(apple)mac geek

“The world is flat!” Thomas Friedman proclaimed in 2005, meaning that the world has become a global village, where all players have a equal opportunity. I wish he was right, because that would mean that we in South Africa would have the same access to Apple computers as the rest of the First World.

Thanks to Core, we have that access, but it comes at a price, a price which Core refuses to explain to online community, so continuing to maintain the perception that they are a monopoly focusing on one thing: profit, and profit only.

cmyplay.com has an interesting infographic showing the price of a 13” Macbook Pro around the world, and South Africa comes in second most expensive, just after Brazil.

Worldwide Macbook Prices

TUAW picked this up and have some interesting comments on their post.

If Core was paying attention, they could point out that the graphic shows greater differentiation between prices than the actual numbers show. If Core bothered to interact with the online community, they would be able to point out that the South African prices are similar to prices in other countries. If Core cared at all about customer perception, they’d hire someone to reach out to the online community instead of isolating and vilifying us. My Christmas wish (from last year really – I didn’t make one so figure I have some credit!) is that Core would stop their command-and-control ways, and enter into conversations with their customers.

I wish the world really was flat. And I wish Core would reach out to the online community in healthy ways.

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According to “How To Become A Hacker”, No problem should ever have to be solved twice.

My problem: logging into a particular server via ssh. Each time I do that, I’ve got to open Keychain Access, search for “ssh”, find the correct Password item which I added in there previously, open it, click “Show password”, type in my password to unlock my keychain, copy the password, paste it into terminal, and I’m in. A perfect task to be automated!

The outline of the solution is to use public/private key cryptography to automatically authenticate myself to the server without having to use a password each time. The steps are:

• Generate a public and private key pair using using ssh-keygen -t rsa
  Just follow the prompts and choose the defaults (yes, the passphrase must be empty too). Your private key will be saved in /Users/your-name/.ssh/id_rsa and your public key will be saved in /Users/your-name/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
• Edit id_rsa.pub and copy the key into textedit. Make sure the key ends with the username you’ll be logging into the remote system with (something like user@example.com).
• Copy the contents in textedit, ssh into the server as per normal, and append it to the end of the authorized_keys file in the .ssh/ folder.
• To test, log in again using ssh. If all has gone well, you shouldn’t need to re-type your password

You’re done! I’ve added an extra step, by creating a new file called ssh-example.com and putting my full ssh connection string in it. Then I headed over to /usr/bin and did a sudo ln -s /path/to/script/ssh-example.com which means next time I want to connect, I just type ssh-example.com into terminal.

Thanks to these guys for the help.

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Today’s exchange rate is R7.94 to $1. Core charge R24,000 for the 15 inch 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro (http://www.zastore.co.za/macbookpro0810.php) and it’s available from the Apple site for $1,999 (http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro).

Using the above exchange rate, $1,999 = R15,869.16. That’s a difference of R8130.84 which is 51% markup. 51%!!! Are you kidding me? This is unacceptable; I’ve sent an open email to Core asking why this is. Why do you, dear South African Apple user, think this is? And what can be done about it?

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This is an open letter to Greg Hill from Core asking him to answer a few questions. Firstly, whether Core apply 51% markup to all of their products. Secondly, if Core hope that people reading Stop Grey will really be convinced to not buy grey Apple products. And lastly, what Core is doing to engage Apple users in South Africa.

The email reads:

From: Roger Saner
Date: 31 May 2009 11:52:28 AM
To: Greg Hill
Subject: Pricing for MacBooks, StopGrey.co.za and Core’s strategy to interact with Apple users

Hi Greg

I’ve been directed to you by Rene Firsing, who gets the contact emails sent to ZA Store via the website. I’m very confused about a few things, and she said that probably only a Core Executive could answer my questions.

My first question is about prices. Today’s Rand/Dollar exchange rate is 1$ = R7.94. You charge R24,000 for the 15 inch 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro ( http://www.zastore.co.za/macbookpro0810.php ) and it’s available from the Apple site for $1,999 ( http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro )

Using the above exchange rate, $1,999 = R15,869.16. That’s a difference of R8130.84 which is 51% markup. Do you apply 51% markup to all of your products?

My second question is about Stop Grey.co.za, a website which makes no definite claims, but makes lots of hints – and uses a fair amount of scare tactics – as to what will happen to someone if they buy a grey Apple import. Do you hope that people will be convinced to buy from Core, even when they are so much more expensive than grey imports?

Core is widely perceived as a command-and-control old-style organisation who doesn’t understand that who you are is more important that what you sell. My final question is this: what is your strategy to start and continue an online conversation with Apple users in South Africa, so that you can continue upholding the good reputation Apple has, while at the same time repairing the damage Core is doing to the Apple brand?

Regards
Roger

 
[Update: No response yet. Resent to Greg on 7 June 2009.]
[Update: 702 ran a piece this morning on Cool Apple Buddies in Sandton. While nothing to do with Core, it's all Apple, and since Core claim to be the official Apple people in South Africa, it would be prudent for them to response. I resent this open letter to Greg today, 15 June 2009.]
[Update: resent 22 June 2009. Have confirmed with Core that Greg is indeed the person to send this email to, and that I have his correct address. Greg must be really busy.]
[Update: resent 1 July 2009. Deafening silence.]
[Update: resent 16 July 2009.]

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Incredible Connection have been playing in the Apple space for a while now, and they have a great deal: new Macbooks are R1500 cheaper than those being sold anywhere else in South Africa.

You just need to bring down some old hardware – any old hardware! – for a trade-in. They’re repairing those computers and donating them to schools and charity – brilliant!

So why is ZA Store so expensive? That’s the question which has been asked for many years by Apple lovers in South Africa. Not only do we pay more here but we get worse service – and no recourse. I couldn’t resist writing this email:

From: roger [at] macgeek dot co dot za
Date: 05 Feb 2009 12:55:04 PM
To: enquire [at] zastore.co.za
Subject: MacBook prices

Hi ZA Store

There is a perception amongst Apple users in South Africa that they are sold computers at vastly inflated prices. For instance, a new Macbook is being sold in the States for $999 – which is about R10,000. You are selling it for R12,999 – R3000 more! Incredible Connection is running a special right now – http://www.incredibleblog.co.za/ic-news/trade-in-your-old-goods-for-new-upgrades-during-february/ – where MacBooks are being sold at R11,500 – which seems a lot more reasonable considering import duties are 15-20%.

Can you explain why you are so much more expensive?

Regards
Roger

 
[Update] Resent, April 23rd:

From: Roger Saner
Date: 23 Apr 2009 9:31:39 AM
To: enquire@zastore.co.za
Subject: Fwd: MacBook prices

Hi ZA Store

Does anybody read these emails?

I sent you an email back in February asking why you are so expensive. I also emailed you through stopgrey.co.za, a website which makes no definite claims, but makes lots of hints – and a fair amount of scare tactics – as to what will happen to you if you buy a grey Apple import.

What hoops do I have to jump through to get a response from you?

Regards
Roger

[Update] 2nd email sent, April 23rd

From: Roger Saner
Date: 23 Apr 2009 9:50:22 AM
To: enquire@zastore.co.za
Subject: Fwd: MacBook prices

Hi ZA Store

To rephrase my question in my first email, sent Feb 5th (included below), which you didn’t reply to:

The current Rand/Dollar exchange rate is R8.88 = $1.

You charge R24,000 for the 15 inch 2.4 GHz MacBook Pro ( http://www.zastore.co.za/macbookpro0810.php ) and it’s available from the Apple site for $1,999 ( http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro )

Using the above exchange rate, $1,999 = R17,742.72. That’s a difference R6,257.28 which is 35% markup. Do you apply 35% markup to all of your products?

Regards
Roger

 
A reply! Hooray!
From: Rene Firsing
Date: 23 Apr 2009 12:15:34 PM
To: Roger Saner
Subject: Re: MacBook prices

Hi Roger,

I do get these mails, and unfortunately do not deal with pricing, so was unable to answer you.
I have no idea with regards to what the costs are for importing technical equipment and therefore would like to ask you to chat to one of our Executives who may be able to assist with the pricing issue.

He will also be able to assist with the grey products website, as unfortunately I do not get any mails from that site.

His name is Greg Hill
087 940 3000

Thanks so much,
Rene
ZA Store

 
I’ve emailed Core with the above questions.
The contents to my email to Greg Hill are at http://www.macgeek.co.za/2009/05/31/open-letter-to-core/

Technorati Tags: Apple, Core, Incredible Connection, Macbook

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::flexes fingers:: This is going to be interesting. I am an avowed Apple lover and this is in spite of the poor Apple presence in South Africa – not to mention the after-sale service. Core IMC is the company which runs ZA Store – the unofficial official online shop for Apple (authorised by Apple South Africa, whoever they are). Core do the imports for South Africa due to an agreement with Apple and recently published an advertisment in the local newspapers saying that other shops who import Apple products through different channels are not “official” and people shouldn’t buy from them because Apple won’t support those products. (Read the article)

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I have a Macbook Pro which I’m rather proud of. Aside from working it extremely hard and having stacks of applications open simultaneously, it travels with me from my room to the house to the Drakensberg to all around Pretoria, so I’m continuously putting it to sleep and waking it up again, often for 10 minute periods. It’s performed flawless for the last month – the last time I had to reboot/restart it was almost 2 months ago.

According to a cool little Terminal command – uptime – my Mac has been running for:

22:53 up 52 days, 9:41, 4 users, load averages: 0.75 0.91 0.89

This is a personal record and I felt I had to share it with everyone who should know better than to check their rss feed every hour. Go and do something. In the real world. Talk to someone. Without using a chat client. Go on – it’s less scary than you think!

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I’ve recently downloaded edubuntu so I can install it on a spare PC (its default setup is as a thin-client server – something I want to play with). After downloading the iso, I need to burn it to a cd. Here’s how to do it, courtesy of Mac OS X Hints:

1. Insert a blank disc.
2. Start Disk Utility.
3. From the File menu, choose Open Disk Image and select the ISO to be burned.
4. In the list of volumes, you will now see an item representing the ISO file. Select it.
5. Click the Burn button and follow the instructions.

I also could’ve burnt it from the command line by:

hdiutil burn image.iso

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Apple has released a new laptop at MacWorld – and it’s superthin! Welcome the MacBook Air! It’s as thin as your index finger, has 2 GBs of memory and an 80 GB hard drive. Or you can upgrade to a solid-state hard drive – which has no moving parts (!). The battery has been redesigned and reportedly gives 5 hours of life – while using wireless! B-e-a-utiful!

Technorati Tags: Apple, MacBook Air

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Last week I tried to sort out Steve’s computer. Steve’s PC is 8 years old, has 256 MB’s RAM and is running Windows XP. He runs Norton Antivirus, MacAfee, has two anti-spyware programs and downloads all of the windows updates and security patches and surprisingly, given its age, his laptop runs fine. Unfortunately, Steve is a trusting guy. While browsing the net 2 weeks ago a message appeared on his screen telling him that his computer might be infected and he should download a program which would confirm this and clean his machine. Steve doesn’t know he’s not supposed to use Internet Explorer 7. Steve doesn’t know that if something pops up on his screen he should not necessarily believe what it says. Steve doesn’t know that Firefox stops malicious popups which, if he were to click on them (and boy, did he click on them), it would install some very-difficult-to-remove adware on his computer and slow it down to a crawl (worse than a crawl, actually. Time runs backwards when using his laptop. I actually gained an extra 40 minutes of life while working on it).

Steve first suspected something was wrong when he was chatting to a friend in the States on MSN and wrote, “When I get back I’m going to need to buy a mattress.” 30 seconds later, a window popped up offering him GREAT DEALS ON MATTRESSES!!! This initiated a conflict between Steve’s trusting self and the invasive message he read…a conflict which was resolved by – and this is important, as it is the first lesson which most Windows users who don’t know how to hack the registry need to learn – don’t trust your Windows computer. Be suspicious. If it tells you something, don’t believe it. Especially if it looks like a popup.

Steve is from another generation. He gets the basics – emails, word processing, internet. Now he has just learnt why he should not trust his PC. I’m sad for him. Losing trust in something is never a pleasant experience.

Which is why he should trust another Steve and switch to a Mac. It’s not just that Mac’s don’t give you annoying popups – Mac’s allow you to trust them. And trust is important, which is why the philosophers tell us that the challenge for the post-postmodern world is to move from a hermeneutic (i.e. how we interpret reality) of suspicion (the default Windows user requirement) to a hermeneutic of trust (the default Mac experience).

And that’s why I’m relieved I work on a Mac – it’s just so far ahead of the rest of the world.

Technorati Tags: Apple, postmodernism, Mac

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