Comment by prvc
5 years ago
>These machines were… magical. Heck. Still are.
He never bothered to explain why he thinks so. Apple fans are a little too fond of describing their favored products using this word. Counterpoint: like most other technology, they actually work (or fail to work) according to laws which are known, and do so in comprehensible (in principle) ways. Enough with the "magical", already.
I have similar feelings for some things. My old Amiga. My early experience with Linux. Maybe even my time on OS9 and selecting the background wallpaper seen in the article.
It must be a combination of the delight when I used them, a quirkiness which means I don't experience it anymore, and nostalgia. But I think I know what Lunduke means when he says magical, so I'm ok with that.
I promise I’m not trying to be terse, but... I think the entire article was his explanation for why he felt them to be magical?
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/je_ne_sais_quoi
It's not simply a placeholder, but refers to a very specific Apple-ness which most are insufficiently articulate to describe in detail.
You know it when you see it, even in non-Apple products (like DJI, for example).
In that case, let them say "je ne sais quoi", which has a different meaning than "magical". Don't discount the effect of priming (how many times has Apple used "magic" in their product names or ad copy?). If they're trying to make a reference to the hoary old nerd quip, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic", then I'd counter that it doesn't reach that threshold for me.
Telsa, Fuji cameras, Italian bikes...
> He never bothered to explain why he thinks so. Apple fans are a little too fond of describing their favored products using this word.
Learned programming in an Apple IIc, and I still remember how much I liked the Apple's and Macintosh computers. Anyway my second computer was an IBM PC, because I wanted to keep up to date with tech. Never liked the colorful clamshell, the lamp, or the fish bowl. But looking at the pixaleted rainbow apple logo in the UI brings the magic back.
How fast we moved from a world of computers are our friends, to computers want to spy and take money from us.