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6B The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 24, 2008

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

i:. X


Showdown in the
Fishbowl
The "Mac V. PC" culture
war
As Apple would have it, your
choice of laptop is your defining
personality trait. You're either a
Mac hipster or a PC suit.
But Windows couldn't let the
Mac guy's slights go unanswered,
adopting an advertising strategy
that answers for its competitor's
portrayal of the PC nerd. "I'm
a PC" is the rallying cry for an
amalgam of personalities - black,
white, young, old and Jerry Sein-
feld.
But both companies' com-
mercials make it clear: you're PC
or you're Mac, you're with us or
you're against us.
On campus, the obvious battle-
ground is the Fishbowl, where
a clear divide separates the two
rival operating systems. Students
who go in are presented with a
choice that exposes where their
allegiances lay.
Danny Dumas, an associate edi-
tor at Wired Magazine and Wired.
com, saidthe divisionbetweenMac
users and PC users has become a
"cultural battle."
"Macs are sort of a lifestyle

product, gauged towards
who are in the arts and
ative and people who area
cally minded," he said. "PC
other hand are more eg
and more business-like in
they approach things."
LSA senior Hannah
said that she almost exc
turns right, looking for an<
because Macs are just too
to use.
"I've always used aF
understand how to use th
ter, I just guess it's harde
to use a Mac," she said.
While the actual numb
computers (132) does o
the count of its operating
counterpart (91), Fishbov
puter consultant Sakif Im
the aesthetic appeal of Ma
more students in.
"I think people nowa
for the Macs just becaus
new screens, they're a lot
he said. "I saw more peop
towards them once we got
ones in, they look nicer."
Imtiaz, who has worke
Fishbowl for over a year,s
for the most part, Mac use
the Macs and PC usersm
for PCs. But there is also
independent demographi
he said will usually go to t
first, but really base the

ABOUT CAMPUS
people
are cre-
aestheti-
-s on the 7
alitarian
the way
Collard L
clusively
open PC
difficult
PC so I
hem bet-

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOHN OQUIST

TALKING
POINTS

"It looked like somebody
had dropped a bomb."
- WARREN ADAMS, a 63-year-old man from
Gilchrist, Texas, referring to the damage that
Hurricane Ike has caused to the area surround-
ing his home. Standing on wooden columns 14
feet high, his bright yellow house was the only
one that wasn't destroyed on the Gulf Coast
side of Gilchrist. The hurricane flattened nearly
200 hundred homes in the area.
"Look, I'm not a lesbian."

"The beard is my way of
celebrating and practic-
ing. The beard is. making
up for some of the stuff I
don't do."
- STEVEN CHASIN, a 40-year-old Fire Depart-
ment paramedic from Virginia, explaining how
having a beard is one way he identifies with his
Jewish heritage. The department has recently
forbidden beards for safety reasons, but Chasin
has filed suit on grounds of religious freedom.

a C

- MEGAN FOX, the 22-year-old actress from "Transformers," who is currently engaged to actor
Brian Austin Green, explaining comments she made to GQ about once being in love with a female
stripper named Nikita. She said she thinks all people are capable of being attracted to both sexes,
and then admitted to having become "obsessed" with Jenna Jameson lately.

Three things you can talk about this week:
1. Gen. Ray Odierno
2. Kenneth Cockrel

r for me
er of PC
utweigh
g system
wl com-
tiaz said
cs draws
days go
e of the
bigger,"
ple going
the new
d at the
said that
rs go for
will .look
o a large
c, which
he Macs
eir deci-

sions on whichever computer is
available.
Mohit Mehan, LSA junior and
Mac user, said that while he pre-
fers the reliability of a Mac, there
is nothing you can do if they're all
taken.
"If I'm coming in the middle of
the day any other day except Fri-
day, you're just going to try to get
what you can get, because it's a
mad rush," he said.
But this struggle extends
beyond the glass walls of Angell
Hall's computing site.
Dumas, the Wired editor, said
that while Microsoft dominates
the market, Apple's small yet
engaged consumer base is a very
big asset.
"Microsoft has a lot of peo-

ple who use their product so in
terms of sheer numbers, PCs are
definitely winning," he said. "But
Macs are slowly gaining market
share and they have a very, sort of
small, niche group of people who
are very, very dedicated to Apple
and Macs."
The clearest example of this cul-
tural schism, according to Dumas,
is Apple's ad campaign starring
actor Justin Long as the hipster
incarnation of a Mac and humor-
ist John Hodgeman as the uncool
and absentminded personification
of a PC.
In the U.S., this archetypal
pairing has. become the model for
comparing the contemporary and
progressive with a more old-fash-
inn-cA -nv-n+inn2lmin-ic+t

ILLUSTRATION BY LAURA GARAVoGLIA
This contrast has even popped
up in this year's presidential race.
In February, the New York
Times's Noam Cohen wrote an
article - called "Is Obama a Mac
and Clinton a PC?" - in which he
compared the two hopefuls for
the Democratic nomination by the
Mac-to-PC measuring stick.
"(Obama's website) signals in
myriad ways that it was designed
with a younger, more tech-savvy
audience in mind - using brand-
ing techniques similar to the ones
that have made the iPod so popu-
lar," Cohen wrote.
He goes on to say: "Mrs. Clin-
ton's site uses a more traditional
color scheme of dark blue, has
sharper lines dividing content and
employs cookie-cutter icons next
to its buttons for volunteering."
To combat that characteriza-
tion of the tech landscape, Dumas
said that Microsoft has rolled out a
rebuttal ad campaign, which stars
the company's former CEO, Bill
Gates, and comedian Jerry Sein-
feld, as an attempt "to make them-
selves look and feel sort of cooler,
to tap into (Apple's) market."
But for Mehan, the cultural
implications of choosing an oper-
ating system take a backseat to
choosing the one that will help
him get his homework done.
"I know people are obsessed
with their Mats," he said. "I'm not
obsessed with it, its just reliable, I
know it's going to work."
Dumas said the Mac operating
system is actually "more stable"
than Microsoft's Vista operat-
ing system. This is because Apple
builds the latest version of its
operating software onto the pre-
vious edition, unlike Microsoft's
engineers, who completely take
See ABOUT CAMPUS, Page 7B

3. A relieved Mark Foley
And three things you can't:
1. Our "fundamentally strong"
economy
2. Serena van der
Woodsen
3. O.J. Simpson

YOUTU BE
VIDEO OF
THE WEEK
Metalheads for a
common cause
To many people, just about every
metal song sounds the same. But
don't say that to these Metallica die-
hards.
The band's new album, "Death
Magnetic," was simultaneously
released on CD and as an add-on
to the popular "Guitar Hero" video
game franchise, and apparently,
not all formats were created equal.
In this YouTube submission, one
suspicious user contrasted the two
versionsand found that for some
reason, the sound quality on the
Guitar Hero download was much
higherthanthesound quality on the
store-bought album.
Thousands of angry fans are col-
lecting torches, pitchforks, tar and
feathers. A petition demanding that
engineers fix the sound problems
and rerelease the album has gath-
ered nearly ten thousand signa-
tures.
This might seem like a minor
quibble. After all, the video only
matters to Metallica fans - and
even then, only to the truly devout
Metallica fans.
But though YouTutbe mainly
hosts thousands of Jonas Broth-
ers tributes, pet videos and ulti-
mate fighting compilations, users
like the creator of this video have
learned that the site can also be
used to expose problems and mobi-
lize Internet-savvy, partisans from
around the globe.
Keep fighting the good fight, met-
alheads.
- GABE NELSON
See this and other
YouTube videos of the week at
youtube.com/user/michigandaily

BY THE NUMBERS

Dollars Detroit will spend replacing Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who
resigned last week after pleading guilty to obstructing justice
Dollars the city has spent resolving the Kilpatrick scandal
The city's projected budget deficit, in dollars,
for the next fiscal year
Source: The New York Times

THEME PARTY SUGGESTION
Add/drop free time - This week, enjoy the extra
time you've made for yourself by dropping that extra
Class or choosing to go pass/fail in that weeder lec-
ture. You wrestled with the decision - didn't want
to-take it too easy - but ultimately you realized that
18 credits was just too much. Bet you're glad you
changed your schedule before the add/drop dead-
line! You did remember to do it before the deadline,
didn't you? It was Monday. Oh, that sucks.
Throwing this party? Let us know. TheStotement@umich.edu
STUDY OF THE WEEK
Cell phones can decrease sperm quality
If males keep a cell phone on talk mode in their pocket, theyare poten-
tially decreasing the quality of their sperm, according to a recent study
published by the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Reproductive Medicine.
In the study, researchers had 32 men give samples of their semen to be
anafyzed in the lab. The researchers split each man's sample into two test
tubes, one to serve as a test sample and the other as a control sample.
While the control group was not exposed to cell phone emissions at
all, the test group spent one hour sitting 2.5 centimeters away from an
850 MHz cell phone in talk mode. The measurement of 2.5 centimeters
was intended to simulate the distance between the pocket and testes.
According to researchers, 850 MHz is the most common frequency.
The study found a significant increase in oxidative stress, including
more free radicals and oxidants and fewer antioxidants. Ashok Agarwal,
the head researcher, said that this meant less viable sperm. But he said
the sample size must be enlarged for further evidence.
- BRIAN TENGEL