Oh, Apple Inc. You kill me sometimes. Comment from a reader:
I have an iMac intel 17″ early 2006 same problem with matshita uj-846. Two month ago I’ve got apple replace the lcd screen (vertical lines issue) for free. Tomorrow I’ll call apple for the superdrive issue; with luck I’ll got it replaced for free like the lcd.
The secret is to call apple service. Apple record customer calls to control its employers.
My family has an Intel 17″ iMac from 2006 with the same line issue. Apple has repeatedly told me that they will not acknowledge it. The kind customers who have taken to the Internet wish the company would.
Stuff like this makes it hard to appreciate Apple. The product announcement on Wednesday, however, will likely make it easier.
An absolute must-read blog post from Google today. Go read it now.
…We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China…
Google has been struggling to win the hearts and minds of Americans as it continues to churn out more products and services with hopes of organizing the world’s information. Noting its massive efforts, privacy advocates and technologists have warned of the emergence of an evil empire. I believe these concerns are valid to a point, and therefore, today’s blog post and change of policy are huge news.
I don’t want to give anyone or any company a free pass. Although I’m thankful for Google’s services, and honestly owe much of my success in life to them, their policy of censorship in China gave me pause. Today’s announcements, although troubling in some aspects, give me some hope.
Just figured you should know.
When I was learning HTML back in middle school, I discovered a Dynamic HTML snippet that let me change the user’s mouse cursor to whatever I wanted! With the power of copy and paste javascript, I had a site more hideous than a typical Myspace profile, long before Myspace hit the scene.
Unaware of the atrocity I had slapped together, I went to a forum (remember those?) to ask for feedback. I was summarily told that my site was not worthy of 1999, much less 2004. It was the Internet, so people were pretty mean, but one person’s constructive feedback has stayed with me.
Just because you can do something, it definitely doesn’t mean you should.
In reflecting over the last decade in my last post, I remembered that advice. As I conjured up the mental image of the worst website I’ve ever made in my life, I took a look at this site. I saw a useless sidebar with unnecessary graphics, confusing static page titles, and an inconsistent site methodology. I went back to the drawing board, updated WordPress and my trusty K2 theme, and hacked away at CSS and PHP until I came up with the design you’re looking at now.
I’ve thrown away as much template text, promotional material, and other crap as possible. I upped the size of the beautiful Lucida Grande that graces these pages, and completely ditched the sidebar. I’m pretty happy with it, and can’t believe I didn’t go simple sooner. In writing, design, or any other art I can think of, simplicity is king.