Generation @! How definitive of this generation. Greg
Kramer, as usual, hit the nail on the head. In this world
where the line between marketing hype and reality has
begun to blur, Cerebreality shines through the fog and
provides an amazingly clear analysis of society’s
strange ways. Bravo!

Gareth Foster, via the Internet



Greg Kramer’s latest Cerebreality, “The Next
Generation,” is a sad testament to the direction of
our lost society. Whether it be by politicians or by
marketers, the public is coming to be seen as herd
of cattle to be pushed, pulled and prodded for
personal gain. Election campaigns now focus on mud
slinging rather than issues. Business is focused on
quantity and not quality. Marketing has become a
college course in manipulative psychology.
Thankfully, clever people like Greg Kramer are
calling to fore the reality of this trend.
“Generation @” is highly appropriate, and 
appropriately appalling.

Doug Miller, via America Online



 



 

Mr. McVeigh’s editorial, “Poppin the Pippin Bubble,”
perfectly sums up my feelings about the Bandai
@World. This machine is a joke... A $599 paper
weight. It’s too late to exploit the mad rush to the
Internet (interest in the ’Net is levelling off) and it’s
too underpowered to be successful game machine. I’d
pay up to $400 for a really good game system and
I’d even pay $600 for a separate, full-function Net
browsing system. But I won’t pay $599 for a system
that can’t do either very well.

Chris Vernon, via the Internet.



Chris McVeigh really missed the point of the Pippin.
It’s supposed  to be a low end system—one that will
help transition people (the “have nots”) to computers.
It’s not supposed to be good! After Pippin buyers
become familiar with the system’s inadequacies
(too many to list) , they’ll want more power. And
then they’ll upgrade to a $3000 Mac, so they don’t
have to replace all their existing software. Makes
perfect sense to me.

Ronan Durowitz, via the Internet.



 



 

I really enjoyed the article "A Few Words About
Commercial Software" (Brave New World, June 1996).
Unfortunately, I usually don't fully read an article as
long as that one, but I must say it was worth the extra
effort.

I am a purchaser (as well as a very frequent user) of
Stuffit Deluxe 4.0.  Up until I purchased it about a
month ago, I'd always used the shareware version
of Stuffit Expander, DropStuff and Stuffit Lite, and
I'm sure like everyone else—had always intended on
paying those shareware fees.  However, like many
other shareware programs I use occasionally, I never
got around to it.  That was one reason for my purchase
of Stuffit Deluxe 4.0: to somehow make up for the use
of the free versions of Aladdin Systems' Stuffit
software as well as take advantage of the extra
features included with the deluxe version.

Let me just say that both my conscience and my Mac
are better off with the purchase of Stuffit Deluxe 4.0.
And so is my wallet, considering I got it in a bundle
along with RAM Doubler and Speed Doubler (which, by
the way, is one of those "indispensable programs" for
Power Mac users) for less than $100.

Joel Shoemaker, via America Online



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