17Jun03 (Monthenor): Hey, they can't all be shocking revelations about a hero of the modern age. Ever wonder where the hamsters get their information?
So, The Hulk is this weekend. I think I'm going to like it, Marvel's been on a roll lately. Even if overall it's as weak as Daredevil, that's still pretty damn good for an action movie. I have no idea if it'll be faithful to the comics or what have you, because I've only ever read one Hulk comic. Hell, I thought the Hulk only had two forms ever (green and gray)...I guess this guy showed me.
Also, it appears to be My Time Of The Month. I've been feeling it in my gut for a couple days now...so who's up for Chinese buffet food after Hulk on Friday?
And I thought I had a bad week.
Morgion // 06.17.03
Which, I have. Yes, I know it's just Tuesday; shut up.
Sunday was plagued with listless, apathetic, unconscious slack. It actually hurt.
Monday I spent most of my time at work on a checklist-slash-operating-procedure for assembling our promotional emails for work. No, not spam, email marketing. There is a difference; our addresses are all opt-in, and as soon as we have a decent website from which to receive subscriptions, they will be double opt-in.
Anyway, when I was finished with this file, I wanted to duplicate it. On a Mac, a file is duplicated with Command-D. Command is analogous to Control on Windows. I don't like warning messages when moving files to the Recycle Bin, so I turned that off. The file in question was also on a SMB share from my laptop… a jagged, bloody, star-shaped piece of shrapnel to the sharp cookies who see where this is going. Control-D in Windows casts the selected file into oblivion in such circumstances. Gone. No warming, nothing. *poof*
It's "amusing" to note that my last action before the Control-D was to rename the file, and my first action after was Undo. Windows thoughtfully informed me that it couldn't find the file I just asked it to un-rename. Truly cast into oblivion. It definitely wasn't in the Recycle Bin, I checked, I checked it so hard.
So I spent Monday night reconstructing it. Sorry blackskirtted; we'll have to do lunch sometime… or some Chinese dinner (note, I did not say buffet) after the Hulk. ;-)
Now I read that Senator Orrin Hatch wants to blow up my computer. "I'm interested," says the Senator, because it "may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights." Looks like Rick Berman will have to wait his turn for the ear-fucking.
Also, the oft-dreamed of Aliens vs. Predators movie is creeping closer; at least according to the rumor mill.
Your mission, should you choose to acccept it…
Morgion // 06.18.03 - 22.00
… is to prevent a piece of technology—not to mention my temper—from goint up in a puff of smoke and a swirl of flame.
I need to find an advertisement from Apple of one of their notebook computers being used on someone's lap. If at all possible, one of the Titanium PowerBooks.
More details will be forth-coming in the near future. Suffice to say, my week hasn't gotten any better yet.
Curiosity killed the cat, and apparently satisfaction is a necromancer.
Morgion // 06.18.03 - 23.32
Although no one's asked yet, I'm sure someone will, so I'll be proactive. The little rubber pads that "prevent" the screen from touching the keyboard melted/dissolved off. I've had this PowerBook for six months, normal usage, no heat issues, and they smeared off onto my wrist. Since the pads are gone, my screen managed to scrape against the trackpad bevel.
I've just finished a post to macfixit.com about an Apple support technician telling me my PowerBook shouldn't be used on my lap. I've posted roughly the same story about the cheap little rubber pads at Apple's Discussions site.
Then I did another search and found a huge thread at the top of the PowerBook G4 Titanium > Displays in Apple's Discussions, and posted my sad experience. My technician told me "this is something that isn't very common at all". Um, dude, your khakis are ablaze; just thought you might want to know.
There is hope: some people have been successfully, even with a run-around and required technician's report, and especially when support turns surly ("What do you want now Mr. Wiedman?"). I've even got an order in for iKlear, the mythical substance Apple Technicians prescribe; but they won't point you to a third-party site where you can procure it. I had to go Discussion-diving to find it.
This whole thing's just as much fun as a barrel of monkeys… with monkeypox. Probably ebola, too. I'm on-schedule to contract some Biohazard Level 4 pathogen by Friday, so I'll finally be able to get in on the bleeding pores action. It's not SARS, but it'll do.
The Man is so going down!
Morgion // 06.19.03 - 01.42
Liquifiying rubber bumpers at Apple's Discussions. It's not as common as scratches, but damn it feels good to be validated.
Tomorrow (or, I guess, today) i'll let you know if I've been vindicated.
"Are you a lawyer?"
Morgion // 06.19.03 - 01.42
At the end of my conversation with the Product Specialist, that's what he asked me. :-)
Since my MATRIXX System primary personality type is über-gold (highly organized), I compiled a script before I called Apple Support for this round. It was very hierarchical and condition-based, and generally an excellent distillation of the structured way I like to tackle a problem. This is also one of the defining qualities between the good Management Information System graduates and the stupid ones.
The results were less than stellar. I don't want to post my analysis of the conversation until I can do some follow up… and until I think about something else for a few hours today. I got three hours of sleep, and most of that was filled with fragmented, PowerBook-related dreams.
There were some specific concerns I can share. For example, the Product Specialist told me the degradation of the "screen bumpers" wasn't something Apple was aware of. However, there's at least one Apple Discussions thread about it, and I know some of those fellows called Apple Support. The other concern is the specific warranty language about what is covered: internals and/or externals of a portable. Apple's big on denying warranty coverage for "cosmetic damage", but I'd argue a scrape interfering with my view of the screen is a functional problem.
That's all for now. I'm off to Atlas' for grilled weenies and hard liquor.