Interview With "Switcher Girl" Ellen Feiss

Ed over in Accounting writes in with a Macinstein interview with Ellen Feiss, an Internet cult figure of a bygone era. Back in 2002, in the heyday of Apple's "Switcher" ads, the 14-year-old Feiss garnered a bit more than 15 minutes of fame. Her Switcher ad became an instant classic — partly because of the widespread belief that she was stoned while filming it, which she says was not the case. In the interview Feiss, who is now a college student with one movie behind her, talks about pseudo Internet fame, drugs, and acting. She says she's still using the same G4 she had when the ad ran. Nostalgia bonus: the ad is embedded at the end of the interview.

Re:pupils

[Gary W. Longsine]

It could simply be that she had a crush on the camera person. Pupils dialate for all manner of reason.

Apple ads

[suv4x4]

It's been 5 years or so. And still most of the Apple ads represent one or at most two objects (frequently human actors it seems), which are speaking about how much PC-s suck, and occasionally, ONLY occasionally, also mentioning how Mac software never has problems (lie) or how on Mac you can process photos and videos, and on the PC you can't (lie).

And you suddenly know why most people just don't buy Macs. Mac marketing makes impression of being really really desparate.

Maybe they should try some of their iPod concepts for advertising the Mac? This could work better. Show people having fun with a Mac, show Mac being used.

Stop with the "PC sucks" nonsense.

Re:Go PowerBook G4!

[Jesus_666]

True. Despite me having to resolder a contact on the DC-in board* and replacing the hard drive once my G4 iBook is still going strong (okay, except for the cables of the power adapter finally succumbing to the abuse I put them through**). The only reason I will upgrade to a MBP once Leopard is out is because the notebook has become my main work machine and 1024x768 is a bit too small for that. Oh, and I could use x86 compatibility.

The iBook (once I have a replacement power adapter) will probably go to my parents or my brother. No reason to throw it away.

* Apple should develop something that keeps people from trying to walk through power cords. MagSafe is nice, but I'm thinking more along the lines of barbed wire...
** Just because notebook backpacks have a little pouch for you to store the power adapter in doesn't mean the cables won't break from you doing so.

Re:Bitch?

[lysergic.acid]

you're readin something out of that article that's totally not there. maybe you've just got personal issues. besides, she sounds pretty down to earth in this podcast interview [theflux.tv].

Re:Go PowerBook G4!

[dreamer-of-rules]

A couple months ago, I upgraded from a 3.5 yr 1.0GHz TiBook to a 2.33GHz C2D MacBook Pro. The speed goes way beyond being able to play H.264 videos without stuttering.

I gave my brothers a demo, with all of these running simultaneously..
* iTunes playing music
* VLC playing a video
* DVD playing (a ripped folder)
* iPhoto open with 5,000 photos
* VPN/VNC to several work systems
* Parallels running Windows XP
* ...and that Windows XP running XCOM:UFO Defence
* A second Parallels window installing Windows 98

I hit Expose to show all windows-- there was no stutter.

The CPU load was only at 75% :-D

/ love the MagSafe adapter more than I expected.. it just works

Dinosaur is in da place !

[DrYak]

All the machine I still use at various place are still based on Pentium II mother boards. Some of them dating back from 1998.
Sure, I upgraded processor a couple of time (Slot1 interface and Slotckets are a wonder ! I just long until similar board with AM2 & DDR2 sockets on them and HTX interface to the main board appear...) maxed out the memory, but it still mostly the same old computers with derelict 3DFX Voodoo AGP video cards... ...and they still do the job I need them done... ...mostly because I run Linux on them and configure the interface according to the computer performance.

Interestingly, the reason I start considering upgrading the hardware is Windows : I use it to double-boot for playing games, and even adventure games start to require performance that my hardware can't provide.

Re:Is there nothing better to read?

[StikyPad]

She looks like a stunt double [wikimedia.org].

I think you're missing the fact that people tend to attribute characteristics -- attractive people are good and conversely good people are attractive -- based on unrelated factors [wikipedia.org]. Seeing a chick with a computer can be as compelling for a nerd as seeing an old man in a Ferarri might be for a model, where seeing the same people in different circumstances would likely result in indifference.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but people don't always realize everything they're beholding.