Am I glad I’m not an Apple victim
If I seem a little distracted, it’s because I am. I’m having fun, all nostalgic for my cool tech toy days when I wrote hardware reviews for PC Report in the early 1990s. After months of struggling to buy a PC in parts, rather than buy a pre-assembled, overpriced, lowest-common-denominator box loaded with an operating system I won’t even bother to boot once, I finally have all the bits and pieces I need. So I’m assembling and installing and downloading and tweaking and fiddling and hoping not to blow the whole thing up.
Actually, I’m one piece short: a little connector that lets me plug a second monitor with a normal VGA cable into the fancy DVI connector on the back of my graphics card. So I go hunt for one. I get told it would cost me about R50 (about $7 — probably $10 by the time you read this). Fine, except that I run into the usual South African IT distribution channel problem: no stock on anything except a basic range of complete machines. The only part I can find that’ll do the job is an Apple Mac component. Of course, it costs R300 ($42.50). Some choice language later, I get the final offer: R200 ($28.30). In the States, I see you can get it for $20 or so.
This, you must understand, is for two plugs and short piece of cable. Very pretty plugs, of course, but prettiness made from moulded white plastic. No wonder Mac users look so smug. When they pay for their cutesey accessories, two thirds of the price buys nothing but a superior smirk. It’s the only way they can cope with that falsehood, that heresy that keeps gnawing at the back of their minds: that somewhere on some babe-crewed yacht in some turquoise paradise, Steve Jobs is snickering.
My iMac is one of the best things I’ve ever bought. Apples are great, and they may cost more, but you get what you pay for: A computer which works properly, has security built in, and looks good.
I’ve got all of the above: a computer which works properly, has security built in and looks good but I didn’t have bend over and supply my own Vaseline for the privilege. I bought a ThinkPad and loaded Ubuntu virtually the instant I took it out of the box.
;-)
Maybe you should shop around:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/search.aspx?pctitle=HDMI+%26+DVI&mainclassid=48&classtype=M
I agree that Apple cables are overpriced. And a greater crime is that the connector that allows you to connect a macbook or imac to an external DVI monitor. They use a slightly different version of the DVI standard that can no be used with any standard dvi to VGA connector, even on supplied by Apple.
You have to go out and buy another adaptor specifically for a VGA connector.
Each of these is about R200.
I love my Apple but even this makes me mad as hell.
Hi,
Yes Apple cables are expensive, but then, like all Apple stuff, you get what you pay for.
Some things to consider:
- this cable comes packaged with every Mac
- its a high quality cable (yes cables are not cables, there are some that don’t work, some work and break and then there are ones that always work [unless you break them].
- Apple cables are difficult to break, you need to try hard to break them
- Its like in the old days you used to get ‘gold tipped’ RCA cables for the real audiophiles and monster cable for speakers, they used to cost at least 10x the generic, if you compare this ratio it’s a deal!
- Apples also work with generic cables, you don’t need to buy the Apple one.
- Some people will rather buy disposable rubbish, others prefer quality things that don’t break
…
Ivo, you don’t strike me as someone who likes rubbish… speak to Bretton about this.