I had a crappy day. I woke up very early (for me), paid to gas up my car ($50!), and drove to work where I spent the better part of 8 hours arguing with an Apple Mac that had none of the software to complete any of the tasks that I was given. (I once thought that Macs sucked. They are worse than that, they're evil. What designer decided "let's see what we can make those monkeys do with just one button!"?) When the software was right, the hardware was wrong. In those rare cases where the software and hardware were in alignment, some other piece of critical information was missing. All around fun, I tell you.

Meanwhile, my co-worker was busy appearing in the local business center newsletter and receiving praise for the "great job" he's doing. Schmuck. I've known this guy for almost 20 years, and I can count the number of pictures I've seen of him on one hand. I was beginning to think that he was a vampire. But you give him one Certificate of Merit, and he starts mugging for the camera like he's won Publishers Clearing House. Gee whiz. Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Anyway, I've decompressed by spending the last few hours watching humorous and notable game show clips on Youtube. If I've learned one thing, it's that Drew Carey will never be Bob Barker, no, siree, Bob.

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This morning on The Price is Right, the bidders on Contestants' Row were given the opportunity to bid on a "computer" with keyboard and mouse. The Price is Right has been on the air for a continuous 35 years, and I think it's really showing its age when it is a "computer" up for bid. If it were a dishwasher or chest of drawers, the manufacturer of the product would be displayed in big letters and would be announced at the top of Rich Fields' voice when the product is revealed. But when the product up for bid is a high-tech device such as a "computer," the make and model are information that is useless to the common TPiR viewer and is therefore conveniently ignored. To no one's surprise, a young man in a rock band from California won with a bid of $1650. Everyone else went over. Actual retail price? $1699.

The computer happened to be an Apple Mac Mini with JBL Creature II red speakers, a 20" flat-panel monitor, and wireless mouse and keyboard. I'd tell you what the available memory and hard drive size were, but it's hard to tell when the only information that you get is a picture of the case.

$1699? On apple.com, the build that gets me closest to the TPiR "computer" includes a 1.66 MHz processor, only 512MB of RAM, and an 80GB hard drive. From scratch, I can build a much faster PC for the same price. Dell can provide a better PC for even cheaper than I can from parts. Of course, my PC wouldn't come in a cute little white plastic shoe box and my mouse will have more buttons and will therefore be useful, but I think I'm willing to sacrifice aesthetics for actual functionability. Then again, I'm actually interested in doing good work with my computer, not just having a pretty, expensive paperweight on my desk.

Oh, yeah: Macs suck.

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