The Lite Side's Guide to Mac Humor on the Web
Low End Mac Reader Specials
Memory To Go Special: MacPro 8 Core 8GB kit $232 / 4GB kit $116 / 2GB kit $72. New Macbook 2GB DDR3-$65. HARD DRIVES available -- Free shipping / LIfetime warranty.
Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com
LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, iMac's, Apple Batteries and Apple A/C Adapters. Also Great prices on Used Apple Computers. Call 1-800-941-7654 Click Here.
Mac users can finally play Party Poker for Mac. Not only that, they can also learn how to play PokerStars for Mac.
Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.
Compare products like desktop computers, laptops, and LCD TVs side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for a new cell phone GPS products or MP3 players. The Ciao network makes searching products easy for you.
- 2006.06.02
From time to time I get the itch to see what the Mac Humor competition is up to.
What competition? How can there be competition when you're in a class all by yourself? (That's how I interpret what Dan means when he says, "Well, at least you're different. Kinda.")
Well, believe you me, there is competition among us Mac humorists. Call us Machumorsistas. Or Comedytoshes. Or PTCHIWRI - Pundits That Couldn't Hack It With Real Information. But yeah, we're competitive.
At Macworld San Francisco, we hang around the hot dog cart outside Moscone Center and wish we made enough money collectively to send one of us in to actually look at the stuff we make fun of.
At Macworld New York, we hang around Times Square and wonder where all the advertising for the conference is supposed to be. (For the life of us, we can't find it. Oh, that's right, Macworld New York moved to Boston. Or was it canceled?)
Mostly, we just sit around and read each other's stuff, because sure as heck no one else is reading it. That's what gave me the idea for this, a review of all the major Mac humor sites. Well, at least for the first five that come up on Google.
Now, you could search Google yourself, (Lord knows I've done it countless times), but then you don't get the benefit of my snarky comments in The Lite Side's
Guide to Mac Humor on the Web
or
The Mostly Compleat Guide to What Makes Mac Folk Laugh
Crazy Apple Rumors
CARS (as we post-Pixar groupies like to call it) is the 400 pound gorilla of Mac humor. Wherever it sits, a definite stench of gorilla bum remains, and it sits pretty much wherever it wants.
I interviewed the editor of CARS, and got some very interesting feedback.
- LS: So you guys are the ones who write the stuff on CARS.
- CARS: CARS? What is that? Some kind of obscure Pixar joke?
- LS: Never mind that. How did you get started writing Mac humor?
- CARS: Well, one day, one of us said, there's really no Mac humor on the Web, hasn't been for years, so maybe we should write some.
- LS: Well, actually....
- CARS: Yeah, there's AtAT, but as everyone knows Jack's dead, so you can't really count that.
- LS: I don't think Jack's dead.
- CARS: Where did you hear that?
- LS: I read it on the AtAT forums.
- CARS: (laughs) Oh yeah, that's a prime source of information.
- LS: Well, actually....
- CARS: So anyway, we started writing some stuff, and people liked it, so we pitched it to the Internet, and they bought it. And then the Internet wanted more.
- LS: The Internet bought your column?
- CARS: Sure. The Internet buys lots of stuff.
- LS: But the Internet isn't a person. It's, uh, a system, a medium.
- CARS: Riiiiight. My new Prius says you're full of crap. Paid for by the Internet.
- LS: You can afford a Prius with your online site postings?
- CARS: Sure. We get hundreds of thousands of hits. Millions. Some losers will read anything.
- LS: Now that you mention it, I happen to write a Mac humor column myself.
- CARS: Really.
- LS: No kidding. It's called the Lite Side and it appears on Low End Mac.
- CARS: Never heard of it.
- LS: The Lite Side?
- CARS: No, Low End Mac.
- LS: Ah. Well, you should take a look. There's lots of useful stuff posted there about older machines and optimizing your setup and opinion and news. And, of course, my own stuff.
- CARS: Like this interview? Will this be posted at Low End Mac?
- LS: Yes.
- CARS: We'll pass.
As the Apple Turns
- This soap-opera like daily compendium of Mac news hasn't been updated since October, but it still has that daily sorta day-old grease feel to it. According to this forum entry, Jack Miller (proprietor) is "not dead yet". Realize, of course, that this is coming to you fourth-hand (poster asks friend of Jack who relays message from Jack through friend and poster and on to forum and now me), so it's reliability is as good as anything else you read on the Lite Side. Or AtAT. We miss you, Jack, and we sincerely hope we someday get as many hits as you do with a seven-month old post.
As the Apple Turns 2
- This self-proclaimed successor to AtAT (as we post-Star Wars nerds like to refer to Jack's site) copies the "look and feel" of AtAT. It's even funny, but to be honest with you, I think my stuff is funny, so I don't know how valuable my opinion on the matter will be to you. It still has cheesy pop-culture references (albeit not as many as the original) which gives it a whole "Shrek-like" popular appeal, and links to the various models of Macs that are referred to in the newsy "episodes." Also, there's a lot of italics. I mean a lot. So much italics that I feel like leaning my head way over to read the articles. Of course, if I read more than a paragraph to form my opinions, they'd actually be worth something.
The Joy of Tech
- The Joy of Tech™ is a funny little online cartoon with no recurring characters, shame, or morals. Seriously, these cartoons are quite funny if you're part of the "in" crowd that knows everything about tech and Star Trek so you get the jokes. You can also buy stuff at the Joy of Tech™ site. Like Joy of Tech™ T-shirts™, Mugs™, Clocks™, Trademarks™™, and Clever Dork Proximity Alert Gizmos™. I still don't get this one, posted recently on their site:

MacComedy
- While you're browsing check out MacComedy - movies and video
clips with parody commercials and more. Caution: Don't send them
anything if you think there's the slightest chance they will make
fun of your honest attempt at a homemade Mac commercial. My
therapist says that it would be a good idea if I didn't say
anything else.
Recent Lite Sides
- What if Apple thought like a PC company?, 11.01. Apple has innovated and blazed its own trail. But what if it had followed the path taken by the PC copycats?
- How Microsoft can turn Vista lemons into lemonade, 10.22. How Microsoft could profit by no longer allowing manufacturers to sell new PCs with Windows XP installed.
- iPods that never passed beta or focus groups, 09.13. "What most Apple fans don't realize is that there were a few iPod variants that never made it out of beta testing and the focus group stage."
- Pigs fly, snow in Death Valley, and Dvorak uses a Mac, 08.03. What has the world come to when John Dvorak, founding member of the Axis of Macevil, walks into the temple of All Things Macintosh?
- More in the The Lite Side index.
Links for the Day
- Mac of the Day: 15" iMac G4/800 MHz, Jan. 2002 - The iMac is redesigned with a flat panel display and G4 CPU.
- Group of the Day: G4 List is for those using Power Mac G4s or G4 upgrades.
- January 7 in LEM history: 97: Mac OS 7.6 - 99: What color iMac do you want? - 00: S900 chronicles - 02: Who let the iMac out? - Expo keynote - iMac G4 - 14" iBook 600 - iCab fastest low-end browser - Addressing battery problems - 03: 12" PowerBook G4 - 17" PowerBook G4 - Changes in Jaguar - 04: Waiting for the tipping point - 05: Headless Mac an upgrade path for low end users - 08: Could OS X DRM drive users to Linux? - Netscape dead, but its children live on
Recent Content on Low End Mac
- Blackouts and Web Access, Death of a Kanga, the Future of PowerPC Macs, and More, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 01.07. Also another email client suggestion and whether a G3 iMac can handle a 7200 rpm hard drive without overheating.
- How Netbooks Impact Microsoft and Apple, Tim Nash, Taking Back the Market, 01.07. Netbooks are keeping Windows XP alive, which may slow adoption of Windows 7, and perceived value keeps the Mac market share growing at the expense of Windows.
- The Ill-Fated Apple III, Jason Walsh, Apple Before the Mac, 01.07. "...not only was the Apple III mind crunchingly expensive, it was made with none of the passion of the Apple II or Macintosh."
- Apple III Chaos: Apple's First Failure, Joshua Coventry, Cortland, 01.07. Apple had known nothing but success with its Apple II product line, but when it tried to enter the business world with the Apple III, the learned the cost of failure.
- Apple's Worst Business Decisions: Another Perspective, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.07. Apple's poor business decisions predate the Macintosh. Let's hope they learn from their mistakes.
- 2 Apple Failures: Apple III and Lisa, Tom Hormby, Orchard, 01.07. Apple's two not-so-great product lines between the Apple II line and the Macintosh.
- 17" Unibody MacBook Pro, 01.06. Thinner and lighter than ever, the unibody model tops out with 8 GB of RAM and a 2.93 GHz clock speed.
- Apple's Half-Baked Support for DisplayPort, Frank Fox, Stop the Noiz, 01.06. The DisplayPort specification supports audio, so why does Apple use USB to route sound to the LED Cinema Display?
- Adventures with an Overheating PowerBook, the 10.5.6 Update, and Other Things, Charles W. Moore, Miscellaneous Ramblings, 01.06. After three years of reliable service, the PowerBook began to run so hot that the fan was almost always on. What was causing the problem, and what would fix it?
- No, an Overgrown iPod touch Is Not a Netbook, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.06. BlackBerry pretends its Storm is a netbook, but a netbook needs to be big enough for a typable keyboard.
- Apple IIe Nostalgia: A Reunion 15 Years in the Making, Tommy Thomas, Welcome to Macintosh, 01.06. Sometimes nostalgia is all you remembered, like when you get to recreate your first computing experience from the Apple II era.
- VisiCalc and the Rise of the Apple II, Tom Hormby, Orchard, 01.06. "VisiCalc was first released for the Apple II, which quickly became an invaluable tool for businesspeople - at least until IBM moved into the 'personal computing' market in 1981."
- Apples from Other Orchards: Apple II Clones, Joshua Coventry, Cortland, 01.06. Before the IBM PC spawned compatibles, companies around the world cloned the Apple II - some with more success than others.
- Interview with Dan Bricklin, Inventor of the Electronic Spreadsheet, Joshua Coventry, Cortland, 01.06. Until 1979, a spreadsheet was something you did by hand. VisiCalc changed all that and gave personal computers the first 'killer app'.
- 9.6% Mac Market Share, Quanta to Supply New iMac, New Mac mini a Go, Macintosh at 25, and More, Mac News Review, 01.05. Also what's missing from Apple's product line?, unattended online backup with MyOtherDrive, first USB 3.0 storage solutions, Find Any File, and more.
- Large Form iPod Coming?, Touch Screens a 'Huge Mistake', EarBud Yo-Yo, and More, iNews Review, 01.05. Also iPhone now at Walmart, iPhone trounces BlackBerry Storm for satisfaction, iPod video conversion software for Mac, and more.
- Intel's Quad-core Mobile CPU, Prevent OS X 10.5.6 Crashes, 'Netbook' Name Under Fire, and More, The 'Book Review, 01.05. Also the Age of the Notebook, build a cardboard laptop stand, MacBook reviews, bargain 'Books from $170 to $2,299, and more.
- Origin of the Apple I and Apple II Computers, Tom Hormby, Orchard, 01.05. From the first behemoth computers to the Apple II+, the computer that drove the personal computer revolution.
- Personal Computer History: The First 25 Years, Dan Knight, 01.05. A brief history of the first quarter-century of personal computing.
- Apple Has Always Been a Niche Player, Dan Knight, Mac Musings, 01.05. "Despite the myths, Apple has never been a dominant player in the personal computer industry."
- More links in our archive.
Recent Deals
- Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 01.06. Used 1.83 GHz, $900; 2.16, $1,090; 2.33, $1,295; new 2.4 Penryn, $1,350 after rebate; 2.5, $1,485 a/r; 2.6, $1,649; new 2.4 Unibody, $1,824 a/r.
- Best G3 iMac Deals, 01.06. Used 350 MHz CD, $42; 500 MHz, $59; 450 MHz DVD, $60; 600 MHz CD-RW, $200 shipped; 700 MHz Combo, $379 shipped.
- Best Mac OS X 10.5 'Leopard' Deals, 01.06. Mac OS X 10.5, single user, $104 shipped; 5 users, $148 shipped; 10.5 Server, 10 users, $363 shipped; unlimited users, $752 shipped.
- Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 01.05. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733, $166; 800, $199; 1 GHz, $290; 867 MHz dual, $200, 1 GHz, $300; 1.25, $450; 1.42, $599.
- Best classic iPod Deals, 01.05. Used 40 GB 4G, $135 shipped; new 80 GB iPod classic, $160 shipped; 120 GB, $225 shipped; refurb 160 GB, $249 shipped; new, $280 shipped.
- Best titanium PowerBook G4 Deals, 01.05. Used 400 MHz DVD, $320; 550 MHz, $480; 867 MHz Combo, $500; 1 GHz Combo, $590; SuperDrive, $900.
- Best Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger' Deals, 01.02. DVD upgrade from 10.3, $75; full version, $129; family pack, $200; 10-user Server, $350; unlimited users, $400.
- Best iMac G4 Deals, 01.02. Used 15" 800 MHz Combo, $280; 1 GHz, $380; 17" 1 GHz SD, $399; 1.25 GHz, $449; 20", $549.
- Best MacBook Air Deals, 01.02. Used 1.6 GHz 80 GB, $1,100; refurb, $1,149; new 120, $1,740 a/r; refurb 1.8 GHz 80, $1,199; 64 SSD, $1,699; new 1.86 GHz 120, $1,999, 128 SSD, $2,368 a/r.
- More deals in our archive.
About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts
