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Holy cow, that was fast!
I got an email today from Apple, telling me that my computer had reached the repair center. It gave me a link to click on to check the status of my repair online. So I did. Just now, I did. At 3:30 in the afternoon on the day after I dropped it off. (I dropped it off at about noon yesterday.) And you know what? The link told me my computer’s repair is DONE and that my computer is “return pending.”
In other words, whenever their next batch of packages gets picked up by FedEx or UPS or whoever does the returns, I GET MY COMPUTER BACK. Like, possibly tomorrow. Likely on Thursday. SOON!
I have no words. Except maybe this one: Dude. That was, like, lightening fast. Kick ass.
It's still not Spring Break, officially.
Y’all, it is a BEAUTIFUL day. If my entire Spring Break were this nice, I would be SO HAPPY.
Sadly, it’s supposed to get cold and wet again sometime in the middle of next week. And today? Today I am in the library. Working on my brief. Working working working. (Yes, I am actually working and not blogging.) Phooey.
Also, I should note that, ever since I got home from the Apple Store last night, I have had ZERO problems with my power cord charging my computer. No freaky sparking noises. No strange cord-stops-charging occurrences (when I’d have to “reset” the damn thing by unplugging it, waiting a minute or so, and plugging it back in–a procedure recommended by Apple as necessary to overcome the some voltage safety feature in the damn thing). I even tested it by unplugging it from the computer, plugging it back in, turning it and wiggling it a bit, to see if I could replicate what happened to me last night, with the freaky sparking noises. Nothing.
Now, I still think something is wrong with my computer, and I’m still going to send the damn thing in for repairs. But I feel a little better about the whole thing. If they try to make me pay out of pocket, I’ll feel a little less uncomfortable about having them send it back and getting it repaired somewhere else.
OK. Back to the brief. No more staring longingly out the window at the blue, blue water, and the sunny, sunny sky. Snif. I want to be outside today.
mechanical woes
So it looks like something is wrong with my computer. The power cord usually charges it, but sometimes, it stops charging it. Without explanation. Without reason. And then, if I try to unplug it and plug it back it, sometimes it makes nasty little sparking sounds. That freaks me out.
So I went to the Apple Store to find out if it was my charger, since I just bought the thing a couple of months ago (after the unfortunate tripping on my power cord incident) to see if I could get it replaced. Because, clearly, the power cable is the problem, right? It doesn’t even glow amber anymore.
Well, the Apple Store guy was kind enough to tell me that the problem was not, in fact, the power adapter, but my computer. The power cable input is somehow fried, or shorted, or something. So, sometimes, when I plug in, it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.
“Well,” I asked him, “what does that mean? Can I have it repaired?”
“Sure,” he said. “You can send it in. If they look at it, though, and decide that it’s not damage they’ll cover, because, for instance, the damage was from accidental use or misuse, you’ll have to pay for the repair.”
“Oh,” I said. “That doesn’t sound good. How much do you think that’ll run?”
“Hm,” he said. “I think they replace the whole section, and do any other repairs that involve that part of the machine, like the case. They’ll probably charge you about $900.”
“Nine hundred dollars!” I cried. “I could buy a new machine for that! What are the chances of that happening?”
“Oh, maybe 70/30?” he said. “But if they do that, just have them send it back, and bring it to us, and we’ll just replace that one part. It’ll be about $300.”
So, basically, it’s a good thing Spring Break has officially started. Because once I turn my appellate brief in, I’m going to have to send my computer in for repairs. That way I can get it back before classes start back up. If I’m lucky. Also, if I’m lucky, I won’t have to pay for the repairs. Because even if Apple decides to stick it to me, my renters’ insurance covers any damage to one of our computers. So I guess I could send them a claim.
I’m annoyed that this is happening, I’m annoyed that I’m having this problem. I’m annoyed with Apple for being so stingy on repairs, that I even have to worry about paying out of pocket for this repair. But thank God for small favors, because it’s happened at a time of year when I actually can send my machine away for several days.
Off to image my disk for backup. Sigh.
Saturdays should be more fun
Today has been a frustrating day.
Frustration Part I: group projects in general, particularly the waiting part of group projects. I think I’ve decided that’s the major reason I dislike collaborative stuff–I would rather work on my timeframe and not have to coordinate schedules and stuff.
Frustration Part II: stupid CSS. I am working on a website and it looks exactly like I want it to, except that the container [div] tag that wraps around the content and sidebar [div] tags won’t work right. It’s supposed to wrap around in code and in fact, and give the whole thing a nice border. Instead, I get a 1px high box with a border, underneath my two side-by-side sections. If I set a height for the box, though, it works. But because the content will grow, I can’t make the damn page a static size. So I am seriously annoyed.
On a high note, though, dinner turned out well. It might have been better if we’d had better wine to go with it. Unfortunately, all we have is a Dee-Lite-Ful Ernest & Julio Gallo Shiraz. Mmmmmm. (No, really, it’s drinkable, but doesn’t pair well with my delicately flavored lemon risotto. Recipe to come.)
a great new browser, but with a critical problem (or not)
I’ve been testing out Camino this week, after reading a review of the new, stable, 1.0 version.
And so far, I really like it. It renders certain pages better than Safari, but looks and feels more Mac-like than Firefox. It’s flexible and stable and, if you really like the idea of using a Mozilla browser but don’t like Firefox on the Mac, it’s a great alternative. In fact, I’ve been enjoying it so much, I kind of want to use it full-time.
Here’s why I can’t:
It does not treat certain kinds of redirect scripts properly. At least, I think that’s the problem. I have two pieces of evidence to support this conclusion. First, I can’t use Westlaw on Camino. If you’re a law student and use Westlaw, you know that getting to the search pages takes a couple of clicks. First you go to the main “lawschool.westlaw.com” page, and then you click on the link for the research system. And you get a (very annoying, by the way) new window, which loads the research interface. If you watch what’s going on in that new window, though, you’ll see that the page loads first one URL, then redirects to another. (Basically.) Camino will open the new window, but the redirect never happens. I’ve tweaked settings–turning off popup blocking, for instance–to see if some security measure I use is causing problems, but to no avail. I simply can’t use Westlaw on Camino.
The second bit of evidence bolsters this. I can’t publish from Movable Type on Camino. I can compose my post with no problems and save it. Usually after saving, MT republishes the post page and the index page. That process involves a redirect of some kind, and Camino gets hung up. It never gets there. So I can compose and save in Camino, but I have to use another browser to re-save and get the post to show up. This is a hassle, since it also means I can’t use my “quickpost” bookmarklet. Or, rather, I can use the bookmarklet, but I still have to into another browser, and into MT, and re-save the post.
I’m still going to use Camino and play with it–a lot. But this one problem means I can’t use Camino as my main browser, and that’s too bad.
OK, I just retested Westlaw and MT, and both worked. But two days ago, neither one did. My head may explode.
Um, so, yay! Camino! If you’re using Mac OS X, try it out! It’s great!
two unrelated items
Thank GOD it happened TODAY and not TOMORROW
I set my computer on the ottoman, stood up from the couch, and then walked toward the kitchen.
But silly me, I wasn’t wearing slippers and my feet were cold and I caught my toe on the power cable. And my computer slipped from the ottoman to the floor and I stubbed my toe. Ouch. In more than one way. Because when I went to look at my computer, the power cable had pulled out and BENT. It looked like this. Eek!
After some hand-wringing, I looked up the cost of a replacement and was HORRIFIED. How much? No less than SEVENTY-ONE DOLLARS. And that’s WITH the student discount!
More hand-wringing. Mr. Angst rummaged for needlenosed pliers. I looked up information online–would this be covered by AppleCare? (The information varies, but my guess is no, since Apple hates replacing things damaged due to “accidents” or “improper force.”) Needlenosed pliers were found, the cable was unplugged from the wall and the pin was bent back. The metal casing was pushed back into a mostly-circular shape. There was more hand-wringing.
With a deep breath, I pushed the power adapter into my computer–success! With breath HELD, then, I plugged the cable back into the wall and . . . it lit right up. Whew!
Since then, I’ve been searching for information on whether or not this was bad, for me to bend the pin back and all. I felt something like a snap when it bent back, but it’s certainly not broken off or even loose. It might have been something just snapping back into place, but I don’t know. It IS charging my PowerBook up nicely, though.
Any thoughts?
it's the little annoyances
I was so excited about Bloglines’ new hotkeys feature. Bloglines–looking out for my carpal tunnel!
Until I discovered that my application keyboard shortcuts (for Safari) no longer work when I’m in Bloglines. So, there I am, reading my feeds, and I decide I want to open a new tab so I can look something up. I hit Command-T for a new tab and…no worky. So I still have to trackpad up to the file menus just to open a new tab. I can’t close a Bloglines window by keyboard shortcuts. I can’t do anything by keyboard shortcut if I’m reading feeds in Bloglines! Argh!
why i didn't post this morning
I know, I know, I haven’t posted today! I’ve been dealing with some crappy CSS issues, trying to figure out why Internet Explorer sucks so much. (I know why it sucks so much, but the specific ways IN WHICH it sucks and how to FIX THEM has been preoccupying me today.)
At any rate, about ten minutes ago, I discovered that almost any funky display issues you have with IE (on a Mac, at least) where you are using CSS to create certain visual effects (offset boxes and the like) can possibly be fixed by either adding another <div> tag, right around the affected text, or by replicating inline styles that should be inherited right into the nested tags.
If you’re not into CSS, that probably makes no sense. Sorry. Of course, IE isn’t the only browser with issues. Safari, for some reason, doesn’t like certain kinds of elements to have certain kinds of tags and will make things look funky even when Firefox displays them with no problems. (I can’t remember exactly what the situation was now; I was so frantic at the time that I was copying and pasting and deleting and copying and suddenly things worked when I got rid of a “width” style. Maddening.)
At any rate, things are working now. (None of thise was for THIS site, of course. I went through all that pain AGES ago.) I feel good: I always have liked finding and fixing problems, of course. The process was tiresome, sure, but I fixed it in the end, and I did it mostly on my own.
divine angst 