81 Behrend Beacon ~
October 9, 2009 I I | J
I www.thebehrendbeacon.com
YOUR VOICE
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Career Fair Follie
As you may know, this past week Behrend held its bi-annual
Career Fair in the Junker Center. Being a tuition paying senior, I
am outraged at the under-representation of humanities-related
careers. Only 1 out of every 9 representatives at the Fair repre
sented anything dealing with humanities and social sciences
(which include, history, political science, english, creative writ
ing, psychology, and communication). As a history and political
science major, I question the extent to which the Career Plan
ning and Development Center understands that there is indeed a
Humanities and Social Sciences college at Behrend. Of the 99
companies and organizations present, 11 specifically targeted
H&SS majors, 21 science majors, 37 business majors, and 52 for
engineering students (some overlapped).
To be fair, there were also 19 that claimed to be aimed toward
"all undergraduate students," but they were mostly business ori
ented. Sure the business and engineering schools at Behrend
are prominent, but why is the H&SS department largely forgot
ten? I think it does a great disservice to the students in the
H&SS as well as Science departments to under-represent them
at such an important step in moving from college to the real
world. I hope that next semester's Fair straightens this issue out,
or I will once more be disappointed by the effort by Behrend and
will resort to making the long drive to Main Campus" to fulfill
my needs. Step it up Behrend, if you know what’s good for you.
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-Letters to the Editor
5 things
JEN SLANE
1. Price
Okay now, the first reason
why 1 have less than desirable
feelings towards Macs are their
price. After Mac OS X was
launched eight years ago, there
have been eight new versions
of the operating system. That is
roughly one per year, with each
costing about $199. That is
about $1,600 for anyone who
has bought every version. Yet,
Apple defends their prices say
ing the new operating systems
contain “more than 150 break
through' f< ‘--—’’but hr
many of
actually
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With
PC you can spend
approximately $7OO on a de
cent computer and customize it
to how you wish and have a top
of the line piece of technology.
The prices are outrageous in
comparison to PCs, and for
most students, this is an impor
tant factor in their decision
making for a school computer.
When asked why he chose a PC
rather than a Mac, student Ben
Pearce told me simply because
“it costs less.”
2. Design
Okay, I will admit, Mac’s are
the pretty boy on the scene.
However, despite popular be
lief, not everyone needs a com
puter that looks like it fell out
of the back of a Smart Car. The
cheapest Mac you can buy, the
PHIL HEIDENREICH
Senior Histoi \ and Politic ,1/ S( ience major
PC vs Macintosh: Point-Counter point
I hate about Macs \ 5 things I hate about PCs
Mac Mini, costs almost $l,OOO
and it comes with a 60 GB hard
disk, 512M8 of RAM and no
screen. So basically, you’re
spending $l,OOO on a pretty de
sign. Awesome. I’ll stick to my
pretty little PC that actually
does work for me and I can cus
tomize to fit my personal needs.
So don’t judge a Macbook by its
cover.
3. Popularity
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So, I do have to say, Macs are
pretty popular with all of their
“features” and designs. Still, PC
has been around for much
longer and had built many ties
with their loyal customers and
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whether
a PC or _ ijc ity .
PC because it is what they had
grown up with and what they
were comfortable with. PC al
ready has their stance in the
consumer world and have been
popular for many years, while
Macs are still on the rise and
trying to improve their popular
ity. That being said, in my
mind, Macs will never reach the
status that PCs have because
Apple is more of an iPod com
pany, not a computer company.
4. Performance
Okay, in Macs’ defense, they
do tend to get fewer viruses,
but if you treat your PC with
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care and you’re not ignorant
when using it you should, you
should be fine. Also, when a
Mac crashes, they are done for.
You get to send your Mac back
to Apple and they’ll ship you a
new one in a few days.
With a PC you can sit there
and fix the problem or take it to
a desk somewhere and in a rea
sonable amount of time you
will be able to be back to what
you were doing. Also, the
rumor that Mac is faster than
PC? Wrong. Your Mac is proba
bly just newer than the older
PC and therefore runs a little
bit faster. In the end, both Mac
and PC are pretty much equal
when it comes to performance.
5. Software Compatibility.
Gaming PC’s, video worksta-
If none of these are compati
ble with your software, you’re
out of luck. With the open ar
chitecture of the PC platform,
you are able to have access to a
range of configurations, en
abling you to design a PC to
your needs without wasting
money on things you don’t
need. It also means you can
upgrade without having to re
place your existing graphic
cards and hard drives by fitting
a new CPU and motherboard.
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ORES
1. Price
It’s no lie that Macs are ex
pensive. This is a generally ac
cepted fact about Macs. But
with its high price, you not only
receive a great computer, you
get a computer that you can ac
tually use for more than 2
years. The battery life of Mac-
Books allows for years of use,
and with the amount of battery
replacements that you have to
buy for a PC Laptop, you al
most make up for the average
price difference there. Also
with the upgrade from Win
dows XP to Windows Vista, and
then popular downgrade back
to XP that most people chose,
the average
spends hundi
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ountless
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with Macs the'
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ith thou
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allows any coi
sumer to stay
to date to the
est technology.
2. Design
Macs are p
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open, on, or
gant, simple, and more or less
beautiful. With the Macßook’s
silver body, and well-designed
entirety it is far more aestheti
cally pleasing than any PC out
there. Since Macs are con
structed completely by one
company and not pieced to
gether by random companies
and manufacturers, Apple can
keep the whole design scheme
of all its products in mind.
From start to finish, a Mac is
designed not only to be beauti
ful, but to also be a powerful
computing device.
3. Popularity
Speaking of power and per
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formance, Macs are excellent
computers. Most PC users are
very familiar with the infamous
“Task Manager.” When PCs
freeze or random programs
crash, every PC owner knows
to hit Control + Alt + Delete to
save their computer. On a Mac,
this doesn’t exist. There is no
Task Manager, simply because
programs hardly ever crash
and/or freeze. Macs are made
for people who don’t want to
deal with the technical side of a
computer. Mac com
puters are 100%
protected against
viruses aimed at
PCs, and with
the limited
amount of
viruses aimed at
Macs, it is virtually impossible
to get a virus. Overall, with the
up-to-date technology, constant
software updates, performance
stability, and overall ease of
use, Macs are far superior to
PCs.
4. Performance
Macs have been trendsetters
for the past few decades. With
iPods and new operating sys
tems, Apple’s originality is ex
emplified through its
computers, operating systems,
and various programs. Per
sonal computers used to be box
shaped and dark grey until the
inion
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candy colored iMacs and
ißooks came along. Then
everybody copied the white col
ored ißooks, and came out with
their own model. After the
iTunes Store was released, hun
dreds of online music vendors
instantly popped up in the mar
ket. Then upon the creation of
the iPod, MP3 players struck
the nation and completely took
over the physical CD music
world. A lot of college cam
puses are now considered “Mac
Campuses.” Penn State Uni
versity Park and various other
Penn State campuses are now
considered a “Mac Campus.”
Even the Behrend Beacon is
produced solely using Macs.
With all of Apples products that
work seamlessly to-
Macs are
king their way
the top of the
ersonal Com
iter Market.
5. Software
itibility.
For the past
ides, most pro
ve been writ-
Microsoft
rs. Although
tuld seem hard
ipple to com
e with, they
iimply created
:heir own ver
ions of most
rogr a m s
leeded on a
imputer. With
lie’s iWork and
every Mac is
ed for the
It has a Mi-
iffice equiva-
lence and all picture and
video necessities, and then
some.
With Apple, the same team of
software engineers creates
most of their programs, and
therefore they are made to
work, seamlessly together.
Also, if any Mac user ever felt
the urge to run a Microsoft pro
gram, Apple has programs that
can run the entire Microsoft op
erating system as a program,
and when you first get a Mac,
you are given the chance to run
your Mac natively as a Mac, a
feat impossible to do on ANY
PC.