journals

Apple denies and refuses to repair failed logicboard

By SogniX, October 7, 2006

I woke up one day to a super-heated PowerBook that was practically glued to the desk by it’s rubber feet. Also heard a buzzing noise coming from the speakers.
I unplugged it, removed the battery, reset PRAM - no dice.

Took it to CompUSA who shipped it directly to Apple - few days later I got the call that my PowerBook was back and ready! Yay!
I insisted on checking it out while there, I noticed it was asleep, but since the battery does not hold much of a charge I asked to borrow a power supply incase it was about to cut out. Plug it in, open it up and see the desktop! YES!!! They fixed it!!! But that was a very short-lived victory as the screen then went black and heard that same buzzing noise… noooo!!!!!

It goes straight back to Apple, who then notifies me that nothing was done to the computer as it was “obvious abuse” WHAT!!! Wait, how on earth do you explain that it was asleep and at the desktop when I got it back! YOU DID SOMETHING!!! IT WORKED WHILE YOU HAD IT!!! Now that the fix did not last beyond 3 seconds you now blame me???

But, abuse? How? I was told by Apple that because of the dent near the power port, the metal casing was pushed into the logicboard, causing a short-circuit damaging the logicboard… I felt bad, as much as I protected my PowerBook, it did have a small dent,…
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A blog on…blogging

By Nick, October 4, 2006

I’ve been at this blogging thing for almost two years. It’s a fun gig; it gives me an excuse to sit in front of the computer and feel like I’m doing something worthwhile. There’s little that matches breaking a story, no matter how minor it is (like Apple being used as a Jeopardy! category and Apple ditching the single-button mouse); it’s always fun to see your name on other sites linking to your article. It’s actually almost scary when sites like Ars Technica or Daring Fireball pick up the story as well! If you’ve ever thought about blogging, there are a few things to keep in mind. Here are the things I’ve learned in the last two years.

Don’t get frustrated when nobody reads your site early on. It takes time to build a loyal reader base. Heck, Deep Thought’s been around nearly two years and we have yet to develop much more than a small forum community of about 130 members, however we do have a large number of visitors who see our link on MacSurfer or MacBytes or Digg.

Don’t do it for the money. Unless you’re extremely lucky like a certain Mr. Gruber, don’t expect to make a living off your blog. Instead blog for the love of it. If I was in DT for the money I would have been out long ago.

Don’t expect everyone to agree with you. Although it always feeds to ego to see the comments fill up with a chorus of “I…
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Site news: Much love

By Nick, October 3, 2006

I just want to say thank you for two reasons…

Digg’d

Jay’s article on Norton Antivirus caused a bit of a stir among readers and made it onto Digg (it was on the front page at one point, in fact--the second time an article we’ve written has won such an honor). To the thousands who stopped by and read it, and to those who commented on the story--yes, even those who criticized it--thank you. We’d love to see you around here again in the future.

We’re listed!

I couldn’t help but share this. I’m currently using NewsGator’s excellent NetNewWire Lite for my RSS feeds. NetNewsWire and NetNewsWire Lite feature a slide-out drawer featuring a list of various sites that offer RSS readers in categories ranging from cooking to German to cars to travel to Macs (that last one should be obvious considering NetNewsWire is a Mac app). I never bothered to look at this until last night when I realized that one of my favorite sites happens to be listed (the one highlighted in orange):

Awesome! Granted, there are a ton of Mac sites listed, but it’s still nice to see that some people bother to read what we write here. Thanks, NewsGator!

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Last Chance: Final Release Candidate of Vista on Friday

By Liam, October 2, 2006

Friday will mark the last Release Candidate for Windows Vista. According to DailyTech, it will be released for “...beta testers, MSDN and TechNet subscribers.” The final code of Vista will then be set by November 8 at the latest (hey, the day before my birthday!)

You know I’ll be first in line Friday to download build 5743. I’ll try and write something about it. Hopefully they get all of the icons replaced, as they are so close, but there are a couple prominent ones that need to be changed out.

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Convergence Anxiety

By shempzilla, October 2, 2006

Several years ago, when I was younger and still living at home with my parents, our toaster broke. My father was dispatched to the store to procure a new one, and being a male he obviously purchased the only toaster available at the time with a microchip inside. Needless to say, this was a fantastic toaster that could perform virtually any action you could possibly desire upon a piece of bread- except, of course, actually toast it. And heaven forbid you had a pre-determined level of toastiness in mind, because if it did decide to toast that morning you’d better have been prepared to take what it was offering.

Now, I don’t intend to expound upon the ills of technology like a crotchety old man shooing children from his yard. People who know me are aware of my love of tech and anything that might be classified as a “gizmo” or “contraption.” When judgment day comes and the robots assume control of the planet, there’s a decent chance they will convene in my living room to punish me for enslaving their forefathers. I can only hope they will have mercy on me, but most likely not since they will be merciless. Also, their hands will be cold and pointy.*

Nor do I wish to argue against the combining of various and seemingly disparate items, a practice which has introduced us to such wonders as Madonna’s wardrobe and the beer helmet.** But while millions of Americans sit at home enjoying the happy…
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