Heh

Imap+Growl=Spam

In a Neal Stephenson-ish twist of fate, I happily connect my Macbook Pro’s new charger and discover that the power socket on the laptop is damaged.

…thank you, Apple.

Oh, for sure I’m kicking myself for not purchasing Applecare. After eight years in Currys I have a very fine idea of the worth of an extended warranty for a laptop, especially in consideration of the typical cost of repair, but for some ineffable reason I decided to not purchase it (actually it comes to mind now that the sales assistant in the Apple store mentioned it didn’t cover internationally).

I wouldn’t say I’m screwed; to describe the fault, I’ll say that the power connection on the laptop looks slightly distended and needs to be jiggled before power will go into the machine. If it’s a case of that there’s just a wire loose, the repair will be less expensive. If Apple decide the mainboard needs replacing, I should just start hunting for a replacement right now…

Back to Apple. You’re not off the hook.

Your 85W Magsafe power charger is a piece of crap - nearly every review of it on the Apple Store, Amazon and elsewhere is negative, and our own experiences with it are scarcely better. It’s flimsy, the head is easily damaged, and your practice of (first) using a proprietary head and (second) refusing to license the patent involved leaves Macbook owners in a nasty situation. The only two ways we have are to purchase another flimsy charger for $80+tax through the Apple store and wait a few weeks for it, or purchase a new or used one from a reseller, and hope it works.

Bastards..? Yes, absolutely. I love OS X, and short of Adobe Photoshop being released natively on the Linux platform it’s going to remain my first choice of OS, but the bulk of your peripheral hardware is plastic junk. Sure, they have a definite look and style, but it’s one which unfortunately screams “cheap!” in twenty-point lettering. In a tacky and non-aliased font, to boot.

The bastards had me out of bed at 6am as they were digging up the road outside the house, but I’d no choice but to open the window as my room was stiffling. Nggh. Ah well, Killer at least has a love-hate relationship with them, she gets to take over my bed earlier than usual today.

She doesn’t like the builders, either

And at the price of God’s Own Migraine, I cancelled my hotel reservation for Paris and booked a hotel for London. I’ll be staying about a kilometre down the road from Heathrow, which suits me perfectly fine.