the good apple...

it was on september 22nd 2003 when i finally placed the order for that new powerbook. i ordered one custom made, just because i wanted the faster drive and also more control over my memory configuration. the powerbook was one of the first of its kind, it was one of the first that had an alluminum enclosure, and also that firewire 800 connector. it was an exciting and big purchase. i bought it with an external display and also purchased apple care (a really, really good idea, as it was about to turn out.) the powerbook arrived with a dead pixel on its lcd and because it was one of the first of its kind, it also eventually developed strange white blotches on the screen, a rather annoying feature i could have had fixed, except that the powerbook was my primary computer, so i did not want to just give it away... for what i thought would be days. several months ago, the good old powerbook stopped closing. i had to press the button in the front of the computer to make the mechanism work. the screen had become a bit loose. then, about six weeks ago, on the way to california, the wireless card stopped working. i brought the mac into the apple store in santa monica and a genius there just figured out that something was wrong with most likely the motherboard. (he did not document taking my powerbook apart, which almost made me lose my warranty.) it was not until i got back to new york that i finally brought the powerbook into the genius bar in that new new and shiny 5th avenue apple store. that was on july 25th... hmm, some time ago. everybody was very friendly and nice to me at the genius bar. it took about a month for the computer to be repaired. the motherboard had to be replaced and the whole screen assembly too. for that the mac had to be sent away, parts had to be ordered. it took a while to do all this. well, the "repaired" mac unfortunately was not quite okay. the screen had indeed been replaced. and the motherboard was a new one, but now some windows would just leave behind pink ghosts on the screen. the powerbook had to go back into the shop. when i tried to pick it up yesterday a technician came out to tell me that there was a new problem. now the ghosts on screen were white. they only appeared after the computer had been left one for about 10 minutes. (so nice of him to take so much time and to care so much.) he ordered a new motherboard (the third one.) he also made my repair a top priority and even emailed me with the status of the repair in the middle of the night. today was the day on which i was supposed to finally get my mac back. it looked good and it worked nicely at first. the screen was as bright as they got on these three year old machines. no window ghosts. i checked the configuration, just to make sure everything had gone okay in the repair shop... half of my memory was now gone. i used to have 2gb of memory... now there was 1gb... i was expecting that maybe the memory had been lost somewhere in the process of repair, maybe left behind on some desk in the middle of the night. the technician (genius) took the powerbook behind the scenes one more time for maybe 30 minutes or so. he returned with some and some mixed news. the memory was there, inside of the machine... the new motherboard just did not want to recognize it. ... and so he gave me two options. we could try to track down a fourth motherboard for my sick powerbook... or... apple would replace my computer with a completely new mac book pro. wow. okay... because my original powerbook had been a custom configuration, i would be allowed to custom configure my replacement computer as well. i had 2gb of ram in the old machine? the new one should have that too. i had the faster drive in the old powerbook? my brand new mac book pro should have that too. courtesy of apple. amazing. who knew this could ever happen to me? i ended up upgrading my "new machine" to the faster processor. so my new mac book pro will cost me a few hundred dollars. i will also get that apple care again. my new computer will arrive in... hmm... several weeks. i am amazed. i asked the apple genius how often he has seen such a miracle of transformation happen. he knew of four occurences in the three years he has been working for apple. fantastic. i still can’t believe it. hmm... In any contest between power and patience, bet on patience.