The Macalope

Adobe’s John Dowdell posted a response to the Macalope’s Fools of the Year piece and it appears the horny one mischaracterized Dowdell’s rationale for his comment about Adobe being more ethical than Apple.

Dowdell says that was not, as the Macalope stated, about Flash but about Steve Jobs not publicly reporting his health condition in 2009.

So, the Macalope sincerely apologizes for that.

Of course, he doesn’t at all agree with his judgement that that somehow makes Apple unethical, but it’s certainly a more reasonable argument than the business decision not to allow Flash on iOS. As the Macalope has stated previously, he doesn’t think the public or even the individual Apple investor has a right to know the health conditions of any Apple executive. That’s what the board is for.

Two small corrections for Dowdell:

1. The Macalope is pseudonymous, not anonymous.
2. It’s “Macworld” not “MacWorld”.

As a side note about Dowdell’s claim that he couldn’t comment, the Macalope has had his own trouble with Macworld.com’s commenting system. There have been a number of times when the system’s initially said he was logged in but then wouldn’t let him comment. So he’s inclined to think Dowdell’s troubles are probably legitimate rather than from laziness or stupidity.

Here are the also-rans of this year’s list of fools.

14. Jenna Wortham

There’s an annoying predilection among pundits to try to be the first to call a new wave and Jenna probably thought she was on to something when she wrote a year ago that Apple’s “spell” was “wearing off”.

What was her evidence? Derogatory comments about the company on blogs and Facebook. Are you new on the Internet or something, Jenna?

13. Tony Bradley

Bradley made the top 10 last year but dropped off the list this year. Despite that fact that he said that Google was uniquely qualified to create an iPad-killer because all it had to do was build on the iPhone-killing Nexus One.

Really. He said that. Almost exactly like that. No, really. OK, fine, here’s the quote.

It only makes sense that Google would take its “iPhone killer” Nexus One initiative to the next level and deliver an Android-based “iPad killer” as well.

Yeah, see, you didn’t believe the Macalope, but there it is.

He also, like many a silly pundit, unquestioningly quoted a pro-Android survey that anyone reasonable would have noticed had a rather substantial selection bias.

Still, not enough to make this year’s list when the competition is so tough.

12. Joshua Kors

Kors was under serious consideration for a while but ultimately the Macalope decided his supposedly jokey failed attempt to switch to the Mac was simply too pathetic to include. Apparently it was “satire” and the fact that you Apple fanatics missed that, well, that just shows your zealotry. Even if it wasn’t even the slightest bit funny.

Also, Kors would like everyone to know that because he got some mean emails and comments, he’s a victim just like gay teens who suffer actual bullying.

He really made that comparison. Hard to believe, but he really did.

11. David Goldman

Goldman was a late drop from the list when Brett Arends decided to plagiarize Brett Arends.

Back in May, Goldman claimed Apple was losing touch with its customer base. The customer base that keeps growing and growing and growing. That customer base.

One of Goldman’s complaints was the “epic hissy fit” he says the company threw over the missing iPhone 4 incident. The “epic hissy fit” that consisted of calling the police because someone was trying to sell their misappropriate property. That “epic hissy fit”.

Goldman displayed his tenuous grasp of reality again last month when he said Apple really needed “to kill it with the iPad 2″ because the Xoom was so super-awesome and was cheaper! Provided one ignored the fine print about having to get locked into a two-year contract.

With financial advice like that, the Macalope would hate to look at Goldman’s mortgage or car payment arrangements.

Another year, another collection of Apple Fools. Read it and weep. For humanity.