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Fire Evacuees Saving Macs But Not PCs

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Picture by Manntar

Dave Horrigan, a tech columnist who lives in San Diego, just sent a note from Southern California’s fire-scorched front lines. He writes:

“I’m about 1 mile downwind of one of the fires in San Diego and as such have been watching the news closely. I see images of many people evacuating with their iMacs but I’ve seen no one evacuating with a PC in their arms. Of course its Rancho Santa Fe, but surely there is some rich guy here with a PC he wants to save?”

About the author

Leander Kahney

Leander Kahney is senior editor of Cult of Mac, editor of two books about technology culture, Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, and has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Observer in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

Email the author | Read more posts by Leander Kahney.

11 comments

    Hey, where was this shot? Great photo. I live in SD (luckily out of harm’s way so far) and I was trying to figure out where this picture was taken. If it is in RSF, where exactly? Just curious.

    MacGuyinCali

    HAHAHHA I LOVE IT

    This is totally random, but I wonder if some people opted to pop out their HD and leave the rest of the box behind… I mean, if I was tasked with grabbing all my data before the fire hit I may go with the lightest option (I.E., just the HD) Macs are a little more cumbersome in this regard….

    The Macs (Mini and MacBook Pro) were the first thing I packed, followed by my cameras, but in the end, I packed the PC towers too. Though not as cautiously as I did the Macs.

    I live in San Diego (Scripps Ranch) and was evacuated, but thankfully am back home. One of the first things I grabbed was my MacBook Pro, Wireless Mighty Mouse, and my Western Digital external hard drive. Can’t leave home without my MBP! This thing in my baby! Oh, and awesome looking photo!

    Do you think it might be because the Macs cost 30% – 100% more than the PCs to replace?

    Its ironic though, that to begin with, the fire probably started from another exploding macbook battery :-)

    This is just the sort of BS reporting that fuels the fires (sorry) about bigoted Mac zealots who cannot do anything but flame (oops) writers who say anything negative about their beloved computers. Heck, I’m as much a Mac fan as anyone, and I don’t own a Windows machine, and I see you filed this under humor, but really… get a grip. As for rescuing a computer from a fire, I’d just grab the back up drive.

    There was a “dumpster amnesty day” recently that included a spot where people could drop off computers for recycling. I saw lots of PC desktops, but nothing that was obviously a Mac.

    Weak. Just not even funny in light of the tradgedy unfolding in SoCal.

    It looks like it might be the Harris Fire at the base of Mt San Miguel.

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