Ahhh,the economy,worst "since the great Depression"

Mac users 'ecstatic' about new Apple Store

by: ALTHEA PETERSON World Staff Writer
6/30/2007

After up to 12 hours of waiting, the Tulsa Apple Store's first customers swarmed through its gates at Woodland Hills Mall on Friday evening.

The 6 p.m. store opening coincided with the unveiling of Apple's iPhone nationwide.

While many were in line to purchase the new phone, other local Apple fans were there to revel in the uniqueness of the new store.

Rachelle Murphy, a member of the Tulsa Users of Macintosh Society from Broken Arrow, said it was an exciting day for Apple and Macintosh lovers in the area. She said she was once jealous of Oklahoma City's Apple Store and had waited for Tulsa's to open since 7 a.m. Friday.

"It's fun because you get to meet other Mac users and others who are not now but will be by the end of the day with the new store opening," Murphy said. "Mac users are kind of like a cult -- well, not a cult, but a club.

"The experience we have with Macs is a completely different beast. They're much more secure. There's so many different creative things you can do with the machine."

The Apple Store's employees greeted the estimated 400 people in line when the store opened. Scott Woodliff, the store's general manager, said it was a great day for Tulsa.

"We obviously want to thank you all for coming," Woodliff told the cheering crowd. "It's an exciting moment for Apple, but also the Tulsa community."

The first Apple Store customers had arrived outside the business when the mall opened its doors about 6 a.m. Friday. Connor Sokolosky, 14, of Tulsa and his 9-year-old brother, Chandler, were there solely for the iPhone.

"The phone's better than anything that's been created, and I like the features," Connor said. "Plus, it's fun to say you waited in line for 12 hours."

Matthew Swaggart, another of the first customers in line, ran straight for the register to buy an iPhone when the mall gate lifted, allowing shoppers into the store.

"I'm a big Mac fan because the software just works for me," said Swaggart, a Tulsa photographer. "I'm completely ecstatic. I use Apple software, so being able to get support at the store will be good."

What will the Apple Store mean for surrounding businesses? Ronda Adams, assistant manager of The Sharper Image in the mall, said she is excited about the opening.
"I think it's going to be really good," she said. "I think it's more of a cooperation. We have a lot of things they don't have . . . a lot of Sharper Image iPod accessories."

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Tulsa? If this isnt "middle class" Robby I dont what is.

If anyone has ever tried to start a thread where the title has absolutely jack shit to do with the article inside, this is it.

RobFunk said:

If anyone has ever tried to start a thread where the title has absolutely jack shit to do with the article inside, this is it.

Click to expand...

Oh but it does Rob.

how clever

indeed we are not living in any depression, but we are living in an influx of dollars being printed and lent

causing inflation

similar to what preceded the depression etc

The business economy is very strong. they're enjoying tremendous profit margins as they lay off high paid workers and replace them with illegals.

Consider the economy of a public that's afraid to spend money on large ticket items such as cars and new homes because they could get canned and replaced with an illegal.

Illegals are causing a lot of problems in our economy.

Meanwhile, I'm pouring money into my 401K and IRA's (a boon to the economy) because I don't believe I'll get my share of the social security pie when the time comes. And I'm not trading in my old shitboxmobile for another two or three years so i can economize and save more money. - What if I lose my job to an illegal?

RobFunk said:

If anyone has ever tried to start a thread where the title has absolutely jack shit to do with the article inside, this is it.

Click to expand...

I thought I'd clicked on the wrong link until I read this bit...

BASEHEAD said:

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Tulsa? If this isnt "middle class" Robby I dont what is.

Click to expand...

Recent statistics published by Nielsen/NetRatings found that 70 per cent of Mac users have a degree, compared with 54 per cent of all web users. They also tend to be at the higher end of the income bracket

Tulsa may be middle class, but Mac Users aren't exactly the best test demographic to highlight the health of the middle class economy.

ktvvegas said:

Recent statistics published by Nielsen/NetRatings found that 70 per cent of Mac users have a degree, compared with 54 per cent of all web users. They also tend to be at the higher end of the income bracket

Tulsa may be middle class, but Mac Users aren't exactly the best test demographic to highlight the health of the middle class economy.

Click to expand...

Hey ktv - it's well known out there in the working world that Macs are aimed at and widely used by engineers - and they have degrees.

In the US, apple accounts for 3% to 5% of all computer sales.

Outside of cadcam, I don't think macs have a very broad following.

the "right brainers" like Apple Computers as well

ktvvegas said:

Recent statistics published by Nielsen/NetRatings found that 70 per cent of Mac users have a degree, compared with 54 per cent of all web users. They also tend to be at the higher end of the income bracket

Tulsa may be middle class, but Mac Users aren't exactly the best test demographic to highlight the health of the middle class economy.

Click to expand...

Stretchin'....

Apple stores offer much more than Macs...What about ipods and iphones? Certainly you wont tell me all those people waiting in line for a couple of days for the phone or all the folks I see with iPods have degrees (or even GEDs).

Fill-up fact wallet takes hit: Oil price vulnerability

by: LAURIE WINSLOW World Staff Writer
6/20/2007


Oklahoma ranks No. 6 in feeling the hardest petroleum price pinch.



Oklahomans are more likely to be affected by higher oil prices than residents of other states, according to a report released Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Oklahoma ranks No. 6 in being vulnerable to oil price increases.

The ranking is based on the average percentage of income that states' drivers spend on gasoline.

Generally, the most vulnerable states are in the South and the least vulnerable are in the Northeast.

Mississippi is ranked as the most vulnerable state, where residents spend an average of more than 6 percent of their per capita income on gasoline.

Connecticut, by contrast, is the least vulnerable; its citizens spend about 2.5 percent of their income on gasoline.

Oklahoma residents on average spend 5.07 percent of their per capita income on gasoline, for an average of $1,620.96 a year.

Gasoline prices affect everyone, but because of the state's low cost of living, Oklahomans perhaps have more discretionary income to spend after meeting other expenses such as mortgage payments and consumable goods, said Bob Ball, economic research manager for the Tulsa Metro Chamber.

"We've got more money to spend to begin with, so we've got a little more cushion to absorb for a longer period of time than other parts of the country," he said.

As income rises, people spend a smaller portion of their income at the gasoline pump.

"You just don't drive more because you earn more," Ball said.

If a person experiences a 10 percent gain in income, for example, that doesn't mean that individual's gasoline consumption also will rise 10 percent.

"We're an income-generating state, and certainly here in Tulsa we're generating a lot of income," Ball said.

Oklahoma's per capita income growth rate was the third-highest in the nation from 2005 to 2006, according to data released earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Overall, Oklahoma's per capita personal income grew from $29,948 in 2005 to $32,210 last year, a 7.6 percent rate.

Per capita income is determined by dividing the total income of a geographic area by the area's total population.

Mining, including oil and gas extraction, contributed a large part to Oklahoma's per capita income growth rate.

Despite having one of the highest growth rates, however, Oklahoma's per capita personal income of $32,210 ranked 37th in the nation last year.

The Natural Resources Defense Council report also ranks states based on what they are doing to wean themselves from oil, such as promoting efficient cars, clean fuels and smart growth.

Eleven states, for example, have adopted No. 1-ranked California's "clean cars" program, which places stringent limits on global warming pollution from new vehicles, according to the report.

Oklahoma is No. 18 in this ranking, and received positive marks for having hybrid tax incentives and biofuels refueling station tax credits.

The state ranked No. 31 for its percentage of transit spending to highway spending in 2005, according to the report.

Among the states doing the least to reduce their oil dependence were Mississippi, West Virginia and Wyoming, the report says.

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Tulsa World.

bblight said:

Hey ktv - it's well known out there in the working world that Macs are aimed at and widely used by engineers - and they have degrees.

In the US, apple accounts for 3% to 5% of all computer sales.

Outside of cadcam, I don't think macs have a very broad following.

Click to expand...

Mac's biggest demographic has always been graphic layout/design (and more recently, media editing). Magazine/newspapers single handidly kept the Macs alive for many years. Recently Mac has incorporated emulators to run Windows software - but they are still considered the choice for serious graphics/layout people. To be honest, I didn't know that CAD users used Mac's much. The only experience I had with Auto-Cad were always on PC machines.

Your numbers support my response to Basehead. Saying that people are excited at a Mac store is like saying there's real buzz over at the Porsche dealership. It's a good thing, but I wouldn't say it's a bellwether for middle class consumer strength.

ktvvegas said:

Mac's biggest demographic has always been graphic layout/design (and more recently, media editing). Magazine/newspapers single handidly kept the Macs alive for many years. Recently Mac has incorporated emulators to run Windows software - but they are still considered the choice for serious graphics/layout people. To be honest, I didn't know that CAD users used Mac's much. The only experience I had with Auto-Cad were always on PC machines.

Your numbers support my response to Basehead. Saying that people are excited at a Mac store is like saying there's real buzz over at the Porsche dealership. It's a good thing, but I wouldn't say it's a bellwether for middle class consumer strength.

Click to expand...

Im not really even trying to contradict you Ktvvegas,the numbers (not mine) actually support the main title of the thread.Thats contrary to Robs assertion from a while back the "middle class" were worse off now than in the great depression,when in fact they have (even in the 37th per capita income state) have the extra $$$ money for such frivolous things as ipods and iphones.

How many of those people were waiting in line for macs? Not many.

ktvvegas said:

Mac's biggest demographic has always been graphic layout/design (and more recently, media editing). Magazine/newspapers single handidly kept the Macs alive for many years. Recently Mac has incorporated emulators to run Windows software - but they are still considered the choice for serious graphics/layout people. To be honest, I didn't know that CAD users used Mac's much. The only experience I had with Auto-Cad were always on PC machines.

Your numbers support my response to Basehead. Saying that people are excited at a Mac store is like saying there's real buzz over at the Porsche dealership. It's a good thing, but I wouldn't say it's a bellwether for middle class consumer strength.

Click to expand...

I didn't know about the print side of it - all of the engineers I know ( several dozen), all prefer Macs.

Everyone else prefers windows and windows PCs (I prefer HP myself - and windows)

I go all the way back to the old IBM 36 and IBM 38 with MAPICS and COPICS - kb systems that were very cutting edge in their day. Hell, I rmember the bad old days before that when EVERYTHING was paper.

How the hell did we ever do a change order for anything?

And how did we manage without exception reporting?

How things have changed.

Looking at the title of this thing - in large aprt, the great depression was caused by margin spending and too much inventory, two things the computer have made impossible to get out of hand nowadays.

The largest single reason for the Great Depression is what's called buying "on margin." This meant simply that all you had to do was have 10% of the purchase price of a given stock or security, but that you were subject to a "margin call." The margin call meant that the creditor could at any time demand the other 90% of the purchase price at any time. This was obviously heavily destabilizing when the margin call was made, and noone could pony up.

The margin system, in combination with a lack of market security locks, and a nasty systemic bank failure tanked the whole ship. Some say that the bank failure was started a rumor that led to widespread withdrawls that led to the failures. The same widespread withdrawls are what caused the margin calls.

It is highly unlikely that something like that would happen in today's economy because they would just lock the market for a period of time. We may be looking at an upcoming recession, but that's just cyclical. There are many controls to assure that we don't face another depression, let alone another Great Depression.

If any of you watched the documentary the dark side of the looking glass...I suppose anything is possible, but unlikely.

Romanowski said:

how clever

indeed we are not living in any depression, but we are living in an influx of dollars being printed and lent

causing inflation

similar to what preceded the depression etc

Click to expand...

GREAT POINT.

90% of the people in this thread have no idea what you meant ... they see an Apple store and think the economy is doing well ... that is the clueless American public for you.

cincy_ said:

GREAT POINT.

90% of the people in this thread have no idea what you meant ... they see an Apple store and think the economy is doing well ... that is the clueless American public for you.

Click to expand...

8 people including you posted in this thread.

90% of 8 is 7 people (rounded down). Does the 90% include you?

cincy_ said:

GREAT POINT.

90% of the people in this thread have no idea what you meant ... they see an Apple store and think the economy is doing well ... that is the clueless American public for you.

Click to expand...

Explain to me Cincy what your gage is for an economy doing "well".

The many variables that are universally used point towards an economy that is strong and sustained.Even through the housing downturn and two wars the economy is now still showing resiliency.The reason an ipod is 200 and the iphone is 500 is because of inflation.Same reason a loaf of bread isnt a nickle anymore.However when demand is still outpacing supply (in many categories-but consumer electronics is a great example),regardless of inflation adjusted retail prices,Id say were talking about a healthy economy.Ill concede that the means which people abuse credit is in an epidemic stage-but that still propels the economy.Cant fault the economy for the publics irresponsibility.However since the consumers of America have been this way for quite a while and the ecomony still operates in clearly visible cycles,Ill play the historical trends.

Its fine if you beleive the US economy is in dire straights because at any moment the worlds going to cash in thier debt and leave the USD worthless,but Im not so sure that will ever happen so Ill plan accordingly.I wont be stocking the pantry with nonperisable goods and h20 in case the bread lines run short.

ktvvegas said:

8 people including you posted in this thread.

90% of 8 is 7 people (rounded down). Does the 90% include you?

Click to expand...

All I know is that YOU don't ... google it a few times and read up on it for a few hours and then we'll talk.

Demographics is the key to why the economy is going into the shitter. Think of baby boomers retiring. Think of white people not having kids, especially the richer ones. Think of non-whites immigrating like crazy and having lots of kids, especially the poorer ones.

Demographics happen slowly and gradually. Markets crash abruptly because of human psychology. People cling to their hopes as long as possible until the writing is in such gigantic letters on the wall that there is no more mistaking it. Then panic sets in and *boom*. At that point it will be too late to do anything about it. All preparations must be done in advance while things still look rosy.

Five to ten years max is the most we have left of this artificial boom period. Enjoy it while you can and prepare for the new paradigm.