Jackass of the Week: John Gruber. Calling Reuters fools by niggling about the technical meaning of 'tax', while conveniently overlooking the clear message of the article. It's unlikely he'd make the same petty comments were it's tone not taking pot shots at his favourite company.
I'm with Gruber on this; this was a terrible article. I read the article I guess I missed the "clear message." The closest I could come to a point, besides the idea that buying Apple products has some sort of hidden tax, was that Apple products are more expensive (purchase price) than the equivalent competing product.
Maybe it comes down to where you stand on Apple products and Gruber but I'd say he was spot-on. The things that he mentions also stood-out when I read the article.
"The analogy of an Apple tax might sound facetious, but think about it. Median U.S. household income was $50,054 in 2011, according to the Census Bureau. That means a sizable chunk of that is getting diverted to Apple headquarters in Cupertino." Before reading the article and just Gruber's post I would've agreed with you that Gruber is niggling but it appears that the author is actually semi serious about there being an Apple tax.
I don't think you really need to append "of the <time-interval>", but I agree. Maybe he can explore why Apple prefers a closed ecosystem to an open one, and write about that. Is it because it's better for their customers? Because if not then it fucking sucks and he should be ashamed of himself for being such a tireless defender of it.
Also, yeah, about "tax". It's used pretty loosely sometimes, John. Like when mobsters talk about protection money. Welcome to language.
Every time I read a Gruber post I can't help but think of these lines from Howard Stern's Private Parts:
The average Howard Stern fan listens for - are you ready for this? - an hour and twenty minutes. The average Stern hater listens for two and a half hours a day. Most common answer? "I want to see what he'll say next."[1]
I subscribe to his RSS feed and can't bring myself to unsubscribe for fear of missing the next really asinine thing that will dribble out of his over-inflated head.
