Nick Douglas at Valleywag gives 42 Reasons Normal People can Switch to Macs. Of course by normal people what he actually means is people in Silicon Valley with a pile of money and easy access to a local Apple store and Apple technicians. For the rest of us here is 9 Reasons Normal People stick to PCs:

1. Cost:PCs are cheaper and there are a lot more to choose from, where as Mac’s are expensive and you can pick from a handful of systems. Software is also on average more expensive on a Mac due to a lack of choice.
2: Operating System: yes, some may laugh, but with a PC you’ve got choices. XP, Vista, a whole pile of Linux distros, BEOS…the list goes on. Mac OSX might be pretty, but it’s still proprietary to a Mac box.
3: Software: The is a huge smorgesboard of software available for PC’s. Mac on the other hand suffer from a serious lack of options. Mac users say that a Mac just works and that’s true: Mac’s do just work because there’s less choice on the platform, and the little there is can and is tested heavily prior to availability, but what would most people prefer? the choice of one color in their cars or a choice of many colors? Mac is the Model T of the computer world.
4: Gaming: Want to make a Mac user cringe? ask them if they’ve played the last in game yet? they wouldn’t have because gaming on Macs is close enough to being non-existent. But they’ll tell you that’s alright, because they’re the cool guy in the Mac ads. In the movies that guy usually gets a capital L.
5: Servicability: something gone wrong with your Mac? not a problem, if you’re lucky enough to live near a Apple shop they’ll fix it for you. In my case there isn’t 1 Apple store in the entire country (Australia) and the nearest authorized Mac dealer is 200km due North. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot, Apple doesn’t like you tinkering under the hood so you can fix it yourself. Something with my PC goes wrong, I flip the lid and have a look, or I take it to any number of PC shops that do repairs all within close driving range. Further the days of Mac users saying nothing goes wrong with their hardware are over, Mac run the same hardware as a PC.
6: Parts/ Upgrading: see in part point 5. Mac users will tell you they don’t need to upgrade, well if that was the truth they’d all be still running Mac II’s now wouldn’t they. As technology advances so do the requirements of all computers, Macs as well. Apple makes it near on impossible to upgrade Macs, from sealed boxes through to layouts that are impossible to tweak by all except the most highly trained experts. PC’s are more like lego. You can take parts out and put new parts in, so easy that my 59 year old mother can competently upgrade and add things to her PC. And the best thing with a PC: the parts are 99.9999% guaranteed to work with the PC due to extensive driver support. A Mac is like pot luck, by a new part and you never know whether it’s going to work or not because half the time there isn’t official drivers for it.
7: Peripherals: see in part 6 because the same rule applies. Sure you can plug something into a Mac the same way as a PC, but will it work with a Mac? Believe it or not theres more to peripherals than digital cameras, which all work with a PC anyway.
8: Better Peripherals: more choice and no stupid 1 button mouse. PC mice also come with a scroll wheel for scrolling, a Mac Mouse…well a weirdish rubber button thingy.
9: Usability: for the average person who doesn’t live in Silicon Valley, PC’s are actually more usable, after all, not only do you hardly ever find a Mac in an average (ie non-tech firm) business, very few other places run them, where as PC’s are everywhere and virtually everyone has exposure to Windows. Buy one for home and you’re going to know how it works, how to start a program and surf the internet. Mac’s a like going to France and not being able to speak French, you can struggle your way through but if you could speak the language natively life things would be better.

Disclosure: the author is a PC user.

Originally posted on March 7, 2007 @ 9:40 pm

I’ve covered previously at 901am how to value your site, but what happens when you’re a buyer as opposed to a seller? The second hand website market has been thriving for years, and in the last 12-18 months blogs have joined the resale market in strength as well. What follows is by no means a comprehensive guide, you’d literally need an entire book to cover buying sites, but some quick tips you can use to pick up a bargain.

1. Avoid eBay at all costs

eBay should sell websites with the words “Caveat emptor” (let the buyer beware) is flashing bold writing across the top of every screen. 99.99% of all websites up for sale at eBay are essentially attempts to sucker in people who know no better into buying crappy websites with no real value for an inflated price. There’s so much crap on eBay that it’s nearly impossible to discover anything of real value. The best places to buy websites and blogs from at DigitalPoint Forums (DP) and Sitepoint Forums (SP), with DigitalPoint providing better value at the lower end of the market

[Read more…]

Originally posted on March 8, 2007 @ 12:55 am

History is a wonderful thing. It allows us to study the mistakes of the past and in theory learn from those mistakes as civilization moves forward. We know for example that the Roman Empire rose from a few small villages in Italy to ruling the world, and then fell as those gains were squandered by corruption and greed. William L. Shirer in the Rise and Fall of Third Reich chronicles the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, to a force that conquered Europe and then declined as quickly again.

How will historians look back at our time now in 20 years, 50 years, even 2100 and beyond?

Very few would argue that the Internet has changed civilization as we know it. No other tool in the history of mankind has decentralized the distribution of information to such an extent, empowering individuals beyond ways that even people 30 years ago could ever have imagined.

And yet, for all the greatness the online world gives us all, have we now reached a peak? Is the Online Empire heading for a fall?

[Read more…]

Originally posted on March 7, 2007 @ 12:34 am

Syntagma Digital is opening up its network magazines to the outside world. This means that blogs that fit into the Allusionz network magazine for instance, will be able to apply for inclusion.

The move will allow external sites inclusion in our rolling feeds, plus graphic representation on the portal and participation in the Editor’s Pick of the Posts. In addition, they will become recipients of any magazine-wide advertising deals we negotiate. Involvement will not change the ownership, hosting arrangements or running of non-Syntagma Digital sites in any way.

Syntagma going ad network, eh? They sure have got a 50+ stock of sites already to put ads on, and now they want to get bigger to get better deals. I pinged John Evans of Syntagma about this.

How will you split the revenue with participating sites?
We’re currently looking at a 70/30 split in favor of the client. That beats what’s on offer elsewhere, at least to my knowledge. It also has added advantages in terms of traffic.

What’s your goal with adding more sites to the various network magazines? Are there any milestones you want to reach, and where will it lead eventually?
The goal is to use increased page views to secure better advertising. It makes sense to maximize the use of the content platforms we’re creating in a way that benefits everyone involved. As for milestones, the system is totally expansible with no limits that I can see.

An interesting move indeed. Syntagma caused quite a bit of snickers in the blogosphere last year with their talk about network magazines, as opposed to blog networks, but since the successful launch of the magazines (and the redesign of the network) the ideas of Evans & Co. seams a whole lot more thought through.

I’ll not say that this next step is a logical one, but since Syntagma already is working with so many sites, adding more to further power up the network magazines (and the ad packages I’m sure they represent) might be a good idea. It will be interesting to follow the development of this concept.

Disclosure: I was hired for designing both the network magazines and the new Syntagma templates.

Originally posted on March 2, 2007 @ 5:21 am

I’m in a position right now when I got lots and lots to do. Designs need to be completed, follow-ups on clients and the work I’ve turned over to them, and blogs want content. I used to work in a pretty chaotic manner, trusting my instincts and going with my natural workflow which usually would result in a whole lot of stuff getting done, in chunks. The chaotic take on work is a very giving one, and if I was ten years younger I would probably subscribe to it still.

But I’m not, and I don’t want to put in crazy work-hours all the time. Honestly, I don’t have the stomach for pulling all-nighters anymore, and when that disappears as your last resort you’ll have to get organized.

So this is how I’m solving the ever present time dilemma of an entrepreneur. Perhaps there’s something for you to try in this, and if not, why don’t you tell me how you manage your time?

[Read more…]

Originally posted on February 28, 2007 @ 1:43 am