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Uh-huh, so, the book finally exceeded its nominal target of 300 pages, albeit with sections that desperately need to be turned into some language, possibly English. The target deadline of the end of this week looks, if not ideal, at least realistic with some hard work and a little luck. What would be the absolute most hilariously uproariously funny thing to happen after getting home today?
If you said ``the laptop's backlight going out, forcing a visit to an AppleCentre and a couple days lost while it's repaired,'' then I hate you. Real, real funny.
Backups? Sure, I did my last copy of everything to an exterior hard drive a couple week, and maybe 70 pages, ago. The AppleCentre at Funan the IT mall said they could fix it, but they close at eight. It was seven.
As 19 of every 20 vehicles in Singapore are taxis I headed out to the street, confident I could just flag one down, and didn't bother calling. Well. So I got on a bus -- slow, but faster than standing still -- to get me at least to an interchange where I might call a taxi or be more likely to find one. It was 7:15. I had trouble finding the pay phone, which had one really loquacious guy chatting endlessly. It also had no coin slot, just a credit card slot, but of course the credit card authorizer was not working. It was 7:40.
A kind man nearby saw my frustration and offered to call for me; as invariable for good Samaritans, he had trouble understanding the number I wanted to call, 6552-2222; when he finally dialed it, there was no answer. From the taxi company. There are other numbers I know offhand, like 6552-1111; they didn't have any taxis in the area. Instead, off to the mall across the expressway, and the taxi pickup stand there.
It was 7:50. The line was eighteen people deep, with one or two taxis drifting along every minute or so, including taxis from the people at 6552-1111. I fumed in a way, frankly, none of you have seen or could well imagine. Finally I asked the time. It was 8:00. I wasn't even close to Funan.
So. Back to the office. At least I had the chance to return a library book (a bound journal from closed stacks) that I'd forgotten about, and thus saved myself a fine tomorrow morning. But ... boy, this could not possibly be less funny. The only saving grace is tomorrow I'm actually free in the morning to go in and deal with this; a day later and I wouldn't possibly have the time, as I'd be giving and grading the final exam.
So what problems will I run into? The ones I find most likely are:
- Hassle over my AppleCare Protection Plan because it was bought in the U.S. and not in Singapore.
- They won't let me plug the iBook into a monitor there to verify that it's just the screen (the backlight went out once before, when it was under the original warranty) and not the real innards.
- They won't let me copy the current draft of the book onto my USB memory stick so I can at least try to find a replacement computer to work on it.
- It'll be a week or more for the computer to come back.
I'm not hoping any of these happen, you understand, I'm just bracing myself.
Trivia: As an art correspondence-course student Charles Schulz received a C+ in the lesson ``Drawing of Children.'' Source: Li'l Beginnings, Charles Schulz and Derrick Bang.
Currently Reading: Korolev, James Harford.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-22 02:35 pm (UTC)I used to think I wanted an iBook, but with all the problems you and
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-23 01:59 am (UTC)OK, possible new data point I'm putting up here for convenience -- the screen is working. Sort of. The screen works fine in the office, not at home. I wonder if this is connected to whatever it is in the electrical power they're working on.
But at the office the computer's not booting fully; on the startup sequence it gets to the ``Network Initialization'' and then cancels the Mac part altogether and goes right to the Darwin/BSD command-line login.
I'm going to the AppleCenter almost certainly, but I discovered while looking for advice online (in the hope mysterious things like this would be fixable by dickering with Open Firmware or something) that the iBook might be part of that logic board recall program -- when the program was announced it looked like my serial numbers didn't match up, but there's a note that the program was extended at some point. So whatever it is may be (a) not my fault and (b) covered anyway.
If it is whatever the heck the logic board fault was then this and my prior problem might have the same ultimate cause, which would be aesthetically satisfying at least.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-22 03:26 pm (UTC)Good luck!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-22 03:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-22 04:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-23 01:57 pm (UTC)Thank you all ... here's hoping. They expect to have the diagnosis done tomorrow afternoon, neatly right after the final exam I have to give, and then there's just the question of how it'll be paid for. (The correct answer is not out of my wallet, but we may take time getting there.)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-22 05:53 pm (UTC)Is that iBook one with video output? That could provide a temporary solution.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-23 01:50 pm (UTC)Well, the good news is the worldwide part isn't the problem. The bad news is I never took the AppleCare out of the box, so never filled in the forms inside, so now I'm trying to track down proof of when I bought it and trying to get Apple to find in their database just when I did buy it. We shall see, we shall see ...
Blasphemy?
Date: 2004-11-22 09:11 pm (UTC)Maybe you could just take the laptop to the office and plug it into a monitor there. If you take along your external HD, you can save it. You must be used to using a small screen, but it might be worth having a PC monitor of your own to make viewing pictures and games a little easier on the eyes. In the US, a 17 flat screen CRT runs about $150.00. Just an idea.
Of course, I could suggest spending the $500.00 or so on a mid-grade PC with Windows, but I'm afraid I'd be struck by lighting! But depending on the format or program you use, I'm not sure how interchangeable something saved to an external HD or memory stick on a Mac or PC would be on the other machine. Unless you saved it to HTML.
Re: Blasphemy?
Date: 2004-11-23 01:53 pm (UTC)Perhaps happily it's not the screen, but having the problem move to a more critical component isn't really a step up. I used to use a desktop Mac as backup to the iBook, but I didn't have the space (or luggage allowance) to bring that with me here, and in the rush to get my finances otherwise in order a backup computer has only become an option recently ... gr ...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-23 01:09 am (UTC)Good luck!
--Chiaroscuro
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-23 01:52 pm (UTC)Fortunately my last backup-of-the-whole-user-directory was just recently; and I was able to get the most important textbook-related files off and onto a USB stick. The only question is what computer I'll have the end of the week.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-23 06:13 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-23 01:55 pm (UTC)Well, they're going to be fixing (or replacing, alas) this one on their dime, although whether it ends up being because of a recall I didn't know I qualified for or because I am under the AppleCare coverage is yet to be determined. Stay tuned for more updates.