Friday, January 12, 2007

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Mac vs. PC

Charles Cullen

Charles Cullen

Local film maker, actor, singer, live performer and established television personality Charles Cullen writes weekly columns about life on the chicken farm and beyond.

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We hear it all the time. Or no, I don't guess we do, cause it mostly seems like a PC world to me.I was reluctant to ever get a computer, I just wanted to do things the old way and not set foot into this new world. People would over and over urge me to get one, especially after watching a movie I had made or seeing the television shows. I guess they knew what new worlds it would open up for me. But I just knew I was way too far behind to get caught up on all that technology. A few years back when Roanoke.com had first built the website and set up email and all...well, I didn't even know how to answer an email. Everything was done over the phone. The editor at Roanoke.com would call me, ask me what the latest news was from The Chicken Ranch, read me my emails then I would give my answers and she would type all that in. That's how far behind I was!

Soon, my freind and co-director Kenny Hicks, introduced me to the Sony VX 2000 digital camera.(I was shooting all my TV episodes on an outdated $300 VHS camcorder from Walmart). Yep, the kind you stick the whole VHS tape in (Probably the first 200 episodes were shot on that dinosaur)! I guess the introduction to the Sony VX 2000 camera was the start of my realizing that all this new technology had a lot to offer me.

Quite a few TV episodes later and two full length movies on that camera led to a public screening of my movie "The Dead Have Risen" at the Cinema Cafe in Roanoke. Among the patrons was my friend and cinematographer for "SuperBadass" and "Night of the Bums" Jerry Scheeler. After the screening, Jerry walked up and said "Charles, you really need a computer, a Mac". Now Jerry has always had a lot of influence on me, and this was the first time it started to sink in.

Hmmmm, plenty of PC dealers around here, but where does one find this animal called a Mac. Mac, Apple, oh the logo is an apple with a bite taken out of it. What does Mac stand for...Macintosh. Hey, wait a minute, I worked on an orchard as a teenager. We had apple trees called macintosh. It was all coming together. I get it, apple, macintosh...MAC!

So yeah, where do you get one? And that is what you begin to learn . Mac is very segregated. It's kind of like buying an auto. Do you buy the cheaper Hyundai that you know every Advance Auto is going to have parts for, and most all shops will work on it, or do you go for the BMW, knowing that when that thing breaks, you'll have to pay out the tail for it?

Here's one big difference though. A Hyundai is pretty reliable in the first place. A PC, well, you can count on that thing crashing on a regular basis! So, you might ask, "Why doesn't everyone buy a Mac?" Mac puts its money into creating a superior product. PC pours its money into massive ad campaigns. Plus, they got an early start on the computer market and have since then held a firm stranglehold on all other competition. It's amazing that Mac has come as far as they have, given that they are dealing with the Walmart of computer world.

I did come across a place that dealt in Macs. Computer Pros. They had a brand new G4 ,but considered it used.

Someone had purchased it and returned it about a week later. "Why did they return it" I asked. The manager explained to me that he felt it was a little more complex than what the customer had wanted. They offerred me a good price on it and said they all enjoyed my TV show. They also threw in a one year warranty and some strange spaceship looking subwoofer thing. I liked the guys a lot and came back a few weeks later to interview them for my show "Charles E. Cullen's Worst Educational Show Ever Made". It was a good interview. One of the questions I asked was "What's one of the strangest repairs you have ever had to do?" The answer was "removing a condom from the disc drive."

After buying the Mac and getting it home, I realized how fortunate I was to have Janet around. She grew up in a "Mac" family. So she was there to teach me how to use it. I would say it took a good solid year for me to really get around good on the thing.

I do, after owning a Mac for about three years now, feel that it is a much better engineered machine than a PC. It is a great piece of equipment. The friends I have with PCs seem to complain of constant problems.

Even though I'm not sure that it is all to blame on the nuts and bolts of the PC itself.

First off I think the most common problem people create with a computer is pushing it beyond what it was designed to do. Secondly, they clog the damn things up with too much stuff. No one seems to realize that these things need cleaned out very often. Another problem is hooking it up to the Internet. Now, I never understood what would excite someone about sitting around creating viruses and sending them out. But they do. And there sits your computer.

My suggestion: Buy a Mac, be happy with the software it has. Only install additional software that you will surely use a lot. When your projects are complete, export, print, etc...get them out of the computer and empty the trash. I also hear people say this a lot :

"Boy, I bought two more external hard drives and a backup memeory booster with 800 additional gigs of ...blah blah"...next week, same person...: "My computer ain't workin right". Be happy with the memory and hard drive space the thing came with.

And Mac being what I consider the best, but , well yea , if not many people have 'em, it makes it tough to work with others. The PCs won't open some stuff put together on Macs, and most places of business are PC based.

Macs do break, don't get me wrong. And your choices are limited on where to get it repaired...actually limited to one place locally, Computer Pros. I do highly recommend them and have always had pleasant experiences there. Once when mine broke down, I screamed WHERE DO OTHER PEOPLE GET THESE THINGS FIXED!

The response I got in a gentle "Janet Voice" was "well Charles I don't think a lot of people in Roanoke own Macs. "Bulls$%,*" I said. "I had a meeting at Roanoke.com a few years back and the whole freakin' 2nd floor is nothing but Macs"!

Janet then replied, "They probably have their own Mac Techie and good luck getting in touch with that person." When I started noticing what brand of computers other businesses in Roanoke were using, it turned out Janet was right. All I saw were PCs. VPS, Mail it Plus and Valley Printers are three local groups that I have worked with on a variety of multimedia projects. I nearly fainted when I noted that they were all using PCs. The one slight exception was Valley Printers. Of their approximately 10 computers, one was a Mac. Plus, there was only one Mac expert there, Vicki, and they kept her in the backroom. So, I guess the Mac outfit survives off the business they do in New York and Los Angeles. I think it's tearing the nation apart.However, I have a secret invention to bring us all together.

I am currently in the process of securing a patent from the United States Patent Office on my about to be released product....

We soon will all be enjoying an ice cold Miller iLife!

Sincerely,

Charles MacCullen