Hi, I'm a PC

That's actually a lie. I dutifully type all of my blog posts on my little (read: giant) MacBook Pro that is definitely built for speed and not for comfort. Comfort in this case referring to portability; it doesn't have much since it's bigger and heavier than my Spanish textbook (and that one's a hardcover).

I tend to get off topic a lot. Let's refocus.

Now, the real point is to discuss the recent "Hi, I'm a PC" commercials Microsoft has put out to counter the Get a Mac ad campaign from Apple. In relatively good time too. That makes Microsoft about 47 (yeah, I counted) ads and 2 years behind Apple. 2 years. That's the absolute latest "yeah, well, so's your face" type comeback I think I've ever heard of.

It's funny how some things are just reflections of other things in a bunch of different ways. First, I hold the opinion that Microsoft is about 2 years behind Apple in development in a lot of different ways, but we'll just narrowly skim that subject so I don't get killed in some back alley by an avid PC fan wielding an Ethernet card that Vista couldn't seem to recognize.

No, what really gets me is that this kind of thing has already been covered in popular culture. In a widely popular sitcom, to be exact. Any guesses? Anyone? (insert mandatory Ferris Bueller reference here)

The show was Seinfeld. The episode was The Comeback. Ringing any bells? George Costanza is told that "the ocean called; they're running out of shrimp" while consuming massive amounts of the tiny crustacean and he's left more than a little speechless (but altogether satisfied, because, well, he was eating shrimp). He finally thinks of a comeback, presumably hours later: "Oh yeah, Reilly? Well the jerk store called and they're running out of you."

I'll leave the rest of the episode for your viewing pleasure, but the point is, what's the point of having a retort if it took you more than about a second and a half to come up with? To make matters more interesting, Jerry Seinfeld was in a short series of commercials intended to combat the Mac ads which was promptly cancelled and changed to the new "I'm a PC" commercials, making Seinfeld's commercials the equivalence of the "Oh yeah, Reilly?" followed by another awkward pause before Costanza delivers his jerk store line. Whew.

Now, if only we could get Microsoft to start trying George's idea that "if every instinct I have is wrong, then the opposite must be right." Maybe then 1/3 of PC users wouldn't want to downgrade to the outdated operating system Microsoft offers rather than their newest and flashiest.