Piqued

So the market suffered a pretty serious decline at the beginning of this week. And once again, the Fed used their all-powerful control over interest rates to balance the drop. I understand that a balancing force like the Fed does encourage investment by reducing the risk to investors of a sudden drop like the one that triggered the Great Depression. However, it also tends to mask the underlying issues behind market declines like we saw this week. Chief among these is the fact that the US dollar continues to fall compared to foreign currencies, which may be a sign of a weakening economy. This devaluation of our currency also hurts our buying power in the world market. Of course, it also means we may finally start balancing our trade deficit by exporting more. And that could be a very good thing for portions of the market.

Still, I can’t help but think that the optimism of some on Wall Street about the market’s ability to rebound is a bit unrealistic when you look at government fiscal policy. As we continue to run up our national debt by borrowing money to fund foreign activities and domestic welfare programs, our national fiscal crisis becomes ever more dire. While this may not seriously affect the marketplace right now, I do not think it bodes well for the future. Our national debt is currently over $9 trillion and growing, and one must wonder how the government will ever pay this off. I can think of a few possibilities, only one of which could benefit the economy.

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First off, I apologize for the inactivity of the past month+.  Part of that was busyness (lots of traveling over Christmas break, and other preoccupations), and another part laziness.  I think I’m going to shoot for a more reasonable blog schedule…as in, once a week or so.  Hopefully…

This week’s topic is Apple vs. Microsoft (particularly their competing computing platforms).  Yes, it’s been debated to death already, but as a Computer Science major who’s fairly familiar with the subject of computer platforms and OSes, I thought I’d write something about it.

Personal Bias

Before we get into some of the fundamental differences between the two computer companies and their strengths/weaknesses, I think it’s important to point out what I think fuels a lot of the bickering between Apple fanboys and PC defenders (specifically, Windows PCs): familiarity and personal investment. 

One reason I run Windows machines and prefer to work with them is that those are the computers I grew up using.  From Windows 3.1 to 95, 98, 98 SE, ME, XP and now Vista, I’ve grown up with Windows and am familiar with where most everything is located in Windows.  Thus, I am pretty efficient at configuring my PC to do what I want it to do.  I’m also accustomed to using a variety of 3rd party applications which run in Windows, many of which aren’t available for Mac.  So naturally, I’d rather run an OS I’m used to and don’t have to learn all over again.  It’s for this reason that I tend to get frustrated whenever I use a Mac.  It’s not because it’s necessarily worse, it’s just different and not as intuitive to my Windows-trained mind.  I think this is why a lot of Windows people don’t like Mac, and why a lot of Mac people find Windows frustrating. 

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