The death of eight tourists, including two U.S. citizens, in a remote Africian forest reminds how dangerous the world can be. Americans, while accepting violence inside their own borders, often forget this while traveling overseas. Many times Americans are attacked simply because they are American and for no other reason.
In comparison, it seems Macintosh users tend the think the computing world is a world of cooperation and mutual respect for innovative technologies that have the potential to make all of our lives better and more productive. But like the over confident American tourist, Macintosh users get broadsided from time to time and wonder why they are targeted.
Some information services managers in corporations and colleges seem to have taken it upon themselves to single-handedly "stomp out" the use of Macintosh computers in their midst. Many times they wave the flag of "standardization" and making it easier to administer one computer platform rather than two.
We see this action in major corporations as well. Microsoft seems to have made the stomping out of competing technologies -- either by buying or stealing it -- a science. Now I read that Intel, which is running scared that its Pentium chips are being cloned by other manufacturers, as well as the competition it faces from the PowerPC chip, will be encouraging Pentium III-only web sites.
I still remember in the early days of on-line computing MS-DOS-only connections, Commodore-only connections, Apple Computer-only connections, and so on. At the time this approach was fueled more by technology rather than some company wanting to shut out certain users.
The entire premise of the Internet is based on the sharing of information among the masses of all computer races. When Intel, Microsoft or Apple for that matter try to cut off certain users either through the microchip inside the consumer's computer or the browser their using, it shows extreme shortsightedness on the company's part and, I believe, ultimately will fail.