For January, I vowed not to talk about people behind their backs. For the most part, it worked. I completely recommend everyone to try this out. You’ll feel better about yourself.
Monthly Archive for January, 2008
My MacBook Pro is making a pilgrimage to Apple’s laptop technical support center in Texas for what is hopefully a SuperDrive replacement. In that time, however, I need a computer to use.
My answer is my G4 Cube. For the next week or so I’ll be living with a 450mhz, 640 megabyte (RAM) machine. This’ll be fun. I’ll be sure to give my thoughts on the experience.
My dearest MacBook Pro’s SuperDrive is at it again: it won’t burn discs. To save you from reading up on my two past experiences (one, two), I’ll summarize them.
A long time ago, I applied the SuperDrive 2.1 Update from Apple, as anyone who runs Apple’s Software Update utility should. Essentially, that update has been either bricking or severely limiting the function of drives everywhere. I sent the MacBook Pro to Apple, and rather than replacing the drive, they reformatted the drive and reinstalled Mac OS X Tiger. Eventually, some enterprising coders wrote a firmware patch utility, which actually solved my problems for a limited period. This last week, the problem reappeared, and I spent most of my day working to solve it. I twittered my experience with Apple Support:
- On with Apple Support to fix SuperDrive. 15 minutes waiting, starting now, for a rep.
- Hold music is awful. Surprise! But, I can forgive that. So far, no strikes against Apple.
- My problem? The infamous SuperDrive 2.1 Update hosed my drive. Apple refuses to acknowledge it online… let’s see if they do on the phone.
- I sent it in for a drive replacement in the past… instead, they reinstalled Tiger. I’m angry and finally have enough time to deal with it.
- Hold music stopped… I’m just sitting alone, cold, and scared.
- I feel like my call has been dropped into a bottomless pit. Calling again. >:/
- Extended wait time. “You may prefer to call back later.” - How about no.
- Current hold music: Coldplay - In My Place … I love that song! That almost makes up for my disconnection and extended waiting.
- Connected to an agent. Let’s see how it goes.
- “Let me see what I can do here.” I bet you that you can’t do anything. I’ve tried all the standard troubleshooting steps. The drive is bad!
- “Let’s see if I can cure this somehow.” I’d be overjoyed.
- “I think it’s a software issue.” It’s not!
- He wants me to reinstall Leopard! It’s. Not. Software.
- They refuse to acknowledge that the SuperDrive 2.1 Update firmware was corrupt. Off the phone. I was told to reinstall Leopard… AHHHHH!
- I’m going to have to reformat my system this evening. Of course, it won’t fix the problem. Then I’ll call back for more bogus advice.
- Guess what? A Leopard reinstall didn’t fix the corrupt firmware on my MacBook Pro’s SuperDrive. Calling Apple again.
- Estimated wait time, fifteen minutes. Here we go again, twitter friends. Let’s hope that I’ve now proven it’s not an OS issue.
- On the phone with a technician.
- 32 minutes on the phone, they’re sending me a box. Promised me they’re replacing the SuperDrive this time.
As you can tell, it took three phone calls and two support agents before I was given what I want: a box sent to my house to send the computer to Apple and the promise of a new SuperDrive.
I’ll keep everyone posted.
It’s official: Juno is one of my favorite movies. Awesome. I’ve seen it twice at this point and it is as hilarious as it is touching. The dialog is witty and sarcastic beyond belief, the cast is instantly lovable, and the soundtrack is enjoyable. I recommend that everyone goes out to see it. In my mind, it’s the new Garden State - it has the same feel.
Anyone else have thoughts about it?
Just listened to a great interview on the Financial Aid Podcast that dealt with managing one’s online presence. The information is great, and I recommend that every online citizen, especially those who are on the job market, take a listen. It’s about eighteen minutes long.
Boom. Macworld kicked off today - and kicked is the perfect word to describe it. I went off the grid until the keynote became available online. I watched Steve Jobs’ presentation with no inclination of what was to come. Needless to say, experiencing the reality distortion field was an interesting experience.
Apple launched iTunes movie rentals, revitalized the Apple TV, and revamped many of its mobile platform features. However, I am only truly concerned with two of the announcements:
1. Time Capsule
2. MacBook Air
Time Capsule is a previously disclosed feature, now built into the Airport Extreme. I have mixed feelings on this one. Rather than letting you wirelessly sync Time Machine backups to an Airport Extreme with an external hard drive, Apple is now offering it as a premium feature on a new box. However, it’s a great feature in a good product.
The MacBook Air is the star of the show for me. At this stage in my life, I have no need for an ultra-portable like this. But it’s an amazing product. The world’s thinnest laptop with 2 gigs of RAM, a 1.6 GHz Core2Duo, running the world best operating system - Mac OS X Leopard - is a win. As I was in the reality distortion field, I thought of selling my MacBook Pro and purchasing a MacBook Air.
When I snapped out of it, I remembered the I/O and looked at the specs. As a primary computer, it’s useless to me. No firewire and only a single Universal Service Bus. 80GB 4200-rpm Parallel ATA hard disk? No way.
I use a daisy-chained Firewire 800 setup for a Time Machine drive (500 gigs) and another hard drive (320 gigs). For me, The MacBook Air is feature and power anemic. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a wonderful machine and I hope to own its later incarnation one day. It’s not Apple’s fault - they’ve done the best they could to create an ultra-mobile laptop and succeeded.
Although I won’t purchase myself a MacBook Air, I take donations. Any takers? 
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