50 Months with MBP - $1.80/Day

Some of you may know that my MacBook Pro has been slowly dying on the inside (literally) for about half a year now. After many instances of random shutdown and messed up startup screens, the computer will be 50 months old this month, September 2010. I first got it in August 2006, making it the first Intel Mac ever. It has lived through 3 major releases of Mac OS, starting with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

2.16 GHz Core Duo, 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, 100 GB HDD

While it was covered under AppleCare two years ago, I had two batteries replaced, the power charger replaced, the logic board replaced, the LCD inverter replaced twice, the screen replaced, 1 GB RAM replaced, SuperDrive replaced, among four or so incidents. (I might be forgetting some.) All for free! Thank you, Apple. In all honesty, there was only two situations that really required service: 1) when the power charger cable burned, and when my screen was buzzing. Everything else, I must admit, was a little superfluous and only prompted action because I kept complaining. I'm pretty sure this is more indicative of really good customer service as opposed to shoddy Apple products. (P.S. I forgot that I got my entire MBP replaced the third day I got it back in August because it overheated and died. Shoddy Apple products? Maybe. Maybe it's just me.)

~$2500, including a free HP printer and an iPod nano 1G.

At about 50 months of use, that comes out to about $50/month, or $1.80/day in cost of ownership (assuming I stop using it this month). Compare this to a ~$800 Dell Inspiron E1505, a popular computer that 2006 high school graduates like myself get for college. It's used for only two years and is replaced by another, better computer. That becomes about $33/month or about $1.20/day for the Dell over two years. A typical user will then spend about $1000 on his next notebook computer. Bring these two computers to the 50-month time scale, we get $1800 (= $800 + $1000), over 50 months, i.e. up to the present. That comes out to $1.30/day for these two computers, about 50-cents cheaper than owning a Mac. So why even get a Mac? Seriously.

50-cents is an eighth the cost of buying coffee everyday (at an average of $4/cup/day). The daily cost of having a texting plan is about $0.57/day (at +$20/month for unlimited texting, via Verizon). 50-cents isn't all that much. I think it's worth the cost.

Now, I just need to dig up $2000 to get myself another MacBook Pro.

MacBook Pro in for Repair

A little rant:

Yesterday, my admiration for Apple and its products has diminished slightly after dealing with an Apple Store SoHo Genius (whose name isn't James). I realize how easy it is to get captured by the Apple media and propaganda, but I also realize how easy it is to dislike Apple for its practices of simplicity at the expense of control. For example, there is no reason an Apple-branded USB to Ethernet adapter can be used only for the MacBook Air.

How Apple does things, it does very well. What Apple does, though, sometimes doesn't sit well with even the most die-hard of Apple fans.

I feel like saying Apple does not genuinely care for its customers (most big and successfully companies don't). But I would have to remind myself that Apple, Inc. is a company after all and in it for the engineering, design, and business.

Windows Vista eXPerience

Yesterday, wanting to do something productive, I went about spiffying up my resume, updating my GPA (for the higher, thank goodness), National Grid employment, and technical skills. I noticed that I had put "Windows 95/98/2000/XP". It didn't feel right. I wanted to add Vista on that list for the heck of it, and maybe remove 95/98 since they no longer mattered.

I have no personal gripes with the year-old Windows Vista; or at least, not as the general scorn of Vista has been portrayed lately. I just had no reason to use Windows anymore. I was dying to find a reason -- any reason -- for using it; I really wanted to try out Vista. So, in order to update the resume to read "Windows XP/Vista", I wanted to try it out for a week to feel out how it works, how it differs from the Windows I knew, and how it does things in general.

Vista, so it would appear to me, oozes of the smell that is Microsoft. I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way, except the times when I do. Under all that flash and bubbly, vista-y GUI, it was the little things that I found difficult. I mean, it ran fine and I had easy access to the programs. But there was something about it that was just a little off.

I can't say that it merely is a matter of getting used to the new version. Buttons and fuctionality just felt slightly out of place. I'm sure I can get used to it if I really needed to, but I don't think I would want to go through all the pain if I had a choice. (Heck, I finally started using Microsoft Outlook here in the office because I needed it for e-mail.) I have been using the Mac OS here and there since 1998, but I have also been using Windows up until 2006, from about 1995, as my main computer. It was only until 2006 when I got my own Mac and switched exlusively. That comes out to 3 years for Mac and give or take 15 years for Windows.

So I don't think it is a matter of getting used to the Vista (though I understand it is significantly different from the XP experience I knew inside and out).

If anyone has any Vista tips, please share them with me.

Wall-E, with Friends

Today, I went out (with a few former summer camp counselor friends) to see Pixar latest feature film and short animation. Both were phenomenal.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 96%, and I whole-heartedly agree. As always there are a bunch of Pixar Easter Eggs, and a number of Apple and Mac product placement, sort of. For example, among Wall-E's personal collection was something that closely resembled an iPod, and Wall-E's boot up sound paid tribute to the start up sound of the Macintosh, since 1984. Plus, the Eve character was said to have been designed by Jonny Ive, the father of the renouned iPod and iMac designs.

As usual, Pixar created a film that was fit for viewing by both children and adults. In fact, I feel this movie came out at the best time possible, in the middle of Apple's ascent to supremecy (maybe?) and the human realization of global warming and the downfall of the human spirit.

Also as typical of Pixar films, there is action, suspense, comedy, ominous times, sadness, and downright great story-telling. I highy recommend Wall-E. At first, I doubted how Pixar can play a movie with two robot leading-role characters with the majority of the dialogue limited to clicks and whistles, and "Wall-E" and "Eve", at least for the beginning half of the movie. They pulled it off really, really well. (There was robot love between the two.)

See here for great high resolution Wall-E images.

WWDC 08 Predictions

Based on rumors, personal experience, and what I know about Apple:

SOFTWARE / SERVICES
1. iPhone/iPod touch App Store launch.
2. .Mac update and refresh.
3. Mac OS X 10.6 Announcement.

HARDWARE
1. iPhone with 3G announcement.
2. New Cinema Displays refresh.

MacBook Pro is Sick

There is something wrong with my power systems again. So far, I have replaced two batteries and a power adapter.

Now, for some reason unknown, the computer's fans spin up like crazy whenever the battery is in, and goes back to normal when the battery is taken out. This is the case with the power adapter plugged in or taken out (of course with both battery and cable out, there is no power).

I have phoned the Apple people and they had me reset the SMC but that did not help. Now, I have stumped the nice man on the phone (his name was Jason), and I will probably have to take this in to an Apple Store. I will be going home Thursday night, so the timing is just right. It sucks to have to deal with this during my time at home, but it has to get done, and Friday is the most opportune time to do so. There is a chance I might lose my computer for a little bit. I would then have to resort to using the iPod touch or a lab computer for my fill of the daily Internet.

Oh boy ...

(Photo courtesy of a guy from Australia)

I Hate Technology . . .

. . . when it doesn't work. I hate it more when you need it quick and functioning. Right before a presentation, for example. I particulary hate it when the computer is a Mac--not for the fact that it is a Mac (because computers fail one time or another), but more for the fact that people *always* have to laugh or chuckle for some reason. I don't get it. Macs are definitely are not immune to problems.

I guess it's interesting to see that people regard the Mac with high standards. Or is that just wishful thinking?