December was a tough month, and it probably didn’t escape people’s notice that RTS was rather GRRRRR for much of it. Now, however, I’m immersed in house-cleaning-fury (fury of a good kind) and looking forward to a pleasant couple of days off, followed by two days of crazywork, followed by some more days off. Therefore, RTS is shutting down for the year and will return in January.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who’s read this blog over the past year, anyone who’s linked to it, and those who’ve left comments, regardless of whether they rabidly agreed with what I said, or considered me some kind of idiot-face who should be bricked up immediately (or somewhere in-between—AS IF THERE’S ROOM FOR COMPROMISE).

So, happy whatever-you’re-doing-over-the-next-week-or-two, and I hope you’ll continue to visit, read and debate in 2011.

Another one from the archives, and perhaps my favourite: Why the new iMac sucks. This was published on the original version of Revert to Saved, way back in February 2002 (the ‘iMac’ in the article refers to the desk-lamp model), and met with an interesting response, almost taking down my web-hosting account, due to the number of hits it got.

The context of the piece was that, at the time, anything Apple did got slammed by lazy journalists, so I thought it would be fun to satirise this. Unfortunately, a rather large group of Mac users didn’t really understand the concept of satire.

While I’m well aware that Mac users can be sensitive, even I wasn’t expecting the deluge of email I got, including the prize gem “you are a biased computer nerd who cannot accept that most people don’t give a s—— about all the lame insider c—— that you talked about when you reviewed the imac [sic]” and helpfully finishing off with the wonderfully friendly line “you are an idiot and it makes me laugh”.

So, here’s the original article in all its glory—see if you can spot other things I got flamed for. This time, of course, no-one has any excuse for missing that this is satire, although I’ll bet I get at least one angry message from a militant Mac user who reads half the title and furiously fires off an email to me via their new USB-port-challenged MacBook Air.

A totally informed and unbiased account from our leading technical expert, Phil Clive Lover. ©ZealotDumbassNet.com

I watched the MacExpo webcast (and even bore the sickening player that is QuickTime—why Apple can’t use the excellent Windows Media Player like the rest of us is beyond me). I saw Steve Jobs strut around the stage like an over-excited chicken in his ‘oh so cool’ black sweater that made me want to vomit—twice. But then I cheered up, because he announced the ‘new iMac’ and I saw that Apple—so long a thorn in the side of proper PC users everywhere—is finally doomed.

Continue reading this post…

It’s back… And it’s hungry

Hello! Revert to Saved is back! Although some of you might remember the name from a column that was attached to some online Mac magazine whose name now eludes me, or as a standalone website that largely made fun of Apple, the new Revert to Saved will be far more wide-ranging. My aim is to use it to support the various publications I write for, and more besides. Therefore, over the coming weeks and months, you can expect succinct articles on gaming (including retro gaming), technology, music, and anything else that takes my fancy. I’ll also likely delve into the RTS archives and reprint some old stuff, along with putting online some transcripts of interviews I’ve done with various famous people, parts of which have been used in articles I’ve written (parts of the interviews, that is, not chunks of the people).