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Every time I read a story like this I am embarrassed for the human race at the way some people behave and what they will do to get a cheap laptop, including, but not limited to pushing or knocking other (sometimes elderly) people down with no regard for their welfare.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/08/16/computer.frenzy.ap/index.html

Direct quote from the article, including a statement made by one young man who showed up:

Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him.
"I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, 'Bam,"' the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.

"They were getting in front of me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought that it was just," he said.

It isn't right to cut in line, but to beat people with a chair because of it is crazy!

I always thought Apple fans were a little nutty. You wouldn't see that if they were selling 4 year old Dells.

WOW, I didn't realize that it could get worse than Black Friday at Wal*Mart!

The local news showed a video of the stampede. It looked like one of those videos that most of us have seen when people are trying to get out of a burning building. The school screwed up when they decided to sell those laptops in a bad section of town.

Some teenagers tried to help and protect the elderly so that was nice to see. Unfortunately there weren't enough of the good kids around on that day.

A police rep said they may use the tv footage to prosecute the punks.

Click slide show for more pictures

CowboySlim wrote:WOW, I didn't realize that it could get worse than Black Friday at Wal*Mart!

I thought of that Walmart story when I read this one.

Ian wrote:I always thought Apple fans were a little nutty. You wouldn't see that if they were selling 4 year old Dells.

I can assure you that most Apple folks like me would consider being associated with a mob like that quite an insult! You wouldn't see a line like that if they were selling 4 year old Dells? Probably true, but only because a 4 year old Mac is still very well usable with modern day apps, while your average 4 year old Dell most certaintly wouldn't be.

Ian wrote:I always thought Apple fans were a little nutty. You wouldn't see that if they were selling 4 year old Dells.

Oh, I think you would. It just depends on where you sell them and who to. It's kind of like the Black Friday sales where someone like CompUSA puts new PC laptops on sale for $399 (fine print that no-one reads: after filling out four mail-in-rebate forms) with only 10-15 units available per store. I've seen some of those get really ugly. Usually, the more low-brow a retail outlet is, the bigger the chance.

In this case, the notebooks were so cheap that a used model of the same type would still likely fetch more on Ebay (if they're the white iBooks as opposed to the fruit-flavored ones, probably 4x that $50 price) if in good condition. The school created a feeding frenzy. Not their fault, though.

It really scares me to continue to realize just how true the novel "Lord of the Flies" is. I have always hoped we had advanced further than that.

aviationwiz wrote:while your average 4 year old Dell most certaintly wouldn't be.

*is still using a very low-end 4-year-old Dell laptop as the primary computer for all my day-to-day use, programming, etc.*