Monkey See, Monkey Do?

A couple years back I saw a documentary about the making of Planet of the Apes (the original). They discussed how the actors tended to sit and eat with others wearing similar makeup during breaks in filming, gorillas with gorillas, chimpanzees with chimpanzees etc...

I always found it interesting that these folks sought out and befriended each other based on this common characteristic.

Today I was attending a Ruby on Rails training seminar. It was your standard hotel meeting room layout - two rows of tables five or six deep.

Everyone had a laptop.

About midway through the day, we noticed that the left side of the room was essentially comprised of PC users, the right was primarily Mac. There were a couple of exceptions but it was almost universal.

836154 thinkpad

Was it subconscious attraction (or aversion) based on the laptop of a neighbor or were there other commonalities that we were picking up? Could it be something related to the left or right brained thing - the creative vs the analytical?

I don't know, I just thought it was odd.

For the record, I was on the right among the Mac users with my ThinkPad - might I really be a Mac user at heart?

SB

Comments

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That is pretty interesting. I hadn't heard that about the Planet of the Apes set, but I can see that happening with Mac and PC users, at least in theory.

#1 Mike Scott (Homepage) on 2007-09-21 22:13 (Reply)

Mike - it was the oddest thing as it really wasn't a conscious decision on anyone's part, it just sort of happened that way. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

SB

#1.1 Scott (Homepage) on 2007-09-21 23:08 (Reply)

How was the training?

And give Mac a try. Borrow one from a buddy or find a place that'll take it back no re-stocking fee (if such a place exists). Once I went Mac I've never looked back

#2 Ross (Homepage) on 2007-09-21 22:16 (Reply)

The training was good. Is a lot to cover in a short time though, and my experience with Ruby and Rails is extremely limited.

I was able to keep up with it, and it all made sense at the time. Now I just need to dig into a project to reinforce what I learned.

As for the Mac, now that I am doing more design and development, I have toyed with the idea. It isn't so much needing to borrow one, it is needing to pay for it.

SB

#2.1 Scott (Homepage) on 2007-09-21 22:59 (Reply)

Very interesting. Very. I'd say yes. It's a dead give away. Go ahead. Give in.

#3 kellypea (Homepage) on 2007-09-22 11:00 (Reply)

I gave it some thought and I am not sure I can buy a laptop without a trackpoint. I hate, hate, hate touchpads. Do they make a Macbook with a trackpoint?

SB

#3.1 Scott (Homepage) on 2007-09-24 22:03 (Reply)

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