lol.
The spinning beach ball is a good feature to show when a program is busy and not responding to events on its queue. Its not necessarily indicative of a problem.
On Windows the closest equivalent is the busy cursor, which is used not not consistently which is even worse. Its hard to tell if a program is hung, or busy, or just ignoring you.
The beachball is actually one of my big frustrations with Mac OS... though not specifically with the OS but more with many of the Apps (mostly Apple's own, too, which is disappointing).
Far too many Mac applications are fully multi-threaded and so tasks that should happen in the background end up tying up your application to the point where they don't even redraw themselves.
This is something that Windows application developers (especially Microsoft's own) have worked very hard on because of the amount of times people complain about it.
The frequency of this problem on my mac was the single biggest shock and let down after I made the switch about 2 years ago. For some reason, I get the impression that Apple doesn't see it as a problem and that really disappoints me.
Thu, 10/30/2008 - 9:15am — Mike Erickson (not verified)
2730
Are you serious, this is the best they can come up with!?! For anybody that has used Vista, while they dont have as spinning beachball, they have an arrow with a rotating circle ALL THE TIME --
1. It wasn't targeted at Mac users.
They might laugh but they won't change their Mac computer and OSX for a PC with Vista (writing this is even funnier)
2. It was official.
Remember Steve Ballmer going nuts? That's an official Microsoft ad
This ad has to be aimed at a Mac user. PC user just wouldn't have a bloody clue what that was all about.
So, a giant beach ball falls from the ceiling and smashes this guy to the ground! PC user would be wondering why? Presumably, it was perched on a high shelf in his office and it fell off. Maybe there an earthquake or something. Was the beach ball filled with water or perhaps sand? I mean that guy looked like he'd taken a real heavy blow and fell back as if he'd been stampeded by a herd of elephants (is it a 'herd' of elephants?). PC might just notice he's using a Mac but the reference is so fleeting and there's no focus on it at all. We're focused on what the chap is doing. And then alll of a sudden he gets smashed by a giant beach ball. So are we to believe, now, that MS is discriminating against Mac users? Afterall they've just attacked one, and the force of impact looked like it could have hospitalised him. WTF are MS thinking of???
Whatever it is, the ad is absolutely rubbish and not remotely funny. Is this really the best attempt at lampooning Apple that MS can come up with?
I'm a die-hard Mac/Apple fanatic, but seriously that was really funny and well done. Just enjoy it. I have a 2008 Aluminum iMac and I've seldom seen a beach ball. ;)
i have plenty of time to relax, every time i use a 2008 aluminum imac at school (these are university machines, and top of the line). it beachballs, for example, every time i try to print a PDF over a few pages long. as a person who until recently only used PCs, it's a bit mysterious and frustrating to me. PCs hang, too--don't get me wrong. i just expected macs to multitask much better than the actually do. i've been disappointed by reality.
What does it have to do with multitasking? The beachball is officially called the "spinning wait cursor", and is just that – something telling you to wait. More to the point, it occurs on an application level, so it has absolutely nothing to do with multitasking. But be careful when switching to an app that's been idle for a long time: there may be a bit of a wait as it's pulled out of virtual memory.
Ya I just bought the new aluminum Macbook (very nice machine I must say, not a problem to report). I have not seen a beachball while firing up an Appleication yet. Sure I have seen them, but that is when you are doing a certain installment of something, it happens to everyone because it goes on by default.
Love the new Macbook, and beachballs are going past it's time really (almost prehistoric).
As someone who is a Mac fan but doesn't have one yet (and I will soon), I can say that I didn't get this ad one bit. It isn't the same quality as the "Get A Mac" ads. Those ads are cute, you really connect to the characters and what is being said is easy to understand. This ad is vague at best and the guy falling from the beach ball is almost startling to the viewer. It also doesn't help when half the people who see this online think that it's a fan made ad.
Microsoft should have taken the $300 million and used it to fix Vista instead on spending it on lame ads.
same here. i'm an apple fan, but still on the road to my first mac.
i also didn't know what the beach ball meant until now, so this one won't influence me to stick with windows and not switch hehe
I work in production, and this is not a real ad.
Lighting, editing, audio mix, and especially timing, are acceptable for a student project, but not professional work. No way would I let this out of my office.
Plus, is that a window behind him? A professional production company wouldn't have to borrow office space after hours. If there's a window at all, it would be daytime outside. The unused areas of the office that you briefly see on the reverse angle would have the lights turned on and some background activity. Make it look like a real workplace, not three people working at night in an unlit office.
Actually, as a long-time and die-hard Mac user, that was really quite humerous.
The people here complaining that the beach ball is a useful tool etc. etc. are missing the point. All the ad says Vista is a beach ball free zone. It's true.
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lol. The spinning beach ball
lol.
The spinning beach ball is a good feature to show when a program is busy and not responding to events on its queue. Its not necessarily indicative of a problem.
On Windows the closest equivalent is the busy cursor, which is used not not consistently which is even worse. Its hard to tell if a program is hung, or busy, or just ignoring you.
The beachball is actually one
The beachball is actually one of my big frustrations with Mac OS... though not specifically with the OS but more with many of the Apps (mostly Apple's own, too, which is disappointing).
Far too many Mac applications are fully multi-threaded and so tasks that should happen in the background end up tying up your application to the point where they don't even redraw themselves.
This is something that Windows application developers (especially Microsoft's own) have worked very hard on because of the amount of times people complain about it.
The frequency of this problem on my mac was the single biggest shock and let down after I made the switch about 2 years ago. For some reason, I get the impression that Apple doesn't see it as a problem and that really disappoints me.
Hurting more than a beachball
That sound - which everyone knows equals pain - right here in this surely spoof ad is Windows own.
Usually you can tell if an ad is fake by the bad typography and weak branding. However, this rule is not so whenever dealing with PC Guys...
Are you serious, this is the
Are you serious, this is the best they can come up with!?! For anybody that has used Vista, while they dont have as spinning beachball, they have an arrow with a rotating circle ALL THE TIME --
This is completely absurd!
I doubt if any non-Mac users
I doubt if any non-Mac users would "get it", so to speak.
Stupid!
That was one of the stupidest ads.
couldn't agree more!
couldn't agree more!
Compared to?
Stupid compared to the Hi, I'm a Mac ads?
They're adds.
Personally, I liked it.
Yeh same i did too. Although
Yeh same i did too.
Although im not a fan of windows the advert is quite good.
The sound it makes is wrong though.
Hmmm...
Okay, so it is approaching something, particularly when compared to the other ads that have aired.
We are getting closer to a real ad campaign. That is to say, things are starting to get heated.
Bring on the firefight.
hmmm...
wait. IS this an ad, or a fan video? Was it aired or is it just user created content?
It would be great if...
1. It wasn't targeted at Mac users.
They might laugh but they won't change their Mac computer and OSX for a PC with Vista (writing this is even funnier)
2. It was official.
Remember Steve Ballmer going nuts? That's an official Microsoft ad
Uah terrible good ad! Ms must
Uah terrible good ad! Ms must put this on the air!
I have used both mac and
I have used both mac and windows , but still it took me hell lot of time to understand what beachball are they refferring to...(busy cursor! yeah!!)
Better than sienfiled ad but
stupid compared to apple's i'am pc 'iam mac ad
Absolutely rubbish
This ad has to be aimed at a Mac user. PC user just wouldn't have a bloody clue what that was all about.
So, a giant beach ball falls from the ceiling and smashes this guy to the ground! PC user would be wondering why? Presumably, it was perched on a high shelf in his office and it fell off. Maybe there an earthquake or something. Was the beach ball filled with water or perhaps sand? I mean that guy looked like he'd taken a real heavy blow and fell back as if he'd been stampeded by a herd of elephants (is it a 'herd' of elephants?). PC might just notice he's using a Mac but the reference is so fleeting and there's no focus on it at all. We're focused on what the chap is doing. And then alll of a sudden he gets smashed by a giant beach ball. So are we to believe, now, that MS is discriminating against Mac users? Afterall they've just attacked one, and the force of impact looked like it could have hospitalised him. WTF are MS thinking of???
Whatever it is, the ad is absolutely rubbish and not remotely funny. Is this really the best attempt at lampooning Apple that MS can come up with?
It's pathetic.
Dude.. don't think about it
Dude.. don't think about it so much.. You are obviously not going to like anything Microsoft and this is "absolutely rubbish"
I LOVE ITTTTT
Ah, something fresh at last
Ah, something fresh at last from the Windows world.
Cute.
Whether a Windows-user 'gets' it is another thing altogether...
Relax people!
I'm a die-hard Mac/Apple fanatic, but seriously that was really funny and well done. Just enjoy it. I have a 2008 Aluminum iMac and I've seldom seen a beach ball. ;)
Well...
You're lucky. On my 2007 Macbook...I'm getting beachballs...all day!
imacs do it, too
i have plenty of time to relax, every time i use a 2008 aluminum imac at school (these are university machines, and top of the line). it beachballs, for example, every time i try to print a PDF over a few pages long. as a person who until recently only used PCs, it's a bit mysterious and frustrating to me. PCs hang, too--don't get me wrong. i just expected macs to multitask much better than the actually do. i've been disappointed by reality.
Multitask
What does it have to do with multitasking? The beachball is officially called the "spinning wait cursor", and is just that – something telling you to wait. More to the point, it occurs on an application level, so it has absolutely nothing to do with multitasking. But be careful when switching to an app that's been idle for a long time: there may be a bit of a wait as it's pulled out of virtual memory.
Aluminum Macbook
Ya I just bought the new aluminum Macbook (very nice machine I must say, not a problem to report). I have not seen a beachball while firing up an Appleication yet. Sure I have seen them, but that is when you are doing a certain installment of something, it happens to everyone because it goes on by default.
Love the new Macbook, and beachballs are going past it's time really (almost prehistoric).
As someone who is a Mac fan
As someone who is a Mac fan but doesn't have one yet (and I will soon), I can say that I didn't get this ad one bit. It isn't the same quality as the "Get A Mac" ads. Those ads are cute, you really connect to the characters and what is being said is easy to understand. This ad is vague at best and the guy falling from the beach ball is almost startling to the viewer. It also doesn't help when half the people who see this online think that it's a fan made ad.
Microsoft should have taken the $300 million and used it to fix Vista instead on spending it on lame ads.
yup
same here. i'm an apple fan, but still on the road to my first mac.
i also didn't know what the beach ball meant until now, so this one won't influence me to stick with windows and not switch hehe
I work in production, and
I work in production, and this is not a real ad.
Lighting, editing, audio mix, and especially timing, are acceptable for a student project, but not professional work. No way would I let this out of my office.
Plus, is that a window behind him? A professional production company wouldn't have to borrow office space after hours. If there's a window at all, it would be daytime outside. The unused areas of the office that you briefly see on the reverse angle would have the lights turned on and some background activity. Make it look like a real workplace, not three people working at night in an unlit office.
Force Quit Applications
"If an application doesn't respond for a while,
select its name and click Force Quit."
Actually...
Actually, as a long-time and die-hard Mac user, that was really quite humerous.
The people here complaining that the beach ball is a useful tool etc. etc. are missing the point. All the ad says Vista is a beach ball free zone. It's true.
Nice one.
Jimzip :D