Month: October 2006

In the wake of MacAddict’s decision to change its name to Mac|Life, another venerable Mac news source has also decided to change its name.

Earlier today, Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber announced that “In order to better reflect its focus on news about deceased film maker Stanley Kubrick and playoff-eliminated baseball team the New York Yankees, I have decided to rename the site Stanley Yankeeball.”

According to Gruber, the site’s Apple focus was appropriate in a different age when the desktop operating system mattered, but now that the Internet is the new operating system there’s no point in covering Apple or OS X. Or Microsoft or Windows for that matter.

“It’s all so pointless,” Gruber sighed, waiting for a burrito to finish microwaving so his Airport connection would come back up and he could regain access to “the new operating system.”

The site will still provide the occasional tidbits of Apple, BBEdit and Movable Type news, as well as the usual 3,000 word rants about misplaced menu items and inappropriate custom control widgets.

“That I don’t think I could stop doing if I wanted to,” Gruber admitted.

Gruber said the change will take place as soon as he is able to gain the domain name stanleyyankeeball.net. In an ironic twist to this story, Whois reveals that yourstanleyyankeeballlife.net is already owned by Shawn King.

MacAddict editor Rik Myslewski confirmed over the weekend that MacAddict will change its name to Mac|Life early next year.

If the name sounds familiar, it should, according to Your Mac Life host Shawn King.

“Uh, yeah,” King said. “Sitting right here in the Your Mac Life studios having hosted Your Mac Life for over four years and serving it up via the domain name www.yourmaclife.com. Sitting right exactly here!

“I’m drinking my beer out of a Your Mac Life mug fer chrissake!” a visibly agitated King shouted, lifting his beer-filled mug as evidence.

“I’m sorry,” King said, sipping his beer. “It just… really ticks me off.”

A spokesperson for Future US, the company that publishes MacAddict, backtracked today, perhaps in a sign the company did not realize the name was already taken.

“If you look closely at the name,” vice president of public relations Ned Hollings said, “you’ll see that there’s a vertical bar between Mac and Life. That bar isn’t silent.”

Hollings declined to say how the bar is pronounced, however, prompting rampant speculation on the MacAddict forums. One poster believed that the bar should be pronounced with the tongue click used in certain African and South American indigenous languages. Others insisted that it was pronounced “mother fucking”, indicating that, despite Myslewski’s comments indicating Mac|Life would be a more mature version of MacAddict, it will still have an “in your face” attitude.

King was not appeased by Hollings’ statement, however, and mumbled something about “Nashville boys” and “medieval on your ass” in between taking long angry draughts from his Your Mac Life mug.