Mac Predictions, Opinions, Crow Eating Time.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion. The Internet lets us all voice that opinion via email, comments, forums, web logs, our own web sites. That being said, what should happen when an opinion is forcefully offered and obviously dead wrong. Grab the knife and fork, the order of crow is coming.

Enter one Bill Palmer. Like many of us who watch the Mac world, Bill has his own web site. Click Here for a view. As is typical, opinions get voiced when we own our own barrels of ink.

When the $500 Mac rumor hit the streets recently, Bill penned a few sharply constructed phrases that left little doubt of his opinion on the matter.

Bill said the $500 Mac rumor was a fake and Apple would NEVER build such a machine. Ever. Ever. Never. Or, something like that but with many, many, many more words.

Click Here to get started but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Here are a few choice excerpts.

From January 1, 2004.

Hmmm. Maybe it’s just me, but it looks as if Bill didn’t think that Apple would ship a $500 Mac. I didn’t count all the words as to why but there had to be a few thousand of them.

Here’s more:

As of Friday, January 7, Bill was adamant that no such box would ever see the light of day. Get on the soapbox, Bill.

No, I’m not Bill bashing. I don’t know Bill from anyone else I’ve never met but whose web site I read from time to time. Bill’s a Mac guy so how bad can he be? And, as I said, we’re all entitled to an opinion (even entitled to a web site).

Sometimes our opinions are wrong (so my significant other often points out). When an opinion is as pronounced and forceful as Bill’s was on the $500 Mac, it gets undue attention. When said opinion is as wrong as Bill’s was, it gets, and deserves additional attention.

That is especially so when the traditional eating of crow is denied. What was Bill’s response to Apple’s $500 Mac? Sorry? Nope. I blew it? Nope. Wow, I’m impressed they even had the guts to launch it? Nope. Read on:

Whoa. No crow? I was hoping for a little crow. Something to indicate that Bill is honest, sincere, a bit humble, and human. Nope. Guess not. What it looks like is that Bill has another opinion (this time in 3,563 words). And that’s the point.

Tera has suggested we develop an Idiot of the Week, or a Jackass Award to be handed out to the utterly deserving. I’m for that.

Sometimes an opinion is expressed solely to obtain a reaction. It’s a self gratification thing, I suppose. Oh, and it gets people to memorialize the Howard Cosell Syndrome™. Remember him? He was the lawyer turned sportscaster that everyone loved to hate.

Few would admit to actually liking Howard and his ascerbic, overly-worded opinions (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but they all tuned in each week to hear what he had to say.

So it is with Bill. Without knowing the details, I have no doubt that his web site (and “opinions") were hit by Mac readers heavily the past couple of weeks. We were suckered in, folks. Now we’ll have to deal with it.

Some folks can dish it out in thousands of words but can’t handle a bite of crow.

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