Faces, numbers I recognize

[austin_dern]

Aw, now, this I didn't want to happen, although I'll admit that compared to the problems my friends have it's not much. Since moving in with my parents I haven't had a permanent place for my sedentary laptop. It's fine using it on the coffee table, but leaving it there risks it being used as a coaster or footrest, so I take it back to my bedroom. There's not a lot of empty horizontal surfaces there, even without my clutter. With a bit of effort I found a spot at the corner of a waist-high dresser where it fits.

Only, bleah. Last night I put it there and wasn't careful enough; it tipped over and fell on its side, hitting my scanner and a small pile of books by Robert Benchley, Isaac Asimov, et al. The computer seems to have taken the shock all right -- it was nice and alert when I opened it, and there's no alarming noises from the hard drive (there's barely any noises from the hard drive; it is a Mac, after all), and as near as I can tell without running every program I own in every combination it's working just fine.

Still, you hate to put a computer through that, and now there's this tiny bend in the front, near the tab to release the lock when it's closed, that sticks out. It's conceivable that the warp was put in during airplane travel (the majority of its other movement), but I'm sure I would have obsessed over it before if it had been. And now I'm not sure whether it's sitting level on the coffee table. Or did it sit level before? Do I know the coffee table was level? What is level, anyway? That's the point where I realize I'm overthinking it. The computer is still under the AppleCare warranty and I suppose I could get it fixed, but it seems like such a petty thing to turn it over and lose access to it for a week over ... and now the case has got character, after all ... but still, it's nice to have it stay perfect too ... I don't deal well with things like this.

Bill Gates, interviewed in Newsweek, had this to say about Mac and Windows security: ``Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine.'' Bill Gates has apparently been provoked by those ``I'm a Mac! I'm a PC!'' ads into running up to Nemesis, kicking her in the stomach, and bending way over and shouting, ``You can't catch me, nyah nee na nee boo boo!''

Trivia: Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, designers of ENIAC, received the patent (US patent number 3120606) on the computer on 4 February 1964. (It was originally filed for in 1947.) Source: Eniac, Scott McCartney.

Currently Reading: Project Solar Sail, Edited by Arthur C Clarke.

Comments

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

Yipe! That's never something one wants to see happen to a laptop. Even a Dell. =:) I'd only had Hyzenthlay for a month or so, when it took a dive off a table, open and on.. I was sure the display at least was going to be toast, but it fell in just the right way that the only casualty was a tiny printer controller box on the floor, which had some bits of plastic suddenly liberated. There is a very tiny (about 0.5mm) bulge in the bit of metal above the display release, but other than that, not even a scratch. (Those came later)

I did enjoy that fantastic claim by Mr Gates. Maybe both Mac & PC can go visit him sometime, offer their apologies for any offense caused, and give him a 17" MacBook Pro. With Second Life already on the drive. Who knows? Maybe he's already there.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Now I'm stuck getting all the more worried since I did have this problem with the number lock key accidentally turning on before this. Last night during a game of Victoria the minus key got stuck, too, although the error stopped when I quit the program. So far, though, no nicks or scratches other than the little outdent piece.

I've got Bill Gates down for more of that Trek massive-multiplayer online roleplaying game, myself. Something about him just screams Cardassian.

[bailiff.livejournal.com]

>Still, you hate to put a computer through that, and now there's this tiny bend in the front, near the tab to release the lock when it's closed, that sticks out. It's conceivable that the warp was put in during airplane travel (the majority of its other movement), but I'm sure I would have obsessed over it before if it had been. And now I'm not sure whether it's sitting level on the coffee table. Or did it sit level before? Do I know the coffee table was level? What is level, anyway? [...]

I thought only I obsessed about whether the damage was new... or not... new... or not. Good ol' obsessive-compulsion!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I think it's natural to be worried about the first scratch. The old iBook luckily (I guess) came with a few minor scratches in the case and the metal rim to start with, so I could concentrate more on using it, but this computer is different. Or was different. Of course, I still wash my hands before touching the keyboard. I'm not a model for people trying to overcome obsessive-compulsive disorders.