Predictable Behavior

[Mal12345]

(This post is not about iPhones vs. Android phones, but the psychology of following the crowd.)

Today I explained to a friend of mine at work why the Android phones are better than the iPhone. He had asked me about the iPhone 4, and I stated I was against buying one. I said they were the best of the previous generations, but the Android tops them all. The only thing the iPhone has over the various Android phones is extended battery life.

As we parted ways, I left him with one last passionate statement: "The reason I hate the iPhone is that they are a piece of crap - but everybody wants one!"

My prediction is that on the basis of this last statement he will buy an iPhone.

We'll see!

 

[Rasofy]

That's what you get when you try making your SJ friends rationals.

 

[INTP]

"The reason I hate the iPhone is that they are a piece of crap - but everybody wants one!"

isnt this the case with all apple products but ipod?

i mean you could get 2 PC computers that are both twice the better for the price of new mac, not to mention that macs cant run nearly all programs, so its crippled besides being overpriced.. yet many people want them because ITS A MAC!!!

 

[Mal12345]

isnt this the case with all apple products but ipod?

i mean you could get 2 PC computers that are both twice the better for the price of new mac, not to mention that macs cant run nearly all programs, so its crippled besides being overpriced.. yet many people want them because ITS A MAC!!!

They have to use a Windows parallel, and with all the fancy graphics on a Mac this only bogs it down worse.

That's why Apple is more successful selling other devices besides computers. The main office here uses Macs and I laughed the other day when they got some kind of gay porn virus on one. Most of the employees in that office are the boss's kids and wife. Nepotism abounds wherever the type 8 rules. But I didn't know his daughter was into gay porn. They act like they don't have genitalia in that family (Catholics).

That's what you get when you try making your SJ friends rationals.

He hasn't decided on a phone yet, I was only making an educated prediction. After all, he's the one who said "Everybody is going with the Mac these days," and when I asked him who has one, he thought for a moment and said, "the upstairs office." (Does this make him an SJ?) I didn't know they were "everybody," but in their eyes they are the whole world.

 

[rav3n]

Ever notice that people rarely ask for advice without already knowing what direction they want to go, whereby they ignore dissenting advice and solely retain advice that agrees or validates?

 

[Qlip]

There are valid reasons for doing what everyone else is doing. Designs get more refined. You are more likely to find help with something. Being able to more easily communicate with others. For phones specifically, better quality apps.

I know this all first hand because I swim upstream when it comes to tech (I'm a Linux guy), and these are the sorts of things that bite me in the ass on a regular basis.

 

[nolla]

Well, I can see the point of buying windows or a mac just because "everyone else" has one. Personally I use linux, and from my perspective there is no way windows or mac could develop to a level where I'd prefer either of them over linux. But, I'm sure that for a person not familiar with computers, it would be nice to ask advice from almost anyone concerning any problems with the OS. And, of course there is the idea that windows and mac "just work". And they are advertised quite a lot. So, I don't find it particularly amazing that people prefer them.

I know this all first hand because I swim upstream when it comes to tech (I'm a Linux guy), and these are the sorts of things that bite me in the ass on a regular basis.

Which linux you use? I've been on Arch for some months now.

 

[ceecee]

(This post is not about iPhones vs. Android phones, but the psychology of following the crowd.)

Today I explained to a friend of mine at work why the Android phones are better than the iPhone. He had asked me about the iPhone 4, and I stated I was against buying one. I said they were the best of the previous generations, but the Android tops them all. The only thing the iPhone has over the various Android phones is extended battery life.

As we parted ways, I left him with one last passionate statement: "The reason I hate the iPhone is that they are a piece of crap - but everybody wants one!"

My prediction is that on the basis of this last statement he will buy an iPhone.

We'll see!

Welcome to my world. I get, on a daily basis, why aren't you on Facebook? Why don't you get an android? I was buying a bunch of strawberries the other day and some woman asked if I was having a party? No I'm making jam. You mean canning?? Who does that anymore? Kerist...shut up.

 

[Qlip]

Which linux you use? I've been on Arch for some months now.

I've got Arch on my server. A bastard version of Ubuntu on my netbook... Gnome(or Unity) uninstalled, Xmonad installed instead. Slack on a junk laptop to mess with.

I like Arch. I did Gentoo several years ago, I really liked it, but not the compile times.

 

[Mal12345]

Welcome to my world. I get, on a daily basis, why aren't you on Facebook? Why don't you get an android? I was buying a bunch of strawberries the other day and some woman asked if I was having a party? No I'm making jam. You mean canning?? Who does that anymore? Kerist...shut up.

Without trying to sound chauvinistic here, I've seen that it's the realm of women who have to meet the expectations of other women. Men aren't similarly hounded into conformity, but more so in high school where for most it's nothing but a big social club. I remember being told by a guy to tuck in my shirt. In fashion I was ahead of my generation with the sloppy look, even baggy pants if I could get them. I own the sloppy look. I am the sloppy look.

 

[nolla]

I've got Arch on my server. A bastard version of Ubuntu on my netbook... Gnome(or Unity) uninstalled, Xmonad installed instead. Slack on a junk laptop to mess with.

I like Arch. I did Gentoo several years ago, I really liked it, but not the compile times.

Is xmonad fast? I'm trying to use as light programs as possible. Most of the usual programs I use are text based but I have to start x when I'm online. None of the text based web browsers seem to do the job as well as I'd like. So, I have to have openbox installed.

 

[Mal12345]

Well, I can see the point of buying windows or a mac just because "everyone else" has one. Personally I use linux, and from my perspective there is no way windows or mac could develop to a level where I'd prefer either of them over linux. But, I'm sure that for a person not familiar with computers, it would be nice to ask advice from almost anyone concerning any problems with the OS. And, of course there is the idea that windows and mac "just work". And they are advertised quite a lot. So, I don't find it particularly amazing that people prefer them.

I don't suffer from that follower attitude. In college I could not stand the Apple word processor, IBM won over on that score by a million points. So I was biased against them from that day. And with a Windows machine - HUZZAH! - I can build my own system and fix the damn thing myself if needed.

Using Linux is indeed like swimming uphill. But if you're unemployed and have nothing better to do than to spend all day researching how to install something, go for it. And it is soooooooooo slow to develop, and there are so many flavors to choose from. Plus it is hardly hacker proof. One has to be a hacker in order to figure out how to secure the box.

The Mac - which is just Unix - was never hacker proof like they claim. It's just that they aren't worth hacking. Now with the hipster crowd enjoining the naive to buy Macs, they are becoming more popular, and it's worth the time to seek out exploits. Because these days it's about conning people into buying fake antivirus software for viruses that don't exist on the computer, so there is a profit-motive incentive behind hacking the Mac.

 

[Qlip]

Is xmonad fast? I'm trying to use as light programs as possible. Most of the usual programs I use are text based but I have to start x when I'm online. None of the text based web browsers seem to do the job as well as I'd like. So, I have to have openbox installed.

Is your processor power limited? Yeah, xmonad is fast and is geared to be navigated entirely through key commands. It is a bit exotic since it's a tiling WM. If it wasn't for individual program's GUI's, I wouldn't need a mouse at all. It also makes best use of the screen if your real estate is limited. Opera so far is the fastest graphical browser that I have used. I see you're pretty hardcore also. CLI forever!

 

[Rasofy]

He hasn't decided on a phone yet, I was only making an educated prediction. After all, he's the one who said "Everybody is going with the Mac these days," and when I asked him who has one, he thought for a moment and said, "the upstairs office." (Does this make him an SJ?) I didn't know they were "everybody," but in their eyes they are the whole world.

Sounds pretty likely. They are the most prone to unconsciously associate popularity (among their peers) with quality, and then remain consistent with the choice made.

 

[nolla]

Is your processor power limited? Yeah, xmonad is fast and is geared to be navigated entirely through key commands. If it wasn't for individual program's GUI's, I wouldn't need a mouse at all. It also makes best use of the screen if your real estate is limited. Opera so far is the fastest graphical browser that I have. I see you're pretty hardcore also. CLI forever!

I'm not really too HC. It's just that Arch has the best wiki I've ever seen. It's really easy to find solutions to any problems. Yeah, in a way my processing power is limited. I don't want to buy machines. It seems silly, since people are throwing their machines away all the time and with linux, the operating system doesn't raise the requirements all the time (unless you're into eye candy). So, it's not too hard to use machines that others consider antique. I even underclock them, since I want to keep the battery time as long as possible.

I would recommend chromium. It seems to require less memory. Or if you want something interesting to play with, try uzbl. Very promising minimalist browser. The only reason I'm not using it is that it is still developing so fast and needs the user to customize it to be really useful, I think that by the time I'd get the customization to the point I am happy with, they would update the browser and half of my customization would be obsolete.

 

[nolla]

Using Linux is indeed like swimming uphill. But if you're unemployed and have nothing better to do than to spend all day researching how to install something, go for it. And it is soooooooooo slow to develop, and there are so many flavors to choose from. Plus it is hardly hacker proof. One has to be a hacker in order to figure out how to secure the box.

Hmm... I find that the options I have to choose from are well worth a little studying. It is a good thing to have several hundreds of OSes to choose from, right? And I still haven't got any problems with security even though Arch is supposed to be unstable compared to most linuxes.

 

[ceecee]

Without trying to sound chauvinistic here, I've seen that it's the realm of women who have to meet the expectations of other women. Men aren't similarly hounded into conformity, but more so in high school where for most it's nothing but a big social club. I remember being told by a guy to tuck in my shirt. In fashion I was ahead of my generation with the sloppy look, even baggy pants if I could get them. I own the sloppy look. I am the sloppy look.

I completely agree. I rarely get this from men and I never hear men saying it to men. Women <shakes head>

 

[Qlip]

Using Linux is indeed like swimming uphill. But if you're unemployed and have nothing better to do than to spend all day researching how to install something, go for it. And it is soooooooooo slow to develop, and there are so many flavors to choose from. Plus it is hardly hacker proof. One has to be a hacker in order to figure out how to secure the box.

It takes a significant effort to really learn the guts of Linux, but once you've figured it out things go smooth. Unfotuntely the more you know, the more exotic things you want to do with it which means you run into more issues! Linux has been a lot more stable and secure than Windows up until Vista.

I don't argue it's for the masses. It's for me. I have complete control and it is malleable to my needs. There is no other alternative to it in that respect.

 

[Mal12345]

It takes a significant effort to really learn the guts of Linux, but once you've figured it out things go smooth. Unfotuntely the more you know, the more exotic things you want to do with it which means you run into more issues! Linux has been a lot more stable and secure than Windows up until Vista.

I don't argue it's for the masses. It's for me. I have complete control and it is malleable to my needs. There is no other alternative to it in that respect.

Vista has security issues. Maybe just not as famously as XP (MSBlaster worm). I haven't heard anything bad about 7's security.

The stability of Windows depends a lot on whoever built the hardware for the machine, and how well its software plays with a Windows platform. But in general I haven't had significant stability issues since 98 except for that run-in with horrible Me. After that I went back to 2k and stayed there for years until software upgrades forced me to upgrade my Windows. I don't have the drive or fascination with tinkering around to work with any technically oriented software such as Linux. I'm sure if it had been around in my teen years, when I had hours a day to mess around with things, I would still be in wonk mode to this day.