For those of you following the saga, my iBook is finally fixed. Seven weeks after the logic board choked the computer is at last back in my possession. Mind you, it was still returned broken: the wifi was barely picking up a signal. Fortunately a quick fiddle with the aerial lead and the Airport card soon fixed this – another little irritation though – and lucky I had an idea of what the problem was.
I wrote to Apple in Cupertino a fortnight ago expressing my irritation and requesting an explanation. As yet I have had no reply – I’ll post it if I ever get one. An explanation for the delays may well be down to the demise of ADT, but the requirement to spend 4 hours running diagnostics over the phone is most certainly not.
On a personal note, the return of the iBook feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I’m altogether more chipper than I was a few days ago. I’m cringing as I admit that: the presence of a bloody computer should not be a requirement for wellbeing, but it seems to be the case.
It is just about explicable. 2 ½ hours a day of train time has been lost over the past seven weeks. Without a laptop, train time is dead time; boring and wasteful. Reading a newspaper or a book every day does not compensate for my usual computery activities – reading RSS feeds, writing this blog, building websites for friends of friends, ‘work’ work. To make matters worse I’m supposed to be co-writing a book at the moment. My commuting cocoon is absolutely ideal for that but I’ve been unable to use it.
Missing all these activities and being forced to do them in the evening and at weekends, when I normally have what might be considered ‘a life’, has added a stress noted by Her Indoors but not recognised by me until its absence. It seems, for me, 2005 can start properly as of now.
Robbert Broersma wrote:
My laptop has never been so severely broken, but I still remember the first days I had a laptop: 3 hours of train time became useful! Ohh, it was marvelous indeed.
Neil wrote:
Of course it’s explicable: the loss of a car or house would cause me a lot of panic, too, the same sort of feeling of having a lot to sort out just to be able to get on with all the other complexities that life throws up.
As it is I don’t have a car or a house, so being able to do day-to-day computer activities are even more important. I don’t feel well when bad things happen to my Macs, and even less so when the time comes to turn the repaired ones back on again for the first time. That’s a baaaaad feeling.
Alistair wrote:
I know exactly how you field man. Got a really big contract on outside of work (I work as a software developer) and by the time I get home, I really don’t fell like doing it. However, bit by bit it is getting done. Man, I’m going to enjoy the money when it gets here, planning on buying a radio controlled monster truck (traxxas revo, weee) and the rest I’ll probably put towards my wedding in September.
I’m still staggered it took that long to fix it. Guess my mate will never have another bad thing to say about the place he takes his to (not that he has said anything bad mind you, how could he).
Timothy Griffin wrote:
Glad you’ve got your most important limb back ;^) It is pretty disgusting the amount of time it took to fix, though. Still, absence makes the heart grow fonder …
Phil Sherry wrote:
Glad to hear you got your life back! :)
Andy Budd wrote:
T-Mobile will be running a free WiFi trial on the London to Brighton train till month
T-Mobile launches WiMax net access for UK trains
Brighton line to get high-speed internet
On the right track