So I'm staring at My Powerbook's upside down Apple logo glowing in the mirror opposite my bed and wonder how Cayce's iBook could be made into a CPU? And, opening up Hotmail, wouldn't you be assailed by Microsoft's multi-pronged product associations?

The net is littered with TMs. How is Cayce able to live with that level of layered information? Or is it only fashion/ consumer brands that trigger her allergy?

deny everything

That IS a very good question.
However, it strikes me that one perfectly good answer could be:
text-only browsing.

hmm...she was able to see that Asian Sluts deserved penises. And F:F:F opens with a screen grab from #48 (yeah? can't be bothered to check. lazy. sleepy.)

are there any text-based browsers for Mac OS/X?

I know of people sticking stickers and stuff over their upside-down apple logo in an attempt to hide it (I like it upside down). How sensitive is Cayce? She must be able to live with the Apple logo on her iBook. It's there as soon as she boots up. Especially in OSX.

And what about the mother of all trademarks? Namely the one with the scary-arsed clown selling hamburgers. Must register as neutral since she saw one in Moscow that was as big as the train station and didn't freak out. Starbucks seems to be neutral as well. God, what a debilitating allergy.

deny everything

Most browser preferences allow for choosing not to load images. But I feel that would be extreme for her. More likely, it's the three-dimensional assault on a street or a mall that sets her reaction going. Billboards, posters, boxes after boxes, shirts after shirts on racks... a small LCD screen may be more manageable. Just slam the clam shut.

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Originally posted by wraith:
hmm...she was able to see that Asian Sluts deserved penises. And F:F:F opens with a screen grab from #48 (yeah? can't be bothered to check. lazy. sleepy.)

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Oh yes. Well, thennnn... I dunno. You got me there.

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are there any text-based browsers for Mac OS/X?

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As for OS X, as I've previously posted elsewhere - for a lot of mac users [regardless of what the publicity says] it's still somewhere in our future. I'm OS 9.2.2 till I get convinced otherwise...

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As for OS X, as I've previously posted elsewhere - for a lot of mac users it's still somewhere in our future. I'm OS 9.2.2 till I get convinced otherwise...

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heh. Ditto. I tried to jump on my friend's 'puter the other day and he's gone over to X. I was dismayed to find that I was lost in the new world. I felt like the world's most clueless apple newbie. My G3 just keeps crashing on OSX AND where the hell is my new DVD player? I still had to use Z1-1.3 in 'classic' mode. What's the point of that?

deny everything

exactly. No point at all. Plus all that new OS X compatible software you have to buy too is hardly chickenfeed...
iTunes is very cool, but really. I am in no hurry.

Also, back on topic: my suggestion doesn't work. I guess Cayce would have to be seeing images in her browser or else how would she have come across the Footage in the first place?

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I guess Cayce would have to be seeing images in her browser or else how would she have come across the Footage in the first place?

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Messages on the board could just post the link where the file would be (remember we're talking here about multimegabyte files, left on some place where big files can be stored), and then she or anybody else would download it to their computer and watch it at their own leisure, on the Quicktime player (in the case of MacOS).

However, I still feel she was surfing with graphics on. Try disabling them in your browser and try to search anything: most pages today realy heavily on embedded graphics and flash/shockwave for navigation.

Some TMs on the net must register as neutral. Unless she chooses to visit Prada's website etc, she must be able to tolerate the majority of the Net.

Which is kinda weird if you think about it, the net is all about icons and trademarked representations. Interfaces and graphics are all about patterns of 1s and 0s yeah? You'd think that the net would be something akin to kryptonite to her.

Perhaps the sheer weight of informational assault that the net offers simply negate her pathology. I don't think it's simply because it's on a small TFT (not LCD these days Fuldog ) screen. Although we haven't seen her react to anything on TV. She did freak out over a print-out of Bibendum, though, it doesn't have to be 3D, most trademarks aren't.

But perhaps, simply the medium itself; electronic representation, acts as a sort of filter. You think? That's the only reason I can come up with.

deny everything

>are there any text-based browsers for Mac OS/X?

Well yes. There's "lynx", of course, but also "links".

In one of the interviews I've read, maybe the CBC one or the Telegraph one, Gibson admits that this doesn't make a lot of sense, that some logos are bad and some are neutral.

Only of course he didn't say "it doesn't make sense" he said "it's a discontinuity that I didn't examine" or something suitable oblique...

I just read it that she is not a big fan of trademarks as a whole, but she is far more disturbed by some than others. Perhaps the ones that affect her most are associated with a particular trauma or event. I guess it's the extream opposite of some peoples obsession with certian brands or logos. It also seems to be the actual logos themselves, rather than the products, which can be seen by the way she buys designer, then cuts the labels out.

It does seem to be quite inconsistant, but then isn't that the case with most 'mental illnesses'?

Well, Apple computers are functionally very different from others, that could have something to do with it. Seems to me like the trademarks that cause the worst reactions in Cayce are ones for commodity items where there is little difference between various manufacturers. Let's take shampoo, for instance. The reason for the multitude of shampoo commercials on tv is that advertising is one of the most important ways to differentiate between products. There *are* real differences, but do consumers know them? Probably not. I'd guess the situation with tires is similar (I know *I* don't know what makes Michelin better than Bridgestone tires..).

This idea kinda falls apart when it comes to clothing, but not completely. I'm sure your average consumer wouldn't know an Armani suit from a cheap knock-off. The logo is everything.
Apple vs. Dell, however, is a completely different story. The logo is the means, not the ends. Or...something like that, I shouldn't be posting when I'm tired..

as I posted in another thread (which brough the wrath of the Mac Jihad down on my head), personally, I think an Apple Mac would be the last computer she would use, as it all brand.
Surely a generic PC, built out of anomyonous components and bought from some wholesaler, running Linux, would be more functional and appropriate.
But if she has to use a Mac, maybe she's running Opera - nice socially consciouness Scandavian browser (they do a lot of work for charity) with good pop-up control, and if you pay, no ads.

US will commodify your discontent, sell it back to you on DVD.

Opera for mac pretty much sucks. Doesn't even have decent CSS support. Anyway, what's wrong with Camino (formerly Chimera. A gecko-based open source browser)?

The apple thing is slightly odd, I'll agree, but people don't just buy macs because of the apple logo. Linux would make more sense, but Cayce doesn't seem "geekish" enough for that. Not that you have to be a geek to use linux these days, but Cayce probably started using computers quite some time before some of the linux distros became user-friendly enough for most people to use.

On a side note, try to find a no-name laptop. It's hard. Really hard .

Uh, I suddenly felt a need to edit my post, since you called apple "all brand". That's just plain wrong, man .

in the interest of fairness (I am an agnostic in the great religious wars of PC v Mac, see too many friends burnt at the stake) I think a Dell PC would probably be the ultimate 'puter to bring Cayce out in hives.

they have the internet on computers now?

Personally, I think she was OK with the apple logo because it's just easier to tell the story that way. If she didn't use a Mac, she could have used a PC. Unless it's a no-name home built or something, we'd be having the same discussion. Since the book revolves around pieces of video on the internet, I'd say having Cayce use a computer was kinda vital. I think it boils down to the fact that she has to use a computer, so why make it more complicated then it has to be.

That's what we're here for, isn't it? Making things complicated, I mean?

her pathology worked both ways. she can hate as much as she loves. she hunts cool doen't she? ergo apple is cool.

deny everything

I'm not going to repeat what I posted on another thread about Cayses computer. But repeat what I said yesterday in meatspace about this board: one of the great things about it is that the posters here are a fine mix of hackers, design-people, and literature-people. And of course of a lot of those who are a bit of all.
Of course that means we will never ever agree about Cayses computer, but the level of surprise and invention in the conversation will remain excellent.
Still, its a fact that most computers are seriously bad design.

Seriously bad doesn't even begin to cover it.. Plain beige boxes are, amazingly, some of the most attractive computer cases these days :/.

I have seen some nice case-mods, though, at LANs, but nice case-mods are very much exceptions.