I swear Steve Jobs should be appointed Secretary of State of head of the UN or something… he could talk a leopard out of its spots… and it would walk away with earbuds stuck in its ears.

As an aside, I do have to wonder if Apple’s marketing department is trying too hard with their tagline for the iPad: “Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.”

Magical? Unbelievable? Revolutionary?

Did someone in the marketing department take a college class entitled: “Adjectives: Don’t Settle For Anything Less Than The Maximum?” I mean, let Steve do his thing Apple marketing people… don’t try and trump him with a series of ultimate adjectives.

Anyway, I’ve settled on a main theme for the product, which should eliminate any arguing or posturing or criticisms or praise. And that is, it’s either something that’s right for you, or it’s not.

There’s not a lot of middle ground, unless you have $500 or more just to throw around to have a cool-looking device sitting on your desk or counter.

One of the things that got me thinking

this way is one of our executives voicing an opinion that the iPad would be great for seniors, or those who are otherwise a bit computer-technology-challenged. I’m so used to Apple’s products hitting the “cool” niche for younger people who can dance around a computer with more skill than a politician hides an affair, that it never really occurred to me that he is right.

If you’re not particularly computer savvy, and hate to mess with documents and files, passwords, viruses and the like, but otherwise just want to get on the web, do some email and maybe play some games or use some specialty App Store applications, the iPad could be a pretty great device for you.

On the other hand, if you regularly use a computer with more apps open than a politician has affairs, and understand the way it works and make the most of it, the iPad is really just a much larger iPod touch.

Still, it’ll either be something you’ll think is great, or it won’t. That doesn’t make the product good or bad, it’s just a product that is worth buying or not; solely within the eye of the beholder.

Of course anyone can complain or praise anyone or anything we want.

My suggestion is to keep the praise or complaints directed at whether the iPad is worthwhile for your own self. You either can use it, or you’ll have no use for it.

That doesn’t make it any worse a product, than, say, feminine hygiene products are for men. Sorry… just had to work that reference in there. I haven’t talked to anyone who likes the name “iPad,” but just remember, if you buy one and you hate the name, the use of duct tape and a black felt marker will allow you to change it to anything you like.

The Wall Street pundits have to try and figure out how many of these things Apple is going to sell so they can make up a stock estimate that has about as much basis in reality as a politician’s promise, so the analyses and punditry will continue ad nauseam, but really, the only thing you really have to worry about is whether you have a use for it.

If you do, and have the spare bucks, buy it. If you don’t, don’t.

There’s no reason to get any more passionate about it than that, unless you just want to be magically, unbelievably and revolutionarily smitten because someone in Apple’s marketing department got an “A” in their adjective class.

We know now what it is… so did it blow me away? Again, I will emphasize that I’m only writing from a personal perspective here. After all, Apple does a terrific job of telling you what you want. I don’t really need to add to their very professional, slick messaging. But for me personally… the answer is “no.”

Oh it’s definitely pretty cool. I’ll probably end up with one at some point partly because that’s the business I’m in. If I was a real road warrior I might consider it since it’s a lot less to carry around than a MacBook Pro, and keeping up on emails is about 90% of what I have to do out there. But I will have to try the virtual keyboard first. I type a lot, and if a virtual keyboard just doesn’t cut it for me (although I’ll readily admit it’ll already be light years ahead of the iPhone keyboard for me), I might not worry about it.

But they didn’t blow me away because it doesn’t do anything I didn’t expect, which is what would have blown me away. Grace to Apple, however, for the fact that blowing their customer base away is a little like expecting the home run record to fall every year. Pretty hard to do, especially if you can’t take steroids.

Questions, questions, questions

I have questions about the keyboard, and about whether I really could read a whole book on their screen. The liquid ink of the Kindle just makes reading so easy, so I really doubt I’d figure on the thing being a replacement for that. I should also qualify that while I own an iPhone, I really don’t use many apps. And in the end, a computer is just a resting place for applications, so if there are some really cool ones that I’ll want to play with on a bigger screen, without my phone’s battery life draining before my eyes, I might gain interest. Watching movies while traveling probably just got better and easier as well.

But the monthly fees would annoy me… I already feel as if Americans spend too much money on monthly subscriptions, whether it be cell phones, cable, bottled water or the wine of the month club. But of course Apple is in business to make money, so adding what will probably be an ancillary device with monthly revenue is nothing short of genius… for them.

Perhaps my feelings are colored a bit by the comparison of the product to the hype that led up to it. Apple has become ingenious at doing nothing to create all that hype. By being secretive, they create a frenzy of speculation and guesses that must be valued at a billion dollars of free publicity. What a coup. The thing would have had to be able to replace my TV, heating blanket and microwave to live up to all that hype. But in the end, in my opinion, it’s just another cool product that will look a little long in the tooth a year or two from now. However, I think the OS and perhaps the style will be a springboard to some of our computing future. I think that may be what it will be remembered best as.

The prevailing thought in the company is that the iPad is a so-so name. Surely we’ll see some fake commercials playing on the name in the vein of feminine hygiene products. Personally, I feel it goes pretty well with the name iPod, which was an odd name when that first came out too. So I think it’s fine.

Not quite changing the game

I guess the way I’m feeling is that for every pro, there’s a con, and for every con, there’s a pro. For me, the iPod was only a pro… I had no interest in MP3 players before the iPod was introduced. I would say the same about the iPhone; I didn’t really give a rip about smart phones before they introduced that. But the iPad doesn’t approach those game changers for me. It’s just a nice product that a certain percentage of people will absolutely love, and the rest will absolutely ignore.

Lastly, you have to give credit to Apple for putting a beautiful gloss on a style of product that has already been introduced by other companies. No one makes things like this more attractive or elegant, nor gets as much publicity out of it. They’re a machine, and I have no doubt they’ll make plenty of money with it. One day I have no doubt that something similar will replace my MacBook Pro. But I’ll still be annoyed at having a monthly bill that replaces something where I have none.

Getting one is clearly a personal choice, and clearly there will be people who absolutely love it. We’ll be selling them, and happily so. But I also don’t mind, despite being an Apple reseller, providing an alternative voice to the Apple marketing engine. After all, you, our customers, are by far the most important asset of our company.

Steve has since mastered many other arts of marketing and showmanship, but that heretofore cornerstone to his act is a little bit like taking the liquor away from W.C. Fields.

It’s just not the same anymore. But, W.C. is dead, and a whole lot of younger people might not even know who he was, so one thing is true: things change. I’m not sure Apple will ever be able to spring a huge surprise on us ever again.
But Apple is such the darling of today’s press that it really doesn’t need the element of surprise anymore. That was a great way to grab extra attention… but I daresay Apple gets more attention than it probably wants at this point.

Almost anyone who keeps up with technology at all surely knows Apple is about announce some sort of computing tablet. The internet is rife with speculation as to what it will work and act like. It’s becoming hard to imagine Apple actually pulling yet another rabbit out of its hat, and blowing us all away with some newfangled feature we never imagined or thought could be done.

Back in my day…

Long ago, Apple could have sprung a tablet out of nowhere and we’d all have been wowed and amazed and bought them in droves before many of us even knew whether we needed one.

Today, I will be absolutely blown away if Apple blows us away (which will be like two blow-aways, which may either give me a weeklong migraine or allow me to go at least a month without any kind of alcohol to feel rather giddy). Because while I understand the need for a better and faster computer, or an easier-to-use MP3 player, or a cooler cell phone, I don’t quite understand yet what a tablet is going to do for me that any of those things don’t do, at least something I’d want to pay for.

I own a Kindle (the e-book reader from Amazon), and love it to death. I may never buy another “real” book again. It’s light, it’s easy to read from, it gives me instant word definitions, and I can read one-handed, leaving my other to scratch my nether regions, grab a potato chip, or, if I just can’t stop multi-tasking, change the channel on the TV with the remote.

It also saves me from hauling three or four books on vacation, and is even lighter and easier than carrying one book for short trips.

But an Apple tablet is bound to be bigger than a Kindle, and I have a hard time thinking that it will replace anything else I carry. Indeed, if it’s so ruthlessly cool that I absolutely have to have one, when I travel I’ll be carrying a laptop, Kindle, iPhone, iPod (because the iPhone’s battery doesn’t last long enough for extended music listening and phone talking), headphones (because I don’t like Apple’s ear buds), a charger for each damn one of them because even Apple doesn’t standardize all its power cords… and then to throw a tablet on top of all that? It’s not so much the weight but finding enough outlets in the hotel room to keep everything charged up.

Oh, and not being able to tell the difference between a pit of very thin vipers in the bottom of my carry-on bag and the myriad cables that tangle themselves up as soon as I close the latch.

Is it for work or pleasure?

I also really can’t imagine a tablet replacing my laptop, even for just traveling, because I really doubt I’ll want to do extensive typing without a regular keyboard. Maybe Steve thinks we can re-train ourselves to type with two fingers on a screen, but while that’s fine for short responses and keeping up on things; to do real work, I need a keyboard. Maybe the demand for a bigger screen to watch videos -whether movies or YouTube- will be enough to make the thing worthwhile for Apple.

But you never know, it could also be the device that makes all sorts of people’s heads explode when they’re exposed to that one additional multimedia device that puts our brains into overload.

I hate predicting technology issues. From a practical standpoint, it’s mostly a matter of thinking that I’m fine with knowing what that gadget is once the manufacturer announces it, especially since any preliminary speculation is almost always a mishmash of guesswork and uncertain or dubious insider tips, none of which gives me certainty that I’m going to change anything in my life until the thing ships.

However, in this case, I’m a multiple personality: preparing myself to be blown away on one hand, preparing for a shrug on the other. I don’t discount Apple’s ability to amaze me at least one more time. I’m just perhaps more puzzled than I’ve ever been before as to how they’re going to do it. January 27th we shall know the truth, which won’t actually set us free, because no doubt Apple will charge a nice premium for whatever genius they’re selling.

And you know, if I’m not blown away and the thing is as popular as the Apple TV, which became a “hobby” for Apple when it didn’t sell like iPods, then I’ll have been right. I’d prefer to be blown away, but being right is pretty fun too.

Technology has become an ever-present factor in our lives, and it’s not going anywhere. We’re surrounded by it at every corner and within almost every device we use. Even the cars we drive would stop in their tracks if the technology in them suddenly failed.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say modern (or more appropriately current) society rests on the laurels of technology. We wage wars with technology. We feed our population with technology. We heal our sick with technology. And to the point, the idea of operating a business without technology is nearly unheard of.

So is this a good thing?

Certainly there are plenty of reasons why “yes” would be an appropriate answer. But has all this technology really enriched our lives? Has it made us happier? Maybe more relaxed? Has it supported us in becoming more attuned to our environment? Perhaps for some, but I’d say the jury is still out on this one.

At PowerMax, the very core of our business is technology. We buy technology, we sell technology, we drive our business sales with technology, and we provide for the livelihood of over 200 people with technology. So in every sense of the word we are wholly and completely dependent on our technology. This is a fine way to operate business, so long as all this technology works flawlessly. But what happens when it doesn’t?

Well to put it bluntly, things come screeching to a not-so-eloquent halt. It’s as if a two thousand pound Silverback Sasquatch just ran headlong into a Titanium wall. The Sasquatch is toast and everybody’s left scrambling trying to figure out how to get the Sasquatch back on his feet so he can do what Sasquatch’s do best, sell computers! OK, so maybe that wasn’t the perfect analogy, but you get the point, downtime really hurts.

What happened to us…

Unfortunately we recently were the not so proud recipients of a few “Sasquatch into Titanium wall” events, and it brought our site and email communications to their knees. Our Internet Service Provider made some critical errors that impacted our Primary DS3 (that’s our connection to the Internet). The first issue occurred on January 6^th, and impacted the Provider’s entire Portland customer base. The second issue occurred January 12th. This problem was as a result of a human communication breakdown made between two corporations (the fiber owner and the circuit owner) that play a hand in providing our DS3 service. Both issues resulted in downtime; the second was substantially more severe than the first, and only impacted our organization.

These issues are the worst kind of issues to encounter. They are completely out of the control of our capable IT staff. Really, I’d frankly rather we had a server blow up (well not literally), or perhaps somebody tripped over an Ethernet wire (that took the network down), or watch a two thousand pound Sasquatch run into a wall in our Datacenter than endure this kind of outage. When it’s out of our hands, I’m typically left armed with my phone (which for many companies these days is dependant on their Internet connection), and list of contacts to call that can support (or finger point) escalating the process.

It’s never any fun when technology fails, but it’s important to keep things in perspective. Technology isn’t always the answer, and all it takes is a little downtime to help us realize how dependant we really are on our technology.

2. Apple will introduce new and faster Macs of every flavor throughout the year, and a certain percentage of those who bought a Mac sometime during the preceding six months will be upset because they feel “ripped off.” John J. Peterman of Des Moines, Iowa steps forward and announces he’s the smartest man in the country because he bought a 128k Mac when it first came out and he’s been holding out for an upgrade ever since… hence never ever getting ripped off by ending up with a faster computer that is upgraded within a matter of months. Unfortunately, his campaign for President fizzles because he can’t access the internet or send emails with it.

3. Microsoft will announce work on the successor to Windows 7, dubbing it “Windows Agua” because the company has already used numbers, dates, landscapes and unrelated letters, but never a foreign word, in its Windows naming schemes. No one wonders why Microsoft has such a hard time counting to 8.

4. We will find out that Steve Jobs didn’t really have a liver transplant at all, but that in fact he is a time-traveling alien, and the real Steve’s liver is in fact the only actual body part that’s still in the body, because the aliens could never figure out how to duplicate the function of a liver. The stock will rise on the news, especially because it will explain how Steve seems to always know what the public wants before the public does.

5. Near the end of 2010, when Microsoft notices that Apple is receiving a lot of hype over its tablet, it will announce that it too is working on a tablet, dubbed NotanAppleTabletButClose 2012-7.5.

6. Microsoft’s retail stores will continue to expand, in some cases popping up inside Apple’s retail stores, as greedy and struggling mall owners accept the additional revenue offered by Microsoft to allow them to build titanium-tipped elevators beneath the floors. Unfortunately for Microsoft, not all of the elevators work because they were designed to be operated by Windows Vista. In addition, some of the elevators end up inside Victoria’s Secrets, which scatters all sorts of embarrassed sunglass-wearing men throughout the malls. Fortunately for Microsoft, consumers discover that Windows 7 actually looks pretty damn cute in lingerie.

7. Google attempts to take control of the country with a surprise paramilitary and technological assault on the White House. Even though the coup is thwarted and the perpetrators made public, the government elects not to punish the company out of fear that no one would ever be able find anything on the internet ever again.

8. Apple introduces iGlasses, which are just regular glasses re-spelled, but they’re a huge hit because, well, the name is the thing.

9. The economy continues to struggle throughout the year, until Apple agrees to purchase Congress and half the White House, seeing as how its earnings are twice the rest of the country’s GNP. iCongress and iObama quickly enact legislation banning hidden elevator retail stores, as well as the Zune. They are reluctant to ban Windows despite Apple’s pressure, out of fear that too many businesses would never be able to find anything on the internet ever again.

10. James Cameron reveals that the aliens in his hit movie Avatar were modeled after the aliens who abducted and replaced Steve Jobs. It is later revealed that Cameron is one of them too. No one cares because they’re all still busy syncing their Macs, iPhones and the new Apple tablets. Meantime, Google conquers Iceland, but no one notices.

1) Real people review and care for your order here at PowerMax! We actually follow up with you if it looks like there will be any problems. Your order never goes into a soulless automated machine where you’re just another number. We know that behind every order, especially around the holidays, there is a real human being behind it who is counting on us to get the job done.

2) Don’t be fooled by imitations – we’ve got the one, the only: Holiday Shipping Schedule! It gives you the deadline dates you need to ensure your gift arrives with plenty of time for to be wrapped and placed gingerly under the tree. Of course, we can only get it into the shippers hands, but from there we’ll provide you with tracking numbers where you can find out exactly where your package is at any given moment.

And because we think procrastination is a gift, we even have some last-minute shopping specials and suggestions for you; all in stock and ready to ship!

LaCie 1 TB Grand Hard Disk – only $99!

Who would’ve thunk that we’d be seeing an entire terabyte hard drive for less than $100? This USB 2.0 drive features a curvilinear design, and it’s resistant aluminum casing protects your data. Plus you get 33% faster speeds with “USB boost.” It’s a perfect gift for just about anyone, since today one can almost never have enough hard drive space.

Check out this deal >>

Apple Time Capsule 1TB Dual Band – only $279!

Perhaps one of the best presents you could possibly give is peace of mind. Too many computer users load their cherished family photos and more on their computers without a back-up system. Even though Macintosh is one of the best-built computers on the market, they use an internal hard drive like everyone else. And hard drives do fail. Sometimes catastrophically. Apple’s Time Capsule is simply the easiest and most elegant back-up system for personal computers on the market. Don’t let all those memories disappear.

Check out this deal >>

Microsoft Office for Mac- Home and Student Edition – only $129!

Perhaps you or your loved one’s computer has become more up-to-date than the software being used. Office 2008 offers you three powerful programs: Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as the email client Entourage, all updated with the latest Microsoft has to offer. With the graphics programs that Apple provides free with every new Mac, Office completes the package to give you nearly everything you need for day to day work and play.

Check out this deal >>

ProScope HR w/50x lens – only $279!

Sometimes the best gift is the one least expected. This high-quality device hooks up to your computer, where you can magnify images to 50X their normal size and capture either stills or QuickTime videos for amazing images. Used by law enforcement (it has even been a favorite tool on the CSI television series), quality control, educational institutions, gem inspection and more, the award-winning ProScope from Bodelin is a great gift for kids, teachers… anyone who is fascinated by the idea of microscopy… even graphic artists, who can use the images to create amazing and unique backgrounds.

Check out this deal >>

24” iMac 3.06GHz – only $1449!

We’ve lowered the price on our remaining inventory to provide the best screen real estate bang for the buck possible.

Why not splurge with a new iMac?

Price limited to stock on hand.

Check out this deal >>

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We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers who have supported us through these many years, and who have helped make this holiday season one of the best PowerMax has ever had. We are humbled by your support. Sometimes we get a little crazy or silly, but we just like having a good time. The fun and laughter in our office is constant, although it never obscures the serious task at hand of making sure our customers are as satisfied as possible… and then some.

We especially enjoy the opportunity to talk to so many people around this great country of ours, and even the world. There are as many stories as there are people, and we enjoy hearing every last one of them. Again, thank you for giving us the opportunity to show you our unique vision: one of continued personal interaction in this age of automation and website order-taking.

Have a very Merry Christmas (or as one of our friends emailed: Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukah! Lovely Kwanza! Fröhliche Weinachten! Joyeux Noel! Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ù! Feliz Navidad! Happy Holidays!), plus a great and safe New Year’s, and give all your loved ones a great big hug this holiday season, on us.

Your friends at PowerMax

In any case, here are this week’s special deals, we hope you like them! As a special bonus, we’re leaving these specials running for Max’s entire two-week vacation, so you have until December 13th to order. But don’t delay, offers are good only while supplies last!

LaCie d2 Quadra Hard Disk – 2TB – $279

If giving an external hard drive to a loved one in order to help make sure they’re backing up those precious photos, videos, music and other documents screams “I care,” then giving a TWO TERRABYTE drive screams: “I not only care… but I, um, care two terabytes worth!” And that, my friends, is pretty near the capacity of a human brain, which, according to our extensive internet research that included one Google search and a click on a blog, is about three terabytes of data. Since we all know that about a third of the information we hold onto is completely useless (I mean, really, who needs to know who started at second base for the 1923 Cubs?), you pretty much are giving a loved one enough storage space to replicate their entire brain, without the useless trivia anyway.

But seriously, with internal hard drives routinely at 500GB (half a terabyte) and more, a 2 TB drive is perfect for extended Time Machine back-ups as well as other miscellany… and something that will last for quite some time.

(By the way, in case you were curious, the second baseman for the Cubs was a guy by the name of George Grantham, who committed 55 errors that year, which is a whole heck of a lot more errors than we’ve ever committed in the Bolt).

Check out this deal >>

Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch Tablet – $85

Yes, we love these little Wacom devices, and they make great presents for those who are artistically interested but haven’t gotten around to getting a Wacom tablet yet. The Bamboo pen is pressure-sensitive for realistic drawing or doodling, and comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements for editing, retouching, enhancing and drawing funny mustaches on Uncle Leonard’s face. And since Photoshop Elements sells for $88, this deal is like getting the tablet for free, plus $3!

Check out this deal >>

Factory Refurb 17” MacBook Pro 2.5 GHz – $1799

What’s a PowerMax holiday special without one of the best deals you can get on a Mac? This workhorse will get the job done whether on the road or as your desktop computer. An especially important model in that it is the last generation of MacBook Pro to have a removable battery. Compare at $2449 for the current 2.8 GHz model. Add AppleCare for only $349 ( A-MB588LL/A ).

Check out this deal >>

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Snow Leopard Boxed Set – $139

We’re going a little crazy with these specials by offering one of our best-selling titles at $30 off normal price. But we figure it might be enough to get you off the fence to upgrade to the best desktop operating system in the world to date. And it makes a great gift for those Mac lovers in your inner circle who have been procrastinating. The Snow Leopard boxed set includes not only the Snow Leopard Operating System, but iLife 09 and iWork 09, giving you a complete suite of software tools for writing, spreadsheets, graphics, and more. No one does this stuff like Apple, and the latest versions are the best yet.

Check out this deal >>

Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade – $197

And just because we’re trying to be all-inclusive this year (okay, Hannustmasgiving doesn’t cover Kwanzaa, but we just couldn’t figure out how to put that in there, I mean, Hannustmasgivingzaa just doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well, you know? However, if we get enough emails asking for a Kwanzaa special, by golly, we’ll do it. Because any holiday that’s important to you is important to us), we’re offering Windows 7 at a steeply discounted price just in case one of your loved ones doesn’t quite “get the whole Mac thing,” or, perhaps they’re running a piece of software that doesn’t run on a Mac.

Check out this deal >>

By the way… just to clarify one more time, Hannustmasgiving is our all-inclusive “umbrella” word to cover the “holiday” that November 1 to January 1 has become, and is not intended to replace the main holidays in that period. But thanks for all your supportive emails on the topic… who knows, maybe forty-some-odd years from now we’ll have an entry in Wikipedia as the folks that invented a name for a two-month holiday period!

Remember, we also offer free shipping on orders over $100! Also, be sure you can still get your goods by the big day by checking out our holiday shipping schedules.

PowerMax is pleased to announce the winner of our Gold MacBook air drawing! This 24 karat-covered beauty was offered just as a way to say thanks to our customers, and the lucky winner is a Mr. Ross Thomas.

Ross is a filmmaker living in New York, and as you can see by the picture, he’s one happy dude! No word yet if Ross plans on sneaking in this unique Mac-bling into any of his films, but if he does, we’re pretty sure we could say it might be the only film on the planet with a gold-plated MacBook air in it!

Congratulations Ross, and thanks to everyone for entering!

Everyone, meet Ross. He won our gold MacBook Air giveaway.

The thing about humor is that it’s almost impossible to find a humorous concept that appeals to 100% of any given group of people, especially if you really want to make something seem really funny to a large percentage of the group. And let’s face it, humor that appeals to everyone is often overused or not very funny to a majority of the group, not to mention hard to come by. So, by it’s very nature, a humorous approach will always either go over the head of, or be offensive to, some percentage of people (with of course a percentage of people finding it neither humorous or offensive). In fact, I think you could probably diagram an algorithm that indicated that the funnier some percentage of people feel something is, the greater the number of people who will be offended. That’s probably why so many comics use creative profanity, although that’s become so commonplace that there will eventually have to be a shift away from that as the shock value peters out.

The problem with it all is that if you then are so afraid of offending any percentage of people, you are left with an unhumorous or bland approach as the best option.  Indeed, if a company is so afraid of that percentage that it refuses to engage in anything humorous, then the result is a humorless approach, or worse, a humorless company.

There are many ways to describe an individual, but for many, using the word “humorless” is a great way to portray someone in a very negative light. Not a lot of people care to spend time with a humorless individual if they can help it. The same holds true for companies, so we work pretty hard to make sure we don’t become humorless, and we accept the fact that not all of it will click with everyone.

There is also a method to our madness, in terms of depicting ourselves either with humor or irreverence, and that’s to emphasize that we’re human beings, and that we provide a very personal touch with every customer and on every order. While we have extensive automated systems, nothing goes through without human interaction, and we pay our people to talk with you, give opinions and advice, and to connect one-on-one; not just take an order.

All that being said, we’ve received a couple of emails taking offense to the New Hannustmasgiving holiday we, or actually, our mascot Max the Sasquatch, invented. First off, let me emphasize that we’re not making fun of some of our most sacred and cherished holidays, nor certainly what they represent. In actuality, not only are we just having a little fun, but we are also poking a little fun at what has become a two-month free-for-all for your Christmas dollars. While, like virtually any merchant nowadays, a lot of our financial success comes as a result of that buying frenzy, I personally feel as if it’s all gotten a little out of hand, and that we’d be a lot better off taking time to remember what each of those holidays is all about.

So there.

Microsoft recently released a security report that makes me cringe: reports of Confickr and Taterf worm infections doubling through the first half of 2009.

What an awful thing – passing Confickr from PC to PC by way of a freaking USB drive. Having your computer for sale as part of a zombie net. Just waiting to see if your machine is going to start spamming all your friends while you’re away (or start eating brains…). Millions and millions of PC users have no idea if their machine is just going to freak out and go belly up one day. I’d be crushed if my MacBook Pro acted like those poor PC’s. Half my life is in this machine.

Computers certainly can make our lives easier – but easier doesn’t always mean safer. Especially with the reception Microsoft Vista has received, there are more PC users running out-of-date security software and simply not being as careful as they may have been years ago. Like when XP was first released.

We’re all sharing more of ourselves online these days thanks to social features being woven into every website – from online review sites to e-commerce. I feel safe sharing on my Mac. I feel safe knowing (almost) all those worms and hackers and malicious rogue/do-no-gooders don’t see the Mac as much of a target.

Maybe it’s because we Mac users are a little more savvy than the average PC user. Maybe it’s because hackers just aren’t writing worms for Macs. Maybe it’s just a safer system. Whatever the case, I’m wondering how many poor souls who saved $150 bucks on a Toshiba will be pawning it for a pre-owned MacBook after enduring one too many of these types of problems.