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EU to Ban Macs 182

Posted by Zonk from the bite-out-of-the-apple dept.
johnalex writes "Digit Online News is reporting that 'The European Union has revealed it is to ban the sale and use of Apple Macintosh computers by 2006 - citing the need for unification in a directive unveiled today.' Reasons for the ban include that 'Apple's lack of floppy disk drive is discriminatory to EU residents, and that the Apple logo doesn't hail from the apple-growing regions of Southern France.'"
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EU to Ban Macs More

EU to Ban Macs

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  • Join the cause! (Score:3, Informative)

    by antikarma ( 804155 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @07:58PM (#12117211)
    In protest of the April Fools insanity, I am replying to all news items with the following... Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.

  • Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)

    by Omnieiunium ( 872399 ) <canadiancanuck@C ... minus physicist> on Friday April 01, 2005 @07:58PM (#12117212) Journal
    Anyone else want to /. /.?

  • 56 april fools in one day (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Seft ( 659449 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @07:59PM (#12117215)
    I'm glad I'm not a subscriber.


    Imagine paying for this...
    • Imagine bothering to complain about what Slashdot has been doing on April fools for the last... what, 6 years? 7? You know it's coming. You know that this site does not and has never taken itself that seriously.

      Hell, I'm off to sign up as a subscriber. This is some of the best stuff Slashdot has put together!

      That bit on unrolling the idle loop had me gasping for air!

      • Re: 56 april fools in one day (Score:5, Insightful)

        by gidds ( 56397 ) <slashdot.gidds@me@uk> on Friday April 01, 2005 @10:00PM (#12117976) Homepage
        Yeah, but isn't the whole point of April Fool's to, like, you know, fool people?

        One subtle and clever hoax amongst four or five genuine articles may fool many people, and bring real pleasure to the rest. But five obvious and poorly-done hoaxes out of five isn't even going to fool my cat. (And it's not even a particularly clever cat...)

        If you can tell it's a hoax from the title, it's not written very well. The best hoaxes start off completely plausibly, and become more bizarre slowly, so only by the end do you realise you've been fooled.

        (But, hey, who reads the whole article, let alone the link, so we'd better fit the whole hoax into 10 words of title, huh?)

    • I got moderator points on April the 1st, of all days. This is not funny...

  • First post? (Score:2, Funny)

    by mike5904 ( 831108 )
    As if anyone is still commenting anyway.

  • Floppy Disk (Score:5, Funny)

    by PMJ2kx ( 828679 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @07:59PM (#12117227) Journal
    'Apple's lack of floppy disk drive is discriminatory to EU residents..." *scratches head* Boy, that's funny, considering most PC's from Dell, Gateway, HP, etc don't come with one, either.
    • 'Apple's lack of floppy disk drive is discriminatory to EU residents..." *scratches head* Boy, that's funny, considering most PC's from Dell, Gateway, HP, etc don't come with one, either.

      I give you your fool!

  • Aargh.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tony Hoyle ( 11698 ) <tmh@nodomain.org> on Friday April 01, 2005 @07:59PM (#12117228) Homepage
    Late, unfunny *and* anti-EU.

    Can they get any worse?

    (No, don't answer that.. please..)

    • Re:Aargh.. (Score:5, Funny)

      by cant_get_a_good_nick ( 172131 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @08:11PM (#12117406)
      Netcrraft Confirms, quality April Fools Stories are dying...

    • Late, unfunny *and* anti-EU

      Would you complain so much if the post were "late, unfunny *and* anti-American"?

      Just a thought from the other side of the pond...

      • Re:Aargh.. (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Tony Hoyle ( 11698 )
        Yes, actually.

        There's too much damned politics on slashdot already (although it seems to be a fixation with you on that side of the pond - we laugh about it over a beer, and you flame each other incessantly on slashdot. I know which I prefer.. I *like* beer. Especially free beer.).

        • Re:Aargh.. (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Money for Nothin' ( 754763 )
          Well, the alternative is to have a government that realizes its populace doesn't pay attention to it, so it goes ahead and does whatever it wants (which, for as much as it seems like the U.S. govn't does this, even with something like our Terri Schiavo case, fundamentally our age-old system of checks-and-balances prevented the theocrats that seem to have taken over our govn't from imposing their will on Schiavo - i.e., our system still mostly works, despite the heavy-handed and politically-advantaged attemp
          • The bill that passed congress was not an attempt to impose "their will on Schiavo". It was simply a bill that allowed the case to be reviewed again, this time by a federal judge, and instructed the federal judge to review it without referencing the previous cases. There is a legal term for this, but, alas, IANAL. The judge did not do this, and just referred back to the previous rulings.

            I'm not saying that what the congress did was right, but it wasn't as horrible as many are making it seem.

  • QUICK.. before the day is over (Score:5, Funny)

    by linuxrunner ( 225041 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @07:59PM (#12117230)
    Yup.. gotta post all of those oh so funny funny April 1st stories before the day is over.

    An IRC channel would have banned these admins by now.

  • Join the protest! (Score:2, Informative)

    by DavW ( 872747 )
    Nothing for you to see here, please move along

  • About time too (Score:3, Funny)

    by EpsCylonB ( 307640 ) <eps&epscylonb,com> on Friday April 01, 2005 @07:59PM (#12117236) Homepage
    My friend billy g has been warning me of the dangers of these machines for years. Its about time someone finally did something about them.
  • Perhapse it's just because it's April 1st, but that sounds totally bogus. As far as floppy drives go, The lack of them would have been an issue five years ago. Most PC desktops and labtops no longer come with a floppy drive.
    • No, no, they're really serious. Not only does the EU insist that all computers "used for personal or business use" include a floppy drive, but they are also considering a ban upon external USB floppy drives since the only possible use of such devices is to circumvent the internal floppy. Strong consideration is being given to banning USB storage devices of all kinds, including flash drives and any pencils with automatic lead advance.

  • A bit too late... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Thijs van As ( 826224 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @08:00PM (#12117242) Journal
    It's April 2nd, isn't it?
  • Nothing for you to see here, please move along.
  • Its about time something like this happened! :P

  • I think you can stop now..... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TheWart ( 700842 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @08:01PM (#12117269)
    Come on, fake stories every two minutes? Isn't that a bit overkill?

    5:57
    5:55
    5:53
    5:51
    5:47
    5:44, etc, etc...with 5 of the 7 by taco...can you say dead horse?
  • The EU is where all the gay people live! And we all know which computers THEY prefer!
  • But right now, even though it's not covered in the news, the EU and Canada have slapped export tariffs on the US over our agricultural subsidies - in real life - so maybe they got confused and thought we were exporting real Apples - and bio-engineered ones at that.

    After all, some of the Gx series glow in the dark ...

    • Subsidies are really the flipside of tariffs... one lowers your prices to give you and advantage over the competition, and the other raises everyone elses prices to give you and advantage.

      The WTO is supposed to stop this kind of thing, but some contries get away with it (the french are major offenders.. something they have in common with the US at last!)
    • No, the Canadian and EU tariffs aren't over agricultural subsidies; they're over the soltwood lumber tariffs the US slapped on Canada several years ago. The US has collected over $2 billion dollars from Canadian businesses, and just to make it even more blatantly protectionist, plans to hand over those funds *directly to US lumber companies*. This has been found, in international arbitration, to be contrary to many trade agreements the US has signed,notably those relating to NAFTA and the WTO.

      It's stuf

      • (semi-intentionally flamish)

        Thousands of jobs lost? As long as they're not AMERICAN jobs, why should the US government give a shit?

        Seriously. Above and beyond anything else, senators and congressman care about getting reelected. They'll say or do whatever it takes to keep their jobs, and if that means fucking over rednecks in another country so their rednecks vote for them, they'll do it.

        Personally, I have a solid idea as to how the rest of the world "feels" and couldn't give a shit- if they're really

  • On behalf of the whole /. readership... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by One Childish N00b ( 780549 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @08:02PM (#12117298) Homepage
    Stop it.
  • I was about to rant and rave the usual rant and rave until I realized what day this is. Doh!

  • Are you missing the point? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nate nice ( 672391 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @08:04PM (#12117312) Journal
    I see so many people complaining about the April Fools stories being posted as they comment about how this isn't funny anymore, is stupid, etc. The point is, I think, Slashdot is collecting stories from around the Net and posting them...like they always do. It just so happens many Websites enjoy posting ludicrous stories today for obvious reasons. Slashdot is just here to collect them. Nothing is different than a typical day mainly. It's a theme, get it? So, complain about it if you will but you don't deserve anything and you can always read things elsewhere. I for one enjoy all the crazy stories they have gathered around the Net. It's like getting a free edition of the Onion between issues. Lighten up, it's fun. And RTFA at least today because many of them are rather amusing and entertaining. No one's trying to trick you...think of this as one big day of hanging around bizzaro world.
  • So many brain, so little creativity.

  • ENOUGH! ALREADY! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by furry_wookie ( 8361 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @08:06PM (#12117343)
    From the Wikipedia "April Fool's Day" entry: [wikipedia.org]
    Traditionally, pranks are supposed to end by noon. Those done afterwards are supposed to bring bad luck to the perpetrator.


    Curse the /. editors!..for not having enough sense to stop the 4/1 torture at the appointed hour.

  • Maybe if Apple had released Tiger as: (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheGuano ( 851573 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @08:06PM (#12117352)
    OS X N...

  • Bah (Score:1, Interesting)

    by HawksNest ( 842902 )
    whats with all tha mac basing lately(yes i know its the 1st)

  • getting old (Score:2, Insightful)

    by t_allardyce ( 48447 )
    Atleast make them good April fools, this is worse than spam. I say we ban all the lower IDs.
  • If I post a criticism of Apple or MacOS, I'll get modded up right?

    Example: Macs are kinda expensive for cash strapped college students who shouldn't take on extra debt. Maybe a cheap x86 machine would be a better choice.

    Pour on the mod points.

  • Enough Already (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sabat ( 23293 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @08:18PM (#12117452) Journal
    You guys are idiots.

  • JOhnPaul (Score:2, Funny)

    by thou ( 872772 )
    And the pope is dying .... no really!

  • No equal protection as a news organization (Score:3, Insightful)

    by macslut ( 724441 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @08:42PM (#12117577)
    Today, April 1, I came to realize why the courts decided that "bloggers" don't deserve the same protection under the law as real news organizations. I also came to realize why I appreciate The Onion and The Daily Show so much.

  • If You Don't Like It, Stop Replying (Score:3, Informative)

    by JenovaSynthesis ( 528503 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @08:45PM (#12117593)

    It is amazing how much people are bitching about how the April Fools joke entries are a waste of time/space/money/etc. But what is funny/ironic is that these people are wasting even more time to post and bitch about it.

    Just get over it already.

  • Enough already. It would be ok if these phony stories were remotely cute or kinda funny... but this is just stupidity.
  • the Apple logo doesn't hail from the apple-growing regions of Southern France.'" And this is bad how?

  • idiots (Score:5, Insightful)

    by harlows_monkeys ( 106428 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @09:06PM (#12117734) Homepage
    April fools jokes work best when you take the 500 ideas you have, and pick the one or two that are good, and do a great job on them. Posting the other 498 is just boring, tedious, and unfunny.

    Furthermore, it defeats the whole fucking point of April Fools: fooling people.

    If Slashdot snuck in one or two jokes among the usual postings, people might be fooled. Instead, people simply know that pretty much everything on Slashdot is worthless today, and ignore it. No one gets fooled.

    • You're right.... and wrong (Score:5, Interesting)

      by theolein ( 316044 ) on Friday April 01, 2005 @11:02PM (#12118166) Journal
      The real problem is that the slashdot editors have absolutely no sense or ability to coordinate articles. So what happens on a day like to today is that every slashdot editor and his mother, and possibly his aunt Maggy in the trailer park in NC as well, thinks he'll post a couple of April 1st joke articles for a lark.

      The result is the utter chaos and even a good round of the usual duping that make slashdot so unique.

  • umm..ok (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Temsi ( 452609 )
    I won't be checking Slashdot on April 1st, 2006.
    No way, no how.
    What a ginormous waste of time and energy.

    And the sad part is... you can't even post genuine news on this day, because everyone will just assume it's bullshit.

    I mean... one or two fake stories is fine, but every fucking one of them?
    Get a grip, admins... geez!
    • Did you expect anything except exactly this?

      This happens every year.

      You should check with that in mind.

      Hell, pretend they take off one day a year, and just don't check it.

      Whatever, I just came to the site to see if there were any more jokes since I left work... and there were. Laugh out loud funny? No. But worth a read, and a grin.
  • these just go on and on and on....
  • I remember when I actually used to laugh at the contributions because they seemed plausible. This is just not funny, not interesting. It's a piece of turd.
  • .. or is there some joke I'm just not getting? Ok, it's april 1st.. ha ha .. ha. *shrugs*

    Has there been any real news today?
  • "EU to ban Emacs"

    Certainly that would've been funnier.

  • C'mon already (Score:2, Insightful)

    by JonnyO ( 119156 )
    Guys, this is getting old. REAL old. I can appreciate a good April fools joke, especially the ones that almost sound believable because they make you pause for a second to do a quick mental what-if scenario, but this story is just lame.
  • an April 1 post that isn't some kind of spoof or joke.
  • Apple logo doesn't hail from the apple-growing regions of Southern France.

    While this may be a joke, there has been word of the EU insisting that things must be made in the area they originally came from, because doing otherwise would be cheating the inventors -- eg, the entire world's supply of cheddar cheese is supposed to be made in the small town of cheddar...

    Is there any government not staffed entirely by beurocratic fucktards?



    • More examples:
      • Feta cheese has to come from Greece, otherwise has to be called "Greek-Feta-style cheese"
      • Champagne has to come from the Champagne area, if not has to be called "Sparkling wine, Champagne style"

      Oddly though, it seems that it's only those people who make a fuss about it who get special treatment. For example, all the other cheeses named after places (e.g. Red Leicester, Double Gloucester, etc) don't get enforced. Whatever happened to articles 20 and 21 of the EU's (horribly bureaucratic,

    • I think you're being a little harsh. The goal is only a marketing one; it helps a group of producers maintain a distinct brand. This may help even the marketing playing field a bit by giving smaller companies association with a trademark(ish) value normally available only to large multinationals. Why not?
  • Real life is even more bizarre. The Beatles sued Apple for using the name Apple.

  • The good old days (Score:2, Insightful)

    by techguy911 ( 672069 )
    I remember back when April fools day here on Slashdot was fun, with ONE carefully crafted post which would always get me. Now I just feel like I'm being saturated with stupid, obvious, and not even funny posts. Next year they should make an easter egg challenge with a GOOD clever post that people have to work at to find.
  • Slashdot is not a news site. It says "news for nerds" but it is not a news site. It is a blog. Those of you who honestly believe slashdot to be a serious news site need to read real news, and probably get a life.

    Thus it follows that those of you who are bothered by the large amount of april fools jokes posted today need to pull the stick out of your ass, and read real news, and read slashdot as what it is, a technology blog, really no different than sites like engadget.

  • Christ! (Score:2, Funny)

    by talornin ( 745646 )
    Christ almighty!

    My heart acutaly stopped for a second. Damn these April jokes. I always get fooled >:(

  • Um, this sucks. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by piecewise ( 169377 ) on Saturday April 02, 2005 @04:10AM (#12118978) Journal
    Yeah, this really isn't funny at all. The trick is to make it shockingly believable at first - whereas this is just outrageous and stupid. Thrill me next year.
  • the bit about Southern France made it believeable for me. Well, that and the fact that I read it on the 2nd. And government in general seems like it might be just stupid enough to pass something like this...

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