Month: July 2009

Why school-based Mac User Groups are a terrible idea

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This is a tale of something good going horribly bad when it falls into the wrong hands.

I was probably the first person who really injected life into the establishment known as MacNUS, despite not being the founder. Lots of events, lots of ideas for improvement, lots of pushing the establishment and improving the status quo for Mac users in NUS. My EXC0 members, whom I have termed “The Original Team MacNUS” were superb, and despite me putting in nonsensical requests for their attention at times, they delivered and we were successful in turning MacNUS into the best tertiary Mac User Group in Singapore.

Time passed and I had to move on, retiring as President of the group when I graduated and passed the baton on to a dear friend and fellow EXCO member. Another member of the Original Team MacNUS was supposed to succeed him, but that member has to give up on the position because of school work.

Here’s where the problem came in. Unfortunately, a A Rank person(my dear friend) chose a B Rank person as his successor. Then the B Rank person got C and D Rank people to be his EXCO members. And it all went into a downhill spiral from then on.

For example, the current EXCO. Of whom some of them are working at the current NUS Matriculation Fair Mac sales booth, due to Apple SG pushing for their participation.

The following information is taken from extremely reliable sources.

For almost all the major events, including the recent/ongoing Mac sales at the NUS Matriculation Fair 2009, the EXCO did not do any work at all. They made the reseller come up with the ideas for the events, make them do all the work, and all the EXCO really did was to put their logo on everything the reseller has planned and produced and claim all the credit for themselves.

Can any other Mac User Group be more shameless than this?

The reseller themselves do not want to work with this group of people but they were apparently forced into cooperating with MacNUS by the very people who supply them with everything they sell – the same department in Apple SG whom I have wrote an email to a week or so ago (whom, if you can read the article two posts down, has not replied at all).

What kind of Mac User Group EXCO demand money from the resellers they work with for giving seminars to their users? I will understand if a third party/external vendor was involved, but there wasn’t one.

There is no decent dedication and drive from them at all. One wonders if they have any other motives for being in the EXCO other than the so-called “fame” it brings them.

Two of my Original Team MacNUS and myself were so disgusted that it totally dampened our spirits for the remainder of the fair. Of course, as usual, I was the most vocal and decided to quit after the first day of the fair. Another decided just not to turn up. And the last one, unfortunately, needed money and so had to stay through everything.

A friend and ex-customer asked, “why dun u tell them off? u have the right to. i feel that u built this club for a purpose, no? so if that purpose is not fulfilled, i feel that despite u nt being a member of nux, u still have the right to say it”. But no, I don’t really want to complicate matters. In that university, rank/position is everything and I have learnt that so long you no longer pay tuition fees, the university is never your friend.

Needless to say, I was totally disappointed and saddened by the whole state of things. Yes, sales of Macs might be at a all-time high in NUS, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the Mac User Group in that university.

Then I realized.

This is an ongoing problem with all clubs/societies in all universities and schools – the need to change management every year causes extreme instability in the functioning of the clubs and societies themselves. MacNUS is exactly such a victim.

It seems like the only way to solve this problem is to create a inter-tertiary Mac User Group – one where the management does not change every year, one where your school does not matter, and one where serious Mac users will be able to enjoy being part of.

And so begins the process of brainstorming and creation of such an entity.

P.S. Everything in the article reflects only my official stance and NOT the official stance of any other entity, institution or company.

P.S. and P.S. In case you are wondering, everyone knows that the best tertiary Mac User Group in the land now is SMU’s.

Words of idiocy from idiots

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idiots

28th July 2009

Girl working at Apple booth, sent from Apple SG:

“The current Mini Displayport adapters totally don’t work for doing presentations. My old MacBook and MacBook Air adapters do, but the new ones don’t. Apple probably got something wrong in the design”.

29th July 2009

Guy working at Apple booth, sent from Apple SG:

“You can install on multiple computers, your Adobe CS4 Web Premium and Microsoft Office 2008, even though you only have one serial. They will work so long the computers are on different networks”.

To clarify those who don’t understand why the above examples were words of idiocy, the current Mini Displayport adapters do work for presentations. I personally tested them. It’s now July so I think everyone should have installed the Mini Displayport to VGA adapter firmware update by now. There have only been some prior reports that DRM-ed videos do not play on the connected screen, but they work perfectly for normal Keynote/Powerpoint presentations.

As for the Adobe CS4 comment, the Adobe apps phones home regularly regardless what network you are on, so long you are connected to the net. There’s a high chance that the apps installed on multiple Macs will deactivate and return to trial status if Adobe realizes that the same SN has been used more than once. As for Office 2008, you can use the same SN on multiple Macs, so long you do not update the apps. The “different network” comment probably came from Office 2004, where a “feature” was built in by Microsoft to shut down running copies of Office 2004 once a certain SN has been detected to be in use in more than one Mac in a certain network. Apparently the “feature” has been removed in 2008. How outdated can someone professing to know lots about Macs be?

If you are buying from the NUS fair, it helps to do your homework before you purchase. Don’t expect the staff there to be giving you correct information. Ask someone who knows better.

Letter to Apple Singapore Educational Sales Dept

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“Dear N,

I am sending this email on behalf of Team MacNUS (MacNUS EXCO 2006/07).

We are very disappointed that the sales team at Apple Singapore has decided that the Mac sales at the NUS Matriculation Fair should be just like a PC sales affair, with lots of sales people fighting over potential sales and pressuring customers in groups, instead of the comfortable environment it has always used to be all these years, with 3 to 5 main Mac addicts slowly explaining and trying to convert freshmen into Mac users.

We understand that a large proportion of employees at Apple Singapore used to be from IBM, but we think that is no reason to treat Macs as dull black boxes that are sold to customers through bazaar “lelong” sales techniques – through sheer cut prices and employee numbers.

The one thing that I and many other Mac users (from the Mac User Group of Singapore, which I am part of, for example), hate most about PC shows and related sales event is the sense that we are being overwhelmed by too many sales people and being pressured into buying a product.

I wonder, if you are going to buy a Porsche, and you turn up at the showroom and it looks like a Kia sales bazaar, how will you feel?

Despite the fact that I have already graduated, I have repeatedly decided to take part in the annual Matriculation sales and help convert more people into Mac users(despite of the meagre payment one gets as a part timer sales person). This is because I love the annual sales event at NUS, and I love working with J and her people.

However, since the decision has been made to turn the NUS Mac sales into a regular PC sales bazaar booth, this will be the last year that I will be working in the NUS Mac sales.

I have decided to drop out of all of the sales event after the main one-week NUS Matriculation Fair.

For the Matriculation Fair itself, while I will love to drop out, I have personally persuaded two of my converts into working since late May. They have rescheduled their appointments, work and even holidays because I have told them that the event itself will be a great experience and will not be like a I.T.Fair kind of affair. And since things have came to such a situation, it will be extremely unloyal and despicable for me to drop out of the main event and let them fend for themselves during the event.

My two other experienced peeps, Y and I, are closed to dropping out of all events. They will make their decision soon.

It is sad that everything has to come to this. My love affair with Apple, Inc, will obviously continue, but, just not in this way anymore.

Yours Sincerely,

Ren Jinshen Ryu

on behalf of

the Original Team MacNUS”

P.S. N did not reply. On the first day of the fair she saw me and pretended that nothing happened.

In the end, I got so fed up of working with the other people that Apple SG sent that I quit after the first day.

Monday was only the second day of the fair, and there were only 5 sales person from the original 10. And another one will be quitting on Tuesday.