I got this story too!
When I moved back to PA, I was riding with my aunt and uncle and was hearing them brag to me about this Gateway PC they configured and looked at the Gateway Country Store. She said oh its 2 Ghz P4, its got 512MB of memory, 40 GB HD, USB, CD burner, DVD player, big 17 inch flat screen, Windows XP Home Edition, Microsoft Office, modem, mouse, keyboard, and she thought that it might have a network card......she wasn't sure. She said it was like 2500 bucks or something like that. I listened to her and said that's nice aunt Jan. I said well it sounds like a pretty average joe computer to me. She said average joe! What do you mean average joe.......that's like top of the line!
I said well it doesn't even interest me to tell you the truth. I said now if you want a really cool and nasty system let's talk Dual 1 Ghz G4, with four hard drive bays......and lets see .....lets get oh geee 120 GB of HD.....maybe a second HD at 60GB .......hmmmm let's see Airport card......oh aunt Jan that is wireless nic by the way.....she said oh........1Gbps ethernet......1 GB of ram......oh and a GeForce 4 Titanium video card with dual display capabilities.......oh lets not forget it has a DVD-R/CDRW drive from Pioneer that Apple calls a SuperDrive......and oh gee it comes with iTunes2 and 3, iDVD 2, iDVD, iMovie 2 for OS X and OS 9, iPhoto, oh gee it has Jaguar.....aunt Jan just in case you are wondering what that is......that is Mac OS X (that means 10) 10.2.........and oh geee lets see lets get a 10 GB iPod.....just in case you don't know what that is ......well its a firewire based Mp3 player......she was like oh........She said what does DVD-R mean? I said its a dvd burner.......it burns actual DVD's .....she said you can't do that....its illegal......I said well you can't copy them if that is what you were thinking.....LOL ......but I can whip up a movie in iMovie and then import it into iDVD and burn that baby on DVD..........and oh it has two firewire ports......oh yeah that's a real machine......lets not forget a firewire hard drive.......a sony or canon DV camcorder.......and oh yeah a copy of Mac OS X server.....so I can stream that stuff baby........and oh a 3 megapixel digital camera.......and oh a really nice epson photo printer with 6 ink colors.......ooooooo now that is a real system.......and oh one more thing........a really nice 22 inch cinema display......and yes aunt Jan that is a flat panel screen............You should have seen my aunt and uncle's jaw drop!
My uncle said you know thats a bit much......nobody really needs a DVD burner .......and gigabit ethernet isn't used much in the real world ya know.....and dual displays isnt necessary.......and firewire isn't all that useful.........and why would ya want to buy a server........I would get a cheaper mp3 player that is usb.........half that ram is enough and half that HD is enough......you only need one.
I got to tell you I called my mom back in Boston and even she cracked up in laughter when she heard what they said! She is like they really don't get it do they? I said nope mom they don't.....and my mom said....gee I only have an iMac and I know that my system is way better than theirs and what they were just talking about.......but they don't know any better.....its not their fault.
