Libor Kubín Jan Rybář – a graphic designer and programmer, who for less than six years had fun regularly glossing over events surrounding Apple on his blog. His Apple} graph he was able to deliver interesting information in a distinctive style and without napkins he ranted various wrongs. In November 2009, many fans were surprised by the announcement of the end of the blog: Rybář quit writing and graphics and became a goat breeder.
His retirement raised a number of questions. I wanted to know the answers to them, so I arranged an interview with him.
What was your journey to Mac?
I smelled computers already in high school. We had an IQ151 in the classroom, the keyboard of which was forever not working. So we looked at them religiously and theoretically programmed jumping squares and adding numbers up to ten. It was funny to me at the time and I was sure that I didn't need computers in my life. After a long break, I was put on an Intel 286 with DOS and a kind of Office predecessor. This is where I understood how handy and useful a computer can be even for a BFU like I was. Before long, I was given the opportunity to work with a Powerbook G3 in Germany, where I was studying - the decision was made: I saved like crazy and soon became the happy owner of a Powermac G4. I was both amused and annoyed by OS 9, and even then I didn't understand a certain patronizing behavior of Mac owners - after all, even their machines crash and suffer from problems. I was satisfied only with the advent of OS X: not that I did not see its defects (it was actually only a beta until version 10.4), but I saw its potential.
What led you to start your own blog and write about Apple?
I remember well that the main reasons were two: poor Czech sources (when I started blogging, only maler.cz and mujmac.cz were regularly alive here, with exceptions) and general ignorance of Apple among computer users. Although somewhere in the discussions started fiery arguments Mac vs. PC, but almost no one could discuss in depth, with arguments and evident experience with both platforms.
Were you consciously inspired by J. Gruber and his Daring Fireball?
I won't hide anything: yes. And I probably wouldn't have started without him. When I was thinking about blogging, I knew roughly what I wanted to convey, but I didn't know how: I didn't enjoy blogs-diaries, where stolen photos are scattered and poorly translated excerpts from foreign sources are made. Gruber showed me that all you have to do is gloss the reference and take the reader to it so that they can read and interpret it themselves. And that a thoughtful reflection is better than a picture to convey an idea. Like him, I therefore decided to be different in that I would not publish any pictures.
I liked how you weren't afraid to dig into CDS…
I would probably resist the expressive expression "don't be afraid to dig". We are in a democracy and expressing opinions is a matter of course. I just named the neuralgic points in an addressable and matter-of-fact way. I was not ashamed, even in the position of an Apple fanatic, to expose Apple's flaws and shortcomings (whether by that we mean the American company or the bunch of Czech scumbags that pretended to be it in our country for many years).
You brought up several interesting cases (services of Apple computers, the strange demise of the Maximac company, iPods for one crown...). Who gave you tips on how to get to those topics?
I mostly got anonymous and non-anonymous tips. I would almost say that after a year of blogging, I had a fairly large network of informants who either didn't write themselves, so they offered me topics, or they understood them differently and were happy to compare their opinion with mine. The piquancy is that I was also regularly informed by three large Apple sellers, angry about CDS, but at the same time deprived of the opportunity to vent their anger (they were afraid of business).
This is a bit schizophrenic... Why has CDS pretended to be Apple's representative for years, while being unable or unwilling to do almost anything for the community or for retailers? Why do you think things only started to move slightly in the last three years?
A combination of managerial incompetence (CDS was just a "purple jacket", mammoth quasi-businesses that survived from the early 90s in an incomprehensible way to the present day) and a small market. Things only got moving with the iPhone - if it hadn't been there (and if the traditional Apple distribution channels hadn't been taken over by much more capable telephone operators in our case), in my opinion, the situation would be just as sad now.
So how do you see the future of Apple in the Czech Republic and, by extension, in the world? What do you like, what do you dislike?
Optimistically, of course. The new products (iPhone, iPad, iOS) clearly show that Apple, despite all the reservations, is the world leader in the field of technology and determines the direction where others (successfully and unsuccessfully) follow it. As far as entertainment and mass technologies are concerned, this applies only with minor reservations (absence of full localization and the Czech version of the iTunes Music Store). In the historical position of "professional workstation", the situation is a bit stagnant, and it's hard to say whether Apple or Adobe and Microsoft are more to blame: both CS5 and Office are products that have much more problems under OS X than under Windows.
Do you think we will ever see a Czech iTunes Store with songs?
I'm a little pessimistic here. Personally, I believe that in the foreseeable future (several years) there will be more of a single pan-European iTunes Music Store - when all those tyrants, music labels and copyright protection organizations come to an agreement or are forced to come to an agreement by EU regulatory instruments. A possible Czech iTMS could only come after that.
How did you perceive yourself as a dog? What about popularity? Were you aware of her? Did your readers also write outside the blog?
I don't think I was particularly popular, there were dozens rather than thousands of regular readers. The funny thing was that a lot of people were annoyed by my anonymity (I insisted on it so that people perceive more opinions, not a person) and a certain even naive romanticism (actions Adult week). However, it is true that when I stopped blogging, it was not only the reasons given on the site (i.e. changes in my personal life and the hopefully blossoming Apple journalism) that played a role, but also a certain "responsibility fatigue": whenever something happened and I didn't write about it , I received emails asking why I was silent.
A young amateur bodybuilder and "Apple fan" from Pilsen "borrowed" your Week of Adulthood...
There is no copyright for such ideas. I do not care; only this, like a small stone in a mosaic, shows the level of fan Apple journalism in our country: little original, a lot taken over or even stolen.
What is it like to go into seclusion, cut graphics and blog from your life and devote yourself to goats?
At first it was a big shock - I already wrote about the details (A loner's ode to the iPhone); that was soon replaced by relief. I discovered that such a life has a tangible meaning: after a whole day's work, one knows that from his efforts there is a fed herd, a pile of cheese and a jug of milk. And that there is also a kind of more genuine feedback: those who liked the cheese come back again and again with a smile on their face. That's what I missed in graphics and programming, which I've been doing for a living since the mid-nineties - both are there, meaning and feedback, but in a virtual way - I'd compare it to cider and industrial lemonade. Both can be drunk, both have enthusiastic supporters, but the first is undoubtedly healthier. But I am by no means an "apostle of going out into nature". If the circumstances were not right, I would continue to sit on my ass and make graphics or program websites.
Don't you miss the old days?
There are no good old golden days in any field. Only human memory is set up to generate them falsely.
Are you still interested in what's happening around Apple? Do you read any Czech sites?
I made a commitment not to read anything for half a year. I didn't follow it completely, but even so I gained an important distance and things around Apple started to really interest me again, not out of a professional obligation. And actually, I sometimes feel that I was too hasty with the pause, that the promising onset of a kind of "new wave of Apple journalism" is only taking place at half throttle.
New Apple journalism? I'd rather say a few pages that ended relatively quickly. Others prefer not to veer off the beaten path...
All the big sites keep making the mistake of wanting to write about everything, quickly, superficially; they ruminate on foreign sources, confusing a report with a comment, a review with a PR text. Reflections and essays that have something to say can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Investigative journalism, which Superapple.cz tried hard for at one time, has sharp self-censorship boundaries here, beyond which they do not go (authors have to keep to the point, because they would lose the loan of review machines and the possibility to test beta software before launch, etc.)... And this is also the reason why I don't like Jablíčkář, for example: it has no concept, it lives from day to day, sometimes it surprises with a good article, but even that is only average compared to other countries.
No one here writes as cleverly as Gruber, no one has as multi-channel a service as Macworld, a similar Macrumors focused on the Czech Apple behind the scenes is also missing, no one writes thorough reviews like Arstechnika, Apple podcasts are dead with Ondra Toral, do a good interview (and prepare well for it ) with someone from the Czech Apple management or Adobe, maybe everyone is afraid or something, etc...
So many challenges to take on. You know, the most terrible are the days after an Apple event or the launch of new hardware: 20 Czech links jump into one's RSS feed, and most of them are just variations on one or two foreign sources and some more skilful, some less skilful rumination. Today, I see Superapple.cz as the most promising (it certainly has the best tips and tricks for everything here), but in principle I think that for a large website à la Aktuálně.cz, only with the fact that instead of politics, Apple topics are covered, it is unfilled place here.
I dare to disagree. You are comparing American professionals who live the Apple theme and have access to information, software and hardware with Czech amateurs. Personally, I doubt the Czech version of Macrumors and others. There have been several attempts at a printed Apple magazine since the mid-90s, but these efforts soon fizzled out. I am afraid that specialized Apple pages in the Czech or Slovak language would follow the same path...
The same arguments were brought to bear on the head of Aktuálně.cz when it started: it is not possible to make a purely online and at the same time professional newspaper – a newspaper is a newspaper, a train does not pass through it. A professional team with the financial background of some big player has a chance. It's just that no one has tried it yet. By its very nature, a blog can never compete with a large magazine or newspaper, it is impossible to proceed with some partial professionalization of the blog - as is most often done in our country. It is necessary to start on a green field, with a managerial project and trained journalists.
In the Czech basin, neither money nor people can be found for such a project, that's my opinion. So let's move on to the last question. The superficiality criticized by you pervades not only the Internet, but also classical media. Hardly half of the people will read a good article/reflection on the web, they will be more interested in some gossip. I speak from my own experience…
Apple is a minority, but it significantly influences the majority, whether it evokes a positive response or a negative reaction. However, it is a living, dynamic relationship on which a business can be grafted. If it goes to Respekt (a similar minority of "intellectual readers") or the Archa theater ("intellectual viewer"), it might as well go to the Apple community. Throwing a flint in the rye in advance and preferring to talk in pubs (discussion forums) instead of committing crimes are Czech diseases. Until we cure them, we will not be healthy as a society. But so that no one takes it the wrong way: I don't have a plan or people at hand, I just have my opinion and maybe I'm wrong. But I'd be happy if I wasn't wrong...
Thanks for the interview.
Finally, someone who sees everything with a little perspective...
Is right. When it's after the Event, the RSS is filled with 100 and 1 chewed articles, I don't even read them, I just read the first one... But for someone to write an opinion, for example, about the development of iOS, where it will go, some thoughts, concepts... if it was skillfully written , then I would love to read it.
Thanks for the kind words about us, we are really trying to do things differently lately. I would just like to add about the interviews: no one here is afraid of them, it's just that there is no one to give them to - no one from an Apple employee is allowed to give an interview. Everything goes so far that if they wanted Apple representatives to present new products to journalists, they were forbidden to tell us their names (and that included a lot of high-ranking people), the Apple abbreviation works in this regard completely differently than other companies. A simple interview (or similar format) with Apple is pure science fiction…
And yes, we really need to. Aktualne has been our model for the last few months, the kick-off for this year is designed for both the magazine and book sections, so maybe we'll meet and change your opinion in a year :)
An interesting article and it expresses a lot of anger, negative opinions, etc. The author sometimes seems to not know much about Apple. It is not always possible to talk to someone from Apple. That person would no longer be at Apple the next day. And so it is everywhere in the world. I then went to the dealer and he even fondly remembered when CDS was used here. Now things are even worse with Apple and I'm chipping away wherever I can. I know two bloggers and they don't like CDS that much. And that's precisely because they wanted to pay for it, that they would write and CDS didn't give anything. So now I'm scolding you for it. Looks like the same problem here…
Františka, I am afraid that you are somewhat out of line and you are somewhat missing the point of the debate.
For example: I contacted the Czech Apple representative office and their PR agency by email about 3 times. They never answered me. I wanted press releases sent to me.
Try to have a conversation with them. We are happy to publish it.
The issue of "swearing" on CDS is really far-fetched. From your side. Honza Rybář has been pointing out flaws in CDS since the beginning of his blogging. Does it seem normal to you that you will pay extra for system localization? Nota bene at a time when the buyer is required by law to receive a manual in the Czech language for the goods? Or do you like to shop at a premium? For many years, the price of Macs here was inflated by 10 percent or more (compared to Western Europe). At the same time, the level of sales, service, complaints and the website was more than poor.
So why should CDS still pay a blogger for negative advertising? If you think "some two bloggers" are slandering CDS for not paying them, then maybe that's telling you something.
So I dare to disagree with this gentleman. In my opinion, he is just stroking his ego here and bragging that he had more insight than others in the days when Apple was less known in our country.
But it would also require a little self-criticism. You may think that reasoning is the best, and who would perhaps convey only "ordinary" information is somewhat less so. If anything, you should at least improve your form. You write without paragraphs, monotonous text... I almost didn't feel like reading when I saw everything pushed.
A nice, nostalgic interview. I expected that those who once read would remember, and those who had no idea would start babbling (Meklavr, Frantisek, and surely there will be others). Without context, the conversation is completely different than with context. Thanks and I hope to return! — PS Will these "big" interviews continue as a genre? Finally, something pioneering from Jablíčkář!
We want to continue the "big" talks, we have several interesting people agreed upon. But it depends on their time workload of the interviewees.
How often will they come out? We would like one big interview within a month.
But that is interesting. I don't know this gentleman at all.
An interesting, clever read. Great interview.
I read it in bits and pieces, it's as long as the bible. :) But excellent, thanks, I'm looking forward to another interview in a similar style.
I read after a while. Smart, accurate. Will there be more conversations like this?