Kim Jong-Un Found To Be Mac User 195
jones_supa writes: He might hate the United States, but he sure digs those designed-in-California computers. You probably wouldn't take Kim Jong-un as a Mac user. Usually, in photos of him checking out military computers, we see the North Korean dictator in front of a PC with a Dell monitor. However, a handful of photos of the supreme leader at his own desk show him with Macs, leading to the assumption that while the military may use PCs, his personal preference is Mac. Reuters correspondent James Pearson, who covers both Koreas, tweeted out a fresh image of little Kim using a MacBook Pro inside an aircraft. There are other images, including a 2013 image of Kim Jong-un at his desk with an iMac. That same year, the South Korean newspaper Chosun published a photo from North Korean Central News Agency, which features an Apple iMac. This might also explain why the country's home-grown Linux distribution Red Star imitates OS X.
Interesting. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Interesting. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Interesting. (Score:4, Funny)
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Have you seen his hair?
And he does seem to have a crush on Dennis Rodman.
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Overall that fellow looks pretty ill, check the hands where they forgot to put make up, overindulging much. Let's hope next time he leaves the country, they stop dicking about and simply arrest the ass hat for crimes against humanity and be done with it, same for the rest of the North Korean leadership. No more talks, just total isolation and arrest and prosecution at first opportunity. Just make North Korea China's problem in every way possible and make them deal with the resource and economic drain. Much
Re:Interesting. (Score:4, Informative)
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Yea, no way that could go wrong says the guy who clearly doesn't live in Seoul, South Korea with their family and all their assets within marching distance from over a million North Korean soldiers.
Are you speaking from personal experience? Are you genuinely afraid? I have been to North Korea and the idea that they are a serious threat to the southern part of the peninsula is laughable. They face not one, but two powerful armies on the same border. Their military is woefully out of date, and despite their pride, they do recognize that they don't stand much of a chance in a fight against the combined South Korean and US militaries. China does NOT have their back on almost any issue. The China-DPRK
Re:Interesting. (Score:5, Interesting)
It's surprising that China has not been more forceful with NK. China's leadership are all closet capitalists and are very pragmatic. Every move NK makes only increases the size of the US military footprint in the region. Japan and SK are requesting the US to deploy missile defense batteries in the region. Missile defense systems that could very easily be used to degrade China's offensive and defensive missile forces. That is the last thing China wants to see.
Re:Interesting. (Score:4, Insightful)
Conventional wisdom is that China props up the North Korean government because if it collapses, China will have 25 million starving refugees at their doorstep (not that they don't already, but for now at least they aren't China's problem).
What actions China considers the best ones to accomplish that goal, and whether they are correct about the efficacy of their approach, is way above my pay grade.
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If the NK government collapses I think you might see a lot of Chinese citizens and other countries rushing into NK looking for fresh business opportunities. The deciding factor would be how the government collapsed and what is replacing it. Right now I think China is in a bind. I think they are afraid if they took a harder line and started issuing ultimatums NK would tell them to get bent and do so very publicly. China would end up looking like the US in dealing with Syria.
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As George W. Bush said in an early interview, "I just don't believe in nation building." (words to that effect), a point he vastly demonstrated in Iraq.
Whatever China does, it probably won't resemble anything USA would do, so perhaps they are doing something, just not in a way the West understands.
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Whatever China does, it probably won't resemble anything USA would do, so perhaps they are doing something, just not in a way the West understands.
China doesn't have access to some secret mystery of the East when it comes to politics, or anything else in fact.
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The business opportunities wouldn't be in retail, but in manufacturing.
They would have a trained workforce available for pennies on the dollar.
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Long term game. Get in at ground level.
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China supports NK because the US supports SK. China doesn't want to end up with a country heavily supported (in military terms) by the US on its border.
It's a tricky situation to resolve. SK and Japan are both somewhat reliant on the US for weapons and protection. If the US could withdraw it might be possible for the two halves of Korea to start negotiating a proper peace, but it won't because SK and to a less extent Japan want it there. That means NK will keep developing nuclear weapons and long range miss
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China doesn't do much because as it currently stands it can not, too many fingers in the pie and too many demands placed upon what will happen. It is pretty much up to everyone else to wash their hands of North Korea and let it fester on China's doorstep and then they can and will do something about it. How the reuniting goes with South Korea some number of years or even decades occurs, is another question, as long as the current mess is solved, the future one can be tackled at a future date, as long as th
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It's surprising that China has not been more forceful with NK. China's leadership are all closet capitalists and are very pragmatic. Every move NK makes only increases the size of the US military footprint in the region. Japan and SK are requesting the US to deploy missile defense batteries in the region. Missile defense systems that could very easily be used to degrade China's offensive and defensive missile forces. That is the last thing China wants to see.
I have been to both countries and talked with average citizens of both. The west vastly overestimates China's influence over the DPRK. North Korea might have been China's puppet 60 years ago, but that is not the case now. China is the DPRK's biggest trade partner, they know it, and they abuse that situation at every opportunity.
China has the longest land border of any country, and they border with 14 sovereign states (tied with Russia). They don't want any more adversaries on their doorstep, especia
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I'm pretty sure that China doesn't like the current situation either, but they view it as preferable to any of the alternatives. Hence their somewhat tepid support of North Korea. If I was North Korea I'd be careful though. If China decides they'd be better off without North Korea, it won't be good for Kim Jong-Un.
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Have you seen his hair?
I had no idea he was gay.
Depends what one means by "gay" or "gay hair".
I guess that technically you could say Kim Jong-Un's hair appears "homosexual" to me, but only in the sense that it always reminded me of a lesbian hairstyle more than anything...!
What exactly this says about a *man* wearing such a hairstyle, I have absolutely no bloody idea.
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Re: Interesting. (Score:4, Funny)
Wait, HE was the evil one?
Re: Interesting. (Score:4, Funny)
Wait a minute... so if Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump are twins, you assume Kim is the evil one for some reason?
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I had no idea he was gay.
Is your Gaydar offline today?
Walled garden (Score:2)
The "walled garden" reminds him of home.
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Someone can't take a joke. It's funny because it's about the "New and Improved Glorious Leader of the DPRK".
So here's another one to offend you:
Three women are standing in a row. The first on is 5' tall, the second one is 5'6, the third one is 6' tall.
Q. Which one's the transsexual?
A. The one with the turtleneck.
Does posting that joke make me a transphobic bigot?
Re:Interesting. (Score:4, Interesting)
Get that hook out of your mouth. The bait wasn't even that good! ;-)
Actually, a couple of years ago someone shared a racist joke with me. It's at this point that I'll share that I'm part black (as is known) and that the person who shared it with me is also black. While it might make you chuckle, there's a serious bent to it.
Q: When does a black man become a nigger?
A: When he leaves the room.
Funny? Maybe. True? Quite probably. Sad? Kinda sorta.
Sometimes there's value in humor. It's all how we look at it. Also, the AC's just a troll. They got some bites so you can't say they're unsuccessful. However, baiting with SJW-bait? That's probably considered poaching and it's almost certainly out of season.
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Any good humor should prick the conscience, because all humor ultimately makes fun of someone, even if it's just self-deprecating humor. Even "If I throw a white hat in the red sea, what does it become?" "Wet" has an implied "No, it doesn't become red, you dummy".
We're a cruel species, who watch (let our kids watch) all sorts of graphic bloody killings on TV and in movies, for entertainment.
Re: Interesting. (Score:2, Insightful)
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showing their true colors...
...says the AC.
All us Mac users . . . (Score:1)
Now have to deal with this cognitive dissonance. Yuck.
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Err... Why? Who gives a shit who else uses your OS? It's not a lifestyle choice, it's a fucking operating system. There's a bunch of them. Pick which ever one you like best and run with it. Pick the one that gives you the ability to accomplish the tasks you wish to accomplish, with the least hassles, and with the fewest compromises that you need to make in order to do so safely, peacefully, and with the greatest amount of ease possible.
It doesn't matter if it's Windows, OS X, BSD, MINIX, Linux, or whatever
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Err... Why? Who gives a shit who else uses your OS? It's not a lifestyle choice, it's a fucking operating system.
True, but it's been marketed (and bought) as if it *were* a lifestyle product, so it's not entirely surprising.
Also, was "his personal preference is Mac" in the summary actually meant to be a Penny Arcade reference [penny-arcade.com] or was it just me that thought of that...?!
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Err... Why? Who gives a shit who else uses your OS?.
Depends. Are you a hacker?
Not at all (Score:3)
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Not surprised at all
I am. Not that he uses a Mac, but that Apple has a legit reason to have the 'weapons of mass destruction' clause in their EULA!
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He prefers Macs--now we know he is evil.
You didn't see 24, ehh? We knew he was evil when we saw him with the DELL monitor, but now we know he's actually good.
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Going to the movies, I've come to realise the evil geniuses always have the best tech, and appreciate the finer things in life.
Meanwhile the good guys are the underdogs who have to build an effective defence out of some duct tape and a packet of stale potato chips.
Re:Not at all (Score:4, Funny)
Demonstrably false: Find one evil mac user.
I'll go there: Hitler was a mac user. Do I have to edit Wikipedia to prove it?
Who smuggled that in? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Who smuggled that in? (Score:5, Funny)
The Pyongyang Apple store has 1 big customer. He certainly thinks different.
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I thought you couldn't ship Apple stuff (Mac, iPhone , etc) to North Korea, so they must have smuggled it in from South Korea or China.
I be he's raffing at your silly restrictions as we speak.
Right after he finished the Lobster Thermidor with French Champaign served to him by a starving farm girl.
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It's not really smuggling when you're the government.
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Trade sanctions only hurt the average people, those with money and power can get everything they want via the black market.
Infact trade sanctions only help the rulers of north korea, as it becomes much easier for them to restrict the flow of information.
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I thought you couldn't ship Apple stuff (Mac, iPhone , etc) to North Korea, so they must have smuggled it in from South Korea or China.
What do you mean "ship"? Kim Jong-Un built it himself, overnight, using nothing but a screwdriver and a piece of patriotic Korean timber.
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Their ambassadors and embassy staff just buy stuff in China and ship it home. Sometimes NK tourists / sports teams do the same. NK isn't as closed as people think.
Obviously ! (Score:1)
Apple is for control freak mad dictators.
What's more like North Korea than the Apple store ? /s...
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Uh, they also have their own Linux distro.
Games (Score:3)
Thank god. Can you imagine how quickly the nukes would fly if Un had a PC and could play actual games? 10 minutes online and WW3 would start with the phrase "I'll nuclear launch detected you!"
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Except StarCraft has always been one of those Mac friendly games (I know I played it on System 7)! We're in trouble!
Think different (Score:5, Funny)
Seems he and his dad and granddad implemented that slogan a bit too literally.
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Like, really! Most despots just shoot folks who have fallen out of favor with them. Kim Jong-un kills them with mortar and anti-aircraft fire.
This is one endorsement that I doubt Apple will pick up on:
"Apple: Our technology helped bring North Korean ICBMs and H-Bombs to your front door in America!"
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I was mostly hinting at NK's isolated diplomatic position. Somebody that isolated most certainly thinks different.
Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdotters now concur on nuking North Korea.
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Slashdotters now concur on nuking North Korea.
Only way to be sure?
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"Seeketh ye not affirmation from others, for content is the man who seeketh not, but hath affirmation within himself."
http://www.psmag.com/health-an... [psmag.com]
According to the above content, drinking is awesome. I affirm this by drinking. Unfortunately, my girlfriend broke up with me.
Morale: sometimes you gotta dance as though there are a few people watching.
so THAT'S why NK's Sat is out of control (Score:3)
Re:so THAT'S why NK's Sat is out of control (Score:4, Interesting)
Among other things: massive hypocrite (Score:2)
Claims to hate the West and everything it stands for
Sure likes all our stuff though
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Yeah, that crazy megalomaniac dictator who wants to keep all the good stuff for himself is a hypocrite. Sure, keep telling yourself that.
You know, I'm pretty sure no matter the rhetoric, pisspot dictators have surrounded themselves in luxury trappings from the West to show themselves how awesome they are. You think he eschews status symbols and has the same shit as the rest of the plebes? Or do you think he surrounds himself with wealth and opulence to show he's the boss.
I don't see anything hypocritical
Photoshop, anybody (Score:5, Funny)
Macs are still the best platform for manipulating photos and videos, right?
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...only if you're targeting other Mac users. Since everyone else in North Korea is using PCs, Kim might not be using the right tool for the job.
Of course some people think Macs are great status symbols. Kim probably thinks that he's the envy of all his Generals. They probably just think it's a big and intolerable dufus with this whole Apple think just being the tip of the iceberg.
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The reason(s) why the Mac is sometimes said to be better in DTP, Graphic design and Video editing is simple really:
The Mac had the first consumer graphics environment and desktop publishing software, back in the 80's, so it made a name in that field since there was really no competition. Then, graphic designers prefer it because they study in art schools and art schools select their computers for their design, so they still chose mac after it was no longer the only graphical environment. If you were taught
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I should have been much more clear. But what you say:
"Except you're a decade behind the times"
Is exactly what my point was. So is N Korea.
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Not so much any more. It's mostly inertia. At least at the magazine where I used to work. Back before I started working there, they'd transitioned to Macs in art and pre-press because that's where the good software was. A few years into my employment, the big software players in the market started offering dual licensing. I could buy 20, 30, 40 seats and put them on whatever platform I wanted. The software was the same either way with the exception of where menus showed up. When it came time to upgra
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Microsoft has had a very advanced graphics stack since Vista, improving with each little Windows version. I am pretty sure color management is part of it (now, how the f... can you get font anti-aliasing WITHOUT Cleartype? I don't know)
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Awww. We can +5 jokes about Mac users being gay but one little friendly jab at Linux (for legit criticisms, mind you...) and the negative mods come out.
Nothing Butt Jokes (Score:1)
What's to comment on this story other than to make a bunch of jokes? There might be a slight increase in Apple hacks as people want to hack his system? But the government probably has known this for awhile, assuming they cared about it.
It was more important that Jerry Seinfeld had a Mac.
Old News (Score:1)
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The official North Korean "Red Star OS" is a Mac clone Linux distro. There are YouTube videos of it in action.
Yeah, just like Linus T., Kimmy-Boy actually uses Linux on his Mac.
If this doesn't convince people... (Score:1)
Apple computers (Score:2)
Here's to the crazy ones... (Score:2)
Truth in advertising?
iPhone (Score:2)
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the country's home-grown Linux distribution Red St (Score:2)
the country's home-grown Linux distribution Red Star imitates OS X
Well, once Apple's lawyers hear about this, it's game over for North Korea.
Unleash the hounds^W lawyers!
systemd (Score:5, Funny)
To be fair, before he got a Mac, Kim had a Linux machine. He gave up when he couldn't get the audio drivers to work. I heard on the news that he had a bunch of his kernels executed.
Hitler was driving Mercedes (Score:5, Insightful)
Hitler was driving Mercedes. Rich dictator fucks like expensive stuff. News at 11.
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No. He went more with: personally extort 10% of every contract as a kickback and if they squawk, expropriate everything.
Hitler was the richest man in history and never worked an honest day. All government work. Germany was just bigger. More alike than different.
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He was definitely the richest man in the 20th century.
It's only when you get into shady history that questions arise. Rothschild, the pharaoh, the pope etc.
I attribute those old giant wealth stories to mythology. Technological progress and all. Still...Rothschild? By the time that got really huge it was a family, not an individual.
Mein Kampf was a very expensive book. He did make millions on that alone. But there was a time when every 'good German' HAD to have a copy. so it's not like that wasn't aff
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Mercedes was a both german company and a military supplier to the german army. The parent company Daimler-Benz also produced aircraft, tanks, and submarine engines.
Hitler driving a Mercedes isn't really the same thing at all.
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Yeah, it's not like Hitler was driving a Renault or a Morris. Now what would have been really funny is if Kim was seen using a Samsung or a LG computer.
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Kim Jong Un doesn't have to worry about pesky elections, so you won't be seeing any similar overtures to the North Korean people. Kinda sad when Hitler actual
Let me guess! (Score:1)
He also poops like the rest of us.
I gotta tweet about this.
Make sense (Score:3)
He hates freedom and his a control freak.
Seems reasonable (Score:5, Insightful)
In Russia.. no wait.. (Score:2)
In North Korea ... (Score:2)
The format wars lead to real deaths.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worl... [bbc.co.uk]
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For all we know it's yet another general that has retired and since South Koreans have noticed he's not around anymore, here is a canned news story that he was executed. The guy will spend the next 20 years with his wife, somewhere far enough from the camera field. Sometimes you can just fire somebody, rather than fire anti-tank rounds at somebody.
News story : Apple spies report that Microsoft had Steve Ballmer executed.
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I gave up swearing years ago, along with a few other choice words, in the real life world. Took only a week, no big deal. You'd be amazed at how many people go "really?" like they couldn't do it. Or maybe they can't.
At least people know that when I'm with them, they might have to apologize for something I say, but NOT the way I say it. Plus, people are more likely not to get distracted from your point if you're swearing like you could blister the paint off a battleship.
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